Apple has today announced that this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 2 at Moscone West in San Francisco. The five-day conference will give us a glimpse at “the future of iOS and OS X,” and the star of the show will almost certainly be iOS 8.
The year might only be three months old but there’s already a contender for ‘most visually striking iOS game of 2014.’
Launched today, Monument Valley looks to combine the gameplay of hit indie game Fez with the brain-twisting art of M.C. Escher.
As can be seen from the above trailer it looks stunningly beautiful, and with developers Ustwo (the team responsible for Whale Trail and Blip Blup) behind it, hopefully the gameplay will be every bit as great. The trailer depicts Princess Ida climbing through landscapes of shifting geometric shapes, optical illusions, and hidden paths — all the while avoiding and outsmarting the enigmatic Crow People.
When Pebble’s last iOS update essentially bricked the smart watch, leaving it capable of only (shock horror) telling the time, we knew that something needed to be done in a hurry.
Fortunately Pebble realized that too, since the company has rushed out a new update for its official iOS app — fixing the bug users had complained about which stopped the Pebble from connecting to an iPhone via Bluetooth.
UpTo’s original take on the iPhone calendar was fairly unusual. the app allowed you to follow the calendars of friends or organizations, whose events then appeared on your calendar; you could the interact withe the events more or less the same way you would a Facebook post: There were likes, comments and a handy “I’m in” to signify attendance.
The problem is, in order for anything with a social twist to work, lots of people need to use it — and based solely off my observations while using the app, that didn’t seem to be the case. Also, some users may have found the app overly complicated.
So now, UpTo has been radically redesigned with a focus on layers instead of social connection. But is it better?
If you’ve ever dreamed of designing that killer mobile or desktop game, Cult of Mac Deals has exactly what you’re looking for.
The Game Developer Bundle features 7 courses and over 30 hours of training that will give you everything you need to create the games you’ve always wanted to make. No matter the platform, no matter the genre of game you want to build, this bundle has you covered. And right now Cult of Mac Deals has The Game Developer Bundle available for 95% off the regular price…only $49!
Pebble Notes, a new iPhone app written by a student for students, puts important information on your wrist by sending your notes to your Pebble.
So many of us rely on the notes we’ve created and stored on our smartphones to get us through the day. We use them to make shopping lists for the supermarket, jot down passwords and codes we’ll need later on, and to help us remember other important information — such as answers for exams.
But if we leave our iPhone at home, they’re no good to us — unless you have Pebble Notes.
Apple has released its latest weekly list of the most downloaded games in the App Store.
Unlike a near-realtime list like the iTunes chart, this list reflects cumulative total downloads over a 7-day period — in this case March 24 to March 30.
Perhaps the most notable inclusions are the success of Papa’s Freezeria To Go and Backflip Madness in the paid charts, and the Threes!-inspired 2048 and Boom Beach in the free charts. Here’s the whole list:
Think sport should be less about good sportsmanship and complex rules, and more about violence?
Clearly developer HooAh agrees on some level, because its upcoming iOS game Bench Clearing re-imagines baseball (a.k.a. “America’s favorite pastime”) as a massive free-for-all battle.
If you’re a big fan of Rdio — after Spotify, the other major streaming music subscription service, which just happens to have much better iOS apps — and you also have a Google Chromecast, good news: Rdio for iOS now supports Google’s streaming HDTV dongle.
Note: This article was originally published in Cult of Mac Magazine, available on the App Store.
Flappy Bird came onto the scene with a bang, ruffling feathers from Hanoi to Hannover. Dong Nguyen, the developer of this seemingly overnight sensation, was as taken aback as the rest of us, evident from his shocking decision to stop offering the game for download as well as his recent decision to bring it back.
Game developers and publishers can only hope to reproduce this kind of crazy success. And each and every one of the people we talked to at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was eager to share opinions on how Flappy Bird happened, how it might happen again, and why it was such a runaway hit to begin with.
Barrel-inspired jailbreak tweak Cylinder has been updated and listed on Cydia’s BigBoss repo.
The tweak allows users to add animations to their iPhone Home screen. These animations can be created via special Lua scripts — a lightweight, but powerful scripting language — and then layered on top of one another to create customized effects.
Long-time gamers know that nine times out of ten getting excited about a movie tie-in will in end in disappointment. At the same time, the last few years have been pretty good when it comes to comic book titles making their way onto consoles, computers, and mobile devices.
As Cult of Mac’s unabashed comic book and movie fan, I was intrigued to find out which camp Captain America: The Winter Soldier – The Official Game fell into…
It can be hard to hold on to some of your smaller everyday items. With Hone you can breathe easy because you’re just a click away from finding your lost possessions.
You can attach Hone to your keys, wallet, remote control – anything. Then, the small Bluetooth dongle automatically pairs to your iPhone or iPad with Hone’s free iOS app. If you can’t find the object, simply tap the “Find” button and Hone starts to vibrate, alerting you to the location of your cherished object. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for 50% off during this limited time offer – just $29.95.
It’s become a begrudgingly accepted part of the App Store that the moment a popular game appears, the clones roll in with miniscule differences.
While most of us laughed at some of the ridiculous variations that emerged for a popular game like Flappy Bird (Flappy Beard Hipster Quest anyone?), it’s not quite so funny if you’re the developer of the original game in question.
With that in mind, the creators of hit puzzle game Threes recently took to their blog to complain about the growing number of ripoffs that have emerged in the App Store as of late:
Fancy yourself an MC in the making?
AutoRap by Smule, a popular app which transforms regular speech into legit rap, has just been updated to version 2.0 with several significant improvements.
Ahead of its April 4 U.S. theatrical release, Gameloft’s movie tie-in Captain America: The Winter Soldier – The Official Game has arrived in the App Store.
An original adventure co-scripted by Marvel, the game lets you play as Captain America as you lead a S.H.I.E.L.D. Strike Team to take down enemies. The game promises intense combat with plenty of tactical elements, RPG features which let you learn new fighting techniques and upgrade weapons, and an asynchronous multiplayer mode.
Facebook Messenger, the iOS messaging app for the ubiquitous social network, has just updated with a couple of new cool features that will help cement the app’s place on your iPhone home screen.
While it already updated just a little while ago, there are some new additions that will make you sit up and take notice.
The stunningly gorgeous Yahoo! Weather app that inspired Apple’s own new iOS 7 app for iPhone and iPad has just gotten another update, adding some great features that only enhance the usability and beauty of the app.
Realmac Software today confirmed that the much-anticipated update that will bring reminders to Clear for iOS will arrive in April. It was originally due to arrive this month, but the company has been working hard to ensure everything’s just right before it goes live.
Every once in a while a software bundle comes along that is almost impossible to pass up. This would be one of those times.
Cult of Mac Deals has assembled 7 top Mac apps in The Mac Freebie Bundle. Valued at $119, this nundle has a little bit of everything – and best of all its price is tough to beat.
Apple was granted a patent on Tuesday related to a GUI modified for disabled users of iOS devices and MacBooks.
Entitled “Devices, Methods & GUI’s for Accessibility using a Touch-Sensitive Surface,” the patent describes several methods for allowing a person with impaired vision to use a touch-sensitive surface, including a touch screen display or a track pad.
Essentially the Garage Band of coding, smart iPad coding editor Codea has received a major update.
Adding a new iOS 7 interface and full 64-bit support for the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, Codea 2.0 also includes “a brand new unified asset system that supports sounds, music, images, and more,” according to developer Two Lives Left.
If you want a successful app you will need to get across a large amount of information in a tiny amount of space – and that is where these Webbicon icons come in handy.
With over 1200 vector icons, you will have all of today’s hot categories covered with these high-quality icons. The collection includes 5 different sizes for each icon so you will have every option covered. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for only $19 – a savings of 86%!
There have been several jailbreak tweaks over the years that have attempted to revolutionize the concept of multitasking in iOS. Few, if any, have come as close as ProWidgets, a new widget framework that’s available in Cydia now.
I say close because I don’t think ProWidgets solves a better way to multitask on the iPhone and iPad. However, it is a valiant effort that allows other developers to create third-party widgets that live outside of the traditional app experience.
As great as it when a new game, specifically designed for iOS, makes its way to the App Store, just as good is the appearance of new ports of classic games.
The latter is what we have with the newly-released Shin Megami Tensei — only with the added twist that this classic game has never previously been officially released outside Japan.