Month: March 2013

Legendary Atari 2600 gaming console finds new life as iPhone speaker dock

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2013

I've always been a huge fan of video games, ever since my earliest days, and the Atari 2600 was my first childhood gaming console (yup, I'm that old). After seeing the other day this 35 years old system finding a new life by becoming a retro-inspired iPhone speaker dock, it immediately brought back fond memories of gaming sessions shared with my friends after school.

A fan tore a broken Atari 2600 apart, making a few clever changes to turn it into an app-enhanced stereo speaker dock. The Atari dock will recharge an iPhone or iPod touch while allowing you to listen to your music or an FM radio. The mod also features six equalizer settings, comes with a remote control of its own and has a 3.5mm jack to connect other audio sources...

Retooled Apple TV found to have die-shrunk A5, not A5X

Cody Lee ∙ March 10, 2013

Earlier this year, a software update for the Apple TV (5.2) revealed a new device labeled "AppleTV3,2." After digging through some FCC documents, and some code, it was discovered that it was just a tweaked version of the third-gen ATV with an A5X processor.

Or at least it appeared that way. The retooled set-top box has just begun hitting Apple Stores, and the folks over at MacRumors were able to pick one up and crack one open this weekend. And they've determined that its processor is actually a die-shrunk A5 chip...

Tim Cook may be asked to testify in e-book pricing fixing suit

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2013

Apple CEO Tim Cook may be required to testify in an antitrust lawsuit the United States Department of Justice filed against it and major e-book publishers over an alleged price fixing of e-books. Cook's eventual testimony might be risky and could be potentially damaging to his company, now the main target of the suit after all named publishers had settled with regulators.

On the other hand, the CEO could take the opportunity to make a public case for a so-called agency model that the government claims has had anti-competitive impact. The agency model regulates the relationship between Apple and digital content owners who get to pick their iBook prices freely as long as they agree not to offer lower pricing to competitors than they do to Apple.

Business-wise, publishers prefer Apple's policy over Amazon's wholesale model where the online retailer sets prices as it sees fit, often hurting publishers' bottom line by engaging in selling books at a loss just to draw shoppers to its online store...

Palm Top Theater gives your iPhone that 3D display you’ve always wanted (or not)

Oliver Haslam ∙ March 10, 2013

3D was certainly the buzzword of yesteryear, with Android phone makers scrambling to make their handsets take advantage of all manner of 3D technologies with the aim of standing out from the crowd. Apple didn't make the jump to 3D with either the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, but that doesn't mean some people don't still want it or indeed that it might happen in the future.

With SXSW going on in Austin, there are always some funky little gadgets on show, and the Palm Top Theater certainly falls into that category.

If you've ever wanted things to jump out of your iPhone's screen, then you'll want to read on...

PayPal button coming to your favorite apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2013

If you're a heavy PayPal user, good news: the company last Friday at SXSW 2013 announced a software development kit for Apple's registered iOS developers to integrate PayPal's mobile payment solutions into their apps for iPhones, iPods and iPads. As a result, those developers who choose to implement the new PayPal SDK will be able to provide a PayPal button for frictionless payments. And if a user wishes to use her or his credit card, they will be able to scan it in-app to make the payment...

Firefox is not coming to iOS until Apple changes its ways, company exec says

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated August 30, 2023

Fans of Mozilla's Firefox web browser may be hoping to use their browser of choice on iOS, but according to Mozilla, that may not be possible anytime soon.

Mozilla has lifted the lid on the reason that it has yet to port the popular Firefox to Apple's mobile platform and, unsurprisingly, it's all down to Apple's tight control over how things are done on its devices according to Jay Sullivan, the company’s Vice President.

Currently, all third-party web browsers that run on the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch have to use Apple’s UIWebView component which is inherently slower than the Nitro used by the company's own Safari browser. Mozilla says that it will only bring Firefox to iOS when that limitation is removed, and Apple seems in no rush to do that...

The iDownloadBlog top news stories of the week

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 24, 2017

Like every Sunday, we bring you the stories that were the most popular on iDB during this past week. Whether it is a news piece, an editorial, a tutorial, a new jailbreak tweak, or an accessory review, we sum it all up in one convenient place. If you like what you're reading, please make sure to spread the love by sharing our posts on your favorite social network. We're usually hanging out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, more rarely on Google+...

The best iPad jailbreak tweaks The best iPhone jailbreak tweaks How much control Saurik really has over Cydia Evasi0n 1.5.1 is out with updated Cydia package list Rumor: iPhone 5S in August, new iPads possibly as early as next month Customize your notification banner animations and more with Animer Mix up your iPhone’s Lock screen with ‘Vexil’ Gridlock updated for iOS 6 Fresh iPhone 6 mockups call for a 4.6-inch edge-to-edge display A beautiful verbal clock for your Lock screen How to stop Chrome from crashing after recent update How to fix Cydia error “wow, you exceeded the number of package names this APT is capable of” Make powerful iPhone photos by focusing on what’s important

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“In a Minute” lets you be very particular about when you’re reminded about things

Oliver Haslam ∙ March 9, 2013

If you're a heavy user of Apple's Reminders app, then you'll quite possibly have nudged up against one particular issue that some find irritating while others will likely have never even noticed.

The issue in question is Apple's assumption that people will only want to set reminders in five minute increments, meaning you can't set a reminder for 09:13, for example, unless you're creating the reminder with Siri's help. It might not sound like much, but if you want to manually set a few reminders to alert inside a five minute window, then you're out of luck.

That is, unless you install a new jailbreak tweak that popped up in Cydia today...

Make powerful iPhone photos by focusing on what’s important

Justin Balog ∙ Updated January 8, 2016

Welcome back to our lessons in iPhone Photography. In today's lesson I'm going to do my best to share a fairly abstract creative tool illustrated with a few concrete examples. Last week I was in Belize working on a new iPhone Photography book. The book will feature iPhone images following the world famous Hummingbird Highway from the eastern coast of Belize to the Guatemalan border in the west.

I shared the context of this project with you so you could see how I use the tool I'm going to present in this lesson. When you are working on a photography project with a finite time-frame and budget, you have to make images. There's no option for returning the following day, or complaining that the muse isn't with you.

In previous lessons I've shared ideas about changing perspective and compositional aids that can help in our creativity. However, this one single piece of photographic wisdom has served me better than anything else I've learned. One of my personal photographic heroes, Bruce Percy, says (this is a bit paraphrased) "whatever it is that initially draws you to a scene... that is what you should focus on."

It is a simple, yet very powerful creative tool. I use this advice all the time by making whatever it is that attracted me to a scene the subject of my photograph and trying my best to reduce the other elements within the scene. As I mentioned in the beginning of this lesson, I want to illustrate how I've used this wisdom by sharing a few concrete examples from my recent trip to Belize...

Judge green-lights Apple’s Siri case against Samsung

Cody Lee ∙ March 9, 2013

Apple and Samsung are still battling it out in post-trial hearings left over from last fall's high-profile infringement trial. And they have another one coming up this year that involves a whole new range of devices.

But there's alway room for another case in the world of patent lawsuits. And Judge Lucy Koh just gave Apple permission to move forward on a third lawsuit with Samsung here in the States involving its Siri patent...

Snable helps you cut through the cable clutter at home, work and on the go [sponsored]

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 26, 2017

I try to live a cordless life as much as I can. I play music over AirPlay at home, and Bluetooh while in my car. I use AirPrint to print documents directly from the comfort of my couch. But there are still these several cords and cables I can't get rid of quite yet, such as my iPhone 5 charger, my wife's iPad 3 charger, my MacBook Air charger, etc. The result is much more clutter on my desk than I can really stand.

Snable is a new product looking to get funded on Kickstarter that's trying to solve this problem. As we were watching the promo video below with my wife today, we looked at each other and we thought the Snable would be perfect for some areas of our home where we get overwhelmed by cables. If you're anything like me, chances are you might feel the same.

Today, we sit down with Adewale from Unique Design Solutions (UDS) and talk about the company's new project. If their name sounds familiar, it's probably because you've heard about them on iDB when we covered some of their previous projects such as the Vavo and the Foco...

The iKit NuCharge: an iPhone 5 battery case with interchangeable covers

Cody Lee ∙ March 9, 2013

When it comes to battery cases for the iPhone 5, there's no shortage of options. Mophie itself offers a few choices—the Juice Pack Air and the Helium Juice Pack—and there are countless offerings from other third party manufacturers.

But that doesn't mean the space couldn't use another contender. And the folks of Shark Design think they have what it takes to be a big one with their iKit NuCharge. They say it's the "most advanced iPhone battery case ever made..."