This week’s roundup of new and improved apps brings an offering from the one and only Taylor Swift. If you’re not a fan, well, you know what to do: Shake it off.
Our prediction for this Taylor Swift app for iOS? Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, but Swift fans gonna play, play, play, play, play with this offering for hours at a time. Haters take note: It’s actually kind of artsy and cool, featuring “an immersive journey with intertwined storylines, multiple rooms and dozens of hidden interactive features waiting to be unlocked and explored.”
If you haven’t actually seen Disney’s latest movie yet, your kid will probably ask soon, and after that probably will a million times more. (But don’t worry, the story is rich enough that even adults will enjoy it.) This game makes the experience interactive, asking players to match three or more Power Cells to power up their team. Plus: They get to spend more time in the world of Big Hero 6. Parents beware: Lots of in-app purchase possibilities in this one.
The name of this iPhone app is kind of self-explanatory, no? Why you’ll download it: “Exclusive deals up to 60-percent off your next hotel stay or vacation package.” And Groupon says one of those vacation packages just might include a trip to outer space.
Instagram has been around long enough, and is popular enough, that we don’t need to explain the app to you. But we who are terrible, terrible thumb-typists are exceedingly grateful for the latest update: You can now edit captions to fix typos. Hallelujah.
Several cool new features in the latest update to this venerable mapping service, but the coolest? Roadside assistance. “Simply tap ‘Roadside Assistance’ in the menu and get on demand, 24/7 support for common roadside headaches such as lock outs, jump starts, tow services, and more.” Nope, no membership is needed to take advantage.
This $1 iOS game doesn’t seem terribly exciting—you fly a paper airplane around and avoid obstacles—but it has one cool feature: You activate and play it on your lock screen.
Not sure how to describe this $4 iPhone game, except to say it’s kind of steampunky and whimsical. “Explore an ocean dream world, in which time passes even when you are not there, visit forgotten islands and piece together memories—some even existing beyond the screen of your device.” If you’re looking for a game with explosions … uh, move on.
This $10 offering bills itself as “the world’s most powerful Vocal Effects Processor and Looper app.” Certainly there are plenty of options: 50 vocal effects—including Hardtune, Gender bending, Chorus, Flange, Transducer, Distortion, Delay, Reverb, Echo, Doubling and Micromod—that can be layered over four loop tracks, with up to eight minutes per loop. Do the math and, well, that means there are a lot of different vocal recording possibilities.
NBC Nightly News has updated with a new user interface …. Overcast podcast player now offers iPad and CarPlay support… Netflix is now optimized to support 1080p video on the iPhone 6 Plus.
Author: Joel Mathis
Joel Mathis is a regular contributor to Macworld and TechHive. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife and young son.