App Store Apps

OneSafe password manager goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the app OneSafe. This means that for the next 7 days, you'll be able to pickup Lunabee's popular password manager for free for both iPhone and iPad, a solid savings of $5.

For those who aren't familiar with it, oneSafe provides advanced security for your sensitive data with features like Touch ID, decoy safe, intrusion detection, and self-destruct mode. It stores logins, financial data, credit cards and more.

Explore the world of Wikipedia in revamped iOS app with 3D Touch, Explore feed and more

Wikipedia, the world's encyclopedia and knowledge base, has never had an attractive mobile app. That changes today with a major refresh to its app in the App Store permitting users to explore Wikipedia content tailored to their interests via an all-new Explore feed.

Navigations has been greatly simplified with new touch-friendly ways to discover content, 3D Touch support, Spotlight Search integration and more.

The app was obviously designed with the theme of exploration in mind.

“We all know Wikipedia as a quick fact-checking resource, but the new app is designed to make exploring knowledge on Wikipedia a journey,” developers told me via email.

EA announces Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, a collectible card game set in the PvZ universe

Super publisher Electronic Arts today announced Plants vs. Zombies Heroes, a new installment in its popular Plants vs. Zombies series that “takes you beyond the backyard.” A collectible card game, Heroes lets you choose from hundreds of characters across the Plants vs. Zombies universe, including new roster favorites from Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare 2 like Super Brainz, Z-Mech, Citron and Rose.

Featuring comic-style narrative that tells the story gradually as the game progresses, Heroes challenges you to assemble an all-star Plants vs. Zombies team to outwit opponents in battle. The game soft-launched in New Zealand ahead of its upcoming worldwide release.

Social Square puts your favorite social networks in one app

As a rule thumb, the more popular a social network is the uglier, slower and more terrible its mobile app gets.

Facebook's app, for instance, has long been criticized for its battery hogginess, especially after it's been discovered that it's suspiciously circumventing Background App Refresh to continue running in the background when it should not.

That's where Social Square comes into play.

Formerly known as MySocial, this iPhone app by Chase Giles lets you browse Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr without having to worry about your iPhone's battery life.

Readdle updates PDF Expert with Handoff support and other enhancements

Readdle, the Ukrainian developer of fine productivity software, has refreshed its PDF management and annotation app, PDF Expert for OS X and PDF Expert for iOS, with support for Apple's Handoff technology.

With Handoff, PDF Expert users can start editing a PDF document on their iPhone or iPad and then continue right where they left off on their Mac, and vice versa.

In addition, today's update includes half a dozen enhancements like the ability to select part of a document and crop or copy it.

Facebook acquires company behind popular face swapping app MSQRD

Facebook on Wednesday announced that it has acquired the popular face swapping app MSQRD, and the company behind it, Masquerade. The terms of the deal are unknown, but it's being reported that the founders will be joining Facebook.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the app, MSQRD allows you to apply various filters and effects to your photos and videos—not unlike Snapchat's 'lenses.' You can apply masks, hats and other accessories, or simply swap faces with others.

Google Docs, Slides and Sheets gain native support for iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch screen

The Internet giant Google today refreshed its mobile productivity apps in the App Store—Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides—adding support for the iPad Pro's 12.9-inch screen along with other minor improvements.

Although Google's word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps now take full advantage of the iPad Pro's increased screen size and resolution, these apps are yet to support iOS 9's new iPad multitasking modes, like Split View and Slide Over.

Google’s Photos app gains support for Live Photos and other new features in latest update

Following its announcement that it will be shutting down the Picasa desktop app and the Picasa Web Albums online photo-sharing service, Google is doubling down on its mobile Photos app for iOS and Android.

Last night, the Google Photos app was updated in the App Store to support Apple's Live Photos format. In Google Photos 1.8 for iOS, you can now back up your Live Photos to the Google cloud, as well as view them within the app.

This Apple Watch app buzzes your wrist if you’re about to leave your iPhone behind

The Apple Watch has a nifty built-in feature that lets you ping your misplaced iPhone over Bluetooth, but wouldn't it be nice if the watch could automatically notify you when you're about to leave without an iPhone in your pocket?

A new free of charge app, Lookout, solves that problem in one fell swoop. It keeps not only your iPhone, but your iPad, iPod touch and Apple Watch safe and secure and protects your devices from data loss, theft and more.

Ahead of the big tournament, March Madness Apple TV app gains split-screen functionality

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that fans will be able to enjoy the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship tournament action across more places than ever before.

The official NCAA March Madness Live app now supports a dozen platforms such as the Apple TV, the Apple Watch, Amazon's Fire TV devices, Android tablets and smartphones, Windows devices, Roku players and more.

The Apple TV app promises a redesigned GameCenter experience, support for wireless streaming from a mobile device via Google Cast or AirPlay, enhanced VoD capabilities and an updated Bracket Challenge Game for further access to tournament content.

In addition, the app offers an exclusive Apple TV feature which permits fans to enjoy two live games at once with the split-screen feature.

Apple approves f.lux-like app ‘FlexBright’ [u]

Apple has approved a new app called FlexBright, which allows you to manually adjust the display temperature of your iPhone or iPad. That makes this one of the first third-party apps to make it into the App Store that provides a feature similar to iOS 9.3's Night Shift mode.

It's interesting that Apple would green-light a title like FlexBright, given its history. For those who aren't familiar with the story, last fall the iPhone-maker asked the developers of f.lux—a long-running app with similar functionality to FlexBright—to shutdown their iOS work.

Update: the app has been pulled from the App Store. The developer mentioned on Twitter that Apple hasn't provided any reason for removing the app.