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Apple Music Gets Taylor Swift 1989 World Tour Video Exclusive→

Re/code’s Peter Kafka:

Apple and Swift are syncing up for a multi-pronged deal that will give Apple exclusive rights to a Swift concert video that debuts on Sunday, December 20, as well as her help on a big Apple Music marketing campaign. Swift, apparently, will get a nice check in return.

It’s easy to see what Apple gets out of the deal, because an Apple spokesperson was happy to talk about it: Access to the concert video will be limited to Apple Music subscribers — that includes both the 6.5 million people (or more) who are paying for the music service, as well as anyone in the free, three-month trial.

It’s kind of amazing to look back at the history of Apple and Taylor Swift in the last six months. Back in June, Swift published a widely circulated criticism of Apple for not compensating artists during the three-month trial period of Apple Music. Famously, Apple responded swiftly to the criticism and within hours (on a Sunday no less) announced that they would change their plans and pay rights holders on a per-stream basis during the trial period. A few days after Apple’s backflip, Swift announced that her album 1989 which was not available on any streaming music services, would be available on Apple Music.

Now Apple is paying Swift to launch ‘The 1989 World Tour - Live’ video, exclusively on Apple Music. Re/code’s Peter Kafka is also reporting that Apple has also obtained the rights to use Swift’s name and likeness in Apple Store promotions and Swift-branded iTunes gift cards. Taylor Swift is also today’s interview guest on DJ Zane Lowe’s show on Beats 1, you can find showtimes here.

Filmed at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium in front of 76,000 fans, this exclusive concert film captures the excitement and energy of the hottest pop artist in the world. Interspersed with footage from her sold-out world tour and loaded with superstar guests, The 1989 World Tour - Live will be available exclusively on Apple Music starting 20 December.

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How Apple’s Smart Battery Case Recharges Your iPhone→

Good point by iLounge’s Jesse Hollington, writing on Quora, about the difference between third-party battery cases and the way Apple’s new battery case has been designed to recharge an iPhone (via Zac Cichy):

Notice the missing step? You’re only recharging your iPhone battery once instead of twice. The fact that Apple’s case doesn’t have a switch means that you don’t really have an option to turn it on when you need it or off when you don’t — if your iPhone is inside the case, it’s being powered by the case. If you do this at the beginning of the day, as soon as you disconnect from the charger, that means that the iPhone remains at 100% until the case battery is depleted, then the iPhone gets powered from its internal battery. The fact that the case is integrated into iOS to provide power status is an added bonus as you get a clearer view as to what your overall battery capacity is.

If you remember to have a fully charged iPhone before putting it into Apple’s case, then it’ll run off the case’s battery instead of draining its own. Thus, if you always keep it on and charge both overnight, the iPhone will always start using the case’s battery first in the morning. That’s smart indeed – too bad I can’t try it on the iPhone 6s Plus.

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For the Good of the Business→

Curtis Herbert has some wisdom for indie developers running a business:

What happens when the developer, designer, and the “evil” business/marketing person are all one in the same? You get a blog post out of it! Welcome to my inner struggles with Slopes as I’ve tried to turn it into a serious business.

Over the last few months I’ve learned that there is a need to compromise on some of my ideals. Well, compromise might not be the right word. I think some of the things that we think compromise our ideals actually don’t, when done right. I think as a designer / developer I was too quick to dismiss things I needed to implement to help my business be healthy just because of some preconceived “Apple would never do this” notion.

I would say that this applies to a lot of creative endeavors online. Many of us are fixated on ideals of elegance and perfectionism that aren’t healthy for the business, which ultimately results in failure to monetize and survive. A great product doesn’t sell by itself.

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The Numbers of Apple’s New TV App Store So Far→

A month after the launch of the new Apple TV and associated App Store, the folks at appFigures have released some numbers on the TV apps available to users:

The long awaited Apple TV App Store opened about a month ago, and since we happen to be into apps that got us pretty excited. We started tracking the new store when it had just opened in late October, and have been keeping a close watch on its progress for a little over a month now. Armed with a database full of apps we set out to share some of the things we’re seeing.

These are some fascinating stats – I wasn’t expecting Education apps to be high in the list and, given Apple’s promotion during the Apple TV introduction, I imagined we’d see more Shopping apps.

With over 60% apps available for free and 85% of them priced between $0.99 and $2.99, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when and if some console games come to the platform.

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Tweetbot Upgrades to CloudKit Sync→

The latest version of Tweetbot for iOS has upgraded its iCloud syncing engine to CloudKit, bringing faster performance for timeline, DM, and mute filter sync. From the release notes:

This update is all about sync. We’ve switched our syncing engine to use CloudKit which will provide you with faster, more consistent syncing between your iOS devices and Macs. It also sets up a foundation for some cool features we have planned for future releases. We know improved syncing doesn’t sound too exciting, but it will provide a better underlying experience.

From a user’s perspective, nothing’s changed – Tweetbot still uses iCloud and you don’t have to change anything in your preferences. However, Tweetbot is now using a better version of iCloud, with near-instant sync of changes between devices.

I’ve been running this version of Tweetbot with CloudKit sync for a few weeks, and it’s a very nice upgrade from the old iCloud sync. I’ve often left two devices running with Tweetbot in the foreground at the same time, and I’ve seen the timeline scroll on one device just a second after I stopped scrolling on the primary device. It’s impressive.

If you haven’t tried iCloud sync in Tweetbot in a while, go check it out again. Tweetbot 4.3 is available on the App Store (my review of Tweetbot 4.0 is here).

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Tumblr’s iOS App Adds Support for Live Photos→

Jacob Kastrenakes, writing for The Verge:

Tumblr’s iOS app now allows iPhone 6S users to add Live Photos to their posts, just as though they were adding any other photo. When someone on an iPhone comes across it in their feed, they’ll see the Live Photo icon in the corner, letting them know it can animate. Like in the iOS Photos app, iPhone 6S users can use 3D Touch to activate the hidden video and sound. If you’re on an older iPhone, you can still view Live Photos by pressing and holding on the image. Android users appear to be out of luck, however. Despite receiving an app update today, Tumblr on Android just displays Live Photos as a still image. Same thing on the web.

Arguably, Tumblr is the first major social app to integrate with Live Photos. Kind of odd that Twitter and Facebook weren’t ready with official support a few days after iOS 9.2 – especially because Facebook appears to be on a 12-hour update schedule for their iOS app.

I wonder if Twitter will natively support Live Photos or convert them to their GIF-like format, but with audio as well.

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Steady Square 3D Touch Game for iPhone→

I found this game yesterday via 9to5Mac – developed by Asaf Avidan Antonir, Steady Square is a simple game where you have to keep a square steady and let it pass through openings in a series of walls. The twist: on the iPhone 6s, the game is controlled through 3D Touch.

Steady Square is extremely basic: there’s no sound, no items to unlock, no menus – it’s more of a proof of concept, really. But, there’s something compelling about the simplicity and silence of Steady Square and I find it to be somewhat relaxing. The collisions are unforgiving (it’s reminiscent of Flappy Bird in this sense) and 3D Touch adds an interesting dimension to an otherwise unsurprising mechanic. It’s free on the App Store.

Also, Steady Square’s developer found a way to bypass Apple’s rules for scale apps based on 3D Touch. He explains how you can calculate the weight of objects with his game in a video.

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Slide 3D GIF Camera App→

Fun new camera app for iPhone by William Wilkinson and Deepak Mantena: Slide lets you create animated GIFs with a 3D effect that you can share with others. The 3D effect, as delightfully explained in the app’s weird promo video, is achieved by sliding the iPhone quickly to the side after selecting a subject.

I bought the app, and it works as advertised. Slide doesn’t work with the front-facing camera because it requires high frame rate to build the 3D animation, which, depending on what you’re looking at, may produce odd and funny results. I’m sending pictures of 3D furniture to my parents right now and they’re asking what’s going on.

Nice diversion from Live Photos and traditional GIFs, and just $1.99 on the App Store.

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Why 2Do Is My New Favorite iOS Task Manager

There’s only one thing I like more than switching todo apps: writing about it. On the surface, it surely seems like I’ve been doing a lot of both in the past year.

In reality, while I have been guilty of periodically changing the way I organize my tasks in the past – going as far as trying a different app each month – I’ve made an effort to stick with a system, learn it, and use it as much as possible over the past three years. Since 2013, I’ve only replaced my task management app of choice once – when I moved from Reminders to Todoist upon realizing that my life got too busy for Apple’s basic app.

I liked Todoist for reasons that made sense at the time: I was preparing our multi-article coverage of iOS 8; I wanted a task manager that lived in the cloud and could be used to collaborate with other people; and I was intrigued by the idea of filters. Todoist served me well for months, and I was happy to see that others were also rediscovering a service that had been around for quite some time and built a profitable business. If you’re looking for a task manager that does more than Wunderlist and is built for teams and external integrations, Todoist still is my top recommendation.

Around early July this year, I realized that my daily work routine wasn’t the same as the Fall of 2014 and that it was also about to change again with the launch of Club MacStories and my iOS 9 review. On the verge of major alterations to my workflow and personal schedule, I always want to reassess and optimize how I get work done so that I don’t end up fighting a system that’s supposed to help me. Life is ever-changing, and there’s no point in thinking that our approach to manage it should perpetually stay the same.

Primarily out of curiosity but also with a hint of app boredom, I installed 2Do on my iPhone and iPad while I was in Positano1. I had no idea it would become the task manager I’ve felt the most comfortable with since getting an iPhone eight years ago.

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  1. One of my favorite places in Italy. ↩︎