Apps

Image via 148apps.com

148Apps is reporting some big news for English Premier League fans in the US – the NBC Sports Live Extra app will be streaming all of the matches as they happen. Interestingly enough, live streaming will be exclusive to the US and won’t be available in the UK.

The service will be free as long as you have an eligible cable provider and subscription that includes the NBC Sports channel.

The NBC Sports Live Extra app is available for free in the App Store.

Yelp update brings in-app review publishing to iOS application

Scott Buscemi Aug 13 2013 - 10:37 am PT

Yelp, perhaps feeling the pressure of other local-based apps like Foursquare, has released version 7.0 of their app that includes the ability to publish reviews within the application. Previously, users were able to draft up reviews in the app, but to publish them required logging in to the Yelp.com website on a desktop computer.

The reasoning for this is explained on TechCrunch’s post regarding the update:

Back in 2009, here’s how Eric Singley, VP of consumer and mobile products, responded to the request:

“We occasionally hear from other passionate Yelpers on why we haven’t enabled review publishing from our mobile applications. There are several reasons why we do this…Well imagine what it would be like if reviews were done in SMS shorthand: ‘OK so, IANAE, but AFAIC this place has THE best Cfood. It was gr8! ADBB’

Um, yeah.

We love the witty quality of the reviews and the insight that Yelpers share in their detailed accounts of their experiences. We’ve found that Quick Tips and Draft Reviews [two pre-existing short features] are mobile features that provide eager Yelpers with an outlet to catalog their immediate experiences or jot notes that they can then add to or edit when they get back to a computer. While we’re not saying that writing Yelp reviews on your mobile device is out of the question, we feel very strongly about maintaining the high level of content you all provide.”

They have now reversed course and will allow users to publish their high-quality reviews right on their iOS device.

The Yelp app is available for free in the App Store.

Facebook update brings restaurant reservations and TV listings to mobile apps; Path adds 13 API partners

Scott Buscemi Aug 12 2013 - 11:50 am PT

As announced on the Facebook for Business news blog, the social network has added new features in an update to their mobile applications today.

Taking advantage of the OpenTable service, visiting a restaurant’s page now shows available times and reservations and everything can be completed right inside the Facebook app.

Using their mobile devices, will be able to book tables via Facebook Pages for restaurants. The update represents a new way for people to discover and book great dining experiences, all within the Facebook mobile app. There’s no need to visit a separate mobile site or open a separate app.

The new feature will be available on the Facebook mobile Pages for more than 20,000 OpenTable restaurant customers across North America.

In addition, the update brings listings to the pages of primetime TV shows and movies:

Finding shows and movies on TV is getting easier as well. For people that use iOS, Facebook will display TV listing information on US primetime TV and movie Pages. Listings will be based on your current time zone and include the channel name, air time and a description of the show or movie playing, meaning that the listings that exist in cable box guides, magazines and newspapers are now conveniently located on the Facebook Pages of peoples’ favorite shows.

The update has also brought hashtag search to iOS.

What’s New in Version 6.4

• Search for hashtags or tap them in posts to see what other people are saying about a topic
• Make restaurant reservations directly on participating Pages in the US
• Faster loading and a cleaner design for timelines on iPad
• Fixed a bug that was causing some people to see red notification badges when there weren’t any new notifications

Smaller, private social network Path has announced the addition of 13 new API partners, including Pic Stitch, WordPress, Viddy, Over and several other notable apps. The company notes that the API will come to more applications over time, but they are starting out with partners of applications they love and find to be related to the philosophies of the app.

To start, we have hand-selected developers we admire for their innovation and quality, as well as a few that have been most requested by our users. From more workout moments, to photo moments, to thought moments, we have worked closely with these developers to ensure that sharing to Path is a seamless and beautiful experience.

Moving forward, we will continue to work with developers with whom we share values. In addition, we’ll continue to work closely with each developer to guarantee an integration that truly delights the user. Our current list of developers that will be able to share to Path are:

Photos & Video

Over

Viddy

PicMix

PicFrame

Pic Stitch

Pic Collage

papelook

Manga-Camera

Otaku Camera

Miil

Thoughts

WordPress

Holy Bible

Workouts

Strava Cycling

Nike+ Running

Nike+ FuelBand

Some of these are available today, others in the coming weeks. We invite you to download them and start sharing to Path!

Apple Store app now offering free book amid iBooks retail push

Mark Gurman Aug 12 2013 - 9:05 am PT

The iPhone Apple Store app has been updated over-the-air today to offer a free iBook download to customers. The book is Away in My Airplane by Margaret Wise Brown. According to a note sent to Apple retail employees today, the free book download is meant for employees to have context when discussing and pushing the iBooks app and iBookstore to customers.

As we reported last month, Apple will be pushing free content to the Apple Store app in order to entice customers to download the app. Apple Store employees are also instructed to ask new iOS Device customers to install the app. In turn, if more people have the Apple Store app on their devices, Apple could sell them more products.

The new book offer expires on August 28th, and it is exclusive to the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, and Sweden, according to an Apple employee.

As part of a general iBooks push, Apple started providing its retail employees with free book titles in order to boost familiarity of the service.

The Apple Store app received its first free piece of content in the form of the Color Zen iPhone app earlier this month.

Skype for iPad & iPhone updated with HD video calls, improved call quality

Jordan Kahn Aug 12 2013 - 6:09 am PT

Update: The iPhone version of Skype just received the same update with HD video calling support on iPhone 5.

Today Skype updated its iPad app with the ability to make HD quality video calls in addition to several other performance improvements. It’s a feature that’s been available on other platforms for quite sometime, including the Mac client, but today the higher quality video calls finally make their way to the latest iPad. Earlier this year Skype rolled out HD video calling to Windows Phone device’s and noted it would include “720P HD on higher-end devices.” We’d imagine that’s also the case with today’s iPad update but, as always, the quality of video will also depend on the quality and bandwidth of your internet connection.

The HD video calling feature is only available on iPad 4, and version 4.10 also brings enhancements to call quality and stability. It also includes “a redesigned country code picker on the dial pad.”

What’s New in Version 4.10

Call quality improvements
– Make HD quality video calls from your iPad 4.
– General improvements to call quality and stability.

General fixes and improvements
– A redesigned country code picker on the dial pad.

CBS Sports iOS app gets full iPad support including live video

Jordan Kahn Aug 12 2013 - 5:54 am PT

CBS has updated it’s ‘CBS Sports’ iOS app today with full support for tablet users, allowing iPad users on iOS 6.0 and up to access all of the on-demand and live content that the app previously only offered to iPhone users. The updated app doesn’t just bring a native iPad design with support for the larger screen as pictured above, but it will also now allow users to access live video. On top of on-demand content from CBS, the app offers live streams for a number of sporting events, including: NCAA basketball (January-April), PGA TOUR (May-August), and SEC football games (Sept-Dec). It also brings access to special events including “NCAA March Madness, The Masters, NFL Draft Day, PGA TOUR and more.”

The updated CBS Sports iOS app is available for free on the App Store now.

What’s New in Version 6.0

v6.0
* Tablet Ready! Follow all the action on your iPad, including watching Live Video.

9to5Toys Last Call: $90 iPhone/iPad pocket projector, up to 66% off Mac games, Bose headphones, laser printer, 500GB external hard drive, more

Aug 9 2013 - 3:00 pm PT

From 9to5Toys.com:

A large majority of the deals we cover each day come from a variety of ‘Daily Deal’ websites or are so popular that they don’t even last 24 hours. We know you can’t be at your computer every second, so we’re going to round up the best deals each day to make sure you have a fair shot at the deals you want. Be sure to follow 9to5Toys.com so you never miss a deal... Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+.

Today’s Featured deals:

3M 30-pin/VGA 32 Lumen pocket LED projector with built-in stereo speakers $90 shipped

Gamers’ Deals: Nearly 200 Mac Games on sale up to 66% off and Xbox 360 games starting from just $10

Bose QuietComfort 15 Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones $269 (Reg $299)

Other great deals we love:

New! $14 for 34 AA or AAA Duracell CopperTop Batteries (up to 52% savings)
New! Sceptre 50″ LCD 1080p 60Hz HDTV $379 shipped (Reg. $600)
New! Sharp 2.0-Channel Sound Bar Home Theater System $55 (Reg. $100)

ZyXEL 802.11n Wireless Pocket Travel Router and Access Point $16 shipped
Brother Monochrome Laser Multi-Function Printer / Copier $98 shipped (Reg. $180)
MEElectronics M9-BK Hi-Fi Sound-Isolating In-Ear Headphones $10 shipped (Reg. $30)
Buffalo Technology MiniStation 500GB USB 2.0 external hard drive $40 shipped (Reg. $70)
Buy One Get One 50% Off: Protective gear from Speck for your iPhone, iPad, Galaxy and more
Jabra DRIVE Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone: $30 shipped (up to $30 off)
Gigabyte Dual Lens Gaming Mouse: $10 shipped (Reg. $18)
Wacom Bamboo Create Pen and Touch Tablet $138 shipped (Reg. $200)
Popular 1Password iOS app goes on sale for $7.99 until Aug. 16
Free After Rebate: MEElectronics Black 3.5mm Stereo Headset, Scosche Dual USB Car Charger
Brother Compact Laser Printer w/ wireless connectivity and duplex printing $75 Shipped (Reg. $150)
Magfoot magnetic tablet stand: $30 shipped (Reg. $90)
rooCase leather iPad folio and stand with sleep/wake functionality (Multiple colors) $6
Watch 20 James Bond movies in HD for free on Amazon Prime Instant Video
Bond 50: The Complete 22 Film Collection on Blu-ray $110 Shipped (Reg. $300)
Select eBooks starting at $1 from the Amazon Kindle Store
Get a free $10 gift card when you sign-up for an Amazon Prime membership
Free 2 month Hulu Plus trial for new customers
100 MP3 album downloads for $5 each from Amazon: Coldplay, Kanye West, Rolling Stones, U2, more
Samsung 11.6″ Chromebook goes on sale for $219 shipped at Amazon ($269 for 3G)
Macgo Mac Blu-ray Player software $30 (Reg. $40)

Twitter #music app gets new ways to discover artists, scans iPhone library for personalized recommendations

Jordan Kahn Aug 9 2013 - 10:36 am PT

Twitter updated its Twitter #music iPhone app today with several new ways to discover new artists in addition to personalized recommendations based on the content in your iPhone’s music library.

Version 1.2 of the app now allows users to “listen to artist’s top tracks, similar artists, and the artists that your favorite artist follows on Twitter.” However, another interesting new feature will scan the device’s music library in order to serve up relevant recommendations based on your past listening habits.

Twitter is also making it easier to find artists that you like by making it easy to quickly access the artists that you’ve tweeted about in the past.

Personal recommendations based on previous listening habits is becoming a prerequisite for just about any music app ahead of Apple’s iTunes Radio launch. Apple’s upcoming service will rely heavily on its personalization features similar to iTunes Genius, and Rdio and others have been adding similar features that focus more on stations custom tailored to the user’s listening preferences.

Lastly, the app gets support for a number of new languages:

What’s New in Version 1.2

We’ve added a bunch of new ways of discovering music. Listen to artist’s top tracks, similar artists, and the artists that your favorite artist follows on Twitter.

We also scan your iPhone’s music library now to suggest more relevant artists to you. And we show you the artists that you’ve Tweeted about so you can always get back to them.

Finally, we’ve localized #music into all of your favorite languages. If you’re one of those good looking people living in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, or Switzerland then we’ve got you covered!

Textbooks rolling out to Google Play Books iOS app

Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2013 - 4:02 pm PT

Google announced back in July during its Google I/O keynote that it would be rolling out textbooks to Google Play Books sometime in August, and today the listings for textbooks have finally arrived in the store via an update to the iOS app. The textbooks get their own section in the Google Play Books store, and are currently only available to users in the US.

Google’s new textbooks are available to purchase, but some titles will offer a rental option that allows users to rent the book for a lower-cost over a six month period. Google is also providing free samples for the new textbooks. The service is currently available through the Google Play Books apps on Android, iOS, and on the web.

Google is also piloting a new Google Play for Education service and accepting app submissions ahead of a full roll out.

What’s New in Version 1.6.0

Highlighting and note-taking are now supported in scanned pages books.
Added support for rental books.
Added sepia reading mode.
Stability and performance improvements.

Roku’s iPhone app updated with ability to stream video to your TV

Chance Miller Aug 8 2013 - 3:45 pm PT

In an effort to further compete with the Apple TV, Roku has just updated its iOS app with a new AirPlay-like feature. Last fall, the app was updated with a new “Play on Roku” feature that let you beam music and photos to your TV, and now that feature has been further expanded upon to support videos.

The process for videos works just as it does for music and photos. Within the app, tap the Play on Roku button and then the video menu to select something to play.

The biggest downside to this feature, however, is that it only works with content you’ve shot with your iOS device, not videos/movies/TV stored in the actual Videos app like Apple’s AirPlay functionality.

The feature is supported on the Roku 2, Roku 3, Roku LT, Roku HD, and Streaming Stick and the update is available now in the App Store. In addition to the ability to beam videos, the update also includes “minor bug fixes.”
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9to5Toys Last Call: $33 Anker Astro 10000mAh power bank, $900 Seiki 50″ 4K LED HDTV, iPhone 5 battery case, Wacom Bamboo tablet, more

Aug 8 2013 - 3:00 pm PT

From 9to5Toys.com:

Today’s Featured deals:

SOLD OUT Anker Astro 3E 10000mAh portable high capacity power bank $33 shipped (Reg. $100)

Seiki Digital 50″ 4K Ultra HDTV, 120Hz, LED $900 (Reg. $1,500)

Other great deals we love:

New! uNu iPhone 5 protective 2300 mAh battery case in black or white $45 + $5 shipping (Reg. $80)
New! Wacom Bamboo Create Pen and Touch Tablet $138 shipped (Reg. $200)
New! Popular 1Password iOS app goes on sale for $7.99 until Aug. 16
New! Sony 32GB SDHC Class 10 UHS-1 Memory Card $25 shipped
New! Game Deals: Tiger Woods 14 Historic Edition: $50, Max Payne 3: $10 shipped, Worms 3 out now, iOS freebies, more

Free After Rebate: MEElectronics Black 3.5mm Stereo Headset, Scosche Dual USB Car Charger
Brother Compact Laser Printer w/ wireless connectivity and duplex printing $75 Shipped (Reg. $150)
Magfoot magnetic tablet stand: $30 shipped (Reg. $90)
rooCase leather iPad folio and stand with sleep/wake functionality (Multiple colors) $6
Watch 20 James Bond movies in HD for free on Amazon Prime Instant Video
Bond 50: The Complete 22 Film Collection on Blu-ray $110 Shipped (Reg. $300)
Select eBooks starting at $1 from the Amazon Kindle Store
Get a free $10 gift card when you sign-up for an Amazon Prime membership
Free 2 month Hulu Plus trial for new customers
100 MP3 album downloads for $5 each from Amazon: Coldplay, Kanye West, Rolling Stones, U2, more
Samsung 11.6″ Chromebook goes on sale for $219 shipped at Amazon ($269 for 3G)
Macgo Mac Blu-ray Player software $30 (Reg. $40)

Google introduces new local ads experience in Google Maps on iOS & Android

Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2013 - 12:48 pm PT

Google today announced on its blog that it’s introducing an “updated ad experience” for Google Maps on iPhone, iPad, and Android that will display a small banner at the bottom of the screen when a user performs a search. Google used to display smaller banner ads that would pop up as an overlay on the map after searching for a location, but the new experience brings ads into the new bottom bar that Google introduced in its recent redesign of the Google Maps mobile apps.

Relevant ads on the Google Maps app can now appear at the bottom of the screen after a user performs a search. They include a title, ad text, and a link to get directions. Users can tap or swipe upward to see more information — this is a new click type known as “Get location details” and results in a standard CPC charge.

Just like the previous ads, tapping or swiping up on the new ads placed at the bottom of the screen will pull up details about businesses including images, reviews, phone numbers and addresses. Google’s recent update to the Google Maps mobile apps also brought Zagat ratings and Google Offers into the local business search results displayed on the new bottom navigation bar.

Google provides more information for advertisers interested in display local ads in Maps in its blog post here.

Rdio apps get revamped Stations with personalized “You FM” feature

Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2013 - 11:45 am PT

Subscription music service Rdio announced today that it’s completely overhauling how stations work through the service. While stations and the player get a refresh with new endless station types to pick from, the big new feature is something Rdio calls “You FM”:

You FM — A brand new, personalized, adjustable station that leverages Taste Profiling technology from The Echo Nest and incorporates all your listening history, track voting, Facebook likes, Twitter follows, and more to create a truly unique and individualized listening experience. As your tastes grow and evolve, so does You FM.

The new player will let users “vote on individual songs, tune stations towards familiar or adventurous sounds, and pivot stations based on favorite tracks” in order to fine tune stations. You’ll even be able to listen to others’ You FM stations. An endless station that’s automatically customized to the user’s listening habits seems like a must have feature for apps competing with Pandora and Spotify, and it’s something that Apple’s upcoming iTunes Radio app will take advantage of heavily.

The Rdio iOS app has already received the update and the new features are available on Android and the web app as well.

1Password 4 for iOS goes on sale ahead of Dropbox API changes

Mike Beasley Aug 8 2013 - 8:00 am PT

AgileBits, the development team behind 1Password for iOS and Mac, announced today that due to an upcoming change in Dropbox’s API, Dropbox syncing in version 3 of the 1Password iOS client will no longer work as of September 1st. Because the old version of 1Password has been discontinued, it will not be updated to work with the new Dropbox API.

Instead, AgileBits is offering the new and improved 1Password 4 at $7.99 the lowest price to date. The sale will last until Friday, August 16th. Since 1Password 4 requires iOS 6, some customers may not be able to update to the latest version. If that’s the case, those users will be glad to know that 1Password 3 will still support Wi-Fi syncing with computers on the same network.

AgileBits has also published a new FAQ document to explain the changes and possible solutions.

YouTube co-founders launch MixBit video editing app for iOS

Jordan Kahn Aug 8 2013 - 7:07 am PT

Available starting today, YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen have launched a new app called “MixBit” that appears to be a Vine-like approach to video editing on the go. Unlike Vine, and Instagram’s new video feature, MixBit will allow videos much longer than the rather short, up to 15 second long videos offered through competing services. You’ll also find the majority of videos uploaded to the service are much longer than those on Vine and Instagram, making the experience of browsing and watching videos feel much more like YouTube than Vine. MixBit will allow users to record video clips up to 16 seconds in length and stitch up to 256 clips together into a single video that plays back seamlessly. Videos on MixBit can be up to an hour in length.

It also differs from the other guys in that clips are stored separately even after stitching them together and uploading a video. That means you’ll be able to pull from individual clips from your own or other’s videos at any time to create another video in the future. Some basic editing functions for rearranging clips exist, but the app doesn’t go much beyond that yet. For now the app is only available on iOS, but an Android version is on the way.

Review: 4Snaps is a fun new word game for iOS

Mike Beasley Aug 8 2013 - 7:00 am PT

5 Comments

Product: Today we’re taking a look at a brand-new word game for iOS called 4Snaps. The premise of the game is like a cross between charades and Draw Something. You’re given a choice of three words. You have to pick one of these and then take four photos (“snaps”) to help the other player guess the word. The object is to see how many turns you can take in a row before someone misses the word.

Latest OS X Mavericks Preview showcases iBooks for Mac [Gallery]

Mark Gurman Aug 7 2013 - 1:44 pm PT

10 Comments

Apple’s latest OS X Mavericks Developer Preview includes iBooks for Mac, according to tips from developers who have installed the new beta. The new iBooks app looks in line with what Apple showcased at WWDC earlier this year.

When you launch the app, your iBooks content from iTunes will be migrated over. Users are also given the option to login to their Apple ID to sync their iBooks collection from/with iCloud.

iBooks for Mac includes the same Collections, PDF reading, and other books functionality from the iOS version (except for the wooden bookshelf design). More screenshots and a video below:

Instagram 4.1 arrives with video importing, photo straightening, more

Scott Buscemi Aug 7 2013 - 11:05 am PT

Hitting the App Store soon, Instagram just announced on their company blog that version 4.1 will bring some nice improvements and features:

A little over a month ago we launched Video on Instagram, and today we’re happy to bring you our next major app update. We’ve included a few of the most requested features and added something special as well. Here’s what you’ll find in Instagram 4.1:

Import Video from Library
Starting today you can upload videos from your phone’s media library and share those moments to Instagram regardless of when they were captured. Once you select the video clip you’d like to import, you can trim it down to the exact part you like best. We’ve also made it so that you can choose how you square-crop your clip so you can keep the action front and center.

Automatic Straightening for iOS There are few things more distracting than a crooked horizon in a photo. We’re happy to announce that we’ve developed a brand new technology that brings you straight photos instantly. When you take a photo with the in-app camera, you can now tap the new Straighten icon and your photo will correct to be level—it’s that simple. The straightening tool also includes a slider so you can rotate and adjust any photo—including ones imported from your photo library—as much or as little as you’d like.

Video on Instagram for Ice Cream Sandwich We’re excited to expand Video on Instagram to people who use Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Since the launch of Video on Instagram this has been the Android community’s number-one request, and we’re excited to see this community grow.

Facebook recently updated Instagram with the ability to capture and share video.

Update: The new version is now available in the App Store.

FireCore releases Infuse 1.3 with Wi-Fi file transfers, fullscreen TV-out, and more

Mike Beasley Aug 7 2013 - 7:00 am PT

Our launch video review of Infuse

FireCore has released an update for Infuse, the popular video app for iPhone and iPad. The new update boasts new features such as the ability to transfer videos to your iOS device through a web browser, fullscreen TV-out support, new sharing options, and more.

Infuse 1.3 is a free update for existing owners. New owners can get the app for $4.99 on the App Store. The full change log can be found below.

Whatsapp adds easy to use push-to-talk voice messaging

Ben Lovejoy Aug 7 2013 - 3:55 am PT

Popular chat app whatsapp now allows iPhone users to exchange voice messages with a push-to-talk style function. The feature is also being pushed out simultaneously on the app’s other platforms: Android, Blackberry, Nokia and Windows Phone.

We spend a lot of time at WhatsApp thinking how we can make keeping in touch easier, and we know there’s no substitute for hearing the sound of a friend or family member’s voice. So today we are introducing a new feature we are truly excited about: Voice Messages

While there are other push-to-talk apps out there, whatsapp has introduced a number of features which it says makes the functionality particularly easy to use …
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Facebook Messenger iPhone app adds support for attaching Instagram photos

Jordan Kahn Aug 6 2013 - 4:55 pm PT

Facebook updated its Messenger iOS app today making it easier to send photos and emoji with a few new features. Facebook is deeper integrating Instagram into Messenger, allowing users to attach photos from Instagram albums (in addition to any other album on their iPhone) right in the app. Version 2.6 of the app also makes it easier to send photos and emoji with a new paper clip icon that users can tap from any message.

What’s New in Version 2.6

Now it’s easier to send photos and emoji:
– Just tap the paper clip from any message
– Choose photos from Instagram and any other album on your phone

Don’t forget about stickers: Tap the smiley to see what’s new in the sticker store.

Bug fixes

Twitter for iOS updated with login verification, improved photo viewing, lists

Mark Gurman Aug 6 2013 - 11:12 am PT

Twitter has updated its iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch application with the ability to serve as a conduit for Twitter’s recently launched two-step verification service. Additionally, the app has received new ways to view photos in galleries, and list improvements. More details below:

9to5Toys Last Call: $33 D-Link wireless network camera, $80 Seagate GoFlex 500GB wireless drive, $35 Logitech solar iPad keyboard case, more

Aug 5 2013 - 3:00 pm PT