Apps

Sony’s Music Unlimited streaming app hits iOS, children run scared

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

As rumored back in January 2012, Sony has brought its music streaming app to the iOS platform. A newly-released iOS client works in tandem with the Japanese giant's own online music service dubbed Music Unlimited, enabling you to stream Sony's catalog of fifteen million of songs to your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

The program arrives on the heels of Spotify for iPad, which landed on the App Store on May 2, 2012. Of course, to fully enjoy the Music Unlimited iOS app, you'll need to pick a Basic or Premium subscription. Luckily, a 30-day free trial Premium subscription is available, allowing you to sample the service and the iOS app before committing to a monthly subscription, which starts at $3.99 a month...

New Infinity Blade Dungeons gameplay footage is totally eye-candy

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

If you own an iPad 3, Infinity Blade Dungeons is that killer game you’ve been dying to show off to your Android-toting friends. Unlike elegiac masterpieces Infinity Blade I & II that have been created by Chair Entertainment, Epic entrusted the creation of Infinity Blade Dungeons to a small team comprised of vets who worked on Gears of Wars.

It's one of a select few games Apple demoed during March’s iPad 3 introduction to show off the graphics prowess of its new tablet and the improved A5X chip that rocks quad-core graphics engine.

If this new gameplay footage is anything to go by, this dungeon crawler is going to raise the ladder of console-grade gaming on portable devices...

Confirmed: Sparrow for iPhone push notifications will require a yearly subscription

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

If you need yet another reason to jailbreak your iPhone, here it is: The popular Sparrow for iPhone email client will require a yearly subscription to enable push notifications for incoming messages. The sad news has been officially confirmed by developer Dom Leca and the Sparrow team.

Apple apparently told them they "are not willing to do any exception to the rule" concerning push support in Sparrow. Of course, those with a jailbroken iPhone can simply download Sparrow Push, a handy little tweak that adds this useful feature to the otherwise awesome email client at no additional cost.

Push notifications are coming in a future version of Sparrow for iPhone, which has just been updated with the following new features...

Pocket 4.1 is out with new features and UI enhancements

Cody Lee ∙ May 11, 2012

For those of you who aren't familiar with Pocket, it's essentially the reincarnation of Read It Later. The service allows you to bookmark and organize your favorite articles, videos and other web content for later viewing.

About a month ago, the Read It Later team released Pocket 4.0 for the iPhone and iPad — the first app released under the new brand. And while the client was great before, it just got a whole lot better...

Instapaper updated with features and gorgeous iBooks-style animations

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 10, 2012

I'm a big fan of Instapaper. I've come to rely on both the bookmarklet and the iOS app for my daily blogging and research, as well as general reading needs.

I've been also using Instapaper to catch up on my previously saved stories while on the go, using my iPhone or iPad.

Today, Marco Arment pushed another update that brought a couple new features in addition to a cosmetic change I've been clamoring for: iBooks-style animations.

I know that some other apps replicate the wonderful page curl seen in Apple's iBooks app, namely Google's Play Books. But whereas other programs fall short because of the sluggishness and jaginess exhibited when flipping through the pages, Instapaper 4.2 delivers.

I've been comparing page curls in iBooks and Instapaper for like an hour now and walked away convinced that Instapaper pretty much beats iBooks with its gorgeous, smooth and pixel-perfect page turns...

Facebook announces App Center, a cross-platform app store

Cody Lee ∙ May 10, 2012

Late yesterday afternoon, Facebook announced that it was going to be launching a cross-platform app store, coded entirely in HTML5, called App Center. Cross-platform meaning it will be available on both Android and iOS, as well as the web.

No, this doesn't mean that the social network is looking to take on Apple or Google. The App Center will contain both iOS and Android apps, along with Facebook's own titles, and will link directly to each platform's respective app stores...

Next game by Tiny Wings creator due “in less than three weeks”

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

We instantly fell in love with Tiny Wings by Andreas Illiger, an addictive game featuring a cute bird flying through a series of random hills. The game still files as one of the best entertainment releases to hit the App Store since Angry Birds.

Apple loves it, too, and it even inspired a charming knock-off dubbed Whale Trail. Having earned a fortune from Tiny Wings, the developer shared a little secret on his upcoming project, scheduled to hit the App Store by June.

Gamers, rejoice: TouchArcade lands on App Store, we go hands-on

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

We here at iDB love TouchArchade, one of the first and arguably the most comprehensive websites out there for up-to-date news and reviews concerning gaming on the iOS platform. In case you haven't heard about it, TouchArcade is a project by our friends over at MacRumors, one of the longest-running Apple rumor publications on the web, run by Arnold Kim.

Born out of AppShopper, another pet project by MacRumors that provides most of the glue which enhances iTunes meta data by tracking app changes, the TouchArcade website has become the go-to source for my iOS gaming needs.

Having tried the app briefly, I'm happy to report that it's everything you've been hoping for - and then some...

Twitpic for iPhone released, pulls 4 years of your photo-sharing history

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Not that long time ago, Twitpic used to be the go-to service to post images to Twitter. This changed last year when the popular microblogging and social media service chose Photobucket as its hosting partner.

In a long overdue move, Twitpic yesterday released an iOS app that lets you edit and share photos in a snap. Though Twitpic still commands a respectable and loyal user base, it really comes a year too late.

The app arrives at a time when Instagrams and Facebooks of this world pretty much rule the social photo sharing landscape and it'll be especially tough for them to compete with Facebook's staggering $1 billion Instagram acquisition...

Apple confirms OpenStreetMap data in iPhoto as own maps rumor persists

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

Giving credit where credit is due, Apple now properly acknowledgeds use of crowd-sourced map tiles from OpenStreetMap for its $4.99 iPhoto photo management program for the iPhone and iPad.

The proper attribution has been discovered in yesterday’s iPhoto 1.0.1 maintenance update, tucked away in legal text found under the Apps section in device Settings.

With that off our backs, we wonder when will Apple make an iOS-wide switch from the Google Maps backend to its own mapping solution...