Year: 2014

iPhone UI creator Greg Christie departing after falling out with Jony Ive over iOS design direction

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 9, 2014

Ever since Tim Cook took the reigns at Apple, the firm's been in a perpetual shakeup mode. The most famous change at the top occurred on October 29, 2012, the day a press release was put out saying "Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple" the following year.

The unexpected change saw Apple's lead hardware designer Jony Ive assume a greater role as he got to "provide leadership and direction" for Apple's Human Interface (HI) group across the company, on top of his longtime role as the leader of Industrial Design.

With Ive in charge of all design at the company, Apple has ushered in a new era of visual simplicity with the release of iOS 7 last September, representing the biggest rethinking of the iPhone's user interface since the handset's inception.

However, a new report asserts that collaboration between Ive and Apple's Vice President of Human Interface, Greg Christie, has been a rocky one

In fact, Christie is rumored to be leaving Apple soon as a result of his falling out with Ive over the iOS's design direction...

Upcoming jailbreak tweak ‘OS Experience’ promises to bring true multitasking to iPad

Cody Lee ∙ April 9, 2014

We noted on the most recent episode of our podcast Let's Talk Jailbreak that it's an exciting time for jailbreakers right now. It seems like every few weeks we have a major new tweak coming out—Auxo 2, ProWidgets, IntelliScreenX 7—and today we have a another one to add to the list.

It's called 'OS Experience,' and it's described as a "revolutionary iOS tweak that brings true multitasking to your iPad." Built by developer Evan Swick, the tweak reminds me a lot of the 'Spaces' feature in OS X, with a full-featured window manager, live application previews, and more...

Mailbox lands on Android, coming soon to OS X

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Mailbox, the popular Dropbox-owned email client, announced this morning that it would be bringing its app to two new platforms: Android and OS X. The Android version will be available later today in the Google Play store, and the team says that the OS X version is "coming soon."

First launched on iPhone in February 2013, Mailbox is an email client that syncs up with Gmail, Yahoo Mail and iCloud. It's not feature-rich, but it stands out thanks to its gesture-based navigation and procrastination features, which let you delay various email actions to a later time...

Dropbox unveils new iPhone app: Carousel, the gallery for all your photos and videos

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Cloud storage startup Dropbox today hosted a press event to update the press on its business, announce a few new initiatives and show off its new product: a dedicated photo and video management app called Carousel.

Though Dropbox has had basic photo management features in place in the web interface for some time now, these very very basic: you can browse photo thumbnails, rename individual snaps, move them between folders and more.

Unfortunately, Dropbox never adopted the concept of albums and events, which is how most people organize their snaps. Enter Carousel, a brand new iPhone application that lets you store and manage all your photos and videos...

T-Mobile launches new $40 Simple Starter Plan

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile, the fourth-largest carrier in the United States, is continuing on its mission to pressure the whole industry to focus on what consumers want. Wednesday morning, the carrier announced a brand new wireless service plan with unlimited talk and text and 500MB of 4G LTE data with tethering for $40 a month.

As the aggressively priced Simple Starter Plan is capped rather than unlimited, you'll have to purchase additional data once you spend your monthly allotment of 500 megabytes, but don't worry - the company won't slap you with overage fees in case you hit the monthly cap.

Jump past the fold for the fine print...

Apple poaching Broadcom talent as rumors of in-house baseband chip development intensify

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 30, 2017

Following talk of Apple's rumored initiative that would have it develop its own baseband chips for 2015 iPhones and iPads in-house, AppleInsider has learned the firm's recently poached a pair of longtime semiconductor engineers from chipmaker Broadcom.

Both men are experienced at building RF hardware and have led the effort to produce baseband transceivers used by Nokia and Samsung devices.

Apple counts Broadcom as its supplier: the iPhone 5s uses a Broadcom touchscreen controller and the handset's Wi-Fi chip by Murata is based on Broadcom's BCM4334 module, according to a teardown analysis by repair experts over at iFixIt...

Google wants to buy mobile payment startup Square, but CEO wants to sell out to Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's other business venture, the mobile payment startup Square, has a cozy relationship with Apple.

As a case in point, not only does Square develop for iOS first, Apple itself is happy to carry Square's $9.95 credit card reader for the iPhone and iPad and the $99.95 Square Stand for iPad on its web store.

Moreover, some of Square's talent comes straight from Apple, including director of engineering for the iPod, iPhone and iPad accessories, Jesse Dorogusker, who recently left the company to join Square.

After allowing Google to buy smart thermostat and smoke detector maker Nest Labs back in January, pundits have observed that Apple should be wise enough to avoid repeating the same mistake twice. Be that as it may, Apple is said to have mulled an acquisition offer for Square.

The possibility of such a deal has been floated on Wednesday as rumors of both Apple and Google discussing a possible acquisition with Square continue to persist. Although CEO Jack Dorsey would reportedly prefer selling the company to Apple, not Google, a deal with Apple is wishful thinking for now...

Rumor: mass production of 4.7″ iPhone 6 in July, 5.5″ version in September

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 28, 2016

It used to be that 2014 would see a simultaneous double-iPhone launch until Reuters earlier this week asserted the larger model could get delayed due to production issues with 5.5-inch screens. As a result, only the rumored 4.7-inch model is said to be ready for a launch in September.

A new report from Japan echoes this notion. Apparently mass production of the 4.7-inch iPhone has been tipped to start in July. As for the 5.5-inch model, the story claims the bigger handset is scheduled to enter full production in September, meaning Apple may not be able to release its phablet before the holiday quarter...

Fire TV companion apps, Second Screen and Remote, hitting iOS soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Tucked away as a side note in Amazon's Fire TV announcement last week is an interesting confirmation of a companion iOS app for the set-top box that's scheduled to launch later this year in the App Store.

The software will act as a second screen solution allowing Fire TV owners to fling Amazon TV shows and movies from their iPhone or iPad to the $99 set-top box, providing remote functionality with playback controls, support for Amazon's X-Ray technology that pulls media metadata from the web and more.

In addition to Second Screen, the official Fire TV app for smartphones and tablets will launch soon, providing virtual controls for touch-enabled games...

Let’s Talk Jailbreak 52: Zellllldaaaa!

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Episode 52: Sebastien, Jeff, and Cody dissect Auxo 2 after a week of usage and break down their favorite and not-so-favorite parts about one of the most significant jailbreak releases of 2014. The guys also discuss plans to attend JailbreakCon 2014 along with reviews of several additional jailbreak tweaks from the past week.

Apple calls in expert to explain why it deserves $2 billion in damages from Samsung

Cody Lee ∙ April 9, 2014

The high-profile patent trial between Apple and Samsung wages on, with Apple on Tuesday calling in a damages expert Chris Vellturo to speak to the jury. The MIT-trained economist's job was to help the company explain why it deserved the damages it's asking for.

For those who missed it last week, Apple is asking the court to award it $2 billion ($2.19B to be exact) in damages from Samsung for infringing on 5 of its utility patents. And according to Vellturo, that amount is fair based on a mix of lost profits and owed royalty fees...

Apple seen testing push notifications for resolved Maps issues

Cody Lee ∙ April 9, 2014

Apple is apparently testing a new notification system for Maps, according to a report from MacRumors. The site has posted screenshots showing a new option that some users are seeing to receive a push notification when their reported issue with the app has been fixed.

It works like this: after choosing to 'Report a Problem' within the Maps app, users are given the option to be notified when engineers have fixed the issue. And once the problem has been resolved, Apple sends out a push notification to that user's device letting them know...