How to prepare for the iOS 6.1 untethered jailbreak

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 28, 2013

It’s almost here, ladies and gentlemen. I know we say this before every jailbreak, but this truly is the most highly anticipated jailbreak to ever hit the community.

Just consider it for a minute: There a more devices supported with this jailbreak than ever before, and there are perhaps many people out there that have never had a taste of jailbreaking before who are anticipating their first time.

Couple this with the fact that it’s been a very long time since we’ve had a jailbreak to begin with, and you can kind of see where I’m going with this. We’re all very excited, but don’t get into so much a frenzy that you forget to cover some essential basics when it comes to preparing for the iOS 6.1 jailbreak. Be prepared, and take these steps. Read More

 

How to take photos while recording video on your iPhone 5

By Cody Lee on Jan 28, 2013

The iPhone 5 arrived late last year with a number of new features. It’s both thinner and lighter than its predecessor, it’s faster, and it has an improved camera.

But one of its smaller, lesser talked about features is the fact that it can snap photos while the phone is in video mode. Of course, a lot of you probably already know about this. But for those that don’t, we’ll show you how right after the break… Read More

 

How to install MAME ROMs on a non-jailbroken device with Gridlee

By Mike Schnier on Jan 27, 2013

As we reported on Saturday, Gridlee is a freeware arcade game from 1982 which was re-released on the iTunes App Store by David Loureiro. This would have been unremarkable, if Gridlee was a straight port from the source code and if it wasn’t actually powered by an up-to-date and fully featured version of MAME4iOS Reloaded.

This means if you have a program capable of tunneling into the iOS file-system through USB, you can once again have a working version of MAME on a non-jailbroken device, complete with your own ROM images. As I can’t think of anyone who would legitimately want to play Gridlee on an iPad, this was likely an intentional attempt to sneak the emulator back into the App Store, so we’re guessing Apple won’t be hosting the file for too long. Grab it while you can… Read More

 

How to have iOS screenshots automagically appear in your Mac’s Finder

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 27, 2013

I’ve always loved the simplified iOS approach to screenshot taking just by pressing the power and home button simultaneously. This oft-used feature works in absolutely any app and, as an added bonus, iOS stores my screenies in the Camera Roll as crisp, lossless PNG files.

An indispensable part of my daily blogging workflow, I grab app graphics on a daily basis for use in reviews, news articles and guides such as this one. The old-school approach to syncing iOS screenshots (along with your photos) entails connecting your device to a Mac or PC via USB. But if you’re anything like me, you’ve long cut the cord to enjoy the benefits of wireless sync.

Now, iCloud makes photo sync a no-brainer: that is, unless the very thought of firing up iPhoto or Aperture on your Mac just to access your Photo Stream drives you nuts.

There must be a better way to bypass these resource-intensive apps and have the screenshots taken on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch automagically appear just a mouse click away in your Mac’s Finder. Read on for the full breakdown… Read More

 

How to jailbreak iOS 6.1 beta 5 [Video]

By Jeff Benjamin on Jan 26, 2013

Is it, or is it not the “GM” release that we’ve all been waiting for? That’s still up for debate, but, regardless if it is or not, it’s unlikely that we’ll see an iOS 6.1 jailbreak released until iOS 6.1 goes public.

In the meantime, if you happen to be a developer, you can enjoy a jailbroken version of iOS 6.1 beta 5 on your pre-A5 device. This jailbreak is a tethered jailbreak only, unless you happen to be rocking an old-bootrom version of the iPhone 3GS.

Take a look inside as I walk you through the step-by-step process of jailbreaking iOS 6.1 beta 5… Read More

 

How to change an iPhone 5 screen in 3 minutes

By Sebastien Page on Jan 26, 2013

In the DIY category, this one might come in handy to those of you who accidentally dropped their iPhone 5 and broke the screen. In this video, we are showed how to change the iPhone 5 screen in just about 3 minutes.

Note that the iPhone 5 screen is integrated with the digitizer and is replaced with the entire front assembly. Of course, you’ll need a few tools to do the job, namely a Pentalobe screwdriver, a plastic pry tool, and a suction cup, all of them available for less than $3 on Amazon. Of course, you’ll also need the digitizer frame assembly as well.

 

How to delete your iPhone or iPad backups from iCloud

By Sebastien Page on Jan 26, 2013

With the introduction of iCloud, Apple has made our lives much easier when it comes to managing content on our iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch. You no longer need a desktop machine to manage your data as everything can be done directly from the device.

iCloud comes at a price though. Even if the first 5GB are free, you probably will go over this allocated storage, especially if you have several iOS devices, and will be required to pay an annual fee for increased storage. To prevent this, it might be a good idea to delete old iPhone or iPad backups from iCloud.

Another reason why you’d want to delete an old iPhone backup from iCloud is if you know it contains a corrupted file. While this rarely happens and isn’t particularly easy to diagnose, I’ve encountered this situation before, and I believe my only option was to delete the corrupted backup.

This being said, let’s get into it and learn how to delete a backup from iCloud. Note that the process is exactly the same whether you use an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch… Read More

 

Use iFunBox’s ‘Power Saving Mode’ to prevent select apps from running in the background

By Mike Schnier on Jan 24, 2013

Want to take a load off your iOS device’s CPU, battery life, and cellular bandwidth by preventing certain apps from running in the background? Sure, you could install a tweak like WeeCloseApps, but it doesn’t set automatic profiles for app behavior, and it doesn’t work on non-jailbroken devices.

Luckily, there’s a powerful iOS file browser for Mac and PC called iFunBox, which works on both jailbroken and non-jailbroken devices. Among its features, iFunBox allows users to edit ‘Power Saving Mode’ profiles. Right click on an installed app and you can set one of three multitasking states: allow background, always background, and kill switch. ‘Allow background’ is the default state of most apps, while ‘always background’ is normally applied to music and podcasting apps that you’d want active in the background, and ‘kill switch’ is applied to power-hungry games… Read More

 

Use iFunBox’s ‘App Inspection’ tool to see which apps can access your data

By Mike Schnier on Jan 23, 2013

We’ve seen services like Clueful catalog apps that can access our private information, and many of us are familiar with tweaks like Protect My Privacy and Firewall iP that attempt to keep our data secure. But what are our leaky apps actually doing, and what are the real risks?

Unfortunately we don’t have all the answers for you, but you can do some snooping of your own. The most user-friendly tool for inspecting the APIs your actual installed apps can access is built into a popular iOS filebrowser called iFunBox… Read More

 

How to access iCloud docs on Mac via Plain Cloud

By Christian Zibreg on Jan 21, 2013

iCloud is great. I use it everyday to keep data synced across all of my devices and, especially, have important docs in perfect sync across my favorite Mac and iOS apps. By design, those files are tied to their creator apps so problems arise when you just wanna access them quickly in your Mac’s Finder, without having to go through the tedious export/re-import process. That’s where Plain Cloud jumps in. Plain Cloud is a free Mac app that acts as a simple front-end to apps that store documents in iCloud… Read More

 

How to change button skins in Robert Broglia’s Emulators on iOS

By Mike Schnier on Jan 16, 2013

In the comments section of our article on Snes9x EX+’s release, one of our readers asked if there was a way to swap out the overlays for the on-screen buttons. I thought the question was interesting enough to answer in a full tutorial.

While there isn’t a built-in option for skinning Snes9x EX+, nor are there any themes for the app currently available on Cydia, with a jailbroken iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, it’s not too difficult to manually edit raster graphics used in any app. All you need to do is navigate to Snex9x EX+’s app directory and edit the overlay bitmap… Read More

 

Weird bug adds ‘praises the iPad’ at the end of Google queries

By Cody Lee on Jan 5, 2013

The rivalry between Apple and Google is arguably one of the biggest in the tech world, maybe even the world in general. The two companies are constantly fighting each other for smartphone and tablet marketshare, and they both have legions of loyal fans.

That’s what makes this next story so amusing. A new bug has been discovered in the Google Now and Translate apps that show Apple a bit more love than you’d expect from a rival. Enter the right queries, and both apps will, oddly enough, ”praise the iPad.” Read More

 

How to copy all your Instagrams to Flickr

By Christian Zibreg on Dec 29, 2012

Instagram’s exploding popularity is having long-time iPhoneography buffs pay notice and watch in horror as mainstream users cannot get enough of its crappy filters and the obscenely low 612×612 pixel resolution. And with Facebook and Android now in the picture, no wonder some early adopters go to the extremes of closing their account while others, like Apple’s marketing honcho, stopped using Instagram for it “jumped the shark”.

To the most ardent fans, the last straw was Instagram’s confusing handling of the recent terms of service changes - even if it was much ado about nothing.

If you’ve been seriously contemplating importing your Instagrams over to Flickr but were put off by the tedious manual uploads – worry not, turns out there are a few ways to get that job done without too much fuss. iDB has you covered with this quick guide to bringing in all your Instagram photos to Flickr with just a few clicks… Read More

 

10 tips for getting the most out of Google Maps

By Cody Lee on Dec 20, 2012

Google Maps made its triumphant return to iOS last week, and there’s no question that it’s a massive hit. It saw 10 million downloads in its first 48 hours, and it’s still the #1 free app in the App Store.

For those of you who haven’t tried Google Maps yet, or haven’t figured what all of the commotion is about, Google today published a list of 10 tips that will help you get the most out of the software… Read More

 

How to get directions in Google Maps via Siri, no jailbreak required

By Cody Lee on Dec 17, 2012

After months of rumors and speculation, Google finally launched its standalone Maps app for iOS last week. And it’s been pretty popular thus far. It’s currently the top free app in the App Store, and it’s also listed first in Apple’s featured ‘Maps’ section.

The app does have some caveats though. Perhaps most notably, unlike the built-in Maps app, you can’t get directions in Google Maps via Siri. Luckily, a workaround popped up over the weekend that takes care of that. And it doesn’t require a jailbreak… Read More

 

How to reply to selected text in iOS Mail

By Cody Lee on Dec 12, 2012

The Mail app in iOS isn’t going to win any ‘best email client’ awards, but it’s usable for what it is, and Apple continues to make improvements. Most recently, it added VIP Inboxes and improved the file attachment process in iOS 6.

There’s also some non-feature things — shortcuts, if you will — that make the app more useful. We’ve shared some of these with you before, like how to quickly open your last Draft. And today, we’ve got another one to show you… Read More

 

How to jailbreak iOS 6.1 beta 2 with RedSn0w 0.9.15b3

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 12, 2012

If you’re a developer, then you might be interested in jailbreaking the latest beta version of iOS — iOS 6.1 beta 2. The beta was just released today, and like we always do, we’ve created a video tutorial that shows how to successfully jailbreak it if you happen to be a developer.

Take a look inside as we walk you through the iOS 6.1 beta 2 jailbreak process step-by-step. Read More

 

How to jailbreak iOS 6 and iOS 6.0.1 with Sn0wBreeze 2.9.7

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 12, 2012

If you’re a Windows user, and you’ve been dying for an update to Sn0wBreeze, then your wait is over. As we posted earlier, Sn0wBreeze was updated to 2.9.7, and with it comes tethered support for pre-A5 devices running iOS 6 and iOS 6.0.1

For those of you who’ve been holding off until a Sn0wBreeze update, we’ve created a handy tutorial for you to follow, which shows you how to jailbreak iOS 6 and iOS 6.1 using Sn0wBreeze on Windows. Take a look inside for the full details… Read More

 

iPad mini user guide

By Cody Lee on Nov 4, 2012

Good news for those of you who managed to score an iPad mini during this sellout weekend, Apple has posted the full-length user guide for the new tablet online.

Obviously, since the mini is so similar to its larger sibling, it’s not going to take seasoned iPad users long to get accustomed it. But since Apple only includes brief “getting started” pamphlets with the device, it wouldn’t hurt to bookmark the actual manual for future reference… Read More

 

How to jailbreak iOS 6.1 beta

By Jeff Benjamin on Nov 1, 2012

If you’re a developer wishing to jailbreak your pre-A5 device running iOS 6.1 beta, then you’ll be happy to know that it can be easily done using the same method we used to jailbreak the iOS 6.0.1 public release.

This is, of course, a tethered jailbreak, and it only works with pre-A5 devices like the iPhone 4, or the iPhone 3GS. For the full video tutorial, check inside… Read More

 
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