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Required Reading On App Store Pricing For Developers→

Required Reading On App Store Pricing For Developers


The development of an app no doubt involves many tough decisions and trade-offs that you have to make, and one of the biggest will be at what price to sell your app for. To help clarify the important lessons and issues to consider when pricing an app, Michael Jurewitz has posted a five-part series based on his Çingleton and NSConference talks on ‘Understanding App Store Pricing’.

I’ve included below a brief summary of each article by Michael, but it’s really no substitution for reading the entire series yourself. It’s well written and although at times it covers some moderately complex microeconomic theories, it is broken down in easy to understand language with helpful diagrams and practical examples.

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Google Now Coming To iOS?→

Google Now Coming To iOS?

Engadget has posted what they believe is a “leaked” video of Google Now for iOS that was accidentally posted on YouTube and then removed.

Supposedly, Now will be accessible in an upcoming iOS app update simply by swiping up from the main screen. Of course, there’s always the chance that is an impressive fake or even a canceled project that’s only being leaked now. We’ve reached out to Google for comment, but even if the search giant remains silent, we’re confident the truth will be known soon enough.

Two weeks ago, I said this when comparing Google Voice Search to Siri:

Now, four months after Google Voice Search launched, I still think Google’s implementation is, from a user experience standpoint, superior. While it’s nice that Siri says things like “Ok, here you go”, I just want to get results faster. I don’t care if my virtual assistant has manners: I want it to be neutral and efficient. Is Siri’s distinct personality a key element to its success? Does the way Siri is built justify the fact that Google Voice Search is almost twice as fast as Siri? Or are Siri’s manners just a way to give some feedback while the software is working on a process that, in practice, takes more seconds than Google’s?

In that post, I was speculating on the possibility of a Google Assistant that would play by Apple’s rules to mix voice commands with native iOS apps like Reminders and Messages.

However, rather than going through the effort to develop such a Siri clone, it appears Google may be taking the “obvious” approach: porting Google Now to iOS by putting it inside the existing Google Search app. It looks like built-in Twitter and Messages sharing is as “native” as Google will go on iOS.

Engadget’s video may be fake, but I think it’s safe to assume Google is considering Google Now for iOS. Code references were spotted in Google’s Chrome browser and OS, and iOS seems like a logical step considering the nature of the product. Giving the “right information at the right time” is meant for mobile devices – phones and tablets that tend to be always with us.

It used to be that Android was the platform for Google users, but I’d argue that Google has been narrowing the gap between iOS and Android in the past months. With Chrome, Maps, YouTube, Gmail, Search, and (allegedly) Google Now, Google has been building a solid ecosystem inside iOS, and, as a user, I see that as a “best of both worlds” scenario: I can use (what I believe are) Apple’s superior devices, user experience, and third-party ecosystem with (what I believe are) Google’s superior web services.

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Rdio 2.1.3→

Rdio 2.1.3

In a seemingly minor 2.1.3 update to their iOS app, Rdio today introduced a gorgeous new list view for albums and playlists on the iPhone. In the previous 2.1 update, Rdio added a new album art view:

Notably, Rdio now comes with a “long press” gesture to tap & hold any item to bring up a new menu to sync, play, share, subscribe, and more. The new menu will “slide up” an item’s album artwork from the bottom, revealing a color-coded background that seems to be inspired by iTunes 11′s way of using the primary colors of an album to generate a background. Personally, I like how this allows each album to have a very unique sharing menu; I’m also a fan of this addition because the developers put a “More by…” link in the menu.

With the new list view, a larger artwork is displayed at the top of the screen with text overlays for album/artist information and rounded avatars for your friends who are listening to the same album/playlist (another new feature of this update). As you scroll up the first song, the album art becomes smaller until it turns into a title bar with a back button, name of album, and social profile icons. At the bottom, you’ll find  stats about the album such as total plays and number of playlists for that album. It’s lovely visual refresh with a clever attention to detail and animations.

I am a big fan of Rdio’s latest updates on iOS. I still think the iPad app could use some personality (today’s UI refresh is iPhone-only), but, overall, I’m impressed with Rdio’s new direction.

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Send Multiple Tasks To OmniFocus Mail Drop At Once With Drafts and Pythonista→

Send Multiple Tasks To OmniFocus Mail Drop At Once With Drafts and Pythonista

Nice workflow by Nathan Henrie to send multiple tasks to OmniFocus at once using Mail Drop, Drafts, and Pythonista:

I’ve also recently started playing with Pythonista, and I came across a Python script written by the dev himself that creates a little SMTP server and sends email directly from Pythonista. Between the two, I found it pretty easy — even for a beginner like me — to put together a combined Drafts / Pythonista workflow that makes for a superior way to import a bunch of tasks to OmniFocus at once (aka “brain dump”).

The Python part is based on the same script I covered in November to send emails through Pythonista; Nathan added a clever Drafts integration by splitting multiple lines (from the draft) into separate email messages sent to your Mail Drop address. Make sure to check out his video to see the workflow in action; I have started using it myself and I like how fast tasks go from Drafts onto OmniFocus via email (I have configured the script with my Gmail address using 2-step verification).

I have become a big fan of OmniFocus Mail Drop. It’s been extremely fast and reliable in my experience, and it works well with Drafts’ email actions.

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Chris Hadfield And His iPad In Space→

Chris Hadfield And His iPad In Space

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield has been orbiting Earth 16 times a day on the International Space Station. When he’s not busy operating advanced machinery like the Canadarm2, Hadfield seems to be enjoying his iPad a lot.

I got curious when I saw Hadfield’s photo of his iPad teleprompter yesterday on Twitter; as noted by Cult of Mac, the app should be Teleprompt+. I did some research, and it looks like Hadfield is using his iPad as an entertainment hub for the entire ISS as well. As written by the Canadian Space Agency:

Chris Hadfield has put a lot of music on International Space Station (ISS) already, directly from his iPad ─ thousands of songs.

In seeing the teleprompter photo, however, I also wondered: how did Hadfield lock the iPad in landscape mode in absence of gravity? The iPad has an accelerometer, and my limited science knowledge told me that gravity is a factor to consider when developing devices with embedded accelerometers on Earth. Did he lock his iPad in landscape mode before leaving Earth?

Of course, I asked Dr. Drang. The simple answer is: give the iPad a shake. The complex, scientific answer is here.

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Textual Siri→

Textual Siri

NotSiri

NotSiri

Here’s a good article by Rene Ritchie from June 2012 about a textual interface for Siri:

If Spotlight could access Siri’s contextually aware response engine, the same great results could be delivered back, using the same great widget system that already has buttons to touch-confirm or cancel, etc.

I completely agree. Spotlight lets you find apps and data to launch on your device; aside from its “assistant” functionality, Siri lets you search for specific information (either on your device or the web). There’s no reason find and search shouldn’t be together. Siri gained app-launching capabilities, but Spotlight still can’t accept Siri-like text input.

The truth is, I think using Siri in public is still awkward. My main use of Siri is adding calendar events or quick alarms when I’m a) cooking or b) driving my car. When I’m working in front of an iPad, I just don’t see the point of using voice input when I have a keyboard and the speech recognition software is still failing at recognizing moderately complex Italian queries. When I’m waiting for my doctor or in line at the grocery store, I just don’t want to be that guy who pulls out his phone and starts talking with a robotic assistant. Ten years after my first smartphone, I still prefer avoiding phone calls in public because a) other people don’t need to know my business and b) I was taught that talking on the phone in public can be rude. How am I supposed to tell Siri to “read me” my schedule when I have 10 people around me?

I think a textual Siri, capable of accepting written input instead of spoken commands, would provide a great middle ground for those situations when you don’t want to/can’t talk in public. Like Rene, I think putting the functionality in Spotlight would be a fine choice; apps like Fantastical have shown that “natural language input” with text can still be a modern, useful addition to our devices.

Text input brings different challenges: how would Siri handle typos? Would it wait until you’ve finished writing a sentence or refresh with results as-you-type? Would Siri lose its “conversational” approach, or provide butttons to reply with “Yes” or “No” to its further questions?

Text, however, has also its advantages: text is universal, free of voice alterations (think accents and dialects), independent from surrounding noise and/or microphone proximity. With a textual Siri, Apple could keep its users within its control by letting them ask for restaurant suggestions, weather information, unit conversions, or sports results without having to open other apps and/or launch Google.

It’s just absurd to think semantic search integration can only be applied to voice recognition, especially in the current version of Siri. I agree with Kontra: Siri isn’t really about voice.

More importantly: if Google can do it, why can’t Apple?

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Justnotes 1.3 Syncs Twice as Fast→

Justnotes 1.3 Syncs Twice as Fast

It’s been a little while since we’ve talked about Justnotes, but the developer has been progressively adding features and polishing the app in order to capture what makes Simplenote such a pleasure to use. Boiled down to just the essentials, Justnotes replicates Simplenote’s web experience in favor of a polished desktop app, providing more flexibility such as importing notes in OS X Mountain Lion or exporting simple text files.

Justnotes 1.3 is updated with Simplenote’s new syncing API, which is estimated to be over twice as fast as before. Shawn Blanc notes an additional useful feature that lets you hide the modification date thanks to a simple command that can be run in the Terminal.

You can download a trial of Justnotes to use for 15 days, but for a limited time, it’s available for $5.99 (normally $9.99) on the Mac App Store.

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Speeding Up OmniFocus Sync→

Speeding Up OmniFocus Sync

Some great tips by Sven Fechner on how you can speed OmniFocus sync. It involves archiving data on the Mac and resetting sync databases on your iOS devices:

The free OmniSync Server makes life a lot easier and keeps your OmniFocus world, well, in sync. If you use your own WebDAV server you have the same capabilities but without the awesome “Mail Drop” feature which allows you to email in your actions.

While the OmniSync Server is fairly reliable, it is not necessarily the fastest syncing solution on the planet. In particular when your database gets larger and more convoluted.

It’s the first time I’ve followed this procedure, and, indeed, my OmniFocus database has been slimmed down and it now takes 5-8 seconds less to sync on WiFi; the improvement is even more considerable on 3G.

I’ve used my own WebDAV server with OmniFocus for months, but the convenience (and simplicity) of the Mail Drop feature lured me back to Omni Sync Server. Mail Drop works amazingly well in conjunction with Drafts, allowing me to quickly send off a task to my OmniFocus inbox in the cloud. In moving to Omni Sync Server, I didn’t lose the ability to have the latest version of my OmniFocus database mirrored to a calendar: OmniFocus does, in fact, come with some great debug commands to change its default sync times.

As an aside, while looking forward to OmniFocus 2, The Omni Group has posted the first batch of videos from The Setup event in San Francisco a few weeks ago. You can watch them here.

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Day One for iOS With PDF Export→

Day One for iOS With PDF Export

DayOne

DayOne

Day One is my favorite journaling app for iOS and OS X. The app was chosen as Mac app of the year by Apple, and for good reason: both on Macs and iOS devices, Day One is a finely crafted piece of software based on an even more powerful idea – archiving your memories. From my review:

Day One stands out because it’s not a tool, it’s a personal experience. I can tell you what Day One does, and I can write about the things I do with it. But I can’t tell you how you should use it.

In November 2012, the app was updated with tags, search, and support for MultiMarkdown footnotes. Version 1.10, released today, brings a new option to export your entries as PDF. The update also contains fixes and other improvements such as a new reminder sound, historical weather data increased from 3 to 30 days (useful when adding old entries), and a new font option.

PDF export is interesting because it enables Day One users to get their journal entries out of the app and save them in a format that is more future-proof than Bloom’s own file format. Available in the Settings, you can export all entries at once, or filter specific ones by date range or tag. In my case, I filtered entries tagged with my dog’s name and emailed a beautifully formatted PDF full of photos to my friends. Exports are listed in the same menu and they can be deleted with a single swipe. Email exports can contain attachments up to 25 MB in size, but the app also comes with an “Open In…” menu to send PDFs to other apps like Dropbox and Google Drive (if installed).

I like the changes in Day One 1.10 and I keep recommending the app as, by far, the best journaling experience on iOS and OS X. Day One is available on the App Store.

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