Apps

Microsoft updates Office for iOS with 3D Touch features, Apple Pencil support and more

Microsoft today rolled out updates to its mobile Office suite in the App Store: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Across the board these apps have gained support for 3D Touch shortcuts on the iPhone 6s/Plus.

In addition, the new 'Annotate with Ink' feature puts a set of cool tools on the new Draw tab for drawing, writing and highlighting things using touch, pen or Apple Pencil on the iPad Pro.

ZCast for iPhone makes live podcasting with real-time feedback a reality

Billed as a new way to create audio podcasts, Zcast by Zula (which was co-founded by Jeff Pulver in 2013) is a sweet new application which allows anyone to produce a high-quality, multi-member podcast on their iPhone without prior technical knowledge.

The app's key advantage over other podcasting solutions is its ability to invite guest co-hosts, take comments and answer questions in real-time.

In taking the pain out of podcasting, Zcast could persuade people who don't normally run a podcast show of their own to start one in a few minutes, no special setup needed, because that's how easy to use and approachable this app is.

Having spent a few months in closed beta, ZCast is now available to everyone completely free of charge.

Facebook launches sports section

Yesterday, Facebook announced a brand new section on the service dedicated to sports fans and it gets its first big test during this weekend’s NFL playoffs.

The Facebook Sports Stadium, as they're calling it because Facebook is “the world’s largest stadium,” is basically a dedicated place to experience sports in real-time with your friends and the world.

It brings all your game-related content on Facebook in one place, sorted chronologically and updated in real-time, including posts from your friends and their comments on plays, play-by-play information like where to find the game on TV, curated posts and commentary from experts, such as teams, leagues and journalists, and much more.

Apple releases Music Memos for iPhone, an app that lets musicians capture songs ideas

Apple today announced the release of a brand new iPhone and iPod touch application aimed at musicians and songwriters: Music Memos. As its name suggests, Music Memos was designed to “make it easy for people to tap into their musical potential and create incredible music no matter where they are.”

With Music Memos, musicians and songwriters can capture, organize and develop their musical ideas on their iPhone.

WhatsApp to stop charging annual subscription fee in coming weeks

WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned mobile messaging service, announced on Monday that it's going to stop charging customers a subscription fee of 99 cents per year. The service is currently provided at no cost during its free year, after which customers are being charged 99 cents per year to continue using the service.

Over the course of coming weeks, everyone will be able to download and use WhatsApp on their device totally free of charge and without a subscription fee.

The best ways to store your iPhone photos in the cloud

Save iPhone photos to best cloud storage options

Those high-quality snaps and videos you take on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad can pretty quickly eat up all of the available storage space on your device.

There are a number of techniques to increase your free storage, like deleting apps you no longer use, emptying system caches and so forth, but they all pale in comparison to the simplest of solutions—actually moving storage-hungry photos and videos off your device to safely store them in the cloud.

In this post, we'll tell you all you need to know about the most popular cloud storage solutions. We're going to detail backing up your media to each of them and discuss recommended strategies for freeing up as much storage space as possible without destroying your personal memories or changing your workflow much.

Text-based adventure Lifeline is Apple’s new Free App of the Week

Lifeline, the first in a series of groundbreaking text adventures from developer 3 Minute Games, is as of today listed as Apple's new free app of the week in the App Store. The 99-cent game is available at no charge to everyone until next Thursday.

Lifeline, which made its App Store debut in April of 2015, is completely text-based but don't let that put you off, the game is actually fun and addictive—especially if you own an Apple Watch.

Outlook for iOS gains Skype integration, Mac app updated with Split View and full-screen support

Microsoft Outlook is an excellent email client, not just for mobile devices but on desktop platforms, too. And now, it's about to get a lot better. According to Microsoft, Outlook for Mac now now officially supports Full Screen view for OS X Yosemite and up and OS X's native full-screen view.

On the mobile front, Outlook for iOS has received a nice little update which brings Skype integration for calendar events so users can now make any meeting a Skype call that can be launched from the calendar event in Outlook.

Free group video calling is coming to Skype’s iPhone and iPad application

Skype is celebrating its tenth anniversary so the Microsoft-owned company yesterday announced that users of its mobile application will soon be able to take advantage of a free group video calling feature.

According to Gurdeep Pall, Skype CVP, group video calling on mobile devices will be coming to Skype's iPhone and iPad app “soon,” and to Windows 10 and Android devices.

Live Periscope broadcasts are being integrated into Twitter’s mobile app

In a major move, micro-blogging startup Twitter today announced that live Periscope broadcasts are coming to Twitter for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, making it possible to watch broadcasts without leaving Twitter's mobile app.

Now when you tap a Periscope link in your timeline, no longer does it take you to the Periscope app. Instead, those links are getting replaced with the broadcast itself that automatically plays right within your tweet.

Spark for iPhone gains custom swipes in notifications, pinch-zooming and more

Readdle's Spark for iPhone is an awesome email client and I can't wait to use it on my iPad (coming soon) and the Mac (it's in the works). Today's update makes it even better.

In Spark 1.5 for iPhone and iPod touch, you can now customize which swipes are available in notification actions for new messages. You can also designate an email signature to be your default on a per-account basis, zoom in on HTML emails and more.

1Password update brings full support for 3D Touch and other enhancements

AgileBits' popular password manager, 1Password, was updated this morning in the App Store with support for 3D Touch actions on the Home screen and Peek and Pop gestures within the app for iPhone 6s/Plus owners.

These shortcuts permit you to quickly bring up search, view your favorites or add a new item, right from the Home screen, and preview items within the app with 3D Touch.

In addition, the new version contains other refinements and new features such as the inclusion of Watchtower, a service that has been available in 1Password's Mac app for quite a while and alerts you when your accounts might have been compromised, as determined by monitoring the latest security vulnerabilities from around the web.