As I've mentioned in the past, I do all of my writing and blogging from my iPad, using a combination of the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover and Editorial. I enjoy this setup for the most part, but the one aspect that still isn't 100% up-to-snuff is dealing with images in posts. There are various apps on the iOS App Store that tie…
The RockWall is a dual-USB wall charger that can power an iPad and iPhone simultaneously. The iPad port is 10.5W and the iPhone port is 5W, so each device will charge fairly quickly. The main portion of the unit can be swiveled 90° away from the power outlet surface by pressing the big silver buttons on either side, allowing for better compatibility…
The Think Tank TurnStyle 20 is a sleek and practical sling bag designed to hold a standard DSLR camera, along with several lenses and plenty of other accessories. There are tons of little pockets throughout the bag for pens and memory cards and whatnot, along with a larger pocket on the back side that can comfortably hold a full-sized iPad. Watch this…
Like it says on the tin, this is a rack that lets you store and display a week's worth of coffee. Each day of coffee is represented by a test tube, which seems fitting. $46 at Meriwether of Montana.
Tengami is a new game for iOS (universal) that places you in the role of a samurai who must explore a mystical pop-up book world. In this world, you are able to "page" through various backdrops and interact with the various elements on-screen. It sounds a little strange on the surface, but it's actually quite relaxing and enjoyable. The textures in Tengami…
This won't be the first time we've talked about Pushpin for Pinboard, but I wanted to bring it up again for a couple of reasons: The release of Pushpin 3.0 a few weeks ago brought a completely overhauled interface to the app (particularly noticeable on iPad), along with lots of new features, such as renewed TextExpander Touch support and the addition of…
This Friday—February 21, 2014—would have been the 52nd birthday of one of my favorite essayists, David Foster Wallace. To celebrate the occasion, designer Debbie Millman teamed up with Brain Pickings to capture a passage he wrote about leadership, both in print form and as an 5 recorded by Millman herself. Millman originally created the print as a handcrafted felt-on-felt piece for the…
It's a standard metric ruler on one edge (20cm), and a detailed city skyline stencil on the other. There's not a whole lot else I can say, other than that it looks awesome. They've got stencils for London (my favorite), Paris, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Toronto, and Jerusalem. Each one goes for $9.
My friend Patrick Rhone has just released another one of his "living guide" eBooks, this one titled Some Thoughts About Writing. In it, he discusses what it takes to be a successful, professional writer, and provides some excellent tips along the way. It's a "living" book because it will likely receive updates with new content in the future, all of which are…
After our editor Shawn Blanc recently wrote about a new iPhone app called Reporter, I decided to check it out for myself. It's certainly a neat idea—throughout the day, it will randomly ping you with a short survey about where you are and what you're doing at that moment. (It comes with a built-in set of questions, but you can add questions…
When I was a kid, my dad was always stressing the importance of carrying a multitool. "You just never know when you're going to need one," he would say. He was often right too, but the habit never really stuck with me for whatever reason. But maybe that could change if I had something like the In1Case. It's an iPhone case that…
My buddy Andrew J. Clark (of The Menu Bar fame) just released his gorgeous, first-ever iPhone app, Numerical. The tagline for the app is "A Calculator Without Equal", which is not only clever from a marketing perspective, but also true because the app does not have an 'equals' button. It simply calculates answers on-the-fly, and lets you use swipe gestures to undo,…
I use FeedPress to provide the RSS feed for my site. Although they have a decent responsive page for checking subscriber stats from my iPhone, it can be a little difficult to interact with sometimes (particularly the subscriber graph). A native iPhone app would be more preferable, and today I got my wish with the latest update to Static. It tracks statistics…
Pinswift has been one of my favorite Pinboard clients for the iPhone ever since it released a couple months ago. It has a lovely, simple interface, with robust features for power users beneath the surface. Some of these advanced features include x-callback-url support, saved searches for tags and whatnot, and full-text search (if you've paid for the Pinboard archival account upgrade). And…
Well this is certainly a blast from the past. Nearly a week ago, Square Enix quietly released Final Fantasy VI to the iOS App Store, and I only heard about it yesterday. This isn't just a basic port of the classic SNES game either, they've revamped most of the graphics and several in-game mechanics. Here's an example of the new character sprite…
Plex is one of the better solutions out there for organizing and streaming your movies and music between devices. Sign up for a Plex account, put the Plex Media Server app on your Mac, and then you can use the iOS app to stream your stuff from anywhere in the world. The iOS app also allows you to control the media being…
Chances are, if you're someone who enjoys playing strategy games on iOS, then you're already familiar with Clash of Clans. Although I enjoyed the first few days of playing it, the only real way to have a good time is by using real money to purchase a bunch of in-game gems; otherwise, things just take way too long to build. As luck…
Balance Watch is a Kickstarter for a wristwatch that wants to help you achieve a better work/play balance. The right half of its face ("work") looks like a typical watch, with visible markers for hours 12-6 and minutes 0-30. The left half ("play") is totally blank, signifying that this is your time to do as you please. You can focus on the…
Occasionally, a well-designed puzzle game for iOS comes along that takes the tech community by storm. A while back it was Letterpress, and today it's a game called Threes! Like Letterpress, Threes! takes place on a grid, it uses red, white, and blue game tiles (each of which has a unique character personality and voice), and it has charming animations and sound…
1Writer is one of those iOS writing apps that I always thought looked very nice, but it never provided a good enough reason to switch away from something like Editorial or Byword. You'd still have to pry Editorial out of my cold, dead fingers, but the latest update to 1Writer now puts it at least above Byword. It's now my go-to iPhone…