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X is allegedly limiting user reach to posts that link to the New York Times
X, formerly known as Twitter, is allegedly slowing down user access to links to the New York Times website. While it's unclear what is causing the drop in engagement, this wouldn't be the first time Elon Musk's X appeared to be affecting user engagement.
Formula E's fast-charging pit stops won't arrive until next year
The electric pit stops would let drivers top off their battery in just 30 seconds.
Newsbeat creates a custom newscast for your commute
I've looked at a few news apps over the years that are designed to read the news to you while you commute or travel. Most fall pretty short of ideal, failing in voice quality or news selection. Newsbeat from Tribune Digital Ventures comes the closest to being both useful and practical. The app is free, and happily does not require a signup or account. When you first start the app, it asks for your name so it can greet you as the news begins, and requests your home and work zip codes for traffic and weather information. Customization can be done from a settings menu. You can tell the app to emphasize or de-emphasize certain types of news. If you want a lot of of US news but little world news, that adjustment can be easily made. Specialty areas like science or technology can be added, and the app automatically selects your local newspaper to provide the news you need to hear. You can add other publications as you desire. When you launch Newsbeat, it greets you by name, gives you the weather forecast, and then delivers a brief traffic report before heading into the news. Weather and traffic are repeated every ten minutes. The voices in Newsbeat are quite good and natural, and I would compare them favorably to Siri. Like all text to speech software, names are sometimes mangled (especially non-English names), but overall pronunciation is quite good. The readers for news stories alternate between a male and female voice. There is a musical transition between stories, and you can change the type of music in the setup menu. There are no ads in the stories, although that might not last forever. Sources are varied, including but not limited to Tribune-owned newspapers, NBC, Fox, CNN, the Associated Press and whatever other sources you add. I found one undocumented bonus by accident. After I paired my phone to my car Bluetooth system, I noticed that the headline for each story appeared on the car LCD screen. Even more surprising, when I hit my next track button on the steering wheel, the app stopped the current story and moved to the next one. You can do the same thing on your iPhone screen, but doing it without picking up the phone is a pretty terrific idea and really well implemented. This feature may not work with all Bluetooth systems, but my car is 3 years old and it worked flawlessly. As good as this system is, there are a few improvements I would like to see. I'd like a little more control, such as determining the order of stories presented in the newscast. It goes relentlessly through a set order of stories. I might like to start with tech, rather than U.S. or international news, or start with my local news. Within any category, I'd like to be able to seed the app with some keywords, like 'Apple' or 'iPhone'. The little music interludes get irritating after a while and I'd like to be able to turn them off. More control over traffic and weather would be welcome as well. I might want just traffic, but not a repeating weather forecast, for example. Newsbeat is clever and useful, and it is the best-of-breed for hands-off newsreaders. It provides a very useful newscast with local news, weather and traffic. In my tests the app read 30 to 35 stories, each one about 3 paragraphs long. There is also a button for sharing stories with others, but be sure not to mess with that while you are driving. Newsbeat is not universal; it's designed for the iPhone, optimized for the iPhone 5, and requires iOS 6.1 or later. I really like the idea behind this app, and with a few tweaks it will be a must-have app for commuters who want to keep up with the latest news. Even as it is, Newsbeat is an app I will use often.
Badland gets new levels in Day 2 update
Badland is a wild little platformer from Finnish developer Frogmind, and it now boasts 10 new levels thanks to a new update. The developers have been working on delivering a set of content they call Day 2, with 10 levels of "Dawn" released about a month ago. Now, they've added the "Noon" levels for Day 2, which adds 10 new areas for you to explore with the game's little flapping hero. There are also 30 new missions and five new achievements to try and conquer. Frogmind has even released a new trailer for the additional content, so you can see it in action. Badland is an excellent little game that's US$3.99 right now, and with new content like this coming all the time, that price just keeps getting more worth it.
Knights of Pen and Paper now updated to +1 edition
The excellent iOS RPG Knights of Pen and Paper has been updated to the +1 Edition (as we heard it would be back at GDC) and is now available as a free update on the App Store. This new version, which is technically 2.02, brings lots of new content, game updates, new dungeons to explore and many other extras. For example, there's now a place called The Tavern, where you can keep old heroes and swap in new ones. Several new battle options nearly turned Knights of Pen and Paper into entirely new game. The +1 edition was spurred on by the game's new publisher, Paradox. Thanks to that collaboration, the game is also now available on Steam for US$9.99. But again, the iOS version is a free update, so if you've grabbed the game already, do be sure to download and give this version a try. If you haven't purchased it yet, you can grab it now for $2.99.
Wordpress for iOS gets a new user interface
The Wordpress app for iOS has been updated again, and it features a brand-new interface for browsing, writing and editing posts on the popular blogging platform. As you can see above, the new interface apes Facebook's "side menu" (as have a few other big apps lately), and the update also fixes some other bugs, and adds some performance improvements in regards to emoticons and notifications in general. Wordpress for iOS is an open-source project, and thus you can download it straight from the App Store any time for free.
Heroes and Castles updated to version 3.0
Foursaken Media's Heroes and Castles has been updated yet again, with lots of new content to play. The game, which allows you to level up a hero by defending a town and its various resources against an army of invading minions, has been popular for Foursaken already, and the team told me during GDC that they were planning on adding plenty of extras to the game this year. They've reached version 3.0 now, and the latest update adds three new heroes: an Assassin, a Barbarian, and a Druid, each with their own abilities and weapons. There's also a brand new campaign for the game that must be unlocked to play, with new maps to fight over, and new allied units to join you in battle. You can upgrade buildings and units even further, the graphics now boast real-time shadows, and the game's performance has been upgraded overall. Finally, there are new achievements to earn in the game, which the best players can go after for Game Center glory. That's a sizable update that adds even more value to this excellent $1.99 game. Heroes and Castles can be downloaded right now. [via Touch Arcade]
Mutant Mudds Deluxe for Wii U almost ready to be submitted
Developer Jools Watsham has tweeted that Mutant Mudds Deluxe, which was set to come to the Wii U this spring, has reached the final stage of development. Watsham says the game is currently being polished, and that it should be submitted to Nintendo for release later on this week. The Deluxe version of the retro platformer will be playable directly on the Wii U's tablet controller, and will feature both the add-on content from the main game and new levels to play. If the game is submitted this week as planned, it should appear on the eShop soon after.
Meet the newest Infinite Crisis champions: Nightmare Batman and Wonder Woman
You know what your problem is? You've been getting too much sleep. Don't worry, Infinite Crisis has got your back. The team introduced two new champions today, one of which is Nightmare Batman. Living up to his name, Nightmare Batman is pretty much the scariest thing we've seen all week. He's described as a "feral hunter" who ravages his opponents and whose life skill is "eternal hunger." It's not all creepy claw-feet and soulless eyes, though: Infinite Crisis is also bringing in Wonder Woman. She's armed with godlike regeneration, a golden lasso, and an inherent tanky je ne sais quoi. Skip below the cut to check out the champions' intro videos. [Source: WB Games press release]
Daily iPhone App: Super Stickman Golf 2 updates a modern classic
Super Stickman Golf is a great title that I've been playing for years -- it's a big standby for games journalists in particular for some reason, and every time I come to a conference full of games writers, like this week at GDC, there's always someone playing it at any given time. The company behind the app, NoodleCake Studios, has just released a sequel called Super Stickman Golf 2, and it's now available for US$0.99. In terms of gameplay, the sequel is basically the same as the original. You are still playing golf on a 2D course, with some wacky obstacles and layouts in your way, and just a single "Go" button to take your shot and then set your power. But of course, as it's a sequel, there is plenty of new content included, with lots of new courses, new powerups and new ways to customize your characters. Hats are a big deal this time around, with some of them providing extra bonuses and stat boosts as you play. There's also a new turn-based mode, so you can pass turns back and forth among your friends, and there's lots of new social integration in the game itself as well. The race mode is back, and in general, the gameplay seems much smoother and better-built. And there are lots of other fun extras, including iCloud support and Bluetooth multiplayer again. Super Stickman Golf 2 is an excellent app -- it's not a groundbreaking update over the first game, but it's a solid sequel, and definitely worth the 99 cent price.
BioWare Edmonton and producer Casey Hudson working on 'a whole new fictional universe'
During a panel this weekend at PAX East, Mass Effect producer Casey Hudson revealed that his team at BioWare Edmonton has started work on "a whole new fictional universe." Other details weren't shared, except that Hudson said that he and BioWare's Senior Creative Director Preston Watamaniuk are going to be "building something new" together.Hudson oversaw Mass Effect 3 as an executive producer, and he says he'll still serve that role on the next Mass Effect title. But that game is being developed at BioWare Montreal, so Hudson's team at BioWare Edmonton has moved on to something completely new. Hopefully we'll hear more about it soon.
SOE introducing brand new forums later this month
If you're a regular on the SOE forums, you may have noticed some changes as the individual game boards have been transitioning over to the new system. But on Tuesday, March 26th, the entirety of the SOE forums will be switched over to let you enjoy the new look, shiny new tools, and improved stability. The most important thing to note about this upgrade is that it's an entirely different forum, so you'll need to re-register your handle. SOE assures us that users can reclaim their longstanding forum names during the first two weeks in the event that someone else grabs it first.
Out today: Super Stickman Golf 2, The Croods by Rovio, Danger Boat and more
The biggest (and best) iOS release today is probably Ridiculous Fishing, but there were quite a few really good games hitting the App Store this week. First up, Super Stickman Golf has earned itself a sequel called Super Stickman Golf 2, and it features the excellent 2D golf game that made the first game so great and then some: More courses, more powerups, more achievements, new customizable characters and a new race-based multiplayer mode. Super Stickman Golf is excellent, and the sequel is even better, available now for US$0.99. Rovio's The Croods is now available, and sure enough, it's a freemium Farmville-style game featuring the characters from the upcoming movie. It'll be very interesting to see how this one does as compared to the studio's other big franchise, a little game you may not have heard of called Angry Birds. I was a huge fan of Pixelocity's great Disc Drivin' multiplayer turn-based racing game, and the studio has now released a new title called Danger Boat. It's not too closely related to Disc Drivin' (it's more like "Temple Run in a Boat," I'd say), except that it's very well-polished and a whole lot of fun. Both this and The Croods are completely free. And finally, I haven't heard much about Stargate: SG-1 Unleashed, but it's apparently an episodic adventure game featuring the characters and settings of the famous sci-fi franchise. It's a little pricey, at $4.99, but it looks pretty solid, and if you're a Stargate fan you've probably already gone to check it out. Some very excellent releases on the App Store this week -- we iOS gamers continue to be really lucky.
Adobe brings Photoshop Touch to the iPhone
Just about a year ago at this time, Adobe released an iPad version of their flagship app, called Photoshop Touch. Now, a year later, they've announced a version of the app built specifically for the iPhone's smaller screen, that should be propagating out to the App Store very soon, listed at a price of US$4.99. So what's different? Product Manager Stephen Nielson sat down with TUAW a little while ago to demo the new version of the app, and show off just what's been done differently with the smaller screen. One thing is that despite the touchscreen interface, this is still Photoshop. You can open photos, edit them as you see fit, crop and retouch. It also allows you to edit layers with the standard cloning, brush and effects tools, and do nearly everything the desktop version of the app can do. There are even some things the desktop version app can't do -- Adobe built a "Scribble selection" feature for the touchscreen, where you can simply drag your finger around to select, and the app will intelligently nail your choice down. And there's also a "camera fill" feature, where you can choose a selection, and then use your iPhone or iPad's camera to shoot a picture right there and fill it in. And there's a 3D layer-viewing mode, where you can expand your image out into its various layers, and then drag around the touchscreen to view them in 3D. All of this is powered by Adobe's Creative Cloud service, too, so you can seamlessly transfer to and open photos from your phone, work on them and then save and reopen them up on your desktop. It's all very smooth and simple, and for just $4.99, the app seems like a bargain for any Photoshop ninjas out there. Of course, not everything is perfect. First up, as you might imagine, the iPhone and iPad have power limits that your desktop does not, so the biggest image you can open is a 12-megapixel image with three layers. If you open a smaller image, you can trade that off for more layers, so a 3-megapixel image can run up to 16 layers at a time on the iOS versions. The good news, though, is that if you open up an image with more layers than your iOS device can handle, it gets saved into a new format, so you'll never lose your work. The other big missing piece on the iPhone itself is tutorials -- there are some text-based informational tutorials included with the iPhone app, but the iPad had much more involved tutorials and demos. That's not a big loss, however, and Nielson told us it was mostly just to save space in the iPhone's internal memory. But "by and large," says Nielson, the iPhone version has "just about everything" else the iPad version has, despite it being half the price. As for what Adobe has planned next, Nielson said the company will "continue to explore new features for these apps, but also other apps and other services, especially services and workflows that can be enabled by Creative Cloud." Nielson didn't have any other announcements, but promised more is coming soon. Photoshop Touch seems like an excellent (and much cheaper) version of the image-editing standard, and now it's been ported over successfully to the iPhone. It's too bad the company didn't go universal, but given all of the work that went into this new version, and the comparably much higher price of the desktop software, anyone who uses Photoshop regularly probably won't hesitate to grab it right away.
Puzzle Craft goes on a 'Treasure Hunt' next week
Puzzle Craft was one of my favorite games last year on any platform, not even just Apple's App Store. But like a lot of the title's fans, I've been somewhat disappointed that developers Ars Thanea haven't followed it up with any new content. They and publisher Chillingo had quite a few golden opportunities to get the game back in the spotlight with a big update, and they just haven't supported the game like I believe they should have. But there's good news here -- Chillingo has finally sent word that Puzzle Craft is getting a nice update next week. It's called "Treasure Hunt," and while it's not exactly clear how it all will work, it sounds like the game will be hiding treasure items in among the other items you collect, which you'll then be able to organize and complete into sets. In addition to the new gameplay, there will also be new jobs for your villagers, new tools to find and use, a level cap increase to level 60 and a new endgame goal: To upgrade your castle into an Imperial Castle, beating the game yet again. Personally, I'm really excited for the update -- it's not exactly what I would have imagined from a Puzzle Craft update, but hopefully it'll be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, Chillingo didn't mention if the update will be paid or free, but given that the game is free right now, I'd expect it to be an in-app purchase. We'll check back with them, and keep an eye out for the new patch next week.
The must-try Spaceteam update adds challenges, new play modes
Spaceteam is a great app that we haven't mentioned much, but the TUAW team certainly knows about it, as we played during most of our downtime at Macworld. The lastest update has made it even better. Spaceteam is based on an amazing idea. It's a multiplayer game for one to four (or more, see below) iOS devices. Every player gets a panel of seemingly nonsensical touchscreen controls for a space ship, and gets orders for those controls ("push button 1" or "turn knob to 3," for example) at the top of the screen. The twist, however, is that the command you get is usually for controls on someone else's screen. When played correctly, the game prompts you and your friends to shout crazy commands to each other, like "Turn the astro-generator to five!" or "Jump-start the blast engine!" With the new update, Spaceteam is absolutely free to download. There are new IAP packs to buy, which unlock new skins or control sets, or even open up new challenges or achievements to earn. Additionally, new massive multiplayer modes let you mess around with more than four players if you happen to have a larger group. So not only is the game great, but the devs are working hard to provide lots of other content. It's quite impressive, even beyond the initial idea of just having players, as the description says, "shout technobabble at each other until their ship explodes." If you haven't tried Spaceteam yet, it's a must-play -- go grab a friend with another iOS device, and have some fun.
Simogo's latest, Year Walk, coming to iOS next week
Simogo is an iOS developer best known for games that are cartoony and fun, like the great Beat Sneak Bandit and the charming Bumpy Road. But the company's next title is going to take a much darker turn, apparently. Year Walk is Simogo's next project, and as you can see above, this game looks neither cartoony or fun. Year Walk is set on a New Year's Eve in 19th century Sweden, as the player is tasked with exploring some dark woods to try and solve a mystery. The game's teaser trailer sets the tone about right: There will be puzzles and exploration involved, all with a very creepy, atmospheric black-and-white feel. Like I said, different from Bumpy Road. The title also has a companion app coming with it, that will fill in players on a lot of the folk lore and backstory that support the game's setting and various creatures. Year Walk looks very interesting. It should be available, according to Simogo, on the App Store on February 21, so we'll look for it next week.
App updates for iOS and OS X that you don't want to miss - December 13 edition
It has been busy in the App Store with a bunch of updates for popular apps such as Readdle's PDF Expert, 1Password and more. Check out our comprehensive list of notable updates from the past few days below! OS X Updates Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 [OS X, Category: Photography, $149.99] Adjust, organize and share your images. Changes in version 4.3 include: HiDPI support within the Library and Develop Modules. HiDPI provides support for Retina-enabled Macs. Additional raw file support for 20 cameras including the Canon EOS 6D, Nikon D600 and Olympus PEN E-PL5 Corrections and bug fixes for issues introduced in previous versions of Lightroom. Gemini for Mac [OS X, Category: Utilities, $9.99] Gemini will quickly find and help you remove duplicates from your Mac. Changes in version 1.4 include: Dramatically improved Auto Select algorithm. Now it works way better and more precisely. Auto Select can now be additionally customized to meet user preference. Entire albums or events can be auto-selected at once in your iTunes and iPhoto libraries. Improved forward compatibility with iPhoto and iTunes. Added Japanese Localization. Fixed the bug of occasional inability to remove videos from iPhoto libraries. Folding Text [OS X, Category: Productivity, $24.99] Folding Text auto-formats your document into sections, lists, and paragraphs. Changes in version 1.1 include: Welcome text is only shown on the first launch. Markdown escape sequences are now highlighted. Repeat tags or tags that use reserved words are not highlighted. New window location is set from last positioned window. Menu item choice changes are used as defaults for new documents. When saving suggest filename based on from document content. Don't delete backward over folded region, beep instead. Collapsing a childless node will collapse it's parent instead. Scroll to selection when setting selection from AppleScript. Now refresh document view if file is changed by another app. Fixed Items > Change Type > Codeblock now works. Fixed Copy as RTF to work correctly with characters such as Æ Ø Å. Fixed File path links for absolute and relative paths now work. Fixed No longer show spelling errors in smart links. Fixed Inline link highlighting that included title attributes. Fixed Console.app warnings displayed on FoldingText launch. Fixed Finding text in last section works even if it's collapsed. Fixed Finding text works correctly when the view is focused in. Fixed Bold highlighting now works in tabindented blockquotes. Fixed Internal crashes caused by invalid AppleScript parameters. Fixed Cases where link URLs could inadvertently be deleted. Fixed so **two** **bolds**, one after the other are recognized. This release also makes lots of changes to expand the AppleScript support. It adds support for more precise selection control, read/write access to the view node path, and the ability to expand and collapse nodes. It also adds an HTTP style interface that's easy to use from other languages and might make more sense to web programmers. See User's Guide > AppleScript Support for more information. Hammer [OS X, Category: Developer Tools, $23.99] Hammer helps you build out websites with support for HTML includes, SASS and Coffeescript parsing and Clever Paths and more. Changes in version 1.0.5 include: Bug fixes! New and improved, faster compiler! New warnings - see more about your project Tweetbot for Mac [OS X, Category: Social Networking, $19.99] Full-featured Mac OS X Twitter client with a lot of personality. Changes in version 1.1 include: New global hot keys for show/hide and new tweets available in preferences New "All Tweets" notification preference available (10.8 only) If you pin timeline to top in preferences it will now also pin other non-streaming columns to the top (searches, lists, etc) Added support for visual sync marker Keyboard shortcuts for Read Later and Email Tweet Trends now autorefresh if used in a column Clicking menu bar item rows will now open main window if needed. Will also go to correct space if main window is on a different space/desktop Moom and Tweetbot are now better friends Fixed issue where draft with images weren't shown when you loaded a draft Fixed issue when home timeline displaying a list wasn't being synced nor showing correct unread tweets. Fixed issue where scrolling via keyboard was not updating the position properly (affected Tweetmarker and iCloud) Fixed crash when switching main timeline between a bunch of lists and then closing that column Fixed issue dragging windows to secondary screens if they were vertically aligned Fixed issue where notification sounds were playing even if you had Sound: None set Fixed issue with Reading List requiring a login Fixed issue with not respecting global auto-spell correction preferences Fixed issue with double tap on trackpad not behaving like right click in some places Fixed issue with j/k keys on dvorak keyboard Fixed issue where couldn't refresh columns in secondary windows using keyboard shortcut Fixed issue where pressing enter would send the tweet instead of select a username DropCopy Pro [OS X, Category: Productivity, $14.99] Easily and quickly send files and folders to multiple destinations across your network by simply dragging files onto recipients in a popup window. Changes in version 1.8.3 include: Restores the preference to hide DropCopy in the dock (i.e., running in the background) Waffle [OS X, Category: Photography, $9.99] Easy-to-use photomosaic app. Changes in version 1.1 include: Retina support User interface fixes iOS Updates Anytune Pro + [iOS Universal, Category: Music, $16.99] Slow down music, choose the perfect pitch, and learn to play by ear using Anytune Pro+ Changes in version 3.5 include: Anytune Pro HQ is now known as Anytune Pro+ ReTune - Associate a tempo, pitch or delay time with marks Built-in Recording Export a tuned track via Email or Open-In Search for Tunes, Songs, Playlists, Artists and Albums Change sort order of Tunes list: Manual, Alphabetical, Date Imported, Date Last Played Delayed playback start User defined preset names for audio marks Autoplay option on mark selection Ability to shift loop from A->B or B->A and 1/2 or x2 the size of the loop Set default tempo, pitch and gain for newly imported songs Enhanced help menu Improved Facebook and Twitter sharing options Loop once option Graphical UI enhancements Facebook [iOS Universal, Category: Social Networking, Free] The Facebook app lets you post to your wall and view your friend's status updates on your phone or tablet. Changes in version 5.3 include: Post your photos to albums and enjoy a speedier app. You can now choose an album when uploading photos News feed loads more quickly Completely rebuilt timeline opens faster on your iPhone Van Gogh's Dream [iPad, Category: Reference, $9.99] The Van Gogh's Dream application allows you to discover or to rediscover the painter, his art, his drawings, his letters and his technique. Changes in version 1.1 include: A new interactive map showing the places where Van Gogh lived and how his work evolved through his life as a painter Ten paintings from the Auvers period in HD An additional chapter about Van Gogh's love for flowers which eventually fathered his spectacular Sunflowers An interactive feature showing how Van Gogh used his typical, thick layers of paint Enhanced reading for retina display Shazam Encore [iPhone, Category: Music, $6.99] Identify songs in as little as one second, preview or buy the track, get streaming lyrics, YouTube videos and more. (Shazam) Red, a special edition version of Shazam that helps fight AIDS in Africa is also updated with the same changes noted below. Changes in version 5.5.0 include: All new Tagging screen that responds to the sounds around you Tagging without coverage? Shazam now matches automatically when you next have a connection Search My Tags – scroll up to the top of the My Tags to search for artists, titles, tag dates and tag locations Share tags on Google+ For VoiceOver users, Shazam now has a "magic tap": start tagging immediately with a two-finger double-tap from anywhere in the app Pull to Refresh restored to Shazam Friends Sharing Tags on Facebook now uses the iOS native sharing screen PDF Expert from Readdle [iPad, Category: Productivity, $9.99] PDF Expert lets you read and annotate PDF documents, highlight text, make notes, fill forms, draw with your finger and save changes so they are compatible with Preview and Adobe Acrobat. Changes in version 4.4 include: GoogleDrive sync PDF Convertor integration Sharefile integration German localization Faster viewer (esp. thumbnails view) Auto save Protect PDF files from corruption Can scroll page out of the tabs now Groupon HD [iPad, Category: Lifestyle, Free] Groupon brings you unbeatable deals for 50–90% off the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in more than 500 cities and eleven fiefdoms around the world. Changes in version 1.5 include: A gorgeous new gallery view for deals so you can pretend you're a fancy art critic. An all-new "Nearby" tab for finding out what's close to you when you fall asleep on the bus again. Improved Facebook iOS 6 integration for sharing your deals or listing your new relationship with Groupon. Support for promotional and gift codes, which is just neat. International accessibility to buy Groupons in Singapore, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, Hong Kong, Brazil, and most basements. SoundHound [iOS Universal, Category: Music, Free] : Blazing fast music recognition. Changes in version 5.2.1 include: Improved search speed and accuracy Bug fixes Flickr [iPhone, Category: Photo & Video, Free] Connect to the world's largest photo-sharing site in the palm of your hand. Changes in version 2.00.762 include: Complete redesign of the previous version Simple sign-up and registration process 16 unique camera filters Full Groups capabilities Explore interesting photos from around the world and nearby Fantastical [iPhone, Category: Productivity, $1.99] Fast and friendly calendar app. Changes in version 1.0.1 include: Added default alarms (more alarm improvements are coming!) Added Facebook badges to Facebook events Improved performance when scrolling the DayTicker Fixed crashes and other issues when loading very large numbers of events Fixed minor locale problems with days of the week and dates (Japanese, Korean, and German in particular) Various fixes and improvements 360 Panorama [iOS Universal, Category: Photo & Video, $0.99e] 360 Panorama turns your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad into a 360-degree panoramic camera. Changes in version 4.3.1 include: Our computer vision doctors performed a vision check-up and calibration for the new cameras on the iPod Touch (5th generation), iPad mini, and iPad (4th generation). Perfect 360-360 vision! Exporting and emailing flat images is now 2X faster on devices with iOS5+. We tracked down and squashed some rare crash bugs during import and when deleting multiple panoramas. Plex [iOS Universal, Category: Entertainment, $4.99] Plex lets you stream your music, videos and photos from your home computers running Plex Media Server. Changes in version 3.0.2 include: NEW: Use local IP information from myPlex. NEW: Alert when starting playback on a remote player. NEW: More informative alerts when playback fails. NEW: Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to quickly change connectivity settings. FIX: The "Prefer Synced Content" setting wasn't working. FIX: Direct Play wasn't working over remote connections. FIX: Stream selection wasn't working on iPad for certain content. FIX: Filter list wasn't updated when switching between online & offline mode. FIX: Synced content wasn't playable from detail view. FIX: New content had incorrect view counts & wasn't syncable when accessed for the first time. FIX: Faster responses when deleting items. FIX: Playback of certain queued/recommended content wasn't working. FIX: Other miscellaneous crashes. Twitterrific 5 [iOS Universal, Category: Social Networking, $2.99] Twitter client that is easy to understand and simple to use. Changes in version 5.0.1 include: NEW FEATURES Swiping left or right with two fingers now switches dark and light themes Checkmark icons are now displayed for verified users in lists Added sound effects to swipe gestures An in-app notification is displayed when Dark Theme at Night changes Added in-app notification when posting a new tweet or message Timelines can now scroll to the marker without displaying it A loading bar is now displayed when a picture is taking a long time to load Added Pinboard support for bookmarking links and tweets IMPROVEMENTS Various improvements to VoiceOver Toggling the unified timeline setting now updates the screen immediately Made the swipe gestures easier to trigger The pull-to-refresh control now operates more smoothly You can now hit space or tab to auto-complete the first user match Lists and searches in the sidebar now refresh periodically OMG PIXELS! When you reply to a message, you can now see it in the compose view Displaying follower and following lists is now much faster App help can now be opened in Safari BUG FIXES Fixed a problem in the search view when using shake-to-undo Fixed a crash caused by closing a conversation thread while it was loading You can now send just a photo without any tweet text Improved performance in the settings screen Emailed and bookmarked tweets now use long URLs Added a confirmation dialog when deleting tweets and messages Fixed display problems in right-to-left languages, such as Arabic Previously uploaded images are no longer attached to other tweets Jingu Friends [iPhone, Category: Social Networking, Free] Find people to chat with on WhatsApp, Kik, Hookt and LiveProfile. Changes in version 1.1.0 include: Want to see the latest people that have joined your city or country? Check out the "New People" view from the menu! We've also squashed a few bugs and improved performance. Yes!
Pudding Monsters is newest game from Cut the Rope creators ZeptoLab
ZeptoLab is a Russian developer most famous for creating the enormously popular Cut the Rope series on iOS, and today the company has announced a brand-new game, called Pudding Monsters. There's a quick teaser trailer down below, and while it doesn't yet show any real gameplay, you can probably guess what this new physics-based puzzler's about: Cute little monsters moving around a level towards a goal. According to ZeptoLab, the cute little creatures can be glooped together, and there will be different types with different abilities as well. At any rate, we'll see the game when it arrives in just a few weeks, on December 20. It's worth noting that while Chillingo published the original Cut the Rope game, ZeptoLab has chosen not to go with Chillingo for this title (nor did it partner up with Chillingo for the Cut the Rope: Experiments spinoff, either). That's an interesting choice -- most developers we've heard from really appreciate Chillingo's support. For example, 11 Bit Studios is sticking with the publisher for a few different games. But whatever the reason for its choice, ZeptoLab is going it alone on this one, and if the trailer below is any indication, the game will probably be just as cute as Cut the Rope (though the editor in me winces at the title of the video -- maybe ZeptoLab could use an extra English proofreader). And, ZeptoLab certainly hopes, it's just as popular.
Firefox 17 drops OS X 10.5 Leopard support, adds integrated Facebook Messenger
Firefox 17 is out of beta, but the biggest story for us Mac users is what it doesn't do, namely support OS X 10.5 Leopard. That's right, Mozilla's browser has moved on, so if you're still running 10.5, this latest version is not for you. But it does add a new "Social API," which Facebook has already used to bring an in-browser Messenger interface, and there are a number of new performance improvements and an "updated Awesome Bar experience" to check out as well. Odds are that the 10.5 cutoff won't catch too many people any more, considering we've had three big OS updates since then (heck, Safari 6 doesn't run past 10.7.5). But if you are one of those with a Mac that still needs 10.5, you can of course keep running Firefox 16 for as long as you want. You just won't be able to update it any more going forward. [via Engadget]
