Since my visit to CES 2013, a quest for a backup portable iPhone charger began. Running around the world's largest trade show peddling for power was pretty ugly. New Trent was kind enough to send one over for review and it fitted the bill for my charging woes. A simple, travel size device, the iTorch IMP52D provided a full charge in just under 2 hours for my iPhone 5...
After years of rumors and speculation, Facebook finally announced its entry into the smartphone space last week. But it didn't unveil its own hardware, or operating system, like a lot of folks were expecting. Instead, it showed off Facebook Home, a software shell for Android.
As you'd expect, feedback following the announcement has been filled with mixed emotions. Luckily, Facebook lifted the embargo on tech journalists last night, allowing them to publish their full reviews of Home to help give folks a better idea of what it's all about...
Are you ready for faster wireless speeds? How about better range? If so, then you'll be happy to hear that new evidence shows that Apple is implementing 802.11ac support into its latest version of its desktop OS.
The OS X 10.8.4 beta release, that we told you about earlier, contains code not contained in previous versions of the OS. This code suggests that Apple is adding Gigabit wireless support, which is also known as 802.11ac, to future Mac hardware.
It looks like Yahoo could stand to gain from the war that has broken out between Apple and Google. Now that the iPad-maker has cleared nearly every trace of Google from the stock iOS experience (besides web search), it's apparently in the market for a new partner.
And that partner could just be the Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo. The web company already provides data for a few iOS apps, including Weather, Stocks and Siri. And according to a new report, it's in talks with Apple to take that relationship to the next level...
The next-generation iPhone, believed to be the iPhone 5S, is widely expected to land sometime this summer. This, despite the fact that the iPhone 5 just came out in September of last year, and Apple typically waits at least 12 months to update its handset.
And another report is out today in support of that theory. This one comes from the Japanese blog Macotakara, who cites sources familiar with Apple's plans, in claims that both the iPhone 5S and rumored budget iPhone are going to be announced in July...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs9Xxc-_a6o
Pluck is a recently released tweak that places a dedicated button on the iPhone's Lock screen for selecting Music. To view the button, simply invoke the iPhone's music controls by double pressing the Home button while on the Lock screen. Tapping the button allows you to "pluck" a new track from your Music Library, instead of forcing you to unlock the device and venture into the Music app just to select a specific song.
Once the button is tapped, a new sheet featuring your Music Library is pulled in from the bottom of the screen. This sheet can also be accessed by means of an Activator gesture, which is configurable in Pluck's preferences. Check inside for a few more details.
Clear The Air is a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to adjust the transparency of the Spotlight search in iOS. Options can be configured to adjust the transparency on a sliding scale, maintain the status bar's opacity, and a general kill switch to quickly enable or disable the effect.
If you're looking for a tweak that allows you to enjoy your background wallpaper while performing Spotlight searches, then this is the tweak for you.
If you're a registered OS X developer, you may be interested in this news. Just a week after Apple seeded the 12E27 beta build of OS X 10.8.4, it seeded this new build — dubbed 12E30. As with the previous build, Apple is asking developers to focus on specific areas of the OS, namely Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers and Safari.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2n96JcpAls If you have an iOS device with a front facing camera, you can use a new jailbreak tweak on Cydia to "merge" the wallpaper image with live video from the device's front facing camera. Faded Camera Wallpaper is the name of the tweak, and it's a free download on Cydia's ModMyi repo. It's a tweak that will display a faint video feed from the front facing camera, canvased on top of the Home screen wallpaper.
The tweak is exactly as described, and contains no options or settings, which is unfortunate. It might be an effect that you wouldn't mind using from time to time, but there's not even an off switch to disable it. As it stands, it's a usable tweak, but it's in desperate need of a preference panel to at least toggle it on or off. Without such an option, you have a surefire battery killer on your hands, as it appears that the camera is in action even when not at the Home screen wallpaper.
What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVgRbDOiUMo
Itching to get your hands on Velox? You're not alone. In the meantime, you may want to give MusicWidget (velox style) a go. It's a free jailbreak tweak available on Cydia's BigBoss repo, that lends Velox styled music controls to the stock Music app.
There are no settings or options to configure for MusicWidget, just install it and go. It's a tweak that works only with iPhones running iOS 6.x. Once installed, a double tap on the Music app icon will reveal music controls in a style similar to the Velox tweak that we showed you earlier. The Music app can be anywhere on your Home screen, it doesn't have to stay relegated to the dock.
If you decide to take it for a ride, let me know what you think about it.
Here's a reminder that Vine still exists: just six months after being acquired by Twitter and about two and a half months following its iOS debut, the Vine app is now the number one free software on the App Store. By comparison, Twitter's own iOS client sits at No. 35.
Vine's success is no small feat given that App Store charts are normally populated with a bevy of well-known games and entertainment titles which, by the way, command mobile app usage.
What's more, Vine is a really quirky piece of work: for Christ's sake, we're talking an app which lets you share ultra-short six-second clips here. Yet, a bunch of other video sharing programs can only dream of rising on top of App Store charts. So, what's the secret ingredient Vine has that similar programs lack?
Good news Chrome users, Google has updated its popular browser for iOS today. The update, which brings the app to version 26.0.1410.50, features a few handy new additions, including fullscreen browsing for the iPhone and iPod touch.
The app includes a few UI changes that make the new fullscreen browsing mode work, and a few new print and save options. Users can now print web pages with Google Cloud Print, or AirPrint, and save pages as PDF files to Google Drive...