Apps

Zynga releases ‘New Words With Friends’ with new design and features

Celebrating its 5-year anniversary, Zynga has released a revamped version of its hit word game called 'New Words With Friends.' It's an all-new app, but users won't be forced to upgrade, and those who do will not see any kind of interruption in their gameplay.

The game is essentially a sleeker, more robust version of the massive hit that first debuted in 2009. There are some definite design changes here, with flatter UI elements and more streamlined menus, and a host of new features including a new offline solo mode.

Skype for Mac 7.0 now available with revamped chat experience

Microsoft on Thursday issued a major new update to Skype for Mac alongside a new preview for Windows desktop. Available as a free download, Skype for Mac 7.0 brings out mobile-inspired look with a revamped chat experience, ahead of OS X Yosemite release later this month.

The richer chat experience allows you to chat and call simultaneously with one click and keep the conversation going across devices.

You'll also appreciate improvements to the free group video calling feature and the fact that the overall appearance of the app fits right in with OS X Yosemite.

Weebly releases website-creation app for iPad

To think they used to say that one couldn't do real work or create content on the iPad... Enter Weebly for iPad, a native application by the popular web-hosting service which allows users to create websites in minutes by dragging and dropping various elements in its web interface.

Although it's been available on iOS since May 2012, Weebly was iPhone-only until todays update which has brought out native iPad interface with full editing capabilities, unlike the iPhone and iPod touch version.

Weebly is available free of charge in the App Store.

Spirits of Spring is a story-driven game with deep, emotional value

Mindless video games where players shoot at everything in sight and don’t look back are loads of fun, but games that have a subtle message can be just as fun if they are done right.

Spirits of Spring is an adventure game that explores the notion of loyalty, friendship, and understanding. It also points out just how terrible bullying can be and how it affects victims. We’ve got a game review of Spirits of Spring for you today.

Card Dungeon takes the “digital” out of digital board games

I am a card-carrying (pun intended) member of the board gaming community. I love a good, old-fashioned hours-long tabletop adventure with three to five of my closest friends. That’s why, any time I see a board game app, I jump at the chance to check it out and pass my experience onto you.

Card Dungeon is a basic dungeon crawl tabletop style board game that reverts back to the two-dimensional token look while still making a roguelike adventure that is fun for fans of the genre. We’ve got a full game review of Card Dungeon for you today.

Reckless Racing 3 now available in the App Store

Great news Reckless Racing fans, the third iteration of Pixelbite's popular top-down racer is now available on iOS. You can pick up the new game, which is universal, so it'll work with both your iPhone and iPad, for $4.99 from the App Store.

The original Reckless Racing debuted in 2010, as a delightful birds-eye-view rally racing game with beautiful graphics. Reckless Racing 3 continues that tradition with dirtier tracks, better visuals, and its largest selection of cars and trucks ever.

You can now protect your OneDrive with Touch ID

Windows and Office maker Microsoft on Wednesday pushed a small but important update to OneDrive, its cloud storage client for the iPhone and iPad. The refreshed application enables users to lock content in the app using Touch ID-based fingerprint verification on the iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The new OneDrive 4.5.1, a free 12.7-megabyte download from the App Store, also takes full advantage of the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,  lets you sort files and folders and includes bug fixes and stability improvements.

Updated for iPhone 6: Pocket, PDF Expert 5, Calendars 5, Scanner Pro and Printer Pro

Readdle's stable of iOS productivity apps — PDF Expert 5, Calendars 5, Printer Pro and Scanner Pro — along with Pocket's read-it-later iOS app — have received their respective updates Wednesday enabling native support for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus display sizes.

PDF Expert's support for the new iPhone screen sizes arrives ten days after its developer, Ukraine-based Readdle, issued an update turning on iCloud Drive storage support and Touch ID fingerprint-based authentication.

In addition to an optimized layout for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus, Pocket 5.6.1 includes performance improvements and a fix for the Instant Sync push feature on iOS 8 devices. More than twelve million people use Pocket to easily save articles, videos and other piece of content for consumption later.

The app also has an awesome iOS 8 Extension so you can send content to Pocket in any iPhone and iPad application which uses Apple's multi-purpose Share sheet, including Safari.

This silly keyboard lets you type using funky fonts

100 Fonts Keyboard for iOS 8 is not a new app but I just came across it earlier today while browsing the App Store. While it certainly isn't groundbreaking, I found it to be different from the other keyboards we had seen so far so I thought I'd share it with you. Before we even get started, let's clear things up. Unlike the name suggests, this app doesn't offer 100 different fonts as I counted only about 30 of them. Still, that is quite the selection.

Google rolls out News & Weather iOS app

Google began the rollout of its latest iOS app, News & Weather, Tuesday afternoon in the App Store. The newest in Google's collection of 43 apps on iOS, News & Weather displays news headlines on a variety of topics and features a detailed weather forecast view for cities of your choice.

News & Weather, which is rolling out in multiple countries, packs quite a large amount of customization in the way of personalized content, and users' settings appear to sync with their Google account. Until now, this app was only available to owners of Android devices.

Google Chrome gains iPhone 6 support, ability to download and open files in Google Drive

The Internet giant Google on Tuesday issued a small update to its Chrome for iOS browser, adding better support for the “Retina HD” iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens.

The free download also enables another interesting feature — the ability to download and open files directly in the Google Drive application, if installed on your device. Finally, this release includes customary bug fixes and stability improvements.

Google Chrome is available free in the App Store.

Square refreshes Cash for iPhone with Bluetooth money transfer ability

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's mobile payments startup, Square, on Tuesday issued a nice update to its free Cash for iPhone software which now allows you to transfer money via short-range Bluetooth networking using a new “Nearby Payments” feature.

This is in addition to the ability to send money via text message, email or mobile phone numbers (for free), a feature the startup added to the Cash app in late-August 2014. This release of Cash also features the ability to quickly approve or decline money requests with actionable push notifications and contains other improvements and bug fixes.

Square Cash is a free download from the App Store.