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iOS apps - page 15

Former Apple photo guru releases powerful iPhone camera app

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iOS
Harness RAW Power with your iPhone or iPad.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

A “Gentleman Coder” who is the former director of the Apple photo apps teams has launched an IOS app for the photographer who prefers to shoot RAW images.

RAW Power for iOS hit the App Store this week from software company Gentlemen Coders LLC, which was founded by Nik Bhatt. His 14-year stint in Cupertino included being Senior Director of Engineering for the Aperture and iPhoto teams and later the Chief Technical Officer of the Photo Apps group.

Easily edit PDFs right from your iPhone

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Make quick work of PDFs with PDFfiller on your iPhone.
Make quick work of PDFs with PDFfiller on your iPhone.
Image: PDFfiller

This post is presented by PDFfiller.

PDFs might be the most common document format to cross any digital desktop. They’re a universally recognized, great-looking way to share all kinds of readable content. But they’re also famously unfriendly to last-minute edits. Spot a typo on that resume or a confidential detail on that memo? Better hope you have the original document handy.

That’s least likely if you’re spotting a change that needs making from your mobile device. These are situations that PDFfiller for iPhone aims to solve.

Apple comes under fire for banning anti-abortion app

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app
The "banned" app lets you pray in real-time.
Photo: Human Coalition

Apple has reportedly banned an anti-abortion app from the App Store after complaints were made about it from “left-wing bloggers.”

Among the features of the Human Coalition app is a “Prayer Feed,” where users can access a real-time map of the United States, allowing them to join in with the prayers of other users on behalf of “abortion-determined families.”

Hollywood’s fave iPhone app supports Apple’s go-to video format

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iPhone filmmakers get HEVC support in Filmic Pro update.
iPhone filmmakers get HEVC support in Filmic Pro update.
Photo: Filmic

Filmic Pro, the gold standard iPhone app for filmmakers to achieve near-cinematic quality, released an update today to support the new HEVC format in iOS 11.

HEVC stands for High-Efficiency Video Coding (also called H.265), a compression standard that reduces the file size of videos while retaining much of the quality. This means users can store twice the number of videos on their iPhones or iPad Pros.

This free weather app is a perfect storm of features

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The WeatherBug free weather app serves up lightning alerts and other real-time info.
The WeatherBug free weather app serves up lightning alerts and other real-time info.
Photo: Pixabay CC

This post is brought to you by GroundTruth.

Nearly everybody cares about the weather, because unexpected changes can ruin plans or even bring danger. Among the methods for staying up-to-date on weather forecasts, using a weather app stands out as one of the most effective.

But you should think twice before selecting a weather app.

Smiles trigger selfies with Camera+ app update

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iPhone photo app
Camera+ adds features like smile mode and depth support.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

Even when your arm is stretched out as far as possible, it can be a struggle to get a finger or thumb on the shutter of your iPhone camera to take that selfie. An update to the app Camera+ trips the shutter with a smile.

Version 10 of Camera+, one of the more popular apps for iPhone photographers, announced new features this week with improvements that take full advantage of iOS 11.

Advanced iOS app zaps backgrounds from photos

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iOS photo app
The touch of a finger on a slider bar makes erasing backgrounds in photos simple.
Photo: Jon Colverson

Portrait mode on the iPhone does a very serviceable job of blurring out a distracting background. A new app makes it easy to remove the background entirely.

Depth Background Eraser, made for iPhone 7 Plus, 8 Plus and the soon-to-be-released iPhone X, uses the depth data stored in a photo to let your inner artist easily remove any background.

Half app converts your JPEGs to space-saving HEIC files

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Use the Half app to convert JPG to HEIC, saving space without losing quality.
The Half app converts JPG to HEIC, saving space without losing quality.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The iPhones 7, 8 and X all capture images in the new HEIC format, which creates images much smaller than JPEGs, with the same quality.

All new images you snap, and movies you capture, will be saved in the new HIEC and HVEC (for movies) formats. But what if you want to convert your older images from JPEG to HEIC to save some space? That’s exactly what Half App does.

iPhone becomes a reliable light meter with Lumu Power [Review]

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Lumu Power light meter
Is that an iPhone or a light meter? It's both.
Photo: David Pierini/Cult of Mac

Lumu Power light meter for iPhone

The iPhone democratized photography and disrupted the video and camera industry. Now a new product that plugs into the iPhone’s Lightning port aims to replace an important photographer’s tool — the handheld light meter.

The Lumu Power light meter is a small, plug-in photodiode that looks like a pingpong ball cut in half. The light meter, a product of Lumu Labs from Slovenia, rose out of a Kickstarter campaign in 2015. It’s won favorable reviews from photographers and photo websites as the company works to improve the companion app.

Feed Hawk hunts down YouTube channel RSS feeds for you

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feed hawk
Feed Hawk makes subscribing to your favorite sites super easy.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Are you still using RSS? If you are (and you should be, as we’ll see in a moment), then you should use the Feed Hawk app on your iPhone and iPad. Feed Hawk puts itself in your iOS Share Sheet and locates the RSS feed(s) from any website you visit. If you want, it can automatically subscribe you to the RSS feed in your RSS reader of choice.

The latest version of Feed Hawk can even find feeds for YouTube channels. That, in case you’re wondering, is huge.

Raindrop.io is a slick new bookmark-organizing app for iOS

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raindrop ipad app
Raindrop's web page looks way better than its iOS app.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Raindrop.io is a new bookmarking service for Mac and iOS, and the web, and Android. It lets you save your bookmarks into folders, known as Groups, and those bookmarks are then available from anywhere. The main selling point of Raindrop.io seems to be the slick interface, and the myriad beautiful ways you can arrange the bookmarks therein.

Best looper apps for iPad and iPhone

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looper apps iPad
You don't need a pedal, or even a guitar, to make amazing music with a looper app.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

A looper is a great musician’s tool, for practice and for making songs. Looper apps are also fantastic fun for anyone who wants to take a crack at creating a tune. Just hit record on a looper app, and make some noise. Then hit the button again, and your recording is played over and over, in a loop.

Then you then build on this, adding more layers. A guitarist can chop out drum beats, then some chords, and play a melody over the loop. A beatboxer can boom, boom, chick and spit into a microphone to build up what the kids call “sick beatz.” And Jimmy Fallon can sing a duet with Billy Joel.

There are many looper apps for iOS. Here are a few of the best.

How to send audio from one iOS app to another with Audiobus

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Audiobus mixer on a piano
Audiobus is like a set of virtual patch cables for musical apps.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

If you want to make music on iPhone or iPad, you can choose from an embarrassment of fantastic iOS apps. You’ll also find plenty of music effects and recording apps on the platform.

The problem is using two types of apps together, because iOS isn’t nearly as flexible as macOS when it comes to digging into the system. But with a $10 app called Audiobus 3, you can route audio between apps. That means you can send music from, say, a drum machine to an audio recorder, or from your guitar to a sampler.

Further, you can route audio from many apps at a time, letting you create as complex or simple a setup as you like. If you think of Audiobus as a set of virtual patch cables for your iPhone or iPad, you’re on the right track.

New content blocker Unobstruct declares war on ‘dickbars’

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Unobstruct content blocker

Photo: Lewis Wallace/Cult of Mac

Sick of those annoying bars that follow you around certain websites, urging you to share a story on Facebook? A new iOS app called Unobstruct lets you banish those “dickbars” forever.

The creator of the $1 app says he hopes it sends a clear message to web designers: Nobody wants these weapons of messy distraction.

How to use the Universal Clipboard on iOS

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Use Apple's Universal Clipboard to copy anything from one iOS device to another, or to a Mac.
Universal Clipboard lets you copy something on one Apple device, then paste it on another.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

Since last fall, your Mac and your iOS devices have shared a Universal Clipboard. That is, you can copy on one device and paste on another. It’s seamless, and incredibly useful. For instance, you could copy a shipment tracking number in Mail on your Mac, then paste it into the tracking app on your iPhone. Or you could take a screenshot on your iPhone, then paste it into a blog post you’re writing on your iPad.

Universal Clipboard is so easy to use, you might have used it already without even realizing. Here’s how it works.

5 tips to fix an unresponsive iPhone screen

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5 tips to fix an unresponsive iPhone screen
Is your iPhone screen acting up? Here's how to fix it.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

If you’ve been having problems with your iPhone or iPad screen not acting quite as responsive as usual, don’t panic: You can try out plenty of quick and easy tricks before heading to your closest Genius Bar.

Get five tips for fixing an unresponsive iPhone screen in our how-to video:

Treat yourself to a better weather app

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Today Weather Smaller
Today Weather presents some smart new features in a slick design, and we dig the result.
Photo: Today Weather

This post is presented by Today Weather.

Your weather app is probably the last thing you daydream about upgrading. After all, iOS comes with a pretty straightforward, reliable weather app. But when we tried free alternative Today Weather, we found some interesting features we didn’t even know we wanted.

Tips to help you relive your great vacation [Tech Travel Tips]

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Vacation photo
You vacation photos are useless if you forget about them.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

tech travel tips It used to be that when you got back from vacation, you’d drop your film off at the lab and cross your fingers. You hoped you’d get some half-decent photos back a week later, while memories of that cool restaurant you liked faded with your tan.

Now we share our photos with friends and family while we’re still on the beach, then forget about them. But we can, and probably should, make a little effort to preserve our vacation memories. And — you guessed it — there are apps for that.

Great travel apps to make your trip easy and fun [Tech Travel Tips]

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Rome vacation travel apps
Travel isn't all about visiting amazing places. Sometimes it's about using apps on your phone, too.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

tech travel tips You already have all the travel gadgets you need for a successful and relaxed trip. Today we’re going to look at travel apps. Specifically, apps that make your trip better and easier, like great city guides.

We’ll also showcase apps that work around limitations you face while traveling, like a lack of bandwidth. Let’s get started!