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Several new App Store categories, including News and Education, appear on the Apple TV

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

After being limited to just two app categories for the past few weeks, several new categories have appeared to help flesh out app discovery on Apple's recently released set top box. Along with the Games and Entertainment categories, users will now find Education, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, News and Sports categories.

To view the new categories, simply launch the App Store app on your Apple TV. The new categories may still be propagating, though it may be worth trying a reboot if they don't show up immediately.

10 reasons why the iPad Pro might be a better computer than your Mac

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

In my review of the iPad Pro, I made sure to establish that it wasn’t necessarily a replacement for your Mac. At the same time, that doesn’t mean that it can’t replace your Mac, or that it doesn’t do some things better than a Mac can.

To be honest, the iPad Pro does quite a few things better than my MacBook Pro with Retina display. In this post, I’ll consider 10 reasons why the iPad Pro might be the better computer of the two for your workflow.

T-Mobile and Verizon are offering free data for existing customers

Matthew Miller ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

With Black Friday coming later this week, the various carriers are unveiling their plans for the big sale. While the big four (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, and Verizon) all have various deals, only T-Mobile and Verizon have really good offerings for existing customers, including free data.

Verizon is offering existing customers an additional 1 GB of data for two billing cycles, while T-Mobile is giving all customers unlimited data for three whole months. These deals start on different dates, so head into the story to see how to get them and where.

Review: collect resources, terraform new worlds and survive in space in Last Horizon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

As an avid stargazer who's been dreaming about space travel for ages and a sucker for minimalist games, Last Horizon immediately piqued my interest.

In fact, Last Horizon was an instant purchase for me and I never regretted dropping $2.99 on this space survival and exploration title from Pixeljam. Last Horizon puts you in the shoes of a pilot of a lone spacecraft.

Your oxygen and fuel supplies are limited and your goal is a simple one: you must travel the space and seek out new worlds to inhabit. You're going to encounter a range of varied planets along the way and harvest their resources.

Some planets hold terraforming resources you need to create a beautiful, harmonious new planet for yourself. Others only provide oxygen and ore to repair your ship.

Snapchat’s new Story Explorer provides more depth to every Snap in a Story

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat today announced a brand new feature called Story Explorer that was designed to provide additional context behind every Snap in a Story.

Celebrating the power of different perspectives, Story Explorer goes beyond the Snaps that the company curates into Stories. Built on proprietary technology, this feature least you simply swipe up on a Story to see more Snaps of that same moment, from every perspective.

How to bring back old password-entry grid on fourth-generation Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 26, 2019

To me, the new software keyboard in tvOS is absolutely the biggest pain point and a major step back from the old password-entry grid on previous Apple TV models.

As ridiculous as it sounds, Apple has opted to put all the characters in a single line, two-row layout. This isn't just odd from a user experience standpoint, the new keyboard design in tvOS is a lot slower and clunkier to maneuver than the previous grid-style one.

And with the amount of passwords needing entering in third-party video apps, it's especially annoying and cumbersome. But as it turns out, there's a way to bring back the old password-entry grid to speed up typing those passwords.

Watch the iPad Pro go toe-to-toe with a MacBook Pro when exporting 4K video

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

If you haven't guessed by now, I'm extremely excited about the iPad Pro and what it brings to the table. It features a super-powerful A9X system on a chip, 4GB of RAM, and improved memory architecture. It's a beast of a machine, no doubt.

But is the iPad Pro beastly enough to go toe-to-toe with an 2.3 Ghz Intel i7 equipped MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM? Surely that's crazy talk, no? Watch my video to find out...

WordPress launches native Mac app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

If you blog in any capacity at all, chances are you're on WordPress, the world's top blogging platform that now powers one out of each four websites on the Internet. Automatic, the company behind WordPress, has been updating its mobile blogging app on a regular basis and today they're introducing a brand new WordPress for Mac app.

Billed as “a new way to write,” the free app lets you manage, edit and publish content to your WordPress-hosted or self-hosted sites and WordPress VIP ones.

The Mac app is available now alongside a thorough redesign of wordpress.com, both of which are also going open-source today with the launch.

This flexible mounting system attaches Apple TV and Siri Remote to the back of your telly

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 23, 2015

A United States company called Innovelis today announced that its brand new flexible mounting system for the fourth-generation Apple TV set-top box and Siri Remote is available for purchase exclusively via Apple's retail and online stores around the world.

Retailing for just $29.95, this useful accessory is especially convenient for Apple TV fans with a wall-mounted TV.

Dubbed the TotalMount Pro, it attaches your Apple TV directly to the back of a television set, helping eliminate both the clutter and the need to tunnel the HDMI cable through the wall from your TV area.

Cool Google promotion asks you to join the Dark or Light sides of the Force

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 4, 2017

Tons of Google properties are getting Star Wars-themed Easter eggs today in an interesting new promotion celebrating the arrival of Disney's highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie, which opens on December 18, 2015.

Just point your browser at google.com/starwars/ and log in with your Google Account.

You'll then be asked to choose between the Dark or Light sides of the Force. Depending on your choice, a number of Google's most widely used web properties will be skinned and themed accordingly, including Gmail, Chrome and Google Maps.

MasterCard now offering free public transit to Apple Pay users in London

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 23, 2015

As part of its Fare Free Mondays promotion, global financial services corporation MasterCard is now offering Apple Pay users free public transit in London for a limited time. The promo starts today, November 23, and is valid over the next four consecutive Mondays ending December 14, 2015.

During those Mondays, customers in London can take advantage of Apple Pay on their iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch to use London's public transit network at no charge. That is, up to £27.90 in daily fares per customer is included in the form of refundable funds.

Skype for iPhone and iPad gains Maps integration and other improvements in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 23, 2015

Microsoft's Skype for iPhone and Skype for iPad apps received an update this morning in the App Store, bringing out new features including integration with Apple Maps. Now you can check locations in Maps directly from highlighted addresses and also call a phone number using Skype Credit directly from highlighted numbers.

The app is now easier to multi-task as well: you can now return to a call by pressing the Active Call banner in Skype.