The anticipation is over! Reeder 2 is out and better than ever. A new iOS 7 look, Universal App and a slick new icon make this a must have.

The only last missing piece to normalcy pre Google Reader shutdown is a Mac version. This should tide us over till then.

Get it now!

For some reason I actually don’t have a lot of contacts that have extensions but this should be a great tip for a lot of you:

iOS 6: Auto-Dialing Phone Extensions

Tired of save dialogs always defaulting to iCloud? This Terminal gem did the trick for me:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSDocumentSaveNewDocumentsToCloud -bool false

If you ever want to revert back simply rerun setting the last argument to true.

Great community generated list of some neat tricks in OSX.

My favorite one so far:

While Cmd tabbing between applications, without releasing CMD, you can hit ‘Q’ to quit or ‘H’ to hide the selected application.

Worth a quick peruse… I’m sure even hardcore users will learn something new.

So the big news from this years WWDC is unsurprisingly the drastically redesigned iOS 7. I’ve decided to have my first impressions sit for a bit before concluding any opinions. After spending a few days with it here we go.

First off this is a very very early version and as such has a lot of missing features, performance issues and all in all nothing close to being a polished product. Having said that we can at least see the direction Apple is heading and not to ruin the surprise but it’s a very promising one.

Like any drastic technological change people will either love it right away or take some time warming up to it. iOS 7 is no different. Going back to my primary iOS 6 device some of it seems down right ancient in comparison. The new UI iOS 7 introduces is less about a drastic change in how you use the interface and more about having the interface be representative of the device it’s on.

This is important to understand. In 2013, mobile users are now comfortable in navigating a mobile screen and as such Apple has decided to now concentrate on really fine tuning the interface to take as much advantage as possible of the device it’s on and less with presenting the user with a familiar visual.

The eventual benefit is that in a short time a user will become much more efficient with using the device and navigation will become much more fluid.

All the Apps look different yet are still very familiar. The lighter design let’s the content become the focus instead of the interface widgets and controls.

iOS 7 reminds me of the way OSX evolved. Each iteration simply fine tunes what was done before until it becomes a well oiled polished product that reverts to the background to let you concentrate on what you’re doing.

iOS 7 is this evolvement and it only means better Apps to come. As a developer I anticipate being able to concentrate less on having a slick interface since the foundation of iOS 7 will dictate that from the get go and more on enhancing the functionality of an App.

Looking forward for the next beta release…

Being the self proclaimed minimalist that I am, I’ve always been a big fan of MacPaw’s CleanMyMac product to do some house cleaning on my Mac every now and then.

I’ve always been pretty content with it but I must admit, today’s announcement of CleanMyMac 2 completely blows my expectations away. I won’t go into a full review here… you can give it a quick download and see for yourself what it can find tucked away into the far corners of your drive, but for me this one screenshot says it all (click to enlarge):

It always bothered me that iPhoto would keep almost every revision of every picture I’ve ever played with and finally I can now safely and easily get rid of over 5GB worth of revisions. Simply expand each category and you’ll be presented with a nice grid of all affected pictures with a before and after thumbnail. A single click selects all once you’ve reviewed them.

Besides the new iPhoto Cleanup feature it seems the remaining processes have been fine tuned considerably as well. At least on my drive it seemed to do a much better job at Language cleanup within apps than the older version did. 20 minutes after installing I had cleaned up 48.45 GB though I must admit the majority of that was the iPhoto cache.

Very highly recommended… hat’s off to the team at MacPaw… nice job.

I don’t usually put a lot of clout in these kind of popularity rankings but interesting list nonetheless.

Pretty amazing to see what HTML5 apps are capable of these days:

Worth a look see.

This has been driving me nuts for some time now.

Great fix by Dr. Drang.

The first time one of these hidden iPhone feature type articles actually lists tips I never knew about… all three actually.

Guarantee you’ll learn at least one new thing. My favorite is holding the back arrow in Safari to bring up your browsing history. Epic.

Worth a read.

Great hack to get a quick scratch pad for some notes right in your browser.

Check the comments too for some nice upgrades.

Something very interesting happened since I got my iPad Mini. I started noticing it a few weeks ago but didn’t want to admit it. Today though I must confess.

My original review of the iPad Mini was gushing:

The consensus it seemed was that the new smaller, lighter form factor was a winner to the point that most users would prefer it even if they already had the larger model. The caveat being though that the lack of a Retina display was a disappointment but that in the end the form factor won out. I hate to disappoint but this will be a boring review since I pretty much have to concur.

I was wrong. Dead wrong. The form factor was an infatuation and nothing more. And like most infatuations, they’re fleeting. In the end no matter what app you’re using, you are at some point reading text. And the problem is Apple has pretty much spoiled me and others I’m sure. I simply can’t read text on a non Retina device any more. To my eyes it’s like reading a wet newspaper. I see every single pixel and dithered curve with utter disgust. It’s true. I am a retina snob.

I haven’t touched my Mini in weeks. And today as I was de-cluttering my desk I realized I was tucking my Mini in my desk drawer and it was then I knew. I would most likely never touch it again other than perhaps for testing a project for a few seconds at most.

My point is that if you’re considering a Mini and you’re already used to or have used the larger Retina iPad or even one of the newer Retina Mac Book Pro’s then please wait until Apple releases an Mini Retina. Don’t get me wrong. The form factor is simply amazing. But once your hands have settled into position and you actually start using the device, the form factor disappears and all you see is pixels… oh so many crunchy, blurry pixels. << shudder >>

Nice surprise this morning when my tracking app alerted me that my iPad Mini was going to be delivered today instead of the scheduled delivery tomorrow. Sure enough promptly at 10:30 AM there was the FedEx guy at my door.

I had read all the reviews of the mini for the past week or so since the WiFi model had been out earlier than my cellular enabled version so I kind of had an idea of what to expect. The consensus it seemed was that the new smaller, lighter form factor was a winner to the point that most users would prefer it even if they already had the larger model. The caveat being though that the lack of a Retina display was a disappointment but that in the end the form factor won out. I hate to disappoint but this will be a boring review since I pretty much have to concur.

The form factor is a clear winner. It’s hard to describe but it’s just a completely different devices simply because it’s smaller. I know it’s hard to comprehend since it’s just the same as a regular iPad but it’s amazing how weigh and dimensions drastically change the way you use a device.

Inevitably this Mini will be sure to be upgraded to the A6 processor and a retina display and suffice it to say I’ll be the first to be getting one, but for now the Mini has replaced my iPad Retina completely.

After you get over the form factor what to me was most noticeably different than my larger iPad is that the screen just seems… I don’t know… closer, like there’s less distance from your finger to the icon… almost as if you’re touching it directly. It’s quite slick and really makes web pages pop.

Like I said… boring review but the Mini I believe is a winning form factor for most and I anticipate it becoming the defacto standard for first time purchasers and upgraders alike.

The most talked about Android phone these days, the Nexus 4 has no LTE support, a non-removable battery, maxes out at 16 GB of storage, has no SD card slot and a glass front and back. I’m sure it’ll sell like hot cakes too. Hey better late than never Google… right?

Looks like Microsoft has some work to do for a second generation release.

Check it out.