Posts tagged Technology

Stevie Turns Your Social Feeds Into TV Shows Stevie turns your Facebook and Twitter into a beautiful television experience! TECHCrunch: We spend more and more time on social networks, but sometimes it can feel like work. I mean, scrolling through your news feed isn’t work work, but it’s not quite as easy as vegging out on your couch and watching TV. That’s where a new startup called Stevie comes in, with a website launching today at Disrupt, along with mobile apps that function as remote controls. Stevie looks at content shared in your social network feeds and elsewhere on the Web, and it assembles that content into TV shows that you can watch, shows with names like The Comedy Strip, Music Non-Stop, and Celeb TV. Naturally, the shows incorporate video content that your friends have shared, but they also include things like Facebook status updates, tweets, shared headlines, and birthdays, running mostly as tickers under the video. Essentially, it’s a way to watch Facebook and Twitter on your TV. Co-founder and Chief Creative Technologist Gil Rimon argues that this is the right way to do “social TV.” Apps like GetGlue, which offer check ins and other social interactions around existing TV content, aren’t a good fit for how people watch TV now, because they ignore its essentially passive nature. Stevie takes the opposite tack — instead of trying to encourage new types of behavior, it’s introducing new content into the traditional couch potato experience. Rimon compares the app to Pandora. In the same way that Pandora learns your musical tastes and preferences, automatically delivering music that’s tailored to your tastes, Stevie uses something that the team calls “The Stevie Factor” to look at your social data (such as Facebook Likes) and automatically stitch together the videos and other content that you’ll probably enjoy. When Rimon demonstrated Stevie for me, I was particularly impressed by the look and feel. Granted, I don’t watch much TV aside from Game of Thrones and Doctor Who, but the video content struck me as quite bubbly and polished, especially for something that was being algorithmically assembled on-the-fly. Rimon’s experience in TV writing, editing, and presenting probably helps with that. I expect Stevie will become even more appealing when it’s available on connected TV devices. The company has raised $300,000 in angel funding from investors including Jeff Pulver and Gigi Levy, and it’s participating in the Microsoft Accelerator for Azure program in Tel Aviv. Oh, and if you’re interested in couples who run startups, here’s another one — Rimon is married to his co-founder and CEO Yael Givon. You can visit the Stevie website here, download the iPhone app here, and download the Android app here. (Again, the apps aren’t standalone experiences, but remote controls for watching on the browser.) DISRUPT Q&A Q: How do you connect the Internet to the TC? A: We’re not delivering hardware — it’s a web-based experience, with more devices (starting with iPad) coming soon. Q: Who is your competition? A: No direct competition, though of course there are other video discovery companies. But they’re not replicating the TV experience. The real competitor might be old-fashioned TV channels. Q: Why hasn’t connected TV taken off? A: That’s changing — see, for example, the growth of Apple TV

Stevie Turns Your Social Feeds Into TV Shows


Stevie turns your Facebook and Twitter into a beautiful television experience!

TECHCrunch:


We spend more and more time on social networks, but sometimes it can feel like work. I mean, scrolling through your news feed isn’t work work, but it’s not quite as easy as vegging out on your couch and watching TV.

That’s where a new startup called Stevie comes in, with a website launching today at Disrupt, along with mobile apps that function as remote controls. Stevie looks at content shared in your social network feeds and elsewhere on the Web, and it assembles that content into TV shows that you can watch, shows with names like The Comedy Strip, Music Non-Stop, and Celeb TV. Naturally, the shows incorporate video content that your friends have shared, but they also include things like Facebook status updates, tweets, shared headlines, and birthdays, running mostly as tickers under the video. Essentially, it’s a way to watch Facebook and Twitter on your TV.

Co-founder and Chief Creative Technologist Gil Rimon argues that this is the right way to do “social TV.” Apps like GetGlue, which offer check ins and other social interactions around existing TV content, aren’t a good fit for how people watch TV now, because they ignore its essentially passive nature. Stevie takes the opposite tack — instead of trying to encourage new types of behavior, it’s introducing new content into the traditional couch potato experience.

Rimon compares the app to Pandora. In the same way that Pandora learns your musical tastes and preferences, automatically delivering music that’s tailored to your tastes, Stevie uses something that the team calls “The Stevie Factor” to look at your social data (such as Facebook Likes) and automatically stitch together the videos and other content that you’ll probably enjoy.

When Rimon demonstrated Stevie for me, I was particularly impressed by the look and feel. Granted, I don’t watch much TV aside from Game of Thrones and Doctor Who, but the video content struck me as quite bubbly and polished, especially for something that was being algorithmically assembled on-the-fly. Rimon’s experience in TV writing, editing, and presenting probably helps with that. I expect Stevie will become even more appealing when it’s available on connected TV devices.

The company has raised $300,000 in angel funding from investors including Jeff Pulver and Gigi Levy, and it’s participating in the Microsoft Accelerator for Azure program in Tel Aviv. Oh, and if you’re interested in couples who run startups, here’s another one — Rimon is married to his co-founder and CEO Yael Givon.

You can visit the Stevie website here, download the iPhone app here, and download the Android app here. (Again, the apps aren’t standalone experiences, but remote controls for watching on the browser.)

DISRUPT Q&A

Q: How do you connect the Internet to the TC?

A: We’re not delivering hardware — it’s a web-based experience, with more devices (starting with iPad) coming soon.

Q: Who is your competition?

A: No direct competition, though of course there are other video discovery companies. But they’re not replicating the TV experience. The real competitor might be old-fashioned TV channels.

Q: Why hasn’t connected TV taken off?

A: That’s changing — see, for example, the growth of Apple TV

cio-online: pewinternet: 86% of smartphone owners used their phone in the past month to make real-time queries to help them meet friends, solve problems, or settle arguments… And decide whether to visit a store or restaurant.

cio-online:

pewinternet:

86% of smartphone owners used their phone in the past month to make real-time queries to help them meet friends, solve problems, or settle arguments…

And decide whether to visit a store or restaurant.

pewinternet.org

Denver Broncos ditch their playbooks for iPads 9TO5MAC: The Denver Post is reporting today that its hometown NFL team, the Denver Broncos, has decided to swap out its bulky 500+ page playbooks for Apple’s slim and trim tablet. The football team just purchased 120 iPads. The organization feels that the tablet gives it a competitive advantage over its opponents. Not only is the iPad more mobile, but its library of available software gives it the capability to help players and coaches do far more than study plays… Here’s an excerpt from the article regarding the Bronco’s specific iPad software: “For the digital playbook, the team partnered with Parker-based technology startup PlayerLync. The PlayerLync app allows players and coaches to write notes and highly plays using the tablet’s touchscreen. The playbooks are then saved on remote computer servers, allowing players to access notes from previous games. A key component to the software is that it runs in the background even when a player is not reviewing the playbook, enabling the app to determine when a coach has an update to push to players, such as a new short-yardage and goal-line package.” But a team’s playbook is usually one of its most-guarded secrets. What happens if a player loses his iPad? “With the iPad playbook, the Broncos have two ways to secure their game plan. The Verizon [LTE] network connection will allow the team to remotely wipe the iPad if it is lost or stolen. If the network is disabled, the PlayLync app has a “time bomb” feature that deletes the playbook based on a set time determined by the Denver Bronco.” Wow. Of course, the Broncos aren’t the first team to ditch their paper playbooks for iPads. Last year we told you about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers making a similar move. But the concept is still relatively new to the NFL. Only three out of the 32 teams use tablets. And they still aren’t allowed to use them during games out of concern for foul play. What do you think about iPads in the NFL (or sports in general)? [9to5Mac]

Denver Broncos ditch their playbooks for iPads

9TO5MAC:

The Denver Post is reporting today that its hometown NFL team, the Denver Broncos, has decided to swap out its bulky 500+ page playbooks for Apple’s slim and trim tablet. The football team just purchased 120 iPads.

The organization feels that the tablet gives it a competitive advantage over its opponents. Not only is the iPad more mobile, but its library of available software gives it the capability to help players and coaches do far more than study plays…

Here’s an excerpt from the article regarding the Bronco’s specific iPad software:

“For the digital playbook, the team partnered with Parker-based technology startup PlayerLync. The PlayerLync app allows players and coaches to write notes and highly plays using the tablet’s touchscreen. The playbooks are then saved on remote computer servers, allowing players to access notes from previous games.

A key component to the software is that it runs in the background even when a player is not reviewing the playbook, enabling the app to determine when a coach has an update to push to players, such as a new short-yardage and goal-line package.”

But a team’s playbook is usually one of its most-guarded secrets. What happens if a player loses his iPad?

“With the iPad playbook, the Broncos have two ways to secure their game plan. The Verizon [LTE] network connection will allow the team to remotely wipe the iPad if it is lost or stolen.

If the network is disabled, the PlayLync app has a “time bomb” feature that deletes the playbook based on a set time determined by the Denver Bronco.”

Wow.

Of course, the Broncos aren’t the first team to ditch their paper playbooks for iPads. Last year we told you about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers making a similar move.

But the concept is still relatively new to the NFL. Only three out of the 32 teams use tablets. And they still aren’t allowed to use them during games out of concern for foul play.

What do you think about iPads in the NFL (or sports in general)?

[9to5Mac]

laughterkey:

laughterkey:

aikainkauna

A meticulous attention to detail

“PAPER IS THE PLACE TO SPEND TIME WITH YOUR IDEAS.”

The Verge:

Paper almost begs you to use a finer utencil than your finger to draw with. FiftyThree endorses the Wacom Bamboo stylus on its website, which we tested out, and weren’t very impressed with it. It has a mushy rubber tip that didn’t always seem to register with the iPad’s capacitive touchscreen. Petschnigg realizes that there isn’t an ideal stylus solution available, and is open to embracing new tools that could work with paper (like the Blue Tiger, an upcoming stylus that has a built in pressure sensor. Petschnigg also expressed interest in providing more tools for people in different fields — it’s just a matter of what customers demand, he says. Until then, Paper is not nearly complete.

In its mission to simplify drawing and scribbling on an iPad, FiftyThree did miss a few key things we’d like to see in the next version. First, while experienced sketchers know not to rest their hand on a piece paper (to avoid smudging their work), plenty of people will do so instinctively. Unfortunately, Paper doesn’t register touches if the side of your hand is resting on the screen, which makes writing anything more than quick notes or text inside diagrams frustrating. Apps like Penultimate have come up with elegant solutions for solving this problem, and we’ve been told that Paper will get this feature soon. Second, Paper can sometimes be a bit slow to register your brush strokes, though it’s not very noticeable unless you’re scribbling frantically. Some other apps we tested appeared a hair faster (like Bamboo Paper for iPad), but these apps draw simple lines whereas Paper draws textured lines that require more processing power. And lastly, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that our new iPad got warm after twenty minutes of drawing in Paper — warmer than if we were browsing the web for twenty minutes, as a point of comparison.


theverge.com

Paper: the next great iPad app, from the brains behind Courier Is this the drawing app you’ve been waiting for? The Verge: Georg Petschnigg throws his hands into the air as he traces the ages of human evolution that led us to develop the fragile wrists we need to use tools. Petschnigg locks his wrist into place and pretends to scribble on an imaginary piece of paper, in the process lamenting the user interfaces we’ve come to accept from computing platforms. “How do we get back to creating?” he asks. “Developing ideas began as just dragging a stick in the sand.” Today, we mostly use our fingers to interact with touchscreens — the increasingly predominant means of controlling computers — but Petschnigg isn’t content with that. It’s not just about the fingers; it’s about the paper we’re drawing on, and iPad apps built for creating just aren’t cutting it. He, along with a small group of talented developers, has been trying to fix the problem. “We’ve just burned down our savings on this,” Petschnigg said. “We wanted to build tools we could use every day.” The tool Petschnigg and his company FiftyThree thought up is the aptly named Paper, designed exclusively for the iPad. It’s essentially a blank slate of paper devoid of settings panels, menus, and adjustable line widths. If Paper looks familiar, it’s probably because the team behind it had an interesting history: a handful of them spent several years at Microsoft, with a good chunk of that time focused on the Courier, a dual-screen, digital notebook which had the tech world salivating. That device and its software was very publicly killed by Microsoft, but you can see threads of it that survived in this new project. Still, the FiftyThree team is reluctant to admit that there’s Courier DNA in Paper, perhaps only because the project they so passionately incubated never came to be. Whatever the case is, the humanistic sensibilities that made the Courier so attractive are very much present in this app, unbound from the chains at Microsoft. And that’s a very good thing. When you first open the app, you first see a panoramic view of all of your notebooks floating in mid-air. Each notebook looks like a premium Moleskine journal, fit with a stunning cover and pages that look soft to the touch. When you tap a notebook, you’re launched into a CoverFlow-esque page browser where you can thumb through sketches in your notebook. Tap a new page and your entire screen turns an almost white shade of vanilla, unadorned by faux binder rings or ripped edges you see in other apps. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to reveal your artist’s palette, and swipe down again to hide it. Paper comes with an eraser and just one tool to draw with, a fountain pen that’s unlike any fountain pen I’ve used. The faster you move your finger, the thicker the line gets. For $1.99 each, you can purchase four other tools, denoted not by their conventional names but instead by utility: there’s Write (ballpoint), Sketch (pencil), Outline (marker), and Color (watercolor paintbrush). Each of the five tools has its own unpredictable personality worth mastering, which makes these instruments so much more interesting than conventional digital pens and pencils you can find in other apps. The FiftyThree team chose these five tools because they encompass the five most common scenarios they encounter when mapping out ideas and art on a daily basis. Do you remember the last time you used iOS’s “shake to undo” feature? Perhaps the most impressive tool in Paper is Rewind, an inventive take on “undo” that succeeds where others have failed. If you make a mistake while you’re drawing, there’s no need to erase it. Just place two fingers on the screen and move them in a counter-clockwise motion. The app retraces your steps, brush stroke by brush stroke, to a maximum of 20 previous moves. Once you’ve tried Rewind, you’ll wish it were present in every other creative app you’ve tried. It’s a user interface breath of fresh air invented by filmmaker (and FiftyThree designer) Andrew S. Allen, who wanted an “undo” method that worked like the jog dials he uses to go back and forth in time while editing video. To move back and forth between pages while working, you can swipe inwards from the left or right side of the iPad’s screen to change pages. To close your current page, pinch inwards with your fingers and you’ll see your notebook’s pages at a glance. From this view, you can trash a page, add a page, or share your page to Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. And that’s really about it. Paper is very intuitive to use and has almost no learning curve, which is aided by its smooth animations and realistic design. Paper takes advantage of OpenGL graphics generally reserved for gaming to produce realtime shadows, swift page turns, and lightning fast pinching and zooming for popping in and out of your notebooks. Graphics are one of the many elements of Paper that feel “right” from a design standpoint.

Paper: the next great iPad app, from the brains behind Courier

Is this the drawing app you’ve been waiting for?

The Verge:

Georg Petschnigg throws his hands into the air as he traces the ages of human evolution that led us to develop the fragile wrists we need to use tools. Petschnigg locks his wrist into place and pretends to scribble on an imaginary piece of paper, in the process lamenting the user interfaces we’ve come to accept from computing platforms. “How do we get back to creating?” he asks. “Developing ideas began as just dragging a stick in the sand.”

Today, we mostly use our fingers to interact with touchscreens — the increasingly predominant means of controlling computers — but Petschnigg isn’t content with that. It’s not just about the fingers; it’s about the paper we’re drawing on, and iPad apps built for creating just aren’t cutting it. He, along with a small group of talented developers, has been trying to fix the problem. “We’ve just burned down our savings on this,” Petschnigg said. “We wanted to build tools we could use every day.”

The tool Petschnigg and his company FiftyThree thought up is the aptly named Paper, designed exclusively for the iPad. It’s essentially a blank slate of paper devoid of settings panels, menus, and adjustable line widths. If Paper looks familiar, it’s probably because the team behind it had an interesting history: a handful of them spent several years at Microsoft, with a good chunk of that time focused on the Courier, a dual-screen, digital notebook which had the tech world salivating. That device and its software was very publicly killed by Microsoft, but you can see threads of it that survived in this new project.

Still, the FiftyThree team is reluctant to admit that there’s Courier DNA in Paper, perhaps only because the project they so passionately incubated never came to be. Whatever the case is, the humanistic sensibilities that made the Courier so attractive are very much present in this app, unbound from the chains at Microsoft. And that’s a very good thing.

When you first open the app, you first see a panoramic view of all of your notebooks floating in mid-air. Each notebook looks like a premium Moleskine journal, fit with a stunning cover and pages that look soft to the touch. When you tap a notebook, you’re launched into a CoverFlow-esque page browser where you can thumb through sketches in your notebook. Tap a new page and your entire screen turns an almost white shade of vanilla, unadorned by faux binder rings or ripped edges you see in other apps.

Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to reveal your artist’s palette, and swipe down again to hide it. Paper comes with an eraser and just one tool to draw with, a fountain pen that’s unlike any fountain pen I’ve used. The faster you move your finger, the thicker the line gets. For $1.99 each, you can purchase four other tools, denoted not by their conventional names but instead by utility: there’s Write (ballpoint), Sketch (pencil), Outline (marker), and Color (watercolor paintbrush). Each of the five tools has its own unpredictable personality worth mastering, which makes these instruments so much more interesting than conventional digital pens and pencils you can find in other apps. The FiftyThree team chose these five tools because they encompass the five most common scenarios they encounter when mapping out ideas and art on a daily basis.

Do you remember the last time you used iOS’s “shake to undo” feature? Perhaps the most impressive tool in Paper is Rewind, an inventive take on “undo” that succeeds where others have failed. If you make a mistake while you’re drawing, there’s no need to erase it. Just place two fingers on the screen and move them in a counter-clockwise motion. The app retraces your steps, brush stroke by brush stroke, to a maximum of 20 previous moves. Once you’ve tried Rewind, you’ll wish it were present in every other creative app you’ve tried. It’s a user interface breath of fresh air invented by filmmaker (and FiftyThree designer) Andrew S. Allen, who wanted an “undo” method that worked like the jog dials he uses to go back and forth in time while editing video.

To move back and forth between pages while working, you can swipe inwards from the left or right side of the iPad’s screen to change pages. To close your current page, pinch inwards with your fingers and you’ll see your notebook’s pages at a glance. From this view, you can trash a page, add a page, or share your page to Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. And that’s really about it. Paper is very intuitive to use and has almost no learning curve, which is aided by its smooth animations and realistic design. Paper takes advantage of OpenGL graphics generally reserved for gaming to produce realtime shadows, swift page turns, and lightning fast pinching and zooming for popping in and out of your notebooks. Graphics are one of the many elements of Paper that feel “right” from a design standpoint.

theverge.com

gamefreaksnz: Assassin’s Creed 3 setting pre-order records Ubisoft today announced that Assassin’s Creed III is set to become the highest pre-ordered game in the company’s history. Pre-order: Assassin's Creed III

gamefreaksnz:

Assassin’s Creed 3 setting pre-order records

Ubisoft today announced that Assassin’s Creed III is set to become the highest pre-ordered game in the company’s history.

Pre-order: Assassin's Creed III

gamefreaksnz

Apple approves Taposé app that turns your iPad into a Microsoft Courier concept tablet iDownloadBlog: Remember Microsoft’s Courier tablet project? And a particularly lovely concept video that had been making rounds in the months leading up to the 2010 iPad introduction? We were impressed with Microsoft’s bold take on tablet functionality, calling for a dual-screen device with an innovative interface letting one easily jot down notes, set reminders, glance over your day’s agenda, edit documents and so forth. While the iPad popularized an entirely different user interface paradigm for the sake of simplicity and ease of use, some people have remained quite fond of Microsoft’s concept, yours truly included. Well, how about an iPad app that essentially turns your tablet into a Courier-like thing? First announced a year ago, it only got approved yesterday and is now available for download, priced at three bucks… Filed as a collaborative content creation app, Taposé centers around a split-screen interface, allowing you to, say, drag addresses to Maps for directions or drag and drop from Safari. The Slide Bar feature lets you put frequently-used items such as notes, images and so forth, in the middle bar. Other capabilities include handwriting and drawing tools, sticky notes, highlighter and lasso features, wrist guard for left- or right-handed users, zoom box and more. Collaborating on content in real-time requires a Taposé subscription that offers 400MB of storage space free of charge. Unlimited data tiers are also available for purchase from within the app. The Tapose team explained hurdles with getting the app into the App Store, writing in ablog post: It only took four months, three rejections, one appeal win and then reversal of said appeal, management UI review, and then one more final review for good measure to get Taposé approved. CNET provides a more detailed explanation: It’s been a long road to get approval from Apple to sell the app in iTunes. Monnig said in early November that he expected to receive approval by Thanksgiving. The app was initially rejected because it ran two separate windows, and then because it used widgets showing calendars and reminders in a way that violated Apple’s rules for apps… After fixing those issues, Tapose hit another hurdle earlier this month regarding in-app subscriptions for its cloud-based storage that renewed automatically every month. After changing the pricing to a yearly subscription that didn’t automatically renew, the app was approved. By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why the heck Microsoft killed the Courier project, check out this inside story by CNET from last November. It’s interesting that the project is being backed by J Allard who used to head the Courier project at Microsoft, but left abruptly. The team had also advertised the app over atKickstarter and actually met their goal of raising $10,000 for the project. They are already hard at work developing a “huge” 2.0 update that will “blow your mind”and will be like “comparing the first iPhone with the 3G”. iTunes reviewers seem to like the app, sans its unresponsiveness. Here’s to the hoping they address the annoying laginess in a future update. I could see myself using Taposé for iPad to improve my productivity, but if there’s one thing I hate in an app that’s gotta be an unresponsive user interface. How do you like Taposé for iPad? Is it everything you’ve been hoping for?

Apple approves Taposé app that turns your iPad into a Microsoft Courier concept tablet

iDownloadBlog:

Remember Microsoft’s Courier tablet project? And a particularly lovely concept video that had been making rounds in the months leading up to the 2010 iPad introduction? We were impressed with Microsoft’s bold take on tablet functionality, calling for a dual-screen device with an innovative interface letting one easily jot down notes, set reminders, glance over your day’s agenda, edit documents and so forth.

While the iPad popularized an entirely different user interface paradigm for the sake of simplicity and ease of use, some people have remained quite fond of Microsoft’s concept, yours truly included. Well, how about an iPad app that essentially turns your tablet into a Courier-like thing? First announced a year ago, it only got approved yesterday and is now available for download, priced at three bucks…

Filed as a collaborative content creation app, Taposé centers around a split-screen interface, allowing you to, say, drag addresses to Maps for directions or drag and drop from Safari. The Slide Bar feature lets you put frequently-used items such as notes, images and so forth, in the middle bar.

Other capabilities include handwriting and drawing tools, sticky notes, highlighter and lasso features, wrist guard for left- or right-handed users, zoom box and more.

Collaborating on content in real-time requires a Taposé subscription that offers 400MB of storage space free of charge. Unlimited data tiers are also available for purchase from within the app.

The Tapose team explained hurdles with getting the app into the App Store, writing in ablog post:

It only took four months, three rejections, one appeal win and then reversal of said appeal, management UI review, and then one more final review for good measure to get Taposé approved.

CNET provides a more detailed explanation:

It’s been a long road to get approval from Apple to sell the app in iTunes. Monnig said in early November that he expected to receive approval by Thanksgiving. The app was initially rejected because it ran two separate windows, and then because it used widgets showing calendars and reminders in a way that violated Apple’s rules for apps… After fixing those issues, Tapose hit another hurdle earlier this month regarding in-app subscriptions for its cloud-based storage that renewed automatically every month. After changing the pricing to a yearly subscription that didn’t automatically renew, the app was approved.

By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why the heck Microsoft killed the Courier project, check out this inside story by CNET from last November.

It’s interesting that the project is being backed by J Allard who used to head the Courier project at Microsoft, but left abruptly. The team had also advertised the app over atKickstarter and actually met their goal of raising $10,000 for the project.

They are already hard at work developing a “huge” 2.0 update that will “blow your mind”and will be like “comparing the first iPhone with the 3G”.

iTunes reviewers seem to like the app, sans its unresponsiveness. Here’s to the hoping they address the annoying laginess in a future update.

I could see myself using Taposé for iPad to improve my productivity, but if there’s one thing I hate in an app that’s gotta be an unresponsive user interface.

How do you like Taposé for iPad? Is it everything you’ve been hoping for?

idownloadblog.com

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Father of ‘less is more’ architecture The steel-and-glass Google Doodle structure is an homage to German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Mies was an advocate of simplicity and open floor plans. CSMonitor: Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the subject of today’s Google Doodle icon, was famous for his dictum “Less is more” and his minimalism design style. The architect, who was often known only as “Mies,” used “modern” materials – industrial steel and glass – to create the “bones” of interiors, while emphasizing  open spaces and simplicity. Mies was born in 1886 in Aachen, Germany and, after a stint in his father’s stone carving business, traveled toBerlin to work with architect Bruno Paul. After apprenticing himself to Peter Behrens, another architect, and working on the embassy for the German Empire in St. Petersburg, Russia, during his time with Behrens, Mies started his own architectural firm in Berlin in 1912. He married the next year. RECOMMENDED: Google Doodle’s you’ll never see  It was after his marriage came to an end in 1921 that Mies, formerly known simply as Ludwig Mies, changed his name to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – Rohe was the maiden name of his mother and “van der” was a traditional part of a Dutch name. Mies possibly added the “van der” section to avoid insulting German aristocrats who would look down on anyone giving him- or herself a self-styled German high-born name without being born to the title. Mies was inspired by the Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, especially Schinkel’s use of post and lintel construction, and admired the ideas of the Dutch De Stijl and Russian Constructivism movements. Russian Constructivism embraced using architecture to benefit society, while the Dutch De Stijl philosophy advocated simplicity in architecture, a sentiment that dovetailed nicely with the architect’s “less is more” mantra.  The architect became director of the Werkbund, a German organization of designers, artists and architects who later created the Weissenhof Project, which consisted of 21 buildings that contained 60 residences. The Weissenhof Project was noted for its use of an open plan design on the inside of the homes, a style which creates large open spaces rather than small rooms.  Mies also served as the director for the German architectural school Bauhaus, turning the school into a private institution when he took the helm, and was a founder of the German architectural group Der Ring, which focused on bringing the ideas of Modernist style to prominence.  The architect had trouble getting his designs built in the 1930s when the Nazi Party came to prominence in Germany and denounced his ideas as un-German, and Mies was forced to shut down Bauhaus after pressure from the political party. He came to the US. in 1937 and became head of the architecture department at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1938, later designing an overhaul of the school’s campus. The buildings built by Mies during that time still exist at the school, later renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology. Later projects included the glass-enclosed Farnsworth House near Chicago, which consists of an open space separated by partitions, and Chicago’s Twin Towers. His final work was the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, an art museum which again used his famous building tools of steel and glass.  While he traveled to Germany during the museum’s construction, Mies continued to live in Chicago until his death in 1969.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: Father of ‘less is more’ architecture

The steel-and-glass Google Doodle structure is an homage to German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Mies was an advocate of simplicity and open floor plans.

CSMonitor:


Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the subject of today’s Google Doodle icon, was famous for his dictum “Less is more” and his minimalism design style.

The architect, who was often known only as “Mies,” used “modern” materials – industrial steel and glass – to create the “bones” of interiors, while emphasizing  open spaces and simplicity.

Mies was born in 1886 in Aachen, Germany and, after a stint in his father’s stone carving business, traveled toBerlin to work with architect Bruno Paul. After apprenticing himself to Peter Behrens, another architect, and working on the embassy for the German Empire in St. Petersburg, Russia, during his time with Behrens, Mies started his own architectural firm in Berlin in 1912. He married the next year.

RECOMMENDED: Google Doodle’s you’ll never see

 It was after his marriage came to an end in 1921 that Mies, formerly known simply as Ludwig Mies, changed his name to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – Rohe was the maiden name of his mother and “van der” was a traditional part of a Dutch name. Mies possibly added the “van der” section to avoid insulting German aristocrats who would look down on anyone giving him- or herself a self-styled German high-born name without being born to the title.

Mies was inspired by the Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel, especially Schinkel’s use of post and lintel construction, and admired the ideas of the Dutch De Stijl and Russian Constructivism movements. Russian Constructivism embraced using architecture to benefit society, while the Dutch De Stijl philosophy advocated simplicity in architecture, a sentiment that dovetailed nicely with the architect’s “less is more” mantra. 

The architect became director of the Werkbund, a German organization of designers, artists and architects who later created the Weissenhof Project, which consisted of 21 buildings that contained 60 residences. The Weissenhof Project was noted for its use of an open plan design on the inside of the homes, a style which creates large open spaces rather than small rooms.

 Mies also served as the director for the German architectural school Bauhaus, turning the school into a private institution when he took the helm, and was a founder of the German architectural group Der Ring, which focused on bringing the ideas of Modernist style to prominence.

 The architect had trouble getting his designs built in the 1930s when the Nazi Party came to prominence in Germany and denounced his ideas as un-German, and Mies was forced to shut down Bauhaus after pressure from the political party. He came to the US. in 1937 and became head of the architecture department at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1938, later designing an overhaul of the school’s campus. The buildings built by Mies during that time still exist at the school, later renamed the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Later projects included the glass-enclosed Farnsworth House near Chicago, which consists of an open space separated by partitions, and Chicago’s Twin Towers. His final work was the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, an art museum which again used his famous building tools of steel and glass.

 While he traveled to Germany during the museum’s construction, Mies continued to live in Chicago until his death in 1969.

csmonitor.com

youngmanhattanite: keyanastevens: nyulocal: Join young journalists, bloggers and media enthusiasts from all over the Northeast in New York City for a day of panel discussions on New York media and the changing landscape of journalism. Last year’s YMW was a lot of fun and this year’s event is set to be even better. On April 21st, we will host two panels — one focusing on the current state of the media in general and one on data journalism – in NYU’s brand new Center for Spiritual Life. There will be an after party and details are forthcoming. You need to RSVP for the young media event of the year! Here’s the RSVP for the data panel and here’s the RSVP for the general panel. Why hasn’t Krucoff made fun of us yet? (Seriously tho, come.) I read it in a book, it was underlined.

youngmanhattanite:

keyanastevens:

nyulocal:

Join young journalists, bloggers and media enthusiasts from all over the Northeast in New York City for a day of panel discussions on New York media and the changing landscape of journalism.

Last year’s YMW was a lot of fun and this year’s event is set to be even better. On April 21st, we will host two panels — one focusing on the current state of the media in general and one on data journalism – in NYU’s brand new Center for Spiritual Life. There will be an after party and details are forthcoming.

You need to RSVP for the young media event of the year! Here’s the RSVP for the data panel and here’s the RSVP for the general panel.

Why hasn’t Krucoff made fun of us yet? (Seriously tho, come.)

I read it in a book, it was underlined.

nyulocal

Fifth Avenue Apple Store sold over 13,000 iPads in first 12 hours iDownloadBlog: Earlier today, both AT&T and Apple announced that they saw record-breaking iPad sales over the weekend. Neither company, however, gave any kind of specific sales figures. So while everyone is speculating — we’ve heard it’s well over a million — The Verge has gotten some ballpark estimates from the popular Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City… “Here’s what we’re hearing: within the first 12 hours of the iPad’s launch — between 8AM and 8PM local time — the store sold over 13,000 new iPads, an average of about 18 per minute. Daily store revenue, which typically falls between $700,000 to $1 million this quarter, was up to $11.5 million on launch day. “ Wow, selling nearly 20 iPads a minute for 12 straight hours is quite a feat — especially for a single retail location. But perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the Fifth Avenue store had that kind of inventory on hand. Last year, retailers saw almost immediate supply shortages after the iPad 2 launch, receiving only a handful of units per day for about a week before the tablets were completely sold out. Apple was obviously a bit more prepared this time around. This might also explain why some news outlets are reporting a lack of demand for the new iPad, as several resellers around the country are claiming to still have inventory left. For what it’s worth, I visited our local Apple Store in Portland, Oregon, and then another one in Seattle, Washington over the weekend, and both had lines out the door. It’ll be interesting to see how many tablets Apple sells this quarter, considering it’s coming off a record-breaking holiday period. We should hear those numbers during the company’s earnings call sometime next month.

Fifth Avenue Apple Store sold over 13,000 iPads in first 12 hours

iDownloadBlog:

Earlier today, both AT&T and Apple announced that they saw record-breaking iPad sales over the weekend. Neither company, however, gave any kind of specific sales figures.

So while everyone is speculating — we’ve heard it’s well over a million — The Verge has gotten some ballpark estimates from the popular Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City…

“Here’s what we’re hearing: within the first 12 hours of the iPad’s launch — between 8AM and 8PM local time — the store sold over 13,000 new iPads, an average of about 18 per minute. Daily store revenue, which typically falls between $700,000 to $1 million this quarter, was up to $11.5 million on launch day. “

Wow, selling nearly 20 iPads a minute for 12 straight hours is quite a feat — especially for a single retail location. But perhaps even more interesting is the fact that the Fifth Avenue store had that kind of inventory on hand.

Last year, retailers saw almost immediate supply shortages after the iPad 2 launch, receiving only a handful of units per day for about a week before the tablets were completely sold out. Apple was obviously a bit more prepared this time around.

This might also explain why some news outlets are reporting a lack of demand for the new iPad, as several resellers around the country are claiming to still have inventory left. For what it’s worth, I visited our local Apple Store in Portland, Oregon, and then another one in Seattle, Washington over the weekend, and both had lines out the door.

It’ll be interesting to see how many tablets Apple sells this quarter, considering it’s coming off a record-breaking holiday period. We should hear those numbers during the company’s earnings call sometime next month.

idownloadblog.com

Sparrow for iPhone Review MacStories: Back in 2006, when Apple was still rumored to be working on a revolutionary mobile phone, many wondered if such device would be able to do core tasks like email and messaging as well as RIM’s BlackBerry. Months later, when the iPhone was officially announced at Macworld, the introduction of the device alone led some people to write that it was “already impacting its new competitors” — namely RIM, and its BlackBerry line of phones that had captured a great portion of corporate America. Yet, those people were right: the numbers are speaking for themselves now, and the many issues behind RIM’s poor management and marketing choices can be traced back to the iPhone’s introduction. At Macworld 2007, a healthy-looking Steve Jobs said: “This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. […] Today we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone”. Looking back at that day now, it’s a shared sentiment among those who have been following Apple for the past years that Steve touched his highest point in presentation style and product-unveiling skills with that keynote. Because while Steve may no longer be with us today, his words still resonate stronger than ever. On that day, Apple did reinvent the phone. And as it turns out, the revolution wasn’t just about multitouch and elegant hardware design. It was about the software. Later on during that keynote, Steve arrived at the third section of the presentation and iPhone feature set, which was also described as an “Internet communications device”. The first item in that slide was Rich HTML email — “for the first time, really rich email on a mobile device”, he said. Sure enough, the iPhone’s Mail app was demoed on stage to show off its rich HTML-parsing capabilities, which included inline images, rich text, support for phone numbers and web links, and more. When the iPhone went on sale six months later, on June 29, and debuted online to rave reviews from the press, many praised its email capabilities, among other things. But then something happened in the following months. As Apple kept adding features to iPhone and refining its core apps including Mail, users and developers began wondering when Apple would allow for third-party apps to be installed on the device. For as much as Apple was adding new functionalities and fixes, there are always niches and sub-markets that Apple can’t address in new software releases — corporate email was one of them, as, admittedly, that were still several things Apple wasn’t adding to its email client to please business users from corporate environments. When Apple did confirm its plans to open up iPhone OS and offer an App Store, users wondered if it would be possible, like it still is on a Mac, to install replacements for the “core apps”, such as the browser, email client, or calendar application. In a somewhat unexpected and much criticized turn of events, Apple made it clear to developers that it would not accept third-party apps duplicating the functionality of build-in iPhone applications. John Gruber has a good recollection of the events from 2008 — case in point MailWrangler, an email app that was rejected at the time. I have a theory. It is more, well, emotional than logical. But it’s the only theory I can think of that makes any sense at all and fits the available evidence. The theory is that there is an unpublished rule that Apple — and in this case, where by “Apple” I really mean “Steven P. Jobs” — will not publish third-party apps that compete with or replace any of the four apps in the iPhone’s default “dock”: Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod. In the following years, in spite of App Store-related controversies showing up every once in a while, developers more or less “understood” how Apple’s approval process worked, and kept working on apps that would be “safe” for sale within Apple’s rules. Publishing a set of guidelines certainly helped in making things clear for everyone, but new apps that belonged to categories not mentioned in the guidelines would still appear in the App Store, forcing Apple to revise its guidelines or impose new limits. This often happens after new iOS technologies are made available to developers — a recent example is the banning of Notification Center utilities. However, one thing has been clear since MailWrangler’s rejection in 2008: full replacements for Apple’s system apps can’t be developed for the App Store. Developers can use the frameworks behind system features to develop third-party apps: Address Book companions, Calendar utilities, photo editing apps — these are all built using APIs and frameworks available publicly. The same has been true for browsers, which have to use Safari’s rendering engine, and alternative mail clients, which haven’t been exactly popular on the App Store, with the exception of Google’s Gmail app — an app that, however, is based on web views. Today marks an important day in the history of the App Store. For the first time, Apple is letting a third-party developer sell a full-featured, custom email client that uses its proprietary email engine to iPhone users. Sparrow, already popular on the Mac and available on the Mac App Store, comes to the iPhone’s App Store today, and it promises to offer a newer, fresh take on email to lure back customers whose only choice since 2007 has been Apple’s Mail.app. When Dom Leca, Sparrow co-founder, confirmed they were working on an iPhone version of the app back in August 2011, we were skeptical as to whether Apple would approve such app. After all, we had facts to back up our theory: Apple hadn’t been accepting email clients using their own engine — which I’m told Sparrow indeed does — since the App Store opened for business, and it always seemed like a very risky move — business wise — to attempt the App Store’s luck and submit a third-party email client. Today, I think the real question is: has anyone really ever tried since 2008? If you think about it, Apple isn’t new to change and relaxing restrictions that were previously enforced. Recent cases include in-app subscriptions (initially meant for “publishing apps” only) and the whole iBooks Author EULAbrouhaha. Apple may have taken a lot of controversial decisions with the App Store’s approval system in the past, but it seems to me the company hasn’t been afraid of change and evolution and listening to users’ feedback in the past months. Sparrow for iPhone is here to prove it: whereas 2008 Apple would have never approved a third-party email client that is completely independent from Mail.app, 2012 Apple is fine with it. This, I believe, signals a change both in terms of different market size today and overall message behind the App Store and iOS (Apple isn’t forced to ostensibly promote its own native apps anymore, preferring to foster an ecosystem of third-party appsrunning alongside the native offerings). If both iOS and OS X computers are just devices now, why can’t iOS have the same email client that is sold on the Mac App Store? If this is the case, it will be interesting to see whether more parity between the two systems will be achieved in the future (I’m thinking GateKeeper). For now, what matters is that Sparrow is out on the iPhone. Before I delve deeper into the feature set of the app, I want to stress two important factors to consider when pondering a purchase of Sparrow. First off, Sparrow isn’t definitely a “fad”, like some suggested, as the developers are committed to keep supporting this app, enhancing it with new features, and, most importantly, charging for it. Just take a look at how much Sparrow changed from the first beta released in October 2010, and today’s latestMac version. Leca and his team kept refining the app until they were comfortable with a UI that sort-of-reminds us of Tweetie but still has its own unique aspects; they added a slew of functionalities to make switching from Apple’s Mail easier, and then decided to charge for it and continue improving it. We have followed the development of Sparrow closely. I can only imagine that the same will happen with the iOS version. Second, I’d like to point out how Mail for iOS hasn’t been the most innovative software from Apple to come out in the past five years. Whilst the company was busy releasing outstanding versions of iWork and iLife apps completely rethought for multitouch and mobile devices, Mail has been rather conservative in terms of design and fresh ideas and experimentations since version 1.0 — sure, it gained new features, but today’s Mail doesn’t look and act much differently than 2007′s Mail.app for iPhone OS. I have included screenshots — those from iPhone OS 1.0 courtesy of Engadget — to show how Mail got new features and optimizations, but has still the same structure, feel, and workflow we first learned when the original iPhone came out.

Sparrow for iPhone Review

MacStories:

Back in 2006, when Apple was still rumored to be working on a revolutionary mobile phone, many wondered if such device would be able to do core tasks like email and messaging as well as RIM’s BlackBerry. Months later, when the iPhone was officially announced at Macworld, the introduction of the device alone led some people to write that it was “already impacting its new competitors” — namely RIM, and its BlackBerry line of phones that had captured a great portion of corporate America. Yet, those people were right: the numbers are speaking for themselves now, and the many issues behind RIM’s poor management and marketing choices can be traced back to the iPhone’s introduction.

At Macworld 2007, a healthy-looking Steve Jobs said: “This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. […] Today we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class.

Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone”.

Looking back at that day now, it’s a shared sentiment among those who have been following Apple for the past years that Steve touched his highest point in presentation style and product-unveiling skills with that keynote. Because while Steve may no longer be with us today, his words still resonate stronger than ever. On that day, Apple did reinvent the phone. And as it turns out, the revolution wasn’t just about multitouch and elegant hardware design.

It was about the software.

Later on during that keynote, Steve arrived at the third section of the presentation and iPhone feature set, which was also described as an “Internet communications device”. The first item in that slide was Rich HTML email — “for the first time, really rich email on a mobile device”, he said. Sure enough, the iPhone’s Mail app was demoed on stage to show off its rich HTML-parsing capabilities, which included inline images, rich text, support for phone numbers and web links, and more. When the iPhone went on sale six months later, on June 29, and debuted online to rave reviews from the press, many praised its email capabilities, among other things.

But then something happened in the following months. As Apple kept adding features to iPhone and refining its core apps including Mail, users and developers began wondering when Apple would allow for third-party apps to be installed on the device. For as much as Apple was adding new functionalities and fixes, there are always niches and sub-markets that Apple can’t address in new software releases — corporate email was one of them, as, admittedly, that were still several things Apple wasn’t adding to its email client to please business users from corporate environments. When Apple did confirm its plans to open up iPhone OS and offer an App Store, users wondered if it would be possible, like it still is on a Mac, to install replacements for the “core apps”, such as the browser, email client, or calendar application. In a somewhat unexpected and much criticized turn of events, Apple made it clear to developers that it would not accept third-party apps duplicating the functionality of build-in iPhone applications.

John Gruber has a good recollection of the events from 2008 — case in point MailWrangler, an email app that was rejected at the time.

I have a theory. It is more, well, emotional than logical. But it’s the only theory I can think of that makes any sense at all and fits the available evidence. The theory is that there is an unpublished rule that Apple — and in this case, where by “Apple” I really mean “Steven P. Jobs” — will not publish third-party apps that compete with or replace any of the four apps in the iPhone’s default “dock”: Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod.

In the following years, in spite of App Store-related controversies showing up every once in a while, developers more or less “understood” how Apple’s approval process worked, and kept working on apps that would be “safe” for sale within Apple’s rules. Publishing a set of guidelines certainly helped in making things clear for everyone, but new apps that belonged to categories not mentioned in the guidelines would still appear in the App Store, forcing Apple to revise its guidelines or impose new limits. This often happens after new iOS technologies are made available to developers — a recent example is the banning of Notification Center utilities. However, one thing has been clear since MailWrangler’s rejection in 2008: full replacements for Apple’s system apps can’t be developed for the App Store. Developers can use the frameworks behind system features to develop third-party apps: Address Book companions, Calendar utilities, photo editing apps — these are all built using APIs and frameworks available publicly. The same has been true for browsers, which have to use Safari’s rendering engine, and alternative mail clients, which haven’t been exactly popular on the App Store, with the exception of Google’s Gmail app — an app that, however, is based on web views.

Today marks an important day in the history of the App Store. For the first time, Apple is letting a third-party developer sell a full-featured, custom email client that uses its proprietary email engine to iPhone users. Sparrow, already popular on the Mac and available on the Mac App Store, comes to the iPhone’s App Store today, and it promises to offer a newer, fresh take on email to lure back customers whose only choice since 2007 has been Apple’s Mail.app.

When Dom Leca, Sparrow co-founder, confirmed they were working on an iPhone version of the app back in August 2011, we were skeptical as to whether Apple would approve such app. After all, we had facts to back up our theory: Apple hadn’t been accepting email clients using their own engine — which I’m told Sparrow indeed does — since the App Store opened for business, and it always seemed like a very risky move — business wise — to attempt the App Store’s luck and submit a third-party email client. Today, I think the real question is: has anyone really ever tried since 2008?

If you think about it, Apple isn’t new to change and relaxing restrictions that were previously enforced. Recent cases include in-app subscriptions (initially meant for “publishing apps” only) and the whole iBooks Author EULAbrouhaha. Apple may have taken a lot of controversial decisions with the App Store’s approval system in the past, but it seems to me the company hasn’t been afraid of change and evolution and listening to users’ feedback in the past months. Sparrow for iPhone is here to prove it: whereas 2008 Apple would have never approved a third-party email client that is completely independent from Mail.app, 2012 Apple is fine with it. This, I believe, signals a change both in terms of different market size today and overall message behind the App Store and iOS (Apple isn’t forced to ostensibly promote its own native apps anymore, preferring to foster an ecosystem of third-party appsrunning alongside the native offerings). If both iOS and OS X computers are just devices now, why can’t iOS have the same email client that is sold on the Mac App Store? If this is the case, it will be interesting to see whether more parity between the two systems will be achieved in the future (I’m thinking GateKeeper). For now, what matters is that Sparrow is out on the iPhone.

Before I delve deeper into the feature set of the app, I want to stress two important factors to consider when pondering a purchase of Sparrow. First off, Sparrow isn’t definitely a “fad”, like some suggested, as the developers are committed to keep supporting this app, enhancing it with new features, and, most importantly, charging for it. Just take a look at how much Sparrow changed from the first beta released in October 2010, and today’s latestMac version. Leca and his team kept refining the app until they were comfortable with a UI that sort-of-reminds us of Tweetie but still has its own unique aspects; they added a slew of functionalities to make switching from Apple’s Mail easier, and then decided to charge for it and continue improving it. We have followed the development of Sparrow closely. I can only imagine that the same will happen with the iOS version.

Second, I’d like to point out how Mail for iOS hasn’t been the most innovative software from Apple to come out in the past five years. Whilst the company was busy releasing outstanding versions of iWork and iLife apps completely rethought for multitouch and mobile devices, Mail has been rather conservative in terms of design and fresh ideas and experimentations since version 1.0 — sure, it gained new features, but today’s Mail doesn’t look and act much differently than 2007′s Mail.app for iPhone OS. I have included screenshots — those from iPhone OS 1.0 courtesy of Engadget — to show how Mail got new features and optimizations, but has still the same structure, feel, and workflow we first learned when the original iPhone came out.

macstories.net

My Favorite iOS Text Editors Comparing My Favorite iOS Text Editors Federico Viticci: Earlier this year, I promised myself that I would get more work done using the iPad. The plan was an ambitious one: after three years of writing, researching, and online communication done exclusively using my MacBook (and, perhaps to an extent, my iPhone) switching to the iPad as my main work machine did indeed seem like a daunting task at first. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized the long-term benefits of giving the iPad a fair chance as a full-time writing tool would outnumber the perks of using a device I am accustomed to. With a mature ecosystem of apps that sees great new software coming out every week and a Retina display on the horizon, starting to use the iPad as my main computer was an investment. The experiment has been a success so far. I use my iPad a lot more, I enjoy it, and, more importantly, the device is helping me work smarter because it lets me focus more on what I do for a living: writing. If anything, the only negative note is that the iPad has given too much choice when it comes to picking a single writing tool. See, on the Mac, when I need a text editor, I usually fire up Text Edit (rigorously set in plain text mode) and forget about it. But there is no Text Edit for iPad. And all those text editors on the App Store look so tempting. What follows is an overview of the four text editors (for writing, not coding) that I have preferred using in the past three months. Like TJ Luoma, I have bought many of them. Almost too many, to the point where I needed to stop fiddling already, and get the writing done. Because while I’m one for supporting developers and buying apps and paying for the tools I use, there is a line between “trying software” and “using software to work better”, and I had crossed that line with my curiosity for text editors. So I took all of them, tested them, and deleted the ones I didn’t like. I kept the ones with Markdown formatting and Dropbox sync. I didn’t include recent additions to the ecosystem like iA Writer (for iPhone) and Byword, as I need to test them more accurately. Eventually, I picked four apps. Some smart folks have already written about the note-taking apps/text editors they like and use. Mine doesn’t want to be a comprehensive comparison that takes into account all the possible options from the App Store. It will likely lack the app you like, and yes, it’s also very likely that it’s not here for a reason. In this article, I am just comparing four apps that, taken singularly, allow me to write for the site; these four apps can stand on their own. However, they have their differences, which is why I am, ultimately, going to choose one and stick with it. The apps are universal, and while I am primarily looking at their iPad versions, almost all of the features I mention are also available on the iPhone. I have no doubt new iOS text editors will come out, activating my curiosity trigger again. Until then, these are the four text editors I was most impressed with. Read More of the Review Click Here • Follow the author of this post on Twitter as @viticci

My Favorite iOS Text Editors

Comparing My Favorite iOS Text Editors

Federico Viticci:

Earlier this year, I promised myself that I would get more work done using the iPad. The plan was an ambitious one: after three years of writing, researching, and online communication done exclusively using my MacBook (and, perhaps to an extent, my iPhone) switching to the iPad as my main work machine did indeed seem like a daunting task at first. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realized the long-term benefits of giving the iPad a fair chance as a full-time writing tool would outnumber the perks of using a device I am accustomed to. With a mature ecosystem of apps that sees great new software coming out every week and a Retina display on the horizon, starting to use the iPad as my main computer was an investment.

The experiment has been a success so far. I use my iPad a lot more, I enjoy it, and, more importantly, the device is helping me work smarter because it lets me focus more on what I do for a living: writing.

If anything, the only negative note is that the iPad has given too much choice when it comes to picking a single writing tool. See, on the Mac, when I need a text editor, I usually fire up Text Edit (rigorously set in plain text mode) and forget about it. But there is no Text Edit for iPad. And all those text editors on the App Store look so tempting.

What follows is an overview of the four text editors (for writing, not coding) that I have preferred using in the past three months. Like TJ Luoma, I have bought many of them. Almost too many, to the point where I needed to stop fiddling already, and get the writing done. Because while I’m one for supporting developers and buying apps and paying for the tools I use, there is a line between “trying software” and “using software to work better”, and I had crossed that line with my curiosity for text editors. So I took all of them, tested them, and deleted the ones I didn’t like. I kept the ones with Markdown formatting and Dropbox sync. I didn’t include recent additions to the ecosystem like iA Writer (for iPhone) and Byword, as I need to test them more accurately. Eventually, I picked four apps.

Some smart folks have already written about the note-taking apps/text editors they like and use. Mine doesn’t want to be a comprehensive comparison that takes into account all the possible options from the App Store. It will likely lack the app you like, and yes, it’s also very likely that it’s not here for a reason. In this article, I am just comparing four apps that, taken singularly, allow me to write for the site; these four apps can stand on their own. However, they have their differences, which is why I am, ultimately, going to choose one and stick with it. The apps are universal, and while I am primarily looking at their iPad versions, almost all of the features I mention are also available on the iPhone.

I have no doubt new iOS text editors will come out, activating my curiosity trigger again. Until then, these are the four text editors I was most impressed with.

Read More of the Review Click Here

• Follow the author of this post on Twitter as @viticci

macstories.net

Instapaper 4.1 Federico Viticci: In my review of Readability for iOS, I wrote: I think there are various important points to stress: the Instapaper app has been around for years now, and with the recent 4.0 update it solidified the strong feature set offered by Arment which, quite honestly, is still unsurpassed. Put simply: you can’t do all the things you’re able to do in Instapaper with the new Readability app. So, if you’re really used to Instapaper’s pagination settings, Friends discovery, sharing options and app integrations, you might want to consider staying with Instapaper. I am one of those users that, for a number of reasons, are glad to stay with Instapaper. When it comes to my reading list, I invested too much time in building a personal archive of articles I enjoyed that I feel uncomfortable switching, after years of usage, to another service. That was the most difficult part of writing my Readability review: to be able to take an objective and balanced look at the app — which, again, I believe is a very good one — while knowing that I would stick with Instapaper. But it’s okay: unlike some people, I don’t see competitors as “enemies”, and healthy competition ultimately leads to more innovation. Omitting the inelegant words of other people that only show a lack of grace when it comes to respecting your competitors, I think Readability and Instapaper can coexist. And as I wrote, I do hope that Readability can figure out a better way to manage its payment platform for publishers. I like and use Instapaper, and in my perfect vision of the software scene everyone would just work hard silently and strive to one-up a competitor, with class. Last night, Marco Arment released a 4.1 update to Instapaper. You can find it on the App Store, and the app also comes with Retina assets for the new iPad, if you got one yesterday. Perhaps more importantly, at least for me, Instapaper 4.1 adds a series of improvements and design refinements that only make an already fantastic 4.0 version even better. In the Readability review, I praised the custom fonts used by the developers to render body text. I am no typography expert, but I had grown tired of reading with Georgia in Instapaper, and Readability’s Vitesse and Sentinel — for as much as type experts will dismiss my claims as heresy — felt like a breath of fresh air to me. Sure enough, I know Marco had been working on licensing the fonts he wanted in Instapaper for quite some time, and Instapaper 4.1 shows these results Currently, these new fonts coexist with the existing ones (Verdana, Georgia, Helvetica, Hoefler Text, Palatino, Baskerville) in the app’s font-picking menu, and Marco says he may hide the old ones behind an option in a future update. Indeed, I can say I love the new fonts provided in Instapaper. They look amazingly sharp on the 4S’ Retina display, and I can’t wait to see them in action on the new iPad. For now, I like to use FF Meta on the iPhone, and Elena on the iPad. I have always liked my iPhone’s Instapaper with sans-serif typefaces for some reason. There are three more features I like in the new Instapaper. Full-screen mode, like in iBooks, gets rid of all UI chrome and only presents what matters: text. There is an option to disable this functionality in the Settings (like in iBooks, you can activate it with a tap on screen), and I hope it will be further refined in a future update as there are some bugs (see) — I also wish Marco will consider an option to leave this on by default. Keep in mind that once in full-screen, you can’t tap on the iOS status bar to scroll to the top, because there is no status bar. Gestures now allow you to go back to the reading list without tapping buttons. In scrolling mode, you can go back with a swipe to the right; in pagination mode, you can just page past the beginning or end of an article. I have my Instapaper set to scrolling mode, and I like the sliding animation on the iPhone better (after a swipe to the right). Twilight Sepia is another design tweak that leverages Instapaper’s existing automatic dark mode based on time zones to progressively tint the screen with a sepia tone in the early evening hours. I don’t use this feature, but it sounds like a very smart implementation. Instapaper was already an excellent app and service, and with version 4.1 and the new bookmarklet Marco has been busy making great improvements lately. As usual, it comes down to what you want from a read later app, and Instapaper works for me. Get it from the App Store. • Follow the author of this post on Twitter as @viticci

Instapaper 4.1

Federico Viticci:

In my review of Readability for iOS, I wrote:

I think there are various important points to stress: the Instapaper app has been around for years now, and with the recent 4.0 update it solidified the strong feature set offered by Arment which, quite honestly, is still unsurpassed. Put simply: you can’t do all the things you’re able to do in Instapaper with the new Readability app. So, if you’re really used to Instapaper’s pagination settings, Friends discovery, sharing options and app integrations, you might want to consider staying with Instapaper.

I am one of those users that, for a number of reasons, are glad to stay with Instapaper. When it comes to my reading list, I invested too much time in building a personal archive of articles I enjoyed that I feel uncomfortable switching, after years of usage, to another service. That was the most difficult part of writing my Readability review: to be able to take an objective and balanced look at the app — which, again, I believe is a very good one — while knowing that I would stick with Instapaper. But it’s okay: unlike some people, I don’t see competitors as “enemies”, and healthy competition ultimately leads to more innovation. Omitting the inelegant words of other people that only show a lack of grace when it comes to respecting your competitors, I think Readability and Instapaper can coexist. And as I wrote, I do hope that Readability can figure out a better way to manage its payment platform for publishers. I like and use Instapaper, and in my perfect vision of the software scene everyone would just work hard silently and strive to one-up a competitor, with class.

Last night, Marco Arment released a 4.1 update to Instapaper. You can find it on the App Store, and the app also comes with Retina assets for the new iPad, if you got one yesterday. Perhaps more importantly, at least for me, Instapaper 4.1 adds a series of improvements and design refinements that only make an already fantastic 4.0 version even better.

In the Readability review, I praised the custom fonts used by the developers to render body text. I am no typography expert, but I had grown tired of reading with Georgia in Instapaper, and Readability’s Vitesse and Sentinel — for as much as type experts will dismiss my claims as heresy — felt like a breath of fresh air to me. Sure enough, I know Marco had been working on licensing the fonts he wanted in Instapaper for quite some time, and Instapaper 4.1 shows these results

Currently, these new fonts coexist with the existing ones (Verdana, Georgia, Helvetica, Hoefler Text, Palatino, Baskerville) in the app’s font-picking menu, and Marco says he may hide the old ones behind an option in a future update. Indeed, I can say I love the new fonts provided in Instapaper. They look amazingly sharp on the 4S’ Retina display, and I can’t wait to see them in action on the new iPad. For now, I like to use FF Meta on the iPhone, and Elena on the iPad. I have always liked my iPhone’s Instapaper with sans-serif typefaces for some reason.

There are three more features I like in the new Instapaper. Full-screen mode, like in iBooks, gets rid of all UI chrome and only presents what matters: text. There is an option to disable this functionality in the Settings (like in iBooks, you can activate it with a tap on screen), and I hope it will be further refined in a future update as there are some bugs (see) — I also wish Marco will consider an option to leave this on by default. Keep in mind that once in full-screen, you can’t tap on the iOS status bar to scroll to the top, because there is no status bar.

Gestures now allow you to go back to the reading list without tapping buttons. In scrolling mode, you can go back with a swipe to the right; in pagination mode, you can just page past the beginning or end of an article. I have my Instapaper set to scrolling mode, and I like the sliding animation on the iPhone better (after a swipe to the right).

Twilight Sepia is another design tweak that leverages Instapaper’s existing automatic dark mode based on time zones to progressively tint the screen with a sepia tone in the early evening hours. I don’t use this feature, but it sounds like a very smart implementation.

Instapaper was already an excellent app and service, and with version 4.1 and the new bookmarklet Marco has been busy making great improvements lately. As usual, it comes down to what you want from a read later app, and Instapaper works for me. Get it from the App Store.

• Follow the author of this post on Twitter as @viticci

macstories.net

The new iPad giveaway! NOT A SCAM!!! iDownloadBlog: Yes, we’re giving away a 3rd generation iPad to one fortunate reader. Why buy a new iPad when you can get one for absolutely free? All you have to do is follow a few instructions and you’ll be entered to win. The winner will be announced next Friday. Check inside for more details… How to win a new iPad (Black, 16GB, WiFi only): Step 1: Like this post on Facebook, and like our Facebook page. Step 2: Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and post a comment on the video with your thoughts and your Twitter or Facebook ID. We’d also appreciate it if you gave a thumbs up to our video, though that has no bearing on the giveaway. Step 3: Follow us on Twitter and retweet this post. If you successfully perform those 3 steps, then consider yourself entered to win. If you don’t have Facebook or Twitter, remember those services are free to sign up. It’s worth it when you consider that you can win a new ipad for free. This giveaway is open to international readers, and we will handle the shipping cost involved as a courtesy to you. We really love our readers and the awesome support that you have shown us over the years. We wish we could give an iPad to each and every one of you, but this is the next best thing. Have you entered yet? A winner that meets all of the requirements will be randomly selected next Friday, March 23rd, 2012.

The new iPad giveaway!

NOT A SCAM!!!

iDownloadBlog:

Yes, we’re giving away a 3rd generation iPad to one fortunate reader. Why buy a new iPad when you can get one for absolutely free?

All you have to do is follow a few instructions and you’ll be entered to win. The winner will be announced next Friday. Check inside for more details…

How to win a new iPad (Black, 16GB, WiFi only):

Step 1: Like this post on Facebook, and like our Facebook page.

Step 2: Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and post a comment on the video with your thoughts and your Twitter or Facebook ID. We’d also appreciate it if you gave a thumbs up to our video, though that has no bearing on the giveaway.

Step 3: Follow us on Twitter and retweet this post.

If you successfully perform those 3 steps, then consider yourself entered to win.

If you don’t have Facebook or Twitter, remember those services are free to sign up. It’s worth it when you consider that you can win a new ipad for free.

This giveaway is open to international readers, and we will handle the shipping cost involved as a courtesy to you.

We really love our readers and the awesome support that you have shown us over the years. We wish we could give an iPad to each and every one of you, but this is the next best thing.

Have you entered yet? A winner that meets all of the requirements will be randomly selected next Friday, March 23rd, 2012.

idownloadblog.com