Year End Picks - Best of 2015

First off, my apologies for the lack of posting lately. To those few that visit this site and enjoy reading the content I provide daily I promise 2016 will ramp back up. Life has taken ahold of me lately and has moved the focus of my attention away from this website and to more important things.  That being said, to finish off the crazy year that was 2015, here are my year end best of picks for apps, gadgets, music and movies.

Apps

View fullsize

Best iPhone App - Outlook

I've been on a never-ending search for the perfect Mail.app replacement. While it's not perfect, Outlook for iOS hits a majority of the sweet spots for me. Spark, by Readdle caught my eye initially but is failing in one major aspect, proper badge updating. Outlook provides a clean UI, some nice power features and excellent push notification support.

Runners Up: Tweetbot 4, iShows 2, Notes.app

Best iPad App - Tweetbot 4

It was a long, drawn out wait but the wait was worth it. When Tweetbot 4 was finally introduced in the 4th quarter of 2015 it introduced a fresh UI that finally fit with the updated iOS and introduced a bevy of new tweaks including support for the new iPad iOS9 features. There is simply no better Twitter experience for iOS than Tweetbot.  

Runners Up: Plex, Reeder, Notes.app

Best iPhone Productivity App - Workflow and 2Do (Tie)

I couldn't decide between a clear cut winner in the productivity category. The issue here is while Workflow was introduced back in 2014 I never really harnessed its powers until this year. I find the app indispensable. 2Do has gotten to the point where I can't live without it. The power features it offers makes organizing and planning my work projects much more easier and less stressful.  Check out my breakdown and review of Workflow here and check out this amazing writeup on 2Do over on Macstories.  

Runners Up: Fantastical 2, 1Password

Best iPhone Utility App - Purify

The mobile web is a disaster and Purify made it a much better place in 2015. For me personally I don't mind when people use content and ad blockers when viewing my site because I refuse to put ads and tracking services on my website. Purify makes the web browsing experience much more tolerable.  Check out my writeup here.  

Runners Up: Linky, Opener

Gadgets

Best Gadget - iPhone 6s

Initially I was not going to buy the iPhone 6s. When I realized how much I could get for my 6 I jumped at the new device and boy was I happy. The sheer performance upgrade of the iPhone was worth the upgrade alone but the combination of 3D Touch, faster Touch ID and Live Photos (which I use a lot more than I expected) make this my pick for gadget of the year.

Best Non-Apple Gadget - Amazon Echo

I'm not an owner of an Amazon Echo but I see one in my future when I find my new home. I have messed around with a friends enough to know this is one killer gadget. Being able to have an on-demand Siri like device sitting in your house may sound creepy at first becomes rather essential. One of my favorite features is the ability to trigger your Wemo devices with voice commands.

Music

Album of the Year - Tame Impala - Currents

I'm a newbie Tame Impala fan. I first heard them on the single Elephant which had some killer blues riffs. I immediately checked out Lonerism and became a fan.  The interesting thing is Elephant stood out on it's own as the rest of the album did not have that same blues feel to it.  I had not been following Tame Impala so Currents was a surprise to me when it appeared on Apple Music.  I immediately dove in and experienced a sound much different from Lonersim.  Perhaps it's a natural progression but Currents provides deep and heavy basslines and amazing synths. Put on a pair of quality noise canceling headphone and enjoy this one.

Song of the Year - Miike Snow - Genghis Khan 

This one came out of nowhere. I was pretty set on my pick of the year being Crooked Colours - Another Way (GRMM Remix) and then comes an old friend out of nowhere to not only drop the track of the year but also drops a runner up track of the year in Heart is Full. 

Runners Up: Crooked Colours - Another Way (GRMM Remix), BOOTS - C.U.R.E., MED, Blu, Madlib - Knock Knock (feat MF DOOM), Drake - Hotline Bling, Miike Snow - Heart is Full

 Movies

Movie of the Year - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The de facto movie of the year is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It's been a very long time since I enjoyed and had that much fun at a movie. Whether it was getting chills from the opening scroll or cheering along with others when old familiar friends were introduced in the movie. So well done and sets us up for the next 5 years of Star Wars goodness.

Runners Up: The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road

Weekend Vibes #11

Talib Kweli and 9th Wonder - Every Ghetto (Featuring Rapsody)

Proper studio version of "Every Ghetto", single from Talib and 9th Wonder's album Indie 500 out November 6th. Track is produced by Hi-Tek and features Rapsody. 

Added bonus. Check out Talib and Rapsody performing Every Ghetto live with The Roots on "The Tonight Snow".

iOS 9.1 Emoji Changelog →

It's amazing how much emoji's have become part of our daily vernacular. iOS 9.1 introduced some fantastic new emoji's. Emojipedia has the complete breakdown. Hit the source link below.

Apple has released the iOS 9.1 update for iPhone and iPad, which includes 184 new emojis. This makes iOS the first operating system to include every single emoji in the Unicode Standard. Popular requests included in this release include the volleyball, taco, middle finger and champagne bottle; as well as new faces for sickness, thinking, and rolling eyes.

I'm particularly fond of the taco and obviously the middle finger emoji. 

Just the Tips - Screen Capture your iOS Device + Create Animated GIF

You've probably noticed a majority of my iOS related posts include screenshots and more recently are very GIF heavy. That's because I got my hands on some incredible tools that make processes, which used to take a lot of work in Photoshop, a snap. Using a free, built in tool on OS X along with a $4.99 utility from the Mac App Store you can easily create screencasts of your iOS device and if needed convert those videos into animated GIF's with a few clicks. Let's get started.

The Tools

In order to screen capture your iOS device you need Quicktime installed on your OS X device which for most people comes pre installed with iTunes. If not grab it here. The great thing about Quicktime is not only can you capture the video with the app but you can also trim the video down just like you can in the Photos app for iOS. A very powerful, free tool. 

If you are interested in creating an animated GIF from your video there are a few tools at your disposal. The one I settled on was GIFBrewery. It's user friendly, low cost and provides a handful of advanced tools to get your GIF exactly the way you want it. 

The Process

To get started connect your iOS device to your OS X device using a lightning cable or if you have an older device a 30 pin cable. Once connected load up Quicktime and select File>New Movie Recording. Once selected you should see whatever camera source is currently selected on the screen. On a MacBook you would typically see yourself from the front facing camera. 

Select the down arrow to the right of the record button and change the camera source to your connected iOS device. You will now see your iOS device on the screen. Every action you perform on your device will appear on screen. Hit the record button and start recording whatever you like. When you're done you can save your recording as an .mov file. Before saving you can also trim the video the same way you would within the Photos app on iOS. 

Finished Product

When you're completed you can throw your .mov file into GifBrewery and easily convert it to an animated GIF. Simply load the file up, set the start and end points for the GIF using the slider and apply the specific GIF settings you want such as looping and frame-rate. Once you are done you can save the file as a GIF and use it anywhere.

GifBrewery is also a ton of fun to use with downloaded videos online from places such as YouTube. I use an Alfred workflow plugin called Luxinate to grab streaming videos online.

More on Alfred another time.

*Nerdgasm*

Official trailer debuted during halftime of Monday Night Football. In theaters December 18th, 2015.

JustCast - Your Personal Podcast Feed

JustCast from Josh Chen on Vimeo.

As you know I'm a huge podcast listener. I subscribe to over 40 podcasts and use a variety of tools to get the job done. A few months ago I discovered HuffDuffer which allows me to add a variety of podcasts to my own personal feed without the need for me to actually subscribe to that podcast. It uses a handy browser extension that detects if an audio source is present on the page and allows you to add it to your HuffDuffer account. Your podcast app will pull that HuffDuff in for easy listening.

The point of this post is to introduce a free service I discovered the other day which complements HuffDuffer but also fills a hole that HuffDuffer leaves and that I had in my music listening workflow. I download a lot of free mixes off the internet, most of them being large files that are at least an hour long. Since these are typically listened too and not saved for future listening I wanted a way to get these into my iPhone without the need to tag and add them to iTunes permanently. 

Enter JustCast

JustCast uses your Dropbox account to create your own personal podcast RSS feed from the files that it monitors in the folder it creates when you connect the accounts together. The process is simple. 

Simply sign up. You have the option to go with a free account which will limit your feed to three files at a time or go with the paid option for unlimited. Connect your JustCast account to Dropbox. JustCast will automatically create a folder within your Dropbox in Apps/JustCast. Drop whatever files you want into that folder. Your JustCast account will automatically update online to show the number of files that you added. You can modify the name of the folder, the cover art, privacy settings and description. Simply copy the RSS feed URL and add it to your podcast app of choice. 

Just like that you will have access to those files directly in your podcast app of choice. 

Enjoy. 

Weekend Vibes #10

MF DOOM - Rock Co.Kane Flow ("Live" at III Points Festival - Miami, FL)

Nothing new about this one but DOOM and Ghostface Killah performed at the III Points Festival in Miami over the weekend. While the billing was deemed a live DOOMSTARKS performance DOOM only made an appearance via video. 

What you see above is one of my favorite DOOM features, De La Soul's "Rock Co.Kane Flow". This video was provided by DOOM's new website GasDrawls.com. 

I almost rushed to this show simply to see DOOM but I feel like I would have been highly disappointed. Either way the video above is gold.

BONUS: Check out DOOM performing with De La Soul on Last Call with Carson Daly from 2009.

Happy Weekending! 

Interesting Links

Bookmarked these interesting links this week. Check them out below. ProTip: You can also follow my public bookmarks through the Pinboard service. You can check out my feed here. 

• Portishead is back in the studio. While there is nothing to report on a new album they are working on a remix of ABBA's "SOS" for a new Tom Hiddleston film. Pitchfork has the story.
• One of my favorite Mac utilities is Bartender. Bartender helps manage and organize all the icons in your menu bar. Version 2 is out and provides full support for OS X El Capitan. Check out a mini review at iMore. 
• The visual designer for the Gorillaz confirmed the rumors that they are currently working on a new album and it's due out in 2016. Check out some of the artwork over at Okayplayer. 
• I'm not a huge fan of mashup style albums but the few I dig are put together quite creatively by Amerigo Gazaway. His latest album is a mashup of UGK x BB King and as the kids say it's "fire emoji". Free download on his Bampcamp site. 
• Personally the novelty of Meow the Jewels has worn off. While for a great cause I can't get it into my daily rotation. Regardless, RTJ has dropped the first video from the album for "Oh My Darling (Don't Meow)" and it's as crazy as you would think. Check it out at The Fader.
• Jonny Greenwood recently sat down with a Russian radio station to discuss a variety of topics. Most important was the status of the next Radiohead album. Greenwood confirmed the album is done and they are currently planning the 2016 tour. Consequence of Sound has the story.

Tapbots Nails It - Tweetbot 4.0.2

There seems to be a lot of feathers that get ruffled when the Tapbots crew releases a major iteration of their highly popular Twitter client Tweetbot. When I say feathers getting ruffled I refer to the fact that everyone expects a free handout, especially if you already bought the app. 

Version 4.0 introduced a bevy of new features and UI enhancements that establish the app as the top third party choice. The app introduced a refreshed iPad version and also introduced the need to repurchase the app. No biggie right? Check this out. I'm happy to support Tapbots. Sure they don't update as much as the competitors but they are a 2 (sometimes 3) man crew. They pay attention to detail and provide thoughtful updates when they are ready. They do not rush and they do not bloat the app with unnecessary features. They focus on the user experience. I'm happy to pay for an upgrade. As everyone says, it's the price of a cup of coffee.

The Point

iOS 9 introduced a great feature called Safari View Controller. Without getting into too much geek speak (I'll leave that to MacStories) here is what Safari View Controller has to offer. Per Apple:

The new SFSafariViewController class enables you to deliver interactive web content in your app just like Safari, including the key Safari UI elements already familiar to your users. See how to easily bring Safari features like Reader and AutoFill into your app, and provide a great web viewing experience with fewer lines of code.

Ok I lied, that was pretty geeky. When Tweetbot 4.0 was released it offered an option to use Safari View Controller when opening links within the app. The main benefit of this feature allows you to browse the link while also using Safari features such as content blockers. As seen in the above screenshot, Apple introduced a new way to close this view by using the "Done" button located at the top right of the browser window. This introduced other problems. While this can be considered a "first world problem", once you scroll down the page the "Done" button disappears, making it less than convenient to go back to Tweetbot. You need to scroll all the way back up to the top of the article to dismiss the window. Again, FIRST WORLD PROBLEM. 

The Fix

In version 4.0.2 released on Wednesday, Paul at Tapbots figured out a way to combat this issue that Tweetbot fanboy's have been complaining about since the initial release. While yesterday's update brought along support for 3D Touch, this feature, in my opinion, makes Tweetbot the cream of the crop.

View fullsize

Tapbots introduced (or brought back, depending how you look at it) a swipe gesture to the Safari View Controller that allows you to swipe to the right to go back to Tweetbot, removing the need to scroll to the top of the page and dismiss the browser using the "Done" button. This provides a much needed, better workflow. As an added bonus if the webpage you are viewing supports Reader View you can have Tweetbot automatically open the page in that mode. 

I suggest you ditch whatever Twitter client you are using for Tweetbot. Yes it costs money. The amount of value you get for the price of Tweetbot cannot be quantified. You can always use the stock Twitter app but then you are subjected to ads. 

You are a Twitter junkie, this app pays itself off after a few days of use. Grab it now from the App Store. It's currently 50% off at $4.99.

Just the Tips - Using the 3D Touch Keyboard Trackpad

When Apple holds a keynote event to introduce something new they typically focus on the marquee features, summarizing the ins and outs but not divulging all the specific details. When 3D Touch was introduced some of the more commonly used features were demoed on stage such as app shortcuts and peek and pop features. One of the features that I find most intriguing and quite frankly incredibly useful is the new keyboard trackpad.

As seen above, when 3D Touching on the keyboard, you can now activate a trackpad like cursor that you can move around freely, just like using a trackpad on your MacBook. Most users are familiar with the old skool way. Pressing down on the screen to reveal the magnifying glass and carefully moving the cursor to the proper position. 

This offers a much more convenient and quicker way to get your cursor to the proper position in whatever app you are using.

Enjoy.