Dayspring for Mac Review

The death of Google Reader has been catalyst in the RSS market. This has lead to a resurgence in new, and updated RSS backends and clients. The market is exploding. I expect it to consolidate over time, but for now the name of the game is differentiation.

Dayspring is a Mac app by Paul Dunahoo of Bread & Butter Software. I've been following him on App.net ever since I joined the service. He's young, but quickly established himself as a competent developer of genuinely useful applications. He writes quality apps, and he has good designed sense. Dayspring is his latest, and arguably most complicated endeavor.

Startup Experience

At startup, Dayspring suggests you add sample RSS feeds. I think it's a good idea for an app to give users some direction when it's first launched, or in what I call a dataless state (any point in which an app has no data in it).

Paul includes his own blog as one of these two preloaded feeds which at first seems like shameless self promotion, but after more thought makes sense. I often seek out the blog of an app, of developer to keep up with their work. The way Paul configured Dayspring, I don't have to go fishing in the seemingly bottomless internet, I can automatically subscribe to his blog seconds after launching the app if I so choose. It might be nice to have more, and diverse options thought (i.e. general news, other Apple blogs etc.).

Usage

By default the app displays RSS entries in a new Timeline view. This new view allows you to continuously scroll through your feeds in chronological order. There is a option to view your feeds in a more common three-pane Mail.app like interface. The new timeline is a welcome addition. It adds variety what is a relatively app space.

As far as workflow is concerned there aren't a lot of options. You can't sync Dayspring with services like Feedbin. Sharing to social networks like Twitter, read later services like Instapaper, or bookmarking services like Pinboard is all non-existent. You can star articles, and open them in the browser. Tabs aren't initially very obvious but are very useful. You also have the ability to import an OPML file (which is how most feed readers and services export your feed list).

Design

Apple stripped much of the color (and by extension much of the fun) out of OS X since the introduction of Lion. It's nice to see some color in Dayspring. In one sense it competes with NetNewsWire which has very little color. Hopefully Apple will follow Paul's lead, and continue to reintroduce some color into OS X like they've already done in the iTunes 11 sidebar.

I've already mentioned the similarities in the interface. It also has an activity monitor similar to Mail that shows you a progress bar when your feeds are being refreshed.. It sits in the bottom left-hand corner, and displays which feeds are being refreshed. It's one of those little features that doesn't seem big, but I find to be a nice touch. It also makes the app feel more responsive since it's obvious how fast your feeds are being synced.

Syncing and RSS Backend Thoughts

Dayspring doesn't sync with any RSS backend services. I don't blame Paul for not including sync. Although an essential feature for me, it certainly doesn't strike me as simple to implement. With APIs for umpteen different services that all work differently I can see why that is a daunting task.

The one good thing about Google Reader's domination is that everyone had one API to write against (said API wasn't fully documented and terrible, but at least it was consistent; devil you know versus the one you don't). A way to combat this problem of all these different APIs is for a group of backends to establish a common API. It would be a lot simpler if a bunch of services we're similarly implemented.

By lowering the bar, I anticipate developers would implement more backends because of the reduced complexity of doing so. Services like Feed Wrangler might not be fully compatible with a standard for backends (although they could do it for the common feature sets). I'm concerned that RSS clients will end up picking the winners and losers for the backend and I don't like that prospect. I think one standard is a simpler ways to combat that.

Wrap Up

When I decided to review Dayspring it gave me an interesting perspective on software in the abstract. I found myself asking questions like: "What happens when I review a piece of software that I may not use full time? How do I review software that doesn't have all the features I would like?"

Reviewing isn't a science. I think when you make it one it often leads to skewed results. If a product comes out that doesn't fit whatever mold you've created it might get a bad score just because it's different. Dayspring doesn't have all of the features I want, but that just means it's not for me. I if you're looking for a solid, bare-bones RSS reader I recommend you give Dayspring a shot.

Dayspring is available in the Mac App Store for $2.99.

Redesigned Instapaper for iPad →

A few months ago one of my favorite web services was sold by Marco Arment (its creator) to Betaworks. Since then Betaworks has been working hard on improving Instapaper and its apps. This latest iPad update is no exception.

The premise of the service is simple. You see an article you want to read later, send it to Instapaper. I've been sending stuff to Instapaper for several years now. You should give it a try if that sounds interesting. The web app is free and the iOS app is pretty inexpensive. It's also available for Android.

College

I don't like the idea of writing meta-posts but I finally decieded this one was neccisary. I started college this fall. It's been fantastic so far but it does take time away from writing for you guys. I'm not trying to be bearer of bad news though. The good news is that I'm taking college writing classes. Hopefully there will be measureable inprovements in my writing when I do find time topost. My current plan is to try and post a couple of items over the weekend for the forseeable future. I'm working on a few articles that I'm pretty excited about. They're coming soon (which is whenever I can find the time to finish them).

iOS 7 Now on 73% of Devices, But Adoption Rates 'Much Slower' Than iOS 6 →

Obviously this is data from just one ad firm's advertising platform but I wouldn't be surprised if it's fairly accurate. Anecdotally, I've seen similar reactions. People I personally helped upgrade from iOS 5 to iOS 6 have seen iOS 7 and do not want it.

Most everyone I know that upgraded got used to iOS 7 after 2 weeks or less. I have no doubt most everyone would do the same. I wonder what it will take to get these folks over the hump. Is it merely a question of marketing, or will it only happen when they eventually purchase a new phone? I would also be curious to see what role - if any - media coverage of iOS 7 played in people's decisions to upgrade.

Tim Cook takes the stage on Tuesday. I wonder if he has numbers to share that say otherwise.

iPad Event Still Full of Mystery

Now that Apple's iPad event has been confirmed for October 22, the internet has moved into full-on prediction mode. As a member of the Internet at-large, I will not break ranks. I have no inside info on the event, merely educates guesses (and calling them educated is a stretch).

The full size iPad maxi is the easy one. It's almost guaranteed to mirror the iPhone 5S internally (A7, and M7 both). Externally, it will be styled like a big iPad mini, likely with a TouchID sensor, and the same color lineup as the 5S. The gold looks pretty great on the mini. I hope both iPads get it.

The part I'm having trouble with is Apple's plan for the mini. It isn't terribly clear cut. Short of a major technological breakthrough, the mini either gets the iPad 2 treatment (faster, thinner, lighter), or it gets a retina display. I don't believe it can have both. My money (if I were a betting man which I am not) is on retina coming this year.

The iPad 3 was a bit of ungraceful product. It was slightly thicker, and heavier than the iPad 2, and had a subpar processor. I don't think Apple wants to duplicate this turn of events with the iPad mini. They'll give themselves more or a performance cushion on the iPad mini than on the iPad 3 (lots of tiny pixels are expensive resource wise). The A6, and a slightly bigger battery should be sufficient to power the retina display.

I suspect next year's mini will see more substantive gains on the battery front as well as some of Apple's patented (lol) thinner, and lighter action (or an outside chance of a full on redesign). I've seen a few rumors saying the mini will get an A7, and retina display this year. That seems like too significant a batter drain/margin reduction for one year. The iPad mini > iPhone 5C as iPad maxi > iPhone 5S. Putting the mini on par spec wise with the iPhone 5S, and iPad maxi would be ill-advised for Apple's bottom line is many ways. It would drain supply constrained resources for the money making products, and further cut into the mini's margins. Apple, and Wall Street would not pleased, and customers would be confused.

On the software side, my gut tells me we'll see iOS 7 updates for either iWork, iLife, or both. My gut did not explain why, but my head rationalized the reason is that iWork debuted with original iPad. I think it makes sense to update at an iPad event as well. iBooks will get a coat of paint as well as some new features. I have my fingers crossed for an iWork for Mac update, but I'm not counting on it. Apple seems totally uninteresting in this particular product.

We'll likely get a ship date for the new Mac Pro, and OS X Mavericks. A new Thunderbolt Display has to be released some time. If they don't do it alongside the new Mac Pro when will they? We could see modest hardware spec bumps on the laptops, but no major hardware upgrades. The battery life improvements in both Mac hardware, and software are paving the way for retina to hit, but it's too early for now.

I didn't realize before I wrote this, but this event is looking to be jam-packed. This one could be a barn burner. Which now makes me think Apple might stream this event live. I still don't know why they don't do it for every event, but I digress. Apple isn't tipping their pitches, but this has the makings of a good game.

Christmas Music Experiment

I wanted to take a brief break aside from technology to talk about my Christmas music dilemma. It's one of my favorite music genres, but I never seem to have a enough time to listen to it (first world problem alert). If I start listening on Thanksgiving, I have a mere 28 days before Christmas to listen to Christmas Music. Sidenote: I don't like listening to Christmas Music after Christmas because it just reminds me I have to wait a year until next Christmas. It actually becomes depressing instead of cheery.

This year I'm conducting an experiment. Yesterday, October 1st, I began listening to Christmas Music. As Mr. Blanc said on his podcast, October 1st marks the start of the final quarter for the year. I don't know if this experiment will be successful (I could end up hating Christmas Music before Christmas). I'm currently interspersing Christmas songs with my usual listening in Rdio. I probably won't go whole hog, until either Thanksgiving or December 1st.

Most of what I'm listening is personal favorites, but Mr. Blanc has us covered. He has a suggestion for a Christmas Pandora station you might like as well as two Rdio playlists that you can subscribe to. One simply called Christmas, and another one appropriately called One Fine, Jazzy Christmas.

If you don't plan to start listening to Christmas music just yet, feel free to save this for a later and employ these tips whenever you'd like. Merry Christmas music listening.

Latest version of Gmail for Android hints that ads are on the way →

The uncovered code hints that users will be able to save ads that catch their interest as messages, but little else is known about the company's approach to mobile ads — or how intrusive they'll be.

I finally get it. The reason Android phones have such big screens is so your native email app can have ads and you'll still have plenty of screen real-estate. Also, Google is open.

EU wants all companies, ahem Apple, to use standard charger →

While the committee is targeting all phone makers operating in Europe, Apple is one of the only companies that doesn't already supply users with a Micro-USB connector. For the most part, phone makers in Europe broadly adopted Micro-USB cable chargers after the European Commission chose the interface as the region's official standard in 2010.

How this law is written will dictate whether Apple will be compelled to respond. It could be that Apple ends up paying a fine each year for non-compliance. There's also the possibility the EU plans to aggressively enforce the law by seeking injunctions against products that do not comply.

I see a couple of interesting scenarios potentially playing out. The most unlikely of which involves Apple yielding to the EU's wishes. The more likely scenario I could see happening is Apple licensing the lighting connector (or more likely just release the spec) to other phone makers, and presenting it as a new standard. If faced with the choice, it will be interesting to see what Apple values more: a proprietary connector, or having control over what connector it uses in it's European phones. The law also has the potential to impact Apple's phones in other countries too.

If the opportunity presented itself, I'd fully expect Apple finds a way to resolve the situation in some way that maintains the status quo. I think Apple likes the Lightning connector, and they'd like to keep it proprietary. As you may know Apple does have piles of overseas cash. A yearly, or per product fine may be the solution.