Is there a better way to spend Sunday than by checking out the latest apps to grace the App Store over the past seven days?
This week I’ve chosen to focus less on games than productivity apps (although there’s a neat Reddit client thrown in for good measure!) From a great custom keyboard to a full-to-bursting update for GarageBand, check out our picks for apps of the week below.
Reddit: the Official App
More than a year after snapping up Alien Blue, the most popular third-party Reddit client for mobile, Reddit finally got around to launching its official client app for iOS this week.
Offering both a “compact” and “card” view for catching up on your favorite subreddit, Reddit: the Official App also offers three free months of Reddit Gold — giving you an add-free mobile Reddit experience, as well as additional features when browsing Reddit on a desktop or laptop.
Since that particular offer only lasted for the app’s first week, however, you’ll need to download it quickly.
Available for: iPhone
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store
Microsoft Hub Keyboard
Microsoft this week launched its new custom Hub Keyboard; letting users easily copy and paste recent items, grab and share URLs of Office 365 documents in OneDrive and SharePoint, and send contact details.
“Personally I don’t like switching between apps to do different things on my smartphone,” said Steve Won, a senior designer on the Office team, who came up with the concept for the Hub keyboard as a personal project around one year ago. “But all these different apps on a smartphone, they have to conform to rules of a keyboard and that got me thinking about the project as an interesting idea I wanted to explore more. We’re giving users a wider gamut of tools.”
The keyboard was developed by the Microsoft Garage, a research lab inside Microsoft dedicated to “developing the hacking culture” with various cutting-edge apps and projects. It’s available to anyone running iOS 9.1 and later.
Available for: iPhone/iPad
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store
Facebook Mentions
Live-steaming apps like Meerkat and Periscope continue to go from strength to strength, and this week Facebook added to its own live-streaming service through a neat update.
Facebook’s Mentions app now lets users control which friends and followers can see a particular live stream (choosing just your immediate family, for instance), add live user comments and reactions such as “love,” “angry,” and “sad,” and also change the look and feel of their video using filters.
If you’re a fan of live-streaming, Facebook’s offering is certainly one worth checking out — and this latest update makes it better than ever. The ability to draw on a live video is reportedly “coming soon.”
Available for: iPhone/iPad
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store
GarageBand
Photo: Apple
Moving from Microsoft Garage to Apple’s GarageBand, the popular OS X music-making tool also got a big update over the past seven days, with GarageBand 10.1.1 — adding integration support for iPhone and iPad apps Music Memos, GarageBand for iOS, and Logic Remote for iPhone and iPad Pro.
On top of this, there are more than 2,600 new Apple Loops and sounds, improved reliability when downloading additional content, and various enhancements to the software’s Accessibility.
If you’re a GarageBand user, this is one update you should definitely get your hands on!
Available for: Mac
Cost: $4.99
Get it from: App Store
Disqus
Photo: Disqus
Disqus is one of the top blog comment hosting services around, and this week the company released the first version of its iOS app. If you’re a regular commenter online, the app offers a one-stop-shop for everything from notification inbox and user profile access to a means by which to find out the latest trending discussions taking place on the channels and sites you follow.
There’s also the ability to block other users, so that posts from them will no longer be visible: something which, as far as I’m aware, is a first for Disqus unless you’re a comments moderator.
Disqus’ app is still very much a work in progress — and I’d expect to see it change over time — but it’s definitely worth checking out at this stage.
Available for: iPhone, iPad
Cost: Free
Get it from: App Store
