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deGeo: A Simple, Useful Geotag Remover for iOS

deGeo

deGeo

If you take pictures on your iPhone (or iPad) and you’ve allowed Apple’s Camera app to use your location, your photos will contain hidden, uneditable geotag data that are embedded in the files and that you can’t remove using system apps. Last week, I covered Photos+ by Second Gear, an alternative Photos app that allows you to view locations attached to photos through inline map views. deGeo, a $0.99 app for the iPhone and iPad, takes the opposite approach: it’s a geotag remover that lets you pick photos from your Camera Roll, clean them up to remove metadata, and share them or export them again with no location data attached.

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Ken Segall On Apple’s Christmas Ad

Ken Segall:

Most of these people mistake their personal opinion, instinct, values and/or taste for actual marketing talent. There are tens of millions of people who will stop in their tracks at this commercial and wipe a tear from their eye. As a result, they will feel slightly more attached to Apple, which is the marketing purpose of this spot.

Far from depressing, this ad is wonderfully optimistic. In the most human terms, it says that the right technology can bring people closer together. It’s a perfect thought for the holidays.

There will always be people who like to compare speeds and feeds and enjoy a commercial focused on tech specs, but Apple is going in a different direction with this ad.

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Leigh Alexander’s Top 5 Video Games of 2013

Great picks (I have to buy 868-HACK now). I particularly liked Leigh’s take on Ridiculous Fishing:

Pixelly-looking indie game with distinctive physics-oriented mechanic and chippy music goes gangbusters. Not news, anymore. But it’s hard to feel blase about Vlambeer’s success when they keep trying so hard to pay it forward. Vlambeer’s Rami Ismail is a genuine pillar of his community, sharing thoughts on competition and pitching in writing, making the Presskit() tool to help fellow devs reach the media, and showing care for colleagues in public spaces. The success of Ridiculous Fishing, at a fixed $3 price point that had no intention of experimenting with popular free-to-play models, became an important example of how the industry mustn’t leap to assume that micropayments always lead to a more valuable experience for players.

Aside from being a story with a happy ending, Ridiculous Fishing is just a good iOS game. If I had to compile a list of my must-have iOS games for 2013, Ridiculous Fishing would be my top pick.

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App Santa: Tweetbot, 1Password, Vesper, and 12 Other Great iOS Apps On Sale For Christmas

Back in 2006 and 2007, there was an initiative called MacSanta that, through a holiday sale, allowed users to buy great Mac apps at discounted prices. Today, App Santa has launched, and while the project isn’t affiliated to the old MacSanta, the core idea is the same: great, award-winning apps on sale for Christmas.

The apps included in App Santa are all for iOS devices and have been discounted up to 60% off the original price; the project is the collaboration of indie developers Tapbots, Q Branch, Contrast, Readdle, TLA Systems, Junecloud, Edovia, Realmac, and Bloom Built. These are all great apps that we’ve reviewed or mentioned in the past on MacStories, so check out the links below for the full discounts available on the App Store.

Note: If you don’t see the discounted price on the App Store yet, keep refreshing – price changes are propagating in iTunes.

  • Tweetbot 3: $4.99 > $1.99
  • 1Password 4: $17.99 > $9.99
  • Day One: $4.99 > $2.99
  • Vesper: $4.99 > $2.99
  • PCalc: $9.99 > $6.99
  • Delivery Status: $4.99 > $2.99
  • Printer Pro: $6.99 > $2.99
  • Mileage Log+: $9.99 > $4.99
  • Perfect Weather: $2.99 > $1.99
  • Launch Center Pro: $4.99 > $2.99
  • Clear+: $4.99 > $1.99
  • Screens VNC: $19.99 > $14.99
  • PDF Converter: $6.99 > $2.99
  • Calendars 5: $6.99 > $2.99
  • Scanner Pro: $6.99 > $2.99

Amount for iPad

I first reviewed Amount back in September when the app was iPhone-only and iOS 7 wasn’t out yet. Amount was a simple unit converter that was already compatible with the new OS and that had a nice approach to unit conversions.

Since then, developer Marco Torretta has made the app Universal and added a URL scheme to launch unit conversions from other apps. On the iPad, Amount uses a split-screen layout to organize categories and units. The number pad is a floating widget in the middle of the screen that makes it easy to enter numbers, and, because of the larger screen, you don’t have to tap and swipe as much as on the iPhone. I like it.

Amount strikes a good balance between simplicity and features, and it’s only $0.99 on the App Store.

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The First iOS 7 Game Controllers Aren’t Very Good

Sean Hollister for The Verge reviews the Logitech PowerShell and Moga Ace Power:

More importantly, the PowerShell and Ace Power aren’t very good at their job. The primary thing that these devices add to the experience is directional control over your games. There, Logitech fails miserably. With only a single D-pad to serve that purpose, Logitech’s job was to make that D-pad the very best D-pad it could possibly be, and it’s nothing of the sort. It’s annoyingly hard to press, and crunches when you roll it around. In games where you need to hold down a direction to keep your character walking, like Bastion and Limbo, it’s literally painful to keep pressing hard enough so the controller actually recognizes your input. On the Moga side, the sliding analog sticks and a lighter D-pad make directional input much easier, but the buttons are tiny and not well built. The triggers squish rather than having a satisfying pull, and the important A, B, X, and Y face buttons don’t reliably activate unless you press them firmly and carefully every time you use them. For $100, these gamepads wouldn’t be acceptable even if there were a library of iOS games that worked well with controllers.

Even if we had a controllers that are actually decent, they introduce a lot of friction with little added benefit. Companies making these things are asking customers to make compromises just to play a game. If you have a case on your iPhone, you’ll have to remove it before snapping your iPhone into what’s essentially another case. With wireless controllers, you’re asking people to carry around an extra accessory. The point of gaming on mobile devices like the iPhone is that you already have this thing in your pocket that can immediately sate your boredom. The best games don’t rely on virtual inputs, and instead make use of the touchscreen as a direct means to manipulate what’s happening on screen. These controllers are maybe beneficial for ports (publishers trying to make a quick buck on nostalgia), but the majority of games people are playing on a daily basis aren’t even asking for these controllers.

I’m also disappointed in Logitech. They have a great lineup of peripherals for PC gamers, but they really fell short rushing their PowerShell to the market.

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Listen: A Gesture Driven Music Player

It’s not for me but I think the app looks good and the animations are gorgeous. Listen lacks traditional playback controls or buttons, relying on gestures, swipes, and taps to play, pause, and skip music. The idea is that you can drag the album artwork around to trigger various actions, but it works well for some things and not so much for others. I think developers have to keep in mind that removing buttons adds a lot of complexity — in this case something simple like playing a song over AirPlay requires a very specific drag gesture. Listen’s great for shuffle play, but not so much for rummaging through your music collection. Also, what’s up with circular artwork lately?

Check it out on the App Store — it’s free to download.

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