Apps

Unreal’s Epic Citadel updated for Retina devices, launches on Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Remember the strikingly remarkable Epic Citadel demo? It knocked our panties off with jaw-dropping graphics! Not sure about you, but I'd never thought such detailed visuals would have been possible on mobile devices that early in the game. You can thank Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for that, actually. Arguably the best game engine, it powers some of the best iOS games, including Epic's own Infinity Blade series.

Today, the team has updated the free Epic Citadel iOS demo with nice Retina graphics on fifth-gen iPhone and iPod touch devices and iPad 4. There's also a brand new benchmarking mode and, for the first time, the demo is now available on Android smartphones and tablets, indicating future cross-platform releases.

Go past the fold for more tidbits, including a nice trailer for an upcoming iOS/Android game built on Epic's engine...

Google Drive update brings multiple media uploads, QuickOffice integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2013

Five days ago, Google updated Drive for Android with the ability to create, edit, comment and present Google slides in offline mode. Today, the search firm has given some love to its iOS counterpart by adding a few new features you should know about. These include pinch-to-zoom on slides, multiple media uploads, QuickOffice integration and more. Additional information after the break...

Facebook iOS app gains in-app voice and video recording capabilities

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2013

Facebook's universal iOS client for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and iPad mini has just been updated with the useful ability to share your favorite places using the improved Nearby tab. More important than that, you can now record a voice or video message right in the app and send it to your friends. The ability to share audio snippets first appeared in an update to Facebook's Messenger app on January 3, 2012 so having it now in-app via the official client is a welcome addition...

Twitterrific gains new features, push notifications still being worked on

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 21, 2013

https://vimeo.com/57871805

As you can see in the clip above, Iconofactory today released an update to its Twitter client on the App Store, Twitterrific. The app has some loyal following - in fact, both TweetBot and Twitterrific are my favorite go-to Twitter clients for iDevices. Twitterrific fans should appreciate half a dozen new features and a bunch of improvements in this release.

Most notably, the new Twitterrific version 5.0.2 now has a simplified in-app web browser and reading mode supporting Instapaper or Readability. It also lets you find tweets in all timelines via History, preview images directly in the timeline and so forth. Push notifications, you say? Read on for the full breakdown...

Minecraft sold more on mobile than any other platform in 2012

Mike Schnier ∙ January 17, 2013

You might be tempted to think of Minecraft: Pocket Edition as the lesser version of Minecraft, a fun diversion but not the real game. When Pocket Edition was first launched in 2011, it lacked many of the desktop version's features, including crafting and survival mode. Now that Pocket Edition is catching up in terms of features, it seems the tide is turning.

In fact, Pocket Edition was the most purchased version of Minecraft in 2012, according to numbers released by Mojang last week. Minecraft: Pocket Edition sold over 39.1% of units, or 5,899,727 copies total. This was ahead of Minecraft for Mac/PC, at 27.7%, and the Xbox 360 edition, at 33.2%...

How to use your iPad as a shortcut keyboard for Mac OS X

Mike Schnier ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Do you hate digging around in menus but have trouble memorizing all the key combinations for your most frequently used programs? Hotkeys is an app that allows you to use your iPad as a programmable shortcut keyboard, which comes with shortcut packs for Mac OS X and Photoshop preloaded.

While the preloaded packs are decent, you can also edit the packs to your liking or create your own packs from scratch. If you're a gamer, you might also find the labelled shortcuts handy...

Dolphin gets browser sync, easier sharing, Evernote integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Dolphin, the popular third-party browser for iOS and Android, received a major update today. In addition to the obligatory stability and performance improvements, developers added a few new features you'll be excited about. For starters, Dolphin now has browser sync that keeps your environment and settings flawlessly consistent across desktop and your mobile devices powered by iOS or Android.

You can also send tabs, images, phone numbers and directions from a mobile device to your computer, share to social networks and email articles. And if you live in Evernote, Dolphin now lets you grab any web content and save it directly to your Evernote (or Box) account, useful for saving a particular article or document for later, especially if you are not a huge fan of Instapaper or a similar read-later service...

Readdle revamps Documents for iPad with cloud integration and powerful media management

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 16, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeWhyGNgUGI

If you use your iPad even occasionally to edit Office documents on the go, chances are you were disappointed hearing that Google snapped up Quickoffice, the maker of the popular mobile productivity suite of the same name. Worry not, Readdle comes to the rescue. Depicted above is their freshly updated Documents software which in this new incarnation becomes the perfect document and media manager for your iPad.

It's tightly integrated with iCloud and other popular cloud-based storage solutions for seamless experience across multiple devices. While Documents won't let you edit your stuff, you can view your media and documents and it's a pretty decent file manager. Best of all, it's free of charge...

How to get Facebook Messenger working on a jailbroken iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Facebook a week ago issued invites for a major news conference due tomorrow to “come and see what we're building”. One source claims the iPad version of the popular Messenger client will be on tap as the social networking giant's last-minute "one more thing" surprise.

What you may not have known is that the current iPhone build of Messenger already has the iPad interface and code in place. And if you happen to have your device jailbroken (as most readers who frequent iDB do), you may want to unlock Messenger for iPad right now. Just follow this simple guide and Jeff's easy to follow video instructions, embedded right past the break...

Facebook ‘totally’ ready to launch Messenger for iPad on Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

You may have heard that Facebook has issued invites for a media event due this coming Tuesday to “come and see what [they're] building”. People in the know claim the news conference is a pretty big deal as Facebook could announce a brand new mobile operating system, even a so-called Facebook Phone of some sort. And now, another source has stepped forward with knowledge that the social networking giant will also launch an iPad version of its mobile Messenger app, which in a recent update has gained VoIP capabilities...

App Store tops 40B downloads, 20B in 2012

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 7, 2013

Apple just announced that its application store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch software, the App Store, has topped a whopping forty billion downloads so far, with almost twenty billion downloads added in the calendar 2012 alone. These are unique downloads that exclude re-downloads and updates. The iPhone maker has also confirmed that as of today the App Store is home to a total of 775,000 active apps for the iOS gadgets (though a million apps passed through the store so far), with 300,000 tailored specifically for iPads...

YouTube, Google Maps top list of most downloaded apps on Christmas Day

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Given the fact that millions of iPhones, iPads and iPod touches were given as gifts this year, and that a number of apps and games were on sale, it's no surprise that there was a huge spike in app downloads on Tuesday.

In fact, app analytics firm Distimo found that daily downloads in the App Store increased by 87% on Christmas Day compared to the December 2012 average. So what was everyone downloading? Read on to find out...