Wikipad, the company behind a gaming-focused Android tablet released last year, has announced Gamevice, an iOS game controller made specifically for the iPad mini. The Gamevice was originally announced for Android and Windows tablets in January but, as noted by TouchArcade, the company has seemingly switched to an iPad-only device, targeting a public release later this year with “additional platforms” following soon.
Gamevice Controller Announced for iPad mini
MagiCam Is a Fun Photo App from the Creators of Camera+
“We wanted to create a complementary camera app to Camera+ for users who wanted a simple, one-touch app for shooting and sharing on the go”, Lisa Bettany tells me over email. Lisa is the co-founder of Camera+, the popular camera app by Tap Tap Tap that, since 2009, has amassed over 12 million downloads and become a fixture of the App Store’s Top Charts, which can be rare for a paid app with additional In-App Purchases. Today, Tap Tap Tap is launching MagiCam, which, unlike Camera+, does away with professional editing tools and focuses on simple filters and quick sharing.
Apple Debuts New Entry Level iMac for $1,099
Apple this morning introduced a new entry level 21.5-inch iMac that sells for US$1,099. The model features a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, Intel HD 5000 graphics, 8GB of memory, and a 500GB hard drive. It also retains the same design, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, two Thunderbolt ports and four USB 3.0 ports that are standard on all of the other iMac models.
The iOS App Teaching Kids How to Program→
Cassidee Moser writes about Hopscotch, a coding app for iPad:
Turbine Truck is a small iPad game made up of very basic mechanics. Players guide a cartoon truck across a 2D plane, smashing into as many oncoming cars as possible while evading the police. It lacks complexity and isn’t necessarily a grueling test of skill, but Turbine Truck remains notable for one reason: it was created by a child using Hopscotch, an iOS app with its own visual programming language used to teach kids the basics of coding and programming.
Hopscotch is impressive, and you should check it out on the App Store.
Scanbot 2.0
I covered Scanbot in May, calling it a “fast and efficient scanner app for iOS 7” powered by a delightful UI, integration with cloud services, and a user-friendly experience:
Scanbot covers the basics of mobile scanners well: it’s got color schemes for captured scans; it can save PDFs at 200 dpi and automatically send them to a variety of web services (including Dropbox, Evernote, and Google Drive); and, it can handle multiple pages per scan as well as editing features such as manual border cropping and annotations. Scanbot looks fairly obvious on the surface, as it doesn’t reinvent the way a mobile scanner is supposed to work on iOS – the app’s features can be found in other similar apps, while more advanced ones haven’t been added to Scanbot yet.
Scanbot 2.0, released last week, doesn’t add the advanced features that I mentioned in my original review, but it brings a native iPad version and support for QR code scanning, both of which are welcome additions.
Tools to Organize Browser Tabs for Mac Users→
Here’s a strategy that you might consider trying: Prepare some tools which can, at the moment you’re ready, put all those tabs exactly where you need them so you can close those tabs. If most of those tabs are really your to-do list, line them up in one window and then get them into your actual to-do list. I’ve found that if your tools are easy to use, you’ll be more likely to make it a part of your routine.
Justin Lancy has created a great collection of tools to export browser tabs on a Mac. These tools include AppleScripts and downloadable Alfred and LaunchBar extensions, and they support apps like Evernote, OmniFocus, and Reminders – for both Safari and Chrome.
I have installed the Alfred extension to export a list of tabs to Evernote, and it works very well. Check out Justin’s tools for browser tabs here.
Facebook Launches Slingshot→
Today, Facebook has launched Slingshot, a new messaging app that mixes ephemeral photos with “pay to play” mechanics. Like Snapchat, photos you share with your friends disappear after you close them, but there’s a catch: you can only view messages shared with you if you send a photo (or video) back. If you don’t share, you won’t “unlock” messages, which will accumulate in the app showing a numeric count and a pixelated preview.
Slingshot was developed by Facebook Creative Labs, the same team behind Paper. From their announcement:
With Slingshot, we wanted to build something where everybody is a creator and nobody is just a spectator. When everyone participates, there’s less pressure, more creativity and even the little things in life can turn into awesome shared experiences. This is what Slingshot is all about.
The Slingshot team mentions Snapchat but notes that they wanted to do “something new and different” with shortcuts to share with all your contacts at once:
We’ve enjoyed using Snapchat to send each other ephemeral messages and expect there to be a variety of apps that explore this new way of sharing. With Slingshot, we saw an opportunity to create something new and different: a space where you can share everyday moments with lots of people at once.
In his overview at TechCrunch, Josh Constine highlights the fact that Slingshot could be seen as a gimmick or an advantage over established messaging apps:
The reply-to-unlock mechanic could create the right incentive to share back, feeding on our natural curiosity. It’s gamified sharing. The satisfaction of revealing hidden content could be enough to entice people to find something worth capturing. Perfect pics could end up on Facebook and Instagram, especially intimate ones could go to Snapchat, and Slingshot could pull in our day-to-day moments
Alternatively, reply-to-unlock could be seen as an annoying gimmick, introducing too much friction. Why make a friend work for your photo when you could just text them? The chore could leave Slingshot wasting away in some folder on your screen.
Over at The Verge, Ellis Hamburger reviews Slingshot, with a focus on notifications and sharing options:
But because you have to respond to a shot before you can see it, these notifications act as nags instead of notifiers. If you tap on a new notification, “Shot from Adam,” you won’t be able to view it — until you send a shot of what you’re doing back to Adam. Thus, shots feel less urgent than messages, since there’s no expectation that you’ll be able to open them immediately. The app feels far more like a News Feed with push notifications than anything else — except this News Feed requires you to share a post before you can view it, so there’s its no place for lurkers.
Slingshot is free on the App Store, and requires your phone number to sign up.
Here, Look Lets You Choose Photos You Want to Show to Your Friends
Here, Look is a simple iOS app developed by Paul Roub that solves a specific problem: you want to show some photos to your friends but you don’t want them to scroll through all your photos in the Camera Roll.
We’ve all been there. You’ve just returned from a well-deserved vacation and you’ve taken many pictures with your iPhone, many of which you want to show to your friends…except those few ones that you like to keep private. Apple’s Photos app doesn’t have a built-in presentation mode for selected photos, so, unless you want to create a specific album for photos you want to show to your friends every time, you’ll be forced to try your luck and hand over your phone with all your photos and the risk that swiping will eventually bring up that awkward selfie that you forgot to delete.
Here, Look lets you create an on-the-fly gallery of selected photos in three easy steps: select photos that you want to show; tap the Here, Look button; and, hand your phone to someone else. The developer says that the app is aimed at eliminating swipe panic, and the description is quite accurate. Once your device in your friends’ hands, they can only swipe between the photos you’ve chosen and they won’t have any kind of controls visible on screen. They can rotate and zoom, but they can’t keep swiping to see all the photos in your library. When they’re done looking at your photos, just take your device, triple-tap the screen, and you’ll be back in photo selection mode.
Perhaps you have better friends than mine, and they’re never tempted to take a look at your photos when they have a chance. For me, Here, Look provides a simple solution to a common problem that irks me every time I want to show some photos, and it’s only $0.99 on the App Store.
FiftyThree Announces “Surface Pressure” Coming to Paper and Pencil with iOS 8
FiftyThree, makers of the popular iPad sketching app Paper and Pencil hardware accessory, have today announced Surface Pressure, a feature that will allow Paper to determine the thickness of lines drawn with the Pencil on iOS 8.
In the current version of Paper, Pencil users can’t control how lines are drawn on the screen by changing the angle of the stylus’ tapered tip or applying a different pressure as they would with regular pen and paper or a tablet that supports pressure sensitivity, such as Microsoft’s Surface. Pencil, which was launched last November in an effort to provide Paper users with an official hardware product specifically designed for the app, connects to an iPad via Bluetooth, but more advanced features for tip recognition on a multitouch surface require deeper integration with the OS.
According to MacRumors, iOS 8 will add a new “variable touch sizing” technology that will let developers recognize the size of touch points on a device’s screen and modify the behavior of their apps. As shown in a promo video published today, FiftyThree is taking advantage of the new APIs in iOS 8 to bring a more natural experience to Pencil users: thin lines and fine details will be possible by touching the screen with the Pencil tip, while the larger surface of the Pencil’s angled edge will allow to draw shades and broad strokes smoothly and without changing settings on the screen.
From the blog post:
Surface Pressure unlocks new capabilities for each of Paper’s tools—fill faster as you draw, shade as you sketch, or carve away in varying widths as you erase.
Stay in the flow and change drawing styles simply by changing the way you hold Pencil—no stopping to fuss with the settings menu. This new feature is unique to Pencil and will be unlocked for all existing Pencil users with an update to Paper this Fall.
According to FiftyThree, Surface Pressure will be released this Fall with iOS 8, and the company is working to bring Pencil to more international markets. You can watch the promo video below.