Year: 2012

How to add Facebook, Twitter, and more search options to Spotlight

The awkwardly named SLightEnhancerSearch, is a recently released jailbreak tweak that adds a ton of new search options to the stock Spotlight search on iOS. When it was first released, I ran into many issues with the tweak, namely, the search options not showing up on the Spotlight page when enabled.

The tweak was updated today, and the developer seems to have stamped out all of the bugs that plagued the initial release. SLightEnhancerSearch, as silly as its name may be, is a quality jailbreak tweak that many will no doubt find useful...

How to disable Cover Flow in the Music app with NoCoverFlow

Cover Flow is a nice feature, but that's more due to its visual appeal than actual functionality is concerned. If you hate Cover Flow, then you'll be happy to know that it can be easily disabled by means of this new jailbreak tweak.

NoCoverFlow is a tweak from jailbreak developer, Ryan Petrich. With a quick installation, it will easily rid your stock Music app of Cover Flow if you so desire to do so. Take a look at our video walkthrough inside to see NoCoverFlow in action.

Here is your second chance to win an iPad mini

A few weeks ago, we ran one of our awesome giveaways, which allowed one lucky winner to go home with an iPad mini. With thousands of entries, it was a very popular giveaway, to say the least.

Today, we team up with the fine folks at Big Fish Games to offer you a second shot at winning an iPad mini. Big Fish Games is a huge iOS game developer that has dozens of apps under its belt, and not only will they give away an iPad mini to one of you, but they also decided to give a copy of Fairway Solitaire to all of you.

Now let's find out the details of this giveaway, shall we?

Apple and Google still looking to buy Kodak patents

A US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan approved Kodak's request today to extend the deadline for its bankruptcy case through February of next year. The one-time imaging giant filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and it's hoping to use the extra time to sell off its patent collection to pay off its creditors. And according to the report, Apple and Google are still among the potential buyers...

Apple appeals recent Chinese court ruling over pirated encyclopedia app

Back in September, a Chinese court sided with China Publishing House in an infringement lawsuit against Apple, and ordered the iPad-maker to pay about $83,000 in damages. The publisher claimed Apple allowed an application into its App Store that contained large chunks if its Encyclopedia of China works without the proper licensing.

Naturally, Apple is now appealing the decision. And what the court decides from here could have some major consequences for the Cupertino company...

Djay for iPhone goes temporarily free (was $9.99)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY57HszOzY8

Djay for iPhone (and iPod touch), a remarkable app for pro and would-be DJs and winner of the 2011 Apple Design Award, is now totally free, but for a limited time only. Mind you, this app previously sold for ten bucks a pop. You're advised to take this opportunity and download djay for iPhone right now.

And if you're really serious about throwing really cool parties, you'd want to consider djay Remote, a $4.99 remote control companion for the Mac version of djay (free trial available here). Developer Algoriddim is running this promotion to celebrate the iPhone launch of their another fine offering, a video mashup app aptly named Vjay which launched in the summer as a $5 iPad-only download...

Samsung denies massive chip price hike that could hurt Apple’s margins

Monday's news by South Korean newspaper Chosun alleging Samsung was jacking up prices of Apple mobile chips by as much as twenty percent in order to get even with its largest component buyer for losing more than $1 billion in damages in the massive Apple v. Samsung patent case is untrue, an unnamed Samsung executive reportedly told a Korean newspaper Wednesday. A-series of chips that power iOS devices are designed by Apple and built exclusively by Samsung at its sophisticated facility in Austin, Texas...

Gartner: Apple and Samsung shipped nearly half of all smartphones in Q3

As mobile phones become smarter, Samsung and Apple continue to rule the landscape as the world's best-selling cell phone brands. As for Google's Android platform, it now controls more than seven out over every ten smartphones in consumers' hands, a new report suggests. Both Samsung and Apple controlled 46.5 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter.

The iOS-Android duopoly had a commanding 86 percent platform lead in the third quarter, according to research firm Gartner. Individually, the South Korean smartphone maker held 32.5 percent of the market while Apple held 13.9 percent, the researcher announced Wednesday. Android now controls an astounding 72.4 percent of the mobile operating system market for smartphones, up from 52 percent in the year-ago quarter...

AT&T lights up LTE in eight new cities

As part of its $14 billion LTE network expansion, U.S. carrier AT&T today announced the launch of speedy LTE radio technology in eight new cities: Milwaukee, WI; Denver, CO; Louisville, KY; Orlando, FL; York, PA; Tacoma, WA; Annapolis, MD; and Provo, UT. Apple users in these areas who own an LTE device such as the iPhone 5 or cellular iPads should see notable speed gains over the coming days. Just last week, the carrier rolled out LTE in Little Rock, Arkansas and expanded LTE coverage in Bakersfield, California and Florida Keys, Florida...

Foxconn begins deploying robots to replace factory workers

Back in August, Cody told you that Foxconn, Apple's favorite component-making company, was intending to replace an unspecified amount of its assembly line workers with one million robots over the next three years. Today, a new report out of China claims the contract manufacturer has begun deploying sophisticated machines that will take care of labor-intensive assembly work. The move is intended to improve manufacturing efficiency and combat rising labor costs while also ensuring the best possible build quality so issues like Scuffgate might become a thing of the past...

Few are buying an iPad mini as an iPad replacement, survey claims

In another edition of our long-running 'quit your worrying' series, we present why the iPad mini won't take a bite from larger Apple tablet sales. You may recall, when the smaller iPad was introduced, experts offered wide-ranging estimates on how many sales the 7.9-inch tablet would cost the original iPad. A new survey suggests the number of cannibalized iPad sales will be very, very small. More than half of people who intend to purchase an iPad mini within the next 18 months have never owned a tablet, according to a survey conducted before Apple's new device hit stores.

Of that group, roughly 17 percent said the mini would replace another device, according to the Cowen and Co. numbers. Of the portion of people intending the mini as a replacement, 29 percent said it would be the iPad. However, 42 percent of the replacers were targeting their Windows PC...