Month: April 2013

Apple bashing earns New York Times a Pulitzer

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

Remember how Apple's use of Chinese factories to produce its iPad was the focus of attention during 2012? Well, so did members of the Pulitzer committee, which Monday awarded a 2013 Pulitzer Prize to the New York Times.

The paper won critical awards for its iEconomy series, a nine-part look at the working conditions in Chinese factories producing the popular tablet. But was the series a "penetrating look into business practices by Apple," as the Pulitzer announcement claims, or simply a way to rehash a common practice by using the Apple brand as the foil?

More evidence points to Apple expanding mobile chip development to Florida

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

New evidence has surface in the form of several Apple job postings advertising for silicon experts for the Orlando, Florida area, where the iPhone maker is rumored to be setting up a brand new shop for custom chip development. Among the seven positions advertised on the Apple Jobs web site are those specifically related to developing and testing processor and mobile graphics hardware...

NotesTweak will add cool new features to the stock Notes app

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 16, 2013

NotesTweak is an upcoming jailbreak tweak for iOS that allows you to enhance the stock Notes app. NotesTweak adds new features like the ability to save note snippets directly to the Home screen, upload notes to DropBox, and pin important notes to the top of your list.

If you're someone who relies on the stock Notes app to get things done, then you'll undoubtedly appreciate some of the new features that NotesTweak will bring to the table. Take a look inside for more info.

Waze CEO discusses the state of iOS 6 Maps

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 16, 2013

Waze, a free social GPS application developed by the Israeli start-up Waze Mobile, at point was supposedly going to be acquired by Apple in order to improve iOS 6 Maps data, though later reports dismissed the rumor as wishful thinking.

Its CEO Noam Bardin was interviewed at AllThingsD's Dive Into Mobile conference yesterday.

Among the topics discussed, Barding shared his observations concerning Apple's Maps service which debuted as part of iOS 6 in September 2012, here's what he said...

Chat Heads coming to iOS later today via Facebook 6.0 app update

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 16, 2013

Chat Heads, the core feature of the new Facebook Home for Android, is coming to iPhone and iPad via an update to Facebook's iOS client, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer and mobile head Cory Ondrejka announced at AllThingsD's D: Dive into Mobile conference today.

Other new features have also been mentioned, including a new layout on iPad which takes into account March changes to Facebook's News Feed.

As for Facebook Home, that application will see its first update on select Android smartphones from HTC and Samsung in "the second week of May". Go past the fold for a nice Facebook 6.0 for iOS hands-on video...

Calmi: toggle vibration with the silent/ringer switch

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 15, 2013

I rarely use ringtones with my iPhone. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I've heard my ringtone, because my iPhone stays on silent mode 99% of the time.

Sometimes I find that even the motor from the vibration is too much for me, so I quickly tap the volume buttons to completely silence the phone. Calmi is a jailbreak tweak for people like me. It's a tweak that allows you to turn the ringer/vibrate switch into a vibrate/silent switch.

iPhone 5S could include 12MP camera with improved night shooting

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 15, 2013

Monday, a report out of Vietnam shed new light on an aspect of the next iPhone that hasn't received much attention yet: the camera subsystem. First piece of the puzzle points to Apple engineers upgrading photo quality by putting a notably higher-resolution camera module inside the iPhone 5S, one that features a thirteen megapixel CMOS sensor instead of "just" eight megapixels on the iPhone 5/4S.

The other tidbit mentions an improved night shooting feature as well as an enhanced HDR mode allowing for even higher intensity levels and more realistic colors when snapping up images in extreme lighting conditions such as direct sunlight or faint starlight...

Abstergo: the perfect tweak for managing notifications

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated December 29, 2016

It's been a very long time in the making, but the release of Abstergo is almost upon us. Abstergo, as you may remember, has been talked about and worked on for over a year. It is the concept and creation of Andrew Richardson and Joshua Tucker, and it promises to make managing your notifications better on iOS.

Needless to say, lots and lots of time has been invested into nearly every aspect of the tweak. Tucker, in a candid discussion with him via Twitter, stated that the pair worked hard on one particular portion of the tweak — the ability to add notifications back to the Lock screen — for a couple of weeks.

With its release a mere six days away, Abstergo is shaping up to be a tweak that has been well worth waiting for. I believe it truly will lend a better ability to managing iOS notifications. It's one of those tweaks that's a bit difficult to explain how it can help you without seeing it in action for yourself. For that reason, we've hit the video lab to give you an in-depth hands-on demonstration of the tweak's most intimate functions. Take a look past the break for the full scoop.

Apple offers third-gen Apple TV replacement program over Wi-Fi issues

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 15, 2013

Is your Apple TV acting up lately? Specifically, is the set-top box exhibiting issues related to Wi-Fi networking? If so, Apple may have a brand new unit for you, free of charge, up to two years after the device’s purchase date.

According to a new report, the iPhone maker has opened a replacement program for owners of the third-generation Apple TVs plagued with problems related to locating or joining Wi-Fi network, dropped connections and more.

Only a small number of units have been affected and Apple has specified which serial number pairs are eligible for the replacement program...

Mailbox gains smarter snoozes, handy UI tweaks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Dropbox-owned Mailbox soon became my go-to email client on iOS because it vastly reduced the overhead of dealing with email messages on iDevices by taking delegating most background stuff to the cloud. What the iPhone or iPod touch in turn becomes is a thin, responsive client.

And that has allowed for some interesting possibilities, such as rearranging the individual messages in your inbox or snoozing them as if they were reminders.

Although developers mostly concentrated on creating an effective user interface to support these unique features, the Mailbox app has a few annoyances that today's maintenance update, its second update post Dropbox acquisition, strives to address.

For example, no longer are you limited to snoozing messages until Later Today, This Evening, Tomorrow, This Weekend, Next Week, In a Month, Someday or a specific date: the app now adds more granular choices allowing for snooze adjustments based on time of day and week...

Fifth-gen iPod touch refurbs hit online Apple Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 15, 2013

Apple regularly puts up slightly used products on sale after it refurbishes them. For example, last month saw the older iPod touches and certain iPad mini refurbs arrive.

Today, the latest iPod touches popped up on the refurbished section of Apple's online store. Discounts start at $30 for the entry-level 4th gen refurbs, going all the way up to $50 for 5th gen variants.

These products are good as new, have only been used lightly, include a brand new battery and come with standard one-year AppleCare warranty. Interestingly enough, these refurbs have landed on the online Apple Store after Apple appears to have shut down its refurbished outlet on eBay...