iOS Applications Thread Catch All

Recommend me a good audiobook app for mp3's on iOS. Will anything built in work decently? My daughter needs one, and I'm an Android user so don't know the possibilities.

Cheap/Free preferred, as I don't know how much it will get used.

Bookmobile . It autobookmarks everytime you pause or switch audio sources. The other stuff I have used has trouble with remembering locations on my non-Audible books (from overdrive). It's $4 to upgrade from the trial version.

Built in player is useless. Audible player will work on converted files OK but from time to time it would forget my location which was super annoying.

Also, if you choose to convert to to .m4b the best program I have found is Chapter and Verse (requires iTunes to be installed).

What's the process involved in moving the files to the phone? Itunes? Upload to a cloud service like OneDrive/DropBox then download to the phone?

Any advantage to converting to m4b vs the mp3 files I ripped the library book to?

If you want it to appear in the Apple book player or Audible you need to convert it and use iTunes. No other way around it (from my googling). Bookmobile allows you to import many formats from dropbox or other places but these files will only be imported & detected by the Bookmobile and will be invisable to other music/audiobook/podcast players.

M4B is required for iTunes and the iphone to properly detect it as an audiobook. Otherwise you won't get bookmarks when playing through the iphone book player or Audidble.

See, Apple makes everything so easy!

To avoid all these annoying apple hoops just use Bookmobile. Free for 60 days anyways so that should be enought time to see if she is going to use it. I haven't tried dropboxing yet but from the description:

"Audio File Types Supported:
- DRM-enabled content (from Audible.com or iTunes Store)
- non-DRM content (from web downloads, CDs, etc.)
- M4B audiobooks, including chapters, artwork
- MP3 audio files, including artwork, ID3 tags
- import individual audio files, folders of audio files, or Zip archives (including artwork image files)

Audio Import Options:
- add from on-device iTunes Library
- use your computer's web browser
- use iTunes File Sharing (no syncing required)
- Open in... Bookmobile from other apps, including Dropbox, Mail or Safari
- download from websites or local computer

Download straight into the app from iTunes Store, Librivox.org, and ListenUp Audiobooks."

What's a good iOS app for streaming music over a local network?

I decided to stop paying for iTunes Match and just stream from my NAS when I'm at home. Desktop iTunes does this with no trouble at all, but so far as I can tell, the built-in iOS Music app resolutely refuses to imagine the possibility.

I've liked each of the last several versions of Music less than the one before anyway, so this is a good last straw to switch to something else over. My music library is on a Synology Diskstation that's running the "iTunes Server" service; adding UPnP/DLNA would be trivially easy, if that would open up more options.

For my Synology I use the "DS Audio" app to stream locally and over the web. I just use the local IP address when home so I don't eat up bandwidth.

I've been using Plex since I was already using it for TV and movies and they've added a decent amount of music support (including Pandora-style "play music like this" features if you have a Plex Pass subscription).

They've got clients for pretty much all devices (including my Sonos speakers now, yay!) and it can stream anywhere from my home internet.

Thanks, guys! I'll check both of those out.

Does anyone have a good app for uploading images from the iPhone to a hosting location (any hosting location will do) and then being able to capture the URL for the image itself to use for posting here on GWJ?

I take all my pics with my iPhone, and do the majority of reading GWJ on my iPhone. I find it very frustrating that I have to go to my desktop browser to grab these links in order to post them.

What about Imgur? (I just tested it.)

IMAGE(https://imgur.com/QK2uyAa.png)

You can upload from the iOS app and then you are able to copy a link to the image which you can then paste here BUT you have to append .png to get the link to work.

It's a bit of a pain, but it works.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/MV67D9u.jpg)

Huh, I tried imgur earlier and didn't think it worked. Is that visible above? It actually gave me a jpg link.

Yup, I see the kitty.

Awesome. Thx.

I found a fantastic app that maybe four other people will care about.

It's called BrowseSecurely and what it does is add itself to the iOS share sheet. Then when you are in an app with web links you can send the link to BrowseSecurely to view it with Safari Web View instead of the apps' built-in browser.

The benefit of this is that using Safari Web View uses your ad blocker, cookie settings, and stored passwords. Better yet, there is an option to open in Reader View automagically! Lastly, there is an option to preview links before you open them if that is a concern.

It doesn't work for all apps, but it works perfectly with Twitter and Flipboard - two apps whose built-in browsers drive me crazy. Plus, I prefer to read every site in Reader Viewer so I get the same user experience regardless of app.

I realize I'm a little anal with Safari Web View. If you are too, other apps I recommend that support it natively are Newsify (Feedly), Antenna (Reddit), Nuzzle (Twitter), Tweetbot (Twitter) and Digg. All great apps.

Does anybody here use Firefox and/or Firefox Focus for iOS?

I use Firefox on the desktop and Safari on mobile. I've gotten tired of the way that XMarks and iCloud bookmark sync don't quite work together, and am considering switching to Firefox Sync instead.

Assuming, that is, that iOS Firefox has bookmarks syncing and is generally a decent browser -- so is it?

misplacedbravado wrote:

Does anybody here use Firefox and/or Firefox Focus for iOS?

I use Firefox on the desktop and Safari on mobile. I've gotten tired of the way that XMarks and iCloud bookmark sync don't quite work together, and am considering switching to Firefox Sync instead.

Assuming, that is, that iOS Firefox has bookmarks syncing and is generally a decent browser -- so is it?

AFAIK Apple still hasn't allowed third party IOS browsers to use the IOS adblocking but are forced to use Apple's rendering engine. Due to that they are basically re-skinned mobile Safari without add blocking . I think you can still get bookmark syncing but the browsing experience, in general, will be nothing like desktop Firefox.

Giving Browsecurely a try PaladinTom. Thanks !
Also Newsify btw.

EvilDead wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:

Does anybody here use Firefox and/or Firefox Focus for iOS?

I use Firefox on the desktop and Safari on mobile. I've gotten tired of the way that XMarks and iCloud bookmark sync don't quite work together, and am considering switching to Firefox Sync instead.

Assuming, that is, that iOS Firefox has bookmarks syncing and is generally a decent browser -- so is it?

AFAIK Apple still hasn't allowed third party IOS browsers to use the IOS adblocking but are forced to use Apple's rendering engine. Due to that they are basically re-skinned mobile Safari without add blocking . I think you can still get bookmark syncing but the browsing experience, in general, will be nothing like desktop Firefox.

You can download and use AdBlock if you want to block ads everywhere.

In other news Workflow, one of my all time favorite iOS apps, got bought by Apple today. The app has also gone free if you haven't yet picked it up.

Staked wrote:
EvilDead wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:

Does anybody here use Firefox and/or Firefox Focus for iOS?

I use Firefox on the desktop and Safari on mobile. I've gotten tired of the way that XMarks and iCloud bookmark sync don't quite work together, and am considering switching to Firefox Sync instead.

Assuming, that is, that iOS Firefox has bookmarks syncing and is generally a decent browser -- so is it?

AFAIK Apple still hasn't allowed third party IOS browsers to use the IOS adblocking but are forced to use Apple's rendering engine. Due to that they are basically re-skinned mobile Safari without add blocking . I think you can still get bookmark syncing but the browsing experience, in general, will be nothing like desktop Firefox.

You can download and use AdBlock if you want to block ads everywhere.

Neat, I wonder how they got around the restriction. Previously, I believe you had to set it for each network you connected to.

Staked wrote:

You can download and use AdBlock if you want to block ads everywhere.

Thank you! And it works on my antique iPad as well, so now I finally have ad-blocking there!

I use Better

Better is a privacy tool for Safari on iPhone ,iPad, and Mac. It protects you from behavioural ads and companies that track you on the web by enforcing the principles of Ethical Design. You can download the Better apps from the App Store and Mac App Store.

By Aral Balkan

misplacedbravado wrote:
Staked wrote:

You can download and use AdBlock if you want to block ads everywhere.

Thank you! And it works on my antique iPad as well, so now I finally have ad-blocking there!

Also thanks for mentioning AdBlock. I upgraded to a 6s today and my previous ad blocker (Blockr) didn't make it over. Not available anymore apparently. I'll see how AdBlock is and may look at Better too.

Does anyone here use OmniFocus? I'm in the market for a new task app and I want something powerful and versatile. OmniFocus seems like it may fit what I want, but at $40, it's outside the price range of "try it and see."

I've been using Toodledo for 6-7 years and have over 200 one-off and recurring tasks for everything from bills to cleaning the cats litterbox. All my work tasks are in there as well. I love the universality of Toodledo (web, iOS, Android), but the development of it seems to have stagnated recently. It's not dead or dying, but I'm looking for something with a bit more to it. Of course, I could customize my Toodledo to add some of the things I'm looking for (like the Inbox feature), but some things like task nesting are limited in Toodledo.

One specific question on OmniFocus-- how's it's Siri integration? Toodledo syncs with Reminders, which is okay, but my wife and I have a shared Reminder list and I don't want to clear it out and onto my Toodledo by turning on that syncing.

Any help or alternative options would be appreciated. Thanks!

I couldn't quite stump up for Omnifocus, but I did use 2Do for a couple of years very successfully. I stopped using it when I changed job and didn't have Dropbox access for syncing anymore. I believe it does imports from Siri/Reminders.

It's a really great, flexible todo app.

Antichulius wrote:

Any help or alternative options would be appreciated. Thanks!

I looked far and wide for a 3rd party app that supports Siri (and Alexa btw) and I keep coming back to Remember The Milk (RTM). The ui was garbage for a long time, but they finally updated it a while back and it is now a really nice app on iPhone and iPad. It of course has a great web app too.

It supports lists, tags, priorities, custom due dates, "smart" add, etc. I use it for everything, including "sharing" certain web links from my devices instead of bookmarking them.

As for Siri integration though, it uses a CalDAV account which instantly pushes to RTM. Essentially, you set up an iOS reminder list named "Remember The Milk" and set it as default. When you add any task to this list, including via Siri (which is the whole point), it is instantly pushed to your RTM app. No sync required! It's the only ToDo app I've found that does this and it's fantastic.

You can of course keep other iOS reminder lists such as those shared with family members as I do. (I believe you can tell Siri to add a reminder to a specific list too, but I'm not sure.)

Can't recommend this app enough.

Sparhawk wrote:

I use Better

Better is a privacy tool for Safari on iPhone ,iPad, and Mac. It protects you from behavioural ads and companies that track you on the web by enforcing the principles of Ethical Design. You can download the Better apps from the App Store and Mac App Store.

By Aral Balkan

Thanks so much for this recommendation btw, I downloaded it and it works much better (natch) than the Adblock Plus/Ghostery combo I was using before. Well worth the price.

Okay, so I decided to dive in to OmniFocus. Figured I'd share my thoughts here.

It's a good task app so far. It took some time and doing to move things from Toodledo into OmniFocus, but the email-task option OF gives is quite nice. You send an email to a generated address and the subject becomes the task name in your inbox and the body becomes the note. You do have to use their sync feature to get the email-task set up, but it's free, quick, and worthwhile.

I am really liking the greater organization I have to my tasks now, grouped into projects, folder, and whatnot, rather than just folders and contexts with Toodledo. Also, the integration deeper into my iPhone has been nice (clearing tasks from notifications or from the Today screen). I can use Siri to add a reminder to my default list and OF will pull it into the inbox from there. I was quite happy to discover it would only pull from ONE list, which means my shared family lists are safe.

My biggest complaint is there is no list to show EVERYTHING currently active that I've found yet. I want to see all my tasks that have not been deferred into the future in one list. There is a "pro" IAP of $20 that lets you build custom views, so I'm sure I could set it up there, but after spending $40 for the app, another $20 seems overly steep to build a single view. Maybe if I find several views that would be worth having, the price may not seem so bad, or after a longer time using it, perhaps.

On the today screen, you can show overdue, due today, deferred to today, flagged, inbox, and due-soon items. I thought due-soon was great, until I realized it was showing things due tomorrow but that are deferred until tomorrow. I already did x today, I don't want to see it again until tomorrow. Ah well. It may be an incompatibility with the current way I think about tasks, which has been groomed over YEARS of toodledo.

I used the "started" view all the time with toodledo. Basically only showing tasks whose start date has passed and hiding all tasks with start dates in the future. I'd set a lot of weekly items to start Monday and be due Saturday so I could get a few done each day along the way. This scheme isn't working quite so well with OF right now.

But having an inbox to brain dump and better siri sync through reminders, plus I forgot to mention location-based reminders (using geo-fences!) has made it a worthwhile, if pricey for what it is, change.

Anyway, I'm into OF now, so if you've been wondering things, I can check it out for you.

EDIT: I did decide to set up 2 separate sync accounts with OF for personal and work tasks. I debated putting them all together, but the limited control over what I see at once led me to decide to keep personal lists on my personal phone and work lists on my work iPad. I don't really want to see work items when I'm home. Of course, if I ponied up for that IAP, I could probably pull off a work-only view and a not-work view. Maybe one day.

Antichulius wrote:

Okay, so I decided to dive in to OmniFocus.

Is there a web app?

PaladinTom wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Okay, so I decided to dive in to OmniFocus.

Is there a web app?

Nope. Another drawback. It's apple-centric right now. They have a mac app that'll sync if you have a mac; I don't. I'm okay with it since my handheld has been my primary task tool since before it was a phone-- palm/handspring FTW. But the lack of a web app was something I had to come to grips with making the change. I did use Toodledo's web app frequently.

Antichulius wrote:
PaladinTom wrote:
Antichulius wrote:

Okay, so I decided to dive in to OmniFocus.

Is there a web app?

Nope. Another drawback. It's apple-centric right now. They have a mac app that'll sync if you have a mac; I don't. I'm okay with it since my handheld has been my primary task tool since before it was a phone-- palm/handspring FTW. But the lack of a web app was something I had to come to grips with making the change. I did use Toodledo's web app frequently.

Bummer. Thanks. I'm a Windows/iOS guy, but every service I use has to have a web app.