A bit of a weird post today, but I’ve come to the realisation that I need to find a way to fund myself through the last bit of my university course.

I spend nearly all of my time doing one of two things, university work, or developing things for everyone. Whether it’s a new application, a website, or something, I’m always making stuff.

I guess most people would simply raise the prices of their products, in order to try and make more money, but I don’t really want to do that. I want to reward people for backing what I do, so this is what I came up with:

• Qwiki, my Wikipedia app for Mac has been discounted (indefinitely) from £3.99 to £2.99.
• Pretty Regular Expressions, my upcoming regular expressions app for iOS and macOS will only be £0.99.
• All of my other apps are completely free. This includes my fun pixel art iMessage Sticker Pack!

Why would I make everything free, or really cheap? Because I trust everyone that finds my content useful, wants to help me in what I do, or simply is a super awesome person will back me.

And that’s why I’ve set up a Patreon page. Honestly I feel a bit dirty doing this, because I don’t want to ask for your money, but if I can balance this out by creating some awesome projects, then I think I can make sense of it.

If you can support me, then it really is a case of anything helps. The costs associate with University (especially in London) are stupid, and then there’s my desire to make things that also adds to that, even a coffee will help me through the day.

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Don’t worry though, because I’ll have a good announcement in a few days relating to a certain app I’m making!

We are excited to announce that SpaceX has been approached to fly two private citizens on a trip around the moon late next year. They have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission. Like the Apollo astronauts before them, these individuals will travel into space carrying the hopes and dreams of all humankind, driven by the universal human spirit of exploration. We expect to conduct health and fitness tests, as well as begin initial training later this year. – SpaceX Blog

Wow. 🌑

With the recent discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 system, NASA asked on twitter for names for each of the planets:

#7NamesFor7NewPlanets?
TRAPPIST-1b
TRAPPIST-1c
TRAPPIST-1d
TRAPPIST-1e
TRAPPIST-1f
TRAPPIST-1g
TRAPPIST-1h

😉 https://t.co/QS80AnZ2Jg pic.twitter.com/gis6Ba7UBu

— NASA (@NASA) 24 February 2017

Here are my suggestions:

• Philosophi Lapis
• Camera Secretorum
• Vinctus Azkaban
• Calix Ignis
• Ordinis Phoenix
• Dimidium Sanguinis Princeps
• Letaliter Sanctio

Have a guess what they’re from!

Joe Rossignol, writing for MacRumors:

iPhones that have undergone any third-party screen repair now qualify for warranty coverage, as long as the issue being fixed does not relate to the display itself, according to an internal memo distributed by Apple today. MacRumors confirmed the memo’s authenticity with multiple sources.

Finally, this should of been the case since the start.

Read the full article on MacRumors

A NASA telescope(Spitzer Space Telescope) has discovered the largest batch of earth-size planets orbiting a single star, and three of them are in the habitable zone. In total there are seven planets, and they all are possible candidates of having liquid water, however the three located in the habitable zone are the most likely.

This discovery is not only fascinating, and incredibly breathtaking, but it also breaks a few records. With this being the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star, and the three planets in the habitable zone are also the highest number found around the single star outside of our solar system.

The system, named TRAPPIST-1 after The Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope, is about 40 light-years from Earth, but this is actually relatively close.

It will now be up to further observations to determine whether they contain liquid water, and also what their atmosphere is made up of.

I’m really excited to see what discoveries can be made in TRAPPIST-1, and maybe one of these will have the necessary ingredients needed for life to exist!

Find Out More:

• NASA Article
• NASA – Spitzer Space Telescope
• NASA – TRAPPIST-1 System
• NASA – Exoplanets

<rant>

Tweetbot for Mac has been my number one choice of Twitter client for a while now (apart from a few weeks with the official Twitter app), but there’s always been one "feature" that’s really confused me.

I personally think that Tapbots have high level of precision, and I can see that 99.9% of Tweetbot does something a certain way for a reason. It’s that 0.1% I’m confused about.

It’s about what happens when you double click on the Profile icon… It makes your Favstar.fm profile appear in your web browser? Why would I ever want to go to Favstar? What is Favstar?

On all the other icons, double clicking would move the relevant list to the top, such as Mentions, Activity, etc. So instead of just switching to the different tab, you can quickly scroll up.

But why isn’t this the same with the Profile? Why can’t I just quickly see my most recent tweets?

</rant>

David Sparks on the need to use tags to manage files:

Lately I’ve been thinking about making another run at file tagging. It’s kind of funny how these tech issues percolate up. It all started with some receipts that I wanted to save to both client folders and tax folders. I found myself creating duplicates to have them in two places at once, which rubs me, someone who used to save computer data onto a cassette tape, as fundamentally wrong.

And:

So I’m looking at a hybrid tagging system that will still work with folders at some level but also rely on tags to help sort, store, and find files. There still are a lot of downsides to tagging. It takes extra time and it has very shaky support on iOS. I’m making a list of problems as I go.

I have moments like this where I think using file tagging would make my life so much easier, especially when I first found the feature to be quite interesting when first announced. However, when I decided to try out the feature, it never seems to stick with me. It was always a bigger task to set up, then to just deal with the problems one by one.

Nevertheless, I am very interested to see what results David has, and it may spark myself again to try them out.

Instagram announced on their blog, that they now support adding up to 10 photos and videos in just the single post.

You now don’t have to worry about selecting the best photo, or not posting all of them because you don’t want to flood your followers feeds. This feature removes that problem.

The posts look nearly identical, except you can swipe left and right to navigate through the photos/videos. You’ll see if a post has many items, if you can see the line of blue dots beneath it.

When you’re creating a new post on Instagram, you’ll see the new “Select Multiple” option appear, which means you can select up to 10 different items to appear in the post.

One you’ve done that you press Next as usual, and you can apply a filter to all of them at once, you can still select one of them and edit as usual. At the minute multiple photo/video posts only support square formats, and there is the one caption for the whole post.

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This is a nice addition to Instagram, and one I would of made good use of in my recent trip to Barcelona. I like the idea of Instagram Stories, but sometimes I don’t want to worry about saving them manually to my phone just so I don’t lose them. Now instead of posting separate posts about the same event, you get to show more of your photography skills off in less space!

If for some reason you haven’t got Instagram, then you can download it from the App Store.

(You can also follow me.)

In the latest update of the Monzo app , they’ve introduced a bill splitting feature, that is a cut above the rest. With the information that Monzo can already calculate form your transactions, such as the location, restaurant name, and even storing receipts, this feature simply makes sense.

How To Use It

Simply find a transaction in your Monzo app, and then select Split Cost Using Monzo.me. You’ll be presented with a list of options, where you can quickly share the bill with 1 to 4 other people, or you can also set a custom amount to request.

Once you’ve selected an amount to request, you’re presented with the standard iOS Share Sheet, and this means you can send it wherever, and however you like! Whether it’s through iMessage, WhatsApp, or some magical Workflow!

Then once you or your friend have received the link, they can then pay directly on any device, including from a browser on their laptop! It also supports Apple Pay, so if you’re on an Apple Pay supported device, you can literally pay your end of the bill in seconds.

Who Can Use It?

You can ask anyone to pay you, by using your own personal Monzo.me link. From there, they’ll be able to use their own card (even non-Monzo cards) to pay you back.

There’s no fees involved, so the amount that’s sent, is exactly the amount that is received. Of course the Monzo.me website is fully secure, accepts any major debit card, and in usual Monzo style, the money appears in less than a minute.

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This update to the Monzo app, takes them even further forward in comparison to other payment providers, and even full banks. Even though it’s just a prepaid debit card at the moment, there are literally so many things that Monzo let’s you do, that no-one else does.

You can read more about Monzo on their website , and download the Monzo app for iOS from the App Store .

If you want to quickly see what a payment request looks like, then here’s an example I made up. Of course you won’t be forced to actually pay anything, but you can see what it’s like.

Later this week, there is an update to Pokemon GO that will bring over 80 new Pokemon to catch!

Pokemon

The new Pokemon will be Gen 2, so from the Pokemon Gold and Silver games. You will be able to catch the three starters, Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile, along with loads more!

Encounters

When you face a Pokemon in the wild, they will also react in a new way, there are no specifics yet though, so you’ll have to find out for yourself. While in an encounter, there will also be a simpler way to select and use items.

Berries

From PokeStops, you’ll now be able to find berries. These can have various different effects, such as a Nanab Berry will slow a Pokemon’s movements, making it easier to catch, or a Pinap Berry which will double the amount of Candy you’ll receive if you catch the Pokemon on the next attempt.

Apparel

There’s also a few more pieces of apparel that you can use to customise your avatar, so it will be a bit less generic.

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It’s not a huge update, but it’s good to see that Pokemon GO is still moving forward. I’m still waiting for a battle system, where players will be able to battle each other, but I can only hope. For now, we’ll have to settle with trying to catch them all!

If you haven’t already, download Pokemon GO from the App Store.