App Store Apps

Alto’s Adventure creators announce new game Alto’s Odyssey is coming in 2017

Snowman, the brains behind the award-winning endless snowboard game titled Alto's Adventure, today said that the time has come for something new in the form of Alto's Odyssey, their brand new game scheduled for release some time in 2017 (we're thinking early-2017).

Snowman's Ryan Cash told me via email that long before Alto’s Adventure had even been released, they started working on an idea for what might come next.

In November, App Store captured highest monthly sales ever in its history

According to Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, the App Store last month enjoyed the highest monthly sales ever since its inception in the summer of 2008. “November 2016 was a record breaker for the App Store—the highest monthly sales ever in its history,” reads the tweet.

Although Schiller didn't provide any hard numbers, in just two weeks during last year's holiday season the App Store raked in a massive $1.1 billion revenue from sales of iOS apps and In-App Purchases.

Upcoming Instagram update will let you turn off comments on a per-post basis & more

In its never-ending fight to curb abuse on its service, Instagram today said an upcoming new tool will let you completely turn off comments on individual posts.

As reported by The New York Times this morning and confirmed by Instagram itself, in addition to being able to turn off comments on individual posts users will be also permitted to remove followers on private accounts and like other people's comments as well.

Back in September, Instagram launched keyword-based comment moderation as another measure to fight spammers and abusers who have been harassing honest users with unwanted comments and marketing messages.

Netflix becomes top-grossing iOS app following offline playback introduction

After gaining the long overdue offline playback feature last week, Netflix's mobile app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has emerged as the top iOS app on the App Store's Top Grossing charts for the first time ever, overtaking apps like Spotify and Candy Crush Saga, according to stats from app tracking firm SensorTower. By comparison, just last month Netflix was the #7 top-grossing iPhone and iPad software overall in the United States.

At the time of this writing, Netflix's iPhone and iPad app was the top-grossing item on App Stores in the United States, India, Mexico and Colombia.

You can now start Chrome in Voice Search or Incognito mode from Spotlight Search

Google added Spotlight Search integration to Chrome for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch back in January 2016, allowing you to search for your Google bookmarks using iOS's Spotlight feature. Today, the Internet giant issued a small update to Chrome for iOS, bumping version number to 55.0.2883.79 and adding a pair of enhancements.

The first lets you start Chrome in Voice Search mode or open a new Incognito tab right from Spotligh.

As for the other change, Google has now removed the folder named All Bookmarks from your bookmarks view in Chrome “by popular request”.

Map your runs accurately without iPhone in Runkeeper’s latest Apple Watch update

If you own an Apple Watch Series 2, you can leave your iPhone at home the next time you go on a run with Runkeeper as the app's just been updated with full support for the built-in GPS on the Apple Watch Series 2. Runkeeper's refreshed experience also includes new active metrics with charts for target pace and heart rate.

Runkeeper is a free download from the App Store.

App Store highlights video apps with support for the upcoming Single Sign-On feature

Apple is likely to roll out an upcoming new Single Sign-On feature, which was announced back at WWDC 2016, alongside public releases of iOS 10.2 for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and the tvOS 10.1 software update for the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Ahead of the feature's debut later this month, the App Store is now highlighting apps with Single-Sing On support via a special section. Single Sign-On remembers a user's cable credentials for use in compatible video apps.

Space, Capsule, Listables and other apps to check out this weekend

It's the weekend again, and you know what that means. It's time for another one of our Apps of the Week roundups. This week we've selected some great titles for you including a new interactive app for exploring space, an AI service for documenting your life experiences, and an app for creating and viewing shareable todo lists. And as usual, we've picked out two great new games for you to try.

Apple is switching App Store pricing from USD to regional currencies in 9 countries

Apple's emailed its registered developers to inform them of some upcoming App Store pricing policy changes in Egypt, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Tanzania and Vietnam.

No longer will prices of paid downloads on these local App Stores be shown in US dollars. According to the communique, the App Store in these markets will now show prices of apps and In-App Purchases in their domestic currency.

Apple’s free app of the week: Toca Hair Salon 2

Like every Thursday, Apple today updated its Free App of the Week promotion on the App Store with a brand new item, a kids-friendly game called Toca Hair Salon 2. This means that for the next seven days, you’ll be able to download this app free of charge—a savings of $2.99.

In Toca Hair Salon 2, you play as one of the six charming characters and run a hair salon of your own.

There are lots of virtual tools of trade at your disposal which you'd find in any hair salon that let you cut, color and style any way you want, from a simple comb and scissors to a curling iron and a straightener.

You can now create your own Moments in the Twitter app

Twitter's bird logo set against a transparent background

Twitter launched Moments more than a year ago as a way of helping users discover trending stories and highlights representing “the best of Twitter”.

Well, it's now possible to create your own Moment from any tweet, whether your own or someone else's, right within Twitter's official mobile apps for iOS and Android. The feature first made its debut in the web interface at twitter.com before expanding in May 2016 to Twitter's desktop app for the Mac.