Month: March 2013

FCC approves T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just approved a merger between Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile and MetroPCS, an American mobile phone service provider formerly known as General Wireless. Though FCC head Julius Genachowski clearing the merger, it still has to be approved by MetroPCS shareholders to become official.

The FCC told Bloomberg that the merger will "benefit millions of American consumers and help the US maintain the global leadership in mobile it has regained in recent years." At any rate, it should help bring T-Mobile's struggling 4G LTE network online sooner than later...

Filippo Bigarella’s Harlem Shake now available on Cydia

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 12, 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDeibFpJk3U

Want a Harlem Shake on your Springboard like we showed you in yesterday's post? Then head over to Cydia right now, because Harlem Shake is now available to download for free. To activate the tweak, simply assign an Activator gesture to Harlem Shake, and have at it.

Vevo wants to become the next MTV, launches always-on broadcast channel

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 12, 2013

Today at SXSW, Vevo announced a 24/7 channel coming to your traditional television via the Roku set-top box and the Xbox gaming console, but also to the Vevo web site and mobile platforms like Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone. As you know, Vevo streams official music videos licensed from record labels, both through its web site and via a dedicated YouTube channel, where most of its 52 million monthly uniques come from.

Vevo's mobile apps will be updated with an around-the-clock curated experience of original programming, including live concerts and television shows. The experience is being described as multicast, meaning everyone gets to watch the same programming at the exact same time, regardless of the platform they're accessing it from. Vevo TV will even feature a 24-hour schedule of static programming blocks, just like your regular dumb-ified tube...

Gullible analyst says no iTV this year because Apple finds 4K display too costly

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 12, 2013

An analyst with a terrible track record wrote in a note to clients issued Tuesday that Apple won't release a standalone HD TV set in 2013 after all. As much as Apple wanted to, the report has it, the company has allegedly found ultra high-resolution 4K panels to be prohibitively expensive.

You should take this particular analyst's observations with a healthy dose of skepticism: the same guy called for an Apple-branded HD TV announcement at last year's WWDC, later mulling full iTV production for August 2012. He repeatedly said iTV was "imminent" (calling it the iPanel), having also missed with an Apple TV related media event (and a bunch of other things that never came to be)...

Qantas taps iPads for in-flight entertainment

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Australia's largest airline, Qantas, Tuesday confirmed that it will be handing out iPads to its passengers who will be able to use the device as an in-flight entertainment solution providing easy access to more than two hundred hours of music, movies and television programming. The solution entails iPads connecting to the plane's onboard Wi-Fi network to access the airline's Q Streaming in-flight technology. iPads will be deployed on Qantas flights between Sydney and Honolulu on 767 aircraft, available for all classes...

Samsung, TSMC and Intel competing for contracts to build A7 chips for Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2017

Another report surfaced this morning that gives us more reasons to believe that Apple is indeed looking to diversify its chip making contracts which thus far have been an exclusive Samsung domain. The somewhat accurate Asian trade publication DigiTimes quoted "institutional investors" who believe that chip giant Intel has been contracted to produce about ten percent of Apple's planned capacity for a next-generation iPhone and iPad processor, the A7 chip.

Moreover, Apple is apparently spreading those orders across Samsung, Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Samsung will reportedly build about half of Apple's A7 orders, TSMC should take care of an additional 40 percent while Intel will get the remaining ten percent of orders. Rumor mills have been reporting for at least a year that Apple has been looking to move its chip biz away from rival Samsung, which currently builds all iPhone, iPad and iPod processors at its Austin, Texas plant...

Tumblr updates iOS app with new camera and Photosets

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Users of the popular blogging site Tumblr will be happy to hear that a fairly significant update for the iOS app has just posted. The update includes an all new camera interface and a handful of new features.

Perhaps the most notable addition is the ability to create Photosets from within the app. Tumblr released a standalone app for Photosets last fall, and it's finally decided to roll the feature into its official client...

Rdio iOS app updated with new album and playlist views

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Continuing its crusade to overhaul its iOS application, Rdio has released yet another update for its music streaming client. This is the app's second update in just under a month, and it brings the software to version 2.1.3.

There are a handful of changes listed in the release notes, but iPhone users will notice two of them right away. Both the album and playlist views have been revamped, making the app more attractive and easier to use...

Evasi0n 1.5.3 released to fix Windows crashes

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

Evasi0n received another minor update today, this time to fix a crash that occurs during the jailbreak process on Windows boxes. The release — Evasi0n 1.5.3 — is now available for download.

The previous version of Evasi0n — version 1.5.2 — was just released a few hours earlier to address localization needs for additional languages. If you downloaded that version, it's highly suggested that you purge it, and download this latest version instead, especially if you're running Windows.

Apple posts new ‘Brilliant’ and ‘Discover’ iPhone ads

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

Apple has posted two new iPhone commercials this evening. The first one is entitled 'Brilliant,' and the second is 'Discover,' and both of them follow the Cupertino company's recent marketing trend for its iOS devices.

The spots start out with a slew of quickly flashing descriptive words, landing on a final one just before jumping into a quick app demo. And they repeat this a couple of times to an upbeat soundtrack. Check them out...

How to alter your iPhone’s cursor and selection colors

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 11, 2013

CursorAndSelection Colors is a tweak that brings the ability to alter the color of the iPhone's cursor, selection bar, and selection highlight. This tweak, $1.00 on Cydia's BigBoss repo, features a settings panel that makes it easy to select from amongst over a dozen different colors for any of the aforementioned three elements.

Viral video star ‘Sweet Brown’ suing Apple over copyright infringement

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

While she may not have time for bronchitis, it appears that Kimberly 'Sweet Brown' Wilkins has plenty of time for lawsuits. The viral video star has reportedly filed a copyright infringement suit against Apple for selling a track on iTunes that featured her voice.

The song was called "I got bronchitis," and it used several samples of Wilkins' catchphrases from an early 2012 interview that turned her into an internet sensation. She is suing Apple, along with the producers of the track, for some $15 million in damages...