ios

There’s a beautiful update to iThoughts for iOS available now. There are a number of bug fixes but two of the biggest new features are x-callback-url support and highly customizable map themes.1 The formatting options in iThoughts are as simple or complex as I want to make it. At the simple end of the spectrum, I set some basic attributes like line shape, layout and callout styles and apply the rainbow spectrum for coloring.

Snippet Shortcuts The built in snippet expansion just got a lot better with iOS 8. If you start typing the shortcut, the expansion text is shown as a suggestion. To add additional shortcuts, go to Settings>General>Keyboards>Shortcuts. It’s not as powerful as something like TextExpander but it’s still pretty nice. Don’t Correct Me, Bro Tapping the quoted suggestion just accepts your text exactly as typed rather than auto-correcting. Why it’s quoted in the suggested list is beyond my understanding.

My favorite change in iOS 8.0.2 was noted by Ole on Twitter. Now the sleep button is ignored while triggering the camera shutter with the volume button. This is a big one for iPhone 6 owners now that sleep is opposite the volume up button.

Continuing my tin-foil hat dance, I’ve read plenty of opinions about the new iOS 8 keyboards. Most of it has not been educational. There’s a particularly thorough evaluation of third party iOS keyboards at Markn.ca If a custom keyboard does not require the elevated privilege of “Allow Full Trust” you can use it with a high degree of confidence that your keystroke and other personal data is safe. At this point, I’d only be willing to use one keyboard that required full access.

The price will double after September 29th. Better get on that.

Big, awkward and beautiful. Those are three adjectives. They also happen to describe the iPhone 6 Plus perfectly. It seems very clear that our communication devices are turning into something different. I’m not happy about it but I’m also willing to accept that I may not represent the rest of the market. Against my better judgment and personal bias I purchased a 6 Plus. This is a summary of what I like and hate about the device.

One of the tips I shared in the recent Technical Difficulties show notes was that the FastMail URL links point directly at a specific message or view. I’ve used this feature for awhile when linking to email messages. Unlike linking to Mail.app messages on the desktop, FastMail message links work anywhere, including on iOS. Jonathan Poritsky pointed out that this is especially valuable now with the OmniFocus iOS 8 extension. While viewing a FastMail message in Safari, trigger the OmniFocus extension to add a new task.

I was pretty excited to see the new options for keyboard extensions in iOS 8. My excitement rapidly evaporated when I saw this notification while enabling a new keyboard. So, I dug into the developer documentation for keyboard extensions to see what could possibly go wrong. I don’t like it. This is what I found (quoted from the documentation): All capabilities of a nonnetworked custom keyboard Keyboard can access Location Services and Address Book, with user permission Keyboard and containing app can employ a shared container Keyboard can send keystrokes and other input events for server-side processing Containing app can provide editing interface for keyboard’s custom autocorrect lexicon Via containing app, keyboard can employ iCloud to ensure settings and autocorrect lexicon are up to date on all devices Via containing app, keyboard can participate in Game Center and In-App Purchase If keyboard supports mobile device management (MDM), it can work with managed apps My interpretation of the documentation is that a keyboard extension can enable network access if it is for the purpose of improving the application.

Tomorrow is the scheduled launch of iOS 8. If you are upgrading an existing device, here are some tips to make it easier and safer. If you are getting a new iPhone on the 19th, then I think these are even more important. Delete every app you haven’t used in 3-6 months. You can install them when you need them but every app slows down the migration to a new device.

Disconnect.me provides several privacy enhancing plugins for web browsers. The intent is less about ad blocking and more about cutting down on tracking. What I like about it is that it actually speeds up many crap-ware laden sites.1 Here’s an example using the Verge site, which is one of the worst offenders I’ve seen.2 Disconnect.me reports that by blocking known tracking requests that the page loads 40% faster. It was noticeable.