Newshot 派评 | Recent Apps Worth a Look
Welcome to this edition of 派评. You can use the table of contents to jump quickly to the parts that interest you. If you've found other interesting apps or topics you'd like us to cover, feel free to discuss them with us in the comments.
套壳儿: Mockups of Every Kind, Motion Turned Up to the Max
- Platform: iOS / iPadOS
@Snow: Screenshot mockups used to be a must-have tool on every phone. Put the latest iPhone frame around your screenshot, adjust the angle and background a bit, and you'd get a screenshot asset twice as polished — then announce to the whole internet that "I got a new phone."
As AI tools have developed, more and more ordinary users are trying to "hand-roll" their own apps, and mockup screenshots are a clean, intuitive way to show others what you've built. So this category of app has entered a new round of one-upmanship: it's no longer just about being first with frame assets for the latest devices, but also about presentation that grabs attention fast. 套壳儿 presets the device models, showcase animations, and social sharing you might use day to day as customizable templates — you just import your screenshot assets, fine-tune, and quickly get all kinds of presentation effects.
Open 套壳儿 and you'll see three creation modes: flat, 3D, and animation. The "flat" mode alone already goes far beyond traditional screenshot mockup tools: it not only wraps your screenshots in the appearance of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple devices, but also supports rich presentation modes such as multiple viewing angles, multi-device combinations, and multi-device stacking. With the built-in text, stickers, and scene templates, you can quickly generate promotional posters for all sorts of scenarios — Apple ads, handheld shots, illustrations, and more.
If you want the devices themselves to be more expressive, switch to 3D mode. Here you can adjust the viewing angle and scale of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and even a classic Macintosh, and further control parameters that affect how the device looks, such as background, lighting, and environment reflections. To make your screenshots even more expressive, you can also add motion to 3D models. The app includes 12 animation effects, each of which supports manual adjustment of the start and end poses; the app smoothly fills in the animation between these two keyframes.
套壳儿 even adds a simple timeline to the motion editing bar, where you can split out multiple animation segments to achieve more complex dynamic effects. If you find the built-in animations merely passable, you can use AI to innovate further: once you confirm the motion intensity, camera intent, animation duration, and whether to lock the end frame and protect the image, the AI will create a new animation path based on your choices.
套壳儿 isn't content with animating a single model. In animation mode, the app supports organizing multiple assets into dynamic compositions such as grids, orbits, or card flows — eye-catching while also showing richer image content. If you need to showcase an app, this kind of multi-asset animation is enough to present every layer of your app in all directions.
套壳儿 includes a Pro service available as an in-app purchase: you can subscribe for 12 yuan / month or 58 yuan / year, or pay a one-time 128 yuan. After paying, you unlock features such as multi-device layouts, high-quality export, all sticker assets, background mesh gradients, custom icons, and the status bar. You can try the free features first and then decide whether to pay.
You can download 套壳儿 for free on the App Store.
Affinity for iPad: Features Optimized Specifically for iPad
- Keywords: design software, iPad
@ElijahLee: In early November 2026, Canva officially launched Affinity for iPad, bringing professional-grade design tools to the iPad platform. The app continues the Affinity series' technical accumulation in professional design, integrating drawing, vector design, photo editing, and page layout into a single workspace, while being specifically optimized for iPad touch interaction and Apple Pencil — so you can complete the entire workflow from idea to finished design directly on the tablet.
The core of Affinity for iPad consists of four studios in the upper-left corner, each corresponding to a different creative need. "Draw" is a painting workspace newly added specifically for iPad, offering a rich brush library and custom brush capabilities. We can use Apple Pencil for freehand drawing, doodling, and illustration, and of course the app supports Apple Pencil pressure, tilt, and barrel roll, so strokes change according to the actual writing posture. The app also supports converting hand-drawn shapes into clean vector shapes; after finishing a sketch, you can switch directly to "Vector" to further adjust paths and nodes.
"Vector" provides complete vector graphics editing capabilities, including path drawing, node adjustment, curve control, shape editing, and layer management. Whether you're designing a logo, an icon, an illustration, or building a brand visual system, you can do it here. "Pixel" is mainly responsible for photo and bitmap processing, offering layers, masks, blend modes, smart selections, and RAW file editing. We can do photo retouching, image compositing, and complex local adjustments. "Layout" is aimed at multi-page design and publishing layout, supporting text editing, grid layouts, guides, master pages, and more, and can be used to make brochures, magazines, posters, and even books.
The most important design idea behind Affinity for iPad is integrating different creative stages into the same file — that is, the four studios share the same creative environment. We can use drawing, vector, photo, and layout tools simultaneously in one project, without repeatedly exporting assets or converting file formats. The app also supports common design file formats such as PSD, AI, PDF, and SVG, making it easy to collaborate with other design software.
Affinity for iPad's interface fully takes touch operation habits into account. We can pinch to zoom the canvas, rotate images, and move objects with gestures, and use Apple Pencil for precise drawing and adjustment. There is also a circular panel on the canvas similar to iPhone AssistiveTouch; tap it to select commonly used modifier keys from the Mac such as Shift and Command. For design workflows, these modifier keys can greatly improve efficiency and give the iPad a chance to take on more of the work traditionally done by desktop design software. In addition, the app makes full use of iPad hardware performance and is optimized for complex design projects — even files containing a large number of layers can maintain a good editing experience.
Another notable change in Affinity for iPad is its pricing model. You can use it for free after registering a Canva account, with no need to buy a traditional standalone software license. Some AI features require a paid Canva subscription, including generative expand, image upscaling, noise reduction, and layer decomposition. You can download Affinity for iPad for free on the App Store.
melog: String Together a Few Seconds of Casual Footage into a Day's Video Diary
- Keywords: video recording, video diary
@Vanilla: melog's developer cbvivi is a vlogger who made a name for himself on social media quite a while ago. He says the app was originally built specifically for his own shooting needs. In August this year, he said in a post that his August daily log — from shooting, color grading, and editing to export — was completed entirely in melog, taking about ten minutes to make, and that without it, many of the shots there would never have been captured at all.
By September, he mentioned using melog intensively during a business trip: "I probably shot over 300 clips, and most of the footage used in the final video was shot with it too," calling it an app that "meets my personal documentary / creative needs and has no substitute." On November 5, melog, a video recording tool available only for iPhone, was officially released — cbvivi's second iOS app after myndnote.
So what exactly is special about this tool that cbvivi built for his own use? Let's take a look together.
App Review | Recent Apps Worth Watching
What makes melog most different from the system camera is how it shoots. melog offers a timed shooting mode, currently with 2-, 3-, and 5-second options; press the shutter once and it automatically records for the corresponding duration
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