Apps

iOS journaling app Day One goes free as Apple’s new Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 27, 2018

Day One by Bloom Built is one of the sleekest journaling programs available for iOS and OS X.

This fine piece of software has been named the 2014 Mac Apple Design Award Winner at WWDC last month, was 2012's Mac App of the Year and gets frequently highlighted by the App Store/Mac App Store editors.

Day One keeps your entries in sync via iCloud across platforms and puts back the fun in keeping a journal of your daily highlights, thoughts and memories.

Its rich feature set includes location/weather support, uncluttered interface styled for iOS 7, multi-Markdown text formatting, full screen mode, passcode lock and photographic entries, to name just a few. And now, for the first time in almost a year Day One for iOS has gone temporarily free in celebration of the upcoming Independence Day weekend (regularly a $4.99 download), courtesy of Apple's ongoing Free App of the Week promotion...

Facebook updates Pages Manager with new commenting and posting features

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 3, 2014

Nearly two weeks after giving its Pages Manager app for the iPhone and iPad a much-needed iOS 7 overhaul, the social networking giant Facebook last night issued another update adding a couple new capabilities for page admins.

The latest Facebook Pages Manager 4.1 update expands on the app's feature set with photos and tagged Pages in comments, direct sharing from your Page, location in your posts and more...

All three Infinity Blade games are on sale this holiday weekend

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, also known as Independence Day, a federal holiday in the U.S. commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain.

ChAIR Entertainment, the brains behind the Infinity Blade series, an iOS-exclusive elegiac masterpiece, has now discounted all three Infinity Blade games.

In celebration of Independence Day, you can now grab all three games for as little as six bucks compared to their combined regular value of twenty bucks...

Mobile-exclusive Civilization Revolution 2 now available on iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 2, 2014

As promised, publishing label 2K Games and developer Firaxis today released Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2, a mobile exclusive game filed as the long-awaited sequel to the iOS and console port of the 2008 PC original, Civilization Revolution, which was a turn-based strategy game.

The game is now available in the App Store as a premium $14.99 download for the iPhone and iPad.

With new units, new technology, new buildings and wonders, updated 3D graphics and new historic events and battles available in the Scenario Mode, Civilization Revolution 2 is a no-brainer for true fans of Sid Meier's sim games...

Vine updated with Loop Counts, revamped Activity section and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Twitter-owned Vine's mobile app hasn't received a lot of important new features lately as the team focused on making the web interface more functional and prettier.

Today, Vine announced a cool new feature addition: Loop Counts. Now available in the just-updated Vine for iPhone version 2.1, Loop Counts indicate how many times people have looped a video, including on Vine and in embeds across the web.

Vine also contains a cleaner feed with bigger videos and a revamped Activity section with new account milestones and more visual notifications and other perks...

Readdle’s Scanner Pro now half price to celebrate 6M downloads, iOS 8 app in the works

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 1, 2014

Scanner Pro, one of the best apps for quickly scanning and saving a digital version of a paper document, has passed six million downloads since its App Store debut in December of 2009.

It's a noteworthy milestone in my book given the software costs seven bucks and has thus far gone temporarily free only once, as Apple's Free App of the Week in January.

To celebrate the milestone, Ukrainian developer Readdle has temporarily shaved 50 percent off Scanner Pro's asking price, now available for a limited time for just $2.99...

Pebble 2.3 firmware now live with notification skipping with a double-click

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Nearly a month into its most recent firmware update which has brought out a much-needed music volume control and Launcher item ordering, the maker of the Pebble smartwatch on Tuesday issued another firmware update while refreshing its companion iOS app with smaller changes.

The Pebble 2.3 software update brings improved Bluetooth performance and, more importantly, enables the ability to quickly skip to the next notification by double clicking, in addition to other tweaks...

1Password with Touch ID authentication and Safari Share sheet support shown off

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 30, 2014

A big part of what makes iOS 8 so great is how Apple is finally opening up its mobile operating system to developers, more than ever before.

Take Touch ID, for example. With a little help from the iOS 8 SDK and the new Local Authentication Framework, third-party apps can tap Touch ID to authenticate a user in a safe manner as fingerprint data is protected and never accessed by iOS or apps.

Brands such as PayPal have pledged to update their apps with Touch ID authentication when iOS 8 gets released for public consumption this Fall and now a beta tester has posted screenshots and a short video of Touch ID integration in 1Password for iOS, the popular password management program by AgileBits...

Fly brings multi-cam video editing to iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

The App Store is home to some of the best photography and video editing apps on any mobile platform so there are plenty of choices for video editors and mobile podcasters, from Apple's own iMovies app to innovative third-party solutions like MixBit by YouTube creators, Pinnacle Studio by Corel and Chromic, to name a few.

If you're really serious about editing video on the go and want to compose advanced edits with professional-looking effects that go beyond ready-made templates, look no further thanFly by Fly Labs, an innovative and fast video editor that supports multi-device video capture function.

Available free of charge in the App Store, Fly brings multi-cam editing to your iPhone and lets you compose videos with picture-in-picture and split-screen effects using simple and intuitive gestures...

Monty Python comes to iOS with John Cleese voiced The Ministry of Silly Walks

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 26, 2014

Our US audiences may not necessarily be fond of Monty Python, a British surreal comedy group best known for Monty Python's Flying Circus, a hilarious television sketch show broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974.

Even if you've never followed the show, chances are you've encountered some of the popular and widely quoted sketches on YouTube. Some have even gone to become cultural phenomenons in their own right. Take the "Spam" show, for example, which led to the coining of the term email spam.

My fav sketch is "The Ministry of Silly Walks" and much to my delight, it's now been turned into its own iOS game, now available in the App Store...

Opera Mini for iOS gets a surprise overhaul loaded with cool new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

For the first time since 2012, the Opera browser by Norway-based Opera Software has received a substantial update cleaning up the UI dramatically.

In a nutshell, Opera has dropped the dark theme in favor of a light appearance. I'm liking it a lot: not only is the new look a lot easier on the eyes, navigating and enjoying web content is now more pleasurable than ever before.

In addition to the updated design, the new Opera Mini version 8.0 brings out several new features, including a new data compression mode, user interface themes to customize the browser's look, a new way to discover what's trending and a built-in QR code reader...

Gameloft’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier is Apple’s new Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 12, 2018

Every Thursday, Apple features another app or game as the App Store's Free App of the Week. This time around, Apple's editorial team has chosen Gameloft's Captain America: The Winter Soldier game for the iPhone and iPad, regularly a $2.99 value.

Released three months ago, this movie tie-in has you playing as Captain America who must lead his S.H.I.E.L.D. Strike Team as they struggle to contain a massive attack on the World by several nefarious crime organizations.

The game boasts interestingly cartoonish artwork style and doesn't disappoint in terms of pure action: there are plentiful combos to master though it's not all about fighting either as you'll need to use your tactical skills to combat threats and lead your Strike Team wisely...