Apps
These Apple apps are award-winning
Will be recognized at WWDC 2024
Looking for new apps to tinker with on your iPhone or iPad? Perhaps you can give these ones handpicked by Apple a fair shake. Apple just unveiled the winners of the 2024 Apple Design Awards. A total of 14 apps and games were named. All of them will be recognized on the upcoming WWDC 2024.
Apple says these were chosen because of their delight and fun, inclusivity, innovation, interaction, social impact, visuals and graphics, and a new spatial computing category. Check them out below.
Delight and Fun
Winners in this category provide memorable, engaging, and satisfying experiences that are enhanced by Apple technologies.
App: Bears Gratitude
Developer: Isuru Wanasinghe (Australia)
Bears Gratitude is a simple way to encourage and embrace honest self-reflection. The journaling app provides a welcoming way to establish daily gratitude practices. Thoughtfully crafted characters within the app help create a sense of warmth and routine to support users in building happiness, one day at a time.
Game: NYT Games
Developer: The New York Times Company (United States)
Through a compelling mix of titles, New York Times Games has redesigned its navigation and expanded its gaming catalogue. New titles like Connections are calibrated for maximum replay value. They come with elegant design and ease of use that result in an experience that encourages everyone to join in on the fun.
Finalists for this category include Dudel Draw by Silly Little Apps, LLC; Hello Kitty Island Adventure by Sunblink Entertainment LLC; Rooms by Things, Inc.; and WHAT THE CAR? by Triband ApS.
Inclusivity
Winners in this category provide a great experience for all by supporting people from a diversity of backgrounds, abilities, and languages.
App: oko
Developer: AYES (Belgium)
By alerting pedestrians to the state of signal lights through haptic and audio feedback, oko is an immediately impactful app for people who are visually impaired. It is a powerful solution to a critical safety scenario that takes advantage of Apple technologies including VoiceOver and Dynamic Type.
Game: Crayola Adventures
Developer: Red Games Co. (United States)
A colourful adventure game that offers a wide range of creation options for all players, Crayola Adventures brings to life character choices that include different skin tones, abilities, body types, pronouns, and full game narration. All ages can enjoy this delightful game experience, offering a mix of activities that include making decorations, solving puzzles, and reading storybooks.
Finalists for this category include Complete Anatomy 2024 by Elsevier, quadline by Kovalov, Tiimo by tiimo ApS, and Unpacking by Humble Bundle.
Innovation
Winners in this category provide a state-of-the-art experience through novel use of Apple technologies that sets them apart in their genre.
App: Procreate Dreams
Developer: Procreate (Australia)
Procreate Dreams is a stunning design tool that allows creatives of all kinds to create 2D animations using the extensive and familiar library of brushes, gestures, and PencilKit-enabled behaviours from the original Procreate. The controls are effortlessly intuitive, with support for both multitouch interactions and Apple Pencil. The app offers powerful animated effects, audio, and video to bring users’ creations and artwork to life.
Game: Lost in Play
Developer: Happy Juice Games (Israel)
Filled with endearing characters and fun minigames, Lost in Play offers players a charming adventure through childhood imagination with thoughtfully crafted puzzles. This point-and-tap journey features hand-drawn graphics, easy-to-learn interactions, and compelling gameplay that ignites a childlike sense of discovery throughout.
Finalists for this category include Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile by Activision Publishing, Inc.; Copilot Money by Copilot Money, Inc.; SmartGym by Mateus Abras; and Wavelength by Palm Court LLC.
Interaction
Winners in this category deliver intuitive interfaces and effortless controls that are perfectly tailored to their platform.
App: Crouton
Developer: Devin Davies (New Zealand)
Crouton provides users with a clean interface for stashing away recipes, creating grocery lists, and presenting step-by-step instructions in the kitchen. With its effortless series of interactions, Crouton lets users keep their focus on the counter rather than the screen.
Game: Rytmos
Developer: Floppy Club (Denmark)
Rytmos challenges players to solve puzzles. They do this by creating pathways using simple drag gestures. Every completed level adds a new element to an evolving song. The brightly conceived onboarding makes gameplay instantly clear. And the gestures are simple and fun, even when the game starts delivering more complexity.
Finalists for this category include Arc Search by The Browser Company of New York Inc; finity. by Seabaa, Inc.; Little Nightmares by Playdigious; and Procreate Dreams by Savage Interactive Pty Ltd.
Social Impact
Winners in this category improve lives in a meaningful way and shine a light on crucial issues.
App: Gentler Streak Fitness Tracker
Developer: Gentler Stories (Slovenia)
Gentler Streak aims to improve everyone’s lifestyles, no matter who or where they are. The app is powered by optimistic and encouraging reminders that factor in both physical fitness and mental wellbeing. Its health data is smartly organised and seamlessly integrated to help users thoughtfully track exercise, rest, and wellness. In a Monthly Summary view, users are shown how they are doing in relation to their history. This emphasizes the focus on individual progression rather than comparison against others.
Game: The Wreck
Developer: The Pixel Hunt (France)
In the visual novel The Wreck, players follow alongside the story of Junon. Junon is a writer who is abruptly called to a hospital to make a life-changing decision that will impact her family forever. The game is eloquently written through deep and intimate narratives. These reflect stressful situations, and invites players to think about their choices throughout a nuanced and powerful gameplay experience.
Finalists for this category include Ahead: Emotions Coach by ahead Solutions GmbH; Cityscapes: Sim Builder by MagicFuel Games; How We Feel by The How We Feel Project, Inc.; and The Bear by Mucks Games.
Visuals and Graphics
Winners in this category feature stunning imagery, skilfully drawn interfaces, and high-quality animations that lend to a distinctive and cohesive theme.
App: Rooms
Developer: Things, Inc. (United States)
Rooms offers users a blank slate for building imaginative scenes, a platform for cosy gaming, and a social space that offers interactions with thousands of other people’s creations. The rooms within the app are filled with delightful detail, and the app’s interactions, sounds, and visuals strike the balance between quirky and compelling.
Game: Lies of P
Developer: NEOWIZ (South Korea)
Lies of P is an imaginative adventure that reimagines a classic tale, allowing players to control a robotic puppet created by Geppetto, who must survive a battle march through a burned-out city to find his maker. The visuals showcase a world of beautiful textures, detailed lighting, and stunning effects, and visual customisation options like MetalFX upscaling and volumetric fog effects on Mac let users style the game to their liking.
Finalists for this category include DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT by 505 Games (U.S.), Inc.; Honkai: Star Rail by COGNOSPHERE PTE. LTD.; Meditate by RhythmicWorks; and Sunlitt: Sun Position and Path by Nicolas Mariniello.
Spatial Computing
Winners in this category bring extraordinary craftsmanship to their exceptional spatial experiences.
App: djay pro – DJ App & AI Mixer
Developer: algoriddim GmbH (Germany)
djay is an entirely new way to interact with music in a spatial environment. With remarkable technical ingenuity and best-in-class immersion, djay brings users high-definition sound quality and endless creativity for music mixing. The app features high-quality turntables, a cool interactive effects panel, and an array of magnificently considered environments, from a nighttime desert scene to a space lounge populated by dancing robots.
Game: Blackbox
Developer: Shapes and Stories (United States)
Blackbox on Apple Vision Pro challenges users to think about every corner of the spatial canvas. Players are greeted by engaging puzzles and clever easter eggs at every turn. The game is filled with wonderful details. Every solution feels like learning a new magic trick as puzzles gently unfold around the player and curiosity is rewarded.
Finalists for this category include Loóna: Cozy Puzzle Games by Loona Inc.; NBA by NBA MEDIA VENTURES, LLC; Sky Guide by Fifth Star Labs LLC; and Synth Riders by Kluge Strategic Inc.
Apps
Apple’s best feature to cure motion sickness is finally on Android
Google copies a good page from Apple’s playbook.
As an Android user, I’ve been jealous of iPhone users for a while now, but it’s not for the reason you might think. See, I’m ridiculously prone to motion sickness when I’m not driving. So, when I discovered that Apple has a software-based cure called Vehicle Motion Cues, I wanted it immediately. Now, Android does have third-party apps that do the same thing, but they’re not as good as a fully native version. Well, those dark, nauseating days are about to come to an end. Android 17 is finally getting a similar tool called Motion assist.
Before that, let’s rewind for a bit. What do these features do? How can they cure motion sickness?
Whenever you open Vehicle Motion Cues or Motion assist, the interface spawns a series of dots on the screen. These dots respond to movement. For example, if the vehicle turns to the left, the dots also go to the left, mimicking the movement. Without cues like this, the stationary nature of the screen clashes with our brain’s perception of movement. The disparity creates that feeling of nausea. Basically, our eyes are desperately trying to focus on the static screen, but our brains are telling us that we should be seeing motion. Having moving dots reorients our brain and places the phone inside our perception of movement.
Now, you can enable the same feature on your Android 17 device through Settings > All services > Motion assist under Personal & device safety. You can also set it so that the feature turns on automatically when the phone detects that you’re in a moving vehicle. Finally, you can also tweak the shape, color, and opacity of these dots.
Android 17’s Motion assist is rolling out now to compatible devices.
SEE ALSO: These are the best Android 17 features (if you hate AI)
Disney is rolling out its new Disney+ app to markets that have been using a separate, Hotstar-derived version of the service.
The change is already happening across several regions, with Southeast Asia among the markets affected. Disney+ subscribers in the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and other countries will transition to the newer app experience as Disney works toward a more unified global platform.
For Philippine subscribers, Disney+ has confirmed that the migration will happen on October 7, 2026.
The company notified subscribers this week that the existing app will eventually be replaced by a new Disney+ app. No action is required yet, and subscribers can continue using the current app until Disney provides further instructions.
The migration is part of a broader effort to bring Disney+ users onto the same core platform.
From Hotstar to a global Disney+ app
The distinction between the old and new experiences goes back to Disney’s international expansion.
Disney used a Hotstar-derived version of its streaming platform in several markets, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, South Africa, and markets across the Middle East and North Africa.
That version provided a localized Disney+ experience, but it operated separately from the main Disney+ platform used across many other international markets.
Disney began simplifying its streaming brands in 2025. In Southeast Asia, Disney+ Hotstar was rebranded simply as Disney+, while the Star general-entertainment brand was replaced by Hulu. At the time, Disney said the rebrand would bring a more consistent Disney+ experience, although the available content would remain tailored to each market.
The next step is now happening at the app level.
Egypt began moving to the new Disney+ app on September 2, followed by Indonesia on September 3. South Africa is scheduled for September 9, while Thailand is set to follow on September 16. Malaysia and the Philippines are scheduled for October 7.
This makes the Philippine migration part of a much larger transition rather than an isolated local update.
A more familiar Disney+ experience
The new app brings affected markets closer to the current Disney+ experience elsewhere.
Disney redesigned the global app earlier this year with a new For You homepage, improved personalization, redesigned navigation, more prominent profiles, and additional content hubs. Depending on the market and subscription, the interface can also surface Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN sections.
Disney has also been expanding the platform’s international language support. In July, the company added 17 languages, bringing Disney+ to 58 audio languages, with the user interface available in more than 30 languages and subtitles or closed captions available in as many as 42. The expansion included Thai, Indonesian, Malay, Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.
The company has described these updates as part of its effort to make Disney+ a more accessible and localized service for audiences around the world.
The migration also brings practical changes for subscribers.
In the Philippines, Disney says existing subscribers can continue using their current account and subscription. However, profiles, watchlists, and viewing history will not transfer to the new platform. Philippine subscribers will therefore need to set up their profiles and watchlists again after moving to the new app.
The subscription itself does not require an additional charge because of the migration. Existing billing cycles will also remain in place.
The catalog will still depend on where you are
Moving to the global Disney+ app does not mean every country will suddenly receive the same library.
Disney continues to operate its streaming service according to regional content rights. Its own Help Center notes that content availability can differ by country or region, and that some titles may not be available in a subscriber’s current location.
That means a subscriber in the Philippines, for example, will still see a catalog determined by the rights Disney has for the Philippine market. The same applies to subscribers in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, or any other market making the transition.
What is becoming more global is the platform itself.
That brings Disney+ closer to the model used by other major streaming services, where subscribers can use a common app experience across markets while the actual catalog changes depending on where they are.
The distinction is particularly relevant for people who travel. Disney’s global Help Center says subscribers abroad can stream content available in the country or region they are visiting, meaning the service’s location-based availability rules still apply even on the unified platform.
Disney has been signaling this direction for some time. In 2025, the company said its redesigns were leading toward a “fully integrated unified app experience” in 2026. The latest migrations appear to be the next major step toward that goal.
For subscribers in the remaining Hotstar-derived markets, then, the biggest change isn’t necessarily what’s available to watch.
It’s where and how they access Disney+.
Apps
Canva teams up with SB19 to turn A’TIN’s passion into creativity
Campaign lets fans access assets, editable templates, more
Canva Philippines has joined forces with SB19 and Sony Music Entertainment to launch the “Kaya sa Canva” campaign.
This first-of-its-kind initiative is aimed at transforming the popular Filipino boy band’s fanbase into creators by giving them access to official design assets, exclusive templates, and powerful creative tools.
That’s of course as fans have a way of creating artwork, banners, and more outputs to honor their idols.
As such, the partnership enables the A’TIN (SB19’s fanbase) to access the Canva-exclusive SB19’s Creative Hub.
This dedicated space lets fans access assets, including SB19-inspired sticker packs, custom typography, and editable templates inspired by the group.
Fans around the world will initially have access to templates for photo-booth strips, wallpapers, posters, and videos.
The campaign will then expand with Canva-exclusive assets celebrating the group’s New Era, as well as their latest single, “Lawless”.
Meanwhile, the original song “KAYA” is accompanied with an upbeat music video, doubling as a love letter to A’TIN and a masterclass in Canva’s tools.
Every visual and animation is fan-inspired, a celebration of the creativity, passion, and dedication that’s defined in the community from day one.
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