Apps

EA confirms SimCity BuildIt coming to iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 11, 2014

Electronic Arts, the world's top games publisher, announced yesterday that it's readying SimCity BuildIt, the latest installment in the popular city-building franchise, for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Once again, the game will task you with building a city of your dreams, with the choices you make evolving your city in a variety of ways.

“Meet your citizens’ needs to keep them happy, or make questionable choices and feel your citizens’ wrath,” the company wrote. Pricing and availability information will be publicized in due time.

Viber rolls out video calling

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 11, 2014

Viber, the once promising VoIP service, on Thursday introduced video calling across its mobile apps for the iOS and Android platforms.

Now available in the App Store as a free download, the new Viber 5.0 lets you place or receive video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular networks to your Viber contacts who use the service on their smartphones or desktop.

This release also includes enhancements to stickers, improvements for adding friends, better media forwarding and more.

Google Voice finally updated for iOS 7 look and VoIP-to-phones integration in Hangouts

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 10, 2014

Almost a year following the public release of iOS 7, Google Voice has finally been refreshed with the revamped user interface to match Apple's guidelines for iOS 7 development.

Now available in the App Store, Google Voice 1.6 also brings support for Google Voice integration in Hangouts and the obligatory bug fixes and performance improvements.

Earlier this morning, the search company issued an update to Hangouts for the iPhone and iPad which enabled free and low-cost VoIP calling to your Hangouts friends and mobile/landline numbers around the world.

You can now make voice calls from Hangouts app

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 10, 2014

As suspected, the Internet giant Google on Wednesday has finally gotten around refreshing its free of charge Hangouts mobile application for the iPhone and iPad with the ability to make phone calls to anyone on your Hangouts contact list, using the new voice-calling feature.

As part of its staggered shuttering of the Voice app, “starting today you can make voice calls from Hangouts on Android, iOS and the web,” wrote the search giant in a post over at the Official Google Blog.

Calling landline and mobile phone numbers in the United States and Canada is free, with the international calling rates starting at a ridiculously low one cent per minute.

Spotify gains support for Ford SYNC AppLink

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 10, 2014

Spotify, the popular Swedish music-streaming startup, on Wednesday refreshed its free iPhone and iPad application with improved music discovery and support for the Ford SYNC AppLink platform.

When browsing albums in Spotify for the iPhone and iPod touch, you can now easily check out more releases from the artist in one tap.

More importantly, owners of Ford vehicles outfitted with the car maker's proprietary SYNC AppLink platform can now use Spotify in their car.

iPhone time-tracking app Hours to be available for Apple Watch ‘on day one’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Apple Design Award winner Tapity announced that its popular time-tracking application, Hours for iPhone, will be available for the new Apple Watch “on day one”. While telling time is the core function of any watch, time tracking could easily become the killer feature of Apple's device.

Designed to take the pain out of time tracking by visualizing how you spend your precious time, Hours for iPhone debuted in mid-July and we immediately fell in love with it.

"The Apple Watch will be a game-changed for tracking time with Hours," developer Jeremy Olson tells me.

Apple Pay could be big source of revenue by collecting fees from banks

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Apple Pay, the Cupertino-based company's new mobile payment service announced on Tuesday, could prove to be a big source of revenue for the company during a time when music and app downloads are slowing. Bloomberg reports Apple will collect fees from banks when iPhone 6 and Apple Watch users make a purchase. Fees will be charged for every single transaction, though the fee hasn't been detailed.

Google adds offline support, accessibility improvements to Play Movies & TV for iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Google has just updated its Play Movies & TV client for the iPhone and iPad with offline support, accessibility improvements and bug fixes, the Internet giant announced in a Google+ post Monday morning.

“With Google Play’s updated iOS Play Movies & TV app, you can download movies and TV shows then take them with you wherever you go, no Internet connection required,” reads the post.

Released this January, the free application (which now sits at version 1.2) continues to lack the ability to purchase movies and television shows on Google Play due to Apple's rules for iOS development.

WhatsApp updated with a slew of new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 8, 2014

Facebook-owned WhatsApp this morning received a substantial update, bringing out a slew of new features to the popular messaging and soon-to-be VoIP platform.

Available as a free download for the iPhone, the new WhatsApp version 2.11.9 now makes it a lot easier to capture and send photos with a new fast camera access button in the interface.

Moreover, the refreshed software lets you archive chats and groups, add captions to media and share iPhone 5s-only Slow-Mo videos at 120 frames per second while introducing new location-sharing features, wallpapers, notification tones, media auto-download preferences in settings and more.

Spotify promises 30 minutes of uninterrupted music if you sit through 13-30 second video ad breaks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Spotify, the popular music-streaming service with 40 million strong user base, on Monday announced a new way to stream music for free.

Leveraging its video ads for mobile and desktop that have been in limited testing since mid-June and are now rolling out, free Spotify streamers who opt-in to view short 15-30 second videos on their device will receive 30 minutes' worth of uninterrupted, ad-free music. Spotify, which hails from Sweden, opened its mobile service to non-paying users in December.

Twitter testing upcoming Buy button

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, on Monday said it started testing a new Buy button with a small percentage of its users in the United States.

The company said the feature, which allows users to buy products directly from the tweet, is part of a broader effort to make shopping from mobile devices “convenient and easy, hopefully even fun”.

Launch partners include Fancy, Gumroad, Musictoday, Stripe and many more. Users will get access to offers and merchandise “they can’t get anywhere else,” with the ability to buy stuff directly in Twitter's mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Some apps on 5.5-inch iPhone 6 could switch to iPad layout in landscape

Timothy Reavis ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

In a series of tweets, iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith shared his findings surrounding Apple's iOS Simulator running stock apps at the screen size of the purported 5.5-inch iPhone 6, with dimensions of 736 points x 414 points (1472 x 828 at 2x or 2208 x 1242 at 3x). When viewed in landscape, certain default iOS 8 apps, including Calendar, Contacts, and Game Center, display contents in a divided mode very similar to the layout an iPad uses while in landscape.

These findings indicate that the larger, 5.5-inch iPhone 6 could have a stronger focus on productivity than its smaller 4.7- and 4-inch counterparts. Despite apps functioning normally while in portrait mode, this addition of dividing the landscape app view to display two separate menus would introduce a strong motivation for purchasing the 5.5-inch device over its more manageable companion.