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Pod Wrangler for iOS 7 Review

“I knew from the start that I would never win in a feature arms-race against apps that have been around for so long and developed so highly”, says David Smith, independent developer and creator of Feed Wrangler, a popular RSS service launched after the shutdown of Google Reader earlier this year. His new app and service, Pod Wrangler, launches today with an iOS 7 app for iPhone and a web backend to handle sync across devices and platforms with an API. Based on Feed Wrangler’s engine, Pod Wrangler is a podcast syncing and listening service that is completely free for existing Feed Wrangler customers.

Pod Wrangler is, in its first version, an iPhone-only app that uses the same API that Smith is launching and opening to third-party developers today. An iPad version is being considered, but its development will depend on the amount of requests and feedback from initial iPhone users. Following Smith’s tradition, Pod Wrangler is extremely simple and focused – in some areas of the app, perhaps a little “un-designed” and too simplified. Read more

Apple Updates iMac→

This morning, Apple refreshed its iMac line with new CPUs, GPUs, faster WiFi, and faster PCIe flash storage options. From Apple’s press release:

Apple today updated iMac with fourth generation Intel quad-core processors, new graphics, next generation Wi-Fi and faster PCIe flash storage options. The updated iMac brings the latest technology to the stunningly thin design and gorgeous display of the world’s leading all-in-one desktop.

“iMac continues to be the example that proves how beautiful, fast and fun a desktop computer can be,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Inside its ultra-thin aluminum enclosure, the new iMac has the latest Intel processors, faster graphics, next generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi and faster PCIe flash storage.

Aside from Intel’s new processor and graphics, the new iMacs come with 802.11ac support, which was also added to the company’s AirPort Extreme station earlier this year. According to Apple, this will deliver up to three times faster performance than the previous generation.

The new iMacs are available today from the Apple online store.

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GIF Finder for iOS 7→

GIF Finder already was one of the most powerful tools in my arsenal of GIF discovery tools:

The app is free and it can search for GIFs on Tumblr; you can search for GIFs matching queries like “excited” or “sports fail” and tap on a thumbnail to view a GIF in full-screen. Tap the share button, and the app brings up a menu with options to Copy URL (which doesn’t work for me), share on iMessage and Twitter, but also open in Google Chrome and Tweetbot. The app is universal for iPhone and iPad.

With iOS 7, the app has been relaunched to have a tweaked UI, a new icon, and the same price tag of Free. You can still search for GIFs matching a specific keyword, but the great addition of this version is that imgur’s reactiongifsarchive is now supported within the app, allowing you to browse GIFs by standalone categories. So if you’ve been looking for a way to quickly find Not Bad or Didn’t read lol GIFs, you can now do that with the Categories tab in GIF Finder.

I like the app’s new interface and possibility to save favorite GIFs in a dedicated area, but I’d like to see improved performance, especially on the iPad mini. The app always takes several seconds to load GIF screens, and it’s been crashing frequently on my iPad. That’s a nope.

I’m looking forward to future updates, but, overall, GIF Finder gets my thumbs up as a great free tool for finding GIFs. I approve.

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For The Colorful: Create iOS 7 Wallpapers From an iPhone or iPad

With the release of iOS 7, I wanted to find some cool custom wallpapers that would fit with the OS better than some of the default options provided by Apple. I want my iPhone and iPad to look nice – with iOS 7, the wallpaper is now an essential part of the experience, providing the color background for several system apps and features. I don’t have the time to browse around dozens of wallpaper websites, and I don’t have the knowledge to fire up Photoshop and create my own wallpaper that has just the right amount of color I want. Fortunately, the developer community has thought about people like me who want nice iOS 7 wallpapers with minimal effort, offering apps that make it easy to mix colors and gradients to give your iOS 7 device a unique look. Read more

With iOS 7, Byword Brings Markdown Syntax Highlighting and Simplified Keyboard

Byword is my text editor of choice on the iPhone, and the one I recommend to anyone who’s not willing to play with Editorial and its advanced automation features on the iPad. While not as customizable as Zorn’s app, Byword is, in my opinion, the most powerful Markdown and Dropbox-compatible text editor for people who want to take notes, export to HTML, and perhaps publish posts to services like WordPress or Evernote. I have already covered the solid feature set of Byword and the reason why I prefer it to other text editors for iOS in my review of version 2.0. Read more

Bartender 1.2 Brings Full Mavericks Support, Drag & Drop Improvements

One of my must-have Mac apps, Bartender is a fantastic utility that helps you reduce clutter in the OS X menubar by grouping menubar icons into a single Bartender icon that can be viewed and closed at any time. From my previous coverage:

Providing its own custom bar to collect other icons from third-party apps, Bartender lets you organize your menubar apps while retaining the functionalities they come with. The app automatically finds third-party apps running in the menubar; it allows you to completely hide them, or show them in the Bartender bar. If you choose the latter option, your menubar apps will stil remain fully working with popover windows and keyboard shortcuts.

I rely on Bartender to keep a clean menubar that doesn’t show dozens of icons at once but that, at the same time, has running applications hidden out of view. There are some apps that I don’t need to be constantly looking at – such as Dropbox or Hazel – and with Bartender I can leave them running, but in an optional menubar that it’s there only when I need it. In this way, I can keep utilities that I use all the time (such as Evernote’s quick entry popup or Fantastical) in the main OS X menubar.

Bartender 1.2, released this week, adds full OS X Mavericks support and a number of minor improvements that, however, are welcome additions for daily Bartender users. For the upcoming Mavericks – set to be released this Fall – Surtees Studios added support for multiple displays and menubars, as well as reduced power usage to take advantage of Mavericks’ new power-saving technologies. I haven’t been able to test Bartender on Mavericks yet, but the app has never been a problem, in terms of performance and usage, on my mid-2011 MacBook Air running Mountain Lion, so I’m looking forward to seeing if differences will be notable on OS X 10.9.

Alongside bug fixes and improvements to the list of apps supported by Bartender, a feature that stood out to me is the possibility to correctly drag & drop files onto icons hidden by Bartender. In version 1.2, keeping apps like Droplr or CloudApp in the Bartender bar and dragging files from the Finder onto the Bartender icon will automatically reveal the hidden menubar, allowing you to keep dragging files onto the app you want. I have tested this with Droplr, and it works reliably.

I recommend Bartender to anyone who uses menubar apps and utilities on a daily basis. Keeping a clean menubar isn’t a beauty contest – I think it’s simply best to have the primary tools you’ll always need readily available, keeping those that are only seldom used out of sight, but still managed by a smart app. Bartender is smart, reliable, and on sale at $10 until September 30th. A free trial is also available from the developers’ website.

Apple: iPhone 5s and 5c Sales Top 9 Million Over Opening Weekend, 200 Million Devices Updated To iOS 7

This morning, Apple issued a press release announcing that the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c have sold more than 9 million units in their first three days of sales after launching on Friday in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK. Apple has also announced that iOS 7, released last Wednesday, has already been installed on over 200 million iOS devices (of the over 700 million that, according to Apple, have been sold to date).

This is our best iPhone launch yet―more than nine million new iPhones sold―a new record for first weekend sales,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The demand for the new iPhones has been incredible, and while we’ve sold out of our initial supply of iPhone 5s, stores continue to receive new iPhone shipments regularly. We appreciate everyone’s patience and are working hard to build enough new iPhones for everyone.

9 million units sold over the opening weekend is a new record for the company. Last year, Apple announced that the iPhone 5 topped 5 million sales over the opening weekend, with 100 million devices updated to iOS 6. In 2011, Apple sold 4 million iPhone 4S units in the first weekend, and, in 2010, they sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 units.

The iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, and iOS 7 launched to positive reviews that mentioned the solid hardware construction and Touch ID feature on the new iPhones, and the modern design and new functionalities such as Control Center and improved multitasking for iOS 7. Both the iPhone 5s and 5c generated long lines at Apple retail stores around the globe, partially thanks to the lack of pre-orders for the iPhone 5s (for the iPhone 5c, there were online pre-orders, but Apple didn’t release official numbers).

Also of note in this year’s launch is the addition of China to the first round of countries, as well as the fact that, in today’s press release, there is no mention of a second round of countries. Apple also announced that “over 11 million unique listeners have already tuned in to iTunes Radio since launch” with the most listened to song being “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake.