There’s a bitter gourd — ma’ra in Thai, Momordica charantia in Latin apparently — that’s rather popular in Asia in soup and a handful of other dishes. You can stir fry the leaves (not bitter), cook the young gourds with eggs or veggies (again, not bitter), or you can wait until it’s full sized and boil it with pork ribs to make soup. The latter is terribly, insanely bitter — or at least so I thought, the first time I tried it when I was 11 or so. I remembered the name just to avoid it.
And, sure, as fate would have it, I’d tried it several times through the years. Same as always, it was bitter. Edible, but bitter enough that I couldn’t imagine why people actually paid for the stuff. But there’s plenty of other great things to eat, so why force yourself to eat it if it’s that horrible, right?
Except it wasn’t horrible. At least not now. I don’t know what happened, but several years ago my now-wife got me to try it again at her parents’ house. So I tried it. You’re not going to refuse food the people you hope will be your inlaws just cooked for you, of course, so I planned to act like I like it.
And then I did like it. Just like Sam-I-Am, that green food wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d thought. In fact, it was so good, I got hooked. It’s somehow gone from the thing that I wondered why it was always on the menu at good restaurants to the comfort food I want when I’m tired and away from home. Life’s strange like that.
Apparently it’s something with long vegetables, because the only food I ever really hated as a young kid was eggplant. Mom had made Parmigiana, and 4 year old me could only think of how terrible it sounded to eat a plant made of eggs. And so, I proceeded to gag through dinner. I was quite the pleasant kid.
Of course, today, take me to an Italian restaurant and order Parmigiana, and I’d be as excited as if you ordered anything else on the menu.
Tastes change.
It’s become a running joke at our house that whenever my wife suggest to try something that I say I don’t like, I’ll end up liking it. And more than often it’s true. Those things I hated as a kid, I’ll love now. The foods I thought were horrible even a couple years ago just might be the thing I love today.
The opposite goes, too. I used to love flavored green teas, until I started drinking premium fresh green tea with nothing else added. Just tea. And I fell in love with it. Now, flavored bottled teas taste like syrup — they’re decent with ice on a hot day, but no match for real green tea.
See, with so many things in life, there isn’t a wrong and right. There’s some things you’ll like more than others, today, but a preference does not a law make. Chances are, you just might like something tomorrow you hated today.
In technology, we’re as prone as anyone to just rooting for our team. I’m not a football guy — at Thanksgiving, I had to admit that I literally only knew the team names and nothing else about Football. For me, Apple and Microsoft, Canonical and Mozilla, Google and Automattic, Realmac and The Soulmen and the dozens of other awesome indie developers — they’re my teams. I root for Apple, mock Android, and immediately assume a new app is awesome if it’s clean and supports Markdown, and horrible if it has a toolbar of buttons and relies on rich text. And I’m not uncommon: it’s the most common thing on the internet.
Perhaps it’s just part of human nature: we pick the things we like, and then pick on the other side just because it’s not “our side”. We’re as bad as kids fighting over which action figure is stronger, only we sound more sophisticated. But we pick our sides so strongly, we can’t come down. You either love the terminal and hate graphics, or can’t imagine ever touching the terminal. You either think touch screens are the end all and be all of technology interaction, or you are so dedicated to keyboard shortcuts you can’t see the point in having mice, let alone touchpads or touch screens.
And yet, there’s good and bad in both iOS and Android. Windows 8, even, isn’t all bad. Markdown is awesome, and focused apps are a godsend, but rich text isn’t evil and toolbars have their place and purpose.
And bitter gourd isn’t so bitter after all.
It’s silly to assume you’ll dislike something just because. So try stuff. You might like it, you might not. Either way, it’ll make you a bit wiser, a bit more open minded, a bit more willing to see why others might not like your favorite thing, too.
It’s a big, interesting, exciting world. You’d be missing out on a lot if you always assumed you’d hate everything.
An idea from late last year turned into a year long side project that cumulated with a Newsstand app in the App Store, my first revenue payment from Apple, and those tell-all numbers that made it obvious a paid magazine wasn't the best next step for a blog with 10k pageviews most months. There's hopefully something others can learn from the numbers and effort and App Store gottchas I already wrote about, but what's really the takeaway from launching a paid magazine? I mentioned to a friend that it was a learning experience (as is all of life, of course), but then, what did I really learn from the magazine?
So here's a few takeaways from the magazine app project, stuff I've learned that maybe will be a help to you too:
1. Writing is hard.
That should be obvious to me, since I write for a living at AppStorm and elsewhere. And yet, writing Techinch Magazine seemed a much harder task than I would have ever imagined. I'll write over 10k words any given week, easily, but writing an extra 4k each 2 weeks for Techinch Magazine felt painfully difficult.
Here's really what made it harder: I wanted to do it good. People were paying me to read my writing — not just spending time on my site for free and perhaps clicking ads, but paying real cash money. And I had to make something they'd love. That felt far more daunting than pushing out a blog post.
And so, as I'm apt to do with daunting projects, I'd delay and procrastinate and wait until the last second. Instead of writing a half hour a day for the magazine as I should, I'd wait until the Friday it was supposed to be released and then plow through hours of writing and editing. It feels good to get it out after that, but man, there's got to be a better way.
If you're going to try something like this, just seriously keep writing every day. Really. I should have. Also, you've got to somehow keep yourself from worrying about what people are going to think. Worst case, they'll cancel their subscription. They won't kill you. And hey, they just might like what you wrote when you weren't caring so much about making it worth their money.
2. Doing more of the same thing is harder.
Of course, maybe my real problem was that I was already writing reviews and op-eds and tutorials for my day job, and there's simply a limit to how much one can write. That's very true, too. Perhaps one should pick hobbies in different areas than their day job — that sounds like a good idea. But then, writing about technology is what I love.
But then, web publishing has daily deadlines, and my magazine had a bi-weekly deadline. It was all too much the same — and too much raw content for one guy to put out. That's enough to burn you out from both your day job and your side project, and that's bad.
So I intend to keep writing, obviously — here, at Envato's sites, and otherwise. But I've also got a new project — yes, writing again, but in a different way — working on the marketing side of the new Let.ter app. And I'm planning to work on a book still. But what I don't think I can do is to do more of the exact same thing I do at my day job every single day. At the very least, for Techinch.com stuff, it's got to have a different tone or focus or something that differentiates it. I did that with Techinch Magazine, too, but the shear volume required made it feel too demanding.
3. Splitting your focus is bad
But then, I actually already had a split on what I wrote about at AppStorm and Techinch.com. I'd review apps in-depth and write more core tech articles there, but on Techinch.com I'd write simpler reviews and pointers about tiny tips I come across, and then wax poetic about the place tech fits into our life and similar lifestyle-focused pieces. That worked, and I figured that latter would be the best fit for Techinch Magazine.
And yet, now my focus was split. When I came across something new and interesting, or had a thought for an article, I'd wonder: do I write about it on Techinch.com, or save it for a Techinch Magazine article? I'd typically opt for the latter since I always needed new content for it, but then it'd go on my to-do list in OmniFocus and end up not sounding as interesting by the time I got around to writing it. The split focus made me fail both my blog and magazine.
4. Paywalls are awesome and terrible
Paywalls are the name of the game for newspapers and magazines and increasingly blogs these days. They make sense: you charge people to read your stuff, and suddenly you're not worrying about filling your ad slots and wishing your users would quit saving stuff to Instapaper or using Adblock. And they work good for some publications.
But they also restrict you. Online paywalls that are semi-porous work better (see the NY Times with their fairly generous paywall), as people can still easily share your articles and save them and such. If you're publishing in a paid app, though, your articles will be seen by the handful of people who pay to read your writing, and that's it. If you get enough subscribers to keep the lights on, great, but it's not going to raise your writing profile at all. That's very frustrating when you're accustomed to the instant feedback the internet provides.
5. Technology is amazing
It's incredible that you can launch a business from a laptop anywhere on earth these days and have people paying you money for your products without ever seeing each other or running a real store or anything. Sure, that's nothing new, but it's still amazing. With a handful of cheap apps — or, honestly, a ton of free tools that offer more than enough to get by — you can make something that'd rival the early digital offerings of any publication, and then sell it easily with the App Store and simple online stores like Gumroad. That's amazing, and we shouldn't lose the wonder of that. We take tech for granted so easily, but really, that's still magical.
6. People are more amazing
For all the complaints you'll hear from developers and publishers and more about fussy, entitled customers, there's dozens more out there who are genuinely awesome, who pay for your products and let you know they love it, and who spread the word for you just because. People are awesome.
There's always the vocal complainers, but something at AppStorm recently taught me an interesting lesson. We've noticed that comments tend to be the opposite of our articles. If we complain about an app (say, the new iWork for Mac apps), people who actually like the changes will comment and tell us how we're wrong. And if we happen to be the ones who like the app, and others hate it, you'll be sure to see the comments filled with people who thought we were crazy for our opinion. The iWork reviews on AppStorm were a great example of that, but so was another recent article: a news post about MailMate crowd-funding its 2nd version. The article got comments from people saying the app was overpriced and such, but then, thanks to IndieGoGo's statistics, I was able to see that AppStorm readers — apparently the amazing normal people who didn't comment — contributed hundreds of dollars to the same project.
Most people are really, really awesome — they're just quite about being awesome. Just ignore the loud haters, and you'll be fine.
*****
So there, a few takeaways from what I've learned with the magazine. Now, to the next ventures — and more writing right here at Techinch.com, my original writing home on the internet :)
Steve Jobs famously quipped that people don’t read anymore, but then launched two apps that seemed the savior of independent publishers: iBooks and Newsstand. iBooks, pared with iBooks Author, is an exciting shot at reinventing how eBooks should work. And Newsstand, with simple subscriptions, automatic issue downloads, and beautiful cover icons, seemed the best shot to turn a blog or a print magazine into a digital paid magazine.
Marco Arment’s The Magazine, launched just over a year ago, was the first smash indie success on Newsstand. It made Newsstand make sense, and inspired many of us to try to publish on Newsstand ourselves. When tools like TypeEngine came along, Newsstand seemed the obvious place to move your writing behind a paywall.
The Gamble.
So Techinch Magazine. I’d wanted to try out making a digital magazine, and when TypeEngine announced they were making custom Newsstand apps and a publishing system, I signed up and was accepted as a launch partner. That gave me a free magazine design, and waived my $25/month publisher fee for the first 6 months, leaving me with just a $99 Apple developer account and a $0.15/issue/download fee. I’d price the magazine at $1.99/month, and publish twice a month. After Apple’s 30% cut, and perhaps 3 downloads per user per issue, I’d take home $0.80 per subscriber.
It sounded like it’d work out great, at least if you didn’t think too hard. $1.99 per subscriber sounds like a decent amount, but $0.80 is far less exciting — but it’s hard to keep the first number from clouding your vision.
To make the magazine break even (aside from the cost of content and time), I’d need to have at least 10 subscribers each month to pay for my $99 developer fee, and once I was past my 6 month grace period, I’d need another 31 subscribers to pay for the TypeEngine subscription fee. That means I’d need a total of 41 subscribers just to make $0, and that’s assuming no one downloads the magazine more than twice per issue. Just one extra time per user would mess everything up.
The Reality.
So, ready to turn an idea into reality, I got the content ready for the first issue of Techinch Magazine, worked with the TypeEngine team to turn Techinch.com’s theme into a magazine app theme, and hit the App Store a few days ahead of the July 1st launch. Initial downloads were very exciting to see — being listed on the new apps lists and showing up on the first page of the Newsstand section of the App Store was worth a ton of downloads, even without being featured. What it didn’t turn into, though, was subscribers.
On the chart above, you’ll see the great download numbers (at least compared to the eventual low numbers) in the first 3 days, with over 100 downloads each day. Then, it leveled off to around 30 downloads per day for most of July, and finally trickled down to mid single digits. Interestingly enough, with next to no promotion aside from my blog, the app still got at least several downloads almost every day. All together, Techinch Magazine app has been downloaded over 1,600 times.
But subscribers are the make or break number, and they never broke single digits any day. Even when the App Store’s ranking gave me a download boost, the vast majority of people never subscribed. But that’s fine — all you need is a core of subscribers, and based on the App Store’s reporting of in-app purchases, I though I had 75 subscribers in July.
Turns out, that was wrong. The App Store’s stats show all in-app purchases, but with Newsstand apps, that includes everyone who started a 7 day trial. If they canceled before the end of that grace period, they never actually paid but the App Store stats still showed it as a sale.
I still got a decent number of paid subscribers: 34 in July, and a gradual decline to 17 in more recent months. But compared to the crucial 31 number to just break even, it wasn’t going to work. And, on average based on the number of paid subscribers, each subscriber downloaded each issue of the magazine 3.6 times — a number that may be inflated by users with a free trial, but one that nonetheless makes my break even number only realistic.
And then, in another turn of events that could make it tough for a solo writer trying to make money through Newsstand, I didn’t receive the first payout from the App Store until September 5th — over 2 full months after the first subscription was purchased. That wasn’t a problem for me, but it’s another catch in the process for a newcomer.
The Non-App Store Reality.
Of course, the App Store isn’t the only game in town. I’d decided early on to sale PDF and ePub copies of Techinch Magazine via Gumroad. Pages made it easy to turn out nice looking PDF and ePub copies of the magazine after Ulysses III turned my Markdown into rich text, and Gumroad made it very simple to sale the non-App Store copies.
The only problem was, there were almost no sales. Literally: I only sold 3 non-App Store subscriptions, and 1 single issue purchase. The App Store, even at its higher cost, is still far more lucrative.
All told, Techinch Magazine brought a total revenue of $168.61 — plus a pending approximately $60 that still hasn’t been paid from the App Store, for a total of just over $228. And the total expenses so far were $99 for the App Store account, $100.35 in download fees for TypeEngine through last month. That leaves $28, and didn’t count anything for any of the contributors to Techinch Magazine. Thus, it simply isn’t making financial sense.
The Future.
So that’s Techinch Magazine. It started out strong, but no App Store magic can make up for a small audience and the tough task of convincing people to pay for a magazine written by one guy. And I didn’t really have the time and resources to put into the magazine to make it better from the start. I’m still glad I tried it, though — it was an amazing learning experience, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.
For the best example of the exact opposite scenario, though, you only have to look at The Magazine. There’s no recent numbers public, but before Arment sold it, he told NPR in an interview that it was making around $15k in profit per month off $35k in post-App Store review. But even The Magazine has struggled a bit this year. PandoDaily just reported that its been losing subscribers, and its new owner and editor, Glenn Fleishman, was quoted saying that “I hooked my wagon to a star that has dimmed in Apple’s eyes.” Newsstand’s new design in iOS 7 makes it even more forgettable than it was originally, and the prospects of publishing in it are seeming dimmer than ever.
If you’re starting out today, and have hundreds of people you know will pay for a magazine subscription, it might be a worthwhile gamble to publish on Newsstand with a service like TypeEngine. They make it insanely simple to publish, and the App Store is still one of the easiest ways to get paid and setup recurring payments. For all the requests you’ll hear for a stand-alone non-App Store subscription option, if my experience is any indicator you’re better off just to focus on the App Store.
But for small publications — and especially individual bloggers — don’t do it. It’s just not going to be worth your time. You’d make far more just by blogging on your existing site more, growing your audience, and finding ways to sell one-off things. Subscriptions are tempting, but they’re still one of the hardest sales ever.
Paid publishing is far from dead, but Newsstand isn’t the answer we all hoped it was. But hey: it was a fun experiment.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Apple included essentially a perfect copy of Dictionary.app from iOS X in iOS 7, one that lets you download new Apple dictionaries from the cloud and can show definitions from multiple dictionaries at once. The only downside compared to the Mac was that you couldn’t install your own dictionaries.
Of all crazy things, that gap has now been filled thanks to the free Dictionary.appender app. It lets you install any .dictionary file from your Mac as a new dictionary on your iPhone or iPad, one that’ll show up in your iOS dictionary inside any app. With iOS’ well-known sandboxing limitations, it seems impossible that it really works — and yet it does.
Here’s how it works: you can download a number of built-in dictionaries and install them from the app (mainly Wikitionary dictionaries that didn’t tend to be that great in my tests), or you can copy any Mac .dictionary file over from your Mac to the app via iTunes (and you can find all of your installed dictionaries at /Library/Dictionaries/ on your Mac). Once there, open the app, select the dictionary you added, and install it. There’s one odd thing: your iOS device will have to be connected to your computer while installing a dictionary, whether one you download from the app or one you copied from your computer — I have no idea why, and hope they can remove that little limitation in the future. Either way, a few seconds later you’ll have a new dictionary installed on your Mac.
Now, go open any other app, select a word and hit define. Voila — you’ll see definitions from your new dictionary right along with definitions you’d get from the preinstalled dictionaries. What’s more, you can even manage the newly installed dictionaries and remove them right from the quasi-Dictionary.app in iOS without opening the Dictionary.appender app again. It’s full, fast, and complete dictionary integration, just like installing an extra dictionary in OS X. There’s suddenly no reason ever to have another 3rd party dictionary app installed on your iOS device
It’d seem like Dictionary.appender must have just flown under Apple’s radar, and that it’d be removed from the App Store if they noticed what it could do — and yet, it’s been in the App Store since May, with a new major iOS 7 redesign just added this month. I’m hoping that means it’ll stay.
So if you’ve ever wanted another dictionary on your iPhone — I’ve wanted a Thai/English dictionary integrated in mine for forever — then go download Dictionary.appender and install the dictionaries you want. Prepare to like your iPhone a bit more than you did before you read this.
Now, someone just needs to figure out how to let us add our own dynamic wallpapers and fonts (just for use as a writing/reading font in apps, not an option to change the default system display fonts), and my major “To Add” list for iOS would be complete. Anyone?
Update: Actually, you now can install your own fonts on iOS. Here’s how.
PS: Say what you want about iOS 7’s design, but one thing’s for sure: basic apps like this sure look a lot nicer with iOS 7’s stock design than they ever did with the older stock iOS list UI.
Just ahead of schedule, for a change, Techinch Magazine 7 is here for your reading pleasure. Mac enthusiasts have quite the busy week coming up, with OS X Mavericks’ expected release along with announcements of new iPads and apps in Tuesday’s Apple announcement. Be sure to check Mac.AppStorm for all the extensive OS X Mavericks coverage we’ve been working on at AppStorm, including detailed reviews of every app in the new OS.
But that’s for then. For now, you’ve got a new issue of Techinch Magazine to read. So go enjoy it! It’s a tad shorter than the last few issues — and more on par with the length of earlier issues — so I trust you’ll enjoy some of my OS X Mavericks coverage this week as well. And hopefully this issue will provide some nice, thought-provoking weekend reading.
Here's what you'll find inside:
Well, hi again!
Search, and Ye Shall Find
Stop Talking. Start Writing.
Build Your Own Google
If you've already subscribed to Techinch Magazine, you'll find the new issue in Newsstand on your iPhone or iPad already. Otherwise, go download the Techinch Magazine app, start a free 7 day trial, and check out the new issue. Or pick up a PDF and ePub copy of Issue 7 from Gumroad. And enjoy!
One more quick thing: I’ve restarted my email newsletter, so if you’d like to get occasional emails from Techinch.com about articles I’ve published or any new stuff I’ve released, be sure to go signup at tinyletter.com/techinch.
The other Steve’s outlook on life is something we all need.
Steve Jobs is everywhere. A recent Bangkok book fair had a life-sized wax model of him, malls use his quotes alongside those from celebrities and politicians to decorate boarded up shops while they’re being renovated, and the roti and tea shop around the corner from my house has a hand-painted mural featuring the Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower, the Statute of Liberty, President Obama, the Dali Lama, and, yes, Steve Jobs, all enjoying their chai yen (Thai iced tea). Ashton Kutcher’s acting as Jobs in the Jobs biopic isn’t enough for Hollywood, as Sony Pictures is still planning another film based on Isaacson’s biography of Jobs. Aside from Bill Gates, there’s few other people in tech that the majority of people on earth would know of. Jobs a legend, an icon.
But the other Steve — Steve Wozniak — is the often unsung hero that provided the technical genius that launched Apple. Jobs was the personal embodiment of Apple, the marketing guy who knew what was insanely great when he saw it, and fought to bring it to the world. Wozniak, on the other hand, was the reason Apple Computer, Inc. had computer in its name, the technical guy that made Apple’s original tech possible.
Aside from what Isaacson biography of Jobs mentions about Woz, as he’s affectionately known, and random other things about him from the internet, I’d never taken the time to learn much about Apple’s less-public cofounder. So, last week, I’d bought his autobiography iWoz: How I Invented the Personal Computer and Had Fun Along the Way in iBooks to try it out in OS X Mavericks, and then ended up sick in bed with the flu all weekend. With no energy or inspiration to write — my typical pastime — I read Wozniak’s full book.
In short, it was inspiring, almost tear-jerking without being the least bit sad. Absolutely nothing like I expected.
Wide-Eyed Amazement
You won’t walk away from iWoz wishing you were a millionaire, or feeling left out that you didn’t start a Fortune 500 tech company. You won’t feel like you’re dumber if your IQ isn’t near Woz’ score of 200. You won’t think less of Steve Jobs, and you’ll likely think better of Apple’s numerous presidents — and Apple’s long-forgotten competitors from the early days of computers.
What you will walk with is a touch of the childhood amazement that radiates from the text. Woz stands in awe of technology and what it can do, and seems to still be amazed that he was able to have a part in it all. He makes you fascinated by how electronics work together, and how each early computer design was important for the final goal of everyone owning a computer. I don’t know how else to describe it other than that he’s simply bubbling over with fascination over the smallest things, and has never lost that childish enthusiasm.
One could easily pull individual sentences out of context from the book — or even in context — and make it sound like Woz is bragging. It could easily seem that way, when he talks about being the best in his class, knowing more than other people his age, and designing electronics that were years ahead of their time. But that’s not at all how he made me feel. Instead, it felt like he was simply amazed that he was able to do those things, and incredulous that others didn’t see the same possibilities he did. It’s like he wants you to share in his excitement over doing good in school, winning contests, and making friends.
He analyzes others’ personalities, and finds the unique things about them fascinating. Others, even his good friend Jobs, do him wrong, and he takes it in stride, seeing it as a life lesson. He’s the only person I can imagine making you interested in universal remotes. Why? Because he’s fascinated by life.
Curiosity, killed.
The very quality of fascination is what makes children so interesting. Young kids are amazed by everything, starting with their fingers and toes as newborns. Everything’s new, and everything’s exciting. The whole world’s a new gadget for them to unbox and explore.
But then, we become jaded. We get older, get used to the amazing things around us, and forget to notice the magic that’s long-since become ordinary. The world is a really amazing place, filled with interesting things, and yet, we’re so used to it that it ceases to amaze us. The iPhone dazzled us when it first came out, but now we swipe to unlock unlock absentmindedly, when we used to would have marveled over the detail and fluid animation. We fly across the globe, and complain more over the delays than thrill over the speed and convenience. Louis C.K. got it right in his “Everything’s Amazing, and Nobody’s Happy” piece during his appearance on Conan O’Brien’s show: we’re the most spoiled generation with the most amazing technology that people complain about more than appreciate.
Somehow, though, I think we can’t include Woz in that list. If he’s anything like he comes across in his book, I happen to think that everything still amazes him. And that’s awesome.
So Revive it.
It’d sound quaint to say we should “stop and smell the flowers”, but as I argued in the inaugural issue’s Perspective article, it’s something we need. Sometimes it’s worth stopping and thinking about how awesome everything is, taking the time to appreciate what’s actually happening behind the scenes in the tech we use. It’s really, really amazing — but it’s so easy to get used to it and just expect it to work.
But when something breaks, as things are apt to, it’s equally not surprising because it’s just stuff, things full of tiny pieces working together to make their virtual magic. When the internet’s slow, it’s more amazing that it actually works in the first place than that it’s not loading our YouTube videos as fast as we like. I happen to think that we’d be far less frustrated with stuff not working — far less frustrated with life in general — if we remembered how amazing life and the things around us really are.
Want to get a glimpse at the story behind Apple from another perspective than Jobs’, and get a feeling of childhood wonder at today’s tech at the same time? Then go grab a copy of iWoz. I happen to think you’ll enjoy it.
While restoring a friend's Windows Vista-powered laptop this week, I discovered that most programs — say, Chrome, Evernote, and even iTunes — still support Windows Vista (and XP), which is nice to find for those trying to eek the last bit of usage out of an aging PC without ditching Windows or paying for an upgrade. Sure, Creative Cloud and Office 365/2013 require Windows 7 or 8, but he like so many PC users is sticking with Office 2007 and an older copy of Photoshop, so that's not an issue.
There was only one app I couldn't get reinstalled for him: iCloud Control Panel PC. The latest v.3 is for only for Windows 7 or 8, and the older version was nowhere to be found — even OldApps.com didn't have it, and, well, freeware apps aren't what usually is on torrent sites.
As a last ditch effort, I check the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine for an older copy of Apple's iCloud site — and managed to find the original iCloud for PC download link that's still live on their server. So here you go. If you need to reinstall iCloud sync on your Windows 2000, XP, or Vista PC, here's the link to download the still-functioning iCloud sync for your PC:
A new issue of Techinch Magazine, and a whole new iOS.
A few short weeks ago when Techinch Magazine Issue 5 hit Newsstand, it still looked like it was made out of wood. Well over 60% of iOS users now have upgraded to iOS 7 only weeks after it was released, and chances are you’ll be reading this issue on iOS 7.
iOS 7 is a huge upgrade to Apple’s mobile platform that’s brighter, layered, and animated, with the tech foundation to bring on the next generation of great apps for our phones and tablets. We’ve already seen some great new app redesigns, such as those that prompted me to break out of my habit of writing about Mac and Web apps and round them up for iPhone.AppStorm, but the best are yet to come. It’ll sure be exciting to see how developers continue to innovate on iOS going forward.
And, I must admit that iOS 7 has inspired much of the content in this issue. Here's what you'll find inside:
Everything You Know is Wrong...or so you might feel after installing iOS 7.
The iPad 1: a review, 4 years later.
Make Stuff every. single. day.
Think, then act. Actually, think some more first.
OmniFocus 2 for iPhone is Really, Really Great: A review of the app that makes sure I write reviews.
If you've already subscribed to Techinch Magazine, you'll find the new issue in Newsstand on your iPhone or iPad already. Otherwise, go download the Techinch Magazine app, start a free 7 day trial, and check out the new issue. I sure hope you enjoy it.
There's science films, and there's science fiction films. The former are the dry, National Geographic-sanctioned footage that museum IMAX theaters play on weekdays, while the latter is what sells out summer blockbusters annually and makes names like Star Wars and Star Trek become multi-million dollar franchises while playing fast and loosely with anything resembling real science.
Gravity is the perhaps closest to the former you're going to get out of a Hollywood blockbuster. In some ways, it resembles the former with its footage that looks like it's cut straight from NASA TV and a storyline that's nearly summed up entirely in 140 second trailer. And yet, it still plays a bit loose with the truth like the latter, as Time Magazine's Fact Check and Neil deGrasse Tyson's series of tweets revealed.
But really, the only reason that's noticeable is the fact that Gravity is so close to a scientific film, it's tough to set your thinking skills aside and accept that it's just a film. It depicts space and zero gravity so well that it's received praise from the likes of Buzz Aldrin and astronauts, and yet it still misses it at spots (hint: hair floats in space, too). Its premise is something that's a realistic concern in space today, and yet going from Hubble to the ISS isn't even remotely possible — and satellite debris wouldn't affect either since it would be at such a higher orbit than both of them.
So you're going to have to set aside the critical parts of your brain just a bit — far less, still, than you would in science fiction films where their space walks are decidedly less possible. But for any space buff who's spent too much time at the Air and Space museums and any NASA facilities they could reach, Gravity is a thrill like no other. You're not going for the storyline, you're going for the breathtakingly expansive views of earth, the Milky Way, Aurora Borealis, and the interior of the ISS. You're going to get the tiniest feel for what it'd be like to be on an extended space walk, one set with real hardware that's been in space in our lifetimes. It's still science fiction, but it's insanely close to real life in space in 2013, assuming the Shuttle hadn't been grounded. And that's absolutely worth seeing.
And yes, it's absolutely worth splurging for IMAX 3D tickets this time — though be warned, if you're prone to motion sickness from spinning or 3D, there's enough of both in this film to make you lose your lunch, as my wife discovered. In that case, try to get it in IMAX non-3D — this much space eye candy deserves all the screen room it can get.
