Apps

Be more productive in Mail with these 3D Touch shortcuts

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 29, 2019

Apple's Mail is a great place to start trying out iOS's time-saving 3D Touch interactions on your iPhone. With 3D Touch, not only can you create a new email and jump to your inboxes right from the Home screen but manage your emails more efficiently with in-app Peek and Pop gestures.

In this tutorial, you will learn about all the ways Mail takes advantage of 3D Touch to make you more productive by letting you preview emails, contacts, web links, as well as embedded dates and times, airline codes, package tracking numbers and more.

Facebook expanding Live Video feature to all iPhone users in the US

Cody Lee ∙ January 28, 2016

Facebook on Thursday announced that it would be expanding its live video broadcasting feature to all iPhone users in the United States. The company began testing the feature, aimed directly at Twitter's Periscope, in December, along with its photo collage update.

To share a live video, make sure you have the latest version of the Facebook mobile app and open up the Update Status sheet. You should see the Live Video icon sitting above the keyboard. Type a brief description and choose your audience before tapping it to go live.

Whimsical jetpack-flying game Piloteer selected as Apple’s Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2016

Apple's editors have cherry-picked the Piloteer game as its new Free App of the Week on the App Store, meaning you can now download this $1.99 title at no charge until next Thursday. Created by Fixpoint Productions and released on the App Store in June of 2015, Piloteer has an average rating of four stars based on more than 155 reviews.

In this physics-based game, a renowned inventor is determined to overcome the stigma associated with flying a jetpack and convince the world that jetpacks should be revered by all. It sounds easier said than done, however.

Google updates Chrome for iOS with 70% fewer crashes, Spotlight integration and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 27, 2016

Google's mobile Chrome browser was updated this morning in the App Store and the new release promises a whopping 70 percent fewer crashes along with a few other goodies, such as Spotlight Search integration.

Google said that the dramatically reduced crash rate is due to Chrome's adoption of WKWebView, a rendering engine from Apple which was first introduced with the release of iOS 8 back in 2014.

In addition, this release of Chrome for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad should be faster overall, with JavaScript execution now “dramatically faster.”

Microsoft launches ‘News Pro’ app for iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Microsoft on Tuesday released a new app for iOS called News Pro. The company describes the app as "your work news brief," and says it will help you search for news around your work every day, and fuel your unique interests with over a million topics.

The app comes from Microsoft's experimental project group Microsoft Garage, and it looks pretty much like Flipboard and the slew of other news aggregating apps out there. You login using Facebook or LinkedIn, and pick which topics you want to follow.

Spotify’s iPhone app gaining video content from BBC, Maker Studios and ESPN next week

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 26, 2016

A Spotify-branded video-streaming service that should augment its music platform has been in the works since May 2015 and now the Swedish startup is poised to launch the new product, The Wall Street Journal said yesterday.

An update to Spotify's iPhone and iPad application with support for ad-free video content for all users in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden is expected by the end of next week.

Samsung said to be porting several of its device companion apps to iOS

Cody Lee ∙ January 25, 2016

Samsung is preparing to port several of its applications to iOS, reports SamMobile. The site says it has received information from trusted insiders that the South Korean company plans to bring "most of its apps (if not all)" to Apple’s mobile platform.

Of course, Samsung already has a handful of apps in the App Store, and the tech giant confirmed at CES that it will be adding iPhone support for the Gear S2 later this year. But today's report says S Health, Gear Fit Manager and others are on the way.

Browse viral memes and see posts that are blowing up on Vine’s new Trends page

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Yesterday, Vine celebrated its third anniversary and launched a dedicated Trends webpage which collects all the clips that have gone viral on the service in one central place. Users can check out the original video that started the trend, see related Vines and select a growing trend.

In addition, they have collected 2015's most entertaining Vines, remixes and collaborations at the website year3.vine.co, including stuff like the most-looped Vine of Year 3 and posts that sparked some of the biggest trends of the year, such as What are Those?, Why You Always Lying? and Duck Army.

How to stop Background App Refresh for a single app until it’s reopened

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Introduced with iOS 7, Background App Refresh lets suspended apps (those that you quit or run in the background) check for new data so that they always present you with up-to-date content.

As useful as Background App Refresh is, it strains your battery due to periodical data fetching, which sometimes occurs even when your device is locked.

You can enable or disable this feature on a per-app basis in Settings → General → Background App Refresh. You can also save yourself a few taps by quickly disabling Background App Refresh for a single app without launching Settings, and here's how.

Facebook rolling out new 3D Touch features in its mobile app

Cody Lee ∙ January 21, 2016

Facebook on Thursday began rolling out new 3D Touch features to iPhone 6s users via its mobile app. The Verge reports that the additions include the ability to peek and pop things like web links, profiles, pages, groups, events and photos.

The Facebook app has supported 3D Touch since October, but until now it has mostly been about the Quick Actions—the shortcut menu for Home screen icons. Facebook has added a new one of these as well, which takes you to your Timeline.

Duet Display, Things and other great productivity apps are 50% off right now

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Folks in the market for a good productivity app will want to head over to the App Store as soon as possible. Apple kicked off a new "Get Productive" promotion on Thursday that takes 50% off some of the most popular titles in the category.

Among the apps included in the sale are Duet Display, which allows you to use an iPhone or iPad as an extra display, the highly respected PCalc calculator, Readdle's PDF Expert 5, and the celebrated task, reminder and to-do list app Clear.

MarcoPolo Ocean goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ January 21, 2016

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion in iTunes, and this week's selection is MarcoPolo Ocean. This means that the game, which is highly rated in the kids-education-puzzler category, is going to be free from now through next Thursday—a handsome savings of $3.

The concept of MarcoPolo Ocean is pretty simple. It's a digital sandbox of sorts, where kids are encouraged to do things like explore the deep sea, build a coral reef, and much more. Plus, its animations and playful narration help reinforce vocabulary, ocean concepts and other attributes.