The Breakroom • A blog for the Iconfactory

Media Takes ‘Center Stage’ in Twitterrific 5.16

December 5, 2016

Center Stage is a new and dynamic way to browse tweets that contain only media in your Twitterrific timeline. Users have been requesting a media-focused timeline in Twitterrific for quite a while and we’re pleased to announce it’s finally arrived.

Tap the new Center Stage button at the top of any timeline to open a full screen view where you can swipe through all of the tweets that include photos, movies, or animated GIFs. When you’re in Center Stage, you can tap on the tweet to exit or swipe left/right to navigate through your timeline. You can even Like or Retweet directly from Center Stage! A single tap will get the on-screen controls out of your way and swiping down will close the tweet drawer so there’s nothing between you and the media you’re viewing.

The traditional media experience has also been improved – after tapping on a thumbnail to view it, there is a new button at the bottom of the screen which allows you to enter Center Stage right from there. If you swipe to other tweets, a rewind button appears that’ll take you back to where you started without marking the intervening tweets as read. Handy!

Center Stage is available from any tweet or timeline that contains media, even conversations and user profiles! When you tap an image on a user’s profile, you’ll immediately be taken into Center Stage mode where you can quickly browse back through that user’s media history. Finally, tweets in Center Stage are color coded for easy reference, as they are in all of Twitterrific’s timelines. Center Stage is fully VoiceOver compatible and includes support for physical keyboards. Be sure to visit our Knowledge base for in-depth information about Center Stage.

Twitterrific 5.16 also includes an entire host of improvements and bug fixes including finer control over animated GIFs and video including tap to play/pause & pinch zooming. We’ve also improved the interface in several places for clarity, made Muffle rules more powerful and fixed bugs associated with timeline jumps and single-frame GIFs.

Twitterrific 5.16 is free to try via the App Store and is universal for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and iPod touch. Advanced features such as tweet translation, ad removal, and more are available via in-app purchase. Visit Twitterrific’s version history page for the complete list of new features, improvements and bug fixes.

xScope 4.3

November 29, 2016

By Craig Hockenberry

We’re pleased to announce the availability of xScope 4.3 in the Mac App Store and as a direct download from the xScope website.

The main focus of this release was compatibility with macOS Sierra. It took us awhile to figure out why Guides and Frames always appeared at launch, but thankfully they no longer do :-)

Another issue in Sierra is the Rulers sometimes getting really small. If you were affected by this, remember that there’s a Reset Rulers option under Rulers in the menubar. That, along with Display Square Rulers, should help get things back in order.

There are other improvements which you can read about in the version history. This update is FREE for all registered xScope 4 customers.

Mallow & Puddin’ Stickers for iMessage

November 4, 2016

By Ged Maheux

Stickers have taken the App Store by storm and today we’re pleased to announce there’s a new pair of besties you’ll be dying to download. Mallow & Puddin’ is an adorable collection of fun-filled stickers (and a fun iPhone wallpaper) that are the perfect antidote to boring chats. Created by artist Savannah Glitschka, these lovable characters will snuggle & sneak their way into your heart. Head on over to the iMessage App Store and download Mallow & Puddin’ today for just 99¢. Be sure to also check out our entire catalog of sticky creations while you’re at it, there’s something there for everyone!

Twitterrific 5.15.5 Brings Improved Quotes, a New Font & Much More

October 24, 2016

By Ged Maheux

The latest iOS update to our venerable third party Twitter app brings a host of new features and improvements. Twitterrific now displays quotes of your own tweets in the Mentions timeline which means you’ll never miss what other people are saying about your tweets again. Previously, quotes only appeared in the Today view and then only for 72 hours. Now when someone quotes one of your tweets, it will appear alongside other mentions of your tweets for easy reference. In addition, thanks to Twitterrific’s unified timeline, Quotes also appear on your Home timeline no matter if you follow the person quoting or not which is something no other Twitter client offers, not even the official client.

In addition, we’ve added a new font to the theme panel called Amelia. Designed by Martín Sommaruga, Amelia is a modern display face that feels geometric in appearance but has a softness that makes it especially readable, even at small sizes. It looks great in the Twitterrific timeline and when composing new tweets. To give Amelia a try, tap your round avatar to open the sidebar. Next tap the bottom center icon to open the Theme panel. From there select Amelia from the font list and you’re off to the races.

Twitterrific 5.15.5 also sports a re-designed media view that let’s you scrub videos by drawing your finger left or right over the image area and includes a host of speed, memory and battery optimizations to improve performance. Finally, we’ve squashed some important bugs including a long-standing crash when trying to load very large animated GIFs. For a complete list of what’s new, be sure to visit the Twitterrific version history page.

Twitterrific 5.15.5 is free to try via the App Store and is universal for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and iPod touch. Advanced features such as tweet translation, ad removal, and more are available via in-app purchase.

Iconfactory Halloween Stickers Materialize!

October 11, 2016

By Ged Maheux

October has arrived and with it comes our favorite holiday of the year – Halloween! We’ve been celebrating All Hallow’s Eve around these parts for as long as we can remember and this year we’re unearthing a new crop of spooky sticker packs for iMessage. With hundreds of frightful graphics plus iPhone wallpapers, these terrific new tricks and treats include:

Lore

Lore is a critically-acclaimed podcast about true life scary stories that examines a dark tale from history each week. We’re proud to announce we’ve teamed up with author and podcaster Aaron Mahnke to bring the strange, spooky tales of Lore to life in sticker form.

Lore’s popularity has been growing steadily for the past year and will even make the leap to the small screen as a new horror anthology series on Amazon Prime. If you or your friends are a fan of this wildly popular podcast head over to the App Store and download Iconfactory Lore Stickers today!

Hack-O-Lantern

Now you can “carve” virtual pumpkins with the Iconfactory’s Hack-O-Lantern stickers for iMessage. Mix and match faces, cutouts and accessories to create legions of spooky, fun jack-o-lanterns with your family and friends. Just place a base pumpkin into chat and then tap and hold to “peel” off parts & accessories to build your perfect pumpkin creation! Hack-O-Lantern will vanish from the App Store soon so don’t wait, download it today!

BoneHeadz

We’re happy to announce that Iconfactory friend and illustrator, Von Glitschka, has returned once again to offer up an incredible set of stickers just in time for Halloween. BoneHeadz is a chock full of kooky, fun skulls that are perfect to express just about any emotion you may have. The pack is bursting with animated stickers which instantly adds life to any iMessage conversation. If you enjoy BoneHeadz, don’t forget to check out Von’s other awesome tiki sticker pack – Mahalo.

Ravenswood, Macabre & Spook On

The terrifying tales just keep on coming. Poor Lucrezia Ravenswood! As the young bride of wealthy landowner Reginald Ravenswood, she goes to live at foreboding Ravenswood Manor as the new lady of the house – and enters into a shadowy web of murderously dire mysteries, all in sticker form! Treat your friends with classic Halloween goodies from Spook On or share creepy, seasonal creatures and tales of terror with Macabre.

Can you tell we just love Halloween to death? Well we do, and we hope you enjoy this year’s silly, ghostly stickers available now on the App Store. Buy just the ones you want or get Ravenswood, Macabre, Spook On in a special money-saving bundle! Like the candy in your sack, these stickers will vanish from sale at the end of the month, so stash them away while you can. And remember … Happy Halloween!

Twitterrific 5.15.4 Add Stickers, Improves Replies, Today & More

October 8, 2016

By Ged Maheux

Twitterrific v5.15.4 adds several new fun features, improves Today view notifications and makes replying to tweets much easier. Twitterrific now includes a fun set of iMessage stickers based on our blue bird mascot, Ollie. iOS 10 users will enjoy these adorable stickers in Messages to let their friends and family know how they are feeling or just to say hi. To enable the new Twitterrific stickers, open Messages, tap the (A) button, tap the lower left (grid) button, tap the Store button, tap “Manage”, and enable “Twitterrific”. If you love iOS 10’s new stickers feature, but sure to also check out our entire sticker pack line up, there’s something there for everyone!

Version 5.15.4 improves the interface when replying to tweets so it’s clearer and easier to understand. We’ve also improved the Today view. When Twitterrific’s push notifications are active, the Today view now no longer displays events from people you have blocked. Moreover you can even swipe on a Today event (such as a like, retweet or follow) to immediately block that person without having to navigate to their user profile.

Finally, we’ve added the ability to see the source client for any tweet. Simply tap the tweet’s time stamp to quickly view the app or service the author originally used to post her tweet. You can then tap the time stamp again to toggle back to the tweet’s metadata if you wish.

Twitterrific 5.15.4 is free to try via the App Store and is universal for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and iPod touch. Advanced features such as tweet translation, ad removal, and more are available via in-app purchase. Visit Twitterrific’s version history page for the complete list of new features, improvements and bug fixes.

Bring Your Twemoji to Work Day

October 5, 2016

By Ged Maheux

Last month we partnered with Twitter to publish an update to their Twemoji suite that covers a new set of expanded occupational and gender-based emoji. These additions were first suggested by Google to Unicode back in May of 2016 and since then they have been on track to be released with the official Emoji 4.0 update.

The Iconfactory was once again pleased to help Twitter bring these new additions to their social networking service. With Twitter’s guidance, we designed and produced the very first web iterations of gendered occupations like the female astronaut, firefighter and judge.

I was recently a guest on episode 3 of Jeremy Burge’s podcast, Emoji Wrap, where we discussed the new gendered occupations, the artistic process that goes into creating emoji for our clients and much more. If you are interested about staying on top of current emoji trends and more, be sure to check it out.

Iconfactory Stickers Just Got Better

September 27, 2016

By Ged Maheux

Since iOS 10 launched two weeks ago, Iconfactory Sticker packs have been some of the most popular and well received on the App Store. Now we’re giving you even more reasons to download and share.

Select Iconfactory Sticker packs now include iPhone wallpapers! Tap the pack’s title art and then select “Save Wallpaper…” to enjoy Sticker related goodness right on your lock screen. The following packs have been updated:

In addition to wallpapers, Mahalo, Pixel World, and Stickypoo have been expanded with all-new Stickers for you to enjoy. The Pixel World update contains over twenty all-new retro graphics including lots of new food items, retro technology (mini pocket computer anyone?), space stuff and clothing.

Speaking of clothing, thanks to the fine folks at Cotton Bureau, one of our favorite packs has made the leap from Sticker to screen printed goodness. “When s#!t hits the fan, only Deadpoo can take care of business.” The T-shirts and hoodies come in a variety of colors and fabrics, and the sale only lasts a few days so don’t sit around, get moving and order Deadpoo today!

Finally, October is coming and with it our favorite holiday – Halloween! Stay tuned for the spookiest Stickers you’ll ever find on the App Store. We think you’ll enjoy sending spine-chilling treats in the coming weeks. Boo!

Introducing Iconfactory Stickers

September 13, 2016

By Webmaster

Today we are proud to announce the availability of 15 Sticker Packs on the App Store for iMessage!

We’re pretty sure Stickers are going to be the breakaway hit of iOS 10, so what makes ours better than the rest? Besides having some of the best artists in the business, we’ve also taken the time and effort to pack a bunch of unique features into our apps:

Bonus Stickers – When you collect multiple packs you’ll find some surprises: some will display extra icons with special themes! It’s our way of saying thanks for your support.
Customized – Our packs include custom colors and titles that make them easy to spot when swiping. You can also tap the pack’s title to toggle labels and see what the artist named their sticky creations. Be sure to turn on the labels in Monster Microbes and Stickypoo for extra fun!
Roll The Dice – Feeling lucky? Some packs include a randomizer that chooses a Sticker for you. Ask Mystic 9-Ball any yes or no question then tap to see his prognostications. Randomly roll the 12-sided die in Tabletop RPG and see what fate has dealt you!
Bundles – If you want to collect them all, this is the cheapest and easiest way to go. Head on over to the App Store to learn more about Iconfactory Sticker Bundles.

To get a taste for our Stickers, get Sunshine Smilies and Stuck On — they’re both FREE to download!

We’re also pleased to announce we’ve recruited some of the industry’s most talented artists & illustrators to create exclusive Sticker packs just for you. Be sure to check out the incredible artwork from Brian Brasher, Andreas Eckberg and Von & Savannah Glitschka of Glitschka Studios.

Fans have been enjoying our fun desktop icons for over 20 years and now with the launch of iMessage Stickers, we’re pleased to bring our talents to bear on iOS. Collecting, pasting and playing with Stickers in Messages is truly fun and a great, quick way to convey emotion. Whether it’s hugging it out Dyno style with your bestie, putting a naughty friend on your poo list, or maybe even sending flowers in a Victorian love poem to your better half, you can stick with the Iconfactory!

To see all our packs and to learn more, check out the Iconfactory Stickers mini-site. We hope you have as much fun using these Stickers as we did creating them!

Stuck on Stickers

September 1, 2016

By Craig Hockenberry

You’ve heard of Emoji and use them every day, right? Even an old fuddy-duddy like me has swapped out :-) for 😀.

Something just as big is about to happen on iOS and they’re called “stickers.” When Apple touts them in the first sentence of the press release, it’s a pretty good sign of things to come.

Over the past several years we’ve been designing Stickers for clients, but it wasn’t until after the WWDC keynote that I realized Stickers share an important trait with Emoji. Both became a huge hit in Asia first and then that popularity carried over to North America and other continents. People are people and we love to communicate visually — it’s easier than typing and has a lot more personality!

This development has some significant ramifications for our business. This includes the apps we sell on the App Store, the apps we develop for others, and the design we do for clients.

But more importantly, it’s also going to affect your business…

What are Stickers?

The first step in understanding Stickers is looking at how they’re already being used in Asia. This overview by Connie Chan at Andreessen Horowitz is essential for understanding this trend in popular culture.

In the Line chat app, Stickers are a $270 million a year business. With numbers like these, it feels more like selling accessories to personalize your phone than the software we’re used to providing on the App Store.

Stickers have created new marketplaces for selling artwork, added a new dimension to character development and storytelling, and given brands a fantastic way to attract attention for products.

And you’re about to see the same thing happen here in North America.

Taking Advantage of Stickers

One of the easiest ways to leverage the power of this new medium is with promotional material. If you want to build buzz for a project, think Stickers!

Promotion is all about getting people to talk about your product. There’s no better place to do this than in a chat application like Messages. Instead of brand awareness in the one-to-many model of Twitter or Facebook, you’ll be using the one-to-few model of messaging. It’s more personal and more powerful.

Imagine you’re a movie studio with a summer blockbuster coming up. How great would it be to have people exchanging graphics like this or this during the run-up to the release? People will learn about the films during the normal course of conversation.

Don’t think this kind of promotion is limited to multi-million dollar budgets. We’ve seen that Stickers are a great way for smaller brands to raise awareness. Want to sell products to young people who have grown up with texting as a primary form of communication? Follow the lead of Benefit Cosmetics.

Even developers who sell traditional software on the App Store can take advantage of Stickers. If there’s a choice between a FREE app that has cute graphics embedded versus one that does not, which one do you think customers will download? Yeah we’re on that.

And if you’re a company that already has a well established presence on the App Store, imagine the ways you can delight your customers with chat images bundled in your next app update. With all all the work we’ve done with Emoji, we often get inquiries about doing “custom Emoji” for apps. Brand managers, Stickers are your answer.

Let Us Help

As you can see, the Iconfactory is well equipped to create Stickers. We’ve been designing these kinds of things for over 20 years. We’ve also been on the App Store since day one.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that we have our own Sticker packs planned for the iOS 10 release. While creating these sets, we’ve learned a lot about how this new technology works.

There’s a lot you can do to transform Stickers from a static experience to one where customers interact with the brand or product itself. For example, imagine a pack for Star Trek or Indiana Jones with buttons that let you see a preview and order tickets.

Or how about a Sticker set that lets a gal pal know it’s time to get her arches in line by sending some flaming brows? The Sticker image is your entrée into a larger conversation with your customer.

If Stickers sound like something that can make your product shine, while boosting loyalty and awareness, we’d love to hear about it!

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