Ryan Gould

The developers of Dark Sky announce Forecast, a new global weather service:

About a year ago, we released a little app for the iPhone and iPad called Dark Sky, attempting to do something new and interesting for weather forecasting, a field we think had become pretty stagnant. Approaching 100k sales, it’s been fairly successful; however, we’ve been continually asked for more: international support, longer-term forecasting, an Android app, and so on.

Rather than cram these things into Dark Sky, we decided to do something grander: create our own full-featured weather service from scratch, complete with 7-day forecasts that cover the whole world, beautiful weather visualizations, and a time machine for exploring the weather in the past and far future.

I think the biggest thing about Forecast is how the team are already set for even bigger heights with their Data API—it looks like it can provide a huge platform for developers. It’s great to see, too, that Forecast is already on par with Dark Sky in terms of users.

Exciting.

The state of email on iOS has, for a long time, been a battleground of innovation and creativity. It seems the last, and perhaps the most worthy entry into the App Store after Gmail’s own iOS app, was that of Mailbox. Initially, Mailbox arrived on the App Store with the pomp and vigour that habitually embodies more successful App Store launches, but struck a chord which echoed minor annoyance in light of Mailbox’s user queue.

When you get to know Mailbox, it’s a remarkably good app. It deals with email efficiently—perhaps one of the biggest desires in the working world—allowing you to essentially treat email as a ‘to-do list’.

Google’s launch of their Gmail iOS app was also accompanied with excitement, amid a prolonged thirst for something close to a ‘native’ Gmail solution on the iPhone. On the iPhone, Gmail encapsulates everything that’s good about Gmail (i.e. labels, filters) into a fluid, appealing interface. While I’ve sometimes found it to be a little sluggish, it’s nothing compared to using Gmail on the iPad. Universal iOS apps are great, but it seems that Google has produced an app that serves as its own competitor. I’m not alone in saying that Gmail on the iPad is extremely buggy, as Google remains to compliment itself by its inability to actually innovate with the iPad’s screen estate.

I use Gmail, as a service, every day—perhaps much more than I’d like to, in fact. But while Mailbox and Gmail on iOS are generally great apps, I continue to find myself holding hands with Apple’s Mail.app. Everything about Mail.app feels right: it’s insanely quick, it’s attractive and it seems to have enough to retain me, and I suspect many others, as users. 

However, Mail.app isn’t perfect. I’d be the first to hold up my hand and admit I wished Apple added support for Gmail labelling, but I know the chances of that happening are slim. This also applies for other Gmail ‘power-user features’ like sending from aliases due to how I use Gmail to operate my school email account. Although in saying this, Mail.app is satisfying. I know I could go elsewhere to greet sending from aliases and label support with open arms (hey, Gmail for iOS!), but it just isn’t as good.

Looking ahead, Mailbox looks to be the most promising. They have a dev team that’s in-touch with its users, and look to be the most forthcoming in their efforts to ensure that their users are happy. For me, labelling and IMAP support in Mailbox can’t come soon enough. Maybe then, just maybe, might Mailbox replace Mail.app in my dock.

Without a doubt, 2012 was a ride. It was the toughest, most challenging year I’ve come to experience in my 17 years of life.

While it tested not only me, but the entirety of my family emotionally, it was also a year in which I feel I learnt the most. In 2012 I lost two people who I loved very dearly. Prior to that point, I hadn’t experienced anything remotely similar to the feeling of being sunk-to-the-floor by the nature of life itself. I felt lost, like my mind was led astray into a wandering world of futility and impotence, until time became the esteemed healer that we know it to be.

“Time heals what reason cannot.”

Circa April 2012, things began to look up. I realised I was beginning to look at things from a completely different perspective than before, and I felt better for it. I felt undoubtedly wiser as my mind kept trying to convince itself that a human life needs to experience sentiment like love, loss and death in order to see a bigger picture.

I marked big, personal milestones in 2012. I became Technology Editor at A New Take (www.anewtake.com) by the hands of my now-good-friend Ted Winder. I passed my final-year high school exams. I reached academic heights in which I only ever saw in visions masked before my eyes. I made close friends, courtesy of Twitter and the Internet, in the names of Ted, Adam, Lily, Shawn, Nate, Sam, Avery, Kaci and the rest of the guys of whom I love working with over at A New Take and Culture Milk. (I could talk about each and every one of you at length individually, but I’ll save that one for later.)

2013 looks set to be a big year. It will be the year I turn 18, the year I make my application to university and also the year in which I will endeavour to help those around me. Whether it be my family, friends or co-workers, I feel that helping others is one of life’s greatest pleasures: it adds value to day-to-day actions by encouraging others to achieve heights that they never thought they could.

As the title of this blog post suggests, 2013 is most definitely going to be a 2.0 for this blog and my writing. Additionally, I’m looking to resume keeping a daily journal at the courage of one of my favourite Mac and iOS apps, Day One.

I’m extremely honoured to have had the opportunities I experienced in 2012, and I’m more determined than ever to give something back to those guys who have got me where I am today. You can come to expect regular musings from me here about whatever I feel relevant at the time of writing and even more stuff in the realms of technology over at A New Take and Culture Milk.

I hope 2013 brings lots of happiness and warmth into your lives. Here’s to another year.

The ability to be able to indulge and let your mind wander into the atmosphere of a classical piece of music is absolutely beautiful.

The power, strength and even authority a piece can uphold over your mind is just so immense.

Things like this often go unnoticed; it’s magnificent.

I can now announce that, not only am I a writer at Culture Milk, but I’m also now a columnist/contributor at A New Take.

Between the two, you can expect some writing. A lot of writing.