The Netflix app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has been updated to bring high-definition video streaming to devices running iOS 7. The release also adds support for AirPlay, and some improvements and optimizations that make the app more stable under Apple’s latest software.
Apple reported some system outages early Wednesday, with multiple services going down between 9:30 and 11:00 am. Game Center and FaceTime were also down for a shorter period of time around 9:30, an outage lasting till 9:45 or so. Here’s what that looks like:
Multiple Services – 9:28 AM – 10:57 AM – Some users were affected
Users may have been unable to make purchases from the App Store, iTunes Store, Mac App Store, or iBookstore. Users may also have been unable to access iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, or restore purchases from an iCloud backup.
If you were trying to connect to the App, iTunes, or Mac App Stores during this time (or the iBookstore), you may have had trouble. You may have had trouble accessing iTunes in the Cloud, iTunes Match, or restoring purchases from an iCloud backup. It wasn’t you, luckily, but Apple.
Here’s how to find out in the future whether it’s you, or Apple, that’s not letting you use the services.
The Hulu Plus apps for Android and iOS have today been updated with support for Google Chromecast. You’ll find a new ‘Cast’ button within the app that will stream your favorite shows to your television with the help of the $35 dongle.
Clear for iPhone, the wonderful to-do app from Realmac Software, has now been optimized for Apple’s latest iOS 7 software. It features the latest Clear design — which was originally debuted in Clear+ last month — coupled with all of the functionality that makes Clear one of the finest to-do apps for iOS.
What’s more, Clear is now available on your iPad.
Apple doesn’t like to allow emulators into the App Store, so try submitting one for approval and you’ll quickly get a big fat no. But some cunning iOS developers have found a way to sneak emulators through Apple’s App Store approval process by making them look like innocent apps.
The latest hit the App Store today. It’s called Earthquake 7 and its App Store description promises “the latest earthquake news.” But enter a secret phrase into its search bar and you have an emulator that plays all of your favorite Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles.
Skitch, Evernote’s nifty image editing tool, has this week been given a new design and new features for iOS 7. In addition to a completely redesigned interface, the app now offers announcements for tips and information, new toolbars, and more.
BBM’s cross-platform launch failed miserably this weekend. The app made its way to the iPhone in a small few countries, but the rollout was halted before it could reach the United States — or Google Play.
BlackBerry’s excuse for the catastrophic failure was that a leaked BBM APK for Android was causing some server troubles, and now the Canadian company has told fans that it will “take some time” to fix the problem, and that we should not expect to see the app this week.
EA Sports has brought the controversial free-to-play game model to the world’s biggest soccer franchise in FIFA 14 for iOS, which is now available to download from the App Store — three days before the big console release.
The title boasts a whole heap of improvements, including a new and intuitive control system, online multiplayer, a game of the week feature, and the hugely popular FIFA Ultimate Team mode.
Here at Cult of Mac, we love Mailbox, the third-party Gmail client for iOS. But since it was optimized for iOS 7, it has been plagued by a hugely frustrating bug that causes email accounts to be deleted at random. Fortunately, the app’s latest update — which is available from the App Store now — finally fixes the problem.
But at what cost?
BBM for Android and iOS is now officially available to download from the App Store and Google Play. It’s the first time in its history that the popular messaging service has been brought to a third-party platform — but with services like WhatsApp and Viber already dominating cross-platform chat, is it too late?
You’ll be blown away by the new Touch ID fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s the first time you use it. You’ll be prompted to set it up when you first start up your iPhone, and you’ll have to scan your fingerprint numerous times at different angles before your iPhone is happy with it. Once it’s recorded, you can use the tip of your finger to unlock your device and authorize purchases from iTunes and the App Store.
Good news, Google Wallet users — you can now access your account on your iOS device with an official Google Wallet app. You can use it to make payments to friends, track your loyalty cards, and access nearby offers. One feature you won’t find, however, is tap-to-pay, which relies on NFC connectivity.
With iOS7, Apple has upped the cap for app downloads over cellular to 100MB, meaning that if you carelessly hit “update all” for your apps when you’re out of the house, and you have a bunch of game updates pending for your iPhone, then you could potentially burn through your entire month’s bandwidth allowance in one go.
BlackBerry has finally provided us with launch dates for its new BBM apps for Android and iOS. Just as we expected, the popular messaging service will reach Google Play first on Saturday, September 21 — before popping up in the App Store just a day later on Sunday, September 22.
Along with the launch of iOS 7, pretty much every significant app developer in the iOS ecosystem has been hard at work to get their apps redesigned and optimized for iOS 7. We’ve been covering most of the important app updates throughout the day, but Apple just created a Designed for iOS 7 section in the App Store making it easier for iOS 7 users to get more apps to see the full effect of Jony Ive’s changes.
The new sections features popular apps such as Evernote, Zillow, NYTimes, Open Table, RunKeeper, Digg, Venmo, Shazam, and many more. You sort through the list by Featured apps, Release Date and Name. Best of all Apple’s been updating the list throughout the day so you don’t have to scour the web for each update.
Source: iTunes
BlackBerry Messenger is close to becoming a cross-platform messaging service for the first time, but when will you be able to download the app on your Android and iOS devices? BlackBerry has been pretty quiet about launch dates up until now, but a new rumor claims BBM will hit Google Play this Friday, September 20, before landing on the App Store a day later.
Amazon has added AirPlay support to its popular video streaming app – Amazon Instant Video. Starting today, the new feature allows iOS users to push video from their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to the Apple TV. Not quite as good as having an Amazon Instant Video channel on the Apple TV, but the move is sure to satisfy Amazon Prime users for the time being.
The update also includes more IMDB integration with cast info, ratings, trivia and quotes. Amazon also says the updated app is faster, more responsive and now supports concurrent downloads. There’s also a new “Customers who watched this also watched…” feature to help users discover more movies and spend more time and money on Amazon. The free update is available now in the App Store.
Source: iTunes
Thanks: Charles!
Would you pay for your favorite app more than once? App Store developers are betting that you will.
When Apple unleashes iOS 7 on September 18th, hundreds of thousands of apps will be revamped for the new operating system in the days and weeks to come.
Each major 1.0 release of iOS marks an opportunity for app developers to go back to the drawing board. And with its radically new design language and hundreds of new APIs, devs are seeing iOS 7 as not only a clean slate, but a chance to earn more money off their existing apps.
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.