Apps

Snapchat’s sweet new update makes a handful of things a tad easier

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

A brand new version of Snapchat is now available in the App Store on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It's a point update but don't let that fool you as it makes a handful of things a bit easier. For starters, you can now finally preview a person's public Stories without adding them as a friend. Before today, you had to add a contact as your friend to view their Stories so just this nice improvement alone could go a long way toward helping us discover new accounts and content on Snapchat a bit more easily than before.

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Jessica Alba has boarded “Planet of the Apps” as a mentor and executive producer

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

“Planet of the Apps”, an unscripted television show about apps and their creators co-produced by Apple and Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman and Howard Owens, has added actress/model Jessica Alba to the list of its mentors and advisers, The Variety reports. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow and Internet personality and entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk also joined the project recently, in addition to musician will.i.am.

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Instagram’s popular Explore tab now recommends Stories from people you could follow

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

Today, Instagram's Explore tab will start showing some users a bar of Stories from accounts they could follow, TechCrunch reported yesterday, saying these algorithmically personalized suggestions will roll out to everyone soon. Stories recommendations are based on who you follow and the topics you care about, making it easy to add someone new to your Home feed’s Stories section.

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Papa John’s now lets you order pizzas, drinks and desserts right from your Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

Tuesday, Papa John's launched a brand new application allowing owners of the fourth-generation Apple TV to order pizza from the comfort of their couch, straight from their Apple TV. In becoming the first restaurant to bring food ordering to the Apple TV, Papa John's said that all orders placed using the new app will have an automatic 25 percent discount applied to them. Users must sign into their existing Papa John's account to automatically provide payment information and access their favorite meals.

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How to opt out of WhatsApp-Facebook account data sharing

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 25, 2016

As you may have heard, WhatsApp is starting to share some of users' account data with Facebook (things like your registered phone number and the last time you used the service) to improve targeted advertising and friend suggestions on Facebook and better fight spam on WhatsApp. Thankfully, you can easily opt out, right when the prompt goes up, or within 30 days of accepting the new terms, here's how.

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WhatsApp begins sharing account data with Facebook to boost targeted advertising

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 25, 2016

Facebook-owned WhatsApp today updated its Terms and Privacy Policy for the first time in four years to reflect that the messaging service will start sharing select account data with Facebook in order to improve targeted advertising. Wait, does that mean that you're going to be inundated with ads on WhatsApp? In a word, no—at least for the time being. As per the amended terms of service, “We still do not allow third-party banner ads on WhatsApp.”

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Bloomberg: Apple developing a new iPhone video-sharing app & deeper social ties in iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 25, 2016

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Apple has been developing a brand new Snapchat-style video editing and sharing application that could launch in 2017 as a standalone download, as well as testing deeper social ties across iOS as part of a newly directed focus to integrate more social networking features within its mobile products. These moves are said to be a response to the success of social services like Facebook and Snapchat, according to people familiar with Apple’s strategy.

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You can now mark recommended videos as ‘Not Interested’ in YouTube for iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 24, 2016

Google today issued a small update to its YouTube client on the App Store, adding a feature that enables better suggestions while fixing three annoying bugs.

Bumped to version 11.32, the iPhone and iPad application now makes it easy to improve personalized suggestions by marking recommended videos under the Up Next section as “Not Interested,” which helps train the algorithm to better tailor recommendations to your personal tastes.

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Pinterest just bought Instapaper

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 23, 2016

In a newsworthy move that in all likelihood makes lots of sense, the photo sharing service Pinterest has acquired Pinterest, the popular app and web service for saving webpages to read later.

According to the announcement, Pinterest will continue to develop and maintain the mobile Instapaper app, available at no charge on the App Store.

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PDF Expert 2 for Mac is here: new editing features, password protection & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 23, 2016

Ukrainian developer of fine iOS and Mac software, Readdle, today announced it's launching a major update to its PDF Expert for Mac productivity application, bringing out a plethora of improved editing capabilities and new features like password protection for your PDF documents, the ability to link any image or text to a different page or a website, localizations for ten languages and other perks. The update will go live on the Mac App Store today at no charge for those who already own PDF Expert.

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