Two years after the release of version 4.0, Bjango has launched iStat Menus 5 today, adding hundreds of new features and improvements, and bringing a new design for both OS X Mavericks and Yosemite.
Posts in reviews
iStat Menus 5 Brings New Design, Per-App Stats, Yosemite Support, and More
A Preview of the SpeakerSlide, A Kickstarter Project
Over the past few years Apple has continued to improve the speakers in the iPhone and iPad quite significantly, except for the fact that they continue to be directed out to the side rather than the front. In fairness, this is probably the most practical location for Apple but it has meant that I’ve purposefully cupped my hand around the iPad’s speakers to help redirect the sound on a number of occasions. It is exactly this weakness where a Kickstarter project, the SpeakerSlide, is trying to improve things. It’s a simple plastic (polycarbonate) accessory that redirects the sound out to the front of the device. The SpeakerSlide team were able to ship me 3D-printed evaluation models of the SpeakerSlide for both iPhone and iPad, so I gave the product a test run over the last week.
I first tested the SpeakerSlide with the iPad Air and I can honestly say that the effect it had was instantly noticeable and fairly significant. Sound coming from the iPad actually sounded like it was directed to me, which shouldn’t be surprising, but what was surprising to me was how much more natural that felt. When I started taking the SpeakerSlide on and off to try and hear the difference, the effect was even more noticeable. It almost felt like the sound (without the SpeakerSlide) was muffled because of the direction of the speakers. Because the sound is being directed at you with the SpeakerSlide, it also means you don’t need to have the volume as loud as you would without it, and that shouldn’t be underestimated.
Hours: Simple and Beautiful Time Tracking
For the kind of work that I do with MacStories and podcasting, I don’t need time-tracking apps. I could use them, but I don’t necessarily need them as I don’t work with clients or account for time spent writing posts or doing research. However, if I had to track how I spend my time at my Mac or iPad while working, I’d use Hours, developed by Tapity and released today on the App Store for $4.99.
Overcast Review
When I received the first beta of Marco Arment’s new app, Overcast, back in May, I didn’t think I could use an iPhone-only podcast client with no iPad version and no streaming support as my daily podcast listening solution. Overcast, available today on the App Store, is launching to high expectations and hype for what Arment, best known for creating Instapaper, founding The Magazine, and co-hosting the Accidental Tech Podcast, has been working on since his reveal in September 2013.
Two months after putting Overcast on my Home screen as a vote of confidence and using it to listen to podcasts every day, I don’t want to go back to any other podcast app I’ve tried before. In spite of lacking iPad and OS X versions and some features from popular podcast apps, the listening experience in Overcast and its approach to podcast discovery have been so thoughtfully implemented and cleverly engineered, I find it to be a superior choice for my listening habits.
Spillo Is a Versatile and Fast Pinboard Client for OS X
Developed by Damien DeVille, Spillo is a new Pinboard client released today for OS X and available on both the Mac App Store and Bananafish Software’s website. Unlike Shiori (a desktop app for Pinboard I covered before) and other minimal apps that try to facilitate the process of saving bookmarks to the service, Spillo wants to be a full client for management and discovery of links, and it’s reminiscent of powerful solutions for iOS such as Pushpin and Pinswift. I’ve been using Spillo for the past couple of weeks, and I think it has potential.
Polymo Review
Polymo is a new camera app for the iPhone and iPod touch that launched earlier this month with a focus on letting you organize your photos with tags. The developers pitch it as a “better place for photos on iOS” thanks to the app’s clean design, simple gestures, and elegant interface. Unfortunately, I don’t think Polymo is a replacement for the Camera Roll, but don’t dismiss it straight away; there are still appealing aspects of Polymo that may make it useful for you.
Ultratext Lets You Create GIFs with Text and Selfies
Ultratext, available for free on the App Store, is a new and fun iPhone app to create animated GIFs from text and selfies, and share them with others through iMessage, Instagram, or other services. I discovered the app yesterday thanks to a tweet by Casey Newton, and I’ve been using it all day to send animated messages to my friends and family. The idea seems to resonate with normal people in my life and the app is indeed simple and enjoyable, hence it’s worth a mention on the site.
Simple Percentage Calculations with OffOf
I was recently looking for a simple percentage calculator for iPhone and I came across OffOf, an app developed by Daeo Corp. and available for free on the App Store.
As the name suggests, OffOf lets you calculate the percentage off an amount or the percentage of an amount. While this operation is possible with any calculator, OffOf has a visual interface with buttons to switch calculation types with a single tap. If you want to calculate how much a $50 t-shirt is going to cost you at “25% off”, select the Off button, tap percentage and enter a number, then tap Amount and the app will calculate it in real time. On the other hand, if you have to know how much the 20% of 135 corresponds to, you can choose the Of type and let the app calculate it for you with no additional manual operations.
My main concern with OffOf is that, in an effort to provide a colorful iOS 7 design (reminiscent of Numerical), it’s hard to distinguish the selection state for the Percentage and Amount fields. The app uses a white highlight for numbers in those areas, but I find it hard to parse when compared to the light gray used for the non-selected state. It’s a minor problem, but it confused me when I started using the app.
OffOf won’t become a hit among calculator power users, but, for me, is solves a common problem, and it’s free on the App Store.
Scanbot 2.0
I covered Scanbot in May, calling it a “fast and efficient scanner app for iOS 7” powered by a delightful UI, integration with cloud services, and a user-friendly experience:
Scanbot covers the basics of mobile scanners well: it’s got color schemes for captured scans; it can save PDFs at 200 dpi and automatically send them to a variety of web services (including Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive); and, it can handle multiple pages per scan as well as editing features such as manual border cropping and annotations. Scanbot looks fairly obvious on the surface, as it doesn’t reinvent the way a mobile scanner is supposed to work on iOS – the app’s features can be found in other similar apps, while more advanced ones haven’t been added to Scanbot yet.
Scanbot 2.0, released last week, doesn’t add the advanced features that I mentioned in my original review, but it brings a native iPad version and support for QR code scanning, both of which are welcome additions.