Apps

Google Wallet gets single sign-on, lets you add credit card via iDevice camera

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 4, 2013

Following a significant delay, the Internet giant Google finally released its free Wallet for iPhone app back in September 2013. But in bringing its troubled mobile payment service to Apple’s platform, Google left out some of the capabilities found in Wallet's Android counterpart, such as the ability to make in-store payments with the app (not surprising considering iPhones lack NFC). The company added a few new features via two recent updates and today the Wallet app has been refreshed with some new functionality.

For starters, you can now instantly sign on to Wallet if you use other iOS apps from Google. Google previously rolled out this rather useful feature to its popular iOS apps, allowing you to, say, just tap your Google Account already used in Chrome in order to log in to the Gmail iOS app.

Go past the fold for additional details...

Google working on Chrome apps support for Android and iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Google is reportedly preparing a beta release of a toolkit that will help developers create native Chrome apps for iOS and Android. The move is said to be a part of a bigger initiative to bring based Chrome packaged desktop apps to mobile platforms.

The news comes from a recently discovered GitHub repository called Mobile Chrome Apps, which was created by Google software developer Michal Mocny. A search on Google Groups confirms the project, which is slated to enter beta in Jan. 2014...

How to keep your MacBook awake while its lid is closed

Jeff Benjamin ∙ December 3, 2013

NoSleep is a handy menu bar utility that I use each and every day to keep my MacBook Air awake. It’s like speed for your Mac. Even with the lid on the MacBook closed, it stays awake.

The best thing about this utility is that it can be easily toggled on or off by means of a single click on its menu bar icon. NoSleep is a simple tool, yet it does feature a few options to customize the way it works. Have a look inside as I showcase NoSleep on video.

The 10 best photography apps of 2013

Lory Gil ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

The year is coming to a close. We’ve spent the past 52 weeks talking about jailbreaks, rumors, new products, gear, Apple news, and apps. Apps are my specialty around here. I find them, test them, and tell you all about them.

That’s why it is my job to tell you about apps and games that the writers of iDownloadBlog think are the cream of the crop for the entire year. For the rest of this year, and probably into 2014, we will have lists of our favorite apps in the most popular categories that released in 2013. This week, the category is photography…

Infuse iOS media player gets thorough iOS 7 makeover, now free

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

I'm a big fan of Infuse, a versatile iOS media player by jailbreak developers FireCore, the same team that brought you aTV Flash Black for the Apple TV. Why? Because consuming video in file formats that are foreign to iOS is high maintenance. I'm just reluctant to waste my precious time figuring it all out. Infuse elegantly takes the pain out of messing with the dull file conversion, syncing and hunting for subtitles and replaces that whole mind job with an enjoyable movie-watching experience.

Infuse supports 14 non-iOS video formats, features high-performance playback for 1080p content and has auto-download of cover art and other metadata from TheMovieDB and TheTVDB, with one-tap subtitle downloads from OpenSubtitles.org. It also implements the best AirPlay subtitle streaming I have ever seen on an iOS device, hands down. That Infuse supports multiple audio tracks/subtitles and integrates with trakt.tv to scrobble plays back to your account, submit ratings and post shouts doesn't hurt either.

As not everyone was down with Infuse costing five bucks, not many people got a chance to enjoy Infuse goodies. Not anymore. Starting today, Infuse 2 for iPhone and iPad is free in the App Store, with advanced features available as an in-app purchase upgrade. Infuse used to rely heavily on skeuomorphism so I was curious to see how developers would transition its graphics-heavy interface to clean iOS 7 aesthetics...

Keep your menu bar clutter-free with Bartender

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2023

Bartender is a Mac app that helps users declutter their menu bar by allowing them to easily hide, rearrange, and manage menu bar icons according to their preferences.

Readdle rolls out PDF Expert 5 with iCloud, shared folders, new Review mode and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 3, 2013

The Ukraine-based app maker Readdle today released a big update to its PDF management app, PDF Expert for iPad. The software makes reading, annotating or editing PDF documents on your iPad a snap, with advanced capabilities like highlighting and handwriting support, the ability to sign your PDFs digitally (useful for contracts and other legal documents), insert text and stamps and more.

PDF Expert can even merge multiple PDF documents into one so it's much like the OS X Preview app feature-wise.

The fifth major iteration offers such enhancements as the new shared-folder capability, AirDrop sharing, a revamped file manager, iCloud storage and sync for your PDFs and lots more. The full breakdown is after the break...

Ember, digital scrapbook Mac app, is now available for iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

In keeping with its promise to bring Ember to iOS in December, Realmac today released the iPhone and iPad version as a free download in the App Store. Basically a companion for Realmac's Ember for Mac, the iOS app features iCloud sync, photo collections with advanced natural language search, the handy ability to automatically sort screenshots imported from your iOS Camera Roll into Phone and Tablet collections, sharing via Mail, AirDrop, Messages, Twitter and Facebook, and lots more.

Jump past the fold for the full breakdown...

FileMaker Pro 2013 released with deeper iOS integration, web-based data entry and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Following a website leak yesterday, Apple subsidiary FileMaker, formerly Claris, today announced a brand new version of its namesake cross-platform relational database application for Mac and Windows PCs. FileMaker Pro 13 comes with more than fifty new features and a new pricing scheme.

The new features include stronger AES 256-bit data encryption, additional tools inside companion iOS apps that support one-step creation of iPhone and iPad database layouts, a brand new HTML5-based support for easy data entry using any standards-compliant web browser such as Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome and much, much more...

Get inspired to take photographs with OKDOTHIS

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

It happens to everyone. You’ve got your fancy DSLR camera and a brand new lens that you’ve only used once. It sits by the front door, waiting for you to take it with you the next time you head out for a walk, but it seems like the only time you take pictures anymore is when you go on vacation.

OKDOTHIS is a photography app that inspires you to go out and take pictures that are outside of the box. It is not just for DSLR enthusiasts either. If you enjoy iPhone photography, this app could inspire you as well…

WhatsApp iOS 7 update is out with new design, broadcast lists and more

Cody Lee ∙ December 2, 2013

The highly anticipated iOS 7 update for WhatsApp finally landed in the App Store this afternoon. The update brings the iOS client for the popular messaging service to version 2.11.5, and includes an all new design, new features and various improvements.

One of the big new features in 2.11.5 is called broadcasts lists, and it allows you to send messages to many people simultaneously. So say for instance you have a list of your classmates or work colleagues, you can message them all at once instead of individually...