The topic on our first (successful) episode of Invalid Argument was Apple's App Store. The prompt was my RWW op-ed, "The App Store Is A Republic", in which I argued that iOS users still count as nerds; they just elect the best and brightest amongst them to build the apps they want instead of doing it all themselves. The republic is a tricky metaphor, though, because Apple is a fickle president, and the App Store of today is threatened by a growing din of fraudulent apps. Does Apple listen to its users' demands, or does it merely pay lip service? I brought in an illustrious panel of app-makers to discuss. Note: This show is only 30 minutes long. We got tired of waiting for YouTube to process the edits, so we left the edges un-trimmed for now. Links we talked about: The guests today were: Caleb Elston is the co-founder and Read More

Speed dial has been a feature unfortunately omitted from iOS. One app that aims to rectify this issue as well as add the functionality to essentially launch almost anything from inside its confines is called Launch Center ($1.99), and it does a great job at what it advertises. Wittily, the ability to add application shortcuts, direct links to your favorite websites, make a list of speed dial contacts, text someone, tweet, post to Facebook, email and more have all been packed into this one brilliant application. Launch Center basically holds the key to simple navigation and ultimate functionality. The fun doesn’t just stop there, though. Launch Center allows you to schedule these launches to your desired time, and they can be configured to be shown as banners, all-out notifications or none via iOS 5′s Notification Center. This can remind you to call someone at a certain time, send someone an email, Read More

Launch Center (0.79 €; App Store-Link) tobt als App-Schnellstarter im eingezäunten iOS-Gehege. Programme lassen sich darüber nicht nur starten sondern verweisen auch direkt in Programm-Untermenüs und melden sich obendrein über lokale Benachrichtigung in der iOS-Mitteilungszentrale. Drei kurze Praxisbeispiele: Die Verknüpfung erfolgt über URL Schemes (“appname://” ), die mit Zusatzbefehlen direkt Aktionen auslösen (“E-Mail an Person XY”). Unter iOS 5.0.1 können diese Shortcuts auch in die Systemeinstellungen verweisen (“Bluetooth deaktivieren”). In den Betas von iOS 5.1 funktioniert dies allerdings nicht mehr. Sicher ist jedoch, dass die Launch-Center-Links zu den angebundenen iOS-Apps auch nach dem nächsten OS-Update noch korrekt schalten. Read More

By Carter Dotson on February 2nd, 2012 Major update to a third party app launcher and notification system. Launch Center has gotten a major new update that brings new automatic app detection. While the app launched with support for built-in notifications, now the app supports launching third-party apps with specific commands, that can be scheduled to appear as notifications on iPhone and iPod touch. The way it launches third-party apps is that iOS lets apps register with the device a specific URL scheme. Like how websites begin with http://, apps can register as tweetbot:// or facebook://, for example. Thus, when the device prompts to open up one of these URLs, the app will open. As well, special commands can be added after the // that will perform actions in those apps. Launch Center has commands for a selection of apps with registered URL schemes that it can launch. Those apps that Read More

Macworld | iWorld was last week, and as Apple-watchers expected, the emphasis was on the i-part. The iPhone and iPad are becoming blockbusters, so this must have been an exciting year to be at that show. I wasn't cool enough to be there, but I'm pretty sure I read the blogs of every single person who was. And there's one iPhone app they're all talking about this week: Launch Center. To a hardcore iPhone user, it seems like it should be relatively easy to explain what Launch Center does. But as the many meditative blog posts show, there's more here than meets the eye. Launch Center's creators at App Cubby are still figuring out for themselves what they're onto here. They've broken into something fundamental about iOS that it doesn't have yet, and they've made a $0.99 app we can all use to figure out together exactly what that is. Launching Read More