Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 10/09/2016

October 09, 2016 by macjeff

Taijitu: A Game About Balance , Hacker Pack - Coding & Nerd Stickers , checkTrakt and more

iPhone:

We really like this app because it makes it easy to discover and relieve pain using trigger points even if you know nothing about skeletal muscles. You’re able to hunt down specific muscles or simply point to areas of pain to discover what’s causing it and how to fix it. The app includes over 80 muscles with more than 150 trigger points, so you will be able to relieve everything from tennis elbow to abdominal pain.

Runtastic Mountain Bike Pro’s real-time data is second to none. You won’t find a more accurate ride tracking app in the App Store. It’s able to record your trip, duration, distance, altitude, and calories burned. If you’re going for a ride in an area with poor cellular coverage, you can choose to download map data ahead of time for offline viewing. The app even includes weather data, Pebble support, voice detection, and automatic pause detection.

Universal:

Taijitu is inspired by the mythology of yin and yang. The screen is divided into two sections by a white line with shapes on each side. The shapes that are pulsing are the ones that can be swapped with a tap. The idea is to balance the two sides by ensuring the colors are equally distributed. The game includes more than 100 levels that become progressively more complicated.

Hacker Pack is for the nerd in you. It provides you with access to 24 coding-themed animated stickers like a bug, programming language logos, and a spinning color wheel. So what are you waiting for? Start slapping messages with some Hacker Pack stickers today.

You’ll need a trakt.tv account to fully utilize checkTrakt, so make sure to sign up for a free one using the link within the app. You’re then able to add shows to your already watched collection or those you want to see. checkTrakt provides you with the tools to discover new content based on personal recommendations and what is trending, or you can just search for something specific. The app also provides detailed episode information, allows you to share what you’re watching via your favorite social networks, and alerts you when a new episode of your favorite show is about to air.

Data Widget is so simple yet so effective. Launch the app, set your data cap, set your start and end date, and record any usage you may already have. Then swipe down to bring up Notification Center and add the widget by tapping the “Edit” button found all the way at the bottom. After that, any time you want to check your current data usage in real-time, just swipe down. You can also now check your usage via Apple Watch.

Week Widget isn’t a standard calendar app in any way, shape, or form. It taps into your iDevice’s native calendar app in order to populate a Today view widget with everything that’s coming up on your schedule. When you launch the app itself, you’re greeted with ways to customize the look and content of the widget. Week Widget includes a day timeline, a week timeline, and the ability to scroll through days and weeks.

Today only: Unlock everything free of charge! Simply tap the “Unlock” button on the main screen, and enter the provided passcode to confirm your action. All current and future puzzles will be available to you and your child free of charge. Each scene features cork board cutouts. Your child must drag and drop the pieces from the top right corner of the screen into the scene to fill them in. As your child works their way through each scene, new cutouts and pieces will appear. The app includes adorable characters and sounds, and nine scenes.

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

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 10/08/2016

October 08, 2016 by macjeff

Sky Pets , PhotoNova 2 - Editor with Selective FX & Lasso , Cursive Writing App - abCursive 3 and more

iPhone:

PhotoNova 2 is all about selective effects. It allows you to focus on specific parts of your photo using a variety of selection tools like a lasso, circle, rectangle, ellipse, and tilt-shift. The selected areas can be adjusted or completely changed using 250 different effects. Photos can be rendered with more than 25 layers. You’re also able to paint effects and colors over the top of your photos.

Each letter of the alphabet can be practiced separately in lowercase form. The app indicates where to start each letter and how they connect via animations. Once you’ve gotten the hang of things, you can work on sample sentences or create your own words to practice.

The app's main view allows you to see upcoming events for the day, any notes and ideas you may have, and any tasks you need to complete all at once. You're also able to view each of the three separately. Tap once on an open spot on your calendar to add an event or tap twice to add more details. The app syncs with your iPhone's built-in calendar or any of the other popular online options. It also includes multiple themes to choose from, icon badging, and sound effects.

Your child will first be asked to guess the creature, character, or object being described. If guessed correctly, they will then be tasked with spelling it using the available letters. The letters will be sounded out as they are placed, and your child will get to hear the word pronounced when they are finished.

Universal:

The stars have fallen from space and ripped through the Earth. Now it’s up to our pets to rescue the stars and rebuild the planet. Select a furry friend and customize it however you wish. Then dive through the sky tilting to steer around obstacles and collect the gems along the way. Reach the bottom safely with all gems in hand to earn a perfect score. The game includes four colorful environments to coast through.

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

Fllike, Chordify, Hive Social, and other apps to check out this weekend

October 08, 2016 by macjeff

We are back with another edition of our Apps of the Week roundup. This week we have some great apps and games for you to check out over the weekend, including an app for grading your airline experiences, an app for learning musical chords for your favorite songs, and a new mafia-based RPG.

Fllike

Fllike is a simple travel app for tracking and scoring your flight experiences, and browsing the flight scores from other travelers. Scoring is easy—simply scan your boarding pass or enter your flight number and use the intuitive sliders to mark your grades in categories like seating, crew, punctuality and more. Obviously the app’s effectiveness will depend on its growth and traction, and I’m not thrilled with the name, but it seems worth checking out for frequent travelers. Fllike is available for free.

Chordify

Aspiring musicians, this one is for you. Chordify helps you learn and play the music you love, regardless of skill level. Featuring automatic beat detection and state-of-the-art chord recognition technology, the app can provide piano, ukulele and guitar chords for more than 4.5 million songs. Other features include cross-platform library integration, favorites, animated chord grid-view and more. Chordify is available for free.

Hive Social

Ever wish you could connect with people who love the same things you do? Tired of the current social network landscape? Hive Social is for you. The app allows you to chat in forums that are interest-based so you can get to know real people that share your views and passions. You can even post to a specific group of people in your area. Again, this is one of those things where success will depend on people using it, but I think it’s important to showcase promising alternatives to Facebook and Twitter. Hive Social is available for free.

Mafia III: Rivals

Steal, seize, and slaughter for control of New Bordeaux in Mafia III: Rivals, a brand new battle RPG set in the violent and gritty universe of Mafia III. Be the boss and assemble your crime family. Outfit your characters with brutal weapons, items, vehicles, and stake your claim over local businesses. As your power grows, so does your stake in the criminal underworld. Own the city. There are some IAPs here, but early reviews are fairly positive. Mafia III: Rivals is available for free.

Spingun

Two buttons. One space ship. Zero chance to survive. Goliath is attacking your planet, but you’ve heroically stayed behind with your ship so your family can evacuate. SPIN and GUN your way to victory. Fly and steer with either single button, or press both buttons at once to fire your ship’s powerful blaster gun. Grab powerups to launch missiles, plasma balls, and flames at your foes. Blast em to bits quick to repair your ship. How long can you fight them off? Spingun is available for free.

More apps to check out

• Apple’s free app of the week: Impossible Road
• Yahoo releases Newsroom for iOS app with curated stories, personalized feeds & more

Apps updated this week

• Google Maps gains redesigned iOS 10 widgets for “Nearby Transit” and “Travel Times”
• How to enable and use Secret Conversations in Facebook Messenger
• Adobe releases Photoshop and Premiere Elements 15 with facial feature adjustments & more

Free Apps to Download TODAY ONLY 10/07/2016

October 07, 2016 by macjeff

Dwelp , Forecast Bar - Weather, Radar, and Alerts , Pocket Earth PRO Offline Maps & Travel Guides and more

Universal:

Dwelp is familiar yet unique. The idea is to link same-colored dots in as few moves as possible by placing them next to each other. The catch, however, is that once two dots have been linked up, the rest of the same color will become locked in place. Each puzzle has more than one solution, but your ultimate goal is to find the one with the least amount of moves. You’re able to undo moves at any time. The game includes a total of 120 hand-crafted puzzles.

Forecast Bar aims to be the last weather app you’ll ever need. It allows you to customize the weather summary with any combination of 20 data points including everything from wind speeds to the location of the nearest storms. Forecast Bar also includes a variety of icons and backgrounds to choose from, a fully customizable widget, Apple Watch support, animated radar, and 3D Touch support.

No matter where you are, Pocket Earth will help you find your way thanks to its huge database that includes more than 100,000 locations and points of interest. Before heading out on your adventure, we recommend downloading your maps ahead of time. The storage space they take up is remarkably small. You’re able to search maps while offline, create routes, pin locations, share your current location, and even receive turn-by-turn directions.

Magic Launcher has the ability to launch over 100,000 different apps and actions right from your lock screen. Upon launch it’ll need to determine which apps are supported. After it has finished you'll able to add quick access icons for your favorite apps, contacts, settings, and services to your lock screen. The app also includes 3D Touch support.

There’s so much to do on Lily’s farm. Your child is able to choose from nine different base scenes and populate their favorites with over 100 fun and cuddly stickers. The stickers can be placed anywhere in the scene with a drag and drop, and they can be resized and rotated with common gestures. Tap on a sticker to bring it to life. Stickers are sorted be category, so it’s easy for your child to find exactly what they’re looking for.

Sketch Me doesn’t require a lot of tinkering. All you need to do is import a photo from your library or take a new one from within the app. Then tap on one of the 19 effects and enjoy the results. If you choose to, you can adjust other parameters like contrast and brightness. Sketch Me also includes 18 shapes that can be applied in order to show off the distinct effects.

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

How to use Digital Touch in Messages for iPhone and iPad

October 06, 2016 by macjeff

Digital Touch debuted as a sort of gimmicky feature of the Apple Watch software. On iOS 10, Digital Touch has made its way into the stock Messages app, making it easy and to add various effects to photo or video attachments, send sketches, taps, kisses, heartbeats and more. In this step-by-step tutorial, you’re going to learn how to express your feelings in style with the Digital Touch features on your iOS 10-enabled iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Digital Touch system requirements

Digital Touch is supported on any iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with iOS 10 or later.

Digital Touch-enriched messages created on iOS devices render properly on Macs with macOS Sierra, as well as on the Apple Watch with watchOS 3 or later. On the downside, you cannot send Digital Touch effects from your computer because Messages for Mac lacks a built-in Digital Touch interface.

The Apple Watch permits you to send Digital Touch sketches, taps, your heartbeat and other animated expressions to friends and family, just like you can with Digital Touch on iOS 10 devices, with the sole exception of Digital Touch-enhanced photos and videos that do show up on the Apple Watch but cannot be created from your wrist.

What you can send with Digital Touch

Use Digital Touch to send the following things to your friends and family:

• Sketches
• Taps
• Kisses
• Your heartbeat
• Broken hearts
• Angry fireballs

You can access Digital Touch features whilst responding to an incoming message, composing a new message from scratch or replying to anyone you have an open conversation with already.

Creating animated sketches

Digital Touch makes it easy to create sketches by way of drawing with your finger on the screen. Digital Touch-enhanced sketches animate for the recipient the way you drew them.

1) Create a new conversation in Messages or tap an existing chat in the conversation list, then hit the Digital Touch button, it’s the middle icon to the left of the Messages text field.

2) Tap and hold with one finger, then drag the finger across the Digital Touch canvas to sketch anything you want on the screen. To take the Digital Touch canvas full screen, tap the upwardly pointing arrow in the bottom right.

You can sketch to your heart’s content before sending your creation. To use a different color, select it on the canvas then start drawing again.

You can pick from any of the following colors:

• Red
• Orange
• Yellow
• Green
• Blue
• Purple
• White

3) Tap the circled up arrow to send your finished digital sketch.

This is what an animated sketch will look like on the recipient’s end.

To clear it and start from scratch, tap the “x” in the upper left while you’re in the canvas.

Sending animated expressions

In addition to sending quick sketches, Digital Touch supports sending a single tap or a more complex pattern comprised of multiple taps. As a cool bonus, Messages makes it easy to express your feelings with big, nicely animated hearts, kisses, fireballs and other objects.

How to send taps

Open Messages, tap the Digital Touch button to the left of the text field, then tap anywhere on the canvas with one or more fingers to create a burst of color. Your taps are sent automatically as soon as they dissolve from the canvas.

You can also change the color for your taps. If you’re fast enough and change the color before your existing taps dissolve, you’ll be able to keep adding new taps to the sequence.

Here’s what your custom tap sequence may look on the recipient’s end.

On the Apple Watch, the built-in Taptic Engine produces a vibration on your wrist for each received tap or tap pattern. On the iPhone, a Digital Touch tap may produce a single vibration.

Attention to detail: The entire tapping sequence is replicated on the recipient’s side in the correct order complete with the position of your taps.

How to send kisses

Open Messages and tap the Digital Touch button to the left of the text field. Next, tap the canvas with two fingers simultaneously, then let go to send an animated kiss to the recipient.

Digital Touch kisses always appear in purple and changing color has no effect on them. This is what your digital kisses may look like on the receiving end.

Attention to detail: The angle of the kiss graphics matches the angle between your fingers, as you’re seeing on the screenshot above.

How to send a heartbeat

Open Messages, tap the Digital Touch button to the left of the text field, tap and hold with two fingers on the canvas to produce a single animated heartbeat, then let go to send it away.

Once the recipient receives your heartbeat, this is what they may see on their iPhone.

Attention to detail: If you own an Apple Watch or another wireless sensor that captures heartbeat data, Messages will use it to send your actual heartbeat. Your Apple Watch-totting recipient will feel your captured heartbeat on their wrist.

How to send a heartbreak

To send a heart that splits in two, open Messages and tap the Digital Touch button to the left of the text field. Tap and hold anywhere on the canvas with two fingers until you see a heartbeat, then drag down to break the heart and then it will be sent to the person you’re messaging.

You can tap and hold for as long as you like before you split the heart in two pieces.

This is what the heartbreak will look like for the recipient.

Attention to detail: For the recipient, the heart will pulse for as long as you were holding your fingers pressed against the screen before it ripped into two pieces.

How to send a fireball

Open Messages and tap the Digital Touch button to the left of the text field. Now tap and hold with one finger, or press and hold with one finger on 3D Touch-enabled devices, and let go to shoot an angry fireball at the recipient.

This is how a person on the other side sees your fireball.

Attention to detail: The animation will loop on the recipient’s end for as long as you were pressing the Digital Touch canvas with your finger.

Pulling up animated expressions cheat sheet

If memorizing all those gestures for animated expressions is proving too much for your gray matter (and you’re not alone: I, too, have a heard time recalling them), Messages has you covered with a built-in cheat sheet for Digital Touch gestures.

To bring up an overlay listing all of the gestures required for producing Digital Touch taps, sketches and animated expressions, tap the area to the right side of the Digital Touch canvas.

Animated expressions on Mac and Apple Watch

As we mentioned before, animated expressions of your feelings will render properly in Messages for Mac and Messages for Apple Watch. You can also create and send these things from your wrist with Messages for Apple Watch (minus effects on photos and videos),

Messages for Mac cannot create any Digital Touch-enhanced messages.

TUTORIAL: sending animated Digital Touch expressions from Apple Watch

How to draw over photos and videos

In addition to applying Digital Touch effects to a black background, Messages supports sketching, drawing or stamping animated expressions on top of your photos or videos.

1) Create a new conversation in Messages or tap one of your existing chats in the conversation list, then tap the Digital Touch button to get to the canvas.

2) Tap the round Camera button on the left side of the canvas to invoke the built-in camera feature.

3) You can now tap the round black button to take a photo attachment, or start capturing a video attachment by tapping the round red button.

4) After the photo has been taken, add a Digital Touch effect to it.

Digital Touch effects can only be added while the video is being recorded, not after the fact.

5) Tap the Send button to send your Digital Touch-enhanced media as an iMessage attachment.

You cannot add Digital Touch effects to existing media in your Photos library.

Instead, take advantage of a built-in Markup feature to edit photos or videos from your Photos library before they’re sent with Photos’ built-in editing tools, filters and vector drawing tools, without ever leaving the context of the Messages app.

TUTORIAL: How to edit, annotate & manage attachments in Messages for iOS

Messages for iOS deletes received video messages after two minutes, and this includes any Digital Touch-enhanced video clips. Your recipient can tap Keep below the message to save the video permanently in Messages, or tell iOS to always keep all received messages by selecting Forever in Settings → Messages → Keep Messages.

TUTORIAL: using Messages low-quality image mode to preserve cellular data

Unfortunately, iOS 10 does not provide a dedicated switch that would let you tell Messages to always keep received video attachments on the device.

Related Messages tutorials

If you like this how-to, check out these Messages tutorials from our archive:

• Sending animated expressions from Apple Watch with Digital Touch
• Adding Tapback reactions to messages you receive
• Setting up iMessage read receipts on a per conversation basis
• Using stickers in Messages on iPhone and iPad

How did you like this tutorial?

If you deem it helpful, please share this article with your friends on social media and don’t forget you can submit your ideas for future tutorials at [email protected].

Do you use Digital Touch features on your iOS devices?