Getting pumped up for Apple’s iPhone Event tomorrow

Apple is having their iPhone event tomorrow. You can tune in here tomorrow at 10 am PDT to watch the keynote live.

Apple is expected to announce three new iPhones tomorrow, including one premium priced model at the top end that will be seriously supply constrained for months after release. An LTE Apple Watch and 4K Apple TV are also expected. This will be exciting for me as I might be interested in all of these devices. 

I almost always get more excited about software than I do hardware when it comes to Apple. I am hoping that we will see some neat software that has not been demonstrated at previous events, perhaps relating to new hardware. For example, if the rumored new high end iPhone with the all-screen front is announced, I would love to see how Apple is going to redesign the OS to deal with the extra space on the bottom of the screen where the home button will have previously existed.  I would also love to see Apple address TV content deals with tvOS and the Apple TV. Wildcard dream wish: maybe if an LTE Apple Watch is shown off, Apple will announce a podcast app for the new model. I can dream, right?

🔗 Noteflight Learn Now Integrates with Google Classroom:

Noteflight Learn Integrates with Google Classroom:

Noteflight Learn offers direct Google Classroom integration! All student and teacher logins, classes, and assignments are seamlessly integrated, offering several advantages:

• Google login is automatically synced; simply login to Noteflight Learn using Google.

• Individual classes, schools, or entire districts can integrate with a single Noteflight Learn site.

• Google Classroom classes are mirrored as Noteflight Learn Groups, so sharing scores and assignments with classes is easy.

• Noteflight can create assignments in Google Classroom and students can turn in or mark as done from their Noteflight score.

This new integration looks fantastic! The list of reasons to subscribe to Noteflight just keeps getting longer and longer.

The 6 Best Automation Apps for iOS

UPDATE: I address my favorite automations and advanced workflows in a recent episode of my podcast. Listen and subscribe below…

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Interested in learning some apps this summer that will make your school year easier in the fall? Here are my favorite automation apps for iOS and a very brief explanation of each. Don't worry, I am planning on blogging about a few of these at length later this year. 

Note: All of these apps take a little bit of an investment to learn but the payoff is HUGE. You will find yourself doing things on your iPhone and iPad you never thought were possible. If customizing your own automations seems daunting, every one of these apps has a user-submitted gallery where you can download actions that other people have already made.

1. Workflow 

Download here

Workflow is an automation tool that allows you to string together various different actions so that they can be initiated with a single tap. The list of actions you can choose from is dense and many of them are easy to understand without any coding experience. You could do something as simple as open the camera, take three pictures, and generate a .gif file all in one tap (see below). This idea is novel of course. The real power is in figuring out how to take tedious actions that require multiple taps and apps and string them all up into one tap using Workflow’s rich list of integrated apps. One of my favorite Workflows looks into my Dropbox folder for a PDF of a seating chart, generates a copy, and opens it in Notability on my iPad, where I can scribble information about my student’s progress with an Apple Pencil. (See this workflow depicted below). 

Apple just purchased Workflow earlier this year. My hope is that this will allow users to better automate Apple’s own apps and even system level actions down the road. 

2. Drafts

Download here

Drafts is a clean and minimalist text editor that allows you to send text to other apps. Think of it as the starting point for all text on you iPhone or iPad. It functions like a simple, text based, note taking app, until you swipe left and reveal a series of actions you can perform on the text. You can perform actions as simple as posting your text as a Facebook status, Tweet, text message, or email. You can also create actions so complex that they can include JavaScript. One of my more basic Drafts actions takes a list of items I have typed in a rush and imports them all into my Grocery list, which is a list I keep in the Apple Reminders app. 

3. IFTTT 

Download here

IFTTT (If This Then That) is a web service that allows you to create If-Then statements that trigger actions to happen in apps. First, the user logs into all of their connected services (Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Philips Hue Lights, Gmail, etc…). Then the user creates “Applets” where something that is done in one service can trigger something to happen in another service. For example, I could say “IF I am tagged in a Facebook post, THEN save that photo to my Dropbox. Or “IF I favorite that YouTube video, THEN save it to my Evernote notebook and tag it videos.” Of course, you can get really crazy with home automation apps and do things like “IF someone mentions me on Twitter, THEN flicker my Philips Hue light bulbs red.” 

4. Editorial 

Download here

Editorial is a text editor meant primarily for longer form writing. If you have a blog and an iPad, this app really shines. The app supports plain text, Markdown, and TaskPaper. Markdown is a syntax that allows users to create formatting like headings, bullet lists, tables, and expressions for the web without actually using HTML. For example, when I wrote this blog post, I did not click around in the toolbar to make each of the sections of this post into headings. Instead I just typed '##' in front of each of them, and my blogging service of choice, Squarespace (which interprets Markdown), automatically did the formatting for me. See below for an example.

TaskPaper is an amazing app for Mac that allows you to create checkable todo lists using only plain text. The syntax that the app uses also goes by the same name - TaskPaper. It is a really friendly way to work with checklists without taking your finger off the keyboard to format things. See the example below to get an idea what TaskPaper does. TaskPaper doesn’t have an iOS app, so the fact that Editorial works with TaskPaper files is great!

Much like Drafts, Editorial also has powerful user customizable workflows that you can perform on your text. You could have it post to your Wordpress blog in one tap, for example. My favorite Editorial Workflow takes a list I wrote in the TaskPaper format and uses it as a template for reoccurring projects in my task app of choice, OmniFocus. Certain projects that I perform over and over again contain similar tasks. For example, I always do the same fifteen to twenty things every time I put on a band concert at my school. I keep a checklists of these tasks stored in Editorial so that every time I have a concert, take a sub day, or go on a field trip, I tap one button in Editorial and it imports the list into OmniFocus, complete with due dates, flags, and tags. 

5. Launch Center Pro

Download here

Launch Center Pro is kind of like a springboard (the screen of apps you see when you unlock your iPhone) only it launches actions instead of apps. Actions can do almost anything. In fact, all of the apps in this post can be launched from within Launch Center. For example, I can publish my Workflows as buttons in Launch Center. I can create buttons in Launch Center that trigger IFTTT Applets. Launch Center actions can also launch apps, turn lights on and off in my house, take me into specific lists within my todo app, and more! 

Launch Center Pro took me a little more time to get my head around because it assumes that the user knows a little bit about something called x-callback-url. This is a protocol that most of the apps in this post take advantage of but don’t quite expose to the user. With Launch Center Pro, I felt like I really had to learn this system before digging in. Fortunately, MacStories has a great tutorial that you can read here.

6. Launcher

Download here

Launcher is a much simpler and friendlier version of Launch Center Pro. Setting up actions is very straightforward and a number of them are available as pre-built templates. Launcher lives entirely inside of a Today Widget, which is a special widget that you can invoke on iOS by dragging down from the top of the screen or by swiping to the right of your first screen of apps. Launch Center Pro also has a widget available that does much the same thing, but you might find that you prefer Launcher if the learning curve for LCP is steep.

Tile Community Find Feature is Pretty Cool

For those who don’t know about it, Tile is a brand of small connected devices that can keep track of your belongings. They are thinner than cardboard and can attach to your key chain or fit in your wallet. Through a mobile app, your phone can stay connected to them over Bluetooth and help you track where they are on a map wherever they were last connected to the internet. I keep one of these in my backpack and one of them in my wallet.

I was in a coffee shop in Denver last week when I got a notification from the app telling me that my Tile had just helped someone else track their Tile. I was curious, so I Googled the notification and found out more about the feature...

Tile Community Find:

If you placed a Tile in your bag before you misplaced it, every phone in the community can help you search. Just select “Notify When Found,” and we will! As soon as someone running the Tile app comes within range of your bag, we’ll send you its location. Use your phone to guide you to the exact spot your bag ended up.

I’ve got to say, this is pretty neat. I love the idea, and its one of those things that just works. My favorite features of apps are the ones that solve a problem for me that I didn’t even know I had in the first place. It is not unlike when Google and Apple maps started telling me how far I was from my next location in my calendar, and how long it would take for me to drive there. 

Tiles are really useful, and they make great stocking stuffers around the holiday season (that is how I received my first Tile).

Music Theory Interview: Jacob Collier

Feast your eyes and ears on this awesome music theory interview with Jacob Collier (the 12 minutes go by very fast). Collier talks about microtonal voice leading, negative harmony, and how he uses the circle of fifths to lighten and darken his chord progressions. He demonstrates perfect pitch numerous times by outlining complex extended chords and scales effortlessly. And someone has actually taken the time to notate what he is describing for the viewer to see in real time, along with a piano playing everything that he describes but doesn't sing. It's just incredible. 

Don't know who Jacob Collier is? Jacob Collier is one of those freak of nature musicians who, in his late teens/early twenties, was performing multiple instruments at an insane level, and producing YouTube covers with dense modern jazz vocal harmonies, grooving percussion, .....you know what, I am not going to explain it. Just watch these videos of his:

And you can check him out with Snarky Puppy here. 

Oh, and he can perform this stuff live too... 

Quick thoughts on the new 10.5 inch iPad

I walked into an Apple Store over the weekend and had a moment to play with the new 10.5 inch iPad Pros. 

OH MY GOODNESS. The hype is real. These devices are light, gorgeous, and powerful. The 120Hz refresh speed ruined me for all other screens in just the two or three minutes I played around with it. I think Apple has hit the sweet spot in size. I can actually see myself downsizing to this model when I purchase my next iPad. I use the 12.9 for sheet music right now and it is great. I usually end up flipping my iPad in landscape mode and running a score on one half of the screen and a note taking app on the other half during rehearsal. I tried this workflow on the 10.5 and it was actually legible from far away. Maybe I have good eyes. I really miss the hold-ability of the smaller sized iPads for things like reading. I will have some tough decisions to make in a few years when I assume I will have to upgrade my 12.9. Or maybe I should embrace the multi-pad lifestyle and use the larger one for scores and the smaller one for reading. If only forScore would sync a score library over iCloud...

Robert Sheldon conducts the Regional Repertory Wind Ensemble

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of working with Robert Sheldon as he conducted the Regional Repertory Wind Ensemble. The RRWE is a Maryland based honor band that I have assisted for the past seven years. Early each summer, the organization finds a composer/clinicain/educator to come in and direct the audition based group on a concert of their own compositions. Many conductors have worked with the group over the years, all of whom are master composers, educators, AND conductors. Sam Hazo, Frank Ticheli, Richard Saucedo, and Brian Balmages have all worked with the group.  

Working with Robert Sheldon is a real treat. His music finds a way of strongly connecting to the students. It is just so fun to play! I can hear and see how naturally they gravitate towards it in performance. One of the things I really admire about Sheldon is that he is a real instructor. His years of teaching experience have crafted him into someone who is really able to rehearse an ensemble, assess where the problems are, and immediately give just the right feedback to get the musical result he wants. And he gets these results without ever once raising his voice, putting a student on the spot, or diminishing their efforts. In every interaction he was complimentary, patient, and spoke deliberately. When he needed   students to step up, he would always find a way to make them feel great as a member of the ensemble before first offering a suggestion.  His manner of offering suggestions was much like  dangling a carrot just far enough in front of them that they would want to sit up a little straighter, put their instrument in playing position sooner, reach for the peak of the phrase, etc.

I witnessed expert music teaching this weekend. And for that I thank Mr. Sheldon for his involvement with the ensemble. 

New Tech! Using Square Register with Private Lessons

I just purchased a new piece of tech I am looking forward to integrating into my private studio next school year.

I teach about 20-25 private students outside of the normal teaching day. As my number of private students increases, my ability to manage scheduling and payment is stretched. For the past ten years, I have strongly preferred checks for payment. I finally decided that I do enough transactions a year to rationalize the purchase of a Square Stand.

The Square Stand is a register that you can stick an iPad into and run Square’s Register app. I have repurposed an iPad Air to live permanently in the Stand.

Right when students walk in the from door, they are greeted with a Square Register which they can use to swipe their credit card, or touch their phone or smartwatch to it to use Apple Pay/Android Pay/Samsung Pay. The app has all of my monthly and single lesson fees preprogrammed as “items” that someone can buy. When they pay, the money automatically goes into my bank account after a few days and they get emailed or texted a receipt.

I am not using this enough yet to write at length about my experiences but I thought I would share the idea here in the meantime.

What did Apple check off on my WWDC wishlist?

A few weeks ago, I detailed my wishlist for WWDC. Below, I have reposted it with what Apple actually announced. My assessment over whether or not a feature was announced is based on whether or not the feature was announced verbally during the keynote, not on a slide or later discovered within the OS.

MACOS

-News app to mirror the one on iOS NOPE

-improvements to pro apps (Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X) and additions to the Photos app NOPE

-splitting iTunes up into separate apps like what is on iOS: separate app for Music, TV, Podcasts, and iTunes Store NOPE

IOS

-default apps (won't happen) NOPE

-serious overhaul of iPad productivity (better file system, better home screen, drag and drop, better multitasking, more control over audio ins and outs) YESX100

TVOS

-PiP NOPE

-Ability to watch TV content from two apps at once NOPE

-ability to command with Siri without the Remote app (for example, I want to say to my phone, “hey Siri watch Game of Thrones,” and have it turn on the TV, launch the HBO app and start the most recent episode) NOPE

-ability to sync all Apple TVs in the house so that they show the same video at once (for parties...also, this won't happen) NOPE

WATCHOS

-smart contexts: ability to change Watch face, complications, and notifications based on sensitivity to time and location CHECK, Siri watchface

-better audio controls (easier to access Now Playing screen, complications to play and pause audio, ability to scroll the crown for volume and use hardware buttons for control whenever audio has recently been playing) CHECK, sort of with swipe to audio controls within Workout app

GENERAL

-Siri improvements (more reliable, faster, more open to third party apps, better integration with tvOS, local dictation and basic commands CHECK

-AirPods with always listening Siri NOPE

-improvements to iCloud Drive (shared folders, files, and URLs) CHECK definitely to shared files, but not sure about others

Here are some of my favorite features that reddit users replied with:

-Multiple iOS user logins NOPE

-Hey Siri on Mac NOPE

-custom watch faces NOPE

-open CarPlay up to more developers (pasrticular third party maps apps and messenging apps) NOPE

-iOS dark mode NOPE

-Workflow integration NOPE

-Open up NFC to third party apps CHECK

-Apple Pay your friends and family over iMessage CHECK

-Apple Music continuity NOPE

Quick and Dirty Thoughts on the WWDC Keynote

Here are some quick and dirty thoughts I have on many of the announcements at Apple’s WWDC Keynote on Monday.

Apple TV

Disappointed we didn’t get any new features in tvOS. Maybe next year with the introduction of new Apple TV hardware. YAY for the announcement of an Amazon Prime app though.

watchOS

Not really impressed here. The main things I think Apple Watch struggles with are…

1. Access to audio controls

2. A more predictive, contextual, ability to show things on the watch face

As for 1, Apple did address this by making music controls a swipe away while running a workout in the Workout app. I was hoping for something a little bit more globally accessible. They accomplished 2 by introducing the Siri watch face. But for me, the Siri watch face is too much of a compromise because it can’t show any other complications on the screen at the same time.

I am also disappointed that they didn’t announce a Podcast app or Notes app.

macOS

No complaints here really. I wanted them to start the process of breaking iTunes down into smaller apps. Maybe at least breaking Apple Music into its own app and TV into its own app and leaving the rest of the things iTunes does inside the app known as iTunes. Really though, I am cool with Apple making slower and steadier updates to macOS. My Mac is the machine I depend on the most for work so I appreciate that Apple is focused on stability.

Hardware

The new iPads look great! I can see myself eventually buying the 10.5 size. I love my 12.9 inch for reading scores with the forScore app, but I really miss being able to hold it comfortably with one hand and also reading it in bed. Maybe the 10.5 inch will be the perfect compromise.

The iMac Pro looks fantastic. Its not a machine I am looking for right now though so I will just enjoy it from far away and appreciate that Apple still cares about the Mac and its professional users.

iOS Features for iPad

• Drag and drop: YES! Love it. Looks really well implemented too.

• Dock: YES! A great idea I did not expect.

• Files app: This is where I started to loose my mind. A native file browser with support for Google Drive and Dropbox is going to completely change the way I use my iPad! This might be my favorite announcement of the entire keynote.

• System wide markup. This is another one that is going to completely change the way I use my iPad.

• Notes app: Sooooo much good stuff here. In line drawing? AWESOME! Document scanner? AWESOME. Text searchable handwriting. YES! Bye Evernote.

… yeah. So this iPad stuff is going to be huge.

HomePod

Smart of Apple to position this device as competition against companies like Sonos instead of as competition for products like Google Home and Amazon Echo. The speaker ecosystem is something I really enjoy about having Sonos speakers but its lack of integration with my phone and music library is a constant hurdle. Something with good quality, that I can operate without using an extra app would be much more enjoyable. 

Will I buy one of these? It is really hard to see how this will play out. Amazon Echo and Sonos are working on some kind of integration. That could potentially keep me in that ecosystem, though the idea of selling the Sonos speakers and eventually replacing them with these Apple things has crossed my mind. It might be the kind of situation where I get one HomePod just to get a feel for it and then wait on additional purchases.