The main reason for this is for keeping an eye on various repositories of Pythonista and other iOS automation stuff. So, if you’ve got something you think I might be interested in then please let me know. Here’s a link to my GitHub profile.
Tag: Apps
Everything is about apps at the moment. A lot of what I mention under the apps tag is around iOS and mobile music, but there’s other stuff too, and not just iOS, but Android, Palm OS and Windows mobile.
Building an Android version of my buzzword generator
I thought it might be fun to build an Android version of this little fun web app thing. I’ve been using MIT App Inventor as it’s very easy to use, in fact, much easier than I thought it would be to make this app. So, when it’s a little bit nearer to completion I might put a video up. I haven’t decided if I want to put it on the Google Play store, or if I’ll just make it available here.
Anyway, it’ll be coming along soon enough.
Getting back to some Windows Mobile roots …
Aurora for Windows Mobile
Audiobox for Windows Mobile
VU meters in Audiobox
These apps are so old that when they first came out we weren’t calling them apps. They were applications, or software! But they’re still good, still work, and are usable.
It’s all part of my ‘make the Axim’ useful project. I’ll let you know how it goes.
iOS Automation and Workflow resources page
It’s only a start, but I’ve published my iOS automation and resource page here. There’s only a couple of links there at the moment, but both of those are very useful indeed, and I expect to add more over time.
iOS Automation apps page is live
If you’re interested in automating stuff on your iOS device then I’ve just published a little list of the main apps I use for this. I hope to publish some more on the subject too, but for now, the list is available here.
A huge and amazing guide to iOS automation and workflow has arrived
I was recently contemplating setting up a page to collect all of the various resources for iOS automation and then today, Mac Stories published this guide to automating iOS workflows! It’s huge! I haven’t actually read the whole thing as yet, in fact I’ve just started reading it, but it has enormous promise, and I’m very hopeful that it is, in fact, just what I’ve been looking for to get me going.
So, I’m going to read the whole thing and then embark on my task of getting things properly automated in iOS. I think I probably will put together a resources page as well soon, and I think that this guide will almost certainly be on it.
Of course, if you don’t know about drafts (for iOS iPhone or iPad) then this won’t mean a lot to you. However, if you’re an iOS user and automation is something you’re interested in then this is the app to start with according to this guide.
Drafts (for iPad) on the app store:
Tydlig, Calculator Reimagined
I saw this app for iOS and knew that I had to get hold of it. It’s a very different way of calculating anything, and when you look at it and use it for any sort of calculation it is very intuitive, allowing you to take the result of one calculation into another.
In some ways it’s like a little spreadsheet for simple calculations. It’s a good start, but I think it needs some more work. I’d like to see the ability to save little calcs and also to schedule updates to them. I think it would be very useful if you could use simple variables in the calcs too. Things like today’s date would be useful, and I’m sure that there’s more too. I’d also like to be able to back up my calcs to dropbox.
Anyway, it’s a good start and I hope that the developer will take a it further.
My app of the week is Dispatch
As far as dealing with email goes, I’m not the best, not by any measure. But with an app like Dispatch, I find it a lot easier. Why? Good question, that’s easy to answer. One of the things I find myself doing a lot of is needing to deal with URLs / links from emails and send them to the right place or places quickly. With most email apps for iOS that means selecting the link to copy it or open it then copy it from inside safari then paste it into whatever app I want, Pocket, or Instapaper for example. With Dispatch I don’t have any of those complications. Tapping a link brings up the options I want in terms of sending it to the right place quickly and simply. No fuss.
In fact, that’s the main reason I bought the app in the first place, but it has a lot more besides, and, as usual, I’m scratching the surface so far and just beginning to find out what else the app can do.
I only just found out that the developer has published a URL scheme for Dispatch. This means that you can launch and run Dispatch from another app with parameters from the calling app. So, for example, you could use Drafts to ask Dispatch to open and create an email to a particular person, from a given account, and with a specified title. In fact, you could even tell it what to put in the body of the email too if you wanted to. That’s quite impressive.
The other thing that I like about Dispatch is that you can include snippets or blocks of text from within the app, like per account signatures and more. That could also be really helpful, but at the moment I’m not using that, so far.
So I’m slowly moving over to using Dispatch as my main email app on my iPhone, and I hope that the developer will eventually make it available for the iPad too as I think it would be brilliant there.
Some things I’d like to see happen, some time soon …
Here’s my little app wishlist so far …
- I’d like to see the IFTTT (iTunes link) app go universal and work properly on the iPad as it just doesn’t cut it running it in 2x mode.
- I’d also like to see IFTTT come to Android as well, as I think it’d be an interesting way to cross platforms and automate from iOS to Android and into the real world etc.
- I can’t wait for the next version of the Editorial app for iPad. I mentioned this only a few days ago as an app that I’m already very impressed with. I’m looking forward to seeing the workflow directory directly in the app itself, that’s going to be so useful.
- Whilst on the subject of the Editoral app, I’d like to see it go universal and come to the iPhone as I think it would be amazingly useful.
- Continuing with apps, one of the best email apps for iOS (iPhone, not universal) is Dispatch (iTunes link) in my opinion, and I’d love to see it go universal as I think it would work brilliantly on the iPad, especially the iPad mini.
- Finally, I’d like to see Zapier bring their service to iOS as well. Even though it’s more business focused than IFTTT I think it would be useful.
So that’s my little list for now. I wonder what I’ll get from that list?
Editorial for iPad, powerful automation, workflow and scripting for iOS
I bought this app a while ago and have only just really started getting to grips with it, but I’ve started to see just how powerful it is. The real power in this app is in the workflow features. Think Automator for mac, but inside an iPad app that’s built for writing and with added power besides.
Editorial is a nice writing app and has a lot of features for writing and publishing, but its real power comes with a series of built in workflows that are pre-configured to do some straightforward things you might need for writing. These built in workflows are great as a place to start from with automation in Editorial, but making simple workflows is also a very easy process. Workflows are assembled by connecting simple building blocks, almost the same as automator for mac. Building blocks like ‘if … then’ statements, copy, select, etc. Combining these together is easy, and you can make some very powerful automated processes.
But it doesn’t stop there either. The workflow editor can also include python code which vastly expands the options available to any workflow. Obviously writing python code isn’t for everyone, it isn’t easy, but the option is there. There is also another option. There’s now an Editorial workflow directory in beta. If you access the directory from your iPad with the Editorial app installed on the device you can directly install workflows to the app without any difficulty at all. What this means in that you can add complex workflows into the app that have been designed and built by other people and use them for yourself.
Apparently in the next version of Editorial the workflow directory will be even more beefed up so you can upload and download within the app itself. That’ll be popular I’ll bet, and it’ll give everyone access to some great workflow and automation.
I’ve got a long way to go with this app and getting used to creating workflows, but I think that it’ll be worth the time investing in this app. In the end it’ll send a lot of time.
I am Ashley Elsdon 