Marked 2’s first point release has landed, and it’s chock full of great improvements. If you haven’t purchased Marked yet, think of it as fancy document preview tool that helps you catch formatting mistakes, catches overused words, and highlights cliché phrases. It’s a mini-editor for your text documents, especially useful for those who write in Markdown and publish text on the web. For those who already have Marked, download the latest update to grab bug fixes and notable feature improvements such as background calculation for text statistics.
Marked 2.1 Improves Word Repetition Visualization and Text Statistics→
CameraSync Updated for iOS 7
In my Boxie review yesterday, I mentioned the role of the official Dropbox app on my devices:
Boxie is so feature-rich, I want more from it: there’s no iPad app at this point, and I would love for Tapwings to consider an automatic upload feature for photos that would allow me to completely eschew the official Dropbox app. Right now, the only reason I keep Dropbox on my devices is for the iPad client and automatic background uploads, but, for everything else, I’m doing just fine with Boxie and I enjoy the increased efficiency made possible by the app’s feature set.
I should clarify two points: the Dropbox app is also the easiest way to authenticate with your credentials for third-party Dropbox-enabled apps; and, in a sweet coincidence, CameraSync has been updated today with a new design and bug fixes for iOS 7, which means I have turned off Camera Uploads from the Dropbox app again. Read more
First Look at Editorial 1.1→
Ole Zorn:
Editorial 1.1 will require iOS 7. I know that some of you won’t like this, but sooner or later, it’s inevitable, and all iPad models that run iOS 6 also support iOS 7, so this doesn’t mean leaving any older devices behind. iOS 7 is so different from its predecessor that it’s a lot more difficult to support older versions than it was with previous upgrades.
I’m especially a fan of the last point in the “New Features” list. Editorial’s looking good on iOS 7.
The Prompt: The Federico Special→
With Stephen away this week, Federico and Myke spend some time discussing the magic behind iOS automation and URL schemes. They finish the show with a short discussion about Nintendo (of course).
We’re just getting started with iOS automation, and I plan on buying Pokémon Y this weekend. So, expect more soon.
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Glenn Fleishman On Newsstand For Publishers→
Glenn Fleishman, writing for TidBITS:
Put bluntly, Newsstand is a ghetto. Readers complain to me regularly about forgetting to read The Magazine, even though we use iOS notifications for each issue. If readers don’t read immediately and don’t remember to tap the Newsstand icon later, they forget about us entirely.
His article comes in response to Marko Karppinen, who writes:
The segregation of Newsstand apps into the Newsstand folder wasn’t ever a positive aspect of Newsstand, but we were optimistic and thought that perhaps readers would form new habits around it. As an industry, we decided to give it a go. Apart from some early successes, attributable to a first-mover advantage, that was a mistake.
As users, many of us complained about the old Newsstand’s folder nature and the inability to hide the app, but publishers aren’t so happy now that it’s possible with iOS 7. I’m curious to see if more publishers will chime in on this.
Boxie Review: An Alternative Dropbox Client for Power Users
Dropbox is my filesystem. Every file that I need to have available across devices and that doesn’t require the rich text and search capabilities of Evernote goes into my Dropbox account: screenshots that I share with coworkers; PDF copies of my receipts and invoices; articles written in Editorial are stored in Dropbox. Even my photo backup workflow relies on Dropbox as an archival system that’s always in the cloud, readily available and easily shareable. With the Packrat feature, a $39 yearly add-on, I get access to the full history of my deleted files and file revisions, which have saved me on several occasions in the past.
The official Dropbox app for iOS is good, but it’s not great for power users and it hasn’t been substantially enhanced for iOS 7 yet. That’s what Italian developers Matteo Lallone and Gianluca Divisi (together, Tapwings) want to fix with Boxie, a $1.99 third-party Dropbox client for iPhone packed with advanced features and navigation options. I’ve been testing Boxie for the past month, and I think that it’s off to a solid start. Read more
AuthenTec Co-Founder Shows Early Fingerprint Scanner Prototype→
AppleInsider has the photos of what used to be called “FingerLoc”. Look at that old prototype, and think about the fact that now an even better technology sits under your phone’s Home button.
Weather Line Review
I am not a weather nerd. I don’t commute to work[1] and I don’t need to know the percentage of precipitation and humidity for the next three weeks. I spend most of my days in Viterbo and Rome, where the weather isn’t particularly crazy; I never get to try the fancy weather apps with Dark Sky integration and “radars” because those features don’t work here. You may argue that I’m forced to be a casual user of weather apps; I honestly believe that I don’t need to know everything about the weather to have a good day. I don’t travel much, and therefore I rarely need to plan my trips according to weather conditions. I enjoy simple weather apps like Today, Yahoo Weather, and even Apple’s built-in Weather app for iOS 7 because they display all the data I need without overwhelming me with terminology I don’t understand.
This is why I was curious to try Ryan Jones’ Weather Line when he emailed me a few weeks back. His pitch was simple: “I had this idea for a weather app, and I’m great at making charts”. Sure enough, I remembered Jones’ work on the iPad mini “price umbrella” chart from last year, and he seemed confident enough in his app to convince me to try it. Weather Line is available today at $2.99 on the App Store, it’s iPhone-only, and it is one of the nicest and most unique weather apps I’ve tried lately. Read more
Testing The iPhone 5s In Patagonia→
This iPhone 5S beats out the 5 in every camera test and in many ways I prefer it to my DSLR. Sure it has its pros & cons… but for the first time ever, I didn’t bring my Canon 1DX and I didn’t regret it one bit. That’s saying a lot.
Austin Mann (via Shawn Blanc) went to Patagonia to properly test the new iPhone 5s camera, and he came back with some amazing photos and videos. Even better, he provides explanations and comparison shots between the iPhone 5 and 5s, showing how the 5s takes better pictures better suited for processing. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to take pictures as good as Austin’s, but the fact that Apple is hiding complex technology behind the software gives me hope that, when I’ll get my 5s, I’ll enjoy features like SloMo and better Panoramas without having to care about their settings.