Year: 2014

Yahoo Mail gets news/search, plus snapshots of weather, sports scores, stocks and News Digest

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 18, 2017

If you're a fan of Yahoo's gorgeously designed iOS apps and spend a lot of time using their Mail service on your iPhone and iPad, you're going to love the newly released Yahoo Mail 3.0, available free in the App Store.

And why's that, you ask? Because the refreshed software now makes it easy to keep tabs on your news and search the web while sorting through your email, without ever leaving the app.

But that's not all, this release of Yahoo Mail includes other goodies, too, listed right after the break...

Sega puts Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2 on sale

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 29, 2014

Games maker Sega last week switched its iPhone and iPad kart racing game, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, from paid to freemium and now the company has put a pair of other Sonic titles on sale.

Both Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are now available on sale for 99 cents each, but for a limited time only. These games were previously available for $2.99 each so the combined downloads could save you four bucks right off the bat.

If you ask me, this is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to pick up these remastered for mobile classic titles at really low prices...

Search+ shows Spotlight search from anywhere

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 29, 2014

Search+ is a recently released jailbreak tweak that's available on the BigBoss repo. It allows you to invoke Spotlight search from anywhere on your iPhone by means of an Activator gesture.

With Search+, you can quickly search the contents of your device while at the Home screen, Lock screen, or while in an app. It's, by far, one of the easiest ways to search the contents your device. Check out our video review of Search+ after the break.

Refurbished MacBook Airs now start at just $599

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 29, 2014

Apple this morning quietly updated its ultra-portable MacBook Air family around Intel's latest Haswell chips, switching from the i5-4250U to the i5-4260U CPU on the base model. Apart from this minor change - the new chips are slightly faster and more power efficient versus the previous generation - the biggest new "feature", however, is a change in Apple's pricing scheme - the new Airs now start at just $899, a hundred bucks less than before.

But if the though of burning $900 on a notebook is still unsettling, Apple's online refurbished store is now offering little-used 2012 Airs for as low as $599, or just a $100 more than the entry-level $499 iPad Air...

Fleksy Keyboard for iOS refreshed with revamped UI, six new themes and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 29, 2014

As you know, Apple has not yet opened up the iPhone's virtual keyboard to developers so you can't just go into the App Store and replace the stock iOS keyboard with a custom one, like on Android.

But where some see failures, others like Fleksy see opportunities. For those unfamiliar with Fleksy, it's the first alternate keyboard with gestures available to third-party developers across the entire iOS ecosystem.

Also available on Android, Fleksy Keyboard has seen over a million cumulative downloads across platforms, with about half of the downloads coming from iOS.

Following a 2.0 release on Android earlier this year, today Fleksy Keyboard has been bumped to version 3.1, featuring a completely revamped user interface, six new UI themes and more...

Clear to-do app gains Reminders and sound packs

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Keeping true to its promise, the popular Clear to-do app for iOS and OS X by Realmac Software has received a nice little update today, bringing out a pair of new features you're going to love.

The first is the anticipated Reminders capability which lets you set up alerts that go off across all your Mac and iOS devices, similar to Apple's stock Reminders app in iOS and OS X.

And to go with Reminders, the team has added another much-requested feature: custom sound packs. Both the iOS and OS X edition have been updated with these features and are now live in the App Store, available free to existing users...

Analyst on iPhone 6 camera: no protruding lens, software-based image stabilization

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 29, 2016

As we told you before, supposed case leaks indicate that Apple's upcoming iPhone 6 could be as thin as the current-generation iPod touch, its slim body purportedly measuring between 6.5mm and 7.0mm (the iPhone 5s is 7.6mm thick).

But Apple's desire to create an ultra-thin phone might also result in an unsightly camera lens protrusion on the back, according to purported production images.

The exposed camera design is said to be the result of the larger components needed for a new optical image stabilization feature. Apple's engineers are faced with a dilemma: create an ultra-thin device that features optical image stabilization and has the annoying protrusion or expand the device slightly to 7.5mm to get rid of the protruded module on the back.

But there's allegedly a third option: tap the speedy A8 processor and the power of software to implement an electronic rather than optical image stabilization. This would allow Apple to realize the thin appearance of the device while doing away with the rumored bulge on the back...

Apple launches updated MacBook Airs with faster processors for $100 less

Cody Lee ∙ April 29, 2014

As expected, Apple launched refreshed MacBook Air models this morning. There aren't any major changes, but the new laptops feature faster versions of Intel's Haswell processors and are priced at $100 less than their predecessors.

The updated models are currently available worldwide. Unsurprisingly, there's no sign of the rumored 12-inch MacBook Air with Retina display...

Samsung profits fall in Q1 on slowing high-end smartphone sales

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Samsung said profit fell for a second straight quarter as sales in its smartphone division continued to dip. The South Korean electronics giant announced its earnings for Q1 2014 this morning, and its operating profits for the period fell 3.3% from the year-ago-quarter.

Investors are particularly concerned with the growing trend of slumping handset sales—Samsung's mobile division is also down 1.2% year-over-year. The just-released Galaxy S5 is expected to give its Q2 numbers a boost, but the future beyond that is less than certain...

Let’s Talk iOS 026: Stock split

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated March 20, 2018

Episode 26: We discuss what's new in iOS 7.1.1, Apple's recent Q2 earnings call, The ultimate iTunes Store guide, more Nike speculation, and we each talk about our most anticipated upcoming Apple release.

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The Beverly Hills Cop trilogy is on sale on iTunes for only $9.99

Sébastien Page ∙ April 28, 2014

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who love the Beverly Hills Cop, and those who've never seen it. Whether you're the former or the latter, this is your opportunity to own the complete trilogy for only $9.99.

Admittedly, the first one is actually the best of the series, but at this price, it doesn't even make sense to just get it separately as it is more expensive than the whole trilogy bundle.

You can download the Beverly Hills Cop trilogy on iTunes for $9.99 here.

Appellancy: unlock your device using facial recognition

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 28, 2014

Appellancy—the facial recognition jailbreak tweak that unlocks your device—is now available for download on Cydia's BigBoss repo. The tweak, which is by far the best jailbreak tweak to feature facial recognition unlocking, worked very well in my testing of the final build that just hit Cydia.

I was a bit skeptical due to some issues that I had with the beta versions of the tweak (mainly crashing), but most of those issues seem to have been fixed. Check out our video walkthrough of the tweak after the break.