Apps

Adidas buys fitness app maker Runtastic for $239 million

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Runtastic has been acquired by sportswear giant Adidas, the company's CEO and co-founder Florian Gschwandtner announced in a blog post on Wednesday. The deal is said to be worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 220 million euros (or $239 million).

For those unfamiliar with Runtastic, it develops and maintains a number of fitness apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry. It has also dabbled in hardware with a GPS watch, a heart rate monitor, and the recently-released Orbit fitness tracker.

Apple’s TestFlight app receives support for native Watch apps and iOS 9’s App Thinning technologies

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 5, 2015

TestFlight, an online service for over-the-air installation and testing of mobile applications that was purchased by Apple last year, in its most recent version 1.2 update has introduced support for testing upcoming iOS 9 features, including native Apple Watch applications with watchOS 2.

In addition, the application has been optimized with support for App Thinning, a set of Apple-provided optimization technologies designed to reduce download sizes of iOS 9 and Apple Watch apps by tailoring app delivery to the capabilities of the user’s particular device.

Facebook launches live video streaming for celebrities

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 31, 2018

Facebook on Wednesday announced a new video streaming feature for its Facebook Mentions app called Live. The feature allows Mentions users, which is currently limited to "verified public figures using Pages," to quickly and easily share live video.

With Live, Facebook's Vadim Lavrusik explains, celebrities can take fans behind the scenes, host Q&As, share announcements and more. And the social network says that The Rock, singer Luke Bryan and many others have already signed on to participate.

WhatsApp for iPhone receives a dozen new features in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Not to be outdone by rival Viber which rolled out animated stickers, location sharing, a brand new keypad and other enhancements in yesterday's refresh, Facebook-owned WhatsApp today pushed a substantial update to its App Store application.

WhatsApp for iPhone now features richer notifications settings with per-chat rules and mute options, a new swipe gesture to mark chats as read or unread, the ability to directly share contacts from the Contacts app and locations from Apple Maps, backups for your videos and much more.

Ruby Run: Eye God’s Revenge will have you running for your life

Lory Gil ∙ August 5, 2015

With the endless runner genre filling up the App Store with new skins on old mechanics, it is always nice when a game throws something different into the mix. It keeps the category fresh. Ruby Run: Eye God's Revenge is an endless runner that lets you shoot things along the way. Running, jumping, and ducking are no longer the only skills you must have.

BitTorrent Sync update brings a major productivity element to peer-to-peer file syncing

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 1, 2018

BitTorrent Sync made its App Store debut back in August 2013, its major appeal being the underlying distributed technology that facilitates secure file syncing between devices but without a roundtrip to the cloud, thus appealing to privacy-minded customers.

The mobile component to BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer file syncing product, BitTorrent Sync for iOS is receiving a major update later today with an important productivity element added to the app: you can now save various types of files created in other apps right into a Sync folder to share with connected devices via a new Share sheet action.

Viber for iOS gains link previews, animated stickers, easier video calling, better compression & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 4, 2015

Viber, the third most popular messaging platform after Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (owned by Facebook) today delivered a few new features to its iPhone and iPad application in the App Store.

The new Viber 5.5 for iOS now includes rich link previews in the chat window, has the ability to exchange contact information via messages (in addition to QR codes), introduces animated stickers, permits easier video calling directly from a contact's profile or the recent calls list and more.

Google confirms brand new Street View mobile app arriving early next month

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 4, 2015

Two months ago, Google hinted it was readying a brand new mobile application called Street View. The app was designed to provide easy access to your photo spheres and those from Google and other contributors. Today, the Internet giant sent an email blast confirming that the native Street View for iOS app is coming in early-September.

The search company did not share detailed information about the upcoming software, but we've been able to glean a few tidbits. For starters, the Street View app will replace Google's Photo Sphere Camera mobile app for iOS and Android. More important than that, Street View will be capable of linking to a dedicated spherical camera hardware.

Readdle holds a massive App Store sale in celebration of its 8th birthday

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 4, 2015

Ukrainian developer Readdle is behind some of the best productivity applications for the iPhone and iPad. It's hard to imagine that eight years have passed since Readdle released its first app in the App Store, but it has. To celebrate its eighth anniversary, the company has launched a massive App Store sale, cutting the price of some of its popular apps in half.

The promotion runs for 48 hours so now is your chance to add your favorite Readdle apps to your collection, if you don't have them already. Here's a quick list of apps that are available half price until Thursday, August 6 at 9am Eastern time.

Twitter testing out dedicated News tab in mobile apps

Cody Lee ∙ August 3, 2015

Twitter is experimenting with a new "Featured News" tab in its mobile apps, reports BuzzFeed. The tab surfaces trending news items, which the social network hopes will keep users engaged.

"We're experimenting with a news experience on iOS and Android," a Twitter spokesperson told the publication. "We are continuing to explore new ways to surface the best content to users."

August Smart Lock is ready for your wrist with brand new Apple Watch app

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 3, 2015

The popular Smart Lock accessory by August now makes it easy to lock and unlock your door right from your wrist with a brand new Apple Watch app, announced Monday.

Available as a free update to the existing iPhone application, the WatchKit component provides an Apple Watch app and a glance which can be used to operate your August Smart Lock and view its logs, view your most recent activity, receive instant notifications and more.

Prune review: yard work has never been so beautiful

Lory Gil ∙ August 3, 2015

There truly is an art form in pruning. Trees of all shapes and sizes act differently based on the way you manipulate their growth. The art of the Bonsai is the perfect example of how a perfectly trimmed tree can become whatever you want it to be.

Prune is a game about trees. In it, players trim branches to grow their foliage until they reach the sun. We've got a hands-on game review of Prune for you today.