Apps

You should probably head to a Verizon store fast, as plenty of Star Wars fans are likely to quickly swoop in to grab one.

The Star Wars marketing blitz is on, with everything from trailers hitting the internet to cans of food donning the likeness of characters at the supermarket. ridiculous, this is. pic.twitter.com/ib1WCwcuwI— Yoda (@yoda) September 5, 2015People are flat out excited to see this new installment, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, on December 18th.To feed that excitement, the official…

Vine on Tuesday released a long-awaited extension of their popular app for Apple Watch, and added a new feature to its iOS app designed to make it easier to surface new content quickly.

Vine has come to the Apple Watch. Its watchOS app launches today with the ability to play tiny videos on your wrist and add a complication on certain watch faces that'll keep wearers up to date on how many times their videos have been looped. That sounds slightly obsessive, but it's better than keeping a running count of Twitter followers on your wrist....

One day after launching its extra large iPad Pro, Apple is throwing a spotlight on apps that take advantage of the tablet's massive 12.9-inch Retina display, titles compatible with Apple Pencil, "desktop-class" software, games and more.

In its latest collaboration with publishers, Facebook today launched Notify, an iOS app that lets you subscribe to push notifications from your preferred content makers. More than 70 media partners signed up for the launch, including CNN, The Weather Channel, Bloomberg, Comedy Central, Vevo, and Vox Media, parent company of The Verge. Among your options in Notify: you can subscribe to a daily top story from The Verge, as chosen by its editors....

Facebook’s filtered News Feed was never very good at real-time news. So today Facebook released Notify, an app for reading customizable breaking news, info, and entertainment push notifications right on your lock screen. Notify lets you select from over 70 publishers and customize your alerts to only send you news about specific companies, cities, sports teams, music genres and more. Each…

Ted Cruz wants your phonebook and he's willing to give you meaningless points to get it. The campaign for the would-be Republican presidential candidate has gamified its official app, offering users "actions points" (we don't know why they weren't called "Cruz coins") as rewards for a range of tasks. Getting friends to download the app nets you 25 AP, sharing Cruz's tax plan on social media gets you 50 AP, and donating money earns you 200 AP. But the big bucks, according to a report from NPR, are saved...

Including an app to help you unsubscribe from annoying email newsletters, a new SoundCloud app and more.

Coloring outside the lines is one thing. Coloring in 3D is another.

There are new collections from National Geographic Kids, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, and Kid president for you and the children to enjoy.

Verizon today officially rebranded the act of turning your smartphone sideways — and it's called Go90, as in degrees. The new mobile video app is an effort to snatch eyes away from popular mobile services chipping away at TV, and it's absurd name is a way to ensure people view Verizon partner videos horizontally. Because vertical video is not chill. Go90 will feature TV shows and music clips from networks like Comedy Central, MTV, and Food Network; sports clips from ESPN and NFL Network; and a...

Verizon’s new mobile video service go90, which is aimed at capturing a younger demographic who spends more time watching video on their phones than with traditional TV, is launching publicly today on both the iTunes App Store and Google Play. The service was previously available in beta starting last month, with a select group of Verizon Wireless customers and subscribers from…

Apps don’t come much more simple than this: Flyr is an event invite creator for iOS that let’s you slap a couple of captions atop an animated GIF so you can fire off a zeitgeisty birthday/drinks/pool party invite to your buddies on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook et al with the minimum of effort

So, you've downloaded iOS 9, now what? Update all your apps, of course.

US theme park Cedar Point has unveiled its next roller coaster: the 223-foot tall, 75 mph, multi-record-breaking Valravn. (See below for a full list of the records in question.) Named after a supernatural raven of Danish folklore which gains powers after consuming those killed in battle, the coaster will open to visitors in 2016, but keen would-be riders can try a virtual reality experience of Valravn from today. A dedicated app is available on both Apple's App Store and Google Play, letting anyone...

Amazon has raised the bar for functionality in its streaming video race against Netflix, giving iOS users the ability to download movies and television shows to their devices for offline viewing on their iPhone or iPad.

In the ever-escalating social media arms race, GIFs are the best way to get attention. Static photos are so 2013. But a new app called Giffiti (like graffiti with GIFs) lets you enhance your pics by overlaying animations. Announced by Nalin Mittal this month with a simple post on Reddit, Giffiti rocketed to the front page and hit #14 amongst U.S. Entertainment apps on…

Earlier this year, we reported that Topps, the company that popularized trading cards, had come out with an app that let users collect and trade digital Star Wars trading cards. They even have digital replicas of the licensed paper trading cards of yore. But, as with all worthy hobbies, you need to invest the time and money to expand your card collection. Mostly money. A lot of it....

Vine is getting into music. With an update rolling out Friday, Vine will begin letting its users add music to their videos. The music will be selected and licensed by Vine — it's not yet clear whether you'll be able to dig into your private library to put "Bad Blood" over everything. Instead, after shooting a video, you'll be able to look through a selection of tracks that Vine has picked out. You can place a song over your clip however you'd like, but Vine is hoping that you'll use a feature it's...

Can't find the perfect GIF online? Make it yourself!

Plex, the popular service that organizes all of your media for easy streaming, is releasing a refreshed iOS app today. Acknowledging that its users have grown a bit frustrated with the previous version, Plex says the new app is rebuilt from scratch as a new showcase for everything that its software can do. Whereas it previously seemed like the team was more focused on Android, Plex now says iOS is the "poster child for new feature support."...

Now it's really easy to beam your HBO Now subscription to your TV without an Apple set-top box.

Now it's really easy to beam your HBO Now subscription to your TV without an Apple set-top box.

HBO has updated its HBO Now apps on both Android and iOS with support for Google's Chromecast. Starting today, you're able to send whatever you're watching on your smartphone over to the TV with Google's $35 streaming stick. HBO was quick to support Apple's AirPlay when Now launched back in April, but adding Chromecast took a few months longer; HBO Now only recently debuted on Android smartphones and tablets after Apple's window of exclusivity came to an end. At that time, HBO signaled that Chromecast...