Apps

Yahoo updates Weather app with new animations, pull-to-refresh for photos and more

The reinvigorated Yahoo has updated its gorgeous Weather application for the iPhone and iPad, available free of charge in the App Store, with some noteworthy visual enhancements and feature improvements.

I've always absolutely loved how the app presents full-bleed photographs of chosen location(s), sourced from the Flickr community.

But, there was no way to browse through different photos of the same location. Starting today, you can now simply pull down on the image to load a new one, when possible. Another enhancements, straight from the design department: new animations for moon phases available as you scroll through details...

Office for iPhone is now free for home use

Shortly after Microsoft brought the mobile edition of Office to the iPhone last summer, fans of the Windows giant's productivity software cried foul as the app came across to them as more of an Office companion for mobile than a full-blown productivity application.

Although available free of charge and with editing functionality for your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, the app initially required an Office 365 subscription - much like the newly released Office for iPad. But not anymore.

Started today, Microsoft is making both the iPhone edition of Office and the version for Android smartphones free for everyone, like on Windows Phone. And to reflect the updated business model, the app has been rechristened and is now simply called Office Mobile for iPhone - much shorter and easier to remember than 'Office Mobile for Office 365 subscribers', which used to be its full name before...

FireChat for iPhone lets you chat off-the-grid, without cellular or Wi-Fi signal

FireChat, a new instant messaging application for the iPhone, is kinda of a big deal. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference between it and other messaging apps on the App Store if it weren't for its particularly unique feature.

FireChat supports off-the-grid communication, a codeword for the ability to exchange instant messages without a cellular or Wi-Fi connection.

What kind of dark magic is this?

FireChat, the brainchild of the crowdsourced firm Open Garden and available free in the App Store, uses the same principles as AirDrop, Apple's feature that takes advantage of a new iOS 7 technology called Multipeer Connectivity Framework (MCF).

Read on for the full reveal...

Classic action-adventure game ‘Little Big Adventure’ lands on iOS

Good news for 90's gamers this morning as the classic action-adventure game 'Little Big Adventure' is now available in the App Store. This means you can download the title, which first launched on the PC back in 1994, to your iPhone or iPad and let the nostalgia kick in.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Little Big Adventure is considered a real-time pseudo-3D isometric game. You play as Twinsen, a young hero living on Citadel Island on a world ruled by the evil dictator Dr. FunFrock, who is charged with protecting his planet...

Glitch discovered in iOS 7.1 lets you hide stock apps

Folks who updated to iOS 7.1 earlier this month may be interested in this newly-discovered glitch that allows you to hide stock iOS apps. It's very similar to last year's Newsstand glitch, in that it involves a multi-step process and doesn't [obviously] require a jailbreak.

The glitch is present on both iPhones and iPads, and is relatively easy to exploit. All you have to do, essentially, is create a folder full of apps you wish to hide, drop it in another folder, and then remove it. Interested? Keep reading for a full step-by-step video tutorial...

Twitter announces photo tagging, multiple photos per tweet

Following a minor update earlier this morning which added enhancements to sharing and uploading photos in its free iPhone and iPad app, the popular micro-blogging service Twitter has just announced a pair of new features that will be making their way to mobile apps.

The first one is the ability to tag people in tweeted out photos, similar to Facebook and other services, and the other lets you attach and share up to four photos in a single tweet. More on both right after the break...

The New York Times launching NYT Now app next week with cheaper subscriptions

The New York Times newspaper is scheduled to launch new digital offerings on the iPhone come next Wednesday, April 2. I cancelled my digital subscription to both the Times and The Wall Street Journal a year ago due to their overpriced subscriptions and sluggish apps.

Realizing as much - and taking note of sleek looking apps such as Flipboard and Facebook's Paper - the paper sent its digital team back to the drawing board with the goal of rethinking the company's digital offerings and how its content should be reformatted for mobile devices.

The result of their work is a brand new iPhone application that offers staff-curated content wrapped inside a nicely done interface, called NYT Now...

Twitter for iOS updated with enhanced photo sharing and uploading experience

Twitter has just updated its free iPhone and iPad client with unspecified "enhancements to sharing and uploading photos". Behind the cryptically worded iTunes description is a slightly reworked interface for attaching a photo to a tweet, akin to Facebook's Paper app. The update is now live in the App Store and I've included a detailed description along with a few screenshots depicting the feature in action...

Realmac teases Reminders coming to Clear to-do app in early-April

Not to be outdone by fellow developer Flexibits who yesterday teased the upcoming iPad edition of its popular calendar and to-do app, Fantastical, today Realmac Software shared a few tidbits concerning a forthcoming Clear update featuring Reminders integration.

The company is currently wrapping up work on the iOS and Mac releases of Clear with Reminders integration. They were originally shooting to launch the apps in March, but refining the Reminders functionality took longer than expected so now they're looking to release the updates in early-April.

Read on for more...

Apple updates iTunes Movie Trailers with notifications, AirDrop support and more

Apple has posted an update for its iTunes Movie Trailers iOS client this afternoon, bringing the app to version 1.4. The app is universal, supporting both the iPhone and iPad, and provides mobile access to trailers reviews and more for new and upcoming films.

Today's update brings about a handful of useful features including the option to be notified when a movie you have marked as a favorite debuts in theaters or pops up in the iTunes Store. You can also now read critic reviews in-app, and share links via AirDrop...

Twitterrific 5 takes the freemium route, demands in-app purchases for advanced features

Iconfactory has just issued a new version of Twitterrific in the App Store. Previously a $2.99 download, the new Twitterrific version 5.7 has changed the business model from paid to free. Sort of.

The iPhone and iPad application, now supported by revenue from Deck Network ads displayed at the top of the timeline, is available free of charge for new customers, but some of the more advanced features like push notifications, Today view, ad removal and tweet translation are hidden behind a one-time in-app purchase.

That's an interesting change for Iconfactory, but what about Twitter-imposed token limits? Developer Sean Heber ensures customers that Iconfactory has grandfathered a whole lot of tokens so going free should not be a concern. Besides, they can always switch from the freemium model back to the paid one...