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Read Later 2.1→

Read Later 2.1

Speaking of Pocket, the best way to access a Pocket (or Instapaper) queue on OS X, Read Later, has been updated to include video support for the (rebranded) Pocket service inside the app. With the Pocket parser now capable of fetching videos from more sources, Read Later can, for instance, display YouTube or TED videos inline through your preferred reading style.

Formerly “ReadNow”, we covered Read Later when it hit 2.0 back in December:

Based on traditional RSS apps, ReadNow organizes your Instapaper and Read it Later articles for offline access, optimizing articles for a cleaner reading experience on your Mac. ReadNow features a custom article view that lets you style the article, change the line height and article width, and customize the font. Archiving and liking articles in the app will push those changes to the respective service in realtime. Unlike your favorite iOS apps, ReadNow lets you drag and drop articles into folders and tags to quickly move them from the reading list.

I particularly appreciate Read Later’s drag & drop support to easily move the Instagram photos I send to Pocket (via IFTTT) to a specific tag, and I use the app’s hotkey to quickly send a link from my pasteboard to Pocket. Support for video makes for a nice watching experience on OS X, and you can get the app for free on the Mac App Store.

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Pocket 4.1 Adds Dark Theme, Pagination, Refinements

Following a massive 4.0 update that saw Read It Later turn into Pocket (our review), founder Nate Weiner told us the new platform they had built would allow them to “iterate and move faster than ever before”. Less than a month after Pocket’s launch, a major 4.1 update has been released today, bringing some new features and several refinements to the app that wants to make “save for later” mainstream.

In my original review, I noted how there was no way to manually add links into Pocket, either with a “+” button or through automatic clipboard detection for URLs, like Instapaper does. Pocket 4.1 introduces a subtle, good-looking dialog for added URLs that gracefully slides up from the bottom of the screen every time you launch Pocket with a URL available in the iOS clipboard. I still think Pocket should also have a manual button to enter new URLs, but the addition of clipboard integration improved my app-switching workflow nevertheless.

The most important changes in Pocket 4.1 are visual, as the app adds a bunch of new options to customize the look of the reading view and improve readability in different settings. New dark and sepia themes focus on high-contrast reading, and an application-wide dark option has also been enabled to make the UI easier on the eye for those who like to use Pocket at night. I like the new dark theme, as it really helps in navigating the inbox when I’m using Pocket while my girlfriend is sleeping and I don’t want to wake her with my iPhone’s display. Plus, the overall design of the theme is reminiscent of the old Read It Later in some way, which is a nice cameo. I am no fan of Sepia, but I guess it’s good to have options.

In the reading view itself, the Pocket team increased the maximum font size supported by the app – good for visually impaired users – and created a new pagination mode that lets you conveniently read long articles as single pages. Switching between “classic mode” and pagination isn’t a setting – rather, you can activate “page flipping”, as the team calls it, by swiping left or right on screen. The effect is pleasant, responsive, but I prefer to read my articles as #longreads I can scroll.

A minor change that I am deeply enjoying in version 4.1 is support for Devour and TED. For those not familiar with Devour, it is a website that collects “awesome videos” from YouTube every day, embedding them in a clean, neatly designed layout that is easy and fun to browse every day. Pocket 4.1 saves Devour.com URLs as video thumbnails, which support the fancy video player introduced in version 4.0.

Pocket 4.0 was a great app, but the improvements made to the service lately and this new version have turned the product into an experience that fits my reading and watching habits even more. You can find Pocket 4.1 on the App Store.

Apple Showcases Books “Made with iBooks Author”→

Apple Showcases Books “Made with iBooks Author”

Every week on Thursday, Apple updates its various homepages across the iTunes Store, App Store, Mac App Store, and iBookstore to showcase new featured content and sections. This week, Apple has chosen to feature books “Made with iBooks Author” on the iBookstore’s homepage.

Made with iBooks Author, these books bring ideas and stories to life. Our handpicked collection features titles filled with 3D images, video, and interactive diagrams, galleries, maps, and more. To read Multi-Touch books, an iPad with the latest version of the free iBooks app is required.

The custom section, available here, showcases 40 titles that have been designed with iBooks Author to include rich media such as images and video alongside text. Featured books include Olivia Harrison’s “George Harrison: Living In The Material World” and DK Publishing’s “Story of the Titanic”. Links to download the iBooks app and browse more iBooks Author-made titles are also provided in the section, giving access to more content created using Apple’s software such as David Sparks’ “Paperless”.

Unveiled at an education event in January, iBooks Author is Apple’s latest entry in the OS X design and publishing offering. With an integrated interface to produce and lay out eBooks based on text, images, videos, and other interactive content, iBooks Author caught many’s attention with its new take on touch-enabled books that could bring innovation in an area that had been long dominated by static formats and outdated standards. iBooks Author was also in the middle of a debate due to a controversial End User License Agreement, which Apple eventually clarified.

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iTranslate Voice: A Siri-like Translator Powered by Nuance

According to Apple, Siri, the iPhone 4S’ virtual voice-based assistant, will gain support for additional languages in 2012. While international users are still waiting for Siri to support the creation of reminders, events, and messages in their preferred language – not to mention all the other functionalities that Apple enabled in the first “beta” of the assistant – it is still unclear if Siri will ever officially support a feature that has always seemed perfect for voice input and interactions: translations. iTranslate Voice, a new utility by Sonico Mobile, wants to fill this void with a Siri-like interface for an iPhone app powered by the same tech behind Apple’s solution: Nuance.

If Siri could do voice translations, I imagine they would look exactly like iTranslate Voice, as Sonico’s app borrows heavily from Siri in terms of overall interface design and style. Like Siri, iTranslate Voice displays ongoing voice interactions as conversations between you and the software; like Apple’s assistant, conversations are initiated by tapping on a circular, glowing microphone button that, however, in this app has been styled with flags. Conversations can be scrolled vertically, and tapping on single “bubbles” will you give you options to copy, share, or “speak” the words you dictated again. By tapping and holding the latest entry in a conversation, you can directly modify the words you said using the iPhone’s keyboard – this can be particularly useful to refine text input in case the app didn’t get some details right.

iTranslate uses Nuance’s speech recognition software to recognize and translate voices. iTranslate supports 31 languages, but only some of them support both voice recognition and text-to-speech. A complete list of supported languages (which also includes dictionary definitions, automatically displayed inline when available) is available on the developers’ website. Like Siri, iTranslate Voice requires an Internet connection to operate – something that, I presume, is related to some heavy server-side processing and sampling the app does in order to deliver high-quality and timely results without wasting the iPhone’s local storage.

In my tests, iTranslate Voice has been extremely accurate and reliable. I was surprised at first, but on second thought I realized that the fact that Nuance is delivering good translations in seconds as you talk to your phone shouldn’t really be a surprise at this point. I have tested the app with Italian-to-English translations (and vice versa), and the results have been more than decent – I actually think they are the best ones I have found on iOS to date, and this speaks clearly of Nuance’s strong position in the market. I don’t know if the developers are also enhancing Nuance’s results with their own engine of sorts, but the end result is what matters, and iTranslate Voice doesn’t disappoint here. The app recognized first names and terms like “ATM”, handled common expressions well, and it even understood spoken punctuation in Italian (“virgola” for comma, “punto interrogativo” for question mark, and so forth), adjusting the sentences and tone of software accordingly. Results are delivered in seconds both on WiFi and 3G, and the app also does a good job at detecting end of speech if you enable the option in the Settings.

I won’t judge Sonico’s decision to make iTranslate Voice look like Siri, but I will say that the system undoubtedly works, and makes it easy to speak to your phone to get instant, spoken translations. I can’t shake the feeling that this, like Siri, feels like the future of human-to-computer interactions being built right now, and regardless of whether Apple and Nuance will eventually bring this feature to Siri, iTranslate Voice is impressive and you can get it today.

iTranslate Voice is available on the App Store at $0.99.

MindNode 2.1→

MindNode 2.1

One of my favorite apps for iOS, MindNode, has been updated this morning to version 2.1. Devoid of the iCloud integration that was previously teased on the developers’ website (iCloud continues to be a problem for several developers), the new version still sports some great improvements that will dramatically increase my usage of MindNode, especially on the iPad.

With Retina-ready graphics, 200% zoom level, and a new visual style, browsing and editing mind maps in MindNode now looks better than ever. I don’t rely on MindNode for the attractiveness of its graphics though, which is why I am welcoming the possibility of sending documents to other iOS apps installed on a device. Similar to the sharing menu The Omni Group has been using for quite some time in OmniOutliner for iPad, the new MindNode lets you export maps as FreeMind, PNG, text, OPML, or PDF documents. Automatically recognizing third-party iOS apps capable of receiving such files through the “Open in…” menu, MindNode 2.1 allows me to pass along maps as OPML files to CarbonFin’s Outliner or iThoughts HD, or send them as simple text files to my preferred text editor. Because MindNode can also open documents from any Dropbox folder, outlines I had already created in Outliner can easily be “visualized” and edited in MindNode. iOS could use a better way to let apps access the same version of a file, but with a plethora of importing and exporting options MindNode 2.1 provides a decent solution for now.

MindNode 2.1 comes with other bug fixes, and it retains the same simple-yet-powerful text entry and manipulation workflow of the previous versions. MindNode for iOS is $9.99 on the App Store.

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The Magic Of Words, Or: Why I Am Addicted to SpellTower

I still remember the day when Chris recommended this game to me – SpellTower. When I looked at the game’s website for the first time, I asked myself whether it could be a new subject for my Inspiring UI series. Although I concluded that it would not fit the series, the website nevertheless looked like the game could be worth my time. Zach Gage, the developer, promotes SpellTower with a nice scrollable site, containing some lovely designed icons and symbols, large, mono-colored backgrounds, and some moving CSS3 flavour. It is a lovely website you should take a look at – whether you’re interested in games or not – just for the sake of admiring Zach’s work as a web designer.

But since I am interested in iOS games and I was curious to see if the game could live up to the site’s promise, I downloaded SpellTower for the ludicrously low price of $1.99 (actually, it’s currently on sale for $0.99, so please head over to the App Store to get it first, then continue reading afterwards). Allow me now to shortly recap what playing SpellTower is all about (the app features a one-minute tutorial, which also interactively explains the game’s concept). To summarize it in one sentence: to me, SpellTower is like Tetris with words.

Random blocks with letters arranged in twelve rows cover the screen, and you have to connect letters located abreast of each other. Some letters need to be included into certain minimum lengths, indicated by a small number in the top right of their square block, and words touching black boxes without letters will delete them. Blue colored letters included in a word (these are letters which are hard to incorporate into words, like “Z” or “J”) delete a whole row and generate a lot of points. Apart from those special features, the game follows one simple rule: the more letters a word has, and the more rare those letters are (a “Q” is obviously more valuable than an “E”), the more points you earn. That’s all there is to say about the game’s concept: you can start playing SpellTower within seconds, a prior condition a game needs to get you addicted to it.

This principle is translated into five different game modes, two of which you can unlock by reaching extraordinary results in the two basic ones: tower mode, where the screen is completely filled up with letters and the goal is to make as many points with them as possible; and the more tactical puzzle mode, which starts off with five rows, adding one row for each word you spell until the letters reach the top and the game ends. You can also play rush mode, which is the closest match to the idea of Tetris: rows add over time (whether you spell words or not), and you need to quickly eliminate them to prevent a letter from reaching the top. While I’m not the best at puzzle and rush mode — I do not even reach the 1000 points mark, and to unlock the fifth mode you need more than 2000 points — playing the tower mode always is a lot of unconstrained fun and makes me coming back again and again.

So, how exactly is this addiction accomplished? I think it’s a combination of three factors that Zach managed to mix perfectly: UI design, highscore competition, and a vocabulary learning process. Read more

Facebook Introduces App Center

Facebook has introduced App Center, a new way to distribute Facebook apps to more than half a billion users in order to centralize existing apps and easily allow developers to publish new ones in the future.

Today, we’re announcing the App Center, a new place for people to find social apps. The App Center gives developers an additional way to grow their apps and creates opportunities for more types of apps to be successful.

With today’s introduction, Facebook has opened a beta phase for all developers. Starting today, developers can create and lay out their app’s detail page within the App Center (see example above) using predetermined guidelines. If you’re really fast and submit a finished layout before May 18, your app will be listed with higher priority when App Center launches. The submitted apps are checked and controlled with fixed quality perceptions in mind, and if they get approved, they’ll be available at the initial launch of App Center — Facebook didn’t specify a fixed launch date though.

Additionally, there’s a new feature added to their statistics app Insights: it’s a user feedback monitoring tool that uses a new, visual app ratings metric (see image below).

App Center will also go mobile through the iOS app, using a layout comparable to its possible future competitor, Apple’s App Store:

The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook – whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web. From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.

To make your app ready for iOS or Android, the app just needs to use Facebook login. For the first time, there will also be the possibility to offer paid apps through App Center.

Many developers have been successful with in-app purchases, but to support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps. This is a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com.

As of now, developers can visit the new App Center tab on the developer website to create their app’s detail page for the new Facebook App Center.

10.7.4 OS X Update Now Available: Fixes “Stuck Reopen Windows” Bug [Update: Safari 5.1.7 also Released]

Apple has released 10.7.4 for OS X, which brings significant bug fixes, network improvements, and Safari 5.1.6 (a performance and stability update). Release notes for the 730 MB download can be found on Apple’s support pages.

Download links for the 10.7.4 update have been posted below:

The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes fixes that:

  • Resolve an issue in which the “Reopen windows when logging back in” setting is always enabled.
    Improve compatibility with certain British third-party USB keyboards.
  • Addresses permission issues that may be caused if you use the Get Info inspector function “Apply to enclosed items…” on your home directory. For more information, see this article.
  • Improve Internet sharing of PPPoE connections.
  • Improve using a proxy auto-configuration (PAC) file.
  • Address an issue that may prevent files from being saved to an SMB server.
  • Improve printing to an SMB print queue.
  • Improve performance when connecting to a WebDAV server.
  • Enable automatic login for NIS accounts.
  • Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras.
  • Improve the reliability of binding and logging into Active Directory accounts.
  • The OS X Lion v10.7.4 Update includes Safari 5.1.6, which contains stability improvements.

Also released, contrary to the 10.7.4 release notes, is a separate download for Safari 5.1.7. This update disables out-of-date versions of Adobe’s Flash Player to address security concerns, but a manual fix is provided if you’d like to reenable the outdated Flash Player installed on your system. Information about Safari 5.1.7 can be found on the following support page. You can check Software Update, or download 5.1.7 from Apple’s website.

Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Lion and Safari 5.1.7 for OS X Snow Leopard disable out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player.

Out-of-date versions of Adobe Flash Player do not include the latest security updates and will be disabled to help keep your Mac secure. If Safari 5.1.7 detects an out-of-date version of Flash Player on your system, you will see a dialog informing you that Flash Player has been disabled. The dialog provides the option to go directly to Adobe’s website, where you can download and install an updated version of Flash Player.