Posts in Linked

Elevating The Expedition→

Apple:

Mountaineers Adrian Ballinger and Emily Harrington have scaled many of the most renowned – and feared – mountains on Earth. In exploring frigid and unforgiving altitudes that most humans visit only in the comfort of a pressurized jet cabin, one piece of equipment has become essential to them: their iPad.

Earlier today, Apple posted the second profile of the Your Verse campaign for the iPad. The webpage has a neat layout and there are notes about the GPS app Ballinger and Harrington use, but I was hoping Apple would also specify whether or not 3G/LTE coverage is usually available and/or reliable at base camp. Overall, a good showcase of the iPad’s portability.

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Directional: The New Blue Ocean→

Myke and Federico introduce Directional and discuss what they want the show to be, before going on to discuss Nintendo. They talk about Nintendo’s current position, investigate the idea of integrated hardware and software and look at some potential avenues for evolution.

In our inaugural episode of Directional, we talk about Nintendo. I thought that we could sum up our point of views and notes in a single episode, but I was wrong. Look for more Nintendo discussion (alongside follow-up, new picks, and more) next week.

I’m extremely grateful for the positive feedback, constructive criticism, and support we’ve received on Directional so far. You can follow the show on Twitter as @DirectionalShow (managed by Myke and I), and get Level 1 here.

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Take Control Of Apple TV→

Written by TidBITS managing editor Josh Centers, the ebook walks new owners through setup, and then dives into explaining how to best control the Apple TV with the included remote, Apple’s Remote app, or another TV remote. You’ll learn to customize the icon grid on the main screen, enable parental controls, and make your screen saver look awesome. Josh also covers uses of AirPlay, the Apple technology that lets you beam audio and video from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to the Apple TV, and lets the Apple TV send audio to compatible speakers anywhere in your home.

Last December, I decided to connect my second-generation Apple TV to my television again because I wanted to check out the progress Apple had made with channels and the user interface. I ended up “using” the Apple TV a lot with Plex and Infuse, both set up to stream videos over AirPlay. Each weekend, my girlfriend and I watch a couple of movies on the big screen with our Apple TV, and I’m constantly impressed by the simplicity and reliability of AirPlay.

However, the Apple TV’s interface can be clunky and there are a variety of settings that aren’t immediately clear. That’s why I wish I had a copy of Josh Centers’ new book three months ago: from first setup to advanced tips such as installing PlexConnect, Josh covers every aspect of the Apple TV to get the most out of the device, AirPlay streaming, compatible iOS apps, and more. The book’s layout is easy to parse and navigate, there are handy illustrations and tooltips, and, in general, it has the usual degree of quality and care that you can expect from the Take Control eBooks.

A must-have for Apple TV owners interested in knowing everything about it, and well worth $10.

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Docsforce→

Our thanks to Docsforce for sponsoring MacStories this week. Docsforce is a new service that delivers electronic statements and invoices from companies (providers) to their clients (consumers) securely and privately.

Businesses – Tired of sending paper invoices to your customers or maintaining a download site? Use Docsforce to deliver electronic statements to your customers. We offer a secure download site private to your business. Keep using your PDF statements, invoices and accounting system. Sign up for a free trial, invite your customers. It takes just minutes.

Are you a service provider preparing statements? Whether you are a cloud company with lots of consumers, or a provider of accounting solutions, we can integrate Docsforce into your organization and turn your business into a magnet for growth.

Consumers – tired of dozens of websites and receiving paper statements? Automatically receive all your Docsforce statements in one place, no manual downloading from every provider. Our consumer apps or a browser let you view and export. We keep your statements stored in a super-secure cloud.

Visit docsforce.com and start living your paperless future today.

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The Unexpected Costs of Background Fetch→

David Smith talks about how one of iOS 7’s most important features can unexpectedly increase costs for developers, as data is more frequently requested in the background.

My first example of this was when I added Background Fetch to Check the Weather. A weather app’s primary function is displaying up-to-the-minute, constantly changing data so in my initial iOS 7 update I experimented with adding highly frequent background updates. The result was far more dramatic than I’d expected. […]

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Units is a Highly Customizable Unit Converter→

Units avoids needless scrolling through its sizable library of measurements by letting you search and favorite pairs of units, which saves oft-used conversions in a personalized list. The app can make conversions for just about anything you can think of, like units of data, force, luminance, and time. Like similar converters, the design is split between two columns of units, which you simply line up to make a conversion. A basic calculator is built into the app so you can perform basic operations like adding and multiplying. The app is fully customizable, letting you change the font, font color, and background color, so you can mix and match styles to your liking. The app’s $2.99 on the App Store.

Units doesn’t convert currencies, so for that you may want to check out Banca instead.

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Flappy Bird Clone Made with Pythonista On iOS→


Following the unfortunate demise of Flappy Bird, hundreds of developers are rushing to release clones of the game on the App Store. Over at the Pythonista forums, however, user “bashedcrab” has created a working clone of Flappy Bird called “Jumpy Octopus”, made entirely with Pythonista (pictured above).

This started out as a Flappy Bird clone (can be done in under 100 lines of Pythonista), but I let my son do a bit of a redesign. He decided an underwater setting involving an Octopus was much more enjoyable.

The game play and physics are tuned to replicate the original Flappy Bird as closely as possible, so it is hard! If you want to make it a bit more fun for young kids, make the gap larger (Default is 360. 450 is much easier but still a challenge for young kids).

The game is available as a Python script here, which can be copied in a new file in Pythonista and run to play the game. Jumpy Octopus has sounds, keeps tracks of high scores, and uses iOS emojis as characters for the underwater setting. Of all the Flappy Bird clones that are coming out, this is an impressive open-source implementation based on Pythonista’s game creation features.

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Troubleshooting and Replacing a SSD in a MacBook Air→

Dan Moren of Macworld, faced with a failing SSD in his MacBook Air, took up his screwdriver and fixed his own laptop without need of the Genius Bar. Better yet, he saved some cash and got comfortable doing repairs in the process. The article has lots of good links to tools and guides you’ll need to get the job done. Really, working on the innards of your Mac or PC isn’t all that scary, and while Apple’s guts are largely proprietary, removing the rear case is to get to components is a lot simpler than it used to be.

I’ve had my fair share of drives die, and I can vouch for SuperDuper being one of the most invaluable pieces of software on my Mac. While you’re waiting for your new SSD for your MacBook Air to come in, you can just boot up off an external drive and keep working like nothing happened — provided your SuperDuper backup is up-to-date of course.

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