developers – Tech Today w/ Ken May

Evidence of an official iOS file manager hits the App Store ahead of WWDC

Enlarge / This mostly-empty App Store stub suggests Apple will add a file explorer to iOS 11. Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference gets underway in just a few hours, but it’s never too late for leaks! iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith has discovered an App Store entry for an Apple-published app called “Files.” The listing appears to be a stub used to re-enable preinstalled first-party applications that you choose to delete, something Apple added support for last year in iOS 10 . There’s not a whole lot of information up right now, but the name of the app and its icon strongly suggest that Apple plans to add some kind of local file manager to iOS 11. There are dummy screenshots listed for both iPhone and iPad versions of the app, so it shouldn’t be an iPad-only feature. The Files app will presumably be more-or-less similar to the iCloud Drive app Apple added to iOS 9—it would just offer access to local apps and files instead of those stored in Apple’s cloud. The app will also presumably stop short of exposing iOS’ filesystem to the extent that the macOS filesystem is exposed; even so, an iOS file manager is a longstanding request of many power users, and any app that provides this kind of functionality is a welcome development. Read on Ars Technica | Comments

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Evidence of an official iOS file manager hits the App Store ahead of WWDC

Reddit plans to make big changes to how the site looks

Reddit’s default design is a throwback to simpler times on the internet. However, moderators on the site’s numerous subreddits put a bunch of work into making sure their communities stand out from each other by employing CSS (cascading style sheets) to change everything from banner images, fonts, icons and other aspects of the user interface. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman said that’s going to change, as the massive discussion board is undergoing an overhaul. Among his reasons — CSS being difficult to learn, and it not translating to mobile where Reddit apparently gets over half its traffic — Huffman also says that the site using the coding language has impeded growth and change. “CSS causes us to move slow, ” he said. “We’d like to make changes more quickly. You’ve asked us to improve things, and one of the things that slows us down is the risk of breaking subreddit CSS (and third-party mod tools).” In the next few months, the site will begin transitioning away from CSS. From the sounds of it, though, a lot of the CSS-powered customization features are going to be built into the site proper. Community calendars and “a lot of the functionality” from sidebars will be available via widgets. The redesigned site will run in parallel with the current version as the changes are implemented. Huffman said the ultimate goal is to replicate what’s already available, and that the dev team will make it easier to use and viewable on the go. Speaking directly to the last point, Huffman said that header images and flair colors will render on both desktop and mobile after the changes. As for mod tools, Huffman said that Reddit is in talks with the developers of third-party mod-tool provider Toolbox to port its functionality into the redesign. Perhaps unexpectedly, Reddit’s users aren’t too excited about the new direction. The big worry is that the changes will strip Reddit’s mods of some of their creative control for their respective communities and that everything is going to look a bit more boring as a result. That might be taking the announcement a little too far. For all we know, there’s a chance that the changeover won’t affect much. Or there’s the other possibility: Reddit will realize how big of an undertaking this is and abandon the refresh — something Huffman hinted at in the comments of his post. Replying to a mod who asked what incentive there was to keep working while the changes were coming, Huffman had this to say: “I would advice [sic] to continue developing until the new stuff is real. Who knows, maybe we’ll screw it up and never release it..” So long as r/CrappyDesign (above) can keep its intentionally awful Comic Sans UI and layout, we’ll be happy. Via: The Verge Source: Reddit

Prisma’s art filters can turn your videos into moving paintings

A Prisma for videos doesn’t sound so enticing now that Prisma itself has begun supporting the format. The popular app can now apply filters to videos and spit out 15-second snippets that look much more artistic than their source. Even better, it can process files even if you’re offline , which the team made possible by optimizing the algorithm. The bad news? Only the iOS version of the app supports videos for now, but the team is working on bringing the feature (along with offline processing) to Android. If you’ve ever used the app, you know that it can take some time to pass images through its filters, so you may be wondering how much longer videos take. It all depends on your device: it will take iPhone 7 up to 30 seconds, iPhone 6s a full minute and iPhone 6 two minutes to reveal your 15-second masterpiece. At the moment, videos only work with nine filters, but the developers plan to add more until all their filters can be applied to both photos and videos. While the app sounds more useful now, this still isn’t Prisma’s final form: the company promises to add support for GIFs “very soon, ” so you can give those reaction GIFs the artistic touch they deserve. Source: iTunes

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Prisma’s art filters can turn your videos into moving paintings

This "Throw and Shoot" Camera is Like a Flying GoPro That Follows You

GoPro’s variety of harnesses let you mount their cameras to your head, chest or even your dog. But a new company has developed a flying camera that you needn’t wear at all. You simply throw the Lily , as it’s called, into the air, where it takes flight and follows you on your adventures. Just over ten inches square, the aluminum and polycarbonate Lily is a dual-camera-equipped quadrotor drone with 20 minutes of flight time. It hones in on a tracker you wear on your wrist, hovering anywhere from five to 50 feet above your head, and runs a tracking path of your choosing (i.e. follow shot, side shot, Michael-Bay encircling shot). And it’ll keep up with you as long as you’re moving 25 miles per hour or less. It seems pretty unbelievable: The Lily is expected to retail for $999, but the developers are currently selling pre-orders for just $499. I keep thinking of the applications it could have beyond adventure videography. Given a longer flight time and a workable way to navigate overhead obstacles, a fly-‘n-follow camera could be useful for everything from tracking animals on a farm to less confrontational police pursuits. We’ll have to see how well the device actually works when it begins shipping in February of next year.

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This "Throw and Shoot" Camera is Like a Flying GoPro That Follows You

Netflix changes its public API program by ending it, will no longer issue new dev keys

Once upon a time, Netflix was proud enough of its public API which enabled third-party services and apps to serve up its data and content in different ways that it opened a gallery to display them. Unfortunately, times have changed since 2009 — the old App Gallery is gone and now, so is public API access for new developers. A blog post indicates the API is now focused on supporting Netflix’s official clients on the many devices its customers use to stream movies, not hobbyist projects for managing ones queue or finding new movies to watch. While those already in place should still work since existing keys will remain active, the developer forums are being set to read-only, no new keys are being issued and new partners are no longer being accepted. The move is reminiscent of recent changes by Twitter , where as each company has grown it’s decided having control over the user experience through its own official apps outweighs allowing the community to build and extend access as it sees fit. We’re sad to see the program go, as many of these tools assisted Netflix members in ways the official website and apps either never did, or no longer do after the features were removed . Even though Netflix relies on its own secret sauce for recommendations, we’ve always found it hard to beat InstantWatcher’s curated lists (by year, Rotten Tomatoes rating, critic’s picks, titles most recently added by other users and more) to find a video, and FeedFliks was indispensable for monitoring exactly how valuable the service is until its features were cut down by API changes. They provided an edge the competition like Amazon Prime and Redbox couldn’t match, but we’ll have to wait and see if this change is noticed by enough subscribers to matter — we’ve seen how that can go . Filed under: Home Entertainment , HD Comments Via: TechCrunch Source: Netflix Developer Blog