The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Nuance Communications has been in talks with Samsung and private-equity firms about a possible sale of the company. The report, which cites sources with knowledge on the matter, claims it is unclear where sales talks currently stand, or whether these talks will actually materialize into a sale…
iOS 8 might be stealing a little bit of the thunder from the jailbreaking scene as of late, but the community is still going strong. MoreInfo is a new extension designed for use with Activator, the useful jailbreak tweak for assigning gestures to trigger common iOS actions. It allows for a quick in-browser search of the currently playing song or movie, with support for multiple search engines and several customization options. A full rundown of the extension follows…
My headline isn't an exaggeration. The Internet giant last week announced buying satellite imaging company Skybox Imaging for $500 million, which is peanuts, really, when you consider what Skybox does for a living. The company has satellites that circle the orbit of the Earth and take very detailed photographs of the terrain.
On the surface, the acquisition should help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery. Google on its part has said the Skybox buy will also help them improve Internet access and disaster relief. So, what does any of this have to do with the iPhone?
Read on...
Facebook has just pushed a massive update to its Paper for iPhone app, bringing out a host of much-needed features, starting with the ability to edit your profile picture and cover photo.
The free application now allows you to view photo tags, too, and use mentions to tag friends and let them know about the story. You can explore hashtags to see all the related posts, tilt the phone to explore every detail of the photo, tap-and-hold text to copy it from a post you're reading, change your audience after you post and more...
CloudKit, one of the few platform-enhancing features Apple rolled out at WWDC, had to be created entirely from scratch because the Cupertino firm has failed at buying Parse, a startup that provides much of CloudKit-like functionality.
CloudKit frees up programmers from needing to devote their resources toward building server-side application logic themselves. It does so by providing a common set of APIs for server-based authentication, private and public database, structured and asset storage services and much more.
According to a scoop by The Information, a technology website by former WSJ writer Jessica Lessin, the iPhone maker considered purchasing Parse before Facebook...
Apple can't make up its mind. Just months ago, it pulled all Bitcoin wallet apps from the App Store after enacting a policy against all apps using the virtual currency. Now, it has reversed that decision and is allowing apps based the virtual currency back into the App Store. As reported by The Next Web, at least one app has already made its return to the storefront. Take a look…
iDownloadBlog is pleased to announce our latest giveaway of the I-MEGO MAZE Studio Headphones, valued at $139.99. The MAZE headphones launched just a few weeks ago, featuring a soft memory foam cushion, semi-transparent vinyl record-like deco plate, and an integrated metal slider. The pair have a patent pending design that aims to deliver enhanced acoustics. Read ahead for how to enter…
Facebook on Monday pushed an update to its iPad client to put more entertainment (and ads) into your hands.
Realizing that seven out of each ten people who use Facebook for iPad played a Facebook-connected game in the past 90 days, Mark Zuckerberg & Co. are now testing a new sidebar within the iPad app, specifically created for entertainment content and game discovery.
The iPad-exclusive section provides game trailers and in-game footage, as well as Trending videos/news articles, social notifications for native Facebook games, as well as those offered on the web, and much more.
Note that this experiment is currently limited to Facebook's iPad users in the United States and there's no word when it could launch globally. Additional tidbits can be found right after the break...
I can't stand any more of Angry Birds. There, I've said it. Still, a lot of fans feel the series hasn't run its course yet so this one should be fun: Finland-based Angry Birds maker Rovio Mobile has now partnered with Hasbro on a new tie-in game. They're calling it Angry Birds Transformers and it's coming real soon to an iOS device near you.
Jump past the fold for full details...
Ahead of iOS 8's public launch this Fall, WebMD today introduced Healthy Target, its own health improvement program for the iPhone that aggregates data from various biometric sensors and makes it understandable and actionable.
It sounds much like HealthKit, Apple's new platform in iOS 8 which gives makers of health/fitness apps and accessories official APIs to store users' performance metrics and health data into a system-wide database accessible by the stock Health app and third-party software...
Handoff, arguably the coolest feature of the upcoming OS X 10.10 Yosemite, may not be available to all Mac users. In case you're not familiar with Handoff, it's part of Continuity, a new feature designed for seamless transitioning between iOS devices and Macs.
"Now your Mac knows the last thing you were doing on your iOS device and vice versa," Apple's Yosemite webpage explains. "So you can start something on one device and instantly pick it up on another."
As noted by a German blog, Handoff relying on short-range Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity is a strong indication that you'll need a relatively new Mac model in order to take advantage of the feature...
According to an Asian source citing “Apple employees” in Hong Kong, Apple's upcoming iPhone 6 will pack in a much improved Retina display boasting Quad HD screen resolution of 2,560-by-1,440 pixels.
This would mark a significant upgrade from both the current four-inch 1,136-by-640 Retina display on the iPhone 5/5s/5c and the rumored 1,704-by-960 pixel resolution screen claimed earlier this month by a reliable blogger...