Apps

Microsoft launches ‘News Pro’ app for iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Microsoft on Tuesday released a new app for iOS called News Pro. The company describes the app as "your work news brief," and says it will help you search for news around your work every day, and fuel your unique interests with over a million topics.

The app comes from Microsoft's experimental project group Microsoft Garage, and it looks pretty much like Flipboard and the slew of other news aggregating apps out there. You login using Facebook or LinkedIn, and pick which topics you want to follow.

Spotify’s iPhone app gaining video content from BBC, Maker Studios and ESPN next week

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

A Spotify-branded video-streaming service that should augment its music platform has been in the works since May 2015 and now the Swedish startup is poised to launch the new product, The Wall Street Journal said yesterday.

An update to Spotify's iPhone and iPad application with support for ad-free video content for all users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden is expected by the end of next week.

Aura for Mac brings Quick Replies to your Gmail conversations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Unlike most desktop notifiers that merely send you to Gmail's mobile interface on the web, the most recent update to a cool Mac app called Aura actually implements Quick Reply functionality so you can reply to messages, or add a new message to any thread—right from its notification banner.

This nifty little app can save you time when you need to fire off a one-line response. It supports Gmail and Google Apps accounts, it's fully native and optimized for OS X Yosemite and El Capitan.

Samsung said to be porting several of its device companion apps to iOS

Cody Lee ∙ January 25, 2016

Samsung is preparing to port several of its applications to iOS, reports SamMobile. The site says it has received information from trusted insiders that the South Korean company plans to bring "most of its apps (if not all)" to Apple’s mobile platform.

Of course, Samsung already has a handful of apps in the App Store, and the tech giant confirmed at CES that it will be adding iPhone support for the Gear S2 later this year. But today's report says S Health, Gear Fit Manager and others are on the way.

5 Notification Center widgets I use every day

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 25, 2016

When it comes to my own personal iPhone, many of the apps I use on a daily basis have Notification Center widgets that provide information to and even have shortcuts to different actions right from inside of Notification Center.

Apple originally introduced the ability for third-party app developers to create Notification Center widgets with iOS 8, so long as they follow strict guidelines, but that doesn't keep them from being useful.

In this roundup, I'll share my five favorite Notification Center widgets that I use on a daily basis and why I like them.

Browse viral memes and see posts that are blowing up on Vine’s new Trends page

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Yesterday, Vine celebrated its third anniversary and launched a dedicated Trends webpage which collects all the clips that have gone viral on the service in one central place. Users can check out the original video that started the trend, see related Vines and select a growing trend.

In addition, they have collected 2015's most entertaining Vines, remixes and collaborations at the website year3.vine.co, including stuff like the most-looped Vine of Year 3 and posts that sparked some of the biggest trends of the year, such as What are Those?, Why You Always Lying? and Duck Army.

Hyperspektiv, ZCast, Rogue Agent, and more apps to check out this weekend

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

This past week may have been slow for the news cycle, but it didn't stop us from pumping out some useful information, like how to watch live TV on Apple TV, how to remove iOS configuration profiles, and how to open a new private window in Safari.

If you've had your fill of learning new things about your iPhone and are looking for some fun content to download, check out our list of apps and games this weekend.

How to stop Background App Refresh for a single app until it’s reopened

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Introduced with iOS 7, Background App Refresh lets suspended apps (those that you quit or run in the background) check for new data so that they always present you with up-to-date content.

As useful as Background App Refresh is, it strains your battery due to periodical data fetching, which sometimes occurs even when your device is locked.

You can enable or disable this feature on a per-app basis in Settings → General → Background App Refresh. You can also save yourself a few taps by quickly disabling Background App Refresh for a single app without launching Settings, and here's how.

Remote Buddy review: control your Mac from Apple TV via Siri Remote

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Don't you wish there was a hassle-free way to bring your Mac apps, documents, media, games and more to the big screen—and control them? Enter Remote Buddy, a sweet little app by Roth, Germany based developer Felix Schwarz.

This high-performance screen sharing software—along with its tvOS, watchOS and iOS apps—streams your Mac's screen to the new Apple TV and turns the Siri Remote into a trackpad, a full virtual keyboard and an advanced remote so you can control Mac apps with gestures and shortcuts, without getting off that couch of yours.

Building on the latest GPU and CPU technologies, Remote Buddy uses a proprietary engine to deliver up to 60 frames per second with a latency of around 0.1 seconds so you really get a smooth, high-speed screen sharing experience.

Having taken Remote Buddy for a quick spin, I'm happy to report that it works incredibly well and really comes in handy when you want to do simple tasks on your desktop-bound Mac without actually sitting in front of your computer.

Facebook rolling out new 3D Touch features in its mobile app

Cody Lee ∙ January 21, 2016

Facebook on Thursday began rolling out new 3D Touch features to iPhone 6s users via its mobile app. The Verge reports that the additions include the ability to peek and pop things like web links, profiles, pages, groups, events and photos.

The Facebook app has supported 3D Touch since October, but until now it has mostly been about the Quick Actions—the shortcut menu for Home screen icons. Facebook has added a new one of these as well, which takes you to your Timeline.

Duet Display, Things and other great productivity apps are 50% off right now

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Folks in the market for a good productivity app will want to head over to the App Store as soon as possible. Apple kicked off a new "Get Productive" promotion on Thursday that takes 50% off some of the most popular titles in the category.

Among the apps included in the sale are Duet Display, which allows you to use an iPhone or iPad as an extra display, the highly respected PCalc calculator, Readdle's PDF Expert 5, and the celebrated task, reminder and to-do list app Clear.

MarcoPolo Ocean goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ January 21, 2016

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion in iTunes, and this week's selection is MarcoPolo Ocean. This means that the game, which is highly rated in the kids-education-puzzler category, is going to be free from now through next Thursday—a handsome savings of $3.

The concept of MarcoPolo Ocean is pretty simple. It's a digital sandbox of sorts, where kids are encouraged to do things like explore the deep sea, build a coral reef, and much more. Plus, its animations and playful narration help reinforce vocabulary, ocean concepts and other attributes.