Year: 2014

Sony looking to mainstream virtual reality gaming with Project Morpheus head-mounted display

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 19, 2014

The Game Developers Conference is running this week in San Francisco, where the Japanese consumer electronics giant Sony showed off a cool virtual reality headset.

Code-named Project Morpheus, the futuristic looking head-mounted accessory has a built-in five-inch LCD screen with full HD resolution (1,920-by-1,080) with a 90-degree field of view.

Three years in the making, Project Morpheus is packed with sensors like accelerometers and gyroscopes, works with the PlayStation 4 console and even lets players simultaneously use Sony's DualShock 4 and PlayStation Move controllers...

Let’s Talk Jailbreak 49: Worst analogy ever

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Episode 49: We dedicate plenty of time talking about the upcoming ProWidgets jailbreak tweak, breaking down the pluses and minuses of Badger, discussing the need for PhotoAlbums+, and we tell you how to get all of the latest iDB headlines in Notification Center or Control Center.

Vimeo snatches up video-making iPhone app Cameo

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

For the second time in the past year, Vimeo has acquired an iOS app-maker. Following its purchase of Echograph, an app for creating GIFs, in early 2013, the video site has bought Cameo, an iPhone application for making short, high quality movies.

If you've never heard of Cameo before, that's probably because it just launched in October of last year. But it's been turning heads during its 6 months in the App Store—we named it one of our apps of the week, and Apple gave it a 'Best of 2013' award...

Apple named most valuable ‘billion dollar brand’ in the US

Cody Lee ∙ March 19, 2014

A new report was released yesterday by brand consulting agency Brand Finance, naming the top "billion dollar brands" in the United States. The list was compiled estimating the royalty rate that would be charged to use a company's brand and combing that with expected future revenue.

Unsurprisingly, Apple was ranked number one by a long shot, with a value of $104.7 billion. The iPad-maker is the most valuable company in the world in terms of market cap, and has taken the top spot several times in other brand value lists. Google came in second place at $68.6 billion...

RollerCoaster Tycoon coming soon to iOS

Cody Lee ∙ March 19, 2014

I'm what you would call a '90's' kid. I grew up during the decade, watching cartoons like Doug and Rugrats and playing video games like Sim City. And over the years, I've seen a lot of these video games get remade for,or ported to, iOS—except for my favorite one: RollerCoaster Tycoon.

Well I'm happy to announce that this is going to change soon. Atari has confirmed via the original game's landing page that it is working on a mobile version of RollerCoaster Tycoon, and it will be coming to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch shortly. Oh and don't worry, we have a trailer...

You could be using your iPhone to pay for your burgers next month

Cody Lee ∙ March 18, 2014

Bloomberg is reporting this afternoon that Burger King, the second-largest burger chain in the US, is introducing an app next month that will allow customers to pay for their Whoppers with smartphones. The outlet says the move is part of an ongoing effort to lure in young diners.

According to a company spokesman, the program will launch in early April in select stores, and should be available in all of Burger King's 7,000+ American locations within a "few months." The chain is also looking at adding the ability to order food and drinks for in-store pickup...

Cook on Yukari’s anti-Apple book: ‘nonsense’ that fails to capture Apple or Steve Jobs

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 18, 2014

There isn't much to like about a new book on post-Jobs Apple by the former Wall Street Journal writer Yukari Iwatani Kane.

Conveniently titled Haunted Empire ($14.99 in the iBooks Store), it could have as well been named 'Apple Is Doomed' due to her pre-conceived conclusion that Apple's best days are behind.

The author claims to have based the material on about 200 interviews with current and former Apple executives, none of them named. This type of ill-conceived journalism is just sad: the hearsay is supposed to factualize that Apple's is in a disarray, declining and amid the "perils and opportunities an iconic company faces when it loses its visionary leader".

In one passage, the author describes Apple's current boss as a "machine" and "riveting," blasting him in another over a supposed “disastrous” AllThingsD appearance and questioning his leadership abilities because he's seemingly too demanding while also being too lax.

The scathing portrayal of post-Jobs Apple wasn't lost on the current CEO Tim Cook, who took to CNBC today to describe Haunted Empire as a nonsense attempt that "fails to capture" the essence of the company and its visionary founder Steve Jobs. Also, Kane responded back in an email statement to Re/code. Grab your popcorn...

Gameloft teases major Asphalt 8 update including new cars, maps and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Yesterday we told you that Gameloft and Twitch were teaming up to bring live gameplay streaming to mobile devices. Their first project is Asphalt 8: Airborne, where users will be able to stream live video of them playing the game from their iPhone or iPad to their Twitch channel.

As we noted before, the new feature will launch alongside an upcoming Asphalt 8 update that will add new cars, new maps and more. And Gameloft has just posted a great-looking trailer for the release, titled 'Welcome to the Great Wall,' which we've posted for you down below...

Google Voice reportedly getting axed soon in favor of VoIP-to-phones Hangouts integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 18, 2014

Have you even wondered why it's been nearly six months since Google last refreshed the free Google Voice for iPhone application (it still lacks iOS 7 styling)? After all, isn't Google Voice supposed to be a priority for the Internet giant?

For those unfamiliar with it, Google Voice is a telephony service that offers a bunch of nice features such as voicemail, free text messaging, call history, conference calling, call screening, call routing, blocking of unwanted calls and voice transcription to text of voicemail messages, to name a few.

According to a new report, Google could be looking to retire the standalone Voice app for iOS and Android and instead fold its functionality into the native Hangouts app, which was released in the App Store in May of 2013...

Apple: 8GB iPhone 5c is for mid-tier markets where ‘LTE is becoming more established’

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Today's release of a new, cheaper iPhone 5c model with a rather paltry eight gigabytes of storage has prompted many writers to postulate as to why Apple may have limited the handset's distribution to only a few markets, namely the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia and China.

According to Apple itself, that device is meant to target the mid-tier smartphone market where the iPhone has been under lots of pressure from an avalanche of rather affordable and pretty capable Android handsets. Although Apple could have rolled out the 8GB iPhone 5c across all of its markets, they've chosen to go only with a few countries where "LTE is becoming more established"...

Beta version of iTunes 11.1.6 restores local contact and calendar sync

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Apple has seeded a new beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 to some of its employees today. The release comes one week after Apple released the second beta of 10.9.3 to devs, which included few noticeable changes.

The new beta build is not yet available to registered Mac developers, but should be via the Software Update tab in the Mac App Store soon, or as a download via the Mac section of Apple’s developer portal…