apps - page 26

Yesterday, reacting to the news that Spotify was getting a darker look on the Mac, we despaired that it would ever catch up to the aesthetic appeal of Rdio.

As if they heard our words, Rdio widened the gap a little more today, releasing a new update that contains not only iOS 7-oriented UI improvements, but a notable new feature as well.

Jolicloud, the Norwegian Dropbox alternative that doesn’t have to secretly give your data to the U.S. police state whenever it’s asked, has made available a beta version of its v2.0 web app. And it’s pretty amazing. Up until now, Jolicloud was very similar in intent and execution to Dropbox: a folder that’s everywhere.

Now, though, you not only get online access to your Jolicloud folder, but to all your other internet accounts. Including Dropbox.

You may remember Unclutter, the app which “sweeps away desktop detritus.” Well, now it’s back, and it’s tidier than ever.

Among a long list of cool new features added to Boinx’s iStopMotion for Mac, two stand out. The first is that you can hook up a Canon DSLR and see it’s live-view output right in the app. But the second is the one you’ll really be interested in: iStopMotion now outputs animated GIFs.

Once the king of mobile gaming, over the past few years, Nintendo has found itself caught flatfooted by the rise of smartphones. Although the company’s 3DS portable game console can’t be said to be a total flop, it’s certainly not selling in gangbuster units compared to previous consoles, like the DS or Gameboy. The reason why is simple: most people have a perfectly good gaming device in their pockets all the time now in the form of their smartphone, and don’t want to have to carry around (let alone buy) an entirely separate device dedicated to gaming.

Many critics have suggested that it’s time for Nintendo to give up and just start releasing games based on its prize characters such as Mario or Link as iOS apps. Such advice is short-sighted, but that doesn’t mean Nintendo can’t be better leveraging Apple’s iOS platform… which is exactly what the Big N seems to have in mind.

Imagine that one of your photos was printed onto a sheet of card, and that this piece of card was carefully sliced and cut to chop it into a series of concentric rings, or concentric squares, or just a geometric pattern of tiles.

The imagine moving these sections with your finger to make a fragmented version of your picture, only because you’re using the Fragment app instead of real scissors and paper, there are never any gaps between the pieces. Sound like fun right?

Photos+ is a new iPhone app from Justin Williams aka Second Gear software aka the developer of iOS text editor Elements. Photos+ is in the “one thing well” school of apps: it lets you look at the photos you have on your iPhone, and it does a better job that the built in app. In most ways at least.

MIDI Guitar for GarageBand is a Mac app (remember those?) that turns your guitar into a MIDI controller for, well, for any instrument you like. Thus you can thrash away on your axe like the heavy metal rock god you are, and have the sound emerging from the speakers be a plinking, ringing triangle.

With all the RAM we have these days, it’s easy to get some serious screen clutter going on when you have a ton of apps open.

You can hide the current app with Command-H, and you can hide all the other apps except the current app with Command-Option-H.

But did you know you could go to any app that’s currently running, while simultaneously hiding all the other running apps?

You know how most image editing apps have a “paint” filter that supposedly makes you photo look like it was actually made with oils or watercolors? And you know how they all – ALL – suck? Then Waterlogue is going to utterly amaze you, as it’s the first app I’ve seen that gives results that really look like a watercolor painting.

Then again, as the app comes from the folks behind Popsicolor and Percolator, it’s not that surprising that it’s so damned good.

This week on the CultCast—its layout, its machinery, and the creative people and processes that build the amazing products we love—we go behind the veil of Apple’s insanely secretive design studio. Plus, how to get great paid apps for free (it’s legal, promise!), and could an Apple/Microsoft merger be in our future? One analyst thinks so…

Have a few laughs whilst getting caught up on each week’s finest Apple stories! Download new and past episodes of The CultCast on iTunes or hit play below and let the audio enjoyment commence.

Thanks to lynda.com for sponsoring this episode. Learn at your own pace from expert-taught video tutorials at lynda.com.

Mojang’s Minecraft is one of the best games on the Mac, but the iPhone and iPad version has always been slightly behind when it comes to features. But with its latest update, the biggest yet, Minecraft – Pocket Edition is catching up, adding some of Minecraft’s best features, including the ability to make roller coasters with minecars and rails!

Although a graceful crystal ballet danced in the world of symbols, for those of us who aren’t particularly math minded, all those plus signs, minus signs, dividers and parentheses can get confusing when we’re trying to figure out a problem.

For us, iOS app Soulver is a godsend, allowing you to perform various mathematical captions and functions by just typing them out on real text. Today, the plain text math app has received a beefy update, not only updating its look for iOS 7 on iPad, but also making it universal.

Prepare to take a trip to a dimpled, plastic galaxy far, far away. Warner Bros. has just released LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga to the iOS App Store. And even better, they finally figured out something to do with the Phantom Menace!

The first time I played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was over ten years ago, and if you told me that one day, I would be able to play this massive 70+ hour open-ended carnage simulator, not on a bulky console, but a device thinner than a pack of cards I could fit into my pocket, I would have told you you were mad. Yet here we are, as Rockstar Games has released San Andreas to the iOS App Store.

There’s no shortage of cloud storage providers, but Amazon’s one of the best around. If you make use of the e-retailer’s Cloud Drive app, then, good news: it just got a little better, with the addition of video uploads and iPad support.

Whether you’re a chaotic good wild mage or a neutral evil Drow, there’s good news coming out of the Underdark this morning. Following its launch on Mac last month, Beamdog Entertainment’s updated version of Baldur’s Gate II and its expansion — only the finest CRPG ever made — are coming to iPad, possibly even in time for Christmas!

This time on the CultCast: pro television editor and motion graphics artist Mike Gaines tells us the pros and cons of Apple’s new Mac Pro. Plus, Darth Vader has an iPhone 4; Apple makes your face your password; new patents tell a tale wireless charging for your Mac and iDevices; and we pitch our favorite new apps on an all-new Faves ‘N Raves!

Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below adventure begin.

Thanks to Squarespace for supporting this ep.! If you need a beautiful website that will look great on any device that visits, you need Squarespace. Try it for free, or checkout with code Cultcast12 to save 10%.

The iPhone is a great travel tool, but making your smartphone travel actually smart isn’t about packing it up with dozens of apps you never use or that won’t get you out of the plane seat next to the loo on a crowded holiday flight.

Enter Cult of Mac Magazine. In time for your holiday travels (or maybe escaping from your loved ones for some beach or ski resort time?), we sounded out dozens of road warriors to learn what they really find necessary for the daily commute or continental flight. These black tees and easy-to-launder socks of the app world, if you will, include some surprising picks, many of them free.

If your travel is mostly of the four-wheel variety, you’ll want to read what happens when reporter Alex Heath took smart-driving app Automatic for a month-long spin. (Can it reform his gas guzzling, donut-making driving style?)

In our exclusive Ask an Apple Genius column, we answer your questions about how to get your Mac repaired on the road and how to handle assistance when you live in a town without an Apple store.

You’ll also find our picks for the best in apps this week and what’s really rocking the iTunes store when it comes to books, movies and music.

Mosey on over to Cult of Mac Magazine on iTunes and check it out!

Mr. Reader, the best RSS news reader app for the iPad, is now fully iOS 7-ready, letting me (finally!) get the last non iOS 7 app out of my dock. As you’d expect, it now looks great, and adds a few neat new features.

One of the most popular series of games for home consoles is Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, in which a 21st Century cyberpunk is tasked with recovering memories of his ancestors from the past. The plot doesn’t make a lot of sense, frankly, but it doesn’t have to: it’s just the framing mechanism that allows players to take on the role of a number of assassins throughout history, from 15th Century Florence to ancient Jerusalem and Colonial America.

The latest game in the Assassin’s Creed series, Black Flag, brings the backstabbing and throat-slitting to the high seas, but it’s only available on the Xbox and PlayStation. No fear, though, because a companion game called Assassin’s Creed: Pirates has just been released on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users.

Great news for corrupt restaurant employees and criminal scum everywhere: you can now use the latest Google Wallet app to skim credit cards right into your iPhone. In theory at least. And without actually recording the magnetic strip. But “Google Wallet update allows easy addition of credit cards using the iPhone camera” doesn’t have the same link-baiting ring to it. So scum and villainy it is.

Bokeh is an iPhone app (and web service) for easily “lifeblogging” your photos and thoughts. And because nobody but you really cares about the mundane details of your days, Bokeh can be used as a private diary, too, albeit a private diary that you access via the web. So what’s the gimmick? What sets Bokeh apart from all the other lifeblogging apps out there? It has a great calendar view, making it easy to browse and zero-in on the exact memory you forgot.

RotoView is an app that lets you zoom in super close on your iPhone photos, and then scroll around them by tilting the iPhone itself. It is also a great example of how iOS 7-native design can help an app look great, when otherwise it would very likely look awful.

Jottacloud, the “Norwegian Dropbox,” has added automatic photo uploads to its iOS apps. This means that you can not only access your desktop files on the go, but you can also backup and browse your mobile photos, too. Better still, it backs up all you pictures, not just your Camera Roll.