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Try macOS Mojave's Dark Mode on these apps
It's been a few weeks since Apple announced that macOS Mojave would launch today -- in that time, many app developers have been at work getting their creations ready for the new OS. Probably one of the changes Mac users want to see first and foremost is support for Dark Mode. While it doesn't make any functional difference, it's a nice visual redesign that a lot of users might prefer to the older Mac UI. But apps that aren't updated stick out like a sore thumb -- so the faster key apps get updated, the better.
Even Sony thinks that day one game patches are getting out of hand
Being forced to wait for several hours for a day one update to download takes the shine off buying a new game. What began as a way for developers to make some last-minute fixes has now enabled them to ship half-finished products and fix them long after purchase. It's become such a problem that even Sony's Jim Ryan agrees that the trend of massive, time-consuming patches has gotten out of hand, and is pledging that the company will "tighten up" its practices in the future.
IRL: Keeping a journal with Day One
Trying to keep a journal has always been difficult for me. Before the age of smartphones, I tried to rely on text files or a physical notepad. If I wasn't forgetting to write down my thoughts, I was losing the file or my handwriting was so bad it would make a doctor jealous. I did the LiveJournal thing, too, except it fostered too many passive-aggressive entries. Finally, while browsing the App Store I come across an interesting-looking piece of software called Day One. The features, design and presentation prompted me to give journaling another go. And I'm glad I did.
This is Sony's PlayStation 4 before the Day One patch
There's a funny thing about the next generation of consoles: They're all pretty much just dedicated game boxes at launch waiting for a Day One system patch. Sony's PlayStation 4 is no exception to this unspoken rule, which makes reviewing the console tricky business. If you're looking for first impressions on gaming, we have a post about that right here, and we'll have a full judgment of the angular console in our full, post-patch review later this week. For now though, wouldn't you like to know what lurks within the offline PS4's Dynamic Menu -- you know, that thing that replaced the XMB? It's admittedly minutiae, but it's all stuff you'll want to know when you first unbox and boot up the patchless PS4.
Sony's PlayStation 4 will require a Day One update, mobile app to be released pre-launch
Sony's PlayStation 4 US launch is now less than a month away and -- surprise, surprise -- it's going to require a Day One system update. The company just announced today that a significant software patch (about 300MB in size) will be necessary to enable a slew of functionality, like Remote Play on PS Vita and the Share button, that Sony's been championing through the year. Also going hand-in-hand with this patch is the release of Sony's second screen PlayStation App, which will be available on November 13th in the US (just two days before launch) and on the 22nd in Europe on both Android and iOS.
Day One for iOS updated to 1.10, adds PDF export option
Day One, the award-winning journaling app for iOS (and Mac) has been updated to version 1.10, adding PDF export and printing support. With the update, the entirety of your Day One journal can be exported as a single PDF or you can choose custom entries for export based on tags or date range. TUAW's own Steve Sande did a comprehensive review of Day One for iOS and Mac and had many positive things to say about it. Certainly, if you're in the market for a cross-platform journaling app for Mac and iOS, you should definitely check out Day One. Day One for iOS, available for US$4.99 on the iOS App Store, is a universal app and syncs seamlessly with its Mac counterpart, available on the Mac App Store for $9.99.
Apple announces the Mac App Store's Best of 2012
Just as they did for the iOS App Store, Apple has announced the best Mac apps of 2012 in the Mac App Store. The App of the Year award went to Day One (US$9.99), the popular simplified journaling app. The first-person role playing game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Ultimate Edition ($39.99) took home top honors for Game of the Year. The runner up Mac App of the Year went to CameraBag 2 ($14.99), the desktop photo editing app with numerous filters, tools and controls. The runner up Mac Game of the Year went to Splice : Tree of Life ($9.99), the artistic puzzler that finds users splicing different microbial strands to see how they react with one another. Apple also lists the next top 20 Mac apps and games of 2012. Keep an eye out for "Best of" lists of 2012 throughout December from TUAW writers.
Interview with Paul Mayne, developer of Day One for iOS and Mac
For people who want to keep a journal of their everyday lives, Salt Lake City-based developer Paul Mayne's Day One app is a godsend. The app stores journal entries in the cloud, runs on iOS (US$4.99) and OS X ($9.99), and is highly regarded in the Apple universe. The Verge published an interview with Mayne today, accurately describing him as "one of the rare developers who can effortlessly create a powerful yet minimalist and refined user experience." In the interview, Mayne notes that the runaway success of the app may be primarily due to the minimalist design of the user interface. "It's capturing personal thoughts and ideas in a way people are already familiar with, without having to share these writings publicly. It's focused, it's designed in a way that's clean and not overwhelming, and it's easily accessible in a way that makes the idea and motivation of keeping a journal fun," says Mayne. Mayne points out, "People today are busier than ever and rarely take even a minute to stop and reflect on the day. Formalizing the direction in one's life is generally a trait of geniuses, and having a medium to do so is useful. Keeping these things private and expressing them without filters is liberating." The interview is a great read about the developer of an app that many of us here at TUAW use each and every day.
Day One 1.8 adds photos, geotagging, more
My favorite app for both iOS and Mac, Day One (US$4.99), has received an update to version 1.8 that adds a number of features to inspire your imagination in personal journaling. The iOS version is now available, while the Mac edition is still in progress. What's new in Day One? The app now adds photos to your journal, a great way of adding memories of a special day or person. On the iOS app, photos can be pulled from the regular Photo Library or snapped on the fly, and there's also integration with the awesome Camera+ app. The Mac app allows images to be dragged and dropped right onto an entry, or loaded through the standard Finder Open dialog. Any one of your journal entries can now be geotagged as well. The iOS app uses Foursquare for check-ins at your favorite places, and a small map with a pin showing your current location is added to the entry. Want to comment on the weather? The iOS app has the ability to automatically add a small color icon showing the current temperature at your location courtesy of HAMWeather -- when viewed in the current beta version of the Mac app, that information appears as a line of text. For those who like to add rich text to their entries, Markdown buttons are now available in the edit bar in case you forget your Markdown shortcuts. Version 1.8 also adds a word and character count feature to the edit bar in case you have set a personal goal to write a certain number of words per day. I'm still totally in love with this app and have used it daily since February 27. Day One makes it incredibly simple to keep a personal journal, and the new features turn a good app into a great one. #next_pages_container { width: 5px; hight: 5px; position: absolute; top: -100px; left: -100px; z-index: 2147483647 !important; }
Day One: A beautiful and functional cross-platform journaling app
Have you ever kept a journal or diary? For writers, it's almost a given that you're going to keep a personal log of what you do during each day, how you feel, or interesting things that might create that prize-winning book some day. For others, it's a way to keep track of health issues, emotions, relationships, the growth of a child or the decline of an aged parent. Day One (US$9.99 for Mac, $1.99 for iOS) is a well-designed and implemented journal app for Mac OS X and iOS. Day One for Mac First, let me describe the Mac app. It's available through the Mac App Store and loads quickly. When launched, Day One recognizes whether or not you have Dropbox installed, and asks if you wish to use that service for syncing with the iOS app. Day One also supports iCloud for syncing -- it's easily enabled through the app preferences. The next thing the app asks is whether or not you want to enable reminders and quick entry in the menu bar. Reminders will prompt you daily to update your journal, while quick entry makes writing an entry as easy as clicking an icon in the menu bar and typing your words. The user interface of Day One for Mac is spare and functional. On the left side of the app window are five buttons -- one to add a new entry, one to show your entries in a list format, one to show your entries on a calendar, another to display "starred" or favorite entries, and a final button for setting reminders. %Gallery-148775% Clicking the add entry button opens a blank page. Since this app is Lion-friendly (it runs on OS X 10.6 and later), it can go full screen, although that simply puts the fixed-width app window into the center of your screen. That works great on an 11" MacBook Air; it looks absurd on a 27" iMac. I found that once I got the general idea of how the app worked, I just used the quick entry button on the menu bar to write my entries. All entries are time and date stamped, of course, making Day One useful for situations where you might want to keep track of what you're working on -- a contemporaneous work log. Day One supports both Markdown and MultiMarkdown in the edit and read modes, so if you're familiar with Markdown it's simple to add emphasis and links to an entry while typing away. Any entry can be emailed, exported as text or Markdown, or printed. There's a gem of a feature built into the Info button on each post -- a word and character count. That's great if you're trying to write Twitter-length entries, so let's hope that developer Paul Mayne adds Twitter support to the next version of Day One. At the present time, Day One doesn't support the addition of images to journal entries. However, that is on the to-do list for the app along with tags and categories, encryption of entries, and location data if desired. I think the last would be incredibly powerful for doing a trip log, as travelers would be able to write entries marked with their current location, and embed photos. One other handy addition would be the capability to store multiple journals -- for instance, one for work, one for personal, one for a vacation, etc... My biggest love of this app is the simple and clean interface. Anyone can be up and running in minutes, and Day One makes keeping a journal a pleasure instead of a chore. Now let's take a quick look at the iOS version. Day One for iOS The iOS version of Day One is universal, so you only need to purchase the app for iPhone or iPad to have it run on both devices. Paul Mayne has done an awesome job of optimizing the user interface for each device. On the iPhone, the entry method is simplistic and similar to the quick entry mode on the Mac. On iPad, there's the luxury of more room, especially in landscape mode. %Gallery-148776% Remember that Info button I talked about in the Mac version? On the iOS version, you just pull down a journal entry to reveal the current word and character count. And remember my comment about wanting to be able to send a short journal entry as a tweet? It's possible with the iOS version. Syncs through Dropbox are almost instantaneous. I didn't try syncing through iCloud, although it should work in a very similar manner. Mayne does note that there are some performance issues with current versions of the app doing first-time syncs over iCloud with large journal libraries. Conclusion For keeping a private journal, I can think of no better solution at this time than Day One. Being able to make journal entries anywhere, anytime is a powerful way to keep the log of your life up to date. The similarity in the UI between the apps makes it easy to switch platforms at the drop of a hat, and the support for Markdown / MultiMarkdown provides a decent level of formatting. While the app currently doesn't have the power of Mariner Software's single-platform MacJournal ($39.95), Day One is ultimately a much more user-oriented app that makes keeping a journal a pleasure. With the changes that developer Paul Mayne has planned for Day One, a great app will only get better.
LucasArts partners with MechAssault team
LucasArts has formed an unholy alliance with Day 1 Studios, creators of original Xbox Live mega-hit, MechAssault. The two studios, with their powers combined, seek to create an original IP exclusively for next gen consoles. From the horse's mouth (i.e LucasArts' Peter Hirschmann),"LucasArts is determined to deliver outstanding new ideas to next-generation consoles, and our partnership with the great people at Day 1 Studios creates another opportunity for us to bring innovation and creativity to the market. The phenomenal technology created by Day 1 directly affects gameplay in extremely innovative ways- and it perfectly complements the engaging story and intriguing characters you'd expect of a LucasArts title."Mechs wielding lightsabers? Count us in.
