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Paper's new iPhone app can replace your Moleskine
Even without an official iPad stylus (until yesterday, that is), FiftyThree's Paper for the iPad was one of the best apps out there for showing just how good Apple's tablet was for creating beautiful artwork, either with your finger or the company's Pencil accessory. The app has changed over the years, but its focus has remained on sketches and drawings collected together in different virtual notebooks, but today FiftyThree is shaking things up significantly with the launch of Paper 3.0. The update features both a change in focus and a change in platform. The latter is easy enough to explain: for the first time, Paper is a universal app that'll work with your iPhone as well as your iPad.
Daily Roundup: Microsoft leaks, lens cameras and more!
In today's Daily Roundup, we look at a Microsoft document leaked in 2012 that foreshadowed the Xbox One and HoloLens, take a look at a new lens camera for smartphones from Olympus and discuss the US Navy's new firefighting robot. All that and more can be found past the break.
Paper drops in-app purchases to encourage you to buy a Pencil
Paper, the sketching app that was born from the ashes of Microsoft's Courier project, has become a must-have for all would-be artists. If there was one annoyance, however, it's that you could only use one brush and a limited color set, which you could expand only with paid upgrades. If, however, you bought one of the company's $49.95 Pencil styluses, the tools would become available to you for free. From today, however, Pencil is abandoning the in-app purchase model, enabling every user to sketch, watercolor and write with the software.
Mix by FiftyThree makes Paper collaborative
Mix by FiftyThree expands on the popular, award-winning drawing app Paper by making it collaborative. Now you can sketch, paint, draw and work on a project with a co-worker or friend, with Mix pushing updates to participating devices. And the best part of all is you needn't be an accomplished artist to benefit. Here's a look at Mix. FiftyThree calls Mix "a visual conversation," and that's an apt description. It's build right into Paper so it's easy to use. Looks As you might expect, Mix is great-looking. Projects in your stream flow past a lovely gradient background as you swipe, much like moving past notebooks in Paper. A simple pinch lets you view items within a collection, like your full stream or images you've starred as a favorite. If you can swipe and pinch-to-zoom, you can navigate Mix. Use Start with a project on Paper or jump right into "the mix" (sorry, couldn't resist). After launching Paper, you'll see the familiar collection of notebooks. To access Mix, swipe down to push the notebooks away and reveal Mix's interface. Now there's a new row of projects to explore, starting with any you've shared, either from Paper or those you've found and edited while exploring. I'm following several creators, and each is represented by a thumbnail. When I tap that image, I can zoom in on a particular project. The resulting screen shows the original creator's name, the date the project was uploaded, how many "hearts" it has earned (hearts are favorites) and an option to mark it as a favorite myself. But the real fun is browsing the remixes. Swipe across the image to see the next version of it in the "pile." Each variation lists the creator's name as well as who inspired that particular iteration of the image. You can add to anyone of those images yourself by tapping the image to go full screen, and then tapping again to bring up the tools. If you like the changes you've made, confirm them and a new version is added to the pile for others to view and remix. And hey, you say you've got on iPad? No problem! You can access Mix with a browser at mix.fiftythree.com. Use the responsive web app to monitor your stream and mark favorites. Conclusion The whole thing is a lot of fun and is clearly the next logical step for Paper. It's just as satisfying to use casually or with professional colleagues. It's one thing to have a digital art studio in your pocket, and quite another to share its contents with collaborators so easily. Mix is that digital art studio.
FiftyThree's new Mix service invites Paper users to collaborate
Some artists find inspiration in their peers' artworks and even think it boring to draw alone. If you feel that way and you use FiftyThree's Paper app (and maybe its Pencil stylus, as well) religiously, you can take advantage of the startup's new service to collaborate with anyone you want. This new product is called Mix, and it's an open platform where all users can share their work by uploading it straight from the Paper app. The latest version of Paper comes loaded with the Mix sharing option, as you can see in the video below -- after you've uploaded your work, other members can finish it or put their own spin on it.
SDK brings new apps to FiftyThree's Pencil stylus
FiftyThree introduced the Pencil a while back. It's an advanced stylus for iOS devices with a pressure-sensitive rubber tip, an eraser on the end, a USB charging port and a direct bluetooth connection that adds amazing features to connected apps. Up until now, the only app that the Pencil really worked with was FiftyThree's Paper. The SDK that came out today allows any app to harness the power of this unique stylus. The SDK also means that apps can be created to do things other than drawing and painting. Touch classifiers open up interaction possibilities beyond simple multi-touch, adding the pencil and eraser tips to the available touch types. Apps can also take advantage of the Kiss-to-Pair feature found in Paper, allowing instant bluetooth connections just by holding the tip to a point on the screen. Palm rejection is improved, and with iOS8, additional input is available from the Pencil. You can determine whether the Pencil is using the tip or the broad edge, and vary the response based on pressure as well. Some of the new apps being released in conjunction with the new SDK are impressive. Procreate, a sketching and painting app for iPad, will have Pencil integration with its three key features: paint, smudge and erase, combining them into one easy-to-use tool. Noteshelf, a note-taking app for iPad, will allow use of the Pencil for note taking, taking advantage of its superior palm rejection technology for easy handwriting and erasing of notes. Squiggle, a very clever music app for iPhone and iPad, will add a new dimension using the Pencil that allows you to quickly draw strings and pluck them with your finger, and quickly cut them using the eraser. I own the Pencil and really enjoy using it with Paper. I'm anxious to see it incorporated into more of my favorite apps, and curious to see what applications that aren't necessarily drawing-based find innovative uses for it. If you're a developer interested in incorporating the SDK, head to the SDK page and click "Request Access" for more info!
FiftyThree's Pencil stylus now on sale in UK, France and Germany
FiftyThree, makers of the amazing Paper app for iPad as well as the accompanying, Bleutooth-enabled Pencil stylus, is now shipping Pencil in the UK, Germany and France. Pencil costs £50 for the Graphite version and £65 for the Walnut variety and are available to order from Amazon UK. Both models are steeper in price compared to purchase within the US (US$59.95 and $74.95 respectively). Pencil was released in the US last year to much hype and anticipation and is largely considered one of the best styli on the market for iPad. Besides its chunky, but attractive design, Pencil has a host of features for designers and artists to take advantage of in conjunction with the Paper app: With a simple press of Pencil to iPad, Bluetooth pairing is complete. Intelligent palm recognition technology prevents any unintended input, and Surface Pressure brings a new level of detail to input strokes this fall with the arrival of iOS 8. Take a look at the video below to see Pencil in action. Pencil / Think With Your Hands from FiftyThree on Vimeo.
FiftyThree's Pencil stylus set to level up with pressure sensitivity on iOS 8
Even though FiftyThree's Pencil stylus can't completely replace a proper digital pen and tablet, it's at least getting better over time. For instance, the arrival of iOS 8 will finally give it pressure sensitivity -- bad news is, you'd have to wait for the mobile OS before you can take advantage of the new feature. Once you get the update for Apple's latest platform, you'd have greater control over your lines: you can draw thin, mechanical pencil-like sketches by using only the very tip of the device, or shade objects using its thicker side. Depending on how much you've been using Pencil, these lines might not be as precise as anything you draw using a Wacom tablet. But you might be able to get pretty close, so long as you maneuver the stylus with expertise. It's a shame you'd have to wait till fall to try it out, but note that a new iOS 8 beta's rumored to come out soon. We don't know whether this beta update will enable Pencil's new capability, but keep an eye out if you absolutely can't wait.
FiftyThree isn't happy with Facebook's Paper and other news from Feb. 3, 2014
There's a new Paper in town, and it's not the iOS drawing app. Facebook has released its iOS-exclusive revamp of its news feed using the name "Paper," and FiftyThree, the maker behind the first iOS app bearing that moniker, is not happy. FiftyThree released a statement on Monday briefly discussing Paper's two years on the App Store and the subsequent confusion from users when Facebook announced its own Paper app. Although Facebook has apologized, FiftyThree's co-founder Georg Petschnigg beseeched the social media behemoth to change the name of its newly launched app. There's a simple fix here. We think Facebook can apply the same degree of thought they put into the app into building a brand name of their own. An app about stories shouldn't start with someone else's story. Facebook should stop using our brand name. On a personal level we have many ties to Facebook. Many friends, former students and colleagues are doing good work at Facebook. One of Facebook's board members is an investor in FiftyThree. We're a Facebook developer, and Paper supports sharing to Facebook where close to 500,000 original pages have been shared. Connections run deep. Petschnigg told the New York Times that Facebook informed him that they would continue the launch as planned. Other news from Monday afternoon includes: Pebble has updated its iOS app to include access to its newly launched app store. The store has more than 1,000 watchfaces and apps for the Pebble smartwatch. A newly filed patent lawsuit takes aim at Apple's A7 processor. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation claims that the processor infringes on work done by scientists at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and filed via a 1998 patent. AT&T has announced cheaper monthly plans for families, but as always, there's a catch. To get the best deals, you either have to pay full price for a smartphone or sign up for AT&T Next. Kick back and relax with these features: Here's how to download Facebook Paper even if you don't live in the US Rumor Roundup: Prototypical iPhone 101: How to add Facebook, Twitter and other social network accounts to iOS
FiftyThree's Paper app updated to play nice with its Pencil stylus
FiftyThree's shipping out its first Pencil styli early this December, but before you can work its sketching magic, the firm's Paper app will need the appropriate updates. Good thing the company's released those changes today, because waiting on a software upgrade to use new hardware breeds a special kind of frustration. As you'd expect, the refreshed app comes with the features FiftyThree promised when it announced the $50 tool, including palm rejection to avoid accidental hand marks on sketches. There's also the erase function that activates the device's built-in eraser, and the blend feature that lets you use fingers to blend colors and edges. Based on the firm's Twitter posts, it's sending out emails to people slated to get their Pencils soon, but those who've only just ordered one have an excruciating three-to-four week wait ahead of them.
Pencil stylus from the makers of Paper now available
As we reported a while ago, the makers of the awesome iPad app Paper have developed a new stylus called Pencil. In fact, it looks like a jumbo pencil used for construction, but (of course) it is Bluetooth-enabled and does a variety of things when used with Paper. A clever "kiss to pair" connects the device to your iPad, and unlocks some new features in Paper. The app will ignore your wrist resting on the screen, as one example, something that is a consideration if you're used to tablets like those from Wacom. You can erase with the Pencil (again, like Wacom pens) by flipping it around and using the "eraser" on one end. Two models are available: a US$59.95 "Walnut" model and a $49.95 "Graphite" model. The tip isn't like Evernote's ball point; it's more like a Cosmonaut stylus, but chiseled to look like a big pencil. Makes sense! You can read more about the Pencil on TechCrunch. We hope to review it soon.
FiftyThree launches $50 Pencil Bluetooth stylus for its sketching app (video)
Remember when we spotted that FiftyThree, makers of the iPad sketching app Paper, was working on a stylus? Now it's time for Paper to meet Pencil. Looking like an enormous marker pencil, the unit comes in a choice of sustainable hardwood or brushed aluminum, jam-packed with technology inside. Innovations include palm rejection, an eraser-end to remove your digital mistakes and a rechargeable battery that promises a month of life with normal use. Pairing to your iPad over Bluetooth, you'll also get access to various paid-for tools like Outline, Mixer and Sketch for free. Of course, the unit will set you back $50, but that's a small price to pay to be top of the life drawing class.
FiftyThree building a stylus for Paper sketch app
The developers at FiftyThree, makers of the amazing Paper app for iPad (free, with in-app purchases), are branching out in a new direction -- hardware. The company will soon be marketing a new capacitive stylus called "Pencil" that has shown up in FCC filings, using low-power Bluetooth for connectivity to presumably transmit pressure information. The information supplied to the FCC shows two models, one made of wood and the other from an aluminum alloy. One image, seen below, appears to show a USB connector on one end to make charging of the device a breeze -- simply plug the "eraser" end into an open USB port. We can't help but wonder if the Pencil will have a protective case around the body, or it they're really going to ship it in this "carpenter's pencil" configuration. As our cohorts at Engadget point out, FiftyThree is made up of people who were behind Microsoft's innovative (and prematurely canceled) Courier project, so it's not surprising that the company is looking beyond just software. The Paper app already supports a number of third-party styluses, including the Wacom Bamboo and the Pogo Connect. FiftyThree has also partnered with Moleskine to let artists create hard-copy books of their Paper drawings and paintings.
Pencil on Paper: meet the stylus for FiftyThree's popular iPad sketching app
When you're the creator of an award-winning iPad sketchbook app, making your own stylus would be a logical move. Unsurprisingly, that's exactly what FiftyThree, the brains behind Microsoft's Courier project and developers of Paper, intend to do. The company's new "Pencil" capacitive stylus has just popped up at the FCC, outlining its plans to equip Paper users with a rubber-tipped low power Bluetooth accessory that can draw on a touchscreen "like a canvas." The documents detail two models: one crafted from wood and the other from aluminum alloy. The FCC approval highlights FiftyThree's desire to further expand beyond Apple's App Store and venture into new markets. The company recently partnered with Moleskine to allow Paper users to create a $40 custom-printed 15-page "Book" of sketches and designs created within the app. The new products will directly compete with Wacom's bluetooth-enabled stylii, and of course with plain old fingers -- which will likely still be welcome in the Paper app, even after the Pencil comes to market.
Daily Update for June 18, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Paper for iPad developer receives $15 million in funding
What do you do when your one and only iPad app is a runaway success? If you're FiftyThree, the development firm behind the beautiful journal / art app Paper (free, many in-app purchases available), you get funding for expansion into new areas. FiftyThree announced today that it received US$15 million in a Series A funding round led by Andreesen Horowitz, with such stellar investors as Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Bright Capital, Highline Ventures and SV Angel joining the party. Paper has been profitable from day one; it's usually in the Top 10 Paid Apps on the App Store, and over 80 million users have downloaded the app. What's FiftyThree planning on doing with $15 million? Co-founder and CEO Georg Petschnigg says that he wants to add to his team of employees in Seattle and NYC, and create a suite of software, hardware and services. GigaOM's Erica Ogg talked with Petschnigg and although he wouldn't elaborate, the idea of a Paper-branded stylus is a natural outgrowth. Petschnigg's big picture for the firm appears to be collaboration: "We've been focused on iPad there, but the next part we're working on is services that will start to answer the question of how people work together and collaborate." All secretive talk aside, we're looking forward to seeing what's next from the team at FiftyThree.
Microsoft resurrects Courier through Project Austin app for Windows 8, sparks nostalgia (video)
Many who've been following Microsoft's tablet efforts for years will have a soft spot for the Courier, a creative-focused device axed because it didn't fit the Windows puzzle. However, it looks like you just can't keep a clever idea down. Developers at Microsoft have revived the dream through Project Austin, a Windows 8 app based around the visual concept of a notebook. Pen aficionados can choose different paper types and paste in photos, but they're deliberately kept away from typing, searching and other elements that would complicate the idea. It should sound familiar: it's a rough (if possibly unintentional) Windows doppelganger to FiftyThree's Paper for iPad, which itself was designed by some of the former Courier team. A company spokesperson won't say if or when Project Austin will be available in a complete form for the public, although there's not much point until Windows 8 arrives on October 26th. Thankfully, programmers keen to see what Courier might have been -- if just in bits and pieces -- can already download the source code for themselves.
Paper: the iPad sketchbook app from the brains of Courier (video)
Go figure -- Microsoft's Courier project lives again... as an exclusive app on Apple's iPad. FiftyThree, a company that features folks who previously worked on the aforesaid Courier initiative, has just put forth a monumental effort dubbed Paper. The app, which is available for free in the App Store, is a sophisticated sketchbook with a highly unique user interface that's seemingly designed with the budding artist in mind. Put simply, the company feels that this app is "where ideas begin," enabling users to capture mental light bulbs as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings before sharing them across the web.Of course, "free" only gets you in the door; in-app purchases ($2 per brush, for example) keeps the creators in business, but it's unclear at this point if a paid edition will be offered for those who aren't much on cherry-picking what they do and don't want to pony up for. Not surprisingly, the app ships with native support for the new iPad's Retina display, and while fingers are welcome, a capacitive stylus is recommended. Eager to see more? Peek the video just after the break, and get your download on in the source link.
