Year: 2014

How to increase the availability of QuickType in iOS 8

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

iOS 8 ushered in a new QuickType predictive text feature that is bolted on to the top of the keyboard. The purpose of the QuickType feature is to help you type faster by predicting the words you might use next. I find that QuickType is usually a hate it or love it feature, but some people swear by it.

For those of you who can't live without QuickType, there's a brand new jailbreak tweak that may garner your interest. It's called SystemWidePredictiveText, and it enables the iOS 8 QuickType feature in places where it's not normally available.

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Apple brings the iOS 8.1.1 signing window to a close

Jeff Benjamin ∙ December 17, 2014

I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is Apple is no longer signing iOS 8.1.1. That means that anyone wishing to upgrade or downgrade to iOS 8.1.1 can no longer do so. Users will now be forced to upgrade to iOS 8.1.2.

Fortunately, there's good news. The good news is that Apple is of course signing iOS 8.1.2 being that it is the latest publicly available firmware. Since iOS 8.1.2 is jailbreakable with the latest version of the TaiG jailbreak, jailbreakers need not be overly concerned.

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Apple raised more than $20 million for Product Red this holiday season

Jake Smith ∙ December 17, 2014

Apple raised more than $20 million this holiday season to benefit Product Red, an organization that partners with companies to fight AIDS in Africa.

Recode obtained a copy of an email from Apple CEO Tim Cook to employees on Wednesday, congratulating them on their charitable work, which now totals $100 million total to Product Red in recent years.

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Apple forming Apple Pay team in London to launch mobile payments in more countries

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple looks to be gearing up to bring its mobile payment service Apple Pay to countries in Europe, the Middle East, India, and Africa, after a launch in the US in October. A job listing on Wednesday revealed Apple is forming a new team focused on Apple Pay at its London office, along with hiring an "Apple Pay Site Reliability Engineer" in China.

"Apple Pay is a new and exciting area in Apple that is set to expand across Europe, Middle East, India and Africa," the company wrote.

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Gameloft releases Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2014

Announced back in June, Gameloft's Brothers in Arms 3: Sons of War has arrived today in the App Store. A free-to-play download for the iPhone and iPad, this sequel to Gameloft's World War 2 series is packed to the gills with blood-pumping action and eye-candy visuals.

You’re Sergeant Wright and lead a band of highly trained brothers through World War 2.

Your brothers in arms posses a range of special abilities that, if used appropriately, can easily make all the difference in the heat of battle. Players can improve their squadmates’ skills to fight back against the enemy, upgrade their weapons and more.

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Badland gains new ‘Daydream’ level pack as devs confirm ‘multiple Badland games’ for 2015

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Badland, the highly visual iPhone and iPad action adventure game with a distinctively eerie atmosphere, is celebrating 20 million players with the latest ‘Daydream’ update.

Packing in ten bizarre single player levels, ‘Daydream’ brings the number of single player levels in the game to a full hundred. You're also getting thirty new missions and five brand new achievements to keep you glued to the screen.

And in wishing its loyal fans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year, developer Frogmind has decided to give the Daydream level pack for free, but for a limited time.

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Cydia alternative iMods get demoed on video

Sébastien Page ∙ December 17, 2014

In the six years that I've been part of the jailbreak community, I can count on the fingers of one hand how many so-called "Cydia alternatives" have come to fruition. The result is pretty simple. Zero. None. Well, there was RockYourPhone at one time, which was later purchased by saurikIT, but besides that, none of the several attempts ever made their way to the public. Who knows, maybe iMods will be the first.

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Slingshot adds swiping between selfie and frontie and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Slingshot, Facebook's weird ephemeral messaging app, is actually getting better and more useful with each update.

After releasing a major 2.0 version rebuilt from the ground up and enriched with such new features as private reactions, photo filters, drawings, emojis and notifications on a per-contact basis.

Today's update keeps smoothing out the remaining few rough edges.

For instance, you can now switch smoothly between your iPhone's front-facing FaceTime camera for ‘selfies’ and the iSight camera out the back for ‘fronties’ by swiping left and right.

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New Apple video goes behind the scenes of ‘The Song’ holiday ad

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2014

Earlier this week, Apple begun airing its new holiday ad titled 'The Song' which features a woman using her Apple hardware and software to record herself singing along with a recording of her grandmother from several years ago. The 30-second commercial wraps up with a scene depicting her grandmother enjoying the resulting song on an iPad.

Today, the iPhone maker via its YouTube channel released a behind-the-scenes video titled 'The story behind “The Song”' featuring the ad's musician Dana Williams and vocalist Rhiannon Giddens who explain basic concepts behind the commercial and lay out a creative workflow which involves most of Apple’s current product lineup.

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Apple once again reverses decision, brings Draft’s Today widget back on App Store

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple has once again reversed its decision on removing an app's feature because of its functionality within Notification Center on iOS.

As we reported earlier this month, even though the app Drafts had already been through Apple’s approval process and downloaded by users, Apple contacted the developer Greg Pierce, saying he must re-submit the app without the buttons to create drafts or open the app. Now that's not the case.

On Wednesday, Pierce released an updated version of Drafts adding the buttons back. Can Apple not make up its mind?

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Gene Munster just won’t give up on Apple TV set, says it’s now two years away

Jake Smith ∙ December 17, 2014

Famed Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is known for his incorrect predictions on Apple's long-awaited television set. He's previously guessed 2012, late-2012, and holiday 2013 as the incorrect launch dates for the new Apple product category. In 2014 he's remained completely silent on the subject, until his latest appearance at the Business Insider conference.

In an interview published on Wednesday, Munster said he expects the Apple television is now two years away and will be launched in 2016. He's mum on specific product features, but didn't mind providing expected sales figures.

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