Google on Wednesday released a free Trusted Contacts app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch following its release on Android in December of last year.
Google launches Trusted Contacts iOS app with Find My Friends-like features
Apps
Spottly, Audm, Motivate, and other apps to check out this weekend
This week's edition of our Apps of the Week roundup features a new travel app with a modern twist, an app that reads out the best long-form journalism content, and an app that serves up daily motivational videos. And as always, we've selected two great new games for you to check out.
SpottlyThe App Store is is overcrowded with travel apps, but I'm always on the lookout for curated apps that can cutdown your research time and improve your trips. And that's kind of what Spottly is. The app uses algorithms and user curation to highlight the best places to visit and things to do on your next vacation. Items are presented in photo form, so you can visual what you'll be doing, and ranked by popularity. Spottly is available for free.
AudmThis is kind of interesting. Have you ever wanted to read more long-form journalism, but just can't find the time? Meet Audm, the app that features the best content from the top publications around the world, read aloud by celebrated audiobook narrators. Supported publications include WIRED, The Atlantic, Esquire and ProPublica. Features include playlists, offline listening and more. There's a free trial, which I think is worth checking out, and if you like it it's $6.99/month for full access. Audm is available for free.
MotivateThis isn't a new app, but it's still worth checking out for folks looking for an extra helping of inspiration. Motivate delivers handpicked motivation videos to you daily. You can watch the clips in-app, listen to them in the background, save your favorites, and even share them with friends. I know this stuff may seem kind of cheesy, but for a lot of people it can be really useful and encouraging. Motivation is available in the App Store for free.
A Planet of MineA Planet of Mine is an engaging game combining exploration, mining, and strategy. Fully adapted for mobile devices, each game is unique thanks to an innovative "stellar system generator" that distributes resources, recruitable species, spoonable biomes, and buildable planets until a complete playground is yours to command. Some systems feature AI-controlled, faction-building opponents. Will you trade with these factions or fight them for control of the entire system. The choice is yours. A Planet of Mine is available for free (with some IAPs).
Full Throttle RemasteredOriginally released by LucasArts in 1995, Full Throttle is a classic graphic adventure game from industry legend Tim Schafer, telling the story of Ben Throttle; butt-kicking leader of biker gang the Polecats, who gets caught up in a tale of motorcycles, mayhem and murder. Now over 20 years later, Full Throttle is back in a remastered edition that features all new hand-drawn and 3D high-resolution artwork, and remastered audio and music. Full Throttle Remastered is available for $4.99.
More apps to check out Apple’s free app of the week: Yankai’s Triangle Panic launches Transmit 5, a major update to the popular FTP client Add Spotify controls to your Mac’s Menu Bar with SpotMenu Lightroom for iOS gains selective brush editing, all-new iPad interface & more WhatsApp gains chat pinning, comprehensive file sharing & more in latest updateFix: Apple Music not showing up in iTunes
If you signed up for Apple Music on your iPhone or iPad but also want to enjoy the service on your Mac, you might be up for a surprise when you launch iTunes and realize Apple Music is not showing up.
This could just be a bug, or maybe just a box that hasn't been checked. Regardless of the cause, we will show you how to turn on Apple Music in iTunes on your Mac.
Panic launches Transmit 5, a major update to the popular FTP client
Panic, an Apple-focused dev shop based out of Portland, Oregon, has released a much anticipated update to Transmit. Transmit, for the uninitiated, is a powerful FTP and file transfer application. Version 5 is a huge update, and the first paid update to Transmit in over 5 years.
How to delete old email attachments on Mac to regain storage space
Learn how to free up storage space on your Mac by deleting unneeded email attachments in Apple Mail like PDF documents, images, videos, and other large files.
How to add Spotify controls to your Mac menu bar
Do you want to control your Spotify music playback from Mac's top menu bar? If yes, let me show you two easy ways to do that.
Lightroom for iOS gains selective brush editing, all-new iPad interface & more
Adobe today updated Lightroom for iPhone and Lightroom for iPad on App Store with some key new features aimed at making editing on the go easier than ever. You can now use a new brush feature to selectively paint in enhancements to any part of your images.
The selective brush option extends to the eraser tool, allowing you to selectively erase both the linear and radial gradients. And if your device has 3D Touch, like iPhone 6s or iPhone 7, you can even vary the effect by just pressing softer or harder as you paint.
iPad Pro users working with an Apple Pencil get the same pressure-sensing to apply more or less of the effect. You'll also notice a new Details tab within the app where you can add the finishing touches to images by controlling noise and enhancing image details.
The in-app camera now supports a new Show Highlight Clipping feature that shows you the over-exposed areas prior to capture, which lets you adjust the exposure or composition in camera. Lightroom for iOS also packs in an improved virtual level via the in-app camera with haptic feedback and support for latest cameras and lenses.
Last but not least, Lightroom for iPad now features a revamped interface, shown top of post, designed for the tablet's larger canvas. According to Adobe, the app makes editing via iPad a serious option as a laptop replacement for any photographer.
Download Lightroom for iPhone and iPad free in App Store.
WhatsApp gains chat pinning, comprehensive file sharing & more in latest update
As part of a broader set of capabilities recently teased for the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging platform, the app has now gained a trio of new features in the latest update. WhatsApp version 2.17.40 for iOS brings a chat pinning feature, multi-format file sharing and other improvements.
With the pinning feature, you can make it so your favorite chats remain at the top of the list, so you can quickly find them. To use this feature, just swipe right on a chat in the conversation list, then tap a Pin or Unpin option.
The app has also expanded the file sharing feature, which now allows you to share any type of file with one or more recipients. To send files of any type, open a chat, tap the plus icon at the bottom then choose the Document option.
In the popup menu, select your favorite storage provider like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and so forth (any app that includes an iOS Document Provider extension should be available from the menu).
And lastly, when you receive multiple photos the app now lets you tap and hold on the group of photos to quickly forward or delete all of them in one fell swoop.
Download WhatsApp for iPhone, iPad and iPod for free from App Store.
Sticky AI, Picsew, RoverPass, and other apps to check out this weekend
This week's edition of our Apps of the Week roundup features a sticker-maker, screenshot-stitcher, and an app for locating and reserving campsites. And as usual, we've selected two great new games for you to check out.
Sticky AISticky AI uses artificial intelligence to help you create your own selfie-stickers incredibly fast. Create still and animated stickers, save them to the sticker pack and share them easily across your favorite messaging apps. Features include awesome comic and cartoon-like sticker styles, bright and colorful backgrounds to choose from, and a simple and clean user interface. For me it's kind of like having Instagram or Snapchat stickers in all of your favorite social apps. Sticky AI is available for free.
PicsewIn the market for a screenshot-stitching app? Check out Picsew. It's not a new app, but it just received a big update. Picsew can automatically merge multiple screenshots into a single image. The developer says it has the leading auto-stitching success rate among similar products, and it also has a manual stitching option for more complex projects. Other features include support for both vertical and horizontal screenshots, high resolution output, watermarks and more. Picsew is available for $0.99.
RoverPassIt's that time of year again! Search, compare, and book with thousands of other travelers using RoverPass. With more than 20,000 campgrounds across the country, RoverPass is the only directory to offer nationwide booking through its online travel agency service. Other features include quick-loading search results, large photos, map exploration, online booking, and more. This isn't a new app, but if you like to camp and haven't checked it out, it may be worth doing so. It has one of the largest campground databases of any app I've seen. RoverPass is available for free.
Dice SmashIn the mood to try a new puzzler this weekend? Check out Dice Smash. This game is simple, with the goal of tapping empty spaces between pairs of dice in an effort to clear the board. Features include daily challenges, support for Apple Watch and iMessage, and a gorgeous interface. Think you have what it takes to smash the dice? Try it. Dice Smash is available for free.
Street Fighter IV Champion EditionA new warrior has entered the ring. Street Fighter 4: Champion Edition perfects the winning gameplay formula of its predecessor by offering higher resolution graphics, three new characters (Poison, Ibuki and Dudley), wide screen support for newer iOS devices and a host of updates and refinements. Long time Street Fighter fans can jump into the action and have an instant familiarity with the controls. For more casual players, Street Fighter 4 features numerous settings and tutorials that put you on the path to victory. Street Fighter IV Champion Edition is available for $5.
More apps to check out Pocketdex app by Majd Alfhaily and Surenix complements Pokémon GO Apple’s free app of the week: illi Fantastical for Mac gains attachment and travel time support, time to leave alerts & moreHow to save Instagram stories on iPhone
While the Instagram app allows downloading your stories, it doesn't let you download other people's stories. But there are ways to do it. This tutorial shows you how to download and save Instagram Stories to your iPhone's Photos app.
This awesome ARKit app uses HTC Vive to bring mixed reality to iPad
Unlike virtual reality which completely immerses you in computer-generated images, augmented reality superimposes virtual objects on top of your world rather than close it out.
Mixed reality, on the other hand, (sometimes called hybrid reality) merges the two worlds so that physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.
A new recently published demo combines an ARKit-driven app running on the Unity 3D engine on an iPad Pro with real-time input from HTC's Vive virtual reality headset and controller. Created by NY-based virtual reality developer Normal VR, the app features a cute avatar drawing a virtual painting in the middle of the company's office.
What's really interesting about it is the fact that a person wearing a HTC Vive is revealed when the camera pans right, proving that the app captures the moves of the person in real-time and projects the resulting actions in their real world through augmented reality.
“This is going from East Coast to West Coast (server) and back. We definitely do some extrapolation to account for ping,” developers wrote. You could easily imagine the possibilities for remote interactions between people across the globe in mixed reality.
Blobbing in the studio today w/ the Vive + ARKit. Definitely some huge mixed reality potential here. #arkit #vr #indiedev #gamedev pic.twitter.com/C1zANBuSrx
— Normal (@normalvr) July 10, 2017
Not sure about you, but I'm really impressed by this demo.
There's a lot going on here as this app brings objects from the virtual world into the real one, in real-time—not only does the avatar realistically replicates the person's actions, it shows the digital painting on top of the real world as it's being created, updating it constantly.
Welcome to the future of mixed reality!
We showed you many demos powered by Apple's ARKit framework for building augmented reality apps on iPhone and iPad, ranging from a simple but awesome measuring tape to home decor shopping, accurate room measurement, Tic Tac Toe, food ordering and more.
Even Ikea has jumped on the AR bandwagon by partnering with Apple on an ARKit-powered app that will let you try out virtual furniture in your home, with support for in-app ordering.
The beauty of ARKit is that it does all the heavy lifting, allowing developers to focus on app design rather than deal with things like plane detection, lighting estimation, tracking, etc.
Using computer vision and other techniques, ARKit does all that by analyzing live camera feed and data from iPhone or iPad's built-in sensors. ARKit requires the A9 or A10 chip, meaning augmented reality apps will require an iPhone 6s or newer or one of the latest iPad models.
Facebook is testing in-app GIF creator
As first spotted by The Next Web, Facebook is testing an in-app GIF creator with a subset of users of its mainland mobile app for iOS. The feature is available through the app's built-in camera and allows users to quickly create animated GIFs for sharing with friends and family.
You can also post the GIF to a Story or save it to your device.
GIFs can be spiced up using Facebook's range of built-in camera effects. According to the publication, any GIFs created through this feature are short, lasting only a few seconds.
As I mentioned before, the feature is only available to certain users.
We'll let you know when the in-app GIF creator launches for everyone. Until then, let us know in the comments section if you're part of Facebook's limited test of this feature.
Just a month ago, the social network rolled out the ability for users to express themselves better by posting animated GIFs in comments.
Download Facebook at no charge from App Store.