Year: 2014

Apple to participate in ConnectED program to help bring high-speed Internet to U.S. schools

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 6, 2017

Apple, along with other Silicon Valley titans such as Microsoft and carriers like Verizon and Sprint, is going to work with the United States government to help connect schools on America with high-speed broadband Internet. The Obama administration wants to connect as much as 99 percent of schools to high-speed Internet over the next four years and companies like Apple should help advance that effort...

This commercial replaces the drones in Apple’s ‘1984’ Macintosh ad with Wall Street men in suits

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Apple ran its famous ‘1984’ Macintosh ad during the Super Bowl XVIII 30 years ago this month and advertising legend Lee Clow earlier this week hinted the company may be looking to advertise the Mac’s 30th anniversary during the Super Bowl XLVIII.

The $900,000 ad was also aired only one other time on television, on December 31, 1983 right before the 12:00 midnight sign-off on KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho.

There have been countless attempts to copy the concept of Apple's award-winning commercial. Back in 2011, Motorola’s Xoom tablet ad played on the Big Brother theme, for example.

And now, financial services company Aspiration Partners LLC has created a take on '1984' which replaces the drones in Apple’s ad with Wall Street men in suits, watch it embedded right after the break...

Gmail bug may have had you accidentally delete emails, report others as spam

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 29, 2014

A nasty bug has been discovered in Gmail that may have had you accidentally delete your email messages while reporting others as spam, Google warned Wednesday. The issue occurred on the web, the Gmail web app and its iOS application between January 15 and January 22 and is now fixed, the Internet giant said. You may want to take a look inside your spam and trash folders for any messages sent between January 12-21 that don't belong there...

T-Mobile steps up rhetoric with newspaper ad likening AT&T to Death Star

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

T-Mobile persists in its anti-AT&T rhetoric and today marks a new chapter in AT&T trash-talking as the nation's fourth-largest wireless company puts out a press release ridiculing AT&T's $450 incentive for T-Mobile subscribers to switch.

Conveniently timed on the same day that AT&T released its Christmas quarter earnings report, the press release argues that AT&T's offer makes T-Mobile's own incentive to pay ETFs to switch a no-brainer because AT&T customers can now go to T-Mobile and then come back at no cost.

Seriously, if a customer takes advantage of T-Mobile's ETF offer and later decides he or she dislikes it for whatever reason, AT&T will pay $450 to take them back so they don't really lose anything. The Deutsche Telekom-owned operator has also revealed advertisements that should appear in print newspapers today to communicate this message nationwide...

SwitcherBlur: blur the apps in the app switcher

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 29, 2014

SwitcherBlur is a recently released tweak that does one very simple thing: it adds blur to the app cards in the iOS 7 app switcher. SwitcherBlur uses a simple low-level gaussian blur on all of the app cards, except for the app that you just came from. The tweak is similar to BioLockdown, in that you can protect the contents of your app switcher cards from prying eyes.

But that's about where the comparisons to the feature-rich BioLockdown end. SwitcherBlur prides itself on simplicity, as you'll see in our brief video walkthrough inside.

Despite T-Mobile’s Un-carrier, AT&T adds 809,000 new subscribers in Christmas quarter

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

The nation's second-largest wireless carrier, AT&T, yesterday reported its Christmas quarter earnings revealing steady growth, despite T-Mobile's taunts and its Un-carrier initiative. Although AT&T (and Verizon) stopped divulging iPhone activations, the carrier confirmed selling 7.9 million smartphones in the quarter, a decline from the 10.2 million smartphones it activated a year ago.

They added a cool 1.2 million new subscribers and upgrades by old subscribers. Of that number, 809,000 connections were new subscribers and 566,000 were postpaid wireless customers with a contract. Go past the fold for the full breakdown...

exKey: add an extra row of keys to the iOS keyboard

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 29, 2014

exKey is a jailbreak tweak that adds an additional fifth row of keys to the stock keyboard in iOS. The tweak, which works on iOS 5 through iOS 7, allows users to type more efficiently, because they should spend less time switching between the numeric and alpha keys.

When installed and in normal alpha mode, you'll see a set of numeric keys, digits 0-9, grace the top of the keyboard as the new fifth row. When you switch to the numeric keypad, the numbers are replaced with special character symbols.

We've taken exKey for spin in our video walkthrough. Take a look inside for more details on how this productivity jailbreak tweak works.

Pundit makes the case for a solar-powered iPhone 6

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 19, 2018

It would seem that much of the tech world is expecting Apple to give its iPhone line a significant refresh this year. The company is believed to be working on not one, but two new models with larger displays, and of course there will be the usual performance bumps.

But if you ask Matt Margolis of Seeking Alpha, the iPhone 6 may feature much more than just a larger display. The analyst thinks the handset could utilize a sapphire display with an embedded solar power panel, and he makes a pretty interesting case for the theory...

Disney announces new ‘Star Wars: Assault Team’ game coming to iOS this spring

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Disney announced yesterday that it's working on a new game called 'Star Wars: Assault Team' for iOS and Android, and it's set to be released later this year. Now I know you're thinking "great, another Star Wars game, but this one looks to set itself apart.

Disney describes the game on its Tumblr blog as "a new turn-based combat game for mobile devices with strategy and card-battle elements," where users will be collecting classic characters from the Rebel Alliance and more to defeat enemies across the galaxy...

Google Search app updated with new Winter Olympics Google Now card

Cody Lee ∙ January 29, 2014

Google has posted a new update for its Search app this morning. The update brings the app to version 3.2.1, and includes a handful of improvements and a new Winter Olympics 2014 Google Now card.

The new card is really the biggest addition in this update, as it brings about support for the 2014 Sochi Games. Users will now be able to use Google Now to get info on medal standings and upcoming events…

Saurik lists the jailbreak tweaks he has installed on his iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ January 29, 2014

Since we closely cover the jailbreak community here at iDB, we are often asked by readers what apps and tweaks we have installed. Between us, we probably try a dozen new tweaks a week, or more, so sometimes we have stuff on our devices that others may not know about.

With that in mind, you can only imagine how often Saurik, the founder of Cydia, gets asked what packages he has installed on his device. Well for those of you wondering, he answered the question last night in a Reddit thread and his list of tweaks is actually pretty interesting...

WinterBoard receives an update to fix status bar issues

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 28, 2014

If you've tried any WinterBoard themes lately, then you've probably encountered the annoying status bar caching issue that causes themed status bars not to show up properly. Well, you'll be happy to know that Saurik has released an update to WinterBoard that fixes the status bar issue.

Dubbed version 0.9.3915, this WinterBoard update fixes the status bar issues, solves a problem with WebKit transforms, and has a couple of other fixes up its sleeve. If you're running any WinterBoard themes, then you'll want to be sure to update as soon as you can. Check inside for the full change log.