Yesterday I was playing Threes, and I realized that something was different in the game — it now shows a + symbol when the next incoming tile is going to be greater than a 3 tile. So I went to my Notification Center to see if the app had been recently updated and to read the release notes for what was new.

Lo and behold, at the bottom of the release notes for version 1.0.3 was a request asking users to please rate the app. Upon reading this, I realized I had not yet rated Threes on the App store, despite the fact that it’s one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played in a long time. So I opened it in the App Store and left it a 5-star rating.

Meanwhile, the guys at Supertop, makers of the popular Castro podcast app, have been trying the same thing:

Over the last few releases of Castro, we’ve also been experimenting with this approach. As well as being more polite than prompting with an alert view in the app, we’ve seen that this dramatically increases the number of reviews we get when an update comes out.

They had no request for ratings in the release notes of their 1.0.4 update, then added a request for 1.0.5, removed it in 1.0.6, and then put it back in for 1.0.7. The results are pretty incredible and telling.

This isn’t necessarily to say that these guys are getting more ratings than if they were using an in-app popup dialog, but for some developers that’s not something they want to do (and as a user, I appreciate that choice very much). But, clearly it’s worth it to put some energy into the release notes and to also put a polite request at the bottom, reminding and asking users to please rate the app.

Juli Clover at MacRumors:

Over a 24-hour period beginning yesterday, approximately 293 new iOS games have been released into the App Store. 95 of those games are either Flappy Bird clones or heavily inspired by the original Flappy Bird title, according to data gathered by The Guardian.

Imitation is the greatest form of flappery.

Jeff Mueller is kickstarting (through App.net’s Backer service) an iOS app, Plink, that will upload images and generate reference links for them. Something that is trivial on a Mac, but actually still quite cumbersome on iOS. I’m in as a backer.

The Origami Workstation (my review) is what I use for using a bluetooth keyboard with my iPad. However, because the side bezel of the iPad Air and the iPad mini are so thin, the bottom part of the screen is difficult to tap when the iPad is set into the Origami.

A cheap “fix” that someone showed me on Twitter is to put a carpenter’s pencil underneath the iPad.

Update: Check out Tyler Hellard’s even better solution that uses the Smart Cover.

Toby Harriman, Michael Shainblum, and Marc Donahue rented a helicopter to cruise around above San Francisco and take photos of the city during Golden hour. They took some incredibly gorgeous shots, especially of the bridge.

Though it’ll make your palms sweaty, watch their behind-the-scenes time laps video in full-screen mode with HD turned on.

The aforelinked guide to Threes strategy was via this stellar review of Threes by John Teti (this one’s via DF):

Here I’ve made two sixes, and I’m about to slide them together for a 12. The sixes gaze into each other’s eyes in anticipation of their mathematical destiny. This is one of the earliest glimmers of personality in the numerical cast of Threes. Later, the tiles will grumble, sigh, and playfully heckle you as you consider the board. The bigger numbers have bolder, more fully formed personas than the little ones. The tutorial is charming because it holds the promise of more whimsy; the game is charming because it delivers on that promise.

While your Mac is downloading and installing 10.9.2, why not read up on your Threes strategy? This is one of the best Threes guides I’ve read (whereby I just accidentally admitted I’ve read more than one guide to playing Threes). I’m pretty convinced that the corner strategy is the key to high scoring. What’s new to me here is the way the new tiles are dealt onto the board:

It seems that the game makes a “stack” of twelve cards containing four 1s, four 2s, and four 3s. It then gives you a card selected from that stack at random. When the stack has run out, a new stack of twelve is created and you begin again. This means that in any 12 card sequence you will always see four of each color of card.

The update is live in the Mac App Store, and it’d be smart to update your Mac as soon as you can since it patches the recently discovered SSL bug.

Writing for Macworld, my almost twinsie — I mean, Lex Friedman — asked a few smart folks what they use to manage their calendars and what tips or advice they had to share about calendar management.

Great piece by Steven Aquino for The Sweet Setup:

There is a misconception about accessibility on iOS, which is that the accessibility options are only for users who have special needs. But that’s the furthest thing from the truth. At its core, accessibility is about access — hence, iOS’s accessibility options are tools with which users, regardless of physical or cognitive ability, are better able to access their devices. This concept is not one that’s limited to only disabled users. By looking at accessibility in a more holistic context, one can easily see how accessibility software can prove beneficial to everyone, not just the assumed demographic.

Speaking of photography, it’s pretty cool to see local Kansas City business, Baldwin Denim, featured on the VSCO site featuring some of the photos from their seasonal lookbook.

Follow up to this, I’ve been working out of a local coworking space for the past couple of weeks and it’s been pretty great. I wrote an update in my Day One and thought I’d share it via the soon-coming Publish feature.