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6,396 'Apps' stories April 2010 - April 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.

Doo moves beyond document syncing, releases Scanbot for iPhone

Avatar for Mike Beasley Apr 3 2014 - 8:00 am PT
14 Comments
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Earlier this year, the developers of the document-syncing application Doo announced that the company was shutting down its backend and removing its app from sale. The company wasn’t going anywhere, however, and had plans for a brand new product that would be revealed soon.

Today, the company has taken the wraps off of its newest app, Scanbot, which allows users to scan documents into their iPhone and store them as PDFs or JPGs on a variety of cloud services. We had a chance to talk to Frank Thelen, CEO of Doo, about why the original service was shuttered, how the company decided on a new direction, and and what lies ahead for Scanbot.
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Review roundup: Is Office for iPad worth ninety-nine bucks a year?

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Apr 3 2014 - 5:36 am PT
44 Comments
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Image: smallbiztrends.com

The iPad edition of Microsoft Office has been a long-time coming. This was, it now seems clear, no accident: Microsoft wanted to attempt to boost sales of its ill-fated Surface tablet by pointing to the lack of Office software on the iPad.

Now that the company has accepted the inevitable, that most people would rather have Office on their iPad than buy a Surface, the question is: was it worth the wait … ? 
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9to5Toys Last Call: DODOcase 40% off, iPad mini 64GB WiFi+LTE $430, Apple Design Award Mac app bundle $20, more

Avatar for Apr 2 2014 - 10:00 am PT
2 Comments

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

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Last Call updates:

ZAGGkeys Flex Bluetooth iOS/Android Keyboard with stand $30 shipped (Reg. $80)

Free Coupon for Two Months of Audiobooks from Audible ($30 value)

Daily Deals: Slingbox Pro HD TV Streamer refurb $80, Samsung 50″ LED HDTV $800, ZyXEL Wi-Fi Range Extender $25, more

Other great deals from today:

More great deals still alive:

New products/useful info:

inMarket lets specific brands, not just retailers, target shoppers using iBeacons in-store

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Apr 2 2014 - 9:08 am PT
4 Comments
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http://vimeo.com/83270004

inMarket, an in-store marketing platform that recently started rolling out iBeacons to retailers, today announced an interesting new twist for the platform: the first consumer packaged goods brand to take advantage of iBeacons in a retail environment. That means that rather than the retailer controlling the entire iBeacon experience and the location-based notifications that get beamed to shoppers, inMarket’s Mobile to Mortar (M2M) platform is giving that same opportunity to the individual brands on the store’s shelves. We’ve also learned it’s about to expand and continue its rollout of iBeacons in retail locations across New York, Boston, and Miami.  
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Adobe announces new features for After Effects, Premiere Pro & more coming to Creative Cloud

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Apr 2 2014 - 8:14 am PT
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Adobe announced a few product updates today at NAB 2014 in Las Vegas including updates to all of its video apps in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite including Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects. Among the standout new features are Live Text Templates, autosave, and Masking and Tracking features for Premiere Pro, as well as Master Keying effects and Typekit integration for After Effects:

  • Timesaving editorial features in Premiere Pro CC. New features include Live Text Templates that let users edit text in After Effects CC compositions directly in Premiere Pro CC; Autosave to Creative Cloud for automated backup of projects; and a new Masking and Tracking feature that provides accurate masks that follow subjects and blur out faces and logos, crucial for newsroom editing. In addition, the new Master Clip effect in Premiere Pro and SpeedGrade changes the effects applied to original clips and ripples down through all instances of the clip.
  • Powerful new updates to After Effects CC include Keying effects to provide better keying results with compressed footage; and Typekit integration with Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC provides users with access to a growing library of fonts worth $30,000, that can be used on the desktop.

Also getting an updated today is Adobe Anywhere, Adobe’s collaboration platform for After Effects CC and Premiere Pro CC. It adds real-time project backups, Rough Cut Support for Prelude CC, :After Effects CC media processing for direct integration between Anywhere and After Effects CC.”

In addition, Adobe showed off new features coming to the rest of its CC video apps. A full list of new features and more on what’s new and coming from Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Adobe SpeedGrade CC, Adobe Audition CC, Adobe Story CC Plus, Adobe Prelude CC, and Adobe Media Encoder CC is here.

Review: Fantastical for iPad completes the improved calendar suite… and it’s pretty sweet

Avatar for Zac Hall Apr 2 2014 - 5:05 am PT
22 Comments
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After first debuting on the Mac then joining iOS with the iPhone, Fantastical is finally ready to replace the calendar on your iPad, too. With Fantastical for iPad, Flexibits has brought the same, streamlined design and natural language parsing for quick event and reminder entry to the iPad. I’ve been using Fantastical for iPad for a few weeks now, so let’s take a look at how it compares to Apple’s calendar app…
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WhatsApp announces 64 billion messages sent through its texting app — in just one day

Avatar for Mike Beasley Apr 2 2014 - 12:14 am PT
4 Comments

 

Whatsapp, the popular messaging client for iOS and Android, announced today on Twitter that it had reached a new record for messages sent in a single day. With 20 billion outgoing messages and 44 incoming messages handled in a single 24-hour period, the grand total came out to 64 billion.

[tweet https://twitter.com/WhatsApp/status/451198381856014337 align=’center’]

Here’s a little perspective on that number: Instagram recently announced that its users had posted 20 billion photos to the service. You’ll notice that’s not a statistic for one day. It’s the total number of photos shared in the history of the network.

That means that in one day, Whatsapp handled over three times as many requests as Instagram has since it launched three years ago. Not too shabby.

Dish subscribers can now access ESPN, Disney & ABC content through mobile apps & online

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Apr 1 2014 - 3:56 pm PT
10 Comments
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Dish and The Walt Disney company announced today that they have reached a multi-year distribution deal that will see Dish subscribers gain access to a ton of Disney content including its ABC and ESPN networks. That means if you subscribe to Dish, you’ll now be able to access the WATCH ABC, WATCH ABC Family, WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH DisneyXD and WatchESPN through your computer, smartphone, tablet and other connected devices like game consoles and Apple TV. The deal will also see Dish launch a number of Disney and ESPN networks while pending litigation between the two companies comes to an end:

The agreement will result in dismissal of all pending litigation between the two companies, including disputes over PrimeTime Anytime and AutoHop. As part of the accord, DISH will disable AutoHop functionality for ABC content within the C3 ratings window. The deal also provides a structure for other advertising models as the market evolves, including dynamic ad insertion, advertising on mobile devices and extended advertising measurement periods.

DISH will make available Disney Junior, Fusion, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Buzzer Beater, as well as Longhorn Network and the upcoming SEC ESPN Network upon its launch. In addition, DISH, ESPN and ESPN Deportes customers will have access to the live and video-on-demand channel ESPN3… As part of the agreement, DISH will launch ESPNEWS, ESPNU, Disney Channel and ABC Family in high definition. ESPN Classic will be reintroduced as a video-on-demand channel.

For Apple device users, the majority of the content is available through dedicated iOS and Apple TV apps including WatchESPN, WatchABC, and WatchDisneyChannel. 
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Apple releases Safari 7.0.3 with push notification changes, security improvements, and more

Avatar for Mike Beasley Apr 1 2014 - 2:59 pm PT
2 Comments
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After updating iWork for iCloud and its Mac and iOS counterparts, Apple has pushed out a new Safari update as well. The new version is 7.0.3 and contains mostly bug and security fixes. Apple has been beta testing this update with developers for the past few weeks. The two biggest parts of this update are changes to push notifications and the way URLs are handled.

For users who don’t want to be asked about push notifications from any site, there’s now a checkbox in the notification preferences that disables them entirely. Unchecking the box for “Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications” (seen above) will block all notification prompts in the future.

The second big change enables Safari to recognize new generic top-level domains (the .com bit at the end of the URL). The organization responsible for managing these has recently created several new ones for generic terms (like “.pizza”). Safari will now recognize these and go to the correct URL rather than trying to search for the term.
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Apple updates iWork for Mac and iOS with read-only sharing modes and much more

Avatar for Mike Beasley Apr 1 2014 - 2:15 pm PT
7 Comments
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Following today’s iWork for iCloud update, Apple has pushed out new versions of the iOS and OS X version of the productivity suite, providing feature parity with the online version. Pages (iOS / Mac), Keynote (iOS / Mac), and Numbers (iOS / Mac) each received a new read-only sharing mode to work with the iCloud version of that feature.

Each app also got a long list of changes and enhancements, which are listed below. You can get all of the updates for free if you already own the latest version of iWork. Apple recently started including a copy of the iWork and iLife suites along with new iOS devices and Macs, but users with older devices will need to purchase the current version separately if they haven’t already.
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9to5Toys Last Call: WD My Passport Pro RAID 15% off, Mpow 12000mAh bank $30, Audio-Technica headphones, more

Avatar for Apr 1 2014 - 10:12 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 subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Last Call updates:

  • Free Coupon for Two Months of Audiobooks from Audible ($60 value)

 

WD My Passport Pro portable RAID storage w/ integrated Thunderbolt cable: 2TB $257 (Reg. $300), 4TB $369 (Reg. $430)

Mpow 12000mAh External Battery Portable Charger Power Bank $30 shipped (Reg. $66)

Headphones: Audio-Technica ATH-M50 (Refurb) $75 (Reg. $199 new), Monster Inspiration Noise-Canceling $125 (Reg. $250)

 

Samsung 840 EVO Series 250GB 2.5″ SATA III Solid State Drive $130 shipped (Reg. $250)

Other great deals from today:

  • New! Daily Deals: urBeats Noise Isolating Headphones refurb $39, Roku 3 Media Player $70, Samsung Smart Blu-ray Player refurb $40, more
  • New! Up to $250 off Native Instruments DJ rigs: Traktor Kontrol S2/S4: $292/$455 shipped (Reg. $499/$799)
  • New! Games/Apps: 25 to 50% off Aspyr Mac titles – BioShock, Borderlands, Star Wars, Stealth Inc. $1, Domino FREE, iOS freebies, more

More great deals still alive:

New products/useful info:

  • Samsung’s new billion-color, 28-inch 4K monitor is now available to preorder: $699
  • The best storage, drives, and NAS deals & tips for World Backup Day 2014

Comedy Central debuts new iPhone & iPad app featuring full episodes for free

Avatar for Zac Hall Apr 1 2014 - 7:08 am PT
6 Comments
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Rather than having a dozen, show-specific iOS apps to follow your favorite Comedy Central shows, the network has finally bundled the content into a single app featuring full episodes (listen up, cable cutters) for free. Much like Hulu and on-demand services through cable providers, the Comedy Central app will feature the latest episode of several shows from the network the day after it airs… no cable subscription required, no joke.

The list of free shows includes The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, South Park, @midnight, and original digital shorts. For cable subscribers, there’s even more content available including full seasons of new shows like Tosh.0 and archived seasons of shows like Chappelle’s Show and RENO 911.
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United Nations uses iBeacons to simulate a minefield & raise awareness at NY museum

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 31 2014 - 11:11 am PT
4 Comments
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We’ve been seeing more and more interesting implementations of iBeacons, Apple’s Bluetooth LE standard that opens up a ton of opportunities for location-based experiences as iOS devices communicate with the beacons around them. This, however, might be the most unique use of iBeacons we’ve seen yet:  For the UN’s International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action taking place on April 4, New Museum in New York City will host an exhibit that uses iBeacons to simulate a virtual minefield and let anyone experience the danger of land mines.

Visitors will download an app called Sweeper for iOS or Android that will allow them to experience the fear of land mines as they walk through the space. Here’s how it works:
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Rdio, Crackle, & Vudu updated with Chromecast streaming support

Avatar for Zac Hall Mar 31 2014 - 10:05 am PT
0 Comments

Adding to the catalog of Chromecast-supported content, Rdio and Crackle are both adding the ability to play more content from your smartphone, tablet, or browser to your TV today.

Crackle has refreshed its Android and iOS apps with support for Chromecast streaming. The Sony-backed content provider serves up a number of movies and TV shows for free including comedian Jerry Seinfield’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” original.

Video streaming service Vudu has also added Chromecast support in the latest versions of its Android and iOS apps. The Walmart-owned service includes HD movies and TV shows with no subscription.
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MLB At Bat app updated for 2014 season w/ new expanded instant replay feature

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 31 2014 - 10:02 am PT
2 Comments
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This season will be the first that Major League Baseball uses a new expanded instant replay system that it first announced back in January. Now, the MLB At Bat app for iOS devices has been updated with support for the 2014 season and the new replay system. That means that users of the app will be able to view “every decisive instant replay video clip and review explanation,” the same footage the umpires review, through the app’s Gameday feature. 

A little more on the new replay system from the MLB’s announcement:
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9to5Toys Last Call: Case-Mate iPad cases $10, VIZIO/Samsung/Seiki HDTVs, storage deals, more

Avatar for Mar 31 2014 - 9:59 am 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 subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature. Today’s can’t miss deals: Last Call updates:

Nearly all Case-Mate tablet cases are $10 with free shipping: iPad, Nexus, Kindle, more HDTVs:

Samsung 840 EVO Series 750GB 2.5″ SATA III Solid State Drive $339 shipped (Reg. $600)

Other great deals from today:

More great deals still alive:

Want to upgrade your iPhone 5s camera to 2k video? All you need is this app …

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 31 2014 - 5:41 am PT
21 Comments
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[vimeo 90202587 w=800 h=451]

If you like to use your iPhone to shoot video and Apple offered to upgrade your iPhone 5s from 1080p HD to 2k video for just $7, the decision wouldn’t require much thought. That’s exactly the trick Ultrakam has pulled off with its new iPhone app.

If you’re wondering how a mere app can convert your camera to a higher resolution, it doesn’t: it simply allows the software to use more of the hardware capabilities of your camera. Apple may say that your iPhone 5s has a 1080p HD videocamera, but that’s not quite true: the camera hardware itself is capable of anything up to 3264×2448, it’s just that the software can’t process that many pixels at a sensible frame-rate … 
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Review: Dragon Dictate 4.0 for Mac – The best speech recognition app gets even better

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 29 2014 - 2:03 pm PT
38 Comments
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Using our voice to control computers has never really taken off. For many of us, using voice recognition technology wasn’t even a consideration until features like dictation and Siri arrived on our iPhones and iPads. There’s good reason too: the voice recognition features built into our devices have always had the reputation of being half-baked. They simply aren’t accurate and consistent enough to replace our tried and trusted mouse and keyboard or touchscreen. While half decent dictation features come with every Mac (and are powered by Nuance’s technology), the voice recognition features you get with latest version of Nuance’s Dragon Dictate for Mac go well beyond simply dictating speech to text. 
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Sharp 42″ 1080p HDTV $330, GoPro HERO3+ Black $320, Kensington Lightning car charger $13, more

Avatar for Mar 28 2014 - 9:48 am 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 subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

Sharp 42″ LED 1080p 120Hz HDTV with DTS sound $330 shipped (Reg. $480)

REI members 20% coupon: GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition $320 shipped (Reg. $400) or $340 w/ a new lifetime membership

Kensington PowerBolt car charger w/ built-in MFi Lightning cable $13 (Reg. $25)

Save 15% on select iTunes gift cards at Best Buy

Other great deals from today:

  • New! Daily Deals: Western Digital 2TB External HD refurb $65, Noise-Cancelling Headphones $15, 3-in1 Chargers $8, Portable Power bank $8, more
  • New! Eton Rugged All-Terrain Portable Solar $57 shipped (Reg. $100), Merkury Portable w/ mic & earbuds $35 shipped (Reg. $80)
  • New! Get 33% off 1yr Office 365 Home Premium subscriptions: $67
  • New! Apple iPad mini 64GB WiFi $380 (Reg. $499)

More great deals still alive:

 

BeHere app uses iBeacons to automatically take attendance as students enter the classroom

Avatar for Jordan Kahn Mar 28 2014 - 7:55 am PT
19 Comments
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A new app called BeHere aimed at teachers uses Apple’s new Bluetooth LE iBeacon technology to recognize students and automatically take attendance as they enter a classroom.

With the BeHere app installed, the teacher’s iPad acts as an iBeacon and students entering the classroom with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch will automatically appear in the app with a profile picture and name. Students will have to install the app on their device too, but thanks to recent iBeacon improvements in iOS 7.1, they won’t have to even open the app or take the device out of their pocket to be recognized as they walk in. 
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Microsoft to hand out free Office 365 subscriptions to iPad owners in retail stores tomorrow

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 27 2014 - 6:59 pm PT
20 Comments
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Microsoft finally took the wraps off of its long-awaited Office for iPad suite this morning, only to reveal that most of its functions require a $99 subscription to the Office 365 service. Even though you can get a discounted subscription through Amazon, $70 may seem pretty steep. Rest assured, Microsoft is planning to offer free one-year subscriptions to the service tomorrow.

All you have to do to get your free subscription is show up at one of Microsoft’s retail stores with your iPad in hand. The first 50 people to do so will get the sub completely free of charge. Microsoft announced the promotion in a tweet earlier today:
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Facebook Messenger updated to version 4.0 with groups and message forwarding

Avatar for Mike Beasley Mar 27 2014 - 5:26 pm PT
1 Comment

Facebook has updated its Messenger app for iPhone to version 4.0. The new update introduces the ability to create and manage groups of contacts within the app. You can find all of your groups in a new tab and quickly select one to send a message to everyone at once.

Also new in this update is the ability to select a message to forward to a new recipient, much like you can do with an iMessage in the native Messages application. The usual general bug fixes and improvements round out the 4.0 update.

You can grab the app for free on the iPhone App Store. The full change log is below:

What’s New in Version 4.0
Groups: Now you can create groups for the people you message most. Name them, set group photos and keep them all in one place

Forwarding: Want to send a message or photo to someone who isn’t in the conversation? Just tap to forward it

Plus, continued improvements to make the app faster and more reliable