Year: 2012

Nintendo’s Pokemon Company releases Pokedex app for iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Late last year, Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata went on record as saying the Japan-based video game company would not be porting any of its titles to the iOS platform, despite the fact that both users and investors were calling for it. He said doing so would mean "Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo."

Knowing this, it was interesting to see The Pokemon Company, a subsidiary of Nintendo setup to market and license the popular franchise, has just released an official app in Apple's App Store. It's called Pokedex for iOS, and it includes everything you'd want to know about your favorite Pokeman characters...

The Daily Recap – Dec 10, 2012 edition

Jeff Benjamin ∙ December 10, 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCqoY6N-RI

I've been working on these recap videos for the past week, but today is the first day that I've posted one on iDB. It's basically a culmination of all of the top stories from the day, with some Emmy nominated commentary by yours truly.

I'll be working on making subtle improvements to the style as time goes on, but the basic concept remains the same. If you missed some of our content throughout the day, then The Daily Recap is a great way to get caught up with all of the important Apple related tidbits.

Apple quietly fixes dangerous Maps glitch in Australia

Cody Lee ∙ December 10, 2012

Apple's Maps app took another hit earlier today, when word got out that police in Victoria, Australia had issued a public warning regarding the software. Apparently, they had been receiving a number of calls from travelers who were getting lost in a nearby National Park due to the app's inaccurate data.

The problem was that the town of Mildura was showing up in the middle of Murray Sunset National Park, about 43 miles south of its actual location. And since the Park has maze-like roadways, poor cell reception and no water supply, this was a potentially dangerous situation. But don't worry Apple is on it...

T-Mobile’s iPhone-friendly HSPA+ goes live in Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Not to be outdone by AT&T which today rolled out LTE in three new markets, Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile USA just flipped the switch on its iPhone-friendly HSPA+ network in Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis. With today's roll-out, T-Mobile's 3G HSPA+ service (incorrectly advertised as "4G") is available in a total of 18 metropolitan areas.

The German carrier is hoping that landing the iPhone next year would curb subscriber losses. As part of the incoming iPhone launch, T-Mobile is eliminating subsidies on high-end devices. Under the new rules, customers would pay for the full device price upfront in exchange for lower service fees. A good example are the carrier's unsubsidized Value Plans that offer significantly cheaper monthly rates for voice and, particularly, data services...

Chpwn releases rebuilt Infiniapps with iOS 6 support

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 28, 2016

The Infiniapps are some of the most popular tweaks on the jailbreak scene. There's Infinidock, which lets you add more icons to your iOS dock, Infinifolders, which does the same thing for folders, and Infiniboard, which adds vertical scrolling to your Springboard.

If you're a fan of the trio, you'll be happy to know that Chpwn has recently updated all three of them to support iOS 6. In fact, he's completely rebuilt them from the ground up to eradicate long-standing bugs, and improve the stability and performance of the tweaks...

Instagram gains enhanced camera, new Willow filter, nice little tweaks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 20, 2017

iPhone photography fans, rejoice. Instagram today pushed an incremental update to its mobile app for iOS and Android, bringing a few improvements in the camera department, a brand new filter and more. The camera interface has been revamped with a nice Instagram-themed shutter button. The camera now displays a preview of the most recent photo on your camera roll and you can turn on an optional grid separately for the camera and the scale & crop screen.

You may also appreciate the enhanced Camera Roll picker as it now lets you quickly access the last photo taken, though that capability is inexplicably available only on the iPhone 5. More on other changes and the new Willow filter right after the break...

References to Office iOS apps spotted on Microsoft’s support site

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Microsoft's long-rumored Office suite for iOS and Android is like a unicorn: everybody's talking about it and yet no one but a rare few have seen it. The Redmond-based Windows maker may have just "inadvertently" (conspiracy theorists, rejoice!) leaked another solid proof that Excel, PowerPoint and Word apps are coming to both the iPhone and iPad.

It's interesting because previously we were wondering whether the mobile Office suite would only run on the iPad or target all form-factor iOS devices. This looks to be the case as Microsoft appears adamant to give Apple and its iWork productivity apps a good run for their money...

HUD Pro adds additional options to the iPhone’s volume HUD

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Looking to add some additional functionality to the iPhone's volume HUD? If so, then you might want to take a look at HUD Pro — a new jailbreak tweak available on Cydia's MacCiti repo.

At $1.50, I feel HUD Pro is a bit pricey for what it offers. It features things that venture more toward the gimmicky side than actually being useful, but perhaps this video will make it easier for you to decide on that...

How to easily adjust brightness on iPhone and iPod touch with BrightVol

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

BrightVol is a new jailbreak tweak, which allows you to adjust the brightness settings of an iPhone or iPod touch using the device's hardware volume buttons.

While similar tweaks have been created in the past, none of them, to my knowledge, allows you to dynamically switch between brightness settings and traditional volume settings as easy. BrightVol allows you to do just that, and that's what really separates it from the rest of the pack. Take a look inside for our full video walkthrough...

iPad mini November ad impressions surged 28 percent daily

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 10, 2012

How is the 7.9-inch iPad mini doing in the war amongst small tablets? Pretty well, according to one company. During November, the number of ads displayed on the mini grew 28 percent each day. By comparison, mobile ads on Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet rose 19 percent per day during November.

According to Millennial Media, the iPad mini is both a "game changer" and a holiday "must-have gift." Perhaps most-telling is that minis purchased in November as likely holiday gifts didn't stay under wraps for long...

Conceivable concept tidies up the Notification Center mess

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 10, 2012

Notification Center, a feature Apple borrowed from the jailbreak community, continues to be artists' favorite playground, if numerous concepts are anything to go by. I'm especially liking a new concept by Alex Saretzky, a designer who is proposing a better use of the screen real estate in Apple's implementation of the Notification Center.

The redesigned feature helps convey more information compared to Apple's version of the Notification Center. Specifically, Alex says Apple should drop the linen background (we're looking at you, Jony Ive) and re-think some of the design decision that clash with its own Human Interface Guidelines...