Apps

Brushstroke is Apple’s new Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2014

It's Thursday and those of you who frequent iDB know what that means: Apple's editors get to discount and highlight another app as part of the App Store's ongoing promotion marketed under the ‘Free App of the Week’ banner.

With last week's free app, the popular retro-futuristic 3D shooter Space Qube, soon going back up to its regular price of three bucks, we now turn our attention to Brushstroke, a photography app available to you at no cost for a week.

Created by Code Organa, the developer behind the amazing ToonCamera app which turns your video and photos into a live cartoon, Brushstroke transforms your photos into beautiful paintings in seconds. Brushstroke made its App Store debut back in March, has an average rating of 4.5 stars based on 285 reviews and was never free before.

Amazon’s Prime Now app featuring one-hour delivery released for iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2014

Online retailer Amazon today launched Prime Now, a shopping and ordering app for iOS and Android with one-hour delivery directly to a customer's doorstep in select markets.

Available exclusively to Amazon’s $99 per year Prime members, the software allows you to shop for tens of thousands of daily essentials such as diapers, toys, paper towels, shampoo, batteries and mor, plus gifts like consumer electronics, wearables, books, toys, clothing and other items.

One-hour delivery will set you back eight bucks per order while two-hour delivery is available at no cost.

For the time being, Prime Now is available from 6am to midnight, seven days a week, in select areas of Manhattan, with more markets to be added at a later stage. The app will even ping you when the new delivery services launches in your area.

Fruit Ninja and all other Halfbrick Studio games are free right now

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

The folks over at Halfbrick Studios must be getting in the holiday spirt, because they just discounted their entire library of iOS games down to free. That's right, for a limited time, you can pick up any one of their popular apps for iPhone and iPad, at absolutely 0 cost.

Even if you're not familiar with the Halfbrick name, there's a good chance you've played one of their titles. The studio is responsible for a number of iOS hits including Fruit Ninja, Monster Dash, Jetpack Joyride and more. Full list of games and App Store links below.

Major 500px app update adds built-in camera, iPhone 6 support and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Popular photo sharing service 500px has posted a monster update for its iOS client today, bringing the app to version 2.9. The update brings about a number of significant improvements, including support for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and the 1Password iOS 8 login extension.

Perhaps most noteworthy, though, is that 500px has added a built-in camera to the app, with the option to control focus and exposure manually. So the app once only served as a browser/manager tool for the service, it now competes directly with Instagram, Flickr and others.

Yahoo’s Search iOS app gains comments, local news and improved navigation

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2014

Yahoo's main search-focused iPhone and iPad application has received a refresh today. In addition to an improved navigation system focused on the new side panel accessible by swiping, Yahoo 5.4 for iOS now integrates latest local news headlines and finally lets you comment on stories within the app.

“Today we’re bringing local news to your fingertips with the Yahoo App,” writes the Internet company. “As you move around the country, you’ll be able to see what’s going on in your area.”

Bing’s iOS apps get a facelift, translate extension now available on iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Microsoft's mobile Bing apps for the iPhone and iPad are getting a major makeover today, with the translate extension that debuted in the iPhone app two months ago at last available on iPads.

On the iPhone, you can now tap anywhere underneath the search box to check out Bing's image of the day in uncluttered full-screen view. You can also swipe from the left to see yesterday’s image of the day.

Another handy addition: weather information, trending news and images of the day zoom to full screen smoothly when swiping from the bottom of Bing's Home screen.

Duet Display lets you use iPhone or iPad as an extra display for your Mac, without lag

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Although Duet Display is not the first app to allow your iOS device to act as an extra display for your Mac (Shape's $10 iDisplay comes to mind), it's the first app to have done screen extending right.

Built by ex-Apple engineers who worked at the company for three years on the iPad and iMac, the software delivers a Retina display at a smooth sixty frames per second with no lag whatsoever.

Featuring touch control, Duet Display makes interactions with your Mac fun and smooth while taking advantage of the fact that an additional display increases productivity by giving you up to 48 percent more pixels to work with.

Apple switching to per-country VAT across App Stores in Europe

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 18, 2014

Apple is changing its pricing scheme across European App Stores, switching from the previously same VAT rate it imposed across the entire European Union to a country-specific model, iMore reported.

Apps European customers purchase on their local App Store previously had an Irish 22 percent VAT on them. With this change taking effect soon, Apple will be now calculating app prices based on whatever VAT is used in each customer's home country.

Slingshot adds swiping between selfie and frontie and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Slingshot, Facebook's weird ephemeral messaging app, is actually getting better and more useful with each update.

After releasing a major 2.0 version rebuilt from the ground up and enriched with such new features as private reactions, photo filters, drawings, emojis and notifications on a per-contact basis.

Today's update keeps smoothing out the remaining few rough edges.

For instance, you can now switch smoothly between your iPhone's front-facing FaceTime camera for ‘selfies’ and the iSight camera out the back for ‘fronties’ by swiping left and right.

Apple once again reverses decision, brings Draft’s Today widget back on App Store

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple has once again reversed its decision on removing an app's feature because of its functionality within Notification Center on iOS.

As we reported earlier this month, even though the app Drafts had already been through Apple’s approval process and downloaded by users, Apple contacted the developer Greg Pierce, saying he must re-submit the app without the buttons to create drafts or open the app. Now that's not the case.

On Wednesday, Pierce released an updated version of Drafts adding the buttons back. Can Apple not make up its mind?

Fleksy 5.0 introduces customizable Extensions, 30+ theme packs, typing improvements and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2014

Fleksy, the popular third-party keyboard for iOS and Android, has released a major 5.0 update which turns it into a platform of its own with “multiple fun and useful input options” and the introduction of downloadable keyboard themes with customizable Extensions.

These perks are in addition to other improvements such as an easier, more comfortable typing with gestures, a redesign around the new customization options, a cool one-handed typing mode on the iPhone 6 Plus and more.

Dropbox refreshes Carousel with albums, new ways to free up space and revisit old memories

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Carousel, the gallery app for all your Dropbox photos and videos, is useful and promising even though it's been lacking some much-needed features.

On Wednesday, the Dropbox-owned app received a major refresh seeking to address some of key user complaints regarding the missing features. Introducing new ways to free up space on your device, Carousel can now remove photos and videos from your device that are already on Dropbox.

Moreover, the app has introduced albums, one of its most-requested features, so now you can organize your photos better on the iPhone and iPad.