Apple

Brushstroke is Apple’s new Free App of the Week

It's Thursday and those of you who frequent iDB know what that means: Apple's editors get to discount and highlight another app as part of the App Store's ongoing promotion marketed under the ‘Free App of the Week’ banner.

With last week's free app, the popular retro-futuristic 3D shooter Space Qube, soon going back up to its regular price of three bucks, we now turn our attention to Brushstroke, a photography app available to you at no cost for a week.

Created by Code Organa, the developer behind the amazing ToonCamera app which turns your video and photos into a live cartoon, Brushstroke transforms your photos into beautiful paintings in seconds. Brushstroke made its App Store debut back in March, has an average rating of 4.5 stars based on 285 reviews and was never free before.

Amazon’s Prime Now app featuring one-hour delivery released for iPhone

Online retailer Amazon today launched Prime Now, a shopping and ordering app for iOS and Android with one-hour delivery directly to a customer's doorstep in select markets.

Available exclusively to Amazon’s $99 per year Prime members, the software allows you to shop for tens of thousands of daily essentials such as diapers, toys, paper towels, shampoo, batteries and mor, plus gifts like consumer electronics, wearables, books, toys, clothing and other items.

One-hour delivery will set you back eight bucks per order while two-hour delivery is available at no cost.

For the time being, Prime Now is available from 6am to midnight, seven days a week, in select areas of Manhattan, with more markets to be added at a later stage. The app will even ping you when the new delivery services launches in your area.

BBC investigation finds continued poor working conditions at Apple plant in China

The BBC launched an investigation into a Pegatron plant that Apple uses to manufacturer its products in China, and found poor treatment of workers, after Apple has stated several times that it's cleaned up its act.

The British media giant found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories. It even recorded workers falling asleep on the production line after a 12-hour shift.

Yahoo’s Search iOS app gains comments, local news and improved navigation

Yahoo's main search-focused iPhone and iPad application has received a refresh today. In addition to an improved navigation system focused on the new side panel accessible by swiping, Yahoo 5.4 for iOS now integrates latest local news headlines and finally lets you comment on stories within the app.

“Today we’re bringing local news to your fingertips with the Yahoo App,” writes the Internet company. “As you move around the country, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in your area.”

Bing’s iOS apps get a facelift, translate extension now available on iPad

Microsoft's mobile Bing apps for the iPhone and iPad are getting a major makeover today, with the translate extension that debuted in the iPhone app two months ago at last available on iPads.

On the iPhone, you can now tap anywhere underneath the search box to check out Bing's image of the day in uncluttered full-screen view. You can also swipe from the left to see yesterday’s image of the day.

Another handy addition: weather information, trending news and images of the day zoom to full screen smoothly when swiping from the bottom of Bing's Home screen.

Apple seeds third iOS 8.2 beta to developers

Apple has seeded the third iOS 8.2 beta to developers this morning. The release comes a week after the second iOS 8.2 beta, and follows last week's public launch of iOS 8.1.2, which brought about a fix for disappearing ringtones.

The new 8.2 beta can be downloaded either over-the-air, or via Apple’s developer portal, by all registered iOS developers. It’s unknown what new features the firmware will bring, but it will enable support for Apple's WatchKit.

Duet Display lets you use iPhone or iPad as an extra display for your Mac, without lag

Although Duet Display is not the first app to allow your iOS device to act as an extra display for your Mac (Shape's $10 iDisplay comes to mind), it's the first app to have done screen extending right.

Built by ex-Apple engineers who worked at the company for three years on the iPad and iMac, the software delivers a Retina display at a smooth sixty frames per second with no lag whatsoever.

Featuring touch control, Duet Display makes interactions with your Mac fun and smooth while taking advantage of the fact that an additional display increases productivity by giving you up to 48 percent more pixels to work with.

Adopt your own candy-crunching monster in My Om Nom virtual pet simulator

As previously hinted, Russian developer ZeptoLab of the Cut the Rope fame on Thursday launched a pet simulator game for the iPhone and iPad featuring Om Nom, a cutesy candy-loving monster who stars in the Cut the Rope physics-based puzzle series.

In My Om Nom, the lead character gets an attractive female company as Om Nelle, a little candy-eating monster girl, makes an appearance.

Hyundai confirms bringing CarPlay-enabled Display Audio infotainment system to 2016 models

South Korean car maker Hyundai on Thursday confirmed that its new Display Audio in-dash system featuring a color touchscreen and CarPlay compatibility will be built into select 2016 models which will debut in late-2015 before being rolled out to the manufacturer's entire car lineup.

In addition to CarPlay, Hyundai said that Display Audio will support Google's Android Auto platform out of the box as well. The company will show off Display Audio with CarPlay and Android Auto integration at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show.

Algoriddim launches djay Pro for Mac with 4-deck support, Spotify integration and more

German developer Algoriddim on Thursday completed its suite of apps for DJs by releasing djay Pro for Mac. Building on djay 2 for the iPhone and iPad, the Pro edition brings 4-deck support and the full power of Algoriddim's low-latency mixing engine.

The app has some rather advanced features such as Spotify and iTunes integration, support for professional DJ hardware, high-definition waveforms, audio effects, meta data and FX purchases from iOS versions of djay and much more.

Jump past the fold for the full overview of djay Pro for Mac.

Elcomsoft’s Phone Breaker can now help access iCloud data protected with 2-step verification

Moscow-based Elcomsoft, which produces a mobile forensic tool used by law enforcement around the world to gain access to a suspect's iOS devices, has updated its Phone Breaker application which now makes it easier to bypass Apple's two-step verification for Apple ID accounts in order to access underlying iCloud data, Engadget reported Thursday.

Not only does this include iWork documents stored in iCloud, but also data in third-party apps such as WhatsApp communications, 1Password password databases — even user dictionaries that may contain secret words and phrases — provided a user has enabled the app in question to sync data with iCloud.

Although hackers still need both your Apple ID username/password and a two-factor code sent to your trusted device (or a digital token stolen from your computer), once they do gain access to your account Phone Breaker can then create a digital token granting them permanent access to iCloud data, no two-step verification code needed — until you change your Apple ID password, that is.