Those hoping that Jony Ive's new role as the head of Apple's Human Interface design team will have a sooner-than-later impact on the user interface of its mobile operating system will be happy to hear that this may indeed be the case.
A new report by The Wall Street Journal this afternoon claims that Ive is now sitting in on the human interface team's review sessions to assess new design ideas, and is reportedly pushing for a more "flat design" UI in future iOS releases...
The cat and mouse between Apple and the jailbreak community has been going on for about 6 years now. Every time a new jailbreak tool is released, taking advantage of some holes in Apple's tight mobile operating system, you can bet your shirt that Apple will be quick at patching those holes with a software update.
Sometimes those software updates are released faster than others. For example, it took Apple 43 days to patch a series of vulnerabilities that allowed iOS 6 users to jailbreak their devices using evasi0n. In comparison, it took Apple only nine days to fix the bugs that were exploited by JailbreakMe 3.0.
The time difference can be easily explained by the fact that exploits like those used by JailbreakMe represent a much a higher security threat to iOS users than those used in evasi0n. Remember, JailbreakMe could be run directly from the device's browser, thus exposing virtually every single iOS 4.3.3 user at the time to security risks. In comparison, evasi0n requires you to plug the device to a computer via USB. Clearly, the security threats is much lower with evasi0n.
This being said, every time Apple releases a software update that patches vulnerabilities used in a jailbreak, some enthusiastic jailbreakers are always quick at calling Apple names and accusing the company to actively fight the jailbreak community. "Apple hates jailbreakers. They just released a software update to kill the jailbreak," you can often read every time an iOS update that patches a jailbreak is released. But is that really the truth? Does Apple really hate the jailbreak community or is it trying to protect the safety of its most popular operating system?
Apple has updated its largely unpopular Podcasts app this afternoon, bringing it to version 1.2. The update is a fairly significant one, bringing about a number of improvements including iCloud syncing, custom stations and more.
Proponents of a less-skeuomorphic design will be happy to hear that Apple has also dialed down the styling in the app a bit. The new playback window, for example, now features flat icons instead of the bulky tape-like buttons...
Apple's data farm - which powers the company's cloud-computing efforts - is completely solar. That's the word from the iPhone maker, which Thursday released its annual Environmental Progress report. The progress comes only a year after Apple received a failing grade by Greenpeace International, whose members charged the iPhone maker used coal to power its cloud.
Apple also announced 75 percent of power to its worldwide corporate offices come from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal. That is more than double the sustainable energy of two years ago, when the company announced 35 percent of power in its corporate suites was renewable...
It feels like every day we hear a new story about a major internet company like Evernote, Twitter or Facebook getting hacked. And when it happens, user passwords, personal information and uploaded content are all compromised.
With this in mind, it's nice to hear that Apple has given its account security a boost today with a new two-step verification process. The safeguard requires users to verify their identity on a trusted device before making any changes.
Tutorial: How to enable Apple two-step verification
The iPhone 5, Apple's "disappointing" handset upgrade, has helped the iconic brand top the J.D. Power & Associates user satisfaction rankings for smartphones - and for the ninth consecutive time, too!
The iPhone leads JD's semi-annual report on smartphone customer satisfaction with a score of 855 points, an increase by sixteen points and sixty points better than the second-ranked Nokia with a customer satisfaction score of 795.
It's interesting that the Finnish handset maker rose dramatically by 93 points since the last survey.
Samsung is third while Motorola and HTC round up the top five. The average study score is 796 points on a 1,000-point scale, but Apple files as the only handset maker in the world to rise above the average...
Think of how a cat, when dropped, can twist its body to land on its paws. Now think of your iPhone falling. Makes you cringe, just thinking of the finely-crafted case and display biting the sidewalk or floor. Enter Apple, taking a lesson from felines and wrapping it in some futuristic technology for a patent designed to protect your iDevice from falls.
In a patent application entitled "Protective Mechanism for an Electronic Device," the iPhone and iPad maker outlines a series of inventions spanning technology now available to some concepts more Jetson-like...
Research firm comScore today released a comprehensive report on mobile landscape in the United States and elsewhere and one particular chart stands out as another example of how the smartphone market is a duopoly between iOS and Android, with Apple and Samsung increasingly taking industry's profits at the expense of - well, pretty much every other handset maker out there.
Spanning 2005-2012, the chart paints an accurate picture of platform dynamics when it comes to the competitive market for connected mobile devices...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZPIWE5wljY
LSBackView is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that allows you to view the "back" of album art for music playing via the stock Music app. This rear view of the album art allows you to switch tracks within the same album when playing music using the Music app, but this feature is not available on the Lock screen. Of course, there are Lock screen controls, but those controls are linear, only allowing to you skip each track one by one. LSBackView, on the other hand, allows you to play the exact track you want to hear from an album.
The tweak can be activated using a simple double tap gesture on the album art found on the Lock screen. Another swipe brings you back to the main album art display. Although there's no solid ETA for LSBackView's release, I'd imagine that it will be soon, and it will be a free download. What are your thoughts?
As most of you have probably heard by now, flight bags are going digital. This means that pilots are getting approval to replace their 30-40lb bags of paper company and flight manuals with a 1.5lb tablet—typically an iPad.
American Airlines is on the forefront of the movement, and it has just begun installing iPads in the cockpits of its MD-80 fleet. And the folks over at AOL's Gadling travel blog were able to catch one of them in action...
We ran across an interesting yardstick when measuring how much mobile consumers will spend on in-app purchases: screen quality. No, we're not talking about whether your phone's screen is too covered with smudges and grime to see the "buy" button. Turns out, in-app purchases could be ten times as much, depending on the device screen.
Per one app firm, the connection between screen quality and in-app revenue is most evident with Android handsets, but is totally absent with iPad users...
A while back, we covered a jailbreak tweak called Grafiti [sic]. It allowed you to instantly create and share drawings via the messages app, by acting as a keyboard replacement. WIth that in mind, it supported a lot more apps than just the stock Messages app; it worked with Whatsapp, Mail, Tweetbot, and more.
Doodle Message is similar to Grafiti, in that it allows you to create drawings from within the Messages app, and send those drawings to your friends via Messages. The big difference here is that Doodle Message only works with the Messages app. There are, of course, other smaller differences, as we'll touch on inside.