Living in a time where mindless entertainment is only one touch (or app) away can make it incredibly hard to focus on the simplest tasks and really get your head down for uninterrupted, productive work. If you can relate to the struggle, Forest, an app best described as a good-natured trojan horse inside the world of apps, could be a service to tickle your fancy.
If the awesome ARKit-powered measuring tape hasn't knocked your socks off, how about PCalc, the best scientific calculator available on App Store, in augmented reality?
Ukrainian developer Readdle today refreshed its award-winning Spark email app for Mac with powerful new search capabilities along with other notable improvements, such as snoozed emails syncing across devices, reduced CPU consumption and improved memory usage.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) reported today that Apple and Google have pulled unlicensed trading apps from their respective App Store and Play Store.
Microsoft is shutting down its one-handed keyboard for iPhone and iPod touch, called WordFlow, fifteen months after the app made its debut on App Store.
This week's edition of our Apps of the week roundup features a new AI-based photo editor, an app for quickly finding your group at a large event, and a new twist on the digital recipe book. And as always, we've selected two great new games for you to check out.
TeleportTeleport is a new, interesting app that allows you to edit live photos using artificial intelligence. No, we're not talking about adding animal ears or swapping faces—this app lets you change your hair color, alter your backdrop, blur the background and more. The interface is intuitive and well-designed, and as far as I can tell, the AI-based effects are impressive. Teleport is available for free.
TurfTurf is a simple, but smart app that acts as a compass towards where you want to go. Imagine you're meeting a friend at a ballgame, or a musical festival. Well instead of sending countless texts back and forth, or making hard-to-hear phone calls, the people can simply send a point-of-interest using Turf, and your app will take you straight to it. I know other, more robust maps apps allow you to share your location, but this is more straight-to-the-point (no pun intended). Plus no account is required. Turf is available for free.
TastyBuzzFeed's new Tasty app features all 1,700+ Tasty videos and a new Step-By-Step instruction mode that explains how to cook every recipe. The "My Recipes" page serves as your own personal cookbook and an innovative Search tool allows you to filter recipes by ingredient, cuisine, and social occasion. You can even filter out recipes with restrictions like vegan, gluten-free, low carb, healthy and comfort food. Easy is available for free.
NEO ScavengerPlay the acclaimed PC survival RPG on your iPhone or iPad. NEO Scavenger is a game where you must survive in the wasteland long enough to figure out who you are. Each turn, you must decide where to go, how to scavenge for supplies, and how to deal with anything and anyone you encounter. And with each passing minute, the pit in your stomach grows, your dehydration worsens, your muscles tire, and your body temperature drops in the cold autumn air. Choose your starting abilities carefully, because they and your wit are the only tools you have in the apocalypse! NEO Scavenger is available free (with a single IAP to unlock the full game).
Vista GolfVista Golf is a simple but elegant mini golf game, defined by crisp controls and the endless competition of new courses every week. We wanted to create the purest form of mini golf in your pocket, so if you seek both fun an frustration, this is the game for you. Features include Competitive Mode, Infinite (arcade) Mode, leaderboards, and weekly updates. I know there are a ton of golf games out there already, but this one seems worth checking out. Vista Golf is available for free.
More apps to check out Apple’s free app of the week: Domino Drop Google launches Trusted Contacts iOS app with Find My Friends-like features Image search and discovery coming to eBay’s iOS app this fall
MacPaw today announced that it has acquired the popular family of file-extraction apps for macOS, The Unarchiver, saying it'll keep them updated and available to users free of charge.
Flash's demise continues unabated with yesterday's news that its maker Adobe will be winding down development and distribution of the Flash plugin and related software at the end of 2020.
Acknowledging that most browser vendors today are integrating capabilities once provided by the resource-hungry Flash and Shockwave plugins directly into their browsers and deprecating plugins, Adobe's confirmed it's now planning to end-of-life Flash.
“Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to the open formats” such as HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly, reads Adobe's statement.
The company will continue issuing regular security patches through the end of 2020 to maintain compatibility while adding features and capabilities “as needed”.
So, how does this affect you?
Folks who regularly visit websites that have migrated from Flash to open web standards shouldn’t notice much difference. If a website continues to use Adobe's plugin, and you give it explicit permission to run Flash, it will continue working through the end of 2020.
Apple wrote on its WebKit blog that for its users the transition from Flash began in 2010 when Flash was no longer pre-installed on Macs. “Apple is working with Adobe, industry partners and developers to complete this transition,” wrote the iPhone maker.
Flash Player poses a major security risk due to a bunch of vulnerabilities that expose your Mac to malware and other attacks. Thankfully, you can safely remove Flash Player from your computer because most websites do not use it anymore.
TUTORIAL: How to remove Adobe Flash from your Mac
Apple reminded developers that Safari's WebKit rendering engine features a number of modern technologies for interactive experiences that don't require a plugin, like:
HTML Video and Media Source Extensions support a wide range of video experiences, including short clips, longer content and live streaming. HTML Canvas and WebGL provide fast, dynamic graphics for games and interactive experiences. CSS Transitions and Animations add polished animations to web interfaces. WebRTC enables real-time peer-to-peer video. WebAssembly allows games and other compute-intensive applications to run faster.Facebook said it's working with its partners to come up with a migration path for developers that use Flash to power their games on Facebook.
Google said that three years ago, 80 percent of desktop Chrome users visited a site with Flash each day. Today, usage is only 17 percent and continues to decline, the search giant added.
Microsoft called it the end of an era, saying it will gradually phase out Flash support across its Edge and Internet Explorer browsers ahead of the cutoff date. The process began already for Edge with Click-to-Run for Flash in Windows 10 Creators Update.
And finally, browser maker Mozilla has updated its published roadmap for Flash in Firefox.
“Starting next month, users will choose which websites are able to run the Flash plugin,” it said. Flash will be disabled by default “for most users” of the Firefox browser in 2019.
“In order to preserve user security, once Flash is no longer supported by Adobe security patches, no version of Firefox will load the plugin,” reads Mozilla's blog post.
Flash's death couldn't have come sooner: for 20 years, Adobe's proprietary plugin has powered games, videos and apps on the web, sending our notebook's fans into overdrive and contributing greatly to the battery drain. Safari on macOS Sierra and later disables the Flash plugin by default, requiring explicit approval on each website before running Flash.
The fact that Flash was never supported by iOS, the world's most popular operating system, has certainly helped doom Adobe's software and hasten its demise, especially given the size and appealing demographics of iOS users.
Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs famously disparaged Adobe's technology back in April 2010 via his highly controversial open letter, innocently titled “Thoughts on Flash”.
Steve's letter, still available on Apple's website, was in response to Adobe’s public criticism of Apple for omitting the technology from its iOS products. It sent the stubborn Photoshop maker through the roof, prompting it to port the Flash Player to the rival Android platform.
Six years ago, Adobe stopped developing Flash Player for Android.
I'm sure that somewhere Apple's late co-founder is grinning from ear to ear.
eBay on Wednesday announced that its mainland mobile app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch will be gaining advanced image-based search and discovery features via an update this fall.
Google on Wednesday released a free Trusted Contacts app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch following its release on Android in December of last year.
iOS lets you restrict apps from using cellular data, so it only makes sense to let users do the same with Wi-Fi networks. Although cellular data is more prone to being limited by caps and speed reductions, Wi-Fi networks can sometimes cause issues with apps because of how they're configured or raise security concerns.
By installing a new jailbreak tweak called ConditionalWiFi2 (iOS 10) by iOS developer Creatix, you can choose what apps can connect to the internet over a Wi-Fi connection.
This week's edition of our Apps of the Week roundup features a new travel app with a modern twist, an app that reads out the best long-form journalism content, and an app that serves up daily motivational videos. And as always, we've selected two great new games for you to check out.
SpottlyThe App Store is is overcrowded with travel apps, but I'm always on the lookout for curated apps that can cutdown your research time and improve your trips. And that's kind of what Spottly is. The app uses algorithms and user curation to highlight the best places to visit and things to do on your next vacation. Items are presented in photo form, so you can visual what you'll be doing, and ranked by popularity. Spottly is available for free.
AudmThis is kind of interesting. Have you ever wanted to read more long-form journalism, but just can't find the time? Meet Audm, the app that features the best content from the top publications around the world, read aloud by celebrated audiobook narrators. Supported publications include WIRED, The Atlantic, Esquire and ProPublica. Features include playlists, offline listening and more. There's a free trial, which I think is worth checking out, and if you like it it's $6.99/month for full access. Audm is available for free.
MotivateThis isn't a new app, but it's still worth checking out for folks looking for an extra helping of inspiration. Motivate delivers handpicked motivation videos to you daily. You can watch the clips in-app, listen to them in the background, save your favorites, and even share them with friends. I know this stuff may seem kind of cheesy, but for a lot of people it can be really useful and encouraging. Motivation is available in the App Store for free.
A Planet of MineA Planet of Mine is an engaging game combining exploration, mining, and strategy. Fully adapted for mobile devices, each game is unique thanks to an innovative "stellar system generator" that distributes resources, recruitable species, spoonable biomes, and buildable planets until a complete playground is yours to command. Some systems feature AI-controlled, faction-building opponents. Will you trade with these factions or fight them for control of the entire system. The choice is yours. A Planet of Mine is available for free (with some IAPs).
Full Throttle RemasteredOriginally released by LucasArts in 1995, Full Throttle is a classic graphic adventure game from industry legend Tim Schafer, telling the story of Ben Throttle; butt-kicking leader of biker gang the Polecats, who gets caught up in a tale of motorcycles, mayhem and murder. Now over 20 years later, Full Throttle is back in a remastered edition that features all new hand-drawn and 3D high-resolution artwork, and remastered audio and music. Full Throttle Remastered is available for $4.99.
More apps to check out Apple’s free app of the week: Yankai’s Triangle Panic launches Transmit 5, a major update to the popular FTP client Add Spotify controls to your Mac’s Menu Bar with SpotMenu Lightroom for iOS gains selective brush editing, all-new iPad interface & more WhatsApp gains chat pinning, comprehensive file sharing & more in latest update