Alex Leiphart: Clear is the First Intuitive To Do App
I’ve never been satisfied with a to do app, whether it be on my iPhone, iPad, or Mac. What I’ve discovered the problem to be with all of them is the fact that they require regular maintenance and thought. It often reaches the point where tending to my to do list becomes another item on my to do list.
For instance, take Things–one of the more popular prosumer to do apps. In addition to the ability to add tasks in Things, there seems to be a million and one other ways to customize, tag, and file away a specific item. Adding up the time to do the same with all the tasks, I probably could’ve finished a few items on my to do list.
And yes, I could just add tasks and leave them alone. But with the other options sitting there in my face, I subconsciously feel the obligation to utilize the other options. Thus, I’m still spending extra time deciding whether or not to add tags, drag the task into a folder, etc. It’s counter-intuitive.
Clear lays these problems to rest. Currently exclusive to the iPhone, Clear is a new to do app that’s enjoyable to use and doesn’t require constant maintenance. The app has a natural user interface and intuitive gestures that allow for ease of use and require little thought.
When I use Clear, I feel as if I’m using a traditional pencil-paper to do list. The only options I have are to add a task, delete a task, or mark a task as complete. And instead of having buttons or other elements present in the app to perform these actions, Clear is completely gesture-based. Pull down to add a new task, swipe left to complete, swipe right to delete, and drag to move. It’s amazing.
Clear allows me to get in and out of my to do list quickly, and start getting things done again.
Source: alexleiphart
Penny De Los Santos: How Instagram Has Influenced My Photography?
Really nice post.
NBA Fan's Twitter Stunt Lands Him Job With Team
This needs to happen to me, not necessarily with an NBA team though.
Nieman Journalism Lab: Could Pulitzer changes mean an award for live-tweeting?
Live-tweeting is becoming the way news is being broken and therefore should be treated in the same way as traditional media. Journalists everyday are using the medium to break news quicker then ever before. Looking at the biggest story of 2012 - the killing of Osama Bin Laden - one quickly sees how twitter was essential to breaking the news. Not only did a random Pakistani unknowingly live-tweet the operation, but another individual broke the story on twitter before any major news source. On top of that you have journalist like Brian Stelter or Andy Carvin who have used the new medium to report on Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring in way never seen before. There work should be honored and reward.
Source: jacob
According to MG Siegler: A Native Gmail iPhone App. Finally.
Ever since I bought the original iPhone in 2007, there’s been one app above all others that I’ve been sorely missing: Gmail. Of course, back then, there were no native third-party apps. But a year later, when those came, Gmail was still nowhere to be found.
At first, the talk was that Apple wasn’t going to allow another mail app on their device. Then it was that Google was simply focusing on the mobile web (they’ve had a pretty good mobile web version of Gmail for a while). Then it was the strained (to put it mildly) relationship between Google and Apple. Still, other Google iPhone apps came. But never a Gmail one.
Until now.
Source: parislemon
40 Things That Will Make You Feel Old
The Weekender consist of fun things I found on the internet all week curated on Sundays for your viewing pleasure.
Why I take sketch breaks instead of internet surfing
When I need five minutes to untangle my brain I reach for my pile of art pens and the closest post it note (the back of a print out will also suffice).
Something I have never tired, but something I will try this week. Finding time not to be in front of a screen, is becoming harder and harder.
Marco Arment: "I paid good money for this and it's full of ads?"
I bought my first iPad magazine1 last weekend: one issue of The New Yorker.
It was $4.99. Most entire apps (including mine) cost $4.99 or less, once, and this magazine is $4.99 for just one issue. Ignoring what content and apps “should” cost, and despite knowing that this is a very good magazine, this felt expensive.
As I was flipping through it, when I saw the first of many full-page ads, I was offended. I thought, “I paid good money for this and it’s full of ads?”
Marco, I love your product and more often then not I agree with you but I cannot agree with this sentiment in every case. In the New Yorker example I agree that many of the ads are annoying, although for the most part unintrusive.
However, when looking at a magazine like GQ or Vogue people go to those magazines for the pictures. Most of the times these visuals are in the form of advertising.
I do believe that the advertisements have become less intrusive when actually reading iPad magazines. In their print versions advertisements come in between article pages (article page - ad - article continues). Now you can effectively read a complete article without seeing an ad.
The bigger issue I have with ads is that publishers and advertisers have just taken the print version of their advertisement and imported onto the iPad screen. I think advertisers, especially those in fashion magazine, would be smart to make ads more interactive. Show readers a video of the latest runway show, or allow readers to spin the model around to see an outfit from every direction.
Pricing is an issue for another blog post. I will say here, that I cannot imagine what the price of an individual issue or subscription to a magazine on an iPad would be without the ads.
How to Solve the Mystery of Spotify and the Missing Coldplay Album
I am loving Spotify a ton, but this really pisses me off.
A Television - "is a guaranteed product for Apple"
Nick Bilton writes at the NY Times that an Apple branded television is a foregone conclusion. The idea of incorporating Siri into the alleged device excites me a lot.
Just imagine telling your TV “I want to cook chicken” and it brings up a bunch of recent Food Network shows that show chicken recipes.
Also the TV Guide, which was revolutionary would be obsolete. You could tell siri, “show me the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother.” Then the TV just plays the episode.
If Apple gets it right this could be revolutionary. However for sometime now the current version of the AppleTV has been called a hobby project. These advances would surely bring it to the forefront.
