I still think it’s a mini miracle that Rockstar Games managed to compress the gang-banging goodness of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas onto a device thinner than a deck of cards and capable of fitting in my pocket.
That’s exactly what happened last year, however, and courtesy of a new update, the game’s remastered, high-resolution graphics now look pristine on your brand new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus thanks to the addition of native-resolution support for Apple’s next-gen handsets.
If you’re looking for a fun puzzle game to play over the weekend you can do a whole lot worse than RGB Express, Apple’s “App of the Week” which has gone free in the App Store.
Arriving on iOS one month ago, the game is a charming strategy title in which you play the route planner for a fleet of trucks, responsible for plotting their paths through increasingly complex neighborhoods, always ensuring that every home receives its package.
Starting off simply but getting increasingly complex as the game goes on, it’s an entertaining challenge, spanning 200 levels in all, that’s sure to appeal to the kind of iOS gamers who also enjoy titles like Blek.
First arriving on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) way back in 1992, Final Fantasy V is one of the greatest RPGs ever made — and thanks to a new update by Square Enix, its iOS port is now more playable than ever.
Following on from Apple’s Handoff feature for iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, the update similarly encourages you to pick up play on whichever iOS device is closest to you with a new iCloud save syncing feature. What this means is that game data saved using iCloud can now be shared across devices, so you can enjoy working through Final Fantasy V on an iPad at home and an iPhone while on the move.
The Pokémon Company International just took another step towards iOS domination with its free-to-play game, Camp Pokémon, now available on the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. This new game will let children of all ages explore Camp Pokémon, learning to become a Pokémon trainer.
This is a big step in the right direction for Pokémon video game players, since Nintendo has as yet refused to put it’s incredibly lucrative Pokémon RPG games on any platform besides its own. However, The Pokemon Company owns the rights to the card game; they can put it on any platform they choose.
“Kids will have a blast exploring Camp Pokémon as they immerse themselves in the Pokémon universe in a fun, interactive setting,” said The Pokémon Company’s J.C. Smith. “Parents will love watching their little campers participate in fun activities and create memories at the virtual Pokémon island.”
If you’re an Rdio user, great news. The official iOS app has just been updated to optimize the music-streaming service for iOS 8. And it gets even better if you happen to have an automobile with CarPlay installed.
It’s not just the Macintosh which turned 30 this year. Another beloved franchise many of us were introduced to as kids, Ghostbusters, also ushers in its fourth decade with… an update to Halfbrick’s fructose-slicing iOS game Fruit Ninja?
That’s right, the game which we first reviewed all the way back in 2010 has received a ghostly update which enhances the already fun title with some neat new visual effects and a great haunted soundtrack.
Instead of a ninja blade, the update means your fruit chopping is now carried out using the Ghostbusters’ proton packs, while true to the movies there’s even the possibility of “crossing the beams” to create an explosion that will turn every melon, pineapple and orange into instant fruit salad.
Designed to help friends and family check on their nearest and dearest during natural disasters, Facebook is introducing a new Safety Check feature for its mobile app.
The tool works by sending a push notification to devices that are near to an affected area. Locations are determined by looking at the places listed in profiles, previous locations from the Nearby Friends feature, and the city from which you’re connecting to the Internet.
All a Facebook user needs to do in the event of an emergency is hit an “I’m safe” button and a news notification will be generated automatically on the Timeline.
Having the ability to switch from iOS to OS X on your iPad when you need to get real work done sounds like an awesome idea, but Apple’s full desktop operating system isn’t designed to be used with a touchscreen. That’s why a new rumor that claims the upcoming 12-inch iPad will run both platforms is just downright crazy.
Pioneer Electronics has released a firmware update making Apple’s CarPlay technology live on five 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers. In doing so it becomes the first company to officially support CarPlay’s vehicle integration feature — and means you won’t need a new Ferrari or Benz to use iOS in your vehicle.
Users with an iPhone 5, 5s, 5c, 6 or 6 Plus can utilize Siri to both makes and receive calls, compose and read text messages, access Apple Maps, and listen to music libraries, podcasts, and iTunes Radio.
As thousands of protesters flood the streets of Hong Kong demanding a democratic election, the Chinese government is reportedly using sophisticated malware to spy on not only Android devices, but iOS devices as well.
But don’t worry about China peeking at your Snapchats. There has yet to be a widespread instance of iOS malware in the wild, and this particularly “advanced” trojan still requires a tremendous amount of complicit behavior on the victim’s part.
Popcorn Time, the service that allows users to stream movie torrents, today makes its debut on iOS. It’s available only to jailbroken devices — there’s no way Apple would have approved it for the App Store — and it can be obtained through Cydia via a dedicated Popcorn Time repository.
From Need for Speed Most Wanted to Real Racing 3, there are some great driving-based games for iOS. None are quite like Torque Burnout, though.
Promising to combine the most fun bits of every racing game ever into a standalone title, the forthcoming mobile game from developer League of Monkeys is basically an excuse to just do donuts… over and over again.
If you regularly use an iPhone or iPad app that uses a built-in browser, you could be vulnerable to a major vulnerability in iOS that allows unscrupulous app developers to spy on your typing.
With its improved lens, sensors and image stabilization, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer the best camera seen yet on an Apple handset. But one of the biggest changes was one that took place behind the scenes of iOS 8, with an API allowing third-party developers to have precise control over the workings of the iOS camera functions.
The result is more professional photo apps, which are transforming your most-used camera into your best one.
One of these new breed of photo apps is Little Pixels’ Manual custom exposure tool. Giving you a powerful camera app with full control over each image, the app lets users quickly and easily adjust all the parameters of their images, including focus, white balance, and exposure. If you’re looking for a guide on how to manually focus an iPhone camera, you can refer to this detailed tutorial on iPhone camera manual controls.
With both iOS 8 and the iPhone 6 family of devices finally out, developer Brian Mueller has released an upgrade for his excellent CARROT Fit app, adding “a shiny new update to go with your shiny new operating system.”
For those who don’t know, CARROT Fit is an hilarious take on the fitness app: a little bit like 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s H.A.L. meets Full Metal Jacket‘s memorable drill sergeant Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. Welcoming you with a message of “Greetings, tubby human,” CARROT Fit is a snappily sadistic AI that will threaten, inspire, ridicule and bribe you into getting in shape over the course of a 7-minute workout.
It’s a surprising amount of fun, and today’s update adds news punishment in the form of ads and “random squirrel attacks.” There’s also iPhone 6 optimization, iPad support, and Dropbox data sync thanks to Apple’s new privacy requirements.
After months of waiting, iOS 8 has finally been released for everyone to download and enjoy. The next generation for Apple’s mobile operating system brings plenty of new features. With an upgraded camera app, a new and intuitive health app and much more, this is sure to be an update you won’t want to forego.
In today’s Cult of Mac video, we give you a quick look at what iOS 8 has to offer. Install the new software and take advantage of a number of useful tweaks and enhancements.
iOS changed enormously over the last few years. When the first iPhone was released, the most entertaining thing to do was to watch YouTube videos and try to find a few web-based games. This was a time before apps, multi-tasking, or folders. Looking back, it’s amazing to see how iOS has transformed from a simple touch operating system, lacking a lot of key features, to a true computing behemoth with more features and tools than most iPhone owners will probably ever use.
Today, Apple's mobile operating system graduates to iOS 8, but before you dive fingers first into the new features, et’s take a look at how dramatically iOS has changed since its 2007 introduction.
We don’t usually post infographics on Cult of Mac — far too many of them are just poorly designed info dumps, without any real focus or design chops — but we’re making an exception for this one showing the evolution of iOS over the last seven years.
Created by the folks at 7 Day Shop, this infographic doesn’t just examine the evolution of the iOS home screen (something we here at Cult of Mac have been known to chart from time to time), but the evolution of individual icons, and the addition of features to Apple’s mobile operating system.
It’s very thorough, and a great primer on how far we’ve come since 2007. Check it out in full after the jump.
Not even Apple’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus support super-sharp 4K video recording out of the box, but they do have the necessary hardware to support it. Vizzywig 4K, a new iOS app that was just approved by Apple, brings this functionality to the iPhone 5s — but it costs a whopping $999.99.
While Uber and Lyft are the most prominent example of smartphones disrupting the taxi industry, a new app feature from Hailo is hoping to shake up both companies by letting Hailo users pay for journeys using their iPhone — even when they’re in a non-Hailo booked taxi.
The feature is called “Pay with Hailo” and uses Apple’s iBeacon technology to automatically recognize taxis, with users given the option to connect and pay for a journey automatically as soon as they set foot inside a vehicle. Even if the driver doesn’t have an iBeacon set up in their cab, it’s still possible to pay the fare by choosing their name from a list inside the app.
Apple’s new iPhones went up for pre-order this morning, and for those who stayed up late to get their order in, it turned out to be a very long night. The vast majority had to wait until past 12:30 a.m. before the had any joy loading the Apple Online Store, and when it finally went live, many iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus options were “currently unavailable.”
Being Steve Jobs’ son or daughter would surely mean a never-ending supply of new high-tech devices to play around with, right?
Not according to a New York Times article by Nick Bilton, who claims that Jobs set out to purposely limit the amount of time his kids spent using their iPhones and other gadgets — even going so far as to stop them using Apple’s latest must have-devices altogether.
Widget, widgets, widgets. Boy, have we got some widgets for you. And text. Plain text. Plain old text, turned into a calculator. And widgets. Did I mention those? Weather widgets. Battery widgets. And yes, text widgets.
Read all about these new widgets and other new apps in this week's App Watch.
Baldur’s Gate is one of the all-time classic RPGs, and while it’s iOS Enhanced Edition has been available on iPad since late 2012, up until now iPhone gamers have been left out in the cold.
That’s changed thanks to a new update which adds iPhone support, meaning that we can finally play this epic fantasy game on the move.
But wait, you might say, Baldur’s Gate was already a challenging read on the iPad mini. How on earth is it possible to play on an iPhone? Well, developers Bioware have thought of that too, since they’ve added a new “Font Size” option, which makes the game easier to view on smaller iOS devices.
During yesterday’s unveiling of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, awesomely-named developers Super Evil Megacorp took to the stage to show off the iPhone 6’s impressive graphical capabilities through a demo of their forthcoming iOS game Vainglory.
Despite the presence of “scarf guy” (one of the demoing developers wearing an infinite scarf that’s already become an Internet meme), Super Evil Megacorp was able to claw back viewer attention for their “unapologetically core MOBA” (that’s multiplayer online battle arena to the noobs out there) developed by veterans from the likes of Blizzard and Riot.
And no wonder: the game looks fantastic, built on Super Evil’s E.V.I.L engine, and boasting full Metal support from day one. The game’s rolling out globally from next month, but for now excited gamers can check out the trailer after the jump: