Apps

Minecraft Earth is an upcoming free-to-play augmented reality mobile game for iOS and Android devices. It will let you build small or life-size structures with the real world as your canvas, as well as collect and battle mobs. A closed beta will launch this summer 2019.

Jumbo is a privacy app that makes it easy to access your social media account’s deletion or security settings. Right now, it lets you delete old tweets and your Google search history, as well as set your Facebook privacy settings. It will soon work with Instagram and Tinder.

Sennep Games’ Alphaputt is an iOS game that combines mini golf, typography, animation and physics to create a fun experience that’s pleasing to the eye. You can play solo or with up to three other players. Play through the alphabet or type in a custom course.

HazeOver is a great addition for any Mac user who works on a large display, multiple monitors, or just keeps lots of windows open. To reduce distractions and improve focus, it automatically dims all but the front-most window, or all windows on the front-most app.

This app for Mac and Windows automatically enhances still photos taken with drones. It analyzes your drone’s camera type and accounts for lens correction, haze, colors and more. It can batch edit images and can be used as a plugin in Photoshop and Lightroom.

Locast is a nonprofit organization that set up a platform where customers in the US can stream local broadcasts absolutely free. You can go to their website or download their apps for iOS, Android and Roku. They’re currently available in select cities only as of this writing.

Here’s something that all online shoe stores should have. Wannaby’s Wanna Kicks is an augmented reality app for iOS. It projects 3D models of commercially available sneakers on your feet. The models are sized to your feet and accurately change perspective when you move.

AirBuddy connects your AirPods to Macs in the same manner that the earphones do on iOS devices. It also lets you see the battery status of nearby AirPods, their charging case, and even iPhones, iPads and compatible Beats headphones.

Dized is a board game companion app for both newbies and experienced players. It’s already available on both iOS and Android. You buy credit to either permanently access rules and tutorials for one game or access all resources for a month.

Progress Bar is a simple app for MacOS designed to make you more aware of the passing of time. It sits in the menu bar and shows a bar or a percentage of the day, month and year’s progress. You can even include an eerie estimate of your life’s progress.

Premiere Rush is Adobe’s easy-to-use editor for creating online videos. It has simple tools for color, audio, motion graphics and more. It also has preset export settings for social media sites. You can even shuffle your editing between its Mac, PC, and iOS versions.

In 2019, Adobe will bring a full version of Photoshop CC to the iPad. Aside from the convenience of mobile image editing and creation, the app will launch with a cloud version of PSD files, letting you continue your work from a desktop PC to your iPad and back.

Reachability Cursor is an Android app that aims to make it easier to use large smartphones by introducing a cursor that you can operate one-handed. You simply create a virtual trackpad on part of your screen that lets you swipe and click with the cursor.

FR Legends is tearing up the iOS App Store with its blend of easy to learn mechanics and comprehensive customization. The free-to-play game lets you participate in drift battles, then use your earning to pick up upgrades such as engines and body kits.

Civilization VI works great on the iPad. Now you can experience it on the iPhone as well. The critically acclaimed strategy game now works with the iPhone 7 and above. The first 60 turns are free; you can then pay to unlock the full game. It also has DLC.

Run An Empire is an augmented reality game that motivates you to run. It tracks your location and makes areas you run through part of your virtual empire. As you run, you can invade other territories and earn coins to improve your kingdom. Available for both iOS and Android.

You can stream and play Xbox One games on a Windows 10 PC. But what if you have a Mac or an iOS device? That’s what OneCast is for. It’s an easy to setup streaming client that supports the Xbox One controller. It costs $20 for Macs and $12 for iOS devices.

The built-in screenshot tool in Macs is neat. But CleanShot improves on it in several ways. First off, it can hide your desktop icons – even when you’re done taking shots. It also automatically centers the window you’re shooting. It also has quick actions for saved shots.

Amazon’s mobile app has a new augmented reality feature called Part Finder. It’s meant to identify screws, nuts, bolts or other types of fasteners to make shopping for them easier. Take a photo of the fastener and the app will try to identify it with links to purchase the item.

This mobile app makes learning to draw a lot easier and more fun. It uses your phone’s camera so you can overlay an image that you want to copy or use as a template and then sketch over that in real-time. It’s available for both iOS and Android.

Quick Look is one of the most useful features on Macs, letting you preview a file’s content just by pressing the spacebar while you’re on a Finder window. Paddy Xu’s QuickLook imports the exact same feature to Windows 10. It works with both documents and media files.

Cat Explorer is an educational and unintentionally horrifying and funny virtual reality demo app for the Leap Motion controller. It lets you intuitively explore the muscles, skeleton and organs of a cat with simple gestures.

The NBA’s new augmented reality app features a Portals section that lets you open a virtual doorway into the sights and sounds of the 2018 NBA Finals. You’ll get up close with player intros, huddles and post-game celebrations. Available for iOS and Android.

After a brief public beta, Epic Games’ cartoonish battle royale game is now available for select iOS devices. Fortnite Mobile is still the 100-player free for all mode that’s become so popular, with added conveniences such as auto-aim. An Android port is coming soon.

Can’t run Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds on your computer? Perhaps your phone can handle it. The wildly successful and fun online action survival game is now on iOS and Android as a free-to-play game. Go get that chicken dinner.

Signal is a multiplatform and open source text and voice chat app that focuses on privacy and is completely free to use. It uses end-to-end encryption to ensure your messages and calls can’t be deciphered en route. It’s available for iOS, Android, Linux, Windows and MacOS.

Switchboard is an iOS app that offers hands-free voice chat. You can mute contacts, set your availability and control how your music player’s volume will adjust when someone’s speaking. It also offers Slack integration. You can try the MacOS beta here.

Justin Fincher’s Skyline is an Android app inspired by the Pixel 2’s live wallpaper. Enter the name of a place or a set of coordinates and it will generate a wallpaper using the location’s terrain. The wallpaper moves slightly when you swipe on the screen or rotate your phone.

Dries Depoorter and David Surprenant’s chat app has one unique criteria for its users: you can only enter a chat if your phone has less than 5% battery left. So chat away with strangers and express your woe as your phone’s battery icon turns red and fades off into oblivion.

You can now take advantage of Grammarly’s helpful grammar- and spell-checking features on iOS and Android devices, thanks to the free Grammarly keyboard. Grammarly Premium users will also be able to see suggestions for style and vocabulary enhancements.