All posts by mactips

Apple Daily: Ping-Like Service Coming to ‘Apple Music’?; Apple Opens Apps Analytics Beta

By Leif Johnson In today’s Apple Daily, we learn some more details about Apple’s upcoming music streaming service, plus Apple today opened its App Analytics beta to all developers who design apps for iOS.New Streaming Service Reportedly Called ‘Apple Music’, Will Feature Ping-Like NetworkAnonymous sources associated with Apple have reportedly spoken again, and this time they claim that Apple’s upcoming music streaming service most likely will be called “Apple Music,” and that it will include a built-in social networking service for artists to promote their work (via 9to5Mac).The service supposedly recalls Ping, the dead social networking system for iTunes that Apple created for the same purpose back in 2010 before shutting it down in 2012 in favor of Facebook and Twitter integration. Apple Music users would be able to follow artists with the service (although they won’t be able to create their own profiles), and artists themselves could use the service to share “track samples, photos, videos, and concert updates.”As 9to5 Mac cheekily puts it, “Artists will also be able to share the content of other artists in an effort of cross-promotion. For example, all-gold Apple Watch wearer Kanye West could promote a new album from Taylor Swift on his ‘Apple Music’ artist page, if he so chooses…” Apple Opens App Analytics Beta to All DevelopersIt’s been only a few days since Apple revealed a new Apps Analytics program that allows developers to see usage statistics associated with their work, and now the Cupertino company has given all developers free access to the beta. If you’re already a member of the iOS Developer Program, then it’s free.The Apps Analytics platform reportedly tells much more besides download statistics; it also tells developers how much time users spend with apps and where their apps are the most popular. In order to use the service, you’ll need to log into iTunes Connect (if you’re an app developer, of course).Follow this article’s writer, Leif Johnson, on Twitter.

Source: Maclife

    

11 Great Fitness Devices and Wearables to Use with the iOS Health App

By J Keirn-Swanson One of the best things about the iOS Health app is just how much data it collects in one place. With deep nutrition metrics, lab results, body measurements, fitness, and sleep data, this virtual file cabinet keeps everything organized. In our previous articles, we’ve shown what the Health app can do by itself and with additional apps, but if you’re really serious about monitoring your health, you might want to take things to the next level and invest in a wearable or other additional device.Sure, you could weigh yourself every day and enter that data manually. You could write down the time you fall asleep and the time you wake up. You could hope that the 10-year-old treadmills at your gym give a reasonably good estimate of your workout. You could use the free blood pressure cuff in the drug store and enter that information manually.Or you could pick up one (or more) of these cool gadgets. We spent weeks wearing fitness trackers, monitoring our heart rate and blood pressure, and even took devices to bed with us, all to capture as much health data as possible. Here are our findings: 11 devices, compatible with the iOS Health app, that you can count on to take fitness monitoring to the next level.

Source: Maclife

    

Darkroom — Photo Editor Review

By Matt Bolton We love “create your own filter” apps for giving you a way to add individuality to the barely navigable torrents of photos uploaded to social networks each day. Darkroom lets you create filters through a combination of sliders for things like saturation and contrast, but also levels curves, with red, green, and blue all available individually. (Accessing this ability is the app’s IAP, incidentally, and you really need to pay if you’re going to get anything unique out of it.)In theory, this is great — combining this level of control with other, simpler tools makes for a vast range of options. In practice, it’s merely good. The levels adjustments aren’t as fine-grained as you’d think. The curve is divided into five columns, and you roughly adjust it by swiping those columns. It simply doesn’t compare to being able to add your own adjustment points, as you would in Photoshop. You can still do lots of cool stuff, but it’s disappointing.The app has other tricks, though, such as the infinite Undo list. This is confusing at first, but basically lets you revert your photo to any previous point instantly, so is fairly powerful. However, there are other frustrations, such as not being able to zoom in on the image at all when editing, so you can’t check how much noise is being added by the Sharpness effect, say. Sharing is basic — save to Camera Roll, send to Instagram, or use iOS’s wider sharing options for other apps. Cross-posting to multiple services would have been nice. The bottom line. We like Darkroom, but it feels just too limited in parts for its ambition.Review Synopsis
Product:

Darkroom — Photo Editor

Company:

Bergen Co.

Contact:

usedarkroom.com

Price:

Free ($2.99 IAP)

Requirements:

iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 8 or later

Positives:

Adds personalized individuality to photos. Neat infinite Undo ability.

Negatives:

Not as much control as necessary.

Source: Maclife