App Store Apps

Google acquires iPhone app-maker Fly Labs for its Photos team

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Fly Labs, the maker of popular photo and video editing apps for iOS, announced on Friday that it's been acquired by Google. The company's software library includes apps like Clips, Tempo, Crop, and Fly, which made Apple's 'Best of the App Store' list in 2014.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we do know that the folks at Fly Labs will be joining the Google Photos team and plan on pulling their apps from the App Store in 3 months. As a peace offering, they have made all of their apps free with no IAPs until then.

Vine app updated with hearts and new ‘Similar Vines’ feature

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Twitter on Friday pushed out an update for its popular video-sharing Vine app, bringing the iPhone client to version 4.3. The update is a minor one, as the release notes only mention a few changes, but there are two new features worth mentioning.

The first is the addition of Hearts, which bring the app more in line with Twitter's other products. Like the social network did earlier this week, Vine has replaced its 'Favorites' (the smiley face) feature with a new, more meaningful heart-shaped icon.

Google Maps for iOS gains spoken traffic alerts

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 5, 2015

Google yesterday refreshed its iPhone and iPad mapping application in the App Store with a pair of new features. For starters, the iOS application introduces spoken traffic alerts to help you find the best route without taking your eyes off the road. In addition, it is now possible to add new and missing businesses from the app's sidebar menu.

Google Maps is available free in the App Store.

Flickr’s refreshed iOS app goes beyond 3D Touch with 3D Touch Extended

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 5, 2015

Flickr today updated its free iPhone and iPad application in the App Store with full support for iOS 9's Spotlight Search, Universal links and 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus smartphones.

It's of particular interest that the app goes beyond 3D Touch Home screen shortcuts and Peek and Pop gestures with something they're calling 3D Touch Extended.

Google Drive gets better with sharing notifications and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 5, 2015

Google has updated its Drive cloud storage client for iOS with mobile notifications when files or folders are shared, or when someone requests access to a file you own.

The change allows for a more consistent sharing experience across platforms and includes enhancements such as jumping directly to a shared file by tapping on the notification banner and providing a custom message when sharing a file or folder with others.

Facebook reportedly launching standalone news app next week

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Facebook is preparing to launch a new standalone news app next week, according to The Financial Times. Citing sources familiar with the project, the outlet says that the app is going to be called Notify, and it is going to feature content from dozens of media partners including CBS and Vogue.

As reported by BusinessInsider in August, the app will look similar to Twitter, in that it will allow publications to blast short push notifications to “followers” when they have urgent news to share. If users want to read more about a headline, the can click a link that will take them to the full story.

The Room Three hits the App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 4, 2015

Following the success developer Fireproof Games has seen with The Room and The Room Two, it's now posted the third installment in the series to the App Store. Following the established naming convention, the game is aptly titled The Room Three and priced at $4.99 a pop.

For those who haven't played Fireproof's BAFTA award winning Room games yet, the physics-based puzzle series challenges you to navigate the trials devices located on a deserted island by rotating, zooming and examining dozens of artifacts in order to discover their hidden secrets.

Review: Emojify turns your photos into emoji artwork, ASCII art and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

Have you ever wanted to effortlessly create a collage of emoji emoticons from your own photos? As in, with just a few taps and no prior Photoshop knowledge whatsoever?

I'm a big sucker for ASCII art and there certainly is no shortage of such apps in the App Store, but I wanna move beyond ASCII and have the freedom to create collages based on my iPhone's emoji keyboard.

I'm also interested in experimenting with app icons and other icons sets. If you're anything like me, you'll want to check out Emojify, a cool iPhone app by Singapore-based studio called VoidWorks.

With Emojify, you can quickly turn your pixels into pieces of art comprised of a bunch of tiny icons and emoji characters, and even export them in high-resolution to create stunning 20-by–20 inch prints.

Tweetbot 4.1 is out with support for Apple Watch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

The folks at Tapbots on Tuesday issued an update for their popular Twitter client Tweetbot 4, bringing the iOS app to version 4.1. The update brings about a number of fixes for bugs including timeline jumping and in-app browser issues, as well as proper Apple Watch support.

With Tweetbot on Apple Watch, you can view your 'Activity' feed—which shows things like @ Tweets, Favorited (or liked) Tweets and new followers—and reply to those notifications. You can also Favorite Tweets, reply to Direct Messages and compose Tweets using voice dictation.

For better or worse, Twitter’s Stars and Favorites are now Hearts and Likes

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

So you've been starring and favoriting tweets for later use in your favorite Twitter client, just like many other die-hard Twitter fans do? Well, starting today all those Stars and Favorites shall be presented henceforth as Hearts and Likes, the micro-blogging startup unexpectedly announced today.

The rebranding effort is meant to permit Twitter fans to show how they feel on Twitter “without missing a beat,” but already the change seems to have drawn ire and ridicule from hardcore fans of the service.

Google rolling out Smart Replies to Gmail’s Inbox app later this week

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

The Gmail team's Inbox mobile email client, which was born out of Google's 2012 acquisition of the popular iPhone email app Sparrow, is about to get a whole lot smarter with a new feature called Smart Reply, the company announced on the Gmail blog Tuesday.

The feature analyzes your emails and uses machine learning to recognize emails that need responses and then generates the natural language responses on the fly.

WLPPR: use beautiful satellite images as wallpapers

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Some of the most popular types of wallpapers for iOS are space-themed. Thanks to Apple's love of the galaxy, we've come to really enjoy the beauty of intergalactic images on our Home screen.

WLPPR is a wallpaper app that collects satellite images not only of space, but also from space. It provides weekly updated images that you can capture and set as your wallpaper.