iPhone apps - page 9

How to unlock your Mac with an iPhone or Apple Watch

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Tired of dealing with login passwords on your Mac? Skip them altogether with MacID!
Tired of dealing with login passwords on your Mac? Skip them altogether with MacID!
Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor

app-factor-logo-thumbnail There aren’t a lot of apps I use regularly on my Apple Watch. The ones that I do use regularly consist of utilities that make my life easier, or apps that help me track things, like water intake or how many tasks I have left for the day. One of my favorite utilities is MacID, which offers even faster access to my Mac with my Apple Watch (or my iPhone).

Wikipedia app update will keep you pleasantly occupied for hours

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The latest Wikipedia mobile update brings exploration to the fore.
The latest Wikipedia mobile update brings exploration to the fore.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre/Cult of Mac

Whether you’re into a quick search for needed information or a deep dive down the rabbit hole of a massive topic of your own choosing, chances are you’ll spend a bit of time on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia’s new iOS app update today will help you with both use cases, letting you drill down to a single bit of knowledge as well as leaning back and enjoying your exploration of the online portal’s over 36 million articles.

How to get better deals while shopping online with PriceRadar for iPhone

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No matter what you're shopping online for, PriceRadar can help ensure you get the best possible deal.
No matter what you're shopping online for, PriceRadar can help ensure you get the best possible deal.
Photo: Ally Kazmucha/The App Factor

app-factor-logo-thumbnailFrom tech gadgets to clothes to our favorite tv shows and movies, prices for our favorite things are constantly changing online. If time isn’t an issue, I can show you how to get fantastic deals with only one iPhone app — PriceRadar by Francesco Zerbinati. Once set up, you can easily track price drops effortlessly. Here’s how…

New app turns your iPhone into mobile podcasting studio

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Phone in your podcast (no kidding)  with the app ZCast.
Phone in your podcast (no kidding) with the app ZCast.
Photo: Zula

You don’t need a high-frequency antenna or FCC license to be a broadcaster in the 21st century. Anyone can have a podcast – well, that is, anyone with the technical know-how and money for equipment, such as a good microphone, to produce their work.

A company called Zula wants to eliminate what might be the last barrier for the DIY media star. It launched an iPhone app called ZCast, which allows users to produce an audio podcast anywhere with just an iPhone or Mac computer.

Why most New Year’s resolutions fail (and how iPhone can help you succeed)

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The secret to losing weight and getting fit with iPhone in 2016
An expert reveals the secret to losing weight and getting fit with iPhone.
Photo: Graham Bower/Cult of Mac

If you’re feeling guilty about your festive overindulgence, you may be planning to lose some weight and get fit in the new year. Well, sorry to be a Grinch, but research suggests that only 8 percent of New Year’s resolutions are successful.

The good news is that there is a better way. One that involves steadily building healthy habits over time. There are some handy iPhone apps that can help with this, but you won’t find them in the Health & Fitness section of the App Store.

Your GoPro shots could help map the world

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Part of a sunset sequence in the Antarctic.
Part of a sunset sequence in the Antarctic.
Photo: Mapillary

Those beautiful GoPro photos of your goofy travels on bike or skis may contain an unmapped part of the world.

In its quest to surpass Google in visual mapping, the app Mapillary earlier this month added GPS support to GoPro users who have the iOS version of the app.

Popular fitness app makes U.S. debut in time for New Year’s resolutions

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No weights, classes or gym. The Freeletics app designs a workout program that uses your body weight.
No weights, classes or gym. The Freeletics app designs a workout program that uses your body weight.
Photo: Freeletics

You have a gym membership, but you’ve talked yourself out of going. You paid for a personal trainer and found reasons to cancel.

Maybe fitness can be achieved through your smartphone or smartwatch, but the excuse that now grinds the revolution to a halt is too many apps from which to choose.

Freeletics, a workout app that made its U.S. debut earlier this month, wants to make this an easy choice. First, it invites you to join more than 7 million other users, a community, the company says, grows by more than 6,000 users a week.

Pro Tip: Easily edit your iPhone videos with Adobe Premiere Clip

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Cielo de la Paz can provide steady guidance on how to shoot video with the iPhone.
Cielo de la Paz can provide steady guidance on how to shoot video with the iPhone.
Photo: Cielo de la Paz

Pro_Tip_Cult_of_Mac You have so much great video footage on your iPhone, but therein lies the problem. The thought of sitting down at a computer to edit any of it seems like a mountain you have no time to climb.

Cielo de la Paz is happy to help you reach the summit – rather quickly, too. de la Paz is a fearless creator whose soulful wanderings with her iPhone camera inspired Apple to select some of her work for the “Shot on iPhone 6” advertising campaign.

New iPhone app Yallo lets you record your conversations

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Get Yallo in on your phone conversations.
Get Yallo in on your phone conversations.
Photo: Yallo

When I first became a reporter, I bought one of those little mics you could suction-cup to a telephone to record interviews. That was some gadget, except for having to tape it to the handset because the suction cup sometimes popped off.

You can still buy this kind of microphone or use your smartphone with an app called Yallo. A simple interface lets you record incoming calls, share the recorded conversation with an associate or have recordings transcribed and automatically sent to email.

New iPhone app helps you form your dream band

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The app made by a musician for musicians may just help get you discovered.
The app made by a musician for musicians may just help get you discovered.
Photo: Encore Music/iTunes

Alex Gorokhovskiy is like a lot of musicians – broke and in search of compatible bandmates. But instead of investing in recording demos or outfitting his own group, he’s spending on everyone else who has ever wanted to play music and be in a band.

Gorokhovskiy created the social media app Encore Music, which is a kind of place for musicians to gather. But to call it a social media platform, understates the potential business value of the app.

How to choose the right running app for you

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And the winner is… find out which running app offers the most features
And the winner is… find out which running app offers the most features
Photo: Graham Bower / Cult of Mac

There are so many iPhone apps for runners, it’s hard to decide which one to use. Should you go for a familiar brand like Nike, or a specialist like Runkeeper?

Ultimately, all running apps do pretty much the same thing: They use GPS to track how far and how fast you run. But when you take a closer look, their features and prices vary considerably. So I’ve done the leg work for you, to help you find the right running app faster.

Dating app Blume makes sure your amour isn’t a fake

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Real-time selfies are required for meeting a match on the dating app Blume.
Real-time selfies are required for meeting a match on the dating app Blume.
Photo: Blume

Online dating services promise plenty of fish in the sea. They just can’t stop the catfish from biting.

But the pretenders might not have the same luck with the new dating app Blume. Once a match is made, the two users must exchange selfies, using the smartphone camera in-app, before any communication can begin.

Make light paintings on your iPhone with this amazing app

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Air Pencil is an amazing app that lets you recording light paintings in the air.
Air Pencil is an amazing app that lets you recording light paintings in the air.
Photo: AdTile

Light paintings are a fun technique, dating back to the 19th century and used by luminaries such as Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol. By waving a light source, like a flashlight, in front of a camera set for a long exposure, you can seemingly create static paintings of light in mid air.

Your iPhone is both a camera and a flashlight, but you usually need two of them to make a light painting. Now a new web app called Air Pencil is set to change that, allowing you to create incredible three-dimensional light paintings, no external camera required.

The secret messaging app getting millions of downloads

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SOMA Messenger is gaining popularity around the world for free and secure communication.
SOMA Messenger is gaining popularity around the world for free and secure communication.
Photo: Instanza Inc.

Harvard classmates Lei Guo and Oliver Hayen created what could have been just another messaging app. They knew they had something unique, as every app development team claims, so they put it in the hands of 2,000 people and hit launch.

Within 30 days, their app SOMA Messenger had 10 million users and has been growing since. They’d love to brag about who is using it, except they can’t because of security measures built into the app that prevents even them from knowing SOMA’s users.

Bing’s redesigned iPhone app focuses on instant answers

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bing-iphone-app-redesign - 2
Bing's new app is both pretty and powerful.
Photo: Microsoft

Microsoft released a completely revamped Bing app for iPhone today with a redesigned home page and a much larger emphasis on instant answers to search queries. Finding what you’re looking for now takes much less time.  It’s possible that this release is a stepping stone to the iOS debut of Cortana, Microsoft’s answer to Google Now.

Apple Maps trains its eye on Amtrak routes, Boston transit

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Amtrak in Apple Maps
Amtrak routes are now available in Apple Maps.
Screengrab: Evan Killham/Cult of Mac

The next stage of Apple Maps’ Transit roll-out is live today. The latest update includes public transportation in Boston and, more interestingly, select Amtrak train routes in the northeastern U.S.

OK, well it’s all pretty interesting. But, you know. Trains.

PAUSE your iPhone for stress relief

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PAUSE is a guided meditation app that aims to get you to relax and refocus.
PAUSE is a guided meditation app that aims to get you to relax and refocus.
Photo: UsTwo

Stress is making our heads a scattered mess and among some of the many suggested remedies is forcing ourselves to unplug from our devices. But one idea actually assigns meditative properties to our iPhones.

A new app simply called Pause use interactive graphics and soothing sounds to concentrate the mind on the present with the goal of providing relaxation and renewed focus. The app invites the user to place a finger on a slowly pulsating splotch of color and follow it as it moves slowly on screen, rewarding you with pleasant sounds, like chirping birds.

10 essential apps for your new iPhone 6s

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iphone-6s-3d-touch
Okay, you have the phone. Now what?
Photo: Apple

If you’ve braved a line (or just waited impatiently for your mail or a delivery from your local courier) and finally have your hands on an iPhone 6s or 6s Plus of your very own, you may be wondering what do do with your new precious. Sure, you could call all your friends and tell them you’re speaking to them through your shiny new gadget, like I did with my Apple Watch.

And I’m here to tell you that everyone loves that.

But you’re probably looking for some cool apps to play around with, and it may be hard to know where to start — especially if this is your first iPhone. So here are a bunch of apps that should be at the top of your list.

App lets you keep shooting photos when your iPhone is full

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Avoid this message with the IceCream app, which quickly helps free your storage to continue shooting photos.
Avoid this message with the IceCream app, which quickly helps free your storage to continue shooting photos.
Photo: IceCream

You’ve got the perfect photo lined in your sites and so you push the button on your iPhone camera. Instead of a memory etched in pixels, you get a message saying “Cannot take photo. There’s not enough storage.”

An iOS app called IceCream lets you quickly free up space without deleting photos, instead saving them to a secure cloud server with the tap of a button.

Weather Network app claims it can tell you when it is going to rain

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Back to the Future Part II weather network app
The Weather Network's latest app update might make this a reality.
Photo: Universal Pictures

We’re not quite through 2015 yet, so app developers still have time to make the prophecies foretold by director Robert Zemeckis’ documentary Back to the Future: Part II come true. And to that end, The Weather Network’s latest app update uses radar and algorithms to predict when, exactly, it is going to start and stop raining.

The new feature, appropriately called “Rain Start Stop,” claims to give you a few hours to finalize the details on your outdoor activities.

Number 2 on the App Store: a social network for pooping

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Great. Just what the world needed. A social network for pooping.
Great. Just what the world needed. A social network for pooping.
Photo: Pooductive

Look, we know you’ve taken your iPhone into the bathroom with you for number two. Everyone has. That doesn’t mean you should tell people about it. But a new app, charmingly called Pooductive, is for just that. It’s dedicated to facilitating meaningful, anonymous conversation on the toilet about… you can guess the topic.

Say VH-yes to this cheesy ’80s video app

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Set your iPhone video camera on 1985 with the VHS Camcorder app.
Set your iPhone video camera on 1985 with the VHS Camcorder app.
Photo: Rarevision

Dust off your father’s Miami Vice suit and start growing a mullet. (Get it permed in back, too.) A new app turns your iPhone’s camera into a 1985-style VHS camcorder, complete with terrible quality and a date stamp.

Clever sensor tells your iPhone whether your favorite restaurant is full

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The Density sensor can be mounted to a door frame to track people moving in and out of  a businesses, like a restaurant or your local Department of Motor Vehicles.
The Density sensor can be mounted to a door frame to track people moving in and out of a businesses, like a restaurant or your local Department of Motor Vehicles.
Photo: Density

Your iPhone can help you find a good brunch place, with reviews on Yelp that indicate a restaurant’s best dishes. But there really isn’t any real-time help, except maybe calling or taking your chances and just showing up, to find out if you and your friends can get a table at a local hot spot.

A company called Density has developed a door-frame sensor that monitors the coming and going of people and then reports to an iPhone app whether your favorite place is full. It collects data on people’s movement at various hours of the day and recommends windows of time when you can get right in.

Instagram is about to hit you with ads whether you Like them or not

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Instagram ads
Get ready to see this stuff all the time.
Photo: Progressive (via Instagram)

Are you tired of your Instagram feed being low on sponsored posts from companies trying to sell you things? If so, here comes the best news you’ve ever heard.

The company has opened up its advertising code to make it easier than ever for partners to get ads all up in the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app.