Pi Review | Recent Apps Worth Checking Out

Welcome to this week's Pi Review. You can use the article's table of contents to quickly jump to the sections you're interested in. If you discover other interesting apps or topics you'd like to follow, feel free to discuss them with us in the comments section.

Tripsy: Adds Smart Routes, Transit Planning and Analysis Platform: iOS / macOS / iPadOS Keywords: Travel Planning, Travel Logging

@ElijahLee: Travel planning app Tripsy has released its version 3.9 update, enhancing features like smart travel route recommendations and automated transit planning. First is the newly introduced Smart Routes feature.

When planning a trip in older versions of Tripsy, we would add activities one by one, such as 11:00 at the museum → 13:00 lunch → 16:00 back to the hotel. The routes and modes of transportation between these activities required our own judgment and selection. In version 3.

9, Tripsy automatically analyzes the locations of consecutive activities, calculates the distance and the time required for corresponding modes of transport, and then recommends a route connecting the two activities. In the app, we can intuitively see the recommended mode of transport, estimated travel time, distance, and specific route. Clicking on the recommended route allows you to add it as a transit activity directly into Tripsy's travel timeline.

The Arrival Buffer feature is suitable for activities that require arriving early, such as a dinner date, leaving buffer time for flight takeoff, and so on. For these activities, we can set in Tripsy where to depart from and how early to arrive, and Tripsy will calculate backward to determine when we should leave. For flight activities, the app automatically sets a 2-hour buffer time.

If the schedule is too tight, Tripsy will now proactively alert you. The Tight Timing alert appears at the top of the smart recommended route. It acts as an automatic itinerary checker during your trip, helping you spot unreasonable arrangements before your journey to avoid missing out.

The full route auto-planning feature can automatically analyze a continuous segment of a trip and recommend suitable routes. When planning our itinerary, we only need to add the scenic spots, restaurants, hotels, etc., along the way into the itinerary, adjust their sequence, and select the mode of transport for each segment.

Tripsy will calculate the transit time for each segment and estimate the arrival time based on the departure time. The entire route can also be previewed on a map and then saved directly to the travel plan. If these locations already exist in the Tripsy itinerary, you can also create a route directly from existing activities.

Adding and saving frequent locations in Tripsy can significantly improve the usability of the Smart Routes feature. We can set places like home, office, and airports as common travel locations, assign names and icons to the addresses, and quickly invoke them later. Additionally, Tripsy 3.

9 has redesigned the display of routes and transit information, adding two activity types: subway and transfer, allowing transit arrangements to more accurately reflect the actual travel process. You can download Tripsy for free on the App Store; a paid subscription unlocks Pro features, which can be purchased flexibly according to your needs at 38 yuan/month, 198 yuan/year, or a one-time purchase of 998 yuan. The advanced calendar integration options added in Tripsy 3.

8 are exclusive to Pro users. Tripsy is also included in Setapp, where Setapp users can download and use it for free.

1Password Update: Optimizes Password Autofill Flow, Brings a 'System-Level' Experience Platform: iOS / iPadOS / macOS / Android / Windows / Web Keywords: Password Management, Password Autofill

@Vanilla: As a long-time user of 1Password, I once switched to Bitwarden midway, pairing it with a personal domain and Vaultwarden for a low-cost password management solution. In name, the Vaultwarden solution allowed me to take full control of my privacy data, but the core reason was really to save on the hefty 1Password subscription fee. It wasn't until a recent 1Password update that I returned to the embrace of an old friend.

The reason is simply that it brought an unmatched password autofill experience.

First, 1Password introduced a feature in the new version called Universal sign-in, which we can simply understand as 'one-stop login.' Before understanding this new feature, let's review how the original 1Password and the vast majority of password managers fill in passwords: when we open a web login page and click on the account input field or browser extension, 1Password displays the account and password options matching the current webpage. After selecting them, the username and password are filled in, and then we click the login button to finish.

If your account also has Passkeys, two-step verification codes, etc., further steps are required.

In the new version, 1Password's Universal sign-in streamlines triggering the autofill of usernames, passwords, Passkeys, two-step verification codes, social media account logins, OIDC, SAML, and various other authentication methods into a single step: clicking the 'Confirm' button. If the webpage you are logging into only requires a username and password, the moment you open the login page, 1Password will automatically pop up a floating window displaying the matching username. Then, clicking the confirm button allows 1Password to handle all subsequent operations for you, including filling in the input fields and clicking the login button. If you are in the 1Password app or browser plug... [Original text too long, translation truncated]