On some weekends, there is nowhere I'd rather be than sitting in a chair, drinking a cold one around a campfire with my friends. On other weekends, all I want to do is drop out of reality and sink into a good game. This weekend, if you are of the latter group, we have a list of apps and games that might give you something to get into.
Have you ever wondered which emoji symbols you use the most as your unique writing style? Well, the popular smartphone keyboard, SwiftKey, is previewing a new feature called 'Your Signature Emoji' which was designed to help you find out precisely which emoji characters you use more than other people.
Available as a beta for SwiftKey's iPhone users, and coming soon for everyone, this feature takes advantage of SwiftKey's knowledge base which gets continually updated as you're typing away.
Photokeys by developer Appyfurious was released in the App Store last evening. This quite interesting application makes it easy and fun to create your own colorful keyboards in seconds, from any photo in your library.
Just take or import a picture, adjust color themes as you like and your keyboard is ready for use in any application.
If you're unhappy with the results, refine your custom designs with manual controls to mix and match your own colors and achieve the keyboard nirvana. But wait, there's much more to Photokeys, a 99-cent download from the App Store, than meets the eye.
Microsoft's excellent mobile client for its cloud-storage service, OneDrive for iOS, was updated with three new features today, among them the ability to download photos and videos to your Camera roll after a brief hiatus following the app's recent redesign. Available free of charge in the App Store, OneDrive 5.5 for iOS also contains VoiceOver improvements for hearing-impaired users and support for Single Sign-On.
Apple has just named Team17's "Worms3" its App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to download the popular artillery strategy game for both iPhone and iPad for free—saving you $5.
For those who aren't familiar with the Worms franchise, players are tasked with eliminating the opposing team(s) of worms using an assortment of weapons. There are various game modes, including an asynchronous multiplayer battle.
As promised, Finnish mobile games maker Rovio today released Angry Birds 2, the official sequel to its original bird-flinging franchise. Available on a free-to-play basis, Angry Birds 2 for iPhone and iPad isn't a radical departure from the proven formula which made the original games such a rage.
In Angry Birds 2, your favorite feathered heroes embark on a brand new adventure as they storm Piggy Island to rescue their poor stolen eggs, all over again.
The sequel introduces some fun new elements to the gameplay experience such as all-new bird characters to choose from, spells, multi-stage levels, scheming boss piggies and much more.
Sometimes, there are games that are so engrossing that you don't even realize that time has passed. They can sometimes get you into trouble, especially if you suddenly find yourself still at home in your slippers when you should have been at work 10 minutes ago.
Don't Starve is an action survival game for the iPad that might cause you to forget to eat dinner while trying to keep your character well fed and safe from things that go bump in the night. We've got a full game review of Don't Starve: Pocket Edition for you today.
As vaguely hinted yesterday, Yahoo held a press conference in New York City this morning to announce its brand new mobile product: a messaging app called LiveText.
The app recently soft-launched in HongKong, Taiwan and Ireland and is scheduled to roll out in more markets tomorrow, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Don't worry, we'll keep you updated as soon as it hits the US App Store.
LiveText promises to transform simple conversations into rich, fun and memorable experiences with text and live video, but without sound. It's very Snapchat-esque and you might be willing to give it a try.
Developer Flexibits has issued an update to Fantastical's iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps this morning. This premium calendar and reminder replacement software for iOS, watchOS and OS X now includes complete support for Japanese users across its iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch editions.
More importantly, Fantastical 2.4 for iPhone now includes drafts, a handy new feature addition that makes it possible to multitask while adding new items quickly and easily. The update is rolling out as we speak and should be available in the App Store shortly.
As a nice bonus, the fine folk at Flexibits have kindly provided more than a dozen promo codes for you, our readers, to redeem so read on to potentially grab your free copy of Fantastical.
As far as simple mobile games go, there are an uncountable number of them, so many that it is difficult to search through them to find the interesting ones.
That's where I come in. One game that was recently introduced to me is called Lead Them. While at first glance, it may seem like a vertical scroll game with a pretty skin, it turns out that it has a few tricks that make it stand out. We've got a full game review of Lead Them for your reading enjoyment today.
In addition to refreshing its main application for the iPhone and iPad with drafts support and interactive notifications on iOS 8, the micro-blogging startup Twitter today issued a noteworthy refresh to its live-broadcasting app, Periscope.
Available at no cost in the App Store, the new Periscope 1.1.3 implements support for Handoff, a new technology in iOS 8 which lets you seamlessly move tasks across devices.
In addition, the app has gained other perks like a new notification setting for people you follow, viewer statistics when browsing past broadcasts and more. Plus, it now tailors your global list of recommended broadcasts to your geographical location.
Just days after updating Chrome for iOS with the ability to swipe right or left to navigate backward or forward, the search giant issued another app refresh this morning.
Bumped to version 44.0.2403.67, Chrome's added a handy shortcut to switch between open tabs without having to reach for an icon in the upper right corner with your thumb.
Google's mobile browser for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad is available at no cost in the App Store.