Remember Rhapsody, the jukebox app and music subscription service that once pitted itself as a chief rival to Apple’s iTunes, only to fail miserably? It’s been lingering out there ever since, watching its user base erode to not only iTunes, but to streaming music services Pandora and Rdio, which both received nice little updates yesterday. But don’t write Rhapsody off yet. Today, they’ve revamped their iOS app which they likened to “the Ferrari of iPhone apps”… Read More
What started out as a simple note-taking solution is quickly becoming the Internet’s favorite information management platform.
We’re talking about Evernote, of course, the Jack of all trades, at least when it comes to note-taking, and I’m using the term loosely here. But if there’s one feature that’s been notably absent from Evernote it’s the concept of time – but no more.
Thanks to a major update issued earlier today, Evernote users on iOS and OS X can now take advantage of reminders, right in their notes. With this helpful new feature, Evernote just leveled up in a major way.
Reminders sync across devices seamlessly, facilitate to-do lists, deliver in-app and email alarms, can be notebook-specific and allow for a range of interesting capabilities not possible before. Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty, shall we? Read More
Smule is among early iOS developers that have been continuously raising the bar on what’s possible on Apple’s iPhone. They make a bunch of social music-making applications and their latest offering is a free iPhone game called Guitar!.
Like many other Smule apps, Guitar! challenges you to play a virtual guitar on your iPhone or iPod touch and earn points based on your performance.
You can then compare your standings to your friends in global leaderboards. And as you progress, the app unlocks a range of Electric and Rock guitars that let you try out new guitar sounds. And no, you don’t have to be a musician as the whole point of the game is social music making. A promo video and other highlights are right after the break… Read More
After great wailing and gnashing of teeth about its banishment from Apple’s App Store earlier this year, AppGratis is back – for Android users. The app recommendation engine was yanked after Apple outlawed iOS apps which promoted other apps.
Now in the Google’s Play store Android repository, developers claim AppGratis “is designed from the ground up” for the iOS rival. Yet, the service appears much like the AppGratis ejected from the app’s first choice, the App Store… Read More
The iPad edition of the media fingerprinting and discovery app Shazam has been updated today with a couple noteworthy enhancements.
First and foremost, the app can now auto-tag the music, television shows and ads playing around you (most likely on your telly), even when the app is in the background (you’ll see the red bar when auto-tagging is running).
This interesting television-tagging capability lets you surf the web, check your email and chat with your friends, for example, while Shazam dutifully identifies what’s playing on the radio or your telly. You can then revisit those tags later to pick the media you’re interested in.
And, a redesigned homescreen makes it easier to see what your Facebook friends have been watching and listening to, explore popular tags by continents, countries, regions, cities and towns and browse the most tagged TV shows in the past few hours… Read More
Mailbox, the popular Gmail-based email application for the iPhone and iPod touch that Dropbox snapped up back in March, has been updated with native iPad support. Yes, you can now triage your email on the bigger screen. Taking best ideas from the iPhone build and borrowing cues from Apple’s stock Mail app on iPad, Mailbox on your Apple tablet increases your productivity by dividing the interface in landscape mode into two columns: the lefthand one which lists your email messages, with message content rendered on the right side. We’ve gut the full breakdown and a promo video right below the fold… Read More
Google is on a roll these days. Hot on the heels of updating its desktop Chrome browser with Siri-like conversational search earlier today, the Internet giant just published a post over at the official Chrome blog confirming that Chrome for iPhone and iPad with voice search is “coming soon.”
A Chrome update for the iPhone and iPad will be ready “over the coming days” and will let you speak your searches into Omnibox, which in Google’s parlance means Chrome’s combined search and address box.
You’ll even get certain results spoken back to you, right in the Chrome browser – how cool is that? Read More
Twitter, the leading micro-blogging service turned media platform, has just updated its Mac client with a much-needed native support for OS X Mountain Lion’s Notification Center. The new Twitter version 2.2.1 also includes half a dozen fixes. The native OS X Notification Center support lets you not only receive notifications when someone mentions you or when you receive a direct message, but also for any new tweet surfacing in one’s stream… Read More
Fans of Smile’s TextExpander, the app that allows you to type lengthy words or phrases using text shortcuts, will be happy to hear that version 2 is out for iOS. The update includes a number of new features and improvements, and brings the mobile app more in line with its highly-regarded Mac sibling… Read More
Just a week ago, the Pinterest app in a major update gained a handful of new features and improvements like push notifications, user mentions and search suggestions, to name a few. Today, another update has gone live on the App Store, bringing additional improvements related to Pinterest’s new look. Specifically, your pins now have more info like pricing, availability, ingredients and movie ratings. More on that right after the break… Read More
Lots of avid iPhone photography fans don’t just use their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to capture stills, but shoot video as well.
I usually fire up Apple’s excellent iMovie application ($4.99 universal binary) whenever my clips need touching up, but now a new software has come along to go beyond what you thought was possible on your iOS device.
Video Filters by i4Software packs in over a hundred fully customizable video effects with live previews, which is kinda big deal because only a few years ago nobody thought we’d be able to edit full HD footage on tablets, in real-time… Read More
Samsung wants more developers writing apps that require features exclusively found on its own devices, such as the Galaxy S4 flagship smartphone – and is willing to pay. In an $800,000 competition, the South Korean conglomerate is seeking entries which highlight its own sharing service and proprietary software development kit.
The first-prize winner takes home $200,000, three second-place finalists receive $100,000 each, while six third-place finishers get $50,000 each, according to the Wall Street Journal. The competition’s goal is to improve Samsung’s standing against Apple’s iPhone… Read More
Apple has decided to pull Bang With Friends, a controversial app that lets users anonymously pick which of their Facebook friends they’d like to hook up with, and then notifies them when there’s a match, from its App Store this afternoon.
There’s no word yet on why the app was removed. But between Apple’s staunch attitude toward all things vulgar, and its app review team’s track record for pulling software on a whim, we’re not at all surprised to see Bang With Friends gone… Read More
If you’ve been looking to enjoy BlackBerry’s upcoming Messenger app on your iPad, bad news. Blackberry’s software portfolio chief Vivek Bhardwaj tells Trusted Reviews that the app will only target the iPhone and Android smartphones, at least initially. Although he wouldn’t ruled out the possibility of an iPad edition down the road, he didn’t specifically mention it either.
That’s hardly surprising given BlackBerry’s lackluster PlayBook tablet and the firm’s general failure in the tablet space, though it’s hard to escape the feeling that BlackBerry Messenger for iPad would make sense for the business types who’ve come to depend on their Apple tablet for work… Read More
Previously code-named Babel, Google yesterday announced its new cross-platform unified messaging product called Hangouts. Shortly after, the software surfaced on Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play store for Android.
In replacing Google Talk, Hangouts supports one-on-one and group chatting across desktop, Android and Apple devices and includes photos, emoji, and video calls.
In a nutshell, the app integrates messaging from Google’s GTalk, Google+ Messenger, Hangouts and Voice products. But that’s just scratching the surface as Google obviously has big plans with the product… Read More
Apple crossed a major milestone yesterday afternoon, with the official App Store Twitter channel confirming the company hit 50 billion app downloads. As part of its countdown promotion, the iPhone maker today issued a press release revealing the lucky winner who won a $10,000 iTunes Gift card, good for apps, videos, books and music. Additionally, per Apple’s rules fifty additional lucky winners will take home $500 iTunes gift cards each… Read More
Apple’s App Store just crossed a major milestone this afternoon. Just a few moments ago, the digital storefront passed the 50 billion download mark, bringing the company’s “50 Billion App Countdown” to an end.
The winner of the countdown promotion, who has yet to be revealed, will be given a $10,000 iTunes gift card, good for apps, videos, books and music. And fifty additional lucky winners will receive $500 gift cards… Read More
Google is in the middle of its I/O developer conference keynote right now, and so far it’s been pretty boring. There’s been no mention of consumer products yet, just some talk about developer API access and some new software and services.
The search giant did, however, unveil a new game service. Flying under the Google Play flag, the service resembles Apple’s Game Center, hosting leader boards, achievements, and facilitating real-time multiplayer. Oh, and it’s coming to iOS… Read More
DirecTV has a decent iOS app on the App Store which streams live television programming, supports DVR functionality and lets you browse and access on-demand streams of past television shows and movies.
The company previously promised to activate voice-enabled features and today it made good on that promise by updating DirectTV software to version 2.5.
The new version uses voice-activated navigation to enable users to find whatever they want to watch on their telly. It’s just like Siri: simply speak to the app just as you would to a person in order to find something to watch. In fact, DirectTV’s software gives us a good indication how a rumored Siri-enabled Apple television set could enhance the experience… Read More
If you thought TodoMovies was great, wait until you see Limelight for iPhone. Created by young developer Oliver Cameron of the iOS app development agency called 9:42am, Limelight lets you manage your collection of the movies you’ve already watched or want to watch, share your movie lists with friends, receive recommendations and more.
It basically wants to become your go-to movie library app and it’s bringing some nice features to the table. In a nutshell, Limelight isn’t just focused on keeping track of your favorite movies, it also monitors when they’re released to theaters… Read More
