Notifications are an important part of the iOS experience, but they can also be extremely annoying when you're doing something else on your iPhone (especially when you're playing games). This is why Apple has added the ability to easily dismiss them in iOS 7.

You can get rid of pesky Notifications by simply swiping up on the message you want to dismiss on your Home screen. This allows you to quickly clear your display of any Notifications instead of waiting for them to disapear automatically. All dismissed texts, emails and so on will still be stored in your Notifications Center, which you can access by swiping down from the top of your display.

Sending an app gift to friends and family who use iOS has never been easier. When it comes to the holiday season, sending someone an app is convenient and doesn't waste a lick of wrapping paper. Apps can be gifted using the App Store on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, or directly from iTunes on a computer.

To gift an app from the App Store, find the app you wish to deliver as a gift using the browse or search functions. Once on the app details screen, tap the share box in the upper right corner. When the menu pops up at the bottom of the screen, touch the Gift button.

Competition between carriers offering unsubsidized iPhones, contract-free data plans and other options keeps getting hotter. AT&T Mobility has taken another step in this direction, and now offers its Mobile Share plans with no-contract pricing. Mobile Share Value Plans are now available, promising to save AT&T subscribers $15 per month.

The new plans officially launched on December 8th. AT&T seems to be directly competing with T-Mobile's recent offerings, which remove subsidized devices from the equation. With AT&T Next, customers can choose to purchase a new iPhone outright with no contract or sign up for a monthly installment payment plan.

Spotify announced today that its mobile app will now be free on iOS and Android devices. The free version of the popular music streaming service was previously only available on desktop browsers. Just like Pandora, the free service will be supported by advertisements, and it will only give users access to specific select tracks. The new service will begin rolling out to mobile users starting today.

You will still need a premium account if you want an ad-free experience or other benefits like offline listening. A Spotify premium plan costs $9.99 per month and gives you the ability to play any song at any time.

TinyCo, the creators behind Tiny Village and Tiny Monsters, have teamed up with Fox Digital Entertainment and Seth MacFarlane to develop a Family Guy game for mobile devices. The free to play title will be available for both iOS and Android sometime in 2014, and it will feature all the popular characters from the hit TV show.

Rick Phillips, senior vice president at Fox Digital Entertainment, told Polygon that the game will feature an original story based the show's long history and that will also tackle "current events."

"TinyCo were really passionate about what they wanted to do with Family Guy," said Philips. We thought the guys from TinyCo could build a game that's truest to the brand and IP."