App Updates

Apple updates iLife, iWork and other iOS utils

With today's release of iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2, Apple has updated its Podcasts app with support for iCloud subscription syncing. Just a few minutes later, updates to Apple's other apps went live in iTunes, including iLife and iWork apps and utils like Find My Friends, Remote, AirPort Utility and more. With so many third-party apps being updated for iOS 6 support as we speak, you may want to prioritize your downloads. Here's what's new in Apple's own updated apps for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad...

Skitch gets cleaner UI, new features, now supports the iPhone natively

Today's update bonanza has seen mainstream iOS apps improved with support for the iPhone 5 and its taller display. By the way, Apple really pushed those updates at a rapid pace, didn't it?

Among them is Skitch, a Mac and iPad annotation and image editing software, which got refreshed today with a revamped interface and a slew of new features, such as pixelate and highlighter tools, social sharing options and more .

The new Skitch version 2.0, now a universal binary, finally supports the iPhone and we've got you covered with a quick overview and promotional video...

Netflix app gets a facelift, new features

If you get your entertainment via Netflix, you will love an updated version of the company's streaming app for iPhones, iPods and iPads that was just released for a "more immersive experience". What that means is a crisper, less packed interface which combines your previously watched content, recommendations and latest titles into a single view, with search available throughout the program. Here's your video...

Shazam gets ability to tag any TV show on any U.S. channel

Shazam, a popular music identification service, announced today a major update and milestone to its mobile apps. Shazam now commands an astounding user base of 250 million, with more than two million users added each week. The London, England-headquartered startup was founded in 1999 by Chris Barton, Philip Inghelbrecht, Dhiraj Mukherjee and Avery Wang.

Since their inception, Shazam mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and other platforms have remained amongst the top ten most downloaded apps of all time. Shazam updated these apps today with new features, including ability to tag any television show on any channel in the United States in order to find out what music is playing, who the actors are and more...

Google Drive updated with native docs, collaborative editing

Google today pushed an update to its cloud-storage app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that leaked last week in a prematurely published blog post.

With Google Drive 1.1, you can finally create new documents on your device, move your cloud files between the folders and edit documents on the go.

Native editing doesn't feel buttery-smooth as in Apple's Pages app and you cannot paste Camera roll images into your docs, but overall it's a far less clumsy experience than having to edit your files in the Safari browser...

Adobe Photoshop Touch goes Retina, gets 12-megapixel canvas

Adobe today issued Photoshop Touch for iPad version 1.3, a major update that finally brings the much-needed Retina graphics to do away with fuzzy user interface elements on the third-generation iPad. Also new in Photoshop Touch 1.3 are two additional image effects called Shred and Colorize and a new pixel nudging mode for precise movements.

It now supports Apple's Photo Stream, an iCloud feature that keeps up to a thousand most recent photos in sync across your devices. Most importantly, Photoshop Touch 1.3 finally supports bigger canvas and up to twelve-megapixel images on the iPad 3 (ten-megapixel on the iPad 2).

As is the norm with software release, the app also sports various bug fixes and minor improvements, including a snappier interface and faster animations...

Google Drive iOS app to gain native editing capabilities

Google earlier today accidentally (or intentionally, perhaps?) published a post meant to accompany an upcoming update to its Drive cloud storage client for iOS and Android devices. The new version, which should go live in just a few days, brings with it the ability to edit documents right inside the app, making the app much more useful, especially to avid Google Docs users who keep their presentations, spreadsheets and documents in the Google cloud.

Previously, there was no way to natively edit your Google documents in-app. You can always edit your documents online via the Safari browser, but that experience is not satisfactory due to sluggishness and the clumsy interface that lacks full capabilities of its desktop counterpart.

The updated iOS client should also let you view Google presentations on the device. Full changelog, courtesy of the Google cache, is right after the break...

Instagram 3.0 is out: geotagged Photo Maps, UI tweaks, snappiness

Following up on June's big update, Instagram today pushed out a major new version to its mobile app for iOS and Android, bringing with it a bunch of changes, visual tweaks and interesting new features. The app's explore tab and the photo upload screen have been re-worked with cleaner layout, the experience feels much snappier and you can now browse geotagged images in an all-new Photo Maps view...

Apple finally fixes buggy Podcasts app

A month ago Apple removed Podcasts section from iOS 6 storefronts and posted a dedicated new app to let folks download, consume and manage audio and video podcasts on the go.

Apart from its skeuomorphic design mimicking a vintage tape recorder, the program was plagued with unreliable performance, unexpected quits and generally a bunch of bugs. These issues are clearly reflected in abysmal iTunes ratings that at the time of this writing barely hovered over two and a half stars out of five.

Our own Jeff Benjamin noticed as much, observing in his video hands-on that the radio-dial interface is interesting at first sight, but not very efficient and syncing often doesn't work as intended. Today, Apple pushed out a minor update that promises to squash these pesky bugs while bringing out a couple of new nice-to-haves...

Viber for iOS updated with refreshed UI, all-new voice engine

Viber, an extremely popular VoIP app released last December by a small Israeli startup, got a huge update today, bringing a re-worked user interface with group messaging, profile photos and more, in addition to an all-new voice engine said to deliver improved voice quality.

Like Vonage and Skype, Viber lets you talk to people using your device's cellular or WiFi data connection, exchange instant messages and images, all the while bypassing the carriers' costly voice minutes and text/MMS messages.Unlike Skype, there’s no need to create an account with Viber...