Category: Apps

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Apps

Chris Gonzales on moving from Instacast to Pocket Casts 4

Chris Gonzales has moved from Instacast1 toPocket Casts 4. I have heard good things about Pocket Casts, but I find this paragraph interesting:

The only issue I've come across with this sync service so far is that episode playback position doesn't reliably transfer between my iPhone and iPad. I'd like to say that I can pause an episode on one device and pick it back up on the other, but that hasn't been my experience so far. The second device acts as if the episode hasn't been played at all.

That seems like a big issue to me. I use Instacast on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and I rarely have any issues with sync.2 I cannot imagine moving to a podcasting ecosystem that: (1) has no Mac app, and (2) does not have reliable syncing. That sounds terrible.

  1. Affiliate Link (as are all product links in this post.) ↩

  2. This has not always been the case. Instacast's sync used to be somewhat hit and miss. Over time, however, it has become quite reliable for me. ↩

Categories
Apps Entertainment Software

North Carolina Development Studio Releases New Mobile Game

Raleigh, NC development shop Might Rabbit Studios has released their newest game: *Breach & Clear.*

It is available for [iOS](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/breach-clear/id655749677?mt=8) and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gun.bnc&hl=en)

Categories
Apps Internet

Shawn Blanc on 1Password 4’s New Security Audit Feature

> In 1Password 4 there is a brilliant new section called Security Audit. In the sidebar it shows you tabs for finding weak passwords, duplicate passwords, and old passwords.

> Clicking on the Duplicate Passwords tab gives you a list with every single login item that has a duplicate password. If you have any items here then you can begin working your way through each account, by logging in to the site and changing your password with a new unique one and saving that into 1Password.

Woah. I was in the beta and I never even noticed this. I am going to have to do this as a weekend project.

Categories
Apps Software

Dan Counsell on Realmac’s new App Store Pricing Strategy

This piece has been widely linked to online, but I was particularly interested in:

> So we’re doing something different on the Mac App Store – and we’re going to buck the trend a little. We’re not going to devalue our Mac apps by putting them on sale, we’re going to ask a fair price that ensures we can keep on building the apps you love. It’s as simple as that: stable, sustainable prices for apps that we think you’ll love.

I know that I always avoided buying Realmac software at full price, because I just assumed it would go on sale in a few days.[^fn1] Now, I might be more inclined to buy Realmac’s products as they are released.

[^fn1]: I have no idea if their stuff actually was on sale very often, I just know it *felt* like it went on sale all the time.

Categories
Apps Internet Technology

Instacast Cloud Sync Outage

> Yesterday evening (european time) something happened with Instacast Cloud’s sync server that made it completely inaccessible. After a failed attempt to restore from a recent backup, we contacted Host Europe, our provider, and escalated the issue. However, Host Europe’s personnel were not able to restore from the corrupt backup either, and they told us that all data on the server is GONE (yikes!). This, as you can imagine, is the worst possible scenario that could happen to Instacast Cloud. Backups are there for a reason, and if a backup system fails, and also fails to report that it failed, there is no chance of a quick recovery.

They had to re-setup the server from scratch, however, none of your sync information should be lost. Based on my minimal trials this morning, it appears that everything is working again.

Categories
Apps Fitness Internet

Underscore Releases new Pedometer App to Show Off 5S’s M7

One question: Why did he[^fn2] not call it Step Wrangler?

[^fn2]: Side note – I will now refer to David Smith as “Underscore” on this site.

Categories
Apps Software

Bret Terpstra launches Marked 2

A major upgrade to the stellar Markdown previewer and toolkit. I use Marked every day, and have been eagerly awaiting this release.1

  1. If you want more information on what Marked 2 can do, check out Cody Fink's review over at MacStories. ↩

Categories
Apps Technology

Macro Arment announces his new podcasting app Overcast

Here are some notes that Marco included with the announcement:

Overcast 1.0 will be an iPhone app. I plan to get iPad support done relatively soon, but probably not for 1.0. I may never do a Mac app — that’s still up in the air, but definitely not for 1.0. And I have no plans to support Android — if you want an Android app, I hear Pocket Casts blows away everything else available, and they’re nice guys.

I have no plans to support video podcasts. That’s an entirely different medium with very different consumption habits, priorities, and needs. I can make a better app for audio podcasts by not supporting video at all.

I don’t plan to support streaming in 1.0, and may never add it. Overcast 1.0 will only play downloaded files. iOS 7’s background downloads, faster cellular networks, and larger-capacity phones have greatly reduced the need for streaming, and by not supporting it, I’m able to add some cool features and simplify a lot of the code and interface.

I give credit to Marco for determining what he thinks is the best solution for a podcasting app. Personally, I need a lot more from my podcasting applications than Marco is going to give initially,1 but Overcast might be a good fit for some people.

Relatedly, David Smith of Feed Wrangler just released a new podcatcher called Pod Wrangler which seems to have a similar approach to Overcast.2 If you are looking for a new podcatcher while Overcast is developed, it might be worth it to give Pod Wrangler a shot.3

  1. As I have stated many times, I am firmly entrenched in the Instacast ecosystem.  ↩

  2. i.e. Fast syncing, no frills, reliable background dowloading, first version iPhone only, etc… ↩

  3. Federico Viticci wrote a review of PodWrangler over at MacStories if you want more information. ↩

Categories
Apps Software Technology

Horrible Piece on The Verge about Charging for IOS App Updates

In a bad piece by Ellis Hamburger on *The Verge*, this might be the worst paragraph:

> Even so, and despite Clear’s very low price tag, your frustration is warranted if you bought Clear within the last couple months and now have a to buy a new version, or if you bought Reeder, an RSS app, expecting months or years of updates and now have to buy a new version. Reeder developer Silvio Rizzi left his iPad users out in the cold by abandoning the app when its syncing engine, Google Reader, was killed off by Google. Several months later, Rizzi debuted Reeder 2, which works on both iPhone and iPad, but many of his Reeder for iPad users were appalled. The previous version of Reeder for iPhone still works, while Reeder for iPad users were forced to upgrade or find another RSS app. Some of them likely would have been more forgiving had Rizzi been more communicative during the process, but the developer is notoriously quiet online in comparison to others in the iOS community.

This whole paragraph is completely wrongheaded. People’s expectations for what applications, mobile or otherwise, should cost are completely out of touch. Developers spend weeks, months, and even years developing these applications and people get upset because a developer charges 99 cents for them? It is beyond ridiculous.

I have utmost respect for the [Omni Group’s](http://omnigroup.com) decision to release new, $20 versions of its apps as part of the iOS 7 upgrade cycle. I wish more developers would follow in Omni Group’s footsteps, and, relatedly, that people would recognize the value they are getting from their applications.

Categories
Apps Culture Technology

Instapaper Releases InstaRank

Really interesting feature to help you sort your Instapaper reading list based on what is popular in other reader’s queues. Of course, I worry that my interests will not align with the interests of enough Instapaper readers to allow the algorithm to effective for me.

Categories
Apps Technology

Instacast 4: Revamped for iOS 7

Cody Fink’s review makes me even *more* excited to try it out.

Categories
Apps Culture Technology

OmniFocus 2 for iPhone (and iOS 7) now Available

[Omnifocus 2 for iPhone](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnifocus-2-for-iphone/id690305341?mt=8&at=10l5TL)[^aff] is now available in the app store. You can read the reviews from [MacStories](http://www.macstories.net/reviews/omnifocus-2-for-iphone-background-sync-and-a-bold-redesign/) or [Shawn Blanc](http://shawnblanc.net/2013/09/omnifocus-2-for-iphone/) if you need more information.

[^aff]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link.)

Categories
Apps Technology

OmniOutliner 2 for iOS 7 is Now Availble

[Omnioutliner 2](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/omnioutliner-2/id704610906?mt=8&at=10l5TL) is now available in the app store.[^aff] You can read the [MacStories](http://www.macstories.net/reviews/omnioutliner-2-refined-for-ios-7-now-with-external-keyboard-support/) review if you need more details.

[^aff]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link.)

Categories
Apps Technology

Downloading Old Versions From the App Store

Michael Tsai asks some really good questions about Apple allowing you to download old app versions from the app store. It will be interesting to see how some of these play out.

Categories
Apps Technology

Panic’s Transmit FTP Software On Sale for 50% off for the Next 24 Hours

Panic just sent an email that Transmit will be on sale for 50% off for 24 hours only.1

  1. That brings the price down to $17. ↩

Categories
Apps Technology

Federico Viticci reviews Pocket Casts 4 for iOS 7

Pocket Casts 4 is a great podcast client for iOS 7. The push notification and sync systems are reliable, and automatic downloads finally make for an invisible download experience that happens behind the scenes and you don’t have to think about. I found filter management to be simpler and yet more powerful than other alternatives on iOS, and, especially on the iPhone, the app takes advantage of the iOS 7 aesthetic while still adding great custom details and animations. There is some roughness and a few minor bugs, particularly on the iPad, and I hope that Shifty Jelly will quickly iterate on those aspects (hopefully with some help from Apple with fixes to the iOS 7 code; please note that the app has been reviewed under the iOS 7 GM seed).

Pocket Casts sounds like a really solid iOS podcatcher, however, I am far too deep into the Instacast ecosystem to consider making a switch.1

  1. Of course, we still do not know how good the iOS version of Instacast is going to be. I am crossing my fingers that it is a nice upgrade from the current one. ↩

Categories
Apps Internet Technology

Reeder 2 now available

Reeder 2[^faff] is out. As a Feed Wrangler user, I have been waiting for this.

[^faff]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link.)

Categories
Apps Technology

Apple silently sends off Cards for iPhone

This is kind of a bummer. I really liked sending cards from this to my family.

Categories
Apps Culture Internet Technology

Oops

I mean, I now can post with multiple categories per post.

Categories
Apps Software Technology

Federico Viticci’s New Book on Writing with Editorial on the iPad

Federico has a new iBook on [writing with Editorial on the iPad](https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/writing-on-ipad-text-automation/id697865620?mt=11)[^f4101]. As someone who has completely moved my iPad writing workflow over to [Editorial](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/editorial/id673907758?mt=8&at=10l5TL), I was pleased to find some new tricks that help make the app even *more* powerful.

For $2.99, this book is a no-brainer for anyone who uses [Editorial](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/editorial/id673907758?mt=8&at=10l5TL)[^fn1], as well as anyone who wants to help support Federico and the great work that he does.

[^f4101]: Affiliate Link (as is the original post link, and the *Editorial* link.)

[^fn1]: Seriously, it is worth the $2.99 for the Feed Wrangler workflow alone.