Year: 2014

Tim Cook: we’ve known for some time that ‘iPod is a declining business’

Apple posted some huge sales numbers for the holiday quarter earlier today. During the 3-month period, the company sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads—both records—and a surprisingly high 4.8 million Macs. But not all of its device sales were impressive.

iPod sales decreased by more than 50% since last year's holiday quarter, with Apple selling just 6 million units during the time frame. And during the company's earnings call, Tim Cook admitted that it has known for some time that the iPod is a declining business...

How to bring back the open tab count in mobile Safari

SafariTabCount is a just released jailbreak tweak that displays the current number of open tabs on the new tab button in Safari. This tweak is extremely useful, because without it, you have no idea how many tabs you have open in Safari without opening the list of tabs and counting by hand.

Not too long ago, we had iOS 6, and Safari for iOS 6 included the open tab count right on the new tab button. For some reason, Apple deemed this tab count disposable, and got rid of it in iOS 7.

SafariTabCount is one of those tweaks that I imagine many people will enjoy for its practicality. Check out of video walkthrough past the break for more details.

Eclipse: add a system-wide dark mode to iOS 7

Eclipse is a new jailbreak tweak that brings a system-wide dark mode to iOS 7. The tweak, which should be available shortly on Cydia's BigBoss repo, will cost $0.99.

Dark mode, or nighttime mode as it is often called, is beneficial when using the iPhone at night. It reduces eye strain caused by using a light (and bright) screen while in a dark environment.

Lots of standalone apps incorporate some sort of dark mode; Tweetbot is the one that instantly comes to mind, but iOS itself has never featured a true dark mode at the system level. Eclipse is seeking to change that. It's not perfect, but the developer is on the right track. Full video walkthrough after the jump.

Tim Cook: mobile payments ‘one of the thoughts behind Touch ID’

Apple just finished up its quarterly earnings call a few hours ago where it offered up sales numbers for the holiday quarter, forecasts for next quarter, and everything in between. Tim Cook even fielded some questions from overly-eager analysts.

While most of these questions were fairly dull, there were a handful of them worth noting, including one about Apple's plans for the mobile payment space. Obviously Cook wouldn't answer the query directly, but his response was rather interesting...

Facebook app picks up ability to hide unwanted stories

I've always detested how Facebook's iPhone and iPad app wouldn't let me do something about posts I never wanted surfaced in my News Feed in the first place, even more so after the social networking giant started injecting sponsored stories and ads into my feed.

A new version of Facebook's iOS app, now available in the App Store, solves this problem in one fell swoop. Now whenever you stumble upon a post you'd like to hide, you can do so easily.

This extends to Facebook apps so you could, for example, hide all posts from annoying games like FarmVille, Heart of Vegas, Game of Thrones Ascent that continue to spam people's News Feeds...

How to get Zephyr-like gestures on iOS 7

MultitaskingGestures is a just released jailbreak tweak that brings Zephyr-like functionality to iPhones running iOS 7. Since it doesn't look like we will see an iOS 7 updated version of Zephyr, developer Hamza Sood has taken the initiative to bring us something similar.

To be clear, MultitaskingGestures is not a 1:1 copy of Zephyr; it brings its own ideas and features to the table, but it's a flattering impersonation of Chpwn's groundbreaking tweak of old. Have a look at our video walkthrough inside to see MultitaskingGestures in action.

Icon Masks tweak takes your Home screen to the next level

If you've been following our blog closely over the last few weeks, you'll notice that we have covered quite a number of different themes that have been released or updated for the iOS 7 jailbreak. While themes are definitely the main option that most iOS users use to customize their devices, other methods exist to change the look and feel of an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

All that leads into Icon Masks, a new jailbreak tweak that redefines the look of your Home screen icons… 

Logitech’s PowerShell MFi controller drops to $70 until February 1

Realizing rival accessory maker Stratus has shaved $20 off its 'Made for iPhone' (MFi) wireless iOS 7 controller dubbed SteelSeries, Logitech has decided to play along and bring its overpriced PowerShell down to $70. The Logitech accessory now undercuts Stratus by a cool $10 as the PowerShell is now $30 cheaper versus its original price of $99.

It's a limited time offer so hurry up because the sale ends February 1, 2014 (they should have made it permanent). So is this controller now a good value? Read on...

Apple says iOS 7 is now installed on 80% of compatible devices

Apple has updated its App Store support page for developers this week to reflect new information regarding iOS 7 adoption. According to the company’s usage data, the new OS is running on 80% of iOS devices accessing the App Store.

That’s just a small jump from December of last year, when it was reported that iOS 7 adoption had hit 78%, but Apple said on its earnings call just a few moments ago that it's enough to make iOS 7 the most popular OS in the world...

15 interesting points from today’s earnings call

Apple just announced its earnings for its September quarter, and despite all of the ‘doom’ talk and lowball analyst predictions, the numbers are actually pretty good. In fact, the company set records for iPhone and iPad sales, and revenue.

We’re just finishing up the conference call, where Tim Cook and his CFO Peter Oppenheimer talked about Apple’s performance, and offered some insight into its future. And as usual, we’ve rounded up the 15 most interesting points for you…

Apple provides update on National Security Orders and account information requests

Apple has posted an update to information pertaining to national security and law enforcement orders, confirming that it's been working closely with the White House, the U.S. Attorney General, congressional leaders, and the Department of Justice to "advocate for greater transparency with regard to the national security orders we receive".

Apple CEO Tim Cook briefly touched on the topic in an interview with ABC’s David Muir, saying the NSA does not have access to Apple's servers as the snooping agency would have to “cart us out in a box” for that kind of access (those are his exact words)...

Apple Q1 2014 earnings: 51M iPhones, 26M iPads, $57.6B revenue

As expected, Apple is out with its financial report for Q1 2014 this afternoon. It’s an important one, as it follows a number of product releases in the late fall of last year, and then of course the holiday season, where the company typically posts huge numbers.

And it continues that tradition today. In a press release issued just a few moments ago, Apple announced that it sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads, and pulled in $57.6 billion in revenue during its fiscal Q1—all record-breaking for the Cupertino firm...