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Connected: The Robocop of Apple Watches→

This week, Stephen and Federico are joined by David Smith to talk about Tim Cook and WatchKit apps.

Last week’s episode of Connected was a good one, with special guest Underscore David Smith talking about Apple Watch and making Watch apps. You can listen here.

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Apple Launches Apple Watch Guided Tours→

After confirming that pre-orders will kick off at 12:01 AM PT next Friday, Apple has launched a new webpage with guided tours for the Apple Watch.

To take advantage of its size and location on your wrist, we’ve given Apple Watch new interactions and technologies.These Guided Tour videos will show you how to use them to do all kinds of amazing things.

As the company did with the iPhone before, these short videos demonstrate the device’s UI, built-in apps, and user interactions. Right now, you can find videos for Messages, Faces, Digital Touch, and the general user interface of the Watch; more are coming soon.

Two details that stood out to me: Apple often says “press firmly” instead of “use Force Touch”; at one point, they clearly state that the Digital Crown is the equivalent of the click wheel on the iPod.

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Evernote for iOS Gets New Camera Mode→

Speaking of scanning documents, Evernote released version 7.7 of their iOS app today, bringing a new “Scannable-inspired” camera mode that automatically detects document types. From the Evernote blog:

We learn a lot about what features work well and how people use them when we build products like Skitch and Evernote Scannable.

The successes of our stand-alone products can help quickly deliver improvements within our core apps like with this update to Evernote for iOS.

We’re very excited to debut an all-new, Scannable-inspired camera experience in the latest Evernote for iOS (update 7.7).

That’s not exactly reassuring for users of their standalone apps, though – the latest compatibility update to Skitch was in September 2014, and a feature update goes all the way back to June 2014 (version 3.2). I, like others, appreciate the simplicity of standalone utilities that are tightly integrated with Evernote, but the company makes it sound like these apps are more like experiments for features that are eventually added to the main Evernote app.

The new camera mode is nice – it’s the Scannable engine, only in the Evernote app. At this point, however, I’m curious to know if Scannable will suffer the same fate of Skitch, or if Evernote has plans to keep it as a standalone app with more functionality. Having the same features available in multiple apps from the same company seems confusing.

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Scanbot Adds Slack, Wunderlist Integration

I’ve recently accepted the fact that I’m never happy with my paperless setup, and this freed me from the burden of feeling bad whenever I’m trying different apps to scan documents and archive them online. One of the apps I’m trying alongside Evernote Scannable is Scanbot, which has received some interesting updates over the past few months (such as themes and smart naming features). Today, Scanbot was updated with Slack and Wunderlist support, and I’m a fan of these integrations.

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The Secret History of the Apple Watch→

Good story by David Pierce at Wired on the history of the Apple Watch and the design process at Apple.

The article includes quotes from Kevin Lynch and Alan Dye, plus screenshots of the Apple Watch UI and San Francisco font. This tidbit caught my attention as it suggests Apple tested and discarded a timeline interface – one of the selling points of the Pebble Time.

As the testing went on, it became evident that the key to making the Watch work was speed. An interaction could last only five seconds, 10 at most. They simplified some features and took others out entirely because they just couldn’t be done quickly enough. Lynch and team had to reengineer the Watch’s software twice before it was sufficiently fast. An early version of the software served you information in a timeline, flowing chronologically from top to bottom. That idea never made it off campus; the ideas that will ship on April 24 are focused on streamlining the time it takes a user to figure out whether something is worth paying attention to.

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Redesigning Twitter Profiles→

Over at the Twitter blog, Sana Rao has an interesting post on the design process of Twitter profiles for mobile devices and desktop. Some fascinating numbers:

On web we saw a 6x increase in the number of Tweet impressions from logged-out visitors browsing profiles and a 2x increase in the number of logged-out visitors who saw an impression of the profiles.

On iOS, the most remarkable change was a 38% increase in people visiting the new profiles and a massive 6x increase in users visiting the media timeline. Similarly, on Android we saw a 128% increase in people visiting profiles and over 2x increase in people visiting and scrolling on the media timeline.

I like Twitter profiles on the iPhone. The profile view (and many other features) could use some love on the iPad, though.

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Apple Opens Watch App Submissions for All Developers→

After approving Watch apps from select developers last week, Apple has begun accepting submissions for Watch apps from all registered iOS developers. From the company’s developer blog:

It’s time. Apple Watch will be in the hands of customers on April 24. Get your WatchKit apps ready and submit them for review now.

Apple has also created a new webpage titled ‘Preparing Your App Submission for Apple Watch’ with details on what developers should do before submitting an Apple Watch app to the App Store. There are some interesting tidbits on this page, such as limitations for app previews, which must show only iPhone apps:

Your app preview may only use footage of your iPhone app, and footage must stay within the app. Do not change your preview to show your WatchKit app.

And a note that suggests apps from third-party developers will be approved before April 24 and therefore used by people with a pre-release Watch unit:

Once your WatchKit app is approved and released by Apple, your existing iPhone users will receive the app update and customers will see your WatchKit extension icon and description on the App Store. A small group of people who currently have an Apple Watch will be able to use your WatchKit app before April 24, so make sure your back end systems are ready.

As I wrote last week, releasing Watch apps before the April 24 launch is a smart move from Apple:

For the first time in several years, a new Apple product will be reviewed by people who have access to third-party apps from the App Store. When the iPhone launched, there was no App Store; when the iPad launched, reviewers didn’t have access to public downloads from the iPad App Store.

That won’t be the case with Apple Watch, and this is a clever choice from Apple. Because the Watch is many things, it needs apps to offer a more complete picture of its potential. By approving the first Watch apps this week, reviewers (and customers at the try-on sessions in the retail stores) will get access to a selection of third-party apps that can show how the Watch will integrate in everyday life through the apps they already use.

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Todoist 10 Brings Intelligent Input, Themes, and New Gestures

Last November, I wrote about my decision to switch from iCloud Reminders to Todoist as my task management app of choice. I concluded:

Todoist strikes a good balance of powerful features and clever implementation that doesn’t push me to customize everything all the time. I’m not writing scripts for task management, I’m not changing icons and themes – I set up a few filters and I’m just focusing on doing stuff. The Todoist app for iOS integrates well with iOS 8, and, overall, I’m thoroughly satisfied with my decision to switch from Reminders to a professional-grade todo system to manage my life.

Over the past five months, I’ve kept using Todoist every day and I’ve enjoyed its reliability and integration with other apps and services. Everything from my original review still stands: while I don’t rely on all of Todoist’s features, its flexibility allows me to scale my tasks and projects at any time. If a big new project comes in and I need to take care of it with my team and have a deeper visualization of my responsibilities, I know I can count on Todoist. If I have to jump from a couple of tasks each day to a few dozen, I can rest assured Todoist can do it.

In spite of my appreciation, though, I’ve been critical of Todoist’s iOS app before, and I’m happy to see the company addressing some of my major complaints in Todoist 10, launching today for iPhone and iPad.

I upgraded to a beta of Todoist 10 a few weeks ago, and, while it doesn’t profoundly change the capabilities of Todoist on iOS, the new version brings some powerful (and long-needed) functionality that will help users be more efficient and spend less time managing todos.

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Automatic: Your Smart Driving Assistant on Your Smartphone [Sponsor]

There’s a mountain of data inside your car waiting to be unleashed, and all you have to do is plug in a quick little connector and download a mobile application.

Automatic is a smart driving assistant that plugs into your car’s data port and lets you connect your smartphone (either iPhone or Android) with your car. By  talking to your car’s onboard computer and using your smartphone’s GPS and data plan to upgrade your car’s capabilities, Automatic will allow you to easily diagnose your engine light, never forget where you parked your car, and save hundreds of dollars on gas.

Automatic learns your driving habits and gives you suggestions through subtle audio cues to drive smarter and stop wasting gas. Thanks to a map view available on your phone, Automatic can display a trip timeline after every driving session, showing you how you’re doing with a Drive Score; the app can even track local gas prices and tell you how much you’re spending.

In case of engine problems, Automatic can decipher what the “check engine” light means and show you a description of the issue with a possible solution. And thanks to a feature called Crash Alert, Automatic can detect many types of serious crashes and automatically alert local authorities as well as your loved ones when you can’t.

Automatic is currently available in the US for iPhone and Android devices, with a 45-day return policy and free shipping in 2 business days.

MacStories readers can go to automatic.com/macstories to get $20 off and buy Automatic at just $79.99. For more information, check out Automatic’s website.

Our thanks to Automatic for sponsoring MacStories this week.