Month: April 2013

Yahoo! Mail launches on iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2013

With Google continuing to allocate significant resources towards improving its Gmail service and the excellent iOS client, you'd be forgiven for disregarding Yahoo! Mail. I mean, who in their right mind uses Yahoo! Mail, right? Turns out more than 281 million people do, making it the third-largest web-based email service as of December 2012, according to comScore. And the iPhone from the onset supported Yahoo! Mail.

As promised, hot on the heels of releasing a gorgeous new Weather application for the iPhone, Yahoo this morning also refreshed its existing iOS email client with native support for the iPad's bigger canvas. Go past the fold for more tidbits and a nice promo clip...

Apple disables Push Notifications for AppGratis

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2013

The app recommendation engine AppGratis's woes with Apple continue with word that the iPhone maker has now disabled push alerts for the existing users of the software. AppGratis, which employs a staff of 40 at its Paris, France headquarters, saw its iOS app booted eleven days ago from the App Store for violating two clauses of Apple's iOS agreement with third-party developers. This being a major blow to the app curation engine, which claims some twelve million users, the company has emailed its user base to inform them of Apple's move...

A chiclet keyboard for iOS? It’s in the works

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 18, 2013

I'm usually not a sucker for themes and other elemental changes to stock iOS, but sometimes, a man just can't deny a good thing when he sees it. That's exactly the case with this new chiclet styled keyboard, which is currently in the works.

They keyboard, as you can see, is a thing to behold. It's so simple, yet so elegant, and I want it right now. Unfortunately it's not quite ready for release, but according to the designer, who posts on Reddit under the name RugratsReRuns, the keyboard may be ready as early as tomorrow.

Assign Activator gestures to Siri questions with Ask Assistant

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 18, 2013

Sometimes you just don't feel like talking, even if it's to Siri. Ask Assistant is perfect for those times, because it allows you to invoke Siri without saying a word.

The tweak lets you enter up to five canned Siri queries into its preference panel, and you can then assign each query to a specific Activator gesture. For instance, I setup a query that simply stated "Send a Tweet." I then assigned this question to an Activator gesture — a double tap of the status bar. Now, anytime I want to send a new tweet, all it takes is a double tap of my status bar, and the new tweet sheet will appear.

It doesn't have to be that simple, though. Ask Assistant can perform any query that you can normally perform using your voice. Take a look inside for a few additional details.

Google’s Nexus 10 no threat to iPad sales

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 18, 2013

Here's an interesting tidbit we found this morning: Microsoft's Surface tablets could actually be outselling Google's latest Nexus 10. We understand every scuffle between Google and Apple is actually a proxy for the battle between Android and iOS, so the statement by blogger Benedict Evans caught our eyes. According to Evans, the Samsung-made Nexus 10 likely sold around 1.01 million of the Google tablets by the end of March.

This compares to the 1.5 million Surface tablets Microsoft has reportedly sold - not to mention the ten million iPad mini tablets purchased in just the last two months of the fourth quarter in fiscal 2012. While the latest Nexus tablet is no threat to the iPad, the calculations suggest something more important: strong distribution and a well-defined ecosystem can overcome big-name rivals...

Yahoo’s new Weather iOS app looks terrific

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2013

I'm a huge sucker for awesome weather apps, so much that I'm afraid to even think about how much money I've put into these kinds of apps for my iThings.

Yahoo, as you know, supplies Apple with weather data for its stock iOS Weather app (in addition to Stocks and Siri data as well) and it was reported earlier this morning that the company will be launching a dedicated weather forecast software on the App Store.

You could imagine a weather buff like myself would be hanging on the edge of my seat in anticipation of Yahoo! Weather. Now that it's just hit the App Store, I can honestly say that this is the best-designed iOS app from Yahoo yet.

The elegant typography combined with the big, beautiful full-screen images (crowd-sourced via Flickr), the crisp weather pictograms and just the right amount of information make this my new favorite weather forecast app. Jump past the fold for a bunch of screenshots, you know you want to..

Dubious budget iPhone plastic shell leaks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 27, 2016

Apple's rumored less-pricey iPhone is thought to minimize manufacturing costs by abandoning the pricey two-tone aluminum body, replacing it with a less expensive polycarbonate shell akin to the white G3 iMac - or similar to the plastic body of the iPhone 3G/3GS, if you will. Now, rumor-mills, but also big media such as WSJ and Bloomberg, have repeated this particular data point numerous times, but we have never seen any physical evidence supporting the plastic body theory.

That changed Wednesday as case manufacturer Tactus, which recently leaked purported iPad 5 shell, posted an image that allegedly represents the back shell of the budget iPhone. We couldn't confirm its authenticity at press time so take this one with a pinch of salt, even more so knowing accessory makers often pull such stunts to get free press...

Twitter #music app launches on iPhone, get downloading

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

The popular micro-blogging turned media platform, Twitter, announced Wednesday that its new Music app is now available for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, free of charge. Twitter's music service on the web, which has been available in limited beta to a few celebrities, will open for everyone later today. Billed as "a new way to discover music and emerging artists", the native iOS app, which is conveniently named Twitter #music, basically wants to become your default social music discovery tool.

Currently, the software pulls songs from iTunes, Spotify and Rdio, but more sources are likely to be added in the future. Anyone can listen to iTunes previews in the app, but Rdio and Spotify subscribers can log in using their credentials to enjoy full tracks that are available in those respective catalogs...

Verizon in Q1 activated 4M iPhones out of 7.2M smartphones

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 18, 2013

Verizon just posted its calendar 2013 first quarter earnings. The nation's top wireless carrier activated four million iPhones on its network throughout the quarter, half of which were the iPhone 5. The figure beats the 3.5 million unit consensus and represents a 25 percent increase over the 3.2 million iPhones Verizon activated a year ago. Representing just over 55 percent of all smartphone activations for the quarter, the iPhone during Q4 2012 represented nearly two-thirds of activations, which isn't surprising given the holiday rush, iPhone 4/4S price cuts and the iPhone 5 launch hype.

The company added 720,000 net new subscribers, including 677,000 people who signed two-year contracts, up 35 percent year-over-year. Turnover rate increased slightly to 1.01 percent from 0.96 percent a year ago. Smartphones represented 61 percent of contract subscribers, a record smartphone penetration. Shares climbed 1.94 percent during Thursday’s pre-market session...

Yahoo to launch new iOS weather app and iPad email client tomorrow

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

According to well-informed sources, Internet giant Yahoo will tomorrow release two new iOS applications, one a standalone weather software and the other an iPad version of its native email client. The news arrives hot on the heels of last week's claim by The Wall Street Journal, which has it on good authority that Apple and Yahoo are "in very early stages" of deepening their partnership in order to grow Yahoo's presence on mobile devices as Apple continues to push itself further away from Google...

And just like that, Chat Heads are a reality on iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 17, 2013

As we predicted, Chat Heads are coming to a jailbroken iPhone near you. Stride developer, Adam Bell, is currently hard at work on implementing Facebook's Chat Head feature system-wide on iOS, and he's made some great progress.

First posted on the Verge, Bell's Chat Head integration with iOS looks to be coming along much faster than many anticipated. Take a look at a hands-on video inside.

Auxo coming to iPad next month

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

Folks, it's almost here. Yes, Auxo is coming to the iPad next month. As you know, Auxo is one of my own personal favorite jailbreak tweaks, and for good reason. It completely re-imagines the iOS app switcher, giving users the ability to see full screen previews of running apps.

While I always thought Auxo looked great on the iPhone 5's larger screen, I'd imagine it will look even better on the iPad. The screenshot above pretty much says as much.