Apps

FiftyThree teases Surface Pressure coming to Pencil this Fall with iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 17, 2014

Fans of the awesome Paper drawing app for the iPad by FiftyThree and owners of the startup's companion Pencil stylus will no doubt be looking forward to upgrading to iOS 8 in order to take advantage of a new Surface Pressure feature coming to Pencil and Paper this Fall.

Billed as an industry-first feature, Surface Pressure taps iOS 8's variable touch sizing and leverages Pencil’s uniquely-designed tip to vary the pressure, thickness and width of lines you create, mimicking the behavior of real-life artistic drawing tools such as dry pastel chalks and charcoals...

Sunrise Calendar introduces apps: Evernote, Tripit, Songkick, Asana and Github

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

The popular and elegant replacement for the stock iOS Calendar app, Sunrise Calendar by Sunrise Atelier, Inc., just recently has expanded its reach and is now available across iOS and Android mobile platforms and on the web, with a consistent feature set and unified design.

Now available free of charge in the App Store, the new version 2.4 brings support for select third-party applications. That's right, you can now connect apps like Songkick, Evernote, Tripit, Github and Asana directly in Sunrise and make your life a little easier...

Parallels Access now lets you access remote desktop via iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Parallels Access was released last August as an iPad-only application allowing users of the popular desktop virtualization software Parallels to access remote computers on their Apple tablet.

It instantly became indispensable to mobile warriors who want to run Mac or Windows apps remotely and need to access desktop files and documents wherever they are.

Today, the free Parallels Access app has been updated with native support for the iPhone and iPod touch so users can now access their desktop on the go and use their PC and Mac applications in full-screen mode like they were made for their handset...

Facebook’s iPad app gains new sidebar solely dedicated to entertainment and games

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 16, 2014

Facebook on Monday pushed an update to its iPad client to put more entertainment (and ads) into your hands.

Realizing that seven out of each ten people who use Facebook for iPad played a Facebook-connected game in the past 90 days, Mark Zuckerberg & Co. are now testing a new sidebar within the iPad app, specifically created for entertainment content and game discovery.

The iPad-exclusive section provides game trailers and in-game footage, as well as Trending videos/news articles, social notifications for native Facebook games, as well as those offered on the web, and much more.

Note that this experiment is currently limited to Facebook's iPad users in the United States and there's no word when it could launch globally. Additional tidbits can be found right after the break...

Skitch gains swipable design, better sharing, deeper Evernote integration and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Evernote-owned Skitch is my favorite OS X/iOS annotation tool. It's even impressed Apple enough to borrow some of its trademark features for Yosemite's fancy new in-line attachment annotation tool.

If you use Skitch, there's a new update in town packing in several improvements, alongside a refreshed design which lets you swipe between Skitch's various tools easily.

You can download the new Skitch 3.2 for the iPhone and iPad free in the App Store..

Scanbot 2.0 brings iPad support and smart QR code scanner

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 12, 2014

Scanbot is an awesome PDF scanning utility that allows you to create high-quality PDF or JPEG scans with 200 dpi and higher. You can then upload the images to a number of cloud storage services, share them online and what not.

It's an indispensable productivity tool for paperless office aficionados and good for just about anyone who needs to scan those receipts, contracts, print outs and other document types. Plus, it's now available on the iPad.

The new Scanbot 2.0, available as a free update for those who've purchased it, is now a universal binary whose UI has been specifically tailored for both the tiny iPhone screen and the iPad's larger canvas.

Filed as Germany-based Doo GmbH's biggest release yet, the refreshed software also brings out a smart QR code scanner (more on that later), an improved grayscale filter and a host of other improvements and bug fixes...

Rovio’s new ‘Angry Birds Epic’ game launches worldwide

Cody Lee ∙ June 12, 2014

In February, Rovio teased a new game for its Angry Birds franchise called Angry Birds Epic. A month later it soft-launched the title in a handful countries, and players quickly discovered that this isn't your typical bird-slinger.

Believe it or not, it's actually an adventure role-playing game with turn-based combat and an extensive crafting system. It features epic battles, epic worlds, and it's now available around the globe on both the iPhone and iPad...

Square Enix debuts Final Fantasy Agito announce trailer ahead of North American launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 11, 2014

Final Fantasy Agito, a new role-playing game (RPG) featuring lush 3D graphics and created specifically for smartphones and tablets, launched in Japan last month.

Ever since its Japanese debut, we've been hearing whispers about a possible USA debut. As it turns out, localizing all that content took longer than expected.

The good news is, work on the Western edition is now nearing completion. Today, Square Enix has indicated that the USA edition has inched closer to release by posting the official announcement trailer.

I've included the video along with latest tidbits right after the jump...

Google Search iOS app receives 2014 FIFA World Cup Google Now cards

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

With about 24 hours left until the 2014 World Cup Brazil opening game between Brazil and Croatia, developers are feverishly updating their apps with soccer-related content.

The Internet giant Google has just issued a World Cup-themed update to its standalone Search iOS app, adding useful Google Now cards for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The cards show up-to-date information like match statistics, group standings and scorers and are available by swiping up to choose your favorite team to follow...

FIFA issues second update to iOS app ahead of 2014 World Cup Brazil

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 11, 2014

After initially releasing a World Cup 2014 themed update to its free iPhone and iPad application, FIFA in keeping true to its promise this morning posted another update ahead of the 2014 World Cup Brazil, which kicks off with a match between the Brazilian host team and Croatia tomorrow.

The refreshed version 2.1 build includes support for live-streamed content, push notifications for your favorite teams, interactive voting for Man of the Match and more...

Google Shopping Express expands to new places, adds recommendations, new items and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 11, 2014

Google's Shopping Express for iOS has received a nice update bringing the free iPhone and iPad application to version 1.8 and introducing several new features that elevate your on-the-go shopping experience.

For starters, the app makes Google's same-day delivery service available in more places, including in and around the West Los Angeles and Manhattan areas. This version also enables product recommendations based on the stores you shop most, adds new items and more...

Screens VNC app now supports Dropbox, in addition to iCloud

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

An app called Screens is one of the best and most elegant pieces of software for accessing your desktop through the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, over Wi-Fi or cellular. It lets you connect to remote computers as if you were sitting in front of them, run apps remotely, copy documents between machines and lots more.

Edovia Software, the company behind Screens, has updated both the $19.99 iOS client and $34.99 Mac client with support for Dropbox for seamless syncing of your saved screens across devices...