Category: Apple Insider

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Each year the App Store’s editorial teams from around the world jointly spotlight a series of apps and games that particularly stand out. Always divided across Apple’s platforms, and also split into apps and games, the 2022 awards include a new Cultural Impact category.

“This year’s App Store Award winners reimagined our experiences with apps that delivered fresh, thoughtful, and genuine perspectives,” Tim Cook said in a statement. “From self-taught solo creators to international teams spanning the globe, these entrepreneurs are making a meaningful impact and represent the ways in which apps and games influence our communities and lives.”

Some of the apps celebrated are new, but others are mainstays of the Apple ecosystem, such as GoodNotes 5. Now named iPad App of the Year 2022, founder Steven Chan says it was originally launched in 2011.

“[However,] the moment for us really came when Apple Pencil was announced in 2015,” he told AppleInsider. “Because it made handwriting on the iPad is a viable alternative to pen and paper thanks to its accuracy and low latency.”

“That was a turning point for us, it turned GoodNotes from a niche product to a mainstream one,” he continued. “So almost immediately after Apple Pencil was announced, I started hiring because I had so many ideas but I couldn’t do everything on my own.”

“Thanks to Apple Pencil and iPad, our company has been growing very quickly since then,” said Chan.

By contrast, Apple Arcade Game of the Year, Wylde Flowers, was brand new to the App Store in 2022. Studio Drydock began work on the immersive farming sim game in 2019, and it has already won an Apple Design Award.

“‘Wylde Flowers’ is our very first game,” Amanda Schofield, the co-founder, creative director and managing director of indie developer Studio Drydock, told AppleInsider. “What we wanted was to make a game that represented people who had not seen themselves in games before.”

“We knew we had to build a team that was just as diverse as the game that we wanted to make,” she continued, “so we are based in Melbourne, but we have people in the US, Costa Rica, Canada, and New Zealand.”

“We’re passionate about diversity,” said Schofield, “whether that’s in Studio Drydock or in our games.”

Alongside the regular awards for apps and games across Apple’s platform, this year the App Store editors chose to spotlight five more apps that have had a significant impact. Apple says that they each have made a “lasting impact on people’s lives and influenced culture.”

How We Feel, for instance, is an app from Ben Silbermann, co-founder of Pinterest, which is made in conjunction with a scientific team led by Dr. Marc Brackett at the Yale University Center for Emotional Intelligence.

“We describe ‘How We Feel’ as a journal for emotional wellbeing,” Silbermann told AppleInsider. “We have things to track our steps if you want to get fit, we have things to track what we eat if you are dieting, but there aren’t a lot of tools to track and understand your emotions.”

“The app is all about is checking in with your feelings,” Dr. Brackett told AppleInsider, “so there’s a little button that says Check In and you tap that.”

Then the app prompts users to enter first broad, then more specific details about how they are feeling. The app tracks feelings over time and helps people see patterns about their mental wellbeing.

Recipients of the App Store Awards each receive a trophy in the form of the App Store icon rendered in aluminum.

Apple has not revealed when the winners will get their awards, but in previous years they’ve started arriving around a week after the announcement.

Save on Roborock robot vacuums this Cyber Monday.

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The holiday weekend sales are continuing, with Cyber Monday following shortly after Black Friday. Roborock is keeping up its sales, running until December 4, for many of its models of automated cleaning devices.

If the state of your home after Thanksgiving is offering any hints, it’s to buy one of these.

An entry-level option if you just want to vacuum up dust, the Roborock E5 can run for 200 minutes and handle 2,152 square feet with its 2,500Pa HyperForce suction power.

Though it is a vacuum-only model, you can update it at a later time with a separately-purchased mopping system, which ships with a 180ml adjustable water tank.

Normally priced at $289.99, Roborock has the E5 at $179.99 until December 4.

Effectively an already-updated E5, the E5 Mop provides essential vacuuming to the same level as the E5, but with the addition of mopping. When used together, the E5 can cover over 1,600 square feet for both mopping and vacuuming.

It also has a 640ml dustbin built in, to reduce the number of times you have to empty it. Meanwhile, mapping of your home is handled with its OpticEye and dual gyroscope system.

A self-emptying robot vacuum, the Roborock S7+ is a cleaner with both vacuum and mopping features. It has a sonic vibration function that can scrub at up to 3,000 times a minute, as well as an auto-lift function so that the mop doesn’t wet carpets.

It ships with a dock that both recharges and collects the dirt from the cleaner. The dock has the capacity to store up to 120 days worth of debris, so you don’t have to empty it for about four months.

Onboard LiDAR is used to create an accurate map of the home, and its adaptive route algorithms use the map to optimize cleaning routes. These maps are all accessible and tweakable within the companion app.

The owner of 17 Best of CES 2021 awards, the Roborock S7 offers a 2,500Pa HyperForce suction for vacuuming along with a multi-directional floating brush for cleaning most uneven surfaces. The ultrasonic carpet recognition system detects the carpet and can boost the suction, to make it more powerful.

Sonic Mopping Technology in the mop allows it to scrub at up to 3,000 times per minute, complete with 600g of pressure. A mop lifting system lets the robot manage both hard floors and carpets in the same cleaning run, without causing damage.

Tthe S7 MaxV adds to the S7’s Sonic Mopping Technology and brush system with a number of upgrades, starting by increasing suction to 5,100Pa.

The model also adds LiDAR navigation and the ReactiveAI 2.0 obstacle avoidance system, employing an onboard camera to see and avoid hazards. The companion app can use the camera to see around your home, and talk to people in it if you wish.

Roborock usually sells the S7 MaxV for $859.99, but from November 20 to December 4, it’s down to $639.99.

If you want an upgraded version, the S7 MaxV Plus adds a dock. Able to hold up to 120 days of dust, it also has a multi-stage filtration system to keep the air in your home clean.

The Plus model is usually $1,159.99, but you can get it until December 4 for $869.99.

The Roborock S7 MaxV Ultra offers a maximum suction of 5,100Pa, Sonic Mopping with an automatic mop lift, and an RGB camera and 3D structured light-based ReactiveAI 2.0 Obstacle Avoidance System.

The Ultra also uses the Empty Wash Fill Dock, which automatically scrubs the mop, refills it, and holds up to seven weeks of dust that’s automatically collected from the robot. There’s even a self-cleaning feature.

When used with the Auto-Empty Dock Pure and the 2.5L self-sealing dust bag, the Roborock Q7+ can provide up to seven weeks of hands-free cleaning. Capable of cleaning a space up to 1,615 square feet in size, it also has a mopping capability with a 180ml tank, so it can handle both carpets and hard floors.

LiDAR-based 3D mapping of the home across multiple levels can be examined and tweaked in the companion app, such as with the setting of no-go zones, invisible walls, and other elements. Its Sensient sensor array will help it avoid drops, steps, or being trapped, even if you don’t set any no-go areas.

Usually priced at $799.99, Roborock is discounting the Q7+ to $549.99 up to December 4.

The Q7 Max offers both vacuuming and mopping, using a twin-cleaning system that is able to pick up fine dust that vacuuming may not handle alone. With 4,200Pa of suction on the vacuum, the mop uses a pump with 30 levels of water flow, so you can select how much water it needs to clean depending on what type of flooring you have.

Able to clean up to 3,229 square feet in its 180-minute runtime, the Q7 Max will also map your household using PreciSense LiDAR navigation. These 3D maps can be adjusted in the companion app with furniture and no-go areas for better route planning.

Originally $599.99, you can get the Q7 Max for $399.99 until December 4.

The Q7 Max+ offers a more hands-free approach, with the inclusion of the Auto Empty Dock Pure with the 2.5-liter dust bag. That means it could be up to seven weeks before you have to service it.

Roborock has cut the price of the Q7 Max+ from $869.99 to $599.99 until December 4.

Offering 2,700Pa of suction to combat pet hair and fine dust, the Roborock Q5 can run for up to 180 minutes to clean a 3,220-square-foot space. It also has a large 470ml bin, reducing your need to empty it that often.

It can create 3D maps of four areas using its LiDAR system, managed within the companion app. Users can also make changes to the map, such as adding no-go zones and invisible walls, adjust the schedule, and even the suction power.

Now through December 4, you can get the Q5 for $299.99, down from $429.99.

If you want the Self-Empty Dock, go for the Q5+. With a 2.5L capacity for dirt, it can hold up to seven weeks worth of cleaning debris before you have to empty it.

The Q5+ package was $699.99, but now through December 4, it’s $479.99.

The non-robot of the group, the Dyad Cordless Wet/Dry Vacuum is a manual cleaning device. Equipped with dual rollers and a multi-roller cleaning head, it is a cleaner that can manage edge-to-edge cleaning of your home, and both wet and dry spills.

There is a built-in self-cleaning system for the brushes, automatically washing them so it’s clean and ready for the next time you’ll use it. There’s also onboard sensors to help it adapt to variations in surfaces, adjusting the water flow and suction to reduce the cleaning time.

The Dyad usually sells for $449.99, but between Cyber Monday and December 4, it can be yours for $314.99, 30% off.