Apps

Microsoft releases MSN-branded News, Money, Sports, Health & Fitness and Food & Drink apps

Microsoft on Thursday released five new applications for the iPhone and iPad. Available free of charge in the App Store, the News, Money, Sports, Health & Fitness and Food & Drink apps have been created under the MSN brand.

As a bonus, a Weather app from MSN will be hitting iOS later this year. It's interesting that the MSN Health app syncs its data with iOS 8's Health database.

It has pedometer functions to continuously track, analyze and receive insights on your daily steps taken on the iPhone and tracks your runs (record your time, distance, pace and calories burned while you run, bike and do other outdoor activities).

Additionally, the app contains a Diet tracker (there's a database of over 300 thousand to track your daily calorie intake) and a Cardio tracker to monitor your cardio training and analyze progress over time.

Jump past the fold for the full rundown of each app.

Braveland Wizard review: a turn-based strategy game where magic is king

In March, a fun turn-based strategy game called Braveland found its way into the App Store and my heart. I recall enjoying the illustrated fighters and the simplistic game mechanics. In that world, your hero is a warrior, fighting for his people. Braveland is back, but with a new hero, a new landscape, and new enemies to destroy.

Braveland Wizard is the sequel. In it, players control a newly graduated wizard who is on a mission to find out who stole the book that is used to complete a wizard’s final test. While much of the mechanics are the same, this new title offers plenty of additional gameplay features. We’ve got a hands-on game review of Braveland Wizard for you today.

App Recap: discounts, new apps to enjoy mid-week

Welcome to Wednesday. As we prepare for an onslaught of new arrivals that will be hitting the App Store midnight, a number of apps and games have been updated with new features and we're here to tell you what's changed.

We also want to make sure you stay on top of recent discounts as some apps get slashed by as much as eighty percent with the others going all the way down to zero bucks.

And it wouldn't be a roundup without taking a look at some of the forthcoming releases due later this month or sometime next year. This is App Recap, an app-focused column by iDownloadBlog.

Readdle launches PDF Office, a new productivity suite with subscription model

Ukrainian developer Readdle today added a new flagship application to its stable of productivity software for the iPad, PDF Office. The all-in-one mobile solution is suited for demanding users who need to produce PDF files on the go, from scratch, or edit existing documents using a bunch of powerful editing and annotation tools.

With PDF Office, you can create new PDFs, jot down notes, scan documents using your iPad's camera, create and fill out forms, convert any file, picture or even a website into a PDF document, annotate and sign PDFs, collaborate on documents and more — all in the name of going completely paperless.

Based on a subscription model, PDF Office is available free of charge with subscriptions starting at $5 per month (annual subscription will cost you $40).

My Phrases Keyboard lets you send canned replies in a tap

You may think you are fast at texting, but what if you could type an entire message with just one tap? Imagine how fast you could respond to those questions of where to go for dinner or what time the party starts. You wouldn't even miss a beat in that heartfelt conversation you are having with your friend.

My Phrase Keyboard is a third-party keyboard app for iOS 8 that makes it possible for you to send canned replies with one tap instead of trying to write a message while your buddy is pouring his heart out to you. You won't have to pretend to go to the bathroom in order to respond to a text anymore.

HERE Maps coming to iPhone in early 2015

HERE Maps had been available in the App Store briefly before it got pulled in December 2013 because “iOS 7 ruined the experience”. Nokia later admitted the app was “a rushed product” that “went horribly wrong” because it was “never thoroughly proven.”

The Finnish firm has now officially confirmed that HERE Maps will return to the iPhone in early 2015 following today's release of HERE for Android and a relaunch of a new web-based experience over at here.com.

“Our iOS app development team is working hard on this and we plan to officially launch HERE for iOS in early 2015,” said the team. The revamped iOS navigation app will be joining several big-name mapping products in the App Store from the likes of Google, Garmin, TomTom and many more.

Facebook confirms Trending coming to iPhone soon, now available on the web and Android

Wednesday, the social networking giant Facebook announced that Trending is coming to iOS soon, with the Android app getting the feature today. Announced in January, the feature lets you discover timely and relevant conversations happening in the world in the form of stories from different sources.

The feature groups together only public posts and those that you are in the audience for such as updates from friends or groups that you belong to.

IBM and Apple launch first batch of enterprise ‘IBM MobileFirst’ iPhone and iPad apps

Following their major enterprise mobility partnership which was announced this summer, Apple and IBM this morning launched the first batch of MobileFirst apps for enterprise iOS users. The new suite of business-focused apps are available exclusively for the iPhone and iPad starting today and include apps for insurance, retail, telecom, government, travel, transportation, banking and more.

eBay revamps iPad app with exclusive deals on Apple accessories

The popular e-commerce service eBay on Tuesday launched its updated iPad client with a redesigned interface and exclusive deals on Apple accessories.

The 52.2-megabyte download improves your buying and selling functionality with the native tablet interface featuring bigger product images, better item suggestions, tabbed navigation, swiping, smarter search results, a brand new Today homepage and more.

Designed to put your products at the forefront and create an engaging shopping experience for buyers, the refreshed experience is aimed at “giving sellers the best platform to showcase their products and make it effortless for buyers to discover and engage with their inventory,” as per RJ Pittman, chief product officer at eBay.

With new Password Changer feature, Dashlane can change all your passwords at once

Password manager Dashlane introduced today Password Changer, a new feature that allows you to change all your passwords at once, including accounts secured by two-factor authentication. Powered by Dashlane's recent acquisition of startup PassOmatic came up with the core technology, the feature, that is just entering beta, currently works with about 70 different websites, including Apple, Amazon, Twitter, Facebook, but will open up to more sites in the future.

Facebook launches Graph Search on iPhone

Facebook on Monday confirmed that it's at last gearing up to launch Graph Search in its mobile application for the iPhone and iPad this week following what has turned to be an incredibly extensive period of testing.

Tapping Facebook's vast database, Graph Search uses natural language queries to surface content information from within a user's network of friends that would be impractical or impossible using the standard and fairly limited search feature.

Another way to describe Open Graph: this tremendously powerful tool makes it easy and fun to explore the world through the eyes of your friends.