apps

Star Apps: Courtney Love

If Courtney Love were an app, she'd be one that's potent, durable, and endlessly fascinating. It's been almost 20 years since Hole's fearless leader--the blonde rocker in the baby doll dress, always strapped to a guitar--body surfed her way into our hearts across such hits as "Miss World," "Doll Parts," "Violet," "Celebrity Skin," and "Malibu." Although Love has always been a polarizing figure, there's no denying her legacy as a rock 'n' roll star who's endured tremendous loss, addiction, and media scrutiny.

2013 will … Read more

Rockmelt launches Android app with enhanced navigation

After tinkering and perfecting, Rockmelt has finally released its app for Android.

The company announced Wednesday that to get this app ready for the public, it had to make sure it was "the right experience for Android users and not merely a port of an iOS app."

So, what are the differences between the social browser's Android and iOS app? A lot.

First of all, the Android app is tooled for bigger screens, which means navigation is at the bottom of the screen in portrait mode and on the right in landscape mode. Also, as users scroll … Read more

More to watch on Apple TV

CNET Update streams on:

In this episode of Update:

- Access HBO and ESPN programming on Apple TV (that is, unless you have DirecTV).

- Share your emoticons with the Facebook iOS update.

- Catch up on the latest in the NSA saga, as Google challenges the DOJ's gag order.

- Keep an eye out for Sony's fix to the buggy PS3 update.

- Consider the Following: Bill Nye the Science Guy has an iOS app.

CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under three minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afternoon for a breakdown of the … Read more

Aviary for Android jumps to 3.0, gets better photo enhancer

The just-released version 3.0 of Aviary for Android sports a redesigned interface and comes with some important new features for beautifying your photos.

The most notable of the app's additions is the improved Enhance tool. Previously a single-tap tool for smart, automatic adjustments, Enhance now comes with three different settings: Hi-Def, Illuminate, and Color Fix. Each setting has a way of manipulating settings like contrast, sharpness, and brightness, and they all should help bring the best colors out of your photos.

Another addition that should be popular with users is the Woodland Effects Pack. This set of filters … Read more

Never miss the free App of the Week from the App Store again

Last summer I covered an easy-to-create recipe on IFTTT that would send an e-mail or alert of your choosing once the App Store Twitter account posted a tweet announcing the latest freebie. Since that time there have been some changes to Twitter 's API policy, and IFTTT (name based on "If this, then that") has had to change how it uses Twitter within its service.

As such, the recipe demonstrated in my post last June no longer works. While browsing through public IFTTT Recipes today I found a solution that uses posts on the App Store's official … Read more

Man proposes via language-learning app Duolingo

We've seen some pretty creative marriage proposals, but we never would have thought of proposing via a language-learning app. Flavio Esposito, on the other hand, seems to like thinking outside the down-on-one-knee box.

The Italian man's American girlfriend was using Duolingo to learn Italian, so he got in touch with the Duolingo team to come up with a surprise.

"She's learning my own language, and she enjoys it so much that I'm wondering if I could ask you to set up an exercise for her that would lead to the big question: 'Will you marry Flavio Esposito?'" he wrote.

The team, unable to resist either the challenge or the romance, set about writing some translation exercises for Kate to be dropped into her learning program. … Read more

Getting started with Photoshop Express for Windows 8

Adobe's Photoshop Express is a basic photo-editing app for your mobile device. With Photoshop Express, you can correct photo properties like contrast, exposure, and white balance, or use the autofix feature to let Photoshop try to fix everything for you. You can also crop your photos, apply creative filters, and share them to Facebook directly from the app.

Previously only available for iOS and Android devices, it's now ready to be downloaded for free to your Windows 8 tablet or hybrid device from the Windows Store. Here's how to get started with Adobe Photoshop Express for Windows 8:… Read more

AT&T reportedly begins wide cellular support for FaceTime

AT&T appears to have quietly begun rolling out nationwide support for Apple's FaceTime videoconferencing app for iPhone on its cellular network.

While AT&T has made no official announcement about beginning a nationwide rollout, the move would be a major step toward fulfilling a promise it made in May that its LTE customers would be able to use video chat apps from Apple, Samsung, and BlackBerry over the AT&T network by mid-June.

Customers of the wireless service in New York, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, California, and Hawaii tell AppleInsider that they have verified activation of … Read more

Star Apps: 'The Heat' director Paul Feig

The hilarious, new buddy movie "The Heat" stars Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as Special Agent Sarah Ashburn and Det. Shannon Mullins, respectively -- two fiercely independent crime fighters who must first forge their own connection and learn to respect and trust each other's abilities if they are ever to connect the dots on a major case.

Download.com caught up with the film's director, Paul Feig -- best known for directing the Oscar-nominated "Bridesmaids," co-producing the TV series "Freaks and Geeks," and playing science teacher Mr. Eugene Pool on "Sabrina, … Read more

Action Movie FX adds 'Star Trek' effects, donates proceeds to 9/11 veterans

One of my favorite apps of 2012, Bad Robot Interactive's Action Movie FX, just got even better.

Available for iOS, the app lets you add Hollywood-style special effects to videos you've shot with your iPhone or iPad.

What kinds of effects? Suppose you're making a movie that involves blowing up a car (as all good movies should). Action Movie FX includes a missile-attack sequence that ends with a gorgeous fiery explosion. All you do is record at least 5 seconds of video (in this case, footage of your car), then wait for the app to render the … Read more