Month: April 2013

The next iPhone’s killer feature? Fingerprint scanning.

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Most analysts tend to pull their predictions out of thin air. We were cagey about last month's Morgan Stanley report as it rather cryptically asserts Apple's next iPhone, the iPhone 5S, will have a "killer feature." Of course it will, stupid - every iPhone has at least one standout feature cunningly designed to convince existing users to upgrade.

The iPhone 3G had 3G networking, the iPhone 3GS had video, the iPhone 4 had the stunning form factor and Retina display and the iPhone 4S had Siri.

As for the current iPhone 5, it of course offers LTE and sports the dramatic two-tone design akin to a finely crafted watch. According to a rather reliable analyst, this year's S-upgrade to Apple's handset will have fingerprint scanning as an exclusive feature...

iPhone 4 discount triples India sales in under a week

Ed Sutherland ∙ April 12, 2013

More positive feedback on Apple's efforts to reshape practices in the face of emerging markets. Sales of the iPhone 4 in India tripled in only five days, following a trade-in program. The program is viewed by some as a "disguised discount" but the results are obvious for Apple and its plans to compete in a nation where smartphone sales are just taking off.

Although India does not have a subsidy program to soften the blow of a full-priced iPhone, Apple has found a way to reduce the sticker shock by sharing the handset's cost with a growing network of India's retailers...

T-Mobile airs its inaugural iPhone ad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 31, 2017

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd4kIACVdLs

T-Mobile, the nation's fourth-largest carrier, today finally gets to sell Apple's iconic smartphone. We learned yesterday the Deutsche Telekom-owned telco has a massive ad blitz in the works to push the handset to the masses. And now, we just caught a glimpse of that campaign as T-Mobile starts airing its inaugural television commercial for the venerable iPhone...

Apple may have tasked former Adobe Flash expert with iWatch work

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2013

Last month, news broke that Apple hired Adobe's former Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch as its new VP of technology, reporting directly to Bob Mansfield who heads the new Technologies unit combining Apple's wireless and semiconductor teams. iDB, along with many other news outlets, opined how out of character the hiring evidently was given Lynch's history of public criticism of Apple's stance on Flash. According to a new report, the ex-Adobe exec may now be a part of the engineering group that's been developing a rumored Apple smartwatch project...

How to assign voice memos to an Activator gesture

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 12, 2013

Whenever you have Ryan Petrich's beta repo added to your Cydia sources, you're bound to run into a new surprise from time to time. That's because the prolific Cydia developer likes to test out some of his new creations on his personal repo before adding them to Cydia.

One of his latest creations is called Voice Memo Toggle for Activator. As its name states, it simply adds the ability to toggle voice memos on or off using an Activator gesture. The memos are taken using the iPhone's stock Voice Memos app, which makes it only available for the iPhone or iPod touch users. Take a look inside for a few additional details.

iPad 5: lighter and thinner thanks to tweaked display assembly

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 12, 2013

Several supply chain checks are now pointing to Apple's fifth-generation iPad being lighter and thinner over its predecessor, the iPad 4. According to one display expert, Apple will achieve the thinner appearance in a lighter device thanks to advancements in the display department. For starters, in reducing the size of LED backlighting and improving its efficiency, Apple engineers will be able to reduce the overall weight of the device. The company may also use a new kind of touch sensor, he speculated Friday...

Make your photos pop with PopAGraph

Lory Gil ∙ April 12, 2013

Since the dawn of the camera phone, photography hobbyists have found ways to turn low-resolution, pixelated images into works of art. When Apple put a camera in the iPhone, it literally changed the photography landscape, allowing anyone to turn the most mundane images into interesting photos using a wide variety of apps.

PopAGraph is a photo-editing app for the iPhone and iPod touch that takes it one step further by allowing you to mask objects and “pop” them out. This gives the impression of a virtual three-dimensional picture that you can share immediately on social networking sites like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter...

French government takes issue with Apple’s AppGratis removal

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2013

The AppGratis app curation software is no longer available on the App Store but the controversy is far from being over. After AppGratis CEO Simon Dawalt lambasted Apple on a company blog for kicking his app out of the App Store, a move he called "an absolutely crazy situation to deal with," a French minister today slagged the iPhone maker over the ouster. Fleur Pellerin, France’s junior minister for digital economy, publicly described Apple’s decision to pull AppGratis as “extremely brutal and unilateral.”

She urged European regulators to “think about legislation” because Apple is not “behaving ethically" in its dealings with small startups like AppGratis...

Apple to sign Universal on iRadio next week, agrees to rates ‘neck and neck’ with Pandora

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 11, 2013

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place as a new report sourced from multiple people familiar with the matter claims that an agreement between Apple and Universal Music on iRadio is "imminent." History teaches us it only takes one major record until others others eventually back Apple's rumored Pandora-like streaming music service. Besides, Universal Music is the largest record label in the world. Warner Music is "right behind," though negotiations with Sony reportedly are not as far along...

Cut the Rope: Time Travel teased, is ‘almost here’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

UK-based developer ZeptoLab really hit the bull's eye with the main premise behind its adorable iOS puzzler dubbed Cut the Rope. In case you've been living under a rock, your objective is to feed candy to a little green monster named Om Nom while collecting stars.

Since making its debut in October 2010, Cut the Rope, a BAFTA winner, has been downloaded more than a hundred million times across various platforms.

Taking the franchise to the next level, ZeptoLab has just posted a teaser video announcing a sequel titled Cut the Rope: Time Travel...

Set intervals for the Reminders app with RemindMeAgain

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 11, 2013

A new tweak was just submitted to the Cydia store today, and it is called RemindMeAgain. As its name alludes to, RemindMeAgain works with the Reminders app to provide you with Reminders for tasks at preset intervals. RemindMeAgain will continue to bug you at the interval you set, until the task is checked as being complete.

Take a look inside for a brief look at the tweak...

Bump update breaks iTunes sharing at Apple’s (music biz’s?) request

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

If you use Bump, a cross-platform app for sharing photos, contacts, music and more between different devices, you may want to pass on today's update as it's removed the handy ability to share songs from your iTunes library.

"We're sorry, but we are no longer permitted access to iTunes audio files on the device," release notes accompanying the download read. In removing access to iTunes audio files in the file sharing section, Bump didn't just appease to Apple, it's also a little less useful now...