Year: 2012

Is the New iPad Screen Too Good for the Web?  →

If you’ve got a new iPad, one of the first things you’re likely to notice is that graphics on the Web look fuzzy when next to crisply-rendered text.
Graphics could look blurred on the iPad 2 as well, but it was not nearly as contrasted as on the new iPad. I don’t think many people plan to go through their site and update all the pictures, screenshots, and etc. found in their past articles. But one simple thing that websites can do to improve their look on every iPad is to use SVGs or upscaled PNGs for their header and sidebar images.

For example: on Sean Sperte’s site, Geek & Mild, the ampersand logo is an SVG — and so it scales well and looks crisp on any screen.

Here on shawnblanc.net I upscaled the “shawnblanc” image. Meaning the source image is exactly three times larger than the size it’s displayed at (777×138 and 259×46 respectively). It looks nice and sharp on an iPad 3.

I think a good rule of thumb for what graphics you should bother updating or not is simply this: if you want people to read it, or if it’s a critical component of your site design, then update it to look crisp on a Retina display.

Is the New iPad Screen Too Good for the Web?

Federico Viticci’s iOS Writing App Comparisons  →

If you’re still on the fence about which iOS writing application is best for you, Federico Viticci tried out 40 different ones and then picked his favorite 4 to do a side-by-side comparison of. His only criteria was that the apps had to be available on iPhone and iPad, have Markdown support, and sync with Dropbox.

Viticci’s top choice ended up being Writing Kit. Because of his recommendation I’ve been spending a bit of time in the app to see how it handles Markdown and syncing. I agree that it is a fine app. Though something I strongly dislike about it is the need to manually tap “Save” in order to sync/save your work to Dropbox.

However, something that I’ve instantly fallen in love with in Writing Kit is that on the iPad, the left and right margins act as left and right arrow keys. Tap the left margin to move the cursor one character to the left; tap the right margin to move the cursor one character to the right. This clever little feature is like Pull to Refresh — once you’ve used it it instantly feels natural and you miss it in every other app.

Federico Viticci’s iOS Writing App Comparisons

Sponsor: TextExpander  →

Editor’s Note: My thanks to Smile Software for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. TextExpander is one of those staple apps on my Mac that when it’s not running I feel handicapped. I have over 60 snippets I use — from email signatures, to Amazon and iTunes link codes, to custom replies for emails, to common miscapitalizations of certain words, and more.

Moreover, those snippets sync to my iPhone and iPad via TextExpander’s iOS App. And since the iPhone and iPad writing apps I use have built-in iOS TextExpander support, I keep many of the same writing advantages that I have set up on my Mac.

This week the folks at Smile Software are running a 20% deal on TextExpander (and all their software). As it says below, use coupon code SYN0312 in the Smile store to get your discount.

TextExpander can be as simple or as geeky as you want. Whatever your level of experience, there’s a TextExpander tip for you:

Getting Started: Make a snippet for your email address. You’ll be amazed at the keystrokes you’ll save not having to type that over and over.

Intermediate: Add one of the Predefined Groups, like HTML/CSS snippets or instant URL shorteners. There’s even an AutoCorrect group to fix your typos.

Advanced: Try fill-in snippets, which have multiple variable fields. For example, you could have a form letter with blanks for name, product, company, etc. Type your abbreviation, fill in the fields and you’re done.

Even More Advanced: Create your own AppleScript and shell script snippets.

Get the free demo. Don’t miss the 20% off special discount. Use the coupon code SYN0312 in the Smile store (Expires March 31, 2012).

Sponsor: TextExpander

Stephen Hackett’s Review of the New iPad  →

Here’s another good review of the new iPad. Stephen does a good job commenting on each of the major updates the new iPad got (the screen, battery, 4G, camera, etc.).

What strikes me after reading Stephen’s review is: what could be left for the iPad? Now that it has a Retina display and 4G LTE connectivity, I don’t see any other hardware sore spots in need obvious need of attention (other than improving the ability to hold the device with one hand).

No doubt Apple will improve the processor and the battery and the camera and the aluminum shell, but it seems that all of the main things have been brought to market already. Does this mean the future of the iPad is going to be bent towards software? And so perhaps the Mac is where we’ll start seeing hardware breakthroughs next — such as LTE and Retina MacBook Airs?

Stephen Hackett’s Review of the New iPad

‘Enough’  →

Speaking of friends launching new projects, my pal Patrick Rhone wrote another book. It’s out today, and it’s called Enough:

Enough is a very personal metric. Like our center of gravity, each of us must find what is enough by swaying from less to more until a comfortable medium is found.

The goal, then, is not to find what is, or will be, enough forever. That is impossible. The goal is to discover the tools and strategies you need to find what is enough for you right now and provide the flexibility to adjust as the conditions change.

‘Enough’

Basil  →

Basil is a brand-new iPad recipe app from my pal Kyle Baxter. I bought it this morning and it’s very nice. It’s got an open and clean interface, it automatically tags your recipes based on the ingredients, and it auto-converts directions that involve increments of time into actual timers.

In addition to letting you enter in your own recipes, Basil also sports a bookmarklet so if you’re browsing for recipes on your iPad in Mobile Safari you just tap the bookmarklet and Basil will import the recipe. Clever.

Just $4 in the App Store.

Basil

Shaun Inman’s 5 Minutes on The Verge  →

Thomas Houston asks, “How do you stay focused?”

Shaun answers:

I’m not sure that I do. I’m kind of all over the place, with my attention split between web apps, iOS games and apps, and Safari extensions. I’m not especially disciplined. I use plain old text files for todo lists. I try to limit my time on Twitter and in my inbox. If I feel my focus waning, I let it wane. Curiosity or that unpleasant feeling of leaving something unfinished usually draws me back to a problem or task before too long.

Proof that you don’t have to be extreme GTD to crank out a ton of amazing work.
Either that, or it’s proof that Shaun is, in fact, superhuman like we all sorta suspected he might be.

Shaun Inman’s 5 Minutes on The Verge

A Few Minor Yet Important Updates to my AppleScript for Creating Yojimbo Bookmarks From Safari  →

The AppleScript I use to send Safari pages into Yojimbo as bookmarks got a little wonky when Lion came out and after Growl moved to the Mac App Store.

Zachery Jensen was kind enough to update the script so that it now properly takes the selected text from your current Safari window and places it as a comment in the Yojimbo bookmark (thanks to David LaSpina).

When updating the script, Jensen left the tell reference for the old-school Growl app (the one that lives in System Preferences). I’ve switched to using Growl from the Mac App Store, so this line:

tell application "GrowlHelperApp"

needed to be changed to this:

tell application "Growl"

That update needed to be done to all the AppleScripts I use which tell Growl to display a notification.

The updated SafariToYojimbo script is available here. And, if you’re interested, I also updated my MailToYojimbo script to support the new Growl.

A Few Minor Yet Important Updates to my AppleScript for Creating Yojimbo Bookmarks From Safari

Coming of Age  →

Matt Alexander’s stellar review of the new iPad:

The device in my hands — although deceptive in its appearance — could not have been further from its predecessor in those moments. Both the original iPad and the iPad 2 were defined by their novelty, but this device is characterized by a distinct sense of maturity.

This is one of the better iPad reviews I’ve read yet. I suggest you start with the prequel.

Also, this nerdy bit stood out to me because I instantly noticed the same thing during my Verizon LTE setup process:

Helplessly waiting for the various informational screens to proceed, I absorbed the Retina lettering of the page — a blurred and distorted AT&T logo in the upper-right hand corner poignantly juxtaposed to the crisp edges and shadowing of the user interface.

Oy.

Coming of Age

Slide Left For Camera  →

Brye Kobayashi concepted a different way to implement fast camera access via the iOS Lock Screen. I think his idea could work, though I am sure Apple tested this method before landing on what we see in iOS 5.1. For what it’s worth, I very much like the Lock screen’s new way of granting fast camera access.

As an aside, what’s interesting to me is the way Apple has been innovating the Lock screen while seemingly leaving the Home screen in the dark ages. Depending on how you manage your notifications, the Lock screen could potentially show and give you access to more info than your Home screen: recent emails; recent tweets; the current time, date, and day; recent text messages; upcoming events; sports scores; and more. Also giving you one-swipe access to the apps showing that current data.

The Home screen however still just shows static icons and folders that seem to be in constant need of adjusting and reorganization.

Slide Left For Camera