App Store Apps

Apple launches new ‘Sharing Selfies’ section in the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

Oxford Dictionary named 'selfie' its Word of the Year for 2013, and it's not hard to see why. The act of taking a selfie—a photo taken of you, by you—has moved on from bathroom mirrors and is now at the Oscars and the red carpet of the Prince's Trust Awards—you name it.

Perhaps looking to capitalize on the hype, Apple has launched a new section in its App Store specifically for apps that specialize in taking self portraits. Aptly named 'Sharing Selfies,' the section highlights various apps like Snapchat, Frontback, FaceTune and Selfie Cam...

Plex update adds free Chromecast support, automatic photo uploads and more

Cody Lee ∙ March 13, 2014

Good news for Plex users this afternoon. The popular streaming media platform has updated its iOS client, bringing the app to version 3.4. The update brings about a number of changes, including free Chromecast support, as well as support for play queues & shuffle support.

While the Plex app previously supported Google's Chromecast digital media player, the feature required a [paid] Plex Pass subscription. But now, it's available to everyone for free, allowing all users to stream videos, photos and music from their iOS devices to their television sets...

Fox and TinyCo reveal first images of upcoming ‘Family Guy’ game

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Back in December, Fox and San Francisco-based mobile gaming studio TinyCo announced that they were partnering up to build a Family Guy game. They didn't offer up many details about the title, but they did say that it would launch sometime in 2014.

Today, we get to see our first screenshots of the game, and we have to say it looks exactly like we imagined it. In the image above you can see Peter doing his popular injured leg gag, and Chris, Quagmire and Mort all fighting outside of the Drunken Clam...

Darklings goes free until next Thursday in Apple’s App of the Week promo, grab it now

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

There have been some justifiable complaints lately among our commenters about the value, or the lack of it, in Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion. Indeed, Apple's last few picks have been - and I'm putting it mildly - less then stellar.

Just a few examples: Wonderkind's Tiny Firefighters, Sega's Go Dance and Square Enix’s Mini Ninjas. Right.

That being said, you most definitely won't want to miss this one. Created by Mildmania and built on the Unity engine, Darklings was released last November to some rather glowing reviews (currently, a 4-star rating in the App Store) and has since gone to win several awards for its mechanics and interesting concept.

The universal app normally costs 99 cents and is now available free of charge until next Thursday, courtesy of the App Store's Free App of the Week promo.

Darklings is a gesture-driven endless atmospheric adventure game incorporating visually enticing Noire-style graphics (think Limbo or Badland) that puts you in the world of Lum as he tries to save the light. You'll be traveling through forests and caves battling darklings as you try to bring light back to the world.

What do I mean, Darklings is a heavily gesture-driven game? Well, you're mostly drawing various symbols in order to posses and purge your enemies. Read on...

Microsoft launches new iOS app for Windows Azure Active Directory users

Cody Lee ∙ March 13, 2014

Microsoft has launched a new iOS app for Windows Azure Active Directory users this week. The app is compatible with both the iPhone and the iPad, and it provides instant sign-in to dozens of cloud applications using a single Windows Azure account.

For those unfamiliar with Microsoft's Azure Active Directory service, it's described as a 'comprehensive identity and access management cloud solution.' But the feature that the iOS app focuses on is single sign-on access to various web apps and services...

United Airlines to launch free inflight movie service for iOS devices next month

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

United Airlines is looking to introduce a new inflight movie service for iOS users next month, according to a new report. The service will allow iPhone and iPad owners to watch over 150 movies and 200 TV shows on their devices for free.

Users will have full control of the content, meaning they can stop, pause, rewind and switch between videos. And it sounds like all you'll need to access the service is the United Airlines app—no purchase of an in-flight Wi-Fi plan required...

Swipe and tap your way to the top of the leaderboard with teggle

Lory Gil ∙ March 12, 2014

When touch screen devices first hit the market, the world was abuzz with this new-fangled technology. Tap, swipe, pinch. It was all so new and exciting. Now, it is so common that you don’t even think about how much easier it is to tap a screen than it is to push buttons.

teggle brings back that excitement with a simple game that requires you to tap and swipe your way to an epic point score. The app recently received an update so you can now play against others through online multiplayer and try a completely different game with the new “Squared” mode…

How to send group text messages on iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 8, 2023

We all know how to send an SMS or iMessage to a group of friends: open up the Messages application and type in the name of the contacts you want to include in this group message. This is fine if you want to send a text message to just a handful of contacts, but what if you want to send a message to 25 contacts, for example? Adding each of them to the group chat could be a time-consuming process.

As always, the App Store can provide a solution to this problem. We will show you how to text message a group of contacts on your iPhone in a quick and efficient manner. To do so, we'll be using our application called Contact Groups, an app we developed ourselves. There are other applications that can streamline your group messaging, but we'll be using Contact Groups as it is a free alternative that works really well for what we want to accomplish.

Google updates Wallet app with new Orders feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 12, 2014

Google last month introduced some nice new features for its mobile Wallet app, namely the ability to scan your loyalty cards using the iPhone's iSight camera and receive notifications for offers from local merchants.

According to a post Wednesday on the Google Commerce Blog, the Internet giant is rolling out a new version of Wallet for iPhone which uses receipts from Gmail to track your online purchases.

The refreshed software is currently being rolled out to US-based customers so keep an eye on the App Store as the app goes live in the course of this week...

FiftyThree’s Paper updated with new iOS 7 design, improved zoom and more

Cody Lee ∙ March 12, 2014

FiftyThree announced a significant update for its popular Paper for iPad drawing app this afternoon, bringing the app to version 1.6.1. The update brings about an iOS 7-inspired redesign with new fonts, buttons and toggles, as well as a handful of other improvements.

Among those improvements are more powerful zoom and ink—when you zoom in on your artwork, your tools do too, giving you finer control over the smaller areas—and better dot control. Now, the dot size in your Draw and Erase tools is linked to how long you press...

Rovio says upcoming ‘Angry Birds Epic’ game is a turn-based RPG

Cody Lee ∙ March 12, 2014

Over the weekend, Rovio posted a teaser trailer for an unknown, upcoming Angry Birds title. The clip was short, and offered up few details about the game outside of showing a bird wearing knight's armor and announcing countries that would participate in the soft launch.

Well today, the studio revealed that the game is going to be called Angry Birds Epic and it's not going to be the typical bird-flinger. In fact, far from it. The new title will actually fall into the 'adventure role-playing' genre, with a turn-based combat system and extensive crafting...

Starbucks bringing shake-to-pay, digital tipping and iOS 7-friendly look to iPhone app

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 12, 2014

Starbucks, the global coffee company and coffeehouse chain, announced Wednesday that new features are coming to its free iPhone application next Wednesday, March 19.

For starters, coffee aficionados in the United States and Canada will be able to use the firm's free iPhone app to tip their baristas in $0.50, $1 and $2 denominations at more than 7,000 company-operated locations in the U.S. This has apparently been a much-requested feature.

And to make mobile payments even easier, the app will include a brand new (and pretty handy) 'Shake to Pay' feature which does exactly that - you can just shake your iPhone to quickly bring the barcode of your Starbucks Card to the front, saving you diving into Apple's Passbook app...