App stores are crowded places these days, and because storage space on your phone is often at a premium, you’ll want to fill it with not only the best, but also the most helpful apps out there. Because they come and go quicker than the latest fashion trends, and digging through Google Play, the iTunes App Store, or any of the others is such a mission; a little nudge in the right direction is often very welcome. Here are the apps we think you need to check out this week.
Whether you’re a teen or just a teen at heart, you probably have Snapchat installed on your phone. The photo and video sharing platform with disappearing messages has led the charge in moving communication from the text box to the camera lens. Likewise, Tinder has had a similar impact when it comes to meeting people — the entirety of human interaction, for better or worse, has been reduced down to a swipe to the right or left.
Yellow is Tinder for Snapchat, allowing you to connect with people who you might want to share 10 second photos with. All users have to do is add their Snapchat username and a couple of photos to give an idea of what new connections can expect. There are no bios and no chat. Yellow is all about finding new people to share Snaps with. Of course, this comes with plenty of risk in its own right, but why not take a chance? Who knows what you’ll see.
The iPhone has a impressive display with a crystal clear picture. Why not take advantage of that by making your background something gorgeous enough to take advantage of all of those pixels? That’s what WLPPR aims to give you. The app gives you a collection of amazing looking patterns that are actually satellite images of earth, primarily taken from NASA and the European Space Agency. It’s all the proof you need to know there’s nothing more beautiful than nature.
With the proliferation of news sites on the web, plus all of the standards of the old guard that remain as institutions, there are tons of publications producing great work every day. It’s impossible to consume it all. Pipes makes it easier to read the stories that matter most to you. The app’s artificial intelligence boils down an article to the most important parts so you can digest it quickly. Then you can use all the time you saved to check out more stories through the app’s recommendations engine.
Exercising is a form of expression. If you need proof, just check out Running by Gyroscope. It provides an entirely new way to look at the data you generate while on a run. The app takes the records of your runs from Strava or Runkeeper and shows you the paths in image form with photo overlays and satellite images. Even better, it converts your data into interesting facts that put your hard work into context, like how many donuts you burned off.
The great thing about smartphones is there’s an app for everything. The worst part is having to go into those apps individually to find what you want. Relcy wants to save you the hassle by taking you directly to the information you need. The universal search tool can grab results for places, people, movies, songs, TV shows, and whatever else you may need. Stop searching for the right app and start just searching Relcy.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.