App Store Apps

The Room Two is finally available in the App Store

In 2012, Fireproof Games made a puzzle game that wowed iPad users. The Room’s interactive Pandora’s Box style artwork and multi-level intricate puzzles were impressive, to say the least. Apple awarded it the Game of the Year in 2012. Fireproof Games promised more to the story.

Today, the game company came through with its promise and The Room Two is now available for the iPad in the App Store. It is just as impressive as its predecessor…

Dropbox app updated with support for viewing PDF annotations

Good news for Dropbox users this afternoon. The cloud storage company has posted an update for its iOS client, bringing the app to version 3.0.2. The update includes a number of bug fixes, as well as the ability to view PDF annotations.

For those unfamiliar with the term, PDF annotations are things like notes, highlights and other edits made to a PDF document. And until now, users were not able to see these edits in Dropbox without using a 3rd party app or workaround...

Sega releases remastered Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for iOS

This has been a big week for iOS games. Following the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Sega's anticipated, remastered Sonic the Hedgehog 2 update has landed in the App Store.

First announced in October, the free update sees the game rebuilt by Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley— the same guys who did the first Sonic the Hedgehog iOS game remaster—with better graphics, FPS and much more...

IFTTT can now trigger actions based on your location

The increasingly popular iPhone automation app, IFTT, (stands for IF This Then That) has received a notable little update today which enables iOS Location Recipes, allowing you to build recipes that trigger various actions based on your device's GPS location.

The new iOS Location channel was created to allow apps and websites to use information from cellular, Wi-Fi and GPS networks, in addition to iBeacons, to determine your approximate location. This opens up some interesting and really useful possibilities.

For instance, you could program IFTTT to turn off lights when you get home, via the built-in support for the Philips Hue smart light bulb. Or, why not automate social announcements when you're at a not-to-be-missed party? And how about simply notifying your family about your whereabouts as you move about the day?

Launch Center Pro gains Fleksy keyboard integration, lists, Share Sheets and more

Earlier this morning, I told you about Fleksy, a free iPhone application that one-ups Apple's stock iOS keyboard with eyes-free typing experience.

The San Francisco-based startup behind the app has decided to open up its alternate keyboard methods to select-third party developers by way of an official software development kit (SDK). This is great news as Fleksy's keyboard sports a patent pending text prediction engine and a powerful autocorrect engine.

Contrast iPhone and iPad automation app, Launch Center Pro ($4.99 on the App Store), is one of Fleksy launch partners and today's update enables support for Fleksy's innovative input method for keyboard prompts.

More on that right after the break...

Instagram 5.0 launches in App Store with Instagram Direct support

And just like clockwork, Instagram's newly-updated mobile app is now live in the App Store with support for Instagram Direct, a new feature announced just an hour ago at the company's Share a Moment media event in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. This capability that some mistakenly refer to as a private messaging feature introduces much-needed granularity to sharing by allowing users to send a photo or video not only to a group of their Instagram followers, but also to those not following them on the service...

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga hits the App Store

Warner Bros.' LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga is now available in the App Store. The game is based on the Star Wars-themed toy line by the Lego Group, and was first released on consoles back on November 6, 2007.

For those who haven't played the title, it's a mashup of Lego Star Wars: The Video Game and its sequel Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, and it includes content, characters and storylines from all 6 Star Wars films...

Google Maps now lets you see flight, hotel and restaurant reservations from Gmail

It's been some time since we've seen a meaningful update to Google Maps for iPhone and iPad, especially given Google Maps is probably the Internet giant's most popular product, after Search.

As if reading our mind, just an hour ago the firm has quietly pushed a minor update into the App Store. The new Google Maps version 2.5 comes with a few bug fixes and brings with it a cool new feature which lets you see your reservations from Gmail on the map.

Say you made a flight, hotel or restaurant reservation. Upon receiving the confirmation email in Gmail, Google can now take this information (they are already doing this for Google Now cards, by the way), extract the address and show you precise locations for these items within the Google Maps iOS app.

It's a minor, albeit welcome, enhancement that will up competition a notch for Apple’s own iOS Maps app. I love how little things like this make Google Maps more integrated with other Google apps. We've seen Google do this frequently and my guess is they'll continue to leverage their premium iOS apps to build a platform on top of iOS, so to speak...

Facebook app gets auto-play feature for News Feed videos, and there’s not much you can do about it

Facebook updated its iOS client this afternoon, bringing the app to version 6.8. The update is a small one, but it does include one significant—and likely controversial—change: video clips will now play automatically in your News Feed.

Now, Facebook has been testing this feature since September, and I've had it for a while. And although the videos aren't extremely annoying, I was hoping they'd make one change before the public launch: give us a way to turn them off...

Nike+ Move gains better Leaderboards and more accurate Where You Moved screen

I frequently use Nike's fitness app, Move for iPhone, which made its App Store debut in early-November. Apple highlighted Nike+ Move during the September double-iPhone event as a use case scenario on how health and fitness apps can benefit by taking advantage of the new M7 motion coprocessor found inside the iPhone 5s. Not only does Nike+ Move tracks your movement even when it's inactive - with little to no impact on your battery life - it really gets you moving on a daily basis.

Beautiful and light iOS design, nicely animated interface, easy to grasp features and inviting concept together made me fall in love with the software from day one. A fresh update which just surfaced on the App Store is now introducing a more comprehensive Leaderboards and a more accurate Where You Moved screen...

Osfoora 2 is now available in the App Store with a complete redesign

Twitter just updated its official app to include photo sharing in direct messages and swiping features to switch between timelines. Unfortunately, the official app still doesn’t live up to the wants and needs of many Twitter users.

Osfoora 2 is a third party Twitter client that offers automatic timeline updates, bookmarking capabilities, notifications, and more. Plus, the feature rich Twitter client received an update that compliments Apple’s iOS 7 look…

Apple experimenting with custom landing page for Angry Birds Go! in the App Store

Last month, Apple began testing the app trailer waters by hosting a video clip on the App Store for the new game Clumsy Ninja. The embedded clip had no voiceover or custom App Store branding, and it's the only one we've seen like this in the Store to date.

Now, it looks like Apple is running another experiment involving app and media discovery. We noticed this afternoon that it has given the new game Angry Birds Go! a custom landing page in the App Store with links to its related soundtrack and other apps...