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6,271 'Apps' stories April 2010 - September 2014
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Learn about the latest news for iOS, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV apps

Apps for iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS power our modern world. 9to5Mac will update you on the latest news, review, and updates for all types of apps. “There’s an App for that”.

The term came became part of our vocabulary when Steve Jobs announced The App Store as part of the iPhone 2.0 software update in 2008.

Over the years, the term has become as common as kleenex for describing applications on all of our devices. Apple’s platforms have apps for just about anything from finance, banking, sports, social media, podcasting, music, and more. We have a guide for helping you discover the best ones as well. Apps are now on everything from our TV, to our smartphones, on our laptops, and all the way down to our wrists.

As new ones are released or existing ones have major updates, the team here at 9to5Mac will bring you the latest news and reviews. If you want to follow along with video footage, be sure to follow 9to5Mac on YouTube. Scroll down below our latest updates on all things relating to applications on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch.

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9to5Toys Last Call: Bose SIE2i headphones $100, Samsung wireless laser printer $100, iPad Air 32GB $490, more

Avatar for Sep 30 2014 - 2:25 pm PT
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Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Headphones: Bose SIE2i Sport in-ears (multiple colors) $100 (orig. $150), Harman Bluetooth over-ears (refurb) $99 (orig. $250), more

Daily Deals: Samsung Mono Laser Printer: $100, Creative Bluetooth speaker: $30, more

Apple 32GB WiFi iPads: Air (Silver or Space Gray) $490 (reg. $599), mini (Space Gray) $280 (orig. $429)

Relonch accessory camera lets your iPhone 5/6 take “magazine-class” photos

Pebble Smart Watch for Apple and Android $100 (Reg. $150), Moto 360 Stone Leather: $250

Small States: Owen & Fred send a message and look good doing it, giveaway worth $412, 10% promo code

Other new deals:

More deals still alive:

More iPhone 6/6 Plus deals, accessories, and trade offers:

New products/ongoing promos:

‘Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel’ will arrive on Mac Oct. 14, same day as PC & consoles

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Sep 30 2014 - 1:24 pm PT
4 Comments
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Aspyr just announced that it’s going to release the much anticipated next installment in the Borderlands series on October 14. For anyone keeping score, that’s the same day scheduled for 2K’s release on PC and consoles! The company also confirmed that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for Mac will feature everything the PC release has including cross-platform multiplayer and future DLC:
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Spotify music streaming service finally launches in Canada

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Sep 30 2014 - 7:21 am PT
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Spotify announced today that it’s finally expanding into Canada giving Canucks access to the music streaming service that was previously available in the UK, US and a long list of other European and South American countries.

The official announcement comes from Spotify’s blog following a beta period in the country in which the company invited select users to sign-up and try out the service.

Canadians that download the Spotify app will be able to access the service’s usual “fully licensed free tier.” That includes the ability to “shuffle play on mobile or play any song on tablet or desktop,” but users can also pay $10 CAD per month for the unlimited, on-demand experience with the highest quality audio and no ads.

A full list of countries that Spotify is currently available in is here.

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Weather Underground updated with iOS 8 widget featuring radar view and current conditions

Avatar for Mike Beasley Sep 29 2014 - 4:13 pm PT
14 Comments

The popular Weather Underground app has been updated with support for iOS 8’s widgets that sports a lot more data than most weather widgets will give you. The new at-a-glance view in the Notification Center provides a look at current radar images and current weather conditions.

You can grab the free Weather Underground app from the iOS App Store. For even more iOS 8 widgets, check out our recent round-ups of general-purpose and weather-specific widgets, and more.

Apple woes continue: Some reporting iCloud down across iOS, Mac, and web

Avatar for Stephen Hall Sep 29 2014 - 4:13 pm PT
32 Comments

Update: Apple says all is good.

It was less than an hour ago that we told you about a newly-discovered bug within iOS that could potentially delete your iWork files. But now, according to a variety of internet reports, Apple’s month of misadventure continues as iCloud is currently experiencing an outage of some kind. Most notably, it seems as if many are being prompted over and over to enter their iCloud credentials within iOS. Apple has acknowledged the outage on its system status page:


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Kindle & Facebook Messenger updated for iPhone 6 support

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 29 2014 - 11:57 am PT
4 Comments

The list of updated apps for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is still somewhat small since developers only learned of the new iPhone display resolutions earlier this month. The Kindle iPhone app from Amazon is joining that short list today, though, with a new version optimized for the iPhone 6.

That means that like iBooks, text you read in Kindle’s iPhone app won’t be fuzzy or scaled up. If you prefer the zoomed up version, however, iPhone 6 users do have that option to make every app larger using the Display Zoom feature found in the accessibilities section of the Settings app on iOS.

Kindle’s previous added a handy widget in Notification Center’s Today view for quickly accessing books you’re reading. Kindle for iOS is available for free on the App Store.

Facebook Messenger has also been updated for the new iPhone models. Notably, the chat app has beat the primary app for the social network in updating for the new iPhones.

iHealth’s nine iPhone-connected healthcare accessories now work with iOS 8’s Health app

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Sep 29 2014 - 11:04 am PT
19 Comments
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iHealth, maker of various iPhone connected healthcare accessories, today announced that its iOS apps are being updated with HealthKit integration. That means that the users of the company’s Wireless Blood Pressure Monitors, Blood Glucose Meters, Wireless Scale, and other health tracking accessories will be able to sync data with the new iOS 8 Health app.
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iOS 8 Roundup: Apps updated for Health (running list)

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 29 2014 - 9:22 am PT
52 Comments
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Over the weekend Apple shared a short list of HealthKit apps that work with the new Health app on iOS 8 after a few apps hit the App Store on Friday with HealthKit support included. Several more iPhone apps using HealthKit to share data with Apple’s Health app on iOS 8 have become available and more are anticipated from some big names shortly. We’ll continue to update the list below over the next few weeks with iPhone apps and accessories with HealthKit and Health support to give you a comprehensive list of apps that can put your Health app to better use.
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9to5Toys Last Call: Pebble smart watch $100, iPad Air 32GB WiFi $490, Samsung 60″ Plasma $700, more

Avatar for Sep 29 2014 - 9:10 am PT
1 Comment

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Last Call updates:

 

Pebble Smart Watch for Apple and Android $100 (Reg. $150), Moto 360 Stone Leather: $250

Samsung 840 Pro 512GB 2.5-inch Solid-State Drive $250 shipped (orig. $500)

Samsung 60-inch 1080p Plasma $700, TCL 50-inch 4K $450, Seiki 39-inch 4K $299, more

iloome readies “the world’s first” curved tempered glass screen protector for iPhone 6/6 Plus

GoPro’s HERO4 shoots 4K video at 30FPS, while the all-new HERO model is its most affordable ever

Small States: Owen & Fred send a message and look good doing it, giveaway worth $412, 10% promo code


Other new deals:

  • New! Jabra Solemate Mini wireless Bluetooth speaker $32 shipped (Reg. $100)
  • New! Daily Deals: Garmin Nüvi 5″ GPS $83, Monster 1650mAh PowerCard $15, more
  • New! Roku 3 1080p streaming media player $70 shipped (Reg. $100)
  • New! HP Chromebox CB1 desktop computer 1.4GHz/2GB/16GB SSD $139 (Reg. $180)
  • New! Sony speakers (refurb): HT-CT60 2.1 soundbar $60, 5.1 home theater system $59
  • New! Top Bluetooth speakers: Ultimate Ears Mini Boom: $79, Jawbone JAMBOX $83

More deals still alive:

More iPhone 6/6 Plus deals, accessories, and trade offers:

New products/ongoing promos:

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Waze app now automatically remembers where you park

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Sep 29 2014 - 8:33 am PT
16 Comments

Waze, the maps and navigation app acquired by Google last year, today gets an update that introduces a few new features to help improve navigation through user feedback.

First up, the app will now automatically remember and save where you park when using it to navigate to your destination: ”Your parking location will be saved automatically. Plus, you’ll help Waze learn where to find parking & how much time to account.”

Other new features included in today’s version 3.9 update: the ability to “easily add or edit places, business or residential” as well options for adding arrival photos and driving info for specific destinations. In addition, the update adds search autocomplete worldwide for all users.

The Waze app is available now on iPhone and iPad for free.

What’s New in Version 3.9

Version 3.9 introduces Waze Places! Help make information on local places fresh & accurate for everyone.

– Easily add or edit places, business or residential
– Add driving related info like if a place has a parking lot or drive-thru
– Add arrival photos to help others find a place at any time
– Drive with Waze until you park: your parking location will be saved automatically. Plus, you’ll help Waze learn where to find parking & how much time to account
– Search autocomplete added worldwide
– Multiple bug fixes and optimizations

Jawbone’s UP app adds HealthKit support, wristband not required

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 29 2014 - 7:07 am PT
14 Comments
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Now that Apple has announced its entry into the fitness-tracking wearable space with the Apple Watch, Jawbone, the makers of the UP and UP24 activity trackers, has introduced a version of its UP iPhone app that works without requiring the fitness band. Instead, the new version of Jawbone’s health and fitness iPhone app adds support for Apple’s HealthKit feature and Health app on iOS 8 making UP’s software for tracking activity and sleep as well as logging meals more valuable to iPhone users wanting to fill the new Health app with data.
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Apple removes Launcher app from App Store for ‘misuse’ of iOS 8’s widget capability

Avatar for Mike Beasley Sep 28 2014 - 12:50 pm PT
87 Comments
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An iOS 8 app that allowed users to create custom shortcuts and access them from a Notification Center widget has been removed from the App Store by Apple for what it calls “misuse of widgets,” the developers said in a notice posted on the app’s website.

The app, called Launcher, worked by letting users enter a URL or select an application to be launched when a shortcut was tapped. The shortcuts would then be displayed in Notification Center, allowing quick access to a variety of tasks such as starting a phone or FaceTime call, creating a new text message, email, or iMessage, opening an application, or more.


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Secret developers launch new notification-focused app called Ping

Avatar for Mike Beasley Sep 26 2014 - 9:21 pm PT
6 Comments

The developers behind the controversial Secret social app have launched another piece of iOS software today. The new app is called Ping and its entire purpose is to send you notifications when certain events happen. It’s essentially like an automated version of Yo.

When you first launch Ping, you’ll be presented with a screen that allows you to choose what topics you want to be notified about. This can be anything from weather updates to “pickup lines for Friday night.” After you’ve picked a few topics to subscribe to, you close the app and wait. When there’s a change to one of those topics, you’ll get a push notification.

There’s not really much to the application beyond that. New topics can be pushed over-the-air by the developers, and you’ll be notified when new ones become available (several new ones have been added just since the app launched a few hours ago). The developers say that as you use the application it will learn to adapt to what you like or don’t like based on your usage.

Ping is free on the iOS App Store.

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MLB At Bat app will for the first time live stream every World Series game, select Postseason games

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Sep 26 2014 - 2:13 pm PT
1 Comment

The MLB.com At Bat app was updated today alongside a couple notable announcements including the league’s plan to live stream every World Series game and select Postseason games to all of its MLB.TV Premium subscribers through the app. The 2014 World Series is set to kick off on October 21. 

The release notes add that the app will now also offer “Live Postseason coverage for every game through the 2014 World Series” and a Postseason.TV feature with “Live companion coverage featuring up to 10 alternate camera angles for the AL Wild Card, AL Division Series and AL Championship Series (TBS broadcasts only).”

The update MLB.com At Bat app is available in the App Store now for iPhone and iPad. Regular $129 for the full year, an MLB.TV Premium subscription is available to purchase now for $3.99 for the remainder of the season, World Series, and postseason. 

What’s New in Version 7.4.2

• For the first time we will be streaming live every World Series game and select other Postseason games to all authenticated MLB.TV Premium subscribers
• Live Postseason coverage for every game through the 2014 World Series
• Postseason.TV: Live companion coverage featuring up to 10 alternate camera angles for the AL Wild Card, AL Division Series and AL Championship Series (TBS broadcasts only)
• General performance improvements

HealthKit support added to WebMD, Carrot Fit, Yummly, more

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 26 2014 - 2:02 pm PT
12 Comments
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In addition to FitPort and MyFitnessPal, a few more app updates with HealthKit support have become available on the App Store. These updates allow you to share health and fitness data with Apple’s new Health app on iOS 8 now that Apple has enabled HealthKit with the release of iOS 8.0.2 after issues in iOS 8.0 and iOS 8.0.1.

First up is WebMD for iPhone. Users of the WebMD iPhone app can now allow the health information service’s Healthy Target feature to communicate with data shared with Apple’s health app. The benefit to this is WebMD uses this information to create “actionable insights on your health data”. WebMD’s update was previously available on iOS 8 launch day until Apple pulled HealthKit-enabled apps due to a late-discovered bug.

Carrot Fit is another app affected by the launch day issue, but its back today with full HealthKit integration. The unconventional workout app uses data from Apple’s Health app to monitor workouts, weight, and dieting for monitoring your fitness. This is how Carrot describes Fit’s HealthKit integration:
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iOS 8 Roundup: The best weather widgets for Notification Center

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 26 2014 - 12:50 pm PT
30 Comments
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When Apple introduced iOS 7 with an overhauled design for the iPhone and iPad software, it replaced the weather widget showing current temperature and weekly forecast introduced with iOS 5 with a text summary of the day’s weather conditions. This weather summary includes an icon for the current weather condition as well as a text description like ‘mostly cloudy’, but it tends to give you the high and low temperatures of the day and not the current temperature like Apple’s former weather widget.

Luckily, iOS 8 allows developers to create third-party widgets including – you guessed it – weather widgets with current temperature and forecast. Since iOS 8 was released last week, I’ve been trying a variety of apps with included weather widgets, and below I’ll share with you what I’ve discovered so far.


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MyFitnessPal updated w/ HealthKit support for tracking calories, weight, & workouts

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 26 2014 - 11:14 am PT
17 Comments
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MyFitnessPal, an app focused on helping you track your diet habits and caloric intake, has released a new version today with support for HealthKit and Apple’s new Health app on iOS 8. The new version allows users to interface three types of data with Apple’s Health app and other HealthKit-enabled apps: meal summaries, weight syncing, and workout data from exercises. Specifically, MyFitnessPal can share meal data you add to the app with other HealthKit apps while weight and workout data can be shared back and forth with other apps.
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9to5Toys Last Call: iOttie iPhone 6 car mount $18, Anker 15000mAh power bank $33, iMac up to $220 off w/ .edu, more

Avatar for Sep 26 2014 - 9:01 am PT
0 Comments

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Last Call updates:

iOttie Easy One Touch 2 smartphone car mount (works w/ iPhone 6/6 Plus): $18 Prime shipped (Reg. $30)

Anker Astro 15000mAh Dual USB Portable Charger $33 Prime shipped (Orig. $100)

iMac current gen. lineup $120 off or $220 off w/ .edu email, 21-inch as low as $880 shipped (Reg. 1,099)

Roundup: the best ultra tough Lightning cables for your new iPhone 6/6 Plus

Small States: The jamstik wireless MIDI guitar controller for iPad, iPhone and Mac, $560 worth of giveaways

Other new deals:


More deals still alive:

More iPhone 6/6 Plus deals, accessories, and trade offers:

New products/ongoing promos:

Apps with HealthKit integration start appearing in App Store following iOS 8.0.2 fixes

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Sep 26 2014 - 5:27 am PT
33 Comments
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After a series of botched updates, which meant HealthKit apps could not launch alongside iOS 8’s release, Apple has finally started allowing apps that integrate with the Health app into the App Store. The first of many is FitPort, which acts as a replacement dashboard for Health information, with all data being synced back into the Health database.

On opening the app, the Health permissions screen opens which asks users to individually enable access to health statistics. This allows users to be very selective about what information they share with third-party apps. Users have to explicitly enable read and write capabilities for every health data type the app wants to integrate. Just like asking for location access, this sheet is presented by the OS, meaning all apps benefit from this level of privacy.


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Post-it note app lets you import physical notes into your iPhone or iPad

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Sep 26 2014 - 4:27 am PT
8 Comments

It’s hard to think of anything lower-tech than a Post-it note: you write on a sticky square of paper and slap it onto a physical surface. But 3M has just launched a clever iOS app that allows you to photograph a bunch of Post-it notes, tap on-screen to select the ones you want to keep and then organize them on your iPhone or iPad before outputting to apps like PowerPoint.

The Post-it® Plus App takes the momentum from your collaboration sessions and keeps it rolling. Simply capture your notes, organize and share with everyone. That way your great ideas don’t stop when the meeting ends.

Getting started is easy. Use the app to capture an image of the Post-it® Notes from your work session. Arrange, refine and organize the notes and ideas on your board anyway you see fit. Then share your organized board with your team and send to your favorite applications —including PowerPoint, Excel, Dropbox and plenty more.

The app recognizes any size Post-it note so long as they are square (and, indeed, even works with Mac OS Stickies if you photograph your desktop). It’s a free download from iTunes.

Instagram’s Hyperlapse video shooter adds support for front camera & iPhone 6/6 Plus

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 25 2014 - 10:23 am PT
2 Comments
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Last month Instagram launched a new video shooting app for iPhone and iPad that combines effects like time-lapse and cinema stabilization called Hyperlapse. Today Instagram is introducing what they call the “selfielapse” by adding support for shooting Hyperlapse videos with the front facing camera on your device using the same features previously only available on the back camera…


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1Password iOS beta previews upcoming iPhone 6/6 Plus enhancements

Avatar for Zac Hall Sep 25 2014 - 9:36 am PT
2 Comments

The popular password and data management app 1Password was ready on day one with a powerful, systemwide extension for accessing your vault and Touch ID support for unlocking the app with your fingerprint. The latest beta version sent to testers today promises one more useful feature its users will appreciate: iPhone 6 optimization.

The new version of 1Password currently being tested by beta users no longer relies on zoomed scaling on the larger display devices and takes advantage of the new screen sizes more efficiently. iPhone 6 Plus users have shared that the new version supports the new iPad-like split-view introduced to certain Apple apps as well.

1Password recently changed its pricing model from a paid application to a freemium model allowing new customers to try 1Password and unlock pro features within the password management app.

While the iPhone 6/6 Plus-optimized version is currently in beta, 1Password users should expect to see the update on the App Store after adequate testing and approval.

Angry Birds Transformers soft launched in New Zealand, hits the App Store for all on October 15th

Avatar for Mark Hearn Sep 25 2014 - 9:14 am PT
5 Comments
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After months of teasing, Angry Birds Transformers is now available in select parts of the world. Gamers in New Zealand and Finland can now sample Rovio’s mashup of fowl and robots, with Canada and Australia set to follow soon afterwards. In addition to a soft launch for its new title, Rovio released a new gameplay trailer, revealing that this won’t be your typical Angry Birds title.


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