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[HUELEN10]

It's been a while in the making, but it's finally here: NeoGAF's Official Non-OT Thread Featuring The Best of The Best In iOS, Hosted By HUELEN10, Featuring The Help Of YOU!

(Yeah, you, as in you in front of that Dinomax CRT

Spoiler

Ronnie

.)

I am glad you asked. Hi, I'm Troy McClure, you may remember me from such NeoGAF threads as Whole, skim or 2%?, and Time Cube Redux: Space Moors, Freemasons, black means white, there was no slavery. iOS is a heck of a mobile operating system, and it's come a long way, all without needing root access or one of those pesky filesystem things. Heck, it even powers one of the most popular PCs in the world, and it doesn't even come with a calculator pre-installed. Until somewhat recently, this was the only way to get more functionality into an iPhone.

But that's all changed thanks to App Store apps, action sheet extensions, widgets, webapps, bookmarklets, profiles, desktop utilities, and of course Xcode Sideloading! No more drippy, sticky jailbreaks. Here to tell us more about these ways of making iOS better is the OP.

Thanks Troy! But yeah, iOS is awesome, and it gets better ever year. That being said, iOS has been traditionally slow to adopt things. Originally, it didn't have an App Store, hell it didn't even have cut copy and paste! it's amazing how far its come, now with this year's addition of side loading and Safari content blockers. But with so many apps on the app store, and so few resources on jailbreak-free tweaks, it can sometimes be daunting when trying to figure out the best way to use the OS as opposed to tricking it, fooling it into what you want it to do. I have and use 205 apps on my iPhone, 185 apps on my iPad, and own over 4000 iOS app licenses, use webapps, extensions, and desktop utilities, and have used iOS since day 1; in other words, I've seen some shit and I know my shit, and I know which apps and tweaks excel above the rest, with and without a unix philosophy in mind. I wanted to make a place where we can all share the best ways to do things on iOS, all without a Jailbreak. I strongly believe that stock iOS can hold its own, without the need of a jailbreak. If you can here to just say "just jailbreak already", move along. Jailbreaking is a great tool and can definitely be used alongside some of the apps, extensions, tweaks, and tips here, but this thread isn't about it; you can go here for that.

Now that that's out of the way, here is a breakdown of what will be featured in this thread.

• Action Sheet Extensions: Apps whose main functionality is in providing additional functionality or information across another app.
• Notification Center Widgets: Interactive mini-apps that are always a swipe away, some can even provide useful info!
• App Store Apps & Utilities: Is there an app for that? Probably, but that's not good enough for us. We want THE app for that!
• Webapps: Webclips you launch with a touch of an icon that can also be used to chain actions.
• Bookmarklets: Essentially turns your Safari bookmarks view into a file menu by adding some functionality such as "open in" or "go to end", and a lot of other cool stuff!
• Profiles: These little things can change or restrict how your phone works. We will be specifically looking at useful things you can create with Apple Configurator.
• Desktop Utilities: These are programs you use on your computer, while your iOS device is connected with a cable, for additional functionality.
• Xcode Sideloading: Yes, you can sideload apps now, really! no jailbreaks here, it's all legit.

Pretty much the only thing not gonna be fair game here is games, not because I don't believe in iOS gaming (Trust me, I am a believer), but because the gaming-side community is better suited for that.

Of course you can! You can help me organize the thread by including this in your posts about something you bring up:

Name Of Thing Type Of Thing As Listed In Categories Above Universal/iPad/iPhone:quick description

That way, once we have enough entries, I can put a rolling archive in the OP so we can keep track of it all! Of course don't just make a post with that formatting, tell us why you are talking about the app or widget or whatever else it may be, and what makes it awesome and truly adds to iOS. As time goes on, and we have more content, we will also be able to showcase major updates to older picks, and of course stop recommending once prized apps if development goes to shit, or if a better product comes out. We'll make sure everything is as up-to-date as can be so you don't get stuck with software that just isn't keeping up the pace. As for me, I plan to post at least 10 different items a week (gonna start with just 3 though), so this is gonna stay updated quite regularly.

We've just a week until a new phone comes out, let's get to it!

 

[HUELEN10]

For the first entry, I wanted to elaborate on times when I need to post an image on GAF. Sometimes when I'm on my iPad (which is a lot, due to my aging desktop), I want to post something on GAF while making sure it is not too big. Enter ViewExif!

ViewExif Action Sheet Extension Universal: Exif viewer/stripper

With ViewExif, you can use many photo viewing applications, such as photos and dropbox, and simply pull up the action sheet to get instant exif data and pixel size of image. It can also let you strip away all the location and exif data and export a clean copy. But the one bit if useful info it doesn't do is let you pull up color values, that is where Pixel Picker comes in.

Pixel Picker Action Sheet Extension Universal: Color picker tool for iOS

Pixel Picker simply lets you get RGB color values from any images you have saved in your photo library. Useful if you really need to know what specific color something is.

Alright! So the colors are bright, but the images are too big to post, and we don't want to have to use quotes; what do?

>LOAD Reize Image App Store Utilitiy Universal: Pixel value image resizer for iOS

The icon is shit, and the name is lacking, but it's lightweight, and does one thing and does it right: enlarge or shrink any image to any size, with or without aspect lock.

So there you have it, 3 little utilities to make sure you aren't posting goliath-sized pics by mistake (or accidentally sharing the fact that you took that pic of your meal in a place you shouldn't have been!).

 

[HUELEN10]

So, a question that crops up from time to time is video. Instead of just recommending a player (because there is no one all-in-one non-streaming solution), I am going to go through various scenarios.

Okay, let's get something out of the way first: The Native iOS video player is the best way to play videos, simply because it's built-in, has perfect performance, and also has the best battery life. So when you have the chance, go to iTunes, use it to transfer compatible videos, and sync. Now, what if you don't want to use iTunes, or you don't have compatible vids?

WALTR Desktop Utility Universal: Media converter/sideloader

Waltr is pretty amazing. All you do is connect your iOS device with a cable, drag your vids (or music for that matter, should you want to skip iTunes) into the app, and it will either transfer them without the need for iTunes, or convert them and transfer them on the fly. It does one thing, and it does it exceedingly well.

Best thing about this is that since it is the native player, it works with iOS9's PiP feature, so you can listen to Boomhauer while working on your iPad.

So vids on your desktop to your device is pretty easy, but what if you don't want to tweak the file at all? That's what 3rd party players are for!

It's Playing Pro App Store App Universal: Video player for iOS

Infuse Pro App Store App Universal: Video player for iOS

They are both excellent players, with fully licensed Dolby support for full audio playback, and both work with iTunes, and through cloud, direct URL, and local WiFi to put videos in them; just go with whatever works for you. You can do the research to see which one best suits your needs, but I am an It's playing user myself. Either way, you truly can't go wrong. Best part is is that both players support iOS's "open in" feature, so if you're in Safari on an image board and come across a WebM, you can tap, it will copy, and it will play in that app (and with iOS 9's new back to previous app arrow on the upper left, going back to your browser is more seamless than ever).

Now speaking of Browsers (betcha didn't think we were gonna talk browser in the video post!), there are 2 (well, technically 3) must-haves if you truly want to enjoy video on iOS.

Photon Flash App Store App iPad: Flash transcoder for iPad

Photon Flash App Store App iPhone: Flash transcoder for iPhone

iCab Mobile App Store App Universal: Customizable web browser and downloader

Yeah yeah I know, I wish Photon was a Universal app too, but the dev chose to make 2 versions instead, greedy I know. That being said, Photon is the best flash transcoder I've used on the App Store, video quality is a lot better than Puffin from my experience. For those not in the know, the best way to describe it would be OnLive for Firefox.

With the touch of a button, you can stream a firefox window and watch all the SWFs and desktop-only streaming sites you can handle, and the compression and video quality is superb with even an average connection. Great for using Hulu and smaller flash-only video sites, and looking at SWFs.

Now iCab Mobile may have a funky name and a funky icon, but don't let it deceive you! Not only is it possible the best, most customizable Browser on the store, but when it comes to videos, if you can play it, you can download it.

And yes, that includes YouTube! Best of all, it also supports "Open In", so you can copy the vids to your favorite video player or file manager and have them all in one place!

Now, YouTube. Let's get something out of the way: Google's iOS app sucks. You can't play anything in the background, it's full of ads, the interface is lacking, and it's just nowhere near what it could be.

YouPlayer App Store App Universal: YouTube client

Beautiful interface, wi-fi/cell resolution toggles, instant playback, background audio, no video ads, the ability to look at user favorites, kick to safari feature for errant trouble vids, and of course, PiP. What more could you want in a YouTube client?

So yeah, that's how I do video on iOS. When you combine these with the apps to any subscription services (i.e. Netflix) you may have, you truly can do it all with a fully-featured folder packed with everything you need in it!

 

[solarus]

Thanks for the youplayer recommendation needed that pip support.