Since getting a 12.9-inch iPad Pro last year, I’ve had a fairly troubled relationship with external iPad keyboards. I didn’t like the original Logitech CREATE keyboard case, so, surprised by the lack of notable Smart Connector-based accessories, I ended up using an Apple Magic Keyboard for the majority of 2016.
My New iPad Pro Keyboard: The Razer Mechanical Keyboard Case
Connected, Episode 116: Undead Zombie Echo Fish→
Myke is back to talk about dongles. Stephen has opinions about the Mac Pro. Federico is trying a new notes app.
More than you ever wanted to know about dongles and terrifying Alexa experiments on this week’s Connected. Also, we talk about Bear and the business of indie apps towards the end of the show. You can listen here.
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Remaster, Episode 22: Development Hardware→
Shahid establishes the current landscape of game development hardware, in the light of Apple’s recent Mac announcements.
On what could easily become a mini-series on Remaster, Shahid did a terrific job in starting to explain how game developers use hardware for their craft and the history of videogame-making tools. I was on the show, but I’ll have to listen again – it’s a unique episode.
GIPHY Updates with Saving and Syncing of GIF Favorites→
GIPHY’s iPhone app was updated today with the ability to save favorite GIFs. What’s more, you can sign up for, and into, a GIPHY.com account from the iOS app so those favorites sync across GIPHY’s website, the iPhone app, and its companion Messages app. It’s a relatively simple change, but one that makes a big difference in the utility of the app. If you have a go-to reaction GIF, now you only need to save it as a favorite once to access it from the web, the iPhone app, or the Messages app.
In my limited testing, syncing was seamless and immediate. The update does not include GIPHY Keys, GIPHY’s custom iOS keyboard. Favorites saved in the keyboard app do not sync to your GIPHY account. In addition, the lack of an iPad app is curious; I find myself wanting a GIF at least as often on my iPad as on my iPhone. That said, this is a welcome update that should make GIPHY much more useful to diehard GIF fans.
Apple News Quietly Takes Off→
Apple News got a major overhaul with iOS 10. Part of that was a change in its design, but there were other significant changes like human curation of news stories that have greatly improved the app. According to an article published by The Nieman Journalism Lab, those changes have had a big effect for some news organizations:
CNN… says its Apple News content got 36.5 million unique readers in September, a major increase from August’s 5 million. Its pageviews also increased significantly to 274 million, up from 43 million a month before.
“It’s really quite a remarkable story,” said Alex Wellen, CNN’s chief product officer. While CNN had seen “steady traffic growth” for most of the year,” said Wellen, Apple’s tweaks to its news app have changed the traffic picture significantly.
Bloomberg has seen a similarly significant spike in readership via Apple News. The difference appears to be at least in part a consequence of large news organizations’ regular inclusion in the Top Stories and human-curated Featured Stories sections. Other sites, like Slate, told The Nieman Journalism Lab that their pageviews have been flat.
Notwithstanding the eye-opening increases in traffic for some sites, the jury is still out on whether Apple News can generate significant revenue for news organizations:
Monetization is “still a work in progress,” noted [Bloomberg’s] Havens. Slate, in a similar position, is “not monetizing Apple News very well at the moment,” said Schieffer. Wellen said CNN “has monetized its stories,” though he wouldn’t give specific details. Ads still feel like a rare occurrence for its Apple News content; publishers are still eager for integration with comScore, a major hurdle to getting advertisers interested in the platform.
Gmail Refreshed with New Design, Swipe to Archive or Delete, ‘Undo Send,’ and Faster Search
Until today, Gmail hadn’t been updated since January 2016. That’s a long time between updates for a major Google service. Meanwhile, Inbox, Google’s other email client, has been repeatedly updated throughout 2016. That led me and others to wonder whether Google was abandoning its more traditional email client for Inbox’s cutting-edge features. Although Gmail appears to be on a slower update cycle than Inbox, today Gmail received a handful of solid new features and a design update that breathes fresh life into the app.
Gmail’s new design brings it much closer to the UI of its Android cousin and other Google apps available on iOS. The design is colorful, uncluttered, and easy to read with a compose button right where you expect it in a Google app.
Google also added the ability to quickly archive or delete messages with left or right swipe gesture from your inbox. By default, Gmail is set to archive when you swipe on a message, but you can switch it to delete messages in settings on a per-account basis.
Gmail’s new ‘Undo Send’ feature gives you about five seconds to tap an Undo button in the lower right hand corner of the screen to retrieve a message that you didn’t mean to send. It would be nice to be able to adjust the length of the delay before a message is sent, but I suspect five seconds is enough in most circumstances.
In addition, Google says it has made email search even faster. The speed and accuracy of Gmail’s search is the primary reason I keep Gmail installed. I don’t use Gmail regularly enough to comment whether the new search is faster, but in my limited testing search results appeared almost instantly on a good WiFi connection, even when retrieving months-old email.
I’m glad to see Google pushing Gmail forward. With this update, it fits better aesthetically with the rest of Google’s iOS apps and adds features that keep Gmail on par with other iOS email clients. I only wish that Gmail also included a unified inbox option instead of requiring me to switch among multiple accounts.
How Slack Is Using Emoji→
After introducing emoji reactions last year, our own Slack team saw a dip in the total number of messages sent. With hundreds of members communicating across a couple thousand channels, it was a welcome change. Before emoji reactions, messages begot more messages: replies, questions, acknowledgment. In a word, noise.
Fascinating look at how Slack is using emoji inside the company. It’s sort of amazing how versatile emoji can be when used in work communications with a bit of creativity. I’m also going to implement this idea for our own Slack:
Speaking of 18F, check out their blog post about using emoji reactions for knowledge management. They tag all “evergreen” content found in channels with
:evergreen_tree:, and use a search query like the one mentioned above to find new messages worth codifying in their handbooks. At Slack, we do something similar, where anyone can tag a message with:notebook:to indicate it might be worth adding to the company’s internal documentation.
Game Day: Alone
Every week thousands of new games are released on the App Store. As I set up my new iPhone 7 Plus recently and scrolled through the Purchased tab in the App Store, I realized that there’s another ‘new’ category - new to me. I download a lot of apps, including games, and sometimes they get lost in the shuffle. That’s exactly what happened to Alone, a fantastic endless runner by Laser Dog released about two years ago. Alone may not be new to you, but even if you’ve played it before, Alone is worth rediscovering.
Alone, adds a sci-fi twist to the endless runner genre. You’re a spacecraft navigating thorough collapsing caves. Rocks fall as you maneuver your ship through the tunnels. The design of the game echoes its name. Your ship feels small and isolated in the harsh space environment. You can take a couple of small hits from debris, but more than that, or a collision with a wall, and it’s game over. Make it far enough in a world and you’ll be rewarded by unlocking new environments to explore.
Alone requires concentration and fast reflexes. Even though I’m not great at twitchy arcade games, I’ve had a lot of fun playing Alone. The focus it requires makes it easy to get absorbed in the game.
As you progress, Alone’s pace increases and additional obstacles, like rockets, are introduced, making for an even more harrowing journey. The controls are sensitive, which requires focus and concentration to make it very far. By default, dragging your finger down on the screen makes your ship rise and dragging it up does the opposite. If this feels counterintuitive, you can reverse the controls in the settings. The sensitivity of the controls would be more frustrating, but by building in the ability to survive small collisions, Alone has struck a good balance that makes it fun without being discouraging.
The fast pace of Alone and the relentless electronic beat of the soundtrack are a great combination. Endless runner games are by their nature somewhat one-dimensional, but Alone sets itself apart with its design and unique gameplay. Whether you’ve played Alone before or not, take it for a spin this weekend. Some of the best iOS games are hidden beneath a mountain of new releases.
Developers Read 1-Star Reviews→
Fun video from the Úll conference of developers reading 1-star reviews of their own apps. Props to whoever did this, too.