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- iPad Writing Apps: PlainText vs. Writer
Among the minimalist writing apps for iPad, two have come out on top: Hog Bay Software’s PlainText and Information Architects’ simply named Writer (an app which Om clearly enjoys). Both do basically the same thing: create plaintext files that sync to Dropbox. Their approaches to the writing itself are very different, however.
Price
Writer will cost you $5.00, while PlainText is free. If cost is important, then you should definitely go with PlainText. But if you’re not concerned about dropping a little cash, read on.
Dropbox Sync
As mentioned above, both apps use Dropbox sync, so you don’t have to go through the horror of copying files over with iTunes. I do like PlainText’s implementation better, though. It gives you more options to tell it when to sync, and tells you whether Dropbox is down or not. It also gives you the option to rename the folder it syncs to on your Dropbox, but you have to unlink your Dropbox account first. Writer, on the other hand, offers only the option to link to Dropbox. Folder names can’t be changed, and there’s no behavior customization available.
PlainText offers a number of ways to tweak your Dropbox sync settings.
Text Expansion
With PlainText, you can also use TextExpander, a third-party app that lets you define short abbreviations to expand into longer snippets, i.e., expanding “TTYL” as “talk to you later.” Writer doesn’t offer any text expansion support.
Writing Environments
Writer and PlainText's main screens, side-by-side.
As far as the writing environments go, Writer provides a more focused experience. It uses a large monospace font called Nitti Light, which was created by Bold Monday specifically for the iPad, and is easy to read. Writer also has a “focus mode” that fades out everything except the current three lines. This does make it easier to focus on your writing, but you can’t scroll in this mode. You have to manually hit the cursor button on the software keyboard in order to move around the document, which is annoying.
PlainText also has a full-screen mode, but this mode only hides the sidebar and does little to make it easier to concentrate. PlainText also wastes a lot space on both sides of your document in landscape view, even in the full-screen editing mode.
Software Keyboards
Writer has the edge when it comes to the virtual keyboard. The default iOS keyboard has been extended with an extra bar above it that holds some common functions and punctuation:
In PlainText, it takes longer to get to punctuation since you have to flip back and forth between symbols and letters.
Sidebars
One of the more noticeable differences is that PlainText has a sidebar to access folders and documents, but Writer doesn’t. PlainText’s sidebar makes it easier to navigate around chapters or sections without having to press a button a bunch of times (anyone who uses Mail in portrait mode knows what I’m talking about). This makes it much easier to take notes, and indeed I’ve found myself using PlainText more than Writer for taking notes during my college courses.
Word Count
Both apps give you the word count of a document, though Writer displays the number of words in the top bar of the screen, and PlainText shows it as a contextual menu with select and paste:
PlainText adds word count to the contextual menu.
Writer also has offers an extra feature: reading time. It calculates the time it would take the average person to read the entire text in the top bar, and adds marks on the side of the display showing you the reading time up to where the cursor is.
Conclusion
Honestly, I think both apps are great. PlainText has better organization and Dropbox integration, but Writer has a more focused environment and better typography.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
- Five Things Needed for a 48 Million iPad Market
- Can Anyone Really Compete With the iPad?
- In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories
Переслать - iOS 5 Wish List
Let’s be honest: iOS 4.2.1 only really mattered to iPad owners who were just aching for a bit of that good old multitaskin’, folder-makin’ magic. If you own an iPad, you’re probably still enjoying all that the latest upgrade gave (and lamenting what it took away), but the rest of us are already looking ahead to the future and dreaming of what the next major revision of iOS might bring.
So here are the 10 features I’m hoping for in iOS 5, listed in no particular order:
1. Wireless Sync
Honestly, I think we’ve waited long enough for this one. It is a monumental pain to have to connect my iPhone to my Mac using something as old-fashioned and undignified as a cable. C’mon Apple, we’re already living in the future; provide a sync solution that matches up with the rest of our reality.
2. A Useful Lock Screen
I once owned a Windows Mobile phone, back when the iPhone didn’t exist, and a BlackBerry was exotic and exciting. It was a mostly awful device, but it did have one great thing: a really useful lock screen. I didn’t need to unlock the device to see the time, date, the day’s upcoming appointments and tasks, or know if I had missed a call or had unread messages. It even told me the local weather. That was in 2005.
3. Improved Mail
By far the most-used feature of my iPhone is Mail. It’s an almost perfect mail-triage tool. Two things that will make it even better: flags and much-improved attachment handling. The former needs no explanation; if you spend a lot of time in email, you know priority flags are essential.
The latter is something that causes me constant grief; why can’t I save an attachment without needing a third-party app to handle it first? I’m not asking for anything as unholy as a File System, but a single place to locally store all my attachments, view them, and mail them to people later (much like the Camera Roll does with photos) would be just awesome.
4. Elegant Notifications
You know that green bar you see along the top of the screen when you’re in a call and mucking-about in some other app at the same time? Why can’t Notifications appear in something like that, instead of those clumsy modal boxes that steal focus when I’m playing Fruit Ninja or entirely vanish the moment I unlock my phone?
5. Camera Gestures
I don’t want any more hardware buttons on my iPhone. But I would like a way to gain instant access to the camera. So how about a customizable gesture (say, four rapid vertical sweeps of the screen?) that launches the Camera app whether the phone is locked or not?
6. Customizable Multitasking Tray
You know the drill: Double-tap the Home button to make the multitasking tray pop-up. Swipe to the right to reveal iPod controls. Swipe again to get access to the volume. Lovely. But how about expanding that tray to accommodate more? How about swiping with two fingers to get something else –- say, your four most-used Settings? Even just Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on/off switches, at the very least.
7. iOS Data Sharing
I use my iPhone, iPod touch and iPad all the time. All three have a Photos app. Let’s say I take a photo on my iPhone, then later, I’m on my iPad and want that photo. Why can’t the photo in my iPhone’s Camera Roll automagically appear in my iPad’s Photos app, too? Seems like that would be a great addition to a MobileMe subscription. It might compensate for the diminished incentive now that Find My iPhone is free.
8. Customizable Default Apps
Apple’s native iOS apps aren’t the best solution for everyone. When that’s the case, why not give users the choice of which app to use? For instance, replace the native Calendar app with Calvetica, replace Notes with SimpleNote, or replace the system keyboard with Swype.
Apple already enforces strict guidelines and approval processes on all the apps in the iOS app store, so ensuring apps are bug or crash-free shouldn’t be too big a leap (otherwise, why exercise such draconian measures to begin with?). If Apple is afraid users might blame the iPhone for problematic apps, the solution is simple: Overriding the default app settings should require users do so via iTunes. Just making the process a little cumbersome would ensure only the most dedicated geeks are getting something other than the Jobs-sanctioned Apple Experience.
9. Custom SMS Alerts
I send about 30 SMS messages for every phone call I make. In short, I use SMS all the time. Is it too much to ask that I can set a custom alert sound of my own choosing, instead of sticking to the selection Apple provides? I could do that on my first cellphone back in 1996!
10. Editable Dictionary
I’m sick of the way my iPhone insists on turning otherwise correct words into the wrong words. I want to use the word “me” and my iPhone stubbornly “corrects” it to “mr.” And not even “Mr”, but the incorrect, lower-case “mr”.
I must use the word “Mr” about three times a year, but I use the word “me” much more frequently. Just why would Apple presume to know better than me which makes more sense? It’s a particularly “dumb” correction, too; if the auto-correct were even a little bit aware of the context, it wouldn’t make that mistake.
Apple, we’ve waited long enough. Let us edit, amend or otherwise tweak our dictionary and auto-correct settings. It would make mr very happy.
Did I miss something? Jump in with your own suggestions in the comments below.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
- How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer's Guide
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- Report: The Rise of Mobile Health Apps
Переслать - iOS Developers' Guide to Surviving the Holiday App Rush
For iOS developers, two very important things happen during the holiday season. The first is the App Store freeze, a period of time (between Dec. 22 and Dec. 29) when the rankings and app listings are frozen. During this period, developers are unable to log-in to iTunes to submit or modify any of their apps, and are unable to get sales data until the end of the freeze. If a game or app is lucky enough to be in the top ranks of the charts, it basically gets stuck there until the freeze is over. While this is great news for apps at the top ranks, it also means apps on the rise lose the ability to move up the chart for over a week.
The second holiday occurrence is that App Store sales go through the roof during the holidays. For example, our studio’s first game, Arcade Solitaire: TriTowers, was selling an average of 30 copies a day. Through a combination of being featured by Apple and the holiday sales boom, we hit a high of over 1,000 sales during one day. That was a 3,300-percent increase in sales for a game that wasn’t even in the overall Top 100. This is consistent with this 2009 report from Flurry showing an overall 50-percent increase in app sales from November to December, and iPod touch app downloads spiking to a staggering 1,000-percent increase on Christmas day.
I caught up with some fellow iOS developers to get their take on their App Store strategy for the holidays.
TheAppleBlog: Thanks for joining me today for this virtual panel. To start, why don’t you all introduce yourselves?
Matt Rix: Hi, I’m Matt. I made the games Trainyard and Trainyard Express. You can reach me on my blog or on Twitter as @MattRix.
Gavin Bowman: I’m Gavin from RetroDreamer, and our most recent games are Sneezies and Linkoidz. My Twitter is @gavinbowman.
Owen Goss: Hi, I’m Owen Goss, and I’m the founder of Streaming Colour Studios. We made LandFormer and Monkeys in Space. My Twitter handle is @owengoss.
TAB: How do the holidays affect your development plans, if at all?
Matt: The holidays are a really important time on the App Store, so I'm working hard to get an update for Trainyard out before Christmas. I haven't released an update in a while, and it helps that Christmas is a nice, solid deadline to try to hit!
Owen: Historically, Christmas Day has been my biggest sales day of the year on the App Store. If I’ve got a game that will be nearing completion any time close to Christmas, it’s definitely a deadline I would push myself to meet. This also applies to major updates planned for my apps. Because the App Store ranks are frozen over the holidays, it would be nice to be ranked as high as possible when the freeze happens.
Gavin: [They don't affect our plans] with any real intensity. We’ve tried in the past [to get something ready for the holidays], and if there’s a relatable app where the timing is right and the price could drop a little, we would probably do it again. It’s hard to stand out at the holidays though; everything is on sale.
TAB: Do you use holiday sales to attract attention or create buzz? Why or why not?
Matt: I'm having a holiday sale for Trainyard, but I think it'll be tough this year, because every single app seems to be going on sale. At the end of the day, having a sale gives you something to talk about, so it's still a great thing to do as long as you have a way to get the message out.
Gavin: If you have a visible app, putting out a holiday-specific update or version seems to work out well in some cases. Maybe run a contest or something, but it’s tough to get any attention for anything at this time of the year.
Owen: I haven’t, no. The Black Friday sales in the U.S. and the Christmas sales see hundreds of developers discounting their apps. It seems to me you’d be fighting for a small part of a large pie. However, the flip side of that is that lots of users will be looking for sales those days, so if you can get the press, the potential is there to have a good day or weekend. One of the great things about the App Store is that you’re free to change your price at will, so anyone can test assumptions about these kinds of sales themselves.
TAB: If not sales, are there other types of promotions you’d use?
Matt: I plan to send a message out to all the Trainyard players right around Christmas time to drum up some support.
Owen: I’ve attempted contests in the past without a lot of success, but a holiday contest might have some potential. I also have a game, LandFormer, that has in-game themes available for purchase. I’ve considered releasing holiday themes, but haven’t tried that yet. Cross-promotion with other apps is something that tends to work quite well at any time of the year. And of course, there are advertising buys, but I’ve found you don’t have a lot of success with small ad buys.
Gavin: We just try to keep in mind what holidays might be happening when our next game launches.
TAB: Have you, or would you ever develop a holiday-specific app? Why or why not?
Gavin: We’ve done it twice on purpose and once by accident. It didn’t really pay off any of those times, but the holiday-themed version of our existing game was the best outcome of the three. Last year, we tried making a free holiday game. I wouldn’t do that again; the window of interest was too short to build up a customer base. You need to sell so many copies — or get so many active free downloads — to break even on any game, and it’s even harder to do in the small window you have around a holiday. It really depends on your existing setup, how fast you can turn around the game, how much it’s going to cost you, how easily you can communicate the new product to your existing customers, and what your quality standards are. I’ve no doubt holiday apps will work out very well for some developers.
Matt: I wouldn't ever make a brand new app just for Christmas. The time frame is too short, and the Christmas app market seems highly over-saturated. That being said, I would definitely consider making "Trainyard: Christmas Edition" next year, as long as I can figure out a way to do it in only a couple of weeks of work.
Owen: I haven’t in the past, and I don’t think I would in the future. The problem with a holiday-specific app is that it has a narrow window of desirability. The only way I would consider it would be releasing a holiday-themed version of one of my other games. In that case, the cost vs. benefit might work out.
TAB: Do you find it harder to compete with bigger corporations’ app releases during the holiday rush? If so, would you wait it out and release after the holidays are over?
Matt: If I had a potential top-100 game ready to come out, I think I'd consider delaying the release until after Christmas, just because so many things are going to be released at the same time. I think sites like TouchArcade are going to be drowning in new releases, sales, and "Christmas versions." There's going to be a lot of noise, and it'll be very hard for a completely new product to get noticed.
Gavin: Absolutely. If it’s not the releases, it’s the sales. And if it’s not the competition, there’s all the freezing and quirkiness of the App Store around that time of year. You can win big if your timing is right, but I think I remember seeing some friends lose out big time on some major releases around the holidays last year. If I had a game scheduled to launch in December, I would be very tempted to hold it until next year.
Owen: As an indie developer, it’s hard to think about large corporations’ games as competition. I’m making different kinds of games from them. In terms of players’ limited spending amount and the number of games released this time of year, yes, it can be intimidating. I think it also depends on the kind of app you’re releasing. If you’re relying on a large number of review sites to write about your app or game, it’s going to be tough to get write-ups this time of year. However, if you’ve got other marketing channels you’re relying on, the potential upside of releasing before Christmas could be great.
TAB: Thanks again gentlemen for taking the time to join me for this virtual panel. Good luck with your holiday app sales!
Ken Seto is the founder of Endloop Studios, which develops iPhone and iPad apps. He can be reached on Twitter as @kenseto and on his blog. Disclosure: Ken owns stock in Apple Inc.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req'd):
- How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer's Guide
- App Developers: Are You Ready for HTML5 and Metered Data?
- Report: The Rise of Mobile Health Apps
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