Castro: a beautiful new podcast client for iPhone

If you've been having trouble finding a podcast client that fits you, you may want to check out Castro. Castro is a beautiful new podcast app for your iPhone that backs up its good looks with powerful features.

I should tell you up front that the app is for iOS 7 users only. You could tell it was designed specifically for the OS, as it's rife with transparent backgrounds, flat UI elements, and a smart, gesture-based interface...

T-Mobile brings back $0 down deal for select iPhone models

Good news for folks looking to grab an iPhone on the cheap before Christmas. T-Mobile is reviving its Black Friday special for a limited time, taking away the down payments for select iPhone models making them completely free up front.

The promotion starts December 11—that's today—and includes 16GB models of the iPhone 5s and 5c, along with other devices. This means that, if you qualify, you wouldn't have to pay for either phone until you got your first monthly bill...

Apple awarded new patent for head-mounted display system

Over the past couple of years, Apple has been filing and collecting patents on inventions involving wearable computing devices. And one of its particular areas of interest is in head-mounted display systems, which it first patented in 2006.

Today, the US Patent and Trademark Office published another patent from Apple that it has just been granted that covers a head-mounted display system. It looks like an Oculus Rift and is designed to enhance gaming, movies and more...

Twitter 6.0 is out with new design, DM photo-sharing and more

Twitter has updated its official iOS client today, bringing the app to version 6.0. The update is a fairly significant one, bringing about a new look and feel for the app, as well as photo-sharing for direct messages, improved search and more.

The new look pushes the UI of the Twitter app further into iOS 7 territory. There's more white spacing—the menu bar at the bottom is now all white— and texts and graphics seem flatter. And Twitter has added various other enhancements...

Fantastical 2 updated with support for TextExpander 2.3 and Waze maps

My favorite calendar app for iOS—Fantastical 2—has been updated with a few new features that you should know about. First up is support for the latest version of TextExpander. As we told you about in an earlier post, TextExpander was forced to change its approach to sharing snippets. As a result, any app that features TextExpander support must be updated to retain snippet functionality.

The second feature to be found in Fantastical 2's latest update is support for Waze. If you have the GPS and navigation app installed on your iPhone, you can now upon location links using Waze instead of Apple Maps or Google Maps. These, and other changes make the cut in Flexibits' latest update to Fantastical. Check past the break for the full change log.

Facebook Messenger update adds one-touch Timeline access and more

Last month, Facebook released version 3.0 of its popular Messenger app. The update was significant because it featured an all-new UI design for the app, bringing its aesthetics more in line with those introduced by Apple in iOS 7.

Today, the client received another update, bringing it to version 3.1. This time Facebook added a few new convenience features that will allow you to access a person's Timeline or call them (toll-free) by simply tapping on their picture...

Report finds that Siri’s accuracy continues to improve under iOS 7

Gene Munster—yes the iTV guy—is out with a new report today looking at the state of Siri's ability to accurately answer and respond to queries. The Piper Jaffray analyst regularly assesses the accuracy of Apple's digital assistant.

In his latest look, Munster found that Siri has continued to improve with the release of iOS 7, particularly in its ability to properly interpret questions being asked and its overall performance when accessed in noisier situations...

Google Drive for iOS finally gains file-sorting and find and replace features

The search monster Google today updated its free Drive for iPhone and iPad app with the much-needed ability to sort your cloud files according to several built-in criteria. The highly requested feature finally makes it easy to access your files by last edited, last modified, title and last opened by you. Additionally, you can also find and replace in documents.

I switched from the native Microsoft Office apps to Google Docs years ago and never looked back. Google's suite of cloud productivity apps has won me over with its ability to access, edit and share my stuff on any network-enabled computer, right in a web browser, without having to install anything...

Yahoo buys video startup QuikIO

In the past year or so, Yahoo's been bolstering up its video and rich content expertise by acquiring smaller startups left and right. The company kicked off the acquisition spree by buying the mobile news startup Summly for $30 million and the #2 blogging platform Tumblr for north of $1 billion. Soon after, Yahoo paid $50 million for the cool iPhone video app, Qwiki.

In the ensuing months, Yahoo snapped up the DreamWorks-funded video-sharing app Ptch and announced that the New York Times technology columnist David Pogue and American television journalist Katie Couric are joining its A-team of premium content producers.

Today, it was reported that Yahoo in another acqui-hire move bought the cross-platform video startup called QuikIO...

Official Family Guy game coming to iOS and Android in 2014

Good news Family Guy fans. The San Francisco-based game studio TinyCo has just announced that it has teamed up with Fox Digital Entertainment to build an official mobile game for the popular TV show, which first debuted back in 1999.

Headed to Android and iOS in 2014, the title is said to feature an original story based on the show's 212 episodes. Fox says that in the game, players will adventure throughout the city of Quahog, recruiting and confronting popular characters...

Qualcomm launches Gimbal, its own $5 iBeacons

iBeacons, an Apple indoor positioning system based on Low Energy Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE) wireless technology packed inside tiny transmitters, seems to be picking up steam as of recently. Although Apple never conceived iBeacons technology to be platform-dependent, current installations are limited to sending push notifications right to the Lock screen of nearby iPhone, iPod touch or iPad devices.

These alerts use a combination of physical location, activity, time and personal interests and typically include various marketing messages, such as store discounts, freebies and so forth.

Surprisingly enough, Apple's supplier Qualcomm has now entered the game with the Gimbal, its own iBeacons-compatible platform which promises to bring location sensing to a micro-location level at an affordable price...

Let’s Talk iOS 006: Grind your ears

Episode 006: We talk about some of the best photo and weather apps from 2013, Sebastien installs new RAM in his iMac, Jeff and Cody debate heavily over Touch ID accuracy issues. The crew discusses iOS 7's sparse design details, frequent crashing issues, and Apple's new App Store milestone.