Robery McGinley Myers for The Sweet Setup:
In the read-it-later space, the two dominant players have long been Instapaper and Pocket. Each app has its own strengths and weaknesses, and Pocket has some features that could make it the ideal app for some use cases, but Instapaper is our favorite app for actually reading the best writing on the web … later.
This little iOS game is a real gem. It’s a real-time, text-based game in which you are remote support for a stranded astronaut. While it just takes a few moments to interact with the game, I’m ready for my lost little buddy to wake up from his first night asleep so we can tackle whatever is next.
If you record or edit in Logic, you may have noticed the fun quirk of the application in which the project time has an hour added to it by default:
This has always annoyed me while working on podcasts, as I don’t need the options and power that time synchronization offers. Thankfully, it’s easy to tell Logic to remove the leading hour by navigating in the menubar to File → Project Settings → Synchronization. 
Marco Arment’s Bugshot app is back and better than ever, powered by the awesome folks at Lickability. It’s free with a $5 worth in-app purchases for additional colors for the markups. If you work with iOS screenshots, this app should be on your phone.
Alfred is my go-to app launcher on my Macs. Anything task I do or workflow I need more than about 3 times a week, I try to automate using it.
With my newest series here on 512, I’m searching Apple’s support site more than ever. With Alfred’s custom search functionality, this can be done very quickly.
In the app’s preferences, under Features, you can add a new Web Search. You can add a keyword, label and — most importantly — the URL Alfred will need to pass to the browser to fire your search results:
Speaking of the Blanc Media empire, over on The Sweet Setup, Chris Bowler compares desktop calendar applications:
Managing your time has long been a part of the knowledge worker’s day, and calendar apps have been around almost as long as email. But while the quantity of available options is high, the number of quality calendar apps is a small handful.
The option that is best suited for you will depend on your needs, but a closer inspection has shown us that, for most people, Fantastical 2 is the best calendar application for OS X users.
The best way to journal on your Mac or iOS device just got a new, first-party sync option:
Day One Sync is a fast and reliable alternative to iCloud and Dropbox for backing up and synchronizing your Day One journal between all of your devices.
Beyond syncing, this service is vital to the future of the Day One platform. It lays the foundation for numerous features in the future, including:
- Multiple journals
- Web-based version of Day One
- Shared journals
- Multiple photos
- Journaling via email
- API and IFTTT integration
I switched over to it, and I have to say, it’s way faster than Dropbox was. I love Day One, and am excited to see it gaining more powerful features.
Everyone’s favorite developer-turned-punctuation David Smith:
Yesterday Pedometer++ had its one millionth download. Here is the story of how it got there.
I love Pedometer++. Even with the Health and Activity apps from Apple, it’s still my go-to app for tracking steps as I go about my day.
Sam Soffes, the developer behind the new Redacted for Mac shares the number of downloads that the app had, while being the 8th top paid app in the US and top paid in app in Graphics category:
It’s pretty nuts that 59 sales is top paid on the Mac App Store in the US.
Ouch.
The Mac App Store has seen a lot of top-tier developers leave over the years, but this number is just pathetic. Clearly consumers aren’t using the Store in any meaningful way either.
Bradley Chambers:
Couch to 5k apps are a dime a dozen. If you search the App Store, you’ll find tons of options. Some of the apps are well-maintained, and others are not. But, the goal remains the same: to get you off the couch and working towards a 3.1 mile run.
This may not sound like a lot, but for non-runners, 3.1 miles (in my opinion) is the magic distance where running goes from the worst thing ever to this is actually fun. These apps aren’t asked to do near as much as a general purpose running app, so they should be focused and easy to use. Run 5k is our favorite app due to its simple design, ease of use, and integration with Health.app. It’s free for a few workouts, and costs $4.99 to unlock the entire plan.
A fun app for a great cause. This one should be on your iPhone, folks.