Year: 2012

Grafiti: compose drawings within the Messages app and send to friends

There are a few qualities that can make a jailbreak tweak great: Originality, function, and usefulness. Grafiti [sic] is a jailbreak tweak that features all three of these qualities, and it's inexpensive to boot.

Grafiti allows you to draw pictures inside the stock Messages app, and send those pictures to your friends. Check inside to see how it works...

Another iPhone-friendly smartwatch surfaces

As the Pebble showed us, consumers are very interested in iPhone-connected smartwatches. The KickStarter project smashed all previous funding records, garnering over $10 million in pledges.

As you might have guessed, the success has drawn others into the smartwatch space. And today, we're going to take a look at the latest entry, the Strata...

Apple files another patent for wearable computing device

As we've said before, wearable computing is coming. We know it's on Google's mind — last month the company showed off its Project Glass eyewear. And we've seen evidence that Apple's interested as well.

The Cupertino company filed for another wearable computing patent this week. The application covers an invention that, as you can see in the above image, has to do with a head-mounted digital display...

Apple’s AuthenTec acquisition already under investigation

It hasn't been 24 hours since the news broke that Apple acquired AuthenTec, and there's already talk of foul play. It seems that two law firms are investigating the acquisition to see if AuthenTec's Board intentionally undervalued the company to reach a deal with Apple.

Although the investigation appears to only involve AuthenTec at the moment, a resulting lawsuit could have a major impact on, or even block, Apple's latest tech purchase...

Solar: where weather melts with design

Since the dawn of the smartphone, one of the most basic informative features that everyone loves having at the tip of their fingers is weather. Regardless if you’re planning your day, making small talk, or just really into meteorology, accessing weather info almost instantly is key.

Solar is described as a hyper-sensorial, interactive display of the day's weather, rendered in dazzling colorscapes. It has no vector polygons, no dew point calibration, and it doesn’t remind you if you need to wear a jacket. It is, very simply, an exquisitely minimalistic designed weather forecast app – a modern accessory for the aesthetically inspired adventurer...

NYT: Apple talking to Twitter about investing hundreds of millions of dollars

Apple has apparently been in talks with Twitter officials in recent months about making a possible investment in the micro-blogging platform, reports The New York Times. Described as "a strategic investment", it could value Twitter at more than ten billions.

Apple's attempts at social were limited thus far. Its social thing for music, Ping, will likely be discontinued with the next major iTunes update. That promised Facebook integration in Ping had been pulled last minute was blamed on “onerous terms that we could not agree to”, as Jobs put it. Nonetheless, Apple has opted to partner with both Twitter and Facebook to support their services throughout iOS and OS X.

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal says Apple talked to Twitter about this a year ago, claiming no immediate acquisition is in the cards.

Go past the break for the latest...

Apple airs new adverts about Geniuses

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Apple has begun airing interesting new commercials, possibly marking a subtle change in advertising direction. The adverts debuted during the Olympic Games opening ceremonies tonight. Rather than focus on the newly released Mountain Lion, the nine-month-old iPhone 4S or Siri (which is increasingly working against Apple these days), these new clips depicts Apple Store Geniuses solving problems for customers.

The first advert that can be seen above is aptly named Mayday and depicts a Genius on board an airplane helping a customer solve an issue before landing. Two more commercials are included right below for your viewing pleasure...

AT&T launches LTE in four new markets, expands in several others

Great news for those of you with AT&T-branded LTE iPads. The carrier has just announced new markets and expansions for its long term evolution network.

Folks in south Florida, parts of Maryland and Massachusetts will now be able to browse the web at lightning-fast 4G speeds. Keep reading for the full list of new areas...

Annual iPhone cycle helped Samsung destroy Apple in Q2 smartphone sales

It appears Samsung is creeping up on Apple slowly but surely. Not content with overtaking Apple and Nokia as the world's largest smartphone and cell phone vendor, respectively, Samsung during the June quarter managed to widen its lead by selling twice as much smartphones as Apple.

Driven by the surprisingly strong start of its latest flagship handset, the Galaxy S III, Samsung has managed to increase its worldwide smartphone share while Apple slid. Man, Apple really needs to refresh the iPhone twice a year because this annual update cycle is becoming the company's Achilles' heel...

Apple and Google duking it out over Kodak patents

Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January and Apple's been attempting to transfer its patent dispute with the imaging company out of bankruptcy court ever since, but to no avail. As Kodak now looks to sell off a trove of 1,100 patents related to digital cameras, smartphones and tablets, bidders are lining up, including the usual suspects, technology giants Apple and Google...

Do you know what the most commonly used words in app titles are?

As Apple announced on its quarterly earnings call earlier this week, the App Store is now home to more than 650,00 apps. As you can imagine, this makes it tough for developers to come up with all-new ideas.

But it also makes it tough for them to come up with all-new app titles as well. A new report is out today that takes a look at what the 25 most-used words in application titles are. Keep reading to see the list...

Open-source components of Sparrow now available for download

Sparrow was recently snapped up by Google and people continue to have mixed feelings about this sell-out no one saw coming. The Sparrow team made it clear in a blog post they would cease work on new features (apart from minor updates) as Google has tasked its newly acquired team with improving Gmail mobile apps.

Today, the Sparrow team announced plans to open-source parts of the Sparrow apps for personal use only. If you're good at reverse engineering, why not take a closer look at the Sparrow code?