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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.

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Healthy Target from WebMD Collects Health Data, Gives You Tips and Lets You Set Goals

WebMD, the popular online health information provider, yesterday updated their iPhone app to include a new ‘Healthy Target’ service. The service will be able collect data from a range of activity trackers, wireless scales and glucose meters, compile the data and provide “tailored, physician-reviewed, contextually relevant content and motivational tips to individuals looking to develop sustainable health-conscious habits”.

WebMD foresees the service as helping not only those with chronic conditions such as Type 2 diabetes but also those who just want to achieve a healthier lifestyle. But as Re/code importantly noted in their report, WebMD is just the latest in a series of companies that have been developing similar systems to collect personal health data in a meaningful way. Apple announced HealthKit at WWDC two weeks ago, Samsung previously announced S.A.M.I., Google is expected to announce Google Fit at their I/O conference, Microsoft has HealthVault and Qualcomm Life has the 2net platform.

The Healthy Target platform is currently able to collect data about sleep patterns, steps, weight and blood glucose data. WebMD’s platform currently supports devices including those from Entra, Fitbit, Jawbone’s UP and Withings, as well as the iPhone 5S for steps (naturally). If a user doesn’t have a compatible device, there is still the ability to manually input their biometric data.

“WebMD’s Healthy Target empowers consumers to make behavioral changes that can improve their physical and mental health,” said Dr. Michael Smith, Chief Medical Editor at WebMD. “To achieve successful, sustainable behavioral change, consumers must learn how to track and manage the factors that contribute to healthy living.”

The WebMD app with Healthy Target gives users the ability to set goals (such as losing weight, sleeping better or controlling blood sugar), review their health data that has been captured by the service and receive weekly recaps and personalised tips to (hopefully) encourage achieving health goals.

WebMD’s iPhone app, including the Healthy Target service, is available for free from the App Store.

[via Re/code]

Jony Ive on Apple’s Design Process→

Brian X. Chen interviews Apple’s Jony Ive for The New York Times:

Often when I talk about what I do, making isn’t just this inevitable function tacked on at the end. The way we make our products is certainly equally as demanding and requires so much definition. I design and make. I can’t separate those two.

This is part of Steve’s legacy. Deep in the culture of Apple is this sense and understanding of design, developing and making. Form and the material and process – they are beautifully intertwined – completely connected. Unless we understand a certain material — metal or resin and plastic — understanding the processes that turn it from ore, for example – we can never develop and define form that’s appropriate.

Bits from this interview were used in a Tim Cook profile published last week.

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Unicode 7.0 Released, Includes New Emoji

Emoji characters in iOS 7.

Emoji characters in iOS 7.

Today, the Unicode Consortium has released Unicode version 7.0, adding 2,834 new characters. Unicode is the industry standard that regulates encoding and representation of text across computers, with support for various languages, writing systems, and special symbols.

From the blog post:

This latest version adds the new currency symbols for the Russian ruble and Azerbaijani manat, approximately 250 emoji (pictographic symbols), many other symbols, and 23 new lesser-used and historic scripts, as well as character additions to many existing scripts. These additions extend support for written languages of North America, China, India, other Asian countries, and Africa.

A technical page for Unicode 7.0 is available here, with links to the documentation and more details on the updated specification. Software makers such as Apple and Google will need to implement Unicode 7.0 in their operating systems for display on mobile devices, desktop computers, and the web.

In version 7.0, Unicode also comes with documentation for 250 new emoji characters. Emojipedia has a list of the names chosen for the new emoji, which include “Wind Blowing Face”, “National Park”, “Right Speaker With Three Sound Waves”, and “Reversed Hand With Middle Finger Extended”. Emoji Blog has a mockup of the highly requested Middle Finger emoji.

New emoji characters will likely be supported by Apple in iOS 8, shipping later this year. While Apple said that they were working with the Unicode Consortium to bring more diversity to emoji, Unicode 7.0 doesn’t seem to include new human pictograms, with the focus being on weather, signs, and other objects.

TouchPad Updated for iOS 7→

One of my all-time favorite apps for iOS, TouchPad, has been updated today with an iOS 7 redesign, a new dark theme, and performance improvements.

I’ve been using TouchPad since 2010 (here are our first reviews of the iPhone and iPad versions) as it’s a great way to turn an iOS device into a wireless keyboard/trackpad/media controller for your Mac. The setup is easy, the app is focused on basic features with no complications, and it saved me on several occasions when my keyboard’s batteries died and I couldn’t type anything on my computer (such as my login password).

Edovia, the original developers of TouchPad, stopped maintaining the app a while ago, which meant that TouchPad didn’t get an iOS 7 refresh back in September. The folks at MartianCraft, however, have acquired TouchPad and are now in charge of its development, which is good news. I’m happy that TouchPad is back.

TouchPad 5.0 is available on the App Store.

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Jason Snell’s Hands-on with OS X Yosemite→

In his first hands-on with OS X Yosemite, Jason Snell points out an issue with the redesigned title bars that no longer show a title:

I have to admit I’m also a little nonplussed about the disappearance of titles from the top of many windows. In apps that never really have more than one important window (Calendar and Maps come to mind), the title is unnecessary; labeling my Calendar window with the word Calendar seems pointless. But in many other contexts, the title of the window imparts important information, and there’s a danger that some of that information could be lost if Apple takes this approach too far. It’s something worth keeping an eye on, especially given the radical changes Yosemite has in store for Safari.

I’ve been trying the first Yosemite beta on my MacBook Air, and I find it annoying that Safari doesn’t show the title of a webpage (just the domain in the address bar) when a single tab is open. It’ll be interesting to see if third-party apps will switch to this integrated toolbar approach with no separate area for a title.

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How To Free Up Space On iOS

My friend Bradley Chambers recently posted a series of tips on how to free up space on iOS:

In 2014, 16 GB is becoming less and less manageable. Apps are getting bigger, we are consuming more media, and we are taking more photos. Time and time again, I’ve gotten calls and emails asking how to free up space on an iOS device. This is often a complex question. I want to run through some ways that you can deal with this issue if your phone gives you the dreaded out of space alert when you go to take a photo.

Bradley runs through a series of common steps to delete apps and data you no longer need on your device, and I highly recommend reading his post as he covers the basics very well.

I thought I’d also share some of the techniques I rely on to keep available storage on my 16 GB iPhone.

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Manage Your Day-to-Day Tasks with Igloo [Sponsor]→

You’ve heard that task management is coming to Igloo with their next release – but how is another task management system actually going to help get work done?

Think about all the tasks you do that aren’t part of a specific project: updating a graphic in a presentation, requesting text get corrected in a Word document, or delegating to-do’s after a meeting. Igloo makes this easy by keeping these tasks with your content.

When you view a document, blog, event, forum, or wiki inside your Igloo, you can add a task right there. You don’t need a project or list (but you can use those, too). These tasks show up on your content, informing your team if document needs edits or if it’s ready to go to the client. Content tasks are particularly great for recurring meetings; when you view tasks assigned in last week’s meeting, it’s easy to see what was completed and what wasn’t.

And when you’re the one assigned tasks? Whether it’s on a project list, on content, or a personal task, all of your tasks show up in one view. It’s the easiest way to manage your day-to-day work. Tasks are a free for all Igloo customers, coming this summer as part of Igloo’s latest update, Unicorn.

Our thanks to Igloo for sponsoring MacStories this week.

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Pythonista 1.5: Custom Interfaces, matplotlib, and No More “Open In”

Pythonista 1.5, the latest version of Ole Zorn’s Python interpreter for iOS, has been released today on the App Store, bringing new modules, native integrations, UI refinements, and the removal of the Open In feature to comply with Apple’s App Store guidelines. Pythonista 1.5 is another fantastic update to one of the most powerful and flexible iOS apps ever made, and it follows in the footsteps of Editorial 1.1, released last month.

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