Categories
Apps Software

Fantastical 2 for Mac Now Available

The gang over at Flexibits released [Fantastical 2](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id975937182?mt=12&at=10l5TL)[^f5051]. Unlike the previous version of Fantastical, which is more of a menubar utility, this version is a full featured calendar app.

[Jason Snell](http://sixcolors.com/post/2015/03/fantastical-2-goes-beyond-the-menu-bar/) and [Federico Vitcci](http://www.macstories.net/reviews/fantastical-2-for-mac-review-reinvented/) have already posted reviews.

[^f5051]: Affiliate Link (as is the post link.0

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

Ulysses strives and seeks to be a better text editor for Mac

TUAW’s review of [Ulysses III](http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/stat?id=r*bqlTuiXSo&offerid=146261&type=3&subid=0&tmpid=1826&RD_PARM1=https%253A%252F%252Fitunes.apple.com%252Fus%252Fapp%252Fulysses-iii%252Fid623795237%253Fmt%253D12%2526uo%253D4%2526partnerId%253D30)[^f0200], in case you are still on the fence.

[^f0200]: Affiliate Link

Categories
Apps Law Technology

A Reminder: You Do Not Need to Close iPhone Apps

Some bad advice from the *Legal Productivity* blog:

> *2) Close Your Apps.*

> Apps will stay open unless you explicitly close them, even if you restart your phone. That means they’re running in the background, consuming computing resources even though you’re not aware they’re running. And “consuming computing resources” is engineering-speak for “using the battery”.

> To close unused apps, tap the home button twice, which will bring up a row of open apps across the bottom of your screen. Locate the app or apps you wish to close, then press on one of them for a couple of seconds until it starts to wiggle and shows a red ‘X’ in the upper-right hand corner. Hit the ‘X’ and the app is closed.

I still have no idea where this “advice” comes from. Even my father mentioned it to me the other day. As an effort to combat disinformation, I refer you to [John Gruber](http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ios_multitasking):

> Bottom line: the iOS multitasking bar is not like the command tab switcher on Mac or Windows. It is not a list of currently “running” applications. It is simply a list of your most recently used applications, whether they’re running in the background, suspended in memory, or completely inactive. Notice, for example, that if you turn an iOS device off and on, completely restarting the device, the multitasking tray still shows the same apps. It’s like your browser history.

and, for the most succinct response, [Fraser Speirs](http://speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html):

> Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There are caveats to this but anyone dispensing the advice above is clearly uninformed enough that they will certainly not be aware of these subtleties.

Got it? You **do not** have to manually close your apps in iOS. Unfortunately, it seems like this “advice” simply will not die.