App Store

Path, The Personally “Personal” Social Network

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

A new social network startup has been getting lots of attention over the past few days. I say "social network" with hesitation. Path is a San Franciso-based startup with some high profile employees from the tech industry. Dave Morin, the former senior platform manager at Facebook, is the company's CEO. Shawn Fanning, the co-founder of Napster, is also heavily involved in the project. Kevin Rose, of Digg fame, is an investor.

Don't let the attractive and mysterious woman in Path's web banner fool you, you won't find her on Path. In fact, you won't find many people at all. Because Path only lets you have 50 friends...

Twitter for iPhone Updated With Push Notifications

Alex Heath ∙ November 17, 2010

The official Twitter app for iPhone and iPad was just updated to support native push notifications for @mentions and direct messages. Push notifications can be enabled in a new pane for your account settings.

Push notifications for the Twitter app (and what was formerly Tweetie) has been a highly desired feature for a very long time. I'm sure we're all glad that Twitter has finally gotten around to implementing a feature that should have been part of the app when it was first released...

5 Awesome iPhone Utility Apps

Alex Heath ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

I love apps that make my life easier. And when they're really useful, I don't mind paying a little for them. The 5 apps I will mention in this list are not jailbreak apps, so everyone can use them.

Each of these apps is either designed to increase your productivity or make some aspect of your technology life better. They all aren't necessarily cheap, but there are free/lite versions of some. These 5 apps are utilities I use on a daily basis, so they're near and dear to my heart...

Mimicking the “Launchpad” With Your iPhone’s Wallpaper

Alex Heath ∙ Updated April 5, 2018

In the recent Steve Jobs keynote, Apple introduced the next major version of Mac OS X. "Lion" boasts many new graphical innovations, and iOS seems to have been sewn into the new interface. One of the most interesting additions to Lion was the "Launchpad."

Launchpad brings the iOS home screen to OS X. In OS X Lion, when you activate your Launchpad, your desktop wallpaper is blurred and given a nice vignette so that you can clearly see your app icons. The effect is very pretty. And, fortunately, it's fairly simple to duplicate this visual effect with your iPhone's locks screen and home screen...

Saurik’s TED Talk, “Even Software Should Have Screws”

Alex Heath ∙ November 9, 2010

Jay Freeman, better known as saurik, recently gave a TED talk on the philosophy of mobile software. He compared the iPhone's App Store and the jailbreak mentality to how consumers buy and modify cars. He made the case for what he has based his career on: that consumers do not want the software limitations that Apple maintains on iOS.

The first half of saurik's TED talk explains the state of the car industry, and the consumer approach to buying and modifying cars. His comparison is interesting, and it definitely merits his point about Apple's App Store philosophy...

AppSwitch, the Ultimate System Utility for Your iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ Updated April 2, 2018

Apple doesn't like for users to be able to see what's "under the hood." OS X and iOS are very design and aesthetically driven. Apparently, Apple feels that "viewing processes" is an archaic feature. There is no real way in iOS to get a bird's eye view of everything that's running on your phone.

There are, however, some of us out there who would like to know things like which processes are running and the current distribution of system memory. Luckily, App Switch, by XCool Apps, is here to remedy our need for total control...

Capcom Arcade Games on the iPhone Go Freemium

Alex Heath ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

The video game titan Capcom recently released an official iPhone app called "Capcom Arcade." The arcade-styled app lets you play the original versions of some of Capcom's classic games. Street Fighter, Ghouls 'N Ghosts, 1942, and Commando are all available to be played in their entirety on iOS.

"Wow. That's a lot of awesome gameplay in one app. I bet that's expensive." That's what I thought too when I first heard that Capcom was releasing an app with bundled games. The interesting thing is that Capcom Arcade is not an expensive app at all, in fact, it's free...

Tumblr iPhone App Updated, Brings Sleek New Dashboard

Alex Heath ∙ November 7, 2010

Tumblr has started making a name for itself as a viable blogging platform. For the longest time, Tumblr was considered the more lightweight and amateur version of established platforms like Wordpress. With over 30,000,000 monthly visitors, the micro-blogging platform has become a force to be reckoned with.

The folks at Tumblr have been making numerous changes to the platform, and now the service offers almost every blogging feature that you could think of. Tumblr takes a non-intrusive, social approach to blogging. The official Tumblr iPhone app was recently updated to support some of the new features of the website...

Over 50% of Developers Prefer iOS, but Android is Closing Fast

Alex Heath ∙ November 6, 2010

A recent study has shown that over 50% of mobile developers prefer the iOS platform. Millennial Media surveyed over 500 mobile developers and advertisers and asked them what their current and future plans were in terms of mobile application development. The survey complied a pie chart of the responses, and iOS is still on top.

Factoring iPhone and iPad, iOS made up 51% of the current development support. Android is currently being supported by less than half of the respondents. However, when asked about their development plans in 2011, mobile developers favored the Google Android platform...

Google Instant Now Available for iPhone

Alex Heath ∙ November 5, 2010

Google Instant has been bringing lighting fast search results to the desktop for a couple of months. Dynamic results are shown as you type your search query. Basically, Google guesses what you're typing as you type it.

This amazing technology has been duplicated with other famous search services like App Store Instant. We've all been waiting in eager expectation for Google to bring instant searching to iOS, and Google Instant has now been made available on all iOS 4.0+ devices…

Facebook iPhone App Updated, Brings Groups and Deals

Alex Heath ∙ November 4, 2010

Facebook held a special mobile event yesterday at their headquarters in Palo Alto, California. CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, addressed the company's new mobile strategy. Among some updates to the Android app, the official iPhone app was given the most attention.

Facebook v3.3 adds a couple of interesting features. The look of the app has been slightly restructured in the News Feed to consolidate space. Beyond the small updates to the user interface, Facebook added two major features: Groups and Deals...

SkyFire Pulled From the App Store

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated May 11, 2018

It took Apple 2 months to approve SkyFire but it only took them a few hours to pull the plug on this app that converts Flash content to HTML5. SkyFire was released this morning in the App Store but it's already been taken down, for unknown reason.

If you look for SkyFire in the App Store right now, you're probably going to get the same result as the screenshot above.

Why do you think SkyFire was taken down?

UPDATE: We now know why SkyFire is not available anymore...