Apps

Hands on with Clips, Apple’s new social video editing app

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 6, 2017

Apple today released Clips, its brand new social video editing app that was previewed on March 21 as part of the company's Spring product refresh. Available at no charge on App Store, Clips comes with some interesting features, like voice-activated captions, effects, emoji, animated speech bubbles, motion backgrounds, built-in soundtracks and more.

After spending some time with Clips, our own video editor Andrew O'Hara has created a video walkthrough showcasing just how easy it is to create fun videos that are sharable on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks.

Clips: Apple’s new video creation app is now available on iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 6, 2017

Clips, a new video creation app from Apple, is now available for download on App Store. Previewed on March 21 as part of Apple's Spring product refresh, Clips lets you create expressive videos on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with just a few taps. The app includes some nifty features like a selection of cartoonish effects and the ability to create captions on the fly using just your voice. Clips is available on App Store at no charge and requires iOS 10.3, which launched last week.

Twitter Lite launches, takes only 1MB of storage & can save up to 70 percent on data

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 6, 2017

If you're a heavy Twitter user whose device is running low on storage and you'd like to reduce data usage in the mobile Twitter app, the company today announced a new solution that may interest you, aptly named Twitter Lite. It's a client-side Progressive Web App written in JavaScript and running in Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Taking up only one megabyte of storage on your device, Twitter Lite loads in under five seconds on a 3G cellular connection and can save up to 70 percent on data.

How to edit a post caption in Instagram

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 31, 2025

Learn how to edit a photo caption on Instagram to fix embarrassing typos, correct a mistake, or expand it with new information.

Facebook is turning your friends who aren’t hip enough to use Stories into ghosts

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 5, 2017

Facebook last week rolled out a Snapchat-esque Stories feature to all users of its mobile app. So far, most users seem to be ignoring these glorified auto-vanishing slideshows so the company is introducing some visual tweaks, possibly in an effort to boost usage of the feature.

As first noticed by The Verge, friends who aren't using Stories now appeared ghosted at the app's top as a bit of encouragement for the new feature.

Audio-only calls rolling on Google Duo

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 5, 2017

Google announced during its Spring event in São Paulo, Brazil that audio-only calls would be coming soon to Duo, its one-to-one video calling app for iOS and Android. Today, the company pushed a small update to Duo for iPhone that enables this feature (which first rolled out to users in Brazil) for everyone. Available free of charge on App Store, Google Duo version 9.1 brings out VoIP audio calling along with unspecified bug fixes and product improvements.

This tweak helps you differentiate comments in the official Reddit app

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 5, 2017

In the official Reddit app for iOS, gray vertical lines of varying heights appear between comments underneath posts. They’re intended to help lead the eyes, making it easier to differentiate between responses, but the gray isn't exactly easy for everyone to see.

A new free jailbreak tweak called ColorComments by Ben Giannis lets you add a splash of color to those lines, not only for improving the efficiency of how your eyes distinguish between each one, but also making the app look more unique in the process.

Starbucks rolls out iMessage app for gifting digital cards with Apple Pay support

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2023

As previously announced, Starbucks today updated its iPhone app with the ability to send gifts through Apple’s iMessage system and pay for them with Apple Pay directly in the Messages app. Named Starbucks Gifts, the software requires you to set up Apple Pay on your device before you can purchase gift cards in $5, $10 or $25 denominations. Today's update also brings notifications, a store location filter for the Nitro cold brew and other perks.

Apple Music 2.0 for Android brings iOS 10 style interface, integrated lyrics & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 4, 2017

Apple today pushed a major update to the Apple Music client for Android. Available on Google's Play Store for free, the app has been bumped from version 1.2.1 to 2.0 and now features a refreshed user interface that mimics iOS 10 styling that should bring greater clarity and simplicity.

Aside from the facelift, the software comes with half a dozen new features including the consolidated For You, Library, Browse and Radio sections, a Now Playing screen with integrated lyrics, and more.

How to identify legacy 32-bit apps on your iPhone or iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 18, 2017

iOS 11 drops support for legacy 32-bit apps. In this tutorial, we're going to lay out how you can quickly identify any 32-bit apps that are installed on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Confero 2 is a notification badge manager for your apps

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 4, 2017

If you have an iPhone, then you’re no stranger to notifications. In fact, if you have a lot of friends and use a lot of different kinds of apps, then you probably get flooded with notifications from day to day. These notifications clutter up your Home screen with badges, which aren't exactly the prettiest things in the world to see.

A jailbreak tweak dubbed Confero 2 by AtomDevTeam lets you clean things up by grouping all your apps with missed notification badges into a convenient little box that can be invoked from anywhere. It also provides new notification badge theming options that are much nicer to look at.

Facebook testing Explore feed which surfaces content you haven’t connected with yet

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 3, 2017

Facebook has been caught testing a new kind of feed on its mainland mobile app, designed to surface relevant posts from people and pages that you haven't befriended or liked. According to Mashable and Wired, some users noticed a new rocket-shaped icon at the bottom of their News Feed. Tapping it displays content from an alternative News Feed.

Labeled Explore, it's focused on posts, articles, photos, videos and other content from people, media organizations and pages you're not following.

Facebook is currently testing this feature with a small subset of users and could pull it any time it wants. We'll be making sure you're among the first to know when, and if the new Explore tab launches to everybody.