Tweetbot 5 for iOS is out with a new look that more closely resembles the latest Mac version, which was redesigned in May. Tapbots has also added a handful of additional features, some of which mirror additions to the Mac version and others of which are unique to iOS.
Tweetbot 5 for iOS Brings a Redesign, Dedicated GIPHY Support, and a New Dark Mode
Apple Announces October 30th Event
As first reported by Neil Cybart, Apple has announced a media event for October 30, 2018 at 10:00 am Eastern. The event will be held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House.
Apple is hosting a product event in Brooklyn. October 30th. pic.twitter.com/LQvDEze7qw
— Neil Cybart (@neilcybart) October 18, 2018
To announce the event, Apple sent invitations to members of the press with a wide variety of artistic renderings of the Apple logo. The designs are also used on Apple’s event website. Here’s a sampling collected by Sebasiaan de With on Twitter:
Some of the Apple logos on the October 30th event invites. Some really cool ones in here. pic.twitter.com/vOMiMERDmS
— Sebastiaan de With (@sdw) October 18, 2018
Based on rumors that have circulated for months, Apple is expected to introduce new iPad Pros with edge-to-edge screens and Face ID and external display support. There has also been speculation of a redesigned Apple Pencil that will pair with the new iPads using proximity sensing technology and a redesigned magnetic connector on the back of the iPad. It’s possible Apple might use the event to introduce the long-expected AirPower charging mat and new Mac hardware too.
Reigns: Game of Thrones Review
With Game of Thrones on hiatus before its eighth and final season, fans can get their fix of their favorite characters and join in the intrigue with Reigns: Game of Thrones, which was developed by UK-based Nerial and published by Devolver Digital. The announcement of the game in August came as something of a surprise because it’s not often that a media company the size of HBO entrusts the characters and story behind one of its most popular shows to a small independent game studio. At the same time, however, the combination felt like a perfectly natural evolution of the Reigns series. Reigns: Game of Thrones, which was released today, doesn’t disappoint.
Pixelmator Pro Updated with Machine Learning Auto Enhancement, Light and Dark Modes, and Automator Actions
Pixelmator Pro for the Mac was updated to version 1.2 today with a handful of enhancements centered around macOS Mojave.
The update includes light and dark modes, which can be set in Preferences to follow the mode picked in System Preferences or full-time light or dark mode. Dark mode closely resembles Pixelmator Pro’s existing UI, but its light mode is brand-new.
Pixelmator Pro 1.2 has also added a new auto-enhance feature for images that applies machine learning to automatically adjust white balance, exposure, hue and saturation, lightness, color balance, and selective color. Previously auto-enhancement was available individually for some of the categories in Pixelmator’s Adjust Colors tab. The new ML Enhance feature, which the Pixelmator team says was trained with millions of professional photos, adjusts all of the categories listed above at once. If you don’t like the results, the adjustments can be turned off on a per category basis or adjusted manually.
Why Photoshop on iOS Is A Huge Win for the iPad Pro→
Jason Snell, writing for Macworld on the announcement of Photoshop coming to iPad next year:
Adobe’s move to iPad instantly makes everyone who knows, loves, or relies on Photoshop a possible candidate for an iPad Pro. And make no mistake, the iPad Pro is already plenty powerful enough to run Photoshop, and with the Apple Pencil it’s got an input method that will satisfy most graphics pros. Even better, Adobe has said that it will be building in cloud syncing for Photoshop files, so that you’ll be able to seamlessly hand off projects directly from one device to another.
A lot of the criticism of the iPad Pro as a flawed tool for doing real work comes down to software. The hardware is capable—but where’s the software? These arguments have been weak for a while now—I think Microsoft Office for iPad is aces, and Apple’s iWork apps are remarkably capable, too—but with every major app that arrives on the platform, the quieter that criticism has to get. Adobe’s also bringing a simplified version of Premiere, called Premiere Rush, to the iPad. I wonder if Apple’s considering just how Final Cut and Logic might work on the iPad?
As I’ve been arguing for a while now, I believe we’re witnessing a shift in how tech companies – both platform owners and development studios – approach desktop and tablet software. Multiple factors – from better-looking displays and more powerful GPUs to cloud-based file management and subscriptions – are converging to make it possible to have a consistent app experience on every device you have without compromise. In this transition, iPad versions of desktop apps will be treated less like “companion” apps to a “real” desktop one and more like the same app, with the same features, optimized for touch and capable of adapting to the kind of computer it is running on (and adaptivity becomes especially important when you start considering external display output, for instance).
Photoshop, as Snell writes, is a first step. If Apple is truly pushing this vision forward, perhaps it’s time they also start treating the iPad as a place for real pro apps, not just companion utilities of macOS apps.
Some of Apple’s Forgotten iOS Apps
Apple has just about always offered iOS apps on the App Store, separate from what apps come bundled on its devices from the factory.
Sometimes, these apps get promoted to being part of the iOS image, like Podcasts and iBooks have. Once stuck hanging out on the App Store, they now ship on the iPhone and iPad by default.
A lot of other apps weren’t luck enough to get that lifeline, and have since been removed from the App Store. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
BestPhotos Offers Streamlined Photo Management
BestPhotos, a photo management app from Chicago-based Windy Software that we’ve covered on Club MacStories before, was updated today with new features for quickly and efficiently organizing your photos. I take thousands of pictures each year and sometimes it feels like I take even more screenshots. Sifting through to find the best shots and discard old screenshots, duplicates, and just plain bad photos takes a lot of tapping and time in Apple’s Photos app. BestPhotos is a better solution that streamlines the whole process.
App Bundles Are Coming to the Mac App Store→
In a brief post on Apple’s Developer news site, the company announced that it is adding support for app bundles to the Mac App Store. According to the post:
…now, you can create app bundles for Mac apps or free apps that offer an auto-renewable subscription to access all apps in the bundle.
The post points to developer documentation on creating app bundles that that has been revised to mention Mac apps. The process for setting up a bundle, which will allow developers to offer up to 10 Mac apps as a single purchase, appears to be the same as it is for iOS developers. Unfortunately for those developers with iOS and macOS apps, it does not appear possible to create a mixed bundle of iOS and Mac apps.
AppStories, Episode 83 – Frequently-Used Shortcuts, Part 1→
On this week’s episode of AppStories, we discuss some of our most frequently-used shortcuts for work and our personal lives.
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