Month: April 2013

Let’s Talk Jailbreak 07: This relationship is over

Welcome to the seventh episode of Let's Talk Jailbreak. We've got a whole lot to talk about today, so this happens to be our longest episode ever. Today we talk about JellyLock vs atom – a battle of the Lock screen launchers. We discuss Abstergo, along with our announcement of the winners of the Abstergo giveaway. We've got more details on Auxo for iPad, Facebook Chat Heads on iOS, more awesome sleeper tweaks, and we chit-chat about 1Password. Join us in this informative and fun journey into the world of jailbreaking.

Popular iPad photo editing app FX Photo Studio HD goes free for a limited time

Those in the market for an iPad photo editing app will be happy to hear that the folks over at MacPhun have just announced that following the success of last week's free iPhone app offering, they've made their popular FX Photo Studio HD free for a limited time.

The team says that the $1.99 discount is in celebration of the iPhone version of FX Photo Studio hitting over 1 million downloads during its 3-day free promotion last week, where it became the top free photography app in the App Store of 39 different countries...

Refurbs: 3G iPad 2 now $180 cheaper, cellular iPad 3 discounted by $170

Apple started offering refurbished iPad 4 and iPad mini back in March, bringing the used 16GB iPad mini down to $299, representing a modest $30 saving. Refurbished products are always good buys as these little-used devices are good as new: Apple tests them for defects, throws in a brand new battery and outer shell and backs them with its standard one-year AppleCare warranty.

After realizing some people were kinda hoping for deeper discounts, Apple just instituted an additional $50 price cut on the second and third-generation cellular iPad refurbs. For example, the entry-level cellular iPad 2 with sixteen gigabytes of storage originally cost $399 refurbished, but customers can now pick it up for $349 for an additional $50 discount, or a nice $180 saving over its usual $529 asking price...

App recommendation software AppShopper returns as social tool

When is it okay for an app to recommend other apps? Only when your friends recommend them via any third-party software designed to curate crowdsourced app recommendations, according to Apple. In other words, get social. That's the word from AppShopper Social (formerly AppShopper), an app recommendation service which returns from banishment by Apple after allowing users to view lists of apps recommended by friends. Developers have discovered that by adding the slight wrinkle of social interactivity, they can avoid at least one Apple ban: being "similar to or confusing with the App Store"...

ITC drops Motorola’s complaint against Apple over proximity sensor patent

Apple's patent troubles with the struggling handset maker has largely been viewed as a proxy fight with Google, which acquired Motorola Mobility along with its vast patent portfolio in August 2011 for $12.5 billion. Two and a half years ago Motorola asserted its proximity sensor patent against Apple. Monday, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) threw Motorola's complaint out of the window, invalidating Motorola's patent because it's too obvious. That's good news for Apple as Google was hoping to leverage that patent to seek an import ban against iPhones...

Are Apple earnings a candle in the wind?

Apple, which for years has acted as an engine for much of the tech industry, may report slowing profits for the first time in a decade. Talk of a slowdown comes as the consumer tech giant deals with the triple-threat of slimmer profit margins, falling iPhone demand and heightened competition. Ahead of Tuesday's second-quarter earnings report, Wall Street has entered a "show-me mode" as investors look for reassurance the firm can promise a rosier future...

Fight the good fight with your team of RAD Soldiers [review]

Nothing settles you in for the night more than a good old-fashioned turn-based strategy game. It is even better when you can compete against your self-righteous brother who thinks he is better at war games than you. OK, maybe I’m projecting a bit here. However, RAD Soldiers is an easy pick-up-and-play game with funny quips and cartoon graphics.

RAD Soldiers is a turn-based strategy game that puts you in charge of a team of fighters. Send them to the front line, or direct them to the shadows. Which ever you decide, remember that you have a limited number of actions before your opponent moves in. So, be sure to plan your strategy wisely...

iPhone 4 owners begin receiving ‘antennagate’ settlement checks

Ah, who could forget the infamous iPhone 4 'Antennagate' debacle? It had barely been a month since Apple had introduced its newly-redesigned handset, when users began to complain of severe signal attenuation when holding the device a certain way.

Steve Jobs and company held a press conference to defend their product, but it wasn't enough to keep the lawsuits at bay. Apple was forced to offer free bumpers, or $15 in cash, to iPhone 4 owners. And now, 3 years later, the checks are finally on their way...

Netflix announces new $12 per month family plan

Following the version 4.0 release of its iPhone and iPad app yesterday, Netflix announced that it was going to be rolling out a host of new "family friendly" features over the next few months. And it looks like the first is going to be a new family plan.

Traditionally, folks pay $8 per month for Netflix's service, which allows for unlimited streaming of its content to up to 5 devices—2 devices simultaneously. But with the new family plan, families can stream to up to 4 devices at the same time...

ZodTTD seeds public beta of new gpSPhone GBA emulator

Fans of legacy console video game systems rejoice! The well-known iOS emulator developer ZodTTD is back in action. Zod has been absent from the jailbreak scene for a while, but there's been plenty of talk of him coming back to update N64iOS and other popular ports.

That speculation materialized last night, as the developer announced that he had created a Cydia repo where he would be posting public betas of his updated emulators. And he's already seeded his first beta: gpSPhone v8.0.0, an emulator for Game Boy Advance ROMS...

Twitterrific updated with notification badges, Favstar support and more

Following last month's monstrous 5.2 release that brought about push notifications and other changes, Iconfactory has released another major update for its popular Twitter client, Twitterrific. Today's update brings the app to version 5.2.1, and again adds several new features.

Perhaps the most significant part of the update is the addition of notification badges, which tells you your number of unread notifications for the app at a glance. It also brings support for Favstar and Twitter's trending topics, and a number of other bug fixes and improvements...

Match-Up! and enter to win an Apple TV

It's been a while since we ran a nice giveaway for our awesome readers, so when the folks at Big Fish Games got in touch with us and said they wanted to run a contest on iDB, we jumped on the occasion.

Today, we team up with Big Fish Games to give away an Apple TV to one lucky winner. The best part is, you must have fun to enter to win. Read on for the details...