App Store Apps

Physics-based puzzler ‘Magnetized’ goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has just named “Magnetized” its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to download the abstract physics puzzler for both iPhone and iPad for free—an awesome savings of $2.99.

In Magnetized, you are tasked with navigating a moving ball through a series of neon mazes using magnetic control points. It sounds simple at first, but the mazes get increasingly difficult, forcing you to try and master momentum and direction.

App Store highlights apps for Global Accessibility Awareness Day

In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple has begun highlighting apps with specialized accessibility features. The curated section features apps such as Instapaper, which offers text-to-speech, and Workflow, which can automate complex tasks, and is featured on the front page of the App Store.

Apple has long been praised for the accessibility features in iOS. Grammy Award-winning artist, who has been blind for most of his life, famously took time out of a concert to thank Steve Jobs and company for their work, saying "there’s nothing on the iPhone or the iPad that you can do, that I can’t do."

Asphalt 8 picks up new cars, exclusive decals, Tenerife track, widget support and more

Asphalt 8: Airborne, Gameloft's free-to-play arcade racing title for the iPhone and iPad, today received a major content update in the App Store. The game has gained a number of new cars, tracks and loads of other improvements, amongst them support for the Apple Watch and a widget for the iOS Notification Center.

Asphalt 8 was first to support Metal, Apple's new graphics framework in iOS 8 that makes graphics intensive games run smoother with more effects. Now Gameloft provides the latest Asphalt update as a 64-bit application that should run even faster on iPhones and iPads powered by Apple's A7 chip or newer.

Sunrise Calendar and Wunderlist integrate, letting you create and manage Wunderlist tasks in Sunrise

6Wunderkinder GmbH, the German developer behind the popular task/to-do app Wunderlist, and the team behind the cross-platform calendar application Sunrise Calendar, on Thursday announced feature-rich integration between the two apps.

The move allows fans of both services to create Wunderlist tasks directly in Sunrise, write a Wunderlist task as done and change its due date in Sunrise and more.

Tower Slash review: fast fingers score big in this fast-paced swiping game

When I think of games that require impeccable timing and impossibly fast reflexes, I think of Flappy Bird. That game was once a hugely popular title, which generated many, many addicted players.

Tower Slash almost fits into that category. Except, it is slightly easier to score high and provides unlockable new characters when you reach certain goals. We've got a full game review of Tower Slash for you right now.

Free video calling in Facebook Messenger rolling out to all users worldwide

Facebook confirmed today that free video calling in its mobile Messenger application has begun rolling out to all users worldwide. The feature launched in select markets on April 27, 2015.

“Quick update on video calling in Messenger: we're happy to share we've now rolled out the capability globally, with the exception of a few countries we're still working on improving quality for,” David Marcus, Messaging at Facebook, wrote in a post on Facebook this morning.

SwiftKey keyboard launches theme store

SwiftKey, the popular gesture keyboard for iPhones, iPads ands iPods with iOS 8 or later, today launched a brand new theme store featuring a dozen themes for customizing the look and feel of its keyboard.

After debuting on Android in 2014, the built-in theme store is now available to iOS users with twelve newly designed themes, priced from 99 cents to $1.99.

Spotify rolls out podcasts, video, news, Running feature, activity-based playlists and more

Spotify is determined to give Apple's vertically integrated iTunes ecosystem a run for its money. At a media event in New York City, the Swedish streaming-music startup has moved into video, as previously suspected.

The service will now host video podcasts and other types of video content like news, much like Apple's iTunes. According to TechCrunch, Spotify will also serve up playlists that are more personalized and relevant to what you’re doing at the time.

Apple-owned Beats Music also features activity-based playlists, mostly human curated, so this is another shot across Apple's bow.

Scanbot overhauls iPad UI, adds iCloud Photo Library support, per-scan settings and more

Scanbot, a freemium document scanner and QR reader for the iPhone and iPad, was bumped to version 3.8 this morning. The refreshed app adds several new features while overhauling the user interface on iPads, which now supports any orientation as well as collapsible document list.

All users now get to enjoy direct uploading to Evernote with PDF, Images or Text option available through a reworked sharing interface, the ability to delete documents after upload and apply quick per-scan settings with a touch of their finger.

Automatic debuts new vehicle adapter and developer SDK

Automatic, the makers of the adapter that allows cars to talk to smartphones, debuted new hardware and third-party app support on Tuesday. The new hardware comes in the form of a second-gen Automatic adapter that supports real-time data, and third-party app support in the form of a new SDK.

More specifically, the new adapter supports dual Bluetooth data streams: one to the Automatic mobile app and one to a third-party app. This allows both apps to receive data from the adapter simultaneously over an encrypted Bluetooth connection. It also features built-in GPS, and MFi certification.

PCalc for Apple Watch released with Glance, Send to iPhone, tip calc, RPN support and more

Thanks to independent iOS and Mac developer James Thomson, you can now wear PCalc on your $400+ Apple Watch. The award-winning $9.99 calculator app for the iPhone and iPad was updated today with WatchKit support.

The app is very nicely done and feels native. It puts the full calculator with RPN Support on your wrist, along with a Glance to see the result of your most recent calculations from your watch face, a tip calculator and other goodies.