Skype has updated its official iOS app today, finally introducing the ability to send and receive photographs on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. The update also brings visual improvements across the app, fixes bugs affecting Bluetooth, and more.
There are so many thousands of apps out there — over half a million on Apple’s App Store — that it is virtually impossible to keep track of good bargains going for a song on the App Store. And developers are constantly putting apps on sale, allowing bargains galore the minute they become available — if only you knew they were. AppZapp for iPad / iPhone watches the App Store for you and keeps you informed of hundreds of price drops every day. With targeted apps in sorted lists, AppZapp knows what you like and keeps you informed of all the latest bargains in the App Store.
In a fantastic blog post, designer Josh Lehman begs us all to stop using the metaphor that many of us, press and developer alike, continue to spout when we hear a complaint about the price of a $0.99 app. “Look,” we say, again and again, “you’ll spend $4 on a cup of coffee at (insert your favorite coffe brand here, usually Starbucks), why won’t you spend a paltry $1 on my app?”
Lehman sees through the falsity of this argument, and then shows us why this attitude isn’t selling apps, either, regardless of its accuracy.
After three years and having been ported to every platform under the sun (including, of course, the Mac and iOS), the botanical is once again ready to go head-to-head against the zombological: Pop Cap has just announced that Plants vs. Zombies 2 is “germinating” and will hit the App Store in early 2013.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a brand new update to Instagram — the world’s most popular photo sharing service — that introduces an improved user interface and new features. We’ve also got a new Food Network app that every foodie should have, the official WWE app for wrestling fans, and a great educational app for the iPad that promises to teach your little ones how to write capital letters quickly and efficiently.
Kicking off this week’s must-have games roundup is a new game from Zynga that will blow your mind. It’s called Horn, and it’s a third-person action game with incredible, console-quality visuals and great gameplay. That’s accompanied by Mad Skills BMX from the creators of Mad Skills Motocross; Jack Lumber, the first game from the SEGA Alliance; Cafeteria Nipponica from Kairosoft, and more. Look out for the awesome new platformer from Ravenous Games, creators of the award-winning League of Evil.
Well-known video game developer and publisher, Sega, is taking a cue from publishers like Chillingo and helping indie game studios find their footing in an uncertain market.
The initiative, called the Sega Alliance, will assist independent developers with creative consultation, marketing, production, localization, and distribution tasks. The first indie studio to get this special support from Sega is Owlchemy Labs, the makers of Smuggle Truck and Snuggle Truck for iOS, Mac, and PC.
Developer Phosphor Games knocks it out of the park with a new, beautiful iOS game named after protagonist, Horn. The game uses the Unreal Engine and multitouch-based gestures to a third-person action adventure game. While the technology, visual style and swipe-based combat in Horn bring to mind Infinity Blade, it’s clear from the start that this is something different.
From the App description:
Google has issued an update to Google+ for iOS that makes it the first app to offer an “Open in Chrome” button for URLs. Version 3.1 also brings teen Hangouts, and bug fixes that promise to improve performance.
Last year, Nicholas G. was 12-years-old. He convinced his dad to get him a developer account from Apple, and began to learn how to program apps.
Nicholas is now 13, and the second update to his first app, Quick Notes!!, is out on the App Store. Version 1.0, says Nicholas, has already accrued over 3,000 downloads. How many downloads did your app have when you were 13? Mine didn’t have any. It still doesn’t.
Better yet? Nicholas hasn’t taken a programming class, at school or on the internet.
Remember The Simpsons: Tapped Out? It was a free iOS game from EA that launched earlier this year, but it only spent a short time in the App Store because it became so popular that EA’s servers couldn’t handle it and it was pulled. The company promised, however, that it would return, and it’s making its comeback this month.
IM+ and IM+ Pro, two hugely popular messaging apps from Shape Services, have been updated today to introduce a new feature dubbed “Off-the-Record” messaging. It’s a $4.99 in-app purchase that allows users to have secret, encrypted conversations with other IM+ users.
Verizon Wireless has announced that Viewdini is making its debut on iOS today, allowing users with an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, or new iPad to enjoy the video-on-demand service on the go. The app provides access to both free and subscription-based providers, including Comcast Xfinity, Hulu Plus, mSpot, Netflix, Vimeo, and more.
Each week Apple selects a paid App Store app and makes it totally free. CultCast listeners may know this already, but I’m a huge fan of Kayak for creating trip itineraries and ordering plane tickets, hotel rooms, etc.
There’s a free version of Kayak in the App Store that runs on the iPhone and iPad, but there’s also a pro version with additional features that normally sells for $1.
While Apple’s latest iOS 6 beta didn’t make any significant changes to the platform’s front-end — aside from removing the YouTube app — it did make some changes under the hood. In addition to “bug fixes,” it appears the fourth beta has made some improvements to App Store download times that make updating your apps super snappy.
The BBC has updated its iOS today, finally delivering high-resolutions visuals for the third-generation iPad. It also introduces “improved video performance,” better accessibility with VoiceOver controls, and more.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a brand new Twitter client called Slices, which claims to be the world’s first Twitter app that allows you to break your timeline into individual streams, follow live events, browse Twitter by category, and more. We also have a “magical” app called Cardiio that accurately monitors your heart rate simply by looking at your face; the best blogging app for iPad yet called Pages; and more.
Heading up this week’s must-have iOS games roundup is a brand new Ghostbusters game that promises to be the best augmented reality game in the App Store. We also have a great online strategy game in the form of Tiny War XD, Activision’s legendary Pitfall!, and more.
Seriously, don’t. Why encourage the developer of this sneaky Trojan horse of an app when it’s only going to be pulled from the App Store, whether tonight, tomorrow, or on Monday? Paying $1.99 to a developer who’s fairly obviously hiding tethering features within a app isn’t the way to advocate for a loosening of the restrictions on such features.
The app, called DiscoRecorder, was released today by developer Michael Leatherbury. The screenshots uploaded to the App store (see above) show only a black and white skeuomorphic cassette tape recorder interface and some innocuous recorded voice memos. What the app really does is completely different.
Turborilla, the developers behind Mad Skills Motocross — of the best side-scrolling racing games on iOS — has released its first teaser trailer for Mad Skills BMX, which is coming to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on August 16. The clip shows off the upcoming title’s gameplay, and offers a hilarious little cartoon alongside it.
I featured UX Write in one of my must-have apps roundups when it first hit the App Store, because it’s one of the best word processors available on iOS. It has now received its first update, and it’s a fairly major one, introducing support for external keyboards, autosave, dictation on supported devices, and more.
I’ve always had a lot of love for Things for iOS, ever since I began using it on my iPhone 3G. But lately I’ve felt the iOS version has been lacking a few key features, and struggling to compete with rival solutions. Today, however, Things has received a massive update packed full of new features, including a fresh new look, and Things Cloud syncing. But does it do enough?
So, there’s a new app out there for the iPhone that will let you create a temproary number that routes to your real phone number, and can be set to stop working, or “burn,” after a set amount of time. Basically, the free Burner app comes with enough credits to create a temporary phone number called a mini-burner that expires after 20 minutes of talk time and/or 60 text messages, or after 7 days. Or you can burn it sooner.
Inbound and outbound calls use up your actual phone plan minutes and/or texts, but the actual identity of the caller and callee are kept private. You can then buy more credits, in various tiers starting at 3 for $1.99. These can be used to buy burner numbers of different lengths, or to extend burners you’re currently using.
Yeah, we all want to think we’re James Bond, but the reality is probably more mundane. Or, you know, way to hook up anonymously (possible NSFW link). As the iTunes description says, “** What will you use Burner for? **”
Apple and Google haven’t exactly been been on the best of terms in recent years. The stock YouTube iOS app disappearing is a more recent example of the bad blood between the two companies. Google tried its best to sherlock Apple’s 3D technology in the iOS 6 Maps app, and many moves Apple and Google make can be seen as direct outcomes of the bad blood Steve Jobs spoke of when he vowed to wage thermonuclear war on Android.
Apple and Google may hate each other, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t compete in the same markets. Today Google lifted the curtain on a major update that’s coming to its iOS Search app. The new version of the app will feature smart, contextual voice recognition that clearly mimics Apple’s own digital assistant, Siri.
Almost two years after making its debut on the iPad, The New Yorker is finally available on the iPhone — and it comes with two free issues from August 13 and August 20. Like the iPad app, it delivers new issues automatically every Monday morning when you subscribe, and each one is packed with videos, audio, infographics, and images that you won’t find in the print edition.