Month: December 2010

A Closer Look At The Life Of The Foxconn Worker

Foxconn, the Chinese industrial giant, has been under the spotlight recently due to a string of suicides supposedly linked to the factory's awful working conditions. Foxconn is Apple's main supplier for product manufacturing; it's the place where our iPhones get made.

A french journalist and photographer, Jordan Pouille, recently revisited a large Foxconn facorty in Longhua, China. His visit was in tandem with a highly publicized pay raise for the factory's 300,000+ Chinese workers.

While it seems that the living conditions of these young workers (mostly teenagers or young 20-somethings) has improved since Foxconn's dehumanizing treatment of its employees was brought into the light, something still doesn't feel right about the way that our gadgets are being made...

Yet Another Camera App Sneaks Into the App Store With Added “Perks”

A mere 8 days prior to Camera+ making its way back to the App Store after many months of banishment, a similar app up to the same old trick has made its way into the iPhone's ecosystem.

Surely the developers of Quick Snap have to know by now that using physical volume buttons for anything but volume can earn their app a lengthy timeout, but seeing as this is such a brash move in light of the recent events, we're going to have to side with the developer and claim ignorance...

The iPhone 4 Antenna and Ping Make CNN’s List of Biggest 2010 Tech Fails

CNN just published a list of the 10 biggest tech fails of 2010. At the top of the list, somewhat of a surprise, is the iPhone 4 antenna, also known as the antennagate, which we widely covered a few months ago.

I guess the fail in this case is not the antenna problem itself, but rather the way Apple handled the whole situation by pretty much saying there was no issue, then saying there was an issue that would be fixed with a software update, then saying there was actually no issue, but since there was no issue, they were going to give free cases to everyone. Confused?

How to Make biteSMS Work on iOS 4.2.1

Now that more and more jailbreakers are making the jump to iOS 4.2.1, courtesy of Redsn0w, a lot of people are wondering what's up with biteSMS? The app installs fine, but right off the bat you'll start to notice something's not quite right with our #2 favorite jailbreak app of 2010.

In fact, for me, attempting to send a message with biteSMS 5.0 while on iOS 4.2.1 crashes the app outright, rendering my fiendish text messaging habits useless.

Of course, if there's anything we know about the biteSMS crew, it's that they're always on top of things; in fact they've already released a beta version of the app that works well with Apple's latest firmware. Check inside for the quick and easy how to...

Apple Sued Amidst Privacy Concerns Regarding App Tracking

A little over a week ago, we reported on a Wall Street Journal article that revealed an eye-opening investigation into how apps share your personal data; without your consent.

Needless to say it was bit shocking to us, our readers, and apparently a lot of other people concerned over their personal privacy, or lack thereof.

Now the fallout from the privacy scandal is beginning to rear its head, and it ain't pretty...

IconHarvester: The Easiest And Prettiest Way To Change Your iPhone App Icons

In the jailbreak community, there are plenty of ways to change the way that your iPhone interface looks. Icons especially are a large part of the iOS interface that people like to tweak to their liking.

Once jailbroken, you can do all kinds of things to your iPhone's icons. You can convert old app icons to retina display icons, arrange the way they look on your home screen in any way you want, and the list goes on and on.

Themes via apps like WinterBoard also allow you to change your icons to suit different looks. IconHarvester, by NanoTech, is a relatively unknown jailbreak app that focuses specifically on icon-theming. It's elegant and simple interface make it well worth the price for any icon lover...

AskToCall Makes You Think Twice Before Phoning the Girl You Like

If you have a hard time asking out that girl that you're interested in, then definitely stay away from AskToCall, otherwise you'll never call her.

AskToCall is basically the phone version of AskToSend, another jailbreak tweak that helps you second guess your sending of SMS and email messages.

Once installed, there are no apps or settings to configure, but you will notice a new prompt every time you dial from your favorites, recents or contacts...

The 10 Best Jailbreak Apps of 2010

Every year, there are multitudes among multitudes of apps and tweaks released for jailbroken iPhones. Similar to the App Store, some are worth more of your attention than others.

In 2010, we've looked in-depth at more apps, more tweaks, and more mods than ever before, with the goal of keeping our readers completely in the know.

Now, we'd like to take some time to reflect on our favorite jailbreak apps of 2010. Being included on this list doesn't necessarily mean the app was released in 2010, it just means that it was amongst our most utilized of this year. Drumroll, please...

RedSn0w 0.9.7b3 Untethered Jailbreak is Out, Fixes Even More Bugs

It looks like the Dev Team is working day and night on the RedSn0w untethered jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1. They first released the tool on Sunday but it came with a few major issues. They quickly released a second beta version last night and now they are shipping a third version that supposedly fixes even more bugs.

RedSn0w 0.9.7b3 should fix problems with FaceTime, WinterBoard, and embedded videos in iTunes...

Easily Rename Your iPhone App Icons From The Springboard With Icon Renamer

Earlier this year, we reported on a Cydia tweak called "Rename" that allowed you to easily rename an app's icon name. Since then, the tweak has seemed to vanish from the Cydia Store. Luckily, there is a new tweak on the block that allows you to rename apps straight on your iPhone, and it's even easier than Rename.

Icon Renamer, by the renowned Cydia developer Ryan Petrich, is a new Cydia tweak that allows you to rename icons from your iPhone springboard in the simplest way possible. There's nothing to the actual tweak, it integrates itself into your iPhone springboard...

StickWars 2 iPhone Game Review

StickWars 2 created by Pinger, is the sequel to the popular Stick Wars game. I was impressed by the first game so I thought I would check out the sequel. If you are unfamiliar with Stick Wars, it was a popular castle defense game in which you must protect your castle against a never-ending army of stickmen. For those who used to spend your days as kids drawing stick men or playing Hangman then this will especially touch your heart.

The concept is pretty straightforward. In this game you must protect your precious castle against hordes of angry stickmen bent on your destruction. The stickmen will be charging at you with different speeds from the right and you will be mainly using your finger as your main form of protection...