"If there is an app for that"

HelloGbye, Breaker, Soon and other apps to check out this weekend

April 01, 2017 by RSS Feed

It’s the weekend again, and that means it’s time for another episode of our Apps of the Week roundup. Today’s selections include a digital travel agent, a new podcast client, an app that alerts you when cool things are happening, and of course we’ve picked out two new games for you to try.

HelloGbye

There are hundreds of travel apps out there, but there aren’t too many like HelloGbye. It allows you to easily plan, book and change flights and hotels. It’s essentially like having your own digital travel agent: schedule travel for up to 9 people in real-time by simply having a conversation with the app’s AI bot. There are also features like cash-back and waived fees and splitting costs between travelers. HelloGbye is available for free.

Breaker

Listen to the best new podcast episodes with Breaker. Follow your friends to see what they're listening to, and discover new shows that you'll love. Like, share, and comment on your favorite episodes. Now, if you’re already an avid podcast listener, this app is probably not going to make you switch from your current favorite. But if you’re new to podcasts or are looking to mix things up, Breaker is definitely worth checking out. Just don’t forget to add iDB’s podcasts. Breaker is available for free.

Soon

Tired of missing that sale, live stream, AMA, pre-order, show premiere, birthday party or happy hour? Check out Soon. The app builds a list of various online and local events that you may find interesting, and allows you to set up an alert to let you know when they begin. Features include the ability to discover events, receive notifications, a community leaderboard and more. Soon is available for free.

Gangstar New Orleans

The gold standard for open-world action-adventure series is back, in the fascinating city of New Orleans. With hundreds of vehicles, an outrageous arsenal, and complete freedom to roam this vast city, you have all the tools to become a criminal legend. I’ll admit, it’s a bummer that Gameloft moved from paid games to the trashy free-to-play model, but I feel like open-world fans could still find some joy in this one. Gangstar New Orleans is available for free (with several IAPs).

Meganoid

If the free-to-play open-world genre isn’t really your thing, here is something that is almost the exact opposite: Meganoid. Meganoid is a challenging platformer, generating new levels on every play session. Find many items to enhance your character and his abilities while you descend down into the Meganoid space ship. Do you rush for the exit, or do you take your time to collect everything there is, barely escaping the security drones that will hunt you down if you linger? Meganoid is available for free.

More apps to check out

• Download Panols free via Apple Store app to create stunning panoramas for Instagram
• Apple's free app of the week: Blyss

Apps updated this week

• You can now search over a million unique Stories on Snapchat
• Infuse 5.3 brings optimized playback performance, parental controls, Blu-ray disk images & more
• Facebook adds Snapchat-style effects and auto vanishing Stories to its mainland app
• Pages, Numbers and Keynote pick up new editing features, Touch ID support & more
• Apple TV Remote app gains support for iPad, lyrics, playlists, chapters & more

Source link: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/04/01/apps-of-the-week-april-1/

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 03/31/2017

March 31, 2017 by RSS Feed

The interactive Legend of Sleepy Hollow , Kids Hello Spring - Preschool learning games , Animal Math First Grade Math Games for 1st Grade and more

iPhone:

Feelca B&W ( $0.99 → Free ) IDEAMP Co.,Ltd. Feelca B&W mimics the look of film cameras. You're able to choose between 24 and 36 exposure film. Then line up your subjects and snap away. The app automatically organizes photos as if they were rolls of film. Afterwards you can add a caption, which is presented as a Polaroid-like developed photo, or you can just share photos as they are.

Universal:

The interactive Legend of Sleepy Hollow ( $2.99 → Free ) iClassics Productions, S.L. Like all of iClassics’ apps, The Interactive Legend of Sleepy Hollow provides an immersive reading experience. Each page is filled with eye-popping animations and illustrations. Tilt, touch, and shake your iDevice to discover what’ lurking in the shadows, and allow the 53 minute soundtrack to draw you in. The app includes a total of 86 sound effects, 52 illustrations, 67 animations, and 50 interactive scenes.

Kids Hello Spring - Preschool learning games ( $2.99 → Free ) Clapenjoy SRL Kids Hello Spring is full of fun educational activities for your child to enjoy. They’ll be tasked with tending to the garden, hatching baby birds and feeding them, coloring easter eggs, and matching items. Along the way your child will learn about nature and responsibility, and develop key motor skills.

Animal Math First Grade Math Games for 1st Grade ( $3.99 → Free ) Eggroll Games LLC Animal First Grade Math Games includes so much content for your child to enjoy; they’ll never get bored! To help the animals find their way across the wild, your child will need to successfully complete a variety of math activities. The math activities are designed for first graders, and range from adding and subtracting to identifying missing signs and practicing number sentences.

Intro to Math, by Montessorium ( $4.99 → Free ) Montessorium, LLC Intro to Math includes five main educational activities: Red Rods, Number Rods, Sandpaper Numbers, Number Rods and Cards, and Numbers and Counters. The activities will not only teach your child how to read and write numbers from one through nine but also sequence, order, and spatial relationships.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free

Pavilion is a Mysterious and Immersive Puzzle Adventure

March 30, 2017 by RSS Feed

Pavilion: Touch Edition ($3.99) by Visiontrick Media AB is a mysterious and puzzling adventure that is quite an experience all on its own. If you like titles such as The Room series, then you will feel right at home with Pavilion. The game is a mobile port of the original on PS4 and Steam.

Despite the fact that a lot of my gaming time has been on my Nintendo Switch lately (there’s way too much to do in Breath of the Wild), I like to take a break every so often with some quality iOS games. If you’ve followed my work for a while, then you’ll know I’m a complete sucker for puzzle games, even though sometimes they’re a real stumper and leave me scratching my head. Still, I like games that keep my mind stimulated so that I don’t feel completely useless, and that’s why even though I feel like I’ve played a ton of iOS puzzle games, I’m always looking out for new ones. When I saw Pavilion on the App Store last week, I knew that it was something that I had to check out, mostly because of the screenshots and how it bills itself as a “fourth-person puzzling adventure.” I mean, how can I resist?

In terms of visuals, Pavilion is downright gorgeous and rather stunning to look at. The game features completely hand-crafted art that represents a rather futuristic yet classical dreamscape environment that is unlike anything you’ve seen before. And because of the lovingly hand-crafted visuals, everything is packed with a ton of fine details, such as subtle patterns and textures in your surroundings, various lighting and shadowing effects, realistic items that you’ll come across along the way, and realistic movement for characters. Pavilion is definitely a testament to what mobile games are capable of, even though this is technically just a port. The game also has a soothing ambient soundtrack that fits perfectly with the overall dreamy mood of the game, and the sound effects are realistic and top-notch. Visiontrick certainly did a fantastic job with Pavilion’s visual and audio design, that’s for sure.

Unlike most puzzle games, Pavilion does not have a level select screen, though the game is split up into multiple stages for players to traverse through seamlessly. At the moment, Pavilion only has Episode One, though it’s a story that is told in two. The developers claim that Episode Two content will be coming later this year, so there is something to look forward to once you complete the first episode. The goal in Pavilion is to help your character get from Point A to Point B, but it’s tougher than it seems — there are puzzles that you must solve along the way before you can get a clear path, and items you find will reveal the secret behind a mysterious story where reality clashes with fantasy. Once you get to the exit gate at the end of a stage, then you will be taken to the next area immediately in a seamless transition. Unfortunately, if you want to replay an area, you can’t go back to it without resetting the game, so be warned. The game lets you pick up wherever you last left off at, so you can pick up Pavilion and play as you please without worry.

The controls in Pavilion: Touch Edition are simple and intuitive. Since the game is all about interacting with your environment, there will be a lot of tapping involved. Unlike adventure puzzle games, you can’t freely move your character around. Instead, pay attention to the lights and bells — tapping on a bell has your character move towards the sound, and he can only walk when there is a lit path — if a light is out, he won’t go through the shadows and it will be blocked off like a physical wall. When there is a hidden object that your character comes across, you’ll know because a “drawer” will show up on the screen (or the item itself), and you have to interact with it to reveal the item, which you tap on to collect. There will be a variety of obstacles to interact with and items to find and use to reveal the story, so there’s definitely variety in what you’ll find. Another thing to note is the fact that levels can be rather large, so you may need to pan the screen around to view more of the area, which is done by just dragging your finger around.

Pavilion does not penalize you for taking too long or making too many moves, so feel free to take your time figuring out a puzzle. There aren’t any tutorials or explanations in the beginning either, so players are kind of thrown into the game and left to figure things out on their own, which just adds to the mystery of the game.

I’m still early on in Pavilion, but I’m enjoying the experience so far. It did take me a while to figure out how to do anything in the start, but once everything clicked, it all felt super intuitive. My best recommendation is to just tap on anything that looks interesting and see what happens, then look at the bigger picture and put it all together. I don’t think the puzzles are too difficult either, as you can figure out what needs to be done after a few attempts, so this is a great puzzle adventure for all ages. The hand-drawn graphics are beautiful to behold, and when it’s combined with the ambiance of the music and sounds, it’s a surreal dreamscape that’s hard to escape from.

I highly recommend giving Pavilion: Touch Edition a try, especially if you’ve never played the game before. You can find Pavilion: Touch Edition on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $3.99. There are no in-app purchases, and Episode Two will be coming later this year.

Source link: http://appadvice.com/reviews

credit : appadvice

from : Mid Atlantic Consulting, Inc.

Twitter Drops User Names from Counting Against 140 Character Limit

March 30, 2017 by RSS Feed

Twitter has been quietly changing how replies work for some users over the past few days, but now it’s official for everyone: user names no longer count towards the 140 character limit. The change means you tweets don’t have to be as short when several people are included in your replies.

Previously, including a user name in a tweet counted against your 140 character limit, so a post like “@davehamilton You should check out Twitter’s reply changes” was counted as 58 characters. Now that same tweet counts as 44, assuming you also remove the space after Dave’s Twitter handle.

Twitter product manager Sasank Reddy said, “It’s now easier to follow a conversation, so you can focus on what a discussion is about, and who is having it. Also, with all 140 characters for your replies, you have more room to participate in group conversations.”

The change is automatic, so you don’t need to worry about remembering to install updates or change any account settings.

With that off the to-do list maybe Twitter’s engineers can start working on letting us edit posts.

Source link: https://www.macobserver.com/news/twitter-user-names-140-character-limit/

Apple’s free app of the week: Blyss

March 30, 2017 by RSS Feed

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the game Blyss. For the next 7 days you’ll be able to pick up the popular puzzler for free on both iPhone and iPad—saving you a solid buck.

Blyss is essentially an endless puzzle adventure that features calming, serene graphics and a transcendent soundtrack. Features include unlimited, unique puzzles, 3 game modes, and a player leaderboard.

From the App Store Editors’ Notes:

Some dots take one swipe, some take two. But one thing’s for certain: if you want to clear every puzzle, you have to think through your moves. Failure’s inevitable in the high-stakes Endless mode—but trust us—you won’t mind restarting.

And here’s a video of the game in action:

Blyss is available for free in the App Store.

Source link: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/03/30/apples-free-app-of-the-week-blyss/