I'm terribly excited to let you know that my latest venture officially launches today: Techinch Magazine. It's taken a long time to go from idea to inception, but it's finally here and ready for your reading pleasure.
I first announced the upcoming magazine back in March, but I'd thought of making a magazine or a subscription part of Techinch.com for quite some time. Then, in January when I first heard of TypeEngine, I knew it was something I had to try. I'm always trying new apps anyhow, so the idea of a Markdown powered web app that'd let me publish directly to an iOS app was too exciting to pass by. It took a while to get done, but thanks to the amazing TypeEngine team we've finally got Techinch Magazine launched on the App Store. TypeEngine has made publishing on the iOS Newsstand almost as simple as blogging, and I'm excited that Techinch is one of the first sites to have a companion iOS app powered by TypeEngine's technology.
I've opted for a basic theme on Techinch.com, one that's focused on reading, and the Techinch Magazine app looks almost exactly the same. It's instantly familiar on iOS: you can change the font size and brightness from the gear icon on the lower left of the app, share articles from the share button on the top right, and open new articles and issues by swiping in from the right. It's free on the App Store, with a $1.99/month subscription (which will get you access to all of our back issues, as well as every new issue that'll be published once every two weeks).
The first issue includes 4 articles (plus a preloaded Welcome article, which you can also read here on Techinch.com/Magazine/Welcome), each of which I'm proud of and hope you enjoy. Here's what you'll find in the current issue:
Welcome — An introduction to Techinch Magazine, with more info into my vision behind the magazine and what I hope it becomes. You can also read online for free at Techinch.com/magazine/welcome.
You, Too, Can be Iron Man — A look at how everything from Google Glass to Siri points to a sci-fi future that's already here.
Serving Two Masters — Why you'll likely never find the best todo app for everything, and what to do about that.
Perspective — What we've lost in society's rush for the instant, and how we can get it back.
The Photo Apps to Try This Summer — A new take on an app roundup combined with short reviews, this article brings the scoop on the best iOS photo apps that have been released recently — and there's a ton of new good ones lately.
You can read all of those articles today with the Techinch Magazine app — and you can even read them for free with the default 7 day free trial. I've also made PDF and ePub copies of Techinch Magazine, so you can subscribe to the magazine even if you don't have an iOS device. You can purchase a copy of Issue 1, or you can purchase an email subscription to Techinch Magazine to automatically get the PDF and ePub copies sent to your inbox as soon as they're published on the iOS app.
I'd love to know what you think of the app, the articles, and the subscription options. I want Techinch Magazine to be something you'll want to read, so let me know what you want to see in it, and anything you'd like to see changed.
Just published on Web.AppStorm, here's the 5 RSS apps that are the very best online right now in my opinion. If you haven't left Google Reader behind yet, now's your last chance to switch, and you can't go wrong with these apps.
Personally, I went with Fever, but I think I'd be happy with any of these, especially after looking at the competition since March.
I happen to love Creative Cloud, and think it's a great move for Adobe, but there's a few things they could do to make it better. After reading comments and thinking about the discussion, I've got two ideas that I think could make Creative Cloud much more attractive to a far wider range of users: smaller suites with a smaller price (instead of the current 1 app or everything options), and a way to keep your current version of CC apps running without a subscription if you subscribe for a minimum of several years or so. Put those together with what's already great in CC, and you'd have something few could honestly complain about.
Or that's what I think, anyhow. Check out the full open letter and leave your thoughts in the comments there. And here's to hoping someone at Adobe actually reads it ;)
Wherein I take the new NetNewsWire 4 beta for a spin and see how it holds up. And it's good, very good in fact … but it's missing anything that takes it over the edge to great or unique, and that's sad.
But still, if you don't have a favorite web-based RSS sync tool yet, you should be sure to give it a try. It's the best stand-alone Mac RSS reader right now, I'd say. But since I'm committed to Fever for RSS syncing, I'm still enjoying ReadKit 2 as my native Mac RSS reader.
Jump over to Mac.AppStorm for the full scoop on the latest version of the most storied RSS app on the Mac: NetNewsWire 4 beta.
"…we are always trying to identify is a system’s unique appeal, its underlying concepts, [and] go from there."
~Max Seelemann, The Soulmen
I just had the chance to interview The Soulmen team about their work on Ulysses III and more at Mac.AppStorm. It turned into what I think is the most interesting interview I've published yet. Add it to your Instapaper queue for the weekend!
…or so says today's xkcd. Turns out, people have been worrying that our communications are getting more shallow and meaningless for, oh, perhaps as long as mankind has been communicating. Or at least as long as we've had any form of electronic communications at all.
Adobe's finally released their new Creative Cloud suite, the subscription-based successor to Creative Suite. It's quite the controversial upgrade due to the price and licensing changes, but if you look beyond that at the apps themselves, there's a lot to be excited about. Adobe's actually done quite a bit with most of the apps, and the new Creative Cloud installer makes installing the apps you want as simple as 1 click and 1 password entry.
Over at Mac.AppStorm, I've written up a thorough walkthrough of your Creative Cloud upgrade options and how to get your upgraded apps installed on your Mac. Take a look if you're considering upgrading to Creative Cloud.
And expect more Creative Cloud coverage coming soon. There's a lot of neat stuff in there.
Wherein I try out a new article style for AppStorm, exploring the story behind an app. First up, the 2013 Apple Design Award winning Evernote 5 — the notetaking app I've been itching to write about again after the latest updates have won my heart all over again. It's really, really good, and it's no wonder at all why Apple picked it for this year's award.
Apple just released a new prose motto, one that could almost rival "Here's to the Crazy Ones". Almost.
- - - - -
This is it.
This is what matters.
The experience of a product.
How it makes someone feel.
When you start by imagining
What that might be like,
You step back.
You think.
Who will this help?
Will it make life better?
Does this deserve to exist?
If you are busy making everything,
How can you perfect anything?
We don't believe in coincidence.
Or dumb luck.
There are a thousand "no's"
For every "yes."
We spend a lot of time
On a few great things.
Until every idea we touch
Enhances each life it touches.
We're engineers and artists.
Craftsmen and inventors.
We sign our work.
You may rarely look at it.
But you'll always feel it.
This is our signature.
And it means everything.
Adobe and Microsoft are both switching their software suites to subscription models, moves that have rather upset a large swath of the public (at least the part of the public that posts angry comments on blogs). But in both cases — and especially Adobe's — I think much of the anger is unwarranted. If anything, the new subscriptions work out cheaper for many customers, and they definitely make the upfront cost of getting Office or Creative Suite far, far lower.
I personally own both Creative Suite and Office (CS6 Design Standard for the former, Office 2010/2007/2003 Pro for PC and 2011 Home for the latter). I also, like many, got started with cheap copies from student discounts, and then bought retail-priced upgrades to the latest versions post-college. With Adobe's software, the student discounts are especially significant, letting you buy a suite for around 1/4th of the price of a full retail-value suite — about the price of a normal upgrade. Once you're started, you can then keep getting the upgrade prices each time, with the overall cost-of-ownership far lowered by the student discount.
Honestly, I would have likely never bought Creative Suite at retail price, but the college discounts and subsequent upgrade pricing were approachable enough that it made sense. That's something I'm grateful for, since I've been able to use Adobe apps professionally since then, even if I'm not a designer.
I just wrote a post on Mac.AppStorm about why I think the new subscription model makes sense; take a bit to read the post if you have the chance, as I'd really like to hear your opinion on it as well.
Here's a quick summary of my thoughts:
They're Not Web Apps: I wish both Microsoft and Adobe weren't using "cloud" branding with their subscriptions. At the end of the day, the main thing they're selling is still normal, traditionally apps you'll install on your PC or Mac. They also both have bundled cloud storage and services (Skype and Typekit, respectively), but that's it. The only reason I think they're harping on it being a "cloud" option is that people seem more understanding of paying $5/month for Evernote or $10/month for Dropbox, so they thought calling their software "cloud" services would make people more willing to purchase it as a subscription. That if anything has only confused the discussion, since so many people seem to think that Office and Creative Suite are now browser-based web apps (if only!).
The Price Isn't Bad: The subscriptions are either cheaper or realistically not much more expensive, if you would have purchased each upgrade anyhow. I think the main complaints are coming from people who purchase one version, then use it for years and years without purchasing upgrades. Microsoft and Adobe, if anything, are trying to get out of supporting older versions, and now it's the latest or nothing. Not so crazy, per se. Now, what makes it more expensive with Creative Cloud is now you have to either get just one app (for around $19/month) or get everything (for $50/month), with no in-betweens. A mid-level option that included everything in Design Standard, say, would make a lot more sense for lots of us. And hey, either way: If you don't own Creative Suite already, Creative Cloud makes it tons cheaper to get started. Really.
Adobe, Especially, is Pushing Their Apps Forward: It seems like now, Adobe and Microsoft won't be that motivated to keep improving their software, since we now have to pay monthly to use it regardless. I can't imagine that being the case. First, there's more competition than ever these days, and since Adobe's apps are just a subscription (not a multi-thousand dollar investment), jumping ship is simpler and more attractive than ever. They've got to keep us happy. Second, Adobe if anything is doing more with their apps right now than before; they've already added new features to Creative Cloud, and the new CC apps each have tons of improvements (well, other than Acrobat and Flash. They seems dead, for good reason.).
Will I upgrade to CC? I'm not decided yet, but I likely will just to try it out at least. Plus, I really want to give Muse a shot. Either way, though, it's rather hard for me to believe that Creative Cloud has people upset as much as it does. It's not like the old pricing was that approachable anyhow. All I can figure is that it's frustrating people who were already invested in it; if you're starting out today, it's hardly a bad deal.
