Month: March 2012

Why you won’t see ‘pull-to-refresh’ function in native iOS apps anytime soon

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Users have been calling for Apple to implement the popular 'pull-to-refresh' feature into Mail and other native iOS apps for quite some time now. The function, which is found in Tweetbot and several other third-party applications, allows you to refresh the on-screen information by pulling down on the app's UI.

But judging by this report from designer Dustin Curtis, we won't be seeing the easy refresh option integrated into native iOS apps anytime soon. Why? Well apparently Twitter owns the patent to it...

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Review: SPIGEN SGP Kuel F16s Battery Pack for iPhone

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

There is no doubting that our iOS devices are beginning to use even more power than their ever-increasing batteries can provide them. It's an unfortunate fact that while we continue to crave smaller, thinner and lighter device, something inevitably has to give. In most cases, that thing is battery life.

The iPhone 4S for example isn't exactly known for its ability to hold a charge. We've covered various power-related issues with the iPhone 4S over the months since its release, and alas, things don't really seem to have improved with subsequent iOS releases. What we need is a way of extending our iPhone's battery prowess, and the easiest way to do that is to get a battery pack.

One battery pack that we've been putting through its paces recently is the SPIGEN SGP F16s battery pack for the iPhone. After a few weeks of living with the F16s and at times very much relying on its ability to keep an iPhone going beyond its usual capacity, we're finally ready to announce our verdict...

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‘SendAny’ and ‘ReceiveAny’ now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 26, 2012

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXzXqZtFYwU[/tube]

SendAny and ReceiveAny are two jailbreak tweaks that work in harmony to let you send and receive unsupported files via iMessage.

Be sure to take a look at our full walkthrough for more information on how these two tweaks work together to make iMessage much more useful for sending files.

ReceiveAny is a free download, while SendAny will set you back $1.99. Both can be acquired via Cydia's BigBoss repo.

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Get a better understanding of your iPhone’s signal strength with Bars

Cody Lee ∙ March 26, 2012

Has your iPhone's signal strength indicator ever lied to you? Perhaps it showed that you had poor cell phone reception, but you were still able to make perfectly clear phone calls. Or vice versa?

Well, if you're losing faith in the 5 little bars that sit in the top left hand corner of your handset, you may want to check out Bars. The new jailbreak tweak promises to give you a more accurate reading of your iPhone's cell service...

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Apple spoke with Samsung multiple times in 2010 to try to avoid litigation

Cody Lee ∙ March 26, 2012

Even though the patent war between Apple and Samsung has seemingly fallen from the media spotlight for the time being (which we're totally OK with), the battles are still very much going on.

As you may know, the two companies have been in and out of courtrooms all around the world over the past year entangled in patent litigation. And there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. But what you may not know is, Apple actually approached Samsung multiple times two years ago to try and avoid this entire mess...

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Who needs NFC when you can pay wirelessly right now using Square?

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

NFC (near field communications) technology has been a rumored "upcoming" iPhone feature for quite some time now. It was supposed to turn up in last year's model (obviously it didn't). And of course it's expected in this year's release.

What's the big deal? Well NFC is the backbone of many mobile payment systems. And everyone is waiting for Apple to enter that space. But why wait for NFC, when you can pay wirelessly with your iPhone right now using Square?

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We’re giving away a bunch of JailbreakCon goodies

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

The Word Wide Jailbreak Convention is scheduled to take place in San Francisco, on September 29th. A few high profile iOS devs are already lined up to speak or attend, and word on the street is that some iDB staffers will also be there, me included.

As an official sponsor, we work pretty closely with the whole JailbreakCon team. The guys have been really generous with us so far as they've sent us hats, t-shirts, and skins for iPhone.

Today, they take this one step further and are partnering up with us to give away some JailbreakCon gear and tickets to iDB readers...

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What Batterygate? The new iPad lasts 25+ hours when hotspotting

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 26, 2012

When used as a personal hotspot only over Verizon's 4G cellular connection, the new iPad gets more than 25 hours of run time, AnandTech found out in their battery life testing published this morning. This is better than your average MiFi device by at least a factor of five. Matter of fact, it gets exactly an hour less in hotspotting tests compared to WiFi benchmarks, which falls in line with Apple's official specs.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime beats Apple's third-generation tablet when hotspotting in Normal, Balanced and Power Saving profiles. With that in mind, the ability to use your iPad as a personal Verizon hotspot for more than 25 hours is certainly welcome news in a string of negative reports alleging issues with the tablet's much-improved 42.5Wh battery.

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How to replace Spotlight search with a web interface

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 26, 2012

I'm absolutely sure that I'm in the minority on my thoughts about iOS' Spotlight feature. I actually find it useful and helpful for launching apps, finding emails, contacts, etc.

Many of you, however, loathe Apple's inclusion of Spotlight; deeming it absolutely worthless, useless, and a waste of time and energy.

For those who fall into the latter category, then maybe this jailbreak tweak will make you happy. It's called WebSpot, and it allows you to completely replace Spotlight with a customizable web interface...

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‘CmdTab’ lends an OS X inspired app switcher to the iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 26, 2012

Command+Tab is one of the most useful keyboard shortcuts known to Mac users. It allows you to quickly switch between applications using nothing more than a couple of keys on the keyboard.

CmdTab for the iPhone is a jailbreak tweak that is loosely based on what Mac users have been enjoying forever.

I say loosely based, because it doesn't actually allow you to select your running apps like on the Mac; instead, the developer decided to include a few predefined shortcuts that are accessible via an Activator action.

How does it perform? Take a look inside for the full details on video...

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“Busted” iOS battery algorithm behind shorter iPad run time affects all iOS devices?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

As we told you last week, unplugging your brand spanking new iPad as soon as the battery gauge hits the 100 percent mark entails missing out as much as ten percent of additional run time, or about 1.2 hours. This has been attributed to the iOS battery algorithm, which kinda brings back old memories of a bug in reporting cellular signal levels on the iPhone 4, later fixed with a software update.

According to new findings, this is actually a system-wide behavior in Apple's mobile operating system - thus affecting older iPads, as well as your iPhone and iPod touch. In fact, all iOS devices are affected by what's been called "busted" battery algorithm, it's just more pronounced on the new iPad due to its 70 percent more capacious battery.

What exactly is going on here, you ask...

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