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On this week’s episode of AppStories, we look at the state of non-native apps, the trade-offs inherent to them, and discuss examples of non-native apps we like and a few we don’t.
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Will the next iPhone eschew Touch ID for facial scanning? Is Stephen keeping his Echo Show? Can Ticci explain CoreML in a way that normal humans can understand?
On this week’s Connected, we cover some of the latest iPhone 8 rumors and try to explain what Apple is doing with machine learning in iOS 11. You can listen here.
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Airmail is the 2017 Apple Design Award-winning email client from Bloop that marries elegant design with rich, customizable features that tame your inbox.
Everyone approaches email a little differently. For some people, their inbox is a sort of task manager. For others, keeping their inbox empty and messages neatly organized into folders is paramount. No matter how you manage your email accounts, Airmail from Bloop has you covered.
Airmail is highly customizable while maintaining a clean, intuitive interface that makes it a pleasure to use. The app supports all major email technologies, including Gmail, iCloud, Exchange, IMAP, and POP3. On macOS, Airmail also incorporates the latest operating system features like the Touch Bar.
With Airmail, you can manage one or several email accounts. With multiple accounts, it’s just as easy to review messages from every account in a unified inbox as it is to dive into just one account. Airmail also features rich customization like the ability to send messages later, snooze messages, and create smart folders and rules. Actions let you send messages to other apps you use like task managers and your calendar or create a PDF from a message. Best of all, you only need to set up Airmail once because your settings sync via iCloud to all your Macs and iOS devices.
Airmail is available on macOS from the Mac App Store and on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch from the App Store.
Our thanks to Airmail for sponsoring MacStories this week.
Missile Cards, which originally debuted on Steam, combines so many of my favorite game elements - a strategy-based mashup of genres, retro graphics, and a fun chiptune soundtrack - that I knew I had to try it. My only hesitation was that it’s a mashup of a Missile Command-style arcade shooter with a card game, which isn’t one of my favorite genres. My reluctance disappeared the minute I began playing though. Missile Cards is a fantastically fun game that’s incredibly hard to put down.
Paying homage to United States national parks, Apple announced today that it will introduce opportunities for customers to donate to the National Park Foundation and earn a new Activity badge and iMessage stickers.
For two weeks beginning July 1, Apple will donate $1 for every Apple Store purchase made with Apple Pay, whether made in-store or online, to the National Park Foundation.
In a press release, Apple explained that: “Proceeds will support the National Park Foundation’s mission to help protect and preserve national parks through conservation projects and other initiatives, as well as inspire the next generation of park enthusiasts with enriching youth programming.”
In addition, Apple will award an Activity badge for Apple Watch and a set of iMessage stickers when users complete a 3.5 mile or more workout on July 15. The distance, Apple says, is roughly the same as the trek from Old Faithful to Mallard Lake – but luckily, you don’t have to go to Yellowstone to get the badge.
For more information on how Apple is working to celebrate national parks, you can find their press release here.
Great overview by Steven Aquino on the Accessibility changes coming with iOS 11. In particular, he’s got the details on Type to Siri, a new option for keyboard interaction with the assistant:
Available on iOS and the Mac, Type to Siri is a feature whereby a user can interact with Siri via an iMessage-like UI. Apple says the interaction is one-way; presently it’s not possible to simultaneously switch between text and voice. There are two caveats, however. The first is, it’s possible to use the system-wide Siri Dictation feature (the mic button on the keyboard) in conjunction with typing. Therefore, instead of typing everything, you can dictate text and send commands thusly. The other caveat pertains to “Hey Siri.” According to a macOS Siri engineer on Twitter, who responded to this tweet I wrote about the feature, it seems Type to Siri is initiated only by a press of the Home button. The verbal “Hey Siri” trigger will cause Siri to await voice input as normal.
Technicalities aside, Type to Siri is a feature many have clamored for, and should prove useful across a variety of situations. In an accessibility context, this feature should be a boon for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, who previously may have felt excluded from using Siri due to its voice-first nature. It levels the playing field by democratizing the technology, opening up Siri to an even wider group of people.
I wish there was a way to switch between voice and keyboard input from the same UI, but retaining the ‘Hey Siri’ voice activation seems like a sensible trade-off. I’m probably going to enable Type to Siri on my iPad, where I’m typing most of the time anyway, and where I could save time with “Siri templates” made with native iOS Text Replacements.
ARKit is one of the iOS 11 features I’m really excited about along with iPad improvements, changes to Notes, and better screenshot workflows. The “problem” with ARKit is that Apple isn’t offering a proper AR app for iOS yet – it’s a framework for developers to create AR experiences. Thus, until you play with an ARKit demo, it’s hard to understand the extent of Apple’s efforts and the potential for future ARKit-enabled apps.
Fortunately, the folks at Made with ARKit have been collecting early demoes shared by developers showing a variety of AR apps that will be possible later this year. And some of these are already incredible. From a rocket landing in your backyard to robots dancing in your living room and obvious measuring tapes, these videos give us an early glimpse at the promise of ARKit and the quality of tracking and rendering on an iPhone’s screen.
I don’t know if these showcases will turn into actual shipping products this Fall, but I have a feeling this new category of apps will become a great reason for millions of users to upgrade to iOS 11 quickly. I can’t wait to play with some of these AR apps.
Author’s Note: When the iPhone was introduced in January 2007 at Macworld Expo, it was billed as a 3-in-1 device by Steve Jobs – a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. The first two points were met with loud applause. Jobs was promising a better iPod and mobile phone – two things everyone understood and could get behind.
The third selling point - a breakthrough Internet communications device – was met with confused reactions. What did he mean? The answer was more broad and profound than the obvious candidates like email, SMS, or web browsing. The iPhone was a full-blown Internet-connected computer that you could put in your pocket and take with you wherever you went.
I don’t know of any product that’s had a bigger impact on so many people’s lives. Whether at work or play, the iPhone created opportunities big and small that were not possible before its launch. With a groundbreaking touch interface and intuitive design, the iPhone democratized technology and empowered people on a far greater scale than the desktop PC has managed by connecting people across the globe in a new and powerful way.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the iPhone launched. I wasn’t there to review the iPhone when it debuted, and neither was anyone else at MacStories. Ten years ago, the founding of MacStories was still almost two years away, and I was in Adelaide, Australia visiting family.
I vividly remember staying up late in Australia to read the early reviews of the iPhone on the nearly useless WAP browser of my work-issued BlackBerry. I didn’t write about the iPhone then, so to mark the occasion of the 10th anniversary of its launch, I brushed off those old memories and wrote what I would have written in 2007.
Let’s go back in time.
The long wait is finally over. Just over six months ago, Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld Expo to announce three products:
What? Three new products in one keynote? No, not three devices – one. On January 9, 2007, after years of rumors and speculation, Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone.
Jobs took the iPhone through its paces at Macworld, thrilling the crowd with feature after feature. It seemed impossible. How could OS X fit into a phone? Was Safari on the iPhone as full-featured as on OS X? Macworld raised as many questions as it answered.
It didn’t help that the iPhone wouldn’t launch until June. There were no more demos, no hands-on time for the press, just the iPhone encased in a transparent tube on the show floor for visitors to gawk at.
In the past few months, some of the press took to calling the iPhone the ‘Jesus Phone’ for its promise of salvation from WAP browsers and the broken UIs of self-proclaimed smartphones. With the launch of the iPhone today at 6:00 pm Eastern, just one day before the end of the promised June delivery deadline, we can finally judge whether the iPhone is five years ahead of any other mobile phone as Jobs proclaimed in January.
Of course, it’s impossible to judge where the smartphone market will be in five years. However, measured against the hype at Macworld, the answer seems to be yes, the iPhone does deliver, though not without some caveats and many risks that could limit its adoption by consumers. For early adopters willing to pay the price and live with some rough edges, though, the iPhone is far ahead of every other available option.
Have Nintendo learned from their previous foray in to tiny nostalgia?
On this week’s episode of Remaster, we talk about Nintendo’s recently announced SNES Classic Mini, the games it’ll offer, and the company’s strategy for the Virtual Console. You can listen here.
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