Year: 2014

Opinion: why I’d rather throw my money into a fire pit than give it to Verizon

Verizon Wireless may be the nation's #1 carrier, but that doesn't mean it's America's most beloved wireless provider. Notorious for the love-hate relationship with its customers, Verizon frequently draws ire of the press and consumers alike who crucify the company and criticize its questionable business practices.

In the wake of a series of customer-friendly moves by T-Mobile, collectively branded under the 'Uncarrier' tagline, one after another horror story concerning Verizon is getting unfold and making headlines.

The press likes to dis Verizon as a greedy corporation that shamelessly takes its customers for a ride under the presumption that everyone else is doing it, too. Verizon's past and present business practices have been ticking me off for quite some time so here's why I’d literally rather throw my money into a fire pit than give it to them...

Apple rolling out on-site iPhone 5s screen replacements to U.S. retail stores

Well, it had to happen someday. Call it a stroke of bad luck or inattention on my part, but it only took a fraction of a second for my shiny new iPhone 5s to slip out of my hand and fall on the concrete face down, just a few short weeks after purchasing the device! For the record, I am the type of person who handles my devices with utmost care so you could imagine my sorrow and feel my heartache.

Now I'm left with a pricey device that has a damaged screen with nasty cracks appearing all the way down to the steel Touch ID ring. A quote my nearest Apple Store gave me for an out of warranty screen replacement was just unbearable. And, it would take them at least a week to, or even more, to service the device, which was unacceptable to me.

Worse, iFixit at the time didn't yet sell an iPhone 5s screen replacement kit. In addition, history has taught me all to well to avoid inexpensive screens sold on eBay. More often than not, these third-party components don't hold a candle to Apple's Retina screen in terms of color accuracy, overall image quality and touch sensing.

Luckily for our U.S. readers, after introducing in-store iPhone 5c screen repairs back in January, Apple Stores in the United States can now replace your damaged iPhone 5s screen in a matter of an hour...

In Celleste, protecting the cows is your top priority

Cows are simply adorable. Many people will overlook the big-eyed dopey beasts as being little more than tomorrow night’s dinner. But, take a closer look at one and you’ll see that they are beautiful in their bizarreness. You just want to take one home as a pet. At least, I do.

Celleste is an arcade tapping game that has you playing god in a battle to protect these sweet and innocent cows. While they are searching for a safe place to graze, bugs are looking to graze on them. Protect the spotted beasts against evil critters with a taste for beef…

PackPoint takes the stress out of packing for a trip

Though traveling is one of my favorite things to do, packing for travels can be pretty stressful, especially when traveling abroad. Attempting to factor what I'll need for the weather can be tough, and remembering mundane things like a passport and house key for my return can be disastrous if forgotten. However, PackPoint, a new travel app, aims to reduce this stress by creating smart packing lists for both business and holiday travel. To find out if PackPoint will help you on your next adventure, read my full PackPoint review below...

Apple seeds iOS 8 beta 5 to developers: here is what’s new

Coming two weeks after the last iOS beta, which contained several visual tweaks and changes to Settings.app, Apple has released iOS 8 beta 5 build 12A4345d to developers. Besides the usual mix of bug fixes and improvements, there are likely to be multiple UI tweaks and other noticeable changes. Apple has more details in beta 5's release notes.

We're currently installing the beta and will be updating this post with any changes we find. If you find any changes from the previous beta, be sure to email us at tips@idownloadblog.com or leave a comment below, preferably with a screenshot of the modification...

TwitConfirm prevents you from accidentally retweeting or favoriting a tweet

If you use the Twitter app regularly on your iOS device, you may have accidentally retweeted or favorited a tweet while scrolling through your timeline feed. It can be quite annoying just to go back and undo the action and sometimes, you won't even notice that you've retweeted or favorited a post. However, a new jailbreak tweak landed in Cydia recently that helps Twitter users overcome this problem.

Analyst: 5.5″ iPhone 6 to have faster A8 processor and different touch modules

Disclaimer: an analyst says stuff about Apple that may or may not come true. That being said, Cowen & Co. analyst Timothy Arcuri thinks he got it all figured out, writing that a 5.5-inch iPhone 6 would include a faster A8 processor than its 4.7-inch counterpart. Not only that, but a variant of the A8 chip inside Apple's phablet-class device would be physically bigger, indicating perhaps that the bigger handset might feature additional graphics cores compared to its 4.7-inch counterpart.

In addition, the Wall Street analyst thinks that the device will pack in a different touch module than the 4.7-inch model...

Also out: Apple TV Software Beta 4 (with new UI), Xcode 6 Beta 5 and more

As correctly estimated, Apple today unleashed new iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite betas to its registered iOS and Mac developers. While our team is combing through release notes and updating a running list of changes, please send us your very own submissions to tips@iDownloadBlog.com (do include screenshots as well).

In the meantime, additional updates have surfaced on Apple's Dev Center, including matching new betas of the upcoming Apple TV software featuring a brand spanking new user interface, updated Xcode developer tools and more.

Read on for the full reveal...

Apple seeds OS X Yosemite Developer Preview 5

In addition to seeding the fifth beta of iOS 8 this morning, Apple has also released the fifth Developer Preview of its new OS X Yosemite operating system. The update comes two weeks after Preview 4, and well over a month after Apple announced Yosemite at WWDC.

The update is labeled as build preview 5 1.0 and can be downloaded via an update in the Mac App Store, or as a full download from Apple’s online developer center. It does not, however, appear to be out in Apple’s recently-launched public Yosemite Beta Seed program yet…

Original BioShock transitioning to iPhone and iPad later this summer

BioShock, a first-person shooter video game franchise originally released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 platforms in August 2007, is about to leap onto the iPhone and iPad later this summer.

A spiritual successor to the System Shock series, the main concept behind BioShock borrows from authors like George Orwell and is based on the ideas of Objectivism, a philosophical system conceived and detailed by Russian-born American writer Ayn Rand...