Any.DO and WWDC – Unrelated except for coolness

This week we have two reasons to celebrate.

Any.DO

The first reason is that Any.DO, my baby, was finally released to the App Store with great success (Over 100K downloads in the first 24 hours)

For those of you who haven’t heard of it – Any.DO is a wonderful Task management tool that was released to the Android market a few months ago and is considered one of the most elegant and popular apps on the Android market, and has been named on many lists of top apps for Android (including the New york times).

The reason Any.DO is such a great app (and maybe I’m a little biased) is the integration between a super clean and beautiful UI, and some very powerful features:

• Auto sync with 3 platforms – iPhone, Android and Chrome
• Sort by date or folder, and drag and drop to reorder tasks
• Intuitive gestures to add, swipe, delete tasks (any more)
• Great voice recognition (I won’t tell you which one, see if you can guess for your self)
• Smart task autocomplete based on our vast knowledge base
• Share tasks with your friends
• A Calendar landscape mode where you can order your tasks (using drag and drop) – This is by far my favorite feature of Any.DO. I posted a question on SO a few months ago asking what’s the best way to do this, and there was a wide agreement that a split screen landscape view on the iPhone is a bad idea. Showed them ah? 🙂

I’ll probably write about some of the more interesting features on Any.DO in the next posts, so stay tuned.

In the mean time, you can get Any.DO from the App Store, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. And let me know what you think, I’ll love to hear your feedback.

WWDC

The second great thing that happened yesterday is WWDC, and the announcement of the new Macbook Pro and (more important for us developers) – iOS6.

iOS 6 features more than 200 updates and improvements over iOS5 (which was a great OS on it self)

So what’s new in iOS6?

Facebook Integration

This is maybe my favorite feature of iOS6. Facebook integration is such an important part of most new apps and today it’s a hugh barrier – people just don’t click Facebook connect. (A good example is the horrible ratings Microsoft’s new app On{x} got just because they require Facebook connect.
On iOS6 users can login to their Facebook account and have instant access to Facebook in app, the web browser and Siri, allowing us developers to maximize the social power of Facebook in our apps.

New Phone App Enhancements

In the phone app, Apple has added a new mode that will make it easy for users to remind themselves to call or text-back later, if they can’t take a call right now.
There is also a “Do Not Disturb” mode. Messages will still come to your phone, but the screen won’t light up or make any noise. There are also new ways to group contacts and control how their calls are handled.
The funny thing is that Any.DO for Android implemented this feature a few months ago and being the first app on the Android market with this feature I can’t help but assuming that Apple ripped us off. Well, imitation is the best form of flattery 🙂

Siri

• Siri can now launch apps
• Siri can now Tweet
• Siri is smart about sports. It can pull in scores, game summaries and player stats.
• Siri integrates with Yelp and OpenTable for restaurant reviews and reservations
• Siri in iOS 6 will also integrate with Rotten Tomatoes for movie times and reviews.
• Siri is also available in a slew of new languages.
• Siri will get hands-free integration in lots of in-car systems.
• Siri is coming to the new iPad.

Maps

Apple said good bye to google and presented a new Maps app that looks pretty great. The new Maps:

• Integrate with Yelp for advanced local search
• Turn-by-turn navigation voiced by Siri and with real-time traffic information
• interactive 3D views, and the stunning Flyover feature

I have to say that although I love Waze – the new Maps app looks amazing.

FaceTime Over Cellular

FaceTime will now work over cellular connections. I still think apps like Skype, Fring and Tango have a strong advantage over FaceTime just because they support multiple platforms – but it’s a start.

Safari

Sorry Instapaper – Safari is now allowing offline reading lists. The lists will also sync with the Reading List in Safari for OS X.
Another new feature is the ability to add “App Banners” to a website. This allows developers to easily show-off their native app. Users can touch the banner to get the app — and if, the app is installed, they can go directly to the app and open it up in the right place.

The beta version of iOS6 is already released so you can start playing around with it.

One last thing – the new Macbook Pro is Oh-So cool! Check it out:
The new Macbook Pro

Enjoy (and don’t forget to download Any.DO 🙂 )

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