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Ancestry app surpasses 1 million downloads

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Reference, App Store News, Free Apps,

Ancestry app 1 million

Ancestry.com on Tuesday announced that its mobile app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch has received over one million downloads.

One-third of those one million downloads occurred in the last two months alone, and over half of the app users are new to Ancestry.com.

"We've been pleased with the early adoption of our iPhone and iPad apps and believe we are just getting started," Eric Shoup, senior vice president of product for Ancestry.com, said in a statement. "It's a natural extension of the Ancestry.com service and another way to help our members discover, preserve and share their family history."

Ancestry.com Inc., the world's largest online family history resource, has nearly 1.4 million paying subscribers, who have created more than 20 million family trees with over 2 billion profiles. In the past 14 years, more than 6 billion records have been added to the site.

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Angry Birds Seasons brings the Easter goodness

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Games, App Updates, $0.99,

Rovio on Monday launched an Easter version of Angry Birds Seasons, available now for iOS, Android, Symbian, and Palm devices.

"Spring is upon us and the time is ripe for some chocolate eggs and Easter bunnies! So shed the winter gear and get in—Easter Eggs have never been this delicious!" Rovio said in its update notice. "If you think St. Patrick's Day was a blast, well, you ain't seen nothing yet! This episode will again prove that Angry Birds is the most generous update giver of them all!"

The Easter update includes 15 new springtime levels. Rovio also promised that it "will soon launch the biggest alternate reality game with Angry Birds ever—be prepared to seek for clues around the world to discover the secrets hidden in Angry Birds Seasons!"

Angry Birds Seasons is available for $0.99 on the App Store and free from Android app stores and the Ovi Store. Players who have already downloaded Angry Birds Seasons will get the Easter version as a free upgrade.

Click to continue reading Angry Birds Seasons brings the Easter goodness


Tweetbot review: New king of the Twitter mountain

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, Videos, Free Apps,

We've spent the last half-day or so completely enamored with the latest release from the fine peeps over at Tapbot, Tweetbot. Typically, a new Twitter client isn't anything we would get excited about, as there are probably hundreds out there, and the free Twitter for iPhone does the job well enough anyway. However, we've been impressed with every other app that Tapbot has put out. We're talking about things like Calcbot, Weightbot, Pastebot, and the awesome Convertbot. So when they released Tweetbot after working on it for over a year, we had to check it out.

It's difficult to describe everything that Tweetbot does, but if I had to sum it up with one statement, I'd say "It just makes sense." Oh, and also, it's a joy to use. While the official Twitter app has been suffering from feature bloat (going so far as to try and force a trend bar on us,) Tweetbot is a refreshing throwback to what made Tweetie great in the first place. They've even managed to make lists actually useable and convenient, rather than a clunky add-on, by giving each its own timeline.

We highly recommend Tweetbot -- get a look at the video above that walks through its interface. Pretty slick, right? You can get it now for $1.99 in the App Store.

Read More | Tweetbot

Bing launches magazine-like iPad app

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Reference, iPad Apps, New Apps, Free Apps,

Microsoft knows the importance of the mobile audience, even when it means taking advantage of a competitor's mobile platform—in this case, Apple's. Since late 2009, iPhone users have been able to download a Bing app that offers voice search, local shopping, scrolling image search, maps and directions. Now iPad owners get a Bing app that adds a new trends feature, which lets them explore the trending search topics of the week.

The new app, which is available in the iTunes App Store starting today, sports a homepage featuring the trademark (and often stunning) Bing photo of the day, along with tiles showing local weather, news, maps, movies, and trends. The interface makes a lot of use of the swipe touch gesture, especially in image search. A dropdown menu offers all these choices plus Images, Videos, Shopping and History—that is, your search history, not the school topic.

Trends shows tiled images for the week's major current events. It can almost be thought of as a lightweight replacement for an app like The Daily or Flipboard. Touching one of its images opens a search page showing news and images about the topic, like MLB Opening Day. Some topics get a slicker treatment rather than just a Bing search results page: touching through an entry about "30 Rock's" Tina Fey labled "Ms. Bossypants" displayed a grid of stories that somewhat resembled the New York Times' Web site layout. After reading a result page, you can swipe left-to-right to get back to the trends page.

Click to continue reading Bing launches magazine-like iPad app


Facebook brings event check-ins, unfriending to iPhone app

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, Free Apps,

Facebook app

Facebook yesterday updated its iPhone app to version 3.4, bringing enhancements to the News Feed and notifications UI as well as the option to check-in to Facebook Events on the go. For unfriending that cannot wait until you get back to your desktop, the app adds that, too.

The signature feature of the update, of course, is the mobile check-ins for Facebook Events. We previously reported that Facebook added another layer to its location-based functionality by including a check-in icon available on the day of a given event. The company had pledged to launch the feature soon on the iPhone and their mobile site. Yesterday's update fulfills that pledge.

Formerly, the only way you could check in to a Facebook Event was through Facebook Places, which entailed checking in to locations as you would with Foursquare or Gowalla. Now users can check-in to events themselves, opening up new possibilities for companies and individuals. For example, you could arrange contests at events.

Click to continue reading Facebook brings event check-ins, unfriending to iPhone app


Twitter concedes, finally removes Quick Bar from iOS app

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, Free Apps,

Twitter Quick Bar removal

After a rather rough start, Twitter on Thursday said it will remove the Quick Bar from its iOS app, which provided users with updates on trending topics.

Though the Quick Bar - referred to by some as the "Dick Bar" after CEO Dick Costolo - had "incredibly high usage metrics," Twitter has opted to remove it from the app rather than continually update it.

"Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today," Twitter creative director Doug Bowman wrote in a blog post. "We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what's happening outside the home timeline."

The Quick Bar was added to the app earlier earlier this month as part of an upgrade that also made it easier to access features like photos, trends, and links. It sat above a user's Twitter feed and displayed one of the days' current trending topics. Tapping the word would take you to a list of recent mentions.

Click to continue reading Twitter concedes, finally removes Quick Bar from iOS app


Vimeo for iPhone brings free video editing, uploading, sharing

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Entertainment, New Apps, Video Apps, Videos, Free Apps,

Video site Vimeo on Tuesday unveiled its official iPhone app, which will allow users to create and edit videos, watch existing ones, share with friends, and more.

"We've packed all the best parts of Vimeo into one app! Now you can upload, edit, manage and watch your videos right from your iPhone," Vimeo said. "Need some inspiration? Watch great videos based on your personal preferences or our curated channels."

The app's video editor allows users to: capture video with focus control and grid alignment; combine, edit, and trim videos; add transitions, titles, and effects; add music and recordings; control volume levels; and save videos to camera roll or upload directly to Vimeo.

Footage can be uploaded to Vimeo in standard or high-definition, and the app allows users to pause uploads, replace videos, and edit details.

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Filmaster for iPhone to be the Foursquare of film

Posted by Reza Malayeri Categories: Entertainment, New Apps, Free Apps,

Filmaster

Filmaster is a brand new application that was released at SXSW this year. The app is developed by a Polish development team, and their aim is to position Filmaster as the "Foursquare of film". Filmaster is a free application in the app store, and it offers lots of features for movie goers around the globe. The main idea of the app is to recommend films based on users likes and preferences, and allow them to interact with their friends and fellow movie goers. Some of the Filmaster features listed on the App Store include:

  • Personalized movie recommendations in your area
  • Check into screenings, and see who's sitting next to you
  • Find film buffs with similar tastes where you live
  • Manage your personal film collection, and your wish list

There are many more features of Filmaster on the app store for you to explore, so head on over and check out this awesome new app. Filmaster promises to bring Foursquare integration, TV showtimes, and live-walls for events really soon. What do you think of apps like Filmaster and GetGlue? Do you check into TV shows with IntoNow? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Read More | Filmaster

Google Translate for iPhone review

Posted by Patrick Lambert Categories: Reference, Reviews, Google, Free Apps,

Google Translate is one of the best known online translating service. It supports a large array of languages, and usually has very good results. The service has also been integrated in Android handsets for a while. Yesterday, Google released a native iPhone version as well. While there's been clones and unofficial apps before, this is the original, from Google itself. The app adds features over what the web has offered before, and is overall very impressive. It's no wonder that it shot right up in the top 10 apps on the App Store. Oh, and of course, it's completely free.

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Read More | Google Translate for iPhone

Huge Slacker Radio Plus giveaway!

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Features, Internet, Music,

Slacker Radio Plus FreeHere at Gear Live, we love us some . If you don’t know, Slacker is a fantastic radio’s streaming music service. It has millions of songs in its catalogue, and real DJs actually control their channels, which means you get a great mix of songs that go well together. While Slacker is free, they also have a service called Slacker Radio Plus, which adds the following perks:

  • Unlimited Skips
  • Unlimited Song Requests
  • No Audio or Banner Ads
  • Complete Lyrics
  • Over 2 Million Songs
  • Cache stations to smartphones for offline listening
  • ABC News and headline news updates for any station
  • "Peek Ahead" artist and album previews

We said this would be big, so here’s what we're gonna do - we are going to give away:

  • FIVE one-year subscriptions to Slacker Radio Plus
  • FIVE three-month subscriptions to Slacker Radio Plus
  • FIVE one-month subscriptions to Slacker Radio Plus

We are going to make it ridiculously easy to enter as well. All you need to do is become a fan of Gear Live on Facebook, and leave a comment on our wall - feel free to enter as many times as you'd like. That’s it! On Friday we will select fifteen random entrants and hit them with the goods.


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