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BioShock Infinite coming to the Mac later this month
BioShock Infinite will be available on Mac as of August 29th, some five months after it was first released on PC and consoles. That may sound like a long time for Mac gamers to wait, but that's much better than the more than two years after the official release date it took for BioShock 2 to arrive on Mac OS X. Ported by Aspyr, the same outfit that brought Borderlands, Civilization and Call of Duty to Mac gamers, BioShock Infinite will be available through the Mac App Store, Steam and Asypr's own GameAgent. The list price is US$59.99, though where you purchase could determine how much bang for the buck you get. Purchasing through Steam will get you Steam Play, meaning you get a copy for both Mac and PC, where as purchasing though GameAgent gets you the Columbia's Finest DLC and a voucher for 20 percent off the list price, which is quite a big incentive. Either way, Aspyr has stated the new Clash in the Clouds DLC will be available on or not long after the launch date, and the recently announced Burial at Sea two-part campaign add-on will follow thereafter. [Via The Verge]
Lumosity brings it brain-building quizzes to the iPad
Lumosity tops the chart in the educational category for the iPhone and now the "brain-enhancing" app has landed on the iPad. Similar to the iPhone app, the iPad version provides you with a personalized training program for your brain. Lumosity is known for its cognitive activities that give your body's most amazing organ a workout. The app asks you a series of questions that make you think about your answer. In the early parts of the training that I have used, the app doesn't resort to questions with false answers or frustratingly complex scenarios like some brain teasers. It has a nice balance of being challenging, but not impossible to solve. Lumosity started off as a web-based service and then branched out to mobile, which has been hugely successful for the company. Lumosity has logged 20 million overall downloads, and its updated iPhone version, which launched last month, has been used to play 21.5 million mobile brain games. You can download the Lumosity iPad app and the iPhone app from the iOS App Store. The apps are free, but require a US$79.99 yearly subscription if you want to dive deep into brain training offered by the service.
Official Imgur app for iOS hits the App Store
Rejoice, Imgur fans. A few weeks after Imgur CEO Alan Schaaf intimated that an official app for iOS was on the way, the day has finally come. Imgur for iOS was recently released and gives fans of the photo-sharing site an easy way to upload photos on the go and keep up with the latest viral photos making their way around the web. Interestingly enough, the Android version of the app was actually released before the iOS version, a phenomenon Schaaf attributed to Apple's application approval process. Specifically, Schaaf said that the app's initial submission to the App Store was rejected on account of the app being associated with copyrighted and illicit content. Well thankfully, all off those initial hurdles seem to have been addressed and the official Imgur app is now ready for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users to download. The app description reads: Imgur (im-ij-er) is the go-to destination for viral images. Backed by a funny and friendly community, Imgur is the best place to spend your free time online and, now with the mobile app, on the go. * Browse the most viral images on the Internet. * Comment and vote on images. * Upload straight from your phone. * Manage your account and albums. * Submit images directly to the Imgur gallery. Note that because of the tendency for mature-themed photos to populate Imgur, the app can only be downloaded by users 17 or older.
Twine uses your interests to match you with singles
Twine (free) launched today, and it offers a novel approach to the age old problem of meeting other singles. While niche sites like Cupidtino come and go, your Facebook profile, check-ins and activity provide a map of your interests. Twine looks at those interests, the people around you (more or less), and suggests a "twine" for you to try and connect. You then chat semi-anonymously, and if you hit it off you can later reveal your profile pic and personal info. Design Twine is absolutely lovely to look at. There's a minimum of buttons, subtle design elements are lovingly crafted and the typography and textures are elegant. The app oozes class, which is good for a singles app. Interaction is very intuitive, which is good because Twine, like any social app, is going to need as many users as possible. Users who are confused will be deleting the app quickly. A small cue indicates you are still hidden from the other chat participant by sliding a visor across the eyes. A lightbulb to the left of your text input area makes suggestions on what to say, with a logical plus sign to the right to add that to the text area (you an still edit the text afterward). Twine allows you to move between the main screen, your twines (and chats) and your profile by swiping left and right, somewhat like Facebook's app. Functionality Twine tries to keep the male to female ratio even, so it's possible if you are a guy you'll have to wait to get to use it. So far the line isn't long -- I had only one person in front of me. There's another attempt to rate limit creeps by Twine after you find "twines" (connections with others). You can only "find a twine" so many times every so many hours. I looked up about four people before I "ran out of juice" and had to wait six hours to try again. This is an interesting way to ensure people are only connecting to good matches, I suppose. If you are used to casting a wide net, however, you'll be limited by design. Speaking of a wide net, I would note that as Twine is young, the user base isn't very high yet. There's no telling what the future will bring, but the more users generally the better matches will appear for you. Once you've found a "twine" you can start chatting. Chat is a very Messages-like experience (in a good way), and Twine offers a neat shortcut if you're stumped on conversation starters. By pulling your Facebook data, it suggests things like "How often do you go to [place you've checked into]"? Based on my testing it was trying to match up similarities. Both I and my girlfriend like Weird Al, and Twine suggested the text "What is your favorite Weird Al song?" Being data, it can sometimes be... vague. One question was whether she had seen the movie The Well, when it is in fact a local bar we've both been to. Luckily the text pastes in already selected so you can edit it before you send. I'm not sure if it encourages laziness, but it certainly is a quick way to find common interests. Conclusion If Twine can keep adding users I think it will become a fun way for people to meet. The only drawback I see is, aside from "making connections" there's no other utility. I've met people on Flickr who weren't just into photos, but had a cool picture of something they did. Likewise, I've made friends on Facebook based on groups that do something. While dating sites are general purpose, being social is often built around personal choices of activity. Then again, what you've done and what you're into -- insofar as it shows up on Facebook -- is how Twine tries to connect you to others. I have to hand it to the team at Twine for connecting those dots, but I am curious to see if the app is used extensively enough for those connections to become real. Pros: Matches according to interests, check-ins via Facebook Great design You can stay relatively private Cons: Age gate a little iffy (someone's profile said 16 when the agreement is for 17 and up) Given small population, "local" is a wide net sometimes (had someone in DC suggested for someone in TN) Ratio balancing means one female per male, so guys may have to wait or invite a female via Facebook
Tapsbook gives photos new iPad organizing flair
There are small problems, big problems, and the "how on earth do I organize all my photos" problem. That last one may just prove to be the least tractable, especially for parents of young children who have seen the digital revolution overturn the traditional album, folder and shoeboxful strategy. Searchable and sendable they may be, but a pile of digital photos is a pile nonetheless. Add in the multiple, mobile sources for images and it gets even more tangled. Many, many companies continue to aim their product development efforts at this plump target. Flickr's recent move to a full terabyte of free storage has made Yahoo's prosumer photography site a more attractive repository for many; Shutterfly's buyout of ThisLife has brought some attention to the family-focused photo storage web service. ThisLife still hasn't delivered its iPad app, though, and there's a sense that the era of desktop supremacy for managing and sharing photos is drawing to a close. The future, my friends, is tablets. That "born tablet" approach for image organization and sharing is what the makers of the new Tapsbook app hope will set their offering apart from the rest of the field. Tapsbook, now available free on the iPad after a long beta incubation, is designed to aggregate images from a slew of different sources (including the iPad's local photos, Facebook images, Dropbox folders and Google+/Picasa storage) into manageable, attractive "books" based on the month or year the photo was taken. The auto-generated timeline books, and books grouped based on source folder, can be modified, tweaked and edited at will; it's also one-swipe easy to move images into a new, custom book of your own favorite photos. In fact, favoriting a photo anywhere in the app automatically flags it for inclusion in a "yearbook" best-of collection. Whole books or individual pages can be shared out as links or directly to your Facebook wall. %Gallery-195045% Once you assemble the images you want into a custom book, you can edit page by page to change layouts, add text and backgrounds, and scale/crop/rotate images with an innovative two-finger/one-finger UI that turns out to be quite intuitive once you try it a few times. The page editor seems to be the area of the app where the development team has really concentrated on producing a "best for tablet" interface, and it's quite slick. Unfortunately, there are some rough edges and bugs even in the page editor (it's too easy to lose track of an image when you change layouts, for instance), and other pieces of the app are in need of some additional simplification and polish. While the Tapsbook team is excited about the current offering, they acknowledge that there's more refinement and finishing to do; the UI is expected to receive a pretty dramatic overhaul in v2. The rough edges extend to the company's website, design and help text -- all could use a thorough review with a proofreader and editor. In terms of storage and pricing, there's some innovation there too. Tapsbook tries to be smart about cloudsourced images, and does not duplicate them when it's possible to reference the original. But for images that do need to be stored independently for Tapsbook to use them, you've got a choice: pay a bit more and Tapsbook provides the storage, or a bit less and you BYOcS (bring your own cloud storage) via Dropbox or Google Drive/Picasa, paying as you go to add more photos to your limit. As it happens, images with a max dimension of 2048 px don't even count against your Google storage quota, so that's a handy arrangement. The free version of Tapsbook allows you to share out up to 500 photos, so you have ample opportunity to try it out before you'd have to choose whether or not to invest in a monthly subscription or a per-photo buyup. (The monthly subscription cost is $2.99; the Dropbox/Google BYOcS starts at $1.99 for an additional 1,000 photos in your sharing quota.) It's certainly an interesting app now, and likely to get more interesting as it evolves. The question is, do we need another way to share our photos -- even a "tablet-first" approach like Tapsbook? The savvy and multi-source Everpix tool works with its own iPad app for album and individual image sharing, without the book metaphor; the Beamr app delivers full-res iPhone photos in a magazine-style album. It's a crowded App Store out there when it comes to photo tools. Maybe the best thing that can happen to the Tapsbook app, with its agnostic approach to image sources, is to become known as the cool front end for other services... especially those, like ThisLife, with a great storage and sorting story but without the iPad savvy.
Google relaunches Zagat app
In 2011 Google bought the restaurant review site Zagat. Now, with the relaunch of Zagat's app, the service is free to use without registering for the first time. The service is getting an across-the-board update from its website to its apps for iOS and Android. At the moment Zagat's relaunch only covers nine cities, providing reviews of restaurants and nightlife attractions. Google has plans to add more cities but currently only offers Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.. The relaunched Zagat app includes the standard reviews and ratings along with a few new additions. It provides articles and video content daily based on the locations you're searching, along with the ability to check menus or make reservations through OpenTable. If you live in or are about to visit any of the nine included cities give it a test. The app is available for free in the iTunes store.
A road trip with Ohai for iPhone
Those who know me understand that I love traveling. I spent the last four days in Phoenixville, Pa. with my sister, her husband and my two kids. It was purely for fun and an excellent time to test Ohai (US$4.99), a travel journal app for iPhone. Ohai lets your record places you visit, complete with geographic location, a photo and your own notes. The app resembles a journal with one day per "page." It's fun to re-live your excursions, flipping through the pages to see where you've been. Ohai does have some big limitations, however, which I'll discuss below. First, the good. On the road with Ohai We hit the road on Thursday to begin our seven-hour drive (I-95 in Connecticut is endless monotony). While grabbing a snack and using the necessary room at Dunkin Donuts, I decided to make my first entry into Ohai (below). You'll see it on the top of the list, corresponding to the rightmost marker on the map. At this point, I realized that Ohai won't create an entry if you don't write a journal entry. In other words, you can't just "check in." But that's the point, really. It's a journaling app meant to record your thoughts and experiences as well as your physical location. More driving and another rest stop, this time in Jersey. It was unglodly hot, which I felt compelled to mention. At last we arrived in Pennsylvania, showered off the road stink and relaxed a bit. You can see above that my final destination was quite a distance from my point of origin. So much so, that the marker doesn't fit neatly on the map. I wish I could pinch-and-zoom or otherwise re-position the map within that window, but I can't. It would also be nice to tap a marker and jump right to that entry, especially if you've had a busy day. On Friday, we explored the town and I added some photos (below). The images uploaded quickly from my iPhone 4S and add a lot. Entries just look better with a nice picture. I'd like to be able to tap a photo to view it full-screen, but unfortunately I can't. Hopefully this feature will be added. Finally, on Saturday, we visited a farmer's market and Valley Forge State Park. The good and the bad Overall, using Ohai is a nice experience. Entering a point of interest, some commentary and a photo is simple and the result looks nice. Sharing an entry with Twitter or App.net is simple. However, I do have some gripes. First, you can't edit an existing entry. If you notice a typo or wish you can add a photo after the fact, you're out of luck. Also, creating a new spot is difficult. For example, I wanted to add the Phoenixville Farmer's Market, as the app didn't find it on its own. I tapped the "+" icon to bring up the map and held on the blinking blue dot that indicated my location. No go. I tapped it and it still didn't work. At last I realized that you must tap near, but not on, the blue dot and the circle surrounding it. From there, I was able to create a new spot. That seems counterintuitive, as it's the dot that represents my actual location. This one might be on me, but the app kept registering a tap as a swipe. When creating a new entry, you hit the "Tap to Check In" button. It seemed like the app thought I wanted to swipe to the next screen almost every time I tried. Finally, you can't delete old entries. Some places you'd rather forget (like the 7-Eleven parking lot where my son threw up on the way home. Don't ask). Ohai 1.0 is a very good start. I'm sure that it will mature into a fine product and I look forward to its future. But for now, I'm sticking with Rego.
New and notable apps for July 22, 2013
It's always busy in the App Store with a never ending flood of new apps landing on iOS and OS X. Take a few minutes and check out our list of standout titles from the past few weeks! If that's not enough, you can also follow our ongoing coverage of new apps as they are released. New iOS Apps Narrato Journal [iPhone; Category: Lifestyle; $3.99] Narrato lets you update your journal on the go. Record your thoughts, ideas, memories, and life events, and have them automatically backed up to the cloud. iShows [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; $1.99] iShows is the best way to manage and keep track of your favorite TV Shows. Pacific Rim [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $4.99] Pacific Rim is an all-new action fighting game inspired by the Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures film. EasyBeats 3 Pro Drum Machine [iOS Universal; Category: Music; $4.99] EasyEasyBeats is built from the ground up to be the quickest and easiest way to create great sounding beats. Kamikaze Pigs [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $0.99] Squeal, aim, and fire as you send these pork-bellied troops into a chaotic scramble. Sky Gamblers: Cold War [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $4.99] Become the supreme lord of the skies in the latest Sky Gamblers title: Cold War!Go back in time with this great title and be part of unwritten history and covert operations. Breach & Clear [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $1.99] Build your Special Operations team, plan and execute advanced missions, and own every angle. Leisure Suit Larry: Reloaded [iOS Universal; Category: Games; $4.99] Now Larry's original creator, the world-famous game designer Al Lowe, has teamed up with Sierra Vet-eran Josh Mandel, to bring this amazing, perverted game back to life. Dollarbird - Personal Finance with a Calendar [iPhone; Category: Finance; $0.99] Dollarbird is your complete and flexible money handling tool that helps you put your money where it matters. Cookmate Multi Timer [iPhone; Category: Utilities; $1.99] Cookmate Multi Timer is a simple tool to help time meals and other household chores. Better Half [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; $0.99] A time-saving tool to help couples create, coordinate and carry out thoughtful movie and dining dates. Countdone [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $0.99] Countdone is the essence of the Pomodoro Technique, distilled into a beautifully simple interface. Set time limits for your to-dos and watch as the timer counts down and the screen turns from green to red, motivating you to get things done by applying a gentle amount of pressure. Crumbles [iPhone; Category: Entertainment; $0.99] Crumbles allows you to scan and drop crumbs on a location. Crumbs are small text messages with an optional tag and url. Inform others about the location, set out routes or explore one, hide easter eggs, leave discount codes or use crumbs in your own innovative way! Rhonna Designs [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; $1.99] Love to add personality to your photo edits? With Rhonna Designs App, you've got all the tools right at your fingertips to uplift and inspire! Zumba Dance [iPad; Category: Health & Fitness; $4.99] Take your Zumba® Fitness workout wherever you go with the revolutionary new motion-based Zumba® Dance app. Farmscapes™ HD [iPad; Category: Games; Free] Earn money by selling fresh veggies, juicy fruits, eggs, flowers and honey from his old farm to the townspeople, and spend it on restoring the landholding back to its grandeur and beauty. Isometric [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $1.99] With Isometric you can compose simple geometric shapes to create beautiful, abstract works of art. Spendee – see where your money goes [iPhone; Category: Finance; $1.99] Spendee gives you the power of unique data analysis in an adaptable environment that automatically and thoroughly analyzes your income and expenses, giving you intelligent advice on how to make the most of your money. New OS X Apps TypeMetal [OS X; Category: Productivity; $29.99] TypeMetal makes writing concise, professional-grade markup fast and efficient, with easily mastered keystrokes that keep your fingertips on the keyboard and your mind on your ideas, not on the minutiae of markup or the details of the app you're using. Wondershare Player [OS X; Category: Entertainment; Free] With Wondershare Player, you can play virtually any video and simplify your media enjoyment. QuickShortcuts : Launch web pages and files quickly [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] QuickShortcuts is a free and very simple to use OS X application designed to act as a launcher of apps, files or web pages. The Elements [OS X; Category: Reference; $28.99] The Elements is a special OSX edition of the highly acclaimed award-winning iPad app now downloaded over 850,000 times. It is based on the best-selling book by Theodore Gray, Popular Science Magazine's Gray Matter columnist. Essential Skeleton 2 [OS X; Category: Medical; Free] Essential Skeleton 2 is a fully functional, self-contained app covering the essential anatomy of the skeleton. ICQ [OS X; Category: Social Networking; Free] Call and send messages for free from your Mac now. ICQ allows you to chat with all of your friends in one app. iSafe [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] iSafe allows you to store sensitive information such as passwords or simply just notes you don't want anyone else to see using the highest security standards. Randomness [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Instantly generate random passwords, numbers, colors, coin flips, and card picks. SteadyTune [OS X; Category: Music; $4.99] Introducing SteadyTune, the menu bar tuner for your Mac.
SteadyTune for Mac
Agile Partners released SteadyTune for Mac today. It's a simple app that gives you a tuner for stringed instruments in your menu bar, and it's an amazingly accurate alternative to the tuners built into apps like Logic Pro. It uses a completely new algorithm from Agile Partners that provides a stable and accurate meter. You can define your instrument type and listen for all notes, or define a tuning to detect just certain pitches. It has presets for an array of instruments ranging from six- and 12-string guitars all the way through banjo, ukulele, violin and double bass. The entire meter glows red and green as you near the perfect pitch, which makes it easy to use from a distance. SteadyTune can be configured to stay on top of other windows, and you can set the input device to listen on and define a hotkey to pop it up and hide it. SteadyTune is just US$4.99 on the Mac App Store, and check out the website for more information. If you play a stringed instrument, this app is great on its own or in combination with any recording software you happen to use.
Create unique slideshows with ScatterShow for Mac
Apple's iPhoto app has some very basic slideshow features built in. Sure, you can apply the Ken Burns effect all day long, and even save your slideshows as screen savers. But if you are bored by iPhoto's simple dissolves, pans and wipes, it's time to check out ScatterShow (US$29.99) from Smith Micro. The OS X app (which can be purchased as a download or in a physical box) allows the creation of some really unique arrangements and animations of slides, all of which can be set to music. The app includes a number of pre-set templates, or you can choose to start from scratch. Once you select a background from those provided by Smith Micro or have added your own, you're practically done making your slideshow. Images for the slideshow can be selected individually, or you can add a complete folder. Each photo can be converted to black-and-white or retouched with a variety of filters. The app provides a simple way to change the position of each image, and when the slides are finally animated, the app moves from image to image in a visually interesting presentation. Music is supplied from your iTunes library, or any music file can just be dragged and dropped into the app. %Gallery-194114% Once completed, your creation can be shared on Facebook, YouTube or on any HTML-enabled web page. Your slideshow can also be saved locally and played back as a QuickTime movie. Some nice examples of finished slideshows are available for your viewing pleasure on the Smith Micro website. Despite the sophistication of the app, I found it extremely easy to use. There were enough included templates that I could readily find one that worked for me. Making adjustments to presentations is straightforward, and there is extensive help built into the app. My only gripe? If you import a music track, there is no way to automatically conform the slideshow to the duration of the music. Similar apps like FotoMagico ($99.99) do this quite easily, making the slideshow and musical accompaniment end at the same time. Besides the excellent and powerful FotoMagico, you might want to check out the well-reviewed Photo Slideshow Maker Pro ($24.99) and the free 4K Slideshow Maker. Scattershow is a welcome addition to the list of apps that can create nice-looking slideshows. It is easy to use, and I'm hoping it will evolve to give the user more control and automation. The app requires OS X 10.6 or greater, and a minimum of 1 GB of memory.
Microsoft Outlook app hits iOS
While there have been plenty of third-party options available for connecting iOS users to their Outlook accounts, there has never been an official app from Microsoft. It's an oversight that has finally been corrected with the Outlook Web App (OWA) for iOS. The app is being released in two different native versions, one for iPhone and one for iPad. OWA for iOS connects to the email, calendar and contacts of Office 365 for business subscribers, giving them complete access to their Outlook on the go. Beyond those basic tools, the app features push notifications and a powerful voice search that can access your contacts or bring up your calendar. Head off to iTunes for the iPhone and iPad versions.
Daily iPad App: Deus Ex: The Fall offers both flash and function
You won't find many iOS games worthy of being compared to their console counterparts, but Deus Ex: The Fall isn't like most iOS games. When it comes to story-driven games on the iPad, there might not be a game with higher production values. However, this isn't necessarily a sign that a game is great or even fun, so does The Fall fulfill its own potential? Kinda. The Fall is an action RPG at heart, and in its transition to the mobile platform, the Deus Ex flavor remained largely intact. Like the rest of the franchise, The Fall takes place in the future. In this case, the year is 2027, and you are a ruthless mercenary named Ben Saxon. You won't be relying on any James Bond-esque gadgets to complete your deadly deeds. Instead you are fitted with various robotic enhancements that provide you with superhuman abilities. You are also provided with the option to purchase an array of weapons, letting you choose whether the dozens of enemies you'll encounter on each mission will meet their end at your hands or simply suffer a bad headache. Each weapon is also upgradeable with various attachments and other perks, and the same goes for your character. There is an extensive tree of customization, and you're going to be busy for a very long time if you're determined to try everything. The world of Deus Ex looks quite fantastic on the iPad's retina display, and the majority of the environments look appropriately gritty and lived-in. But this eye candy comes at a cost, as I noticed several instances where the game would fall from its normally smooth frame rate and begin to chug for a few seconds at a time. This is to be expected with a game of this size on a mobile device, but it was still disappointing. Controlling a character in a 3D environment using a touchscreen is rarely a fun experience, but The Fall manages to replicate the feel of a proper controller (or keyboard, if that's your thing) rather admirably. You are given the option to either tap on locations in order to navigate to them or use one thumb to move forward and backward and the other thumb to turn. The latter feels the most natural, and while your character may make a few unfortunate wall bumps here and there, it's comfortable enough to avoid frustration. Unfortunately, not everything about The Fall is so well done. The artificial intelligence of your enemy combatants is one of the most glaring reminders that you are playing a mobile game, as they are often as dumb as rocks. Nobody in this virtual game world moves or acts with anything resembling rational thought, and when you see an enemy running into a wall or hiding in plain sight, you're going to be shaking your head. Deus Ex: The Fall isn't perfect, but it gets more things right than wrong, and for a game as big as this, that's quite an accomplishment. If you have an iPad and you're looking for a futuristic adventure that sometimes forgets it's a mobile game, you can't go wrong.
Marco Arment ships Bugshot app for markup of UI gaffes
Developer extraordinaire Marco Arment (Instapaper, Marco.org) has delivered a nice little tool for the development community or for anyone else who needs the ability to mark up screenshots to point out errors. Bugshot (US$0.99) is perfect for grabbing screenshots of those pesky UI errors and then placing bright international orange arrows and boxes on them highlighting the gaffes. Arment notes on his website that "In some ways, it's reminiscent of what Skitch for Mac used to be good at. I always loved the old Skitch, but never found something that was as fast to get in and out of on iOS." And why did he choose to develop and ship Bugshot now? "Simple: I'm finding tons of rendering bugs in iOS 7. I've already used Bugshot many times to report bugs to app developers and Apple. It was also a great practice-project for me to get back into app development after about six months away." For those of you who are also working on iOS 7 bug-smashing, Bugshot is a fast and simple way to make your annotations on a screenshot and then send the mashup to others via email, Messages, Twitter or Facebook. Arment has semi-ironically pointed out a few bugs in the app and expects them to be fixed shortly.
Rovio teases new Angry Birds Star Wars game
Rovio today put up a new blogpost teasing, what appears to be, a new Angry Birds Star Wars game. Attention, Angry Birds fans! Stay tuned on Monday, July 15th, for big news about a brand-new game! We're talking the biggest character line-up ever, awesome new powers and maybe even a few surprises! So why does the photo above seem to indicate a new Star Wars-themed game may be just around the corner? Well, take a look at one of the movie posters for Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
Worms 3 coming to iOS as a mobile exclusive
Fans of classic PC gaming rejoice! It's time to lock, load, and blow up some Worms on your iPhone. Developers Team 17 have announced Worms 3 exclusively for iOS in Q3 of this year. Worms 2 was officially released in 1997, and while there have been add-ons and odd experiments like Worms 3D, this is the first new old-school Worms game in a long time. Team 17 is the same developer behind the upcoming new PC Worms title Worms Clan Wars. Worms 3 will feature turn-based, asynchronous multiplayer online play, meaning you don't have to commit to playing a full game all at once online. There will also be traditional pass-and-play local multiplayer for up to four players. The game also introduces a class system for your Worm warriors including Soldier, Scout, Scientist and Heavy troopers. Considering this is the game that gave us exploding sheep as a tactical weapon, we can't wait to see what special tools each class brings with it. Gamers who want to play by themselves will get 27 single player missions across four themes; Beach, Spooky, Farmyard and Sewer. Of course it wouldn't be Worms if there wasn't an arsenal of insane weapons to play with, including new additions like Nora's Virus, a Black Hole Grenade and the return of the Homing Pigeon. Team 17 is also adding a new Card mode to the game. When turned on the system allows players to use strategic cards to enhance there moves at the start and end of the turn. You can build your deck from 41 cards that can be purchased with in-game rewards and, presumably though not officially announced, with in-game purchases. The game will also support AirPlay, meaning you can link it up to your Apple TV and blow Worms to kingdom come on the big screen in your living room. Worms 3 is still a few months out, but based on what's available now, this is a title to look out for.
Sleek new Cal app from Any.DO spices up your iOS calendar
With months still to go before the official release of iOS 7, there's one built-in app replacement category that's found a sweet spot -- the calendar. If you're not a fan of Apple's default appointment management approach, you have a slew of alternatives to choose from. Fantastical, Sunrise and Calendars+ all deliver UI enhancements and quick entry savvy; Cue, Tempo, Donna and the Google Now elements of the Google Search app focus more on delivering "smart assistant" functionality. These next-gen applications use a bit of anticipatory computing to suss out what you're likely to want to know next, much as Apple's upcoming iOS 7 "Today" feature is supposed to do. (Developers building tools that behave like a human assistant may need to be particularly careful about their "gendered" branding.) The field may be crowded, but Cal, the latest entrant, has a leg up: millions of users are already happy with a sister application. Israeli entrepreneur Omer Perchik and his team at Any.DO started off with their eponymous app, a slick and sensible to-do manager for iOS, Android and Chrome. Any.DO has proven to be a hit, with its "have a great day" attitude, easy task entry and a solid synchronization story to the Chrome plugin; I particularly like the way the plugin puts a next-action field right into the context of a Gmail message, encouraging you to write down what you have to do. Cal, which spent the spring in private beta, is the datebook pairing for Any.DO's task list. With lovely photo theming and easy Facebook or email sign-up, you can quickly show any of your iOS calendar items (synced natively with Google Calendar or Exchange) with lots of context: who are you meeting, where are you going and more. Each invited contact can be messaged, called or emailed with a single tap, or you can check the location map to know where you're headed. Right now you'll get birthday reminders if you link to Facebook, but some additional social integrations will be coming soon. Aside from the ample visual glitz (and audible glitz; the app plays a brief music video in the background on first launch, which may take some users by surprise), there's an interface concept that delivers some different information than most other calendar apps. Cal includes your free time as "gaps" on your calendar, which are directly addressable for creating appointments. "We believe [the gaps] are key to help you have a good day," says Perchik. "Used intelligently, these 'gaps' are true opportunities to help you find the perfect balance between work and play." If the Cal and Any.DO interfaces seem surprisingly iOS 7-ready, that's a happy alignment. Perchik told Mashable that he was "humbled" to note the similarities between his apps and the new direction for Apple's mobile OS when it was revealed at WWDC. Cal is a free download in the App Store for iPhone or iPod touch. An Android version is planned soon (but apparently not soon enough for this cranky band of Facebook commenters).
Algoriddim teases Djay 2 for the iPhone and iPad
There's some good news coming down the pike for disc jokeys and other performance musicians. Today, Algoriddim launched a website with a teaser video about Djay 2, an upcoming version of its popular DJ app. Not surprisingly, the teaser video is light on details and heavy on production, but that doesn't really matter -- the promo still gets us excited to find out what Algoriddim has up its sleeve. We won't have to wait too long for the details as the video promises that Djay 2 will be coming soon. You can hop over to Algoriddim's website to sign up for the company's newletter and "be the first to know" when the app becomes available.
IFTTT app perfect for creating recipes on the go
A lot of the TUAW bloggers have a favorite website they love to visit for creating automated scripts (recipes) for linking dissimilar internet services. IFTTT stands for If This Then That, which is a perfect name for a service that watches for some action to occur before performing another action. While the website is perfectly usable from most iOS browsers, it's a bit difficult to use on the relatively small screen of an iPhone or iPod touch. Today, IFTTT is shipping a free iPhone app to make the creation of recipes while mobile a lot easier to accomplish. The service requires a free membership, after which you can go to town writing your recipes. The IFTTT team did an excellent job of taking the easy-to-use interface of the website and packaging it in an iPhone app. Launching IFTTT, you're asked to log into your existing account and also have the option of creating a new account. If you're an existing user of IFTTT, you have immediate access to all of your existing recipes. Want to create a new recipe? There's a "mortar and pestle" button to get into your list of recipes and add a new one -- you see the traditional If This Then That interface. Tapping "This" displays the list of channels you've activated, and then you choose the action to trigger your recipe. Tap "That" to select the recipient channel and choose an action. The app takes advantage of links to several of the built-in iOS apps (Photos, Reminders and Contacts) to create recipes that are triggered by certain actions on the device. For example, if you have Philips Hue lights in your home, you can create a recipe that waits for you to take a photo with the iPhone's camera, and then changes your lighting to match the dominant colors of the photo. That's probably not the most practical use of IFTTT, but it's sure fun! If you're currently an IFTTT user, definitely install the app. If you're unfamiliar with IFTTT, the app is a wonderful way to begin "putting the internet to work for you."
Tangent is a new, first-class tool for artistic iPhoneography
Many people enjoy taking pictures of their world with their iPhone. Some of these folks like to take things a step further by turning their photos into works of art. One of the newest tools for the artistic iPhoneographer is Tangent from Ben Guerrette and Pixite. Tangent lets you apply artistic shapes, frames and patterns to your photos. The app includes 39 shapes and frames and 43 different patterns. When you launch Tangent, you are prompted to either pick a photo from your camera roll or snap a new picture with your camera. When you choose to pull a picture from your saved photos, Tangent does a nice job of picking up your default camera roll, the panoramas you have taken and all your photostream lists. The app has a handful of default geometric and pattern effects that you can apply to the photos. The effects have an artistic flair and are highly customizable. You can drag them to place them right where you want them on your photo. You can also rotate each one and use pinch to zoom to adjust their size. When you find an effect that you like, you can customize its look before you apply it to your photo. You can add one effect per photo. If you don't like the default set of geometric patterns that ship with the app, you can buy two expansion packs for US$0.99 each. Each set is included in the app and you can even preview them on your photos before you buy them. These premium effects are marked with "+" so you know which ones are included with the app and which ones cost extra. Those who are more artistic can tap the "Start Fresh" button and create their own effects by selecting the shapes, colors and patterns they want to combine. Tangent has a robust set of controls that really let you get the look that you want for your photo. The performance of Tangent was smooth and the UI was intuitive. The only quirk I found was when I was deciding which artistic shape to apply. I was able to browse through all the default effects easily, but when I clicked "Start Fresh" to check out the option for the homemade shapes, I couldn't get back to the default set of shapes without starting over. It's a minor thing and will likely only bother those people who enjoy trying out multiple options before clicking "Done" to create a finished photo. When you are done with your creation, you have several options to share and save your photo. You can save it directly to your camera roll or send it to another app for further processing. You can share it on your social networks like Twitter, Facebook and, of course, Instagram. Lastly, there is an option to "Retangent" your photo, which sends you back to the editor to tweak your effect for a second, third or fourth time. Tangent is a first-rate tool for creative types who enjoy working with photos. It is available in the iOS App Store for $0.99.
Deus Ex: The Fall coming July 11 to iOS, new gameplay trailer available
Developer Eidos Montreal took to Twitter to announce that Deus Ex: The Fall is coming to iOS this Thursday, July 11. The game is an exclusive to iOS and will cost US$6.99 in the App Store. Deus Ex: The Fall is a follow-up to Deus Ex: Human Revolution and, as Dave Thier writes for Forbes, represents a watershed in mobile gaming: This game represents an important moment in the relationship between mobile ecosystems and mainstream blockbuster games. In the past we've had Horn and Infinity Blade, two AAA-style games held up as shining examples of mobile gaming's possibilities. The Fall feels different. This is a beloved hardcore IP and the follow-up to a recent hit, at least critically, and it's built from the ground up as a mobile game, with no console counterpart. Square Enix, the now-struggling house that Final Fantasy built, decided that mobile was the best financial decision for this franchise. If this is successful, you can bet that Square Enix won't be the last publisher to try something like this. If you can't wait for July 11, in the meantime check out the gameplay trailer below.
