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TechCrunch
4 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Apple names 2025 Design Awards winners
Days before its Worldwide Developer Conference 2025 (WWDC), Apple has named the winners and finalists of its 2025 Design Awards for apps. This year's winners and finalists mostly include indie apps and startups, and contrary to the trend everywhere else, generative AI apps are noticeably missing from the list. This is the second year in a row Apple has skipped AI-centric apps for its awards. The company did highlight some apps with AI features, though, including Speechify (won in the Inclusivity category), and music creation and editing app Moises (both are venture-backed startups). Unsurprisingly, Apple focuses more on how developers have used its tools to build better experiences. The company named 12 winners (one app and one game in each) across six categories: Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, and Social Impact. In its list of finalists this year, Apple highlighted a large number of apps and games from small developers around the world. From @Apple: "Speechify is more than a great app; it's a critical resource that helps people live their lives." A big thanks to our friends @Apple & proud the @SpeechifyAI team for winning this year's 2025 Apple Design Award in the lead up to WWDC. — Rohan Pavuluri (@RPavuluri) June 3, 2025 Watch Duty, which helped share information during California wildfires, won the award in the social impact category. Meanwhile, M13-backed developer prototyping tool Play was awarded the best app in the innovation category. Huge news — Play has won the Apple Design Award for Innovation! To be recognized by @Apple — the company whose platforms have inspired so much of what we're building — is an incredible honor. Immensely proud of our incredible team and so grateful to all the designers, teams,… — Play (@createwithplay) June 3, 2025 Here is the full list of winners: Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Delight and Fun Inclusivity Innovation Interaction Social Impact Visuals and Graphics
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Business Standard
4 days ago
- Business
- Business Standard
Apple Design Awards: Apps and games winners announced ahead of WWDC 2025
Apple has named 12 global apps and games as winners of its 2025 Design Awards, recognising innovation, inclusivity and technical excellence ahead of WWDC New Delhi The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2025 is just around the corner, scheduled for June 9. Ahead of the event, Apple has announced the winners and finalists of the 2025 Apple Design Awards, honouring 12 apps and games for their outstanding design. This year's winners include developers from around the world, recognised for their creativity, innovation and technical execution. The awards name one app and one game as the winner in each of six categories: Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. What are the Apple Design Awards The Apple Design Awards are annual accolades presented during WWDC. These awards recognise outstanding apps and games that exemplify excellence in design, innovation and technical achievement across Apple's platforms. Over time, the categories have evolved and currently include: Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. Winners are selected from a shortlist of finalists and are celebrated for their creative use of Apple technologies to deliver standout user experiences. Apple Design Awards 2025: Winners Winning apps Delight and Fun: CapWords by HappyPlan Tech (China) Innovation: Play by Rabbit 3 Times (United States) Interaction: Taobao by Zhejiang Taobao Network (China) Inclusivity: Speechify by Speechify (United States) Social Impact: Watch Duty by Sherwood Forestry Service (United States) Visuals and Graphics: Feather: Draw in 3D by Sketchsoft (South Korea) Winning games Delight and Fun: Balatro by LocalThunk (Canada) Innovation: PBJ – The Musical by Philipp Stollenmayer (Germany) Interaction: Dredge by Black Salt Games (New Zealand) Inclusivity: Art of Fauna by Klemens Strasser (Austria) Social Impact: Neva by Devolver Digital (United States)
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Apple confirms 12 standout apps you should try today on iPhone, Mac and iPad
The winners of Apple's latest Design Awards have just been announced with 12 apps you might want to try. Apple's yearly WWDC Developers Conference is less than a week away, and ahead of this global event, the US technology firm has announced the winners of its prestigious Design Awards. These gongs are handed out to developers who create standout applications that set a high bar in design. A total of 12 awards have just been announced, with Apple saying they have recognised one app and one game across six categories: Delight and Fun, Innovation, Interaction, Inclusivity, Social Impact, and Visuals and Graphics. The winners have then been chosen from a total of 36 finalists who have all demonstrated outstanding design experiences across apps and games. 'Developers continue to push the boundaries of what's possible, creating apps and games that are not only beautifully designed but also deeply impactful,' said Susan Prescott, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. 'We're excited to celebrate this incredible group of winners and finalists at WWDC and spotlight the innovation and craftsmanship they bring to each experience.' DELIGHT & FUN App: CapWords Developer: HappyPlan Tech Game: Balatro Developer: LocalThunk INNOVATION Game: PBJ — The Musical Developer: Philipp Stollenmayer INTERACTION App: Taobao Developer: Zhejiang Taobao Network Game: DREDGE Developer: Black Salt Games INCLUSIVITY App: Speechify Developer: Speechify Game: Art of Fauna Developer: Klemens Strasser SOCIAL IMPACT App: Watch Duty Developer: Sherwood Forestry Service Game: Neva Developer: Devolver Digital VISUAL & GRAPHICS App: Feather: Draw in 3D Developer: Sketchsoft Game: Infinity Nikki Developer: Infold Games Along with checking out these games, it's definitely worth keeping an eye out for news from WWDC 25 next week. Things kick off on June 9, and expect plenty of updates to be announced that will change how you use your MacBook, iPad and iPhone.
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Podcasting platform Podcastle launches a text-to-speech model with more than 450 AI voices
Podcast recording and editing platform Podcastle is now joining other companies in the AI-powered, text-to-speech race by releasing its own AI model called Asyncflow v1.0. An API for developers will also be available, allowing them to directly integrate the text-to-speech model in their apps. Thanks to the new model, the company is able to offer more than 450 AI voices that can narrate your text. The startup said that it developed the technology and model in such a way that its training and inference costs are low, giving it an advantage against competitors. With the move, Podcastle joins a number of startups, including ElevenLabs, Speechify, and WellSaid, that have developed technology and AI models to convert any kind of text into a voice clip narrated by AI. This technology spans use cases like marketing, advertisement, content creation, education, and corporate training. Podcastle's founder, Arto Yeritsyan, told TechCrunch that the company had always wanted to build a text-to-speech model, but the cost of training and data requirements for that were very high. "We wanted to build a robust text-to-speech model since our inception. However, the costs of development were very high. Thanks to recent large language model developments, we were able to reach a breakthrough last year to get to a place where we could build a high-quality voice model without needing a ton of data," Yeritsyan said. The company was also aided in its efforts by its $13.5 million Series A fundraise last year. Yeritsyan said that while Podcastle charges around $40 per 500 minutes of text-to-speech conversion, ElevenLabs charges $99 for the same. Podcastle's voice cloning feature is getting an upgrade, as well, to create a quicker process for training. Earlier, the training process involved reading roughly 70 different sentences. Now, it just needs a few seconds of recording from you to create a clone of your voice. The new process also used Podcastle's Magic Dust AI, which was released last year, to improve audio recording quality. In our testing, the voice created with the new process sounded a bit robotic, though it mimicked our tone. The company said that, over time, it will improve the feature. Plus, you can train different samples of your voice to get different results. Podcastle said that apart from costs, having tools for audio, video, podcasts, and AI-powered narration under one redesigned site will give it an edge over competitors. Yeritsyan said that while the majority of the users use Podcastle to work on audio content, video is catching up to it as well.
