You won't believe how great this week's apps are. Photo: Cult of Mac
This week we collaborate on songs in the “Google Docs for music,” edit video in Darkroom, block the Touch Bar from accidental taps, and gain other essential tools. These are the best apps and updates of the week.
This week we “watch” our to-dos with Things, read the news really, really fast with NetNewsWire, make Keynote-style presentations with Markdown, and more.
Apps, apps! Come and get your apps! Photo: Cult of Mac
This week we enjoy lots of new iOS 13 updates and a new super-accurate moon-phase complication for the Apple Watch. Then we add things up with the most comprehensive calculator ever made, and exhume the body of hipster photo app Hipstamatic.
The new Home screen widget panel on iPadOS 13. Photo: Apple
In iPadOS, the old Today View has shuffled over a little, and now lives right on the Home screen. You can pin widgets there, and they will be permanently shown on the left edge of the Home screen (in landscape, at least — in portrait they will act more like a temporary Slide Over panel).
This changes how we use widgets. Instead of being temporary, quick-info panels, or shortcuts for app functions, widgets are now always visible, and always available to tap. A weather widget can be checked with a single glance, for instance. Ditto countdown timers. And — best of all — Shortcuts can be triggered with a single tap.
Let’s take a look at some great widgets for the iPadOS Home screen.
Make Mac great again with one (or all!) of these top apps. Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
The Mac may be way older than the iPhone and iPad, but it still has some tricks. 2018 saw some fine updates to some of our favorite Mac apps, as well as some amazing new apps that migrated across from iOS.
Also, Apple injected so much new life into a tired old macOS staple in Mojave that it’s made our top 5 list this year. Can you guess which one it is?
Halide can now add custom background blurs in iOS 12. Photo: Halide
iOS 12 gives your favorite apps access to some amazing new abilities. One is integration with the brand-new Siri Shortcuts, which lets you automate your apps, or to interact with them by talking to Siri. But that’s not all. Camera apps now have access to the the depth information from Portrait Mode, so they can do some pretty special effects.
Safari’s password autofill has also been opened up, so apps like Dashlane and 1Password are now available with a single tap. Let’s take a look at the best new iOS 12-ready apps already available.
This week we get productive, with colorful new features in the Ulysses word processor app, amazing new keyboard controls in Things for iOS, and more. Check out our awesome apps of the week.
Things now has the best keyboard support of any iOS app Photo: Cult of Mac
Cultured Code’s lovely to-do app Things just got a massive update on iOS, and set the standard for iPad keyboard support at the same time. Now you can control pretty much anything from the keyboard, in a way that’s intuitive and useful, and not just there for power-nerds.
Also — finally — this update lets you drag tasks onto the Things sidebar to add them to your lists.
This week has been big on big updates. Drafts, the best text-capture app for iOS, got a brand-new version. Cultured Code’s Things also received a big update (but still doesn’t allow drag-and-drop to task lists). And Dropbox finally did add drag-and-drop, just seven months after iOS 11 added the feature.
A deferred do-it-later list can transform your to do list. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Todo lists are great for not forgetting to, you know, do stuff. But they can be tyrannical, stressing you out with an endless queue of tasks which need to be completed. Even if you are hyper-productive, and manage to get through most of your chores, your todo list can end up cluttered with lower-priority tasks that don’t need to be on it.
This, then, is where the do-it-later list comes in.