Apps

With iOS 8 launching yesterday and the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus hitting stores and delivering to customers tomorrow, a number of apps have already begun shipping updates to take advantage of the new screen sizes and software features. With several customers asking where the update for Fantastical 2 on iOS 8 was, Flexibits today shared in a blog post its plans for the iPhones 6 and new version of iOS.

The makers of the smart calendar app note that the current version of Fantastical 2 has already been released with iOS 8 support and that a version of Fantastical 2 optimized for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has today been submitted so users of the new device won’t have to wait long for the new version. More importantly, a version introducing a Notification Center widget and system extension will be “coming in the next few weeks.”
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Twitter for iPhone rolling out refreshed user profile design & interactive notifications

Zac Hall Sep 18 2014 - 1:36 pm PT

Twitter shared in a blog post today that it will begin rolling out improvements to the user profile design for iPhone users in addition to new features for iOS 8.

The previous user profile design featured the user’s avatar centered over the cover photo with a swipe required to reveal the bio and photos further down in a carousel view. The refreshed design now presents all of this information in a more traditional layout with buttons distinguishing tweets, favorites, and photos. Each of these sections can be explored with an endless scrolling feed.

The update also offers up users interactive notifications, a feature introduced with iOS 8 but not readily available in many apps just yet.
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Apple releases Safari 7.1 for Mavericks w/ DuckDuckGo search engine, encryption for Yahoo searches

Jordan Kahn Sep 18 2014 - 9:05 am PT

14 Comments

Apple has just released Safari 7.1 to all users of OS X Mavericks following several beta releases in recent weeks. The update adds DuckDuckGo as a default search engine option, which was also just added to Apple’s mobile version of Safari alongside iOS 8. The update also includes a security improvement for Yahoo search engine users: Apple says Yahoo searches from the search field are now encrypted.

In addition, Apple notes the release improves Reader and AutoFill compatibility with websites.

The release follows OS X 10.9.5 becoming available to all users yesterday with Safari 7.0.6. The Safari 7.1 update is available to users on OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 now through Updates in the Mac App Store.

9to5Toys Last Call: iOS 8 app bundles go live, VIZIO 42-inch Smart HDTV $420, rooCASE iPhone 6 cases $7, more

Sep 18 2014 - 9:00 am PT

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:

Roku 1 full HD streaming media player $35 w/ free in-store pickup (orig. $60)
Belkin’s WeMo lineup now includes $30 smart LED bulbs
Satechi’s new Bluetooth extension arm for exceptional selfies from your smartphone
D-Link ups its home automation game with the new mydlink WiFi Smart Plug
Home: Oral-B electric toothbrush $86, Cuisinart toaster oven (refurb) $45, more

New iOS 8 app bundles offer popular apps/games at discounted prices

VIZIO 42-inch 1080p Smart LED $420 (orig. $500), Samsung 55-inch 4K Smart 3D LED $1500 (orig. $5100+), more

rooCASE iPhone 6 hybrid case w/ screen protector (multiple colors): $7 shipped (orig. $30)

More iPhone 6 deals:

Apple isn’t making an iPhone 6/6 Plus dock, here are your best options
ZAGG 20% off sitewide coupon: iPhone 6/6 Plus protection from $12 shipped, more
Should you protect your new iPhone 6/6 Plus with AppleCare+ or SquareTrade?
AT&T announces iPhone 6 trade-in promo, includes $200 min. for iPhone 4/4s
Monoprice iPhone 6 cases as low as $5.60 with free shipping
Walmart to offer $20 or greater discount on 16GB iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus + $15 gift card
Upgrade your iPhone 4 (or newer) to a Verizon iPhone 6 for free w/ 2-yr contract
Radio Shack looks to attract iPhone 6 buyers with free $50 iTunes gift cards

Small States: Grovemade stays true to themselves w/ its handmade tech accessories, giveaway worth $306 + 15% discount

Other new deals:

New! VIZIO soundbar w/ wireless subwoofer $200 Prime shipped (Reg. $330)
New! Samsung EVO microSD Cards: 32GB: $15 (Reg. $50), 64GB: $30 (Reg. $90)
New! Games/Apps: Tomb Raider DE $30, Instapaper free (Reg. $4), more
New! Daily Deals: Jawbone JAMBOX: $90, UE Boom: $139, more
New! Amazon announces massive Kindle refresh

More tech deals still alive:

Back in stock! Anker 40W 5-port desktop USB charger $20 Prime shipped (orig. $50) http://t.co/iOCkfItbEK pic.twitter.com/MoSFRgQGsv

— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) September 17, 2014

Apple iPad mini w/ Retina display 16GB $75 off or $125 off w/ .edu email, deals from $275
Apple iPad Air 16GB WiFi (Silver or Space Gray) $400 shipped (Reg. $499)
Logitech Wireless Performance Mouse MX for Mac Darkfield Laser Tracking: $50 (orig. $100)
WD Elements 2TB portable USB 3.0 hard drive: $80 shipped (orig. $130)
Beats Mixr on-ears $160, Sony over-ears $100, more
Klipsch STATUS Over-Ear Headphones (white) $100 shipped (orig. $250)
Ken Burns documentaries up to 70% off, Drake/Lil Wayne/more tracks for free, more
Samsung 48-Inch 1080p Smart HDTV $600 (Reg. $1,200), more
Bose CineMate GS Series II $499 (Reg. $599), LG BT Soundbar $150 (orig. $299)
Powerline adapter kits: TP-LINK AV600 $63 (orig. $95), ZyXEL 600Mbps $50 (orig. $120)
ASUS RTN65U dual-band 802.11n wireless router $50 shipped (Reg. $100)
ImageClass Color AiO $180 (Orig. $449), ImageClass Monochrome AiO $150 (Orig. $299)
Blue Mikey Lightning Microphone for iPhone & iPad $90 shipped (10% off)
Logitech Ultimate Ears Mini Boom speaker (multiple colors) $67 shipped (Reg. $99)
Nikon D3300 DSLR w/ 18-55mm lens kit (refurb) $400 shipped (orig. $650)
USB Car Chargers: Omaker 3-port $10, Volmate Dual-USB $8, more
Dragon Naturally Speaking Speech recognition for Mac $99.99 (50% off)

Home/fashion/magazines/games:

Mac App Store sale: BioShock $10, Rayman Origins $5, Batman Arkham $10, more

New products/ongoing promos:

Logitech’s new Living Home lineup brings universal control to all your smart home devices
Download iTunes playlist with eight popular country songs for free (over $9 value)
Microsoft unveils MFi Bluetooth keyboard built for iOS, Android & Windows devices
ecobee’s new smart thermostat and remote sensors offer complete home coverage
Bose’s most affordable Soundlink Color speaker and first set of Bluetooth headphones
SanDisk’s new 512GB SD card is a dream come true for 4K film buffs
Nintendo introduces nostalgic new NES look for 3DS XL handheld

CNN’s iPhone 6 app demoed during the Apple event is now available

Zac Hall Sep 18 2014 - 7:59 am PT

: Before updating

: After updating (with new landscape view)

Apple showed off a number of its own apps at last week’s iPhone 6 event to illustrate how the larger display phones can show content in new ways, specifically using the iPad-like two-column view in landscape mode.

Apple also encouraged developers to update their own apps to take advantage of the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays rather than relying on system scaling to blow up content made for 4-inch displays, and CNN’s news app for iPhone was the shining example of what third-party app makers can do.
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Demoed at WWDC, Epic Zen Garden is now available to download in the App Store

Benjamin Mayo Sep 18 2014 - 6:09 am PT

First shown at WWDC to demonstrate Metal (Apple’s new graphics API), Epic Zen Garden is now available in the App Store to download and try out on your newly-updated iOS 8 device. Although this is more of a tech demo than a fully-fledged game, you can still get some enjoyment out of raking the sand or playing with the fish in the pond. There are several different areas to explore which show off the power of the GPU in your iOS device. It does look good.

GarageBand’s iOS 8 update adds MIDI over Bluetooth for wirelessly connecting instruments

Jordan Kahn Sep 18 2014 - 5:38 am PT

2 Comments

As one of the last of its own apps to get an update for iOS 8, Apple has now updated its GarageBand app for iPhone and iPad with support for the new operating system and more.

On top of the expected iOS 8 support, the app also gains MIDI over Bluetooth support, which means compatible MIDI keyboards, DJ controllers and other MIDI-based instruments can now connect wirelessly and send MIDI data to the app over Bluetooth LE. We first told you about Apple’s new MIDI over Bluetooth support in iOS 8 and coming soon in OS X Yosemite, which will also allow users to advertise their device as a MIDI device for sending MIDI from virtual apps on either OS to the other.

Also new for GarageBand is iCloud Drive compatibility, although developers have warned users to avoid upgrading to the feature before the release of OS X Yosemite.

Lastly, the app adds the ability to “Toggle the metronome on and off directly from the control bar.”

The updated GarageBand is available on the App Store now.

Dropbox and Carousel showing duplicate photos after earlier syncing outage

Ben Lovejoy Sep 18 2014 - 3:45 am PT

An iOS 8 compatibility issue that led the Dropbox and Carousel iOS apps to fail to upload photos has now been resolved with a new version, but you may find that you are seeing duplicates of your photos, reports the company in its blog.

Some iOS 8 users who have downloaded the latest versions of Dropbox and Carousel might be experiencing ‘duplicate’ uploads of their photos. These ‘duplicates’ are backed up versions of thumbnails generated by Apple’s iCloud My Photo Stream and are being recognized as unique images by Dropbox.

Dropbox also acknowledges that “a small number” of users are finding that the app crashes on opening, and is working on a fix for both issues.

Apple released iOS 8 yesterday for the iPhone 4S and up, the iPad 2 and later and the 5th generation iPod Touch. Check out our roundups covering Today widgets, third-party keyboards and extensions and Touch ID support.

Update: Dropbox says it should be resolved.

[tweet https://twitter.com/dropbox_support/status/512670125997051904]

iMovie for iOS updated with iOS 8 support, video filters, clip speed settings, and more

Mike Beasley Sep 17 2014 - 4:43 pm PT

20 Comments

Update: Apple seems to have temporarily pulled this update in order to fix widely-reported crashes. It will likely be available again soon.
Update 2: It’s back now.

Apple has pushed out an updated version of iMovie for iOS (version 2.1) today that features support for the newly-released iOS 8 software and several other new features. The update includes 10 new Apple-designed filters that can be applied to your clips, speed settings for projects on newer iOS devices (iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and Retina iPad mini), as well as iCloud Drive support.

You can also now export your videos to other apps using iOS 8’s inter-app connectivity features. An iMovie extension for the Photos application allows you to enhance the videos in your camera roll without leaving the app. Titles can now be created with bi-directional text, and support for five languages has been added.

Keymoji keyboard for iOS 8 translates everything you type into emoji

Mike Beasley Sep 17 2014 - 4:09 pm PT

The Apple Watch may be able to share your heartbeat with someone across the world, but I think we all know that the future of communication actually lies in those little smiling faces called emoji that are usually tucked away in a secondary keyboard on our phones. To ensure that the future of interpersonal conversation is not hindered by the relative difficulty of tracking down just the right icon to express your feelings, one iOS development team has released a keyboard that translates everything you say into emoji.

The keyboard is called Keymoji, and it uses a crowdsourced database of emoji combinations that can then be substituted for words in your text messages, emails, tweets, and other communications (via Re/code). As you type, Keymoji will figure out what you want to say and translate it into a collection of icons that properly convey your message.

Apps

Apple updates mobile iWork apps w/ iOS 8 support & iCloud Drive compatibility

Jordan Kahn Sep 17 2014 - 3:58 pm PT

6 Comments

Following updates to a number of its other iOS apps for iOS 8 earlier today, Apple has just released an update for its Numbers app. The update includes iOS 8 support and iCloud Drive compatibility and comes ahead of what we expect will be similar updates for Apple’s other iWork apps, Pages and Keynote, later today. (Update: Pages and Keynote 2.4.2 are now available with these changes.)

Earlier today we noted that developers are warning users upgrading to iOS 8 to not opt into iCloud Drive until the release of OS X Yosemite. The feature, which allows users to store and access files stored in iCloud on Mac, Windows, and iCloud-enabled iOS apps, is available to users on iOS 8 starting today, but could break the ability to sync documents between Macs before the release of OS X Yosemite later this year.

The updated Numbers app is available on the App Store now.

What’s New in Version 2.4.2

• Support for iOS 8
• iCloud Drive compatibility
• Stability improvements and bug fixes

Jailbreak tweak developer releases three new iOS 8 widgets for monitoring your calendar, weather, and more

Mike Beasley Sep 17 2014 - 3:12 pm PT

In March we reported on a new jailbreak tweak called ProWidgets that introduced a whole suite of widgets to the iOS 7 Notification Center. With today’s release of iOS 8, Avanio Labs, the company created by Alan Yip, has released several native widgets for the new operating system. These new add-ons will help you keep track of your calendar and to-do list, monitor the weather, and perform a ton of useful actions on the text stored in your clipboard.

The first of these is Agenda+, which you can see in the screenshots above. Agenda+ combines a list view of your calendar events with a summary of your iOS Reminders. iOS typically breaks these two up into separate widgets, with the Calendar widget showing a full timeline of your day (which can take up a lot of space depending on how many events you have and how late in the day they are).

Google Glass companion app MyGlass for iOS updated w/ photo syncing, bug fixes

Chance Miller Sep 17 2014 - 2:26 pm PT

1 Comment

Google’s companion app for Google Glass was updated this afternoon on iOS with a few minor changes. The update to MyGlass bumps the app to version 0.8.0 and brings it closer to the generally more capable and more powerful MyGlass Android app.

iOS 8 Roundup: The latest apps with extensions and Touch ID support

Zac Hall Sep 17 2014 - 10:30 am PT

18 Comments

As part of iOS 8’s new Extensibility features, developers can now create app extensions throughout the system for sharing information and performing actions without actually launching their apps.

What this means for users is that the familiar action or share button (the upward arrow in a box) will now contain way more options than ever before. Remember when Apple added Facebook and Twitter sharing, for example directly to Safari and Photos on iOS? Starting with iOS 8, Apple is allowing all app makers to create similar buttons for sharing and actions. An example of an action (like copy or add to Reading List) shared by Apple at WWDC was native language translation directly in Safari using Bing Translate. Extension support also includes photo filters allowing photo editing apps that provide filter extensions to work inside of the native Photos app.

A year after introducing Touch ID, the secure fingerprint scanner first introduced with the iPhone 5s, Apple is also now allowing apps to take advantage of Touch ID for the first time. Touch ID users can now authenticate log-ins and more in supported apps using the secure fingerprint scanner. Below we’ll tell you about the latest apps already taking advantage of extensions and Touch ID support for iOS 8.

iOS 8 Roundup: The latest apps with Today widgets in Notification Center

Zac Hall Sep 17 2014 - 10:10 am PT

25 Comments

Apple introduced a new concept for developers with iOS 8 called Extensibility. This allows users to use services from apps throughout the system without actually being in the app itself, and widgets in Notification Center’s Today view are a major example of this feature in action.

Widgets from supported apps can be enabled by swiping down to the Today view in Notification Center, scrolling down to the “edit” button at the bottom, and tapping the “+” icon next to any supported apps. When you install a new app that supports a Today view widget, a badge will appear on the edit button to subtly notify you of the widget. You can also rearrange widgets as well as remove Apple’s own Notification Center widgets.

Many of these widgets present up-to-date information like the number of steps you’ve taken today, upcoming tasks or events on your third-party task management app or calendar, and much, much more. Below we’ll show you several of the latest apps offering widgets right now in Notification Center’s Today view.
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Apple begins updating its apps for iOS 8 starting with iTunes U, Remote, Logic Remote, Podcasts, & more

Zac Hall Sep 17 2014 - 9:43 am PT

5 Comments

Ahead of iOS 8’s release later this morning, Apple has released new versions some of its iOS apps.

Remote, which allows you to control your iTunes library and Apple TV from your iOS device, received a performance improvement update with iOS 8 support. Logic Remote, which allows you to interface with both GarageBand and Logic X on the Mac, is also updated with iOS 8 support.

An updated version of iTunes U is also available bringing iOS 8 support and the ability to add assignment due dates to the calendar. Podcasts, which is included with iOS 8, has been updated as well.

Find My iPhone has been updated to support iOS 8 and Family Sharing. Beats Music has been updated with iOS 8 support which includes the ability to share links to music over Messages, Mail, Facebook, and Twitter. iTunes Movies Trailers for iOS 8 is now out too. Find My Friends as well with the ability to allow “users to move their friends list to their iCloud account if necessary.”

AirPort Utility, the app used to control Apple’s routers, is updated for iOS 8.

Each update is free on the App Store, and more Apple app updates are expected to follow.

Apple seemingly removing HealthKit compatible iOS 8 apps from App Store due to issues (U: Apple statement)

Zac Hall Sep 17 2014 - 9:08 am PT

20 Comments

Several apps began rolling out on the App Store this morning with HealthKit support for Apple’s new Health app, but it seems issues on Apple’s side have forced HealthKit-compatible apps to be completely removed from the App Store the morning of iOS 8’s (and Apple’s Health app’s) release.
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Apps
iOS

Developers warn iOS 8 users not to upgrade to iCloud Drive before OS X Yosemite release

Jordan Kahn Sep 17 2014 - 8:33 am PT

20 Comments

With the public release of iOS 8 landing today ahead of the new iPhone models shipping on September 19, developers are warning users not to upgrade to Apple’s new iCloud Drive feature just yet. The feature, which allows users to store and access files stored in iCloud on Mac, Windows, and iCloud-enabled iOS apps, is available to users on iOS 8 starting today, but won’t be available for Macs until Yosemite is released later this year. That means that upgrading today will cause syncing issues for apps that previously used other methods of syncing between Macs and iOS devices. The graphics above come from developers of iOS app DayOne, while developer Ginger Labs explained the problem in release notes for its popular iOS Notability app today:
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WATCH Disney iOS apps updated with AirPlay and Chromecast streaming support

Jordan Kahn Sep 16 2014 - 12:54 pm PT

2 Comments

Disney’s popular apps iOS apps including WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney Junior, and WATCH Disney X D have all been updated today with support for AirPlay and Chromecast streaming.

That means that owners of an Apple TV or Google’s Chromecast can now send content from the iPhone and iPad apps to an Apple TV or Chromecast-connected TV. Apple TV already has dedicated Disney channels offering most if not all of content available through the apps, but AirPlay streaming offers another way to get content to the big screen if you prefer browsing from a mobile device.

The updated WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney Junior, and WATCH Disney X D apps are available now on the App Store.

What’s New in Version 4.0.2

AirPlay streaming now available via Apple TV
Casting now available via Google Chromecast

9to5Toys Last Call: WD 2TB portable HDD $80, Beats headphones from $160, free iTunes music, more

Justin Kahn Sep 16 2014 - 9:00 am PT