Apps

Twitter, Evernote, WeChat, Dark Sky, SPG and more being updated with Apple Watch support

We're indeed starting to see the first wave of updates to popular iPhone applications that bring out support for the Apple Watch. First was Target with an iPhone app update which brings the shopping list and more to your wrist.

And now Evernote, the popular note-taking and personal organization tool, along with WeChat, Dark Sky, Sky Guide and other apps, has added several interesting Apple Watch features to its iPhone and iPad app in the App Store.

Periscope shows the future of news with stream of NYC explosion aftermath

I'm watching a building burn down with firefighters rushing to save people inside- as it's happening.

The Periscope app launched by Twitter this morning is already showing its stripes. People have often turned to Twitter (and the Internet) for news in the past - this is nothing new - but Periscope has already shown in its few hours of availability how it could reshape breaking news on the Internet.

Target updates iPhone app with Apple Watch support for shopping from your wrist

Target may files as the first company to update its iOS app with official support for the Apple Watch, which goes on pre-order on April 10 before hitting store shelves two weeks later.

Now rolling out in the App Store, Target 7.3.1 for the iPhone will let you build a shopping list on your Apple Watch and includes a Glance to see when your store is open.

“When you're in the store, it tells you where to find all of the items you need,” as per release notes.

Twitter releases live-streaming app Periscope

Ever since Twitter shut down Meerkat, the popular live-streaming app that cleverly uses Twitter existing account and social graph infrastructure, it became clear that the micro-blogging startup was about to launch a similar service of its own.

Indeed, on Thursday the company announced immediate availability of Periscope, a live-streaming video service it acquired back in January.

The free iPhone app, like Meerkat, allows users to start live-streams from their device in an instant.

Four Letters review: a surprisingly challenging word game

How many four letter words can you think of? No, this isn’t some crass joke. It’s the concept of Prodigy Design’s new word game, Four Letters. Four Letters assigns players the deceptively simple task of rearranging four random characters into a word. It may seem easy at first, but coming up with all 2,465 possible combinations may present a bit of a challenge.

GoPix lets you create short slideshows to share with friends

If you like sharing pictures with friends and family on social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram, you are probably itching for a new medium to show them off. Instead of static pics or multi-panel collages, you could really wow them with a slideshow.

GoPix is a slideshow creator that turns your pictures into memories by combining image transitions and music into one simple action. We’ve got an app review of GoPix for you today.

Google working to let you pay bills from directly within Gmail

Google is working on a new service that will allow you to pay your bills from directly within your Gmail email inbox, ridding of the need to visit multiple websites every time you pay your bills each month.

Recode was able to get its hands on all the details for the secret project, dubbed "Pony Express". Internally, it's being called "the future of paper mail" and is expected to roll out in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Review: Fantastical 2 for Mac

The sequel to the popular language-parsing calendar utility for the Mac has arrived and it's everything you've been hoping for! Much more than a major new update, Fantastical 2 for Mac is a whole new app that feels instantly familiar while offering productivity-boosting improvements.

In addition to the revamped appearance optimized for OS X Yosemite's look and feel, Fantastical 2 is now a proper replacement for Apple's stock Calendar and Reminders apps.

Fantastical 2 has its own full-blown window and gorgeous full-screen mode while its menu bar thing can now be detached and dragged anywhere on the screen. The software is packed to the gills with a bevy of new features like iCloud Reminders and time zone support, light/dark theme, birthday reminders, a more powerful and friendlier natural language parser and more.

As a whole, the app feels tighter and more streamlined. Developer Flexibits was kind enough to put me on its limited list of beta testers, this is what I was able to gather from my weeklong hands-on time with the software.

New video streaming service ‘Vessel’ out now, includes one year free subscription

Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has been hard at world building a new service dedicated to helping the world keep track of their favorite popular YouTube artists and channels, as well as other web shows. Wishing you could watch the next FunnyOrDie release before all of your friends do? Well, now you can.

Vessel is a video streaming service that gathers up some of the more popular web series channels and displays them in a news feed way so you can watch new content. With a subscription to Vessel, you can even see new episodes before the rest of the world does.

Twitter testing autoplay ads on iPhone, iPad apps for some users

Taking a page out of Facebook's playbook, Twitter has begun testing autoplaying videos on the timelines of a small group of users, AdAge first spotted. With the test, you may see videos playing without tapping a play button - and this means ads, too.

A Twitter spokesperson confirmed the test that's occurring on Twitter's iPhone and iPad apps. The autoplay test applies to Promoted Video ads, along with videos uploaded through Twitter's mobile app through its new video service.