Josh Ginter:

Surprising to me is the fact that some apps have far superior swiping experiences. Some apps require a swipe from off-screen to go back a menu while others allow for swipes to begin in the middle of the screen.

Yes! Sloppy swiping is a superior experience.

Try this: swipe from left-to-right in Unread, Paper (so I hear), Agenda calendar, Reeder, or Check the Weather. In those apps you’ll notice that you can start your swipe from just about anywhere and it works. Just like moving between Home screens doesn’t require a specific off-screen starting point.

Now try the same thing in Apple’s Mail app, Messages app, or Tweetbot. The requirement to begin the swipe off the left-most edge of the screen just doesn’t feel as generous when you’re used to an app that allows the sloppy swipe.

Now, I get why this is important in certain cases. In Tweetbot, for example, a left-to-right swipe on a tweet is a shortcut for quickly replying to that Tweet. Tweetbot could allow sloppy swiping when on a screen that doesn’t use gesture shortcuts, and then require non-sloppy swiping when in the Timeline view, but then you’ve chosen to have an inconsistent gesture experience. However, that’s exactly the implementation Day One uses.

Day One allows half sloppy swiping, half not. When viewing an individual entry, a sloppy swipe will take you back to the Timeline view. But on the timeline view, a sloppy swipe is actually how you get to the individual quick action menu for an entry. And so to go back to the main menu from Day One’s timeline view, you have to do a traditional swipe.

And then there’s another type of swiping transition that is just all wrong. It’s most prevalent in OmniFocus 2 for iPhone and Simplenote. In OmniFocus 2 for iPhone, a left-to-right swipe from the Forecast view, Inbox view, etc. will take you back to the main menu screen. However, the transition to the main menu screen is one where the latter closes in from top and from bottom. Moreover it closes over the top of the Forecast view.

And it’s a similar transition effect in Simplenote. When swiping left-to-right out of an individual note to go back to the main notes list, the current note fades away and the notes list comes in from both top and bottom edges. These transitions are neat in theory, but they are jarring in actual use. Because the gesture is the same as used by all other iOS apps, yet the animation completely breaks the illusion that you are “swiping this screen away to go back to another screen”.

Underscore David Smith proposes 14 steps to a better App store:

The App Store has (in part) driven the wild success of the iPhone. Having a great user App Store experience helps everyone. It helps Apple sell more iPhones. It helps customers enjoy their iPhones. It helps developers sustain their development.

Agreed. The App Store is in dire need of improvement.

From where I’m sitting (which is at home, at my desk, if you’re curious), the two biggest issues I see facing the App Store are search/discoverability (for customers) and financial incentive (for developers).

Regarding search, I almost never use the actual App Stores to search for an iOS or Mac. Rather, I use Google. If I’m looking for a specific app, I can find it faster through Google. And if I’m looking for the best within a category, Google will help me find reviews and roundups that have already been written. The App Store is just the last step for me — it’s where I land when I’m ready to buy the app I’ve already found.

Another cool idea along the lines of search and discoverability is an App Store-centric social network of sorts. A way to follow folks and see the apps that are on their home screen. Because, honestly, the vast majority of apps I find are thanks to the word-of-mouth recommendations of my friends.

Secondly, regarding financial incentive for developers, I’ve said before that I think apps like Diet Coda, Editorial, 1Password, Fantastical, OmniFocus, Day One, 53’s Paper, PDF Expert 5, et al. are some of the quintessential examples of apps that really push the boundaries of what iOS devices can be capable of doing. I sometimes worry if the financial incentive will remain for a developer to spend the hundreds, if not thousands, of hours it takes to build a powerful, thoughtful, delightful app. And, what is Apple doing to educate its user-base that these apps are worth their “whopping” $3 price tag?

Our latest app review on The Sweet Setup is for the best password manager (and why you need one in the first place). Robert McGinley Myers, Stephen Hackett, and myself looked at 5 of the most popular Mac / iOS password managers to see if 1Password really is the best. In short, it is. We also hit on how 1Password and iCloud Keychain can work in tandem, and why the latter is not a full-on replacement for the former.

And, as it turns out, there is a huge update to 1Password for iOS today. I’m with Federico Viticci, that the best part of the iOS update (aside from the massive design refresh, of course) is the persistent search field.

If you’re already using 1Password, then the iOS and Mac updates are free. If you’re not, well, check out our review and then snatch up the apps while they’re half off this week:

• 1Password for Mac is just $25.
• 1Password for iOS is just $9.

I really enjoyed reading Robert’s home screen interview on David Sparks’ site. Robert shares excellent thoughts and concepts related answering a deeper philosophical “why” regarding some of the apps he uses.

This is a fantastic review on so many levels. For one, Jared hits the nail on the head when discussing one of Glassboard’s unique features: that messages can have comments. The hierarchy design has also confused me, but, as Jared points out, it would be a shame to do away with that hierarchy all together. Some friends and I use GroupMe for our group discussions. And while it’s nice, it also has some significant draw backs, in that it’s nearly impossible to respond to a comment made by someone once the groups’s conversation has moved on.

Also, Jared shares some excellent input on design and branding, with some advice that’s relevant to anyone, not just Justin Williams. Both Riposte and Unread sit as some of my all-time favorite apps for the iPhone. Jared has some strong opinions and sometimes wild ideas, but his work speaks for itself. I think developers and designers would do well to listen to Jared’s thoughts.

Dr. Drang, consulting engineer by day, scripter/blogger by night, and benevolent snowman on Twitter, shares a bit about his Mac setup:

The computer screen shown in the photo is fake. It didn’t turn out well in the photo, so I comped in a screenshot using Acorn’s Instant Alpha tool. I also used Acorn to obscure my name on the diplomas and PE license on the wall. Thanks, Gus!

Rediscover your favorite independent writers with Unread for iPhone. Unread’s relaxing, distraction-free design is unlike any RSS app you’ve used before. It now supports five popular RSS services: NewsBlur, Fever, Feedly, Feedbin, and FeedWrangler. With new features and a refreshed interface, now is a great time to find out how Unread can help you get back to a stress-free way of reading.

* * *

A huge thanks to Unread for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. This app is, in my humble opinion, the best way to read your RSS feeds from your iPhone. It is well-designed, enjoyable, and feature rich. And the latest version that’s brand new today includes some great updates. Definitely worth checking out.

On today’s episode of The Weekly Briefly, I was joined by my internet pal, Stephen Hackett, to discuss a topic that is near and dear to any parent out there: kids, touchscreen devices, and screen time. In short, how do we raise our kids to have a healthy relationship with something that can be so easily addicting.

Sponsored by:

• Screens VNC: Connect back to your computer from anywhere.

• The awesome members of shawnblanc.net: Their support makes the work I do a sustainable possibility.

Earlier this morning we published a whole new section to The Sweet Setup that is everything related to backing up your Mac. It’s a 5-part series of articles that cover what a backup system should look like (i.e. local and off-site), our top pick for local backups (Time Machine), our top pick for off-site backup service (Backblaze), the best hard drives, and more.

There are still a lot of people who don’t back up their stuff. My internet pal, Rick Stawarz, runs a Mac consulting company, and he says that “it’s rare for us to walk into a new client’s home and find a computer that’s actually backed up properly.” So, while I realize all of you guys reading this already know the why and the how for backups, and you’ve got your system in place, tell your friends they should buy an external drive and turn on Time Machine.

Mat Honan:

But the ever-present touchscreens make me incredibly uneasy—probably because they make parenting so easy. There is always one at hand to make restaurants and long drives and air travel much more pleasant. The tablet is the new pacifier.

I agree with Honan’s concluding paragraph that there isn’t a clear-cut answer for appropriate boundaries when it comes to our kids and their usage of iOS devices.

The goal has to be teaching (and then enforcing) moderation and boundaries. Heck, even the most healthy things our kids could be doing — like happily playing sports outside with friends — still needs boundaries and moderation. “When it’s family dinner time, that means it’s time to come inside and stop playing outside.”

This is something Anna and I talk about often, and we keep coming back to the basic guiding principle of active and engaged parenting. Letting our sons play a learning game on the iPad or watch an episode of The Magic School Bus isn’t wrong in and of itself, and we don’t want them to grow up feeling shame related to the usage of digital devices. But neither are we going to let them zone out for hours watching cartoons on an iPhone so we can live our lives without the “inconvenience” of little boys who constantly want our attention. That “inconvenience” is what the beauty and responsibility of parenting is all about.

Bradley Chambers on ways iOS software and hardware could be improved for its use in education.

This week I was honored to be a guest on The Menu Bar podcast. Andrew, Zac, and I talked about the recent Dropbox news and just how central Dropbox is to our multi-device lives. Then we talked a bit about how I got into the full-time blogging racket and the differences between self-learning how to do a creative craft versus self-learning how to run a business.

Screens 3 for Mac is a beautiful, yet powerful Screen Sharing and VNC client that lets you connect back to your Mac, Windows or Linux PC from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

Screens 3 adds many new features and refinements that makes it the best VNC client for the Mac.

* * *

My thanks to Screens 3 for sponsoring the RSS feed this week. Personal note, this app truly is stellar. If you ever want to access your Mac from your iPad, or from another Mac, Screens is the way to do it.