Apps

BeReal, Apex Legends Mobile win in Apple’s App Store Awards

With notable Cultural Impact Winners

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App Store Awards

If you’ve been looking for new apps to download on your Apple device, then look no further. Apple has just announced winners of the 2022 App Store Awards. It’s a list filled with everything from productivity to gaming and everything else in between.

The winners were selected by Apple’s global App Store editorial team. They were chosen based on the app’s ability to deliver exceptional experiences as well as make a profound cultural impact.

2022 App Store Award Winners

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BeReal — iPhone app of the Year

BeReal gives users an authentic look into the lives of their family and friends. The user is given a prompt and has a day to post a BeReal in order to see posts from friends. The posts are always only real-time and thus, can’t be curated unlike ones in existing social media apps.

GoodNotes 5 — iPad app of the Year

It’s a free form digital paper that lets users annotate PDFs, share notes with colleagues and more. The CEO and Founder had the idea after he realized he was wasting so much paper solving math equations — which is easier to do in handwriting — during his college years. It was around this time that the first iPad was released and he saw the potential for a truly digital writing solution with it.

Mac Family Tree 10 — Mac App of the Year

MacFamilyTree 10 sparks the exploration of genealogy through stunning visual family trees and collaboration with loved ones around the world.

Gentler Streak — Apple Watch app of the Year

Gentler Streak helps users balance fitness and rest to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Games

Apex Legends Mobile — iPhone Game of the Year
Moncage — iPad Game of the Year
Inscryption — Mac Game of the Year
El Hijo — Apple TV Game of the Year

Cultural Impact Winners

Apple also selected five Cultural Impact winners that have. These apps made a lasting impact on people’s lives and influenced culture.

How We Feel

We track steps, our weight, sleep, and what not. But what about tracking our feelings? That’s what the app How We Feel from the How We Feel Project, Inc. does. It starts with a four-color mood meter. Select which color best represents how you’re feeling and it’ll expand to more granular emotions. You’ll then be asked to write what caused you to feel that way.

The team behind the app are working off three core principles; Free and accessible, Accepting of all feelings, and Research backed strategies.

Other than tracking, they also provide instructional videos as well as strategies to help improve your mood in case you find yourself in a feelings pattern that isn’t healthy for both you and the people around you.

Dot’s Home

Dot’s Home from the Rise-Home Stories Project spotlights systemic housing injustices and the subsequent impact within communities of colour through a compelling and thoughtful time-traveling tale.

Locket Widget

Locket Widget from from Locket Labs, Inc. allows users to send live photos right to family and friends’ Home Screen, Locket Widget drives intimate connection between loved ones, free from traditional social media pressures.

Waterllama

Waterllama from Vitalii Mogylevets is probably the cutest way to monitor your liquid intake. Yes, not just water. Initially, the developers’ goal was just to track water intake. But the app has grown to taking note of hydration levels, taking into account every type of drink we take in.

There are even challenges in case you want to start drinking soda or coffee less. And they’re all presented in cute, bright packages featuring animals that are dressed to impress.

Inua – A Story in Ice and Time

Inua – A Story in Ice and Time from ARTE Experience provides an engaging, mystical adventure for users to explore historical events that weave in elements of Inuit traditions, folklore, and breathtaking tales.

 

Apps

Honor, Xiaomi are working on their own Privacy Displays

Samsung’s Privacy Display is apparently very popular.

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Normally, a smartphone brand’s blatant copying of another brand’s feature is not a good practice. Today, however, there is a new feature that we wish other brands would copy: Samsung’s Privacy Display. Thankfully, some brands, like Honor, have finally gotten the message and are working on version of the feature.

As reported by Digital Chat Station on Weibo, Honor is reportedly working on a privacy screen for its smartphones. Likewise, Xiaomi is working on the same thing, potentially launching the feature for the Xiaomi 18 Pro.

For the uninitiated, the Samsung Privacy Display is a built-in feature that blocks visibility of the screen at certain angles. If you’re not looking at the screen from the front, all you’ll see is a black void. It’s a built-in version of those protective screens that you can buy separately. Besides adding a nice layer of protection against scratches, it’s also meant to prevent snooping from your shoulder.

Samsung’s take was widely acclaimed for being insanely useful. When it arrives, this feature will be a godsend to more brands. Even better, users will no longer need to rely on third-party screen just to enjoy the privacy.

That said, there’s still no indication as to when these features will arrive on either Honor or Xiaomi.

SEE ALSO: LE SSERAFIM Chaewon flexes Galaxy S26 Ultra Privacy Display

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Meta is reportedly experimenting on a gambling app

Users can spend virtual points on Arena.

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Meta does not have the most stellar of reputations. Despite offering the world’s most popular social media platforms, the company, through its various experiments throughout the years, continuously proves that it has other priorities than just providing the best for its users. Today, another reported experiment wants to take Meta to a new market that its users might fall into: the prediction market.

If you haven’t heard of the prediction market, consider yourself lucky. These apps, such as Kalshi, are basically just gambling platforms without the glitz of playing cards or the rigor of the stock market. Users gamble on mundane circumstances like the weather and more serious ones like war.

Today, as reported by The New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly asking Meta to develop a prediction app of its own. Interestingly, the experimental app, supposedly called Arena, will use virtual points, rather than real money. However, Meta has not ruled out real money — and hence, real gambling — in the future.

Meta is entering the industry at an extremely volatile time. The world is starting to crack down on prediction markets. Some users, for example, have been accused of using insider information to get easy wins on these platforms. Some markets have also accused these platforms of subverting anti-gambling laws.

SEE ALSO: Meta adds subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp

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foodpanda relaunches cult-favorite roast chicken brand after 8 years of persistent search queries

Heritage chain Andok’s returns to the platform, driven entirely by long-term user analytics.

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In the world of e-commerce and food delivery, platform algorithms usually dictate what consumers see. But occasionally, consumer behavior is so relentless that it shapes the platform’s strategy.

In a move driven entirely by long-term user analytics, foodpanda has officially relaunched Andok’s, one of the Philippines’ most iconic heritage rotisserie chains, back onto its platform after an eight-year absence.

The search bar as a digital wishlist

The decision to ink the partnership wasn’t just a marketing play. It was a response to an ongoing data anomaly. Despite being offline from the foodpanda platform for eight years, Andok’s consistently ranked as one of the most-searched merchants on the app.

Year after year, users treated the empty search results page as an unofficial wishlist. This persistent search intent gave foodpanda a clear, data-backed signal of pent-up demand.

Prior to the official digital rollout, teaser campaigns on social media validated this demand, generating thousands of organic interactions from users anticipating the return.

Bridging heritage flavor with digital infrastructure

For foodpanda, onboarding a merchant with this level of built-in demand fits its broader strategy of marketplace optimization and hyper-local network expansion, turning a heritage brand into another data point for how legacy retail plugs into delivery infrastructure.

For Andok’s, the integration works as a fast track to digital scale. A legacy quick-service chain skips years of independent app development and reaches customers already using foodpanda’s existing logistics network, on a platform they already check daily.

Andok’s built its following on charcoal spit-roasted chicken, a slow-cooked technique that’s stayed largely unchanged since the brand’s early days, alongside seasoned grilled pork belly.

More recently, the Dokito line extended that following into crispy fried chicken and chicken burgers, broadening the brand’s appeal beyond its original rotisserie format and giving foodpanda a menu with both heritage pull and everyday fast-food convenience.

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