Apps

Apple officially opens iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in India

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 31, 2017

Phil Schiller, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and the guy in charge of all App Stores at Apple, announced on Twitter this morning that the company's iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in the Yelahanka area of Bengaluru in India is officially opening. Bengaluru is the home of India’s startup scene. The populous country has some of the most vibrant and entrepreneurial iOS development communities in the world.

Apple also published useful resources at developer.apple.com/accelerator, including information pertaining to local iOS development scene.

Do more from your App Switcher with EnhancedSwitcherClose

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 31, 2017

The stock App Switcher looks alright, but it's not as useful as it could be. Apple limits what you can do inside the App Switcher to force-quitting apps, but as jailbreak developers have shown for years, there’s so much untapped potential.

A new free jailbreak tweak called EnhancedSwitcherClose by iOS developer DGh0st provides you with a new way to interact with your App Switcher cards and gives you more options depending on the way you swipe them.

Twitter stops counting @usernames toward the 140-character limit

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 30, 2017

Twitter announced Thursday that it's no longer counting user names in tweets, such as @idownloadblog, toward its 140-character limit. With this change, any user names for mentions and replies will no longer shorten the amount of characters you could include in a tweet.

Last year, the micro-blogging service began allowing users to attach photos, animated GIFs, videos, polls, quoted tweets and direct messages to tweets without the links counting against the 140-character limit.

Infuse 5.3 brings optimized playback performance, parental controls, Blu-ray disk images & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 30, 2017

Infuse by aTV Flash Black developer FireCore is a versatile, very powerful media player that lets you watch non-iOS optimized media file types without the need for manual transcoding or a helper app to do the heavy lifting via your computer. The app was updated on App Store to version 5.3.

Infuse 5.3 for iOS and tvOS comes with a completely overhauled high-performance playback core that's now now faster and better than ever before.

Other new features are available in Infuse 5.3 as well.

The app now accepts your Blu-ray disc images and folders and lets you restrict access to videos and settings with built-in parental controls. The release also packs support for ISO 9960 (Joliet) disc images, country-specific age ratings for movies and much more.

How to share a group of contacts from your iPhone or iPad

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 24, 2025

In this quick tutorial, we show you how to easily share a group of contacts from your iPhone or iPad using email, iMessage, AirDrop, and other methods.

Apple starts rejecting submissions with pricing info in app titles, screenshots & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 10, 2017

Apple's rules have always prohibited developers from spicing up their screenshots on App Store with annoying marketing messages although a quick glance at App Store pages reveals the firm hasn't been enforcing that particular rule. But things are now changing, for the better.

As first reported by VentureBeat, the Cupertino firm has began rejecting submissions that promote pricing like ”Free” in app titles/ icons and on App Store screenshots/previews.

Facebook adds Snapchat-style effects and auto vanishing Stories to its mainland app

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 28, 2017

As expected, Facebook on Tuesday announced that the camera feature in its mobile app for iPhone and iPad has been totally revamped with Snapchat-style filters and effects. Yes, they also added auto-vanishing Stories. Facebook's already cloned these Snapchat-esque features on the Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger apps, all of which include similar creative tools for your photos and videos.

A closer look at iOS 10.3’s streamlined App Store ratings and reviews capabilities

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 28, 2017

Following yesterday's OS update bonanza, Apple shared some additional details pertaining to iOS 10.3's new ratings and reviews capabilities that are available to developers.

As previously noted, iOS 10.3 is changing how reviews and feedback are handled within apps.

Rather than inundate users with endless prompts seeking feedback, like before, developers now have a new StoreKit API on iOS 10.3 at their disposal.

First and foremost, the StoreKit APIs allow users to provide ratings and reviews without leaving the app they're in. Developers simply choose when they’d like to prompt the user and identify places in their app where it makes sense to ask for feedback, and the system takes care of the rest.

Apple TV Remote app gains support for iPad, lyrics, playlists, chapters & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 27, 2017

Apple's free app for controlling Apple TVs from anywhere in your home via your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch was just updated on App Store following a barrage of software updates that the company released for iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS earlier this morning. Bumped to version 1.1, the official Apple TV Remote app finally supports iPad natively and now lets you see music lyrics, browse playlists, navigate chapters and more.

Scheduled, Splish, Yaknak, and other apps to check out this weekend

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

Looking to pass the time this weekend with some new apps and games? iDB has you covered. The latest edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes a message scheduler, a dating app with a twist, an app for discovering fun stuff to do around you, and of course some new games for you to check out.

Instagram unveils blurred posts, Two-Factor Authentication now available to everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 23, 2017

Facebook-owned Instagram is continuing to build a safer, kinder community for all its customers by introducing helpful features aimed at increasing user security and privacy on the service. Thursday, the company announced a pair of important updates in the form of a Two-Factor Authentication security feature, now available to everyone, and blurred posts aimed at reducing “unwanted experiences” in the app, a free download from App Store.

Apple acquires powerful automation app Workflow

Cody Lee ∙ March 22, 2017

Apple has acquired the powerful automation app Workflow, reports TechCrunch. The outlet received a statement from the developers, as well as Apple, confirming the deal, but the financial details are not yet known.

For those who aren't familiar with the app, Workflow is similar to the popular IFTTT service in that it allows you to create custom recipes to perform complex tasks. The app was designed by former jailbreak developers.