Timothy Reavis

When not in college, @TimothyReavis devotes most of his time to his iMac, writing and coding. Leftover hours are spent with his iPhone on Twitter or in Cydia. Mealtimes are integrated into one of the above. Timothy began writing for iDownloadBlog in 2014, where he avidly writes about his favorite conversation topic — all things Apple — whilst microblogging on Twitter about technology and jailbreak tweaks.

Privacy is more dead than we think

The concept of privacy has shifted from the connoted right it once was to a fading dream. Where family discussions once never left the dinner table, what a person does and thinks are now plastered across social media in a way once deemed unthinkable because it simply “wasn’t anyone’s business” not that long ago. Now, everything is everyone’s business, and this change in culture has come about largely if not solely because of technology.

Sure, social media has played a large part in changing the way people share information, making what was once personal now more or less public domain. However, there are more subtle forces at work. One common instance many people overlook is the simple request of an app to access your phone’s contacts.

Obscura simplifies taking the perfect picture

Photography is the capture of emotion for reuse. I’m particularly fond of art – photography or otherwise – that makes me feel something on an emotional level, because if art doesn’t induce emotions, what is its point?

Obscura is a new camera app for iPhone that simplifies the art of taking meaningful pictures. The first real shot I took with this app made an onlooker want to download the app immediately, because she looked at the image and felt something. Even Obscura’s flat, black and white interface leaves the user with a feeling of simplicity that, while decidedly modern, somehow connects back to the original colorless photograph.

Focus brings beautiful time management to iOS and Apple Watch

Perhaps my biggest productivity hindrance is time management. If I’m able to set aside time to focus on a task without distraction and stick with it to completion, my productivity levels exponentiate. Getting to that point, however, can be difficult and requires an incredible amount of self control. Focus is an app I picked recently that helps to both manage time and concentrate on the task at hand. It’s compatible with iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and, soon, Mac as well, and I have a full review below.

App Watch: Dash, MindNode, WeatherBug

One of the tasks for which Apple Watch is best suited is displaying information. Whether it be an upcoming calendar event, an incoming text, or simply the date and time, having this information a wrist raise away is what makes Apple Watch so invaluable.

This week, we have some apps that excel at displaying information on your wrist without requiring or even allowing much user interaction at all. These apps conform to the idea of using Apple Watch for very short amounts at a time, making the experience more natural.

How to automatically hide a Mac app when clicking elsewhere on the screen

Maintaining a clean workstation is perhaps one of the best ways to help with productivity and clear-thinking. Not only does this apply to one's desk or office, but for those of us who work with computers, it extends to the Dock, folders, and desktop. Keeping things clean and orderly in OS X is vital for getting things done efficiently, and this Mac tip helps do exactly that.

A closer look at Apple Watch apps: PCalc, Notes, and Dispatch

I’m looking forward to the day when an iteration of the Elder Scrolls will come to iPad. Imagine strolling through Tamriel on your Retina display, engaging in Infinity Blade-style combat with man and beast. It’d be glorious. I’m not sure that day will ever come, but I’m anticipating it just the same. I’ll be happy when the latest version of iPad has the hardware to run such a game, regardless.

Instead of discussing my recently renewed obsession with Skyrim, we’re here to talk about some noteworthy Apple Watch apps that I've come across recently, so let us begin.

The big keyboard refinements in iOS 9

During its WWDC presentation today, Apple introduced several new enhancements for its keyboard in iOS on iPhone and iPad. These changes include a redesigned shift key for distinguishing capital letters, lowercase, and caps lock. Additionally, key lettering now switches between upper and lowercase depending on which variation of a letter will be typed, which is another tool Apple is using to more clearly define what letter case mode the shift key is in, and adds ShowCase to the list of jailbreak tweaks Apple has turned into stock features with iOS 9.

App Watch: Instapaper, Fantastical, Reminders Nano

I’m getting more and more accustomed to have Apple Watch integrate into my daily life, and it’s excellent. I love its subtle taps and fitness tracking, as well as the style of it and the positive attention that brings from people I meet.

The search for great Apple Watch apps continues, and developers are certainly doing amazing things with this little device.

Notifications for Reddit provides message alerts in real time

I've always wondered why popular Reddit clients such as Alien Blue and Narwhal don't support push notifications for various alerts. Not being a heavy redditor myself, replies to my comments will often go unnoticed until the next time I open a Reddit client, and that might take a few days, which sometimes proves to be inconvenient. However, Notifications for Reddit is a recently-launched solution.

App Watch: power pack

I like to think of myself as a power user when it comes to my apps and devices, and although that term isn't always applicable, I’ve spent hours in Workflow trying to craft recipes that will save me precious seconds later on, and I enjoyed doing so if for nothing other than the self-satisfaction when I get to run a handmade workflow and watch it perform beautifully.

Today’s App Watch has a couple power user apps to help streamline your day (and an app to make you a powerful user), and I hope, once we're done, you’ll be as excited as I am to use these apps in the future.

App Watch: game on

Although I'm not a hardcore gamer, I do my fair share of gaming, largely on my Mac or PC, but iOS has demanded my attention as a gaming platform as well. Console gaming doesn't greatly interest me, however, due to the cost of games and limitation of genres. But I don't mind investing into a gaming PC that I can also use for work, school, and countless other things, and my iPad Air 2 is also great for playing the more graphically intense titles on iOS.

More recently, gaming moved beyond iPads and iPhones to alight on users' wrists with Apple Watch, which is our primary focus in this article. Although the games are very basic, as they should be, many are designed to burn a few minutes while in line or other places where pulling out an iPhone isn't entirely convenient, while others are built exclusively for Apple Watch.

App Watch: artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence may very well take over the world one day, but I find it absolutely fascinating, regardless. The concept of teaching computers how to "think" brings an entirely new level to technology, not only in relation to programming, but in how we interact with it as well. The issue is that, once they become sentient, computers will in theory no longer be content doing as we command, but instead turn on humanity and kill us all.

Anyway, the App Store has yet to feature an app for controlling a maniacal robot from your Apple Watch, but there are some apps that utilize a form of artificial intelligence, and we're looking at a couple of them today.