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A roundup of last week's TUAW app reviews
Last week was a busy one for app news and announcements, giving your favorite TUAW writers a chance to post some great reviews of the apps that grace their home screens. Here's a quick roundup of our recent reviews -- and a few app roundups -- you may have missed: New and notable apps for iOS and OS X Toad Rider is a shameless Battletoads ripoff, and a poor one at that Tranquility lets you work on your laptop in the dark without blinding yourself or everyone around you Daily App: Threes! is a tiny puzzler that'll convince you math is cool Trover updates its travel/photo app Light Pad HD turns your iPad into a light box Mnemonizer uses one weird trick to obscure passwords CARROT Fit uses the stick to whip you into shape Moves is taking M7 motion data to the next level with latest update Daily App: digiDoc Pulse Oximeter tries to measure your heart rate and oxygen levels Localscope for iOS gets an update and continues to provide great location based info Daily App: Pedometer++ is a step logger for people who prefer things simple HAL 9000 wants to be your Mac screensaver Five apps to help you follow the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi TrussMe! Learning a bit of structural engineering while having fun airadio pro is a full-featured radio app for iOS that lets you listen and record Daily App: Friend Check lets you monitor your followers as they come and go PhotoScope: Explore your iPhoto and Aperture libraries from your iPhone or iPad Altitude - View & Share for iOS reports your current altitude Quick Fit is a seven-minute workout app with room for expansion VideoBite from Adobe is a quick and simple video editor Daily App: Yearly ensures you won't be in the dog house on your anniversary TUAW will be back next week with another round of app reviews, so be sure to drop by to see what's new and what's cool.
Trover updates its travel/photo app
I looked at Trover (free) a couple of years ago and found it a useful app for seeing what is around you with photos and comments from real travelers rather than what is contained in a guidebook. It has elements of Yelp, Instagram and other social content aggregators. When you post your own photo, the app makes it public (so be careful) with all the geo-location data available so you can find a particular location. You can add comments about a photo -- perhaps a nice park, a restaurant, a local festival, whatever you like. You can contact the people who take the photos, and they can contact you. As a result, Trover is kind of a living, evolving guidebook to places filled with images and comments from people who experience them. You don't have to create a Trover account if you just want to be on the receiving end of the information, but for some people, a big part of the fun is sharing insights. In my original review, I raised some of the privacy issues I thought the app had. If you take a picture of your house or kids, a dedicated Trover user can get a pretty good idea where that is. My advice is to not get too personal. A zoo, a restaurant, a hiking trail are safe subjects. Some of the photos people submit don't really merit being in the app. People sitting around drinking or eating with no useful info is not very valuable. Anyone can upload, so all content may not be useful. Offensive content can be flagged by users and removed by Trover, but that won't stop things that are offensive from appearing, even if briefly. According to the developers, it's not a big problem. All content on Trover goes through several layers of curation. According to the Trover team: "We have a team that reviews all new content. Our community also participates in curation, thanking discoveries they like, adding discoveries to lists and (rarely) tagging photos as 'not helpful' if they find something in Trover that doesn't fit with the social norm. Short answer: We never see obscene photos. It's not what Trover is about." Having said that, users are very happy with the Trover community, and can see the merit of the app for people on vacation, a business trip or even someone who wants to explore unknown areas of their own locality. The app is solid, and this latest version now has a simpler and faster photo uploader, a redesigned GUI to match iOS 7 and support for portrait photos. In my tests, it found a lot of local places around me, and there were some good comments and reviews of hiking places, restaurants and tourist stops. Trover is not a universal app, so it's really best used on an iPhone or an iPod touch. It requires iOS 7.
Moves is taking M7 motion data to the next level with latest update
Perhaps the best thing about the iPhone 5s is its M7 motion coprocessor. It's the little chip that lives inside the 5s that constantly tracks all your motion data, whether you are walking, running or on some kind of mechanical transport (like a car or a train). While the M7 does its job, users need third-party apps to view the results. Moves is one of those apps, and its set to take the capabilities of the M7 to the limits with the latest update... and your help. I've written about Moves a few times. It presents the M7's location data as colored dots for each activity along with a storyline of your movements throughout the day. Previously, Moves was limited to tracking walking, running, cycling and motorized transportation. With the Move 2.5 update, released today, Moves tracks more than 60 activity types using the M7, including rollerblading, skiing, kayaking, gym training, yoga, swimming and more. To start with, Moves will not be able to differentiate automatically between what activity you are doing based solely on the M7 data. In the latest version of the app, you'll need to tell it what you're doing. But after Moves collects enough data from users, the company's algorithms will eventually be able to tell you exactly what you're doing, how long you're doing it for and how many calories you are burning automatically without you tapping a setting. The more Moves users that take part, the faster the company can churn out those algorithms. Moves is a wonderful app that is set to get even better thanks to the activity of its user base. With the latest update, it's also perhaps the best app in the App Store that takes advantage of the M7. Moves is US$2.99.
Localscope for iOS gets an update and continues to provide great location based info
Localscope (US $2.99) has been around the app store for quite awhile, and continues to get updates that make the app a great way to explore your surroundings without moving an inch. This latest update tweaks the GUI and adds geo-tagged video resources from YouTube. While some discovery apps give you loads of text, Localscope provides geo-tagged media files to show your picture, maps and videos, and then provides direction pointers to destinations. When you are ready to leave, you can navigate by direct linking to almost every navigation app available, including, of course, Apple and Google Maps, TomTom, Garmin, Navigon, Waze and dozens of others. The app integrates info from Google, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Yelp, Citysearch and many more. It works anywhere in the world, and has built-in support for 21 languages. You can search by category (museums, restaurants, locksmiths, etc.) or you can type in any business name or destination. Destinations can be saved to your address book, or shared with friends via email, Facebook and Twitter. It's a very complete one-stop place to find, see and hear about things around you. The app allows you to set geo-tagged reminders, and get notified when approaching or leaving a destination. One of my only criticisms of the app, and they are mild ones, is that there are a lot of nested screens. I'd like to see more info come up on the main screen to reduce clicking. I also see context-sensitive ads coming up. They might be helpful to some, but this is a paid app and I think there should be an option to eliminate them. To me, they are unwanted and uninvited clutter. If you are going to fill an app with ads, then make the app free. Localscope is not a universal app; it's designed for the iPhone and requires iOS 7.0. Localscope is optimized for the iPhone 5 and above.
Quicklytics is the go-to Google analytics app for monitoring your website traffic
Since its launch in 2011, Quicklytics has grown to become one of the best website traffic tools for Google Analytics users. A recent update brings a refreshed design and a handful of new features that makes the website-monitoring tool even more robust. Quicklytics, if you've never used it, allows you to track multiple websites as well as multiple Google analytics accounts. Once the account information is entered into the app via OAuth, you can use a swiping gesture to navigate between all your websites. The app provides the basic metrics like the number of visitors, pageviews, average pageviews and bounce rate right on the main screen. You can view these metrics for the day, week, month or a custom range. The layout is perfect for someone like me who has a few websites, but is not a power user. Power users can dig deeper and pull up customer reports for visitor data like browser type, source reports like referring sites and more. If your site makes money, you can track some of your incoming revenues in Quicklytics as well. There's even a real-time tracker that'll show you the number of visitors on your site at that moment in time. It's powerful and arranged to make it easy to dig deep into your website numbers. For those keeping track, the full change log for version 9.0 of Quicklytics is as follows: New design makes your data much more beautiful! Real Time counter lets you see how many visitors you have on your site right now. Simply double-tap on a report to filter by a row, much easier. Custom reports gives you unlimited possibilities! Many, many bug fixes, thanks to everybody who reported them! Lots of performance updates make the app even faster to download the data! You can download Quicklytics for US$9.99 from the iOS App Store. It's a universal app and requires iOS 7.
Daily App: Pedometer++ is a step logger for people who prefer things simple
Pedometer++ from Cross Forward is a solid fitness tracker that pulls its data from the M7. The app started off as a basic pedometer app that tracked your daily steps, but a recent update has transformed it into a simple step-tracking fitness log. Pedometer++ has one of the easiest-to-use interfaces I have seen in a fitness app. The weekly step data is clearly presented in a bar chart with a line for your daily step target. You can quickly see which days you met your goal and which days you didn't. It also keeps track of your cumulative steps for the past seven days and tells you how close in percentage you are to meeting that weekly goal of X number of steps each. Daily steps are displayed on the main screen in big letters at the top. They can also be appended to the badge in an optional setting. You can share a screenshot of your steps via email, messaging, Facebook and Twitter. A useful export setting will send your data to you via email in plain text and a CSV file. Pedometer++ displays all the helpful step-counting data without the extra fluff. It's perfect for folks who like to track their activity level, but don't need a weight log, food log or any other log. Pedometer++ answers the question: Did I move or didn't I today? Pedometer++ also stores the data locally on your phone and does not send the data to a backend server. Consequently, there are no accounts or logins with which to fuss. Pedometer++ is available for free from the iOS App Store. There are no ads, and a few in-app purchases allow you to tip the developer. It requires iOS 7.0 and an iPhone 5s with the M7 motion coprocessor. Though the iPad Air has an M7 chip, it does not report step counts and is not compatible with Pedometer++ and other M7-enabled apps.
You'll be surprised by how naturally Evernote wants you to search
Products like Evernote provide an invaluable resource for collecting notes, letters, recipes and every other form of important random information we want to keep track of. But search has always been a formal affair, requiring you to know what you're looking for if you want optimal results. This is great for specifics or if you don't have a lot of notes, but what about general information? What about the times you just want to find a bunch of related items? What about the power users with overflowing notebooks? Today Evernote for Mac has launched a new feature called Descriptive Search that targets exactly those users. Using a powerful new search engine, Evernote now allows you to describe what you want to find using common terms. If you search, "Christmas photos since 2010," the algorithm will pull up every note since 2010 that has the tag "Christmas." Want to find your aunt's vegetable soup recipe? Simply type in, "Vegetable soup recipes." Need to pull up a document you worked on last week? Search, "Excel documents from last week." No need to go through menus or switch between notebooks. Just tell it exactly what you want. You can now search via dates, attached documents, images, audio, notebooks, tags, web sources like email, types of content and even the apps, devices or places a note was created at. Evernote is launching Descriptive Search exclusively on Evernote for Mac, with other versions of Evernote getting the update in the near future. Currently the feature is only available in English, but more languages will be added soon. Descriptive Search works regardless of if you're a free or Premium user, so go update your apps and get to searching.
Daily App: Friend Check lets you monitor your followers as they come and go
Let's face it, your social media presence is important for extending your network of friends and colleagues and in developing your online persona. If you care about such things, then you should download Friend Check from MobileLife Studio. The app helps you track your followers as you build your presence on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Friend Check supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. The app captures a snapshot of your profile -- tracking how many followers you have, how many new ones added you and how many unfollowed you. The app saves each overview so you can see how your profile has changed over time. A handy reporting feature presents this data and provides other interesting stats like the percentage of people who follow you back. Friend Check also has limited conversation support that allows you to reach out to someone who unfollowed you with a quick @ mention or a DM. You can also follow or unfollow from within the app. Friend Check links to native apps allowing you to view a user's full profile instead of the brief overview provided by Friend Check. Friend Check is very easy to set up and configure. It uses OAuth to connect your accounts to the app, so there are no privacy concerns about handing over your Twitter username and password to an unknown developer. My only gripe is the number of in-app purchases required to unlock additional features and remove the app links that are appended to posts and tweets. It'll cost you US$0.99 if you want to set up more than one social network, another $1.99 if you want more than one account on a social network and so on. I wish there was a pro version that I could buy outright and not have to deal with these little charges. Despite the in-app purchases, Friend Check is an excellent app for monitoring your followers on the major social networks. It's earned a spot on my phone. You can download Friend Check for free from the iOS App Store. It's compatible with the iPhone and requires iOS 7 or later. There are in-app purchases, but no ads.
Pebble updates its iOS app and launches smartwatch appstore
Pebble announced last week that it was rolling out its smartwatch appstore on Monday and now the repository is available for Pebble owners to explore. The appstore is bundled into the Pebble smartwatch app for the iPhone and lets owners browse through a catalog of new content for the original Pebble and the Pebble Steel. The appstore will kick off with more than 1,000 apps and watchfaces, says Pebble in a blog post. The apps are broken down into categories like Daily, Tools & Utilities, Notifications, Remotes, Fitness and Games. The Pebble app uses a locker to store your favorite apps and as a tool to install and uninstall apps from the smartwatch hardware. The Pebble Smartwatch app is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Fuzel updates its collage maker with animation and music
I looked at the Fuzel app last year and found it a nice way to make some striking collages on iOS. A new update puts your images in motion with tasteful zooms, and lets you add music from your iTunes library or use the music contained in the app. You can also select frames and the arrangement of photos or make static collages. You can create your own photo arrangement instead of relying on the provided templates. Variations can easily number in the hundreds. The app lets you determine the length of your video, and changes can reflect the beats in the music. Making an attractive collage is easy, with intuitive commands and an undo feature. Once your collage is done, it can be saved to your photo roll, or shared via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Tumblr. The app works well, but it is not universal. I saw a couple of crashes using it scaled up on my third-generation iPad. It was rock solid on my iPhone 5s. While the app is free, there are a variety of in-app purchases that range from US$0.99 to $4.99. The purchases get you more frames and other graphic elements. When you save your work in the free version, you get a Fuzel logo at the lower-right corner, and it can be removed with an in-app purchase. I would have preferred there be no logo, and the non-animated older version did not have one. Fuzel requires iOS 7 or later, and it is optimized for the iPhone 5. I can only vouch for the app stability on an iPhone, but you may have better luck on your iPad. As the app is free, it is easy to check.
Evernote adds a wealth of customization features with new iOS app update
Evernote is a powerful tool for keeping track of ideas and to-do-lists, but for years it's lacked any substantial customization options. That weakness has been fixed today with a new update for its iOS app, bringing both aesthetic and functional options for meeting your specific needs. On the design front, users can now choose between three different color themes: light, dark and classic green. Once you've picked out your new color scheme, it's time to customize your home page, by adding, removing and rearranging which sections appear when you log on. If you find yourself searching Tags more often than Notebooks, rearrange where they show up on your home page. The updated app also allows you to choose what metadata details are shown, including notes, tags and notebooks. Evernote has also finally added the ability to see your sync's status, particularly useful for when you're saving notes while traveling through areas with a weak signal. On top of the new customization features, the app has been given a fresh coat of paint, updating its look to fit even more into iOS 7. You can view a demonstration of these new features in Evernote's launch video below. Then head over to the app store to pick up the update.
Image Blender 2 overhauled with an iOS 7 design, 64-bit support and other goodies
Image Blender is a wonderful photo-editing app that allows you to combine two images into one using masks and different blending modes. Johan Andersson rolled out version 2.0 of the tool, adding support for iOS 7 and the 64-bit A7 processor in the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and retina iPad mini. The app allows you to import a foreground and a background image and use tools like move, scale and rotate to arrange the elements in the images. A mask tool lets you remove parts of the foreground image and a set of 18 different blend modes allows you to tweak the look of the blended composition. When you are done, you can export the blended image and can choose a PNG format for high-quality exports. Overall performance of Image Blender is smoother and stabler in v2.0, making it easier to remove the small nooks and crannies as you paint in a mask. Version 2.0 also allows you to draw with an Adonit Jot Touch stylus, which is a huge improvement over your fingertip. The remaining new feature adds support for URL schemes, which I have not yet tested. Image Blender 2 is available from the iOS App Store for US$1.99.
Apple releases iOS 7.0.5 for iPhone users in China
Apple has released iOS 7.0.5 specifically to address iPhone network issues in China. It's a minor update that's unique to that region, so don't go looking for it if you're elsewhere in the world. This update affects the iPhone 5s and 5c. If you're in China and are having networking issues, go and grab it.
App updates you don't want to miss
It has been a busy few weeks in the App Store with a bunch of app updates landing on iOS and OS X. Grab a cup of joe and check out our list of notable updates from the past few weeks! You can also follow them on a rolling basis on our website. iOS Apps Transloader [iOS Universal; Category: Utilities; Free] Transloader lets you download URLs from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to your Mac via iCloud. Version 2.0 now features an iOS 7 design, stores URLs from your clipboard instead of asking you to act on them right away, provides better feedback on the progress of downloads on your Mac, and allows you to share URLs with other users of Transloader via AirDrop Listen: The Gesture Music Player [iPhone; Category: Music; Free] A music player you can use without looking at it. Version 2.0.2 adds An option to show or hide iCloud music items, Two-finger volume control, Two-finger scrubbing control, support for background app refresh and more. Halftone 2 [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; $1.99] Halftone 2 re-imagines what it means to turn your photos into professionally-themed comic book pages on a touch device. Version 1.1.8 adds faster processing, iTunes file sharing, Aviary image cropping tool and more. Hipjot [iPhone; Category: Productivity; $1.99] Hipjot is a slick notes app, featuring a unique slide keyboard that lets you input words SUPER fast. Version 2.12 adds a new topright menu for the notes page, support for QWERTZ, AZERTY, DVORAK, COLEMAK, geolocation and more. Hatch [iPhone; Category: Games; $1.99] What if a tiny pet hatched on your phone? If it loved you, would you love it back? Version 1.2.1 and 1.2.2 adds a new exchange program for unwanted blankets and decor items, new blankets and fixes. Fragment [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; $1.99] With Fragment, you now have the power to transform any image into totally unique, one-of-a-kind prismatic art you'll want to share with everyone. Version 1.2 adds 8 new shapes and stability improvements to solve some crashing issues. News Republic [iOS Universal; Category: News; Free] THE definitive news app with an elegant design, unrivaled news coverage and a simple, delightful interface optimized for iPhone and iPad. Version 4 overhauls the iPhone app with a new look and new One Feed view that allows you to read all your topics and the latest important articles in one place. Puffin Web Browser [iOS Universal; Category: Utilities; $2.88] . Puffin Web Browser is the premium version of the Puffin family, and comes with unlimited hours of Adobe Flash support over cloud. Version 3.5.1 adds P2P Flash Video support and bug fixes. MindNode [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $9.99] MindNode makes mind mapping easy. Version 3.0.2 adds the the ability to open documents in a folder using a URL scheme, makes improvements in text editing, outline mode and more. Todo - To-Do & Task List [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $4.99] Todo - The ORIGINAL To-Do and Task List is the world's first, and one of the most popular, powerful, and award-winning to-do list and task manager iOS apps. Version 7.0.3 adds support for the new version of TextExpander, improves quick menu and screen navigation performance and more. Faded [iPhone; Category: Photography & Video; $0.99] Faded is the premier all-in-one photo editing app for the iPhone. Version 1.2 now saves camera settings, shows a higher resolution image in Grid Preview, and bug fixes. VLC for iOS [iOS Universal; Category: Photography & Video; Free] VLC for iOS is a port of the free VLC media player to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. Version 2.2.0 brings a new iOS7 UI, new multitouch gestures, GDrive integration, Dropbox streaming and more. Calendars 5 by Readdle [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $6.99] Calendars 5 is smart, excels in both tasks and events and runs on any iOS device you might have. Version 5.3 is a major update that brings event invitations, ICS import and notification center support for invitations. GoodNotes 4 [iOS Universal; Category: Productivity; $4.99] GoodNotes lets you take notes and annotate PDF documents. Version 4.0.4 is adds user experience improvements, bug fixes, and stability improvements. Version 4 is a complete rewrite of the app to support iCloud and iOS 7. OS X Apps Transloader [OS X; Category: Utilities; $4.99] Transloader lets you download URLs from your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to your Mac via iCloud. Version 2.0 brings a new design, several minor bug fixes and support for more sharing websites. Pixelmator [OS X; Category: Graphics & Design; $29.99] Full-featured and powerful image editing app for the Mac. Version 3.1 improves RAW file support, allows you to turn off auto-select, restores effects like Pointillize, Pixelize, Mandala, Concert, and Projectile and more. Nozbe To-do and Project Management [OS X; Category: Productivity; Free] Nozbe is a tool that helps busy professionals and teams organize time and projects. Version 1.9 adds improved project sharing, push notifications and Evernote reminders support. MenuBar Stats [OS X; Category: Utilities; Free] MenuBar Stats lets you easily monitor your system resources. Version 1.2 adds new Disk module, new Smart Battery management through configurable notifications and bug fixes. HDR Darkroom 3 [OS X; Category: Graphics & Design; $39.99] HDR Darkroom 3 has come to the App Store to bring you the best in High Dynamic Range photography processing. Version 1.0.2 improves RAW image handling, HRD synthesis and more.
Ember for Mac and iOS updated with new annotations, auto-import and more
Realmac has updated its Ember image-collection and syncing tools, adding the much-requested annotations feature to the iOS app and a handful of smaller tweaks and features to its Mac app. Ember is an image-syncing tool that collates photos from your Mac or iOS devices and allows you to sync these photos across devices via iCloud. It's similar to Photostream in iOS 7, but is significantly better than Apple's barebones offering. Besides iCloud syncing, Ember lets you tag and organize images into folders so you can build your own collections. The app also includes some basic editing tools that allow you to make tweaks on the fly. One of the biggest new features that made its way into version 1.1 of the iOS app is annotations, which brings the smart drawing and text tools from the Mac to your iOS device. There are also two new tools that'll allow you to blur and pixelate parts of your images. A new auto-import feature will screen your device for new screenshots in your camera roll and add them to your library automatically. These images are then synced across devices with little to no intervention by the user. Mac version 1.3 now has the new annotation tools blur and pixelate, which were also added to iOS. Other enhancements include the ability to back up your library, the option to hide previously seen subscription images, an improved browser contextual menu that has a selection for downloading images and more. The published changelog for Ember for iOS and OS X includes: Subscribe to your favorite websites (Mac Only) -- Subscriptions allow you to visually browse the web. Images can be saved to your Ember library, and shared with friends and co-workers. Auto-detects iPhone and iPad screenshots -- Library organization has never been easier: Just drag in those PNGs from your favorite iOS device and Ember will automatically sort them into "Phone" and "Tablet" for you! Search by Color -- Use natural language to find specific colors in your Ember library. Type in "Blue" and Ember for iOS will find images whose primary color matches just that. iCloud Sync -- Store your Ember library in iCloud and sync it across all your Macs and iOS devices. Ember for iOS is free from the App Store, with in-app purchases that allow you to enable annotations (US$4.99) or unlock auto-import ($0.99). The updated Ember for the Mac is available for $49.99 from the Mac App Store for new users and is free for existing users.
Why Dark Sky 'sold out' with a full-featured weather app, and why it's not charging for the upgrade
Yesterday, a weather app landed on the App Store and entered a crowded pool with the likes of Yahoo and The Weather Channel. What makes the app particularly unique -- and why you won't find it on any "New Release" list -- is that it's being released as an update to an existing app. It's called Dark Sky, and this probably isn't the first you've heard the name. For just short of two years now, the US$3.99 Dark Sky was the anti-weather app. It held the current weather conditions as its priority and made no attempt at extended forecasts. There was a radar feature that was smooth, but restrictive. It was an app with a very specific -- and some would say limited -- purpose, but its unique approach to weather earned it considerable attention on the App Store and helped it gain word-of-mouth appeal. Then, iOS 7 happened. Much like thousands of other iOS developers in the wake of the iOS 7 reveal, Dark Sky wanted to do something fresh. But what? As Dark Sky's Adam Grossman told me, that decision was driven by both what his team had learned as well as a desire to build something they themselves would love. "We launched two years ago, and we didn't know anything about the weather two years ago," Grossman says. "We were making big claims like 'You don't need a full-featured weather app; you just need to know whether it's raining in the next hour.' We've created this weather service (the Forecast API) because we didn't want to take weather from Weather.com or Accuweather, and we realized that, these weather apps that exist -- there's some really good ones now, and a lot of them use our API -- but there wasn't the perfect weather app that we wanted. If we're in the weather business and we can't use our own weather app as our day-to-day to see what's going to happen for the next week or so, then that kind of sucks." But unlike the decision to fully flesh out the new Dark Sky, the idea of offering it for free wasn't always the plan. "For the longest time we were imagining that it would be a paid upgrade. It was kind of a last-minute decision to make it a normal upgrade. [iOS 7] gives us a prime, golden opportunity for being able to charge for an upgrade," he says. "But the reason why it ended up being just a normal upgrade is that I feel like we're in a unique position. Our app is kind of expensive compared to apps in general, and certainly weather apps. There's a million free weather apps out there, so it felt kind of weird to charge people an additional $4." There are plenty of paid apps that have used iOS 7's redesign as a chance to reinvent themselves and in many cases introduce entirely new products that carry their own price of entry. Dark Sky certainly seems to have learned from the not-always-kind public reaction to this type of strategy. "Two things would happen if we charged for an upgrade," he says. "The first thing is: We would piss off a lot of people, and they wouldn't be as happy about the app. Our sales come from word of mouth, so if we piss off our users, that's less people that will spread the word about our app and are happy about it. The second thing is, my gut tells me that less than half of the people who own it now would pay for an upgrade, and if we're going to have people out there talking about the app, we want them talking about the new one." I've taken the new version of Dark Sky for a brief spin earlier today and a couple things are immediately clear: It's got the same easy-to-navigate feel of the original app, and it's also a lot more powerful than I expected. Look for a full review on TUAW coming soon.
Parallels Access 1.1 update adds new features, pricing options
Parallels has announced an update to Parallels Access, its desktop screen-sharing app for the iPad. Along with an iOS 7 redesign, Parallels Access 1.1 has added a number of new features and capabilities, as well as new pricing options. First, the update finally provides official support for both Mavericks and Windows 8.1 remote clients. For those who are trying to access remote computers through a restricted network, Parallels Access now uses just a single port connection on port 443. One subscription allows access to up to 10 PCs or Macs, and subscriptions are now available for US$4.99 monthly (auto-renewable) or $49.99 annually. That annual subscription rate is substantially lower in price than the original version, which rang in at $79.99 per year. Users who aren't sure that Parallels Access will work for them now get a free two-week trial. The app is now localized in 11 languages, adding Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Previously only English and German were supported. The update is available today.
Google Chrome for iOS updated with Translate, reduce-data usage features and iOS-exclusive new page tab
Google's recently announced update to Chrome for iOS is now available and brings along several previously unrevealed features. Users are now able to use Google Translate on their mobile devices to view pages written in other languages and access increased security when visiting potentially dangerous sites. The update also introduces a new data-compression tool that aims to help reduce your mobile data usage while browsing. According to Google, the data-compression feature can reduce your browsing data usage by up to 50 percent. To access this update go to the "Bandwidth" tab in the app's settings and select "Reduce Data Usage Option." While it was not previously announced, the update also introduces enhancements to the New Tab page that makes for faster, easier searching. Users now see three buttons at the bottom of the "New Tab" screen that allow users to quickly switch between their most-visited pages, their bookmarks and the tabs they have open on other devices. Google plans on introducing these improvements across all the versions of Chrome, but the features are making their debut on iOS. You can find the new version of Google Chrome in the iTunes Store.
60Hz makes it easy to follow your favorite TV shows and movies
There are several apps in the App Store that'll help you explore and track your favorite TV shows and movies. One title that is worth an extra look is 60Hz from M2D2. The app was recently updated with a new iOS 7 look that makes it even easier to follow your favorite TV shows and movies. It provides an attractive front-end to TV-tracking service Trakt.tv. You don't need to sign into the service to use 60Hz, but enabling Trakt.tv enhances your experience by providing you some extras like being able to check in to Trakt.tv or comment while you are logging an episode in 60Hz. The app has a visually driven interface that allows you to add TV shows and movies to a library. This library is your watchlist, where you keep track of all TV episodes and movies you watch. You can mark off the episodes that you've seen and read upcoming episode descriptions as you work your way through a series. If it is an older show, there are even stills taken from the show. I've been using 60Hz to track Lost, and I find it very helpful to keep track of the episodes I've watched as I revisit the series 10 years after it debuted. There is also a wishlist, which is your repository for TV shows and movies that you want to watch in the future. Once I am done with Lost, I plan to watch Breaking Bad as I missed half of the series for one reason or another. For those who like to plan, there is a TV scheduler section that'll remind you when the next episode of a show or a movie is about to air. Though you can't watch actual TV episodes or full-length movies from within the app, 60Hz does include trailers. You can watch movie trailers as well as TV trailers if the show produces them. The app is available for the iPhone and the iPad. The iPhone version is available for US$1.99 from the iOS App Store. The iPad version is available for $3.99. You can sync your library, wishlist and other content if you use Trakt.tv.
Omni Group starts shipping OmniOutliner 4
Omni Group announced today the availability of OmniOutliner 4. The outlining app helps you organize your to-do list, keep track of your expenses and log your notes. Like most Omni Group updates, the latest version of the app is a significant improvement over earlier iterations. OmniOutliner 4 has a bucket list of new items that are too numerous to mention. On the UI side of things, OmniOutliner 4 has been overhauled with a new UI. The biggest change you'll notice is the new sidebar, which replaces the old-style drawer from OmniOutliner 3. There's also an improvement in the way the app handles styles and themes, which brings some consistency when you are working on documents that are shuttled between the OS X and iOS app. Other smaller features include zooming, a new Resource Browser and redesigned Inspector window. The functional highlights include the inclusion of Smart Match technology, which is also present in OmniFocus. This feature will offer predictions as you type text into a pop-up List. An attachments option now allows you to append images, video, audio and even other OmniOutliner files to any Outliner document. For convenience, URLs are now clickable and will open in your default browser. If you don't like this auto-open, you can turn off this feature in the preferences. OmniOutliner 4 is available now from Omni Group's storefront and from the Mac App Store in the coming weeks. OmniOutliner will be available for US$49 for the standard version and $99 for the Pro version. Anyone who purchased OmniOutliner 3 since January 2011 will get a free upgrade. Customers who purchased OmniOutliner outside of this window will get 50 percent off the list price of $49.99 for the standard version and $99.99 for the Pro.
