Mitchel Broussard

Google has quietly removed both the iOS and Mac versions of its Sparrow email apps from Apple's App Stores, amid reports the company is shifting to focus more intently on its revamped Inbox by Gmail app (via TechCrunch). The company bought alternative email client app Sparrow back in 2012 and launched Inbox by Gmail to select users last fall, with a wider release earlier this year. At the...

The upcoming February 25 episode of ABC's multiple Emmy-winning sitcom "Modern Family" will take place solely on a MacBook screen (via The Verge). The episode, being shot by director and series co-creator Steve Levitan, used an iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2 to shoot every scene. The episode's story focuses on Claire Dunphy's (Julie Bowen) attempt to reach her daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland) by...

Microsoft today released an update for its suite of Office apps on Apple's iPhone and iPad App Store for users running iOS 8. The 1.6 updates bring, along with the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements, full support for saving and syncing documents via Apple's iCloud Drive service (via The Verge). Microsoft says users of its most popular software like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint can now ...

LG Electronics today announced a new device in the line of Android Wear smartwatch products, called the LG Watch Urbane. Planned for a full unveiling at Mobile World Congress next month, the watch is said to combine the traditional aspects of a luxury timepiece with the "high-tech flare" of a modern smartwatch. The LG Watch Urbane follows in the footsteps of LG's previous foray into the world...

A few users began reporting on Reddit yesterday the return of popular alternative media player app VLC to the iOS App Store. The app, which arrives as a 2.4.1 update including iPhone 6 and 6 Plus support, is still rolling out to all users and currently shows as unavailable in the App Store for most countries, although some users who had previously downloaded the app before its removal have been...

While the Grammy Awards happened last weekend, information on a few Apple-related conversations happening at and around Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party are just now beginning to emerge, reports Billboard. Representing Apple at the gala were Tim Cook, Eddy Cue, Jimmy Iovine and iTunes VP Robert Kondrk, with the Apple executives chatting with a number of music industry representatives during the...

Fleksy yesterday announced an update to its popular, and record-breaking, third-party iOS keyboard that brings along a slew of new customizable Extensions and Themes, including a few that tie in with the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday this weekend. The specific Valentine's Day theme will be free to all Fleksy users on February 14, and Fleksy is also introducing a "Heartpops" extension that...

NBC Entertainment today launched a "Saturday Night Live" app which allows fans to browse a catalog of the show's entire forty season-run, eventually learning each user's particular tastes and favorites and subsequently curating videos and sketches for them to view (via Entertainment Weekly). The app launches a few days before the show's big 40th season premiere this Sunday, and NBC promises...

A new report out of Israel-based business newspaper Calcalist [Google Translate] claims Apple CEO Tim Cook is planning to make a trip to Israel next week to coincide with the grand opening of the company's newest office space in the country. The plans are, however, yet to be finalized. The project, housed in the beachfront district of Herzliya Pituach, has been ongoing since the middle of...

Indie studio Camouflaj today announced its hit episodic stealth game République is being ported to PC and Mac and will be available to download on February 26 via Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store. The team says the new edition of the game has been "rebuilt from the ground up" to access the power of the Unity 5 gaming engine. They also tout that the Remastered edition is the first commercial...

Parallels today announced an update to Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac, the company's software for running non-Apple operating systems safely on a Mac. The new update brings "experimental support" for Windows 10 and Office Preview for Windows 10 - including the expected Word, Excel, and PowerPoint programs - into Apple's OS X Yosemite ecosystem. With the update available as a download within...

Authorities from two major U.S. cities and London on Tuesday reported (via Reuters) that smartphone theft has dropped drastically since the release of remote-access "kill-switches" that allow users to lock their missing smartphone before any crucial information is stolen. Specifically, the number of stolen iPhones dropped 25 percent in New York, 40 percent in San Francisco, and 50 percent in...

The Video Electronics Standard Association (VESA) yesterday announced a new Embedded DisplayPort Standard, version 1.4a, that the association claims "enables a higher video data transfer rate for increased panel resolution, greater color depth and higher refresh rates." Along with other upgrades, the new standard will be able to take advantage of more advanced GPU video performance and...

Anki today announced a sequel to its innovative iOS-compatible Anki Drive slot car racing game. Called "Anki Overdrive" and set for launch in September, it will include brand new cars, a customizable track - courtesy of magnetically interlocking track pieces and "bridges" that adjust track height - and even jump ramps (via Re/code). Originally debuted on stage at WWDC 2013, Anki has slowly...

Medical device manufacturer DexCom over the weekend announced the company is developing an app for the upcoming Apple Watch that will display all of a user's glucose and blood sugar-related health data on their wrist (via The Wall Street Journal). The company, whose expertise lies in "continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management," says the app is expected to be ready when the...

The much-anticipated 12-inch Retina MacBook Air is believed to launch sometime in the middle of 2015, but a new rumor out of foreign news website Letem svetem Applem [Google Translate] points to a smaller refresh of the existing MacBook Air line hitting as early as February 24. The website, citing sources from the Czech reseller network, states the update will come with no fanfare or keynote ...

Earlier this week, gesture recognition technology company eyeSight introduced ControlAir, an app that uses a Mac's camera to read finger-based movements, allowing users to control various media applications without needing to physically interact with their computers. The app, which is free to download, works with many popular Mac-based entertainment apps like iTunes, Spotify, Rdio, Netflix,...

FiftyThree today announced an update to its popular drawing and illustration app Paper that will give users of the app free access to every tool and feature previously locked behind an in-app purchase. The app is free to download, but users who wanted a more in-depth editing and drawing suite had to pay up to $3.99 for the entire "essential tools" package (originally priced at $7.99) to get...

Swatch CEO Nick Hayek today revealed that the company has plans to manufacture and ship its own line of smartwatch devices with a launch target within the next three months, easily setting itself up against Apple's recent confirmation of an April launch date for the Apple Watch (via Bloomberg). Hayek previously displayed skepticism about smartwatches, in particular the idea of one from Apple,...

Apple on Monday posted a listing to its Jobs at Apple page describing an Engineering Project Manager position for "Apple Search," sparking speculation the company could be working on a full-fledged search engine for use on OS X and iOS platforms. As first highlighted by Cult of Mac, the most recent position would be based in San Francisco and asks for applicants who are "technical, driven and...