App Store Apps

Pandora previews UI redesign with emphasis on thumbing, new Station Personalization and more

Pandora, the popular U.S. based music streaming and automated music recommendation service, on Tuesday showed off an upcoming iPhone app update sporting a revamped interface with new Station Personalization features, greater focus on thumbing and more.

Though still a few weeks away, developers were kind enough to share a few screenshots showing the streamlined interface featuring a thumbs-up icon on the Now Playing screen for rating songs, personalized genre and artist suggestions at the top of your list of stations and more.

Zengrams is a mind-bending puzzle game for minimalists

The art of the tangram puzzle dates back thousands of years. It comes from China and the goal is to form a particular shape out of a variety of pieces. It may sound simple, but the complexity of the pieces and their flexibility make tangrams a challenge for even the most seasoned players.

Zengrams combines the puzzle gaming of the ancient Chinese tangram with a paper crafting style of cutting shapes and rearranging them into new ones. You don’t have to force puzzle pieces into a particular shape, but you do have to know how to cut new ones.

Google revamps Play Books for iOS with Material Design, adds new features

Google on Monday issued a major update to its Play Books client in the App Store, introducing a thorough Material Design rethinking of the somewhat neglected iPhone and iPad software. The app now includes a host of much welcomed new features.

For starters, the ability to read the previously uploaded PDF and EPUB files is now available in the new Play Books 2.0.

Next, you can now access the books you’ve read most recently in a new Read Now view, where you can also tap to read free samples of e-books carried on Google's store.

Jump past the fold for the full list of changes in Play Books 2.0.

Dropbox for iOS now lets you rename files and folders in latest update

Dropbox on Monday issued a small refresh to its iPhone and iPad client, bringing out the notably missing ability to rename files and folders on the go to the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Bumped to version 3.6, Dropbox has also gained a new more actions button when viewing files which on iPhones includes additional item details such as the full file name, size and more.

A new swipe gestured has been added as well, with the recently announced ability to Edit Office documents and save them back to your Dropbox now being added for everyone.

Grab Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon for free

Lost in the sea of Black Friday holiday deals and discounts on tons of Mac, iPhone and iPad apps and accessories, Guardians of the Galaxy: The Universal Weapon is now available at no cost through Thursday, courtesy of Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion. That's a savings of $4.99 for the iPhone and iPad download.

In this action-role playing extravaganza, Marvel's cosmic antiheroes face Roman, Nebula and other familiar foes.

The game features cartoonish visuals, familiar characters like Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora and Drax, in addition to piles of unlockable ones such as Beta Ray Bill, a story co-written by comic-book scribe Dan Abnett and much more.

I know what you're thinking so I'm happy to report that there are no In-App Purchases in this game and no Internet connection is required to play.

Apps of the week: Screeny, Raby, KORG Module, and more

Well, if you are reading this, you’ve made it through the chaos that was Thanksgiving and subsequently, the savings account-draining day after, known as Black Friday. Congratulations. You deserve a break! Why not sit down with your well-worn iPhone and immerse yourself in the type of entertainment that can’t be ruined by Uncle Jim’s drunken political ranting.

If you are looking for new apps and games to help you recover from the family get-together, we’ve got a list that we think will help ease you back into normalcy.

Readdle’s Black Friday promo slashes up to 50% off popular productivity apps

Readdle, the Ukrainian developer behind some of the best iOS productivity apps such as Calendars, PDF Expert and Scanner Pro, doesn't do sales often.

But when they do, there must be a very good reason and I can't think of a better reason than Black Friday.

Starting on Thursday, November 27 and lasting 48 hours only, Readdle's premium productivity applications are available discounted by up to 50 percent. In addition to discounts on Calendars 5, Scanner Pro, PDF Expert 5, Printer Pro and PDF Converter, their Ultimate Productivity Bundle has been marked down, too.

Pixelmator for Mac and iPad go half price in Black Friday sale

Pixelmator, the powerful Photoshop replacement for the Mac and iPad, has gone half price ahead of Black Friday tomorrow. Sébastien yesterday posted a running list of iOS apps and games on sale this week, but Pixelmator definitely deserve's a post of its own due to its tremendous popularity and quality.

This capable image editor features full support for the latest Yosemite and iOS 8 Continuity technologies such as Handoff and iCloud Drive. The Mac edition of Pixelmator has been marked down to $14.99.

The app normally costs $29.99 so you can save fifteen bucks if you purchase it discounted. And Pixelmator for iPad, which debuted in the App Store a month ago, is still just $4.99 as the team extended launch promotion for another week.

Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath hits iOS

Oddworld, the popular platform-based action adventure originally released on consoles back in 2005, has been ported to iOS and is now available in the App Store as Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.

The game puts you in the shoes of a tall, dark and enigmatic figure, a drifter turned bounty hunter simply named Stranger. Your goal: capture outlaws and collect bounties, armed with your trusty double-barreled crossbow that fires insects and small animals.

The iOS port sports a highly detailed graphics engine capable of rendering towns, realistic water effects, lush forests, massive industrial facilities and vast outdoor panoramas in console-grade fidelity.

Shopping on Amazon has never been so beautiful with Canopy for iPhone

Not sure about you, but holidays always stress me out. More Black Friday deals than I could possibly process isn't the worst part, it's hunting for great gifts that's both time-consuming and exhausting.

This is especially true when shopping on Amazon. If only someone curated the best and finest products available for purchase on the Internet's biggest catalog...

That's where Canopy jumps in. Created by CanopyCo, Inc., this nifty little iPhone application presents you with a beautifully designed list of Amazon products, neatly organized by categories and brands and curated by “a community with great taste.”

In addition to shopping by categories and brands, the free app lets you find gifts by personality type, see what’s new, trending or the most popular in the product feeds, build a personal collection of your favorite Amazon products and much more.

Screeny quickly deletes old screenshots from your Camera Roll

If you find yourself filling up your iPhone with screenshots and wasting storage space, then you might be interested in this new app called Screeny. Screeny does one thing, and it does it well: it scans your Camera Roll for screenshots and lets you delete them in one fell swoop, saving you the time to manually browse through your entire library, and most importantly, helping you save precious storage space on your device.