The vast majority of us have, often begrudgingly, learned to deal with the touch-based keyboard, but with commodities such as the stylus very much alive and kicking thanks to the S Pen and others, there's still plenty of hope left yet for those of us less inclined to change. While Samsung markets its S Pen as a tool for the creative, it also lauds its note-taking abilities, no less with the oversized 'phablet' known as the Galaxy Note. Its extensive fan base shows that there certainly is a market for making digital annotations, and as such, one iOS developer has come through with a different approach, offering an app which solves calculations you've written with your hand.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network for a reason. When the social network was first made public years back, no one could’ve predicted that it will leave the likes of MySpace, Orkut and Hi5 biting the dust, but the social giant did so. This did not happen overnight, either; steady updates and continuous improvements of the feature set took credit for the the website’s success. Whether Facebook sells users’ data or if it’s privacy policies are lax (to say the least), it’s no hidden fact that Facebook is the top choice for everyone out there for keeping in touch with friends, sharing the ups and downs of their life and almost every other aspect of daily routines.
George Hotz, also known as “Geohot”, is known in the iOS community as the first to fully unlock the original iPhone, back in 2007 when he was just 17. Fast forward to today, he has created a new app for iOS, known as “Reactions”, which gives photo taking a whole new twist: capturing your face reaction to a photo taken from your iPhone and then sharing it on Facebook or Dropbox, automatically.
While Apple provides a native weather app on all of its iOS devices (except the iPad), it's fair to say that it's not particularly riveting. It does what it says on the tin - offers current and 5-day weather for just about any area of the world, but it’s up to third-parties to add a little finesse and grandeur to proceedings. While plenty of small app houses have done just that, today’s aesthetically-pleasing offering arrives courtesy of a rather unlikely source. AOL, famed former owner of Bebo, has been busy preparing its SKYE Weather+Photo app for those running on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and unlike the aforementioned investment, it really isn't bad. In fact, it's rather good.
If one could point toward any field of apps which is particularly saturated in terms of numbers, it's fair to say the Photography section bears the crown. Thanks in part to the popularity of Instagram, there are literally thousands out there, and while this is good for the snap happy smartphone and tablet users out there in terms of sheer choice, but it also means quality is enhanced as developers seek new ways to gain recognition. Krop Circle is charmingly different from the vast majority of photo apps out there, offering circular crop overlay from which you can take shots, and when used in certain environments, it can produce some spectacular results.
The final quarter of 2012 saw Google make a significant impact on the mobile world with a number of great application submissions to the iOS App Store. The Chrome browser went from strength to strength, the Gmail app saw a significant update as well as the debut of the official Capture application to compliment the native YouTube app that is now available for the iPhone and iPad. The progression of their mobile apps is clearly continuing during 2013, with the first major update to the YouTube Capture app going live today.
With age and adulthood comes additional responsibilities, and although very few of us actually like or enjoy going about our daily chores, we all generally understand that they have to be done. Some households may have large families living in them and find it difficult to delegate individual chores to individual family members. Alternatively, it could just be a lone person who has difficulty remembering what needs to be done on any given day. Regardless of the situation, the Chorma iPhone app by Stephen Bennett could put a little sanity into that ever-expanding task list.
If you take the slightest interest in politics or current affairs, you are likely aware that President Obama is being inaugurated for his second term today, in a ceremony that will drag the attention of large crowds in Washington, DC. But if you live in any other part of America, or the world, and are not able to join Obama in person, there is a new app for iOS and Android, made by the White House itself, which makes it easy for you to celebrate this occasion.
Games are a strange genre. They’re insanely popular (just take a look at the best-selling or most popular titles across any App Store), and their dynamics are far from predictable. Sometimes, mindless, meaningless and dead simple titles would become overnight success stories, while other much well-developed and thought of titles would remain trailing in the abyss of non-recognition. Then, there are those cases too, where persistence and perseverance pays off. Rovio Entertainment’s Angry Birds lineup is one story that adheres to the latter category – a company on the brink of closure comes up with a title after countless attempts that becomes an insane hit with the masses, doing for Rovio what few titles have been ever able to achieve for their developers.
If iOS is your mobile gaming platform of choice and you have a spare $3.99 to spend on the App Store, then the latest release from Square Enix is the role-playing-game that you have been waiting for. The development house have seen their name attached to some seriously impressive gaming titles recently, and the latest is certainly no exception, with iOS gamers now able to get their hands on the glorious Final Fantasy All The Bravest title right now.
