Apps

60Hz gets bumped to 3.0, arguably the best TV show tracker for the iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

60Hz is one of those apps that make it easy and fun to keep track of your favorite TV shows and movies. There's certainly no shortage of such software on the App Store as, for example, we previously told you about iTV Show 3, TeeVee 2, Done Not Done, ToDoMovies and a few others.

Like other apps, 60Hz notifies you when your favourite shows are playing and makes it easy to browse TV schedule, find out what others are saying about shows, episodes and movies and lots more.

Suneth and Dineth Mendis of M2D2Apps asked me to take a look at the latest 3.0 update for the iPhone and iPad and I was pleased with the overall changes and enhancements, despite minor UI inconsistencies and one nagging omission. Read on for the full breakdown...

Apps of the Week: Baldur’s Gate II, Command-C, Mega Jump 2 and more

Lory Gil ∙ Updated March 20, 2018

Well, we are into our third weekend in January and California still hasn’t seen any rainfall. Reports are coming in that we are on the verge of experiencing a drought. How does that song go. “It never rains in Southern California.” Tony! Toni! Toné! spoke the truth.

Whether you are drying out in California or freezing your fingers off in, well… everywhere else in the country, we’ve got a list of apps and games to distract you from the weather…

Shadow Blade review: who knew becoming a ninja would be so hard

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

Platform gaming is one of my favorite genres. I love the mindless simplicity. When console devices were just starting to make their way into living rooms across America, platform games were the most prevalent style. I guess they remind me of my childhood.

Shadow Blade is a basic platform game, only not. That is to say, it has all of the elements you would want in a platformer, but takes it to the next level by being difficult to beat and even tougher to get all the items. That blue hedgehog doesn’t know what hard is…

Spark Camera is Apple’s Free App Of The Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Today is Friday and you know what that means, no? That's right, every Friday a new app goes free in the App Store in Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promo.

Hopefully, you haven't forgotten about downloading PAC-MAN, last week's Free App of the Week. Those who missed it needn't despair as Apple's new freebie is definitely worth getting excited about.

Spark Camera, a cool iPhone photography app from Ideo (the design shop that created Apple’s first mouse) arrived last October. The program got Lory and the rest of the iDownloadBlog team drooling over its sharp, easy to use interface and great features aimed at creating gorgeous mini montages by stitching together your snippets of a moment in time.

Spark Camera is normally priced at $1.99, but you can now grab it free of charge until next Thursday, courtesy of Apple's Free App of the Week...

Google readying iOS remote desktop app unofficially named Chromoting

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Google officially started work on Chromoting, a remote access technology for its Chrome OS, some four years ago.

Later rechristened to Chrome Remote Desktop, the VNC technology resembles Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection software and is designed to allow folks to access virtual desktops.

An Android Chromoting app has been in the works since last year and now a blogger has discovered evidence in the form of support documentation on the Chromium issue tracker website which indicates that an iOS version is also under development.

Why should you care? Read on...

Following backlash, Starbucks beefs up security in iPhone app

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

You have to hand it to the folks of Starbucks. When they want to, they can move rather quickly. Hot on the heels of its blog post earlier today addressing security concerns regarding its iPhone app, the coffee company released an update this evening.

The change log for the update, which is marked as version 2.6.2, notes the new release brings 'additional performance enhancements and safeguards.' And we're hoping this means that the app no longer stores user passwords and data in plain text...

Messenger is just the tip of the iceberg: more Facebook apps coming soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 7, 2018

Excluding Instagram, the social networking giant Facebook currently counts five iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store: in addition to the main Facebook client and the recently revamped Messenger, there's also Pages Manager, Camera and Poke, the latter an ill-fated attempt to counter the rising popularity of "disappear" apps like Snapchat.

They're all available free of charge but only the main Facebook app and the new Messenger have managed to pick up steam.

Pages Manager is somewhat useful for those who manage Pages on Facebook, Camera was quickly forgotten and Poke was a joke to begin with. Not content with standing still, Facebook is seemingly reading a host of standalone native apps on mobile this year.

These apparently include a Flipboard-killer said to use summarization technologies to deliver a sharply focused news-reading experience, among a few others...

Imgur’s MemeGen app lets you make your own memes

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Last summer, Imgur released an official client for iOS, essentially putting all of the web's most popular memes in the palm of your hand. Now it's bringing the ability to create your own meme to that same hand, with MemeGen.

It looks like MemeGen has actually been in the App Store since late last year, but like others, we're just finding out about it today. At any rate, the app allows you to tap Imgur's vast photo library to create your own viral web pic...

Starbucks will update its iOS app to address security concerns

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Earlier today we told you about a report that raised security issues concerning the Starbucks iPhone app. A researcher discovered that the most used mobile-payment app in the US stores unencrypted user data like passwords and emails.

The problem with this is that by connecting your iPhone to a computer, someone could easily retrieve this info from a crash log—no jailbreak required. And the only way for Starbucks to fix the vulnerability is through an App Store update...

Gist 2.0: full Pocket integration, new summary view, Dynamic Text support and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Up until recently, it used to be that news junkies like yours trulls diligently put every conceivable news app on their Home screens in order to make sure they kept tabs on the latest news as it happened. As an unintended consequence (or was it?), this has led to information overload which in turn gave birth to apps like Yahoo's excellent News Digest (free in the App Store) and Gist by Michael Mamiye.

Both of these intelligently summarize news articles so you can consume key takeaways in the shortest amount of time.

Gist for iPhone, $1.99 in the App Store, is especially interesting due to its gorgeous and sharp user interface and a clever algorithm that can summarize most articles into approximately five bullet points - that's why the iDownloadBlog team put it on the list of 10 Best News Apps of 2013.

Following up on its mid-December debut, the developer this morning issued a major 2.0 update bringing out a host of goodies, such as a more robust implementation of the summarization technology, rich Pocket support and lots more...

Task-focused email app Mail Pilot hits Mac App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Available as a free public preview since December 3, 2013, Mindsense on Thursday released its Mail Pilot for public consumption in the Mac App Store, priced at $9.99 a pop. Originally a 2012 Kickstarter project, this email application for the Mac promises to change the game by being task instead of email-oriented. What does that mean?

Well, all your messages in Mail Pilot are action-based. For example, Mark as Unread becomes Complete/Incomplete, a message can have a reminder attached to it so you can get notified when it’s time to deal with it, you can Set Aside messages that you want to come back to later (great for Inbox Zero fanatics) and lots more.

This task-oriented approach allows for a more intuitive email that lets you get stuff done faster and get on with your life...