App roundup: GTA V gets companion app, Twitter redesign coming, Google Play Books nabs single sign-o

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Grand Theft Auto-loving iPhone owners can get an early taste of San Andreas thanks to a new companion app, while Twitter is said to be redesigning its own first-party title, and Google is improving functionality in Google Play Books for iOS.

GTA V comes to iOS

Ahead of the Grand Theft Auto V launch on Tuesday, Rockstar Games has released a companion app for the game on Apple's iOS platform. iFruit brings all of the snark and satire the Grand Theft Auto series is known for to iPhones and iPads, giving players a way to keep up with GTA V news and entertain themselves with other aspects of the game.

The iFruit companion app lets users create and reserve custom license plates for both Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online. When next logging on to one's Grand Theft Auto game, a player will find that all customized and upgraded materials are waiting for them in the garage.

The game also includes a mini-game involving Chop, the dog that accompanies one of the game's three protagonists throughout some of the game. Players can interact with Chop through iFruit, feeding him, petting him, taking him on walks, and so forth. iFruit interactions with Chop will make the dog more responsive to players in the console version of the game.

iFruit is available as a free download in the iTunes App Store. The 444MB app requires an iPhone, iPad, or iPod running iOS 4.3 or later.

Twitter preps iOS app redesign

Twitter is reportedly preparing a redesign of its iOS app for unveiling some time in the near future. The forthcoming version will do away with the four tabs at the bottom of the app's screen, according to AllThingsD, instead giving users the ability to swipe through different content-focused streams.

Among those streams will be the main Twitter feed, as well as another feed for interactions between users and conversations. Yet another will be dedicated entirely to photos shared on Twitter.

The new app is aimed at expanding Twitter's appeal to mainstream consumers ahead of the microblogging service's forthcoming initial public offering. Twitter will likely first bring its app up to date with iOS 7 compatibility in the days after Apple's next-gen operating system launches, with the aforementioned interface changes coming in a later update.

Google Play Books gets Single Sign-On support

Google has released an update for its Google Play Books app for iOS, bringing support for Google Single Sign-On. Now users need to authenticate only once on an iOS device in order to be automatically signed in to all installed Google apps.

The update also includes support for copying selected text, so long as a text's copyright allows such an action. It also contains a number of stability improvements.

Google Play Books version 1.6.1 is available as a free download in the App Store. The 19.1MB download requires an iPhone, iPod, or iPad running iOS 5.0 or later.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    nasseraenasserae Posts: 3,167member
    I am really looking forward for Battlefield 4 Commander mode on the iPad. However, I am skeptic about DICE ability to make good iOS app.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    I hate to be " that guy" but in the beginning you say san andreas. Its actually los santos. Sorry for being that guy
  • Reply 3 of 11
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    shigh wrote: »
    I hate to be " that guy" but in the beginning you say san andreas. Its actually los santos. Sorry for being that guy

    Do you mean the guy who corrects other people without checking to see if he's making a worthwhile criticism? Los Santos is a city in the state of San Andreas:

    http://www.igta5.com/location-setting

    "Grand Theft Auto V will be taking us back out west to the sun-soaked and smog-ridden city of Los Santos, San Andreas! However unlike 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas this time around it will only cover Southern California in general and not the entire state plus Nevada."
  • Reply 4 of 11
    nikon133nikon133 Posts: 2,600member
    shigh wrote: »
    I hate to be " that guy" but in the beginning you say san andreas. Its actually los santos. Sorry for being that guy

    Yes you should be sorry ;)
  • Reply 5 of 11

      

     

    :p

  • Reply 6 of 11
    Originally Posted by Zozman View Post

     

    Then again, aside from Nintendo properties, why play anything on a console? Computer versions always have higher framerate, higher detail, higher resolution, and far, FAR more modifiability.

  • Reply 7 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    Then again, aside from Nintendo properties, why play anything on a console? Computer versions always have higher framerate, higher detail, higher resolution, and far, FAR more modifiability.


     

    I didn't make this meme, just saw it on Facebook & laughed.



    Well I play this particular game on console because it was designed to be played primarily on a console, the PC release can be upto a year later too, which is pretty common, I play PC games too, some games i prefer on console, some i prefer on PC, depends really. 

    I own them all anyways, Don't see why not.

     

    I have heaps of steam games.

    Sadly in recent times, the best games to come out are console or specific console exclusives, which is annoying, but I get to play them anyways. 

  • Reply 8 of 11
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,326moderator
    zozman wrote: »
    Well I play this particular game on console because it was designed to be played primarily on a console, the PC release can be upto a year later too, which is pretty common, I play PC games too, some games i prefer on console, some i prefer on PC, depends really.

    Someone setup a petition for the PC:

    https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/rockstar-release-gta-v-on-pc

    425k signatures out of 500k. Looks like it might be coming eventually:

    http://www.vg247.com/2013/09/16/gta-5-for-ps4-and-pc-outed-by-xbox-360-source-code-report/

    The graphics improvements over 10 years look pretty good:

    http://imgur.com/a/3a2As

    Not really many things left to do visually. The 360 version looks a bit downgraded:


    [VIDEO]


    The next iPad will be as powerful as a PS3/360 so it would be able to run GTA 5 at that quality but the game size is too big. GTA 4 is less than 7GB so they could do a release of some kind for iOS. GTA 4 isn't very good though. Supposedly they have checkpoints now so no more redoing long sections.

    If they are planning a PS4 release, that will help move the PC version along because the next-gen consoles are all AMD x86.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post



    The next iPad will be as powerful as a PS3/360 so it would be able to run GTA 5 at that quality but the game size is too big. GTA 4 is less than 7GB so they could do a release of some kind for iOS. GTA 4 isn't very good though. Supposedly they have checkpoints now so no more redoing long sections.



    If they are planning a PS4 release, that will help move the PC version along because the next-gen consoles are all AMD x86.

     

    Wow that's an awesome thought, some of the big game makers already make iOS games & port to iOS, now with controller support, potential for great things.

     

    in 4 or 5 years, would be awesome having universal releases for all systems, PC, consoles, iOS.

    x86 & ARM software crossover boundaries could still make same issues i guess. 

    I still think its awesome that compainion iOS games are coming out, Watch dogs & Battle field 4 seem to push this more than GTA 5. 

     

    the GTA 5 PS3 install was 8.7 Gig & it also gets data off the disc too. 

  • Reply 10 of 11
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

    Supposedly they have checkpoints now so no more redoing long sections.

     

    The dumbing down of gaming… I remember when ‘checkpoint’ meant ‘you go back to World 1-1 and do it all over again’. :p

  • Reply 11 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

     

    The dumbing down of gaming… I remember when ‘checkpoint’ meant ‘you go back to World 1-1 and do it all over again’. :p


     

    Hahaha, yep, I go back & play some old games sometimes, the puzzles are difficult & when you die, it really punishes you.

    People playing new games, don't know the rage that old games cause.

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