AppShopper

If you’ve ever tried to search Messages or iChat on your Mac to look for a link or picture a friend shared with you, you’ve probably ended up empty-handed and frustrated. Fortunately, there’s now an alternative to the nearly-useless search feature within Apple’s Messages app. Flexibitis, the developer of the excellent Fantastical for iPhone and Mac, has just released Chatology, a Mac app explicitly for searching your messaging history quickly and easily.

Chatology accesses the saved chat logs on your Mac so you can search for specific words or look for images and links. You can search your entire chat history or narrow the search timeframe down to today, or the last week, month, or year. Chatology can even be set to open automatically when you press ⌘F to initiate a search within Messages.

We made Chatology because we were so frustrated searching for our messages,” said Michael Simmons, Co-Founder of Flexibits. “There were no solutions to fix this so we created one, and we think all Messages and iChat users are going to love Chatology as much as we do.

Here’s a video showing how Chatology works:

Chatology isn’t available in the Mac App Store and can only be downloaded directly from the Flexibits Store here. A free download is available that lets you use Chatology without restrictions for 14 days. If you want to buy it outright or after the trial period is over, it will cost you $19.99. You’ll need Mac OS X 10.7 or higher to use Chatology.

If you’re not already familiar with the other apps made by Flexibits, check out Fantastical for iPhone (my review) or the Mac version. I use both versions of Fantastical every single day and I’ve found that Flexibits makes great software.

• $499Buy Now
  Productivity
  

  Fantastical

  Last Changed:

  5 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (72)

  Version:

  1.1.2

  iOS iPhone

  ** GET THE CALENDAR APP EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT ** Fantastical is the fastest and friendliest calendar app. Just type in "Lunch with John in Cupertino on Friday" and Fantastical...

• $1999Buy Now
  Productivity
  

  Fantastical

  Last Changed:

  2 days ago

  Rating:

  4.50 (30)

  Version:

  1.3.7

  Mac OS

  ★★ GET THE CALENDAR APP EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT ★★ Presenting the calendar app you'll actually enjoy using. Type in that you have "Lunch with John on Friday at 1pm" and...

If you’ve had a hankering for an official Microsoft Office app, today is your day to celebrate. Microsoft released Office Mobile for Office 365 Subscribers for iPhone today in the App Store. It’s a free download but requires a paid subscription to Microsoft’s cloud storage and software service.

Office 365 debuted in 2011 and offers several subscription levels for home and business users. The least expensive subscription costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year and allows the use of its software and service on up to five computers and five mobile devices.

I don’t have an Office 365 subscription so can’t tell you whether or not it’s worth the money. But if you’re considering subscribing and this new iPhone app will be critical for you, Engadget took it for a test spin and included lots of screenshots for you to feast your eyes on. According to Engadget, Office Mobile offers basic editing capabilities only, lacking the ability to add rows or columns within Excel or add slide transitions in Powerpoint though it’s possible Microsoft will add features to the app in the future.

If you don’t  want or need a subscription to be able to create and edit Microsoft Office files on your iPhone, I recommend Daviz’s Documents to Go which will also work on the iPad, unlike Office Mobile in this current iteration.

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  Productivity
  

  Office Mobile for Office 365...

  Last Changed:

  6 days ago

  Rating:

  2.50 (712)

  Version:

  1.0

  iOS iPhone

  Please note: An Office 365 subscription is required to use this app. Microsoft Office Mobile is the official Office companion optimized for your iPhone. You can access, view and edit your...

Orchestra’s mail management app, Mailbox, debuted in the App Store in February and while it impressed many, there was a long virtual line before most people could actually use it. Yesterday, Orchestra announced that the virtual line to use the app has been eliminated.

Good news! Mailbox is now available without having to wait in line. After 10 weeks of around-the-clock hard work, our engineering team has scaled the Mailbox service to deliver over 100 million messages per day (and growing). We believe we can now confidently handle new users as they sign up, so we’ve pulled down the reservation system.

If you missed the hubbub around Mailbox, the app lets you manage your email inbox with gestures to re-order, delete, archive, and even snooze your emails for later handling. Here’s the promo video so you can see it in action:

It works only with Gmail accounts at the moment and the app is free to download and use. I was able to start using Mailbox a couple of weeks or so after it was released and while I like the concept, it doesn’t help me be more productive for work though if it gets the ability to handle IMAP accounts outside of Gmail, I’d definitely use it for my personal email.

If you’ve been waiting patiently to give Mailbox a whirl or are just hearing about it for the first time, now is the time to get it. If you’re already using Mailbox, you’ll be happy to know that it got some smarter snooze options, interface improvements, and bug fixes in version 1.2.0 that was released earlier this week.

• FreeBuy Now
  Productivity
  

  Mailbox

  Last Changed:

  2 days ago

  Rating:

  4.50 (82)

  Version:

  1.3.1

  iOS Universal

  The fast, fun mobile inbox that puts email in its place.   Note: Currently for Gmail only. Other email platforms coming soon. Mailbox is a completely redesigned inbox that makes email light,...

Last month, Google announced that it will shut down its Google Reader RSS service on July 1, 2013, citing a decline in the usage of the service. With hundreds of apps in the App Store relying on Google Reader, this shutdown puts a lot of developers in a tough place, forcing them to find an alternative or retire an app entirely.

In response to the uncertainty, Silvio Rizzi, the developer of popular RSS app Reeder announced via Twitter this afternoon that the iPad and Mac versions of the app are now free. In a blog post explaining the change, Rizzi states that development of Reeder to work around the Google Reader shutdown is in process. While the iPhone version of Reeder already offers support for other RSS services (with support for Feedbin on the way), the iPad and Mac versions will be getting the same treatment in version 2.0 and they will be free until then.

Reeder has been my preferred RSS app for a while now and I have confidence that Rizzi will adapt and keep Reeder as useful as it’s always been. If you’ve had Reeder on your Wish List or are just getting into the RSS game, now is a great time to get the Mac and iPad versions to take advantage of the temporary price reduction.

• FreeBuy Now
  News
  

  Reeder for iPad

  Last Changed:

  11 weeks ago

  Rating:

  3.50 (251)

  Version:

  1.5.7

  iOS iPad

  Google Reader Client. - Syncs with Google Reader - Browse by feed or folders - Manage starred items, notes - Mark as unread - Image caching - State saving - Slider control for list entries: ...

• FreeBuy Now
  News
  

  Reeder

  Last Changed:

  11 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (388)

  Version:

  1.2

  Mac OS

  Google Reader Client. ★ Syncs with Google Reader. ★ Full Readability (readability.com) integration (see Preferences → General) ★ Customizable interface (see Preferences → Appearance) ★...

App Cubby’s Launch Center Pro, which is one of my most-used apps, got a major update late last week and it’s now on sale for 40% off for a limited time, bringing its price down to $2.99 from $4.99.

Launch Center Pro is a productivity app that can help you complete common tasks you do with your iPhone more quickly. For example, you can set up Launch Center Pro to open Instagram and go right to the camera tab so you can quickly capture an image. Or, you can define an action to call or text message your spouse with a single tap.

Launch Center Pro works using URL schemes to interact with other apps. Think of URL schemes as a way for Launch Center Pro to open another app and go to a specific action, like a browser bookmark to your favorite page within a website. Not all apps work with Launch Center Pro out of the gate, though – an app’s developer must incorporate URL schemes into their app so that Launch Center Pro can use these “hooks” to open the app and carry out actions within it. For a bit more on how Launch Center Pro works and how I have it set up on my iPhone, see this article.

In version 1.1, which hit the App Store late last week, several actions can now be completed right within the app. For example, you can now draft a text message right within Launch Center Pro and it will be sent without switching you over to the Messages app. The same goes for emails as well.

The full list of what’s new in 1.1 is as follows:

• In-app messaging actions — group messaging and preset text
• In-app email actions — attach last photo taken or attach photo from the clipboard
• Clipboard actions — place text on clipboard, place last photo on clipboard, convert text on clipboard, and x-callback-url support
• Expanded Text Expander support — snippets can now be expanded automatically while launching an action
• New Tweet action — tweet last photo taken
• Reorganized Action Composer
• Bug fixes and other enhancements

I use Launch Center Pro multiple times every single day and highly recommend it to automate common tasks you do regularly. Buy it now while it’s on sale. If you already have it, now is also a good time to gift it to someone else to save yourself a little scratch and share a bit of app joy at the same time.

• $399Buy Now
  Productivity
  

  Launch Center Pro

  Last Changed:

  7 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (116)

  Version:

  1.1

  iOS iPhone

  🎥 Check out the demo video: http://appcubby.com Launch actions, not just apps! It’s like speed dial, but for more than just phone calls! Launch Center Pro creates lightning quick shortcuts to...

Fantastical, the calendar utility developed by Flexibits that debuted in the App Store in November, has received a major update. Fantastical 1.1 offers time zone support, multiple alerts for events, improved calendar navigation, and my favorite feature ever – the ability to enable a badge on the app’s icon to display the current date.

The full list of what’s new is as follows:

• Multiple alerts when creating events
• Time zone support
• Duplicate or move events (tap and hold an event in the event list)
• Go to a specific date (tap and hold the red title bar)
• Event list is now scrollable when using the calendar
• Today’s timed events dim after the event has ended
• Copied text containing event info can automatically be made into an event
• Added setting to highlight weekends
• Added setting to show empty days on the DayTicker
• Added setting to display the number of today’s remaining events or date on the app icon badge
• State restoration (iOS 6 only)
• A staggering number of other improvements, parser enhancements, and bug fixes

To recap a bit, Fantastical lets you use natural language to create calendar events. So if you type (or speak if you have a dictation-capable iPhone) “Lunch with Mom at 1 on Saturday,” Fantastical will parse this accordingly to create an event named “Lunch with Mom” at 1:00 pm on Saturday. It’s very easy to use and far simpler than navigating through the several screens required to create an event like this in the stock Calendar app.

In my review of Fantastical, I mentioned my reliance on the iPhone’s stock Calendar app with its display of the current date on the icon. Apple doesn’t allow third-party developers to do this and I’d mentioned that a work-around would be to use a push notification badge on the icon to show the current date. I must not have been alone in that request and Flexibits heard it enough that they implemented it in this update. This feature is optional if you don’t need or want it, or you could instead choose to use the icon badge to show the number of remaining events for the current day.

Fantastical for iPhone is on sale in celebration of this update, down to $3.99 from its regular price of $4.99. Fantastical has remained on my iPhone’s home screen ever since it was released and this update only makes it more useful.

• $499Buy Now
  Productivity
  

  Fantastical

  Last Changed:

  5 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (72)

  Version:

  1.1.2

  iOS iPhone

  ** GET THE CALENDAR APP EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT ** Fantastical is the fastest and friendliest calendar app. Just type in "Lunch with John in Cupertino on Friday" and Fantastical...

Orchestra released its heavily hyped and anticipated mail management app, Mailbox, to the App Store yesterday. The free app lets you access your Gmail account and turns email chains into chat-like conversations. Like Clear, you use gestures instead of virtual buttons to navigate, with swipes letting you delete messages or “snooze” emails to get them out of your inbox temporarily to reappear later when you can deal with them.

Here’s a teaser video showing how Mailbox works:

Orchestra first teased Mailbox for iPhone in December and it impressed TechCrunch enough to call it “the best email management app you’ll ever use” and prompted The Verge to declare it to be “nothing short of spectacular”.

The free app debuted in the App Store yesterday but there’s a significant snag you should be aware of. The parsing and formatting of your emails to show the chat-like conversation view and snooze your emails is handled by Orchestra’s servers and in order to avoid overloading their systems, the company is limiting access to the app’s functionality. So when you download Mailbox you’ll get in a virtual line and a countdown will show you how many people are ahead of you to get access and how many are behind you.

Orchestra offered the ability to register in advance for Mailbox in late January, sending you a text message with a couple of codes to use when the app became available in the App Store. I’d done this pre-registration on the day it was made available but forgot about it when Mailbox came out yesterday and at first the app told me there were about 170,000 people ahead of me to get access to actually use it. I found my pre-registration codes later and entered them (hold down the mailbox symbol in the app to display the code entry screen if you skipped entering them the first time you opened the app like I did). When I’d checked my status yesterday, there were 17,701 people ahead of me and as I write this post today, there are about 18,680 people ahead of me and over 580,000 people in line behind me. At this rate, I should have access to use Mailbox in about 17 days if the approval rate holds steady.

Holding back access to use Mailbox has had a negative effect on its App Store rating. Right now, there are over 300 1-star reviews for it and the overall average rating is just two stars. Clearly, many users are not taking the need to wait well at all. While I understand the need to make sure their systems can scale and work for all users, I have to think that there could have been a better way to release the app and avoid preventing most people from being able to even use it right away.

At any rate, if what’s shown in the teaser video intrigues you at all, download Mailbox today and be prepared to be patient and wait. It’s free, so you’ve got not nothing to lose in terms of money and only a little to lose in terms of time to take a few seconds to open the app and get in line.

• FreeBuy Now
  Productivity
  

  Mailbox

  Last Changed:

  2 days ago

  Rating:

  4.50 (82)

  Version:

  1.3.1

  iOS Universal

  The fast, fun mobile inbox that puts email in its place.   Note: Currently for Gmail only. Other email platforms coming soon. Mailbox is a completely redesigned inbox that makes email light,...

Developer Cultured Code has put its highly-rated task management Mac app, Things, on sale, dropping its price to $24.99 from its regular $49.99 until January 31. This sale is significant because Cultured Code hasn’t ever put Things on sale since it’s been available in the Mac App Store, so if it’s been on your Wish List, now is the time to get it.

Things is a heavy-duty task management app that is flexible enough to let you take a detailed approach to document multiple levels of tasks as part of a large project or create straightforward lists of single tasks you need to complete in the course of a day or week. There are companion apps for the iPhone and iPad (which are, alas, not on sale) and you can sync everything across all of your devices via Things Cloud, Cultured Code’s free synchronization service.

If you’re still not sure about spending $24.99 on Things for Mac, you can download a trial version through Cultured Code’s site. If you like it after seeing the trial or are willing to pony up the money to buy it for keeps sight unseen, be sure to do so before its price goes back up on January 31.

Editor’s note: iCloud was originally listed incorrectly as the synchronization service used for Things but this has been fixed.

• $4999Buy Now
  Productivity
  

  Things

  Last Changed:

  6 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (262)

  Version:

  2.2.1

  Mac OS

  Things is a delightful and easy to use task manager. It's the perfect companion for everything you want to achieve in life, offering a great balance between ease of use and powerful features. ...

When it comes to task management, I believe simple is better. I’ve tried some of the complex task management approaches and apps out there and while they definitely have their uses, the last thing I need is a system that gives me even more work to do in defining, prioritizing, and categorizing what I need to get done. If you feel the same way and you want to bring a level of focus to one important thing you need to do every day, Luke Freeman’s new Do.one is an app you should check out.

Do.one is a tasks app that lets you specify one important thing you need to do or focus on each day. All you do is enter that item and you can set Do.one to give you a push notification once a day at a time you specify to remind you about it.

Do.one has two views: the note view of a single day or a monthly calendar. In the calendar view, days with items entered are marked with a pink dot. You can enter an item for any date in the future. If you tap on the month name at the top of the calendar view, you’ll see options to jump ahead to any month up to five years in the future. A “Today” button in the bottom left corner will take you to the current day from whatever month or year you’re viewing.

Click screenshots to enlarge 

The settings screen is simple, offering you the option to turn on push notification alerts and set the time they should go off each day. And you can opt to include the text of your note for each day in the push notification alert if you don’t want to open the app to see what you entered.

Do.one is all about focusing on one thing each day. There’s no option to set a repeating item for certain days of the week, so if you were looking for an app to remind you take out the trash every Wednesday night, you’ll be better served by the built-in Reminders app or something like Due or Beep Me.

I really like the idea of Do.one and how it can help you focus on what’s really important, which can go beyond plain old tasks you do regularly to more conceptual or personal things like reminding you to take a break from work to spend time with your kids or writing a chapter in your novel on a day when you know you’ll have some free time.

I do wish Do.one had a little more flexibility with the alert times to allow setting a different time for weekdays versus weekend days or even the ability to set a different alert time for every day of the week. And I have to admit that I can’t stand the default iOS system tri-tone alert sound that Do.one makes use of and I’d much rather be able to choose a more distinct alert myself.

Other than this, Do.one is a pretty, straightforward app that offers you an easy way to pare down the frenzy of your day-to-day life by encouraging you to focus on just one thing every day. If you’ve been looking for a tasks app that offers this kind of simplicity and focus, Do.one is a good purchase at just $.99.

• FreeBuy Now
  Productivity
  

  Do.one

  Last Changed:

  14 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.50 (14)

  Version:

  2.1.1

  iOS iPhone

  Do.one is not about making lists, it's about what's important. Do.one allows you to enter one thing per day. That one important, "I can't forget to do this, no matter what" thing...

While some things seem to slow down just before the holidays, app developers are apparently an exception if the number of major updates this week are any indication. While all of these apps are free and therefore pose no risk to your wallet, I still wanted to highlight them in case you’re considering a paid alternative that may be less functional comparatively after these updates.

Instagram, the popular photo sharing service, has updated its iPhone app with a new camera interface, the addition of a new filter, Willow, and Foursquare integration. In related news, Instagram removed support for Twitter cards, a feature that allowed Twitter’s own official apps to show thumbnail views of users’ Instagram photos within timelines, from its service. If you’re using a third-party client like Tweetbot this change doesn’t affect you. Yet, at least.

• FreeBuy Now
  Photography
  

  Instagram

  Last Changed:

  1 week ago

  Rating:

  4.50 (29922)

  Version:

  3.5.2

  iOS iPhone

  Instagram Over 100 million users love Instagram! It's a free, fun, and simple way to make and share gorgeous photos on your iPhone. Pick from one of several gorgeous filtered effects or tilt-shift...

Speaking of the official Twitter apps, Twitter’s iPhone and iPad app also got an update this week, adding features that put it in competition with Instagram when it comes to pictures: filters and basic photo editing tools.

Twitter notes Instagram’s removal of support for Twitter cards in the text describing what’s new in version 5.2:

We understand that you are experiencing issues with viewing Instagram photos on Twitter. Instagram has decided to disable its integration with Twitter and as a result, photos are no longer appearing in Tweets or user photo galleries. While tweeting links to Instagram photos is still possible, you can no longer view the photos on Twitter, as was previously the case.

Why do I feel like I need some popcorn before seeing what happens next between Twitter and Instagram?

• FreeBuy Now
  Social Networking
  

  Twitter

  Last Changed:

  3 weeks ago

  Rating:

  3.50 (3328)

  Version:

  5.7

  iOS Universal

  With Twitter, you can watch the world unfold like never before. • Get real-time stories, pictures, videos, conversations, ideas, and inspiration all in your timeline. • Follow people and your...

The iPhone app for Flickr, the Yahoo-owned photo sharing site, got an update giving it a new interface and – drum roll, please – filters! And, Yahoo also released a brand new iPhone app for its free email service. Yahoo! Mail hit the App Store yesterday and requires iOS 6 or later.

• FreeBuy Now
  Photography
  

  Flickr

  Last Changed:

  1 week ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (237)

  Version:

  2.11.895

  iOS iPhone

  Smile. Everyone gets a free terabyte. That's right, a terabyte of space. Flickr lets you share your photos in brilliant, full resolution from anywhere to any device and anyone. Biggr: Others...

• FreeBuy Now
  Productivity
  

  Yahoo! Mail

  Last Changed:

  2 weeks ago

  Rating:

  3.50 (365)

  Version:

  1.5.4

  iOS Universal

  Yahoo! Mail, now available for your iPhone and iPad! With an easy to use interface, this app lets you:   Stay connected • Access your inbox in just one tap • Receive automatic notifications...

All right, enough about filters. Apple updated its Find My iPhone app to offer driving directions to help you get to that lost iOS device. While you may or may not have confidence in the map data, they should at least point you in the correct general direction. You’ll need to be running iOS 6 to get these directions, by the way.

If you don’t already have Find My iPhone, I’d definitely recommend that you download this free app and enable all of your iOS devices to use it. Here are Apple’s instructions on how to set it up. I’ve read several stories detailing how users found their lost or stolen iPhones or iPads with this app and service and while I don’t recommend that you attempt anything dangerous like trying to take your device back from a thief, it can be incredibly useful in any situation when your shiny bundle of Apple joy goes missing.

• FreeBuy Now
  Utilities
  

  Find My iPhone

  Last Changed:

  13 weeks ago

  Rating:

  4.00 (1205)

  Version:

  2.0.2

  iOS Universal

  If you misplace your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac, the Find My iPhone app will let you use another iOS device to find it and protect your data. Simply install this free app on another iOS device,...