Ready to settle in for the weekend? iDB is here to help with a new edition of our Apps of the Week roundup. This week's selections include a new app that helps you learn how to code, a new group messaging app, and an app that helps you discover new podcasts. And as usual, we've picked two great new games for you to check out.
Remember Flipboard, an iPhone and iPad app originally conceived as a news reader before it got rebranded as your social news magazine? If you still care about the app, you'll be pleased to learn they just announced a major new version with a more streamlined experience and personalized Smart Magazines tailored to your interest. Flibpoard users have created more than 30 million magazines since the app's inception in 2010.
The mobile Flipboard app currently includes news content and articles from thousands of publishers scattered across tens of thousands of different topics.
Facebook is testing a redesign of the chat interface in Messenger for iPhone, which in some aspects resembles Apple's overhauled iOS 10 Messages app. The enhanced chat UI is currently being tested with a small subset of Messenger's user base, but there's no telling when, or if it might launch for everyone. I spotted Messenger's upcoming chat UI refresh on a friend's device. At the time of this writing, the Messenger app on App Store had version 103.0.
This week's edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes some great selections such as a beautiful scanning app, an app for finding out what kind of personal info about you is on the web, and an app that helps you redecorate. And as always, we have some great new games for you to check out.
This Saturday, February 4, Facebook turns 13, a day the company calls Friends Day. In launching products to celebrate friendship and encouraging people to take time to connect with their friends, Facebook recently began adding personalized Friends Day videos at the top of users' News Feed. Additionally, Facebook is now rolling out a new Discover People section in its mobile app for iOS and Android.
As first noted by TechCrunch, Discover People basically encourages Facebook users to add any missing pieces of information to their profile, browse a list of upcoming events to see who else may also be going, check out people in their city they're not yet friends with or browse people who share the same employer.
Snapchat's mobile application was updated on App Store this morning with a new feature that allows business accounts and individual users to create a Snapcode for any website. When you friends snap your QR code, they'll see an option to open the website inside Snapchat for iPhone. Snapcodes require Snapchat 10.1 for iOS, a free download from App Store. Oh, and Snapchat's parent company just filed for an IPO with the SEC, as per The Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this week, Google's free image-editing app Snapseed was refreshed with a new tool for adjusting brightness and color levels precisely. A pair of under-the-hood tweaks is included, too. Snapseed is part of my iPhone photography toolkit and while I'm fond of its simplicity, I wish I could say the same for the app's imprecise slider-based controls.
With Snapseed 2.15 for iPhone and iPad, adding drama to your photos has become a lot easier than before.
That's because the new curve-based editing gives you precise control over things like contrast, brightness and color intensity in a given image.
Two years ago, Microsoft launched Outlook for iPhone and iPad to critical acclaim. Celebrating the milestone, the Windows maker announced it's bringing third-party integrations to your inbox with add-ins in Outlook for iOS.
Not unlike Airmail or Readdle's Sparrow, Outlook brings some of your favorite apps straight to your inbox so you can turn any email into a Trello card, save conversations in Evernote, translate messages in seconds and more.
Google's official YouTube for iPhone and iPad app has picked up a trio of compelling new features in its most recent update on App Store. Bumped to version 12.03, the free of charge software adds handy Chromecast controls to Control Center and your iOS device's Lock screen, and to your wrist via Apple Watch. The playback controls only appear when you're streaming videos from Chromecast devices, smart TVs, game consoles or any other living room devices that run the YouTube app.
Apple hasn't been using Yahoo for weather data in its stock app since iOS 8, but I still keep Yahoo Weather on my iPhone. That's because to me, Yahoo Weather is the most beautifully designed and most comprehensive piece of weather software I've used on mobile thus far. Today, the failed Internet pioneer has pushed a nice little update to Yahoo Weather for iPhone and iPad, which now provides real time weather data along with live video of current weather conditions for select cities.
Apple, IBM and United Airlines said Thursday they've teamed up on a next-generation of apps for United's employees that will make their work easier while improving your flying experience. These apps will assist the carrier's front-line employees in handling peak customer demands better while enabling more effective maintenance for over 50,000 iOS and Apple Watch devices already deployed.
As part of IBM and Apple’s global partnership to redefine the way work gets done, these MobileFirst apps include real-time analytics and data insight. For instance, United's flight attendants will be able to see at any time which customers are connecting in order to assist them in finding their gates upon arrival, for example.
Google today updated Chrome for iPhone and iPad on App Store with a pair of new features. The first allows you to scan a QR code or barcode by selecting a new Scan QR Code option in the shortcuts menu after pressing the app's Home screen icon with 3D Touch on iPhone 6s/7 series. On older devices without 3D Touch, search for “QR” in iOS's Spotlight feature to reveal a shortcut to the browser's new barcode-scanning function.