Year: 2014

You can now get $50 off any mobile phone at Best Buy any time during 2014

The United States electronics retailer Best Buy on Thursday announced an interesting new promotion giving anyone who signs up for a $50 gift card the ability to redeem the credit when purchasing and activating any mobile phone at Best Buy, any time during 2014.

The promo theoretically means you could get $50 off your future iPhone 6 purchase.

Not sure if this was Best Buy's intent, but the terms suggest a price discount should be available for any unannounced handset. Anyone can apply for the $50 discount provided they register their interest and purchase/activate a new mobile phone with the registered phone number and a two-year agreement on AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless at any Best Buy or Best Buy Mobile store before December 31, 2014...

Peek Calendar for iPhone brings Clear-like gestures and marvelous UI

Fans of Realmac Software's Clear to-do app who've always wanted its gestural user interface in a calendar app need look no further than Peek Calendar for iPhone, $1.99 in the App Store. It's the calendar humanized, as developer Square Mountains puts it.

The premise behind Peek Calendar, as its name suggests, is the decluttering of your calendar entries by providing an effective at-a-glance overview of your day and some novel gestures allowing you to literally peek inside the events.

One of may favorite interactions: the shading gesture which allows you to see some Peek's life events. Check out Peek Calendar in a sweet promotional video included right after the break...

UnlockID is a jailbreak tweak that can unlock your Mac with Touch ID

UnlockID is a super-cool new jailbreak tweak that does exactly what the headline says—it allows you to unlock your Mac using the Touch ID sensor found on the iPhone 5s. Using Bluetooth Low Energy, the tweak features a Mac component that allows your iPhone 5s to communicate with your OS X installation.

Although the tweak's practicality may be up for debate, there's no debating the fact that this is one of the most innovate and coolest looking Touch ID tweaks we've seen thus far. We've taken UnlockID for a thorough walkthrough. Check out our hands-on video after the break.

App Store highlights Sochi 2014 apps and music

With just one week left until the February 7 opening ceremony for the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, Apple's editorial team has published a conveniently curated App Store section which highlights some of the best iPhone and iPad applications to follow the Games, along with some Olympics related music.

"Immerse yourself in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics with this collection of official apps and music," writes Apple. "Follow the progress of your favorite athletes, track each country’s medal, listen to the Torch Relay anthem, and much more"...

Wallgram lets you create parallax wallpapers from Instagram pictures

Ever since Apple updated its mobile operating system to iOS 7, I’ve both loved and hated the parallax effect. I love having moving backgrounds via the dynamic wallpaper. I love having images that appear to move with me. However, I hate that the technology has broken my ability to use my own photos without needing some third party app.

Wallgram is one of those third party apps that make it possible for you to use your own pictures as wallpaper while maintaining the cool parallax feature. Plus, you can use images from Instagram…

Tales of Phantasia review: it’s not as bad as super fans are claiming

Nearly two decades ago, Namco launched a fun little role-playing game that incorporated traditional plot-heavy story development with real-time battle engagement. By 2006, the title made it to the U.S. where it generated a small, but fierce following.

The English version of Tales of Phantasia finally launched in the App Store last week. It has garnered praise for existing on Apple’s mobile platform, while simultaneously being cursed for its free-to-play format. Fans of the original are raging about having to pay in game for a free download, instead of paying full price up-front. What where they thinking?...

2K Games’ XCOM: Enemy Unknown and other titles on sale

Good news for folks looking to check out some new games this weekend. 2K Games has kicked off a sale on some of their most popular iOS games in celebration of the beginning of the Chinese New Year.

Headlining the sale is XCOM: Enemy Unknown, a highly rated turn-based action-strategy game, which normally costs a hefty $20. But for a limited time, you can grab it and other titles for half off or more...

Another medical device expert joins Apple to work on unknown project

Apple continues to add to its mysterious team of medical device experts, with the latest report exposing the hiring of Michael O'Reilly, the former chief medical officer and executive VP of medical affairs at pulse oximeter firm Masimo Corporation.

For those unfamiliar with the term, pulse oximetry is a non-invasive and accurate way of measuring your pulse by monitoring oxygen saturation in the blood stream. And some folks have speculated that O'Reilly is using his expertise on the iWatch...

MLB installing thousands of iBeacons in ballparks for next season

According to a new report, Major League Baseball will begin rolling out thousands of iBeacons in ballparks around the country next week. The organization is looking to outfit 20 parks with around 100 iBeacons each by Opening Day, in March.

If you've been keeping tabs on Apple's iBeacon project, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. The MLB was one of the first names attached to the geolocation technology—it demonstrated the tech last fall, and promised a widespread rollout...

Apple seeds fourth OS X 10.9.2 beta to developers

Apple has seeded the fourth OS X 10.9.2 beta to registered Mac developers this evening. The release comes just one week after the third beta, suggesting Apple is honing in on a final version.

The new build is available to registered Mac developers through the Software Update tab in the Mac App Store, or as a full download via the Mac section of Apple’s online developer portal…

Hopeless: The Dark Cave is an adorably frightening arcade shooter

Pow! Pow! Pow! Arcade shooters are a blast. Especially when there are zombies, mutants, or terrorists involved. Who would have thought killing monsters could be so cute?

Hopeless: The Dark Cave is an arcade shooter where the adorable glowing blobs are about as cute as animated marshmallows (think about it) and the monsters are so adorable they could have been hiding in Disney’s closet…

Theme Thursday: Acies, Carla, Radiance and more

There has been a landslide of new themes released on Cydia in the past few weeks, some of which we covered in our recent roundup of the 10 best Winterboard themes for iOS 7. In an effort to continue that coverage, we are introducing a new series called Theme Thursday to showcase some of our favorite releases each week.

If you know of a good theme that isn't covered here, please leave your recommendations in the comments for inclusion in a future roundup. In the first edition, we take a look at Acies, Carla, Radiance and more…Â