While Android is more open than iOS and iPadOS, there is one area where Android apps have always lagged: third-party camera apps. The Android ecosystem has struggled because third-party apps can’t access some camera features. However, that can change with Android 15, as Google has added a new feature that allows third-party camera apps to perform better while recording videos.
Third-party camera apps on Android can now record smoother videos using Camera2 API
Almost all Android smartphones use the Camera2 API to capture images and videos. This API offers extensions used by smartphone brands to third-party camera app developers. In Android 14, the Camera2 API has five extensions: Auto, Bokeh, Face Retouch, HDR, and Night. However, not all smartphone brands use all these extensions. For example, Samsung has used all these extensions for the cameras on its phones, but Google has only used the Night extension. Moreover, these extensions are only used for camera previews and the capture of still images. They can’t be used for recording videos.
With Android 15, Google is adding a new Camera2 extension called Eyes Free Videography (spotted by Mishaal Rahman). As its name suggests, this extension can be used to record videos. This API “aims to lock and stabilize a given region or object of interest” and could point to electronic image stabilization for videos. Third-party camera apps that use the Camera2 API (like Snapchat) can use this extension to record smoother videos.
While basic stabilization is already offered to third-party camera apps, advanced EIS implemented by Android smartphone brands is locked or changes from one brand/model to another. So, it is tough for third-party app developers to offer the same performance on smartphones from different brands. This new Eyes Free Videography extension should bring better video stabilization on most Android phones.
The story continues after the video below, where you can watch some advanced video recording features implemented by Samsung on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
Hopefully, Android smartphone brands like Samsung and Xiaomi will use this new extension in their camera apps. If they do, third-party camera apps on Android will be able to offer similar-quality video recording, which should narrow the gap with third-party camera apps on iOS and iPadOS.
Google introduced the Digital Wellbeing feature in Android to improve people’s screen usage habits. It can help them limit their screen time by changing settings things like screen brightness and colors, notifications, and ring modes. However, only the Digital Wellbeing app can change screen settings, but that could change soon.
Android 15 opens up Digital Wellbeing to third-party apps
According to a new report from Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman, Google will allow third-party apps to control screen settings via Digital Wellbeing integration. With Android 15, there is a new public API (ZenDeviceEffects API) that third-party app developers can use to control the screen options managed by Google’s Digital Wellbeing app. These options include Always On Display, Minimize Color Saturation (Grayscale), Night Mode (Dark Mode), Suppressing Ambient Display, and Wallpaper Dimming.
One of the best automation apps available on Android, Tasker, has already implemented this new API. You can use it to create advanced Bedtime Mode routines. For example, you can trigger Bedtime Mode routines by tapping an NFC tag beside your bed. Maybe Samsung will integrate those APIs into its Modes & Routines app.
Google introduced this new API with Android 15 Developer Preview 2. The company may add even more screen options (like Adaptive Brightness and Tap To Wake) or tweak it before releasing the stable version of Android 15 in the next few months. Samsung has already started developing the One UI 7.0 update internally, and it would be great if Modes & Routines and SmartThings apps got some integration options with Digital Wellbeing.
At Let Loose 2024, Apple revealed big changes coming to its Final Cut software, ones that effectively turn your iPad into a mini production studio. Chief among these is the launch of Final Cut Pro for iPad 2. It’s a direct upgrade to the current app that is capable of taking full advantage of the new M4 chipset. According to the company, it can render videos up to twice as fast as Final Cut Pro running on an M1 iPad.
Apple is also introducing a feature called Live Multicam. This allows users to connect their tablet to up to four different iPhones or iPads at once and watch a video feed from all the sources in real time. You can even adjust the “exposure, focus, [and] zoom” of each live feed directly from your master iPad.
Looking at Apple’s demo video, selecting a source expands the footage to fill up the entire screen where you can then make the necessary adjustments. Tapping the Minimize icon in the bottom right corner lets creators return to the four-split view. Apple states that previews from external devices are sent to Final Cut Pro so you can quickly begin editing.
Impactful upgrades
You can’t connect your iPhone to the multicam studio using the regular camera app, which won’t support the setup. Users will instead have to install a new app called Final Cut Camera on their mobile device. Besides the Live Multicam compatibility, Apple says you can tweak settings like white balance, shutter speed, and more to obtain professional-grade recordings. The on-screen interface even lets videographers monitor their footage via a zebra stripe pattern tool and an audio meter.
(Image credit: Apple)
Going back to the Final Cut Pro update, there are other important features we’ve yet to mention. The platform “now supports external projects”. This means you can create a video project on and import media to “an external storage” drive without sacrificing space on an iPad. Apple is also adding more customization tools to the software like 12 additional color-grading presets and more dynamic backgrounds.
Final Cut Pro for Mac is set to receive a substantial upgrade too. Although it won’t support the four iPhone video feeds, version 10.8 does introduce several tools. For example, Enhance Light and Color offers a quick way to improve color balance and contrast in a clip among other things. Users can also give video effects and color corrections a custom name for easy identification. It’s not a total overhaul, but these changes will take some of the headache out of video editing.
(Image credit: Apple)
Availability
There are different availability dates for the three products. Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 launches this spring and will be a “free update for existing users”. For everyone else, it will be $5/£5/$8 AUD a month or $50/£50/$60 AUD a year for access. Final Cut Camera is set to release in the spring as well and will be free for everyone. Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 is another free update for existing users. On the Mac App Store, it’ll cost you $300/£300/$500 AUD.
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.
We don’t blame you if you were totally unaware of the Final Cut Pro changes as they were overshadowed by Apple’s new iPad news. Speaking of which, check out TechRadar’s guide on where to preorder Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro and Air tablets.
These are the best Mac apps that’ll help you through all kinds of work — writing, graphic design, video editing — with a few simple (must-have) utilities that everyone can make use of.
Finding good apps can be hard, especially if you’re new to the Mac. Luckily, we’ve put together a list of the very best.
Just click to switch. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
AirBuddy is a much better way to juggle Bluetooth devices between your Mac and your other devices. When you’re playing music from your iPhone and you sit down at your Mac, you can click on AirBuddy from the menu bar and yoink your AirPods over to your computer.
With AirBuddy’s Magic Handoff feature, you can see all the Bluetooth devices paired to all your Macs, instead of just the Mac you’re working on. Like Universal Control (which allows you to swap keyboards, mice and trackpads between devices), you can use AirBuddy to switch your headphones between your work Mac and personal Mac.
BBEdit can handle it all. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
BBEdit is an incredibly powerful plaintext editor. It’s been a top choice for Mac users for over 30 years.
It can handle projects of all sizes and code in all languages. It has built-in support for opening and saving files over FTP servers. You can pull and commit projects directly to GitHub.
Calling it an “editor” sells it short — between powerful regular expression commands, AppleScript support and text transforms, it’s a word processing wonder. It’s also good for writing.
Price: $4.99/month or $49.99/year Download from:Mac App Store
Blip
Downloading a file on Blip. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
AirDrop is the best way to transfer files between two Macs in the same room (or a Mac and iPad or iPhone). But the best way to transfer files across the internet is with Blip.
Blip is different than Dropbox or Google Drive because you don’t need to upload files to the cloud on one end and download them on the other end. Blip creates an instant and direct device-to-device connection.
This also means you can transfer entire folders at once, huge project files for Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, or whatever you need.
Put your iPhone to good use as an HD webcam. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Camo lets you upgrade your Mac’s built-in camera for web conferences and live streaming to something much better. Any modern USB camera — or even your iPhone — can be used as a webcam for any app on your Mac.
You can combine video from your iPhone with audio coming a desktop microphone. You can even create video recordings.
There are a bunch of advanced features for making a custom watermark, adjusting image brightness and contrast, blur effects and more.
Do your listeners a favor with chapter markers. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you make a podcast, Forecast is a must-have app. It’s a simple utility that you can use to add chapter markers to a podcast.
In Logic, you export your podcast as a WAV, drag it into Forecast and it’ll show you all the chapters. It’ll even embed metadata like chapter URLs, chapter-specific artwork, the episode title and description into the MP3 file.
Change how your Mac wrangles your windows. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Front and Center is a window management utility for the Mac that changes one key behavior. When you click on a window, it doesn’t just bring that single window to the front, it brings all the app’s windows to the front.
So if you have a bunch of Safari windows or Finder windows open, clicking on any of them will bring all of them forward. This is already how it works when you click an app icon in the Dock, but now it’ll do that all the time.
Finder and Safari are two apps I use a lot of windows for. I usually have at least six different Finder windows and three Safari windows open at once.
With Front and Center, I don’t need to make sure all of them are visible — clicking on any Finder window lets me see the other ones. If you like organized chaos like me, you’ll find it an indispensable tool.
Play all kinds of files — in a video player customizable to your taste. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
IINA is a free video player for macOS that goes far above and beyond QuickTime. It supports many, many more file formats QuickTime doesn’t, like MKV and AVI.
The user interface is modern and highly customizable to your preferences. For example, I added a Take Screenshot button to the video player, which I use every day. It supports picture-in-picture mode, for letting a video or music playlist float above your desktop as you work.
For movies and TV shows downloaded to your computer, you can look up matching subtitles inside the app.
You can even use IINA as a YouTube video player. Hit ⇧⌘O and paste in a URL to start playing instantly.
There’s a lot of advanced features, but all you really need to know to get started is ⇧⌘C to get started. Image: Alex Rodionov
Once you install a clipboard manager, you’ll never know how it was possible to live without it.
You copy one thing that’s really important, you accidentally copy something else without thinking about it — wait, now you’ve lost the first thing. No more.
With Maccy, your Mac has a new keyboard shortcut, ⇧⌘C, to bring up a history menu. Then, you hit ⌘2 to instantly paste the second-most-recent item out of your clipboard. Likewise, you can hit ⌘3, and ⌘4, and so on to paste more items. You can set the size of its clipboard history to contain hundreds of items.
Maccy will keep paragraphs of text, images, files, all sorts of things.
Just drag a file into the window and it’ll start building a line-by-line transcription. You can edit the transcript and export it in a bunch of useful formats: a subtitle file for a video, a plain text file, a CSV, a nicely formatted HTML webpage or a PDF for publishing.
All the core functionality is available in the free version. Included for free is the Small transcription model, which is a slight misnomer — Small does an unbelievable job.
If you pay for Pro, you get the larger models. They’re more accurate, although they work a little more slowly. You also can transcribe streaming audio from your Mac, if you want a transcription of a live stream or a meeting.
Price: Free with basic features, $30 for Pro features Download from:Gumroad
MarsEdit
Yes, even this article was drafted in MarsEdit. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you’re a writer with a WordPress blog, MarsEdit is a much better place to start your writing.
You don’t have to worry about losing your internet connection, your web browser bugging out and quitting, someone taking over your draft and losing your work, etc. MarsEdit is a reliable native Mac app that lets you start writing a collection of drafts offline before you send them to your site.
It syncs with WordPress to pull in your categories, authors, tags and existing posts. You can even upload media and images. It only offers mixed support for WordPress’ new Gutenburg block editor, but really, that is a feature in itself.
MarsEdit isn’t just for WordPress — you also can export a document as an HTML file.
Price: $59.99 with 14-day free trial Download from:Mac App Store
Mimestream
It’s the best desktop app to use Gmail, hands down. Screenshot: Neil Jhaveri
Apple Mail — or really, most email clients — do a bad job at handling Gmail accounts.
Gmail has a bunch of features other email services don’t. Instead of folders, Gmail uses tags. Instead of a single inbox, Gmail offers smart categories like social, promotions, updates, and so on. And Gmail pairs great with Google Calendar, with one-click responses.
Mimestream is a desktop app that’s been designed to play nice with Gmail. The developer, Neil Jhaveri, is a former Apple employee, who worked on Mail and Notes. That really shines through in the app — Mimestream looks and feels like Apple made a first-class Gmail client.
Organize and play your favorite classics in OpenEmu. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
OpenEmu is the all-in-one classic game emulator for your Mac.
Like Delta on the iPhone, all you need to do is drag ROM files to add them to your library. It supports save states, game controllers — and it even has filters to make your games look like they’re being played on a CRT television or a pixellated LCD display.
It supports dozens of consoles, including the NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation — even the Vectrex and ColecoVision.
Collect color palettes for reference in Pastel. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you do any kind of graphic design, especially if you do branding or marketing work for a few different clients, you need Pastel.
Pastel lets you create palettes and color swatches, organize them into folders, and give them names. You can right-click to copy a color’s RGB values, hex values or as code for your app in Objective-C and SwiftUI.
You can even export a color palette as a wallpaper. And on the iPhone, you can import a palette from a picture.
I use Pixelmator Pro to make the very images in this article! Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Pixelmator Pro is a modern graphic design program made just for Mac. Compared to the establishment (Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo), Pixelmator Pro is incredibly easy to navigate and use.
All the basic features you regularly use are put front and center. Cutting a subject out of a background? That’s done in just two clicks. It’s very rare that I find myself reaching for a more powerful app.
It even supports vector shapes and superimposing graphics on top of video.
The keyboard shortcuts are highly configurable. On the other tab, you can configure which edges of the screen do what. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you’re a PC switcher, you might miss the window-snapping features that Windows has had for years. The Rectangle app brings it to macOS.
With Rectangle running, you can grab a window and throw it to the left or right side to make it fill half the screen. Or drag it to the corner to fill a quarter of the screen. You can even add custom keyboard shortcuts to tile your windows exactly how you want.
Even if you don’t use window snapping (like me), I use Rectangle’s ⌃⌥C shortcut to perfectly center a window on my display. If you run two monitors, you can use ⌃⌥⌘→ or ⌃⌥⌘← to move a window between your screens.
Price: Free with basic features, $9.99 for Pro features Download from:Ryan Hanson Source code:GitHub
UTM Virtual Machines
UTM is, hands down, the best way to boot into other operating systems, old and new. Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
UTM is the easiest way to virtualize other operating systems on your Mac.
Unlike the more complicated VirtualBox, adding a new virtual machine using UTM is as simple as clicking a couple of buttons. After you download it, just hit the + and click Download prebuilt from UTM Gallery. It’s a single file to download; without any configuration or manual setup you can boot everything from Windows XP to ArchLinux.
UTM can virtualize modern operating systems like Windows 11 for any PC programs you might want to run. If you use your Mac for software development, you can run all kinds of flavors of Linux — Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and more. On an Apple silicon Mac, you can virtualize any other version of macOS for Apple silicon (macOS Monterey and newer).
May the Fourth, also known as Star Wars day, is today and for Meta Quest 3 (or Oculus Quest 2) owners there are some far better ways to celebrate than simply watching one of the classic films. That’s because you can immerse yourself in a galaxy far far away with some stellar Star Wars VR titles.
What’s more there are some superb savings to be had on my favorite Star Wars VR game – Star Wars Pinball – right now, making it the best time to pick this title up if you haven’t already. There are others you can check out too that aren’t discounted like Vader Immortal and Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, as even at full-price there’s a lot to love about them.
Alternatively you can celebrate Star Wars day the traditional way with a marathon of the Star Wars films in order, or by reading up on Star Wars: Skeleton Crew which is set to land later this year.
Star Wars Pinball VR
Okay, okay, I know pinball won’t leave you feeling like a lightsaber-wielding badass, or a slick space pirate, but I promise you have to try this game out. If only because it’s currently massively on sale – coming in at just $8.49 / £6.79 instead of $24.99 / £19.49 just for Star Wars day.
Star Wars Pinball VR reimagines the iconic digital cabinets Zen Studios has crafted over the past few years in a full VR experience. They are situated in a fan’s dream hangout space you can decorate with collectible goodies that you unlock by getting high scores and competing challenges, and the pinball machines themselves are a delight.
They capture the retro-chic flair that real world pinball machines offer, while delivering on digital expectations by featuring interactive elements that wouldn’t be possible in real life. There are 10 total cabinets to master, but if you want to mix things up further you can explore the Career mode; it adds various restrictions and powers to your gameplay that force you to mix up your playstyle.
I’ve enjoyed this game since it first released, and will admit to almost falling over a few times because I’ve been so immersed in the game that I tried to lean on a cabinet that wasn’t there. If you haven’t tried it already you absolutely should right now, especially because it’s at a bargain price.
Get the hottest deals available in your inbox plus news, reviews, opinion, analysis and more from the TechRadar team.
Vader Immortal
No villain, nor character in general, is more iconically Star Wars than Darth Vader. So what better way is there to celebrate Star Wars day than with a trilogy inspired by the Sith Lord himself.
As a smuggler who picked the wrong planet to explore – the fiery world of Mustafar which Vader calls home – you must use your lightsaber skills and latent force powers in order to survive the adventure that fate has thrust you into, including an encounter with Vader himself.
This series is far from fault-free – chief among its issues is it’s fairly brief even spread across three games – but the lightsaber combat feels exactly like you always dreamed it would. The force abilities are clunkier, but again it’ll be exactly what everyone who’s ever tried (and failed) to pull an out-of-reach object closer by willing it towards them ever wanted.
The other downside of grabbing Vader Immortal right now if you’re interested is you can only pick each entry up individually. They’re often bundled together in a package that comes with a big discount but that’s currently not the case – so if you’re not desperate to play this game today you might want to hold off until it’s on sale.
Supernatural
If you want to swing a lightsaber around – or at least something like one – and get a little fitter whirl you’re at it, then check out Supernatural. I got hooked on the VR fitness app during my month-long VR workout experiment with my Meta Quest 3, and recently I’ve been enjoying its limited time Star Wars-themed Flow sessions.
My personal favorite one is the Dark Side list because it features Duel of the Fates – it’s so much fun to do battle while this tune blasts through my headset’s speakers. But there’s also a general Star Wars and a Light Side mix if you don’t want to embrace the Sith’s teachings.
Just act fast as these Star Wars levels are leaving very soon.
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
If you’re less interested in being a laser sword-wielding space wizard, and would rather be like the blaster touting characters in The Mandalorian or Andor, then Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge will be right up your street.
Set in Batuu – the same location you can travel to at Disney World in Orlando Florida – you must help some familiar droids as you adventure through the wilds of this Outer Rim settlement. Once you’re done you can continue this quintessentially Star Wars story with the Last Call DLC, and if you’ve enjoyed the main game I know you’ll enjoy this expansion too.
As an extra bonus, you can additionally explore tales from Star Wars’ rich history, with short bonus IG-88 and Ady’Sun Zee (a Jedi Padawan) missions. They’re very much secondary to the main game’s plot, but they’re great minigames especially if you’re sharing the experience with friends and family who just want a quickfire burst of Star Wars.
Notes are nested inside custom category tabs; think color-coded tags in a three-ring binder. You can attach specific notes to meetings via Outlook and prioritize them using urgency tags of various levels. If you’re looking for a “professional” notes app, OneNote is a great option.
Plus, if you have a subscription to Microsoft 365 on the desktop, you can then take advantage of Microsoft’s Copilot AI integration in OneNote. The AI helper can create summaries and to-do lists, collate information from various sources, or just rewrite your notes to make them more clear and coherent.
Apple Notes
Photograph: Apple
If you use an iPhone, then Apple Notes is an obvious choice. It comes installed on your phone, and, like Google Keep, it excels in its simplicity. While there are more advanced features, like the ability to add attachments and to clip text and images from the web, they don’t clutter things up.
Organization is also superb if you take the time to set up category folders and nest subfolders inside them. If you’ve already gotten used to Apple Notes, there’s nothing wrong with sticking with it. Oh yes, and if you’re feeling adventurous, you can dictate notes to Siri—it’s not as knowledgeable as the other AI-powered assistants out there, but it transcribes speech pretty well.
Bear
Photograph: Bear
Meet Apple Notes’ more refined cousin. Bear notes offer a bevy of styling options that allow you to change themes, adjust formatting, and play with the typography of your notes. (It is available on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers only.) Functionally, Bear works the same as any of the other apps on this list, albeit with a lot more flair. It packages all its features in a warm, cozy style that won Apple’s design award in 2017.
One of Bear’s most helpful features is the ability to link notes together via tags. Just tag your thoughts with the appropriate category (work, wedding, books to read) as you jot them down, and Bear will sort them into their proper folders. If it feels like your thoughts come from all over the place, or if you’re bad at keeping things organized in folders, this can be a great way to keep your digital life in order.
Bear got a big version 2 update last year, which was a labor of love that gave it a bunch of new features. The updated app is better at organizing tables, has the ability to add footnotes, and offers better in-note search. It’s all wrapped in a more pleasant design too.
Bear is a free app, but a Pro version costs $30 per year and offers additional features like custom themes, the ability to sync with iCloud, and the option to export notes in more formats like PDF and HTML.
Evernote
Sorry to say, but we can’t recommend Evernote anymore. Once the most innovative of the cloud-based notes apps, Evernote has since evolved into a sad shadow of itself. The app now is a cluttered mess that has jammed together just about every feature imaginable: group chat, photo transcription, web clipping, and integration with other online services. As a result, it’s much more cumbersome to use than the others on this list when you just want to jot down a simple idea. We were also turned off by the sheer volume of pop-up ads that appear over and over to prompt you to subscribe to Evernote’s $130 per year premium tier. (Evernote’s current new parent company, Bending Spoons, laid off its entire US workforce last year.)
Unfortunately, lots of people still use Evernote, and probably feel locked into its now-degraded ecosystem. It may be hard to make that switch to a new app, but if you’d like to, it’s possible to remove your notes from Evernote. Sadly, exporting your stuff off the app has become almost as cumbersome as using the app itself. Still, if you plan to make the switch, here’s how to do it:
Apple today announced that it is tweaking the terms of the 0.50 euro Core Technology Fee (CTF) that apps distributed using the new EU business terms must pay, introducing a solution that would keep small apps that go viral from being bankrupt.
First, independent and small developers who earn no revenue at all will not have to pay the CTF. Students, hobbyists, and freeware app developers who distribute free apps and earn no money will not be charged the fee. Developers will need to declare their non-commercial status on an annual basis, and to maintain this status, developers must have no revenue in or out of the App Store for their app product.
Second, to address fears of the CTF causing outrageous fees for an app that suddenly goes viral, Apple has implemented a three year on-ramping process for small developers. The three year period begins when a developer agrees to the new App Store business terms, and during this time, if an app goes viral and exceeds the one million annual install threshold that triggers the CTF, the CTF won’t be charged if the developer earns less than 10 million euros in global business revenue, and the fee is reduced after that.
Under 10 million euros: No CTF during the three year period.
Between 10 million and 50 million euros: CTF must be paid, but it is capped at one million euros per year for the three year period.
Beyond 50 million euros: Benefit is no longer available, and the full CTF has to be paid.
After three years: Developers will pay for each first annual install after the initial one million first annual installs per year.
Note that this ramp up period is only available to small developers who have not previously exceeded one million first annual installs, and it is calculated based on global business revenue rather than just App Store revenue.
Apple says that 99 percent of developers will not be subject to the CTF to begin with, but the new ramp up period will go further to make sure that small developers who get a breakout hit will have time to scale their businesses before having to pay fees.
Back in March, developer Riley Testut spoke with Apple officials at a workshop on the Digital Markets Act, and he asked what would happen if a young developer had an app go viral and unwittingly racked up millions in fees. Testut asked the question because when he was a high school student, he released GBA4iOS outside of the App Store. It was unexpectedly downloaded more than 10 million times, and that would have bankrupted him had he been subject to the Core Technology Fee.
In response, Apple VP of regulatory law Kyle Andeers said that Apple was working on a solution because the company is not trying to stifle innovation. Apple believes that a free app going viral and being subject to exorbitant fees will be a rare occurrence, but the changes will keep that from happening. The CTF update will also be a welcome change for those who want to release entirely free apps outside of the App Store.
The CTF is only applicable to apps that have opted in to the new App Store business terms in the European Union. Apps in the EU are now able to be distributed through alternative app stores and developer websites without having to rely on the App Store.
Sony coming to the PS5 that should streamline the whole process of wrangling people into a multiplayer game. The new tool will let you invite people into a game even when they aren’t at a console or using the PlayStation app. The system generates a link, via the app, that can be shared anywhere online. When the recipient clicks the link, they will be able to hop into a multiplayer session. You don’t even have to be friends. Easy peasy. That sure beats having to (side-eyes Nintendo.)
The obvious use case scenario here? You meet some people online via social media and want to jump into a game quickly, without having to pass usernames back and forth. Sony says you’ll be able to “start playing together right away.” The tool will also generate a QR code along with the link, which is something PS5 owners are already familiar with when it comes to multiplayer games.
There are some caveats. This feature isn’t coming until later in the year and it’s only for PS5 games. Sony also warns that some titles may require an update before everything works seamlessly. Of course, most PS5 games require a PlayStation Plus subscription to use multiplayer, and those .
Sony has even developed a custom live widget for multiplayer invites in Discord. When you share a link via Discord, the widget automatically refreshes to show whether or not a multiplayer session is active or not, so you won’t jump into an empty lobby to watch tumbleweeds roll by. Just like the forthcoming invite tool, the Discord widget is only available for PS5 games.
Sony
Finally, the company’s working on a related tool that will let people share their PlayStation Network profile on any messaging or social app by generating a link on the PlayStation app, similar to how the aforementioned feature will work. This is also coming later this year.
New graduates have a lot to manage: applying for jobs or further education, staying on top of their finances, keeping healthy and maybe even finding a more permanent place to live. Instead of a gift basket full of food they don’t eat, consider giving them a subscription to a service they’ll use regularly instead. Be it a new service that can make their lives easier, or footing the bill for something they already pay for, your new grad will thank you for the thoughtful yet practical gift. Here are some of the best subscription services to consider gifting to new graduates this year.
Commuting
Waxe
Many navigation apps can help a grad find their way around an unfamiliar town, but Waze might offer the best way. The free service’s crowdsourced alerts can help drivers avoid construction or gridlock that isn’t always visible in competing apps, including Google Maps — its sibling. Tie-ins with streaming services like Spotify and TuneIn make it easier to soundtrack a lengthy trip without using separate apps. The ads that display while stopped aren’t ideal, but the sacrifice might be worthwhile if it helps a grad arrive on time for a new job.
If your grad relies on public transportation, Transit’s app is virtually a must-have. It provides detailed, real-time mass transit directions in hundreds of cities, letting riders know when to leave and which stops to take. More importantly, it’s integrated with alternative transportation options like shared bikes, scooters and Uber rides. The core app is free, but it’s worth paying $25 per year for a Royale subscription (if it isn’t offered for free by a local agency) to look up any transit line and future schedules.
Ridesharing today is for more than just getting to parties or visiting family — for some, it may be the most effective way to get to work. In that light, a subscription to Lyft Pink or Uber One could easily be a welcome gift. Both $10-per-month services offer discounts on rides and food delivery as well as a handful of other perks, such as Lyft’s free priority pickups and Uber’s access to top-rated drivers. Either service is a good choice, although you’ll want to be sure there are plenty of drivers where your recipient lives.
Students can make do with a free cloud account or join a parent’s family plan, but there’s a good chance they’ll want a paid account of their own once they graduate. Thankfully, all the major platform creators have cloud service bundles that cover much of what they need. Apple One ($17 per month for Individual), Google One ($20 per year for Basic) and Microsoft 365 Personal ($70 per year) all deliver extra cloud storage as well as services you’re likely to use for entertainment, productivity and security.
The choice of service depends on what your grad is looking for. Apple One is, unsurprisingly, best for iPhone and Mac users — you get 50GB of iCloud storage, Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. Google One, meanwhile, provides 100GB of shareable space, advanced Photos editing features and a VPN to secure your connection. Microsoft 365 Personal, meanwhile, is a big boost to productivity with Office apps, 1TB of storage and security tools like Windows Defender. While these bundles don’t cover every possible need, they can easily save money versus paying for each service on its own.
A VPN (virtual private network) can be extremely helpful for the security conscious. It can hide sensitive information from prying eyes and help access regional content that would normally be off-limits. There are many good VPNs, but our pick for a grad is ExpressVPN. While it’s not the cheapest at $100 per year, our security reporter Katie Malone says it’s extremely well-rounded. It’s easy to set up, works across many devices, includes a password manager, doesn’t log activity and is even gaming-friendly. Simply put, your ex-student is more likely to keep the VPN running regardless of what they’re doing.
Passwords are already a hassle in school, but they get worse once you leave — how is a grad supposed to remember all those new logins for utilities and other must-have services? That’s why we’re recommending 1Password. For $36 per year, it makes sign-ins easier on many of your devices. It can also store credit cards and other sensitive information. And importantly, 1Password is moving to passkeys to access its accounts. A grad won’t have to worry that someone will guess their master password and effectively have access to their entire digital life.
Money management will be more important than ever before for recent graduates, and Quicken’s Simplifi budgeting app can help them get a handle on their finances. It’s our current favorite budgeting app and the one we recommended most Mint users switch to once that service was shut down earlier this year. We like Simplifi’s clean interface and general ease of use: it’s a relatively painless process to connect all of your accounts, including ones with Fidelity, and the app then shows you things like recent spending, upcoming recurring payments, top spending categories, a snapshot of your current spending plan and more. The app does a fine job of categorizing transactions as well, and your grad can do things like label certain transactions like their monthly phone bill as recurring. And you may gift them a subscription to start, but the standard $48-per-year pricing will hopefully be affordable enough for your giftee to continue paying for it in the future, if they find it useful.
To-do lists can help anyone stay organized, but the free options (such as Google Keep) might not cut it for a grad who suddenly has to juggle more than just classes. If that’s the case, they may appreciate a Todoist Pro subscription as a gift. While the free version already includes advanced features like filtering and labels, the $48 per year for Pro adds genuinely useful extras like reminders, automatic backups, more filters and larger 100MB file uploads. Throw in access across many platforms and it’s an easy choice for someone figuring out how to manage their personal and professional lives.
Graduates don’t have to stop learning just because they got their degrees. A subscription to Masterclass Individual may seem expensive at $180 per year, but it could easily help grads learn important personal and professional skills from (often famous) experts in different fields. They can perfect their cooking with Gordon Ramsay, or writing with Margaret Atwood. And importantly, this isn’t just about watching videos — pupils can follow a curriculum that involves finishing real projects. Skillshare ($168 per year) can be a better fit if a new grad primarily values creative skills, but Masterclass may be worth the outlay for honing life skills or simply indulging curiosity.
If you know a grad who has an iPhone and is eager to get fit, an Apple Fitness+ subscription is an easy gift. A relatively low $80 yearly outlay provides access to 12 workout types that cover a wide range of durations and skill levels that can fit into a busy schedule. There are even audio-only running and walking workouts for those who prefer to exercise outside. The service works best when paired with an Apple Watch, but that’s no longer necessary — an iPhone is all they need to participate.
Peloton’s equipment isn’t always a viable gift for a grad, but a Peloton One subscription certainly can be. The $13-per-month membership gives Android and iOS users access to Peloton’s well-known trainers as they guide you through a variety of workouts that even include bootcamps. This is also an ideal gift if your recipient prefers structure — there’s a range of programs that help develop skills, such as running marathons. Add community elements (such as seeing who’s participating in the same workout) and it can help newcomers stay committed.
There’s a good chance the grad in your life wants to soundtrack their commute or work day, and a subscription to Apple Music ($99 per year) or Spotify Premium ($10 per month) should provide exactly what they’re looking for. Both music streaming services offer ad-free streaming and offline access to large song selections and well-curated playlists on many devices — you can listen to Apple Music on an Android phone, or play Spotify on your favorite game console.
The choice depends on a grad’s tastes. Apple Music clearly has an advantage for users heavily invested in Apple’s ecosystem, but it’s also best if you want lossless or spatial audio. Spotify, meanwhile, has a strong social element, broader device support (particularly for smart speakers),exclusive podcasts and a hard-to-beat library of niche playlists.
There’s a real possibility your giftee has already signed up for Amazon Prime Video or Netflix, but what if they want more? That’s where a streaming service like Disney+ subscription might come in handy. The $110 per year no-ads plan ($8 per month with ads) provides access to a library that might not beat rivals in sheer quantity, but includes plenty of new and back-catalog material from Disney’s many huge franchises. Grads can see what The Mandalorian is all about, or catch up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the next big movie comes out.
YouTube TV has been subject to price creeps, but it’s still the best live TV streaming service for most people, including new graduates. The core $73 monthly plan offers over 100 channels, including multiple 24-hour news networks and live sports from ESPN. Add-ons bring networks like HBO, too. There’s far-ranging device support, and unlimited cloud DVR storage means a grad won’t have to miss a favorite show.
Unlock your Mac’s full potential with 16 macOS-friendly apps for $39.99. Photo: Cult of Mac Deals
The Big Mac Utility Bundle is a collection of 16 Mac productivity apps you can use for everything from generating QR codes or troubleshooting your Wi-Fi connection to revealing the files your Mac automatically hides.
16 Mac productivity apps to change how you use your Mac
Check out what’s up for grabs in the Big Mac Utility bundle. These Mac productivity apps span a range of functions, from basic time-saving tools to adding new ways to use your computer.
For instance, Macs automatically hide many of the system files you can access freely on a Windows PC. For most users, that’s no problem. But if you’re trying to do some advanced troubleshooting, it’s a recipe for frustration. FileUnhider does exactly what the app’s name promises: It reveals the files hidden on your Mac. (If you want to stash them away again, it takes just another click to hide them.)
Other apps in this Mac utilities collection change how you perform basic tasks on your Mac. ToAnything makes batch media conversion easy, so you can quickly change the file format of multiple files. And if you’re a developer, skip a tedious task and use CodeCounter for detailed code analysis.
Mac utilities for jobs large and small
Here are the rest of the Mac productivity apps and utilities in this affordable software bundle:
Colori: This tool for designers lets you generate a color palette, organize your palettes, and more.
QR Wizard: Create beautiful QR code images.
Tidier: Organize the files on your Mac in a sensible way.
Web2Mac: Quickly add any website to your Dock as a Mac app.
AllClips: Manage your Mac’s clipboard and never lose anything.
SpeakMe: Convert any text to audio with a single click.
PhotoFoundry: Experience pro-level conversion and batch-processing of images.
JSON Wizard: Edit, visualize and export with “the ultimate JSON-driven data management app.”
WiFi Radar Pro: The “go-to Wi-Fi analyzer for Mac” makes it easy to scan, monitor and troubleshoot wireless networks.
Iconize: Generate and customize app icons for multiple platforms.
Squeezer: Minify, compile and compress web files and images with a single click.
Markdown+: Write, style, preview and export with this easy-to-use Markdown editor for Mac.
AppKiller: Instantly kill all your open Mac apps with a single click.
Once purchased, all of these apps remain yours for life. You can install them on up to two devices, and updates are included.
Save on the Big Mac Utility Bundle
Get more out of your Mac with this inexpensive collection of 16 Mac productivity apps and utilities that would cost more than $200 if purchased individually. Grab The Big Mac Utility Bundle for just $39.99.
