Posts in Linked

Pixelmator 3.0 FX [Sponsor]→

Our thanks to Pixelmator for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Pixelmator is a full-featured image editing app for OS X that takes advantage of Apple’s latest technologies to make image editing twice as fast and fully compatible with Mavericks. Version 3.0 brings numerous improvements to Pixelmator, such as Layer Styles (to quickly apply non-destructive changes to individual layers) and Liquify Tools (to shape images in multiple ways).

Built exclusively for the Mac, Pixelmator 3.0 integrates with Mavericks features like App Nap and Compressed Memory to make the app consume less resource and be faster overall. Other existing OS X integrations, such as Retina display and full-screen support, are even more impressive on Mavericks and Apple’s latest line-up of MacBook Pros.

Pixelmator 3.0 FX is a free update for owners of Pixelmator 2.0, and it’s available at $29.99 on the Mac App Store. A free 30-day trial is available here.

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Anatomy of a Product Video→

This is part ten, the final in a series detailing the process of making a product marketing video for my app, Fin. I hope to inspire others to try and make these kinds of videos for their own products, as I think they are pretty essential for selling apps to customers. We may not all have the budget to hire a pro team to make super-awesome videos for us, but we can make something worthwhile if we put in some time and effort, and a little bit of cash.

Joe Cieplinski has published a series on creating a professional-looking promo videos for apps. Today, he concluded the series with Part 10, which includes all links to previous entries.

Joe’s articles contain a lot of useful tips to create a videos using Apple tools like Motion and Final Cut Pro X. You can watch the video he made for his new app, Fin, here.

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David Sparks’ Email Field Guide→

David Sparks has published his fourth Field Guide:

There are over 300 pages and nearly 1.5 hours of video screencasts and 200 screenshots as I walk you through. I’ve also included several audio interviews with friends including Serenity Caldwell, Rob Corddry, Merlin Mann, Fraser Speirs, Jeff Taekman, Aisha Tyler, David Wain, and Gabe Weatherhead, that provide even more perspective on the best ways to tackle email.

The book features a new craftsman-style design and is illustrated by Mike Rohde. In a lot of ways, this book feels like the culmination of everything I’ve learned along the way. I’m really proud of this book and I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed creating it. It is available in the iBooks Store and PDF for $9.99.

I own every Field Guide, and David’s work has been a huge inspiraton for my Editorial book. I’m downloading the (1.1 GB) Email Field Guide as soon as I get my Internet back.

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The Prompt: The Barter System→

Joined by Matthew Alexander, Stephen and Myke wade through a mountain of follow-up, discuss the iPad mini with Retina display, Netflix, fitness trackers and the means of payment used in Tennessee, Hawaii and parts of Europe.

I couldn’t join Myke and Stephen this week due to ongoing issues with my ISP. Get the episode here.

Brought to you by two great sponsors:

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MailMate Explorations→

We’ve seen great apps come and go. There are wonderful ideas that just are not financially viable without a bit of random luck. I don’t think $3 email clients are the way to move forward. MailMate is unapologetically $50. The developer is considerate enough to lay it all out. Unless there’s enough money to allow him to work on the project, it simply will not happen.

Gabe Weatherhead writes about some of the nerdy features of MailMate. While I don’t organize my email messages in a folder structure like Gabe does, I’m fascinated by his setup with smart folders (based on MailMate’s superior criteria). The crowdfunding campaign (which actually gives you an app license key) that was launched the other day is halfway there.

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Curator→

New app created by Daniel Nordh aimed at letting you organize notes visually. iPad-first, I’ve been trying Curator for the past week and it’s a nice version 1.0: sort of like Pinterest, but without social features and focused on collecting photos, text notes, and live websites that you can pin on your boards. Everything happens through drag & drop and the app looks good on iOS 7 and the Retina display.

If you want more, you can import images from Dropbox, Flickr, iOS photos, and more services using a built-in media picker based on Filepicker.io. Curator has essentially no learning curve, and I see it as the Vesper of Pinterest-like apps: it’s fast, easy to use, but it has no sync or advanced features for now. I’d recommend Curator to people who use an iPad as their primary computer and just need a simple app to organize the things they like without signing up for a web service or learning to use Evernote.

The business model is also interesting: the app is free, but there’s a $6.99 In-App Purchase if you want to create more than five boards.

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Reminders.app Tips and Tricks→

Reminders.app on OS X is somewhat limited and inconsistent, but for its simplicity offers a lot of possibilities. For many this is all they need to keep control of their tasks and reminders.

Sven Fechner has a nice list of tips, tricks, and links for the OS X Reminders app. I use Reminders every day through Fantastical 2 on my iPhone, but I have to rely on Apple’s apps on my iPad and MacBook Air. I would love to see better consistency between all platforms (just one example: clickable URLs in notes).

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Dropbox Teases iOS App Update with Business Integration→

From the Dropbox blog:

We thought about this from scratch and designed a solution we’re excited to share: connecting your personal Dropbox to your Dropbox for Business account. This’ll give you a personal Dropbox and a work Dropbox on all of your devices so you’ll never have to choose between them. It’ll be like having your house keys and your work keycard on the same keychain.

But this is about more than having two places for all your stuff. Take the mobile app — once you connect your Dropboxes, you’ll be able to get to both Dropbox folders from the same Files tab. Dropbox is also smart about making sure your stuff goes where it’s supposed to. For example, photos you add via Camera Upload will instantly show up in the Photos tab, but they’ll stay for your eyes only.

This is probably a smart choice considering that people tend to find a way to access their personal files on their work devices and vice versa, likely compromising the security standards required by IT departments in large businesses.

More interesting to me is the iOS 7 app update shown in the screenshots. I don’t know if Dropbox will manage to add the kind of functionality found in Boxie into the official client, but a new iOS 7 design and features (background fetch?) are needed.

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Monument Valley→

TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas has a preview of ustwo’s next game for the iPad, Monument Valley. Inspired by the drawings of Dutch artist MC Escher and somewhat remiscent (based on the screenshots and announced mechanics) of Echochrome, the game is coming out in Q1 2014 and it’s going to be iPad-only at launch.

The work of M.C. Escher is great and popular because he found a way to describe geometric and spatial concepts through everyday elements like water, buildings and animals. I think what Monument Valley brings to the table is an exploration of how to bring an interactive, emotionally engaging experience to a wide audience through a set of simple mechanics and a world that feels at once familiar and fantastical,” Wong added.

Whale Trail by ustwo is one of the iPhone games I’ve spent the most time playing to date. I’m looking forward to Monument Valley.

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