Nice app by Filibaba (makers of other vegetarian and vegan recipe apps for iOS) that’s just a virtual egg timer for your iPhone. You can spin the egg in 1-minute increments and the app will send you a local notification when the timer is up. There are backgrounds to choose from and In-App Purchases to unlock different eggs (including a golden one, perfect for your new 5s).
Filibaba Egg Timer→
Apple Releases 12 Days of Gifts App, Available In The U.S. Too
As in previous years, Apple has released a free “12 Days of Gifts” app for iPhone and iPad owners that will give them access to exclusive offers for free content on the iTunes Store. This year, the app is available for US customers as well, although Apple notes that not all content will be available in all countries; the promotion will run from December 26 to January 6, 2014.
From 26 December – 6 January, you can download a gift each day—songs, apps, books, movies, and more—with the 12 Days of Gifts app. Each day’s gift will only be available for 24 hours, so download the free app to make sure you don’t miss out.
Right now, the app comes with a countdown that shows how many days are left until the first free item becomes available; upon first launch, you’ll be asked to accept push notifications (to be notified when offers are released) and to confirm the country for your iTunes Store’s Apple ID.
The app has an animated background reminiscent of iOS 7’s dynamic wallpapers, and there is a built-in FAQ to learn more about downloads. Apple has also included an “Add To Calendar” button in the share sheet: tapping this button will create a recurring all-day event in your default calendar to remember to download the daily gift for every day of the promotion.
You can download the app here.
PowerUp 3.0→
Created by Shai Goitein, PowerUp is a small Bluetooth Smart-powered accessory that can turn any paper airplane into a smartphone-controlled toy. I don’t typically link to a lot of Kickstarter campaigns, but this one’s too cool not to mention. The campaign is well over its original funding goal, and the first PowerUp 3.0 prototypes will be sent to backers in the first months of 2014.
The device is entirely based on Bluetooth Smart, which allows an iPhone/Android phone to control the PowerUp within a range of 60 yards through a custom app. The PowerUp can fly for 10 minutes on a single charge – at $30, this should make for a great gift next year.
Acorn 4.2→
Acorn is my favorite image editor for OS X (I liked the changes in version 4.0) because it’s powerful but easy to use. The way that Acorn organizes filters and layers and lets you interact with them in the tools palette just makes sense for the way I want my image editor to work. Version 4.2, released last week for website customers, brings some welcome additions – I’m especially a fan of the Share menu and tweaks to selections.
The technical changes are also worth noting:
Pixels get to the screen so much faster now that everything is drawn through OpenGL. Not only that, but Acorn takes advantage of OpenCL by virtue of using Core Image. Acorn also uses custom OpenCL kernels I hand coded to speed up other operations. Acorn incorporates some super fast algorithms combined with GCD to minimize the amount of drawing that happens. Less drawing means longer battery life and overall things go faster.
I had mentioned in a previous post that I was reworking the compositing engine. I’m not done with that yet, but the progress I have made is promising. So with a bit more work and time, things are going to get even faster for Acorn.
PDFpen suite [Sponsor]→
Our thanks to Smile for sponsoring MacStories this week with the PDFpen family of products for iOS and OS X.
PDFpen isn’t just an app – it’s a family of powerful apps for the Mac, iPhone, and iPad that let you edit, sign, scan, and OCR your documents anywhere. On iOS, PDFpen for iPad allows you to sign contracts, make changes, and fill forms when you’re out of the office or on the go; all these features are also available on the iPhone’s smaller screen with PDFpen for iPhone, which comes with all the functionalities of the iPad version.
On the Mac, PDFpen can perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) so that pictures of text in your document will be turned into real text that you can use; with PDFpen Pro, the advanced version of PDFpen, you have the ability to create a PDF form, build a table of contents, and convert HTML files to PDF. Recently, Smile added support for PDF stamps: you can browse a library of standard business stamps (e.g. Approved, Confidential, Sign Here) to quickly apply to your documents without complex editing required.
All versions of PDFpen for iOS and OS X can sync documents and changes using iCloud and Dropbox, and you can also exchange documents via Box, Evernote, Google, and other services. To easily get new documents into PDFpen for iOS, you can use the new PDFpen Scan+ app, a utility that lets you scan documents, articles, receipts, and more, using your iPhone or iPad camera with OCR and support for 16 languages.
PDFpen is a fantastic example of a suite of apps that work seamlessly across platforms and take advantage of each device’s unique features to augment the user experience. You can learn more about the PDFpen suite of apps here.
Pinswift: A Powerful Pinboard Client for iOS 7
Developed by Joel Carranza, Pinswift is a new $4.99 Pinboard client for iPhone that packs powerful bookmark management, discovery, and search features in an interface specifically designed for iOS 7. Since trying one of the early betas a couple of months ago, I’ve been keeping Pinswift on my iPhone’s Home screen as it offers (almost all) of the Pinboard functionalities I need on a daily basis. Read more
Apple And Indie Publishers→
David Sparks:
When I first started writing Paperless, the iBooks store did not exist. There were no snazzy tools for me to incorporate rich-media with text and I was facing up to the fact that I was going to have to Frankenstein ePub and PDF to get what a wanted, a book that not only told you how but also showed you how. I spent weeks researching and testing and still didn’t have it nailed down. Then Apple announced iBooks Author and the iBooks store and I immediately abandoned all prior efforts and jumped to the new platform. iBooks Author gives me exactly what I need to publish the books I want to make.
I didn’t stress this enough when I launched my first book on the iBooks Store: iBooks Author has its quirks, but the fact that a guy like me can put together an interactive book and sell it in over 50 countries with no additional fees is pretty amazing.
Apps And The Auto Industry Model→
Justin Williams on the new version of Elements for iOS 7 and the “Customization Pack” he introduced as an In-App Purchase:
I’m approaching this how you typically buy a car.
When you walk into a dealership, you may know that you want to buy a Ford Focus, but there’s not just a single Ford Focus. There’s the base model the lowest possible price, but you can enhance the car with additional add-ons and upgrades to make it the car you want. That’s how I am approaching traditional software for the forseeable future.
That’s an interesting way to put it, and I think that we’ll see several developers adopting (or switching to) this strategy in 2014.
Apple Begins Using iBeacons Across Its 254 U.S. Stores Today→
From the Associated Press:
On Friday, Apple Inc. began using the technology at its 254 U.S. stores to send you messages about products, events and other information — tailored to where you are inside, provided you have downloaded the Apple Store app and have given Apple permission to track you.
Using the iBeacon feature, the app will notify you if the computer you ordered is ready for pickup, for example. Show a clerk your screen with the order number, and the clerk will get it for you. Walking by an iPhone table? You may get a message asking if you want to upgrade, check your upgrade availability and see if you can get money for trading in your old phone.
If you’re wondering what all the fuss is about, TidBITS published a great piece on iBeacons back in September.