• Smaller bug fixes for iPads

New

• New, separate iPad App
• Completely redesign for larger screens

New

• Added support for Feedja

Fixed

• Fixed All Items > Sort by Sort by Feed (MnmlRdr)

New

• Option to clear read articles immediately
• Main list is now grouped into sections
• Option if sparks count should be displayed (Fever)

Fixed

• No longer searches for images in articles if image caching is disabled
• Fixed a problem with the default values for “Keep Starred” and Image Caching
• Fixed bug where sometimes the wrong article was opened
• Fixed scroll position when returning to article list
• Fixed bug where cells could be displayed empty
• Stability improvements

New

• German Translation
• Article preview images
• Image caching as per account option
• Show Article Counts per account option

Changed

• Removed article cache size option
• Improved VoiceOver support

Fixed

• Deselects rows in settings view correctly
• Restore statusbar after displaying an image
• Updates list correctly if sync is started from article list
• Performance improvements with 10k+ articles
• Fixed tap on statusbar to scroll to top
• Fixed Feedbin custom API endpoints
• Fixed close button in image view
• Fixed crash when sharing to evernote
• Fixed no content when sharing to evernote from web
• Fixed mark all read for a certain hotlink

New

• Sync status in main list
• Keyboard shortcuts (with external keyboard)
• Swipe article cell to the right to reveal more options
• Star, Share, Mark Above Read, Mark Below Read from article cell
• Option to display the feed title on every article
• Included a list of gestures and shortcuts
• Support for animated GIFs in image viewer

Fixed

• Fixed keep unread (Feedly)
• Updates hotlinks links correctly (Fever)
• Fixed article text not reliably selectable
• Improved image viewer
• Improved image caching

Gestures

Fiery Feeds is a reader for power users and while I’ve tried to add an obvious way (e.g button) for every important action, there are a lot of gestures in Fiery. Some of them more discoverable, some less so.

Accounts List
Pull to refresh all accounts

Folder and Feeds List
Pull to refresh current account
Swipe left / right to switch between starred / unread / all
Swipe from the left edge to go back

Item List
Pull to refresh current account
Swipe left / right to switch between sort by date / feed
Swipe left on an article to mark it read / unread
Swipe right on an article show more options (star, share article, mark above or below as read)

Article View
Swipe left / right to switch between articles
Swipe from the left edge to go back
Tap and hold an image to view it larger
Tap and hold a link to open sharing options
3 Finger swipe up / down to change brightness
2 Finger swipe to scroll in elements (such as preformatted code)

Browser View
Swipe from the left edge to go back
3 Finger swipe up / down to change brightness

Image View
Double Tap to zoom the image
Single Tap to display options
Long press the image to display the menu (copy, share, save)
Flick the image up or down to close the view

Keyboard Shortcuts

And since iOS 7 makes it easy to add new keyboard shortcuts I’ve also added a bunch of those in version 1.1.3. These only work when an external keyboard is connected to your iPhone or iPad.

Account List

Main List

Item List

Article View

Browser View

New

• New icon
• Open website in 1Password
• Unread count in article view
• New option to keep starred articles only for a certain duration
• New Sync Sparks option (Fever)
• New color theme ‘Blue’

Fixed

• Fixed problem syncing with Feed Wrangler with 1000+ items
• Fixed problem when changing an items status repeatedly on a bad connection (Feedbin)
• Scroll to top in item list
• Fixed bug where the app would not sync on launch
• Improved background sync
• Improved item list scroll performance
• Improved swipe back performance
• Improved article swipe

Fixed

• Fixes problem with marking articles read (Fever)
• Displays notifications now correctly after each other
• No longer displays network errors while the device is offline
• Fixed embeded YouTube aspect problem

• Switched back to the old way of playing music.
• Support for Podcast + Audiobook positions
• Fixed repeat problem
• Fixed shuffle problem

New

• New Icon
• Syncing with MnmlRdr
• Syncing with Feedly
• Syncing with Feed Wranger
• Improved Feedbin Sync Performance
• Improved Fever Sync Performance
• Sharing articles to Firetask
• 64 Bit support
• Option to sort main list alphabetically
• Long press refresh button to refresh on server (Fever)
• Long press refresh button to force full refresh (MnmlRdr)
• Option to allow self signed certificates (Fever, Feedbin)

Fixed

• Fixed Twitter and Facebook Buttons in Settings
• Fixed webview fullscreen option
• Fixed webview content inset in fullscreen
• Fixed image view image scale after rotation
• Fixed long tap in article view
• Fixed unstarring items (Feedbin)
• Fixed swipe back lag
• Removed rate app dialog
• Fixed visual problems with in-call statusbar
• Fixed delete button on wrong cell after deleting account
• Fixed a problem with the item cell height
• Fixed a potential crash when marking items read
• Fixed a potential crash when an article’s url wasn’t set
• Properly decodes HTML entities in image alt text
• Now shows the number of currently cached articles in settings
• Tweaked required left / right swipe speed (article view)
• Fixed opening the YouTube page from embedded video
• Mailing the URL now sets the title as mail subject
• No longer shows the unread badge for sparks (Fever)

Fiery Feeds 1.1 is the first major update for Fiery Feeds (previously Fiery RSS, but who can resist an alliteration like that). Additionally Fiery Feeds now features a new, more distinctive icon.

This is really more a Snow Leopard than a Leopard release. The big user facing new features are support for MnmlRdr, Feed Wrangler and Feedly, but for the most part it’s about the improvements under the hood and a lot of bug fixes.

Syncing with Feedbin or Fever is a lot faster. Syncing with Feedbin is down from 30 seconds to 3-4 seconds in my tests (this really depends on your wireless connection though) and I’ve rewritten the main interface on the iPad and managed to get the animations as wonderfully smooth, as one would expect them to be (finally).

See the full changelog or take a look at Fiery’s new page.

Woah? This site looks different now.

I’ve redesigned this site and I’m using the redesign as an opportunity to focus more and to bring all apps up to speed for iOS 7 (half a year late, but still). Unfortunately not all apps are selling well enough to warrant the work I’d have to put into them and so I have to retire some (most of them, really).

Countdown 2 and Clicklytics are no longer for sale as of today.

Countdown 2 was my very first app in the App Store and it has done well, but time has run its course and today the App Store is too crowded for an app that simple to bring in any meaningful revenue.

Clicklytics pretty much failed from the beginning when I realized that not even I really had a use for tracking just clicks. I should have stopped right then and cut my loses, but I’ve fallen for the classic sunken cost fallacy. Still, at least I can hope that I’ve learned from it.

Additionally I’ve removed both of my games, Dualism and Rotablocks from the website. They’re still available in the App Store, for free, but I don’t expect to do much with them anymore. It’s really hard to compete with freemium titles without ruining your own game.

Audious is also available for free – at least until I finish the iOS 7 update (which is probably going to be a new iPhone-only app). This is more a side project though, because there still isn’t any other music player that really works for me.

Dozzzer is already updated for iOS 7 and probably doesn’t need any other new features.

Fiery Feeds is the app I’m going to focus on in the future. I’ve already submitted an update with support for more sync services to Apple and I have quite a few more ideas for future features. Also, an RSS client seems to be a wonderful project to get into Mac Development (no promises, though).

And finally there are a few other ideas I’ve been playing with for a while that I’d like to try. Maybe a few of them will turn into actual apps this year.

• Requires iOS 7
• Saves shuffle / repeat option
• Editing mode for playlist
• No longer shows the volume bezel while not in the app
• No longer supports iTunes Match or syncing the playback position in podcasts and audio books. (Sorry.)

New

• It’s now possible to reorder accounts in settings
• Left / right swipe in list to change between starred/unread/all
• Option to mark links saved to pinboard as unread
• New Intense White theme

Changed

• Pinboard with tags is now an option instead of a separate sharing activity
• Removed swipe to go back starting anywhere but the screen edge. (Screen edge still works!)
• Changed brightness gesture to a three finger swipe
• Setting max articles to 0 now removes any limit

Fixed

• Fixed a crash when sharing to evernote
• Fixed a problem with overly long Feedbin passwords
• Fixed the done button being disabled after editing accounts
• Fixed hotlinks order with hotness over 100°
• Fixed a problem calculating the correct zoom scales when viewing a image
• Properly updates color in hotlinks view after changing the color theme in the article view

New

• Color themes apply to the entire app
• High contrast mode

Fixed

• Fixed a bug where the main list would update automatically after syncing
• Fixed a possible crash when loading favicons
• You can now disable evernote sharing in settings

New

• Shows ungrouped feeds in the main list
• Share to Pinboard with tags
• Share full article by mail
• Share to Evernote
• Redesigned hotlinks view (Fever)
• Set hotlinks start date (Fever)
• Mark all read in hotlinks (Fever)
• Mark all read in starred mode (Fever)
• Line hight option in article view
• Uses 12h format based on system settings
• Maximum number of articles to cache option
• Per Account option to keep articles unread on open
• Added Georgia as a font option
• Increased maximum interface font size
• Enabled swipe navigation in settings
• Application and account list unread badges are now configurable per account
• Two finger swipe up or down to change brightness (in article and web view)

Changed

• Removed option to display feeds in a separate
• Taping the refresh indicator in webview cancels loading
• Hides Sparks, Kindling and All group when empty
• Improved statusbar animation while navigating
• Logout from all logs out from Pocket as well
• Increased animation speeds
• A bunch of new sharing icons
• Slightly increased contrast

Fixed

• Fixes multiline titles with larger font option
• Smoother fullscreen animation in webview
• Fixed refresh on server without explicit http (Fever)
• Fixed a bug preventing the app to sync successfully (Fever)
• Fixed a problem where read items would show up as read
• Fixed pocket sharing failed message
• Performance improvements

New

• Feedbin saved searches
• Option to display unread counts in accounts list
• Option to return to groups list after marking all articles as read
• Custom server URL for feedbin
• Option to enable fullscreen mode in article view
• Option to enable fullscreen mode in web view
• Option to change the text size in list views
• Reload button in web view
• Now uses up to two lines to display the title in list views
• Displays a notification instead of an alert when sharing was successful

Fixed

• Fixed crash on launch with too many items
• Improved performance with a large number of articles
• Sorting now effects the order of groups (Last 6 Hours, Last Day,…) as well
• Removes empty groups immediatly
• You can now copy text from alert views
• Renamed Invert Accessory Action to Open Groups As (Feeds/Articles)
• Fixed icon badge number not updating correctly
• Automatically perpends http to server url if nessecary
• Swiping from the edge to go back now working in article view
• Correctly displays an error message if connection to a fever server fails

New

• Mobilizer in Webview (Instapaper, Readability, Google)
• Article Color Themes (Dark, Grey, White)
• Left/Right Margin Option in Article View
• Article Order (Newest First/Oldest First)
• Share to Felix (App)
• Share to Velocity (App)
• Double Tap in Groups View to hide recently read items (in unread mode)

Fixed

• Bug blocking swipes in article view
• Alert View rotation bug
• List not updating when marking all as read immediatly
• Fever not correctly displaying counts for all items
• Feedbin not correctly displaying all feeds in All Feeds
• Left/Right animation in article view being slow
• Problem with non ASCII Characters in Feedbin Password

Creating setting screens in iOS usually involves quite a bit of boilerplate code.
To make things easier I’ve thrown together some editable table view cells for UITextField, UISwitch, UISlider and UIStepper.

They’re based on jon/BPEditableTableViewCell and lavoy/ALActionBlocks and you can find them here: BPEditableTableViewCells.

Google’s Chrome for iOS app icon in its official version is not the best adoption of an icon for iOS. It’s just the regular round Chrome icon on a black background. Since there are already quite a few alternative versions, I decided to pile on and design my very own adaption.

(I’d be really happy if Google decides someday to use a better icon – this is one of the few things that really annoy me about Chrome for iOS)

Imagine Tetris, only instead of rotating the blocks you rotate the entire field. This is the idea I started with for my new game.

Obviously it is way to hard to fill up entire rows without moving the blocks left or right, that is why the matter/antimatter game mechanic was introduced. To detonate blocks and score points you have to rotate the field in a way that matter and antimatter blocks touch (You can distinguish between matter and antimatter block by the color of their border).

Additionally to the Tetris like endless play mode, there is a puzzle and a multiplayer mode in Rotablocks. In the multiplayer mode you play against one other player and every time you detonate a block a fixed block is added to your opponents field. Whoever fills up their field first, looses. And finally there is a puzzle mode in which no new blocks are added, but you have to detonate every existing block on the field.

Rotablocks is available for iPhone and iPad on the App Store.

I’m proud to announce that I’m bringing two more of my apps to the iPad. These updates are of course free for everyone who bought the iPhone app already. Thank you for your support, I couldn’t have done this without you!

The first update is for my music player replacement app Audious. The iPad interface feels just like the iPhone app, helping you discover long forgotten songs in your music library with it’s gorgeous interface and large cover art. The larger interface plays it’s strength when displaying play queue, play view and library one a single screen. Plus: New in this update is full iTunes Match support. You can turn it on in the settings; Otherwise Audious will only display songs available locally. You can find the update on the iOS App Store.

The second app is the Apple featured app Dozzzer, that let’s you drift asleep to your favorite tunes – now even better with the iPad’s larger speakers. You can get it on the iOS App Store as well.

Because I needed it for Dozzzer, I might as well share it. So here’s a vector version of Apple’s Airplay Icon as psd.

The first big update for Audious is out! Audious 1.1 brings you a completely redesigned music queue, simplified gestures and more focus on individual songs rather than complete albums.

You can reach the queue view now by simply grabbing the entire play view at the handle at the top and sliding it down to reveal the queue behind it. This is much faster than the previous animation.

Some of the features previously only accessible through gestures have now been moved to the menu (which can be opened by tapping and holding the big album cover). Also there is now an option in the settings.app that let’s you choose between artists, albums and songs for the music browser to display when you’re not searching for anything. The default is now songs (It previously displayed albums).

I am very happy to introduce Audious the (probably) best music player for iOS. It is an entirely gesture controlled replacement for the iPhone music app. You can find all possible gestures here.

Besides it’s interface and gestures the most important feature that sets it apart from the integrated music app is the play queue. It allows you to choose songs to play next without stopping or skipping the one you’re currently listening to.

Audious also helps you rediscover your music by presenting you with albums you haven’t listened to in a while in their full beauty with large cover art.

It is also social with integration for sharing songs (or at least iTunes previews) on twitter and the option to scrobble your tracks to Last.fm.

Audious is available on the App Store now.

Another huge update, big enough to justify 3.0.

The biggest new features are a badge number on the home screen for days to the next event, two completely redesigned themes (the old metal theme didn’t make the cut, but the new Default theme now supports colors.) and support for native twitter sharing.

Other fixes and improvements include a new icon, improved notifications, improved Voice Over support and changes to countdown on the iPad are now reflected immediately.

This is a free update for all current owners. If you don’t already have the app you can get it here: App Store.

I present Dozzzer 2.0. There are a lot of changes in this release, most of them under the hood, but a few are quite visible such as the completely revisited design throughout the app.

The behavior for playing in background has been changed as well. Before it kept reducing the volume until you quite the app (remove the from your recent apps that is). Now the app quits automatically as soon as you pause the music (if it’s running in background).

If you don’t already have the app you can get it here: App Store.

When you launch Reading List Sync, it will sit in your menu bar and sync your Safari Reading List with your “Read Later” folder in Instapaper every hour. It doesn’t sync the read status or the current position of texts.

After you launched the app you need to open the preferences (It’s the little ‘I’ in your menu bar), and login to Instapaper. (The preferences windows has a habit of opening behind other windows, so check there, if you don’t see it at first.)

It ignores the read/unread state in Safari. This is intentional as pages get marked as read automatically (and would be removed from the Reading List after that). This is a little confusing (especially because Safari always opens the Unread view in a new window), but is better than unintentionally removing links.

The app is free, but you need a paid Instapaper subscription for it to work.

Download App.

It’s finally done. My new app is live on the App Store. After over a month of hard work, it feels good to see your work finally out there.

Clicklytics let’s you manage your shorturls on Bitly, Google and CloudApp, but most importantly shows you nice, daily click statistics, even for CloudApp, which doesn’t offer statistics (other than total clicks) themselves.

You can find it on the App Store or you can take a look at it on it’s website.

The sleep timer app Dozzzer got featured by Apple this week as “App of the week” in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It’s a great to get the attention and I feel honored to occupy the most prominent space in the App Store.