Apps

Today alongside confirming the details for WWDC 2024’s keynote and other offerings, Apple has announced its Apple Design Award finalists for the year.

As per tradition, Apple annually recognizes some of the best apps on the App Store across a variety of categories. The finalists this year consist of 42 apps and games across a total of seven categories, with three apps and three games in each category. Brand new this year: a Spatial Computing category highlighting six Vision Pro apps.

Mark Gurman reported over the weekend that customizing iOS app icons will be one of the new features we can expect to see in iOS 18.

On the face of it, that seems a relatively minor cosmetic change, but I think it does open the door to using it in rather an impactful way …

Today in the latest update to Arc Search for iPhone, search is becoming more conversational. The new ‘Arc Search’ feature aims to replicate the dynamics of talking on the phone, providing Arc users with a more voice assistant-like experience.

The popular security utility Little Snitch, which monitors Mac network traffic for suspicious activity, has been updated to a much more modern interface, with a whole range of new features.

Key among these is DNS encryption, which shields server name queries, and a curated list of blocklists which can be installed with a single click …

A TikTok buyout by an American company appears to be the only way for the app to survive in the US, and potentially in Europe too. But potential buyers could find themselves paying a lot of money and not getting the one thing they really want: the algorithm.

Real-estate billionaire Frank McCourt and former Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin are among those who have confirmed they are planning bids for the app …

Along with the launch of the new M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro, Apple has also introduced a new Apple Pencil Pro that has the same design as the Apple Pencil 2, but features new sensors and Find My support. The company has added new APIs to iPadOS so that developers can take advantage of these new features, and Goodnotes is one of the first apps to do just that.

An EU investigation has been opened into growing concerns about teen Instagram addiction, to determine whether parent company Meta is breaking the law by deliberately seeking to make its apps addictive.

The investigation will also look into whether the company’s age-verification procedures are sufficiently robust, and the phenomenon of sending users down potentially harmful ‘rabbit holes’ …

Today the latest gaming emulator for iPhone and iPad has arrived on the iOS App Store.

RetroArch brings with it an abundance of supported game systems ranging from Nintendo favorites like the N64, SNES, Game Boy, and Nintendo DS to Sony’s PlayStation and PSP, Sega consoles, and more.

Following changes to the App Store guidelines last month, developers were finally able to release game emulators for iOS – such as the popular Delta. And joining that list now is Gamma, a new PlayStation emulator available on the iOS App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Developer Michael Tigas, maker of Focused Work, has launched a new app for Mac, iPhone, and iPad called focusedOS. This new app is designed to elevate your focus and productivity by eliminating distractions through a variety of different tools. The one I’m most excited about helps your Mac imitate the iPad’s one-app-at-a-time design.

MacPaw’s Setapp Mobile launches as an invitation-only beta in the EU today, offering European iPhone owners a far easier way to get access to multiple apps for a single monthly subscription than the clunky US experience.

Even better, for the lucky ones given access to the early beta, it’s free for now …

It’s been a big week for the iPad. The M4 iPad Pro and iPad Air 6 will make their way into users’ hands in a matter of days. That makes now the perfect time to start making a list of all the best iPadOS apps to enjoy while using the latest and greatest iPad hardware.

The question of getting things done on the iPad is evergreen. So we’ve assembled a collection of some of the best iPad apps specifically for creative professionals, spanning a variety of fields.

Want to create great things using Apple’s tablet? Here are some of the top tools to get started. Many of them will push the power of the new M4 iPad Pro, but even those that don’t will still run smoother than ever on the new hardware.

Musi is a free music app for iPhone which has been downloaded tens of millions of times – but a new piece says that the legality of the app is in question.

Musi launched back in 2016, and proved a hit with teens in particular, as it provides free streaming music without the audio ad interruptions you get on the free tier of Spotify …

Today, Arc Search, the iOS app from the Browser Company that debuted earlier this year, has been updated with three key feature improvements: widgets for your Home screen, Voice Search that can be triggered from an iPhone’s Action button, and handy new tab controls for controlling page zoom and requesting a desktop site.

All of these added conveniences aim to take the AI-focused search and web browsing tool to a new place of frequent engagement for users.

Songs from UMG artists are now again available to TikTok creators, after a dispute over royalty payments and AI policies was resolved.

This has seen the return of a lengthy list of artists, including Bad Bunny, Sting, The Weeknd, Alicia Keys, Drake, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, Rosalía, Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Adele, U2, Elton John, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, and Post Malone …

Hugely popular video app TikTok could be banned in Europe as well as the US, according to remarks made by the president of the European Commission.

TikTok is also under two separate EU investigations, and President Biden last week signed a bill which would see the app banned in the US within nine months unless it is sold to an American company …

Gentler Streak, the popular fitness and wellness app for Apple platforms, has just received an update that will make the app easier to use for more people around the world. That’s because the latest version of Gentler Streak has introduced support for Asian languages.

Apple is rolling out a new update to the Apple Sports app today ahead of NHL and NBA playoffs kicking off. The update brings additional details and information on NHL and NBA games for the playoffs, Apple says.