Apps

ReadKit

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I’ve been a very active user of Google Reader for a long time, so I was very disappointed when they decided to shut it down. After trying several replacements, I settled on Feedly as my replacement. I prefer to read news on my Mac and Reeder was my favorite desktop newsreader. Unfortunately they’ve been neglecting their Mac app and haven’t updated it to support alternatives to Google Reader.

ReadKit looked like an attractive Mac newsreader, but until a few days ago, it didn’t support Feedly. Since they added support for Feedly with their latest update, it’s now my favorite newsreader. In addition to reading RSS feeds through Feedly, Fever, Feedbin, FeedWrangler, and NewsBlur, it also supports bookmarking & article saving services like Instapaper, Pocket, Pinboard, and Delicious, so I’m using it as a substitute for Pocket’s Mac app as well as my news reader.

Detective 1.1 is now available, 50% off through WWDC

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Detective 1.1 is now available. This was a major rewrite to support Twitter’s 1.1 API and handle changes to Twitter’s authorization. Rather than asking you to log in to Twitter with a login window, it will now ask your permission to use your Mac’s Twitter accounts.

To celebrate the release, it’s now 50% off (0.99) through the end of WWDC on June 15.

For more information, visit the Detective page or download it here.

Detective update

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Twitter recently changed some of their rules for app authorization using OAuth, so as a result, when a new user tries to start Detective, they will get an error when authorizing Twitter. However, if you’re already using Detective it will continue to work as long as you don’t log out of Twitter.

Detective uses MGTwitterEngine, which no longer seems to be actively maintained and which still uses Twitter’s deprecated 1.0 API. As a result, at some point it would stop working when Twitter shuts off that API. I’ve looked into a few options and I’ve determined that the best way to move forward is to use Mac OS X’s built-in social framework. Rather than asking you to log in to Twitter, it will now use your Mac’s twitter accounts. However this means we will no longer be able to support any Mac OS X version earlier than 10.8. I hope to have an update available soon.

Detective Update

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I’ve been working on an update to Detective which fixes some drawing problems in Mountain Lion and fixes a problem where it sometimes stops updating when the Mac wakes up from sleep.

Unfortunately it was rejected by Apple because of a sandboxing issue involving Growl. I haven’t been able to successfully set the entitlements for the auxiliary executable required by Growl, so I’m considering eliminating Growl, using Notification Center, and requiring Mountain Lion.

Picslide is now open source

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I’ve decided to open source PicSlide, which was one of my first iOS games. It isn’t selling enough to make it worthwhile updating for the iPhone 5. When I looked at the code I didn’t find it too embarrassing and it didn’t make me want to vomit, despite being written in 2009, so I decided to share it. Some pieces like scaling & slicing images and doing Quartz drawing may be helpful as sample code.

The source code is now available on Github at https://github.com/mike3k/picslide. 

Nexus 7

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I’ve had a Nexus 7 for two weeks and there are lots of things I love about it and some things I really dislike.

Good:

  • I love the size. After using it, I really want a 7″ iPad.
  • I really like the universal back button at the bottom of the screen.
  • The soft home button moves to the correct position when you use it in landscape mode.
  • Rearranging icons is less annoying than in iOS.
  • Widgets can be placed on the home screen.

Not so good:

  • UI is ugly. No rounded corners, shadows, or gradients. Everything looks flat & square.
  • Endless march of notification icons across the top of the screen.
  • Many of my favorite apps aren’t available for Android. The only Twitter app I use is Echofon because it’s the only one that syncs my mute settings as well as unread tweets. It isn’t available on Android, which seriously limits my ability to use Twitter on the Nexus 7.

For a long time I dismissed the rumors of a 7″ iPad, but after using the Nexus 7 it makes perfect sense. A 7″ tablet is a lot more comfortable to use than a 10″ tablet, yet the amount of screen real estate is just as usable.

Sugar Rush 1.4 Update

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I’ve submitted a minor update to Sugar Rush which changes the FaceBook SDK to use the latest API so sharing will continue to work. It also adds support for built-in Twitter accounts in iOS 5 or later and updates the Kiip SDK to the latest version.

Sugar Rush Free gets a much bigger update. In addition to those SDK changes, I’ve renamed it to Sugar Rush Lite and added in-app purchase to get rid of the ads & height limit. You can also buy Donuts, which will make it functionally equivalent to Sugar Rush Pro. Both Sugar Rush Lite & Sugar Rush Pro now share the same Game Center leader board & achievements.

Sugar Rush 1.2.5 gets a new Christmas theme

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Sugar Rush 1.2.5 and the new Christmas bonus pack is now available. The Christmas pack adds a new theme with new candies and high-scoring new bonus items. In addition, special bonus power items and premium items such as donuts will appear more frequently, making it easier than ever to get new high scores. Sugar Rush is still free. The Christmas pack is available as an in-app purchase for $0.99.

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