Apps

Instagram is down, it’s not just you! [update: it’s back]

If you've noticed that Instagram isn't working properly this afternoon, it's not just you. Several users have taken to Twitter to complain that the popular image-sharing service is down, and a few of us here at iDB have confirmed the outage.

While parts of the app are still working for some folks, it seems that the Explore tab isn't loading for most users, and many are having issues getting their personal feeds to load. We're also seeing '503 Service Unavailable' in the News tab.

Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has named Icebreaker: A Viking Voyage it's App of the Week for this week. This means that from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to pick up the popular game for both iPhone and iPad for free—a decent savings of $1.

For those who aren't familiar with the game, it was created by Angry Birds hit-maker Rovio Entertainment and Nitrome. It's essentially a Cut The Rope-style physics-based puzzler, which has you rescuing vikings from blocks of ice.

Notability finally arrives to the Mac

Notability by Ginger Labs, the powerful iPhone and iPad note-taker to annotate documents, record lectures, sketch illustrations and more, has leaped to the Mac.

Now available in the Mac App Store for $9.99, the Mac edition completes the experience by extending functionality found in the iOS app to your desktop.

The app makes it easy to create notes by dragging PDFs, photos or audio files from your desktop to Notability.

Handwriting and sketches can be scaled, transformed, rotated, nudged and restyled to your liking. Most crucially, your notes will look the same on your Mac, iPad and iPhone and of course sync seamlessly between devices through iCloud.

Minuum previews its height-changing keyboard for iOS 8

Popular Android keyboard developer Minuum has finally previewed its keyboard coming to iOS 8 this fall. It's not like other third-party keyboards we've seen thus far, instead, it transforms from a standard full-scale QWERTY keyboard with autocorrect and then fades away to take up only half of your visible screen.

CloudApp for Mac updated with quick screen recording, Google App support

The folks behind CloudApp released a big update for the service on Thursday, making it easier for users and companies to quickly share links, photo, texts and more from a Mac. The update is being labeled version 3.0, and brings CloudApp Motion, CloudApp for Teams, updated Pro plans, Google Apps support, and an embedded video and audio player into the mix. 

IMDb pulls ‘On DVD/Blu-ray’ pages and external links, adds showtimes refinements

IMDb, an Amazon-owned online database of information related to films, television programs and video games, has a nice iPhone and iPad app. As of today, it's become a tad more useful while also retiring a pair of handy features.

Now bumped to version 4.4, the refreshed software makes a few unexpected changes to the experience. First up, the 'On DVD/Blu-ray' pages have been removed completely because the data source the app was using "wasn’t up to snuff".

Moreover, outgoing IMDb.com links from the app's title and name pages have fallen victim of Apple's app submission guidelines and will be no longer available within the app going forward.

Other changes in this version are outlined after the break.

Quora releases iPad app, introduces rich-text editor and revamped look

Quora this morning refreshed its useful iPhone app with some new features while revamping its look and adding the native iPad interface to the experience.

Previously an iPhone and iPod touch only affair, the new Quora 4.0, available free in the App Store, is at last a universal binary so it supports natively any iPhone, iPod touch and iPad compatible with iOS 7.0 or later.

Quora, for those unfamiliar with it, is a popular question-and-answer website where folks submit questions on a wide range of topics and get answers from like-minded users.

No going back: Walking Dead: The Game — Season 2 finale now available

Nearly nine months following its December 2013 debut, The Walking Dead: The Game — Season 2 by Telltale Games has reached its gripping conclusion with the release of the final chapter in the five-episode series.

It's titled “No Going Back” and available right now as a $4.99 In-App Purchase within the Walking Dead game, itself priced at $4.99.

For those unfamiliar with Walking Dead: The Game, it's based on the namesake comic book series by the Eisner Award-winning writer Robert Kirkman. The iOS title follows the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse.

The penultimate episode titled “Amid the Ruins” became available a month ago, introducing new twists to the story of Clementine (with a cliffhanger ending).

Latest Wunderlist update enhances mobile editing of your to-dos and tasks

Wunderlist, the beautiful cross-platform to-do and task list application by German developer 6Wunderkinder, has received its second update following the release of the major version 3.0 edition which brought out an overhauled appearance and more than sixty new features.

Today's update focuses on mobile editing of your items. Wunderlist 3.0.2, which is free in the App Store and Mac App Store, now finally allows iPhone, iPod touch and iPhone owners to move, complete and delete multiple items on the go.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal.

Xbox One SmartGlass app now lets you record game clips and more

Less than two weeks following an update which has enabled Xbox One owners to install games on their console remotely, using their iOS device, the Windows giant Microsoft today pushed another update adding nearly a dozen cool new features.

For starters, the free iPhone and iPad application now allows you to record game clips remotely, too.

And in a series of social improvements, the app now lets players share and post activity feed items and post status updates to their activity feed, as well as browse through their activity feed directly on their profile page.

Pentumble is a multi-directional platformer with a sticky challenge

When I think of platform games, I usually imagine a side-scrolling landscape with a character that can run, jump, and maybe spit fireballs. I don’t imagine a character that can walk up, around, or under any flat surface without effort.

That’s what Pentumble is all about. This little orb has sticky feet all around, allowing it to roll onto any surface, even underneath, without risk of losing its grip. It does however risk getting smashed to bits on spiked gears. We’ve got a hands-on game review of Pentumble for you today.

One button is all you need to play Deep Under the Sky

There are thousands of physics-based games in the App Store. Some of them require skills in spatial reasoning. Others challenge your ability to aim and shoot. There are so many of them that it is difficult to find something unique in the genre anymore.

Deep Under the Sky is a physics-based game that requires you to estimate the arc of a moving object and redirect it using one button with limited actions. It successfully fits into traditional games in the genre, while offering unique gameplay through exploring new methods…