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What's On My iOS Home Screens: Winter 2014

2/26/2014

Winter is far from over, but there's been a couple of noticeable changes on my iOS iPhone and iPad home screens. Aside from my background color switch on the iPhone from red to blue and on the iPad from blue to red, there have been a couple of app changes.

iPhone

Twitterrific ($2.99 - Universal) - Now my Twitter client of choice on both the iPhone and the iPad.

P aper - Stories From Facebook (Free - iPhone) - This isn't your daddy's Facebook app. Well, if your daddy is your friend on Facebook then I guess it could be. The controversially named "Paper" is a wonderful new Facebook experience offering views of your timeline and curated news topics hand selected by Facebook staff. While the news categories are very basic now, there are sufficient news topics in my main feed to keep me abreast of the latest news in tech, sports, science, and politics. While Paper will not replace an app like Flipboard or Zite, the UI of Paper is a refreshing change from the vertical list view of the old Facebook app. I like Paper so much, I have deleted the old Facebook app from the iPhone. I look forward to an iPad version of Paper. Hmmmm. I might have to boycott the Paper app if the FB developers don't get an iPad version out. LOL.
Dark Sky ($3.99 - Universal) - While this app doesn't sit on my home screen, it is quickly accessible via Launch Center Pro on both my iPhone and iPad. I keep it installed mainly for the precipitation push notifications that tell me when it will snow or rain in the area I am located. I would like to see the UI on the iPhone show weekly forecast data on the first screen as opposed to having to swipe to the left two times. For quick weather data and a view into the week ahead, I am still keeping with the stock (Yahoo data) iOS 7 app.
Music - I replaced Groove with the stock music player as I find myself listening more and more to iTunes Radio. Now that I have AT&T's new 10GB family share plan, I have plenty of data to spare even with moderate listening.

iPad

Clock - Nothing to see here, as my iPad is now my primary alarm clock and the stock app works as advertised.

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Dumping Tweetbot in Protest (Updated)

2/18/2014

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I have long been a fan of the Tweetbot application, a full featured and powerful Twitter client for the iOS platform. The application has basically everything I want in a twitter application: push notifications, position and message read status sync, mute filters, and UI that just won't quit. Well, that last part is really what is bothering me. The iPhone version of Tweetbot was given an iOS 7 redesign during the latter half of 2013. It is truly a sweet looking application. Unfortunately, Tapbots have been really lagging in getting the iPad version of the app up to iOS 7 standards. Since I use Tweetbot on the iPhone, iPad, and the Mac, I prefer the experience to be top notch on each device. I can excuse an updated UI on the Mac since I spend very little time using Twitter on the desktop. However on the iPad, which I do use daily, the old style iOS 6 design of Tweetbot is wearing on me. It's annoying enough that I will cease to use it on the iPhone and iPad and will be replaced with IconFactory's Twitterrific 5.

Waiting for that Tweetbot elusive iPad update.......

Update: Twitterrific has stopped working over LTE for me and I am unable to send or receive tweets. The app works when on wifi. I will have to delete this app on the iPhone until the Iconfactory has a solution to get it working again. I have tried force quitting the app and deleting and re-installing it.

Update 2: Finally figured it out. The cellular data setting was turned off for Twitterrific which was causing the app to not retrieve or send data over my LTE connection. Once I flipped the switch to enable data, the app worked like a charm.

Tweetbot for iOS ( iPhone (L), iPad (R) )

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iPhone Valentines and TechMusings Birthday

2/15/2014

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My wife knows me so well and gave me a little tech love in the form of an iPhone themed Valentines day card. Also, TechMusings turns 1 year old today, not bad for a little hobby of mine.

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What's On My iOS Home Screens: Winter 2014

Dumping Tweetbot in Protest (Updated)

iPhone Valentines and TechMusings Birthday

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