Last week I got a 10.5” iPad Pro. I have had an iPad ever since the original release, but I have to confess to mainly using it for content consumption rather than creation. Since I am usually close to a Mac anyway, there didn’t seem a lot of point. But now that iOS 11 is really addressing the issue of making the iPad a "pro" device, I decided to give it a try.

So here I am, sitting in an armchair with my iPad on my lap, writing this post and working out the details as I go. Any typos are due to the cat trying to compete with the iPad for space on my lap!

iPad

As already mentioned, I have a new iPad Pro. I also have an Apple Pencil which I use for taking notes. I do not have a keyboard, so I am using the on-screen keyboard right now.

jsonfeed.org has announced a new format for web site feeds, designed as an alternative to RSS. TrozWare has had an XML RSS feed for years, but I don't think anyone ever uses it (I certainly don't), so today I have replaced it with a JSON feed, which you can access through the button at the top of every page.

I use my iPad to play games as a form of relaxation. Nearly all the games I play are puzzle apps with levels that can be played in a few minutes. Nearly all of them are free to install. So how do they make money?

Now I would be the last person you should consult about marketing but it has always seemed to me that the best way to market your product is to convince people that it offers something they want so that they are prepared to pay for it.

This is not the currently favored approach for mobile apps - at least certainly not for games. No, the theory at the moment is to cause so much frustration and annoyance that people give you money to make it stop. Blackmail marketing.

I gave a Masterclass on Swift at the NCSS Summer School 2017 in Sydney on 8th January 2017. This post contains useful links for use during and after my class.

I am looking for beta testers for my latest Mac app: Work.

Work is a project organizer app for developers, designers, students or any professional who works with multiple projects involving files & folders, web pages, email addresses and lists of tasks. Click the link above for more information and help for getting started.

Work requires macOS 10.12 or OS X 10.11.

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If you would like to test this app, please contact me, giving details of your Mac and operating system. The easiest way to do this is to select About This Mac in the Apple menu and send me a screen shot of the window that appears.