Posts in Linked

Jason Snell on Editing Podcasts with Ferrite on an iPad with the Apple Pencil→

Jason Snell has edited a lot of podcasts. In fact, The Incomparable, the flagship show of his media and pop culture podcast network of the same name, just reached episode 500.

Since last summer, Snell has been using Ferrite by Wooji Juice to edit nearly every episode of The Incomparable on his iPad with the Apple Pencil. I’ve heard him describe his iPad and Apple Pencil workflow on podcasts before, but there’s nothing like seeing it in action, which you can now do on the Six Colors YouTube channel.

What struck me most about Snell’s video is how natural direct manipulation of multiple audio tracks looks. I’ve always done all of my podcast editing on a Mac with Logic Pro X, but after watching Snell edit an episode with multiple guests, I look forward to trying this myself.

Permalink

Connected, Episode 281: Oligarch Modder Community→

On this week’s episode of Connected:

Stephen and Myke launch new careers as iPhone designers and Federico keeps refreshing Apple Music. Also: Swift Playgrounds on the Mac, Apple News+ and a few things we are currently enjoying.

You can listen below (and find the show notes here).

0:00
01:29:00

Connected, Episode 281

Sponsored by:

  • Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code CONNECTED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
  • Direct Mail: Create and send great looking email newsletters with Direct Mail, an easy-to-use email marketing app designed exclusively for the Mac.
  • Setapp, from Macpaw: More than 170 powerful apps for your Mac. Try it free for a week.
Permalink

Adapt, Episode 18: Fixing Multitasking→

On this week’s episode of Adapt:

Multitasking is key to using the iPad as a primary computer, but the current drag and drop-centric system is flawed. Ryan shares his idea for a new approach, then Federico details his email app discoveries.

You can listen below (and find the show notes here), and don’t forget to send us questions using #AskAdapt and by tagging our Twitter account.

0:00
01:24:27

Adapt, Episode 18

Sponsored by:

Permalink

Connected, Episode 280: Peanut Butterpeanut Butterpeanut Butter→

On this week’s episode of Connected:

This week, most of the show document got shredded as a bunch of breaking news took place during recording. iOS 13.4 is bringing a bunch of changes, Mac Catalyst could become more useful and universal apps are coming to the Mac. When not breaking news, Federico shares a sad story, Myke reads a tweet about bread and Stephen struggles with how to edit the episode.

You can listen below (and find the show notes here).

0:00
01:30:51

Connected, Episode 280

Sponsored by:

  • Pingdom: Start monitoring your website performance and availability today, and get instant alerts when an outage occurs or a site transaction fails. Use offer code CONNECTED to get 30% off. Offer expires on January 31, 2021.
  • Health IQ: Insurance for the Health Conscious. Save up to 41%. Take the quiz now to see if you qualify.
  • Boll & Branch: The Softest Organic Sheets & Luxury Bedding. Save $50. Try them for 30 days in a risk free trial.
Permalink

AppStories, Episode 148 – The Elements of Modern iOS and iPadOS Apps→

This week on AppStories, we discuss the features and technologies that go into building a modern iOS or iPadOS app with examples of some of our favorite implementations.

Sponsored by:

  • Linode – Cloud Hosting and Linux servers. Get a $20 credit.
  • Direct Mail – Create and send great looking email newsletters with Direct Mail, an easy-to-use email marketing app designed exclusively for the Mac.

Permalink

Matt Birchler’s watchOS 7 Wish List→

Matt Birchler has made a tradition of publishing a watchOS wish list every year at BirchTree that is accompanied by concept art, showing how his ideas might be implemented. This year for watchOS 7, Birchler has a long list of excellent ideas that focus on virtually every aspect of the OS, including fitness tracking, communications, and battery life.

Like Birchler, I’d love to see more flexibility built into the Activity app. For example, he expects more ring options in watchOS 7:

I think this year not only will Apple let you customize these rings more than before, but they’ll also add more rings. Want to add sleep or mindfulness: go right ahead.

As he suggests, the ability to set custom metrics for each ring and edit workouts in the Activity app on the iPhone would be fantastic additions as well.

It’s also a little hard to believe that autocomplete hasn’t been added to the scribble keyboard on the Apple Watch. Perhaps that’s a technical limitation, but like Birchler, I think it would go a long way to making text input more tolerable on the Watch.

Those are just a couple of my favorite ideas from Birchler’s story this year. Be sure to check out the full post. There are some terrific ideas here, and the concept art looks wonderful as always.

Permalink

Jason Snell’s 2019 Apple Report Card→

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

It’s time for our annual look back on Apple’s performance during the past year, as seen through the eyes of writers, editors, developers, podcasters, and other people who spend an awful lot of time thinking about Apple.

This is the fifth year that I’ve presented this survey to a hand-selected group. They were prompted with 12 different Apple-related subjects, and asked to rate them on a scale from 1 to 5 and optionally provide text commentary per category.

It’s always a pleasure to share my thoughts about Apple’s past year in Snell’s annual report. Not only is it a great read – at this point, it’s also a fantastic historical resource collecting years of commentary about Apple.

You can read Snell’s complete report card here. For context, I’ve included my full responses to Snell’s questionnaire below.

Read more

The Omni Group Shares 2020 Roadmap→

As per tradition, The Omni Group has shared its product roadmap for the year ahead. Though these plans are always subject to change, especially pending new OS updates Apple will announce this June, the roadmap still gives a solid idea of where apps like OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, and more are heading.

Included on the roadmap is the launch of OmniPlan 4, expansion of OmniFocus for the Web features, simplifying licensing so you can authenticate your purchases with a sign-in rather than using activation codes, and automation improvements. Check out the full list of planned work here.

One section of the roadmap that stood out to me:

We’re also continuing to improve the flow of using our apps—particularly on iPad and iPhone. We want easy navigation, so everything in the app feels like it’s right at your fingertips—whether your fingertips are using the mouse, touch screen, or a hardware keyboard.

While this is a passing comment in the broader post, it’s also something that many developers fail to consider. Optimizing an app for different platforms, and those platforms’ respective strengths, takes a lot of work and careful thought. Devices like the iPad in particular can suffer from a lack of optimization – do developers optimize for touch input or that of a keyboard? In the age of the iPad Pro and iPadOS, the correct answer is “both.” I look forward to seeing what The Omni Group does in this area.

Permalink