Year: 2012

Amtrak jumps into the future, employs iPhones to scan tickets

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 7, 2012

We've seen some rather interesting uses of Apple's iPhone in medicine, armed forces and a bunch of other verticals. Modified iPhones are now also being used as an electronic ticket scanner at Amtrak, a government-owned intercity passenger train service in the United States.

Passengers on a few Amtrak routes can take advantage of a new pilot program to print tickets or show a special bar code, included with a paper or digital ticket, for conductors to scan. And because it all goes through a custom app, train conductors are able to keep track of passengers on board...

Giffy: view animated GIFs in the Photos app

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated May 30, 2017

Animated GIFs are an incredibly popular method for sharing moving pictures in a way that's viewable in a wide variety of areas. As a result we have new apps like Gifture appearing on the App Store.

While GIFs are easily viewable in the Safari browser, saving them to the Photos app results in a loss of the animation. Since animation is the whole point behind animated GIFs, saving them to the Photos app under normal circumstances might seem a bit pointless.

But that's where jailbreaking once again proves its worthiness. Giffy is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to view animated GIFs within iOS' stock Photos app...

How to add a character counter to the Notes app

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 7, 2012

Who types text that is lengthy enough to warrant a character counter in the Notes app? That's the first thing I thought when trying Characount for Notes, and needless to say I'm still pondering the question.

That's literally all this tweak does. It places a character counter, not a word counter mind you, but a character counter at the top of each note you compose.

Who really needs something like this?

Angry Birds clocks 648M downloads in 2011, has 200M active monthly users

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Developer Rovio has had enormous success with Angry Birds. The series debuted on the iPhone back in December 2009 and has since remained one of the most sold games in the App Store.

From today's earnings release for the full calendar year of 2011, the Espoo, Finland-headquartered company hit an astounding 648 million Angry Birds downloads by the end of 2011.

Total number of active monthly users across all platforms reached 200 million, helping Rovio book a cool $106.3 million in revenue. The number of active users grew considerably from the 40 million people who were regularly playing Angry Birds games as of March 2011.

Most importantly, first-quarter earnings before tax stood at $67.6 million, or 64 percent of total revenue in 2011, making Rovio one of the most-profitable game developers out there...

DisplayMate CEO says Apple settled for Plan B with new iPad

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 7, 2016

CNET is out with a new report this week, which highlights some interesting comments made by DisplayMate's CEO Raymond Soneira. The company is in the video diagnostics business, calibrating and testing displays for manufacturers.

Anyways, according to Soneira, the iPad that Apple unveiled earlier this year was actually Apple's "Plan B" for the product. It seems that the company's "Plan A," a slimmer, lighter tablet, required technology that just wasn't ready in time...

AT&T unveils new iOS device-connected home automation service

Cody Lee ∙ May 7, 2012

Last night, AT&T unveiled a new home automation and security service called Digital Life. The carrier describes the service as one that will give users "unparalleled control and security of their home using any web-enabled device."

The Digital Life system is integrated into the home via Z-Wave, a popular wireless protocol, and can control a number of connected utilities including cameras, door locks, thermostats, window sensors, and appliances...

Check out cool inspirational note new hires get on their first day at Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

Like other companies, even Apple from time to time gets into motivation talk mode in order to get the best out of their employees. A year ago, they slipped a little note to their retails staff to remind them what’s so special about working in an Apple Store.

Today, we get another insight into Apple's morale-boosting practices.

So, fancy yourself as a new Apple hire. It's your first day on the job and your arrive at 1 Infinite Loop for work. Bursting with enthusiasm, you find the following note sitting on your desk...

Apple appeases Proview with a settlement figure

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 17, 2017

For months, lawyers for California-based Apple and bankrupt monitor vendor Proview have been trying to negotiate a way out of a high-stake trademark dispute which has been holding back the launch of the new iPad in the 1.33 billion people China market.

According to the latest update out from China’s official government newswire Xinhua, Apple has now put a dollar value on their settlement offer to Proview, finally moving the ball forward...

Deadmans Run, a racing game sensation with steampunk style

Guest Author ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

A new racing game has just launched in iTunes, developed by Nightfall Interactive, Deadmans Run is action-heavy combat/racing fusion fun starring upgradable steampunk inspired hover cars. If it sounds to you like this game has a lot going on, you certainly won’t be disappointed.

Non-stop action and content that shines in both quality and quantity make Deadmans Run the hottest new launch to hit the App Store in some time...

Add widgets to your Home screen with this new jailbreak tweak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 6, 2012

Although I've never really understood the excitement behind the widgets, it's one of those things that my Android toting friends love to brag about.

What if I told you that there was an easy way to add widgets to the Home screen of an iOS device? What if I told you that there are a plethora of interesting widgets already available?

Both of the above statements are now true, courtesy of a new jailbreak tweak called Dashboard X. Dashboard X is the result of months of hard work by developer, Ori Kadosh. This tweak allows you to take existing widgets created for Notification Center and position them anywhere on your iPhone or iPad Home screen.

Take a look at inside for our hands-on experience with Dashboard X...

Chip: a feature rich jailbreak tweak for customizing banner notifications

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 6, 2012

With entries like Vexillum and ColorBanner, there's no shortage of jailbreak tweaks that allow you to customize your notification banners in iOS 5. But neither of those are as deep and complete as Chip.

As simple as its name may make it seem, Chip is by far the deepest of the three tweaks mentioned. It allows you to customize banner notification background color, text color, border color, and gradient using simple RGB sliders.

Chip also includes the ability to customize the notification sound and banner animation. If you're looking for the best tweak for customizing banner notifications, then look no further...