App Store Apps

Glimpse lets you check your favorite webpages from Notification Center

Glimpse is a new app that lets you pin one or more favorite webpages to the Today tab of Notification Center, allowing to have a quick glance at your most visited websites, without having to launch Safari. The Notification Center extension is particularly handy to check news-focused websites where information is often time sensitive, and where a quick look is usually enough to get an idea of what is going on, without necessarily unlocking the device and opening up the full web browser.

Shift review: randomize filter effects with precision adjustments

By now, you probably have your favorite go-to filter app. There are enough of them in the App Store that, no matter what your preference is, there is probably an app that suits your needs.

Shift is a photo filter app that may make you rethink whether or not you’ve found the right one. First, you shuffle premade filters in a random selection. Then, tweak the filter you like best to make it perfect. We’ve got a full app review of Shift for you today.

Major 500px app update adds built-in camera, iPhone 6 support and more

Popular photo sharing service 500px has posted a monster update for its iOS client today, bringing the app to version 2.9. The update brings about a number of significant improvements, including support for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the 1Password iOS 8 login extension.

Perhaps most noteworthy, though, is that 500px has added a built-in camera to the app, with the option to control focus and exposure manually. So the app once only served as a browser/manager tool for the service, it now competes directly with Instagram, Flickr and others.

Yahoo’s Search iOS app gains comments, local news and improved navigation

Yahoo's main search-focused iPhone and iPad application has received a refresh today. In addition to an improved navigation system focused on the new side panel accessible by swiping, Yahoo 5.4 for iOS now integrates latest local news headlines and finally lets you comment on stories within the app.

“Today we’re bringing local news to your fingertips with the Yahoo App,” writes the Internet company. “As you move around the country, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in your area.”

Bing’s iOS apps get a facelift, translate extension now available on iPad

Microsoft's mobile Bing apps for the iPhone and iPad are getting a major makeover today, with the translate extension that debuted in the iPhone app two months ago at last available on iPads.

On the iPhone, you can now tap anywhere underneath the search box to check out Bing's image of the day in uncluttered full-screen view. You can also swipe from the left to see yesterday’s image of the day.

Another handy addition: weather information, trending news and images of the day zoom to full screen smoothly when swiping from the bottom of Bing's Home screen.

Duet Display lets you use iPhone or iPad as an extra display for your Mac, without lag

Although Duet Display is not the first app to allow your iOS device to act as an extra display for your Mac (Shape's $10 iDisplay comes to mind), it's the first app to have done screen extending right.

Built by ex-Apple engineers who worked at the company for three years on the iPad and iMac, the software delivers a Retina display at a smooth sixty frames per second with no lag whatsoever.

Featuring touch control, Duet Display makes interactions with your Mac fun and smooth while taking advantage of the fact that an additional display increases productivity by giving you up to 48 percent more pixels to work with.

Adopt your own candy-crunching monster in My Om Nom virtual pet simulator

As previously hinted, Russian developer ZeptoLab of the Cut the Rope fame on Thursday launched a pet simulator game for the iPhone and iPad featuring Om Nom, a cutesy candy-loving monster who stars in the Cut the Rope physics-based puzzle series.

In My Om Nom, the lead character gets an attractive female company as Om Nelle, a little candy-eating monster girl, makes an appearance.

Apple switching to per-country VAT across App Stores in Europe

Apple is changing its pricing scheme across European App Stores, switching from the previously same VAT rate it imposed across the entire European Union to a country-specific model, iMore reported.

Apps European customers purchase on their local App Store previously had an Irish 22 percent VAT on them. With this change taking effect soon, Apple will be now calculating app prices based on whatever VAT is used in each customer's home country.

Gameloft releases Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War

Announced back in June, Gameloft's Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War has arrived today in the App Store. A free-to-play download for the iPhone and iPad, this sequel to Gameloft's World War 2 series is packed to the gills with blood-pumping action and eye-candy visuals.

You’re Sergeant Wright and lead a band of highly trained brothers through World War 2.

Your brothers in arms posses a range of special abilities that, if used appropriately, can easily make all the difference in the heat of battle. Players can improve their squadmates’ skills to fight back against the enemy, upgrade their weapons and more.

Badland gains new ‘Daydream’ level pack as devs confirm ‘multiple Badland games’ for 2015

Badland, the highly visual iPhone and iPad action adventure game with a distinctively eerie atmosphere, is celebrating 20 million players with the latest ‘Daydream’ update.

Packing in ten bizarre single player levels, ‘Daydream’ brings the number of single player levels in the game to a full hundred. You're also getting thirty new missions and five brand new achievements to keep you glued to the screen.

And in wishing its loyal fans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year, developer Frogmind has decided to give the Daydream level pack for free, but for a limited time.

Slingshot adds swiping between selfie and frontie and more

Slingshot, Facebook's weird ephemeral messaging app, is actually getting better and more useful with each update.

After releasing a major 2.0 version rebuilt from the ground up and enriched with such new features as private reactions, photo filters, drawings, emojis and notifications on a per-contact basis.

Today's update keeps smoothing out the remaining few rough edges.

For instance, you can now switch smoothly between your iPhone's front-facing FaceTime camera for ‘selfies’ and the iSight camera out the back for ‘fronties’ by swiping left and right.

Apple once again reverses decision, brings Draft’s Today widget back on App Store

Apple has once again reversed its decision on removing an app's feature because of its functionality within Notification Center on iOS.

As we reported earlier this month, even though the app Drafts had already been through Apple’s approval process and downloaded by users, Apple contacted the developer Greg Pierce, saying he must re-submit the app without the buttons to create drafts or open the app. Now that's not the case.

On Wednesday, Pierce released an updated version of Drafts adding the buttons back. Can Apple not make up its mind?