App Store Apps

Yahoo News Digest gains background downloads, improved notifications and more

Yahoo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the web this week and it's been marking the occasion by refreshing its key products. Yesterday, the company pushed a new version of the Weather iOS app with new animations, pull-to-refresh for cover images and more.

Today, Yahoo's news-reading product with summarization technology got refreshed, too. News Digest version 1.1.1 is now available in the App Store, bringing with it background downloads of new content, new notification messages and more...

Gameloft’s ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ now available in the App Store

As promised last month, Gameloft has released its highly anticipated title 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' for iOS. The game is a tie-in to the upcoming Marvel movie of the same name, and is now available for download on your iPhone or iPad.

The good news is this doesn't look like your typical tie-in. The graphics sort of resemble those found in Borderlands and other comic book-style games, and we're hearing that Marvel actually co-wrote the story. Keep reading for a complete overview...

‘At the Ballpark’ app updated with new iOS 7 design and iBeacon support

Baseball fans will be happy to hear that MLB.com has updated its At the Ballpark iOS app this morning. The update brings the client to version 3.o, and features an all-new design for iOS 7 and support for Apple's new 'iBeacon' tech that will be available in select ballparks this year.

We've known for a while now that Major League Baseball was working with Apple on its geolocation technology, which its Advanced Media group demonstrated last fall. And the organization has said it hopes to roll out the feature to at least 20 parks ahead of 2014's Opening Day...

Perfection! Do you have what it takes to achieve this puzzle?

My dad fit into a category many would call “perfectionist.” His socks were neatly folded and color-coded. The hangers in his closet were always spaced exactly the same distance apart. He even scrubbed out the garbage cans on a weekly basis. Living up to his standard of perfection was hard. I guess that’s why I gave up and turned into a slob.

Perfection! (the game) is a fun puzzle title that is just as hard to be successful at as it is to live up to a perfectionist’s standards. Only, it is actually fun. You won’t have to clean the bottom corners of your closet with an old toothbrush or restack dishes that don’t sit properly in the cupboard. You just have to play the game. Perfectly…

Facebook Messenger picks up contact groups, message forwarding and more

The social networking giant, Facebook, has just updated its slick Messenger client for the iPhone and iPod touch with a pair of long overdue feature additions.

The first lets you forward a message to another person (even Apple's own Messages app supports this) and the other finally makes it possible to create groups for the people you message most, with custom group photo and name.

The new Facebook Messenger 4.0 is now live in the App Store so update your copy to check out contact groups and message forwarding for yourself...

Microsoft updates OneNote for iPad, bringing it in line with new Office apps

As you've probably heard by now, Microsoft finally launched its Office apps on the iPad today. You can now download touch-friendly versions of Word, Excel and Powerpoint to your Apple-flavored tablet for free, although some features will cost you.

The initial reaction has been pretty positive thus far, with many reviewers saying that Office for iPad is both functional and well-designed. And this afternoon, Microsoft brought that popular new design to its OneNote iPad app by way of an update...

Drawnimal goes free as Apple’s latest Free App of the Week

It's Thursday, and this can only mean one thing: the awesome Darklings game goes back up to its regular price as Apple gets to bring another iOS application down to $0, as part of the App Store's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion.

Today's free app: Lucas Zanotto's Drawnimal. If you have children or a very young brother/sister, Drawnimal is the perfect way to teach them the alphabet and at the same time get them excited about art.

Designed to help kids learn to think out of the box, the app ingeniously puts up a fun image of an animal on the screen, requiring your kid to follow the prompts and actually draw around the device that's sitting on a piece of paper.

Drawnimal will be free until next Thursday so grab it now in the App Store before it slips your mind...

Apple getting its standard 30 percent cut on Office for iPad subscriptions

Following today's long expected release of the Office for iPad applications, Apple's boss Tim Cook issued a nice tweet welcoming Word, Excel and PowerPoint into the App Store. Returning the favor, Microsoft's newly installed chief executive Satya Nadella took to Twitter to thank Cook, saying he was "excited to bring the magic of Office to iPad customers".

Redmond couldn't have wished for a better endorsement than this!

So, why are these powerful Silicon Valley executives droning politely on to each other, do you think? And how come Cook is promoting Office for iPad even though the software competes squarely with Apple's own iWork suite, free with iDevice purchases?

Could it be because folks at Cupertino are getting their standard 30 percent cut on Office 365 subscriptions sold within the app...

Popular PC game ‘Faster Than Light’ landing on iPad next week

Good news for gamers this afternoon, as it's been announced that the popular PC/Mac title Faster Than Light will be making its way to the iPad next week. The developers announced the release date via the official FTL Twitter account, and said it will be accompanied by a free desktop content expansion pack.

For those who are unfamiliar with FTL, it's a top-down, real-time strategy game that has players managing a crew and its faster-than-light spacecraft as it flies through multiple galaxy systems. In it, you'll face off against rebel and other hostile forces, recruit new crew members and ensure your ship's safety...

Yahoo updates Weather app with new animations, pull-to-refresh for photos and more

The reinvigorated Yahoo has updated its gorgeous Weather application for the iPhone and iPad, available free of charge in the App Store, with some noteworthy visual enhancements and feature improvements.

I've always absolutely loved how the app presents full-bleed photographs of chosen location(s), sourced from the Flickr community.

But, there was no way to browse through different photos of the same location. Starting today, you can now simply pull down on the image to load a new one, when possible. Another enhancements, straight from the design department: new animations for moon phases available as you scroll through details...

Office for iPhone is now free for home use

Shortly after Microsoft brought the mobile edition of Office to the iPhone last summer, fans of the Windows giant's productivity software cried foul as the app came across to them as more of an Office companion for mobile than a full-blown productivity application.

Although available free of charge and with editing functionality for your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, the app initially required an Office 365 subscription - much like the newly released Office for iPad. But not anymore.

Started today, Microsoft is making both the iPhone edition of Office and the version for Android smartphones free for everyone, like on Windows Phone. And to reflect the updated business model, the app has been rechristened and is now simply called Office Mobile for iPhone - much shorter and easier to remember than 'Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers', which used to be its full name before...

Microsoft launches Office for iPad, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint

The rumors were true! Microsoft's new chief executive office Satya Nadella is hosting a press briefing in San Francisco this morning. After the CEO discussed Microsoft’s 'mobile first, cloud first' strategy, Julia White, Microsoft’s chief of Office Division Product Management, took the stage to formally reveal Office for iPad.

"This is definitely not the Windows app ported to the iPad," said White, adding that Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPad are all native iOS apps. Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint apps are now available for download in the App Store, joining Microsoft's existing OneNote for iPhone and iPad and the recently released OneNote for Mac.

Akin to Office 365 for iPhone which debuted last June, Office for iPad requires Microsoft's Office 365 subscription for editing features. The entry-level subscription tier will set you back $9.99-per-month (or $99.99 per year) for a Home Premium package, which buys you access to the Office applications for Windows, Mac and mobile on up to five devices.

A more affordable Office 365 Personal has been announced recently ($6.99 per month, $69.99 per year, limited to just one PC or Mac, plus one tablet), but it’s not available just yet. You can sign up for a free 30-day Office 365 trial and for those who don't want a subscription, Office for iPad will let you view and present Office documents, spreadsheets and presentations, but not edit the files...