Site Wide Dark Mode

In an effort to keep up with the latest and greatest, I’ve spent some time over the last few days tweaking the CSS code for the site. This was done to automatically enable dark mode when your device has dark mode enabled. There are no toggles or buttons to hit on the site to make this happen as it automatically detects your device setting and “flips the switch” for you.

This will work on both mobile and desktop versions of the website. You can download the code here. You may need to adjust based on your template.

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Some of the sample code I used can be found online at the Squarespace support forum. The original author of the post runs a website.

Stop by and show him some support as his post was a major help.

Enjoy!

Austin Mann: iPhone 11 pro camera review: China

“It’s clear their camera team has been exceedingly thoughtful in their balance of technology and art — it really shows in the final images. It’s also made this year of iPhone testing more fun than usual, and I know you’ll have a blast as you begin experimenting with these new tools and possibilities.”

— Austin Mann

Check out his full review at the source link below.

How To Create iPhone X Style Screenshots

One of the "features" of the iPhone X I had to embrace and then have come to love, is "The Notch". I'm all aboard the #EmbraceTheNotch train.  The interesting thing about the iPhone X is when you take a screenshot, you get a full screen preview without the notch.  I believe adding the iPhone X mask to the screenshot gives it some character and really shows off what you're trying to present in that screenshot.  It also get's the point across that this is what you will actually see when looking at the beautiful screen of this phone. This is particularly useful for developers who want users to see what the interface experience will be on the X.

When the iPhone X was released, one of my favorite Apple bloggers from Macstories, retweeted a link to an excellent Workflow script that allows you to create these wonderful iPhone X screenshots with the proper X masking.

Before getting started, if you're not familiar with the ins and outs of the Workflow app, please check out this post I made on using Workflow.  Then head to the instructions below.  

1. Make sure you have the Workflow app downloaded and installed from the AppStore. It's a free download.

2. Once installed, click this link to import the iPhone X Mask script into your Workflow app.

3. Grab these resource/image files (these are the mask files used) and upload them to a Dropbox directory of your choosing. Remember the path to this directory.

4. Once you upload those image files to Dropbox, got back into your Workflow script and modify the file path for both Get File sections. Link one to the mask.png and one to the xblank.png. You are now set to create your iPhone X Mask screenshot.

5. Take a screenshot of the app, home screen or whatever you want displayed in the screenshot.

6. Run the Workflow script, either from the Workflow app itself or from the Today Widget.

7. Select your screenshot

8. Voila.

9. Once the script is finished running, you can share or save the photo from there.

If you have any questions, drop them in the comments.  Check out the screen share below for the script in action.

Downloading Video and GIF's from Social Media Sites on iOS

This post was edited on December 5th, 8:56 AM to add a link to the Workflow post.

iOS has gotten better over the years in terms of behaving like an actual operating system with a file system that you can access more readily but in terms of downloading files from the web or apps it's still limited.  For a while I've wanted a way to easily download GIF's and videos via Tweetbot but Twitter and the Tweetbot never made this easy to do.  

After doing some research this past week I managed to nail down a Workflow script that allows you to easily download video styled media from major social media sites. Not only does this script give you access to downloading movie style media from Twitter, but it also gives you access to select from other popular social media sites such as Instagram, YouTube,  and Facebook.  Here is how it works.

Before getting started, if you're not familiar with the ins and outs of the Workflow app, please check out this post I made on using Workflow.  Then head to the instructions below.  

1. Grab the script and import it into the Workflow app (it works as an Action Extension or Today Widget).
2. When viewing a tweet within the Twitter app or my favorite app, Tweetbot, copy the link to the twitter media to your clipboard.  
3. Swipe over to the Workflow Today Widget and fire off the Social Media Downloader workflow script.
4. Sit back and watch the script do its thing.  
5. Upon completion of the download, the media file will be saved to your camera roll and a dialogue will tell you when the process has completed.  

Check out the screen share below for an example.

iPhone 7 Test Photos

Got my hands on the new iPhone 7 and will be spending some time taken photos in various environments.  Initial impressions:  This is one badass daily shooter. The addition of the OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) makes a huge different in low light settings and the wider color gamut in bright settings is a game changer.  Check the gallery below.

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. 

iOS 9 Tips and Tricks

This will be a multi-part post as I continue to explore iOS 9 and find new features. I plan on addressing iPad specific tips and tricks in a separate post.

iOS 9 is here and while at first glance it may appear not much has changed there are plenty of new features and goodies buried into the operating system that you may not know about. Here I will break down some of the more useful features to optimize your iOS 9 experience. 

Enable iCloud Drive App

When iCloud Drive was introduced I was excited about an integrated cloud solution for documents on iOS. What I was disappointed in was the fact Apple did not offer a native iCloud Drive app and you were forced to look for third party workarounds or just access your iCloud Drive through the web interface or finder in OS X. iOS 9 finally brings the app to reality.

To enable the iCloud Drive app open Settings and navigate to iCloud>iCloud Drive and toggle Show on Home Screen. Your iCloud Drive app will immediately appear.

Enable Low Power Mode

iOS 9 out of the box features some improvements to battery life which Apple claims will give you an additional 1 hour of battery. If that is not enough and you are running low with no access to power you can always turn on Low Power Mode. Low Power Mode works two ways. You can manually toggle this feature on at any time by going to the Settings app and navigating to Battery and toggling Low Power Mode on. You will know Low Power Mode is enabled because your battery color will turn yellow. If Low Power Mode is not enabled when your battery hits 20% Low Power Mode will remind you it's available and ask if you want to turn it on.

Enable Wi-Fi Assist

Buried at the bottom of the Cellular section of the Settings app is a new feature called Wi-Fi assist. You have most likely jumped onto a poor, public Wi-Fi network only to experience less than optimal speeds. Typically you would toggle off and on the Wi-Fi radio to re-establish a better connection. No longer is this necessary. Wi-Fi assist will automatically use your cellular data if it feels your Wi-Fi connection is struggling. Users with data caps need to be wary of this feature as to ensure you are not going over your monthly limit.

Enable Wi-Fi Calling

This feature is near and dear to my heart considering my line of work involves improving indoor cellular reception. If you are now in an area or building where signal is poor and you are unable to make phone calls you can toggle on Wi-Fi calling (if supported by your carrier). With this enabled you can now make and receive calls over Wi-Fi with your carrier account. To enable this setting open the Settings app and navigate to Phone>Wi-Fi Calling and hit the toggle. 

Apple Music High Quality Audio Over Cellular

Apple quietly added a new setting within Apple Music to allow for higher quality audio over cellular. Again use this with caution if you are on a limited data plan as this can quickly kill your cap. Since I've been able to hold onto my unlimited data plan since 2007 this feature is welcomed. Using Spotify for years I got used to the Extreme quality setting not just on Wi-Fi but also cellular. This brings Apple Music up to speed a bit. This can be enabled by opening Settings and navigating to Music.  Hit the High Quality Over Cellular toggle.

Proactive / Siri

Siri received an update that makes him/her much smarter than she has ever been. First thing you should try is the new Spotlight search. You can access this by swiping on the home screen to the right. This will bring up a search that also includes recently used contacts, apps, locale shortcuts and news. I've been using this a lot since upgrading to iOS 9. It's fantastic. One of the great features of Spotlight search is the ability to search within apps without actually opening said apps. For example, 1Password received an update yesterday that includes Spotlight search integration. You can now search for password entries which you can tap and dive right into within the app. 

Siri allows you to be proactive and tell her to perform actions about an app that you are currently working in. For example let's say you are reading a website within Safari and you want to set a reminder about what you are viewing. Simply invoke Siri and ask her to "remind you of this" and she will set a reminder for that webpage. This works within most of Apple's native apps and will be supported by third party apps once the developers provide updates.

To learn more about what Siri can do for you simply ask her to tell you. 

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So far I am really enjoying iOS 9. I've noticed a few bugs which I'm sure will be cleaned up with the next .1 update. If I find any more useful tips I will make sure to share them in a separate post. If you have discovered anything neat and useful that I didn't mention please leave a comment.

Enjoy. YMMV.

Opinion - The Future of Force Touch on iOS

What exactly is Force Touch? To most not familiar with the new Macbook or Apple Watch it probably sounds like a move out of Luke Skywalker's playbook. Force Touch is a technology that Apple developed in which a tap is detected on a track pad or other surface (such as an Apple Watch screen) and responds differently to variations in pressure. In other words you can invoke different options, actions or menus based on the amount of pressure you use with your finger.

Force Touch is a welcome addition to the Apple Watch and is a necessary feature for a device that has limited screen real estate and few hardware buttons. The ability to pull up a menu "hidden" behind the screen offers an added layer of functionality to even the basic Apple Watch app. Force Touch is supposed to make its way to the rumored "iPhone 6s" this fall and may actually be the signature feature for this iteration of the iPhone. As always 9to5Mac broke the rumor about Force Touch's inclusion in the new iPhone along with how it will function.

According to sources, the iOS version of Force Touch is known internally as “Orb.” Instead of opening up a large window of extra controls that did not fit on the screen, as is done on the Apple Watch, Force Touch on the iPhone is designed to skip existing lists of options or button presses. “There is consistent usage of Force Touch across the operating system to ‘shortcut’ actions,” rather than present new options like with the Apple Watch, according to a source.

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On the surface Force Touch sounds like an exciting feature I would welcome to iOS. The fact is I'm on the fence. On one hand Force Touch will solve some issues such as apps that have too many options with nowhere to put them. A perfect case is Apple's very own Music app which was recently updated in iOS 8.4. When using the ellipsis menu to access options for a song or album you are presented with a lengthy pop up list of choices which not only is confusing but takes a few looks just to figure out what you are looking for. This problem could easily be solved by using Force Touch technology. Long pressing on an individual song could add it to the up next queue or present you with a share sheet to choose between sharing options. In a perfect world the Force Touch options would be customizable per user so you can choose what each function will offer based on what you use the most. Typically this kind of customization is something Apple does not provide out of the box but adds down the line once enough demand for the feature is felt. To make Force Touch user friendly a section within Settings to customize each apps' Force Touch options would be ideal and welcomed.

How Do You Use This Thing?

In order for Force Touch to be successful it has to be user friendly. Which is the reason I'm on the fence about it. As a power user I will adapt and figure out all the ins and outs of the technology and eventually learn everything the same way I did with all the gestures that came with each new version of iOS and OS X. I worry a feature such as Force Touch, which may wind up being the signature feature of the "iPhone 6s", will fall short of expectations for a new device. I can already hear the complaints about the lack of innovation due to simply moving a feature from the watch into the phone. In a world where innovation is required with every new phone, the common user of the iPhone may not even realize Force Touch is part of the new device.

Whenever a new capability or API is introduced into iOS developers can get a little design and feature happy. I'm afraid this is going to happen with Force Touch and a bevy of features will be hidden from users who have no idea how to access them. Pressing buttons and swiping levers on a screen are obvious ways of UI and UX interaction but remembering to press harder may not be a natural way of interacting with a device for most people.

Force Touch may also have an awkward feel when using it with an iPhone. The great thing about Force Touch on the Apple Watch is you have your wrist as a "platform" for your watch to lean on while applying pressure. You receive the haptic feedback on your arm while using Force Touch to let you know it's activated. Force Touch on iOS is expected to provide a physical feedback that feels "nice" and "consistent" across the OS. 

What Else To Expect?

The details on Force Touch and it's functionality are still rumors. One can expect shortcuts and faster actions all across iOS 9. According to Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac a few examples of what to expect from Force Touch is the ability to look up points of interest in the maps app and force touching on the location to immediately start navigation directions to Force Touching a track in the Music app to access a deeper set of options such as adding to the up next queue. 

My concerns may be nitpicking and I'm sure I'll look back at this article and laugh. Apple always has a way of making what at first seems like non-essential features as key, commonly used features down the line that will make me say "how did I live without this before". 

I'm holding out hope Apple isn't relying on Force Touch to sell the next iPhone and it's just one medium sized feature among many. If Apple was smart, they would keep the focus on camera upgrades and use Force Touch as a complementary feature not meant to sell the device.