Apple today is rolling out an update to the Apple Music app for Android users. The update continues to bring the app up to speed with its iOS counterpart and adds support for music videos and family memberships. The update follows the addition of widget support last month for the Android Apple Music app.
With support for family plans, users can now subscribe or update to a six-person family membership, which is arguably one of the best features about Apple Music. A six-person family membership runs $14.99, which is just $5 more than the one-person $9.99 membership.
Apple today is rolling out a small update to its iMovie video editing software on the Mac. The update bumps the app to version 10.1.2 and follows an update that fixed YouTube sharing bugs and improved stability. Today’s update includes a couple of changes that improve navigation, as well as your standard bug fixes and stability improvements. Expand Expanding Close
iPhones and iPads can be great educational tools and sources of entertainment for kids, but finding appropriate games and content can be tricky sometimes. PBS is helping make that easier with its new PBS Kids Games mobile apps for iOS and Android.
I’ve been using Philips Hue white and color ambience lights around my house since they gained HomeKit support last fall, but the mobile apps that control the lights have never felt top notch. Earlier this week, Philips moved its Hue mobile apps to legacy status with a name change and icon tweak, and today Hue users are finally getting their hands on the latest and greatest Philips Hue apps for iOS and Android. The design improvements alone are dramatic and worth the wait, but Philips packs in some new features and tricks as well.
Email apps are a dime a dozen at this point, and each one is continuously attempting to compete with others in any way they can. Today, CloudMagic takes their app one step further in a small, but significant way. With Sender Profile, CloudMagic will now be able to quickly show you more information on the contact emailing you using various social media sources.
Photos on OS X includes eight photo filters as standard to jazz up images with some creative and nostalgic effects. Macphun is today releasing a free Photos Extension app that adds an additional 30 photo filters. It’s a really simple app that can be launched standalone or as an extension natively integrated in the Photos app Edit panels.
YouTube is rolling out a redesigned Home interface for the iOS and Android app. The new design is cleaner and simpler, but also takes advantage of deep neural networks to better recommend videos for users to watch.
Microsoft is getting serious with the Mac today with its new Skype for Business preview for OS X. The new business-focused version of Skype for Mac runs on OS X El Capitan and focuses on creating an enterprise-friendly experience. IT professionals can request access to the new Skype for Business Mac Preview starting today.
Google has released Hangouts version 9 for iPhone and iPad, bringing a native iOS share extension and new Low Power Mode functionality to the social app.
The Wall Street JournalreportsFacebook is working on a new camera app separate from its main offerings that the company hopes will encourage increased sharing of photos and videos. The still in-development app in its current form opens immediately to a camera mode and there are plans to offer live streaming video functionality as well, according to the report:
Apple doesn’t include a Home app for HomeKit like it does a Health app for HealthKit, but Matthias Hochgatterer’s Home app is a worthy solution for anyone diving into Apple’s Siri-controlled home automation platform. In testing various HomeKit-compatible smart accessories, Home for iOS has been a critical piece of the puzzle in making everything work correctly and reliably.
Siri controls HomeKit, but third-party apps from various accessory makers are needed for creating scenes and triggers that really make home automation come to life. Eve does the best job of making one app for all HomeKit accessories, but a dedicated HomeKit app with excellent support for all accessories is ideal. Home, which costs $14.99 but is available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, is a rather essential purchase for having a good experience with Apple’s HomeKit.
Last week we shared the latest HomeKit app on the market, Hesperus, which features an approachable design and customization options at no cost but lacks iPad and Apple Watch apps and Notification Center widgets for now. I mentioned Home for iOS, which is obviously pricier up front, and noted how its Settings-like design can feel cold in comparison. Over the weekend, however, Home for iOS reached version 1.6, which includes tweaks to how accessories are organized plus some nice iconography that I think really enhances the overall design.
Microsoft is bringing its predictive Windows Phone keyboard, called Word Flow, to the iPhone. The third-party keyboard is now available for free in the US App Store. The keyboard features traditional keycap input as well as the popular swiping-between-letters gesture input method popularized by Swype.
In this week’s top stories, the iPhone rumor mill was in full effect as reports surfaced claiming Apple could introduce an new all glass design for a next-generation device. That news was accompanied by Apple’s 12-inch MacBook refresh, an official announcement for WWDC, and the latest Apple Car news. Head below for the quick links to all of this week’s top stories and much more:
Early adopters of Apple’s HomeKit home automation framework tend to notice one thing early on: there’s no real UI beyond Siri. HomeKit helps bridge functionality between various smart home accessories which tend to each have their own connected apps using Siri, but Apple hasn’t released a Home app in the same way it made Health for HealthKit.
Instead, users rely on a folder full of third-party apps from accessory makers, some of which are better than others, or a highly functional but somewhat pricey third-party app called Home to give HomeKit the UI it needs. Today there’s a new app on the market called Hesperus, which is free to use and has a friendly, customizable interface.
An update to the Snapchat app today expands on the popular Face Swap feature in a big way. You can now use the face swap effect with pictures taken or downloaded into your Camera Roll. Until now, two people had to be side-by-side in the same photo to Face Swap.
Now, anyone can face swap with any face detected in their iPhone photo library. This opens up some new ‘creative opportunities’, as pictured above, as the face does not have to be in the real world.
Apple today has pushed an update to the official Apple Store app for iOS that includes a couple of notable enhancements and bumps the app to version 3.7. Most notably, the latest update expands the capabilities of 3D Touch within the app.
QR code-based payments have their benefits like tying debit and credit card transactions to store reward cards and saving receipts in one step, but they still don’t beat the convenience of NFC-based methods like Apple Pay which are less finicky and more secure. Major retailer Walmart, however, is pushing forward with its plans to make checking out smarter using its own QR code-based system called Walmart Pay. And although the two systems could both be options, Walmart continues to resist other digital wallets including Apple Pay.
Popular social network Pinterest has today announced a major update to its iOS app. In a blog post, the company detailed all of the changes coming with today’s update, including a refreshed interface, better localization for different markets, and more.
SongShift is a just-released app that lets Spotify users import playlists directly into Apple Music. In the past, there have been some roundabout ways to accomplish that task, but SongShift is one of the first apps that takes advantage of a new iOS 9.3 provision that makes it possible for third-party apps to access Apple Music.
The new Ghostbusters movie reboot is set for release in theatres this July, and alongside the film Activision and Sony announced today they will release Ghostbusters: Slime City for mobile devices, including iOS. The companies just sent over a first look at the game including a trailer with brief gameplay shots and some screenshots below.
The storyline in the game will take place after the events that unfold in the new movie, and the characters will not be clones of the film’s cast but rather a new selection of heroes. The new Ghostbusters movie is a reboot of the original film and features an all female cast in the main roles, including: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones.
The rundown on gameplay in Ghostbusters: Slime City from the press release:
Since learning to trust my iPad Pro to do more of the tasks my Mac usually handles, Screens VNC has been a critical piece of the equation. iPads can be just as powerful as Macs on paper and also do things Macs never could, but iOS still has software limitations that make OS X a requirement for me. I’ve been using Screens to bridge that gap for practical reasons or just conveniently remote into my Mac using a really sleek and reliable interface, and today Edovia is releasing a brand new version called Screens 4 that packs in several improvements including some new features.
[UPDATE: Full collection of all 27 ‘Apps for Earth’ here.]
Earth Day is just over a week away and it appears Apple plans to highlight it this year with a campaign to raise money for the World Wide Fund for Nature. WWF and Apple teamed up this time last year on an environmental initiative in China, and this year it’s an App Store campaign that brings to two groups and developers together. Several iOS apps have updated today to highlight money from app sales and in-app purchases going toward WWF through April 24th. The App Store will likely update later today to feature these apps, but we’ve collected apps we’ve found so far below:
Popular short-form video sharing service Vine has today announced a new feature that avid users of the service could appreciate. In a blog post, the Twitter-owned service announced that there is now a “Watch” button on all Vine channels that allows viewers to seamlessly view all of the content from a single channel with one tap.
Minecraft developers Mojang today announced a new online gameplay feature coming soon to the Minecraft: Pocket Edition mobile apps called “Minecraft Realms.”
Realms aims to make it easy to play online with friends, sort of like desktop players have been doing for years running their own servers, but without having to do much more than set up a group of approved users: Expand Expanding Close
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