Apps

Yahoo releases brand new Mail app for the iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 11, 2012

Surely you must remember Yahoo! Mail? The more than 310 million people who still use it swear it's the best webmail service out there, bar none. If you're a fan of Yahoo's email offering, you'll be delighted to learn that the search firm today released a brand new iOS email client. It's got the basic you'd want from an email app nailed: the clean inbox view with infinite scrolling, auto-complete for email addresses you type, notifications for incoming email messages, multiple message selection, swiping left and right for quick access to options, in-line images, search across folders and more...

Instagram gains enhanced camera, new Willow filter, nice little tweaks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 20, 2017

iPhone photography fans, rejoice. Instagram today pushed an incremental update to its mobile app for iOS and Android, bringing a few improvements in the camera department, a brand new filter and more. The camera interface has been revamped with a nice Instagram-themed shutter button. The camera now displays a preview of the most recent photo on your camera roll and you can turn on an optional grid separately for the camera and the scale & crop screen.

You may also appreciate the enhanced Camera Roll picker as it now lets you quickly access the last photo taken, though that capability is inexplicably available only on the iPhone 5. More on other changes and the new Willow filter right after the break...

Apple trolling us with Apple TV apps and games?

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2012

Ahead of this year's WWDC, BGR editor Jonathan Geller claimed Apple would release a software development kit allowing developers to write third-party apps for the $99 Apple TV set-top box. His prediction was incorrect because to this date the hardware runs just a few stock apps as Apple's been consistent in disregarding calls to open up the platform to third-party programmers.

Gene Munster, arguably the biggest proponent of a standalone Apple television set, has no doubt in his mind that apps are coming to your telly, recently predicting Cupertino will offer an updated Apple TV box with a TV app store as early as next year. In fact, Apple may have inadvertently leaked this capability because the Apple TV's Movies menu has been spotted running banners that promote holiday apps and games...

Google updates Shopper app: GoodGuide ratings, nicer UI, promotions, nearby sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 17, 2018

As I whined recently, the Android version of Google's free of charge Shopper app was updated with new holiday shopping features on November 8. Today, at last, the iOS build has received some way overdue love. Just like Tuesday's Gmail and YouTube updates, the refreshed Shopper app represents a major overhaul. It boasts a faster and cleaner interface focused on bigger product photos and has a few enhancements that will help you survive the holiday shopping frenzy.

There's an all-new screen listing sales promotions, GoodGuide ratings, an improved search with image-centric results, the new sales screen that lists special offers and sales promotions in your area and support for push notifications for new content and features...

Apple updates 12 Days of Christmas app for the 2012 holiday season

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

European fans have grown accustomed to Apple's holiday promotion called 12 Days of Christmas because they can count on a free download every day in a period following Christmas and until early-January. It's not just apps, Apple usually gives away songs, books and music videos as well.

A dedicated app is crucial to the promotion and today the company has updated the 12 Days of Christmas app for the iPhone, iPod and iPad with gifts for the 2012 holiday season. Download it now to get your free gift starting with December 26, the day after Christmas. The only downside: the promotion is valid outside of the United States only...

Snapseed goes free, gains new filters and Google+ sharing, hits Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 20, 2017

Lots of good news today for fans of the popular iPhone photography app Snapseed that Google acquired back in September. Snapseed 1.5 has just been released, featuring built-in sharing to the Google+ network, a huge boon for Google's Facebook killer. By the way, the search firm in today's blog post called Google+ "the fastest-growing network thingy ever". Snapseed, Apple's iPad App of the Year, also has gained an updated Frames filter with new photographic frames that can be colorized, in addition to a brand new Retrolux filter.

Basically a Hollywood style filter, Retrolux includes a bunch of different film styles souped up with a range of "different scratches and textures as well as light leaks to create a truly retro look for your photos". And if you happen to be on Android and have been yearning for Snapseed, you can go and download it straight from Google's Play Store right now...

Upcoming iTunes 11 update will restore duplicate song detection

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 5, 2012

I hope you've grown accustomed to the new, highly visual library views focused on media artwork in iTunes 11 and don't mind Apple dropping Cover Flow because that feature ain't coming back. What Apple will add to the redesigned jukebox software is the ability to detect duplicate song, which mysteriously disappeared with the latest iTunes update. That's what the Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walt Mossberg heard from his own sources within Apple. The company reportedly told him it will restore the duplicate song detection feature "in a minor update of the program"...

YouTube app goes iPad, adds AirPlay, iPhone 5 support

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 4, 2012

Following up on its sweet Gmail refresh earlier today, Google's just announced with a post over at the official YouTube blog a long-expected update to its nice YouTube iPhone app. For starters, the program finally runs on the iPad natively, which means you can now search for kitten videos using your beloved tablet and enjoy them in high-definition on that beautiful 9.7-inch Retina display.

The software also takes full advantage of the iPhone 5's bigger display and lets you stream YouTube clips to your badass TV through the Apple TV hockey puck and using AirPlay, a wireless media streaming technology from Apple. Accessibility, video playback improvements and other perks come included with the package. But first things first...

Amazon updates Kindle app with X-Ray for Books

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 4, 2012

After updating its Kindle e-reading app for the iPhone and iPad last month with the X-Ray for Textbooks feature, the online retailer Amazon today refreshed the software, having added the useful X-Ray for Books capability. Basically the “bones of the book”, as Amazon puts it, X-Ray for Books helps you learn more about notable characters, places and phrases with nice descriptions from Shelfari.com and Wikipedia. In addition to this feature, the new Kindle app also boasts Manga image rendering improvements, per iTunes release notes. The new Kindle app is still a free universal binary and it looks great on all iOS form factors, including the iPad mini...

Apple’s Remote app gains iTunes 11 support, Up Next, revamped iPad UI and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 29, 2012

Following the official release of iTunes 11 for Mac and Windows and an incremental Apple TV firmware update, today's update bonanza continues with the release of a minor update to Apple's Remote iOS app. It now plays nice with iTunes 11, of course, and includes a redesigned interface on iPad tablets that takes design cues from the new iTunes, just as the previous version was reminiscent of desktop iTunes. As for iTunes 11 support, the updated Remote app now includes overhauled library views, an expanded view for your media, improved search results, the new UpNext feature and more...

Revamped iTunes 11 arrives: Up Next, new MiniPlayer, deep iCloud integration, more

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 29, 2012

The Wall Street Journal, Apple's unofficial mouthpiece, was right reporting yesterday that iTunes 11 would launch at some point today. Yes, the eleventh major version of the decade-old media jukebox software just went live on Apple's servers. You can download it manually by heading over to Apple's iTunes Download page (and reload if necessary). Alternatively, choose Software Update from the Mac's Apple menu or run the Software Update app available in the Start menu in Windows...