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AutoSleep Turns the Apple Watch Into an Automatic Sleep Tracker

I’m terrible at keeping a decent sleep schedule. I love my job and I often stay up late working on my latest story. Sometimes, I decide to relax with a videogame, I lose track of time, and suddenly it’s 4 AM. I know, however, that getting enough quality sleep every night is key to a healthy lifestyle, which is why, over the past month, I’ve tried to wake up earlier and work out in the morning.

With these personal changes, motivation only goes so far for me. I want to be able to visualize my progress and current streak. Since getting an Apple Watch Series 2 a couple of weeks ago, I’ve started looking into the idea of using it as a sleep tracker again. There are some solid options on watchOS, but all of them require pressing a button in an app right before you’re about to sleep. And because I normally drift off to sleep, I forget to activate sleep tracking mode and no sleep gets tracked at all.

In my limited tests with a Fitbit this month (before getting a new Apple Watch), I came away thinking that automatic sleep detection was my favorite feature of the product. You don’t have to press anything and the Fitbit figures out when you started sleeping and when you woke up. Combined with a dashboard like Gyroscope, it’s a great way to build an automatic sleep log that passively monitors your sleeping habits.

David Walsh, developer of MacStories favorite HeartWatch, wants to recreate the same experience with AutoSleep, an iPhone app that turns your Apple Watch into an automatic sleep tracker without installing a Watch app. I’ve been wearing my Watch to bed for the past week, and AutoSleep has worked surprisingly well.

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Daylite: A Business Productivity App for Mac and iOS [Sponsor]

Daylite is a business productivity app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Organize you and your team’s contacts, calendars, projects, tasks, emails, notes, and new business opportunities all in one app.

Track sales and set reminders for follow-ups. See a full history of all emails, calls, and notes for each customer. Customize your own pipelines to track sales and projects. View your whole team’s calendar to make scheduling meetings simple. Daylite even integrates with Apple Mail so you can update customer info, set tasks and reminders, and add appointments to your calendar – all without leaving Mail.

Automate lead generation from online web forms with Daylite & Zapier integration. When someone fills out a form on your website through Google Forms or Wufoo, a new contact and business opportunity are creating in Daylite. You can then segment leads for specific email campaigns and track all of your communication with them in Daylite.

Always have your business info no matter where you go. Daylite is a native app so you can access your information on your Mac, iPhone, or iPad even when you don’t have an Internet connection.

Read how businesses all over the world are becoming more efficient with Daylite.

Our thanks to Daylite for sponsoring MacStories this week.

The Process of Proposing New Emoji→

The Verge has an interesting interview with Paul Hunt, a type designer at Adobe, who has proposed four emoji that have been adopted as part of the Unicode Standard: orange heart, child, adult, and older adult. In addition to describing the extensive research that can go into proposals to adopt a new emoji, Hunt explains the Unicode body’s approach to issues surrounding the diversity of emoji and inclusiveness:

… Unicode tries to be very sensitive and tries to avoid any kind of political issues when it comes to coding new characters. I think that Unicode doesn’t really try to give a voice for particular causes. Instead, they try to approach it in a way that they try to make tools for communicating existing realities. … I feel like having more emoji concepts to express issues around gender and around equality issues is only a good thing. Hopefully as people use and see these emoji, then it will help them to hopefully be able to think and empathize for the people who are using them.

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Canopy Keyboard Cover and iPad Stand Review

I’ve been carrying Studio Neat’s new Canopy, a combination keyboard case and iPad stand, for about a week. It’s the first time Apple’s Smart Keyboard has been off my iPad Pro since I got it, but I haven’t missed it at all. There are still certain situations where I prefer the Smart Keyboard, but I love having the option to work on my iPad with Apple’s Magic Keyboard when it suits my needs. So, while I won’t be switching to a Magic Keyboard/Canopy combination full-time, it’s a choice I’m glad to have and one I will use frequently.

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Minecraft: Pocket Edition Hits 1.0 and Gets an Apple TV Version

Minecraft fans got an early present under the tree today. Mojang, the maker of Minecraft: Pocket Edition on iOS, announced that it is releasing a big update to the game today as well as an all-new Apple TV version.

The update to Minecraft: Pocket Edition on iOS has been dubbed the Ender Update and brings the version number of the game to 1.0. Mojang’s Owen Jones says on the Minecraft.net that:

my personal highlights have to be The Ender Dragon (because I’m Welsh and love dragons), The End (all dragons deserve to have a fitting home to relax in), and the Dragon’s Breath potion (it’s delicious). This update also brings this year’s Festive Mash-Up Pack including all kinds of holiday themed looks.

The Ender Update is currently rolling out and should be available in the App Store soon. In the meantime, Mojang has put together a preview trailer highlighting the update and another featuring the Festive Mash-Up Pack that you can watch:

Mojang also announced that Minecraft will be released on the Apple TV today. Originally mentioned onstage at Apple’s October MacBook Pro event, the game will be available for $19.99. For a limited time the Apple TV version will include the following seven DLC add-ons for free: Holiday 2015, Town Folk, and City Folk skin packs, along with the Plastic, Natural, Cartoon, and Festive 2016 mash-ups.

Game Day: LVL

LVL, by Ankara-based SquareCube, is a clever synthesis of 3D and 2D puzzles. Each puzzle is solved in two dimensions, but requires you to consider three. Shapes are laid out on the sides of a cube divided into a three-by-three grids like a Rubik’s cube. Some of the squares on one side of the cube are occupied by colored shapes. The other squares are transparent so you can see the squares on the opposite side of the cube. Your job is to complete a grid of one color by moving the pieces on the opposite sides of the cube. As with similar puzzle games, the object is easy to grasp when you see it, but hard to describe. The best way to understand the mechanics of LVL is to watch this short trailer:

Pieces can be moved up, down, and laterally on each side, but not rotated or moved to a different surface of the cube. A puzzle is completed when the combination of moves on opposite sides positions the pieces in such a way that they form a solid grid of one color when a side is viewed head-on. The game is enhanced by it’s clean, simple, and colorful design and a spacey, mellow soundtrack.

In all, there are over 50 levels with over 150 total puzzles. LVL also incorporates Game Center leaderboards based on the number of puzzles you solve.

I’ve enjoyed some more fast-paced, frenetic games lately, but I also appreciate this sort of game where I can play short sessions at my own pace. Puzzle games like this are perfect if you need a little down-time and are looking for a fun distraction.

LVL is available on the App Store for $1.99.

Timepage for iPhone Adds Better Syncing, New Theme Colors, More in Version 2.0

Continuing their blistering pace of development, the team at Bonobo Labs have updated their award-winning app, Moleskine Timepage, to version 2.0.

The update features a slew of performance updates, which the developers attribute to a “whole new code foundation that makes it faster to use and optimizes how your calendars are synced.” Also aiding in the fluidity are new animations throughout the app.

With 2.0, Timepage is now much more customizable, allowing you to change the text size, theme colors, and calendar colors. For example, tapping into “Themes” let you choose from a wide range of colors, alter the intensity of it, and then add a highlight color. Additionally, you can pinch on the timeline to adjust how many days are displayed at once, from three up to ten. The result of these options is a more personal Timepage, one with dozens of variations of the same great design.

Adding and editing events is also much improved thanks to additions like a “+” button to add events (for those who didn’t like the swipe gesture) and phone number, URL, flight number, and email address support in the note section. Editing dates is now much easier, too – just tap the date after going in to edit.

Finally, the update rounds out with improvements to repeating events and preference syncing between devices.

Instead of going for a full-on redesign, I’m happy to see that Timepage has made its 2.0 update a combination of tweaked aesthetics and speed improvements. Timepage has undoubtedly been my app of the year, and this update marks a solid end to a remarkable year of development from the Bonobo Labs team.

To see the full release notes or to buy Timepage for iPhone ($4.99), check it out in the App Store here. The iPad version, which received many of the customization features in version 1.1.0, can be found here ($6.99).