Welcome to Thursday, when Apple typically refreshes its app and content stores with new apps, games and media. Bloomberg said last week that Apple was working on a totally overhauled Apple Store shopping app that should include a “For You” tab and have the same basic features and interface across the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
Reports on Twitter and MacRumors reveal that a banner for the new Apple Store app has now gone live on some international App Stores, suggesting imminent launch.
Developer Square Enix yesterday announced availability of Mobius Final Fantasy, its new free-to-play role-playing game set in the Final Fantasy universe and created by producer Yoshinori Kitase and writer Kazushige Kojima, who are both known for their work on the Final Fantasy VII and the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake.
The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch game is available on a free-to-play basis with optional In-App Purchases and can be played with just one hand as it was “custom-tailored for mobile platforms”.
Following its debut on the App Store nearly three months ago, Google's gesture-driven predictive keyboard for the iPhone and iPad—called Gboard—today received its first feature-focused update. Gboard 1.1 for iOS, a free download, includes a darker keyboard theme, smart GIF suggestions and increased global availability with language support for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal) and Spanish (Spain).
Telegram, a secure instant messaging service that supports rich media attachments and optional end-to-end encryption, today refreshed its mobile app on the App Store with a few new features. Telegram for iOS, now bumped to version 3.11, offers some interesting new sticker packs and lets you archive those you no longer use.
You can now preview groups before joining them and store your messages and media in the new storage chat.
Telegram is available free on the App Store and Mac App Store.
As of today, Dropbox Paper, a collaborative document editor akin to Google Docs and Apple's iWork for iCloud suite (only better!) is in public beta after spending about a year in private beta, the cloud storage startup announced.
In addition, the mobile Paper app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch launched today, too, so you can immediately download it at no charge from the App Store.
Since buying Snapseed from Nik Software in September 2012, Google has been somewhat neglecting this once popular mobile image editor, issuing maintenance updates that were light on new features. Today, the search firm announced that Snapseed, at long last, is getting some interesting new capabilities via an update on iOS and Android. The Text filter is now available and you can configure the app to resize photos when sharing/exporting.
UI adjustments and bug fixes are included in Snapseed 2.8 as well.
Snapchat for iPhone, an ephemeral image messaging app, yesterday announced a new feature called Geostickers. Basically special stickers available in some of the biggest cities around the world, they can be applied to images and moved around before sending them. You can also stick these city-specific stickers on your Snaps.
Geostickers are available now in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Honolulu, London, Sydney, São Paulo, Paris and Riyadh.
If you've been staring at your wrist for the last four months hoping to one day be able to read iDB stories straight for your Apple Watch, then I have some good news for you.
The good news is of course that we have added support for Apple Watch, letting you browse our latest articles without even having to unlock your iPhone. Welcome to the 21st century!
Astropad is a very cool app from former Apple engineers designed to let you draw into Mac apps by connecting your iPad or iPhone to the computer via USB or Wi-Fi. You can then draw into most Mac apps directly on your iOS device's screen, using your finger as a replacement for a professional graphics tablet. In fact, it's too good that people are replacing their Wacom tablets with Astropad and an iPad.
I've been using Astropad quite extensively and it works like magic, really.
There's very little discernible lag, courtesy of the proprietary Liquid engine providing nearly three times more fluid responsiveness than Apple’s AirPlay. That's why I'm happy to report that in its most recent version 2.0 update, Astropad is now even faster and more fluid than before and a lot less taxing on the battery.
Yesterday, Twitter's mobile application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch added a few useful keyboard shortcuts for iPad owners, said Twitter app developer Amro Mousa. If you have an iPad connected to a third-party Bluetooth keyboard or Apple's Smart Keyboard, Twitter for iOS now lets you use various keyboard shortcuts to quickly access some of the most frequently used options without needing to tap on-screen controls.
Pokémon GO has become the top free game in the App Store and Google Play stores in such a short time. It's undoubtedly popular among players around the world, even though it's not yet available in all countries.
Nevertheless, a recent update removed the footsteps Pokémon tracking feature from the game and left many users upset, and now the game developers have released an official response to the criticism they've received.
Snapchat has Stories and now Instagram announced a similar feature of its own, called—wait for it—Stories. Basically a slideshow format designed for sharing multiple photos and videos, Stories appear on user profiles and, similar to ephemeral messaging services, automatically disappear 24 hours after being posted on the service.
This cool new feature will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on the mobile Instagram app for iOS and Android.