So long as we’re linking to interviews today, here’s a nice and short interview with Paul Mayne, the man behind the exquisite journaling app, Day One.
Month: October 2012
Check the Weather App →
There are three things about this brand-new weather app which really stand out to me:
- David’s using Idlewild as the typeface, which is a gorgeous choice.
- Check the Weather is using the Dark Sky API, thus allowing you to see the short-term precipitation forecast in conjunction with the radar.
- I can’t think of any other weather app that presents so much data in a manner that is so quickly accessible and so readable. The main screen shows you the current temp and weather plist the next three days. But swipe the main screen to the right and you get a 14-day forecast; swipe to the left and you get the hourly forecast; swipe up and you get the current radar.
This is a one-stop-shop weather app that doesn’t feel bloated. It reminds me of when Mobile Mail in iOS finally got a unified Inbox. Just $2 in the App Store.
The Great Discontent: Interview with Jason Santa Maria →
What a great answer from Jason Santa Maria about childhood and creativity:
I’m sure that I’m romanticizing it as I’m getting older, but when you’re a kid, everything seems possible. When you think about doing something, the time between thinking about doing it and actually doing it is usually very brief. You say, “Hey, what if I do that?” and then you’re doing it. As an adult, you think, “I want to do this thing,” or, “I want to make something.” Then you start gathering resources and devising a plan, but then you get tired because you’re old and want to lay down.
Paris and the Data Mind →
Craig Mod’s beautiful ode to the FitBit:
Hard to the west of Palo Alto are mountains. One day I climbed them and that night—Lord help me—I looked at my Fitbit. It was 9 p.m. and the device told me I was at 96 flights of stairs.
There was no question in my mind; I had to even the number out. The only problem: Palo Alto is flat.
Thinking fast—there was no time to spare, as the count would reset at midnight—I dashed to the only set of steps I could think of: the Mexican restaurant Reposado.
Apple Event Announced for October 23 →
“We’ve got a little more to show you.”
iPad mini? 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro? New iMacs? Yes? No? Maybe so.
Redefining Productivity (and Income) Through Innovation →
Seth Godin:
Decide what you’re going to do next, and then do it. Make good decisions about what’s next and you thrive.
Innovation drives the connection economy, not low cost.
See also Michael Lopp’s article, Someone is Coming to Eat You.:
One of my favorite Apple product announcements happened on September 7, 2005. In an Apple music event announcement, Steve Jobs got on stage, gave the usual state of the business update, and then he did something I’d never seen before. He killed a wildly successful product.
Shuttle Xing →
The Endeavor’s 12-mile trek through the streets of LA must have been equal parts amazing and absurd.
(“Mommy! Mommy! A space shuttle just drove past our house!”
“Haven’t I told you to stop telling lies?” *)
Rethinking the App Switcher for iPhone 5 →
Again from the Department of Concepts and Mockups So Cool They’ll Probably Never Actually Happen, here’s one regarding the iPhone 5’s Multitasking Tray.
The Multitasking / Utility tray is already for “power users” so why not make it even more powerful? I would love — love — to see quicker access to certain settings (like bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and brightness) just a double-click and double-swipe away.
The Fine Line of Smartwatch Usefulness →
I wear a wristwatch for a very peculiar reason: as an excuse not to pull my iPhone out of my pocket. Without my watch on, when I want to know what time it is, I pull out my iPhone and the next thing I know I’ve read 10 tweets and deleted 4 emails and liked an Instagram post.
For me a “smartwatch” is a device that walks a fine line between useful enough to circumvent a few more scenarios in which I don’t have to reference my iPhone, and so useful that now I’m always checking my watch and my iPhone.
Lennart Ziburski’s concept for a smartwatch seems to walk that line well. I will say something about his concept that I learned when watching the aforelinked interview with Matt Rogers, and it’s that LCD screens don’t come in circles.
Sponsor: Sifter →
My thanks to Sifter for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.
* * *
Sifter is a simple project management tool for small teams. It frees you up to focus on shipping better software instead of checking in on team members.
It’s perfect for serving as your team’s central location for capturing and managing all of a project’s issues, questions, bugs and new features. No more swimming through emails or multiple applications to check on the status of an issue. Sifter’s powerful search and filtering make sure you can easily find what you need.
Also, by keeping things obsessively simple, Sifter helps ensure that even the least technical team members feel welcome and comfortable participating so that they can be actively involved in both development and testing without any training.
The result is increased participation working hand-in-hand with a focus on accountability to ensure projects get delivered on time and that nothing slips through the cracks.
Kevin Rose Interviews Matt Rogers →
In Episode 21 of the Foundation interview series, Kevin Rose interviewed Matt Rogers, cofounder of Nest. Matt is super likable and he shares several interesting stories and details about Nest as a company and as a product. Matt also tells some stories about his time at Apple as a part of the original iPhone team including some R&D tidbits I’d never heard about before.
Saturday Night Live, Tech Talk: iPhone 5 Interviews →
And speaking of funny videos, I laughed out loud at this video of the Dark Knight using Apple’s new Maps to get around Gotham.
Pinbook [iTunes Link] →
This new iPhone app for searching your Pinboard bookmarks has but one primary feature: speed.
Federico Viticci has a brief review, of course, and his sentiments mimic mine. It’d be great if you could edit existing bookmarks, view the popular list, etc., but perhaps that will come at a later time. Pinbook has the core functionality of a Pinboard app — find a bookmark, view a bookmark, add a bookmark, remove a bookmark — down cold.
Graphic Glitches on iPhone 5 Screen →
I’ve been seeing these weird glitchy lines on my iPhone 5 keyboard when entering my password into the App Store app. On Twitter I asked if anyone else was seeing it, and I got back a good deal of replies that many of you are as well. And apparently we’re not the only ones. Matthew Panzarino points out that it appears to be software related.