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It’s the Storage Space, Stupid→

And speaking of iOS 8 update issues, great points by John Gruber:

This is a serious problem for Apple, because all those 16 GB devices (let alone the 8 GB ones) aren’t going to suddenly gain more free storage space on their own. A lot of these devices might never get updated to iOS 8, but would if the OTA software worked. Unless they can rejigger the OTA software update to require less free space, iOS 8’s adoption rate might lag permanently.

It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: iOS 8’s (upcoming) iCloud Photo Library and new message deletion settings could alleviate storage issues, but upgrading to iOS 8 is still required to use those features.

(It’d be interesting to see Apple porting storage-saving features back to iOS 7.)

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iOS 8 and Normal Users→

I love this post idea by Karan Varindani:

It’s been reported that iOS 8’s adoption has stagnated just two and a half weeks after launch and I’ve been wondering why, so I reached out to a friend who’s pretty much the quintessential normal user and asked for unbiased feedback on iOS 8. To be precise: “What you thought before updating, how quickly you decided to update, what you’ve noticed since, the things you like and don’t like about it, etc.” Here’s the original transcript, followed by my notes.

Note that “normal” isn’t used pejoratively – it simply indicates the way that people who don’t obsess about apps and workflows actually use their devices on a daily basis.

This is a great perspective and Karan’s friend makes some excellent points. Read the transcript, because that’s how most people see iOS 8. No mention of extensions right away, but instead a rumor (Touch ID on a per-app basis); too much free storage required to upgrade; positive comments about the new Messages app; confusion about Recent Contacts and Recently Deleted photos being turned on by default.

I’ve been asked the “So what’s new in iOS 8?” question by friends dozens of times. Most of them couldn’t upgrade immediately due to storage issues and they all asked me about stability and bugs (“Is it like last year?”, they all ask). Some of them know about custom keyboards (“Yes, like the Samsung Galaxy”) and they think widgets are cool but they don’t have many third-party apps that offer them. They have no idea whatsoever about action extensions and Handoff. They all note that audio clips in the Messages app have been “copied” by WhatsApp but they won’t stop using WhatsApp because “it’s faster and works everywhere”.

Make no mistake – they aren’t wrong and they aren’t dumb. They use their iPhones and iPads every day like millions of other people do. iOS 8 is a fantastic upgrade for people who work on iPhones and iPads with lots of productivity apps, but Apple needs to pay attention to the perception most people have of their software.

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Connected: Squidges→

Stephen and Myke revisit the Twitter and Health apps, then discuss the current state of iOS 8, the Pebble’s future and Apple’s upcoming press event.

I couldn’t join Stephen and Myke for this episode, but I enjoyed their discussion about the post-launch state of iOS 8 and the future of Pebble watches. Get the episode here.

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Project LayUp for iPad→

Project LayUp is an upcoming iPad brainstorming app developed by Khoi Vinh in collaboration with Adobe that was announced at Adobe MAX earlier this week. Based on the information released so far, LayUp will let you sketch ideas and start your design process on an iPad with a combination of wireframes, graphical assets, and even real fonts loaded from Typekit. Then, LayUp will be able to export a live InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop file to continue working on your project in Adobe’s full-featured apps.

From the description:

Tablets are no longer just for browsing and playing games, they’ve become an integral part of the creative process. Project Layup is the brainchild of a customer and partner who used our just announced Creative SDK to reimagine on device prototyping, sketching, and ideation.

And from Vinh’s blog post:

So that’s what I proposed to Scott: a new iPad app that would turbo-charge the brainstorming phase of the design process, and that would play nicely with Adobe’s marquee apps. I called it “LayUp.” To my surprise, he took me up on the idea, and assigned a team at Adobe to start developing it. So for the better part of this year, I’ve been working with that team to bring LayUp to life.

You can watch Vinh’s presentation at Adobe MAX below, which features a preview of the interface and gestures used to assemble ideas and gather assets directly on the iPad.

I’m intrigued by LayUp’s use of gesture shortcuts: drawing lines and other shapes to drop blocks of text or images into the canvas is smart, and the implementation looks natural and intuitive. Alissa Walker, writing for Gizmodo, notes:

What I was most struck by while watching Vinh demo the app is how natural this felt: It was as if the iPad has been waiting all this time to be used to its full potential in this way. The resulting file is not a production-ready document, of course, but this is far better than anything else you could create with the tools that are out there. Adobe is very smart to bring on some of the top designers to play around with new ways to make their software even more relevant across more platforms.

I often need to sketch out ideas I want to send to our designer for MacStories, but I’m not good at sketching. I’m looking forward to trying LayUp.

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Apple to Live Stream October 16 Event

With an update on their website, Apple has confirmed that they will offer a live stream of the October 16 event, rumored to feature the introduction of new Macs and iPads.

Join us here at apple.com/live on October 16 at 10 a.m. PDT to watch our special event live.

In addition to new iPads, Apple is also expected to provide an official release date for Yosemite – the next major version of OS X. Last year, Apple surprised the tech press by releasing OS X Mavericks on the same day of its October event.

Last month, Apple offered a live stream of its iPhone 6 and Apple Watch event, which ran into a variety of technical issues due to the scale of Apple’s announcements. Apple also provided a live blog of the event with official photos and status updates.

The October 16 event will be streamed live at apple.com/live, with an Apple TV channel likely to be added a few hours ahead of the event.

iOS 8 Spotlight Search and App Discovery→

Hugh Kimura, writing about the new Spotlight search suggestions for App Store apps in iOS 8:

At this point, there doesn’t seem to be a way to optimize for Spotlight Search. Even searches for the most popular app names and keywords return inconsistent results.

It does help some well established apps. But we need to wait for Apple to refine the algorithm, in order for it to benefit more apps.

With ASO now being an important factor for developers to consider to properly market their apps, it’ll be interesting to see if and how search in Spotlight will evolve. I’m finding it to be much faster and intuitive than App Store search, but its results aren’t consistent.

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Clips Review: Actionable Clipboard Management for iOS 8

When I’m researching an article for MacStories or taking notes for an episode of our shows on my MacBook Air, I have full access to the system clipboard. I can copy a URL, a few bits of text, and perhaps even some images, and, when I’m done, navigate through past clipboard entries and put everything back together in Byword, Evernote, or Google Drive. For over six years, I’ve been using a nifty utility called ClipMenu, but I’ve been playing with Alfred’s clipboard history tool lately and I think I’m going to stick with it.

I’ve never had a clipboard manager on my iPhone or iPad. Clipboard apps existed before, but they were severely limited by the way iOS handled background processes: because an iOS app couldn’t monitor the clipboard in the background all the time, clipboard management utilities such as Pastebot or EverClip had to rely on manual activation and they could run in the background for approximately 10 minutes. After that, they’d stop monitoring the clipboard and you’d have to launch them again.

Clips, developed by Muh Hon Cheng and Lin Junjie (the same folks behind Dispatch), seeks to reinvent clipboard management on iOS by embracing the fact that it can’t replicate the experience of Alfred, LaunchBar, or ClipMenu. Instead, Clips takes advantage of new technologies available in iOS 8 to make it as effortless as possible to save bits of text from anywhere, archive your clipboard, and retrieve it in any app.

Clips is one of the most useful iOS 8 apps I’ve tried in the past couple of months, and it’s become a key piece of my iOS workflow. Rather than mimicking a desktop experience that still can’t happen on iPhones and iPads (even with iOS 8), Clips tries to go back to the underlying problem: how can you shift multiple pieces of information from Point A to Point B with fewer taps and less app-switching?

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Apple Announces Media Event for October 16

As first reported by The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, Apple has invited selected members of the press to a media event that will take place in Cupertino, California, on October 16th at 10 AM.

Following last month’s introduction of the iPhone 6, Apple Pay, and Apple Watch, the company is expected to announce new iterations of its iPad Air and iPad mini lines. According to recent rumors and speculation, the new iPads will carry Touch ID (first introduced last year with the iPhone 5s), a thinner chassis, and design cues from the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Apple is also expected to provide a release date for Yosemite, the next major version of OS X currently in testing with registered Mac developers and in “Golden Master candidate” status. OS X Yosemite, announced at WWDC ‘14, brings a complete redesign of the company’s Aqua interface and deeper integration with iOS 8 through Handoff and Continuity. Yosemite will also feature the desktop counterparts of several new functionalities first rolled out on iOS 8, such as Notification Center widgets and app extensions.

(Invitation image via 9to5mac)

iOS 8 Apps I’m Trying This Week

While iOS 8 user adoption may be slowing, the same hasn’t been true for third-party apps. Developers are embracing the new OS with app updates that take advantage of new features such as widgets and extensions, and since the release of iOS 8 last month I’ve been trying dozens of new apps and utilities in my daily workflow.

Some of these apps will turn into full reviews; others will likely be replaced over time. I’ve been having fun exploring the App Store and discovering new software for iOS 8, and I thought it’d be nice to keep documenting what I’m trying. Consider this a follow-up to my earlier post from September 19th.

You can find the list below and our complete iOS 8 coverage here.

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