This Week's Sponsor:

Direct Mail

Professional Email Marketing Built Just for Mac Users

Opener for iOS 8 Opens Web Links in Apps

In spite of several companies’ efforts to match web links to native apps, opening links from apps on iOS usually takes you to a web view even if you have the website’s associated iOS app already installed. This is why following links to songs on Spotify or podcast episodes on Overcast doesn’t automatically take you to their native apps: iOS lacks a native deep linking technology. While Apple could introduce such framework in the future, currently there’s no system-wide solution that can be adopted across every website and app out of the box. Many have tried to solve deep-linking on mobile, but to achieve real support for this experience, Apple will need to step in eventually.

In the meantime, Timothy Johnsen has created a workaround called Opener that uses an action extension to let you easily open a web link in its native app. Released with an initial set of compatible links/apps such as Twitter, Overcast, SoundCloud, Spotify, Kickstarter, and more, Opener allows you to avoid tapping buttons in web views to launch associated apps; Opener can automate the process by resolving links and launching them inside apps with an extension.

Read more

Apple Revamps App Store ‘Games’ Category with More Curated Lists→

Sarah Perez, reporting on Apple’s latest tweak to the App Store curated picks, this time for the Games category:

Apple quietly made a number of changes to the way it features and organizes mobile applications in the iTunes App Store in May that are of particular interest to mobile game developers. Previously, developers relied on algorithmically generated sections highlighting new and trending titles as a way of having their games found, but now many of these lists are gone.

Now missing are lists like “New,” “What’s Hot,” and “All iPhone (Free & Paid),” for example. In their place, including for the first time ever in the Games’ subcategory pages, are editorially curated lists instead.

Games are the App Store’s most popular category, with 18 sub-sections for different game genres. I’ve argued in favor of more human curation on the App Store in the past, and Apple seems to agree that having human editors is the best (and only?) way to highlight good content with taste and thoughtfulness.

Some developers will always find ways to work around a system where apps are highlighted through algorithms; you can’t buy your way into a curated list unless you make a good app and Apple thinks it’s worth recommending to customers. Apple still has algorithm-based sections on the App Store (Top Charts, ‘Popular Games’ on the front page), but handpicking the best software is the right thing to do in a store with about 1.5 million apps. I’m glad that we’re seeing more of this.

Permalink

Igloo: an Intranet You’ll Actually Like [Sponsor]

We all struggle with productivity. We are constantly pressured to accomplish more, and to do it quicker. There is no one definitive way to accomplish that, and we have all devised our own little method to make things work. At Igloo, we think your way is the best way, we just want to support you, and make your way better.

Our focus is on becoming that place where you know you can access all you need to work, whether that’s documents, communication, task management, and much more. That means you can access us from all your devices, but it also means our platform is fully customizable. You get involved in the work you do, and things get personal quickly. We think a platform should represent who you are, it should feel like home.

Everything is now mobile – work should be too. We’d rather work on being intuitive while you do your thing. Igloo is an intranet you’ll actually like.

Try Igloo for free for as long as you want with 10 of your favorite coworkers.

Our thanks to Igloo for sponsoring MacStories this week.

The Power of the Screenshot→

Then there is keeping things to remember later. I do this quite often now for posts. Yes, I could copy & paste the text into a note-taking app, but why not just screenshot the passage? It’s so much easier to do.

The same is true with sharing things. Aside from the aforementioned textshots, I often take screenshots of Tweets/Facebooks/Instagrams/etc, and share those with others on chat apps. Again, this is actually more seamless than copying and pasting a link. It also saves time on both ends as the receiver only has to load my image, not an actual website. (Facebook may be on to something.)

MG Siegler wrote about the power and convenience of screenshots on iOS.

It’s interesting to observe how taking screenshots has evolved culturally from a tool to capture app icons or Home screens into a way to share information quickly (despite its accessibility concerns) because most web services/messaging apps make it easy to preview images. Taking screenshots is also the most popular way to save controversial tweets or Facebook posts that eventually get deleted or edited.

The only time when I don’t share screenshots of Twitter conversations or web articles is when I’m using Slack, which automatically pulls in tweets and headlines when you paste links into a thread. I guess this also says a lot about eschewing slow web views in favor of nimble inline previews.

Permalink

Why I Switched My Favorite Twitter, RSS, and Podcast Apps for Three Weeks

For at least five years there have been three slots on my iPhone Home screen dedicated to apps for Twitter, RSS, and podcasts. For as long as I can remember, they have been taken up by Tweetbot, Reeder and Castro. Three weeks ago I got rid of all three, and replaced them with Twitteriffic, Unread, and Pocket Casts. I had come to the awkward realisation that although I frequently tried new apps (and occasionally reviewed them), I didn’t do the same thing when it came to Twitter, RSS, and podcast apps – at all. I had become too comfortable with the same apps.

So for three weeks I’ve been solely using those apps, and this “experiment” has lead to a few interesting revelations to me. Perhaps the most obvious one was that I discovered certain features I really liked, but had no idea I liked, until they were missing in the app I switched to (and vice versa). I won’t spoil the results, but suffice to say I have resolved to try new apps (whatever their purpose) more frequently, even if I’m really happy with the app I’m currently using.

Read more

“Google Photos Is Gmail for Your Images”→

The information gleaned from analyzing these photos does not travel outside of this product — not today. But if I thought we could return immense value to the users based on this data I’m sure we would consider doing that. For instance, if it were possible for Google Photos to figure out that I have a Tesla, and Tesla wanted to alert me to a recall, that would be a service that we would consider offering, with appropriate controls and disclosure to the user. Google Now is a great example. When I’m late for a flight and I get a Google Now notification that my flight has been delayed I can chill out and take an extra hour, breathe deep.

Steven Levy interviewed Google’s Bradley Horowitz about Google Photos. The article includes some fascinating details on how the technology behind it could be applied in the future. (Ads aren’t part of the plan – for now. It’s easy to imagine how they could be.)

I’m currently uploading years of photos to Google’s cloud because I’m interested in their search technology. I ran some initial tests on a first batch of photos, and machine learning was indeed impressive: the service organized photos by locations and people, but more importantly it let me search for common keywords like “fireworks”, “beach”, and “pets”. This, however, could also have negative repercussions, as Casey Newton noted in his story on Google Photos:

Google’s face detection is so powerful that I’m glad you have the option to disable it. It created an amazingly comprehensive photo album of my ex-boyfriend, and instantly reliving every holiday and road trip together just by tapping his face overwhelmed me. It’s magic, yes, but it can catch you off guard. (And it’s not perfect: a colleague who tried the service discovered that Google thought his wife was at least four different people.)

Finding photos and rediscovering memories is just as important – if not more important – than managing them. I believe that machine learning and deep neural networks have a huge potential to help us organize and retrieve information we’d forget otherwise, and Google is well positioned to tackle this. If anything, Google Photos makes for a good additional backup option after iCloud Photo Library.

Permalink

How Dropbox Remains Relevant→

We think of Dropbox as a service for synching our directories, but the real value they bring is in applying a level of thoughtfulness that no one really applied to files before. A lot of that is part and parcel with storing this stuff in the cloud, which affords many user benefits—including availability of one’s files to countless third-party apps. But a lot of it is very particular to Dropbox’s superb design of the user experience.

I agree with Khoi Vinh’s assessment of Dropbox’s strengths in the era of apps and hidden filesystems. My work depends on Dropbox: all my text files are on it (through Editorial); it’s the fastest way to share images across devices (I can’t get AirDrop to work reliably between my iPhone and iPad most of the time); and, it’s the backbone of the apps I use every day to publish articles and organize my research. I could work without Dropbox and use something like OneDrive or iCloud, but my workflow would considerably suffer. I’d be slower and live with the constant fear of losing control over files or, worse, the files themselves.

I also agree with the comment on the design of Dropbox. Features like versions, shareable links, and the recent addition of comments and recent files are all powered by a tasteful design that hides complexity and makes everything seem easy and seamless. I hope Dropbox continues to remain relevant.

Permalink

Virtual: Jurassic Park in the Sky→

On this week’s Virtual:

This time Myke and Federico talk more about problematic Kickstarter projects, share some of the iOS games they’ve been enjoying, bemoan the potential cost of the Oculus, and get giddy with excitement that Myke has received Splatoon.

You can listen here.

Sponsored by:

  • Igloo: An intranet you’ll actually like, free for up to 10 people.
Permalink