Tis the season for playing around with weird iOS apps with your friends and family, and boy, do we have a doozy for you. It’s called Face Swap Live, and it does exactly what it says on the tin.
How to restore older versions of iOS apps
Usually, an app update is a good thing. But sometimes, things go wrong: An update does the opposite of what you expect it to do. In that scenario, you want to roll your apps back, but unfortunately, at least on the iOS and Mac App Stores, Apple makes that seemingly impossible.
But it isn’t impossible — just a little tricky. Here’s how to roll your iOS apps back to an older version when things go wrong.
Mobile developers: Here’s your chance to learn Swift, and fast
For any mobile developer, learning Swift is a must. It’s an intuitive and fast language that’s key to iOS, OS X, tvOS, and watchOS. This bundle of four lessons — in the form of 3 apps and an E-book — will get you up to speed in practicing coding, testing scripts, and more. And the best part: the whole shebang is just $9.99.
Dark Fear will scare you to death this Christmas
T’was the night(s) before Christmas and all through the App Store, not a creature was moving except… wait, was that? I thought I was alone in here!
Welcome to the world of Dark Fear, a retro-styled pixel horror game that’s creepy and creative enough to keep you tingling throughout the holiday season.
There’s a reason it’s so damn scary: Dark Fear was created by Arif Majothi, a 38-year-old game developer who got his start working on horror movies. He combined his mastery of the horror genre with his love of classic ’80s and ’90s Sierra games like Phantasmagoria (it even starts with an MS-DOS-style floppy disk prompt).
The resulting title pays homage to the past, while being spooky enough to scare the bejesus out of you in the closing days of 2015. What more could you ask for?
The sequel to the best iOS game of 2013 is finally here
Badland 2, the sequel to popular game that won Apple’s iPad Game of the Year award in 2013, is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
The new fantasy adventure game comes just in time for Christmas, sending you on a wild ride through a dark alien wasteland full of flamethrowers, buzzsaws, lava, oil and more obstacles to thwart your progress.
Check out the full trailer:
It’s about time: Pebble Health app plays catch-up with Apple Watch
You no longer have to rely on third-party apps to track your fitness on a Pebble watch. Pebble is today rolling out a new update that adds Pebble Health, a new fitness and sleep tracking feature that wants to help you become fitter and healthier.
iPhone 6s users can now use 3D Touch in Outlook
Microsoft has given its Outlook iOS app an overhaul — offering iPhone 6s owners the chance to use 3D Touch to create new emails and events, or access the calendar directly.
iOS and Mac attacks will rise in 2016, but Apple still No. 1 for security
Security firms Symantec and FireEye say that 2016 is set to usher in an increase in the number of attacks on Apple systems — following a rise in the quantity of threats to Mac computers, and the more-than-doubling of iOS malware in 2015.
New iPhone app Yallo lets you record your conversations
When I first became a reporter, I bought one of those little mics you could suction-cup to a telephone to record interviews. That was some gadget, except for having to tape it to the handset because the suction cup sometimes popped off.
You can still buy this kind of microphone or use your smartphone with an app called Yallo. A simple interface lets you record incoming calls, share the recorded conversation with an associate or have recordings transcribed and automatically sent to email.
Here’s how Mac and iOS absolutely dominated the enterprise in 2015
Apple didn’t just see a standard year-over-year improvement in the enterprise market in 2015. iPhones, iPads and Macs all saw significant growth and adoption rates over the competition. JAMF Software published its annual survey for 2015 that reveals trends about Apple products and their role in the enterprise. The findings are excellent news for the folks in Cupertino: enterprise users adore OS X and iOS.
“Driven by user preference, increased productivity capabilities, and security advantages, Apple is no longer requested by users and executives—it’s demanded,” JAMF reports.
Microsoft Cortana makes its official debut on Android and iOS
Microsoft Cortana is now officially available on Android and iOS following its beta run. The digital assistant, which has long been baked into Windows Phone and now Windows 10, hopes to compete with Siri and Google Now for a place on your device.
Apple TV’s first big update adds Siri search for Apple Music
The latest iteration of Apple TV’s operating system, tvOS 9.1, is out of beta and ready for the big screen.
The new update includes support for searching Apple Music with your voice, via the fantastic Siri Remote, so you no longer have to type in long artist names with the weird keyboard line that Apple offers you.
Sony splits PlayStation Messages into standalone app
Sony’s PlayStation app for mobile has always been something of a disaster, with a poor user interface and painfully slow performance. That’s still true today — but now you don’t have to use it when all you want to do is message friends on the PlayStation Network.
In an effort to be a better messaging service, PlayStation Messages has gone solo. With the new PlayStation Messages app for Android and iOS, you can keep in touch with the rest of your clan without having to use the main PlayStation app at all.
Coding is the next level of literacy, says Apple software boss
Teaching your kids how to code is pretty much as important as teaching them to write, according to Apple’s senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, in an interview promoting the company’s Hour of Code project.
Apple is turning all of its retail locations into coding centers for kids this week. The classes will offer hands-on instructions into the basics of coding that Federighi says will hopefully set of a spark with the young learners.
Google Calendar now supports reminders on Android and iOS
Google Calendar is bringing your appointments and to-do list together with a new update that adds support for reminders. Calendar will display your tasks and to-dos alongside meetings and events so they’re harder to forget, and sync them across Inbox, Gmail, Google Keep, and Google Now.
PhotoPanda, Groove Planet and other awesome apps of the week
From a photography app with a difference to a math training app with human curation and a fantastic classic iOS puzzle game going free, we’ve sifted through this week’s most exciting apps to bring you the ones you absolutely need to download now.
Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!
Beats Music subscriber, your time is almost up
If you’re still subscribed to Beats Music instead of Apple Music, your days are numbered. Until January 19, you have the opportunity to save all of your playlists and migrate your account data over to Apple Music if you wish to do so. But after that, Apple will discard of your current data.
Pro Tip: Access your Apple Music playlists anywhere
I made an Apple Music playlist of Paste’s top 50 albums of 2015 via iTunes on my Mac. I was able to share it out on Facebook and to my friends via Messages, but I wasn’t able to see the playlist on my iPhone.
I made sure that I was logged in to my iTunes account on both my Mac and my iPhone, I signed in and out of iCloud, and I even force-quit Apple Music on my iPhone to try and fix the issue. None of these options worked.
After a bit of searching on the internet, I figured out what the problem was.
Here’s what you can do if you’re having the same issue.
Apple’s Swift programming language goes open source
Swift, the fast growing computer programming language created by Apple, is officially going open source starting today.
Apple unveiled Swift at WWDC in 2014 with a promise to make it open source in the future. Now that the language has become one of the fastest adopted languages in history, the company announced this morning that the time is right to open up access.
Android users defect to iPhone 6s at unprecedented rate
Apple’s iPhone family becomes even more successful every year, and the latest models aren’t just a hit with faithful fans. According to new research, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are attracting Android switchers at an unprecedented rate.
Stunning iOS puzzler Monument Valley goes free for first time
Tremendous iOS puzzle game Monument Valley has just gone free on iOS for the first time in its history.
Inspired by the surrealistic designs of M.C. Escher, the title is a triumph of isometric design, in which the player guides a princess through a series of impossible structures in a game that Apple lyrically described as, “akin to a walk through a museum or listening to a music album.”
Seriously, download it now.
Samsung’s first iOS app will make Gear S2 watch iPhone-friendly
Samsung is working on its first app for iOS, and it’s going to allow iPhone owners to use its new Gear S2 smartwatch. The South Korean company is working on the Gear Manager app now, according to sources — and Samsung is keen to make it available as soon as possible.
78% of Thanksgiving mobile shopping took place on iOS devices
Early Thanksgiving online sale reports suggest that Apple devices were once again the platform of choice for people doing their holiday shopping.
How dominant were Apple devices in this category? Well, according to analytics firm Custora E-Commerce Pulse, iOS devices accounted for a massive 78.3 percent of all mobile e-commerce orders in the U.S., compared to 21.5 percent for Android devices.
Instagram update lets you seamlessly manage multiple accounts
Instagram is bringing a great new update to Android and iOS that allows users to seamlessly manage multiple accounts. The change means you’ll finally be able to access your personal and professional feeds — and the one dedicated to your cat — without having to log out and back in.
Fossil’s first smartwatch is here in time for the holidays
Fossil’s first Android Wear watch, the stunning Q Founder, has finally arrived. The device ships with a bunch of exclusive Fossil faces, and it can be ordered from Fossil’s online store now for $295.