iOS apps - page 24

Carrot Fit is the new app-with-attitude from the makers of Carrot To-Do and Carrot Alarm.

Welcoming you with a message of “Greetings, tubby human” from “your new fitness overlord”, Carrot Fit is a harsh-but-hilarious taskmaster dedicated to making weight loss suck a little bit less.

As the developers explain, “Carrot is a sadistic AI construct with one simple goal: to transform your flabby carcass into a Grade A specimen of the human race. She will do whatever it takes – including threatening, inspiring, ridiculing, and bribing you – to make this happen.”

The Yahoo! Sports app just received an update, bringing the interface more in line with iOS 7. The company also added a new feature to the app–Loops–which will let you and thousands of other sports fans create short animated gif-like clips of your favorite moments in sports.

Nothing says “I’m a super sports fan” than a carefully crafted photographic meme, complete with wacky motion and large outlined text.

I’d thought I’d seen it all when it comes to misogynistic, women-as-objects gamification strategies out there, but apparently there’s yet another fine example sent directly to our Cult of Mac inbox recently.

Here’s the pitch for oh-so-scintillating dating simulator, “Mingling At The Gallery:”

Don’t have the time or comfortability to go out, date and meet new people? That’s no longer a problem because ZOOB has created a game providing the experience of your own dating adventure, mingling with people through an engaging, fun and educational iOS app called “Mingling at the Gallery.”

Sure, the company name sounds like the ugly stepsister of n00b + boob, but it might be fun to play a game about the complex interactions needed in successfully navigating a night out at an art gallery, with maybe some tips thrown in for those of us who need a little practice.

Then I watched the promo video.

We’re not sure why Google just doesn’t change the name of their Google Search app for iOS, as it does pretty much everything Google Now does on Android, but this new update is pretty fantastic, whatever you want to call it.

Google Search is “now” updated to version 3.1.0, with a whole new set of features, including Notifications, Reminders, new Cards, and a Siri-like Handsfree voice. This last bit lets you command your iPhone to do stuff with the phrase, “OK Google.”

How cool is that?

Sold gets bought by Dropbox. That’s a headline writer’s dream, and I just got to write it. Why? Because — wait for it — easy-selling service Sold just got bought by Dropbox.

There are a ton of apps out there, both free and paid, that may or may not be worth your time and money.

Why waste either one? With over 600,000 apps to choose from, finding the most interesting and worthwhile apps is, at best, a tricky activity and, at worst, a fool’s errand.

Might as well let us find the cool ones for you.

Here are a few of the favorites to come across our home screens this week —  including a running app, PumaTrac, photography apps Spark Camera and Perfect Shot and more.

Check ’em out:

PumaTrac – Health & Fitness – Free

For a change of pace from bloated running apps, try PumaTrac. It’s made just for runners, and it will track distance, pace, and calories burned over time. It also keeps a log of outside conditions like weather, day of the week, and location as well as music choices and social media activity to help you figure out how these things affect your running performance. Share your routes with your running buddies, as well, or just find routes other locals are using to keep your routine fresh. Oh, and it supports the Pebble watch, too.

PumaTrac


Spark Camera – Photo & Video – $1.99

If you’ve played with Vine, you’ll get Spark Camera right away. Here you get a 30-second limit for your mini video masterpiece. Adding a soundtrack via  your iTunes library  is also super easy and so is sharing with your friends across social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, as well as via email and SMS. Just press and hold anywhere to record 720 p HD video then release to stop recording. Flip through a variety of live filter effects and then tap the note symbol to choose music.

Spark Camera


Listastic – Productivity – free

Listastic is a great little collaborative to-do list app with an intuitive interface that’s easy on the eyes. It’s simple to use, too, so you can share a grocery list with a roommate or life partner, a gift list with friends and family, or plan a project at work with a group of co-workers. You can become a Listastic premium member for a small fee, which lets you share any list with other Listastic members, free or paid. Free members can use Listastic on their own device, or join and edit shared lists from premium members. New users get a free two-week trial of Premium service, as well.

Listastic


WherezMyStuff – Utilities – $0.99

Aside from the unfortunate spelling of the name, WherezMyStuff is pretty handy. I have a habit of putting things away safely only to discover, many months later, that my perfect hiding place is unknown to even me.  WherezMyStuff is a mini-inventory to prevent this common mind melt. You simply name the item, type in (or record via the mic) where you’re putting it, and snap a picture. When you want to find your stuff again, tap the name or search and voila’ your treasures are found.

WherezMyStuff 


Perfect Shot – Photo & Video – $0.99

Ever taken a picture of a large group of people? It’s a huge a pain to get them all to smile at the same time, let alone refrain from blinking. Perfect Shot aims to make sure everyone in your group photo is smiling and their eyes are open with its face-detection technology. Aim your iPhone at the happy group and Perfect Shot will detect every face in the group choose the right moment and take the perfect picture–you don’t even have to press a button. Automagical, indeed.

Perfect Shot

The now 14-year-old app developer we introduced to you last year, Nicholas G, has just released a second app, putting all of us adults to shame yet again.

This year, Nicholas has put together a rather impressive looking tip calculator that makes it super easy to figure out an accurate tip without all that pesky math.

Called Quick Tips!! (yes, the exclamation marks are part of the charm), Nicholas’ latest app uses all the visual style of iOS 7 and it looks to be pretty as well as functional.

If you are one of those people who have an iPhone or iPod for your telephony and music needs while out the house but still stubbornly keep a Windows desktop comp at home, perhaps for historical reasons or work purposes, you will most likely be missing out on a pile of great and super-convenient auto-syncing / streaming compatibilities of all your files, pics, videos, and so on that are the joy of Mac fans who use all Apple products.

Now, Korean tech company ConversDigital launches a new updated version of mconnect player free, which allows users to access media services and digital content anywhere, with any device, and “make connected digital media ubiquitous.”

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.

Before college football season gets underway, ESPN is pushing out an update for its WatchESPN app that lets users stay plugged in to more games than ever before. The update adds a new split-screen view so you can watch two games at once, while keeping tabs on game day with the new live tool bar that displays scores and video highlights.

ESPN is also beefing up the content on WatchESPN by adding “ESPN on ABC” events to the app, but you’ll be pulled over to the WatchABC app when you choose them. To top it all off, WatchESPN users who connect through a military or college network now get access to ESPN3 events automatically.

Here are the full release notes:

WordPress has released an update to its iOS app that introduces several improvements. Most notably, the app has a new Reader experience for reading posts from followed blogs, liked posts, favorite topics, etc. Automatiic, the company behind WordPress, has also streamlined how the app handles multiple accounts.

Facebook released an update for its iOS app today that adds support for hashtags, an aspect of Twitter that Facebook recently added on its desktop site. Users can now add hashtags in statuses and such to filter topics.

Another notable new feature is the ability to make a restaurant reservation within the Facebook app through OpenTable. Using “Nearby Places” and official pages for restaurants that have added OpenTable integration, Facebook users can quickly make reservations without needing to open a separate Web page or app. Apple has integrated OpenTable into Siri to help make restaurant reservations as well.

TV listing information for U.S. prime-time shows and movie pages are now displayed in the app, too. Facebook notes that today’s update also introduces “faster loading and a cleaner design for timelines on iPad,” so be sure to grab it in the App Store.

Source: App Store

I have to admit, I’m less than wary of all the tracking that goes on with the iOS devices my kids have access to. Now that they both have at least an iPod touch and access to my iPads, I’m feeling a bit on the worried side about them sharing any of their web or app activity.

Luckily, there’s an app called Disconnect Kids that installs on any iOS device and then helps kids (and their parents) understand what this tracking stuff is, and how to block it. It then helps those very same kids and parents do just that.

With college football, the NFL and the MLB post-season all knocking on the door, CBS has pushed out an update for its iPad app which allows users to stream live video of sporting events.

CBS has been streaming video to the iPhone for a while now, but it’s finally bringing it to the iPad with a full tablet experience. Now you can stream on-demand clips or live events to your iPad and push it to your TV via AirPlay via the free update.

Here are the release notes:

Just like the Disney theme parks, the new Disney Animation iPad app is saddled with a heavy price for admission—but reveals a vast trove of wonder once inside.

For $14, the app makes an immense amount of material available—almost two gigs worth—from Disney’s digitally and traditionally animated titles.

The Roku iOS app got another update today. In addition to the previous “Play on Roku” feature which let users stream music and static images to the set top media box, the company has now added the ability to stream video directly from the iOS app as well.

In a market that includes Apple TV and Google’s nascent Chromecast technology, Roku is making some positive steps to stay relevant.

Live histograms, saving layered images as PSD files, clone stamping, geotagging, layer masking… I’m talking about a desktop class app like Acorn, right? Nope. I’m listing features from Leonardo, an absurdly powerful universal iOS image-editing app.

When we first took a look at Anchor back in June after it had just launched, the social platform for coworkers was a decidedly walled-off environment; just like Hotel California, you could check out any time you like—but you could never leave. At least, your ideas couldn’t.

But that’s changed today, as the app sees its first big update and adds integration with Evernote, and the ability to email outside of the platform.

So, the dude who said he’d quit rock and roll when he turned 33 just turned 70. This is a guy that typically covers 12 miles during a Stone’s show as he leaps about the stage, running and dancing. Mick Jagger has been on the cover of Rolling Stone (no relation) twenty times, the first time in 1968.

To celebrate this fairly amazing milestone for the quintessential rock and roll superstar, This Day In Music apps has made its Rolling Stones tribute app, This Day In The Rolling Stones, free.

If you’re a Stones fan, and let’s face it, most of us are in some way, you should check this one out. According to the developers, This Day In The Rolling Stones is going to remain free forever. Bravo!

In about a month, every iPhone and iPad on Earth will suddenly gain the ability to stream an unlimited number of tracks for free, thanks to iTunes Radio.

For people who want more granular control over their music even when it’s streaming, iTunes Radio isn’t likely to tear them away from the likes of Spotify and Rdio, but if all you want to do is hear new jams without thinking about it, iTunes Radio is a killer feature that could potentially get you to cancel your service.

So Spotify, at least, is acting defensively. They’re rolling out a new feature called Expert Playlists. And it’s potentially way better than iTunes Radio.

For iOS users, the Pebble Smartwatch has largely existed as an exercise in frustration. While Android users can tie the Pebble Smartwatch into their smartphone’s central nervous system in all kinds of ways, the feature set of the e-ink proto-iWatch has been comparatively worse.

Case in point? Pebble Smartwatch owners who have an iPhone in their pocket couldn’t even get email notifications on the face of their watch. That’s a big deal: getting notified of new emails is seemingly one of the big things you’d want a second screen on your wrist to do. Luckily, that’s being rectified.

Some space geeks are calling today “The Day the Earth Smiled,” because the Cassini probe is set to take a picture of our planet as seen from Saturn later this afternoon. To honor this momentous occasion, the maker of astronomy software SkySafari is giving away basic versions for iOS and OS X (and discounting the Android version) through Sunday.

Update: And now it’s out, for the spanking low price of $9.99!

Looks like we were right. It looks like Aspyr Media is definitely bringing the classic Star Wars RPG Knights Of The Old Republic to iPad. And, in fact, it looks like it’s due out soon. But it still hasn’t officially been announced!

Tweetbot — just our favorite Twitter client for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad — has just gotten a sweet update with one killer new feature: a swank new media timeline that allows you to quickly browse through just the images and videos popping up in your Twitter stream.

Alternative iOS informational website, AppShopper, had an app that was pulled from the App Store last December due to a conflict with new App Store rules that went into effect at that time. The team behind the app, who also run the website, have spent the hiatus working hard on a new app that is both compliant with Apple’s current App Store rules and useful to consumers.

AppShopper Social was announced today as live in the App Store, bringing with it a host of new social discovery systems along with the familiar Wish List functionality it’s always had.

This is a completely separate app, so if you still have the original AppShopper app on your iPhone or iPad, you can use them both alongside each other.