App: the Human Story is a Kickstarter-funded documentary being filmed by Jake Schumacher and Jedidiah Hurt that explores the world of iOS, the App Store, and the developers who make it all happen. It intends to tell the stories behind the code, providing a more...well, human look at the awesome people who make the software we use every day. Be sure to…
Oh man I'm excited. Broken Age—a PC game I wrote about not long ago—is now available for iPad. If you've already played it, this is the same point-and-click (point-and-tap?) adventure you know and love. The wonderful soundtrack and voice acting are all still there, as well as the gorgeous, hand-painted design aesthetic. If you haven't had the chance to play this delightful…
The iGrill 2 is a Bluetooth-enabled grilling thermometer designed for pros and serious enthusiasts but simple enough for amateur grillers to use. Building on the design and features of the original iGrill, the iGrill 2 has upped its probe capacity from 2 to 4 (though it only comes with two) and can now be magnetically mounted onto the side of your grill…
Cinescope is an iPhone app that does one thing well: it lets you compose and shoot photos in any aspect ratio before saving them to your camera roll. It comes with several presets (2.39, 1.85, 16:9, 4:3, 1:1) but you can also create your own custom ratio—for example, 2:1. If you intend to post the photo on Instagram, Cinescope lets you embed…
Editorial, the powerful text editor for iOS, updated to version 1.1 today. It might as well be called 2.0 though, given the sheer number of changes, overhauls, and improvements that went into it. On top of having a redesigned interface for iOS 7, Editorial is now a Universal app so it works on iPhone as well as iPad. Editorial on iPhone is…
From the makers of the popular (and super addictive) iOS game Dots comes its new sequel, TwoDots. The basic gameplay is the same: connect vertical or horizontal rows of same-colored dots to remove them and allow other dots to drop down, or connect them in a square pattern to eliminate all dots of that color from the screen. As you progress through…
My day-to-day bookmarking needs are already covered by Pinboard (and happily so), but I must say Stache is an interesting alternative. It's a brand-new bookmarking app for the Mac that makes it easy to archive entire webpages and find them again later. Unlike Pinboard, which is displayed as a simple list of links, Stache takes a more visual approach by attaching a…
Here's another cool iPad thing for kids. Osmo is a system consisting of an iPad stand (which works with pretty much any iPad but the original model) and a mirror attachment that fits over the iPad's front-facing camera to redirect it downward. Once attached, Osmo lets you load up one of three games that scans real-world objects in front of your iPad…
Notifyr is a new app that pushes notifications from your iPhone to your Mac. If you're working from your Mac with your iPhone in a pocket or nearby bag, you no longer have to worry about missing out on anything. It works with notifications from any iOS app, and the free Mac client is compatible with these machines: The iPhone app is…
A lot of iOS photo-editing apps offer only the most heavy-handed filters and presets, which can easily turn your beautiful shots into tacky monstrosities. Not so with the new Litely app for iPhone and iPad. Designed and developed by Cole Rise—the guy who made the Litely photo presets pack for Lightroom, Photoshop, etc—Litely for iOS lets you add beautiful, subtle color tones…
In the gaming world, the classic action-RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic hardly needs an introduction, even a decade after its original release on the first Xbox. If you somehow haven't played KotOR before, or if you've already played it but feel nostalgic enough to do it again, then you're in luck. To celebrate May 4th, the game has gone…
Blek is a game for iPhone and iPad that relies on your imagination to solve its puzzles. The goal seems simple enough—hit all the colored dots without touching the black ones—but exactly how you accomplish this is up to you. Draw any line or shape with your finger, and it will repeat that motion in a pattern until the line leaves the…
When I recently recommended 1Password, I mentioned a few of its features but there is so much more to the app than I could possibly cover here. That's why you should pick up a copy of TidBITS senior editor Joe Kissell's eBook, Take Control of 1Password. In this book, Joe takes you from 1Password's initial setup and configuration all the way to…
If there's one tool digital designers love to hate, it's Photoshop. It's ideal for editing photos and creating complex graphics, but not so much for designing user interfaces. Sketch is a Mac app specifically designed for building UIs, icons, CSS-friendly web elements, and much more. Today, Sketch updated to version 3, bringing all sorts of new features with it such as "Symbols",…
My wife runs her own dance school, which often requires us to leave town for competitions and performances. On those trips, we track our mileage and travel expenses for tax purposes. Nothing a simple notepad can't handle, but I am a nerd so I enjoy the extra bells and whistles of an app like Mileage Log+ for iPhone. Made by the same…
Deckset is a Mac app for making slide presentations with Markdown. Compose your thoughts in your favorite text editor, send them to Deckset, and it uses one of several themes to give your words a little flair. Deckset recognizes Markdown formatting for headers, code (with automatic syntax highlighting!), blockquotes, and more. You can also add photos and videos to your slides. It…
Monument Valley is a new game for iPhone and iPad that was clearly inspired by the art of M.C. Escher. You play as Ida, a silent princess who must navigate and exit a series of seemingly impossible architecture by solving puzzles and avoiding the strange inhabitants of each world. Each level presents a structure that looks impossible to traverse, but by moving…
Speaking of TextExpander Touch, it's been updated to version 2.5 and sports a new iOS 7 design along with some new features. They've made it much easier to rename and reorder snippet groups, as well as move individual snippets between groups. Groups that are only useful on a Mac can now be disabled for iOS. They've also added some external keyboard shortcuts:…
The only thing that ever bugged me about Fantastical 2 was that it was an iPhone-only app. I suppose it still worked well enough on an iPad in 2x mode, but thankfully our long national nightmare is over because Fantastical 2 for iPad was released this morning. The new interface is more like a dashboard than strictly a calendar. In addition to…
WriteRight is an app for iPhone and iPad that probably won't replace your favorite iOS text editor (cough Editorial cough), but works nicely as a supplemental writing and editing tool. It analyzes your writing and offers synonyms and antonyms for any highlighted text, and will even show alternative ways to phrase a multi-word selection. It understands gender, number, and conjugation, so its…