Month: April 2013

Comex getting ready to intern at Google

If there is someone in the hacking community that is filling up his resume with some of the top tech companies, that would be Nicholas Allegra, aka Comex. Although he hasn't been really active in the iOS community since he released JailbreakMe 3.0, the young hacker hasn't been resting on his laurels either.

After carrying out an internship for Apple in 2011 (which was terminated in October 2012), Comex has now announced on Twitter that he is going to intern at Google...

Six new cities get the AT&T 4G LTE treatment

AT&T is making good on its promise to blanket the country with its 4G LTE coverage. Earlier this month, the mobile carrier said it plans to spread its service to more than 200 million new customers by the end of 2013. Just last week, AT&T added five more cities to the list of LTE-covered places. Today, the company has announced the addition of six new cities, plus the expansion of service in four more cities, to its list of areas supported by LTE...

Chitika: iPad usage kept rising in March

One day after Apple announced selling 19.5 million iPads during the second quarter, new numbers show the tablet dominated online traffic as late as last month. The device held the market in a stranglehold, controlling 81.9 percent of tablet web traffic in the US and Canada, according to an online advertising network. According to the Chitika Ad Network, the 1.4 percent increase is the first month-on-month advance in the iPad's share of web traffic since December 2012....

Want to have coffee with Tim Cook? It will cost you $50,000

Have you ever wondered how Apple CEO Tim Cook drinks his coffee? Does he take it black, or with cream and sugar? Is he a cappuccino man, or an espresso drinker? If you have a few thousand dollars to spare, you could find out.

TechCrunch is reporting that the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, with the help of charity marketing firm CharityBuzz, has just launched an auction that will give you the chance to sit down with Apple’s CEO for a cup of joe and the chance to pitch him your ideas for the next big thing...

Amazon is planning on introducing a set-top box this fall

Amazon has been working hard to become a player in the tech hardware market. Not only has the Kindle tablets seen multiple redesigns in an effort to compete more closely with the iPad, but the online retail giant has also been rumored to be working on developing a smartphone. Today, Businessweek is reporting that Amazon will introduce a set-top box to compete in the living room arena...

FocusTwist: boost your iPhone photography with refocusable photos

There is no such thing as too many photography apps. Being an avid iPhone photography fan, I've found that every single photography app I downloaded from the App Store - and boy did I download ton of these - serves a slightly different purpose, letting me go the extra mile adding something unique to my photos.

Enter FocusTwist, a new iPhone application from Arqball which gives you ability to capture your snaps now and focus later. The software achieves refocusable photography by taking several images rapidly, each at a different focus setting.

The clever software then combines those snaps into a single image that can be posted online for your friends to interactively refocus later...

Companies still deploying iOS first as Android remains MIA online

You would think, given Android's raw numerical advantage, that app developers would first build for the larger market. However, Apple's iOS appears to offer companies other, more valuable qualities. Indeed, one need only look to last Friday, when Twitter unveiled its #music service - available initially only to iOS users. Another iOS exclusive, Twitter's Vine, has yet to hit the Android platform.

Key to why companies are still developing apps first for iOS are findings that Apple's mobile software is both used more often and the users are more loyal to the apps they download. What is Android's response: change how such things are measured....

Are Samsung drones trolling Apple?

We don't usually go in for conspiracy theories, but one is drawing quiet a bit of attention - and factual basis. Has corporate giant Samsung, stung by its more than $1 billion patent lawsuit loss to Apple in 2012, waging war on the iPhone maker? A number of signs point to the affirmative, including an apparent tactic to swamp any critics with pro-Samsung comments.

Along with blatant examples of the business press spinning news against Apple and for Samsung, there has been reports of fake Samsung product reviews. Additionally, we've seen up-close attempts by pro-Samsung 'trolls' to dominate comments...

Concept video shows what iOS 7 could look like without skeuomorphism

In October of 2012, Apple’s senior vice president of iOS software, Scott Forstall, was relieved of his duties. Some have speculated that, under the watchful eye of  lead designer Jonathan Ive, iOS will lose the skeuomorphic design that both former CEO Steve Jobs and Forstall championed. Instead, Apple’s mobile operating system might take on a sleeker, minimalistic theme as Ive asserts his industrial design aesthetic.

Today, Brazillian fellow Rafael Justino published a trailer for the concept design he believes iOS 7 could adopt at the hands of Ive. Check out his entire concept video below...

Mailbox app security fail exposes your contacts, attachments and email messages

Orchestra's Mailbox has quickly become my default iPhone email application. As you know, Mailbox offloads backend email management to the cloud so the thin client running on your device can let you zip through your inbox at a rapid pace while rethinking the workflow with abilities such as snoozing individual messages as if they were reminders and more. So is there anything not to like about Mailbox?

Apparently there is. According to one app developer, a database Mailbox maintains on your device is unsecured, potentially exposing your contacts, attachments and message contents to anyone who has physical access to your device, using just a simple file transfer tool like iExplorer or DiskAid...

Employees give Apple’s Cook approval rating just shy of Jobs

Wall Street has often questioned whether Apple CEO Tim Cook could ever fill the managerial shoes left by co-founder Steve Jobs. What's more, some anti-Apple analysts like Rob Enderle in an article titled "The impossible task of fixing Apple" opines the board should fire Cook over the recent stock slide.

Despite those doubts, employees of the iPhone maker give Cook an approval rating just shy of Jobs, according to a new survey.

Cook - who oversaw one of Apple's rockiest financial periods - gets a 93 percent approval rating from company employees, Glassdoor announced. The web site is similar to Yelp, but posts anonymous ratings of corporate management rather than businesses...

Tumblr iOS app updated with read later and social sharing features

Tumblr is the home to over a hundred million blogs that have published nearly 50 billion posts. In between blogging for a living here on iDB, checking out new gadgets and just leading an ordinary life, I have little time to maintain a personal blog. But if I did, I'd definitely consider Tumblr as my blogging platform of choice. If you run a Tumblr blog, updating your posts on the go has just become a tad easier as a new version of the official Tumblr iOS app has been released on the App Store with a couple noteworthy additions...