Apps

Screen recording app xRec hits App Store, works on non-jailbroken devices

Capturing a video of whatever is on the screen of your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad in real-time normally requires a jailbroken device and one of useful Cydia apps such as ScreenRecorder or Display Recorder by Ryan Petrich.

Official App Store solutions are unfortunately far and few between. And even when such an app does slip past the App Store approval team, it's only briefly.

Tapping iOS video recording APIs, xRec by developer Akın Öğünç lets you easily capture contents of your iDevice's screen, without having to jailbreak or cheat by hooking up your device to a computer to use a desktop screen capture software instead...

Apple Store app to be redesigned with free iTunes content in iPhone sales push

Apple will release a new version of its Apple Store application for the iPhone and iPod touch next week, according to a new report. The update will include a redesigned interface and a handful of new features, including free downloadable iTunes content.

The move is said to be part of Tim Cook's goal to sell more iPhones direct from Apple's direct sales channels. Apparently, the plan is to get the app installed on as many device's as possible so that more people are exposed to the company's choice products...

Apps of the week: Spendee, Sky Gamblers, Morning, and more…

Who’s headed for Comic-Con this weekend? If you are one of the tens of thousands of geeks, nerds, and pop culture fanatics that will be invading the tranquil metropolis of San Diego over the next few days, you may need some apps to keep you occupied.

If you are looking for a calendar app to help keep track of the Comic-Con schedule or a game to pass the time while you wait in line for hours and hours, we’ve got a list of apps that will help get you through the weekend…

Apple comments on two day-long developer center outage

If you've tried logging in to Apple's dev center over the past few days, but were unsuccessful, you weren't alone. The portal, which is where the company stores downloads, documentation and other resources for developers, has been down for 48 hours.

This isn't your typical 'maintenance' downtime, as those only usually last a couple of minutes—or at worst, a few hours. And as you can imagine, developers are starting to get frustrated with the service, which Apple charges a $99 subscription fee for...

Realmac teases Ember, a digital scrapbook for your Mac

Realmac Software, the guys who brought you the popular Clear multitouch to-do app for the iPhone and the delightful Analog Camera for iOS, to name just two, is working on a brand new Mac application that wants to become your ultimate digital scrapbook.

Called Ember, it appeases to designers who are desperate to “save, organize, annotate, and share” their work, but it can also be used by ordinary users who are looking to manage their projects and present them as media-rich scrapbooks...

Rovio’s game-syncing ‘Account’ now available worldwide on iOS

Back in May, Rovio began rolling out ‘Account,’ a cloud-based service that allows users to save their progress in games across various devices. And today, the Finnish game-maker announced that it's now available to all iOS and Android users worldwide.

As before, Accounts is currently only available for gamers of the Croods and the original Angry Birds title, but the company says that it is intent on expanding it to other Angry Birds and non Angry Birds titles soon. More on the announcement after the fold...

Evernote updated with shortcuts, Skitch integration and more

Popular note-taking and all around productivity app Evernote has posted a solid update for its iOS client today. The update brings the app to version 5.4 and brings about a number of new features including shortcuts, Skitch Integration, and more.

For folks unfamiliar with Skitch, it's a screenshot editing and sharing utility for both iOS and Mac that allows users to add shapes and text to an image, and then share it online. And with today's update, users can access the app from within Evernote...

Official ‘Firefly’ game coming to iOS next year

Fans of FireFly, the cult television series by Joss Whedon, will be happy to hear that an officially licensed social online role-playing game in will be coming to iOS and Android devices next year. Fox Digital Entertainment made the announcement today at the San Diego Comic Con event, and released this trailer...

Flurry: average iPhone app costs 19 cents, 50 cents for iPad

When it comes to apps, free is best. New research finds consumers are willing to accept ads in their apps to avoid paying for their favorite iOS or Android apps. According to Flurry, the number of free apps available in the App Store and Google's Play store continues to rise.

Matter of fact, the trend toward free apps has grown to comprise 90 percent of applications in Apple's App Store. The overwhelming vote for free means the average iPhone app cost nineteen cents, with iPad apps averaging fifty cents.

For Android apps, the fascination with free is even greater, driving the average cost of apps using Google's mobile software down to just six cents...

VLC media player makes a comeback, following a 2-year App Store hiatus

Following a range of issues with copyright holders that had forced the team to pull it from the App Store some two years ago, the popular video player VLC has returned to Apple's platform as a brand new iPhone and iPad app.

Re-written from the ground up to take advantage of modern technologies, the new VLC brings with it a refined user interface that's reminiscent of the original release and features such as subtitles and support for multi-core decoding and a bunch of iOS-unfriendly media formats, including .mkv files.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

NYT spells out Apple’s living room strategy

Apple's plans for the living room have rested largely on the Apple TV the company's leadership continues to call "a hobby project." While there's been talk that the tech giant could unveil its own television set, rumors of revamping the television experience have been greeted with industry concern and fruitless negotiations.

However, now comes word Apple wants to be friends with Time Warner, Disney and other content producers - and along the way improve some of the worst aspects of current television viewing.

One result of the partnerships is an upcoming Time Warner Cable Apple TV app that would turn Apple's $99 set-top box into a channel guide for live and on-demand programming much superior to the clunky software now offered by the distributor...

Some of the best board game apps for iOS

If you’ve read some of my previous reviews, you’ll know that I am a huge fan of board games. The more complex and challenging, the more I like it. I love punching out 100 different little cardboard tokens. I like the sound of two six-sided dice clicking together in my hand.

This week, I’ve made a list of some great board game apps that are based specifically on real-life games that I’ve played. It is by no means a full list of the best board game apps out there, but it features games that I’ve tested in both digital and cardboard environments…