New Apps & Games

FitPort wants to be your health & fitness dashboard

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 26, 2014

I briefly touched upon FitPort in my article about HealthKit apps. The app debuted today as the App Store's first HealthKit-enabled application following yesterday's iOS 8.0.2 software update that fixed a bug in iOS 8.0 which prevented HealthKit apps from functioning properly.

Created by Flask, FitPort isn't yet another daily activity, health and fitness tracker, but a wannabe replacement for Apple's stock Health app in iOS 8.

Having spent an hour or so playing with it, I can safely conclude that FitPort deserves your attention so let me discuss it in greater detail.

Just Dance Now uses your iOS device as a motion controller

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 26, 2014

App Store games that use your iPhone as a motion controller are few and far between. Aside from the interesting Motion Tennis and the quite addictive Dance Party, both produced by Rolocule Games, I haven't played any other game that would AirPlay action through the Apple TV and turn my iOS device into a Wii-like controller.

That's why I was so excited about Ubisoft's Just Dance Now, a new take on the world's #1 rhythm-based dance game in which you're challenged to use an iPhone as your motion controller. Just Dance Now is available on a freemium basis so In-App Purchases are unavoidable. Jump past the fold for the full reveal.

Post-it debuts iPhone app for scanning physical sticky notes

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 26, 2014

3M Company made a fortune with its popular Post-it series of trademark yellow paper notes that attach to documents and other surfaces. Now, there’s an app for that.

Released Friday, Post-it Plus for the iPhone and iPad makes it easy to convert the physical square notes into their digital representation by scanning them using your iOS device’s camera.

Once in your iPhone, digital notes can be organized, arranged into groups, shared with everyone and accessed in other apps like PowerPoint, Excel, Dropbox and plenty more using the “Open In...” option.

Gameloft unleashes Asphalt Overdrive onto iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

French games maker Gameloft released a new racing game, Asphalt Overdrive, onto the App Store Thursday. Available for the iPhone and iPad on a free-to-play basis, the retro-styled racing title files as the first spinoff in the award-winning Asphalt franchise.

Set in a “new '80s” version of California, the game features an intense racing experience which challenges players to outsmart and outrun the cops.

Download Asphalt Overdrive free from the App Store.

Sword-slashing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance hits Mac App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

TransGaming, which specializes in video game portability technology, on Thursday released Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in the Mac App Store.

Originally developed by Kojima Productions and Platinum Games, Revengeance is technically still part of the Metal Gear universe, with one notable change: instead of the hide-and-seek approach that the original Metal Gear Solid popularized more than a decade ago, Revengeance files as a hack'n'slash game that puts you in the shoes of a cyborg ninja named Raiden.

Equipped with a fancy high-frequency katana blade, you'll be slicing your way through the enemies amid a terrible conflict brewing between private military corporations (PMCs). The game is available in the Mac App Store for a promotional price of $24.99.

EA Sports releases FIFA 15 Ultimate Team for iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

EA Sports, formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts but now a brand that creates and develops sports video games, on Tuesday released FIFA 15 Ultimate Team as a freemium download in the App Store.

Coming in at a massive 1.06 gigabytes, this iPhone and iPad game features authentic football action backed by Electronic Arts' massive marketing budget and whiz-bang campaign, with licensed player and team names, motion-captured animations and other goodies.

Awesome Screenshot now available as Safari extension on iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 24, 2023

As our own Jeff told you before, Awesome Screenshot, a desktop web app for Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, is arguably the best way to capture an entire web page as an image on OS X.

Thanks to the various extensibility features introduced in iOS 8, this nifty little utility is now available as a screenshot extension for Safari on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 8.

Upon downloading the free app from the App Store, Awesome Screenshot will allow you to capture a screenshot of any webpage simply by choosing it in Safari's Share menu.

Not only can you capture images of web pages on mobile devices with ease, but also annotate and share them with others using Apple's stock sharing choices or a number of third-party Share extensions available in the App Store.

Epic releases Metal-powered ‘Zen Garden’ demo free on App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Demoed at WWDC back in June to show off the power of Apple's new low-level graphics framework, Metal, Epic Games' Zen Garden is now available to download on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 8 and powered by the Apple-deigned A7 or A8 processor.

Built on the recently-unveiled Unreal Engine 4, the first game engine with built-in support for the Metal API, Zen Garden classes as a technological showcase.

The latest iPhone 6, for example, renders the demo in a whopping 1,440-by-1,080 resolution at a smooth thirty frames per second.

Rovio Stars launches iOS 8 Metal-enabled game, Plunder Pirates

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Game industry veterans Midoki and Rovio, the renowned Angry Birds maker hailing from Finland, have joined forces to publish a new game for Apple's platform under the Rovio Stars label.

An addictive combat strategy adventure, Plunder Pirates invites you to build an island in lush three-dimensional graphics and then recruit a pirate crew to set sail for uncharted waters.

The free-to-play download has optional In-App Purchases available, supports Game Center achievements and leaderboards and files as one of the first iOS titles supporting Apple's low-level framework for close-to-the-metal 3D graphics programming, aptly named Metal.

EA confirms SimCity BuildIt coming to iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 11, 2014

Electronic Arts, the world's top games publisher, announced yesterday that it's readying SimCity BuildIt, the latest installment in the popular city-building franchise, for Apple's iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Once again, the game will task you with building a city of your dreams, with the choices you make evolving your city in a variety of ways.

“Meet your citizens’ needs to keep them happy, or make questionable choices and feel your citizens’ wrath,” the company wrote. Pricing and availability information will be publicized in due time.

Apple-owned TestFlight surfaces in App Store as native app ahead of iOS 8 launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

TestFlight, a service allowing developers to beta test mobile apps on the fly, is now available as a native iPhone and iPad application in the App Store.

Apple snapped up Burstly, the company behind TestFlight, back in February to help its registered developers distribute their iPhone and iPad apps to beta testers before pushing them to the App Store for release.

TestFlight is available free of charge and requires iOS 8.0 or later.

Sony’s side-scrolling CounterSpy stealth game now available on iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

After releasing on the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita last month, Sony's CounterSpy is now available on Apple's iOS platform.

Developed by Dynamighty and published on the App Store by Sony Computer Entertainment America as a premium $4.99 download, CounterSpy is set in an alternate history Cold War era and puts you in the shoes of a budding agent for C.O.U.N.T.E.R.

Your goal in this action stealth side-scrolling game: stop a crazed superpower from unleashing a devastating nuclear missile attack unto the entire world.