The apps he uses.

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If managing your to-do lists is taking up more time and effort than you spend actually getting things done, a new iPhone app coming from developers Phill Ryu and Milen Dzhumerov, designer David Lanham, and publisher Realmac Software might be the perfect solution. Tossing most iPhone UI conventions out the window along with any religious adherence to GTD principles, the upcoming Clear app is designed to eliminate the friction and complexity of adhering to systems like GTD and be as easy to use as a paper list. We were able to meet up with the team at the 2012 Macworld|iWorld to check out the offerings.

Clear has no standard navigation bar at the top or tab bar at the bottom—common iPhone UI elements. Instead, the app is stripped down to the bare minimum, with a rectangular strip for each list item. Pull the list down from the top to add another item. Swipe right to mark the item completed. Swipe left to delete the item from your list. Pinch to access a list of lists—you could keep a shopping list, a list of errands, and a list of projects, for example.






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The iPhone is a beautiful device on its own, but with hundreds of millions of iPhones sold it's not particularly unique. Whether you employ a few simply tricks or more complicated alterations, it's easy to put your own custom stamp on your ordinary device. Here's how you can design custom cases, themes, icons, and more to change your iPhone both inside and out. More »

Welcome to 2012! If you're a consumer, you're likely getting ready for another year full of new products, drama, and intrigue from the tech world. If you're a journalist, you're cowering in fear of the upcoming CES trade show. And if you're a Mac or iOS developer—well, as always, you're wishing for bigger and better things out of Apple and its community.

While the iOS and Mac App Stores exploded in popularity in 2011, there's still plenty of room for improvement on the developer side. When we spoke with a number of iOS and Mac developers about their wish list for 2012, they didn't hesitate to let us know about changes they would like to see.






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iOS: Previously mentioned collaboration tool Asana made waves when it launched, but at the time it was missing support for mobile devices. Now, anyone with an iOS device can log in to their Asana account on the go, check in on their projects and activities, comment on tasks, and more. More »

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When I first heard about podcasting, I didn't get it. Why would I want to download MP3 files of people talking? But then former Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the usefulness of podcasts when he introduced podcast support for iTunes and the iPod at WWDC 2005, and I was sold. (Watch the video if you're unfamiliar with podcasting.) 
I now listen to podcasts when walking to and from work, cooking, doing the dishes, etc. This lets me keep up with developments in philosophy, economics, science, and technology, not to mention entertainment with things like the stories from flight attendant Betty and relationship advice from Dan Savage. Podcasting combines two somewhat revolutionary elements: podcasts can be produced by anyone, and you can listen to them on the go without taking away time from other activities.







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Out of the box Siri can do a few common things, but it struggles when you try to get too complicated with it. GigaOM offers up a few clever address book customizations to make Siri work more naturally. More »

iPad/Android: Want to eke out a little more value out of that tablet? Turn it into a second monitor for your PC or Mac and extend your screen real estate. This is especially handy for laptop users. More »

If being a successful jailbreak developer can get you hired at Apple, apparently so can redesigning the oft-criticized Notification Center. Apple has hired Jan-Michael Cart, perhaps best known for creating demos of proposed Notification Center tweaks, to intern with the company for the next seven months. Cart's internship follows two other recent hires known for notification work, suggesting the company is aware that iOS notifications still need some work.

Cart, currently a junior majoring in Mass Media Arts at the Univeristy of Georgia (go Bulldogs!), specializes in video and graphic design. He has recently begun experimenting with Xcode and learning about iOS development, according to his website. With the release of iOS 5, Cart began creating videos to demonstrate his ideas for improving its Notification Center feature.






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You guys listed OneNote as one of your favorite note taking applications, and today Microsoft finally released an iPad-optimized version of the awesome tool, while adding a tabbed interface, quick note creation, and more. More »

RT @dalmaer: "It’s because on iOS all UI rendering occurs in a dedicated UI thread with real-time priority." #ios # ...

Inkling, the San Francisco startup that develops interactive iPad versions of college textbooks, made its first big step in courting the mainstream consumer a few weeks ago when it debuted its version of The Professional Chef, the official textbook of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) chef school.

Turns out, it’s working out pretty well.

This week, Inkling’s Pro Chef title became the third highest-grossing iPad app on Apple’s App Store, Inkling CEO Matt MacInnis said at the GigaOM RoadMap Conference in San Francisco Thursday. That’s compared to all iPad apps worldwide. It also became the top-grossing iPad app in the App Store’s “lifestyle” category.

As we wrote in the piece about the Pro Chef launch last month, the cookbook represented a bit of an inflection point for Inkling, which had up until then produced more strictly academic titles. Inkling thought that Pro Chef would have a wider appeal, MacInnis told me in a brief interview, but its current performance has certainly surpassed its expectations. This means that there will likely be more crowd-pleasing titles with crossover appeal in the future — and that’s good news for students, as well as the rest of us.

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There aren't many text expansion options for the iPhone, and none of them are perfect, but due to its availability relatively strong support across iPhone applications, our top choice is TextExpander. More »

Earlier in the week I reported that my first iOS app built with jQuery Mobile had been accepted into the iTunes App Store. Today, I am giving you the code I used to build the app.