Apps

Space Marshals review: the Wild West comes to outer space

Lory Gil ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

When I think of outer space and the Wild West, I think of Firefly. I love the idea of combining laser blasters and horses, or six-shooters and alien plant life. Some of my favorite science fiction movies are basically westerns set in a galaxy far, far away.

Space Marshals combines the two genres into one seamless top-down shooter. Grab your guns and hitch a ride on the space shuttle. Hang on to your hats, because this here is one blazing saddle (was that enough western referencing for you?). We’ve got a full review of Space Marshals for you today.

Sky Patrol is here, head off enemy attack with missiles and more

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

If you are in the mood for a strategic arcade shooter that takes place in the clear blue sky above, this is your lucky day. With a huge arsenal of weapons at your disposal, you’ll be the warden of the airwaves.

Sky Patrol is a combat shooter that put players in the cockpit of a highly weaponized warship. Your job is to escort transport crews across airspace that is heavily populated by enemies. Tap, swipe, and shoot your way to clear skies.

Apple releases revamped App Store category just for kids

Jake Smith ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

Apple has added a new category to its App Store, aimed just at children, the company's official App Store Twitter account announced on Saturday.

"Set children loose in wondrous worlds designed especially for them," the "Games for Kids" category description writes." From cute puzzlers to accessible tower-defense games, our selections are perfect for a wide range of skill levels and interests."

Rise & Shine alarm clock app makes you smile before it shuts up

Jake Smith ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

Rise & Shine is a new app, from the folks at Foley Productions, that has a creative way of getting you to wake up in the morning (or evening, depending on your schedule). We've seen apps where you have to shake the handset to make the alarm clock shut up, however Rise & Shine takes it a step further - you have to show it your pearly whites with a smile.

IGN names ‘Valiant Hearts: The Great War’ its Free Game of the Month

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 6, 2018

Great news gamers, IGN has named Ubisoft's 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' its Free Game of the Month for January. The game has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars in the App Store, from thousands of reviews, and it typically retails for $4.99.

For those unfamiliar with the title, Valiant Hearts is a popular puzzle adventure game that offers up an engaging storyline and unique mix of puzzle-explore-action gameplay. It first landed on consoles last summer, and then hit iOS in the fall.

Apps of the Week: Evernote Scannable, Gunbrick, CARROT Hunger, and more

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

This is the first week of 2015 that has finally put the App Store back on track. With the new launch slowdown officially over, we’ve got plenty of titles to check out.

If you’ve been waiting for things to get back to normal, too, we’ve got a list of apps and games that will give you something to write home about this weekend.

Piracy on iOS: 60% of Monument Valley installs on iPhone and iPad not paid for

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Even though this particular data point is a few days old now, I think it's highly relevant in light of Apple's glowing App Store stats revealed yesterday.

According to developer Ustwo Games, its award-winning and incredibly successful Monument Valley, an atmospheric puzzle game in which you manipulate impossible architecture inspired by the works of M.C. Escher, has seen a significant chunk of its potential revenue lost to piracy because only 40 percent of the $3.99 game installs on the iPhone and iPad were paid for.

The vast chunk of the remaining sixty percent iOS installs were illegitimate, or to put it bluntly — pirated. On Android, the paid install base is a paltry five percent (you read that right), as a huge hunk of the remaining 95 percent of users opted to steal Monument Vally on Android rather than pay four bucks to enjoy it.

Is the 60 percent piracy rate on iOS a worrying number for Monument Valley developers and a bad sign for Apple's mobile platform? Read on for the full reveal.

Burstio turns your burst photos into videos or animated GIFs

Sébastien Page ∙ January 9, 2015

Bustio is a new app released in the App Store that will turn your burst photos into animated GIFs or videos, which you can then save to your Camera Roll or share with others via several channels.

The concept is pretty simple. After taking a series of photos in burst mode with your iPhone camera, simply launch Burstio, and select the burst of photos you want to use. From there you have the option to adjust the playback speed from slow, to normal, to fast. Then hit the export button to convert the burst photos into an HD video or an animated GIF.

The Princess Bride gets official iOS game

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

The official mobile game of The Princess Bride, the 1987 classic fantasy adventure movie adapted from William Goldman's 1973 namesake novel, is now available in the App Store.

Featuring four different games, The Princess Bride lets you experience all the favorite scenes from the film. You'll be wrestling giants, engaging in sword fighting and more, earning awards along the way and unlocking images and sound clips from the movie.

Microsoft’s Office Sway for iPhone now available in US App Store and other countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

After soft-launching in the New Zealand App Store in November, Microsoft's Office Sway for iPhone is now available more broadly in a number of markets around the world, including in the U.S. App Store.

Office Sway is a free application that makes it easy to create attractive interactive presentation with images, captions, headers and styled text that can be viewed in a web browser on any desktop computer or mobile device.

In addition to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India, Sway is now available more broadly in a whole bunch of other English-speaking countries.

5by for iOS will serve up videos based on your mood

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

5by is an app on the iTunes App Store that will serve you with videos based on your mood. I've often done this through YouTube, where I'm in a really bad mood and will search for comedy videos to help brighten my spirits (I'm rarely mad, but it happens). 5by, also available on the web, will help expedite the process.

OneDrive gains Document Provider extension, Recycle Bin support, push alerts and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

Microsoft's iOS client for its cloud-storage service, OneDrive, has received a significant update Friday bringing out a Document Provider extension of its own. The Document Provider extension is one of the major new extensibility features in iOS 8. With Document Providers, developers can write apps which expose their custom remote or local storage functionality to the operating system.

What this means for OneDrive fans is that they can now access their files in other apps. To see how this works and learn more about other changes in OneDrive 4.6, jump past the fold.