Posts in Linked

John Siracusa On Nintendo→

John Siracusa:

But if the time of the game console is not yet at an end (handheld or otherwise), then Nintendo has a lot of work to do. It needs to get better at all of the game-related things that iOS is good at. It needs to produce software that clearly demonstrates the value of its hardware—or, if that’s not possible, then it needs to make new hardware.

Any advice that leads in a different direction is a distraction.

A lot has been written about Nintendo this week, and I feel like several articles and tweets miss the point of understanding Nintendo for what it is: not Apple. Not a software company, not a regular game company, and certainly not a company that likes ceding control of its destiny to others. I think that viewing Nintendo through the lens of Apple and just as another company that could make games for the App Store is the wrong approach.

John understands Nintendo. Here’s an excerpt from my interview with him published earlier this year:

Second, in my own experience with my 8-year-old son, Nintendo games still have an unmatched ability to capture the hearts and minds of kids. My son has been exposed to a ton of iOS games, on the iPod and iPad, plus PS2, PS3, and even PC/Mac games. But he chooses to spend the vast majority of his gaming time on a Nintendo console, playing both “casual” games (Wii Sports, Nintendoland) and long, deep games (Zelda, Mario).

This is not to minimize Nintendo’s woes. The threat from iOS gaming is very real. But it is heartening to know that the things we love about Nintendo are not entirely based on nostalgia.

A common argument that I’ve also read this week is that Nintendo isn’t making good games anymore. My experience mirrors John’s: I know children and teenagers who play iOS games but also own Nintendo consoles to play Mario, Luigi’s Mansion, Fire Emblem, or Mario Kart. There is something about the magic of Nintendo games that is unmatched by the App Store.

Nintendo has work to do – I even said as much in November 2011. Their problems aren’t new but they have been exacerbated by the Wii U’s failure and it’s time to fix them. For instance, refusing to launch a Wii U Ambassador Program is confusing, as Nintendo should cater to its most loyal fanbase, and reward those who bought a Wii U in times of crisis, like they did for the 3DS.

I believe that applying the same standards of the tech industry to Nintendo is a flawed process; Nintendo should face the threat of mobile gaming by being Nintendo at its best. I’d like to see more articles about this, not the App Store.

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Editorial Workflow for iThoughts→

I had a feeling it was only a matter of time before Rob Trew started playing around with Editorial. Rob is the author of some of the most amazing scripts for OmniFocus and mind-mapping that I’ve ever used, and now he has created an Editorial workflow to turn a Markdown document into a tab-indented list that can be pasted in iThoughtsHD. In iThoughts, you’ll end up with a nicely formatted mind map that respects the indentation of the original document. This is just another example of Editorial’s flexibility in the workflow system and Python scripting.

Side note: I still have to check out iThoughts’ new Mac version, iThoughtsX. I’ve just been too busy finishing an eBook and submitting it to Apple.

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Fighting Clones on the App Store→

Casey Johnston of Ars Technica investigates clones on Apple’s App Store, how they’ve affected businesses like A Beautiful Mess by copying and marketing ripoff apps, and how they’re doing it.

The app had only been out three months, and already the creators of A Beautiful Mess were scrambling to deal with a big problem: clones, copycats, and rip-offs, as many as seven of them, crowding the search results in the App Store. The clones appeared to be legitimate, affiliated versions, yet as all the developers knew, they were anything but. The CEO of the company that created the original A Beautiful Mess called them “infuriating.”

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The Colors of Apple→

Linus Edwards of VintageZen takes a look at the color palette Apple has used throughout their history in a variety of products, from the original Macintosh to the translucent plastics in iMacs and iBooks to colorful iPods. Compare that history to today’s flagship products, which are aluminum and framed by black or white glass. The conversation comes in light of an impending update to the iPhone 5, which is rumored to be launching with graphite and champagne as additional colors options at the high-end. Perhaps these classy colors are intended to be throwbacks to the gray Powerbooks and beige Macs of the 90s.

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Soulver for iPhone Updated with iCloud Syncing, URL Scheme→

Soulver, my favorite iOS calculator app that isn’t really a calculator (I like another app for that), was updated today on the iPhone to support iCloud syncing, sub-folders, and a URL scheme. iCloud syncing was first brought to Soulver for Mac in December 2012, and now the iPhone app (Soulver for iPad hasn’t been updated yet) should be capable of syncing named documents with its Mac counterpart. If you trust iCloud with your Soulver documents, I guess that this will be a handy addition.

The URL scheme is much more interesting for my workflow. According to the release notes on iTunes, there’s now a URL scheme to launch Soulver, create a new document with text, or even to append text to an existing document. I am already thinking about the possibilities opened up by this feature for integration with apps like Launch Center Pro and Drafts – but I can’t find documentation anywhere. The app does support a soulver:// URL scheme, and hopefully more information will soon be posted on Acqualia’s website.

I’m looking forward to playing with Soulver’s URL scheme and updated preferences (not so much with iCloud sync). Soulver for iPhone is $2.99 on the App Store.

Update 9/1: The guys at Acqualia have posted a URL scheme documentation here. I have already set up a Drafts URL action that lets me quickly type a calculation in Drafts – which is my go-to text capturing tool – and append it as a new line to a specific Soulver document I have called “Calculations”. From Drafts:

soulver://new?text=[[draft]]&title=Calculations

I’m already using this action all the time to launch quick currency conversions in Soulver. Open Drafts, type “2 usd in eur”, and boom – Soulver opens, displaying the result. It’s a nice URL scheme.

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