Why I Made the Jump

First, why did I choose to move from a MacBook to an iPad? There were a lot of little reasons, but simple curiosity was the biggest one. Could I make it work? Where would I encounter challenges? Would any of them be show-stoppers? And what would I learn about my computing habits?

Add to that a timing issue at Software for Good: my MacBook Air’s lease was up. It was time to figure out new hardware one way or another, and while the new MacBook Pros with their fancy new TouchBar looked nice, 1/3 the price for an iPad and a bit of adventure was calling.

Plus, I believe the future of computing will focus more on tablets than traditional laptops, and I wanted to get a head start on figuring that out. This was further underscored by Apple’s lackluster delivery of new hardware in 2016. And of course Apple’s business is significantly weighted toward the iPhone now, so we can expect them to invest heavily in the iOS ecosystem. It’s a good bet that any cool new features will start in iOS first.

Hardware Kit

So what did I end up with? I’m running the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. It has 128GB, and I opted to go without the cellular since it is easy enough to tether to my iPhone on the rare occurrence that wifi is not available. I purchased an Apple Pencil for experimenting, but the Logitech CREATE Backlit Keyboard Case was essential for making this a true productivity focused machine.

Software Kit

So much software! I won’t list them all out here, but a few key pieces that I use heavily every day.

OmniFocus: For keeping track of my own to-dos and followups, and progressing personal goals
Asana: For keeping track of my team and project to-dos
Slack: Communicating with coworkers and clients
Notes: I type all of my notes from every meeting. Searchable, flexible. This is an amazingly powerful bundled app.
Workflow: This holds a lot of promise in automating some pretty neat things. I have a couple ways I use it, but could use it a lot more.
Screens: This is my fallback. It lets me remote into a traditional computer (from my iPad) when the iPad native apps just don’t cut it.
Google Docs & Sheets: Why pass files around when they can just live in the cloud?
Working Copy: Editing code, saving contracts, and interfacing with GitHub

Benefits and Observations

So there are the obvious benefits. The 9.7 iPad Pro is smaller and lighter than most laptops—even when you include the pencil and keyboard case. It feels less intrusive in meetings. Major portability win here. And the battery life is stellar, though I still haven’t gotten used to not plugging it in when I’m at my desk.

But what else works well?

Native Apps
Web apps work fine, but I look for native apps first. Only downside: if the native app isn’t as feature-complete as the desktop counterpart, I get frustrated. (Harvest app for time tracking, I’m looking at you.)

Sharing using the built-in share sheet has been a slow amaze. Pushing a web link into a Slack channel, sending a file from the Dropbox app, or sending a team email with a templated status report I typed up in the Notes app—this all feels so much more natural with the share sheet than the drag/drop or copy/paste world of macOS. It isn’t perfect yet, but this new way to move information around and connect apps is awesome.

Workflow is another nifty app. One fun script I wrote lets me send a whole set of private messages to everyone in my Slack team, all at once.

I absolutely love the full-screen apps with the occasional split view. It helps me focus on the task in front of me, and see it through to the end. I tried to run all full-screen apps on macOS, and it just never quite worked. Lots of swiping to find the app I needed, and distractions kept popping up. I found myself dropping back into the windowed mode—which I hate—because I was constantly shuffling windows around to find the perfect placement, only to have it entirely upset as soon as I plugged an external monitor in. (Yes, I tried those save-the-position-of-the-windows apps. None of them work well.)

Intentionality
The lack of distractions in iPad computing truly surprised me. I find that when I sit down at my iPad, I have to think: Why am I here? What do I want to work on? This level of intentionality is something I never worried about on macOS. You knew what to work on next because when you closed one app, there was always another one right underneath waiting for your attention. It was more like whack-a-mole than intentional and methodically planned work. With the iPad, I first have to decide what to work on, then do it.

Challenges

Before I could fully let go of having my own macOS computer, I needed to track what didn’t work well and plan for those limitations. I created a list, which is long and mostly filled with weird, esoteric issues. They mostly fall into the “annoyances” bucket and not the “show-stopper” bucket. It’s a decidedly strange list of limitations, and not worth sharing here.

However, I’ve found one shortcoming particularly difficult to manage: video conferencing. This is the biggest issue I’ve had to date with the iPad.

Yes, I can video conference from the iPad. WebEx, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and FaceTime all work well. But when you’re running a meeting and need to do something else at the same time? Total fail.

All video sharing stops as soon as I switch to a different app—for example, switching over to Notes to capture meeting highlights, or quickly looking something up in the browser. Things one expects to do when on a video call.

The only exception is FaceTime, which works beautifully and does the picture-in-picture thing fabulously. Unfortunately, it limits you to only one other person in the call at a time.

I can’t use any external cameras, monitors, microphones, or speakers. (Well, sort of. If I had a Bluetooth speaker/microphone, and an Apple TV to AirPlay-mirror to, then most of this would be okay.) But the conference room I use has USB-based and HDMI-based equipment. And if you point the iPad camera at the room to get everyone in the picture it gets to become a pretty awkward angle to use the iPad for anything else. Which wouldn’t work anyway (see previous point).**

And sharing your screen through a video conference is not possible. At all. Under any circumstances.

I have found a small workaround for some of this: a desktop tripod stand that makes my iPhone a decent video-conferencing hub. This doesn’t solve all of the problems, but it does allow me to video conference with one device while taking notes on the other.

**I just learned that the Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter and the Lightning Digital AV Adapter could solve both the USB-based microphone and HDMI-based TV problems, though not at the same time. Clearly I need to research this problem a bit more.

Is it worth it?

Yes. Absolutely. I’m thrilled to see what is possible and to be forced to think about old problems in new ways. There have, of course, been a few times where I was under pressure for a faster-than-normal turn-around and I didn’t appreciate the learning opportunity in front of me. But most days I find the iPad has rejuvenated my love of solving problems with computers. It’s interesting and fun, and feels more efficient as I learn new ways of working.

Would this be good for everyone? No, not today. You need to look closely at the jobs you ask your computer to perform, and then see if iOS can work. In my position, 95% of tasks can easily be done on the iPad, and I’ve found adequate work arounds for the remaining 5%.

If you spend your days in something like Xcode or a desktop-only type of app, it’s not the right time for you to make the switch. Hang tight, though. I have confidence that the list of tasks you can’t do on an iPad is going to get smaller and smaller as the years roll on.

The post iPad Computing = Almost 100% appeared first on Software for Good.

Atom is an open source project managed by the team at Github. They openly welcome contributors to the main project itself, and there have actually been a few user submitted packages rolled into the Atom core in favor of the functionality the Atom team originally created. Therefore Atom is ever evolving and growing at a rapid rate. Check out the release page to get an idea of how often they make updates to the base Atom files. Typically, I see an update hitting it about once a week.

A few weeks ago, Atom released the 1.0 of the editor and it has grown leaps and bounds over the past few months. I’m going to run through some of my favorite things about Atom and why I choose it as my go-to editor, in hopes that other devs out there will give it a whirl.

Getting Started

I could go on and on about how to get up and running and some of the basics surrounding Atom, but they already have an outstanding video that covers most of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5POoGSrtGg

Many folks at Software for Good use Sublime Text as their go-to editor of choice, and the idea of switching and learning something new can be a bit scary. However, Atom uses a lot of the same keybindings that you find in Sublime and it only takes about 1-2 days to get nicely settled into Atom.

The two main shortcuts I use in Atom are cmd+shift+p for the Command Palette and cmd+p to Jump to File. These are the same as Sublime Text.

The Command Palette

⌘+⇧+P

Jump to File

⌘+P

Great, now we’re basically on our way!  You should be able to find your way around easily with these two commands alone. The Command Palette will also provide insight to shortcut keys you can use if you’d prefer not to use the command pallet. You can also refer to the information regarding how to view and use Keybindings in the video above. I won’t go into great length on them because the video covers it well. If you want more info on Keybindings, be sure to read the docs.

My Favorite Packages

Atom, like Sublime, uses packages to extend the functionality of Atom and add another layer of customization to the editor. Even the base install of Atom has packages you can disable if you dislike one of the baked-in features.

Like I mentioned before, there are a lot of user-contributed packages and themes to help improve the overall workflow of Atom. I’m not going to go into great detail about each of the packages I’m recommending, but links are provided so you can dig in on your own.

Merge Conflicts – Oh man, if you don’t enjoy resolving git conflicts, this package is so worth it. Probably one of my favorite packages. I mean, look at how easy it is!

How neat is that?

Emmet – This is a pretty common one and it’s also available to Sublime. You can learn more about it at Emmet.io. It greatly speeds up your HTML/CSS workflow.

File Icons – This one doesn’t impact workflow, but it does provide nice visual cues for file types in your projects.

Pigments – I recently discovered this package, and front-end developers will find it to be quite helpful. It highlights values in your CSS/SCSS/LESS in the color you’re specifying in your styles. See the screenshot below for a better idea. It does a lot more than that, so be sure to look at the package page for more info as to its full capabilities.

Markdown Preview – This package is a part of the Atom core, and it provides a pane next to your Markdown file that allows you to preview what it will look like. You can easily turn it on from the Command Palette. I know a little Markdown but not a ton, so this helps me a lot when I’m creating README.md files for our Git repositories.

Gist It – This plugin allows you to quickly create a Gist and sends it to gist.github.com. You can Gist an entire file or a selection, and it copies the link to your clipboard so you can share with others. It comes in handy for sharing code that’s giving me a hard time.

Minimap – Yes, Atom has a minimap available and a team that works spefically on packages for the Minimap alone. There are a lot of great ones that go along with the base Minimap.

Linter – There’s a great plugin for linting your code to make sure you’re using best practices and helping you avoid errors as you code. It will also check your entire project for issues it finds across all files. (See the screenshot below.) With this main package installed, there are a ton of linters for specific languages to go along with it.

Autocomplete Plus – This contributed plugin was so good that Atom ditched its Autocomplete efforts and rolled this into the core. It really outshines any autocomplete I’ve seen previously. It will check for variables across files for autocompletion, which is something I haven’t encountered before. For example, if I have an SCSS file for color variables in my other SCSS files, as I start to type the first few characters of the variable from the other file it will show it as a completion. The icons also provide a quick insight into what type of completion it is.

The list goes on and on.

Here’s a shortlist of other great packages I’ve come across that are worth looking into:

• Color Picker
• Atom Pair – Pair programming!
• Highlight Selected
• Git Log

I could go on and on about some great packages but I urge you to browse them for yourself to get a better idea of what is available to Atom. Checkout the main Packages page on Atom’s site to get an idea of what is feature, popular, and new.

Themes

Atom has a lot of options for custom themes and colors as well. There are two types of themes that you need to know about:

1. The UI Theme, which adds styles to the overall UI of Atom. This doesn’t change your code colors, just the window, tabs, file browser, and other elements of the UI.

2. The Syntax Theme, which is basically what it sounds like. This is the coloring of your text and code as you write it in the editor itself.

This allows for an interesting blend of combinations you can use to create the look and feel of Atom to suit your preferences. I currently use two of the included themes with Atom. For the UI Theme, I use One Dark, and for the Syntax Theme I use One Dark as well.

As I write this post, there are 731 themes to browse, so there is no shortage of customizations you can try out. Be sure to check them out and install to your heart’s content until you find the perfect combination.

FAQs

I’ve had a few comments and questions that come up regularly so I’ll answer those in a Q&A fashion.

Comment: I use VIM so I can’t use Atom.
Answer: Atom has VIM Mode built in.

Comment: I’ve heard Atom is painfully slow.
Answer: It once was quite slow but there have been many improvements made to overall speed and the only time I have issue is with startup times. Also if you run 100+ packages I’m not sure how you’d expect it to be super fast.

Question: I like the command line tools that come with Sublime, does Atom have anything like that?
Answer: Why, yes it does! See below for the info from the docs.

Another way to open a file in Atom is from the command line. If you’re on a Mac, the Atom menu bar will have a command named “Install Shell Commands” which installs two new commands in your Terminal: atom and apm. On Windows and Linux, those two commands will be set up automatically as part of Atom’s installation process. You can run the atom command with one or more file paths to open up those files in Atom.

Give it a spin.

Atom is growing, but maybe it isn’t for you and that’s fine. I just enjoy it too much to not share it with others. I’d recommend just giving it the ol’ college try and see for yourself. You might be surprised!

I’m curious to hear your thoughts, shoot me a tweet if you’d like to chat more about Atom.

The post Atom, How Do I Love Thee? appeared first on Software for Good.

In the words of our team:

“It’s our meeting place. The office isn’t where we meet anymore, it’s Slack.” – Casey, CEO

“It’s the pulse of the company. It reflects how well we work together as a team.” – Peter, Project Director

“I love that it allows me to work from anywhere and still know what’s going on in the office.” – Evan, Developer

“I honestly get one work email per week.“ – Eric, Developer

“I don’t have to use email anymore. It saves me so much time.” – Beth, UX

“I spend way less time in email on any given day. It’s amazing.” – Matt, Project Manager

“It’s nice that I don’t have to email someone to get their attention.” – Ryan, Developer

“It allows for easy communication without a lot of noise” – Erik, Developer

“I like the simplicity and the UI. I wouldn’t be able to communicate as effectively without it.” – Shane, Developer

“I like being able to refer back to the history of a conversation. It’s great for that.” – Andy, Developer

“It’s quick, constant communication. Slack keeps us connected no matter where we’re working.” – Abby, Marketing

“I like that it syncs really well with Github.” – Song, Developer

“I’m glad it has IRC integration.” – Kevin, Dev Ops

“It’s the IRC of the future. My favorite thing about it is Hubot.” – Jared, Developer

“It has great features without being creepy.” – Brad, Developer

“Unless you have Brad’s avatar turned on, then it’s creepy.” – Eric, Developer

“I like the gifs, image bombs and karma (thanks to Hubot). Plus it’s good for communication too, I guess.” – Abbie, Developer

“I like the custom emojis (especially left shark). I don’t feel like it’s intruding on my personal life.” – Ari, Designer

And with that, I’ll leave you with our favorite animated gif of late:

The post Why We Love Slack appeared first on Software for Good.

But all I want is a simple, easy-to-use, high-quality audio conference calling system.

Before we go any further, let me be clear: 

This is a rant.

If you’re cool with that, read on. I’m not going to be funny. I’m just here shouting into the internet void to feel better. If you’re not okay with this, then I recommend you peacefully move on to the next post.

Still here? Awesome. Let me explain.

Requirements. 

My job is managing software development projects. I use all sorts of communication modes to talk with developers, clients, and stakeholders about a project. I will essentially do whatever it takes. Are you a text-messaging maven? Then I will text you right back. Do you swear by your email? No problem, email is where it’s at. Do you put headphones on and ignore all things digital? Cool. I’m gonna tap on your shoulder.

But talking by voice. Audio. Live. That is where it’s really at. (Second only to actually meeting in-person. Remember that? You know, face-to-face?)

I know some of you will roll your eyes at the slightest mention of a conference call. That’s fair. Many are boring beyond belief. But run well, they really are a great way to communicate quickly and efficiently. A brief phone call can save hours of emailing back-and-forth.

A good conference call system for me is one that:

1. Works with all phones.

2. Empowers people to call in to the conference.

3. Doesn’t require a software install.

4. Has crystal-clear audio.

Nice, but not necessary: Enables screen sharing for presentations and helps you see who is talking when you don’t recognize the voice. Simplified dialing is also nice.

Uber Conference

Uber is my go-to conferencing system of choice today. The service is absolutely supberb. Easy to use. Has a great web interface. No software to install. They send me text messages as soon as someone dials into the call (with, I might add, the phone number I need to dial into to join them). Oh and they have a great attitude. You should set up a call just to hear their on-hold music. Brilliant stuff.

Requirement 1: Pass. Works great! iPhone, Android, office phone. It doesn’t matter to Uber.

Requirement 2: Pass. Yep, you betcha. Call-in is what Uber does best.

Requirement 3: Pass. We are free-and-clear of software futzing.

Requirement 4: Fail. Despite listing “HD Audio” as a feature on their marketing website, it is anything but. The quality of the call is no better than a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) call. Worse, there is often a lag in the audio so people are inadvertently talking over each other, over and over and over. Annoying.

Oh, and flip a coin to see if the audio via their website works. Best to dial in.

FaceTime Audio

This is the service that has ruined me for all other services. Did you know you can make an audio-only call from an iPhone to another iPhone without using cell towers or POTS? The button to make it happen is right there on the contact screen for who you want to call.

Have you ever tried this? OMG. The audio is SO CLEAR. I kid you not. It’s like you are right there in the room. Flip over to speakerphone, and you will be amazed. Everyone complains that speakerphones suck, but the real problem is the POTS system they are transmitting audio over. The speakers you have are great. An iPhone as a speakerphone can be an absolute joy to listen to.

BUT.

Requirement 1: Fail. It doesn’t work with Android-loving folks. It doesn’t work with office phones. Gotta use an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac.

Requirement 2: Fail. It ain’t a conference call. You call one person, or they call you. The 3rd persons can never join.

Requirement 3: Pass. So long as you are using Apple hardware, nothing to install here.

Requirement 4: Pass with flying colors. Best. Audio. Ever. Love. Love. Love.

Google Hangouts

Every time I ask the twitterverse about quality conference calls, people always bring up Google Hangouts. Blah. I don’t really know why I hate Hangouts so much. They just … suck. For a variety of reasons.

First: I don’t understand how to start a Hangout. I don’t have Gmail open all day long (I use Mail.app). But even when I do open it, the start-a-call actions are confusing. I have to find someone on that left side-bar in gmail. Then there are multiple icons, and you have to click on the right one. One starts an instant-message-like “Hangout.” No video. No audio. There’s another one that starts a video Hangout. And once you start it with a person, you can invite others. But that’s weird. Oh, and there is a way to start a hangout from a calendar invite, which is sorta cool, and even makes a certain amount of sense. But it is a separate field from the traditional event location field (where I usually put Uber conference call info) on a meeting invite. This leads to confusion with the attendees. Hangout or not? Every event has a built-in Hangout. Oh and also, the link from the calendar invite only works if you are viewing the invite from calendar.google.com. I use the Calendar.app on OS X, so again, fail.

Second: Invites don’t work. I can’t tell you how many times I have been invited, or tried to invite someone, and the invite just never went through. This is like calling someone and their phone just doesn’t ring. Not cool. Especially when the other people are clients and you have seconds — not minutes — to get this technology to work. I think maybe the invite sending is slow? Or sometimes invites get sent to a personal Gmail account instead of a work one? I don’t know. I don’t care. They don’t work.

Third: Along the same lines, Hangouts themselves don’t always work. The system is pretty simple: unique URL, and anyone who has the URL can join the hangout. Except when that doesn’t work. Many times a link to a hangout has been shared with me (say via Slack or text message) and when I click on it, Google tells me the Hangout is over. This, all while I am on the phone with one of the other participants who just sent me the correct link, and is also actively in the Hangout.

Requirement 1: Pass. Works with all phones. Sure, I’ll give this one to Google.

Requirement 2: FAIL. People can’t just call-in. It’s cool that you do the reverse and dial-in people from a Hangout, but there is no way for me to use my phone to connect into an in-progress call.

Requirement 3: Pass? I honestly don’t remember if I had to install a browser plugin to make this work. I think I did. But not sure.

Requirement 4: Pass. I don’t think the audio is as crisp as FaceTime, but compared to POTS, Hangouts are awesome.

So Then.

Where does that leave us? Nowhere. I’ll use FaceTime Audio every chance I have, Uber when a call-in is needed. And I guess Google Hangouts for times when video is a must. But I really wish I could just use FaceTime. All the time.

Know of a great conference call option that meets my criteria? I’d love to hear from you: peter@softwareforgood.com.

The post Longing for Quality Audio appeared first on Software for Good.

The update itself was quick to download, taking only about a minute. Surprisingly, after that I had to wait another five minutes, just staring at “Preparing Update…” After that I received an alert stating “your device must be charged at least 50% or connected to a power source to continue upgrading.” Without asking, I grabbed a charger off my coworker’s desk (thanks, Andy). The traditional install screen popped up and I felt myself getting jitterier by the minute.

Update complete, my first goal was to add all the credit/debit cards in my wallet into Passbook, where Apple Pay stores your cards. Not totally surprisingly, only one of the four cards was accepted. The other three (Simple, Barclays, and U.S. Bank) were all rejected with an error of “Your Issuer Does Not Yet Offer Support for This Card.” I found the lack of support from Barclays interesting, as Apple uses them for financing and credit.

However, I was able to activate my Chase debit card. Scanning it with the iPhone 6 camera was completely painless — the only field I had to manually enter was the three-digit pin code on the back.

After uploading my card, I had the option of having a verification code texted, emailed or phoned to me.  This information appears to have been pulled from Chase’s system, as it differs from the information I use on my phone and with iCloud. I decided on a text, and didn’t even need to switch apps as Notification Center showed my code at the top of the screen while I entered it. Once everything was validated and confirmed with Chase, I was brought back to Passbook and shown a simplified version of my debit card.

With my card entered into the system, I trekked over to Kowalski’s in Uptown for lunch. They’re not a verified Apple merchant, but I knew they had new NFC-enabled purchase terminals. After grabbing a turkey sandwich, I made my way to the cash register and prepared myself. *Beep* sandwich swiped, time to pay. As I pressed my phone against the NFC sensor, the cashier gave me an interesting look. Somewhere between confusion and “Is this guy an idiot….?”

My iPhone displayed a greyed-out fingerprint logo, similar to the one presented when setting up Touch ID on an iPhone 5s or higher.  I pressed my thumb on the home button and the lines started swirling around and began to fill in with white. It didn’t outright say it, but the animation gave off a “please wait, scanning” vibe. About one second later, the fingerprint logo was replaced with a pleasing checkmark, and the cashier’s monitor flashed ACCEPTED in big bold letters. I couldn’t tell if the cashier’s confusion grew or subsided from this, but she handed me my lunch and I was on my way.

Overall, the process was quick and (contrary to my title) a little underwhelming. Which is probably a good thing. Purchases shouldn’t be complex and intricate procedures; they’re SUPPOSED to be quick and easy.  I was also happy to see Apple Pay work with a small merchant that had an NFC-capable checkout system. Now that I have that first purchase under my belt, I’m excited to continue using Apple Pay as more banks become supported and additional merchants begin offering NFC transactions.

The post Apple Pay: You’ll never forget your first time appeared first on Software for Good.

But after listening to a recent episode of The Talk Show with John Gruber and guest Ben Thompson, I started to think about it in a broader sense. I think their vision is too small. And I think my vision of the Watch was too small, too. Way too small.

Something Bigger

If I can take a moment to sum up John and Ben’s current perspective, it goes something like this:

• Apple sees the watch as a platform and not as an accessory, i.e. it will not be tethered to the iPhone forever. This perspective alone explains that terrible photo app.
• The material (gold) could/will put the the high-end watch in the thousands-of-dollars range. Entry price has been announced at $350, and John has been suggesting $10,000 as a possible top-tier for the gold Watch.
• LTE and standard Wi-Fi capabilities were left out because the battery life isn’t there yet. The first version of the watch is similar to the first iPhone, which needed to tether with iTunes to sync data (today it does not need to tether at all).
• They speculated that the guts of the watch would be upgradeable by bringing the watch in to be serviced. In this way, no one will buy a very expensive fashion accessory that is technologically obsolete a year later. An affordable upgrade path will be possible. This also fits nicely with the fancy watch expectations — that you buy a watch once, and that it lasts for many decades.

That new chip looks like it could be easily removed
and replaced by subsequent chip generations. 

Apple has this wonderful trait of releasing a product and iterating every year. Each new release is a nice update, but not one that is revolutionary. This year’s iPhone 6 hardware has a bigger screen. It’s faster, thinner, and has a nicer camera. It has Apple Pay. But that’s sorta it.

And when you look at the original iPhone — no 3G, slow, poor battery life, no 3rd party apps, limited to AT&T — you see how far the iPhone has come. I think the Watch is like this. The model we see next year is just the tip of the iceberg.

I think John and Ben are right. The watch is its own platform. High-end models could be very expensive (though my guess is closer to $3,000 or $4,000). I expect it will have swappable components to keep it relevant for a long time.

Your Gateway to Screens Everywhere

I keep thinking about what this watch could be in 3-5 years. Apple framed the watch as “our most personal device yet” over and over in the keynote. But I feel like the current set of features does not quite warrant the enthusiasm they were putting behind the Most Personal Device claim. To add substance to that claim, the only thing I could really think of was: data. My data. My files, my emails, my messages, my photos, my online passwords … all of them together is what I would call “Most Personal.” And the watch doesn’t do that yet, or at least certainly not well on that tiny screen. But what if it did? What if the Watch wasn’t the destination and collector of your personal information, but the source of it?

Fitness tracking alone doesn’t seem significant enough to match
Apple’s strong marketing message of “our most personal device yet.”

What if this high-tech personal device becomes your gateway into all computing? Certainly, there’s the Apple Pay angle that unlocks your ability to pay at a cashier. That’s cool. But what if this device unlocks every computer you come close to with your personal data stored locally? Your work laptop. Your home computer. Your shared family iPad. Certainly something with that sort of access would need to be highly personal and highly secure.

We keep hearing about this elusive Apple TV. What if it’s not a TV at all, but a dumb screen? A new computer screen, powered by your Watch? Buy an Apple TV and keyboard for each room in your house. When you walk up to it with your watch on your wrist, you are immediately granted access to all of your files, all of your emails. Anything not stored in the cloud can be shared automatically from the secure enclave on your wrist. iPads evolve into dumb screens activated by the presence of your watch.

At this point, Continuity would be in full force. Instead of doing simple handoffs between your iPhone and Yosemite, Continuity on your watch would power the phone screens, the tablet screens, the laptop screens, and any larger “Apple TV” screens you have in your house. Whatever screen you pick up or approach automatically show you your data, your apps, everything.

Security would be ensured through a biometric authentication from you, on your wrist. TouchID, or one of the new sensors on the underside of the watch pushed up against your skin.

One thing I’ve wondered about is the dedicated Contacts button on the watch. Seems plausible that Apple would view your address book as important enough to demand its own hardware button, but it doesn’t feel right. Looking back on past Apple products, Contacts were never important enough to demand a dedicated hardware button on the iPhone. And that seems like a glaring oversight if we are to believe Contacts now commands hardware-button-level importance. I mean, the original iPhone was marketed as not just a “Revolutionary Mobile Phone,” but an “Internet Communication Device.” No button. This is exacerbated by the fact that the watch seems kinda awkward for communications. You have to use Siri to reply to text messages. Phone calls are by speaker phone or bluetooth headset (are we going to wear those all day too?). Those animated emojis are weird, and sending my heartbeat via Digital Touch? Yeah. I don’t think I’m ever going to send that to my boss.

The button is for Continuity. I think the Contacts button is going to evolve into a tool for initiating a Continuity session. It’ll work something like this: Press the button on your Watch, and the dumb-screen tablet you just picked up flashes to life with the email you were writing on your laptop. Maybe there’s an authentication needed for new devices: tap the TouchID sensor on your watch and you’re instantly logged in. If you have multiple dumb screens within reach, say a tablet and a laptop, just use the Digital Crown to select the one you want to use. Or maybe cute icons of your iPad, MacBook Air, and various Apple TVs will pop up.

Long-term, I think the Contact button will allow you to initiate a
Continuity session with the nearest screen.

The Future of Computing

What do you think? Am I right? Am I wrong? Is this too far-fetched? To me, the vision Apple presented for Watch doesn’t seem to match the enthusiasm in their marketing or the keynote. You know they renovated an entire building for this announcement, right? I suspect they’re holding back a few major features of the Watch, and that whatever is missing will have a significant impact on how we interact with computers in the future.

What’s Next?

Regardless of what happens in 2015, you can be sure that Software for Good will be following it closely. Though we won’t be launching a WatchKit lab or incubator, you can be sure we’ll be talking regularly at iOS.mn about the watch, the WatchKit, and everything it means. Join us! iOS.mn meetups take place monthly here at SfG. You can find more information at iOS.mn.

With a strong work ethic and shared passion for Apple technologies, the team here can’t wait to dig in and learn as much as possible. Apple is expected to make the WatchKit available early next year, and when they do, watch (pun intended!) this space for more analysis and our experience working with the new and growing platform.

We’re eagerly waiting for the WatchKit to become
available so we can dig in and build our first Watch app!

What would you like to see built for the Watch? We have a team of seasoned developers working on large and small projects for the web, iOS, and Android. We’d love to talk about your ideas. Drop me an email at peter@softwareforgood.com.

The post The Apple Watch Platform: Not Personal Enough appeared first on Software for Good.

If you follow me on twitter, you know I complain a lot about Mail, the email client that comes standard with any Apple computer. Ever since I left corporate life, and consequently Outlook, behind, I’ve been struggling to find an email client that I’m happy with. Then, like a magical answer to my tweet plea, Mailbox dropped their beta for Mac. Thanks to co-worker Joe, who is even further ahead of the game, I was able to get my hands on a beta coin to test it out. I don’t really get why beta coins exist, but those cute little things are way more fun than a traditional beta invite.

Mailbox for Mac has a super clean design. It worked well for them at the height of flat design mania, and it’s still working now. My only gripe here is that you can’t style emails. Normally I’m happy about that, but every once in a while I need styled or colorful text in an email. I’m only human.

I’ve always loved how Mailbox has popularized the idea of using the email archive, something I was unfamiliar with for a long time. All of your mail will still be there when you want it, but it doesn’t need to be in front of you all day long. It’s very empowering for someone interested in “getting things done”. For those who are strict followers of Getting Things Done, Mailbox also lets you turn off annoyances like badging.

The app is completely uncluttered, but still has access to what you need. It’s all color-coded the same way as its iOS and Android counterparts. This continuity between iOS, Android and Mac (beta) is great for returning users, but there are some places where it doesn’t translate perfectly yet. The innovative thing about Mailbox for iOS was that it used simple gestures to access a variety of features. It made sense on the iPhone: perfectly tuned to the form factor and the way we interact with the phone. Swipe to the right for archive or delete, swipe to the left for reminders or special archives. The best part about these gestures was the feedback you receive, mid-swipe. You knew exactly what was going to happen to that piece of email before you lifted your thumb from the screen, thanks to the green check or red x popping up from underneath.

That’s where Mailbox for Mac falls down. It’s more of a copy of iOS than a thoughtful rendition based on how people interact with their desktop or laptop. You can still swipe all of the same directions, but swiping is a lot more awkward with a mouse or trackpad. They have included some keyboard shortcuts, like using the arrow keys in the corresponding direction (with SHIFT as the modifier for secondary actions) but you don’t get that feedback, mid-action, like you do with the swipe. And while they’ve taken advantage of desktop notifications, I do miss the ability to take action (usually “delete”) on a new piece of mail directly from the notification.

But I think it’s going to get a lot better. This is beta, after all, and they’ve already released an update. That gives me confidence that they are iterating quickly and thoughtfully, based on user feedback. It’s already good enough to replace what I was previously doing to manage mail, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Want to try it out for yourself? I have a few beta coins left. Get in touch with me at beth@softwareforgood.com or on twitter.

The post Some thoughts on Mailbox for Mac (beta) appeared first on Software for Good.