Category: Apps

Sparky’s iOS 13 Shortcuts Field Guide ⇢

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David Sparks has a new edition of his Shortcuts Field Guide out:

The new Shortcuts Field guide was shot entirely new with the new Shortcuts for iOS 13. Apple changed a lot and it is all covered in this field guide:

  • Over 6 hours of downloadable video tutorials
  • New materials for both beginners and advanced users
  • New Downloadable Shortcuts
  • So much Automation

I spent a chunk of my Friday and Monday going through most of this in prep for the next episode of Mac Power Users, and unsurprisingly, it’s really good. If you want to take a crack at learning what Shortcuts can do, this is the place to start.

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App Launch Map ⇢

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Aleen Simms has created a guide for developers about to launch an app:

When I started working with independent Mac and iOS developers in 2014 we navigated the maze of preparing for app launches the hard way: digging into the depths of the Internet for guidance, asking other app developers for their lessons learned, and even rushing to fix things after a rejection by Apple. The Field Guide is the product of all of that knowledge, broken up into small, easy-to-understand lessons.

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On Editing Podcasts With Ferrite on iOS ⇢

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Ryan Christoffel, over at MacStories:

This has been a year of new creative projects for me. In addition to some personal endeavors that have yet to see the light of day, I joined Federico as the co-host of Adapt, a new iPad-focused podcast on Relay FM. Learning the art of expressing my Apple takes in speech rather than text has been an adventure in itself, but I’ve also grown to cultivate a very different skill: audio editing.

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Apple Updates Its Texas Hold’em iOS Game ⇢

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As spotted by 9to5Mac and others, Apple has re-released its classic mobile poker game, Texas Hold’em:

Apple’s Texas Hold’em is back! To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the App Store, we’ve brought back one of its first games, a popular classic. Originally created for iPod, then brought to iPhone, fans will love the polished redesign, featuring new characters, more challenging gameplay, and stunning graphics for the newest iPhone and iPod touch. Players will also love that it’s free to play—for the very first time.

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A Closer Look at Catalyst ⇢

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Over at Ars Technica, Samuel Axon has published an in-depth look at Catalyst, including interviews with several people inside Apple:

Apple seeks to funnel some of its success with the iOS App Store over to macOS using Catalyst. We’ll go over how developers use what Apple has built step-by-step, as well as what challenges they faced. And we’ll share Apple’s answers to our questions about how the company plans to maintain a high standard of quality for Mac apps as an influx of mobile-derived apps hits the platform, what Apple’s long-term plans for cross-platform apps across the entire ecosystem look like, and more.

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Syncing an iPod with macOS Catalina

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With the breakup of iTunes, the USB-based syncing of iPods and iOS devices has been moved into Finder. While I am fully on the Apple Music train, there are many users who still plug in their devices to move media onto them, and I’m glad macOS Catalina has been engineered with those users in mind.

When you plug in an iPod to a Mac running Catalina, the device appears in the Finder sidebar,1 and clicking it reveals a wide range of syncing options, organized in a much nicer fashion that what is found in iTunes 12:

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Twitter Promises Catalyst Mac App ⇢

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Nolan O’Brien, writing on the Twitter Engineering blog:

Last week, Apple announced Project Catalyst for macOS 10.15 Catalina, which makes it easy for developers to bring their iPad projects to macOS as native Mac apps. We are excited that Project Catalyst will enable us to bring Twitter back to the Mac by leveraging our existing iOS codebase. We’ll also be able to add native Mac features on top of our existing iPad experience, while keeping our maintenance efficient as we continue to improve this shared codebase in the years to come.

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Kbase Article of the Week: About the Upcoming Changes with iTunes on Mac ⇢

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Apple Support:

Here’s what to expect:

  • Music that you’ve imported or purchased will be in the new Apple Music app. The iTunes Store will still be available to buy music on Mac, iOS, PC, and Apple TV.
  • iPhone, iPad, and iPod backup, restore, and syncing will move to Finder.
  • Movies and TV shows that you purchased or rented from iTunes will be in the new Apple TV app.
  • Use the Apple TV app for Mac for future movie and TV purchases or rentals.
  • Podcasts that you subscribed to or added to iTunes will now be in the new Apple Podcasts app.
  • Audiobooks that you purchased from iTunes will now be in the updated Apple Books app.
  • Use Apple Books for Mac for future audiobook purchases.
  • iTunes Gift Cards and iTunes credits will be maintained and can be used with the new apps and the App Store.

While I am sure some people will miss iTunes, I’m excited by this new direction.

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