The best audio-wrangling, Apple Watch-complicating and photo-editing apps this week

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app roundup graphic
Photos, music, watches, and math.
Photo: Cult of Mac

This week we edit photos using the iPad’s trackpad, solve math problems with a Mac keyboard shortcut, add dynamic complications to our watches with Watchsmith, and more.

Watchsmith

Watchsmith app: Things just got extra-complicated.
Things just got extra-complicated.
Image: Cross Forward Consulting

Indie developer David Smith’s new Watchsmith is an ultra-customizable Apple Watch complications app. The concept is simple. Watchsmith lets you display different information in its watch complication, depending on the time of day. So, it could show the date first thing in the morning, the weather later in the day, a star field at night, and maybe the battery level sometime in late afternoon. A subscription unlocks weather and other extras, but you can try Watchsmith for free.

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Download: Watchsmith from the App Store (iOS)

Pixelmator Photo

Pixelmator Photo: Download the newest update today
Download the newest update today.
Photo: Pixelmator

Pixelmator Photo, my favorite photo album/editing app on iOS, now supports iOS 13.4’s trackpad cursor and gestures. It also adds the amazing ML Match Colors tool, which lets you drag one photo on top of another, and applies the colors from one to the other. You can make your photos look like paintings from old masters, for instance.

Price: $4.99

Download: Pixelmator Photo from the App Store (iOS)

Soulver

Calculator app Soulver is like a notepad that does math
Soulver is like a notepad that does math.
Photo: Aqualia

A cross between a calculator and a text editor, Soulver makes regular calculator apps look useless and dated. And now its new QuickSoulver panel lets you do quick math in a Spotlight-like pop-up window.

Price: $29.95

Download: Soulver (macOS)

Big AUM and AudioShare updates

AUM and Audio Share: Two great iOS music apps work better together.
Two great iOS music apps work better together.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Kymatica’s AUM and AudioShare are two essential music apps on iOS, and both got big updates this week. The list of new features for both apps is long, so let me just mention one amazing addition that ties both apps together. AUM is a host app for all kinds of Audio Unit plugins. Plus, it can route audio from here to there and back. AudioShare is a kind of Finder for music, with many built-in editing features. The two are closely tied together.

If you make a recording in AUM, for instance, it will be saved in AudioShare. Now, you can long-press (right-click) on any audio file in AudioShare, and it will be added instantly to a new lane in AUM, ready to play.

AUM – Audio Mixer

Price: $19.99

Download: AUM – Audio Mixer from the App Store (iOS)

AudioShare

Price: $3.99

Download: AudioShare from the App Store (iOS)

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