The Breakroom • A blog for the Iconfactory

Twitterrific 5.10 Adds Improved Muffling, Muting, Drafts & More

April 2, 2015

A major update to Twitterrific is now available in the iOS App Store that includes a host of widely requested features. The biggest improvement in Twitterrific 5.10 is the ability to view and manage your list of muffled usernames, URLs and hashtags. Users can also now add keywords to the terms that can be filtered via the new Muffles sidebar item. In addition, any muffled term can instantly be turned into a full-level mute by swiping left on the item in the list and selecting “Mute”. This completely hides the term from view in the timeline until it is un-muted or muffled. Thanks to the new Muffling interface, Twitterrific users now have the best of both worlds, they can choose to muffle certain items as well as mute others they may not wish to see at all. Muffling and muting also works when viewing Twitter searches, which sets it apart from other 3rd party Twitter clients.

Another highly requested feature that makes its debut in 5.10 is support for draft tweets. Once you compose a new tweet, if you decide not to post it, you now have the option to save the text as a draft when you close the compose view.

Drafts are account based and synced across all of your iOS devices running Twitterrific via iCloud. There are two ways to insert drafts into the compose field – Tap the drafts icon to open the list of pre-composed tweets and then select the draft you want to use. Next you can either tap the Copy Drafts icon to both copy it to the clipboard and insert it into the compose field, or you can simply insert it directly by tapping the Insert Draft icon. Selecting Insert moves it from the current list of drafts into compose, effectively deleting it in the process.

But that’s not all. Twitterrific also now supports an improved sidebar user interface, better push notifications, ability to use smart quotes, URL’s displayed above iOS 8 share sheets, important bug fixes and more. Be sure to visit the Twitterrific version history page for a complete list of what’s new in this release.

Twitterrific 5.10 is a free update and is available now in the App Store. Be sure to follow Twitterrific on Twitter for the latest news on releases as well as tips, tricks & latest issues.

Flare 2.1.1 Adds German and Japanese Localizations

March 19, 2015

By Webmaster

Today, we’re pleased to release an update to Flare 2, to our award-winning photo editing application that includes both German and Japanese localizations. Named by Apple as one of the Best Apps of 2014, Flare effortlessly lets you add effects & textures to your photos on your Mac & iOS devices. Today’s update is free for registered users and can be downloaded via the Mac App Store.

Nope

March 17, 2015

By Ged Maheux

We’ve been receiving emails and tweets from friends and clients asking if we had a hand in the creation of the new Windows icons in the latest beta that has been making the rounds. The Iconfactory played an important role in the icon design direction of both Windows XP and Vista, so it’s natural people are curious to find out if we helped create the look and feel of this new icon suite for Microsoft.

We’re here to simply say: Nope, we did not. It’s quite possible that these are just placeholder images. We have a long history of helping the folks in Redmond, have enjoyed working with them and stand ready should they call on us once again.

Let Iconfactory Build Your Next App

February 23, 2015

By Cheryl Cicha

The Iconfactory has been designing leading edge icons and user interfaces, as well as shipping award-winning software for nearly twenty years. Our approach to early adoption of new development technologies and design trends helps set our apps apart from the competition.

Iconfactory apps average 4-5 star reviews, are routinely awarded ‘Editor’s Choice’ and ‘Best of’ in the App Store and are often referred to by users and developers alike as best in class. Glowing reviews and mentions of our software efforts in the press speak for themselves. So after two decades building our own software, it was time to share our expertise and provide app development services to clients.

What makes Iconfactory’s offering unique is our highly experienced and talented team, combining best in class design, development, and strategic vision under one roof. For clients, this means exceptional levels of quality and efficiency in leveraging leading edge mobile, web, desktop and wearable technologies to help build their business. Whether clients have the spark of an idea, an app in progress, or a live app needing improvement or expansion, we can help. Customer apps are treated as if they are our own and our intention is to form long-term relationships that build value beyond a highly polished 1.0 release.

We have several flagship client apps that we’ve quietly and carefully helped craft. The social networking app, Willow and the health care application, vidscrip for iPad are just two examples. Here is what Michael Bruch, founder of Willow has to say,

“The Iconfactory has treated Willow like one of their own apps, and has worked overtime to ensure its success. These guys really treat the people they work with like partners, not just clients. Hard working, highly skilled, and personable, anyone would be lucky to call the Iconfactory part of their team.”

Discover how a great app built by Iconfactory can help your business succeed. We’d love to hear from you.

All Our Best, David!

February 20, 2015

By Corey Marion

It has been quite a while since our indescribably talented employee and good friend, David Lanham, left us to pursue certain success focusing on his unique and charming illustration talent. We were constantly amazed that he was able to endure our nonsense during his ten years with the Iconfactory. We’re also very grateful for the invaluable bits of knowledge, sometimes unorthodox techniques and humble charm he shared with all of us these many years.

We discovered David through Pixelpalooza, our long retired icon design contest. During our early years we also used Pixelpalooza to find one of our founding partners. Dave Brasgalla won in the Illustrative Category in 1998 and shortly thereafter joined Gedeon, Talos, and I. David entered in 2003 and won the Mac OS X category with his whimsical submission, Invading Your Space.

David’s contest entry was an early exhibition of his signature style and we were unanimously drawn to it. When the partners made the decision to hire a new designer, David’s name was at the top of our short list. He joined us in April of 2004, moved from Florida to Greensboro, and kicked off a decade of helping us put pixels in their proper places.

David quickly adapted his already formidable Photoshop and Illustrator techniques and became an extremely efficient designer, equally skilled at challenging app icon creation and high-volume toolbar icon production. David was responsible for some of the Iconfactory’s most memorable iconography and created so many amazing freeware icons & wallpapers during his time with us it’s hard to count them all. Here is a tiny fraction of his “Greatest Hits”.

This post is a much overdue tribute to a great friend and colleague. Thank you for sharing your time and seemingly limitless talent with us. From all of us here at the factory, we bid you a fond farewell and eagerly anticipate seeing what the next phase in your journey brings!

We leave you with one last example of David’s exceptional work. This video is a time-lapse. Watch as he deftly uses Photoshop to create some of the graphics from Pickin’ Time, our fast paced party game for all ages. We’ll miss you, David.

Twitterrific 5.9.2 Improves Stability, Fixes Bugs

February 16, 2015

By Ged Maheux

A minor but important update to Twitterrific is now available in the iOS App Store. Several improvements in v5.9.2 include the ability to attach multiple images when composing at the same time (instead of one by one), faster loading of media and new tweets in the timeline and the ability to copy the text of translated tweets to the pasteboard.

In addition, the update sports several bug fixes including one that corrects a problem displaying animated GIFs and a long-standing bug where the pull to refresh control would sometimes disappear until the app was force quit. After updating, users may need to clear their timeline cache to view animated GIFs properly. Be sure to visit Twitterrific’s version history page for the complete list of changes in this release.

Twitterrific 5.9.2 is a free update and is available now in the App Store. Be sure to follow Twitterrific on Twitter for the latest news on releases as well as tips, tricks & latest issues.

Four New ‘Best Of’ Effects for Flare

February 5, 2015

By Ged Maheux

Today we’re pleased to announce the release of four all-new effects for our award-winning photo editing application, Flare 2. Flare is an elegant and powerful way to add limitless custom visual effects to your photographs and was awarded one of the Best Apps of 2014 in the Mac App Store. Starting today, Flare users will see four new effects appear in the “Best of” tab in both Flare for Mac and Flare Effects for iOS. Here’s a small preview of two of these effects (original images on the left, Flare versions on the right).

Chic – This effect provides warm color toning and soft borders that are ideal for helping you put the subject of your photo info focus.

Vintage Film – A distinctive color effect with lots of contrast helps to create the moody, dramatic look of photographs shot on old style film.

Registered users of Flare 2 receive regular updates to the list of effects available to them, greatly expanding their quiver of photographic arrows. Use the effects provided or create your own completely from scratch to build the look for your images that you like best. Flare Effects for iOS lets you take your effects with you on the go and apply them directly to your images on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8. Head to FlareApp.com to learn more or purchase Flare directly from the Mac App Store today.

Twitterrific 5.9.1 Offers Improved Images & More

January 31, 2015

By Ged Maheux

Fast on the heels of Twitterrific 5.9’s multi-image and animated GIF support comes another, smaller update bringing several key improvements that iOS users will enjoy. We’ve greatly improved the image quality when uploading pictures to all image services, but you’ll most likely notice it most when uploading to Twitter itself. We’ve also increased the maximum number of tweets the timeline can hold from 500 to 800 so users can view more content they might have missed since their last launch. This release also fixes several key bugs including one that left out links to Twitter images when Re-tweeting.

If you’re a Twitterrific for iOS user, make sure to head over to the App Store and update to take advantage of these improvements today. Finally, if you’ve enjoyed the recent updates we’ve made to Twitterrific, please support our efforts and rate or review the app in the store, it really helps. Thanks!

Welcome to the New Iconfactory Blog

January 29, 2015

By Ged Maheux

We’re pleased to welcome you to the launch of the all-new Iconfactory blog. We took a break for about a year while the factory was transitioning from the old website design to the new one, but now we’re back and eager to get the blog rolling once again.

We hope you’ll bookmark the new blog and make it a regular destination as we write about topics like user interface, icon and mobile design, the latest releases of our popular apps, the state of the App Store, helpful developer resources and much more. Keep your eyes peeled here, follow the Iconfactory’s official Twitter account or like us on Facebook to keep tabs on the latest posts.

Amazingly enough, next year the Iconfactory turns 20 and for almost that entire time, we’ve been writing posts about our fun creations, client work and the state of the pixel-pushing industry. So whether you’re new to these parts, or a long-time veteran, we welcome you whole-heartedly and hope you’ll join us for the next phase of our journey. Onward and upward!

AppViz 3.1 Adds Features & Lowers Pricing

April 11, 2014

By Webmaster

AppViz, the best way to track apps in the App Store, has been updated to v3.1 and includes a host of new features and improvements as well as a new, lower pricing model for indie developers.

AppViz now automatically keeps track of rankings and reports, sports new dynamic totals for selected content, allows developers to create future historical events and much more. We’re also introducing a new subscription tier for small developers with up to 5 apps. As always, you can track the first application completely free, but now tracking 2-5 apps is available for the low price of just $5 a month or just $50 a year.

For a complete list of what’s new, be sure to visit the AppViz version history page or learn more at the AppViz blog. If you have apps to track in the App Store, there’s never been a better time to download AppViz and give it a try, completely free. Surf over to learn more, download the app and get started.

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