ProWidgets: a groundbreaking widget suite with multitasking features

By Jeff Benjamin on Mar 11, 2014

Cydia has been the originating point for lots of groundbreaking ideas over the years. Copy and paste originated here, card-based app switchers began here as well. And let’s not forget Notification Center and Control Center — each had its roots firmly planted in Cydia before debuting in stock iOS.

It goes without saying that Apple has been keen on seeing many of the developments unfold by some of the brilliant minds that make up the jailbreak community. It’s even hired ones because of the work they’ve done with jailbreak apps and tweaks, and iOS hacking in general.

Today, we’re happy to reveal the next big blockbuster tweak for jailbroken iPhones and iPads. Hopefully, it will help generate ideas for Apple’s next big feature in iOS. Today, we’d like to introduce to you a brand new upcoming tweak called ProWidgets. We’ve got the very first exclusive hands-on coverage of ProWidgets, and we think you’ll agree with us when we say it’s one of the best looking jailbreak tweaks we’ve seen in some time… Read More

 

Fantastical gains WhatsApp and 1Password integration, new alert sound and more

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Fantastical by Flexibits is arguably the most advanced calendar and to-do application on the iPhone – my daily productivity is now dependent on it running on my iOS devices and Macs.

If you’re not familiar with the app, it features natural language processing so you can just type in something like ‘lunch with Dad in two weeks at Mom’s place at 1pm’ and it’ll automatically create a reminder or an event for you. And yes, it integrates with your iOS Calendar and Reminders database.

Fantastical is even better on the Mac and developers should be praised for keeping their user base loyal by expanding on the feature set with regular refinements and new capabilities. In today’s update, now live in the App Store, Fantastical brings out a whole bunch of tweaks and improvements along with a few new features.

Notable highlights include an option to send text messages in WhatsApp, support for opening links in 1Password and the Mercury web browser, a new custom sound they’ve made for event and reminder notifications and lots more.

The full changelog is right below the fold… Read More

 

Apple to open small stores in India with a focus on low-end iOS devices

By Cody Lee on Mar 11, 2014

Citing sources familiar with the company’s retail plans, The Economic Times is reporting today that Apple is working with local distributors in India to set up small shops in larger cities to push some older-model iPhones and iPads, as well as some lower-end Macs.

The initiative is part of Apple’s ongoing efforts to make inroads into the country, where its iPhone only accounts for about 2% of the smartphone market. These new shops, according to the report, will focus on cheaper devices like the iPhone 4 and 4s, and the iPad 2…

Read More

 

Star Trek Online MMO is now available for the Mac

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Today’s a good day to be a Mac gamer. First, Blizzard unleashed Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, its free-to-play fast-paced strategy card game set in the Warcraft universe, and now this. Avid gamers will be quick to point out that PC users have been privileged to enjoy Star Trek Online since its release back in 2010.

Unfortunately, as developers Cryptic and Perfect World originally failed to introduce the Mac edition alongside the PC version, it’s taken them three long years to produce the Mac edition of Star Trek Online, with a little help from conversion specialists TransGaming and its Cider technology.

Now available on a free-to-play basis, Star Trek Online is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game set in the 25th century, in the original Star Trek universe.

It’s awesome that all of the familiar themes, sides, races, locations and vessels are in there, including the embattled Federation, the mighty Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, the Dominion – even the Borg Collective is included.

Who’s ready to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations in a vast, expanding universe? Good, I’ve included more tidbits after the break so read on… Read More

 

Blizzard releases free-to-play Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on the Mac

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Following a brief public beta period, the acclaimed games maker Blizzard Entertainment (a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard) on Tuesday released its Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on the Mac (Windows, too).

Now available on a free-to-play basis from Blizzard’s website, Hearthstone is a strategy card game set in the Warcraft universe which pits you against your Battle.net friends and aims to “evoke the spirit of a friendly match played beside a crackling tavern fire”.

Each player starts with a deck of thirty Magic-style cards, with additional cards becoming available once you win battles or buy new cards through the in-app purchasing mechanism (that’s why they call it a free-to-play game).

There are hundreds of unique cards to choose from. Each player’s card deck focuses on a hero representing one of nine Warcraft classes – customized with a set of minions, spells and weapons – and features iconic characters like Jaina Proudmoore, Gul’dan, Uther the Lightbringer and Thall… Read More

 

24 hours later, iOS 7.1 adoption hits 5.9 percent of active devices in North America

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

In its first 24 hours in the wild, Apple’s new iOS 7.1 software is now on 5.9 percent of active devices in North America, research firm Chitika reported Tuesday. The figure was derived from “tens of millions” of iOS-based online ad impressions generated within the Chitika Ad Network in the United States and Canada from March 9 through March 11, 2014.

By comparison, the number is comparable to the crucial iOS 7.0.6 update which fixed a nasty SSL security exploit, with iOS 7.0.6 users generating six percent of all iOS 7.0.6 traffic 24 hours post-release (or a nice 13.3 percent adoption in 48 hours)… Read More

 

New Version of Microsoft Office coming to Mac this year

By Cody Lee on Mar 11, 2014

Microsoft is preparing to release a long-awaited update to its Office productivity suite for Mac this year. The current version, Office:mac 2011, lags far behind its Windows counterpart in terms of user interface and functionality.

The news first came from Microsoft’s Business Group Lead Thorsten Hübschen and has since been confirmed by a spokesperson, who says the company is indeed working on the update and it will provide further details soon… Read More

 

Day One journaling app becomes a publishing platform: you can now post diary entries online

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Two days ago, Day One journaling app for iOS and OS X by Bloom Built has celebrated its third anniversary.

Having been a user since Day One’s inception, I couldn’t be happier with its clean and elegant design, rich Markdwon support and carefully balanced set of features letting me keep my personal memories, photos and life’s best moments neatly organized in one place.

To this date, virtually not a day has gone by without me firing up Day One on my iPhone to capture my thoughts and feelings or simply snap up a memorable moment in time and spice it up with a punchy caption.

I also love Day One’s inline photos, how it integrates location data from Foursquare, pulls weather information for entries and keeps my diary synchronized between iOS and Mac devices through iCloud. These are just some of the factors that prompted Apple to name Day One its 2012 Mac App of the Year and 2011 #1 Best App in the Mac App Store.

And now, Bloom Built has updated the iOS edition with Publish, a major new capability that turns your private entries into attractive web pages, available to anyone or just the people with whom you’ve shared the URL of the entry – the choice is yours.

Jump past the fold for the full breakdown… Read More

 

Will Flappy Bird ever return to the App Store? The developer says it might

By Cody Lee on Mar 11, 2014

It would appear that the Flappy Bird saga is still far from over. The game’s creator Dong Nguyen, who pulled the title from iOS and Android at the height of its popularity, says that he is considering returning the game to app stores.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Nguyen talks about a wide range of things, including why he pulled Flappy Bird in the first place, and how it has affected his life. He also says that he has been contemplating bringing the game back… Read More

 

Snip & Chu is a handheld electronic game for the next generation

By Lory Gil on Mar 11, 2014

In the 1980s, handheld electronic games were all the rage. They ranged from clamshell style devices that were later used for Nintendo’s DS, to mini games that you could play on a watch. They featured an LCD screen with pre-set custom designs and a visual output similar to digital watch displays.

Snip & Chu harkens back to the old days with an iPad version of the handheld electronic games that we envied as kids and hoped to see in our Christmas stocking every year… Read More

 

Upcoming large-screened iPhone described as a cross between iPhone 5c and iPod nano

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

There have been numerous attempts at envisioning what Apple’s next iPhone might look like, especially as the likes of Reuters and The Wall Street Journal jumped on the iPhablet bandwagon calling for two new large-screened iPhones, one with a 4.7-inch display and the other rocking a screen that seemingly measures at least five inches diagonally.

A new report by the rather accurate Japanese blog Macotakara now claims that the upcoming iPhones will expand on rather than replace the current four-inch four factor offered by the iPhone 5/5s/5c, with the bigger model classed as a phablet… Read More

 

Download ColorStrokes for free and enter for a chance to win goodies [sponsored]

By Sébastien Page on Mar 11, 2014

Since it was released in the Mac App Store in 2012, ColorStrokes has been one of the top photo apps with dozens of glowing reviews. Fastforward two years later and ColorStrokes has now been downloaded over 1 million times. To celebrate the event, ColorStrokes developer Macphun (these are the guys behind Snapheal and Intensify for Mac – photo apps named 2012 and 2013 Best of Mac App Store) has decided to give free copies of the app to everybody, and they’ve also put up a giveaway where lucky winners will be able to grab 1 of 3 awesome Foffa Bikes, plus your ColorStrokes images printed on canvas.

What’s the trick, you may ask? There is no trick. All you have to do is head over to Macphun website and get your free copy of ColorStrokes. You will have to enter your name and email address, then a download link and activation code will be emailed to you. Once you’ve downloaded your free copy of ColorStrokes, go back to Macphun website to enter the giveaway where you will have to like their page on Facebook and retweet a message.

That’s all there is to it. If you don’t believe in giveaways, you can always get your free copy of ColorStrokes, no strings attached!

 

Polus is now available on Cydia

By Jeff Benjamin on Mar 11, 2014

Polus—the brand new Control Center QuickLaunch tweak for iOS 7—is available right now on Cydia to download. The tweak, which we covered extensively a few weeks ago, allows you to customize various aspects of the QuickLaunch shortcuts appearing in Control Center, including the amount of shortcuts, size, and shape.

You can even assign Activator actions to each QuickLaunch shortcut, including a single tap and a tap-and-hold gesture. This allows you to do interesting things like assign a tap-and-hold gesture to the Twitter app shortcut in order to launch the compose-new-Tweet sheet. When it comes to Polus your only limit is your imagination. Step inside to review our full video walkthrough of the tweak in action. Read More

 

Apple lets Vevo live-stream SXSW iTunes Festival

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Apple’s iTunes Festival at SXSW in Austin, Texas is kicking off at 8pm Pacific / 11pm Eastern and the music video service Vevo just announced on its blog that it will live stream all of the performances through through its Apple TV channel and its free mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad.

Select performances will be available following each show, Vevo has noted. The five-day event runs from March 11 through March 15 at ACL Live at the Moody Theater.

In addition to Vevo, Apple itself will provide a free live and on-demand stream via the iTunes Store on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC devices, as well as in high-definition through the newly-refreshed iTunes Festival app, available free of charge for iOS devices and as a channel on the Apple TV media-streaming box… Read More

 

Hands-on with the Hipjot keyboard beta for Cydia – try it now

By Jeff Benjamin on Mar 11, 2014

If you’ve been keeping your ear to the street as of late, you’re well aware of the Nintype/Hipjot keyboard tweak that’s currently in development for Cydia. Unlike most Cydia releases, the Hipjot keyboard implementation is being worked on by the developer of the App Store version—Jormy Games—so you can expect a release that’s about as faithful as possible to the developer’s original vision.

Comparable to keyboard technology like Swype, Hipjot adds a keyboard that largely departs from Apple’s stock iOS keyboard. It allows you to use swiping gestures to go from one character to the next in order to build full words, sentences, and paragraphs. The unique text entry method allows its users to type much faster than is possible on a standard iOS keyboard, with some users reaching upwards of 70-90 words per minute without breaking much of a sweat.

I’ve had the chance to go hands-on with the Cydia version of the keyboard, and I can tell you that it makes typing much faster. Being able to use Hipjot with stock iOS apps, and 3rd-party apps makes typing a breeze. Inside we’ve created a preview video of the beta build so that you can see how the keyboard works in action with stock applications. Read More

 

Instagram for iPhone introduces Lux filter slider

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Facebook-owned Instagram has introduced the popular Lux filter via a free update back in February 2012. Lux is admittedly a nice new way to enhance your photos, but there’s just one slight problem: Instagram’s one-touch implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

For starters, the effect has no options to fiddle with. For those unaware of Lux, it reduces overexposure and uses sharpening and fill light tweaks to make your shots warmer and people prettier.

It’s quite handy in low-light and low-contrast situations, even more so if you take lots of selfies using the iPhone’s sub-par front-facing camera. Realizing folks need more control over Lux, Instagram has updated its free iPhone app with a custom Lux slider… Read More

 

Poll: does iOS 7.1 crash less on you?

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

If you’re a proud iPhone 5s owner, I’m sure you’ll agree that the experience of using iOS 7 on a daily basis is less stellar than what we’ve normally come to expect from our favorite fruity company. If anything, iOS 7.0.x has taught iPhone owners, especially iPhone 5s ones, to get used to random crashes at least a couple times a day.

It’s not just that Safari crashed a lot on me, I crashed while listening to music, reading books and taking pictures – I even crashed on the iOS app switcher. It was almost as if my iPhone 5s would restart if I looked at it the wrong way.

I’m pleased to report that iOS 7 crashes far less on my iPhone 5s versus any prior iOS 7.0.x version, including the recently released iOS 7.0.6. Of course, your mileage may vary and with less than a day’s worth of running newly-released iOS 7.1 not everyone’s had a chance to experience just how stabler and snappier the new version is.

Having said that, I’d like you to vote in this non-scientific poll about iOS 7.1 stability and learn about your experience thus far. Go ahead, cast a vote and join the civil discussion down in the comments…. Read More

 

New in iOS 7.1: Maps navigation prompts through your car’s stereo over Bluetooth

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

Apple has delivered iOS 7.1 yesterday, its first major iOS update since the software’s launch nearly six months ago. We’ve already detailed some of the noteworthy enhancements like Touch ID reliability improvements, new Siri features, CarPlay support, a bunch of bug fixes – some of which have been credited to prominent iOS hackers like the evad3rs team - and more.

According to developer Mike Piontek, Maps in iOS 7.1 includes a poorly labeled new feature called HFP Prompts which allows the app to play navigation prompts over your car’s speakers, via Bluetooth, even when the iPhone is not selected as the audio source. It’s a great addition to Apple’s in-car initiative because no longer do you have to fiddle with audio settings as HFP Prompts automatically does the right thing for you.

Jump past the fold for the full breakdown… Read More

 

Report sheds light on public transit directions in iOS 8′s Maps and other new features

By Christian Zibreg on Mar 11, 2014

A new report by the reliable blogger Mark Gurman of 9to5Mac has offered new details concerning Apple’s Maps service in iOS 8, the next major iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, which is expected to be released later this year.

Gurman learned from sources briefed on Apple’s plans that CEO Tim Cook, SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi and Maps head Patrice Gautier have been leading teams of Apple engineers since former iOS chief Scot Forstall’s departure in order to polish and enhance the service so it lives up to the “incredibly high standard” of Apple’s customers.

Here’s what you should expect from Apple Maps in iOS 8… Read More

 

Yahoo Search app updated with new iOS 7 design

By Cody Lee on Mar 11, 2014

Yahoo has updated its official Search client for iOS this morning, bringing the app to version 3.1. The update doesn’t include much, but is instantly noticeable thanks to the all new design. Yahoo calls it ‘minimalist,’ but we often refer to this as iOS 7-style.

For those who aren’t familiar with it, the app is pretty much your standard web engine with a built-in browser, but of course with Yahoo’s services. So for folks invested in the ecosystem with either Mail or Tumblr, it could offer more than Google or Bing… Read More

 
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