"If there is an app for that"

A bad quarter for Apple: Is a great one for anyone else

April 28, 2016 by macjeff

Apple’s most recent quarterly results were less than spectacular but, while that’s probably better news for its competitors than its usual continual record-setting, don’t schedule the victory parade yet.

Writing for the Forbes contributor network and candy cane freebasing den, Ewan Spence says “A Weakened Apple Is Vulnerable To Samsung's Attack.” (Tip o’ the antlers to @JonyIveParody.)

Samsung?

[The Macalope runs to the window]

Macalope: You, there! What year is it?!

Boy: ’Tis 2016, sir!

Macalope: And people are still saying Samsung is going to beat Apple?!

Boy: [Shrugs, wanders off to buy a goose.]

…Samsung is on a roll. Momentum is building…

Samsung’s year-over-year growth? Down 0.6 percent.

That’s some roll. Is that a potato roll? Poppy seed? Dinner roll? California roll? Salmon skin hand roll? Because it’s seeming not a business roll.

Hey, they did do better than Apple. But the smartphone market has gone flat. Now it’s mostly a game of stealing share from others. Samsung has high customer satisfaction but so does Apple and Apple’s share is famously low, so it has more room to grow. Ben Bajarin at least thinks Apple has an edge. We’ll see. The Macalope doesn’t like to make predictions about things that have more moving parts than the Game of Thrones title sequence.

Remember how Xiaomi was highly touted as the company that was going to dethrone Apple because their phones were so cheap and if there’s one thing that Apple customers want it’s cheap phones? That was a good one. Remember how even Lenovo was going to crush it after buying Motorola from Google because… uh, mumble, mumble, look out Apple? Yeah, now they’re both no longer in the top five.

More importantly, Samsung’s ascendancy is kicking in just as Apple hits one of its roughest patches of the decade.

It is a rough patch, to be sure. For Apple. For any other company it’s a kittens and puppies surprise birthday cake delivered by a dozen adorable talking wombats when it isn’t even your birthday. Why, you’d have to go all the way back to 2014 to find a first calendar quarter so bad for Apple.

While the raw numbers are a concern, the bigger risk for Apple is the damage to the perception of the iPhone brand…

Yeah, people really think iPhones are crap now.

The move to larger screened devices ignored a product cycle of iPhone 5, 5C and 5S users refusing to upgrade - and now the four-inch iPhone SE has arrived it’s cannibalizing sales of the larger and more expensive devices in the portfolio.

Wow, the Macalope is so old he remembers when pundits said everyone wanted big phone because big phones are big and big is always better.

Pundits like Ewan Spence who said last September before the introduction of the iPhone 6s:

The potential for the iPhone is greater now than it has ever been.

Now what does he think?

Every [Apple] product line has a black mark against it in the media…

And this is different from any other year how, exactly? Every single product has announced has come pre-failed by the media.

…the game isn’t always about reality, it’s about perception.

And, rest assured, Forbes will always be there to not help clear up the difference between the two.

Snapchat takes face-swapping to new levels with iOS update

April 27, 2016 by macjeff

Now you don’t have to be sitting side-by-side to take a hilarious face-swap selfie with your friends, babies, or celebrities you’ve never met. Snapchat’s latest iOS update lets you face-swap with photos in your Camera Roll.

This adds a new layer of hilarity to Snapchat’s already ridiculous feature, which lets you trade faces for selfie snapshots and videos. The new face-swap filter works similarly to the original. Open Snapchat, turn the selfie camera on, then do a long press on your face to bring up the variety of filters that Snapchat offers every day. The new option is next to the original face-swap filter, but the icon is purple instead of yellow.

Snapchat will automatically bring up a gallery of faces from your recent Camera Roll snaps that you can swipe through. My obvious choices included my friends, partner, and new baby nephew, all of which looked incredibly creepy. So I decided to see what I would look like as some of my favorite celebrities, which is easy to do by saving images online to your Camera Roll. Not surprisingly, Angelina Jolie’s face is ultra flattering if you need an ego boost.

Snapchat typically doesn’t allow you to use images from your Camera Roll, limiting you to shooting photos and videos in-app. But people love the face-swap feature, and even Facebook is getting in on the action with its recent acquisition of a dedicated face-swapping video app, Masquerade. Snapchat knows that variety is key to keep people coming back for more, and though it’s had some missteps lately (see: the controversial Bob Marley filter for 4/20), its constantly changing options are usually a hit with users.

The iOS update also eliminates the option to buy replays of snaps, indicating that Snapchat will focus its money-making efforts on advertising instead of in-app purchases.

FreshTeam Keeps Your Mobile Group Connected

April 26, 2016 by macjeff

Reviewed by Marilyn Chau

It can be a real challenge to keep track of where the others in your group are when you’re on a business trip, vacation, or just at work or home.

FreshTeam uses the capabilities of your smartphone to make it easier than ever before to stay connected and informed on the “what” and “where” of the rest of your crew.

Available for free through the iTunes Store, FreshTeam is an app with both social and business appeal.

Features:

Increased ease in coordinating and connecting a mobile workforce is really the goal of FreshTeam, developed by Fresh Labs, Inc., and all features of this app are aptly aimed at this goal.

Specifically, FreshTeam offers users the ability to create in-app groups that show others within the group where they are within a city at any time, all within the same app that contains their in-group chat messages and lets you make group calls.

In this way, FreshTeam does a terrific job of keeping everyone in the loop as to where and what all team members are up to. The developers use the term “total team awareness” to describe what it does and we agree, it does just that.

Sharing actual location data is always optional, and your location is not shared with anyone within the app unless you’ve allowed it to be. Phone numbers are also not necessary, as all FreshTeam connections are done just through usernames.

This way, things can be kept purely professional; giving out your personal numbers to co-workers shouldn’t be an issue if you don’t want it to be. To add to its appeal his app is currently offered in 22 different languages and there is an Android version too.

Overall, I was very impressed with the execution of the concept of the FreshTeam app; creating groups is fast and simple, and it’s easy to see how using the app could save time in figuring out on-the-go logistics. 

Appearance and Layout:

FreshTeam iPhone App

FreshTeam offers a fairly clean layout, which is particularly impressive when considering the many features that are offered within the app.

An options bar at the bottom of the screen makes navigation easy through the different aspects of your group’s whereabouts (maps and group chats), and contact lists are easily accessible as well.

While the graphics and layout of FreshTeam aren’t really anything unique to this app alone, the clean layout and design of the app are definitely in line with the “fresh” part of the app’s name.

Value:

While FreshTeam is a free download, a monthly subscription-based upgrade for premium users costs $9.99 per month.

Given the relatively high subscription cost, we appreciate that a free 30-day trial is currently available so you can check it out prior to buying it.

For personal use this price tag per month definitely seems to be a pretty steep one. That being said, there are probably groups and businesses that can easily justify the cost because of the value that app offers. It would be more compelling, though, if a “group rate” was available.

Additionally, all FreshTeam Premium accounts are automatically renewed each month, unless you remember to cancel  your subscription at least 24 hours in advance.

The features of FreshTeam are indeed “fresh” and useful for social and work teams alike, but an automatic subscription service of this price (even though it is an optional service) definitely detracts from the financial appeal of this app. We feel pretty strongly that subscriptions should be “opt-in” not “opt-out”.

FreshTeam requires iOS 8.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Conceptis Cross-a-Pix Proves Puzzles Can be Challenging and Fun

April 26, 2016 by macjeff

Conceptis Cross-a-Pix iPhone Game

We all know how fun can puzzle games be and how much hours of entertainment they can offer to us. Unlike any other type of games, puzzle games improve our mind skills and make us think more logically.

So, if you’re bored with the old games you’ve played and want to play a new one, we have the perfect suggestion for you.

Conceptis Cross-a-Pix is a beautifully designed, challenging, and fun new puzzle app that will have you playing for hours.

Designed for both iPhone and iPad and available in multiple languages, it is appealing and can be played by all ages. The logic puzzles that are found within this game app can both challenge and addict you to the fullest. It will glue your hands to your device, like it did it with us.

Concept and Gameplay:

Conceptis Cross-a-Pix, created by Conceptis Ltd., contains exciting puzzles which are waiting for you to solve them. When you solve them, they form lovely whimsical pixel-art images. It features a very cool gameplay which is simple to play, yet addicting. You will net get bored at all playing it for consecutive minutes or even hours.

The whole puzzle concept is just well thought and smartly designed.

Conceptis Cross-a-Pix iPhone Game

Your main goal in this game is to reveal the hidden image by painting squares and filling the blocks like the rules are requiring. You do this with the authentic fingertip cursor which allows you to play with ease and precision.

In order to fill a square, you just have to move the cool cursor to the location you want and touch anywhere on the display. The square and the entire same object in the same section will automatically fill in.

Features:

Besides the exclusive fingertip cursor and the endless undo and redo options, Conceptis Cross-a-Pix has tons of puzzle features. There are 42 Cross-a-Fix puzzles in SingleClue and DualClue and 8 extra large bonuses available only on iPad. Play with the three difficulty levels and try to solve more puzzles. The puzzles’ grid sizes up to 20×30 (45×60 for iPad) and they all can be saved, hidden and sorted in the library.

Every puzzle within it is built from a blank grid that is divided into various sections. You can use the clues given to the left of every row and on the top of each column. You can have even more fun with the weekly bonuses – you get extra free puzzle each week. That represents an extra motivation to always give your best.

Overall Value:

Without a doubt this is a great puzzle game. Maybe one of the best I’ve played in the last few months.

There aren’t too many things that bug me, it is just pure enjoyment. If you want to sharpen your logic and mind skills, to improve your cognitive skills and challenge yourself on a new intellectual level, then Conceptis Cross-a-Pix will be a great option for you.

With wonderful design, friendly UI, ad-free and with multiple in-app purchases, this game is free for download and you can find it on the App Store.

Conceptis Cross-a-Pix requires iOS 7.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

Download these five awesome new apps for iOS and Android

April 24, 2016 by macjeff

Another week has gone by, but it brought us a handful of new apps to try. This week's list has an app that will reward you for donating to charity, as well as a calendar app that tells you the ongoings of our planetary system.

The post Download these five awesome new apps for iOS and Android appeared first on Digital Trends.