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.
Let’s be honest, the iOS task switcher that springs into action when you double-click the home button isn’t the most user-friendly implementation of task switching on mobile devices. Truth be told, many people who played with webOS devices came away impressed with the card metaphor efficiency, allowing you to quickly flip running tasks in and out of the screen. It feels right and quickly becomes second nature. You can now have that same card switching multitasking interface, on your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch (iPad version is coming soon) by downloading the CardSwitcher tweak in the Cydia Store. It feels a lot like task switching in webOS and you can assign your own action to invoke it using the Activator tweak in the Settings app, as demonstrated in the above video.
Intuit today announced QuickBooks for Mac 2012, the newest version of its accounting software for small businesses, enhanced for OS X Lion. More than fifty new features are part of the release, including better search with keywords and filters, customer and vendor history panels, transaction list, batch online banking transactions, progress invoicing and more. The software goes on sale September 26 as a digital download on the online Intuit store, Amazon.com, Apple’s online store and other outlets, priced at $230 for a single-user license. Boxed copies will hit store shelves on October 9. Screenshots below.
Premier edition is also available (a Windows-only product), in addition to an add-on for QuickBooks Premier that lets you sync data with Salesforce. QuickBooks also has a cross platform Cloud edition which also shows some promise for Apple users.
It is a 30 pin dock connector, not Bluetooth. It runs on the iPads battery and gets 8-10 hours of battery life (pretty efficient!). The downside to that: Portrait playing only.
The Atari Arcade is scheduled to drop on October 2 at Target and then in November at Toys “R” Us and Walmart for $60.
Hello Atari fans! We’ve been paying close attention to your feedback and have made a ton of improvements:
• New and improved control schemes • OpenFeint integration • Optimized iPad layouts with larger playfields • Better multiplayer connectivity • Compatibility with the Discovery Bay Games Duo Controller • Play with the official Atari® Arcade – Duo™ Powered joystick. http://bit.ly/atariarcade
Google Latitude explanation video – seemingly similar to the planned Find my Friends service
You may remember a finding in the iOS 4.3 SDK that pointed to Apple’s work on a new iOS-device based social network called “Find my Friends.” Many have speculated that this means Apple is working on a location-based social network – similar to Google Latitude or Loopt – that would essentially put all your friends on a map. At that time, a source told us that Apple has been working on the Find my Friends project for some time – but also said that company has shelved the project a few times prior this SDK finding.
Now, we have discovered several references to this Find my Friends service inside of HTML code from the MobileMe/iCloud website. Because these findings reference aspects of MobileMe, we have to urge that this social network from Apple may have been eternally shelved. On the other hand, Photo Stream, when we first revealed it, referenced MobileMe. Now we know that it is actually an iOS 5 iCloud feature.
Drawing from Apple patent application from 2010
From what we can glean from this HTML code, Apple’s Find my Friends service was definitely in development, and it takes some terminology cues from Twitter, which happens to also be fully integrated into the upcoming iOS 5 release. The service may even be similar to a recent patent filing by Apple that is shown above. According to the code, users will be able to select other users to “follow.” Once a user “follows” another user, they will gain access to information about the user besides their location. Apple would presumably create profiles – maybe similar to Game Center – based on Apple IDs. Because the terminology is so similar to Twitter’s, perhaps Apple’s Find my Friends integrates with a Twitter login.
Users, just like in the patent drawings above, will have a user interface that displays a list of everyone they are following and another list that shows everyone who is following them. For a location based service, it is critical for Apple to show the list of followers. To maintain user privacy, all follower requests will be placed into a “pending” process and each need to be individually approved. In addition, Apple is working on putting a clear “blocking” system into place. Users could block individual users of the Find my Friends service or even block follow requests altogether.
Besides having your friends or family member on a map for interaction, perhaps the most interesting part about Apple’s once planned – or upcoming – Find my Friends social network is that it ties right into Apple’s new iCloud and iOS 5 Photo Stream service; like we told you months ago. In iOS 5, a user can take a picture with their iPhone and it will automatically upload to the cloud then download from the cloud onto the user’s other devices: iPhoto on the Mac and Photos on the iPad and iPod touch, for example. According to the HTML code, it appears that a user’s Photo Streams may show up on their profiles on the Find my Friends map.
It also looks like Apple is going to go one step further with Find my Friends: Video Streams. Photo Stream is obviously currently limited to photo streaming in iOS 5, but it looks like Apple is thinking about or planning a new Video Stream service. This would likely be identical to Photo Stream but would be videos instead of photos.
Again, all this HTML code certainly points to Apple once planning a Find my Friends social network. We have no idea if Apple will or will not launch it, and Apple has stopped and re-started work on the project many times, but will think the launch is possible. In any case, Apple’s continued work in the social network realm is interesting. Thanks, Twe112!
A new app called Joypad allows users to play iOS games on their Apple TV. Granted, you will need an iPad and iPhone to get this to work, but as seen in the video above it works really well. After you download the Joystick app on your iPhone it will connect to the iPad via Bluetooth.
Once the connection has been made you can then push the game from your iPad to the Apple TV with Airplay. In effect you’ll be using your iPhone as a controller and your iPad as “console”. As of now the catalog of games is relatively small, but with the Joypad SDK any developer can add this capability into their apps.(via The Next Web).
Apple was a good sport too and allowed one third party app in the top two rows of apps.
Update:Macrumors notes that Apple has begun selling Final Cut Pro 7 (which is likely not enhanced for Lion) the old fashioned way.
We confirmed with an Apple telesales representative at 800-MY-APPLE that Final Cut Studio, part number MB642Z/A, is again available for $999, and $899 for educational customers. The product is only available through the 800-number and is not available in Apple Retail Stores or on the Apple Online Store.
Final Cut Pro 7 was pulled ahead of the release of Final Cut Pro X in June but there has been some backlash among the higher end users because of missing features. Apple, for what it is worth, promised feature updates by the end of summer (which is coming on pretty fast now). Expand Expanding Close
9to5Mac has learned that Apple’s iTunes chief Eddy Cue has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, reporting directly to Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. Cue, 47, will also serve on Apple’s executive management team. The change has been communicated internally via Tim Cook’s email message to employees, enclosed below. Also, Apple’s PR beat Cue, whose LinkedIn profile still lists his old role, by updating his public bio page on the company’s site to reflect the change.
Interestingly, Cue is now responsible for Apple’s iAd division which has been struggling since its promising launch in the summer of 2010, culminating with the resignation of Apple’s former vice president of mobile advertising Andy Miller earlier this month. In fact, Eddy Cue is now in control of Apple’s entire cloud-based operation that encompass the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore and iCloud services, the CEO wrote in his email message. Here’s Cook’s email to troops:
Team, It is my pleasure to announce the promotion of Eddy Cue to Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services. Eddy will report to me and will serve on Apple’s executive management team.
Eddy oversees Apple’s industry-leading content stores including the iTunes Store, the revolutionary App Store and the iBookstore, as well as iAd and Apple’s innovative iCloud services.
He is a 22-year Apple veteran and leads a large organization of amazing people. He played a major role in creating the Apple online store in 1998, the iTunes Music Store in 2003 and the App Store in 2008.
Apple is a company and culture unlike any other in the world and leaders like Eddy get that. Apple is in their blood. Eddy and the entire executive management team are dedicated to making the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.
Please join me in congratulating Eddy on this significant and well-deserved promotion. I have worked with Eddy for many years and look forward to working with him even closer in the future.
Tim
Fast Company last year ranked Cue the second most creative person in their annual list of creatives. They wrote:
Back in May we reported that Bungie, the game studio behind the legendary Halo series of games on Xbox 360, was working on their first game for iOS. Since that time Bungie has announced a new venture, Bungie Aerospace, that is aimed at helping indie developers make incredible games. According to the studio:
Bungie Aerospace was created to help small, independent developers launch their mobile and social games. Bungie Aerospace gives studios the creative freedom and the resources they need, like access to the Bungie.net platform and an audience with the incredible Bungie community, to launch entertainment experiences into orbit and to satisfy their own thirst for world domination.
This evening the studio announced the release of their first iOS game, Crimson Steam Pirates, which is available for free on the App Store. The game is only available for iPad and while the first 8 missions are free, the remainder can be unlocked via in-app purchase for $1.99. From the iTunes description: Expand Expanding Close
There is no shortage of GPS-enabled apps on Apple’s mobile devices. Unfortunately, quality programs usually cost north of fifty bucks. For example, Garmin’s StreetPilot, an excellent navigation app for iOS gadgets, is a $60 download – you can get refurbished low-end handheld GPS devices for that sum. Figuring out the realities, Garmin released a brand new, low-cost, subscription based personal navigation iOS app, the Garmin StreetPilot onDemand.
The program works with iPhones as well as WiFi and 3G models of iPad and costs just 99 cents a month to use. It includes public transit information for 31 metropolitan areas, pretty 3D graphics, standard walking, driving and public transportation directions, spoken turb-by-turn directions and more.
You can download Garmin StreetPilot onDemand from the App Store and let iTunes charge your credit card 99 cents each month or opt for a premium subscription that comes with advanced features. More on that, plus three more screenshots after the break.
Microsoft rarely moves fast to keep their Mac software up-to-date, so it’s a welcome sign that its Connector app has just been updated, ahead of the flurry of new Windows Phones expected any time now. Of course, Microsoft’s mobile platform is not faring well: It declined to a single-digit percent market share and is now tucked away under the Other category in market surveys.
But if you do care, the updated Connector app will let you access Microsoft’s app store called Marketplace, transfer ringtones to Mango-powered devices, drag files, import images from Apple’s Aperture app and fully sync Mango phones with your Mac. Bonus: It syncs Zunes, too. You can download Windows Phone 7 Connector from the Mac App Store free of charge. Full specs and couple more screenies after the break.
Apple indeed operates the largest online content store in the world, the iTunes Store, but its storefront in iTunes and on the web leaves a lot to be desired. As a result of this, searching the iTunes Store often resembles picking a needle in the haystack. I mean, a fifteen-year old showed Apple who’s who in the usability department by creating iTunes Instant, a web-based search tool. Another guy also wrote App Store Instant in the spirit of Google’s Instant Search.
Tunesque from Marco Tabini is awesome. A lightweight search front end, Tunesque sits in your Lion’s menu bar, awaiting your command. Just begin typing and Tunesque does its thing. This nifty little program sports a blue search box that reminds a lot of Spotlight, but the similarities don’t stop there. Tunesque formats its output Spotlight style, grouped by iTunes Store categories such as apps, music, movies, books and more, allowing you to easily spot what interests you. Hover over an item and up pops a handy iTunes description that includes a product shot, description and user ratings. That’s not all…
The Financial Times has officially been removed from the App Store after failing to comply with Apple’s in-app subscription model that requires payments to be processed through iTunes (giving Apple a 30% cut in the process).
The publication used to have an iPhone and iPad app, which appear to have been removed from the App Store today. Fortunately for FT (not so much for Apple), they also have an HTML5 web app alternative that they’re urging iOS users to use instead.
A report from Reuters suggests Palo Alto-based Flipboard is considering taking on Netflix, Hulu, Apple, and others by attempting to land deals that would allow them to offer TV shows.
Flipboard is currently only available as an iPad app and as it stands provides limited content (albeit in a stylish manner) in magazine format from a number of publications including Economist and Oprah.com. It also takes a unique approach of integrating social updates from Twitter and Facebook into the layout. The report claims Flipboard is currently in talks with studios in order to land the deals necessary for rights to add TV shows as well.
It’s unclear exactly who the company has approached and how far along talks are, but the report says Chief Executive Mike McCue wants to start on the project “at the end of the year”. He also has plans to sign up book publishers and release an iPhone version in the near future. This comes on the heels of competitor Zite being snatched up by CNN, and a number of other high profile alternatives getting deals with studios in place. Expand Expanding Close
UPDATE [Monday, September 12, 2011 at 3:30pm ET]: Dolphin Browser HD for iPad just went live on the App Store.
Most Android users are quite familiar with the third-party Dolphin Browser app, which has been downloaded over 9 million times and according to TechCrunch just raised $10 million from Sequoia Capital. It appears some of that investment will go towards the company’s efforts on iOS devices as well, as an official iOS version of the browser has just popped up in the App Store.
The iOS version brings over the majority of features that have made Dolphin so popular among Android users. Among them is highly customizable gestures, built-in translations, dock-like sidebar for accessing bookmarks, speed dial, tabbed browsing, and more. Don’t be fooled, however, Dolphin is still based on Apple’s own WebKit, much the same as the default Safari app, all other third-party browsers on the App Store, and the majority of browsers in the smartphone industry. It does have some competitors such as Opera and a handful of smaller players like SkyFire who are starting to gain traction and steadily improving their iOS offerings. Expand Expanding Close
Ever wished you could run your favorite iOS app on your Mac? What about your Windows machine or Android device? If creators of new Kickstarter project iEmu reach their funding goals, it may be possible sooner than you think.
iEmu is a new project based on the open-source QEMU emulator, currently accepting donations through Kickstarter, that aims to emulate the S5L8930 chipset used in iPhone 4 and first-gen iPads. It will support a number of platforms including “Linux, Windows, Mac, mobile platforms such as Android, and even on iOS itself”.
The goals of iEmu? Well the end goal is an emulator capable of running “most iPad/iPhone apps” that even supports peripherals like the compass, accelerometer, and GPS. It would also “be extended with plugins for custom iOS exploration” and able to be reflashed in iTunes. Expand Expanding Close
Apple is said to be working on an incremental operating system update for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that will let its users enjoy seamless integration with the iCloud service, which is scheduled to go live this Fall when iOS 5 debuts. MacRumorsspotted the above notice in a developer’s .Mac preference pane in TIGER after he had upgraded his MobileMe account to iCloud:
You will no longer be able to sync with this machine because you’ve upgraded to iCloud. iCloud requires a computer running Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6.9 or later for Contacts, Calendars and Bookmarks.
This is actually the first mention of more detailed iCloud system requirements beyond a brief description on Apple’s iCloud page. OS X 10.6.9, of course, has yet to be released, but it’s nice seeing that Apple won’t be leaving out Snow Leopard users with its upcoming cloud service.
Adobe today released a new iOS app dubbed CreatePDF that does right what the name suggest. Using CreatePDF, one can create PDF documents from scratch, right on their iOS device, down to images, links, formatting, footnotes, drawings and more. Adobe touts “the same high-quality PDF creation as Adobe Acrobat” and you can pretty much create any PDF document you could think of as the app works in tandem with the cloud to ensure quality PDF conversion.
Upon installing, CreatePDF registers as a default app to open Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, Adobe Illustrator drawings, Photoshop images and InDesign files, in addition to Open Office and StarOffice documents and JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF and TIFF images. This lets you send the aforementioned mail attachments or documents from other apps to CreatePDF using the “Open In…” feature of iOS. CreatePDF is a universal binary that costs ten bucks over at the App Store. More screenies and full features list after the break.
Sometimes we forget how much fun Cydia apps are. This kid does a pretty good 15 minute demo of what’s happening in the Cydia world right now. Expand Expanding Close
As pointed out by The Next Web Apple has begun to role out a new redesign for category home pages in the App Store. The redesign follows suit with the home page of the App Store, displaying a large horizontal banner which runs through the category’s featured apps. As of now, the redesign is only appearing in the Education and Games sections.
Besides the banner, Apple has removed the section that displayed all of the category’s apps, and has replaced it with the “Staff Favorites” section. Now, the three sections for each category are: ”What’s Hot”, “New and Noteworthy”, and “Staff Favorites”.
The iPad is also seeing these updates — again for only the Education and Games section. The iPad’s “What’s Hot” section is now replaced by “Staff Favorites,” and the banner is displayed. This is most likely on its way to rolling out through the whole App Store.
Several new enhancements have surfaced in the latest developer version of Google’s Chrome browser. As previously announced, the software now respects Apple’s multitouch gesturing philosophy in OS X Lion. This means you can flick your finger left or right on your Magic Mouse (or two fingers on a trackpad) to advance and go back in your history. Unfortunately, the browser won’t yet let you double-tap or pinch to smoothly zoom in and out of web pages iPhone-style, like Safari on Lion. Another nice-to-have: You can now rest assured that accidentally hitting the Command + Q combo won’t quit Chrome because a subtle overlay appears telling you to hold down the combo briefly in order to quit (see the above screenshot), which has been around for awhile since past builds. In addition…
T-Mobile dissing the iPhone it will soon carry and the company that will soon buy it?
After yesterday’s Sprint story, MacTrast chimes in that the soon to be acquired by AT&T network will carry the iPhone 5 as well.
The informant, who requested to remain anonymous, went on to claim that the iPhone 5 would also operate at 3G speeds on T-Mobile US network. Current unlocked iPhone 4 units can only operate at at 2G “edge” speeds on T-Mobile’s network, and lack certain network-dependent features, such as Visual Voicemail.
That’s somewhat strange as the chips inside the Verizon iPhone and what are thought to be in the upcoming iPhone 5 support T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 14Mb ‘4G’ service (as well as AT&T’s ‘4G’).
We reported earlier this year that T-Mobile already had over a million iPhones running on its US network.
Apple sent out an email to devs earlier today announcing a new tool available via developer.apple.com that will allow you to “retrieve your daily and weekly reports” from the iTunes Connect Sales and Trends module. The Java-based script runs on all operating systems running Java 1.6 and up.
When we reported the release of the Mac OS 10.7.1 update last week we were unsure whether or not new updaters would have to always grab additional updates through Software Update. However, it now looks like that won’t be the case as Apple has today updated Lion and the roughly 4GB installer to 10.7.1 on the Mac App Store. Apple will most likely carry on this new trend of releasing the delta update via SU first, followed by updating Lion in the Mac App Store for new downloaders.
The changelog from 10.7.1, which included the usual bug fixes and apparently improved issues users have had with Wi-Fi, is below if you’re interested. Expand Expanding Close
Apple has posted the iTunes 10.4.1 incremental update on its servers. The update, which is available via Software Update from the Apple menu, contains several improvements that make the program more nimble in certain situations, in addition to fixes for known issues such as adding artwork to songs and videos. Standalone iTunes 10.4.1 installers for Mac and Windows are available from the iTunes download page. Full changelog right after the break…
