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.

Accessibility Features on iOS

Designing emails that look beautiful, render perfectly and drive strong response is increasingly difficult. That’s why Campaign Monitor compiled the top 100 emails of 2013 into a free eBook, alongside tips on design and content. The Top 100 Email Marketing Campaigns eBook features brands like Fitbit, SmugMug, Panic and includes:

  • High performing newsletters with open rates of more than 50%.

  • Examples of great layouts & responsive designs.

  • Emails that go against best practices and still drive top results.

  • Campaigns that saw open rates improve by 20% after A/B testing, and more.

Check out the free eBook at campaignmonitor.com/top100.

Campaign Monitor makes software that lets you create and send beautiful emails. Today more than 800,000 designers, agencies, and amazing companies across the globe rely on Campaign Monitor to manage their email marketing.

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My thanks to Campaign Monitor for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.

Sponsor: Campaign Monitor

On this week’s episode of my podcast, The Weekly Briefly, I’ll be joined by my long-time pal, Patrick Rhone, to talk about the state of writing online today, publishing our stuff, trying to make a buck, doing better work, etc. If you’re a writer at all — professional, hobbyist, aspiring, whatever; “status” here does not matter — please take a minute to answer a couple of the survey questions. And if you have a question for Patrick and I to answer on the show, then submit it and we’ll answer some of them.

Weekly Briefly Survey: On Writing

This is a pretty massive update to what I consider one of the most impressive apps on the iPad. I have used Diet Coda many, many times to make edits and updates to my sites from my iPad.

Of the highlightable updates in Diet Coda, I think the biggest is that you can now locally store files related to a site and sync / backup those site files using Dropbox. But, this is not the same thing as using Diet Coda as a Dropbox syncing writing app — you can’t browse your Dropbox folders an open any ole Markdown file in Diet Coda like you would with Byword or Editorial.

There are also some new themes, font options, and additional syntax highlighting as well. However, I was a bit surprised to see that this update didn’t involve the iOS 7-ification of Diet Coda. The app still uses iOS 6-style keyboard and UI elements, but that sure won’t stop me from continuing to use this fantastic app.

Diet Coda 1.5

This week we have one of the most detailed and interesting sweet setup interviews to date:

I’m Charlie Smith. I’m a record producer, instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. I work out of Studio Nels in Seattle. My partner, Robb Davidson, designed and built this place from the ground up. It’s a special place. We both feel lucky to be able to make records at our own studio.

We do all sorts of things at Nels. We make records with great artists, ranging from synth-pop to jazz to hip hop and more. We also do advertising work and a lot of radio production work with our other partner, Bart, at Bart Radio.

The Sweet Setup of Studio Nels

Finally, a calendar app for iOS that is a real tool, not a toy.

Appoint 2.3 is primarily aimed at people with busy schedules and little time. The app’s clever auto-completion engine prefills information based on past events. That means less typing in favor of a few, quick swipes. Awesome.

  • Enter time naturally (“9-12am”, “1:30pm”), even in international locales

  • Discover scheduling conflicts and resolve them in a tap

  • Drag & drop to reschedule or duplicate events

  • Powerful search and filter functions in any field, and any view

  • Works with iCloud, Google, Exchange, or any service supported by iOS

Appoint sports professionally designed color palettes that fit in beautifully with iOS 7 — or you can create custom themes yourself. Version 2.3 just released.

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My thanks to Appoint for sponsoring the RSS feed this week.

Sponsor: Appoint: the calendar that works for you