Posts in Linked

Steve Cheney On How iBeacon Will Transform Local Commerce→

All this begs the question—does Apple have a local strategy? In my opinion, yes. And does this strategy have the capability to change the way merchants think about local? Yes. iOS7 and iBeacon create an ecosystem-wide network effect overnight, with standard technology, offered in an open development environment. It’s very clear that Apple is starting to put the pieces together to allow consumers to make offline transactions with their device—imagine being in a store and authorizing a payment with your fingerprint and never talking to a salesperson. All Apple has to do is open its payment APIs to get to this level, the rest of the stack is already being exposed.

Some interesting thoughts by Steve on iBeacon. I can’t wait to see practical implementations in Italy.

(I’ll probably have to wait years for that, considering how I still have to try Passbook in real life – where by “real life” I don’t mean taking screenshots of the app for MacStories.)

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David Smith’s Pedometer++ Demos the iPhone 5s’ M7→

It hasn’t been said (or if it has been it’s been buried underneath a litany of other geeky details), but the M7 coprocessor in the iPhone 5s records your movement data whether you’re using apps or not. Without apps, the M7 keeps a basic log of data, determining whether your phone is in motion and how to decide if it’s an appropriate time to ping for network data. With apps such as Pedometer++, free on the App Store, it’ll pull off current data and a small history of what the M7 has already recorded. The best part about this is when you go to switch apps or use a different one, there will already be a solid baseline of data for apps to draw upon.

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TaskAgent 3 for iOS 7→

Before OmniFocus and Reminders, TaskAgent was my todo management system of choice for a long time. TaskAgent lets you manage todos in lists that are synced to Dropbox as plain text files that you can edit on the desktop using any app you want. They look like todos in TaskAgent, but they’re actually lines of plain text that, if you want, you can interact with in various ways (perhaps with IFTTT or other automated workflows).

Developer Francisco Cantu released version 3 of TaskAgent alongside the launch of iOS 7 as a new free app with a $1.99 In-App Purchase. The app is limited to three lists, and you can unlock unlimited lists, URL scheme actions, Archive, and folder management if you want more. The app has been rewritten and redesigned for iOS 7, and Cantu is working on compatibility fixes for the Mac counterpart.

I use Reminders these days, so TaskAgent isn’t really for me anymore. However, if the idea of managing todos as plain text lists intrigues you, I’d recommend trying the free version of TaskAgent 3.

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Moleskine and FiftyThree Team Up For Paper Book→

FiftyThree, creators of Paper for iPad, have teamed up with Moleskine to create the Book, a printed notebook for Paper sketches. The Book has a special 4:3 format that matches the iPad’s screen, and sketches are printed on sustainable matte paper at double the PPI of the iPad mini.

From the FiftyThree blog:

Today we’re announcing a new product with a whole new way to share your ideas. Bring your ideas to life with a beautiful, custom-printed Book, created right from within Paper. FiftyThree and Moleskine, maker of the legendary notebook, bring you a new format designed uniquely for Paper. Book is a 15-page foldout of your sketches on sustainable matte paper, with the choice of your own custom cover or a classic hardcover. Book is the simplest and most beautiful way to share your ideas with others.

The news comes less than a week after Evernote announced their plans to move into the hardware space following last year’s partnership with Moleskine. While I wouldn’t call this a “trend” yet, it’s interesting how two popular software makers of the modern era (both heavily focused on the iOS platform) are now cutting deals with hardware partners. Paper’s move is more niche-oriented than Evernote’s general-purpose notebook and Post-it features, and I’m curious to see if they’ll consider other analog formats in the future (larger notebooks, frames, etc).

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Dropbox Automatic Screenshot Sharing Now Out of Beta→

Back in June, we noted that Dropbox was testing an automatic screenshot sharing feature in their public beta for Mac:

The first one, an automatic screenshot sharing feature, is somewhat reminiscent of tools like Droplr and CloudApp: once enabled in the Preferences, it will allow Dropbox to redirect every screenshot taken on OS X to a /Screenshots folder in your Dropbox, sharing that file and putting a public link in your system clipboard. While not as full-featured as the aforementioned third-party tools, automatic screenshot sharing could indeed make for a nice solution to quickly share screenshots on Twitter and IM — retaining control over files that are simply located in the Finder.

Today, Dropbox has promoted the feature out of the beta channel and into the public, stable release of the app:

Starting today, all the screenshots you take can automatically be saved straight to your Dropbox. And on top of that, Dropbox will also create a link to your screenshot and copy it to your clipboard — so your picture’s instantly good to share.

The update, available here, also includes the iPhoto import tool that Dropbox started testing earlier this year.

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MacUpdate Bundle→

The latest MacUpdate Bundle includes 10 Mac apps and you can get it at $49.99. Normally, you’d spend $564 to get all the apps individually.

While there are many OS X software bundles these days, the MacUpdate ones always include some gems worth grabbing. In this bundle, you can get ScreenFlow 4 and PDFpen 6, among others. Both are excellent apps that I use on a daily basis – ScreenFlow was a terrific companion when I had to create videos for my Editorial review and I can’t recommend it enough. PDFpen is at the heart of my paperless system thanks to its AppleScript support (a topic that I want to write about soon).

There are only two days left to get the bundle. If you use this link, we’ll get a small kickback.

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iOS 7 and Enterprise Improvements→

Ryan Faas has published a good overview of the changes Apple made for enterprise distribution and MDM in iOS 7. A key aspect:

From an administrator’s perspective, the new model works very similar to what’s been around for decades - single source software licensing coupled with network-based deployment tools. From a user perspective, it’s extremely similar to the consumer App Store system.

Read the article here.

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Rdio Brings Recommendations Back→

From the Rdio blog:

Hot on the heels of our Stations launch, we’ve built Recommendations as another great means of effortless music discovery. Powered by technology from The Echo Nest, the new feature provides a steady stream of new music recommendations — including albums, stations, and playlists — based on what you listen to most and who you’re following.

I’ve long wished for Rdio Recommendations to come back, as I think they used to a great way to find new music in the Rdio 1.0 days. Rdio has changed in the past two years, and the need for Recommendations was partially obviated by Your FM and stations. However, I’m looking forward to seeing if the dedicated section will be as good as the original one used to be – particularly in how it should recommend entire albums and stations.

According to Rdio, Recommendations will be added to the iOS app “soon” – hopefully alongside an update for iOS 7.

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