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Third-party Twitter client Twitterrific is back on macOS
Twitterrific has been through quite a few iterations.The Iconfactory's first third-party Twitter client originally launched for Mac then languished (thanks in part to Twitter's user caps) while the company focused all its efforts on an iOS version. That was pretty sad for the company that originated the term "Tweet." In February of this year, however, the developer took to Kickstarter to fund the development of an all-new macOS Twitter client. The project is now a reality: Twitterrific for macOS is available for $20 in the Mac App Store.
Twitterrific 5 for Mac and Twitter's war on developers
Twitterrific, a Twitter client from developer Iconfactory, has been a popular cross-platform way to send and receive tweets for years. Now Mike Beasley at 9to5Mac is reporting that the company may never release the long-awaited Twitterrific 5 for Mac, explaining that Twitter's policy of limiting the number of users for third-party apps through a limit on API tokens is making it difficult for developers like Iconfactory to consider creating Twitter apps at all. Twitter set an API token limit of 100,000 per application back in August of 2012, with the social media giant promising to work with developers who needed more tokens. Almost immediately, several Windows and Windows Phone apps ran into the limit, and the developers were forced to discontinue their apps since new users would be unable to log into Twitter. The issue has since spilled over into the Android world, and now it seems to be causing Iconfactory to reconsider updating the desktop Twitterrific app. Beasley talked with Ged Maheux of Iconfactory about the API token limit, who confirmed that it's one of the main reasons Twitterrific for Mac hasn't been updated to version 5 and may never be. Sadly, Twitter itself has seemingly given up on development of its in-house Twitter app, with no progress on a revised Twitter for Mac since project lead Ben Sandofsky left the company in May of 2014. The bottom line, as noted by Beasley, is that Twitter appears to want to make web browsers the default gateway into the social network rather than native apps. The service forces desktop users into less-than-stellar first-party apps (Twitter for Mac and TweetDeck, for example) instead of working with developers to create a better experience for all. The solution to the problem is for Twitter to get rid of the API token limit. Whether or not that will ever happen is up to Twitter, of course. There's more detail in Beasley's post, so be sure to give it a read.
xScope 4 released and currently on sale for 50% off
xScope version 4 has been released by The Iconfactory. If you aren't familiar with xScope, it is a tool for designers who need to measure, inspect, or test design elements. Version 4 comes with dozens of new features which I won't bother regurgitating here, but will highlight some of the ones that stuck out to me. I first learned of xScope several years ago when I was looking for an on-screen ruler to check the dimensions of a web page I was creating. Of course xScope can do that, but it's sort of like saying you can use your iPhone as a tip calculator. It can do many kinds of measurements to check dimensions, rulers, and basically anything else on your screen. There are controls to check sizes on Retina vs non-Retina displays, on-screen guides, and more. One of the most interesting features of the new version is the text feature, which lets you search, decipher, and convert text into HTML entities, URL encodes values, or other formats. It also has a handy loupe feature which helps you check colors and measure small spaces easily. If you do app development or work with CSS on web pages or any other of a wide range of design work, you should check out xScope. As part of the version 4 release, it is currently on sale for US$25, which is 50% off the regular price. If you want to try it before you buy, you can download a demo from their website. You can buy it either directly from The IconFactory or from the Mac App Store. (As always, my recommendation is to buy directly from developers whenever possible, which allows them to give you upgrade pricing and also gives you faster updates without having to wait for the Mac App Store approval process, which is often very slow.) A $50 app stands out in the world of "fart app pricing," so I was interested to see how people would react. This morning I searched Twitter for for xScope and @xscopeapp and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Several people called version 4 an "instabuy". "For my work, the Text tool in the new version of @xscopeapp is enough to warrant the upgrade cost. Nice effort!" - @alstonebridge "No brainer this one: Upgraded to @xscopeapp 4.0 and it's not even "release thursday" yet. Use it every single day. Kudos @gedeon and team." - @hiltmon "Fab-tastic xScope 4.0 is out. Brilliant tool for designers, photographers, and me." - @mattgemmell There were plenty of others, but perhaps the most helpful comment for people who are considering it is this comment from a few days ago by Kerri Hicks who wrote: ".@chockenberry xScope probably saves me about five minutes a day. At $50/hr, it'd pay for itself in about two weeks. Can't wait for upgrade." Developer Craig Hockenberry has been at work on xScope full time for the past year and reminded users that "It's been 2.5 years since the last xScope release and included (non-trivial) Photoshop Mirror, Retina and Mavericks updates for FREE." Those who are familiar with The IconFactory know that they have a great track record of developing and maintaining great apps for iOS and Mac. If you aren't sure that xScope is for you, get the demo and try it out. As a non-developer/non-designer, I wasn't sure that it was something I would use, but I bought xScope 3 some time ago and regularly find times when I think "Oh! I can use xScope for that!" For example, sometimes when I'm making Keyboard Maestro macros, I have to use mouse positioning and movements. I could either try to guess and use trial & error (& error & error...) or I could just fire up xScope and get it right the first time.
Twitterrific 5.6 adds streaming, list editing plus price drop
The Iconfactory has released Twitterrific 5.6 for iPhone and iPad (universal), with great new features and a sale price of US$0.99. One big feature is streaming. Now, users on WiFi can opt to have their stream update in real time. Version 5.6 also improves list management, letting you add and remove lists as well as add people to/remove people from an existing list. Finally, you can create new lists right within the app. I have a list of people and businesses who are in my greater neighborhood. It's useful not only for seeing what friends and neighbors are up to, but I get updates from local business, food trucks and, on snowy days like today, the Cape Cod Red Cross. Twitterrific has been my iOS Twitter client of choice for years. These updates and a nice sale make it more than worth picking up.
Iconfactory announces AppViz 3 for tracking App Store success
If you publish an app in Apple's App Store, you know how hard it can be to track your sales with meaningful data. The Iconfactory, partnering with IdeaSwarm, announced its solution to this problem with the launch of AppViz 3 today. According to the news announcement, AppViz 3 sports a new interface with a Dashboard that gives you "a bird's eye view of how iOS, Mac or iBook products are performing, with results presented in easy-to-understand charts and graphs." Other new AppViz 3 features include a customizable Details screen that allows you to drill down to see long-term trends, sales, upgrades and more. The new Finances section lets you reconcile earnings with your bank statements and generate month-to-month earnings reports, plus partner royalty payments. If the AppViz site is any indication of how you can visualize everything you need to track your app's progress, then this product is a winner. The site includes everything you need to know about using the app, including a list of the 100-plus features that cover the Dashboard, Statistics, detailed analytical reports, finances and downloads and updates. You can even set up a finance-only user for iTunes Connect. You can sign up for a free AppViz.com account and track your first app for no cost. To sign up, you just download the AppViz app and follow the in-app instructions. (I did find one small bug right at the get-go. When you launch AppViz 3, there is no way to quit the app if you decide to sign up later. You are stuck on the signup screen with no way to leave the app unless you complete the sign up process or do a Force Quit. Ooops!) You can sign up for a free AppViz.com account and track your first app for no cost. The service starts at US$10 per month to track up to 20 apps, but you can save about $60 by paying annually. Iconfactory also notes that "previous AppViz customers who sign up before the end of the year will receive a 30 percent discount for the first six months."
Twitterrific 5 for iOS gives the classic Twitter app new wings
The original Twitter app for iPhone has undergone an extreme makeover. Iconfactory has launched Twitterrific 5 (US$2.99 for a limited time, $5.99 regular price) on the App Store, ushering in a comprehensive interface overhaul that I've become absolutely smitten with since I started using the app a few days ago. Look As a longtime Tweetbot aficionado, Twitterrific's design overhaul was initially a bit shocking in its simplicity. The default timeline view places an emphasis on the text of tweets, displaying them in larger-than-average type with wide-line spacing on a solid background. The result is clean, clutter-free and easy on the eyes. What really makes Twitterrific stand out, however, is the ease with which you can customize its already lovely aesthetic. Using a dedicated appearance panel, you can select from five different fonts (Helvetica, Proxima Nova, Signika, Museo Slab and Calluna), increase and decrease the font size, resize or remove avatars, change line spacing and toggle between a light and dark theme. This panel also has its own brightness slider independent of the device's. Overall, there's a high degree of customization. What's more, you can have Twitterrific automatically switch to the dark theme during nighttime hours, which has ended up being even nicer than it sounds. The interface is smooth and fast, with secondary screens such as the built-in browser and image viewer sliding into and out of view quickly and moving between screens is lightning fast, even on my iPhone 4. Followers and followed users are presented in a unique grid view of their names and avatars, which is a nice touch, especially if you're like me and associate the people you follow mostly with their pictures. %Gallery-172760% Use Twitterrific's interface is kept very clean. This is possible because most of its functionality is hidden until you either tap or swipe. For instance, tapping on a tweet makes reply, retweet, favorite and advanced options icons appear below it. The two most commonly used actions -- reply and view conversation -- are tied to right and left swipes on tweets. It works great. Tapping your avatar in the upper-left corner of the screen brings up a menu where you can access your own tweets and favorites, a search field, saved searches and lists. On the iPad, this menu can be pinned permanently to the left-hand side in landscape view. Twitterrific's advanced settings let you choose between iCloud and Tweet Marker as sync services, decide sync behavior, enable/disable notification sounds and turn the unified timeline on and off. The latter uses color coding to differentiate tweet types, something I've loved in previous versions and has thankfully made the cut for this fifth iteration. Twitterrific 5 has pull-to-refresh. It's not an innovation by any means, but the animated egg icon the slowly cracks revealing Ollie, the app's mascot who flaps his wings while loading, is absolutely charming. It's little touches like this that showcase Iconfactory's attention to design and really give the app a polished feel. Wish List Of course, as much as I'm liking Twitterrific 5, there are some things I'd love to see. For one, more swipe integration would be great, such as when you want to return to your timeline from an image or browser window. A simple swipe to the right a la Flipboard would cut down on taps. Also, the ability to chose reply or reply all, and to determine the RT type you'd like to use each time, would be great. And maybe I'm missing it, but there's no quick way to clear a draft tweet. Conclusion Twitterrific 5 is a beautiful, fast and clearly very well-thought out Twitter client that delivers a "pure" reading experience without a distracting interface. Its view customization options are awesome. It's not quite as feature-rich as Tweetbot, but I still wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to heavy users, especially if like me, you want to spend hours staring at something that looks as good as it functions.
Flare 1.5 adds new presets and borders
Lost in the hubbub of the iTunes 11 announcement yesterday was an announcement about another app upgrade. Flare, the US$19.95 photo processing app for OS X from Iconfactory, received an update to version 1.5. The update is the first since August, and provides two new default presets, Tin Type and Instamatic, and two new borders, Tin Type and Hipster. If you're running OS X Mountain Lion, there's now a way to instantly share your work via Facebook. There is now a "Profile Presets" effect in the color menu, an option for the rotation effect that scales to fill the image fram and a way to increase the amount of change when using Shuffle by holding down the option key. Iconfactory also fixed some bugs that had crawled their way into version 1.4. The update is free and available through the Mac App Store.
The Iconfactory's David Lanham on building homescreen-worthy icons
When you admire an app icon on your Mac or iOS device, chances are that it may have been designed by The Iconfactory's David Lanham. I had the unique experience of having him sketch me over FaceTime for a custom avatar portrait, and he's a talented and friendly artist. The Verge's Ellis Hamburger recently interviewed Lanham about his work, his training and the reason why eye-catching icons are so important. Lanham, who has created such classic and whimsical icons as Twitterific's "Ollie," Acorn's acorn, Coda's leaf and the gorgeous calendar for Fantastical, notes in the interview that "icons are the face and branding of an app, and they set the tone and give people an idea of what to expect for an app's purpose, quality and content. It's extremely important to really nail the message and content of the icon if you want the best chance of someone initially checking out your app as well as keeping it on their device (or at least out of a subfolder)." Personally, I was happy to hear that Space Doggy is one of Lanham's favorite drawings, since I've used that drawing (a small fragment of which is seen below) as my Mac desktop for two years. It's a great interview with one of the people who makes working with Apple products such a joy.
xScope 3.5 offers Retina support, improved mirror tool
Iconfactory has released xScope 3.5 this week, with Retina support for the Retina MacBook Pro and improved mirroring that allows a Photoshop document to be mirrored while being edited. The rulers can be inverted to make measuring on dark backgrounds easier, alignment marks can be displayed on the ruler, tools work in full-screen apps on Lion and Mountain Lion and more. xScope is a US$29.99 purchase through the Mac App Store or direct download. You can try it before buying it by doing the direct download option.
Flare 1.4 adds Retina support, Twitter sharing, more
Yesterday we saw an update to Realmac Software's Analog Mac photo effects app; today the news is from Iconfactory, and the app being updated is Flare (currently discounted to US$9.99). Like Analog, Flare (see TUAW review here) provides a way to add and adjust pre-loaded visual effects. Flare comes with quite a few more effects than Analog -- a total of 31 -- and allows quite a bit more in terms of control and the addition of effects. What's new in Flare 1.4? There's now support for Retina displays, there's new high-resolution editing and the user interface has changed. Like many apps updated for OS X Mountain Lion, Flare 1.4 adds a significant number of sharing services including "upload to Twitter." There's a new "Save to Aperture" feature as well. As we noted with the Analog update yesterday, the app supports the external editor mode in Aperture and iPhoto, and adds Lightroom as well. Several bug fixes have also been incorporated. For existing users, it's available immediately from the Updates tab of the Mac App Store.
Panic's Candy Bar is now free, goes to Iconfactory
Panic has updated icon customization app CandyBar for compatibility with OS X 10.8, changed the price to free and handed it over to The Iconfactory. As the 'Factory workers point out, changes Apple has recently made to OS X security have hindered the app significantly. For that reason, it's no longer supported. Mac users have long enjoyed the ability to customize the look of their operating system. Who remembers Kaleidoscope from the pre-OS X days? We sure do. Unfortunately, OS X rendered Kaleidoscope obsolete, and now Mountain Lion is looking to do the same to CandyBar. For example, Apple's latest OS prevents customization of Dock icons (though the indicator light can be changed). Also, a custom icon on a signed app could cause the App Store to fail to recognize an available update. Anyone who purchased CandyBar during July, 2012 can receive a refund (see details here). Panic indicates that The Iconfactory has plans for the app's future, but we'll have to wait and see what those will be.
Astronut for iPad available, use iPhone as controller
If you enjoy casual games and have both an iPhone and an iPad, then you'll want to check out Astronut from The Iconfactory. The planet hopping game has been available on the iPhone for a few years, but an updated iPhone and a new iPad version now lets you use your the iPad for the game and the iPhone or iPod touch as the controller. With its 24 levels and 40 different achivements to unlock, Astronut is a solid title that'll keep you entertained for a while. You can literally play for an hour without getting bored, but don't worry if you've only got a few minutes to spare as the game can be saved at any point. There's also GameCenter support so you can share your stats with other gamers. You can check out the promo video of Astronut below and grab both the free iPhone app and the US$1.99 iPad app from the iOS App Store.
Ramp Champ rights acquired by DS MediaLabs
Ramp Champ is an oldie but goodie from the App Store's earliest days. It's an old carnival bag tosser game that was originally put together by both Iconfactory and DS MediaLabs, and it was quite popular even before going free-to-play a while back. Ramp Champ been sitting quiet on the App Store for almost a full year now -- the last update was in last May. That will probably change very soon, however. The design studio noted on Twitter that DS MediaLabs has picked up the full rights to the game, and on its blog, that company says it is taking the reins, and plans to put some new content in Ramp Champ soon. All of the graphics will be configured for the Retina Display, and they'll add new ramps. So this is good news for Ramp Champ fans. The game's definitely got a following (including among TUAW writers), so it'll be good to see it back in action again.
Flare for Mac version 1.3 adds new shuffle feature
Flare is a fun Mac app for adding effects and filters to your digital photographs. The Iconfactory has released version 1.3 of Flare with a number of changes, including one that adds a bit of randomness to the effect you apply. The Shuffle feature is used once you've applied one of the built-in presets to an image. What it does is slightly tweak the settings in that preset to add a random variation. Other improvements to Flare include the ability to add multiple presets to an image by dragging and dropping them, better control of the quality of JPEG images while exporting them, a new cropping aspect ration of 4x5, and more robust final rendering when you're exporting an image. Flare also now supports Application Sandbox, a step towards compatibility with the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. That feature improves the security of the app and your Mac. Iconfactory also notes that a number of bugs have been squashed with the latest release. The update is available from the Mac App Store now.
Daily iPhone App: Dine-O-Matic chooses a restaurant for you
Eating at a restaurant is fun but getting a consensus from a group of diners can be a hassle. Offload the responsibly to your iPhone with Dine-O-Matic from the Iconfactory (currently on sale for US$0.99), which is more than happy to choose a restaurant for the whole gang. The app combines retro graphics (think of the corner diner), a game-like "spinner" and handy maps integration to make the experience fun. To get started, enter your favorite restaurants. There are two ways to do this. The first is to flip the main screen over and enter the restaurant list. Tap the "+" button in the upper right-hand corner to create a new entry. Type in info like name, category, price range, address and more. The easier way is the built-in Maps integration. From the main screen, tap the location button to open the map. Dine-O-Matic notices your location and highlights local restaurants. Tap anyone to add it to your list (you still must enter the category and price range manually). You can also enter a name or type, like "pizza," in the search field. Once you're set up, make a choice! Each category is represented by a "neon sign" icon. Give it a tap and watch it spin through the options, landing on a random place in your list. A slip appears with the restaurant's name, phone number (tap to call) and address (tap to view on a map). You can even sort by price range. My kids enjoyed flipping the spinner ("I'll stop when it says 'Chinese food') and my wife and I did, in fact, base last night's dinner on its decision. Dine-O-Matic looks great, with black-and-white check "tile" and buzzing neon and works as advertised. Plus, you can declare "The phone has spoken!" and silence an indecisive crowd. Dine-O-Matic is available from The App Store now.
TUAW Best of 2011: Flare top Mac photo app; Final Cut Pro X best video app
In our TUAW Best of 2011 voting, we've come to the end of the awards for the Mac. Starting tomorrow, the winners for iPhone accessories and apps will be announced. Today we're proud to announce the winners of the voting for the top Mac photo and video apps. For Mac photo apps, the innovative Flare (US$19.99, now on sale for $4.99) photo effects app from Iconfactory took the honors as the best Mac photo app of the year. As reported in a TUAW review earlier this year when Flare first hit the Mac App Store, the app doesn't just stop with applying effects to your photos. Instead, it has a set of controls that allow users to tweak color, lens, and creative effects. Color effects include exposure, brightness, saturation, contrast, tints, color filters and gradients, and several processing options. Lens effects add Gaussian, motion, and zoom blurs, and the ability to sharpen, add a glow to, or vignette a photo. Using creative effects, it's possible to add grain, texture, frames and borders, rotation, scaling, and halftoning to your pictures. Many of our readers appreciated the power and simplicity of Flare, giving it 38.1 percent of the vote. In second place and just barely missing the title of top Mac photo app was FX Photo Studio Pro ($39.99) from MacPhun LLC. In the Mac video app category, one app ruled the roost. Apple's own Final Cut Pro X ($299.99) received a whopping 63.6 percent of reader votes. Congratulations to the teams at Iconfactory and Apple for winning the hearts and minds of our readers with two incredible apps.
Iconfactory working on open-source iOS frameworks for Mac OS X
The Iconfactory is one of the premiere Mac development houses, and as Iconfactory developer Craig Hockenberry posts on his blog, they've just contributed to the developer community "in a big way." The team has introduced an open source framework called Chameleon, which provides apps designed for iOS an easier porting path to run on Mac OS X as well. Most of the work came from tools built to handle Iconfactory's own apps, but they've released the code to other developers interested in reusing iOS code for Mac OS apps. A lot of the ins and outs we'll leave for the developers to figure out (the project page admits that Apple may be working on exactly the same kind of solution, and Iconfactory says that if Apple tells them to shut it down, they will), but the bottom line for us users is that developers accustomed to creating iOS apps will have an easier time bringing those same projects over to Mac OS X. That means more quality iOS apps making the leap onto the Mac App Store, and better selection all around. The project is far from done -- Iconfactory admits that it was really just a toolkit built for their own apps, and the code has lots of holes that the documentation doesn't cover. But they are working on it and accepting donations, and interested developers will be able to contribute as well. It sounds like an interesting project, and it should pave the way for even better apps on both platforms going forward.
Flare from The Iconfactory: Awesome photo editing app for Mac
One of the joys of photography with the iPhone is that there are a huge number of apps for the platform that let you work with your photos to apply cropping, add filters and effects, and then share those photos with others. Sure, we have apps like iPhoto and Photoshop Elements, but to me they're not really in the same ballpark as the iPhone apps when it comes to quickly editing a photo. Flare is a new Mac app (US$19.95, now on sale for $9.99) from The Iconfactory and ARTIS Software that brings drag, drop and click editing to photos much in the manner that the current iPhone photo apps do. Available in the Mac App Store, Flare is easy enough for photo newbies to use, yet powerful enough that professional photographers will want to have it in their kit of goodies. After launching the app for the first time, you're greeted with a simple startup screen with three choices: "Drag a photo here to get started with Flare," "Read the User's Guide" or "View a Tutorial." I think most people will do what I did -- I just dragged a photo to the box in the startup screen and started playing with the app to see what it could do. After that, I clicked the User's Guide button to get more details, which took me to a very complete online explanation of what each and every effect, filter and process does to your photograph. %Gallery-119002%
TUAW's Daily App: Astronut
You may have already heard about the Iconfactory's new game Astronut, but just in case you haven't, we'll happily be the ones to tell you. From the makers of Ramp Champ and Twitterrific comes a game that's sort of a mashup between Dizzypad, Captain Ludwig and Doodle Jump. You play a little astronaut bouncing from planet to planet and trying to make his way up the screen, all while avoiding aliens and other traps and troubles along the way. Astronut's a little more forgiving than most of the other "jump"-style games. Not only are there three sections of your heart to go through, you can pick up more hearts, shields and other items along the way. You also get a "boost" that allows you to invincibly fly past any number of bad guys or enemies (as long as you're pointed in the right direction). As a result, the game is a whole lot of fun to play. Rather than trying to time out each jump perfectly, you constantly bounce around the map, ascending and sometimes even landing huge jumps for bonus points. There's Game Center integration in the form of leaderboards and achievements as well, so there's quite a bit of game here to play. There are 24 levels total, and the first four are included in a free download that comes more than recommended -- it's a lot of fun. If you like it, you can buy the rest of the game for US$1.99 via an in-app purchase. The Iconfactory never disappoints when it comes to well-executed, solid designs, and Astronut is another great app in their growing library of quality App Store titles.
Iconfactory gives a sneak peek at Twitterrific 4
Iconfactory has given a sneak peek at its upcoming Twitterrific version 4 for the Mac. There's no information yet on pricing or release date, but it will require Snow Leopard "...because of some new features." The announcement includes a screenshot but not much more. In fact, if you look carefully you can see that the screenshot shows a DM from @twitterrific saying "Make sure you don't show them everything in the screenshot, it's always nice to have some surprises!" What a tease. The announcement also reminds us that the 'Factory has been hard at work on other apps, like Pickin' Time and the recently released Take Five, not to mention the iPhone and iPad versions of Twitterrific. If you missed last night's Talkcast, Ged Maheux was our guest, and shared some of his initial thoughts about the Mac App Store. You can listen or download to the episode here. Twitterrific was my first Twitter app and I still love it on the iPad, but the Mac version...well, the Mac version has gotten a bit long in the tooth. I can't wait to see what gets done in version 4. Code faster, guys!
