Posts in Linked

Tweetbot Upgrades to CloudKit Sync→

The latest version of Tweetbot for iOS has upgraded its iCloud syncing engine to CloudKit, bringing faster performance for timeline, DM, and mute filter sync. From the release notes:

This update is all about sync. We’ve switched our syncing engine to use CloudKit which will provide you with faster, more consistent syncing between your iOS devices and Macs. It also sets up a foundation for some cool features we have planned for future releases. We know improved syncing doesn’t sound too exciting, but it will provide a better underlying experience.

From a user’s perspective, nothing’s changed – Tweetbot still uses iCloud and you don’t have to change anything in your preferences. However, Tweetbot is now using a better version of iCloud, with near-instant sync of changes between devices.

I’ve been running this version of Tweetbot with CloudKit sync for a few weeks, and it’s a very nice upgrade from the old iCloud sync. I’ve often left two devices running with Tweetbot in the foreground at the same time, and I’ve seen the timeline scroll on one device just a second after I stopped scrolling on the primary device. It’s impressive.

If you haven’t tried iCloud sync in Tweetbot in a while, go check it out again. Tweetbot 4.3 is available on the App Store (my review of Tweetbot 4.0 is here).

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Tumblr’s iOS App Adds Support for Live Photos→

Jacob Kastrenakes, writing for The Verge:

Tumblr’s iOS app now allows iPhone 6S users to add Live Photos to their posts, just as though they were adding any other photo. When someone on an iPhone comes across it in their feed, they’ll see the Live Photo icon in the corner, letting them know it can animate. Like in the iOS Photos app, iPhone 6S users can use 3D Touch to activate the hidden video and sound. If you’re on an older iPhone, you can still view Live Photos by pressing and holding on the image. Android users appear to be out of luck, however. Despite receiving an app update today, Tumblr on Android just displays Live Photos as a still image. Same thing on the web.

Arguably, Tumblr is the first major social app to integrate with Live Photos. Kind of odd that Twitter and Facebook weren’t ready with official support a few days after iOS 9.2 – especially because Facebook appears to be on a 12-hour update schedule for their iOS app.

I wonder if Twitter will natively support Live Photos or convert them to their GIF-like format, but with audio as well.

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Steady Square 3D Touch Game for iPhone→

I found this game yesterday via 9to5Mac – developed by Asaf Avidan Antonir, Steady Square is a simple game where you have to keep a square steady and let it pass through openings in a series of walls. The twist: on the iPhone 6s, the game is controlled through 3D Touch.

Steady Square is extremely basic: there’s no sound, no items to unlock, no menus – it’s more of a proof of concept, really. But, there’s something compelling about the simplicity and silence of Steady Square and I find it to be somewhat relaxing. The collisions are unforgiving (it’s reminiscent of Flappy Bird in this sense) and 3D Touch adds an interesting dimension to an otherwise unsurprising mechanic. It’s free on the App Store.

Also, Steady Square’s developer found a way to bypass Apple’s rules for scale apps based on 3D Touch. He explains how you can calculate the weight of objects with his game in a video.

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Slide 3D GIF Camera App→

Fun new camera app for iPhone by William Wilkinson and Deepak Mantena: Slide lets you create animated GIFs with a 3D effect that you can share with others. The 3D effect, as delightfully explained in the app’s weird promo video, is achieved by sliding the iPhone quickly to the side after selecting a subject.

I bought the app, and it works as advertised. Slide doesn’t work with the front-facing camera because it requires high frame rate to build the 3D animation, which, depending on what you’re looking at, may produce odd and funny results. I’m sending pictures of 3D furniture to my parents right now and they’re asking what’s going on.

Nice diversion from Live Photos and traditional GIFs, and just $1.99 on the App Store.

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Pixelmator Updated with iPad Pro, Apple Pencil Support→

Great update to Pixelmator for iOS released this morning: the app is now fully compatible with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, with support for 16K images up to 100 megapixels and a new collection of brushes. I tried the app with the Pencil for a couple of minutes, and it works as expected; if you don’t have an iPad Pro with a Pencil but you have an iPhone 6s, pressure-sensitive painting has also been made available via 3D Touch:

Pixelmator on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus adds full 3D Touch support. In addition to useful shortcuts when pressing firmly on the Pixelmator icon from the home screen and on an image in the Pixelmator gallery, Pixelmator for iOS 2.2 also brings 3D Touch-sensitive painting. Now you can change the look of a stroke simply by varying the pressure you apply on the screen with your finger, without having to change the brush settings.

The new Pixel brush is a lot of fun, and I’m curious to see what kind of creations pixel artists will come up with. Pixelmator 2.2 is available on the App Store.

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HeartWatch: An Accidental but Heartfelt App→

Great story and app idea by David Walsh: dissatisfied with the presentation of heart rate data in Apple’s Health app, he created HeartWatch – a dashboard for your heart rate data. The app works best if you’re an Apple Watch wearer (you get readings every 10 minutes) and it includes features such as peak zones, timelines, and – my favorite – separate tabs for regular, waking, and workout heartbeats.

Heart Watch lets you see how your heart is beating across three simple views. Waking, Regular & Workout. Each of these views are isolated because, while you may want a higher heart rate during a workout, if your heart is racing when you aren’t doing any exercise then this is likely not a good thing and probably something you might want to show your medical practitioner.

David has shared the full story behind the creation of HeartWatch in a blog post:

Now I wanted to dig a bit further to find when and what was happening with my heart. Unfortunately, the Health app wasn’t very much help from here forward. There’s a summary graph, then to go any further, you have to read every single heart beat reading captured. With no search! Proverbial needle in haystack. So I looked around to see if there were any apps to help. Short answer. No. They seem to fall into finger on the camera apps, “fitness junkie” apps or just giving a simple average.

My research also made me realise a simple average is close to useless if you work out. Obviously your heart rate will be higher when you work out. This then throws out the daily average compared to days you don’t work out.

So I started a side project. Something that could show me what was going on. This then of course grew, as these things tend to do.

I took HeartWatch for a spin, and I like what David is doing. The app imported months of heart rate data from Health in less than a minute and it presented me with a clear calendar view of different reading types. HeartWatch can show percentage changes from previous readings, and it neatly breaks down a day’s data with colored charts and labels. I would love to see these kinds of average stats for weekly and monthly stats too, but, overall, HeartWatch is off to a good start.

Like David Smith’s Pedometer++, HeartWatch is another app that uses data from the Apple Watch in an interesting and useful way. If you care about your heart rate as measured by the Watch (and you should), I recommend giving HeartWatch a try.

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Connected: Snoozepocalypse→

Gathered in mourning over Mailbox and Carousel, Federico, Myke and Stephen wallow their way through some follow-up and Apple’s latest accessories.

Some interesting discussion on Dropbox and email clients in this week’s Connected. You can listen here.

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Eddy Cue on Hardcore Gaming for Apple TV, New Siri Remote App Launching Next Year→

In an interview with BuzzFeed published this morning, Apple’s Eddy Cue has shared some details on how the company sees the new Apple TV as a gaming device.

“When we first announced the iPhone, we didn’t tout it as a gaming device. But games became a huge part of iPhone, because it turns out that a lot more people than just hardcore gamers love games. We expanded the market. I think the vast majority of people around the world probably aren’t looking to buy an Xbox or PlayStation. But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy playing games. I think Apple TV expands the gaming market to those people.”

Cue goes on to say that “hardcore gaming isn’t exactly the ecosystem we’re after with Apple TV”, adding that, however, hardcore games will be released on it in the future. Essentially, Cue’s pitch is reminiscent of Nintendo’s goal with the Wii in 2006 – to expand the gaming market to people who don’t want to buy a console but would be comfortable with casual games on a TV. Only this time, Apple has an existing multi-billion iOS ecosystem backing the efforts of developers approaching the TV App Store.

Also from the interview, Cue revealed that the full functionality of the Siri Remote will be available in a new iPhone app next year:

“We’re working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give you the full functionality of the Siri Remote on your iPhone,” Cue said. “We’re hoping to ship that in the first half of next year.”

Yesterday’s tvOS update restored support with Apple’s existing Remote app for iOS, but it sounds like Apple has bigger plans that involve full Siri integration on the iPhone, too. I wonder if this app will also unlock deeper multiplayer features for gaming – with the “full functionality of the Siri Remote” on an iPhone, will multiple users be able to use their iPhones as controllers for games?

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tvOS 9.1 Brings Remote App Support for Apple TV→

Among the software updates rolled out by Apple today, version 9.1 of tvOS for Apple TV users has also been released with enhancements to navigation and Siri. Most notably, the update restores support for Apple’s Remote app for iOS and it brings Siri integration with Apple Music.

Zac Hall, writing for 9to5Mac:

tvOS 9.1 does indeed add Siri support for Apple Music to all users. Apple’s Remote app also works with the new Apple TV for the first time. Apple released the first software update to the new Apple TV, tvOS 9.0.1, in mid November. The update delivered no new features or visual changes, instead likely focusing on bug fixes and performance improvements.

I was surprised to see that these features weren’t available at launch on the new Apple TV – typing passwords and any other text on tvOS without the Remote app was especially painful. I’m glad tvOS 9.1 has been released before the end of the year.

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