Apple

Google’s Keep app makes its way into App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 24, 2015

Following its Android debut nearly two and a half years ago, Google's note-taking mobile software, called Keep, is now available to download from the App Store.

Featuring Google's Material Design, the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad app offers a nicely rounded set of features commonly found in other note-taking apps but with less bloat and clutter. Needless to say, Keep benefits tremendously from seamless integration with other Google products and technologies.

Notes created in Keep can be accessed, edited and managed on iOS, Android and on the web, via a Keep web app. Google Keep is a free download so give it a try and let us know how you like it in comments.

Tip: ask Siri to remind you about things you’re looking at in your apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 10, 2019

Siri's Proactive features let you do so much more, and in a more intelligent fashion than ever before. In addition to suggesting apps, people, locations and more when you use Spotlight Search, iOS also lets you ask Siri to actually create context-aware reminders for what you’re looking at on the screen of your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.

Asking to be reminded about things you’re looking at in apps like Safari, Mail and Notes that you want to follow up on later can be a tremendous productivity boost.

The feature is a great time-saver when you cannot currently deal with what you're doing right now, and would like to get reminded about it at a later stage, but are too lazy to create a reminder yourself. Here's how it works.

How to import your old Health and Activity data into your new iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 10, 2019

Moving over your existing Health and Activity data from your old iPhone to a new one can be a tricky business unless you know exactly what you're doing. The problem stems from the fact that Health and Activity data is not stored in regular iTunes backups, which are unencrypted by default, unless you remember to turn on encryption manually. It's a security precaution to prevent malicious users with access to your computer to mine your sensitive medical data from unencrypted iTunes backups.

The approach also poses a major challenge to folks who log their fitness and health data in Apple's Health and Activity apps. Surely you don't want to start from scratch and lose all the Health and Activity data that you'e amassed in the past year or so.

As it turns out, there is a way—actually, two ways—to preserve your complete Health and Activity data logs when you switch to a new iPhone.

Apple seeds iOS 9.1 beta 2 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Wednesday seeded the second beta version of iOS 9.1 to developers. The software is available to registered developers either over-the-air, for those running the first iOS 9.1 beta, or via Apple’s developer website.

Introduced earlier this month, iOS 9.1 will bring about new features for the just-announced iPad Pro, such as support for new accessories. The update also includes support for Unicode 8, which will add several new emoji.

Twitterrific update with iOS 9 and iPad multitasking support, new features and improvements

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

Twitterrific 5, The Iconfactory's freemium Twitter client for iOS and OS X platforms, has received its iOS 9-focused update this morning.

The app is now fully optimized for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 9 and supports new Slide Over and Split View multitasking modes on compatible iPads. If you own an iPad Air 2 or an iPad mini 4, you can now run Twitterrific and another app side-by-side in iOS 9's new Split View mode.

This is a great feature as you can now pin Twitterrific on the right and configure it to use Safari as your browser instead of in-app. In addition to iOS 9-specific support, this edition of Twitterrific includes other changes and improvements listed further below.

Watch the first full-length trailer for the official Angry Birds movie

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

Angry Birds is coming to the silver screen next summer and now Sony Pictures and Rovio have published the first full-length teaser trailer for The Angry Birds Movie, the official 3D animated movie based on the famous bird-flinging franchise.

Starring Jason Sudeikis as Red, Josh Gad as Chuck, Danny McBride as Bomb and Bill Hader as the villainous pig Leonard, the movie promises to reveal why the famous birds are so angry in the first place.

Spark email app gains iOS 9 support, default From: account, customizable quick replies and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

Spark, Readdle's excellent iPhone app for Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, iCloud and other email services, is now compatible with iOS 9 features, including 3D Touch on new iPhones.

Spark 1.2 for iPhone also includes the ability to select any email account or alias as default FROM: address for new emails. The app now lets you customize canned replies to your liking and includes a host of other improvements.

Pixelmator gains 8K resolution and iOS 9 support, including iPad multitasking features

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

Pixelmator, the tremendously popular Photoshop replacement available for both iOS and OS X platforms, today gained an update which adds several new features on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

For starters, Pixelmator 2.1 for iOS is now fully compatible with iOS 9 (in fact, it's now an iOS 9-only app) and supports Slide Over and Split View iPad multitasking modes.

With Split View on compatible iPads, customers can use Pixelmator and any other app at the same time. More importantly, the app now opening and editing images in 8K resolution.

Fantastical 2 for OS X gains El Capitan support with split-screen multitasking and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

Developer Flexibits today rolled out an update to Fantastical for Mac, its reminder and calendar replacement available on both iOS and OS X.

Fantastical 2.1, the first major update to the Mac edition, features full support for Macs running OS X El Capitan ahead of its release next week, including support for El Capitan's split-screen multitasking.

A host of other changes and improvements have found their way into this release of Fantastical, such as swiping to delete events on El Capitan systems.

People on Yosemite and earlier versions can now scroll to a specific day or week in the Week and Month views with a trackpad and organize Reminders by list, but that's just tip of the iceberg.

T-Mobile: trade in your old iPhone 6 and get iPhone 6s for as low as $5 per month

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

T-Mobile's outspoken CEO John Legere confirmed today on Twitter that his company will be offering an iPhone 6s beginning Friday for as low as $5, $10 or $15 per month, depending on the model being purchased and older iPhone traded in, through its JUMP! On Demand device upgrade program. The lowest $5 per month pricing entails an iPhone 6 trade in, while buying a new iPhone 6s for $10 per month requires trading in your iPhone 5s.

Customers can take advantage of this offer even if they have already pre-ordered their device with a trade-in. Leggier conformed in another tweet that pre-orders of new iPhones at T-Mobile are up thirty percent versus the previous year.

Apple confirms some NYC customers will get their iPhone 6s on Saturday due to Pope visit

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 24, 2017

The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are launching on Friday in the United State and several other markets around the world. Ahead of the launch, Apple has now cautioned some New York City customers that their order might arrive on Saturday due to Pope Francis' visit to the country.

In an email sent to customers, a copy of which was obtained by Sam Biddle, the Cupertino firm warns of shipping delays due to “traffic restrictions expected for that day in New York City”.

Review: iTranslate 9.0 is the closest thing yet to the killer Apple Watch app

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 22, 2015

Now that the watchOS 2 software update has released to the general public, a healthy debate is developing amongst my techie friends about the benefits that native apps are supposed to enable.

The long story short, native apps run directly on the device and talk to its underlying hardware and sensors so most tasks should feel faster and smoother than before.

For instance, apps can now play sounds through the Apple Watch's speakerphone and take voice input from its built-in mic. To test how this works in the real world, I've spent a few hours with iTranslate by Sonico Mobile GmbH, arguably the best translator app you can put on your wrist to overcome language barriers, Star Trek-style.