iOS7 has a ton of tiny touches that make life easier (like automatically zooming pixel-doubled iPhone apps on the iPad, and using the retina iPhone assets even on the iPad mini), but it looks like users of older versions of iOS aren’t being left out. Or maybe Apple really, really wants developers to go iOS7-only.
With the cooler months approaching (at least here in the Northern hemisphere), many of us turn our attention towards taking on a new hobby or learning something new that can take our work – and even our lives – to new heights. There are more opportunities to generate revenue from hobbies than ever before thanks to technology, and Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that certainly fits this category.
For a limited time you can get The Ultimate Xcode Fundamentals Course, where you’ll learn how to build and launch iOS apps – even if you’ve never looked at Xcode before. This video course is only $79 courtesy of Cult of Mac Deals.
Way back in 2011, Apple unveiled Cards, a new app that allowed you to create beautiful cards on your iPhone, then Apple would print them out and mail it out for you.
I always liked the idea of Cards, and kept it around on my iPhone for the last couple of years, thinking someday I might have the opportunity to actually use it. That opportunity never really came around for me, though, and I guess I’m not the only one: Apple has just quietly killed Cards for good.
When Apple introduced Photo Stream to iCloud back in 2011, the Cupertino company made it incredibly quick and easy for its users to share their favorite photos with their friends and family without syncing them to their computer first. But Photo Stream has a downside, and that is that it’s only available on iOS.
Fortunately, there are plenty of awesome alternatives with cross-platform support, and one of those is Kicksend. Not only does Kicksend let you share photos with friends — regardless of the smartphone platform they choose — but it also lets you print and send real photos to those who don’t have a smartphone at all.
Are you a big user of the iOS Kindle app? If you intend on updating to iOS 7 first thing when it drops next week, you might want to update your Kindle app sooner rather than later. A new critical update has been released that Amazon says will prevent iOS 7 from messing your Kindle library up.
Microsoft has today launched Xbox Music on Android and iOS almost a year after the music streaming service made its debut alongside Windows 8. The apps allow subscribers to stream tens of millions of songs straight to their mobile devices, and create playlists that sync across your smartphone, tablet, PC, and Xbox 360.
Microsoft has also updated its Xbox Music web app to offer free, ad-supported streaming for all.
If you’ve been running the iOS 7 beta, or have seen it up close, then you’ll be familiar with the ugly icon problem, in which some icons have janky edges thanks to a change of the corner radius in iOS 7. You can see the changes in this animated GIF from Czech site Letem Světem Applem (or something), which shows the design change as applied to the icons in the iTunes Store.
Shazam, Shazam Encore, and Shazam RED for iOS have today been updated with a number of new features and improvements. In addition to faster recognition on older iOS devices, and improved recognition in “difficult” environments, the release also brings Twitter previews and new TV experiences for those in the United States.
Can’t make it to this year’s iTunes Festival in London? Don’t worry — you’ll be able to enjoy the whole thing live from the comfort of your armchair. Apple has today updated its official iTunes Festival London app to add video streaming for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
Imo Messenger, the messaging service that now boasts over 10 million users worldwide, has today received a nice new update on Android and iOS. In addition to free video calling on both platforms, the new release adds the ability to share broadcasts to your favorite social networks on iOS, and makes the app a universal release with support for both iPhone and iPad.
When Apple introduced iOS 7, one of the new features was a section in the App Store called “Near Me.” The idea is simple: using some kind of location-based algorithm, the App Store shows you apps that are relevant to your specific area. It’s like Genius, but more specific.
Apple obviously wants people to use Near Me, as the category is given the center menu button in the iOS 7 beta App Store. The feature wasn’t enabled in earlier betas of iOS 7, but some users are now able to use it to find apps.
Unlike Apple, Google likes to make its hardware compatible with all of your other gadgets — regardless of which platform they’re running. So you may have purchased a $35 Chromecast dongle to work with your iOS devices. If so, you’ll be interested in Google’s new Chromecast app, which lets you set up and manage your dongle from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
48,000 people are about to descend on Black Rock City, Nevada to join in the Burning Man festival experiment. There’s going to be art galore, crazy events, weird costumes for days, and the brutal Black Rock Desert meting out its hellish punishments on each and every Burner.
Making the trip to BRC is easy, but surviving is entirely different, so we’ve found eight great apps that will help you get out of the desert alive:
Documents by Readdle — the free iOS app that replaces a dedicated document viewer, PDF reader, download manager, music player, and more — has today received another new update that adds even more nifty features.
In addition to photo library integration, you’ll also find drag and drop file organization, and the ability to “star” your most important or most frequently used files.
Yahoo released an update today for its recently redesigned Yahoo Sports app for iOS that includes the addition of MMA coverage along with improving some of the UI and bugs.
The app also comes with improved scoring summaries and an expanded view for football games, as well as WNBA info and improved external article rendering. The update is available now in the App Store for free.
Here are the release notes:
Gameloft has published a stunning new Asphalt 8: Airborne trailer today, ahead of tomorrow’s launch on iOS. As its name suggests, the latest Asphalt game is all about defying gravity and performing insane jumps that’ll give you the edge in each race — and there’s plenty of that to enjoy in the new clip.
The iTunes Festival is an annual, month-long music festival and concert series that Apple has thrown since 2007 at the Roundhouse Art Centre in London. Earlier this year, Apple revealed the lineup for the 2013 Festival, but now Cupertino is starting to get the ball rolling on the festivities, updating the Apple TV with a new channel and updating the iTunes Festival iOS app accordingly.
Google announced a new version of its YouTube app for iPhone and iPad is hitting the App Store today. YouTube 2.0 includes a bunch of new features, including the ability to watch a video while searching for the next great thing to watch.
The app sports better Chromecast integration as well, complete with a new preview screen that lets you queue up videos to push to your TV. There’s also a “play all” feature that allows users to watch every single video in a playlist without having to queue anything up.
The free update is available now in the App Store and Google Play.
Here’s a video of the new features:
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have successfully found a way to sneak malicious iOS apps past Apple’s strict App Store review process that is designed to prevent such software from making its way onto our devices.
The technique used a seemingly innocent app called “Jekyll” that could be updated after approval to carry out harmful actions without triggering security alarms.
Plants vs. Zombies 2 hasn’t even been available to download from the U.S. App Store for a full week yet, and it has already seen over 16 million downloads, making it the “biggest mobile game launch” in EA’s history. It’s no wonder the company is already planning a new “Far Future” update that will bring new content to the free-to-play title.
The iPhone 5 has been on sale for almost a year now — in fact, its successor is right around the corner — and the award-winning physical puzzler World of Goo has finally been updated to support its larger 4-inch display. If you’re one of the many millions of people who love this title, this is a great excuse to play it all over again.
The most you can charge for an app on the iOS App Store is $999.99. In the early days of the App Store, a number of novelty apps came out, trying to make a quick buck by convincing gullible plutocrats to part with their money in the form of a $1,000 app download. The most notable example is I Am Rich, an iPhone app that literally did nothing except proclaim your affluence.
These days, though, the $999.99 club is made up of legitimate apps. Well, mostly.
Remember Gameloft’s $80 Duo Gamer Controller? It was launched in October 2012 and it brought physical controls to our favorite Gameloft games on iOS — but it had a number of major flaws. The biggest one was that it was only compatible with Gameloft games, and that made its $80 price tag all the more bemusing.
But it’s not such a bad purchase at $6.36, which is all you’ll pay for it on Amazon right now.
Google updated its flagship social network app for Google+ on iOS today, bringing it up to par with the recently released Android Google+ app update. The new features includes integration with Google Drive, the loss of Google Messenger in favor of Google Hangouts, and some new stuff for Apps for Business users.
If I told you that Apple had a monopoly over all of the apps sold through the iTunes App Store, what would you say? Would you stammer for a little bit, eyes boggling, trying to understand how an injustice like this could happen in our tightly regulated markets? Or would you say, “No kidding, Sherlock. The App Store is their exclusive proprietary platform. It’s a walled garden,” and then, perhaps to emphasize what an idiot you think I am, slowly twirling one finger around your ear while using another to rapidly flick your lower lip up and down while googling your eyes?
I can’t blame you; I’d probably do the latter myself. Yet would you believe that an antitrust complaint was filed against Apple because there aren’t third-party app stores allowed on the iOS platform? Of course someone did. The case has been dismissed by a U.S. District judge, but not because it was a stupid complaint, but because the plaintiffs made a procedural mistake.