Nighty Night Circus goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple on Thursday named "Nighty Night Circus" its featured App of the Week in the App Store. This means for the next 7 days, you will be able to download the popular bedtime story and lullaby app for kids for free—saving you a solid $3.

The sequel to Apple's 2012 App of the Year, Nighty Night!, Nighty Night Circus allows children to play with a variety of circus animals and tuck them in as they go to sleep. The app features beautiful imagery, great narration and lullaby music.

September 9 tidbits: no iPhone 6c, renamed Force Touch and no sapphire screen on iPhone 6s

Apple today officially confirmed its rumored media event will be indeed taking place on Wednesday, September 9. The press conference is widely expected to bring new iPhones, iPads and possibly a next-generation Apple TV.

New pieces of information continue to surface in the run-up to the event. According to latest tidbits from a reputable publication with reliable sources, Apple won't unveil an 'iPhone 6c' at the event.

Apple teams up with PayAnywhere for new Apple Pay card reader

Apple on Thursday announced that it has teamed up with payment service PayAnywhere on a new mobile NFC card reader. It will attach to iOS devices, and support both traditional credit cards and those stored within Apple Pay.

The reader, which will be available exclusively in Apple Stores in September, will open the door for smaller businesses to begin supporting Apple Pay. PayAnywhere is easy to setup and there are no monthly fees to worry about.

Is Apple Watch the next frontier for ads?

I just finished tracking a run using the free version of Map My Run, and after saving that workout directly from my Apple Watch, I was presented with the above screen. Granted, I use the free ad-supported version of the Map My Run app, and while I do expect to see ads on the iPhone app, it was kind of surprising to see an ad right there on my wrist.

Instagram now lets you share photos and videos in portrait or landscape mode

Instagram announced today that users are now able to upload photos and videos in either portrait or landscape mode, on top of the current square format that has became a marquee feature of the app. Available via the Instagram app update version 7.5 on iOS, this new capability will certainly be welcome by many users, as Instagram notes in a blog post that nearly 1 in 5 photos or videos posted on the service aren't in square format.

Apple to live-stream September 9 media event

Those not in attendance will be happy to learn that Apple just confirmed it will provide a live-stream of its upcoming September 9 media event.

Like the company's major events held in the past two years, the September 9 event should be presented at the www.apple.com/live micro-site in the blog format, with cherry-picked tweets, juicy photos and quotes updating in real-time right below the video stream.

The iPhone maker sent out invites for the press conference earlier today. Invite graphics sports the colorful Apple logo and a tagline reading “Hey Siri, give us a hint”.

iOS automation app Workflow picks up Today widget, Health actions, syncing and more

Workflow, the powerful software that makes it relatively simple to automate iOS by chaining multiple actions together, has picked up a Today widget and support for Apple Health actions in its most recent update which hit the App Store this morning.

In addition to the ability to activate your saved workflows directly from the Notification Center's Today view, Workflow 1.3 for iOS has gained yet another useful feature to back up and synchronize your workflows across multiple devices.

Apple sends out invites for September 9th event: ‘Hey Siri, give us a hint’

As expected, Apple has sent out invitations to for its iPhone event to be held on Wednesday, September 9th, 2015. The event will go down at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Fransisco, CA starting at 10am PST.

It's widely expected that the main topic of the event will be the new iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus. We also expect to see follow-up details on iOS 9 along with its launch date, along with information on OS X El Capitan.

iPhone 6s said to bring 12MP sensor, 4K video recording, and improved FaceTime camera

A lot has been said thus far about “the biggest camera jump ever” expected to grace Apple's upcoming 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' smartphones. A report Thursday by 9to5Mac attempts to bring Apple's next-generation camera technology into full view.

According to sources who spoke with author Mark Gurman, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will introduce “a major revamp” to the camera system that ostensibly includes a twelve-megapixel iSight sensor out the back that can capture video in full 4K resolution, in addition to a simple software trick designed to bring flash support to the FaceTime camera out the front.

Rumor: iPhone 6s sports animated backgrounds inspired by Apple Watch’s Motion face

Apple's upcoming 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' smartphones are said to include animated backgrounds inspired by the Apple Watch's Motion face, 9to5Mac learned from sources. Of course, Apple has offered dynamic wallpapers since iOS 7, but it's a single motif in seven color choices.

These new animated backgrounds created for upcoming iPhones are being described as sharing the same theme as the Motion face on the Apple Watch, which shows painstakingly crafted animations of jellyfish, multi-colored butterflies and brightly colored flowers.

PowerColor brings custom color gradients to the iOS battery indicator

Want to better visualize the current status of your iPhone's battery? PowerColor is a new tweak that lets you enjoy a gradient of colors ranging from green (fully charged) to red (empty). As the power level of your iPhone's battery decreases, the color of the battery indicator will subtly change to represent the appropriate range of remaining charge.

Review: Astropad Mini turns your iPhone or Apple Watch into a pro graphics tablet for your Mac

We wrote about Astropad Graphics Tablet, an app that turns your iPad into a graphics tablet for your Mac, shortly following its February 2015 debut.

Designed and built by smart ex-Apple engineers Matt Ronge and Giovanni Donelli, the app has since been updated with support for FiftyThree’s Pencil stylus and gained other new features.

The team just released Astropad Mini, an iPhone edition of Astropad's iPad app with Apple Watch support for remote drawing into Mac apps and more.