This week we find nearby friends with Yoke, count our steps with Pedometer++, add lights and shadows to our photos with Apollo, and enjoy Ulysses’ superior split view on the iPad.
Pedometer++
Photo: Cross Forward
Every discerning iPhone owner’s favorite step-counting app — Pedometer++ 4.0 — just got updated with a clever dark mode, fixed time-zone support, and a while bunch of alternate icons. The dark modes are the best part for me — you can pick one based on how it looks, or you can switch to a version optimized for the colorblind.
Fixed time-zone support is also great. Previously, the app would show you the day’s step total for your current time zone. This could glitch things up when traveling, so now you can pick a fixed home time zone.
Price: Free
Download: Pedometer++ from the App Store (iOS)
Apollo: Immersive illumination
Photo: Apollo
Apollo — the app that let’s you re-light your Portrait Mode photos by using the 3-D depth data they contain — now adds shadows. And not just the cheesy heart- and star-shaped overlays that are already in the app. This update uses the same 3-D data to make sure that the lights you add will cast realistic shadows. It’s pretty wild.
Price: $2.99
Download: Apollo: Immersive illumination from the App Store (iOS)
Yoke
Photo: Yoke
Sponsored: Yoke is a dead-simple app with a great premise: It alerts you whenever any of your friends are nearby. Once notified, you can message each other and arrange to hook up. Nobody’s precise location is made available, so the app remains a stalker-free zone. You can add friends from Facebook, or simply sign up with your email address.
Price: Free
Download: Yoke from the App Store (iOS)
Ulysses for iPad
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Top iPad writing app Ulysses gets a big update this week. It adds support for the Ghost publishing platform. But, more importantly, you can now enjoy split view. This lets you display and edit two documents on the screen at once. You can copy and paste between them, and switch panes using the keyboard.
In fact, Ulysses’s split-screen interface is so much better than Apple’s built-in Split View that I wish it worked everywhere.
Price: Free trial with subscription
Download: Ulysses from the App Store (iOS)
