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Sketch 3 Coming Soon, Will Integrate iOS 7 GUI Template→

I don’t use Bohemian Coding’s Sketch for Mac, but a lot of designers I know love the app and rely on it for their work. Version 3 is coming soon and the developers have launched a teaser page.

Khoi Vinh tried a beta of Sketch 3 and he was positively impressed by the new features:

Several weeks ago, I was lucky enough to get access to the Sketch 3.0 beta and much to my delight, it prominently includes a symbols feature. The new version brings with it an upgraded file format which is not backwards compatible (that is, Sketch 3 will open files created with its predecessor, but not vice versa), so I haven’t moved over the majority of my workflow to it yet. But I have used it extensively for a few other, more isolated projects, and it’s been fantastic. Sketch’s symbols are as intuitive and powerful as I had hoped they would be; make a change to one symbol, and almost before you can blink, every other instance of that symbol is instantly changed, across every artboard in your document.

And today, Geoff Teehan of Teehan+Lax has announced that their popular iOS 7 GUI template will be pre-installed in Sketch 3:

I’m really excited today to share the news that our iOS 7 GUI template is going to ship natively in Sketch 3 (Sketch 2 shown above). No longer will you need to Google ‘iOS GUI Sketch’ and download the file from our site. You can just open Sketch 3, select our iOS 7 template and starting building out your next iOS app.

To stay updated on Sketch 3 news, check out the teaser page here.

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Google Turns Google Maps App Into Pokémon Catcher for April Fools’ Day

For this year’s April Fools’ Day, Google has decided to turn its Google Maps app for iOS and Android into a Pokémon experience by letting users catch 150 Pokémon to become Pokémon Masters and complete a Pokédex inside the app. The feature, called Pokémon Challenge and announced in a promo video that shows augmented reality functionalities and virtual monsters captured using a phone’s camera, is actually based on Pokémon characters laid on top of Google Maps’ traditional view.

Dozens of wild Pokémon have taken up residence on streets, amidst forests and atop mountains throughout Google Maps.

To catch ‘em all, grab your Poké Ball and the newest version of Google Maps for iPhone or Android. Then tap the search bar, “press start,” and begin your quest.

Once enabled, the Pokémon Challenge will turn the app into a an experience aimed at exploring maps to find Nintendo’s monsters scattered across the globe. The locations of Pokémon aren’t documented anywhere yet, and the app will keep track of a user’s progress in catching Pokémon with a built-in Pokédex that displays additional details for each creature.

Google’s April Fools’ joke goes as far as having a Pokémon Lab available at the CERN in Geneva (and others at Google Japan and Mountain View) and Poké balls (the tools used to catch monsters in Nintendo’s franchise) laid on top of maps in the location where a Pokémon was previously caught.

Google isn’t new to April Fools’ jokes, but this year the company hasn’t simply released a fake announcement or promo video – rather, the Pokémon Challenge is a full mini-game available inside the Maps app for iOS and Android with information about Pokémon and sharing features for players.

The Pokémon Challenge is available in Google Maps for iOS, and it doesn’t require an app update from the App Store.

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Nebulous Notes Updated for iOS 7→

Nebulous Notes, a Dropbox-enabled text editor with a macro system, has been updated for iOS 7 with a design refresh and fixes for iOS 7.1 (via Macdrifter).

Nebulous Notes is the app that kickstarted my interest in automating tasks on iOS thanks to its macros, and while I’ve switched to Editorial for my daily writing, Nebulous Notes is still a great choice on the iPhone. Combined with Byword for publishing, Nebulous Notes lets you speed up writing on the iPhone to assemble posts on the go; the macros that I published in October 2012 still work today, and some additions to the macro system were brought with version 6.1 released in November 2012.

Nebulous Notes is available at $4.99 on the App Store.

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iCab Browser Updated for iOS 7, Adds Keyboard Shortcuts and Multi-User Support

iCab has long been one of the most powerful third-party browsers for iOS, pioneering features such as extensive integration with x-callback-url for automation, sync through iCloud and Dropbox for bookmarks and a proprietary Reading List, and integration with many third-party services for read-later and bookmarking functionalities.

Last week, iCab was updated to version 8.0, which has brought a redesign for iOS 7 and a reorganization of the app’s Settings; according to developer Alexander Clauss, the app has also been completely rewritten, resulting in native support for 64-bit devices, background downloads (iCab’s download manager is one of the app’s marquee features), and overall faster performance under iOS 7.

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Facebook Messenger 4.0 Adds Group Creation, Message Forwarding

Facebook’s Messenger app for iPhone was updated to version 4.0 earlier today, adding support for group creation and a “Forward” feature for individual messages reminiscent of the same option in Apple’s Messages app.

Groups can be created in the dedicated Groups section of the app, which provides a separate area to list all ongoing groups as cards; group conversations are also listed in the main Recent section. Groups can be created by picking contacts and choosing a group photo, and once created in Messenger they will sync with Facebook’s Messages view on the web and other clients. A minor addition to the chat experience is the Forward button, which can be accessed by tapping & holding an individual message in a conversation.

Facebook Messenger, first launched in 2011, is the company’s standalone chat app focused on conversations and photo/location sharing. Version 4.0 is available (still only for iPhone and iPod touch) on the App Store.

Paul Thurrott Reviews Office for iPad→

A positive review from Thurrott, who calls the suite of apps for iPad “the real deal”. He also makes a good point on the decision of allowing users to view documents for free:

Once you get past the weirdness of Office even being on the iPad, it sort of settles in. Yes, it’s here. Yes, it works as expected. But … why bother? Why even release such a product? Obviously, the success of the iPad and similar Android-based tablets—and their use as productivity devices in some cases—warrants the release. But it’s more than that. Users of the iPad get built-in viewers for Office documents, and they’re lousy. They don’t show the correct formatting on anything but the simplest documents, making it hard for users to move documents back and forth between a PC and the device.

iPad users also have their choice of Office-like apps such as Apple’s iWork applications and various third party apps. These apps let you open and edit Office documents, but they also screw up the formatting fidelity of those documents. So if you’re trying to integrate your iPad into your workflow you may end up screwing up those documents, not just for yourself but for others. Only Office treats Office documents correctly.

Look no further than Apple’s Top Productivity charts to understand why Microsoft is calling them “the real Microsoft Office apps for iPad”.

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Microsoft Announces Office for iPad, Now Available On The App Store

At a special event in San Francisco, Microsoft took the wraps off the highly anticipated Office for iPad today with a demo that showed Word, Excel, and PowerPoint running on Apple’s iPad. The three apps are launching on the App Store as a “freemium” experience: the download will be free, and free users will get the ability to view and present documents on the iPad; subscribers of Microsoft’s Office 365 service will be able to unlock the full experience of Office on iPad with editing features. Read more

The Prompt: Progress, Not A Revolution→

With Stephen being away this week, Myke and Federico talk about the things they always talk about—music services and video games. More specifically, advancements to iTunes Radio and Facebook buying Oculus.

I’ve been taking notes about iTunes Radio and Oculus for a while now, and I like how the discussion turned out. Get the episode here.

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Keyboard Maestro Adds Mavericks Tags Integration→

With version 6.4 released yesterday, Keyboard Maestro (one of my favorite utilities to automate tasks on OS X) added support for Mavericks tags alongside improvements to AppleScript, asynchronous macro and script execution, and a variety of bug fixes and refinements.

Introduced last year in OS X Mavericks as a way to quickly group and organize related files, tags have been integrated in various automation-related apps and workflows that include Hazel, Alfred, script launchers, and command line utilities. With version 6.4, Keyboard Maestro is now capable of getting and setting tags as attributes to files – with just a couple of actions, you can now set up a macro that tags multiple files at once with a hotkey.

If you work with tags on Mavericks and wish you could speed up the process of adding or removing tags, Keyboard Maestro 6.4 is available here; if you’re new to Keyboard Maestro, check out my previous coverage here.

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