The Mother Ship

 Apple received unanimous approval yesterday for the new corporate headquarters they are planning on building in Cupertino. Looking at these pictures, I think it is going to be pretty impressive.

There seems to be two schools of thought with a big vanity corporate building. On one side, people say that building something like this is the first sign a company is about to fail. The logic goes that when you spend this much time and effort on something like your corporate headquarters, you aren’t paying enough attention to your products.

I disagree. I think the fact that Apple puts so much effort into making a beautiful campus that satisfies their needs indicates they are equally concerned about their products. It shows that that Steve Jobs’ influence is still alive and well. When you meet someone that sweats the little details, they probably also sweat the big ones.

Either way, I’m looking forward to visiting a mother ship that actually resembles a mother ship.


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Terminology 3


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Greg Pierce, the same guy that brought my beloved Drafts, has released a new version of his dictionary/word sleuthing app, Terminology. Terminology 3 is a ground-up rewrite for iOS 7.  In addition to a built in dictionary/thesaurus, Terminology searches across the web and other apps which support integration. It includes iOS sync between your devices and extensible via URL scheme.

Terminology is a great writing tool and now it looks great on iOS 7. It’s $2.99 and universal for the iPad and iPhone. 

 



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On Skipping Twitter’s New Direct Message Feature


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There is a new option at Twitter allowing you to receive direct messages from people you don’t follow. The logic goes that it is difficult for non-friends to get direct messages to you so why not open it up to everyone? Why not indeed? I’m personally not going to be turning this on for a few reasons: 

1. Spam

You know those spammy at-messages that show up in your Twitter feed? I expect it will be 50 times worse if they can DM you. 

2. DMs are Precious Flowers

I generally use DM’s for nice little comments to friends, like when they make something I enjoy or I want to wish them a Happy Birthday. My friends do the same for me. I don’t want that getting cluttered up. 

3. I have an email account

I have an email account and after investing a non-substantial amount of time, I’ve figured out how to live with email and make it useful to me. I don’t want strangers sending me more things to “process” in my Twitter account. That would ruin all the fun. 

The whole thing just strikes me as nutty and the exact opposite of what I liked about Twitter when I joined in January 2007. If this new change were mandatory with all accounts, it would make me seriously question whether or not I keep going forward with Twitter. As it stands, it’s now just an option which will remain, for me, unchecked.

 

Home Screens: Me, iOS 7 Edition

I thought it would be fun to post my home screen again, since it has changed quite a bit with iOS 7

My Home Screen Apps


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Apple Mail

I’ve been working with a lot of third party mail apps lately. I really like Dispatch but I keep coming back to Apple Mail, which got some nice improvements with iOS7

Camera App

The Camera App’s new features with iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s make it my default camera application.

Logacal

I’ve been tessting Logacal out as a quick way to get lists of appointments. I’m not sure yet whether this one will stay but there is a lot to like about it’s simple layout. I do wish it was smarter about scrolling the list more. As it stands, it defaults to the today view with the first morning appointment even when I’m opening it in the evening.

Byword

Byword (iOS App Store) (Mac App Store) remains my most used text editor. I love the way it displays markdown text with syntax highlighting and I love the way the iCloud sync works. I keep about ten active text files in it at all time and peck away at them on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Notesy

Notesy is what I use to sync my Dropbox text folder. These are the same files that sync to nvALTon my Mac. I keep switching between WriteRoom and Notesy for this purpose. It feels like WriteRoom syncs faster but Notesy looks really great in iOS 7.

Twitterific

I’m currently using Twitterific on iOS and Tweetbot on my Mac. There are some features I prefer on Tweetbot but I really like the way Twitterific displays tweets on my phone. This one is a running battle for me right now.

Sonos

Yes. All of those emails, tweets, and comments got to me. I’ve now joined the Sonos cult. I’m not in too deep yet but I can see where this is going.

Instacast

I switched back to Instacast when they released the Mac app. I listen to podcasts as much when I’m doing busy work on my Mac as I do when driving around so this was a good move for me. I know for some, the choice of podcatcher is a holy war. Instacast is working for me. For now.

Audible

I’ve been an audible subscriber for three years and have a nice collection of primarily fiction that are great doing errands. I treat that entire third row as my audio stuff. My fifth row is for remotes.

Hue

I’ve got a set of Hue lightbulbs that are a lot of fun. My kids and I rotate the light colors. The neighbors think we’re weirdos. I can definitely see a future where these things get cheaper and way more common.

WeMo

We also have a few WeMo switches. One of my favorite uses is a lamp in our front room. When we come home at night, we turn on the lights in the house before entering. WeMo has added a lot more devices including additional lights and wall switches. I haven’t tried those yet.

Reeder 2

I’ve been a huge fan of Reeder since it first released. Version 2 is great. My only complaint is the way it puts Feed Wrangler smart collections at the bottom of the screen instead of the top.

Remote

The Apple TV is used more than ever in our house and I spend so much time with the Remote app, that I finally decided to just put it on my home screen.

The Dock

My dock holds some of my most beloved apps, including OmniFocus and Drafts, that I’ve been writing about here for years. I’m sticking with the Apple Calendar app for now because the way it displays today’s date. I’ve been noticing, however, that I don’t actually look at it for the date often so I’m in the process of going through my calendar apps again (I’ve bought ~10 of them over the years) to pick a new one.

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Another nice thing about iOS 7 is that folders have multiple pages so I am able to put all the rest of my apps neatly an alphabetized set of folders. Yes. I’m that guy.

What Feature Would I Add?

I do a lot of dictation. I’d really like the iPhone to display my words as it interprets them rather than making me dictate everything before showing me any words. This is one feature where Android is ahead of Apple

How About That Background?

It is a simple blue gradient I created with Grad.

 

iTunes.com/DavidSparks

There is a popular meme about how Apple doesn’t give much thought to the little guys as it moves forward with its platforms. My experience with the iBookstore has been the exact opposite. I found out yesterday that I now have my own page on iTunes. Who would have thought that the world’s biggest company would take care of the world’s smallest author so kindly. 

Trucks and Cars

In 2010, Steve Jobs made the analogy between PCs and mobile devices with the original trucks and cars. He explained that when we were an agrarian nation and automobiles were new, everybody wanted a truck. Automobiles were expensive things and you only bought one if you needed it to do heavy work. That, however, was temporary. Eventually, people began buying cars and before you knew it most people bought cars.

As the analogy goes, the desktop PCs are the trucks and the emerging classes of tablets and pocket computing devices, such as iPhones, are the cars. When he made the analogy, it made a lot of sense to me but I felt like it was still something pretty distant into the future. I don’t think that’s the case anymore. Looking at my new iPhone, it has a 64 bit processor and is more powerful than anything I could’ve imagined just a few years ago. Moreover, software developers are getting smarter about ways to implement these touch devices in a way that’s quick, efficient, and just better than a traditional PC. (Don’t believe me? Check out Editorial.) I don’t think the desktop Mac is going away but I do feel the swing as more people decide their phones and tablets are “enough”.

This was brought home for me today with some reporting by Horac Dediu. Including iOS and Android devices with traditional computers, in Q3 2008, there were 92 million units shipped, 90% of which were running Windows. Jumping to Q3 2013, using the same devices, there were 269 million units shipped of which Windows was 32%. There were more traditional computer shipped in 2008 than in 2013. You don’t even need fancy statistics to verify this. Just look around you, and you’ll find several people that get by just fine with a mobile device alone.

I’m not saying that laptops and desktop computers are going to go away entirely. There’s a big group of people that are always going to want that kind of power, including me. However, the shift from trucks to cars is in full swing and as the mobile devices get even better hardware and smarter software, this is going to become even more obvious.

October 22 iPad Event

AllThngsD is pretty reliable about predicting Apple events and new iPads on October 22 makes a lot of sense. The one part of this scoop that really grabbed my attention is the idea of an iPad mini with a retina screen and A7 chip. I wonder how Apple could do that at the mini’s current price. Maybe it is a scale thing. Maybe it is entirely fictional. Either way, if they do deliver that product, I am 100% in.

 ∞

Nest Protect



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Today Nest announced its new product, the Nest Protect. It is a combination smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm that received the same love and attention the Nest thermostat did. It has an app and connects to your WiFi. It gives you a warning before it goes off and if it a false alarm (I burn toast, often), you can waive your hand in front of it and it will go off. 

I think the tricky part is the price. All of the smoke detectors in my house combined didn’t cost the $130 price tag of one Nest Protect. I suspect the people at Nest aren’t aiming for Home Depot bargain hunters here and I suspect they’ll do just fine with this new product. 

Have you noticed the way all of these connected devices are slowly pulling us into the smart-house of the future? I’m loving it.

∞