Apps

Minecraft: Pocket Edition gains Chinese Mythology mashup pack & other goodies

Microsoft announced today that Minecraft: Pocket Edition is gaining a Chinese Mythology mash-up pack along with a few other goodies and improvements, such as a free Redstone Mansion map available via a new Worlds section in the in-game store.

The new features are available at no charge to existing players and require Minecraft: Pocket Edition version 1.0.6, which is rolling today on App Store.

Instagram Direct now combines ephemeral and permanent messages in one thread

Photo-sharing service Instagram today announced an update for its direct messaging feature, called Direct, which now combines auto-dissapearing photos and videos along with your text conversations in a single thread. Previously, disappearing photos and videos were separated under their own Stories bar at the top of the Direct section. A redesigned Direct feature is rolling out today via Instagram's version 10.16 update.

Facebook Messenger not loading on your Apple Watch? Try this…

Facebook Messenger users who try to set the app up on a new Apple Watch might find themselves plagued with problems loading the app. Similar problems affect Apple Watch users that aren't new, but rather have un-paired and reconfigured the device after troubleshooting problems with it.

There appears to be a significant bug in the Facebook Messenger app, and while the direct cause of the issue is unknown, there's a quick fix for getting your Facebook Messenger conversations to load properly on your Apple Watch, and we’ll show you how it's done it in this tutorial.

The best VPNs for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Amid all the recent conversation about ISPs retaining the legal right to sell your internet usage data, many are contemplating their VPN options so they can mask their internet activity for increased privacy and security.

In this piece, we’ll talk about some of the best VPNs for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Facebook launches revamped message compose interface on Messenger

As part of today's rollout of Facebook's AI-powered personal assistant to all users in the United States, the social networking company mentioned that you should now start seeing a redesigned message compose interface within the mobile Messenger app. We first caught wind of this new iOS 10 Messages-style chat experience two months ago.

At the time, Facebook was still testing the redesign with a small percentage of users. The new way to compose messages is currently rolling out to Messenger users across the globe so check back in a few days if it's currently unavailable to you.

Apple’s Clips app does not work on 32-bit devices

Has Clips, Apple's new video editing app, piqued your interest? If so, good luck downloading it on your iPhone 5/5c or iPad 4. That's because the free of charge video creation app lacks support for 32-bit iOS devices despite requiring the recently-released iOS 10.3, which in itself runs on 32-bit iOS devices.

As first noted by AppleInsider, this could be interpreted as another sign that Apple will stop supporting 32-bit devices when iOS 11 releases later this year.

Hands on with Clips, Apple’s new social video editing app

Apple today released Clips, its brand new social video editing app that was previewed on March 21 as part of the company's Spring product refresh. Available at no charge on App Store, Clips comes with some interesting features, like voice-activated captions, effects, emoji, animated speech bubbles, motion backgrounds, built-in soundtracks and more.

After spending some time with Clips, our own video editor Andrew O'Hara has created a video walkthrough showcasing just how easy it is to create fun videos that are sharable on Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networks.

Clips: Apple’s new video creation app is now available on iPhone and iPad

Clips, a new video creation app from Apple, is now available for download on App Store. Previewed on March 21 as part of Apple's Spring product refresh, Clips lets you create expressive videos on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with just a few taps. The app includes some nifty features like a selection of cartoonish effects and the ability to create captions on the fly using just your voice. Clips is available on App Store at no charge and requires iOS 10.3, which launched last week.

Twitter Lite launches, takes only 1MB of storage & can save up to 70 percent on data

If you're a heavy Twitter user whose device is running low on storage and you'd like to reduce data usage in the mobile Twitter app, the company today announced a new solution that may interest you, aptly named Twitter Lite. It's a client-side Progressive Web App written in JavaScript and running in Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Taking up only one megabyte of storage on your device, Twitter Lite loads in under five seconds on a 3G cellular connection and can save up to 70 percent on data.

Facebook is turning your friends who aren’t hip enough to use Stories into ghosts

Facebook last week rolled out a Snapchat-esque Stories feature to all users of its mobile app. So far, most users seem to be ignoring these glorified auto-vanishing slideshows so the company is introducing some visual tweaks, possibly in an effort to boost usage of the feature.

As first noticed by The Verge, friends who aren't using Stories now appeared ghosted at the app's top as a bit of encouragement for the new feature.