Year: 2014

Icahn says Apple board is ‘working against shareholders’ then buys $500M more shares

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

Greedy activist investor Carl Icahn has escalated his anti-Apple rhetoric on Wednesday after recently filing a proposal to put his aggressive stock buyback proposal up for a vote. Apple responded by confirming that any changes to its own corporate stock buyback program will be discussed in the “first part of calendar 2014,” likely at the upcoming shareholder meeting in February.

Be that as it may, Icahn now feels the Apple board is "doing great disservice to shareholders" by refusing to boost the company's buyback markedly, according to a tweet today. An in-depth letter will follow soon, the shark investor ominously announced.

At the same time, Icahn announced buying an additional half a billion dollars worth of shares, pushing his stake in the iPhone maker to north of a respectable $3 billion. He called the latest investment a "no brainer"...

BetterFolders takes your app folders to the next level

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

If you are an avid user of Apple products, chances are that you have lots of apps installed on your iOS device. And while folders have long been an ideal solution for keeping your Home screen organized, they have a few shortcomings that a new jailbreak tweak called BetterFolders aims to solve. The useful extension serves three purposes: enables pinch to close for folders, allows nested folders, and brings 4×4 folder layout to the iPad…

Calendars 5 by Readdle improves upon event management with notifications and ICS support

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

App maker Readdle launched its iOS 7-ready Calendars 5 application last September, just a few days following the public launch of iOS 7. Both the free and paid Calendars apps have now been bumped to version 5.3 in what Readdle says is "our biggest update since the launch".

Calendars 5.3 focuses on making it easier to send or accept event invitations by adding new features to manage meetings, conference calls and any activity that involves other people...

Twitterrific 5.6 launches with live streaming, list management, images in DM and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

Twitterrific by The Iconfactory is one of the finest Twitter clients available for iOS and OS X. I've been using both Tweetbot and Twitterrific on a daily basis and couldn't be happier with these fine pieces of software. Today a new Twitterrific build has surfaced on the App Store, bringing a few nice new features and a bunch of tweaks and fixes.

Twitterrific 5.6 for the iPhone and iPad, now available as a $0.99 universal download, can now render image attachments in direct messages, a feature that first appeared in Twitter's own iOS client in early-December (Tweetbot gained images in DMs late-December).

What else is new in Twitterrific 5.6? Read on for the full reveal..

In time for the Super Bowl, Apple posts shortened ‘Light Verse’ and ‘Sound Verse’ iPad Air ads

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

Earlier this month during the NFL playoffs, Apple posted a new iPad Air commercial titled 'Your Verse Anthem' and featuring a voiceover from the 1989 American drama film Dead Poets Society. Running one minute and 30 seconds long, it's been airing on television for several days now.

With the Super Bowl looming, the company has now released shortened versions of the commercial to its YouTube channel, each conveniently running 30 seconds long...

Blizzard’s upcoming Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has entered open beta, download now

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

Games maker Blizzard Entertainment, currently a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, has just posted a downloadable beta of its upcoming Warcraft-themed free-to-play strategy card game, titled Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. It's been in closed beta since August of last year.

The open beta is now available to Mac and Windows users in North America through the Blizzard website. The game is about lively duels that "evoke the spirit of a friendly match played beside a crackling tavern fire"...

Poll: is Apple going to advertise the Mac’s 30th anniversary during Super Bowl?

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

This one's a stretch, but Apple's Macintosh is soon celebrating its 30th anniversary and advertising legend Lee Clow hinted in a pair of tweets that the company just might celebrate the occasion by running an ad during the Super Bowl XLVIII.

"Good football. Good sunset. Mac's gonna be 30 this week," his tweet reads. "Gonna be a good Super Bowl. Mac's gonna be 30 :)," another tweet teased.

Clow was Steve's personal friend and he is the Chairman, Global Director and former Chief Creative Office of TBWA\Worldwide, one of the world's top ad shops.

More importantly, the advertising guru helped create Apple’s ‘Think Different’ slogan, the iPod silhouettes ad series and the famous ’1984′ ad, which was directed by Ridley Scot and televised as part of the third quarter Super Bowl XVIII telecast on this day thirty years ago.

So, is Apple going to run this epic ad (or a new one) during the upcoming Super Bowl?

SPTouch brings a virtual Home button to your iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ January 22, 2014

There are several ways you can emulate the Home button without actually pressing the Home button on your iPhone. You can use Activator gestures, or even tweaks such as Virtual Home.

SPTouch, a new tweak by Paolo Smedile is yet another option. This tweak brings a small Home button anywhere on your screen that you can tap at any time to go back to your Home screen...

Judge tosses two Samsung claims ahead of Apple patent trial

Cody Lee ∙ January 22, 2014

Apple and Samsung are gearing up for round 2 of their landmark US patent trial. The first round ended in Samsung paying nearly $1 billion in damages for infringing on some of Apple's patents, and this new trial will look for similar infringement in newer devices.

The court proceedings don't start for another two months, but Samsung has already suffered two big blows. This week, Judge Lucy Koh found the company's multimedia synchronization patent to be invalid, and found it to infringe on an Apple autocorrect patent...

Adobe Reader app updated with new iOS 7 design and other improvements

Cody Lee ∙ January 22, 2014

Adobe updated its Reader client for the iPhone and iPad today, bringing the popular PDF reading app to version 11.2.0. The update brings about a number of improvements, including a new iOS 7-inspired UI design and upgraded navigation.

While I'm sure some people aren't going to like the new design, I think it looks way better than the previous UI. The black elements and bold text have been replaced by white spaces and thinner fonts, making it easier to browse and find things...

T-Mobile ventures into personal banking with new Mobile Money service

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

Over the past 9 months or so, T-Mobile has been calling itself the "Uncarrier." It's a marketing strategy, for sure, buts it's certainly been living up to the moniker by dropping contracts, offering free international data, and waving early termination fees for new customers.

But this morning the company announced its most un-carrier move to date: Mobile Money. That's right, T-Mobile is getting into the personal banking business with a new service that combines a branded prepaid Visa card, a smartphone app, and a no-fee checking account...

Good deal: 37% off this Bluetooth-enabled tracking device

Cody Lee ∙ January 21, 2014

Have you ever left your wallet at home or say, at the table of a restaurant or the counter of a store? I know I have, and it's not really a big deal unless it's not there when you go back. Then you have to cancel credit cards and replace IDs and other cards—it's a mess.

Luckily, thanks to modern technology, there are a number of devices available that can prevent this from happening using Bluetooth and a mobile app. And perhaps even more luckily, Stack Social is running a deal on one right now called the Find'Em Tracking Card...