Apps

Blocs Wave, ProtonMail and other apps to check out this weekend

Its the anticipation of Apple's upcoming iPhone SE event killing you? Don't worry, we have a great list of apps for you to check out this weekend to help you pass the time. We have a new app that helps you create music, a new email client, and a new game that allows you to create your own Disney amusement park.

WhatsApp for iPhone gains enhanced in-app alerts

WhatsApp for iPhone was updated in the App Store earlier this morning, bringing out a few noteworthy improvements to in-app notifications.

In addition, you can now choose to save incoming media for specific chats in contact or group info while the ability to share PDF documents from other apps into WhatsApp has expanded to everyone.

WhatsApp no longer charges an annual subscription fee. The Facebook-owned firm's been hard at work testing a feature for exporting chats in a ZIP archive and is also prepping to finally roll out video calling in WhatsApp.

Puzzler Sputnik Eyes goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the game Sputnik Eyes. This means that for the next 7 days, you’ll be able to pickup the popular puzzler for free for both iPhone and iPad, a solid savings of $2.

For those who aren't familiar with the game, Sputnik Eyes tasks players with guiding tiny robots through various maze-like planets. There are over 60 handmade levels to explore, and each level is more challenging than the last.

Scanner Pro 7 is here: OCR, workflows, distortion correction, revamped interface & more

Ukrainian developer Readdle today released Scanner Pro 7.0 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, a major new version of its award-winning document, QR code and receipt scanner that has a revamped user interface and packs in a plethora of new features.

Among other enhancements, the new version packs in advanced optical character recognition (OCR) technology which automatically extracts text from sentences, paragraphs or whole scans, making Scanner Pro 7 more competitive with Scanbot.

Miitomo, Nintendo’s first smartphone game, soft-launches in the App Store

As promised, Miitomo, Nintendo's very first smartphone game, on Thursday released on the Japanese App Store ahead of its worldwide debut.

The freemium title, billed as “a friendly conversation starter,” is based on the Mii universe and invites gamers to customize their Mii avatars by mixing and matching from a bunch of costumes and styles to make it their own.

Your Mii characters created in the iOS app can then be easily shared with friends on social media. And by asking and answering questions, you can find out unknown aspects about your friends along with things that you share in common. “Your friends' Mii characters will also visit you when you play,” said Nintendo.

Apple Events app launches on tvOS App Store ahead of Monday’s ‘Let us loop you in’ media event

Apple has scheduled its 'Let us loop you in' media event on Monday, March 21. Ahead of the invite-only press conference, the company has released a native application, aptly named Apple Events, for the fourth-generation Apple TV in the tvOS App Store.

The app makes it easier for Apple fans to stream the company's media events live and watch replays of previous broadcasts on their box.

MagicLabels lets you colorize your app and folder labels individually

Those of you who are into theming and customizing your iPhones or iPod touches so they look different from everybody else's may find a new free jailbreak tweak called MagicLabels to be quite useful.

It'll let you colorize your app and folder icon labels individually to any color you want, which can be tailored to fit any theme you might be using, or to fit your feelings and personality at a specific point in time. In this piece, we'll take you through how the tweak works.

As Apple News Format opens to all publishers, Apple launches ad campaign for News app

The native Apple News Format is now open to all independent publishers of all sizes as Apple has kicked off a brand new advertising campaign meant to persuade more people to use iOS 9's News app, Vanity Fair reported yesterday. Currently, the News app, which is basically an aggregator, has about forty million readers.

Last September's iOS 9 release brought out the News app with support from more than a hundred major publishers as launch partners.

Now everyone, bloggers included, can take advantage of the rich-media Apple News Format to deliver their content to iOS users in immersive ways, with interactive graphics, video, auto-resizing layouts, crisp typography and smooth animations.

Deezer Music launches Apple Watch app

Deezer, a cross-platform music streaming service, is now available on your Apple Watch as a native app.

The new watchOS 2 app lets you access your favorite music, use Deezer's Flow feature, see the latest hits and access Deezer's personalized mixes, all with the flick of your wrist.

On iOS devices, Deezer now provides lots of new recommendations to your Flow feed and lets users unlink devices connected to their Deezer account using the mobile app.

Waze for iOS picks up ‘Planned Drives’ feature

Waze, a Google-owned community-based traffic and navigation app, today rolled out a new feature called Planned Drives which lets you schedule a drive and get a reminder to leave on time, based on live traffic conditions.

In addition, the traffic bar in Waze 4.3 for iOS now shows the reason for a jam, like an accident or object on the road, and the app now mutes automatically during an incoming or outgoing phone call.

New Periscope update makes it easier to watch a broadcast with someone you know

Periscope, a Twitter-owned live video-broadcasting app, was updated today in the App Store with changes that make it easier to watch a broadcast with someone you know.

If a person that you follow who also follows you back joins your broadcast, you will now see their name in chat.

“We'll also prioritize their name in the viewers list, and show you how many of your mutuals are in the broadcast right now,” release notes read.