Shawn Blanc

Launch Center Pro is the closest thing I’ve seen to having something like LaunchBar or Alfred on your iPhone. If Apple had reimagined the iOS Home screen last week I expect it would have had much in common with the way Launch Center Pro works.

We’ve all got that handful of tasks and actions that we commonly do on our iPhone every day. For me, some of those common actions are: starting a new note in Simplenote, entering a quick to-do into OmniFocus, sending a text message to my wife, taking an Instagram picture, posting a tweet.

Launch Center Pro’s aim is to help you do common iPhone actions quicker. The original Launch Center app was good at this, but the just-released version is so much better. The design, overall ease of use, and the speed have all been vastly improved.

My favorite example for how helpful Launch Center Pro can be is OmniFocus quick entry. Through the use of app URLs it is actually faster to get to OmniFocus’s quick-entry window via Launch Center Pro than it is via OmniFocus itself. Moreover, you can add custom actions in Launch Center Pro that will take your iPhone’s current clipboard and use that as the content for the to-do item’s name or its note.

My few examples are just the tip of the iceberg here. There is so much you can do with this app the only hurdle I’ve had is remembering to use new workflows.

Right now Launch Center Pro is on sale for just $3 in the App Store.

A great update to an incredible service. I’ve got a handful of Recipes that I use often and so I’m glad to see they’ll be bringing premium accounts soon. I also love that IFTTT has channels for the just-announced WeMo. (Via Macdrifter.)

It’s a subtle way to encourage customers to adjust the screen to a better viewing angle, and therefore touch the device. Sneaky.

(Via Dave Caolo.)

Jason Kottke:

For a piece of portable networking technology like a smartphone or tablet to be successful on the scale at which Apple operates, you need to have an ecosystem, a network of interacting devices, software, products, and services that work together…hardware + software is not enough.

And, suppose the Surface does strike gold, Horace Dediu asks if Microsoft’s software and hardware integration will be self-disruptive:

The challenge for Microsoft therefore becomes to build hundreds of millions of these devices. Every year. Sounds like they need a Tim Cook to run it.

I agreed with Mat that Microsoft is betting a lot on their keyboard-and-trackpad cover, but I disagree with this conclusion:

Because if Microsoft can solve input with its super slim touch typing keyboard and case, then it will have pushed the tablet market forward again, and that’s always a good thing.

I don’t think the Surface keyboard covers are primarily about solving the typing-while-mobile issue. The keyboards are a necessary component because of the software.

The Surface for Windows 8 Pro runs full-on traditional Windows apps — apps which you cannot use with touch input. You need a keyboard and trackpad for those apps. The keyboard is just one (albeit a big one) component in Microsoft’s reach for all those would-be tablet users who still have a foot firmly placed in the PC camp.

(Via DF.)

I think Matt Alexander nails it on the head regarding the target market for the Microsoft Surface: people who want all the hardware benefits of an iPad but with all the software benefits of a full-fledged computer.

To be sure, that market does exist. But the question is, for how long? How long until the sentiment that the iPad is a full-fledged computer worthy of being your primary device takes hold?

Sigh. (Via The Loop.)

Regarding his first bullet point: pretty much all the devs I spoke to last week were most excited about the new APIs being added to iOS. A lot of things which 3rd-party developers have been hacking around will now be more simply accomplished in iOS 6.

Regarding his third bullet point: I asked a lot of people how they felt about press or non-developers buying WWDC tickets and not a single person there cared about it; it was a non-issue. Though that sentiment is probably not shared by those developers who didn’t get a ticket in time.

And this one is also for people who want to work and who want to play.

Matt Alexander:

Regardless of Readability’s various flaws, Arc 90 has contributed something measurably new to the debate concerning content monetization. Perhaps the experiment failed, broached copyright, and any number of other touchy buzz-words, but the service unquestionably furthered the discussion.

Absolutely; I agree wholeheartedly. The ambition and aim of Readability should be applauded — they were trying to advance the state of writing and reading on the Web. At its start, Readability’s subscription and payment model had an air of excitement and innovation to it. Alas, questions about their intentions and their business model were often met with either finger pointing, skirting, or silence.

On episode 71 of The Big Web Show, Jeffrey Zeldman and Rich Ziade describe Readability as an “amoral R&D company”. Implying that they should just do what they’ll do in the hopes to build something that is both game changing and sustainable, and therefore they are not responsible for any damage which might be incurred at their hands (such as the inability to channel subscriber funds to publishers, or the repurposing and redistribution of other people’s original content).

For a company that says they are advocates for writing and reading on the web, it is their attitude that saddens me and makes me uncomfortable with their products.

Here’s the video of Microsoft’s 45-minute press event yesterday introducing and demoing the Surface. I think this is a smart move in the right direction for Microsoft. The Touch Cover looks like a great idea, and it also gives a bit more context for why they needed to add a built-in stand (however, I could have sworn I heard a cricket when Steven Sinofsky revealed the kickstand).

But there are still two big unknowns: pricing and availability.

Seriously though, the just-announced Microsoft Surface does have a rad promo video.

Horace Dediu:

Yesterday’s reveal of Surface, Microsoft’s first personal computer, was a watershed event in the evolution of value chains around computing.

John Moltz:

[W]e used to pay considerably more for professional laptops.

My college laptop was a Dell Inspiron (circa 2000). I can’t remember all the specs, but I do remember it had a 14-inch screen, 128 MB of RAM, and a massive 6 GB hard drive. I paid somewhere around $2,000 for it. Can you imagine? Paying two grand for a Dell?