Apps

Scanbot picks up Magic color filter, improved edge detection and more in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 28, 2015

Scanbot, a comprehensive mobile scanner app for documents and QR codes, has been refreshed in the App Store today with several new features and refinements, including more accurate edge detection and a new color filter for text documents which produces scans that often look better than the original.

Scanbot is fully compliant with iOS 9, supports 3D Touch shortcuts on the Home screen and actions within the app and can recognize a wide variety of bar codes, including UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 39, Code 39 mod 43, Code 93, Code 128, EAN-8, EAN-13, ITF14, PDF417, Aztec and DataMatrix.

Apple rejects Gravity, a 3D Touch-based iPhone 6s digital scale app

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 28, 2015

Apple appears to be cracking down on digital scale apps in the App Store that take advantage of the 3D Touch pressure-sensing feature in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, with at least one such app having been rejected on the basis of “misleading description”.

Ryan McLeod, the brains behind an iPhone 6s app called Gravity, wrote in a Medium post that Apple actually took issue with the concept of scale apps per se, deeming such apps inappropriate for the App Store.

Viber rolls out Apple Watch app

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2015

Mobile messaging platform Viber today rolled out a new version of its iPhone app in the App Store which enables native experience on your Apple Watch. While pretty basic, the app is functional, easy to use and efficient.

With it, you can read and respond to messages straight from your wrist, and even send stickers created exclusively for the Apple Watch, all without having to pull an iPhone out of your pocket. Viber is available at no charge in the App Store.

Review: reclaim iPhone storage lost to Live Photos with this free app

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2015

Live Photos, one of the hallmark features of the new iPhone, is prominently featured in Apple's commercials and even jailbreakers can get it on older devices via a recently released jailbreak tweak.

The only problem with Live Photos is that they take up about two times the space of normal images. While iOS's Photos app lets you turn a Live Photo into a still photo with a few taps, the process quickly becomes cumbersome when processing multiple Live Photos.

Besides, the method doesn't really remove anything as you can revert back anytime.

A new iPhone app called Lean from developer Tiny Whale, available for free in the App Store, automates the process of cleaning up one or more unwanted Live Photos, so you end up with their normal representation which helps save storage space on your iPhone.

AT&T wants to give you more data in exchange for your time and attention

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

AT&T today introduced Data Perks, a program that allows qualifying customers to earn extra data for free by taking surveys, completing offers, and making purchases at partner websites.

The concept is simple, and to be honest, not so original. Using the free Data Perks app, you can accumulate data by giving time, attention, and sometimes money to a selection of partners. You can for example watch promo videos, attend online demos for products, sign up for free trials for services such as Gamefly, make purchases at partner websites, and more.

Astropad Mini goes free, now with pressure-sensitive drawing on iPhone 6s via 3D Touch

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2015

Astropad Mini, a cool application by former Apple engineers which turns your iPhone into a graphics tablet for the Mac, has been refreshed on the App Store today with support for 3D Touch.

The new version lets iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus owners apply varying degrees of pressure when drawing on the handset screen with their finger.

In addition, the app has gone free, lowering barrier to entry to zero bucks. Astropad Mini has been especially popular with artists and photographers.

Since its February 2015 debut, customers have bought more than 200,000 copies of the iPhone app. “We expect this new version with 3D Touch to be even more popular,“ developers told me via email.

Facebook bringing order to notification hell with revamped Notifications tab in mobile app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

After seemingly neglecting its outdated notification system for years, Facebook today announced a revamp and new features for the Notifications tab in its mobile application.

Hopefully, this'll help us cope with a firehouse of alerts from Facebook that we're being inundated with on any given day.

A more useful, Google Now-like Notifications tab now distinguishes clearly between Facebook's most important notification types.

Specifically, you'll see timely alerts for friends’ milestones, birthdays and life events, upcoming events that you’ve joined and sports scores and TV reminders, the latter two based on Pages you’ve liked.

Review: track how well you sleep at night with Sleep++ for Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 4, 2018

I was having high hopes ahead of the Apple Watch unveiling that detailed sleep analytics would be part of the headline feature set, based in no small part on the company's hiring efforts in that field.

As a blogger, my sleep is basically in disarray so I was keeping my fingers crossed that Apple's wearable would benefit my rest. Much to my surprise, the device arrived without specialized sleep-tracking functions.

But thanks to developer David Smith's nifty little app called Sleep++, I can now measure the duration and quality of my sleep thanks to the power of software.

Apps of the week: Lively, Pic Scanner, Chored, and more

Lory Gil ∙ Updated September 10, 2024

This week, Apple rolled out updates across the board for Mac, iOS, Apple Watch and iTunes. Unfortunately for jailbreakers, iOS 9.1 is off limits for now. With the new updates, you'll want to see how well content performs on your various devices. If you are looking for new apps and games to push your device to its limits, check out our weekend app list below.

How to disable Location History on Facebook to extend iPhone battery life

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Yesterday, Facebook issued an update to its main iOS client to help extend your iPhone's battery life by preventing it from playing audio silently in the background.

File the move under the 'too little, too late' drawer: if history is anything to go by, waiting for Facebook engineers to deliver a fully battery-friendly iOS app might be a fool's errand.

The biggest contributor to Facebook's infamous battery drain has got to be the app's continuous monitoring of your location, which continues after leaving the app. In this tutorial, we'll teach you how to prevent this by disabling a feature called Location History, thereby helping reclaim some of the juice lost to the battery-hogging app.

App Store starts experimenting with landscape screenshots and videos

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 4, 2017

Apple has seemingly begun experimenting with landscape screenshots and video in the App Store. A handful of App Store apps now offer landscape screenshots, video posters in landscape or both.

Twitter users and SplitMetrics have also noticed the change recently, which impacts the iPhone and is also showing on iTunes. Before the change, landscape App Store screenshots would show in portrait mode, requiring users to turn their head.

Did latest Facebook update fix battery drainage?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

After publicly acknowledging that it was aware of reports which slammed its mobile application over excessive battery drain, Facebook yesterday issued an update to its App Store app which has apparently fixed the long-standing issue.

Facebook engineering manager Ari Grant took to Facebook to detail the issue and what they've done to prevent the mobile app from eating up your iPhone's battery.