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Launch Center Pro 1.1 adds native in-app actions, Action Composer, more
AppCubby has released Launch Center Pro 1.1 (US$2.99, currently on sale), a major update to its very useful utility for the iPhone (here's our full review of Launch Center Pro 1.0). This update brings many big additions, including native in-app actions, a re-designed Action Composer and TextExpander support in URLs. The new Action Composer is beautiful and so much more intuitive than its predecessor. When you're making a new action, a new screen appears listing system actions, installed apps, all supported apps, featured apps and those recently added. There's also a button for using a custom URL. It's very neatly organized and presented, which makes it easier to use. That's great, but support for TextExpander snippets is even better. If you've got TextExpander touch installed (and why wouldn't you?), launch it and enable snippet sharing. Now you can use snippets within Launch Center Pro, which is immensely handy. There's more, of course, and we'll have a full review up soon. For now, Launch Center Pro 1.1 is a great updated to one of my favorite utilities. Stay tuned for my full run-down of this useful app.
Timer: a single-serving iPhone app for timing stuff
The guiding principle behind the Unix command line lurking underneath the GUI of every Mac you own is a collection of simple programs that co-operate to enable you to achieve complex tasks. That co-operation part is missing from iOS, due to tight app sandboxing, but the idea of simple, small apps that do one thing well is very much alive. The latest from this school of design thought is App Cubby's $0.99 app, Timer. It comes highly recommended -- with a 4.5-star average review in iTunes and featured-by-Apple App Store spot. I almost don't need to explain the functionality; a screenshot alone may be enough, although there are some neat, subtle touches that don't immediately meet the eye. Timer gives you twelve buttons, each corresponding to a distinct count-down timer. Some are pre-filled with values; some are not. Tap on a pre-set button to start the countdown timer for the appropriate time. Tap it again to pause the timer. Tap the other buttons to enter a one-off custom time to count down to: Tap and hold on any button to configure a pre-set in that slot, with options for colour (which you can use to visually group timers) and alert tone: When the timer goes off, your choice of alarm tone sounds and a notification pop-up appears, in the usual fashion: Like most reminder apps since the edition of local notifications in iOS 4, you don't need to leave Timer running to make the alarm sound. If the phone is muted, you get a vibrating alert instead. However, note that it does not continue to vibrate -- it's one buzz, and the screen lights up, and then the device goes back to sleep a few seconds later. Similarly, audible alarms play only for a short period -- ten or so seconds, depending on the tone you choose -- before shutting off. Depending on what you want, the non-repeating nature of the alarm could be perfect, or an annoying limitation. If you don't respond to an alarm, it transforms into a count-up timer instead. When you return to the phone you can use this to see how long it's been since the alarm sounded. Why this and not any other timer? I can think of at least two specific scenarios Timer is perfect for. The first is where you want to time a specific interval over and over again. For example, the Pomodoro productivity technique calls for you to single-mindedly concentrate on a task for 25 minutes, then have a five minute break, then repeat the pattern. Every fourth break, take a bit longer (15-20 minutes). This requires timing the same three intervals over and over -- Timer is perfect for this. The second activity I've found Timer to be spot-on for is complicated cooking. I have a little standalone digital timer in my kitchen, but once I have a few different elements on the go -- all with their own end-points -- I find it all too easy to lose track of where I am. With Timer, I was able to configure multiple clocks for each element of the meal, and see at a glance if I had time for another glass of wine before I had to remove the chicken from the oven to rest. Why Timer instead of Siri? In my case, because I'm still rocking an iPhone 4, so I don't have Siri; but that's a fatuous answer. There's also no way to coerce Clock to track more than one countdown at once on the earlier iPhones that can't access Siri's special area. You can use Reminders, although then you have to do mental arithmetic to work out the end points of your various timers and set a reminder for the corresponding time. Even if you are using an iPhone 4S, however, you still can't easily get a glance over up to a dozen timers without re-invoking Siri, and setting timers over and over again for the same block of time ("remind me to stir the ragù every 20 minutes" was my most recent use case) isn't as easy as tapping a single button. Future changes I spoke with Dave Barnard, of App Cubby. He told me they are already hard at work on v1.1 of Timer, which they are aiming to release "really soon" now they are done with Launch Centre Pro. This version will bring optional names for timers, some extra UI polish (I can't imagine where; it's a very slick app already), and a few bug fixes. Is it worth the money? This, of course, is the $64,000 question. Or, more accurately, the $0.99 one, as that's what Timer costs. On the one hand, there's apps that do this sort of thing for free, and you can get by with the built-into-iOS stuff too. I can't really claim that Timer will change your life. On the other hand, it's $0.99, and it's legitimately more convenient than the built-in stuff -- or any other timer app I've looked at. It's nice to use, has a nice UI, and genuinely useful. How much time does it have to save you to justify that paltry cost? To my mind, not much at all. Recommended. Timer is available on the iOS App Store for $0.99, or your local currency equivalent.
Launch Center Pro a very useful utility for iPhone
I love useful, time-saving utilities. When David Barnard of App Cubby gave us a demo of Launch Center's first iteration in January, I knew he had made one. Now, Launch Center Pro is available (US$2.99 for a limited time), improving upon its predecessor and earning a spot in my iPhone's dock. With a simple tap-and-slide, you can launch apps, perform actions and more. Here's my look at Launch Center Pro. An action app Launch Center Pro is an app of verbs. Search. Shoot. Call. Text. Add. In creating shortcuts you must pause and think about what you actually want to do. In a way, it's akin to creating an effective to-do list. For example, "Friday's presentation" is not an action step, but "outline presentation" is. The difference, of course, is the verb "outline." As the clever demo video above explains, "Messages is an app. Messaging your friend is an action." Use Think of Launch Center Pro as an intelligent iOS folder, or even a second Springboard, with two main benefits. First, it lets you launch applications. There are many apps that I use often enough to warrant addition to Launch Center Pro, but not quite enough to keep on my home screen. 1Password is a good example. Other apps are buried in folders. For example, Instacast and Rdio live in a folder labeled "Listen." Launch Center Pro lets me get right at them. The app's other benefit is performing actions that are typically only available within apps themselves. For example, you can add an item to OmniFocus, add an event with location data to Agenda or view Facebook notifications. This is where the app really shines and saves so much time. %Gallery-158814% Here's how it works. Launch Center Pro features three screens, or "groups," by default. Each group provides a 3x4 grid, and you can add one action per square, for a total of 12 actions per group. To add an action, tap the Edit button in the upper right-hand corner to enter edit mode. The background changes from grey to a cute "blueprint" layout. From there you have several options: Tap the "+" to add a new app or action or group Tap the "X" in each actions left-hand corner to remove its action Tap and drag to re-order actions If you create a new group, you get an additional 3x4 grid which you can name however you like ("Work," "Kids," etc.) and identify with a custom icon. Adding an action brings up the Action Composer. Your options are sorted into three categories: Common, Installed and Featured. Common actions include tweet, brightness and flashlight, plus options for sending mail, text messages and making phone calls. Some apps support running an action from within Launch Center Pro, and some don't. You'll find a full list of compatible apps here. If you're favorite isn't listed, there's still hope, as Launch Center will work with any app that has a valid URL scheme. Once you're set up, you're good to go. Launch the app and tap and hold on the desired group. Slide your finger to the action or app you're after and finally let go to execute it. It's so simple and fast that before long your muscle memory takes over and you don't even have to look. For instance, I know I can check my Mint stats by tapping on the center and sliding to the upper right. It's second nature and I don't even think about it. Conclusion You start to think as you use Launch Center Pro. First, about being deliberate about what you want to do, like compose an email to a certain contact or create a well-worded note in OmniFocus. You consider how Apple's iOS Springboard could be different. Launch Center Pro feels like an evolved, intelligent iOS folder. It stores frequently used or coherently-grouped apps and actions. That last bit is a real time-saver. Launch Center Pro is available in the App Store now at a limited time price of $2.99. Those who love handy utilities that save time and let you work faster will want to pick it up. It's in my iPhone's dock to stay.
Quickpick and Launch Center: A first look at two similar iOS launcher apps (Updated)
Over the past few days, I've been testing a new app from App Cubby. The app, called Launch Center, uses the iOS 5 Notification Center as a launch tool for a limited number of actions. In other words, you bring up Notification Center and tap an item to go to a website, launch an app, or perform another action. App Cubby submitted the app to Apple a few days ago, but another developer (Neoos GmbH) hit the App Store first with a similar app named Quickpick. I took a look at both these Notification Center launcher tools to let you know which does the job better. Both these apps do their magic by leveraging the way the iPhone handles some specially-crafted URLs. While Notification Center is designed to give you rapid access to the apps behind your alerts, these customized alerts use some of the same URL schemes deployed by Iconsettings and other tools to navigate rapidly through the iPhone's Settings app. It's important to understand that mechanism a bit, since it does limit the range of what these tools can do (although it's the only way they can work on a non-jailbroken phone, given Apple's restrictions on inter-application communication). Updated: Although the Launch Center app works identically to Quickpick, David Barnard of App Cubby just notified me that the app was turned down. The note he received: "We noticed that your app included inappropriate use of Notification Center, which does not comply with the iOS Human Interface Guidelines." This is another example of the inconsistency of the App Store approval process. Barnard notes that he'll wait until after the holidays to resubmit Launch Center. Updated (12/20/2011): Apple just pulled Quickpick from the App Store as well, citing the issues with 'inappropriate use of Notification Center." Launch Center The first of these two apps that I tried was Launch Center (US$0.99). The app has been submitted to the App Store and was actually the subject of a NY Times story about developers rushing to get apps approved prior to the annual Christmas iTunes Connect shutdown. It's not in the App Store as of this morning, but the links included here should work once the app goes live. There will also be a page on the App Cubby site for more information. Launching the app displays a nice wood background with three separate buttons that can be added to your Notification Center for quick access -- Flashlight (which turns on the iPhone flash for use as a flashlight), Tweet (opens a Twitter send dialog), and Google My Clipboard (takes whatever is on your clipboard and performs a Google search on it). %Gallery-142106% Tapping the "gear" button that's usually reserved for settings actually opens Welcome to Launch Center, a four-page mini-manual that describes how to change settings so that Launch Center works most effectively. This includes moving the Launch Center links to the top of Notification Center to make life a bit more "scroll-free." To add new items to Notification Center, tap the Edit button and you're greeted with a list of five different actions you can add -- Speed Dial, Text Message, Email, Launch Website / App, and Post to Facebook. When the Speed Dial button is tapped, your contacts list is opened. Tap a name and then a phone number (home, work, mobile, etc...) and a one touch speed dial button is added to your Notification Center. Text Message and Email work similarly, asking for the recipient in your contacts list and addressing a blank text or email message. Launch Website / App is something completely different. Not only can you create Notification Center buttons for websites, but many apps can also be launched from Notification Center using this. There's a link at the bottom of the "Link Properties" edit screen that allows you to look up app URL schemes that work with Launch Center. That link is directed to handleopenurl.com, home of a long list of OpenURL-compatible apps and actions. For example, the top item on the list is 1Password Pro, which you can set up to be launched from Notification Center. Other popular iOS apps that are included on the handleopenurl.com site are Evernote, Air Sharing, the App Store, iOS Settings, Echofon, GoodReader, IMDB, iTunes, Kindle for iPhone, Navigon, Pocket Money, Shazam, Skype, TweetBot, and Waze among others. Finally, although Launch Center is not a universal app, running it on iPad doesn't present too much of an issue since you're only using the app to set up the shortcuts. Quickpick Quickpick (US$0.99) bills itself as "the universal iOS launcher." The app is universal, so you purchase it once to run on both iPhone and iPad. Quickpick can add up to 10 action entries to the iPhone/iPod touch Notification Center or up to 20 on the iPad. After launching the app, you're presented with a minimalist interface. There's an edit button, a "+" button, and a large About Quickpick button. The latter button points you to online web documentation, allows you to tell a friend about the app, contacts Neoos support, or recreates Quickpicks. A Quickpick is an entry in your Notification Center that can be tapped to perform an action. %Gallery-142105% The way that both Quickpick and Launch Center work is that they place links into the Notification Center. Quickpick provides a manual method of adding Quickpicks -- typing in a title to signify what action is performed as well as a properly formatted link -- and a Composer to automatically fill out the link field. For example, if I want a Quickpick to go to the TUAW website, I can tap the Open Website button in the Composer, and it pre-fills the Link field with "http://www." All I need to add is a title like "Go to TUAW" and fill in the URL. To create a Quickpick to mail my fellow TUAW editors, I can select "Compose New Mail" from the Composer and then pick an address -- or group -- to send an email to. With a tap of the "Mail TUAW Leads" Quickpick, Mail opens and I have a pre-addressed message ready to go. Quickpick is set up to create four different type of Quickpicks from the app -- Call a phone number, send an email, go to a website, or compose an SMS message. That's the problem; although there are a number of different URL types that can be used on iOS devices to perform a lot of actions, those are the only four that are listed. There's a link in the FAQs for the app to "handelopenURL.com" (yes, it's misspelled, although it goes to the proper site when clicked) where you can see all of the different URL schemes that can be used with Quickpick. To put your Quickpicks at the top of the Notification Center, you go to Settings > Notifications, select Edit, and slide Quickpick to the top of the list. The Verdict The two apps basically do the same thing, but I'd recommend that readers wait and spend their $0.99 on Launch Center. Why? It's more polished. Not only does the app present some nice eye candy in terms of the user interface, but the Welcome to Launch Center pages do a nice job of providing setup help. Launch Center's "Google My Clipboard" and "Flashlight" features are also quite useful right off the bat. Neither of these apps, however, holds a candle to what's available in the jailbreak world. To see a good example of what Notification Center could be, take a look at IntelliScreenX ($9.99, Cydia store only) from Intelliborn.
Found Footage: David Barnard of AppCubby talks about KaleidoVid
While roaming the floor at Macworld Expo 2010 in February, I had the opportunity to talk with David Barnard of AppCubby about several of their iPhone apps, including GasCubby and TripCubby. David also told me about a project that they had in the works at the time, which has recently been released -- a US$0.99 iPhone kaleidoscope called KaleidoVid. TUAW's Dave Caolo provided you with details about the app in an earlier post, but we thought you might enjoy this short interview with David where he talks about the app, his reason for developing it, and gives us a short demo of KaleidoVid in action.
KaleidoVid turns your iPhone into a video kaleidoscope
KaleidoVid is the latest app from David Barnard of App Cubby. Working with Layton Duncan of Polar Bear Farm and Dave Keller of rocket, David decided to have some fun and make a "delightful" app. We got to see an early demo of KaleidoVid at Macworld Expo, and have been anticipating its release. If you played with a kaleidoscope as a kid, you'll be familiar with this app. Instead of mirrors and beads, KaleidoVid makes use of the iPhone's camera. To use it, simply turn it on and point the camera in any direction, then move the iPhone until you find a pattern that you like. From there, tap the screen to put a snapshot into your Camera Roll, or share your creations with Twitter, Facebook or email. Tap the screen again to resume playing. it's surprisingly fun and more of a toy than a game (I had to pry it away from my kids). KaleidoVid is available in the App Store now for US$0.99. Check out the gallery below for screenshots and some of my better creations. %Gallery-88461%
Macworld 2010: TUAW talks with App Cubby's David Barnard
App Cubby has some of the more popular apps in the App Store. Whether it's Gas Cubby for tracking car maintenance, Trip Cubby for capturing mileage information, or Health Cubby for motivating ourselves to get into better shape, the company keeps customers coming back with well-executed and full-featured software. We talked with App Cubby's David Barnard at Macworld Expo 2010 to see what's new from the company. While we won't tell you about the new and completely different app he has recently submitted to Apple, David told us a lot about the free version of Gas Cubby -- Gas Cubby by FRAM -- that provides the functionality of Gas Cubby in an ad-sponsored format. Check out TUAW blogger Steve Sande's video interview with David by clicking the Read More button. We apologize for the sound quality, which was hindered by interference picked up by the microphone.
Gas Cubby now available in a free, sponsored version
App Cubby has been producing three wonderful iPhone apps for a while, two of which are associated with keeping tabs on the costs of operating your car. Both Trip Cubby [US$6.99, iTunes Link] and Gas Cubby [US$6.99, iTunes Link] have been lauded by users and bloggers alike for their functionality and usability. Now there's one more reason to use Gas Cubby. App Cubby and Honeywell's consumer auto brands (FRAM, Prestone, and Autolite) have joined together to release Gas Cubby by FRAM [iTunes link], a free sponsored edition of Gas Cubby. According to developer David Barnard of App Cubby, this could be the "first sponsorship deal of it's kind where an independent iPhone developer has partnered with a single company to sponsor a free app." Gas Cubby by FRAM will include ads for the Honeywell auto products, and Barnard explained to TUAW why Honeywell decided to partner with App Cubby rather than hire another developer to create their own app.
Traveling this weekend? Win a $100 gas card from App Cubby and TUAW
According to statistics released this week from AAA, 39.1 million Americans are expected to take a trip of 50 miles or more away from home. That's a lot of driving, a lot of gas, and consequently a lot of cold hard cash. TUAW and App Cubby would like to help make this holiday more fuel efficient -- and for one lucky TUAW reader, a lot less expensive. Tracking fuel economy over time is the best way to make sure you and your vehicle are driving as efficiently as possible. With Gas Cubby [iTunes link] on sale from now until Labor Day for only $2.99, you've got one less excuse for not being more aware of your gas consumption. Gas Cubby makes tracking fuel economy quick, easy, and, dare we say, fun (that's what Dave had to say in his review of Gas Cubby 2.0). Leave your favorite green driving tip in the comments and we'll select someone at random and send that person a $100 Shell gas card. Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment telling us your favorite green driving tip. The comment must be left before Monday, September 8, 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. One winner will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: Shell gas card ($100 value) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
TUAW First Look: Trip Cubby 2
In the past year, my iPhone has become packed to the gills with apps. Some are for fun and some are for work. A prime example of the latter is Trip Cubby. My job (and Uncle Sam) requires me to keep close tabs on mileage. Trip Cubby makes recording my trips simple and fun, and version 2 improves upon a winner.To get started, add a new trip and fill in your destination, purpose, any tags you'd like and so on. Designate a vehicle and its starting odometer reading. You can also categorize a trip (business, charity, etc.) and add relevant notes (tip: Add frequent trips to favorites for future reference).From there, click done and you're off! Once you arrive, select your trip again, enter the final odometer reading and click Done. Trip Cubby assumes a mileage rate of $0.550, but you're free to change that if need be. Here's where it gets good. You can sync all of your data online at App Cubby, should you lose anything. Also, you can mail all of your data to yourself from within the app as a CSV (a HUGE time saver at tax time). Typically I'm a pen-and-paper guy, but Trip Cubby has replaced the notebook in my glovebox.Here's where it gets really good. Version 2 has introduced fantastic new features, including: Predictive text input and data entry shortcuts. The main reason I use paper for text-heavy input is that I can write much faster than I can type. Predictive input helps a lot. Charts. Oh, the charts. My favorite aspect of Gas Cubby is the beautiful and informative charts and graphs. It's so very helpful to see your data presented with a graph, and with a simple tilt of the iPhone you can view your Trip Cubby data depicted by category, paid vs. unpaid and miles driven per day, all across various amounts of time. Bulk edit trips. Delete several trips or mark them paid all at once. There's more to this update, but these are the highlights for me. Trip Cubby is an app that I use and rely upon every day. It's a free upgrade for registered users and can be purchased via the App Store for $9.99US.
TUAW First Look: Gas Cubby 2.0
With more than 25,000 apps in the App Store (as of this writing), it's not easy to find the standouts. One such app is Gas Cubby from App Cubby (we're written about it before), and I'm very happy to have spent a week with version 2.0. It's in my top five iPhone applications (along with its sibling, Trip Cubby. But that's another post entirely). My day job requires me to keep track of automotive expenses. Before I found Gas Cubby, I was unsuccessfully trying to do so with pen and paper. I'd either take the pen out of the car and forget to return it or do the same with the notebook. I'd end up scribbling on anything I could find and promptly lose whatever it was. My accountant wasn't happy.Gas Cubby solved the issue and actually made it fun for me to keep track of my expenses. That's right, fun. You can collect data on gas and service. First, I'll look at gas.Update: Yes, this will be a free upgrade for current owners. %Gallery-49955%
What's wrong with buying apps for 99 cents?
Dan Moren over at Macworld has picked up the App Store pricing gauntlet yet again. He somehow equates the iPhone's price dropping to $199 as a symbol that cheap people are shopping the App Store -- as if anyone who's interested in spending $199 on a phone can be called cheap. But he's starting from the right place: from AppCubby's donationware scheme (they sell apps for 99 cents and ask people to donate more on their site) to the Sound Grenade developer (he made a self-described "terrible" app in 20 minutes and threw it up on the App Store -- only to get hundreds of thousands of downloads), something is very weird in the world of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch.Moren's final point seems to be that an excess of 99 cent apps is pushing the really talented developers out of business (because they can't make back what they put into the software by selling it for 99 cents), but there's still something wrong there. If someone can sell 100,000 copies of an app for a buck apiece (walking away with $70,000 after Apple's cut), why are the talented developers leaving? Surely you can make a quality app for less than $70,000, right?We're obviously still closer to the beginning of how the App Store will eventually shape up rather than the end. It sure seems like developers who create worthwhile apps would find a way to pay for them, but if they can't, then yes, it might be worth another look at the pricing setup from Apple end.
