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The New Droplr for Mac
We’re excited to announce the immediate availability of the new Droplr for Mac. This new version is full of some great improvements, primarily focusing on taking advantage of new features in OS X Mountain Lion. It also includes Retina Display support.
We’re currently working on getting this new update posted on the Mac App Store. In the meantime however, we felt it was important to get this update in your hands without further delay.
You can download the new update here: Download Now
(To update your current version, first quit Droplr, then drag the new version to your Applications folder to overwrite the old one.)
Here’s what’s new:
- Use Apple’s new Notification Center for notifications on OS X Mountain Lion.
- Retina Display support for Apple’s new MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
- Exposed default hotkey action (opt+d) in main menu.
- New global hotkey for composing a note.
- New menu item to open the file browser to select which file(s) to share.
- New contextual (cntrl-click) menu item in Finder to share selected file(s).
- New ‘Share with Droplr’ action in the global services menu.
- Removed Textile and Plain Text from the notes. Now defaults to Markdown.
- Added syntax highlighting and Markdown formatting to the note composer.
- New confirmation when a file has been deleted.
- New popover actions for quickly acting on a drop from the menu. These include:
- Twitter: OS X Mountain Lion users will get Apple’s new Twitter integration for posting drops on Twitter.
- Facebook: Share a drop on Facebook.
- Email: Email a drop to friends, family and co-workers with your default email application.
- Privacy: Droplr Pro subscribers can now change a Drop’s privacy directly from the menu.
Bug Fixes:
- Fixed an issue that prevented drag & drop from Stacks in the Dock.
- Improved speed of menu when CPU intensive tasks running in background.
- Fixed small delay when snapping a screenshot.
- Fixed bugs when no keyboard shortcut is defined.
- Dragging files that exceed the size limit will now result in the proper error message.
- Fixed an issue in which the right command key did not work for the (cmd+enter) shortcut to submit a note.
- Fixed an issue where the Droplr notification popup could show when switching spaces on OS X Mountain Lion
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Yesterday, I got in an interesting conversation about Settings toggles. The other person and I both agreed that having the actual on/off switch in the root of Settings was the most traditional way to display it, but we wanted to find a solution to following:
“How can the user toggle certain settings that have the toggle one cell deeper in Settings from the first page?”
The reason why this topic was important is because “in the name of keeping specific settings organized,” it’s better to keep the toggle and its respective settings all together. But on the other hand, it adds one extra step and makes it less convenient to switch certain toggles easily. The release of iOS 6 would make the solution we were seeking much more significant.
To keep all the settings of one specific setting in a unified view and allow the user to easily toggle just the switch from the first page, I formulated the following solution: swipe cell toggling. In the most basic of terms, the user would be able to switch a setting on or off by simple swiping over the first cell in Settings. Naturally, the text would change depending on which one you’re on i.e. “Swipe to enable, Off.” One view deeper in that setting’s panel, the on and off toggle would still be available and would dynamically change via swiping or simply tapping the switch.
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Here are answers to a few questions that could be posed.
“Why keep the actual on/off switch in the setting’s panel? Isn’t it redundant to have a swipe and an on/off switch?”
It isn’t and here’s why. It’s displacing for someone to have to leave a view in order to toggle something. For example, if I was in the Location Services panel and wanted to turn it off from there, it would just be easier to go to the top and disable it versus having to leave the view to do it. I base my judgement on an example like the volume slider in the App Switcher. The volume buttons perform the same function, but having the slider is an easy alternative and is located right in within grasp of what view you’re in. My implementation of the swipe in conjunction with the on/off switch is on incorporated on the same premise. The swipe is added as a convenience, not a replacement.
“Why do you keep the swipe cells the same size? The cells in Settings > Notifications display a second line of text but are bigger.”
In comparison to the cells for Notifications in Settings > Notifications, the swipe cells are not displaying anything that is potentially significant. With the notification profile cells, the user is looking at it to see whether things like Badges, Banners, or Alerts are enabled. Viewing and knowing what each notification has set is important from that view. But when it comes to swipe cells, the second line is a reminder; a simple guide. It’s not meant to alert you of something that’s set. As the user becomes more familiar with how swipe cells work and where they are used (where info like “On/Off/Connected” is displayed on a cell), then it won’t be necessary to prompt them anymore about how to perform the action.
“Why even notify the user at all with the “Swipe to disable/enable?”
Prompting the user is important if there’s no clear indication of how to handle something. Swipe gestures are difficult because there’s no great way of alerting the user that swiping it will perform something with a symbol. Especially when it comes to de-cluttering the view. And in any situation, the user needs to know exactly what he or she is doing and what will happen when any actions is performed. At this current time, using a text string prompt is the best solution.
“The swipe cell functionality applies to other settings, not just Location Services?”
Absolutely. The implementation of swipe cells would be incorporated in every applicable area. Consistency is important so bringing all scenarios to the same level would be the only way to go. It would work on cells like Wi-Fi (although not shown), Bluetooth, and others that will be available in iOS 6.
“How does this work within the scrollview?”
The swiping is down horizontally and would not conflict with the vertical scroll that’s already native.
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Note: I always value suggestions, opinions, and even opportunities to engage in a conversation. Discussions are for seeking knowledge and improving upon ideas. Feel free to comment below or contact me on Twitter.
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
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Fri-day Farewell
Today was a rather a tiring day and sad day!
Starting the day in the Hall with the closure of English Week.
Mr Ang was so funny on stage making everyone so attentive to what’s going on on stage.
Later on was POA Lesson.It was fun as usual but it end fast as it was 1 period and we started lesson late due to the fact we got dismissed late.
English was fruitful going through Formal letter once again preparing for Prelims!
Maths lesson was quite enriching and educated when doing a probability question where the fraction came out for a lucky draw was like 6 over 24K+
Chemistry was pretty fine! No insulting :P
Chinese was basically going through some oral and letter and compo formating.
Not forgetting , I rush to Staff Room just to say farewell to Mdm Tan but in the end words and expressions can’t express the thanks I want to say to her.JUST WISHING ALL THE BEST FOR HER!!!!!
Oral question was killing :(
Don’t even understand what the drawing was and the conversation is so tough.This is surely not lack of practice is just the real test on your Chinese skills
Just hope can still get a B
That’s all about it for today!
Don’t forget
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Joshua Tucker: Usability is a 360 Degree Spectrum
The heart of usability goes after the user. From a user interaction standpoint, the purpose of such design is to enhance the environment allowing each and every user to experience it in a simple, native, and unique way. To accomplish this, problems must be solved. Just a like a developer solves a…
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In a few days a variety of amazing people will be doing things in ways faster, higher, and stronger than you could even imagine. While you have our undying jealously if you’re actually going to the London Olympic Games (you can make us feel better by sending us your extra tickets), we have a close second: Follow the Games on Tumblr!
Some highlights from the many cool things happening over the next few weeks:
The London Olympic Committee will provide an exclusive behind-the-scences look to the London Olympic Opening Ceremony. Follow their Ceremonies Explorer Tumblr to get exclusive photographs, videos, illustrations and articles about the Opening Ceremonies as they unfold, starting at 1900 hours GMT this Friday; tune back in to see more exclusive posts for the Closing Ceremony and the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Paralympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee will feature four great Tumblrs during the games: The official Olympics Tumblr photo blog; Faces Of Olympians, a Tumblr in which fans show their best “Olympic faces”; Olympic Fashion; and Olympic Moments, featuring the best images from Getty Images photographers at the Games.
Enjoy, and may the odds be ever in your country’s favor.
(Source: new)
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NOTE: I thought long and hard about whether this post would break iOS 6 NDA. I concluded that it was discussed in the keynote and is viewable on Apple’s website, so I deemed it as not being an issue. However, if this is not the case, please let me know and I will gladly remove it.
Also, I explain in the post why my implementation is different from what is currently available.
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One of the new incorporations with iOS 6 is the pull to refresh feature in Mail. If you read my recent article about Pull to Refresh in Safari, you will know that my philosophy on pull to refresh is rather unorthodox. My goal in whatever I design or conceptualize is to build it in a way that makes it unobtrusive and available no matter where you are in the view. With that said, I wanted to make pull to refresh work in a way that allowed you to do that. In this case, I wanted my philosophy to hold true in the Mail application. So, I’m bringing back my handy-dandy two cell checklist of my view on what I want with pull to refresh:
- The ability to pull and refresh (obvious)
- Being able to pull and refresh and remain where I am in the scrollable view
This piece is a rebound off of my Pull to Refresh in Safari concept except I incorporated it into the Mail application. There are some slight differences for those who read my previous article so make sure to read which section carefully which are divided for your convenience.
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1) Pull to Refresh View
The first section showcases how I think the pull refresh view should be. At this current time, the pull to refresh view is located within the scroll table which means you have to be at the top to refresh it. To allow the user to refresh from anywhere, I designed it so it can be pulled from the navigation/header bar. Simply drag down from the top and it refreshes no matter where you are in the view.
Although not viewable in photos at this time, I see the refresh view displaying important information like the number of new emails (if applicable) and a loading bar for new emails coming in. This would eliminate having to scroll back up to see if any new mail has come in. It will display a summary briefly at the top and then close the gap again. I will work on that implementation soon, but for the time being, note that the refresh view in my mind has a lot more purpose than what it’s currently used for.
2) Navigation/Header Bar
Discussed briefly in the section above, this bar will be the initiation point for the pull to refresh. No matter where you are in the view, if you drag down, the view will slide down and refresh. Short and sweet.
3) Scroll View
Although shown at the top, since the header bar (All Inboxes/Specific Inbox) is always visible at the top no matter where you are on the scroll view, it’s fairly easy to initialize the pull to refresh. Again, short and sweet.
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This implementation would be available on all iOS devices.
√ The ability to pull and refresh (obvious)
√ Being able to pull and refresh and remain where I am in the scrollable view
© 2012 Joshua Tucker
