To understand the battle scene it’s important to follow the initial cinematic scenes that explains the story and sets the object of the game. The battlefield is huge in LoA as it stays true to the epic tales.

You play as Abhimanyu who is skilled in archery and sword fighting and enter the “Chakravyuha” to fight hoard of enemies and boss levels. The “Chakravyuha” – battle formation adds a unique twist and complexity to the gameplay which makes it exciting and challenging.

The “Chakravyuha” was designed by Drona, the smartest tactician on the Kauravas side. This formation is the trickiest part of the battle as it constantly rotates and engulfs anyone who enters. As per the Indian epic the formation consisted of 20 times of 21,870 chariots, 21,870 elephants, 65,610 cavalry and 109,350 infantry. The game features mud soldiers to depict the “Chakravyuha” as it would be technically impossible to render that many objects on a mobile device. However, it would have been nice to see some variation to depict the elephants, and cavalry as well.

The 3D graphics in LoA – Legend of AbhiManYu for iPhone and iPad are impressive. You interact with your character by directing the chariot, dodging enemy attacks, engaging in sword slashing and freezing the time as you pick your shot with the bow and arrow.

The Indian contemporary art used for the different elements of the game adds more depth to the overall story. LoA features great graphics but most of the times the battlefield is covered in dust storm which prevents you from enjoying the battlefield environment.

Enemy attacks in melee formation as you eliminate one, new ones pop up. The enemy can engage you in sword fight, shoot arrows from a distance, throw flaming spears or use their demigod powers.

The onscreen controls work well, however I found them to not be extremely responsive at all times. Panning the view of the battlefield felt a bit laggy and often required more swipes than necessary. Also, when using the archery skill taking a shot sometimes took several taps to lock on the target.

If you wanted to get your hands on a hack n slash action adventure game that also lets you practice archery and ride a chariot then look no further. Legend of AbhiManYu brings freshness to the 3D action-adventure genre, it is available to download from the App Store for $4.99.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Some of us are suckers for a clicker. Those addictive incremental games that we can play for hours then leave to autorun for days are a modern phenomenon, and there’s a ton to choose from.

So which do you go for? Well, if you’re looking for an idle game combining fantasy elements with loads of upgrades, no level cap and some additional competitive features, Endless Frontier will tick the box.

Taking place a millennium ago, it’s the story of hero Erin and his quest to vanquish the Prince of Darkness, however many times he must respawn to do so. You’re the one in charge of the loot whilst your on-screen fighters work endlessly to fulfill that quest. You divvy up the gold to unlock units, upgrade characters, gain buffs and more.

Whilst your band of heroes autoquest through each stage, you’ll realise that not only does your gold go up, but the difficulty and speed goes up too. That’s why you’ve got to channel those resources into making sure you’ve got the best selection of fighters on the frontline. There are over a hundred heroes to unlock as you advance through the levels, and over 1,500 stages to tackle. If you get overpowered by the enemy, don’t worry – just revive and run the gauntlet again until you’ve got a team of fighters tough enough to advance.

There are a couple of other gameplay features to try out, too. Drawing from the world of MMORPGs, you can play co-operatively and competitively in Endless Frontier’s guild system. Participate in dungeon raids and guild wars – or if you just want to take on a player solo, there’s a PvP arena mode that will let you unleash hell on your fellow man.

Sound like your idea of idle gaming heaven? You can download Endless Frontier for free from Google Play and the App Store.

The app allows you to create different channels for each new topic so that the team can gather and share their knowledge. Each channel has options to control which team member can access the topic or simply make it public. Team members can then comment on the shared files / ideas for discussions.

The handy newsfeed feature gives you an overview of all the channels and new content being shared by your team. The UI is simple and intuitive. Each channel can be collapsed to allow you to focus on just one topic at a time.

The app boasts integration with a number of file sharing services such as DropBox, Google Docs, OneDrive, iCloud Drive, etc. So, wherever you store your documents Boost HQ for iPhone will allow you to share those with your team.

It’s worth noting that Boost HQ is not a content creation tool, it’s focus is to allow teams to share content easily, discuss, and be able to control the access to various channels.

However, we would like the app to offer certain content creation tools to aid in effective sharing. Creating a note currently does not allow you to format the text except writing in bullets. We would like to see the developers expand this function to include basic text formatting such as making text bold, underline, align, changing the size and font color.

Sharing YouTube videos requires you to browse YouTube within the app and then select the video. This could be improved by allowing the user to simply paste the Youtube link and have the video embedded automatically. You can also use a Chrome desktop browser extension to share links, and videos.

Boost HQ for iPhone is a subscription based service, with a fee and paid option. The free plan offers unlimited channels, unlimited content, and make channels public and private these features will be enough for most small scale teams. However, if you’re a large team with many admins or want to keep company information private with restricted membership invitations then you can select Team Plus which is $49/month +$1 per user, per month.

Overall, we like the simplicity of the app without compromising on the ability to provide advanced controlled access.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

The game sets off with a medieval scene as you ride the horse collecting coins, power-ups and avoid enemies and obstacles in your way. The more coins you collect and less you collide with the obstacles the higher you can score and achieve perfect three stars.

The game environment keeps changing which makes the gameplay interesting and adds variable levels of challenges. From dashing through the forests to entering a castle to rushing through a gold mine, this huge variety in the surroundings was a welcome change when compared with other games that stick to just one basic theme.

The developers behind Lord of Knights: War Horse Dash (FREE) didn’t just stop at creating different environments, the game also features side scrolling, shooting, and even uses the devices’ gyroscope to control the character. You accelerate automatically, swipe left or right to go in either direction and guide by titling your device as the character moves from land to air.

Collecting just coins while swiping left or right can turn out to be repetitive after a while so to make the game challenging and fun, the gameplay requires you to shoot at enemies coming towards you and also includes boss levels where you have to defeat the boss enemy.

In terms of character customisation, enemy variation and content Lord of Knights: War Horse Dash is overloaded with crazy amount of content. You can customise the horse, the character, choose weapons, earn different power-ups, play to win free content, chat online, check leaderboard, complete missions and much much more. It’s almost like the swiss army knife equivalent of causal games.

The games has cutesy graphics and sounds effects are effective. You’ll never get bored as the game keeps throwing surprises at you with different types of characters and obstacles.

If there’s one area where the game needs improvement, it would have to be in its UI. The game packs in so much of content that it seems to be cramped up all in one screen which makes everything a bit overwhelming to understand. We look forward to a version where the developers re-image the home-screen of the game where all the elements are in a single view.

Overall, we really enjoyed playing Lord of Knights: War Horse Dash. It aims to add a fresh breath of air into the side-scrolling genre with tons of content which will make players come back for more.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The App ID doesn't look right.

If you enjoy sharing photos and love the comic style story telling then you’ll find Comixon for iPhone for iPhone incredibly useful. Comixon turns your photos into comic strips and allows you to share your creation with the world.

The app allows you to quickly transform your simple photos into comic style storytelling by providing easy to use comic strip essentials. You can add upto 4 frames in your comic strip. After selecting your photos you can apply different styles of speech bubbles and edit the text.

Comixon manages the layout of the bubbles and text intelligently and automatically. You simply place the speech bubble, enter text and position the ‘tail’. When you resize the bubble the app takes care of all the text formatting and spacing so you don’t have to worry about it.

The auto spacing and text layout features make the entire comic strip creating experience a breeze. You don’t have to worry about text size, paragraph spacing, line height, margins and all that. The app also offers comic style photo filters (or art styles) to apply to your masterpiece. Once you find your perfect look you can then share it with Comixon community and of course share it on other popular social media networks or even via email.

Creating comic strips is just one aspect of the app, it also allows you to discover other comic strips created by the Comixon user community. You can follow your favourite authors, like and comment on other creations.

We believe that the user interface of the app needs some work and fine tuning. In a world where we’ve got accustomed to using Instagram, Vine and Musical.ly. It would have been nice if Comixon followed similar work flow. For example: Discovering and editing buttons are awkwardly placed at the top where it could have been placed at bottom. This way one could have dedicated tabs for Home feed, Popular, Explore and a button to create new Comixon.

In its current version the app uses a slide out menu for options such as browse top lists, favourites, activity feed etc. which we feel is unintuitive. Discovering content should be front and centre and not hidden behind slide out menu’s.

It took some playing around to figure out how to apply different intensities to the art style. When adding different art styles you can change the intensity of the style by tapping on the style you are applying. It has four dots above each style. Our natural reaction was to swipe left and right on the art style as the four dots in iOS suggest left and right navigation. However, it turned out that by actually tapping it changes the intensity.

We would like to see more customisation options in the app. Some of the suggested features are different background colours for the speech bubbles, font colour and fun stickers / stamps.

Comixon for iPhone is not just a simple comic strip creation app as it also positions itself as a unique social media platform dedicated to users who love comic strip style storytelling. It is worth adding that even if you’ve never experimented with creating comic strips you must give Comixon a try, it adds a new level of creativity, fun and something different to your selfies and other photos.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Comixon - turn your photos int...

by Orange Rockets

• Rating

• Premiere

  2015-11-13

• Genre

  Photo & Video

•   FREE QR code
• Platform

  iOS (iPhone)

• Version

  1.4 ⋅ 50 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

YouTube has been the go-to source for user generated video content and has been dominating the video sharing segment since a long time. However, there is a new wave of video content creation and sharing that is steadily making a huge impact. Some of the apps that have proved to be highly successful in this category include Vine and Musical.ly.

The credit for success of these new generation video sharing apps can be given to their focus on user generated content and offering creative tools to users. The latest app to enter this segment is Headliner: Funny Video News Clips & Hilarious Comedy Satire Headlines for iPhone and iPad. The core concept of the app is similar, it empowers the users to create creative content and share it with the world. There is one major difference though, the app is solely focused on giving traditional news clips a twist.

Once you’ve created an account you can tap the record button to post upto 25 seconds long video of your unique and funny version of any top news story. It is as simple as that.

The user interface of the app is simple and works well. The app allows you to discover the top content with “featured feed” being the first option when you open the app. It lists all the featured posts from different news topics and are curated by real people .

You can also search for news topics of your interest, follow your favourite “headliners” and track their recent activity. “Today’s leaderboard” lists the headliners who’ve gained the top views of the day.

Since Instagram got popular, the square aspect ratio for photos and videos has been ruling the web. However, there seems to a shift that’s taking place. Focus on full screen content is back and here to stay.

Content browsing interface of Headliner is one of the best we’ve seen. The entire screen fills up with the video and the controls (share, follow, unfollow, view, close and report) appear as an overlay in a very minimalistic fashion. This works great as the you’re able to enjoy the content “fullscreen” without any distractions.

The video recording functionality in Headliner is rather a bit too simple and I feel it needs more work. You get one take to record a max of 25 seconds. If you mess up you record the entire clip again. You can’t record in parts which limits your movement to change scenes and being more creative.

We would have liked to see to see some “news” specific theme elements which could make the content unique and more interesting. For example, the developers could include news themed sound effects / background scores and include some live filters. Stories posted by users on similar news topics almost seem very identical and lack in variation.

Headliner for iPhone aims to offer a great platform that focuses on news stories with comic and satire overtones. The in-app content browsing experience sets a high standard for apps in the similar category. With a bit of more work in the recording features of the app it promises to offer a great source of hilarious takes on top news stories so that news doesn’t have to be boring.

Headliner - Your videos on any...

by OhSayNation, Inc.

• Rating

• Premiere

  2015-03-04

• Genre

  News

•   FREE QR code
• Platform

  iOS (iPhone)

• Version

  4.0.14 ⋅ 45 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

Keeping a track of different timings of all your favoruite TV shows isn’t an easy task. Setting a reminder on your phone could be a solution, but certainly not an intutive one.

TVShows – Free TV Series Calendar Watch Tracker for iPhone developed by PersApps promises to solve the problem of keeping a track of all the TV shows you love and even reminding you when the next episode is on air. The app is very simple to use and easy to set up.

You begin by adding shows to your wishlist and then the app takes care of the rest. Adding shows to the wishlist can be done either by searching for the show by its name or by browsing the top shows that are further categoried by “On Air” and “Today”. The app currently has a database of 880,000 episodes from 31,000 different series.

Tapping on the title of a particular show reveals timing information, episode guide, series details, featured videos, cast and crew and even suggests similar shows you might be interested in. Detailed information about the shows and season guide is a great addition as one can learn more about thier favoruite TV show and even learn about new shows. The app also features biography of the cast and lists other TV shows in which the actor has worked in.

There’s a calender view which gets automatically populated as you add shows in your wishlist and gives you an overview of all upcoming and present shows you’d want to watch.

In the settings you can customize when you’d want to be reminded about episodes run time and new season of the show. The app will alert you as per your setting so that you never miss out on any episode. You can also enable a widget of the app in the notification centre to view TV Shows to be watched today.

One of the best features of the app is that it does not require any login or require you to select any cable subscription to work. You simply add shows to your wishlist and it shows the time and channel it airs on.

Overall the app does exactly what it says it does and more. We hope that the developers expand the search functionality by not just limiting search by title but also allowing to search and find shows by artist name, genre and more.

The app is available for free on the App Store.

TVShows - Free TV Series Calen...

by Sergey Astakhov

• Rating

• Premiere

  2015-11-05

• Genre

  Reference

•   FREE QR code
• Platform

  iOS (iPhone)

• Version

  1.4.2 ⋅ 22 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

Panic Pump 3D is a casual puzzle game that aims to test your reaction time and logic to extreme test. The game begins with an introduction to the backstory, an evil Bumbi creature has trapped all its brothers (creatures that look like aliens) and only one Bumbi is left to free them all.

The Bumbi’s are trapped in a box surrounded by tubes and the lock is controlled by a hydraulic pipe system. Different color bubbles are thrown into the tubes and you have to pair four same color bubbles together in the rotors in order to deactivate each lock.

The gameplay is quite simple which is essential for a causal game. The 3D graphics are reminiscent of 80’s games. New puzzles introduce you to different environments in which the puzzle is set.

Panic Pump 3D keeps adding increasing level of complexity and difficulty to its levels by increasing the number of locks to open in order to free the Bumbi and by having you rotate the box to locate different locks.

The game is currently available in demo version so we were able to access only the story mode. Each level has a time limit and you have to successfully open all locks before the time runs out and score three stars. The developers are working on the full version and promise release of the full version soon.

As you progress in the game you unlock accessories to customise the look of your Bumbi. While the customisation remains limited to only a visual treat we would love to see this being expanded to bringing special powers for the Bumbi.

You tap to rotate the rotors to accept the coloured bubble and swipe in different directions to pass the bubble onto the next rotor. We found that while tapping worked fine however, when swiping the game would often rotate the entire puzzle box instead of passing the bubble. We hope that a future update addresses this concern.

Panic Pump 3D brings frantic color matching action to your iPhone. The game is fairly basic, quick to learn and adds increasing complexity to keep you going. It’s available for free as a demo version on the App Store.

Panic Pump

by Digilie Studio

• Rating

• Premiere

  2015-09-03

• Genre

  Games

•   FREE QR code
• Platform

  iOS (Universal)

• Version

  1.10.22 ⋅ 605 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

DialMask for iPhone allows you to protect your phone number as it assigns a new phone number to you when you sign up for their service. This is great when you want an additional number for hiring services, or just want a new business contact number.

When you download the free app you get $2.50 credit for your first US or Canada number along with 10 minutes of call time. The app works like a prepaid phone where you pre-fund your account. As you use your DialMask number(s), your account will be deducted automatically.

The service offered by DialMask does not force you to sign up for any contract and works on a pay-as-you-go plan. Calls start at 4.5¢ per minute and text messaging starts at 2.5¢ per text.

You can add and delete phone numbers giving you the freedom to protect your privacy and avoid unwanted calls or text messages.

When you use DialMask no mobile minutes are used. You are charged according to the call or text rate and it is deducted from your pre-funded credit balance.

DialMask stores all call and text logs within the app and these never appear in your mobile device’s records.

If privacy is your top concern or you want to have additional contact number without requiring to sign up for any contracts then DialMask for iPhone is for you.

DialMask - Phone Numbers for P...

by DialMask Inc

• Rating

• Premiere

  2015-10-10

• Genre

  Utilities

•   FREE QR code
• Platform

  iOS (iPhone)

• Version

  1.7 ⋅ 105 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

This article is a sponsored feature.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is the Pac-Man you know and love – just better. And has been optimised for shorter playing sessions on mobile.

It still requires deft reflexes though – especially if you plan on flying up those leaderboards. So get chomping on all pellets, power-ups, and ghosts in your path.

The console version remains one of the highest-reviewed iterations of Pac-Man and it looks like the mobile version will follow suit, as it’s currently being featured on the App Store.

If you’d like to play this excellent mobile iteration of Pac-Man, follow the link to the App Store or Google Play to get it for £2.99 / $4.99.

Or, if you’d like more information about Pac-Man Championship Edition DX or Bandai Namco in general, visit the official website or follow the company on Facebook or Twitter.

PAC-MAN Championship Edition D...

by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc.

• Rating

• Premiere

  2015-07-23

• Genre

  Games

•   $4.99 QR code
• Platform

  iOS (Universal)

• Version

  1.0.1 ⋅ 121 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

This article is sponsored as part of Steel Media Preferred Partners.

Apple updated its video collection on Thursday by adding two new videos titled “Shot on iPhone 6 by Jirasak P.” and “Shot on iPhone 6 by Willian P.” The new clips added to the “World Gallery films” showcase slow motion capabilities of the iPhone 6.

“Shot on iPhone” ad campaign turned out to be a huge success for Apple and the company received the top Outdoor Lions prize at the Cannes Festival for its campaign.

This isn’t the first time that Apple has used user-generated content to market features of its flagship devices. Even during keynote presentations the company has often featured photos and videos taken by its staff.

Apple’s marketing and advertising efforts have always focused on experience with the device rather than its technical feature set. This strategy has worked out well for the company as its campaigns have almost always struck the right chord.

iPhone’s camera is by far the most popular camera in the world according to Flickr users. In the top 5 list Flickr lists top three devices as iPhone 6, iPhone 5s and iPhone 5 respectively.

Apple has remained committed to make the camera on iPhone better with each new model as it develops it’s own software and even sensors to make sure that the resulting photos are nothing short of extraordinary.

Checkout the World Gallery and Films here.

Taylor Swift on her tumblr blog posted details about why she wouldn’t let Apple stream her latest album 1989 on Apple Music. She had many words to praise Apple for “innovation and pushing the right boundaries” however, she clearly termed Apple Music’s policy of non-payment during trial period as “unfair”.

This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs.

To Apple, Love Taylor http://t.co/GN9jiRkqlj

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 21, 2015

It didn’t take much time for Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Services, to reply to Taylor’s tweet:

Apple will always make sure that artist are paid #iTunes #AppleMusic

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

We hear you @taylorswift13 and indie artists. Love, Apple

— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015

Apple announced the change in policy on Twitter regarding Apple Music payments to artists and record labels during the free-trial period. The company has now decided to pay music owners per stream during the free-trail.

On one hand this move is being praised by everyone in the music industry while on the other, it raises questions about Apple’s ability to negotiate better deals with content providers in the future.

I am elated and relieved. Thank you for your words of support today. They listened to us.

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 22, 2015

Now, that Apple will pay every artist during the free-trial we can expect the collection of music available at the launch of Apple Music to improve drastically.

What do you think about Apple’s change of policy? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The Beggars Group, one of the largest independent group labels in Europe has published their thoughts on its official blog. The group says that have not come to an agreement with the new service. The group is concerned about artists losing remuneration during the three-month period and doesn’t see any reason for artists to be impacted by “Apple’s customer acquisition costs”.

According to a report published by The Telegraph, chairman of industry lobby group UK Music, Andy Heath told the publication that no independent British label has agreed to allow Apple Music to stream their music during the free trial.

The labels fear loss of revenue from competing services like Spotify as users try out Apple’s new service. Even though Apple will be paying higher revenue share than the industry standard it hasn’t worked out as a compelling factor for record labels who work on tight margins to offer free music during the trial.

It’s not just record labels and independent artists who’ve shared mixed reactions to Apple Music. Taylor Swift’s album 1989 will not be available for streaming on Apple Music just like Spotify. However, Taylor Swift’s other albums released in the past will be available for streaming.

Apple is still negotiating terms with record labels and independent artists. The new service aims to allow users to discover new music, get curated playlists created by humans and connect with their favourite artists.

Apple helped save the music industry from the issue of music piracy by introducing iTunes. Now, the company is on a mission to catch-on the next big trend in the music industry – streaming.

It will be interesting to see if Apple is able to crack deals with these record labels and artists before the official launch of Apple Music on June 30.

On the other hand, iOS 9 and iOS 8.4 also take on challenging third-party developers who currently offer apps in 5 thriving app store categories. Many developers behind the apps in these categories are venture-backed and now Apple has become their competitor.

Here are the 5 categories that will be deeply impacted by iOS 9 and iOS 8.4.

Music

Apple Music will be available on June 30 as a part of iOS 8.4 update. The revamped music app on iOS will feature Apple’s latest music streaming service. There are three parts to the new service from Apple.

• It will allow subscribed users to stream and download unlimited songs from iTunes music catalog which boasts more than 30 million songs.
• Beats 1 Radio will be available to all users. No subscription is required to access the live 24/7 global radio.
• Connect will allow users to follow their favourite artists, watch acoustic versions, video rehearsals, music videos, lyrics, photos and much more.

The service will be priced at $9.99 per month and $14.99 per month for family plan.

Apple Music will directly compete with streaming giants like Spotify, SoundCloud, Rdio, iHeart Radio, Pandora Radio, TuneIn Radio, and even Vevo to name a few.

News

iOS 9 will replace Newsstand with all new Apple News app. It allows publishers to create unique experiences by providing engaging content with brilliant typography, animated objects, transitions and more.

Users will be able to find articles and stories relevant to their interest, bookmark and view recommended content. The new app will support iAd advertising for publishers.

News app in iOS 9 will directly compete with Flipboard.

Productivity

In iOS 9 Apple is going after productivity apps that let you take rich notes with the all new Notes app.

The updated app allows you to add photos, scribble on your note, insert checklists, embed links and maps. It also has a new Attachments Browser that “organizes all the items attached to your notes in one simple view, so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for.”

It will also support a share extension so that you can take notes within apps like Safari, Maps, and many more.

Notes in iOS 9 will compete with Evernote, Google News, Feedly, and many more.

Navigation

Apple has been working on transit direction for iOS since a long time. The company is now ready to launch its own transit directions in iOS 9 Maps app. It will feature public transit information with routes and directions.

Since the Maps app works on both iOS and OS X, you’ll be able to plan your trip on the Mac and follow in on the way on your iPhone or iPad. It’s worth noting that Transit will be available only in select cities in the US for the time being,

The new Maps app in iOS 9 with transit information will compete with Moovit.

Health & Fitness

Apple announced its Health app as a part of iOS 8 last year. In iOS 9 the Health is receiving an update to track “Sexual Activity”. In the updated Health app users will be able to record the date and time you had sex and whether you used contraception or not.

With a special focus on women, the Health app will now be able to track menstrual cycles and help in monitoring physical changes.

This update will now put many third-party apps on alert. Some of the apps that help in tracking mensural cycles include Glow, Ovia Fertility, Clue and many more.

{via CB Insights}

Broadcasting live gameplay videos, posting videos of high-scores, strategy or just narrating while playing games has increasingly become very popular in the gaming community. Twitch is the leading platform when it comes to gaming videos. The service boasts 45 million gamers every month.

If you’ve ever gone through the most popular videos on YouTube you would’ve noticed that many times gaming videos rank very highly. YouTube understands that there is a very big market of users who love to watch or create gaming related videos and share with everyone.

With YouTube Gaming a dedicated service by Google, the company aims to compete with Twitch. It will be available this summer in the US and UK initially.

You will be able to view content through Games, Feed and Channels. The app will feature a live system to make chatting with your favourite YouTube creators easy and fast.

Google has highlighted that service will cater to the needs of all gamers and if they type “call” in the search field they can be rest assured to receive “Call of Duty” as a recommendation instead of “Call Me Maybe”.

Google has been hard at work to support video playback and lifestream at 60fps. Since this is essential to offer live gameplay broadcast. According to the company YouTube Gaming will provide “an improved live experience that makes it simpler to broadcast your gameplay to YouTube.”

Are you excited about YouTube Gaming? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

When the Apple Watch was launched it supported third-party apps however, those could only work as long as you were connected to your iPhone. watchOS 2 will now bring native apps to the Apple Watch along with many other refinements, performance improvements and features.

watchOS 2 includes 3 new types of watch faces: Photo, Photo Album and Time-lapse. With the new update even App Store developers will be able to add support for complications.

Time Travel allows you to turn the Digital Crown to view complications (events, weather, car charge etc.) as it would change in future or see how it was in the past.

All new Nightstand mode is a very handy feature which is activated when you charge your Apple Watch. The display comes illuminates when you touch the screen, digital crown or the side button. You can even turn off the alarm by pressing the side button or press the Digital Crown to snooze.

Native apps on Apple Watch will bring better performance and even more capabilities. Third-party developers will now be able to use the taptic engine, digital crown, accelerometer, heart rate sensor, speaker and microphone to create unique experiences.

Apple’s built-in apps have also been updated in watchOS 2. Mail app can now be used to reply to emails by either dictating, sending an emoji or selecting relevant preset replies.

With the new update adding more friends has become easier. The Apple Watch now allows you to add multiple Friends screens, each of which can hold upto 12 contacts.

Sending hand-drawn messages to friends who also have an Apple Watch has become more colourful. The new update makes it possible to use different colors to sketch your message.

Just like in iOS 9 Maps app received new transit feature, watchOS 2 also includes Transit navigation. Apple Pay on Apple Watch has gained support for loyalty and reward cards.

Lastly, Apple has brought activation lock to the Apple Watch. In order to activate your watch in case it gets lost or stolen the watch will prompt you to enter your iCloud Apple ID and password.

watchOS 2 brings many new features to the Apple Watch. Some of the biggest enhancements include native apps, third-party complications, and activation lock. The update will be available for free for all Apple Watch users this fall.

Just like most Apple products, Apple Music isn’t the first of its kind in the market. Apps like Pandora, Spotify, iHeart Radio and many more have been dominating the music streaming market.

Jimmy Iovine took the stage for the first time as an Apple employee during the WWDC keynote event and shared details about Apple’s upcoming music streaming service. Apple Music will allow users to stream unlimited music, offer 24×7 global radio station and include social media integration for artists to connect with their fans.

Apple Music will recommend songs based on the music you own and offer hand-picked playlists that match your taste in music. This will allow users to discover great tracks that otherwise could go undiscovered.

Beats 1 will be integrated into the default Music app on iOS 9 and will mark Apple’s entry into the world of radio stations as it will offer a global 24×7 channel for the latest music, interviews and culture.

Another feature as a part of the new music streaming service is Connect. It’s where artists will be able to share unreleased demo tracks, acoustic version of the latest hit, video shot in the studio and much more.

Apple Music will be publicly available on June 30 on iOS and Android. The service will offer a generous three-month trial and post that it will cost $9.99 a month for an individual user and $14.99 a month for family plan.

In our review we said:

… The user interface of Affinity Designer for Mac is everything you’d expect from a modern app. While there is instant familiarity with the workspace from Illustrator, the user interface is more beginner friendly and is very intuitive. The software takes a more visual and gesture based approach rather than features being hidden deep inside menus.

Apple has published their own review of the app on its Awards page and the company echoes our views:

… This is an excellent example of what a state-of-the-art Mac app should be …

Affinity Designer is optimized for Retina Display and OS X Yosemite, and has a flexible and intuitive user interface that’s highly contextual, offering you the tools you need when you need them … Affinity Designer is localized in German, Spanish, French, and English, and is a modern, well-designed, highly capable, and extremely responsive design tool that’s a perfect match for today’s latest generation Mac hardware.

The developers of the app, Serif (Europe) Ltd., are extremely elated with this recognition but they didn’t forget to thank their fans for its success.

This is the stuff of dreams, and we want to thank Apple and all our fans that have made this a reality for us.

Affinity Designer is making great progress with regular updates that improve existing functionality and offer new features. The latest update supports Force Touch trackpad on the MacBook and MacBook Pro. With the new technology users can use pressure sensitivity to paint on the canvas.

We are very happy for Affinity Designer and look forward to future updates and wish them great success.

Congratulations!

Affinity Designer for Mac is now available for a 20% discount to celebrate the award.

Affinity Designer

by Serif Labs

• Rating

• Premiere

  2014-10-02

• Genre

  Graphics & Design

•   $49.99
• Platform

  Mac OS X

• Version

  1.5.5 ⋅ 247 MB

• Additional

  Info ⋅ Gallery

iOS 9 Built-in Apps

Apple is improving built-in apps that iOS already has and even bringing new default apps to iOS 9. Every-time the company expands functionality of some of its existing apps or introduces new apps it tends to disrupt the business of some of the third-party apps.

News

In iOS 9 Apple is all set to introduce News which will bring personalised news stories based on the type of articles you read and the topics you are interested in. Sounds a bit like Flipboard right? Apple will be releasing special set of tools to enable publishers to create content for the News app. This content will include immersive design, interactivity and beautiful typography.

These special print style layouts would be great for editorial and in-dept articles.

Notes

The Notes app in iOS 9 is getting a lot of love from Apple. The updated app will allow you to do more than just note taking. It now includes creating a checklist, adding photo, map or a URL to your note. Another addition to the app is the ability to sketch with your finger.

I use Notes app a lot and even though my devices have many third-party apps I’ve always gone back to the default Notes app in iOS. These new features would certainly make Apple’s Notes app a whole lot powerful and iCloud syncing will support all these features between OS X and iOS.

Maps

Ever since Apple and Google’s maps licensing ended, the company has been hard at work to improve its mapping solution. Apple Maps were initially criticised for inaccuracies and limited features. In iOS 9 Apple is bringing Transit vier with routes and directors. The new maps app will also include Nearby search to find local businesses from categories such as Food, Shopping, Fun, and more.

Wallet

Passbook has been renamed to Wallet app in iOS 9. It will not just store credit cards you use but also include reward and loyalty cards. You will be able to use Apple Pay to redeem rewards or apply offer.

CarPlay

Apple has pulled the cord from CarPlay for the new cars that support wireless connection to your iPhone. You can have your iPhone in the pocket never take it out and still access CarPlay. The updated app will also support apps developed by car manufactures so that you can use the car’s features without leaving CarPlay.

iOS 9 for iPad

With iOS 9 Apple has taken multi-tasking on the iPad to a whole new level. The upcoming software update will support slide over, split view and picture in picture which will utilise the true potential of the iPad. Apple has also improved the QuickType feature introduced in iOS 8.

Multitasking

Slide Over allows you to quickly take action in another app without ever leaving the first one. Split View allows you to have work in two apps simultaneously. Picture in Picture takes any video content and floats in on the screen when you press the home button.

QuickType

Selecting text, copying and pasting while these tasks have been very easy to do on iOS. However, for getting some serious work done receptively selecting text, copying and pasting involves constantly lifting your finger from the keyboard the tap and hold on the screen to have controls appear on the screen. All this is changing with iOS 9. Two finger tap on the new keyboard in iOS 9 for iPad transforms it into a trackpad allowing you to move the cursor and then use dedicated keys for cut, copy, paste, text formatting and adding attachments.

Intelligence

Siri received a major upgrade in iOS 8 and now with iOS 9 it is getting much better. Apple is allowing Siri to search built-in apps to source answers, deliver results faster and even offering suggestions proactively.

Siri can now offer you quick access to different apps depending on the time of the day and your location. It can automatically create events when it detects invitations in an email and much more.

Foundation

Apple has made a number of under-the-hood refinements to iOS 9 to make its performance faster and even improve battery life.

One of the biggest hurdles in users upgrading to iOS 8 was the amount of free space the software requested for over-the-air update. In iOS 9 Apple has reduced it by more than 70%. A new developer API called App Thinness will allow the App Store to download assets for the app that match the users screen density.

Security has also been improved in the OS. The devices will now require a six-digit passcode. Two-factor authentication will be required when you sign in from anew browser or on a new device.

Conclusion

iOS 9 brings many features that will enhance users productivity in performing day to day tasks. Intelligence and improved multitasking are certainly some of the best new features in iOS 9.

The public beta will be available in July followed by final release this Fall.

Refining the OS X experience

The entire Mac product lineup today offers incredibly capable machines. The Retina MacBook Pro is blazingly fast and offers one of the best displays in its category. With such capable machines you are going to end up doing a lot of tasks at the same time. With OS X El Capitan Apple is making it easier to switch between apps, handle multiple apps and even bringing new ways to interact with the Mail app.

The new software version 10.11 will bring Split View to the Mac natively for the first time. You can focus on two apps at the same time by creating a “split view” that fit the screen and adjust automatically. Windows and users of popular Mac app called BetterSnapTool will be familiar with this.

Managing spaces and using Mission Control hasn’t always been very intuitive and Apple is bringing some changes here too. With the new update you will be able to use simple drag and drop actions to create a new space for an app, make the app fullscreen by dropping it between two spaces or even create a split view by dragging one app on top of another in the same space.

Spotlight received a major update in Yosemite and with El Capitan Apple is making Spotlight even smarter by enabling it to understand natural language. You can type in usual search queries for weather, score cards and spotlight will bring you the answers.

Full screen apps on the Mac are great, I’ve always wanted to use Mail app in fullscreen mode however, it wasn’t always an efficient way of working. With the release of El Capitan Apple will make Mail app even more fullscreen friendly by enabling you to switch between different conversations even as you are composing a new Mail as the compose window slides down when you tap on another conversation. The new update will even let you drag and drop attachments from other conversations into the mail you are composing and all of this while still being in full screen mode.

All new Notes app will enable users to attach photos, embed links, create checklist and even scribble. This will make the always feature lacking notes app a powerful tool to quickly put together new ideas and much more. Notes app on your Mac and iOS will sync seamlessly so no matter which device you use, you’ll always find your note just the way you created it.

Just like iOS, in El Capitan the Photos app will now support third-party editing tools. Adding filters to your photos in a non-destructive matter is going to easier than ever.

Safari is also getting some new features with pinned sites for frequently visited websites, mute audio from the address bar, and AirPlay web video without sharing your entire screen.

Next level performance

OS X El Capitan is believed to make every day tasks such as accessing email and launching apps much faster.The company claims upto 1.4 x faster app launch, 2 x faster app switching, 2 x faster display of first mail message and 4 x faster PDF opening in preview.

Apple is also bringing Metal, graphics core technology that gives apps “near-direct access to the graphics processor on your Mac” this will bring enhanced performance and richer graphical experience for El Capitan users. Apple claims that with Metal the company is seeing upto 10 times faster draw call performance.

Preview and Download Release Date

The developer preview of OS X El Capitan was made available for download for all registered developers on June 08. A public beta release is expected in July. The final stable release date for all users is expected to be made available for download this fall.

Conclusion

Overall, OS X El Capitan’s objective to focus on experience and performance is certainly praiseworthy. Apple continues to blur the lines between iOS and OS X with features like extensions for photos, all new notes app, swipe to read and delete gestures in Mail app and even split-view which works similar to multitasking on iPad in iOS 9.

What do you think about the upcoming update for Mac? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

The live keynote event will kickoff at the Moscone West convention center in San Francisco. It will begin at 10:00 AM Pacific Time / 1:00 OM Eastern Time.

Apple will be live streaming the event proving a live video feed along with photos and summary updates on its website. You can catch the event live here.

iOS 9 is expected to bring a lot of under-the-hood improvements and bring increased security and support for legacy devices like iPhone 4S and iPad mini. The new software update is also expected to bring improvements with Swift 2.0 to app sizes to ensure that apps can be further optimised to occupy less storage.

OS X 10.11 on the other hand is expected to bring system-wide interface tweaks and introduce San Francisco as the new system font. Other changes include Control Centre for the Mac.

We could also see notable improvements to iCloud Drive syncing process which will bring increase in reliability and speed of the syncing capabilities.

WWDC 2015 live stream in now available. Are you excited about iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 launch announcement? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Although, no other detail was disclosed but now we know that Apple will be introducing its new streaming music service called “Apple Music”. Sony Music would obviously have been a part of the negotiation deals and therefore a confirmation from its CEO is the most reliable “official” source confirming the launch.

“It’s happening tomorrow,” Morris said during an interview at Midem in Cannes that primarily focused on his storied career in the music industry.

Apple’s new music streaming service is expected to be priced at $10/month and will allow users to try the service for free for a period of three months.

The launch of this new service is most certainly the first fruits of the acquisition of Beats by Apple. According to the reports, Jimmy Iovine has played a major role in cracking the deals with the top music labels and is helping Apple to maintain it’s lead as the source of digital music.

In recent years the growth of music streaming apps like Pandora, Spotify and recently Tidal has proved that customers music consumption habits are changing from downloading to streaming.

Apple launched iTunes Radio has a response to the growing market of streaming music providers however, with Apple Music the company may be looking at providing iOS users the definitive source for streaming music.

According to Beats Music website the service differentiated itself from other by combing “the power of human curation with technology to deliver the right online music at the right time.” We wouldn’t be surprised if Apple brings human curated music playlists to the new Apple Music service.

It will be interesting to see how today’s conference unfolds. WWDC 2015 live event will begin at 1o am PDT.

{via VentureBeat}

The next-gen iPhone will retain 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch screen sizes with no flagship model being offered in 4 inch screen size. While the new bigger screen sizes have clearly been a grand success for Apple there is certainly still a large customer base who prefer 4 inch screen size for their smartphones. It is highly likely that the company will continue to sell iPhone 5S and 5C to fill such demands.

iPhone 6S could include Force Touch, Apple first introduced this new method of interacting with touch-screens with the Apple Watch. Force Touch could open new user interface possibilities on the iPhone such as better support for handwritten signatures.

The company is expected to offer iPhone 6S in rose gold colour to match the Apple Watch Edition. Currently the iPhone is available in space grey, white and gold.

Apple will stay committed to improve the camera in the new iPhone 6S with a new 12 MP sensor. It’s possible that iOS 9 could include some software enhancements specific to the new new sensor.

Just as with all previous “S” versions Apple will upgrade the processor in iPhone 6S. It is said to include new A9 processor with 2GB LPDDR4.

Other features likely to be included in iPhone 6S are: improved recognition rate of Touch ID, gesture control support and one microphone near the speaker to enhance voice quality.

Kuo predicts 80-90 million iPhone sales in 2015. Apple could be looking at a September timeframe for iPhone 6S launch date.

What do you think about the predicted features of iPhone 6S? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

According to a new report, published by Korea IT News, Apple has requested for silver nanowire material from its display suppliers like Samsung Display and LG Display among others. The new material being investigated for use in the larger iPad is expected to enable Apple to make a thinner display for its upcoming iPad and increase touch sensitivity.

As the name suggests, the material is created from a mesh of silver wires which dramatically increases conductivity and eliminates the need for additional sensors to make multi-touch technology work.

iPad Pro isn’t expected to be announced this year. The report suggests that the company is aiming for 2016 release date. The device is also expected to include NFC chip to bring Apple Pay support to the tablet.

Apple’s next gen products always tend to be thinner than previous. If we compare the original iPad with the iPad Air 2 it will be clear that for the tablet category weight and thickness are very important aspects. We can certainly expect Apple to adopt new display technology even if it saves the slightest bit of weight or thickness.

It is will be interesting to see if the iPad Pro actually ships with a stylus as the company has never officially appreciated the development surrounding the stylus accessory. The most recent exception to this public acknowledgement of the stylus adding value to the iPad is the latest ad campaign which shows an app from the App Store being used with a stylus.

Are you excited about iPad Pro? Do you think it will ship with a stylus? Let us know what you think in the comments below.