Unread purchased by Supertop ⇢

⌘ Permalink

The makers of Castro have purchased Unread, my favorite RSS app for iOS:

Unread makes an excellent companion to our podcast app, Castro. Both apps are news/entertainment focused, share similar design goals and even rely on the same underlying feed technology. We are grateful to Jared for trusting us with the future of Unread and look forward to developing and refining both of these apps for years to come.

We’ll be moving Unread to Supertop’s App Store account over the next few weeks — there are technical limitations that prevent a direct transfer, but when the transition happens we will ensure that all customers are moved to the new app free of charge.

I’m glad this app has a bright future; I know it is in good hands.

Here’s Jared Sinclair:

I’m proud of the work I put into Unread, and can’t wait to see what Supertop does with the foundation I laid down. Unread has the cleanest code I’ve ever written for a personal project, so I’m hopeful that it won’t be a burden for Oisin and Padraig to wander through it. The hardest part has been dealing with maddening App Store policies. You would not believe the hoops they’re having to jump through to try to migrate existing users to the new Supertop version. They’re working really hard to make it a great experience for everyone who is already an Unread customer.

Plus or minus

⌘ Permalink

With the announcements this week, Apple now sells iOS devices at the following sizes:

  • 4″ (iPhone 5c and iPhone 5S)
  • 4.7″ (iPhone 6)
  • 5.5″ (iPhone 6 Plus)
  • 7.9″ (iPad mini with Retina display and iPad mini)
  • 9.7″ (iPad Air and iPad with Retina display)

This graphic — by the wonderful Underscore David Smith — shows all of this visually.

It’s clear Apple’s trying to make a smooth range of device sizes. With rumors of a larger iPad floating around, this trend may only continue.

It creates some interesting decisions for consumers. On last night’s podcast, Myke and Federico both shared that they are thinking about purchasing the 6 Plus, and leaving their iPad minis behind. Federico is considering the iPad Air, and Myke wonders what the future is for his tablet usage in general.

This isn’t new territory for Apple. While it’s taken a while, this is the same track the company took with the iPod. Over time, the original iPod evolved into a family. Although first with the iPod mini, the line eventually bloomed into the Shuffle, Nano, Touch and Classic. Heck, the entire Mac line started with one machine in 1984.

The question is if this is a problem for Apple. Myke isn’t alone in thinking that the iPhone 6 Plus could be his only device. Clearly, there is a segment of the consumer market that may forgo buying an iPad and instead carry just the 5.5″ iPhone.

Tim Cook addressed self-cannibalization back in January 2013:

In terms of cannibalization and how we think about this, I see cannibalization as a huge opportunity for us. One, our base philosophy is to never fear cannibalization. If we do, somebody else will just cannibalize it, and so we never fear it. We know that iPhone has cannibalized some iPod business. It doesn’t worry us that it’s done that. We know that iPad will cannibalize some Macs. That doesn’t worry us. On iPad in particular, we have the mother of all opportunities here because the Windows market is much, much larger than the Mac market is, and I think it is clear that it’s already cannibalizing some.

While Cook couldn’t say it in 2013, I’d imagine that Apple sees a large opportunity (heh) with the iPhone 6 Plus. There are huge groups of people who really do just want one device, and until this week, the only way to go about that was with an Android device like the Samsung Galaxy Note. While I have no idea if this growth opportunity is enough to offset some people not buying iPads, my guess is Apple isn’t too worried about it.

Inside Apple’s live stream failure ⇢

⌘ Permalink

Dan Rayburn:

Apple’s live stream of the unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Watch was a disaster today right from the start, with many users like myself having problems trying to watch the event. While at first I assumed it must be a capacity issue pertaining to Akamai, a deeper look at the code on Apple’s page and some other elements from the event shows that decisions made by Apple pertaining to their website, and problems with how they setup storage on Amazon’s S3 service, contributed the biggest problems to the event.

Regardless of how accurate this may be, I’ve been in situations running audio/video for major events when things go sideways. I don’t envy anyone working on that stream yesterday.

How big are Apple’s new products?

⌘ Permalink

There’s a lot of chatter — including in my own home — about the size of the new iPhones. This PDF (or this one) will help settle any debates. For me, it just about settled it — I’ll be ordering the 4.7-inch iPhone.

Interestingly, the larger of the two Apple Watch sizes is almost exactly the size of the Seiko 5 watch I wear now. I was afraid it’d be way too big for my wrist.

Apple announces revised iCloud pricing, Photos app beta ⇢

⌘ Permalink

Apple:

iOS 8 will be available as a free software update starting Wednesday, September 17 for iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPod touch 5th generation, iPad 2, iPad with Retina display, iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina display. New iCloud pricing includes 5GB free, 20GB $0.99/month, 200GB $3.99/month, 500GB $9.99/month and 1TB $19.99/month. Continuity features and iCloud Drive will be available on Macs running OS X Yosemite. In October, SMS Continuity will be available as a free update to iOS 8 and iCloud Photo Library will be available as a beta. Starting in October, with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Apple Pay will be available in the US as a free update to iOS 8. Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages.

Sure seems like a big iOS 8 update will come along side Yosemite next month.

September: the little things

⌘ Permalink

Instead of running RSS sponsorships this month, I’m raising $10,000 in support of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as part of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Click here to learn more and donate.

When your child is diagnosed with cancer — or any other catastrophic disease — life implodes. Things that used to matter don’t anymore, and the things that remain are stretched, often to a breaking point.

My family is extremely lucky to be from Memphis, the home of St. Jude. Even in the busiest days of Josiah’s chemotherapy, we were able to grab some sleep at home. We went the same grocery store as we already had.

Most importantly, Merri and I were able to be with Josiah together. The majority of families we’ve met over the last five years at St. Jude are split, as they are traveling to Memphis to receive treatment, undergo scans and more. Most families make countless trips through Memphis International Airport

St. Jude not only pays for this endless stream of plane tickets, but houses families in three hospital-managed facilities for those staying in town, whether it’s overnight or for months at a time.

On the surface, this isn’t related to healthcare. But it’s absolutely critical to a patient’s well-being that their family life is as normal as possible during what can be a years-long ordeal.

St. Jude does far more than provide a bed for family members. On-campus meals (in what has to be the best hospital cafeteria on Earth) are free, travel between housing and the hospital is free and local drivers are treated to valet parking, making it safer and easier to get patients into the building. There are social workers and chaplains on-site, and there’s some giant, themed party just about every other week.

All of these things take stress away from families. As a parent, it means I can focus as much of my attention on my son, and not worry about logistics. While this may seem small compared to the overwhelming fact that the hospital is already covering all the medical bills, it makes a world of difference. St. Jude does everything it can to soften the rough edges many find in the healthcare industry.

If home is where the heart is, ours are at 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN.

The best personal finance and budgeting apps ⇢

⌘ Permalink

Brendan Wilhide, over on The Sweet Setup:

There are plenty of budgeting apps available to Mac users, and it can be difficult to find the right app for you. We spent six months testing and using the top contenders for features and usability, and we think iBank is the app which will best serve people’s budgeting and finance management needs.