Apps

OneNote for Mac gains enhanced OCR features and other goodies

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

After adding the ability search for words in images to OneNote for the iPhone, iPad and Mac last summer, Microsoft today refreshed the Mac client by enhancing the somewhat limited functionality of the optical character recognition (OCR) feature.

In addition, the software contains other perks such as the ability to hide author initials in shared notebooks from the View tab and close the OneNote window without quitting the app.

OneNote for the Mac, iPhone and iPad is available at no cost through the Mac App Store and App Store.

UK banks RBS and NatWest now allow account access via Touch ID fingerprint identification

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 18, 2015

As reported Wednesday by BBC News, two banks in the United Kingdom will soon allow their customers access their bank accounts using Touch ID-based fingerprint identification technology, a UK first.

“RBS and NatWest customers must activate the feature with their security information, but would only need to use Apple's Touch ID thereafter,” reports the BBC.

To protect their customers' sensitive financial information and mitigate risk, the banks have put a number of restrictions in place to augment Apple's existing Touch ID safeguards.

NBC now streams content live to iOS thanks to app update

Jake Smith ∙ February 17, 2015

NBC has updated its iPhone and iPad apps on Wednesday to include live streaming television, following in the paths of ABC and CBS. NBC had originally rolled out its "TV Everywhere" product on the web, but now it's available on iOS, bringing the content to your iPhone and iPad.

Google Play Music updated with Material Design, iPad support and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Google today pushed out an update for its Play Music iOS client, bringing the app to the odd version number of 2.0.3828. The update is rather significant in that it brings about proper support for the iPad, as well as new Material Design UI for the iPhone.

In the changelog Google says that it has heard users "loud and clear, and now Google Play Music has an official iPad app." It looks very similar to the redesigned iPhone app, sporting Google's new Material Design aesthetic, but with larger UI elements.

EA releases ‘The Sims 4’ for Mac after missing 2014 launch

Jake Smith ∙ February 17, 2015

Electronic Arts has finally released the anticipated "The Sims 4" for Mac, as previously announced in January. The Sims 4 was initially available for Windows in September, but it's taken several months for the company to launch a Mac version of the game, and lead to the company missing its original 2014 deadline.

Southwest Airlines app updated with Passbook support

Sébastien Page ∙ February 17, 2015

The official Southwest Airlines app was updated today with Passbook support, allowing passenger to store their mobile boarding passes for quick and easy access when needed during security screening and boarding at the gate.

Those mobile boarding passes can be downloaded directly from the Southwest Airlines app, or any official email or text message containing boarding information sent by the airline.

Google quietly removes Sparrow email client from App Store and Mac App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

It's the end of the road for the beloved Sparrow email client as Google quietly pulled the free iPhone and Mac download from the App Store and Mac App Store, TechCrunch reported Tuesday.

The Internet giant snapped up the French startup, its apps and technology back in July of 2012, much to the dismay of the Apple community, for a reported $25 million.

Existing users who have downloaded Sparrow to their Mac through the Mac App Store, and have a copy of Sparrow for iOS in desktop iTunes, can continue using the app and should be able to install it on their other devices.

The app's been fully removed from iTunes servers and is no longer available for re-download through the Purchased tab of the App Store and Mac App Store. The Mac edition is still available directly from Sparrow’s own web site.

Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iOS gain iCloud storage integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 17, 2015

Windows maker Microsoft today announced it's bringing out new cloud storage integration to Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for the iPhone and iPad, including the iCloud file picker on iOS and Office Online integration for viewing and editing.

The much appreciated support for Apple's cloud-based storage permits customers to store their documents, presentations and spreadsheets to iCloud and access them on their other iOS and Mac devices.

Legend turns text into fun animations to spice up your messaging apps

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Static chats are already old news. It’s time to throw something fresh in the mix with images featuring animated texts. You poignant posts on WhatsApp should have even more of an effect.

Legend – Animated Text in Video & GIF is a text creator that lets you customize whatever you have to say and turns it into a fun animation that you can share with others through your various messaging apps.

Create low poly art from your photos using Trigraphy

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Fans of the low poly art movement will be happy to know that, there’s an app for that. Now, instead of building the geometric vector design from scratch, anyone can turn any image into something Piet Mondrian would be impressed with.

Trigraphy is a photography app that turns any picture into low poly geometric art. You can make a still life out of things you find in your kitchen and it will be good enough to frame.

New Watch apps previewed: MoneyWiz and MileWiz

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 16, 2015

Ahead of its wearable release in April, Apple invited select developers to submit their Watch apps for the inclusion in the App Store. We've already seen previews of Todoist, we know eBay is working on a bidding Watch app and Nimblebit even created a puzzle game for it.

And now, developer SilverWiz has posted a pair of previews of its two productivity apps for the device: the personal finance app MoneyWiz 2 and the automatic mileage tracking software MileWiz.

VLC media player is back in the App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2015

VLC, the popular cross-platform media player which lets you watch AVI videos on your iPhone and iPad without conversion (as well as other non-iOS-friendly media types), is back in the App Store following a long-standing licensing dispute.

In addition to resolving licensing issues, this edition of VLC brings a few noteworthy enhancements to the table which I'll lay out for you after the jump.

UPDATE: following a soft-launch in New Zealand, the app on February 27, 2015, finally went live in the US App Store.