Apps

Biggest yet Infinity Blade III ‘Ausar Rising’ update launching next Thursday

Chair Entertainment's Infinity Blade is an elegiac masterpiece, an iOS exclusive and a system seller that showcases what's possible on Apple's iOS platform better than any other game. Unbelievable console-quality graphics, great soundtrack and atmosphere, complex weapons and upgrade system with RPG elements to keep you coming back for more all contribute to it being one of the best iPhone and iPad games money can buy.

The original game recently went free, as did the second installment which normally costs $6.99 and was yesterday named IGN's Free Game of the Month. As for Infinity Blade III (a $6.99 download for the iPhone and iPad), the substantial Soul Hunter update from a month and a half ago brought us a bunch of new items and goals and an all-new quest that includes a new location and a new enemy, the Deathless Bloodmage.

But that was just warming up as Chair has announced that the upcoming Ausar Rising update will be even bigger. Due next week, the update will let you revisit the original Infinity Blade castle and explore the origins of the Infinity Blade protagonist.

More on that, plus a teaser video, right after the break...

Stephen Hawking’s Snapshots of the Universe released for iPad

Ebook and mobile app publisher Random House Digital has released an interesting iPad education app in the App Store. Stephen Hawking’s Snapshots of the Universe, suitable for children aged 9+, uses the work and writings of Stephen Hawking, the famous English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge, to teach students the basic theories of the movement of the stars and planets.

The astrophysicist apparently had a say in the app's design as he envisioned an app that would help explain the fundamentals of space to both adults and children through fun mini-games. The interactive experience is optimized for iOS 7 with clean and streamlined graphic elements.

Available sections cover the basics of our solar system and let you spin planets in orbit, drop objects with Galileo to learn about gravity, search for black holes in the constellation of Leo, discover Einstein’s warped worldview and G-force in outer space and lots more...

Evernote gains business card scanning, Presentation mode and other goodies

Evernote for iPhone and iPad has been updated with a new Presentation mode and another feature allowing users to scan business cards using an iDevice camera and import contact data as Evernote notes, with the ability to connect contact data to LinkedIn, Facebook and your Address Book for richer results, among other enhancements. Both business card scanning and Presentation mode capabilities are however available only to paid Evernote Premium customers.

The Presentation mode supports AirPlay or HDMI video out to present your Evernote notes to an audience and comes with a 14-day complementary preview for Free users...

Cut the Rope 2 debuts next Thursday, here’s you gameplay vid and launch info

Developer ZeptoLab, based out in Russia, has seen wild success following the release of its charming puzzler, Cut the Rope, [$0.99 for iPhone, $3.99 for iPad] in the App Store three years ago.

Originally an iPhone exclusive, the game has been ported to virtually every computing platform under the Sun since its October 2010 debut.

Thus far, these games have managed to racket up nearly half a billion downloads, passing 60 million active monthly users in the first half of 2013.

After posting a teaser trailer a month ago - and having subsequently announced that a Cut the Rope sequel will be ready in time for the holidays - ZeptoLab has now made known the official release date for Cut the Rope 2: next Thursday, December 19.

And in a repeat of 2010, the game is slated to debut as an iOS exclusive, featuring 120 levels, new characters and tweaked gameplay.

Want to hear the best bit?

We have all the details, videos and screenshots to wet your appetite, just a click away...

Remotely control your computer from your iOS device with Screens 3.0

Ever away from your desk, but need to access something on your desktop? What about copying something on your Mac and pasting it to your iPad? Thanks to a new updated version of Screens, Edovia dev team is making remote view a simple and easy task for any user.

Previously, remote viewing was a complicated task reserved for the super nerds and IT geeks. However, with the spawn of tablets, the common man is now capable of logging into remote desktop through simplified app clients. As I am frequently away from my desk traveling, I decided to take a closer look at Screens...

Instapaper goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Apple has named the popular read-it-later app Instapaper its App of the Week for this week. This means that through next Thursday, you'll be able to pick up the application for both your iPhone and iPad, for free—a savings of $4.

For those unfamiliar with the app, Instapaper bills itself as the simplest way to save and store articles for reading. You can save content on virtually any device, like a bookmark, and return to it later for reading at your convenience...

You can now control iTunes Radio via Remote app

After refreshing its free Remote app for the iPhone and iPad with some radical redesign to match the overall iOS 7 aesthetics, Apple has just put out a minor update adding a nicely done ability to control iTunes Radio from your iOS device.

But rather than stream iTunes Radio songs directly (and what would the point be in doing so knowing iTunes Radio is available within the stock iOS 7 Music app), the application simply controls the feature running in iTunes for Mac or Windows.

Previously, you could only control playback of music and other media kept locally in your iTunes library. If anything, this update will go down in history as a handy little enhancement that makes it ridiculously easy to control your iTunes Radio stations, skip songs and more, right across the room...

The Room Two is finally available in the App Store

In 2012, Fireproof Games made a puzzle game that wowed iPad users. The Room’s interactive Pandora’s Box style artwork and multi-level intricate puzzles were impressive, to say the least. Apple awarded it the Game of the Year in 2012. Fireproof Games promised more to the story.

Today, the game company came through with its promise and The Room Two is now available for the iPad in the App Store. It is just as impressive as its predecessor…

Twitter for Mac 3.0 is here with redesigned profiles, inline photo previews and more

The micro-blogging platform Twitter on Tuesday refreshed its free iPhone and iPad client with the simplified menu bar, improved search, tweaked design and the ability to send images in Direct Messages, the latter currently off limits to third-party clients such as Tweetbot or the completely redesigned Osfoora 2.

Today, Twitter's Mac counterpart has undergone a similarly substantial revision which includes a significant facelift and a few great new features, like image previews in timelines, detailed tweet view, revamped profiles and more.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

Dropbox app updated with support for viewing PDF annotations

Good news for Dropbox users this afternoon. The cloud storage company has posted an update for its iOS client, bringing the app to version 3.0.2. The update includes a number of bug fixes, as well as the ability to view PDF annotations.

For those unfamiliar with the term, PDF annotations are things like notes, highlights and other edits made to a PDF document. And until now, users were not able to see these edits in Dropbox without using a 3rd party app or workaround...

Sega releases remastered Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for iOS

This has been a big week for iOS games. Following the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Sega's anticipated, remastered Sonic the Hedgehog 2 update has landed in the App Store.

First announced in October, the free update sees the game rebuilt by Christian Whitehead and Simon Thomley— the same guys who did the first Sonic the Hedgehog iOS game remaster—with better graphics, FPS and much more...

IFTTT can now trigger actions based on your location

The increasingly popular iPhone automation app, IFTT, (stands for IF This Then That) has received a notable little update today which enables iOS Location Recipes, allowing you to build recipes that trigger various actions based on your device's GPS location.

The new iOS Location channel was created to allow apps and websites to use information from cellular, Wi-Fi and GPS networks, in addition to iBeacons, to determine your approximate location. This opens up some interesting and really useful possibilities.

For instance, you could program IFTTT to turn off lights when you get home, via the built-in support for the Philips Hue smart light bulb. Or, why not automate social announcements when you're at a not-to-be-missed party? And how about simply notifying your family about your whereabouts as you move about the day?