Jazz Friday: Art Pepper’s Over the Rainbow


Art Pepper was one of the most influential alto saxophonists in the 50s and 60s and considered one of the founders of the West Coast Jazz movement. As a Californian, I’m a fan of West Coast Jazz in general and Art Pepper in particular. There was a lightness to his sound that is delightful. Unfortunately, Art had a lifelong heroin problem and, frankly,  a rough life including several prison stints. There is a great documentary about Art Pepper, called Art Pepper: Notes from a Jazz Survivor. Over the Rainbow (iTunes) is a great Art Pepper track because he plays the whole thing solo and really stretches out. 

Home Screen: Michael Simmons


This week’s home screen features Michael Simmons (Twitter) from Flexibits (Website), developer of Fantastical. Michael also co-founded HockeyApp. So Michael, show us your home screen.


What are some of your favorite apps?

Fantastical 2

More than anything else, I made Fantastical for myself and still use it every day.

Apple Mail

The way I do email, Apple Mail works for me. I like the more recent feature additions, like swipe to mark as read.

MyFitnessPal

I’m a calorie counter and this app makes it painless. I’ve had a running streak of counting calories every day for three years now. 

Tweetbot

This is my favorite Twitter client. I use it for both my personal account and my Flexibits account and I’m using it all the time.

Periscope

I’m strangely addicted to Periscope. I’m still trying to figure out what I’ll broadcast but I really enjoy watching the broadcasts. As a communications major, I find the idea of anyone being able to stream from anywhere really interesting, a new intimate form of communication.

Spotify

This is my favorite app for listening to music and I love being able to (pretty much) listen to whatever song I want, when I want it.

Instagram

I most often take Instagram pictures when I travel but I check it every day.

What app makes you most productive?

Fantastical. Of course.

What app do you know you’re underutilizing?

I’m not very good at writing things down on my iPhone. I want to get better at taking notes on my phone.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone?

A lot! (laughs)


What Today View widgets are you using and why?

I use the Fantastical widget and also like Dark Sky in the Today view, which shows the forecast for the next hour very quickly. I also keep my stock information there.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone?

That it all just works. Of course things can be improved but I like the ecosystem and how it all works.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I would like to add the ability to see and use two apps side-by-side which could add the potential to do things like drag and drop.

What’s your wallpaper and why?

I’ve used the same dark perforated leather wallpaper for a long time. It was created by Adam Betts. (I originally had it on my Mac.) It looks great and doesn’t draw my attention away.


Can we see your Apple Watch watchface?

Sure.

Thanks Michael.

MPU 256: MPU Live

I really enjoy our monthly live shows. This past Saturday Katie and I recorded this show with a full chat room. We covered  the benefits of digital meal planning, follow-up on DEVONThink workflows, our favorite RSS feeds, managing small SSDs, resources for a new iPhone user, better fonts for iOS, and my new MacBook.

∞
 

Activating “Hey Siri” On Apple Watch


I recently ran into a problem where “Hey Siri” wasn’t working on my Apple Watch. I was sitting there, calling out “Hey Siri” with increasing volume and Siri had no interest in me. In fact, I said “Hey Siri” so loud that I set it off on my phone, which was in the next room charging. MacRumors published an article that shed some light.

In order for “Hey Siri” to work on your Apple Watch, the screen needs to be lit. It won’t activate when the screen is dark. If the screen is lit from you twisting your wrist or tapping the screen to wake it up or pressing the digital crown to wake up the watch, “Hey Siri” works. However, if you are in a glance or in an app, saying “Hey Siri” doesn’t work. The above linked Mac Rumors article explains that if you are at the watch face as a result of pressing the digital crown from another view (like the home screen or an app), “Hey Siri” also doesn’t work. However, in my testing “Hey Siri” worked just fine in that scenario.

iBooks Author Conference

This October, there’s an iBooks Author conference in Nashville, Tennessee. I won’t be talking or attending but if you’re are interested in iBooks Author publishing, this is the place. As an aside, I’m digging in on my next iBooks Author Field Guide now that the Photos screencast has shipped and having a great time working on a “book”.

∞

Apple Watch Underwater

Ray Maker is the first person I’ve seen really test the Apple Watch’s water resistence. He swam with it, jumped in off a 10M diving board with it, and simulated 40M depth water pressure with it and the Watch kept on ticking. While all of this is comforting to know, after spending $400 on a watch for the first time in my life, I still take it off before showering. (I do, however, keep it on while washing dishes.)

∞

 

 

“Hey Siri, Send”

For the first week I used my Apple Watch, it drove me nuts that I still had to tap the screen to confirm sending text messages I’d dictated via “Hey Siri”. Then I decided to try dictating the button press. When presented with the confirmation button before sending a text message, saying “Send”, which is most intuitive, doesn’t work. However, saying “Hey Siri, Send” does. In fact, for any confirmation button that shows up while dictating into the watch, all you have to do do is say “Hey Siri” and then the name of the button.

“Hey Siri, Tell Daisy I’m in jail. Bring bail money.”

Pause

“Hey Siri, Send.”

It is strange that you have to preface every button press with “Hey Siri” and this behavior is different from the iPhone, which asks you to confirm and you just say “yes” or “confirm”. The iPhone method is better. However, if you want to send a text message from your Apple Watch hands free, get ready to say “Hey Siri” a lot.

Update:

Turns out, the iDownload blog figured this out before I did and even made a clever video.

Marco Arment on Apple Watch App Design

I enjoy Marco Arment’s articles on App design and layout. Making an App truly user friendly is a combination of art and science and Marco is one of the best at it. Moreover, he has a way of explaining his thought process that is fascinating to me. This week he wrote about the re-design  of Overcast for the Apple Watch. 

As an aside, Overcast is one of my favorite apps on the Apple Watch. Being able to start, stop, and change podcasts from my wrist is golden. I have it active as a glance and then tap on it to get the app and it works swell.

∞