TestFlight Improvements and the Developer Climate

Yesterday Apple released an update for the TestFlight app. TestFlight is a tool that allows developers to release beta iPhone and iPad software to testers. At any one time I’m running several beta applications on my iPhone and and iPad via TestFlight. When I saw the update come down yesterday I didn’t think much of it.

Today, however, I have heard from several developer friends that are quite excited about these new updates. In particular, the new version allows developers to send out multiple versions of the application for testing. With the new system developers can test different versions of their app to different users or even multiple versions to the same user. This allows for better testing and comparison. They’ve also extended testing period from 60 to 90 days.

Apple has made strides in the last six months in giving developers for the iPhone and the iPad better tools. In addition to these most recent changes to TestFlight, developers can now also respond to feedback, Apple is improving search optimization, and they’ve even become more flexible with the pricing models for subscriptions.

I would very much like to think this is foundational work to create an environment where developers are more encouraged to develop professional caliber applications for iPad and iPhone. Fingers crossed.

Star Wars Celebration

I remember being a teenager and talking to one of the older gents in my neighborhood. At the time I thought he was ancient but looking back I’m pretty sure he was younger than I am now. Anyway, he told me that the older you get, the weirder you get. I’ve never forgot about that and it generally rings true with my life.

As I’ve been busy with MacSparky, the law practice, and my family, I’ve disconnected from a lot of popular culture things over the years. I don’t keep up with sports and I don’t watch much TV. I do, however, spend way too much time thinking about Star Wars. I was eight years old when the first movie came out and I bonded to it like a baby duck to its mama. I’ve heard all of the critiques of Star Wars and even agree with a few of them but at the end of the day, I still love it more than a grown man reasonably should.

So this week I’m taking a little trip to Orlando Florida where I will be attending the Star Wars Celebration. It’s a gathering of the Star Wars tribe where I won’t be giving any presentations or working with sponsors or any of the other things I do at most conferences. Instead, I’ll be just another guy going to sessions, making a few new friends, and geeking out.

The organizers of the event were crazy enough to give me a media badge so I’m going to take that seriously and even write a few posts here about what’s really going on in that galaxy far, far away. I’m also going to be posting photos on my Snapchat and Instagram accounts. I’ll probably also make some noise on Twitter as well.

So if you’re attending the Star Wars Celebration, please look me up. If Star Wars makes your eyes roll, please feel free to ignore my posts on the subject this week. I will tag them all “Star Wars” so you can set your filters accordingly.

MPU 372 – Workflows with Dr. Drang

This week our favorite snowman returns to the Mac Power Users. We discuss the evolving definition of “pro” and “power user” as well as new workflows for managing text, creative uses for Keyboard maestro, managing Apple Mail and the Doc dives into the iPad.

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JD Powers Tablet Survey

in the most recent JD Powers survey, the Microsoft Surface edges out the iPad. This is not entirely surprising to me. I’ve been paying a lot attention lately as I go out into the public and work with my iPad about what other devices are in use. As I write these words, I’m at Starbucks with a person using a Microsoft Surface sitting next to me. That’s not unusual.

This is yet one more data point in my argument that the big problem with iPad is software. If being productive on the iPad is too fiddly, users are going to revert to their MacBook (or Microsoft Surface). WWDC can’t come soon enough.

Sponsor: SaneBox and Email Reminders

This week MacSparky is sponsored by SaneBox, the email service that can start saving your bacon today. With SaneBox at your back, you add a powerful set of email tools that can work in just about any email client. With SaneBox you can:

Wake up everyday to find the SaneBox robots have automatically sorted your incoming email for you so you can address the important and ignore the irrelevant.
Defer email for hours, days, or weeks so it is out of your life until a more appropriate time.
Set secret reminders so if someone doesn’t reply to an important email SaneBox gives you a nudge to follow up.
Automatically save attachments to the cloud (like Dropbox).
Use their SaneForward service to automatically send appropriate emails to services like Evernote, Expensify, and Kayak.
Move unwanted email to the SaneBlackHole and never see anything from that person again.

Lately I’ve been getting a lot more serious about email reminders with SaneBox. When I send an email to a client or a business associate that requires a reply, I blind copy the email to 1week@sanebox.com or 2days@sanebox.com or april17@sanebox.com. Then I forget about it.

SaneBox keeps track of whether or not I get reply to that email and, if I haven’t received a reply in the designated time, it gives me a reminder. This allows me to dodge the whole process of putting tasks into my system to track email replies. I’ve been using this a lot more lately and I’m saving time as a result. As seen above, this is just one of the many features available to SaneBox subscribers.

The list goes on. Why not straighten out your email in 2017 by getting a SaneBox account and bringing a gun to a knife fight. If you sign up with this link, you even get a discount off your subscription.

Free Agents 18: A Series of Logical Decisions with Greg Pierce

America’s greatest podcast about independent workers (or at least some American’s favorite) is back this week with an interview of Greg Pierce, who’s been sticking it to a the man and making great software on his own for 10 years. This show is not just for software developers. Greg’s got lots of great common sense advice.

Ulysses Version 2.8

As time goes on, Ulysses (website) (Mac App Store) (iOS App Store) becomes more and more important in my writing workflows. At this point I’m using it for much of my books, this blog, and extended legal writing. I like the app’s clean design. (It won an Apple Design Award last year.) I also like its reliability and ubiquity on all of my Apple devices. Yesterday they released the newest version 2.8. There are several new features worth mention.

Touch ID Security

The updated version adds Touch ID security. You can now add a password to your Ulysses file and optionally open it with Touch ID. As a lawyer, I appreciate this. It’s now going to be a lot harder for unwanted eyes to see my briefs.

New Automation Tools

The new version also adds some additional automation tools via URL callbacks. Specifically, you can now set a group title and you can read from an existing sheet. That second one is interesting. As I’m increasingly using Workflow to automate Ulysses, the ability to pull data out of the database will be useful. I need to play with this more before I can share some useful Workflows but they will be coming.

Better filters Statistics

Document management tools got a bump as well. Filters can now also be used to narrow down the library content according to negative criteria. For instance, you can look for documents that do not include the word “rutabaga”. You can also now see text statistics for groups and filters, which up until today was only available on the Mac version.

An Interesting Story about Icons

I met some of the Ulysses team last year at WWDC. We got in an extended discussion about, of all things, icons. I find the little icons in Ulysses useful as a visual guide as I’m working through my various banks of words. Here’s a screenshot of my MacSparky folder and its related icons.

I asked why can’t add my own custom icons and they gave me a very opinionated answer. Put simply, they don’t want anyone but their own design team putting graphics into Ulysses. As a compromise, however, they said they take user requests for additional icons very seriously. They explained they intended to regularly update the app with custom designed icons in response to user requests.

While this approach can work, they’ve got to make good on it. Today they did with several new and interesting icons to help customize your Ulysses groups. I will note that while they have rain clouds, they don’t have a MacSparky thunderbolt. Hopefully 2.9.

Post Visual Development in Rogue One

Alexander Gustaveson wrote a great post at ILM.com about how much digital work they did after photography ended on Rogue One. They have things to such a science now that they can even replace a live action character’s live action gun with a digital one.

“Super Important”

There’s a small tidbit at the end of John Gruber’s post about the new Mac Pros.

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“I asked about scripting and automation — whether Apple still sees scripting and automation as an important part of the pro market. Federighi: “We think scriptability and automation of the system remain super important.””

I’d agree. Power users and large company deployments all rely on scripting to get their work done faster. Craig Federighi’s affirmation about scriptability and automation here is re-assuring but, at the same time, Apple is sending some mixed messages:

Apple laid off Sal Soghoian, the biggest advocate of automation and scriptibility. Sal not only got users excited about these tools, he was also fighting the fight inside Apple to make sure automation and scriptibility got updates with the operating system and inside Apple’s own software.
Apple not only laid off Sal, they eliminated his position. As Sal explains, “Recently, I was informed that my position as Product Manager of Automation Technologies was eliminated for business reasons.”
Apple has been very slow about pushing automation forward on iOS. The current URL-scheme automation methods exist because of clever developers, not Apple. While extensions are a start, there needs to be more.
On the plus side, Apple purchased Workflow, a leading automation app for iOS. Some are worried that this acquisition spells doom for the future of Workflow. I think they are going to fold it into the operating system making it (possibly?) even better.

I agree with Craig Federighi that automation and scripting is “super important” but I’d also remind him that if that is the case, we need more than words right now. WWDC is just a few months away and it sure would be nice to see that Apple is moving the ball forward for automation and scripting.