Apps

Infographic: four days without apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2017

Mobile apps have in no time become a true addiction in our smartphone-obssesed society. We use them day in and day out - to the point where we can't imagine our lives without those lickable Home screen icons. As Apple gave each user five premium apps and games for free as part of the App Store's fifth anniversary, eBay too celebrated the occasion by conducting an informal survey that challenged 200 iPhone owners with surviving four days without their favorite apps...

MLB.com At Bat iOS app refreshed ahead of All-Star Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 11, 2013

As New York preps to take the center stage for the upcoming All-Star Week, the Major League Baseball has released a timely update to its official iPhone and iPad app, MLB.com at Bat, which streams free and paid-for games, highlights and backgrounders while providing rich and detailed statistics like standings, schedules and rosters.

The All-Star Week update allows fans to follow All-Star Week live from New York, including the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, and watch in-progress video highlights within the Gameday Plays interface. The iPhone interface has been revamped and both smartphone and tablet editions have received other changes, listed right after the jump...

Algoriddim previews djay 2, coming soon to iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

There's no shortage of apps for DJs on the App Store. For instance, one of the ten apps and games Apple made free as part of its 5 Years of the App Store promo is Traktor DJ (normally a $20 value), an excellent piece of software that appeals to pro DJs. Even the famous iOS hacker pod2g, known for his jailbreak releases, took notice of the trend and created his own app that will make you the star of every party, podDJ.

In my view, Algoriddim's djay for iPhone and iPad is arguably the best-known and certainly one of the first DJ apps to grace the App Store. Two and a half years following its App Store debut, the successor to djay is coming soon to an iPhone and iPad near you, Algoriddim confirmed Thursday. I've included a nicely done promo vid after the break...

You can now embed Instagram photos and videos in web pages, here’s how

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 10, 2013

Instagram's insistence on requiring people to use its mobile apps exclusively never really sat with me. In a time when people can embed all kinds of content in web pages, here we are unable to embed our Instagrams in blog posts.

But times are changing fast. After Twitter's Vine service came along, we soon gained ability to embed those five-second recordings pretty much everywhere (here's how).

And just as Instagram video became a reality, I suspected it won't be too long before we could embed 15-second Instagram clips across the web. Indeed, web embeds for Instagram photos and videos launched today and we've got the full details below the fold...

Google shows off new Google Maps features, coming soon to iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 10, 2013

As announced on Google's official Lat Long blog yesterday, the company has begun rolling out a major update to Google Maps that was first showcased at Google I/O 2013 in May. The company has issued a promotional clip to detail some of the new features, now available to Android 4.0.3+ users as a free download on the Play store. Although the new build hasn't hit the App Store yet, Google said it will be soon available for iOS 6+ devices...

iOS 7 smooths out iPhone apps on non-Retina iPads

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

With each passing day we learn more about the subtleties and under-the-hood tweaks that have made their way into the third beta of iOS 7. Today, I want to talk about the iPad's 2x compatibility mode. Hasn't it always bothered you how iPhone apps run pixel-doubled on your iPad mini and other non-Retina iPad devices, resulting in jagged corners and edges and just all-around pixelated appearance?

You can tick that issue off as iOS 7 Beta 3 added a new feature that makes every iPhone app look very clear running on an iPad 2 or iPad mini, in a manner reminiscent of a tweak for jailbroken devices by Ryan Petrich, called RetinaPad...

Apple’s lawsuit against Amazon over ‘App Store’ name ends in draw

Ed Sutherland ∙ July 9, 2013

Apple and Amazon have taken off the gloves back in 2011, apparently deciding the 'App Store' name is big enough for both companies. An Oakland, California district court pulled the plug on the dispute at the request of the two app providers. The decision to walk away from just who owns the 'App Store' title follows Apple agreeing not to sue Amazon, according to a report this morning...

Dropbox-owned Mailbox gets Dropbox attachment integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Dropbox, the popular cloud-storage startup, kicked off DBX today, its first-ever developer conference. Dropbox is now 175 million users strong, way up from the 75 million users registered just last November.

The new APIs the team introduced today at DBX promise to make it easier for app developers to integrate Dropbox data synch. Now, iOS developers are expected to take advantage of these new frameworks pretty soon.

Yahoo, for example, has immediately added support for Dropbox attachments to its Android client (it is coming soon to the iOS edition of Yahoo Mail). As Dropbox acquired Mailbox in March, we're not surprised the team just pushed a Mailbox update which lets you send attachments from Dropbox, even if the files don't physically reside on your device.

Better yet, you can now attach any file type you can think of, regardless of whether or not your device understands it. This has got to be the awesome news for fans of cloud productivity (count me excited!) and regular users who could only attach Camera roll images prior to this update...

Yahoo! Mail app now supports multiple personal and Business Mail accounts

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

Yahoo may have been buying popular iPhone apps lately, but that doesn't mean it's not giving Apple's platform some love. Quite the contrary, in the past few weeks the original Internet giant has released a stunning Weather app, updated Flickr with Instagram-y filters, overhauled News and re-released the native Mail software.

And in today's update, they've added two major features appealing to enterprise and power users.

First up, the application now lets you set up multiple Yahoo Mail accounts on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and quickly switch between them without ever signing out...

Smartphones to push mobile ads over $9B in 2013

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

There are several key take-aways from a new report showing mobile advertising is exploding, set to surpass $9 billion in 2013. Despite a developed world saturated in smartphones, services for those devices continue to grow by leaps and bounds. Additionally, as we touched on Monday with the incredible success of Candy Crush Saga, the freemium app concept is red hot.

Such apps gain their popularity by being free up front, but earn their keep either through in-app purchases or advertising. According to the report by IAB and IHS, search accounts for 53 percent of mobile ad revenues, crystallizing what I've always thought: Google did not create Android out of some magnanimous gesture, but to keep ahead of the advertising curve...

More proof that Apple’s premium iWork/iLife iOS suite could go free

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

Apple for years offered iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand iOS apps as a $4.99 download each.

On the Mac, those apps which comprise the iLife suite come bundled with new Mac purchases and Apple's been very actively advertising them as one of the reasons people switch to the Mac.

As for the iWork productivity suite - comprised of the Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet maker and Keynote presentation creator - users are expected to pay $19.99 each on the Mac side and $9.99 each on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Some watchers think the advent of the free iWork for iCloud web apps with full editing capabilities (currently in beta) may signal Apple's intention to make the entire iWork suite a free affair, giving people one less reason to consider rival platforms. Today, a German blog has discovered an interesting change in the first-run App Store screen in the latest iOS 7 Beta 3 that surprisingly adds individual iWork/iLife apps as free downloads...