Warren Buffett and Tim Cook star in a new iPhone game, Stephen and Myke tried the official Twitter app for a week and Federico is exporting his notes. Elsewhere, Mark Gurman has reported on iOS 13 and new versions of macOS and watchOS.
A very special episode of Connected this week, which also includes some details on my Evernote experiment and our thoughts on recent iOS 13 rumors. You can listen here.
Sponsored by:
- Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.
- Moo: Custom business printing and design. Use promo code PRINT15 for 15% off.
- eero: Never think about WiFi again. Get $100 off the ‘Eero base unit and 2 beacons package’, and a year of eero Plus.
This week, Federico and John revisit their discussion of the breakup of iTunes from Episode 21 in light of the latest Marzipan rumors.
Read more
Thoughtful take by Jason Snell on the recent discussion around the idea that Shortcuts may be coming to the Mac and what that could mean for macOS automation. Snell imagines a scenario where Quick Actions, introduced last year with Mojave, could act as a bridge between old-school Mac apps and a new breed of Marzipan apps compatible (in theory) with Shortcuts only:
Something funny happened in macOS Mojave. Apple actually brushed off some very old Mac OS X technology, Services, and gave it a rebrand as Quick Actions. Quick Actions are commands you can find in Quick Look previews, the Finder’s new Gallery view, and on the Touch Bar. Some are pre-built by Apple, but users can add their own by saving Automator actions as Quick Actions.
I have no idea what prompted Apple to bubble up Automator actions into more places in the macOS interface with Mojave, but Quick Actions strikes me as a pretty good companion to Siri Shortcuts. Imagine a scenario where apps originating on iOS can support Siri Shortcuts via the same methods they use on iOS. Now imagine that Siri Shortcuts can also use Quick Actions as a source for potential commands. Quick Actions are contextual, those old-school Mac apps can bring their own Quick Actions to the party, and users can build their own Quick Actions to do whatever they want. It would be a simple way to bridge the gap between the two different app types that Mac users will be using together, at least for a while.
As I argued on Connected a couple of weeks ago, I’m intrigued by the idea that a Mac version of Shortcuts could have built-in bridges for old automation tools (shell, AppleScript, Automator, etc.) to at least trigger those scripts from the new app. Quick Actions would be a great fit for this; in fact, I find the whole idea of Quick Actions is well suited the Files app on iOS as well.
Stephen returns order to the podcast after two weeks away, Myke reads some Hex color codes and Federico turns on his hype machine.
Some interesting discussions about apps and using Twitter on this week’s episode of Connected. You can listen here.
Sponsored by:
- Hover: Extensions for anything you’re passionate about. Grab a .ME domain for $9.99.
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code CONNECTED at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
- Away: Travel smarter with the suitcase that charges your phone. Get $20 off with the code ‘connected’.
This week, Federico and John take a deep dive into two apps they’ve been using a lot lately, Moment Pro Camera and the recently-released MindNode 6.
Read more
The European duo covers the latest in iPad keyboards (and DIY kickstands) before they consider the future of Mac automation and Shortcuts. At the end, Myke is sad about folding phones.
This week’s episode of Connected features, among other topics, a good discussion on the future of automation on macOS and the implications of Shortcuts coming to the Mac. You can listen here.
Sponsored by:
- Bombas: The most comfortable socks in the history of feet. Use this link for 20% off.
- Freshbooks: Online invoicing made easy.
- TextExpander, from Smile: Try the new release with the visual editor. Get 20% off your first year.
Thoughtful, well-researched analysis of the iOS document browser by Matej Bukovinski, one of the developers of PDF Viewer for iOS, which was among the first apps to support the feature back in 2017:
It’s been about a year and half since iOS 11 was released into the wild, and with it, the long-awaited system document browser. PDF Viewer was one of the first applications that truly went all in with this new component, and we did this by fully replacing our custom solution with it on devices that were upgraded to iOS 11. This move certainly got us a lot of attention and praise from power users, but it also caused a lot of frustration for others who were unlucky enough to stumble upon the bugs and limitations of this new component. From a developer’s point of view, it was a mixed bag as well. On one hand, it allowed us to stop developing our custom document browser, thereby saving ourselves a lot of valuable development time in the process. On the other hand, it forced us to make do with a system we did not own and couldn’t even “hack” around when there were problems.
PDF Viewer will drop support for iOS 10 shortly, which will get rid of the final remains of our custom document browser, so we thought it might be a good time to take a closer look at how its system replacement is doing and go over the good, the bad, and the ugly.
File management is one of the main sections of an in-depth iPad story I’m working on right now, and the document browser is a key functionality I’m going to describe in detail. Overall, I agree with Bukovinski’s take: the document browser has brought consistency and speed to a lot of document-based apps, and I’m happy to see fewer custom file managers in apps these days, but it could use more customization options for developers, and the reliability of third-party file provider extensions is still largely hit or miss.
This week, Federico and John talk about their new Mac minis, the very different ways they use them, and the apps they rely on the most.
Read more
John