Year: 2014

T-Mobile unveils time-limited $100 per month family plan with 10GB LTE data

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 28, 2014

"Leaving my office last week, I pulled alongside a bus covered with yet another ad for AT&T’s 'Best-Ever Pricing' for families," writes T-Mobile USA's outspoken CEO John Legere in a blog post Monday.

As is his wont, Legere couldn't resist offering a scathing critique of AT&T's family plan, calling it "funny" because "their deal is no deal at all" compared to the pricing of T-Mobile’s Simple Choice Family Plan.

Regardless, Legere went on to announce a new competitive offering which will be launching later this month to give a family of four a total of ten gigabytes of high-speed LTE data (2.5GB each) in exchange for a cool hundred bucks per month. By comparison, AT&T's “Best-Ever Pricing” offers four lines for $160...

Don’t expect to see iWatch or 5.5″ iPhone 6 before December, new rumor cautions

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 29, 2016

I don't think anyone in their right mind would seriously question Apple's motivation to reportedly market and sell bigger iPhones this year.

Moreover, many pundits and watchers are in agreement that Apple will indeed enter new product categories this year with a rumored iWatch wearable device, said to combine health and fitness functions.

What's unclear though is the timing for these product launches. We already know it's going to be action-packed Fall, but you'd be wise not to keep your fingers crossed for a simultaneous launch of both new iPhones and iWatches...

European Commission green-lights Apple’s $3B Beats buy

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 28, 2014

The European Commission has okayed Apple's purchase of the Beats Music streaming-music service and Beats Electronics' premium headphone business, concluding that the agreement would not be detrimental to consumers across Europe. This is an important though expected development as Apple hopes to complete the $3 billion transaction by the end of the September quarter, pending regulatory approval in the United States...

Microsoft airs Cortana vs. Siri ad showing contextually-aware tasks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

Microsoft on Monday shared a new television commercial which the company first showed off at its annual conference back in April to rally up developers who were concerned that the software giant was losing its mojo.

The 30-second video depicts a showdown between Cortana, Microsoft's own digital personal assistant baked into Windows Phone 8.1, and Apple's Siri.

Microsoft's assistant is shown completing a number of contextually-aware tasks using a plethora of services and data sources...

Apple said to be buying Swell Radio app

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2018

Following a TechCrunch report last Friday which claims that Apple has recently acquired data-style book analytics services BookLamp (basically a “Pandora for books”) to beat Amazon at its own game, Re/code is reporting early Monday that the Cupertino firm has another acquisition target in its crosshairs - a radio/podcast app Swell ("Pandora for talk radio") which raised $7.2 million from investors including DFJ, Google Ventures and InterWest Partners...

The best of iOS 8: from new features to developer tools

Timothy Reavis ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

With the imminent introduction of the iPhone 6 will come the release of iOS 8, Apple's latest iteration in its mobile operating system. After spending the past several weeks with pre-release versions of the software, I can say that there are definitive grounds for anticipating its public availability. Whether you're planning on buying a new iPhone this fall or upgrading your current device to iOS 8, there are clear reasons to be excited about the features it has to offer.

Although it will be shipping with quite a few significant features – Apple claims this is their "biggest iOS release ever" – we've gone hands-on with the beta releases and picked our top ten favorite enhancements that will be available for qualifying devices this September. Here, in no sequential order, are the best of what makes iOS 8 great...

Swatch says it doesn’t need Apple, will launch its smart watch next year

Sébastien Page ∙ July 27, 2014

Some silly rumor made the rounds last week claiming Swatch was in talk with Apple to produce a line of iWatch devices. This was quickly denied by Swatch, who's now saying it will bring its own smart watch/fitness tracker to market by next year.

Swatch CEO Nick Hayek recently told Swiss newspaper NZZ am Sonntag (via Reuters) that the company will soon update its Swatch Touch line, which will be equipped with features appealing to athletes:

Telltale confirms third season of ‘The Walking Dead’

Cody Lee ∙ July 27, 2014

Folks worried that the final episode of The Walking Dead: Season Two will be the end of the series can rest easy. Developer Telltale Games has confirmed this weekend that the story of the dead will live on in season 3.

The studio made the announcement yesterday at Comic-Con, during a panel hosted by Skybound Entertainment. It publishes The Walking Dead comics, of which both the game and the popular television show are based...

Colorado landscapes wallpapers

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

During the last two months, the Wallpapers of the Week section was populated with contrived or graphically designed wallpapers. While walls like the "Complex Geometry" and Puerta del Sol Apple Store opening were very well received, today we celebrate natural beauty of the Colorado landscape.

A skill I always envy is an artist's ability to capture nature through a camera lens. Much more complicated than pointing and shooting your Photo app on a smartphone, true beauty is difficult to capture. An artist I keep up with published these images recently and shared them through Twitter. Get downloading!

Smart Search spices up Spotlight search on iOS 7

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Spotlight can be used to search for content (music, app, mail etc.) on your iPhone, iPad or iPod and it can be accessed by swiping down the Home screen. Personally, I've never found Spotlight search useful and I rarely use it except when I'm tempted to. However, iOS 8 takes the feature to a whole new level by allowing users to search for an iTunes song, App Store app, website, Wikipedia entry and much more directly from Spotlight.

Inspired by iOS 8 Spotlight search, Smart Search is a new jailbreak tweak that improves the functionality of Spotlight search on jailbroken iOS 7 devices by expanding its search capability. It gives users the ability to search for a keyword from the App Store, iTunes Store, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and more. We decided to give Smart Search a try and it worked flawlessly as advertised.

How to add iDB’s podcasts to Overcast

Jake Underwood ∙ Updated June 26, 2019

Marco Arment's new podcasting app, Overcast, is undoubtedly a fantastic listening tool. However, if you have been using another podcast app, it may be difficult finding and importing your favorites into Overcast, such as iDB's Let's Talk Jailbreak and Let's Talk iOS. Have no fear, dear reader, as upon finishing this post, you will be hearing the fantastic podcasts (including Jeff's silky smooth voice) in Overcast.