The latest version of Twitterrific, released today on the App Store, brings a number of nice improvements such as hashtag autocompletion, better support for Handoff, and some welcome fixes for quoted tweets and the media viewer. What’s even nicer is that, if you’re running the iOS 9 beta, Twitterrific for iOS 8 already supports Safari View Controller and the San Francisco font thanks to some clever coding by The Iconfactory.
Twitterrific Update Brings Early iOS 9 Features
Apple Posts New ‘Photos & Videos’ iPhone Ad
Apple aired a new commercial as part of their “If it’s not an iPhone, it’s not an iPhone” campaign, this time focusing on the device’s camera for photos and videos.
The entire ad showcases full-screen photos and videos taken on the iPhone 6, noting that “every day, millions of amazing photos” are shot with iPhone. Unlike other ads in the campaign, there’s no mention of third-party apps – just the iPhone’s camera and animations generated by photos and videos. Previously, Apple had featured iPhone photography with the “Shot on iPhone 6” initiative, which was later expanded to ads, films, and billboards across the world.
You can watch Apple’s latest iPhone commercial below.
Taptronome Gesture-Based Metronome for iOS→
I play and record just enough music to find metronome apps very useful. Taptronome is one of the best I’ve seen, with full-screen visual feedback, customizable click sounds, fine-grained control of subdivisions and beat emphasis, all with intuitive, gesture-based settings that are easily adjusted with one hand.
Taptronome is free on the App Store. An Apple Watch addition is said to be in the works.
Apple Redesigns Website, Integrates with Store Pages→
Apple launched a redesign of their website today, integrating the product presentation and shopping experiences into one and tweaking the navigation bar with different menu items and icons.
Notably, the separate store.apple.com website is no more, as it now simply leads to apple.com with store pages available at apple.com/shop/ URLs.
Knowing what I know about the old online store, this was a massive behind-the-scenes undertaking, but the result looks and works like what most people would have expected all along. (Someone should count the instances of “finally” in the headlines about this change.) The old two-site approach was like having separate rooms in a physical retail store — a showroom up front, and a sales room in the back. Now it’s just one room. (And in another subtle parallel to the physical Apple stores, the website now uses a shopping bag instead of a cart.)
Speaking to TechCrunch, an Apple spokesperson explained why the company decided to make this change:
“We redesigned Apple.com knowing that our customers want to explore, research and shop in one place,” said an Apple spokesperson in a statement. “The new Apple.com takes the very best of our existing site and our online store to give customers one simple destination to learn and buy without navigating between two different sites. We’ve also improved several of the site’s features to make shopping easier than ever for our customers.”
The updated website will likely make for an easier shopping flow – especially on smartphones – as there’s less switching contexts between viewing and buying because everything’s integrated. It’ll be interesting to see if updating the store with new products will still require Apple to bring the store down, or if they will appear and propagate for everyone across the world like the new website did today. Probably a good change, but let’s pour one out for Is The Apple Store Down.
Replacing QuickCursor with Keyboard Maestro
QuickCursor was a great app which allowed you to use your favorite text editor to edit text anywhere on the Mac. For example, rather than writing a blog post in a form field in your browser, you could press a keyboard shortcut and then whatever text you had written would be sent BBEdit (or any other text editor). You could finish writing your post using all of the features of your preferred text editor (and, most importantly, not have to worry about your browser window crashing or anything else that might cause you to lose your work). When you finished writing, your text would automatically be sent from your text editor back to the web browser. (If the awesomeness of this is not immediately obvious, watch this short YouTube video showing how QuickCursor worked.)
Microsoft Outlook App Now Available on the Apple Watch→
As noted by The Verge, Microsoft Outlook is now available for the Apple Watch after Microsoft updated the Outlook iPhone app today. The Outlook Watch app enables users to reply to emails directly on the Watch through various quick reply options or via dictation.
Besides replying to emails on the Watch, there’s an Outlook glance which enables users to review their inbox or see what’s next on their calendar. Finally, Outlook’s custom notifications on the Apple Watch add support for archiving and scheduling emails as they arrive.
Tom Warren from The Verge tried the new Outlook Apple Watch app wrote:
By default, Outlook notifications on the Apple Watch now show a lot more of the email body instead of cutting it short after a couple of sentences. While you still can’t reply instantly from a notification, you can now tap on the Outlook icon in the notification to launch a dedicated Outlook Apple Watch app that lets you see an overview of email and reply to any messages using quick replies or dictation.
11 Million Customers Sign up for Apple Music Trial, App Store Has a Record July→
Apple’s Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine spoke to USA Today reporter Marco della Cava about Apple Music’s early numbers:
One month after unveiling its new streaming music service, Apple has locked in 11 million trial members, company executives tell USA TODAY.
“We’re thrilled with the numbers so far,” says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, adding that of that sum 2 million have opted for the more lucrative family plan at $14.99 a month for up to six people.
Whilst there are still 2 months of the Apple Music free trial period before user’s credit cards start being charged, there’s little doubt that those numbers represent a solid launch. For those curious about how those numbers compare to other services, Spotify announced in early June this year that they had “more than 20 million subscribers and more than 75 million active users”.
Cue also revealed to USA Today that July was a record breaking month for the App Store:
July also brought a fiscal high-water mark for the company’s App Store, which did a record $1.7 billion in transactions, “with particular momentum in China,” says Cue. That brings the total amount paid to app developers to $33 billion, up from $25 billion at the end of 2014.
How Apple Watch Got Ken Robson In and Out of Hospital Fast→
MedCity News has shared the story of Ken Robson, Apple Watch user who was able to correctly self-diagnose a heart ailment thanks to Apple Watch heart rate data:
When he got to the hospital, Robson told staff that he had been tracking his heart rate on the watch, and had two weeks of back data. “Going in with the data certainly reduced my stay by a couple of days,” he told MedCity News. It also assured that he could have the operation nearly immediately.
Because the hospital could check his Apple Watch data, Robson did not have to wear a heart monitor for a week before the medical team at Scripps Mercy could confirm the diagnosis of sick sinus syndrome.
Apple Updates TestFlight with Support for iOS 9 and watchOS 2 Betas, App Thinning
Apple has updated its official TestFlight app for iOS today, bringing support for iOS 9 and watchOS 2 betas, plus a new App Thinning feature that will allow developers to deliver slimmer apps in iOS 9.
Version 1.2 of TestFlight supports, according to Apple, “upcoming iOS 9 features”. The first beta of iOS 9 was first released in June, and, following the launch of the fourth developer beta, several members of the developer community were wondering when Apple would start allowing developers to distribute iOS 9 app betas to external testers. The release notes of the update don’t mention external testers, so it’s still fair to wonder when Apple will actually let developers expand their beta pools beyond internal testers.
Update: As confirmed in an email by Apple, TestFlight’s iOS 9 features are currently limited to watchOS 2 apps and App Thinning for internal testers only.
Apple email clarifies TestFlight iOS 9 features and internal testers pic.twitter.com/qBaBXIkUNd
— Federico Viticci (@viticci) August 5, 2015
In addition to iOS 9 and watchOS 2 support, the TestFlight app has been updated with new notification settings. You can now turn off email and notification updates on a per-app basis – a welcome addition for those testing dozens of different apps.
TestFlight 1.2 is available on the App Store.