What could be better than a mobile app that lets you play masses of games, like an old-school arcade squeezed onto your iPhone? A mobile app that lets you play masses of games and make your own new ones.
That’s what Swedish developer Martin Magni created with Fancade, a new iOS app launching Thursday. It offers a huge collection of mini-games, all created using the app itself, along with a drag-and-drop game-maker that lets you create your own.
According to a new report from Digitimes Research, global tablet shipments will climb 45.5% sequentially and 9.9% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, reflecting the recovery of China’s supply chain and backed-up demand for tablets for e-learning.
Apple, which retained its position as the world’s no. 1 tablet maker in early 2020, is reported to “significantly increase” iPad orders for Q2.
Social video app TikTok isn’t just a big hit on iOS. According to new data published Wednesday by app analytics platform Sensor Tower, it’s an unprecedented hit — having enjoyed the best quarter of any app ever.
The firm says that TikTok has now been downloaded more than 2 billion times globally across both the App Store and Google Play Store. This comes just five months after it passed the 1.5 billion downloads milestone.
Chipmaker Qualcomm said Wednesday it expects the smartphone industry to ship 30% fewer mobile phones in the second quarter as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but predicted the demand for 5G smartphones will accelerate from the second half of 2020 into the new year.
As a provider of modem chips to Apple, the predictions give further evidence that the Cupertino-based high-tech giant is on track to release it’s first 5G-ready iPhone lineup later this year simply based on Qualcomm’s estimates of product demand.
The popular utility CleanMyMac debuted way back in 2008, but MacPaw is finally bringing it to the Mac App Store all these years later. This will make it easier to find, buy and install.
The developer admits it did only direct sales of this product for business reasons. But the App Store version will also lack some features of the version sold on the MacPaw website for technical reasons.
A Group FaceTime feature some people find irritating can be disabled in the upcoming iOS version. Currently, the tile showing the face of the person speaking gets larger, pushing everyone else aside. The iOS 13.5 beta introduced Wednesday gives users the option to turn this off.
Unlocking your iPhone while wearing a protective mask might get a little quicker in iOS 13.5. Apple released a new beta of this upcoming version Wednesday, and it includes a neat trick that skips Face ID to immediately ask for a passcode if it detects the user is wearing a mask.
The Video Electronics Standards Association announced Wednesday the release of version 2.0 of the DisplayPort Alternate Mode standard that will support future compatible products with video data speeds up to 80 Gigabits per second and 16K displays up to 60Hz refresh rate.
The interface standard, which is part of USB-C connectors on Apple’s current Mac product line, is primarily used to connect a video source to a device like a flat-screen display, but can also carry audio, USB, and other forms of data.
Music streaming service Pandora updated its Apple Watch app Wednesday with the addition of Siri support, letting users request music, stations and podcasts verbally.
The third beta of iOS 13.5 released on Wednesday gives developers their first look at the coronavirus contact-tracing tool that Apple is creating in cooperation with Google.
iPadOS 13.5 Developer Beta 3 was also debuted today, along with the initial beta of Xcode 11.5.
Oak Felder writes and produces music for some of today’s top artists. In a new Apple video, he talks about the importance of technology that makes it easy to turn musical ideas into reality.
Watch it now:
Our awesome prices on some of the best Elkson accessories for Apple Watch and AirPods are now even better. You can save up to 40% on bands and cases, but you’ll need to act fast — this sale ends this week!
Apple reports its fiscal second-quarter earnings results Thursday afternoon, and chances are good that Cupertino will be glad to see the first three months of 2020 fade into history.
Having said that, things might not be as bad as many expect due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Oh, there won’t be any record-breaking figures, but there are some pretty good indicators that the news won’t be all doom and gloom.
As is always the case, though, the devil will be in the details. Apple’s conference call after issuing its Q2 2020 earnings report will be even more interesting than the numbers themselves.
To lend a helping hand during coronavirus lockdown, Google Wednesday announced that it will be making its premium videoconferencing service Google Meet free to users starting in the next few weeks.
Google Meet is the business-oriented version of Google Hangouts. It supports up to 100 callers with no time limits on conversations, making it a good enterprise-focused video chat tool. While normally Google Meet comes with a price tag attached, it’s now free to all Google users through September 30.
A good video game is a great way to escape the COVID-19 pandemic and forget, just for a little while, about the nasty impact it’s having on the world. But which video games should you play? Which titles are proven to help?
A new study reveals the best games to play for reducing stress — and those that should be avoided if your primary goal is a positive, calming experience. We’ll highlight those you can enjoy on Mac and iOS.
Spotify has 163 million free, ad-supported users, and an impressive 130 million paid subscribers, the streaming music giant announced Wednesday in its financial earnings for Q1 2020. These premium subscribers are up 6 million from the end of the previous quarter, and 30 million year-on-year.
While Apple hasn’t released updated Apple Music subscriber figures for a while now, it last announced 60 million paying customers last summer. Although Apple Music has reportedly experienced a nice bump while people are stuck home during lockdown, that suggests that Spotify is still enjoying a comfortable lead in the streaming war.
Fortnite’s newest update is rolling out now across all platforms, bringing with it some big changes and new game modes. Players can expect aim assist adjustments, heavy sniper alterations, and brand-new Party Royale.
And that’s not all!
iPhone achieved 78 percent growth in India’s fast-growing smartphone market year-on-year for the first quarter of 2020, new figures from Counterpoint Research suggest.
While Apple is still a tiny fraction of the Indian smartphone market, that makes the iPhone the third fastest-growing brand in the country, following Realme and Oppo. There’s still a long way to go before it can threaten the top-selling likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, and Samsung, however.
Apple agreed to pay $18 million to claimants in a California class-action lawsuit that argued Cupertino broke FaceTime on older iPhone devices to save money.
The court filing, made Monday, means that members of the class action each will receive a whopping $3 for their troubles. However, that amount could increase if some members fail to cash their checks. The remainder of the money will cover lawyer fees and other costs.
The half-hour reunion special of Parks and Recreation, airing this Thursday, was entirely shot on iPhone due to the challenges of production during the current coronavirus pandemic.
The logistics of getting the episode together were “very difficult,” co-creator Mike Schur told trade publication Variety. Not only did the special have to be written in under three days, but it then had to be directed via Zoom, with the cast filming themselves using a “little rig with a tripod,” an iPhone, light, and microphone.
Microsoft claims it won’t adopt the Thunderbolt standard for its Surface laptops and tablets because it’s inherently insecure, according to an internal company video leaked onto Twitter recently.
Thunderbolt was developed by Intel and Apple, and it’s widely used on Macs. It’s also been adopted by virtually every PC maker. But not Microsoft.
Waqas Qazi may be a freelance Hollywood colorist, but his desk setup is worthy of an emperor. His jaw-dropping rig boasts three monitors to play with, and a trio of bookshelf speakers to pump out the audio. Plus, he has a DaVinci Resolve Mini Panel, for color-grading and editing, and the Elgato Stream Deck XL, which is great for multitasking.
And don’t forget that cheese-grater Mac Pro!
A handful of Apple and Google employees turned a novel approach to fighting COVID-19 from a spark of an idea to a pandemic-fighting tool in less than a month. The tech giants combined forces in March, intent on creating a contact-tracing app capable of monitoring the movements of people who might have come in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.
CNBC reported inside details Tuesday on how Apple’s initial contact-tracing project — code-named “Bubble” — went from two employees to dozens, and enlisted the help of others at Google.
The official Apple Support iOS app got a facelift, including adding step-by-step guides to fixing common problems. And Dark Mode, too.
The app runs on iPhone or iPad, but offers information on Mac, AirPods and many other Apple products and services.
Apple has added COVID-19 testing locations throughout the United States to its Apple Maps, effective Tuesday. Users can search for COVID-19 testing locations or browse for them on visual maps.