New Apps & Games

The Sims 2: Pet Stories hits Mac App Store

Tired of good ol' Sims? How about Sims with pets? Based off of The Sims 2 engine, this classic Sims title returns to the Mac—courtesy of Electronic Arts and Aspyr Media—with updated graphics and several other enhancements and is available for the first time on the Mac exclusively through the Mac App Store.

With native display support for Retina and 4K Macs, gesture support for zoom and rotate, drastically improved performance and other tweaks, you can now care for and train those lovable yet unpredictable pets as you compete for Best in Show at the most important local pet show of the year.

Rockstar brings Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories to iPhone and iPad

GTA fans rejoice! Rockstar Games has ported another title from its popular franchise over to iOS. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is now available in the App Store for iPhone and iPad, for $6.99.

Liberty City Stories follows former-wise-guy-turned-hit-man Toni Cipriani as he returns home to Liberty City. During his absence, the city became overrun with political corruption, drug trafficking and union strikes, and it's up to Toni and the Leone family to get things back under control.

Badland 2 hits the App Store

A year and a half following the original Badland game's debut in the App Store, Helsinki, Finland-headquartered developer Frogmind Games on Thursday released a sequel to the highly acclaimed side-scrolling platformer and Apple's former 'Game of the Year' award winner.

Badland 2, a $4.99 download for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, improves upon the original concept with levels that extend and scroll to all directions.

In addition, the game introduces new and interesting elements such as liquids, flamethrowers, frost, magma, water and volumetric burning light. To celebrate the launch of the sequel, Frogmind has discounted the original Badland game to $2.99, down from its regular asking price of $4.99.

Mileage tracker app Jerrycan: learn how your driving impacts your fuel bills and environment

Today I want to highlight an interesting new app, Jerrycan for iPhone by Pavlo Grozian which lets you track your fuel consumption and fuel expenses. Unlike most mileage-tracker apps in the App Store, Jerrycan shows you how individual driving impacts the ecology with wealth of information at your fingertips including overconsumption peaks, pollution emission, fuel waste and driving efficiency.

And with individual tips and guides, Jerrycan can teach you to drive wisely, waste less fuel and improve your fuel­ efficiency.

Adobe releases Post, an iPhone app for turning photos and text into share-worthy graphics

Photoshop maker Adobe on Thursday released Post for iPhone, a brand new application for turning text, photos and graphics into eye-candy illustrations for instant sharing on social media and elsewhere.

With professionally designed templates and filters, gorgeous typography with resizable fonts, one-tap color adjustments, a curated selection of fonts and shapes and more than half a million free photos, creating instant memes should be fun.

You can now download Microsoft’s Cortana personal assistant to your iPhone

After rolling out a beta of Cortana for iOS to a limited number of beta testers in late-November, Microsoft today released the software to everyone via the App Store.

A free download, Cortana for iOS helps you get things done “by letting your PC and iPhone work together,” as per the official description. The app takes advantage of your schedule, interests, contacts and reminders to deliver personalized results.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and give Cortana a try right now!

Apple’s massive tablet gets its killer app: djay Pro for iPad Pro is here

The iPad Pro has just received what could be described as a killer app in the form of German developer Algoriddim's djay Pro, a brand new iPad-exclusive apps for both pro and aspiring DJs which launched this morning in the App Store.

Joining Algoriddim's existing djay Pro for Mac, djay 2 for iPhone and djay 2 for iPad apps, djay Pro for iPad replicates the productivity of its Mac counterpart with extensive support for more than 70 keyboard shortcuts and iOS 9's Split View and Slide Over multitasking modes.

More importantly, the software takes full advantage of the iPad Pro's A9X chip to deliver pristine sound quality, desktop-class performance and features like high-definition waveforms, four decks, and video mixing with 4K support—all in real-time and without ever skipping a beat.

Sony releases PlayStation messaging app for iOS

Sony today released a brand new iPhone application in the App Store, PlayStation Messages. Conceived as a messaging app for fans of the PlayStation console, the software provides messaging capabilities that used to be part of the official PlayStation app, including availability and presence indicators, group chats with up to a hundred players, rich media in messages such as photos, voice, stickers, attachments and more.

Samsung reportedly working on Gear S2 smartwatch companion app for iPhone

Samsung is reportedly working on its very first iOS app, called Gear Manager, that will permit iPhone, iPod touch and iPad owners to use the South Korean firm's latest Gear S2 lineup of smartwatches, SamMobile learned from its sources last week.

While the Gear S2 works with all Android smartphones, not just the ones made by Samsung, it doesn't play well with iOS. Like Apple's own Watch companion app, the Gear Manager is said to include features to set up and customize the device for use.

Next-generation Yahoo Messenger now available on iOS, web and Yahoo Mail

Yahoo today announced it's re-launching its venerable messaging software—Yahoo Messenger—on iOS, Android, on the web and in Yahoo Mail on the desktop.

The app offers a fresh new messaging experience rebuilt from the ground up, integrates the best of the Flickr, Tumblr and Xobni, does photo sharing and animated GIFs and is focused on group messaging with features such as sharing, unsending and liking.

Review: SiriMote—control media playback on your Mac with Siri Remote

Wouldn't it be nice if you could use the Siri Remote that came with your new Apple TV to control media applications on your Mac? After all, the remote is Bluetooth-based and Mac itself has robust support for Bluetooth networking.

With SiriMote, a new freeware app, now you can. Created by Vienna, Austria-based Eternal Storms Software's Matthias Gansrigler, SiriMote lets you control various functions of the Mac using your Apple TV's Siri Remote.

Review: collect resources, terraform new worlds and survive in space in Last Horizon

As an avid stargazer who's been dreaming about space travel for ages and a sucker for minimalist games, Last Horizon immediately piqued my interest.

In fact, Last Horizon was an instant purchase for me and I never regretted dropping $2.99 on this space survival and exploration title from Pixeljam. Last Horizon puts you in the shoes of a pilot of a lone spacecraft.

Your oxygen and fuel supplies are limited and your goal is a simple one: you must travel the space and seek out new worlds to inhabit. You're going to encounter a range of varied planets along the way and harvest their resources.

Some planets hold terraforming resources you need to create a beautiful, harmonious new planet for yourself. Others only provide oxygen and ore to repair your ship.