This week, the App Store was given a treat. Fans of Microsoft’s productivity software can finally use a full-featured version of Office on the iPad. While this may be the biggest release ever for iOS users, they aren’t the only apps in the sea.
Whether you want to get some after-hours work done, or you would prefer to hone up on your poetry skills, we have a list of apps and games to keep you motivated this weekend…
Friday, music discovery engine Shazam has refreshed its iOS apps with some fine new features, starting with a brand new track page design and a new look and feel for video, album, track reviews, artist bios and other pages.
"Many" (but not all) song lyrics will now scroll in time with the music, a handy feature if you're singing along a song trying to remember the lyrics.
Shazam last December added the ability to listen for songs and television shows in the background, tagging them automatically.
Background listening can negatively impact your battery so you'll be delighted to learn that the new Shazam 7.5 apps are more power friendly "so you don’t need to worry about your battery life while it’s running."
Both the free, ad-supported Shazam and the paid Shazam Encore have been updated with these changes...
This whole “selfie” phenomenon has just got to go. How many people do you know with one of those top-down, slightly angled pictures of themselves used as their profile image for just about everything? The front-facing camera may have made it easier to snap pictures you are in, but they’ve turned everyone into self-centered paparazzi.
Camera Plus was recently updated to include support for the iPad, but that’s not the biggest news. You can use one device to take pictures with another using AirSnap. Now, those selfies won’t look so staged…
iBeacons, Apple's cool indoor positioning technology in iOS 7 based on power-sipping Bluetooth 4.0 networking, is seeing some strong adoption across a variety of industries.
Grocery stores are embracing the technology and retailers like Macy's and Apple's own retail stores have deployed tiny iBeacon transmitters to put useful information on users' Lock screens as they move around the store.
Theme parks, music festivals and sports venues are increasingly using iBeacons and one use case even involves giving bar patrons free access to Newsstand magazines.
The latest iBeacon implementation has to do with the classroom: a new BeHere app by a Brazilian company called Beelieve (free download) automatically takes attendance as students enter the classroom, using iBeacon transmitters...
If you visit a Microsoft Store today and bring your iPad with you, Microsoft may give you a free one-year subscription to Office 365, a $99 value.
Following yesterday's release of Office for iPad with native Excel, Word and PowerPoint applications, the Windows giant's retail stores are now promoting the apps by giving away a 1-year Office 365 subscription to the first 50 people who turn up at the door and bring in an iPad with them.
If you don't have the time to visit your nearby Microsoft Store or there's no store in your area, Amazon is now offering a discounted annual Office 365 subscription for $67...
Remember iCab Mobile, an excellent browser by German developer Alexander Clauss? It was one of the first third-party web browsers to grace the App Store back in 2010 and continues to be packed with advanced features you won't find in other iPhone browsers.
I'm talking about stuff like Dropbox integration, the ability to upload and download files, sync settings via iCloud, great implementation of tabbed browsing, full screen mode and configurable multi-touch gestures, to name a few.
Alexander has just announced eighth major iteration of iCab Mobile, now available for $1.99 in the App Store for the iPhone and iPad. Here's what's new and why you should care...
Yahoo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the web this week and it's been marking the occasion by refreshing its key products. Yesterday, the company pushed a new version of the Weather iOS app with new animations, pull-to-refresh for cover images and more.
Today, Yahoo's news-reading product with summarization technology got refreshed, too. News Digest version 1.1.1 is now available in the App Store, bringing with it background downloads of new content, new notification messages and more...
Clones of popular games are a common sight in the App Store. They're a way for not-so-creative developers to make a quick buck by riding the coattails of hit titles and trends—the recent flurry of Flappy Bird copycats is a great example of this phenomenon.
But while we had a good laugh at some of the ridiculous FB clones, like 'Flappy Beard Hipster Quest,' it's not so funny for developers. In fact, the creators of the hit game 'Threes' recently took to their blog to vent their frustration with the growing list of ripoffs...
As promised last month, Gameloft has released its highly anticipated title 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' for iOS. The game is a tie-in to the upcoming Marvel movie of the same name, and is now available for download on your iPhone or iPad.
The good news is this doesn't look like your typical tie-in. The graphics sort of resemble those found in Borderlands and other comic book-style games, and we're hearing that Marvel actually co-wrote the story. Keep reading for a complete overview...
Baseball fans will be happy to hear that MLB.com has updated its At the Ballpark iOS app this morning. The update brings the client to version 3.o, and features an all-new design for iOS 7 and support for Apple's new 'iBeacon' tech that will be available in select ballparks this year.
We've known for a while now that Major League Baseball was working with Apple on its geolocation technology, which its Advanced Media group demonstrated last fall. And the organization has said it hopes to roll out the feature to at least 20 parks ahead of 2014's Opening Day...
My dad fit into a category many would call “perfectionist.” His socks were neatly folded and color-coded. The hangers in his closet were always spaced exactly the same distance apart. He even scrubbed out the garbage cans on a weekly basis. Living up to his standard of perfection was hard. I guess that’s why I gave up and turned into a slob.
Perfection! (the game) is a fun puzzle title that is just as hard to be successful at as it is to live up to a perfectionist’s standards. Only, it is actually fun. You won’t have to clean the bottom corners of your closet with an old toothbrush or restack dishes that don’t sit properly in the cupboard. You just have to play the game. Perfectly…
The social networking giant, Facebook, has just updated its slick Messenger client for the iPhone and iPod touch with a pair of long overdue feature additions.
The first lets you forward a message to another person (even Apple's own Messages app supports this) and the other finally makes it possible to create groups for the people you message most, with custom group photo and name.
The new Facebook Messenger 4.0 is now live in the App Store so update your copy to check out contact groups and message forwarding for yourself...