Apple

25 amazing apps and games are currently on sale for $0.99

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple this week launched a new promotion in the App Store called 'Amazing Apps & Games for $0.99.' The curated section highlights 12 great apps and 13 popular games, which normally run between $2 and $6, that are currently on sale for less than a buck.

Among the offerings are the endless snowboarder Alto's Revenge, and premium creative apps like Procreate Pocket and Enlight. Many of these have already been mentioned in our App Recap, but we thought the deals were worth compiling into a single post.

Take a sneak peek at Spotify’s new experience with Running, activity-based playlists and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2015

An iDownloadBlog reader has sent in a number of gorgeous screenshots of Spotify's major iPhone revamp. The software was just released to Spotify's beta testers a few hours ago ahead of its impending public release.

You may have heard Spotify stepped on Apple's toes with the announcement of new media types like news, video and podcasts, along with a flurry of feature additions like activity-based playlists, a cool Running feature and more.

With that in mind, we urge you to take a look at the screenshots included below and see for yourself how the new Spotify experience on mobile looks like.

Google’s Android M to adopt Touch ID-style biometrics

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2015

To this date, only a few Android devices come outfitted with their own fingerprint scanner for authenticating purchases and password-protected apps, such as Huawei devices and Samsung's Galaxy S5 and S6.

Unfortunately, Google's mobile operating system lacks system-wide support for fingerprint scanning, thereby hampering broader adoption of this useful feature, which Apple users have been enjoying for nearly two years now.

That's about to change in Android M, the next major version of Android, which should adopt Touch ID-style biometrics, according to BuzzFeed News.

New details surface of Apple’s quality and stability focus with iOS 9 and OS X 10.11

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2015

It's been said before that the next major version of Apple's mobile operating system will be a Snow Leopard style upgrade in that it won't focus as much on new features as it would on optimizing code base for stability, performance and quality.

In a new report, 9to5Mac details what lies ahead for both iOS 9 and OS X 10.11, not just in terms of speed and stability, but also regarding both operating systems' stronger security and a few new end-user facing features.

Apple Watch doesn’t work with 5Ghz Wi-Fi networks

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2015

In addition to Bluetooth, the Apple Watch also relies on Wi-Fi to communicate with its paired iPhone. In fact, the device can provide a number of useful features over Wi-Fi when iPhone isn't in Bluetooth range such as Messages, Siri and more.

It also automatically connects to known Wi-Fi networks that your iPhone, while connected to the Apple Watch over Bluetooth, has connected to before.

However, the Apple Watch won't connect to a 5GHz Wi-Fi network, even if its paired iPhone has previously connected to it, as first noted by French blog iGen.fr.

Slice Intelligence: Apple Watch sales taper off to 30,000 units per day

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2015

Slice Intelligence, an opt-in service that scans receipts of two million online shoppers' inboxes, estimated Friday that Apple Watch sales have cooled off and currently stand at or below 30,000 daily units in the United States, following the launch day spike that saw an estimated 1.5 million U.S. pre-orders of the wrist-worn device.

As noted by Quartz tech editor Dan Former, that suggests that Apple Watch orders fell sharply after the first day and haven’t grown since.

Apple’s rumored TV service to include local stations, likely won’t launch by early fall

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 22, 2015

Apple's rumored television services hinges on the company's ability to sign complex agreements that would permit it to include live programming from local stations, Re/code reported Friday.

Persuading broadcasters to back Apple's $30-40 per month service with local news and sports content has proven a much tougher nut to crack than originally thought, mostly due to complicated local broadcasting market structure, meaning the service is likely to be delayed.

“Industry executives familiar with Apple’s plans say the company wants to provide customers in cities around the U.S. with programming from their local broadcast stations,” author Peter Kafka wrote.

Users report less consistent heart rate readings after updating to Watch OS 1.0.1

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 14, 2015

In addition to fixing performance issues and a number of problems related to the accuracy of fitness tracking, the first software update for the Apple Watch seem to have introduced an unintended bug.

The affected owners have flocked to Apple Support Communities and MacRumors' forums to report that the device is now capturing their heart rate readings less frequently than before after updating to Watch OS 1.0.1.

Apple says the device's heart rate sensor should capture heart rates every ten minutes throughout the day — even more frequently during workouts — but there are now noticeably larger gaps of time between data, some as long as an hour or more.

Apple working on glasses-free 2D/3D display with adaptive eye-tracking

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a new Apple patent application on Thursday entitled "Spatially interactive computing device." The filing describes an advanced display system that can output both 2D and 3D images at the same time, without the need for specialized glasses.

More specifically, the display uses multiple layers to provide differing output to a viewer’s left and right eyes, as well as adaptive eye-tracking courtesy of a built-in image sensor. These technologies allow the display to produce 3D images to one user, or multiple images to different users, simultaneously.

Physics-based puzzler ‘Magnetized’ goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

Apple has just named “Magnetized” its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to download the abstract physics puzzler for both iPhone and iPad for free—an awesome savings of $2.99.

In Magnetized, you are tasked with navigating a moving ball through a series of neon mazes using magnetic control points. It sounds simple at first, but the mazes get increasingly difficult, forcing you to try and master momentum and direction.

Adobe retires Photoshop touch apps & previews Rigel, its new retouching solution for iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2018

Photoshop maker Adobe said today it will be pulling Photoshop Touch apps for the iPhone and iPad from the App Store and other mobile platforms next Thursday, May 28. At the same time the company gave a sneak peek of its forthcoming new retouching solution for mobile, Rigel, which should be available later this year.

Adobe said it will sharpen focus on Creative Cloud mobile apps like Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch, Adobe Comp CC, Adobe Shape CC, Adobe Brush CC and Adobe Color CC.

App Store highlights apps for Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Apple has begun highlighting apps with specialized accessibility features. The curated section features apps such as Instapaper, which offers text-to-speech, and Workflow, which can automate complex tasks, and is featured on the front page of the App Store.

Apple has long been praised for the accessibility features in iOS. Grammy Award-winning artist, who has been blind for most of his life, famously took time out of a concert to thank Steve Jobs and company for their work, saying "there’s nothing on the iPhone or the iPad that you can do, that I can’t do."