Instagram today released a new app called Layout that lets users easily stitch together multiple photos by automatically generating layouts to make a collage of sorts.
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There are now several companies selling USB thumb drives for iPhone and iPad since the first ones with built-in Lightning connectors debuted late last year. By connecting a small and lightweight thumb drive directly to your iOS device, you can avoid limitations of onboard storage and cloud services and instead store and stream media like music, video, and photos using the drive’s additional storage.
A few things to consider when searching for the right Lightning drive: some have a battery that requires charging, companion apps for managing and streaming content from an iOS device vary in quality, and I found some have designs that make using the drives and your iOS device at the same time easier than others. Lastly, pricing varies quite a bit based on the the options below with drives ranging from 8GB to 256GB and other options offering bring-your-own storage using a micro SD card slot.
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Atari is releasing a new fitness app today called Atari Fit that lets users unlock classic Atari arcade games by working out.
The app acts as a personal trainer of sorts with over 100 exercises and fitness routines as well as integration with Apple’s Health app and fitness tracking wearables like Fitbit and Jawbone.
It also has a few interesting gaming features including multiplayer, online leaderboards, and the ability unlock classic Atari games like Pong, Super Breakout, and Centipede:
Multiplayer – Play with friends all over the world anytime. Join a team and workout together or race against each other. Track your stats as a group and encourage each other to workout. Compete to become the fittest team of gamers worldwide!
In addition to unlocking games using points earned by working out, Atari is teaming up with Walgreens to offer Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty program points as in-game rewards.
The Atari Fit iPhone app is available for free on the App Store.
Apple Watch Space Black Stainless Steel, 38mm & 42mm
When the Apple Watch becomes available for pre-order on April 10th next month, customers will have to decide between two different sizes: 38mm and 42mm. Deciding between the two sizes may be difficult if you want to buy one before they begin shipping on April 24th, so the Watch will go on display at Apple Stores two weeks ahead of its launch.
You might not be able to visit a crowded Apple Store just to make that decision, and Apple (mostly) has that covered too. Buried inside the Apple Store app for iPhone is an actual size comparison for each case size. The mockup shows the casing of the Apple Watch with the home screen icons displayed, and you can tap to toggle between the smaller and larger cases.
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Apple has asked developers who attended secretive Apple Watch app development workshops in Cupertino across January and February to hold off on announcing their applications, according to multiple high-profile developers. These people say that Apple has asked developers to not provide in-depth details, revealing screenshots and videos, or launch information about their applications until after the event at the very least. In some cases, Apple has even asked developers to wait until late March or early April to announce their applications…
RadPad, an app we told you about back in November when it launched as one the first to let you pay rent using Apple Pay, now lets you easily split rent with roommates.
Pay with RadPad Roommates makes it really, really easy for renters who have roommates to pay their rent together, using their own credit, debit card or Apple Pay… A roommate signs up and invites their other roommates to pay rent together: RadPad sends invites to each roommate, via text and email. The roommate receives the invite, accepts it and then enters in their credit or debit card or elects to use Apple Pay. That’s it!
You’ll also be able to see when your roommates are slacking with status information on their half of the rent. The app allows up to four roommates to split the rent and sends a check to the landlord on behalf of the tenants. You can even setup rent payments to your landlord through the app if they aren’t using RadPad.
RadPad tells us it’s expecting to process $14M in annual rents this year after launching in October.
The RadPad app is available on the App Store for free.
VideoLAN has today launched several updates to VLC across its apps on iOS, Android, OS X, and every other platform where the app is available, marking the first time that the company has pushed such a massive coordinated release and the re-release of the iOS app. The new versions (with the main app numbered 2.2.0), include several features across the various platforms, and VLC says it took more than a year of volunteer work to put them together…
Tapbots has announced on its website that it is officially discontinuing some of its apps to focus on Tweetbot and Calcbot, for the time being. Convertbot’s features have been built into Calcbot, as we covered last week, so it’s not surprising that app is going away. Pastebot and Weightbot have also been discontinued. Although Pastebot is getting pulled, Weightbot is now free on the App Store for “sentimental value” as it is the app that started Tapbots as a company. The blog post says that the company may return to Pastebot in the future.
Apple has apparently been revising its app review strategy this week and has decided to reverse a previous decision that banned MassRoots, a marijuana-centric social app, from its software storefront. The application was booted from the App Store late last year (though it lasted much longer on the store than some other apps).
According to App Store guideline 2.18:
Dish Network-owned streaming service Sling TV announced today that it will finally allow the general public to sign up and watch live TV from a variety of networks from a Mac or iOS device (through the free Sling Television app), along with several other devices.
Sling TV offers plans starting at $20 (with $5 add-ons available for some networks) that includes streaming and video-on-demand viewing options for live TV networks that usually require a pricey cable subscription, such as ESPN, TNT, Disney, TBS, CNN, and many more.
Like several other professional sports teams, the Cleveland Cavaliers will now be sending out location-aware notifications to iPhone users at its games using Apple’s Bluetooth beacon iBeacon tech. The team will send out the usual reminders, video content, and promos available to those at the game.
The team announced today that the notifications (pictured above) will be sent to fans through the official Cleveland Cavaliers app. YinzCam, Inc develops the app and is using Gimbal Bluetooth beacon hardware at the Cav’s Quicken Loans Arena to get the job done.
The opt-in notifications will include the following:
The MLB was one of the first professional sports team to adopt the tech for beaming location sensitive notifications to attendees at games, while the Golden State Warriors became the first NBA team to take advantage last year followed by several others.
The Cleveland Cavaliers app is available on the App Store now.
Reuters is today releasing a new app for iPhone called Reuters TV that offers access to on-demand video content and live feeds of Reuters’ live coverage of certain events.
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The Yahoo app for iPhone is getting a new look today that the company says puts a bigger focus on magazine content with “beautiful images and engaging features that make content from our ten digital magazines even more fun.”
New features included in the redesigned app to make the magazine experience more interactive include the ability to vote on Yahoo Style, swipe to see Yahoo Movies info including reviews and analysis, and content from Yahoo Food.
You’ll notice the new features mentioned above in all the magazine categories in the app and Yahoo also notes that it now has “Yahoo Weather and Yahoo News Digest content above the stream for your two favorite categories, All Stories and News.”
The updated Yahoo app for iPhone is arriving on the App Store today for users in the United States.
SoundCloud today released a brand new iPad app that has been completely redesigned to offer a better experience for users uploading, sharing, and listening to music through the service.
You’ll have access to just about all the SoundCloud features available on desktop including the ability to build a Collection, explore genres, edit and view profiles, create playlists, and share tracks and artists with other users.
One feature you won’t find is audio recording, however, as SoundCloud warns users to “Please upload any locally stored sounds before upgrading your iPad app, as audio recording has been removed from this version.” As an alternative, SoundCloud said it recommends downloading one of the many audio recording apps that offer SoundCloud uploads.
You also won’t be able to add or view comments, track info, and follower/following lists, but unlike the audio recording feature SoundCloud said these features will be returning in a later version.
The new SoundCloud app for iPad, version 3.7.1, is available on the App Store now.
What’s New in Version 3.7.1
The beautifully redesigned SoundCloud iPad app gives you a simplified, more intuitive and more visual experience. Discover and hear fresh/new music & audio, and log in to build your Collection, create playlists, and be the first to share your favorite tracks & artists with friends and followers.
Please upload any locally stored sounds before upgrading your iPad app, as audio recording has been removed from this version. For future recording, we recommend downloading one of the many apps that allow you to record and post directly to SoundCloud. For your activity feed, track info and user comments, please go to www.soundcloud.com.
And for both iPhone & iPad users we made some performance improvements which give you a smoother scrolling experience!
Super Bowl XLIX with the Seahawks vs. the Patriots kicks off this weekend on February 1st and we’re already getting prepared with a handy list of links for watching on all your Apple devices.
Head below for details on how to watch the game from iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
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Twitter this evening has announced in a blog post that it is rolling out a new “While you were away” recap feature to its mobile apps. Starting today on iOS and “soon” on Twitter.com and Android, a “While you were away” banner will appear in your feed, showing you the top tweets that you missed since you last opened the app. The company initially announced plans for a feature like this in November.
NBCUniversal announced today that it will offer a free live stream of Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 to all desktop and tablet users to promote its TV Everywhere service. For smartphones, Verizon has exclusive rights to stream the event to users through its own mobile app.
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It appears that Google could soon release its promised redesigned Calendar app for iPhone after first making the announcement and releasing the app for Android last November. The Next Web this morning shared a handful of leaked screenshots that provide a first look at Google Calendar for iOS, including info cards that indicate Gmail, Photos and Maps integration will be key features of the app.
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Amazon has released an update to its Cloud Drive Photos app introducing a new name alongside iPhone 6/6 Plus support and new features. The updated, now called “Amazon Photo,” also includes support for full resolution photo downloads, iPad landscape support, and more.
Full resolution photo downloads – You can now download your photos to your device in full resolution so you no longer have to worry about losing details when you print your downloaded photos or display them on a larger screen… Improved iPad Landscape support – Navigate through the app without ever needing to switch back to Portrait mode.
In addition, version 3.3.0 of the app includes duplicate photo detection that will detect matches and avoid uploading duplicates, and a new “report problems” feature directly through the app.
The updated Amazon Photo app is available on the App Store now.
Google is rolling out an updated version of its Google Drive app for Mac and PC this week with a few handy new features. First, you’ll find (as you can see above) that Google has updated the status menu to show much more information than before. Now, you can see the files that are being synced up to the cloud as well as a check mark next to them that will appear as they do so. The app will also make it clear which files are currently syncing and which files are yet to be synced. Additionally, hovering over an item will let you share it straight from the menu.
Google today released its Chrome Remote Desktop app for iOS after a release on Android devices last year.
The app, available for both iPhone and iPad, allows users to remotely access their computer via the Chrome Remote Desktop app available in the Chrome Web Store.
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Update: Some users are once again reporting the availability of the beta Photos web app on iCloud.com (although not everyone just yet). Let us know if you’re still seeing issues.
Update 2: Apple has acknowledged the outage on its system status page and says the issue is resolved.
The Photos app has been mysteriously pulled from the iCloud.com site, in the last few days. The app, which shows pictures stored in iCloud Photo Library, is now no longer listed on the iCloud.com homepage when logged in … with no comment from Apple to explain the disappearance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsPnzcZ1VY
Continuing its ‘From one gift come many’ campaign, Apple has published a new commercial entitled ‘The Song’. The ad depicts a young woman listening to a song on a record player, from her youth. The girl then learns the tune using their guitar, recording the tune on a Mac.
The girl then leaves an iPad preloaded with the same song for an older relation, her grandmother, provoking the same emotions of her childhood and memories. The ad concludes with a Happy Holidays message from the company. Apple describes the ad with the following prelude on its website:
Some gifts create a million more. Watch as one budding musician uses Mac and GarageBand to make a heartfelt song for her grandmother.
For several years, my grandmother has encouraged me to get involved with the stock market. While she was successful at persuading my older brother into investing in penny stocks, I have never taken the initiative to learn how the stock market truly works. For that reason, I was excited when I heard about a brand new app called Robinhood, which provides zero-commission stock trading at your fingertips.
While online brokers are nothing new, with existing firms such as Interactive Brokers and E-Trade, Robinhood is a mobile-first service that doesn’t require a desktop. Whether you are a twenty-something college student that doesn’t fully understand how the stock market functions, an experienced Wall Street stock trader, or fall somewhere in between, the app makes stock trading easier for the masses.
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