Linked List: January 20, 2015

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Four years ago I wrote a short entry about a then-new iPhone reminder app called Due. I’ve been using it ever since — I don’t think a day’s gone by since then that Due hasn’t been on my first home screen. The all-new 2.0 update is an improvement in every way, both functionally, cosmetically, and audibly (it has a bunch of new alert sounds to choose from). Interesting pricing scheme too: Due costs $5 for new users. Existing users get the new version for free, but have to pay $3 to unlock all the new features. A bargain for something so thoughtful and well-made.

See also:

Audio Hijack 3 ★

Gorgeous new interface in this major update to Rogue Amoeba’s venerable audio recording app. This is one of the best takes on Yosemite-style design I’ve seen.

Apple, the Camera Company ★

Vlad Savov, writing for The Verge:

For a show overrun with various visions of smart drones and smarter homes for the future, the present of CES was remarkably uniform. I saw more iPhones in the hands of CES attendees than I did Android phones across the countless exhibitor booths. From the biggest keynote event to the smallest stall on the show floor, everything was being documented with Apple’s latest smartphone, and it all looked so irritatingly easy. I don’t want an iPhone, but dammit, I want the effortlessness of the iPhone’s camera.

I’ve been spending time with a new Moto X this month, and the camera is definitely one of the sore points. It’s not about image quality, but the overall camera experience. Jumping over to the Android side of the fence shows you just how far ahead Apple is in this regard.

‘In Hindsight, I Think Everything I’ve Made Stinks’ ★

Terrific interview with Loren Brichter at Objc.io:

So for a goal, I’ll just say “build tools to make us more enlightened.” I mean “enlightened” in a Carl Sagan sense, where we are the universe trying to understand itself. And we’ve long hit the limit of what we can think with our naked brain, so we need to augment it in some way with mind tools. But the tools right now are so complicated that it takes all your mental energy just to try and “hold” them, so you have nothing left to actually do something interesting. Or at least they’re too complicated for me. I’m not that smart.

Personally, I’m tired of the trivial app stuff, and the App Store isn’t conducive to anything more interesting. I think the next big thing in software will happen outside of it.

Jason Snell on CarPlay ★

Jason Snell, writing at Six Colors:

So is CarPlay worth it? Right now, I’d have to say no. I’m encouraged by the potential here, but it feels slow and seems buggy. Though I’ve got this Pioneer CarPlay unit right here, I’m not planning on installing it in my car… at least, not yet. An Apple-designed interface in my dashboard sounds like a great idea, but until there are more third-party apps — and until third-party apps actually work well — maybe it’s just as well that CarPlay devices are still few and far between.

If You See That ‘If You See a Stylus, They Blew It’ Quote, They Blew It ★

The Macalope, on people making hay over Steve Jobs’s 2010 “If you see a stylus, they blew it” quote and rumors that Apple is going to unveil an optional iPad stylus:

In 2010 following the launch of the iPad, Steve Jobs famously said “if you see a stylus, they blew it.” His comment targeted earlier tablet products that relied on styluses for input as opposed to focusing on finger input.

True! And guess what? He was right. If you need a stylus for the general operation of a tablet, it’s junk. Is a stylus good to have in certain use cases? Oh, guess what again, that’s a different question.

Expect this to come up about a thousand times if Apple really does unveil a stylus.

Ming-Chi Kuo Predicts 12.9-Inch iPad to Ship With an Optional Stylus ★

Eric Slivka, reporting for MacRumors:

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back with another report outlining his belief that Apple will launch a stylus as an optional accessory for the company’s rumored 12.9-inch “iPad Pro”. With the new iPad’s larger screen, it will likely prove popular with enterprise and creative users who tend to have more need for a stylus and Kuo believes Apple will fill that need with an in-house solution. […]

Kuo believes the stylus will be an optional accessory rather than included standard with the new iPad, as the relatively expensive stylus would drive the base cost of the iPad too high.

Worth noting because Kuo has a remarkable track record — I don’t think anyone has better sources in the Asian supply chain.

The Verge Leaks Their Own Super Bowl Ad ★

Estimated cost for a 30-second spot: $4 million.

The spot feels generic to me, like 30 seconds of stock video footage, and oddly, doesn’t even include The Verge’s logo. If you’re going to drop all that money on a Super Bowl ad, I say run an ad that people will remember.

Update: The NYT reports that it’s an attention ploy:

The Verge, a technology website owned by the online media company Vox, said on Tuesday that it would be airing a Super Bowl advertisement, before revealing that it would in fact be spending just $700 on a regional spot in Helena, Mont.

Great job getting everyone to watch a crummy milquetoast commercial.