Keeping Up-to-Date with Apps

## Justnotes Since I [reviewed Justnotes in May 2012](http://brooksreview.net/2012/05/justnotes/) there has been a number of enhancements to the app. The change that addresses my biggest complaint, is that file naming now makes logical sense. It’s still a great app that I use everyday, but now it’s a *lot* better. The latest update even added support…

## Justnotes

Since I [reviewed Justnotes in May 2012](http://brooksreview.net/2012/05/justnotes/) there has been a number of enhancements to the app. The change that addresses my biggest complaint, is that file naming now makes logical sense. It’s still a great app that I use everyday, but now it’s a *lot* better. The latest update even added support for the new Simplenote API, which seems to have made [the Simplenote faithful pretty excited](http://shawnblanc.net/2013/03/justnotes-1-3/).

[Great app](http://selfcoded.com/justnotes/). Buy it.

## Riposte

I still love, and use, Felix but [Riposte](http://riposteapp.net/) is a very close second. If multi-account support on App.net is a must for you, Riposte is leaps and bounds better than Netbot. ((That’s not just my biased bullshit either, many people have told me they prefer it. Then again that’s a pretty small sample size.))

At first I thought the color scheme was off, but the more I use Riposte to check the @tbr account replies the more the app grows on me. I still don’t like that the app defaults back to my @benbrooks account instead of staying in the @tbr reply stream when I open it. I assume the account-switching behavior will be fixed, which will make Riposte a killer App.net client.

## Kiwi

Since we’re talking about App.net clients, [Kiwi](http://kiwi-app.net/) was just released and it’s now the best Mac client you can get. Kiwi’s UI and UX is much better than Wedge. The only thing missing from Kiwi (and Wedge) is multi-user support.

My second complaint: The row of icons for switching between streams feels unbalanced because the ‘PM’ icon is shorter than the others. There are other minor issues but, again, Kiwi is currently the best App.net Mac client out there.

## 1Password 4 for iOS

I didn’t immediately see the value of the [new 1Password app](https://agilebits.com/onepassword/ios) when it came out, but people really encouraged me to keep using it. I’m glad I did, because it’s a fantastic update. The ‘favorites’ section make things easy to find and the built in browser is great, if you train yourself to use it from the outset.

Annoyingly, when closing the last tab of the built-in browser, rather than switching back to the logins screen, you stay in browser mode. I’d prefer to automatically be switched back to the logins screen because I always forget about the pull-tab gesture to switch back manually.

## Basecamp for iPhone

Now I want Basecamp for iPad. I’ve been using Basecamp off and on for years and there has never been a great way to use it on your iPhone. When the solution looked to be a “responsive” design I was a bit annoyed as there were some things you just couldn’t do on the mobile version of the site.

The [new iPhone app](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id599139477) is great and solves all of those problems. My biggest complaint is that the default view for each project is the progress/updates view — I’d love to be able to change that.

*(37Signals have [described some of their design decisions](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3439-design-decisions-projects-on-basecamp-for-iphone), and the trade-offs involved in [making a mobile version of Basecamp](http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3438-drawing-the-nativeweb-line-in-basecamp-for-iphone), on the SVN blog.)*

## Daedalus Touch

I was on the beta of [Daedalus Touch](http://daedalusapp.com/) when it was in development and have always found it to be one of the prettier iOS writing apps. But it’s also a very odd duck — I’m never sure exactly when, or how, to use it. Lately I’ve been using it for all of my half-formed ideas and rants (the ones that are less likely to ever be published).

Since I’ve been using Daedalus Touch a lot lately, I’ve noticed one great feature of the keyboard: Daedalus, like so many iOS text apps, has a fifth row of keys for things like tabs, parentheses, quotes, colons and so forth. Both parentheses and quote marks are ‘smart’: They know when to insert an open or closed mark. Nothing new there, but what’s really neat is that when you apply an open paren the button changes to show only the closed parentheses (with open grayed out). This gives you a heads-up about what will happen when you next hit the button.

I don’t recall seeing that in other apps, but I love it. It’s a small detail that makes me want to keep using an app that I struggle to fit into my workflow.

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