HEARD

HEARD appeared on the App Store at the end of June then suddenly disappeared without a trace. There was no blog post and no real explanation on Twitter — just a couple of Tweets asking to get in touch with so-and-so at the time. The whole thing was kind of strange, and I honestly believed the app had been acquired. The app looks to have been pulled due to a bug, and rather than risk poor app reviews, I surmise that the devs decided to pull it. The launch was quiet and there wasn’t too much to lose at the time. After several days, HEARD came back to the App Store with a small update. It’s here for good.

Correction: Apple pulled the application without warning after deciding the app didn’t need full background access. HEARD appealed and won their case, and the app returned to the App Store as it was originally introduced. My assumption was incorrect.

I was disappointed that I didn’t download the app right away after it disappeared (fearing I had missed the chance to try it), given that what it does is nothing short of intriguing. HEARD lets you save anything your iPhone has heard in the past five minutes. The idea that you can suddenly save a conversation to your iPhone that happened five minutes ago sounds magical. But then you start wondering if it’s even all that practical given that you’d likely want more than just five minutes if you’re intent on recording something.

HEARD is an app that runs in the background, its ability to record only limited to how much battery life you have left. By pressing a big red button, HEARD begins actively listening. There’s nothing to log into and no quirky settings to configure. Like you would see with apps like Skype or Voice Memos, HEARD changes the color of the status bar system wide to indicate that the app is listening. When you return to the app, pressing the button again saves whatever was buffered in the last five minutes to its library as a recording. You can then listen in, edit the file’s title, add tags, or delete it if you’re not happy with it. The app continues listening and the cycle begins anew.

That’s what makes HEARD kind of killer. It gives you the potential to record everything that happens. If your phone can hear it, it’s in the app’s buffer for at least five minutes.

While having this kind of power can certainly be useful, is it impractical? Sometimes. Obviously if you want to record a thirty minute meeting then you’re dead in the water unless you use another app. HEARD will let you turn off background audio to record audio snippets, but it only records as long as you hold down the button. If I can put myself in the mindset of the developer, what they’re trying to do is prevent you from accidentally recording something for so long that you run out of storage space. Personally I would like the option of not having to hold down that button, even if it meant I couldn’t leave the app if that’s the tradeoff the developers want to make. I want to use HEARD over Voice Memos and as my destination for everything, both for whatever stuff I happen to capture from the airwaves and stuff that I want to record intentionally.

I would love IFTTT integration. Just imagine saving a snippet and having it automatically end up in Evernote or another app. That’s my only want for this app going forward.

There are some aesthetic things I don’t like, particularly the ‘HEARING’ button in the center of the tab bar. I keep pressing it trying to pause and start recordings to no avail. As for recordings, those text boxes look a little dated. And the only real way to turn off background listening is to flip a switch in the settings or close the app from the multitasking bar (I feel there should be a way to pause background listening). For these things, the app does encourage feedback via a button in the settings.

Given the premise and despite being a sort of purposefully limited voice recorder, HEARD works. I felt this way when HEARD first disappeared, and I still feel this way today, that it’s something that was built for attracting attention from bigger fish in the pond, and I wouldn’t be surprised if someone did snap it up just for the idea. Yet, I do recommend at least trying out HEARD. It’s free, the limitation being that only things heard in the past few seconds can be saved. An in app purchase of $1.99 will unlock the full five minutes. Download it from the App Store.

Update 5:00 pm: @heardapp reached out to me on Twitter to point out an inaccuracy in my review of the app concerning the app’s sudden disappearance. I’ve embedded the tweets below and have updated the review.

The Relevancy of App Store Search Results→

Allen Pike looks at the relevancy of search results on the App Store and walks away concerned. For developers it’s frustrating — apps that legitimately belong under a search result or fall in the category of that keyword are overshadowed by unrelated apps with buzzwords in their titles.

In my echo chamber, Twitterrific and Tweetbot are used by many and praised by all. In the real world, most people are not looking for a paid Twitter app. The App Store is curated with this in mind, and I get that.

Still, it’s frustrating that the Store search algorithm cares almost exclusively about downloads, app title, and keywords. Paid apps get fewer downloads than free apps, so they’re lost in the noise. Instead of Twitterrific, we get Instagram at #2. This isn’t because Instagram is about “Twitter” at all, but because it’s insanely popular, and meets the minimum keyword relevance requirement to appear.

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Crowsflight Points You in the Right Direction→

I think maps are useful when choosing your destination, but when navigating the city streets, orienting yourself by finding landmarks on a tiny screen can be tricky. I like this idea of having a pointer, a directional compass that at least tells you you’re heading in the right direction.

I like the concept behind this app. I could have used something like this a couple months ago when I ended up parking several blocks away from my destination (yay city parking). Maps got me close to my destination, but the walking directions didn’t quite follow the walking paths available and it’s semi easy to get lost in your phone instead of paying attention to your surroundings. Crowsflight shows you were you should be looking for your destination, features a quick search feature (useful when stuck on slow 3G), and built-in maps as an additional way to find nearby points of interest. It’s one of those things where you ask yourself why you need another compass, and end up realizing that it can be super useful when smart features are attached.

You can download Crowsflight for free from the App Store, and unlock all of the features for a dollar via an in-app purchase.

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Learn to Code with Treehouse for the iPad→

Quick note: I’d link to a proper blog post, but I don’t see one on Treehouse’s site yet. The link will currently take you to the iTunes Preview page.

You need to have a subscription to use the app (starting at $25 per month), but this is a very cool bonus for those that are learning to code websites and are just starting down the path towards making their own iOS apps. Languages include HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ruby, Objective-C, and more. Treehouse has video tutorials, badges that you can collect as you progress through lessons, and a members forum so you can get help from Treehouse’s community of learners and self starters.

[via VentureBeat]

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The Prompt: Up Next Yesterday→

This week, everyone’s favorite international trio discuss a truckload of follow-up, then move on to talk about Apple’s developer site and quarterly results then Google’s new Nexus 7 and Chromecast TV dongle. Myke interrupts the show to find Federico’s alt rock band on MySpace. To wrap up, Chris Bowler files a report on Cloud.typography and Federico gives a tip about bookmarklets in Chrome for iOS.

Without a doubt, the episode recorded in the most original location to date. Get it here.

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EA And The App Store→

Jeffrey Grubb at VentureBeat:

The mobile-based future is here, and publisher Electronic Arts is reaping the rewards. EA reported today that it made more money through Apple’s App Store than any other retail distributor. That includes its own Origin digital-download service.

Here’s the thing: I don’t like EA’s shady practices (especially in Real Racing 3), I think that most In-App Purchase-based games should offer more value, but this is working for EA and others (see: Candy Crush Saga). And who’s to blame: consumers for being too credulous? EA and King? Apple? If anything, shouldn’t we be happy because Apple’s strategy is working out?

I, and thousands of old-school gamers like me, don’t like this modern idea of free-to-play games and nickel-and-diming players. I like to think that, eventually, Apple will start caring about quality games. But it’s when I read stories like EA’s that I conclude that, today, Apple doesn’t want to change In-App Purchases, at all.

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Apple Cyclicality→

Benedict Evans:

For the first two cycles Apple launched the new iPad in the June quarter and sales then rose in the September quarter (back to school?) and again in the Christmas quarter (presents) before falling in March (old product, new one coming). But then in 2012, iPad Mini rumours led to sales falling in September and then Apple launched the Mini and a 4th gen model in the December quarter. So sales shot up in the December quarter, held up well in March (newer product plus Chinese new year) and then slipped this quarter as it’s now a nine month old product.

Some solid analysis of yesterday’s Q3 results. The first chart really shows the seasonality of Apple products, and the inevitable decline of the iPod.

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Patrick Welker’s AppleScript and Keyboard Maestro Workflows for Lists→

This is an amazing collection of workflows and tips by Patrick Welker, who explains how he automates list creation and management using AppleScript and Keyboard Maestro. The post also contains a modification of my recent Mail workflow to automate senders and signatures.

The hidden gem in the article, however, is the following sentence:

Since I’m deeply in love with Keyboard Maestro and want to preserve the just fallen in love kind of feeling in our relationship for as long as possible, I created a one-action macro to trigger the TextExpander snippet

The things you do for the apps you love.

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Google’s Document On Data Compression In Chrome For iOS→

Last week, I wondered whether Google’s new data compression feature for Chrome for iOS was partially motivated by the inability to use the Nitro engine to speed up page load times. Today, I have stumbled upon the technical document that details how the data-saving process actually works – in short, it uses Google’s proxy to optimize web traffic sent by Chrome.

The proxy server receives the request initiated on the mobile device, initiates a request for the required resource on your behalf, and then optimizes each asset before delivering it back to the client. The content optimization is performed by our open-source PageSpeed libraries, which are specifically tuned for the Chrome Mobile browser. The rendering of the page, and all JavaScript execution, is performed by the client’s browser.

Of note, the transcoding of images from JPEG and PNG to WebP:

Over 60% of the transferred bytes, for an average page, are images. Hence, the proxy takes great care to optimize and transcode all images to the WebP format, which requires fewer bytes than other popular formats, such as JPEG and PNG. The proxy supports the new WebP lossless format for certain images, and also optimizes the perceptual quality of each image based on device screen resolution and pixel density of your device.

I’ve never been a fan of speed optimization through proxies personally, but I’m curious to try out Google’s implementation. The feature is still rolling out for Chrome users on iOS.

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