Apps

Freemium Candy Crush game smashes revenue records at $633K per day

Ed Sutherland ∙ July 8, 2013

Candy Crush Saga could become the legal Crack of the app world. Initially belittled for its close resemblance to Bejeweled, Electronics Arts' addictive freemium game, Candy Crush is now the poster child for the freemium model, raking in a record $633,000 per day, according to one estimate. The key is simple: get players addicted to the game, then charge for larger and larger fixes. Theoretically, the company behind Candy Crush could pull in $230 million in annualized revenue from this single app, even turning the game loose on Wall Street...

Instagram update adds front-cam stabilization, landscape support

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 8, 2013

Like it or not, video on Instagram video is here to stay. And with five million videos uploaded to Instagram in the first 24 hours and given the Instagram brand strength, small wonder that Vine shares on Twitter have plummeted since Instagram video debut.

Not resting on its laurels, just this past weekend Instagram received a small update adding support for the Cinema video stabilization feature for your iPhone's front camera, previously available on the rear camera only. Not only that, you can now shot video holding the Instagram camera in landscape orientation...

Kim Dotcom’s Mega iOS app in the works

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

If anything, the controversial Megaupload file-sharing service got the Internet mogul Kim Dotcom filthy rich. The German-Finnish entrepreneur is currently residing in New Zealand, where he manages a new cloud-based storage service startup called Mega that promises to protect your privacy from the government's prying eyes.

To help with that, the company acquired an Android app that's now being maintained by Mega contractors. Editions for Apple's iOS and Microsoft's Windows Phone being worked on, which is good news if you were looking to bolster up security of your personal cloud files in light of the ongoing scandal involving NSA spying and the PRISM intelligence program...

Vine adds protected posts, revamped camera, channels, revining and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 9, 2018

If you care about sending quick clips up to six seconds long via Twitter-owned Vine for iPhone, you should pause for a second and take a look at today's Vine update which brings a few major enhancements. Most notably, Vine 1.3 enhances your privacy by introducing protected posts.

Protecting a post will make it unavailable to the web at large so only the people you approve to follow you can see them (you can also protect your entire account.

This release also brings out a redesigned camera, new channels and trending posts, the ability to re-share someone's vine (finally!) and other perks. Go past the fold for the full breakdown...

Review: iTranslate Voice, the best and funniest voice-to-voice iPhone translator

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 19, 2018

German developer Sonico Mobile's iTranslate Voice (not to be confused with dozens of App Store apps that have 'itranslate' in their name) has been on the App Store since May 2012, scoring rave reviews and winning the attention of App Store editors who featured the software on multiple occasions.

A little over a year since its debut they totally revamped the app, adding new languages and language facts and an incredible device-to-device AirTranslate feature.

Unlike many other apps that claim to feature quick voice-to-voice translations, iVoice Translate works as advertised and gets the job done, letting you instantly "speak" another language, voice-to-voice...

USA Network iOS app released, lets you watch TV shows the day after they air

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 3, 2013

Following a long period of initial hesitance, major US television networks and content providers have finally relented and are now falling over each other to release software that lets Apple device owners stream television shows, with or without cable subscription. The latest entrant: NBC Universal-owned USA Network, commonly referred to as USA.

Their new USA Anywhere Plus app gives you access to TV shows the day after they air on television, including back episodes for some shows...

iPhone leads customer satisfaction in Samsung’s home turf of South Korea

Ed Sutherland ∙ July 2, 2013

There's nothing like winning over your competitor's hometown audience. Apple, accustomed to topping nearly every customer satisfaction survey, must take particular pleasure in being named best by smartphone owners in South Korea, home of rival Samsung.

The survey found even a year after purchase, iPhone owners were more satisfied overall, as well as happy with the repair experience. Customer satisfaction is an often-cited metric by Apple CEO Tim Cook, a quality in which some see him well-suited...

Track your favorite TV shows with the elegant TeeVee 2 app

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 2, 2013

As I tend to repeatedly mention here, I'm a big fan of movies and television shows (wanted to be an actor when I was a kid). Now, most of my premium entertainment is consumed digitally these days so I'm big on apps that help me manage and discover great TV shows and movies.

For the latter, I use Limelight which lets me organize and manage my movie library in style.

I'm also a heavy user of ToDo Movies to track upcoming releases and its eye-popping Motion Posters feature has to be experienced to be fully appreciated. You could imagine my excitement discovering TeeVee 2, an elegant and sophisticated iPhone application by Tomas Perzl which helps me keep track of next episodes of my favorite TV shows, when they are airing, the days remaining, the episode title/synopsis and lots more...

Reeder update enables Feedly and Feed Wrangler on iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

Silvio Rizzi's RSS client for the Apple platform, Reeder, has built quite a loyal following. It's one of the first full-featured RSS readers on the iPhone which won me over with its elegant and sophisticated user interface, clever use of gestures and the ability to efficiently manage hundreds of feeds without crawling to a halt.

Silvio has been diligently updating the software with new features and today he pushed a new version which enables two popular Google Reader replacement services just as Google's web-based RSS client went offline yesterday...

Spotify’s Discover tab finally makes its way over to Apple devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The Swedish streaming music startup Spotify has finally updated its iOS client today with a new Discover tab which made its way into the Android build back in December 2012 and four months later into the web interface.

Basically a music recommendation engine, Discover suggests similar songs based on your listening history and your playlists. Oh, and iPhone users will be happy to learn that Spotify now lets them fully customize their playlists.

This feature was previously inexplicably reserved only for the iPad client. Oh, and they just flattened the app icon so it fits better on your iOS 7 Home screen...

Microsoft enhances OneNote, revamps for consistent cross-platform look

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Microsoft's otherwise fine OneNote app has seen little updates on mobile devices, with Evernote and other offerings beating the Windows giant handily to the note-taking punch.

Figuring it better do something about it, the Redmond firm on Monday issued a pretty major 2.0 update to iOS and Android builds which brings consistent look and feel across Windows, Windows Phone, Android and iOS.

And in addition to rendering ink on your iDevices, version 2 of OneNote enables full support for Office 365 notebooks in SkyDrive Pro, rich formatting toolbars on iPads to style your notes, search across notes and more. If you can't live without Microsoft's Office suite and prefer to run productivity apps from a single vendor for seamless sync, you should give OneNote a try...