Apps

Review: Emojify turns your photos into emoji artwork, ASCII art and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

Have you ever wanted to effortlessly create a collage of emoji emoticons from your own photos? As in, with just a few taps and no prior Photoshop knowledge whatsoever?

I'm a big sucker for ASCII art and there certainly is no shortage of such apps in the App Store, but I wanna move beyond ASCII and have the freedom to create collages based on my iPhone's emoji keyboard.

I'm also interested in experimenting with app icons and other icons sets. If you're anything like me, you'll want to check out Emojify, a cool iPhone app by Singapore-based studio called VoidWorks.

With Emojify, you can quickly turn your pixels into pieces of art comprised of a bunch of tiny icons and emoji characters, and even export them in high-resolution to create stunning 20-by–20 inch prints.

Tweetbot 4.1 is out with support for Apple Watch

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

The folks at Tapbots on Tuesday issued an update for their popular Twitter client Tweetbot 4, bringing the iOS app to version 4.1. The update brings about a number of fixes for bugs including timeline jumping and in-app browser issues, as well as proper Apple Watch support.

With Tweetbot on Apple Watch, you can view your 'Activity' feed—which shows things like @ Tweets, Favorited (or liked) Tweets and new followers—and reply to those notifications. You can also Favorite Tweets, reply to Direct Messages and compose Tweets using voice dictation.

For better or worse, Twitter’s Stars and Favorites are now Hearts and Likes

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

So you've been starring and favoriting tweets for later use in your favorite Twitter client, just like many other die-hard Twitter fans do? Well, starting today all those Stars and Favorites shall be presented henceforth as Hearts and Likes, the micro-blogging startup unexpectedly announced today.

The rebranding effort is meant to permit Twitter fans to show how they feel on Twitter “without missing a beat,” but already the change seems to have drawn ire and ridicule from hardcore fans of the service.

Google rolling out Smart Replies to Gmail’s Inbox app later this week

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

The Gmail team's Inbox mobile email client, which was born out of Google's 2012 acquisition of the popular iPhone email app Sparrow, is about to get a whole lot smarter with a new feature called Smart Reply, the company announced on the Gmail blog Tuesday.

The feature analyzes your emails and uses machine learning to recognize emails that need responses and then generates the natural language responses on the fly.

WLPPR: use beautiful satellite images as wallpapers

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Some of the most popular types of wallpapers for iOS are space-themed. Thanks to Apple's love of the galaxy, we've come to really enjoy the beauty of intergalactic images on our Home screen.

WLPPR is a wallpaper app that collects satellite images not only of space, but also from space. It provides weekly updated images that you can capture and set as your wallpaper.

tvOS App Store is conveniently flagging gamepad-enabled apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

Unlike the regular App Store for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad application, a brand new tvOS App Store for Apple's latest fourth-generation Apple TV makes it easy to distinguish at-a-glance between games that offer support for 'Made for iOS' (MFi) gamepads and game controllers and those that don't.

As first observed by AppleInsider over the weekend, not only does the device's App Store storefront app clearly states whether or not a game supports dedicated MFi game controllers, but compatible controllers can be used to navigate across the entirety of tvOS.

Here are top free and paid Apple TV apps and games

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Although Apple's charts inside the App Store for the new Apple TV are currently empty, developer Steve Troughton-Smith was able to sniff out which apps and games users have been downloading the most since the device's debut last week.

As you could imagine, games absolutely dominate the charts, yet another indication that the new set-top box is popular as a casual gaming device. Here's your list of top paid, free and grossing apps and games for the Apple TV 4, accompanied by a few interesting observations regarding app pricing and frame rates in popular games.

Secret Apple app lets you map out building interiors using your iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

Apple has a secret app in the App Store which allows some iPhone users to map the interior of a building using their handset. First discovered yesterday by developer Steve Troughton-Smith, an app called Indoor Survey has been available on the App Store since last week.

The software is currently hidden in the App Store and is not operational, suggesting that the official launch is around the corner.

Basically a funnel for Apple's MapsConnect website, the app appears to act as a crowdsourced Ground Truth service aimed at improving the accuracy of Apple Maps data when it comes to indoor maps.

WhatsApp rolls out responding to messages and calls directly from notifications to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

After testing out with a subset of its user base a new ability to quickly respond to incoming messages directly from the notification banner, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today began rolling out this feature to its massive 900+ million monthly active users. In addition, this edition of WhatsApp for iPhone also makes it easy to reply to incoming WhatsApp VoIP calls with a message, right from the call notification. Both features require Apple's latest mobile operating system.

Procreate gains support for iPad Pro, Apple Pencil features and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 2, 2015

Procreate by Savage Interactive, the popular sketching and painting app, was refreshed today in the App Store with more than a dozen new features, among them specific ones aimed at the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil which are scheduled to launch later this month.

Procreate 3, a free update for existing owners, now allows for up to 16K canvases on the iPad Pro, with its 128 brushes taking full advantage of pressure sensitivity, tilt detection and palm rejection provided by the Apple Pencil. All told, this edition of Procreate packs in over a hundred new features and refinements.

Plaaying for Mac review: a better way to share what you’re listening to

Lory Gil ∙ November 2, 2015

Some people like to share what they are listening to with others. You might see a half-dozen tweets in an hour from a friend, but then nothing for the rest of the day. What gives? Did he stop listening to music, or just forget to share it?

Plaaying for Mac is a third-party music player that has a customizable auto-sharing feature so you can let your friends know what you are listening to without having to actually share it manually. We've got a full app review of Plaaying for Mac for you today.

How to force-quit apps on Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 20, 2022

Although Apple TV is designed to just work, there are instances when a misbehaving app needs to be purged from the memory. And with the device's ability to download third-party apps and games, more things can now go wrong than ever before.

Like your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac, your Apple TV also lets you easily close a running app to free up system resources. In this brief tutorial, we show you how you can force quit an app on the Apple TV HD, 4K, or older models using your Siri Remote.