Ryan Christoffel

991 posts on MacStories since November 2016

Ryan is an editor for MacStories and co-hosts the [Adapt](https://www.relay.fm/adapt) podcast on Relay FM. He most commonly works and plays on his iPad Pro and bears no regrets about moving on from the Mac. He and his wife live in New York City.
ryan@macstories.net

Snapchat Adds Collaboration to Stories→

New sharing options are rolling out today for Snapchat that allow friends to collaborate on Stories together. From Snap’s website:

Today we’re announcing a new way to create custom Stories – about anything, with any of your friends, even for a specific location! It’s perfect for a trip, a birthday party, or a new baby story just for the family.

You decide who can add to the Story and who can view it – you can also choose to Geofence the Story to a location.

Stories have always been a personal medium, so expanding into shared Stories is a significant move. While it would potentially cause headaches if a shared Story could be added to by any friends, the custom controls over who can add to it and the location they have to be in should alleviate those concerns.

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Nike Announces New Collection of Apple Watch Bands

Nike has announced a new collection of “Day to Night” Apple Watch bands going on sale soon. The four new Nike Sport Bands match up with the designs of a collection of Nike shoes: the Nike Air VaporMax Flyknit “Day to Night” collection. This marks the first time Nike has directly paired Watch bands with a shoe line.

The “Day to Night” collection celebrates runners whenever they choose to run – at twilight, sunset and everything in between. Each of the colors is inspired by a shade of the sky, from dawn to dusk, and allows runners to – for the first time – make a statement by matching their Apple Watch Nike+ bands to their footwear.

Each band will be priced at $49.00 when they go on sale next month. They’ll be available from nike.com and select Nike retail stores on June 1, and shortly thereafter from apple.com, Apple Stores, and other retail partners.

Jimmy Iovine Shares Frustrations Over Free Music Streaming, Signals Greater Push into Video→

Tim Ingham of Music Business Worldwide reports on a wide-ranging interview with Jimmy Iovine about Apple Music. One recurring theme is how wrong Iovine believes it is that artists are encouraged to give their work away for free on services like YouTube and Spotify:

The fact is that ‘free’ in music streaming is so technically good and ubiquitous that it’s stunting the growth of paid streaming.

Two things have to happen: free has to become more difficult or restricted, and the paid services have to get better.

It blew my mind that the day after I walked out on stage [to announce Apple Music at WWDC in 2015], YouTube mobile was licensed.

Iovine also indicates that the Apple Music team has moved away from doing as many album exclusives and is now focusing more heavily on video content:

We tried it. We’ll still do some stuff with the occasional artist. The labels don’t seem to like it and ultimately it’s their content.

But we’re doing exclusive video content now, and putting a lot of money into that.

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Things 3: Beauty and Delight in a Task Manager

Today Cultured Code launched the long-anticipated next version of its task management app, Things, for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Things has been one of the go-to task managers on Apple platforms since its initial release in 2008, and for good reason; the team at Cultured Code is known for the thought and care they put into their apps. For much of its life, Things has been a shining example of quality iOS and macOS development.

Over the last nine years, Things has been quick to adopt the latest OS features introduced by Apple in an effort to keep the app current; more substantial updates, however, have been few and far between. It took four years for Things 1 to give way to Things 2, and the gap between versions 2 and 3 has been even longer. Many of the once-loyal Things users have moved on to newer, more modern options for task management. But now, Things 3 has finally arrived.

Was it worth the wait?

Read more

Google I/O Roundup: Assistant Comes to iPhone, Photos and Gmail Receive Improvements

Today Google kicked off its I/O event with a keynote that covered a wide array of announcements, several of which were particularly relevant for Apple users.

Google Assistant Coming to iOS: Google Assistant is coming to the iPhone in the form of a dedicated app, launching today. Assistant is the company’s Siri competitor, and until now it has been largely restricted to Android and Google-made devices like Google Home. The messaging app, Allo, has had some form of Assistant since its launch last September, but the full Assistant has not been available on iOS until now. Like every other third-party digital assistant on iOS, Google Assistant will be more restricted in its system access than Apple’s own Siri, and less convenient to activate as well. To engage the Assistant, you’ll have to open the app or interact with the app’s widget. (Source)

Sharing Features and Photo Books with Google Photos: In the coming weeks, Google will be adding new sharing features to its Photos iOS app. Similar to the smart sharing features in Apple’s Clips app, Google Photos will identify the subjects in your photos and suggest sharing the images with those people. Separately, a new Shared Libraries feature allows easy sharing of all images that fit the parameters you set. One option that’s especially interesting is the ability to automatically share only the photos that contain a certain person in them. The last of the Photos announcements was that starting next week, U.S. users will be able to order Photo Books consisting of selections from their libraries. (Source)

Smart Reply Comes to the Gmail App: Google previously added a Smart Reply feature to its Inbox and Allo apps, but today it is expanding the feature to Gmail for iOS and Android. The feature offers three suggested responses that you can quickly tap on to send. Google says the feature has already driven 12 percent of replies in the Inbox app, so it is likely to receive a lot more use as it expands to more users. (Source)

Today’s Apple-related announcements are on the lighter side when compared to some past I/O keynotes, but they’re still nice to have for iPhone users who rely on Google services.

Apple Releases New Video Series to Promote Accessibility Awareness→

Katie Dupere writes for Mashable about the stories shared in a new series of Apple videos:

Meera is nonverbal, living with a rare condition called schizencephaly that impacts her ability to speak. But with the help of her iPad and text-to-speech technology, she can make her thoughts and opinions known — and she sure does. From her love of Katy Perry to her passion for soccer, Meera will let you know exactly what’s on her mind. All it takes is a few taps of her tablet, and with a specialized app stringing letters into words, and words into phrases, her thoughts are played out loud.

Meera’s relationship with tech is just one of seven stories featured in a powerful video series created by Apple to spotlight the company’s dedication to accessible technology. The videos were released in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 18, a day emphasizing the importance of accessible tech and design.

Accessibility features have long been prioritized in Apple’s software, and this new video series tells the stories of people who depend on those features. What to some may simply be an ignored option in the Settings app is to others a pathway to significant new experiences and empowerment.

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Instagram Launches Snapchat-Style Face Filters and More

Instagram has announced several new features rolling out today, chief of which is another major borrow from Snapchat:

Today, we’re introducing face filters in the camera, an easy way to turn an ordinary selfie into something fun and entertaining. Whether you’re sitting on the couch at home or you’re out and about, you can use face filters to express yourself and have playful conversations with friends.

From math equations swirling around your head to furry koala ears that move and twitch, you can transform into a variety of characters that make you smile or laugh. To see our initial set of eight face filters, simply open the camera and tap the new face icon in the bottom right corner.

The initial batch of eight filters is smaller than what’s available on Snapchat, and it remains to be seen how often new filters will be added, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a lot more growth in this area. Snapchat’s advantage is not only in the number of filters, but also in its recent expansion of filtering technology in the form of World Lenses – and Instagram has made clear its commitment to beating Snapchat at its own game.

Also launching today is a new “Rewind” camera format to play videos in reverse, a hashtag sticker that can be used when crafting Instagram Stories, and a new eraser brush to complement the set of existing drawing tools.

Philips Hue Line Expands with Ambiance Lamps, Fixtures, and New Bulbs

Philips Hue has long been one of the premier lines of smart lights on the market, and today that line is expanding with several new products. Philips announced through Business Wire a range of Ambiance offerings, including table lamps, fixtures, and bulbs.

The Ambiance lamps, named Wellner and Wellness, along with the Flushmount fixture, are available for pre-order today with mid-June ship dates. Each of the lamps is listed for $99.99, while the ceiling fixture is $199.99. At a glance, these products appear well designed, and a great fit for placement in anyone’s home. The new Ambiance bulbs will be available for pre-order in June, with July ship dates.

As with other Hue devices, each of these upcoming products feature support for an array of smart home platforms, including Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa, and more. So no matter which platform you may be committed to, you shouldn’t have to worry about compatibility issues here.