Life is all about what you make of it. Or at least that’s how the saying goes, I guess. This week, we have an app that helps you make the most of your time, an app to help document it, and an app for the times in between. As usual, if you have something you want us to check out for a future Awesome Apps post, be sure to email your suggestion or tweet them over!
Twitter is running an experiment that lets iPhone users downvote a reply to a tweet. It tests allowing users to actively show that they disagree with a response to a post on the social-networking service.
Twitter is often a venue for people to angrily argue politics, sports, entertainment, etc. Giving people the ability to downvote each other isn’t likely to calm the storm.
If you’ve ever said something in a tweet you immediately regretted, Twitter has your back. It’s letting iPhone users test a potential new feature that gives people the opportunity to revise a “harmful” tweet before it’s sent.
The controversial social-networking service Parler will soon reappear in the App Store. Apple reportedly un-banned the service Monday after it promised to start moderating content.
Then service was banned from the iOS and Android software stores after it was used to plan the attack on the U.S. Capital in January.
Apple told Parler on Friday that it must either begin moderating “dangerous and harmful” comments posted by users or its application will be removed from the iPhone App Store. The free speech site popular with supporters of President Trump reportedly has until Saturday morning to come up with a “moderation improvement plan” or it’ll be removed.
The move comes because Parler has been accused of being used to plan the attack on the U.S. Capital on Wednesday.
Twitter is looking for ways to notify its readers when posts by politicians are judged to be factually untrue. The social-networking service is considering attaching large, orange “harmfully misleading” warnings to posts that are fake news.
The days when Twitter treated Live Photos as still ones are over. This social-networking site now easily converts these moving images taken with an iPhone to GIFs.
Facebook’s trick of never letting readers get to the bottom of its homepage would be banned under a law just proposed in the U.S. Senate. The same legislation also would block auto-playing media.
The goal is to make social networking less entrancing.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how about a video? The dating service Tinder now lets you upload a very short video along with pictures. The idea is these Tinder Loops will better reflect your personality.
Sorry Android, tut this feature is only available for iOS devices.
Tinder Picks is a feature this dating app is testing that might make it a better way to find people you’re compatible with emotionally, not just sexually.
Picks takes the user’s profile and shows them pictures of people who have similar jobs, educations, and interests.
Reposting your favorite photos on Instagram is about to get a lot easier if a new feature that’s currently in testing makes it out to the public.
Instagram appears to be testing a button that allows users to “regram” button that allows users to share posts to their timeline. There’s no guarantee when the feature will make it out to the public, but it if it does, it could finally mean the end of horrible third-party reposting apps.
Apple’s new Clips app wants to be your go-to for making short, fun videos geared for social networks. Clips is the perfect tool for the social media generation, allowing users to bust out engaging videos in seconds.
While the user interface is pretty simple, Clips packs a bevy of tools that help put a unique spin on your shots. Getting the hang of all the features can take a while, so we’ve rounded up some pointers on how to make the most of the new app.
Follow these Clips tips to make your videos pop.
Microsoft is dipping its toes back into the social game with a brand new app for iOS users that aims to make it easier than ever to organize group events.
The app is called “Who’s In” only instead of launching as a standalone iPhone or iPad app, Microsoft’s new software can only be accessed via iMessage.
When it comes to buying apps, iPhone users aren’t afraid to bust out their wallets for good software.
Spending on iOS apps increased during 2016, according to the latest data from app analytics firm SensorTower which claims the average iPhone user spends $27 a year just on games.
A star of silver and television screens wants to help others become stars of the small screen – their iPhone screens that is – with an iOS app that lets users act out their favorite movie scenes.
Actor Edward Kerr on Tuesday rolled out ROLR, a new video collaboration app he created to help people connect around the world through a universal love of films. An in-app teleprompter feeds you your lines from scenes from a selection of classic films, you record your part and then invite members of ROLR community to be your co-stars.
If you want to strike it rich on the App Store, here’s a hint: make a game.
Americans who own an iPhone spent an average of $35 on apps and in-app purchases last year, only instead of forking over cash for productivity or education apps, the majority of that money goes to gaming.
There are greats apps for groups to complete tasks and great apps for group communication. In Pingpad, the group has a single app that allows for both.
Pingpad is a stew of many different first generation apps for notes, lists, calendars and instant messaging. In one space, a group can work across platforms on documents, chat back and forth and post pertinent links all in real time. Think Google Docs meets Whatsapp.
Computer engineer Hunter Scott wrote a Python script to enter virtually every Twitter contest started over the span of nine months. The bot ended up entering him in about 165,000 different “RT to win” contests and more importantly, he won close to 1,000. On average, he won four contests per day every day.
When Icelandic developer Thorsteinn Fridriksson unleashed QuizUp on the world in late 2013, the last thing he expected was that the trivia app’s questions would turn into the nerdy equivalent of Cupid’s arrows. However, a surprising number of people who fell in love with the app also fell in love with each other.
“Very soon after we launched, we started hearing about people connecting on the platform,” Fridriksson told Cult of Mac. “You’d be amazed at how many QuizUp couples there are — people who literally met each other because they shared interests in the game.”
Now QuizUp is poised to pivot, taking advantage of its innate ability to connect players — whether for love, friendship or just a killer trivia smackdown. Today’s update marks the biggest and riskiest change in QuizUp’s history, as the multiple-choice game relaunches with a new focus on social networking.
Crazily enough, it just might work.
We've got lots of creative apps in the hopper this week, from the comic-book-artist-friendly Procreate 2.1 to the art-sharing app August. There's also stuff for metadata-hungry photographers, as well as a note-card app for screenwriters. Get to work.
Calling itself a social networking app for just two people, Avocado has long been one of the favorite apps of me and my wife. For everything from sending little reminders of affection in the form of digital hugs, to letting you know when your partner’s phone is about to die, it’s a fantastic Swiss Army knife of tools for people in a relationship.
With Avocado’s 2.1 update, though, that Swiss Army knife has gained one more tool: Google Calendar sync. And it’s about time.
Nifty free voice call and instant messaging service Viber has upgraded to iOS 7.0 with its latest update — incorporating the flat design we’ve come to expect across all iOS apps.
With more than 100 million monthly active users, and having been recently acquired by e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million, the upgrade was definitely in order, and it looks great.
That’s not all the update brings, however. It also adds new features to the app — including the ability to send multiple photos at once, as well as the option to create a list of blocked numbers/contacts.
With teens and young adults leaving Facebook in droves, it’s up to social networks like We Heart It to pick up the slack.
The new image-centric app is gaining a ton of traction with this highly-coveted target demographic, breaking the 25 million user mark and pulling in over a million new users monthly.
CEO Ranah Edelin spoke with Cult of Mac on the phone, and attributes this incredible growth to one thing: We Heart It is a safe space.
“Social networks mimic what happens in the real world,” he said. “There is a ton of bullying on them and they mimic popularity contests. Our users tell us they love We heart It because they can express themselves authentically without having to brag or worry about getting bullied.”
Bang With Friends has returned to the App Store after a three-month hiatus. The app has shifted its tone and is now called “Down,” a name which still needs little explanation.
BWF has had problems staying in the App Store since its initial release earlier this year. Apple banned the app shortly after it became available in May, forcing the its creators to rebrand it into something a tad tamer.
This post is brought to you by INTERDOM, creator of Mylifepaper.
We are constantly reading and watching news reports about other people in the newspapers and on TV. Well that may be interesting, but unless you happen to be a celebrity, politician, newscaster (or bankrobber), there is one person usually missing on the daily news: You. Mylifepaper is a new iPhone / iPad / iPod touch app devoted on every page to reporting news about you. Here is the news….