Great to see it come to Ireland, but so far only supported by Ulster Bank and KBC.. 🙄

Federico Viticci on the potential move from Lightning to USB-C:

USB-C represents the dream of a single, small, reversible connector that works with every device, and it’s being adopted by the entire tech industry. USB-C isn’t as small as Lightning but it’s small enough. More importantly, it’d allow users to use one connector for everything; USB-A, while universal on desktop computers, never achieved ubiquity because it wasn’t suited for mobile devices. USB-C is.

Conversely, Lightning is under Apple’s control and Apple likes the idea of controlling their stack as much as possible (for many different reasons). A transition to USB-C would be costly for users in the short term, and it would be extremely perplexing the year after the iPhone 7 fully embraced Lightning.

Furthermore, unlike the transition from 30-pin to Lightning in 2012, Apple now has a richer, more lucrative ecosystem of accessories and devices based on Lightning, from AirPods and Apple Pencil to keyboards, mice, EarPods, game controllers, Siri remotes, and more. Moving away from Lightning means transitioning several product lines to a standard that Apple doesn’t own. It means additional inconsistency across the board.

Good summary from Federico Viticci about the arguments for and against moving to USB-C in the next iPhone. The arguments for moving are obvious, but the arguments against it are a bit more interesting.

There’s definitely more of an argument to be made for moving to USB-C than there was for ditching the headphone jack. It would also mean that the lifespan of the Lightning connector has been very short. There are plenty of people still using an iPhone 4/4S or iPad 2s - and those people will have completely missed the switch to Lightning.

Back in 2009, Gameloft released a first person shooter game on iOS called “N.O.V.A. Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance”. This was as close as you could get to Halo on mobile, and for it’s time ¹ it was a huge achievement in mobile gaming. It had an in depth story set across multiple maps, different weapons and enemies as well as local and online multiplayer.

Gameloft followed up with two sequels for NOVA, as well as producing another great first person series alongside it, Modern Combat, which is more of a Call of Duty clone.

Gameloft have now announced that they are releasing a remastered version of the original NOVA game, which will be free to play. This has sparked a debate over on AppSpy about the value in re-releasing mobile games.

Harry Slater:

The question all of this raises is an interesting one– is this really something we want to see on the App Store? Not just NOVA, but the whole concept of older games getting new leases of life. And I guess there are two standpoints.

On the one hand the App Store is a flighty and changeable place. We’ve seen games disappear without trace, and thanks to Apple’s constant upgrading of iOS, there’s little chance that we’re ever going to get to play those games again.

From that point of view, it’s good to see developers going back to games and refreshing them for a new era. Especially the likes of NOVA, which in its time was a resource-heavy AAA production, but now looks a little bit on the wonky side.

But on the flip side of that, is this just another example of the creative malaise that’s sweeping through gaming as a whole. It’s not just another dude shooter, it’s a dude shooter that we’ve all already shot a whole bunch of dudes in before.

To a certain extent I agree with this standpoint. I don’t see much value in re-releasing games that were only released a few years ago on iOS. What has worked really well, and I hope to see more of, is when console games get ported to mobile. Rockstar Games are making this biggest success of this with their release of some console classics, most notably the Grand Theft Auto series.

I think that’s where these kind of remasters make most sense - bringing them to mobile for the first time. Having said that, I can’t but be happy to see an App Store classic like NOVA being re-released in all its glory.

Marco Arment:

Overcast 3 is now available, and it’s a huge update, mostly in the design and flow of the interface. I’ve been working on it since last summer, informed by over two years of testing, usage, and customer feedback.

A massive update to my favourite podcast app.

Dr Drang:

The biggest problem for the iPad is Apple’s unwillingness to let it become its own thing. Development of iOS is driven by the iPhone, which probably shouldn’t have the tools of a regular computer. But the iPad needs at least some of those tools if it’s to fulfill Apple’s promise to be a laptop replacement. Being yoked to the iPhone is holding it back.

Some good points by Dr Drang about the use of the iPad vs the Mac for getting work done. The single biggest thing holding the iPad back is software. The iPad has been around since 2010, and shipped with iOS 3. Fast forward to 2017, and the iPad has been though seven major iOS releases. Of those, only one has brought real iPad-focused features - iOS 9.

It’s understandable that the iPhone has been taking priority over the iPad in terms of developing iOS, but it’s time for Apple to start making good of its promise that the iPad is a replacement for the PC. It needs the basics - drag and drop, system wide multitasking, a better solution to the home screen, windows ¹, and a visible file system. Over reliance on the like of Workflow and Zapier just wont cut it for most people who want to make the transition from PC to tablet.

As long as the iPad is treated as a fork of iOS to the iPhone, it’s never going to be become a PC replacement.

With WatchOS 3.2 it looks like Apple are introducing “Theatre Mode” to the Apple Watch. What this is, is basically a mode to put your watch on while at the cinema to mute notifications and avoid waking the screen automatically. ¹ There has been plenty of reports to suggest that Theatre Mode will be introduced on iOS this year too.

While it’s definitely a nice feature, even if a little bit niche ², I hope that it isn’t Apples only attempt at a dark mode this year. I’ve long been anticipating a system wide dark mode on iOS, and Theatre Mode seems like a logical step towards it.

I don’t expect dark mode to show up in any of the iOS 10.3 builds over the next few weeks. If it’s to be introduced this year it will presumably be with iOS 11.

What I think would be great would be to have the option to automatically enable dark mode at certain times of the day, similar to how you can enable Night Shift between certain times, or for it to be able to detect the level of light that you have and enable/disable based on that.

Manton Reece is creating an interesting new social network based around blogging and owning your own content called “Micro.blog”. The idea is fairly simple - you can host your own blog right on Micro.blog, or you can simply use your RSS feed as an input, therefore keeping total control of your content.

The great thing about this is that it can bring you a new audience and allow you to join conversations about other blogs all in one place. It’s like an RSS reader with social integration.

A big problem with social media is that you never truly own your content. Most services allow you to export your data at any time, so that in the event that the platform shuts down you can hold onto your content. The great thing about Micro.blog is that you never have to give up any of your content in the first place, whether or not it lasts as a platform.

Judging by the support on the Micro.blog Kickstarter page, we could be seeing it sooner rather than later.

Rory McIlroy on Tiger Woods:

I’m drawn to him, yeah. He’s an intriguing character because you could spend two hours in his company and see four different sides to him. When he’s comfortable and he trusts you — and his trust (sensitivity) is way (higher) than mine — he’s great. He’s thoughtful. He’s smart. He reads. He can’t sleep so that’s all he does — he reads stuff and educates himself on everything. But he struggles to sleep, which I think is an effect of overtraining, so I tell him to calm down sometimes. He’d be texting me at four o’clock in the morning: ‘Up lifting. What are you doing?’

Nice roundup of the uses and benefits of 3D Touch on iPhone. I use it constantly on my phone, mostly for quick multitasking and peeking at URLs. Definitely one of the best interactions on iOS in my opinion, I just hope more developers make use of it in the coming year.

Federico Viticci just posted his annual “must have iOS apps” article on Macstories detailing his favourite apps in certain categories. I wrote about last years article and compared which apps also feel into my list of favourites. So more of the same:

Dropbox

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this is one of my favourite apps, but Dropbox is an essential service for online storage, and still my favourite of the lot. Google Drive comes in at a close second, but so far nothing can beat Dropbox to the top. The app is simple, yet stable and receives regular updates.

1Password

I said last year that I would be lost without 1Password, and nothing has changed this year. I still add new passwords to it regularly. The app is one of the most actively updated in this list as well, which is a bit crazy seeing as what it does is relatively simple. I can’t recommend it enough.

Workflow

I only recently downloaded Workflow to try it out, so I’m only scratching the surface of what it’s capable of, but what an application it is. Something as simple as opening your current location in a Google Street View image in a single tap, or adding a reminder from the widgets screen are built right into Workflow. It even has its own Workflow Store where people can submit Workflows that they created and others can download them. I think it’s the most exciting app to hit iOS since its launch based on the sheer number of possibilities alone. There’s a lot more to discover with it.

Telegram

I only use Telegram to follow updates from the Macstories team, but the app itself deserves a mention for its regular updates with new features. Mobile messaging is a tough market to break into seeing as Whatsapp has all but sown up the market share, but Telegram is in my opinion a better app and includes some unique features.

Whatsapp

I don’t really have much to say here other than I use Whatsapp multiple times every day, and I have had zero problems with it. I don’t think you can ask much more from a messaging app. Telegram has shown that a messaging app can still shake it up in terms of features, so hopefully Whatsapp can continue to improve and add more features in the coming year.

YouTube

Another app that I use daily, the only complaint I have about it is that it still hasn’t got picture-in-picture on iPad. Support for Split View has eased the pain..for now.

Overcast

Overcast is still my podcast player of choice becuase of Smart Speed and Voice Boost. Once you get used to those features it’s very hard to go back to any other player. Dark mode is now free also, which is a big bonus.

Google Maps

Google Maps is still the best map application on iOS. Improvements to Apple Maps have been encouraging, but there’s still a long way to go for Apple to match Google here, although the gap is narrowing.