'Choose Wisely' →

Neven Mrgan looks at the photo-upload dialogs found within many iOS apps, and calls for a little uniformity between them:

“Does it matter if apps are consistent on matters of this sort? Decades of UI theory seems to indicate so. Having the same button say the same thing in all situations means the user has to do less parsing of the text, and can simply rely on quick-glance recognition.”

Like Neven, I've been bothered by these kinds of dialogs for a long time.

The problem is that so many apps use different wordings for these options, and in different orders from one another, that I can't always parse them immediately the way I should be able to. If I don't double-check the list, it sometimes ends with me accidentally tapping the wrong option.

Obviously the problem is avoided if I take an extra second or two to verify which option I'm selecting, but when you're having to do this all the time between all the various apps that allow photo uploads, those seconds really start to add up. It would benefit everyone if there were a standard button layout apps would adhere to.

Go read the rest of Neven's post to see his suggestions for other developers on this matter. I agree with every one.

1Password 4.2 Released →

This is a pretty big update, if you're an iPad owner. Now you can generate passwords right from within the browser (they're calling it "1Browser" now), just as if you were using the desktop app.

They've also added 'Go & Fill' bookmarks to the iPad version, which really streamlines the process of logging into websites, saving you from having to go back-and-forth between 1Browser and the Vault.

The iPhone will be receiving both of these awesome features in a later update, but for now you can still use the other new goodies: the ability to share encrypted logins (be very careful with this) and advanced search functionality.

If you want to get the update now, click here.

'The Story of Ridiculous Fishing' →

Polygon put together a nice profile of Vlambeer, the two-man design studio behind Ridiculous Fishing, and the struggle they faced after having their game idea cloned. I enjoyed learning that their relationship mirrors that of The Odd Couple.

“Vlambeer's origin story sounds like the start of a romantic comedy. They met on a train, hated each other instantly, then, over the course of a slow and argumentative year at school together, came around.”

Go read the story, then buy the game if you haven't already. You're a crazy person if you don't.

Status Board for iPad

Three years and one month ago, the guys at Panic (one of my favorite Mac/iOS development studios) unveiled a cool project for their office: the Panic Status Board. It contained all kinds of useful and up-to-date info concerning:

  • Ongoing projects (deadlines, who's working on what, etc).
  • The number of support emails that are queued up for each of their apps.
  • The office calendar.
  • A revenue tracker.
  • Even a local bus route schedule.

And what kinds of results did they see in the office after putting up the Status Board? Here's how they described it:

“Our support turnaround time is faster than it’s ever been. Just the simple act of “publicizing” those numbers — not in a cruel way, but a “where are we at as a group?” way — has kept the support process on-task and, I think, made it a bit more like a video game. (It helps that when all the boxes are at “zero”, a virtual bottle of champagne appears on-screen, and a physical one is likely removed from the fridge.)”

Fast-forward a few years to this past Monday, when Panic announced via Twitter that they would be releasing a brand-new app this week. They also added a cryptic little image to the row of iOS apps on their site.

I was excited enough just from the announcement alone, feeling anxious to try the new thing from these guys, but then later that night I received an unexpected email from Cabel Sasser, giving me early access to the release candidate! I've never been given beta access to something so high-profile before, so of course I had to check it out, right?

As you can probably guess by now, it's an iPad version of the Panic Status Board, and boy is it beautiful.

In his email, Cabel listed off several notable features about the app, but this one in particular caught my eye:

”Best of all, Status Board has one of the best setup assistants you'll ever see. I'm not joking.”

He wasn't too far off. When you first open the app, you're greeted with some quirky-but-friendly elevator music and a "manual" that guides you through a few pages of basic setup.

Allowing access to my location, calendars, and Twitter accounts was as easy as tapping 'OK' a few times, but I had to sign into an IMAP account rather than simply giving it access to my email accounts. Odd.

After completing the basic setup, I was taken to the actual Status Board screen, where a few default modules were already in use: time, weather, upcoming calendar events, etc. Here's what it looked like after I fiddled around a bit:

I'm particularly proud of the Twitter @reply calling me a moron at the lower left :)

I'm particularly proud of the Twitter @reply calling me a moron at the lower left :)

Editing each panel is pretty simple. Just tap on the little gear icon at the upper left and then tap a module to edit it. Editing looks like this:

Any of those icons on the bottom dock can be dragged up into the grid and placed wherever you like, then resized to a certain extent by dragging on the little corner markers. Some nice touches are the little sounds and bouncing animations used when entering edit mode or tapping on the dock icons.

The first six "Instant" icons (Clock, Weather, Calendar, Email, Twitter, and News Feed) are simple to configure in various ways, while the last three "Pro" modules (Graph, Table, and DIY) require some external tinkering and a server to host CSV, JSON, or HTML files. These are where the most interesting and personalized graphs/charts can be created.

Some example uses for the Instant modules include: tracking how many emails you get each day, displaying follower counts for Twitter, listing upcoming events, scrolling through news stories from various sources (including any RSS feeds you add), etc.

Possibilities for the Pro modules are nigh endless. I imagine one popular use will be analytics for web traffic (Mint) or budgets/expenses (different Mint).

Note: Before moving anything into place , you should decide on a preferred iPad orientation; portrait or landscape (I chose portrait). Once you have everything in place, the panels dont really convert well upon turning the iPad over; they'll be all shifted around and spaced differently than how you set them.

Each module also seems to have its own specific parameters for how large or small it can become, which somewhat limits their flexibility in my mind, but this doesn't leave me with a negative impression or anything.

While in edit mode, you can tap the buttons at the top right to access other options:

  • The monitor button toggles the External Display function. Your Status Board can be shown on an external monitor using AirPlay or a video cable. From what I understand, the ability to do so will require a separate in-app purchase, but details on pricing are unavailable at this point.
  • The second button is a toggle between 'iPad' and 'HDTV' modes. HDTV mode just opens more space on your grid for extra modules. Since this causes modules to appear shrunken on your iPad screen, I'm guessing the title is literal and that this is meant to be used when outputting to a large external display.
  • The last button allows you to share your Status Board via email (which shows a screenshot of your board gift-wrapped with a ribbon), or send some feedback directly to the guys at Panic.

To remove any modules, you can simply drag them off-screen and they'll disappear.

After playing with this for a couple days, I'm left with a few thoughts. For one thing, I just can't state enough how gorgeous and easy to use this app is. Nothing about the setup or UI has felt too difficult to deal with, and it's especially pretty on my Retina iPad.

That being said, I can't say this app has a clear, useful purpose in my life at the moment. Don't get me wrong, this could definitely be useful for small teams of people who collaborate on projects or share an office together. It's just not for a single individual like myself that isn't constantly looking at calendars or weather reports, and who doesn't own a business that needs to track sales trends.

If they could somehow get this information onto the iPad's lock screen, that would make it much more useful for me. But as a separate app, I probably won't spend much time in it except to ogle the pretty graphics from time to time.

Another way I could see myself getting more out of the app is if I can make better use of the "Pro" modules someday. As the app inevitably grows more popular, perhaps people will begin to share their custom code snippets for those modules. I can't wait to see what interesting things people come up with. Until then, I'm afraid I won't be able to utilize the app to its full potential, which seems quite vast really.

If this kind of thing interests you, then pick up Status Board for $10 on the App Store. Just because it doesn't yet fit into my life doesn't mean it can't work for you. If nothing else, buy it just to support a fantastic group of people who always do excellent work.

"Magic is Hard" →

Khoi Vinh:

“To simplify is huge, but what matters just as much is the end result, what the user gets out of the simplification. If the simplified process produces satisfactory results, great. But it’s magic when the software generates a disproportionately meaningful output from that minimized input.”

The iPad Apps that Power my Tools and Toys Workflow

One of the topics I’ve been most enthusiastic about lately is the idea of using only an iPad to do all my work. I’m not talking about my day job here, but rather my writing workflow, and more specifically the writing I do for Tools and Toys.

(I would love to have a nice workflow setup for Unretrofied, but unfortunately the Squarespace iOS app is pretty terrible and there are no alternatives due to their lack of an API. So while I may do some writing for Unretrofied on the iPad using Byword, I almost always publish from the back-end CMS on a desktop or laptop.)

Since Tools and Toys runs on WordPress, there are a wider array of apps I can use for publishing, which makes an iPad-only workflow more feasible. I’d like to discuss the apps I use to get the job done, but first it helps to know the ground rules for every T&T post:

  • Each post must contain an image, 600px wide being okay but 1200px being better for Retina displays. Either way, the site will display the image in a 600px wide box.
  • Image file sizes should be reasonable so as not to delay page-load times. The 150kb–200kb range is fine.
  • These images must be hosted on the site’s Amazon S3 account.
  • There are three custom fields used within the CMS: the image link, the product link, and the name of the store/website where an item can be bought.
  • Stephen Hackett and I each have a particular posting schedule, so we need to be able to schedule final drafts to be automatically published at a later date/time.
  • When we link to something on iTunes or Amazon, we must use affiliate links.

Obviously there’s no one app that can do all these things, but I’ve managed to accumulate a variety of apps that have allowed me to do my work on-the-go. So far I’ve managed to get the entire workflow down to a handful of apps.

The first app, Instapaper, comes into play long before I ever write anything. I’ve got a special folder set aside where I like to save ideas for potential products to write about. If I come across something cool out on the web, I save it to this folder and reference it later when it’s time to write a new post.

The next two apps I use are Safari and Mail.app. I use Safari for finding links and images, as well as researching items to make sure I know what I’m talking about when I’m writing about them. When I can’t find a nice, hi-res image of a product anywhere, I use Mail.app to ask the makers of those products if they have any images I can use. Everyone I’ve ever talked to has been super nice and helpful.

Once I’ve got an image, or a set of images, I use an app called Reduce to batch-resize them. I even have a preset stored in the app: 1200px wide, 150kb file size. I run the photos through that preset, and the app saves a copy of each image to a “Reduce Export” album on the iPad for easy management.

The way I currently upload these images to Amazon S3 is with the iFiles app, which presents the most convoluted part of my current workflow. It’s an okay app for uploading, but it seems to have no way of renaming files or copying their public URLs, which is why I’m still on the lookout for something better.

Since I can’t rename from within iFiles, what I’ll typically do is remotely login to my office PC using LogMeIn Ignition1 and do it there. This step is technically unnecessary, but I prefer having a file name that uses the name of the product rather than something generic like “Photo02272013.jpg” or whatever.

Why is that, exactly? Well for one thing, it makes it easier to locate a particular image in our list of previous uploads if I need to. Secondly, even though I can’t copy the public link, I can simply take the url http://i.toolsandtoys.net.s3.amazonaws.com/img/file-name.jpg and substitute the file-name portion with the easy-to-remember file name I just made. A bit ghetto but it works.

Let’s just say that my life will be a lot easier if I can find a suitable replacement for iFiles.

Now that I’ve dealt with images, I’ve got to manage the text stuff. My absolute favorite app for writing and publishing to WordPress is Poster. It’s beautiful, easy to navigate around, and it features everything I need to publish a post, including those custom fields I mentioned earlier.

Next up comes the links. Regular links are easy to copy and paste, but when it comes to affiliate links I have a couple of tools at my disposal. The first one is Launch Center Pro, in which I’ve set up custom URL schemes for each link-type. They both operate based on whatever’s saved to my clipboard. Since this app was more intended for iPhone than iPad though, I tend to use TextExpander snippets to generate the links instead. Poster includes TextExpander support so these snippets are a breeze to use.

Lastly, we’ve got Dropbox. This is where I store any drafts or images I have yet to put together as final posts. I can access them from anywhere, and Poster can pull text files from Dropbox in order to create new posts. Doesn’t need much more explanation than that.

So there you have it. There are still some kinks to be worked out, and the overall process of putting things together could be a little smoother, but the sheer fact that I can do almost everything straight from my iPad is awesome to me.

Before I end this post (which is incidentally about 20x longer than most T&T things I’ve ever written), I’d like to thank Shawn for giving me the opportunity to write for the site. It’s been a blast so far and I look forward to where the site is headed.

  1. This app is incredibly expensive these days at $130, but I bought it years ago when it was on sale for $20 and I had an iTunes gift card.  ↩

'Conditions' Weather App

A lot of people have been talking about the latest simple weather app for the iPhone, Conditions. It's only a buck, so I decided to check it out for myself.

Right off the bat, I loved the interface. Very clean and minimal, which is exactly what I like in my weather apps. I don't require barometric pressure readings, nor do I need to have a list of various cities. Just give me a description of the current local weather and maybe show what the next few days will be like. That's exactly what Conditions does.

The typography is nice, the icons are charming, and there's even a nice little pull-to-refresh thermometer animation. Another nice touch is that you can simply tap the screen to dismiss or display the 5-day weather report. Very nice if you don't care about anything but the current temperature.

I think this will be my go-to weather app for a while.

App Store link

Made With Paper

Paper is one of the most popular apps for the iPad, and for good reason. It's the perfect app for expressing your artistic side, and people have been able to create some quite impressive artwork with it. Developers FiftyThree obviously know this, and they've put together a gallery of some fantastic pieces created with the app that I highly recommend checking out.

I'm continually amazed by the stuff people can create with tools like this.