Year: 2014

Beats by Dr. Dre products get featured on Online Apple Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

After officially welcoming Beats to the family last week, Apple has now given the Beats by Dr. Dre range its own dedicated section on the Online Apple Store.

Found under the new 'Beats by Dr. Dre' section found under the Accessories link, the Beats sub-section has even gotten a prominent placement on the navigation bar at the top, joining other sections such as 'All Accessories,' 'Apple Accessories,' 'Exclusives,' 'Now Trending,' and 'Gift Cards'.

The online store seems to be carrying the complete range of the popular Beats by Dr. Dre line of accessories and headphones...

vHome brings a virtual Home button to your jailbroken iOS device

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ August 7, 2014

There are several tweaks available in Cydia that allow you to imitate a press of the Home button without actually touching it. Such tweaks are quite useful when you have a broken Home or Power button. vHome is yet another jailbreak tweak that adds a virtual Home button on your screen.

Developed by Noeliel, vHome brings a small virtual Home button to your jailbroken iOS device that looks quite similar to the physical Home button on your device. It floats on your screen and tapping on it will either take you to your Home screen or lock your device. vHome might sound similar to other virtual Home button tweaks but it works in two ways

Peter Molyneux’s newest God game is now available for iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 7, 2014

Arguably the most famous game designer of all time, Peter Molyneux left Bullfrog to form Lionhead Studios in 1997. Ever since, he's been (mostly) churning out one hit game after another. His latest project: a God sim called Godus.

After a recent soft-launch, it's now available worldwide as a free-to-play download for the iPhone and iPad. Designed by Molyneux himself and developed for mobile by DeNA Corp., Godus started as a Kickstarter project.

The game can be considered an unofficial sequel to Curiosity, an experimental Molyneux-designed game which forced people to frantically tap away at a cube in order to discover what's inside. Godus takes a different route. Featuring cartoonish graphics, it invites you to rule over a living, breathing world and lets you shape, mold and sculpt every inch of the landscape to your liking, among other features...

Crystals turns geometric art into 3D wallpaper

Lory Gil ∙ August 7, 2014

Cool-looking wallpaper is a big deal now that iOS 7 has made it possible for users to experience the parallax effect on our Home and Lock screens. I’m always looking for new and interesting apps that will allow me to alter and manipulate existing images into something unique for my background.

Crystals is a polygon creation app that lets you manipulate triangles and turn them into interesting fractal patterns. You can then use your intricate new design as a wallpaper for your iPhone or iPad…

Yosemite’s QuickTime cleans up iOS status bar when screencasting so you don’t have to

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 7, 2014

The vast majority of Apple bloggers who grab screenshots of iPhone and iPad applications don't seem to be ashamed by the low or no cellular signal strength showing right in their status bar, or incomplete Wi-Fi or - worse of all - low battery.

And who could blame them?

Touching up the images to have the status bar show full cellular/Wi-Fi signal and 100 percent battery takes time and a great deal of effort to get it right.

I've seen folks like MacStories editor Federico Viticci obsess over the issue and even write scripts and devise complex workflows in order to correct the messed up status bar on their iOS screenshots. Having been constantly pressed for time, I'm not that particular about my screenshots.

Luckily, QuickTime in Yosemite includes a nifty little feature which automatically cleans up the status bar when capturing an iOS device's screen, so your screencasts look professional...

Autodesk’s SketchBook apps go free for the first time in Apple’s Free App of the Week promo

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

For the first time ever since debuting on the App Store back in the summer of 2013, a pair of excellent drawing and painting apps for the iPhone and iPad by Autodesk have gone free.

Both SketchBook Mobile — a professional-grade painting and drawing application designed for the iPhone and iPod touch — and SketchBook Pro for iPad— an authentic, natural drawing experience based on the same paint engine as its desktop counterpart — are available free of charge, for a limited time, courtesy of Apple's weekly Free App of the Week promo on the App Store.

That's a cool $7 saving right off the bat as SketchBook Pro normally sells for $4.99 and SketchBook Mobile is regularly $1.99...

NFL Now hits iPhone, iPad and Apple TV with rich video library, personalized streams and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

As announced last week, The National Football League has launched its brand new NFL Now app. The software is available as a new channel on Apple's $99 Apple TV media-streaming box and as a free download for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Arriving in time for the new season, NFL Now features a personalized video stream of your favorite NFL teams, players and coaches, delivers exclusive interviews and stories about the teams, breaking news on your fantasy players, and unlimited access to content in the NFL Films Archives.

The app learns from your behavior and analyzes what you like to deliver a personalized video feed of content tailored to your tastes...

Google Shopping Express 2.0: deliveries in more cities, enhanced search, new products and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 7, 2014

Following a June update, the Internet giant today released a major new version of its Shopping Express application for the iPhone and iPad.

The official iOS client of Google’s same-day delivery service, version 2.0, now live in the App Store, brings same-day and overnight delivery to more cities while introducing several enhancements to the built-in search feature.

You can now use the app to buy wine, beer and spirits and have them delivered to your doorstep, if you live in San Francisco or the San Francisco Peninsula. And people who shop at Costco can now purchase their Costco membership and shop Costco in the same session...

FX Photo Studio 6.0 for iPhone brings iOS 7 overhaul, new filters and sharing options and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

FX Photo Studio by MacPhun used to be my go-to iPhone photography tool, but I was forced to switch to other apps because it looked like the team had ceased further development (last update was in February of last year).

I'm glad I was wrong about that. As of today, the iPhone edition has been resurrected. Basically everything has changed and MacPhun bills it as "the biggest update in its four-year history".

Now available in the App Store as a free update for existing users, the new FX Photo Studio 6.0 of course sports an iOS 7-friendly user interface along with a brand new engine and tons of other new features.

All of the hallmarks of FX Photo Studio have been preserved and enhanced in this update, including great filters, special editing tools and sharing features...

Classic RPG ‘Dragon Quest IV’ lands in the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ August 7, 2014

Fans of the classic RPG 'Dragon Quest IV' will be happy to hear that Square Enix has delivered on its promise to launch an English version of the game. After spending several months in Japan, the title is now available in the US App Store.

For those unfamiliar with it, Dragon Quest IV was a popular turn-based RPG in the early 90's. Square Enix promises that the port keeps the same core gameplay experience as the original, and a new control system optimized for mobile devices...

United Airlines app gains handy new passport scanning feature

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

United Airlines updated its iOS app this morning, bringing the client to version 2.0.16. The update includes support for a new feature the company is testing out that enables users to scan their passports to check-in for international flights using their device's camera.

United is calling the trial feature "Expanded International Check-In," and its purpose is to allow international passengers to complete their check-in process and print their boarding pass before arriving at the airport. All it takes is a quick photo scan of their passport...

Apple awarded new patent on wireless charging

Cody Lee ∙ August 7, 2014

We don't know if the upcoming iPhone 6 is going to feature wireless charging technology or not, but we do know that Apple is working on it. The Cupertino company has been awarded multiple patents on wire-free charging tech over the years, and today we're adding a new one to the stack.

The USPTO granted Apple the rights to a new invention this week based on NFMR (or near-field magnetic resonance) technology. NFMR is different from the inductive charging tech used by most manufacturers these days, as it's capable of wirelessly charging devices up to one meter away...