Year: 2014

Upcoming tweak lets you unlock your Mac using Touch ID

We've seen our fair share of Touch ID-related tweaks since the release of the evasi0n7 jailbreak a few weeks ago, and we keep being amazed at some of the ideas developers come up with.

French developer Eric Castro came up with yet another brilliant idea to take advantage of Touch ID, but this time, the tweak is not used to directly interact with your iPhone, but rather with your Mac...

Imgur’s MemeGen app lets you make your own memes

Last summer, Imgur released an official client for iOS, essentially putting all of the web's most popular memes in the palm of your hand. Now it's bringing the ability to create your own meme to that same hand, with MemeGen.

It looks like MemeGen has actually been in the App Store since late last year, but like others, we're just finding out about it today. At any rate, the app allows you to tap Imgur's vast photo library to create your own viral web pic...

Starbucks will update its iOS app to address security concerns

Earlier today we told you about a report that raised security issues concerning the Starbucks iPhone app. A researcher discovered that the most used mobile-payment app in the US stores unencrypted user data like passwords and emails.

The problem with this is that by connecting your iPhone to a computer, someone could easily retrieve this info from a crash log—no jailbreak required. And the only way for Starbucks to fix the vulnerability is through an App Store update...

How to use a Safari bookmarklet to send websites to 1Password for iOS

Despite Apple's pretty handy password-saving and syncing feature in iOS Safari, I myself continue to prefer AgileBits' 1Password for iOS and OS X (our own Jeff is a recent convert, too). The reason is simple: 1Password allows me to save and sync just about any piece of information rather than just passwords and credit cards.

There's just one slight annoyance: to take advantage of 1Password's auto-fill feature for usernames and passwords, I must open a website in its built-in browser.

I generally tend to avoid the embedded web view in third-party apps and instead spend most of my mobile web browsing time in Safari. From now on, whenever you want to visit a website that requires a login, you can use this handy Safari bookmarklet to send the current tab to 1Password.

Though far from perfect, this removes some of the friction when visiting websites that require logins and auto-fill information kept in 1Password...

Gist 2.0: full Pocket integration, new summary view, Dynamic Text support and more

Up until recently, it used to be that news junkies like yours trulls diligently put every conceivable news app on their Home screens in order to make sure they kept tabs on the latest news as it happened. As an unintended consequence (or was it?), this has led to information overload which in turn gave birth to apps like Yahoo's excellent News Digest (free in the App Store) and Gist by Michael Mamiye.

Both of these intelligently summarize news articles so you can consume key takeaways in the shortest amount of time.

Gist for iPhone, $1.99 in the App Store, is especially interesting due to its gorgeous and sharp user interface and a clever algorithm that can summarize most articles into approximately five bullet points - that's why the iDownloadBlog team put it on the list of 10 Best News Apps of 2013.

Following up on its mid-December debut, the developer this morning issued a major 2.0 update bringing out a host of goodies, such as a more robust implementation of the summarization technology, rich Pocket support and lots more...

Shopkick expands iBeacon testing to 100 American Eagle locations

Shopkick announced today that it is expanding its iBeacon trial to a number of American Eagle retail stores. The shopping app has been testing Apple's new geolocation tech in a handful of Macy's outlets since December of last year.

Once the pilot goes live next month, Shopkick's iBeacon tech will be available in 100 AE locations, making it the largest trial of the technology in the country. And it'll essentially turn your iPhone into a personal shopping assistant...

Apple picks up ground on rivals in US smartphone race on strong Christmas quarter iPhone sales

Although we won't get to see some cold, hard numbers in terms of the iPhone's market performance until January 27, when Apple is scheduled to deliver its earnings results for the calendar 2013 holiday quarter, it already looks like the "disappointing" dual-iPhone launch has altered the landscape in the United States in Apple's favor.

Research firm NPD on Thursday published its survey of U.S. smartphone ownership, showing the Apple handset growing its share of domestic customers to 42 percent, a notable jump from the 35 percent share in the year-ago quarter...

How to make Cydia purchases the easy way

On episode 40 of Let's Talk Jailbreak, Sebastien, Cody and I had a pretty heated debate about Cydia purchases. There seems to be a misconception about Cydia purchases in general, and a lot of mixed information. Some users seem to think that the Cydia purchase process is this arcane and cumbersome gauntlet that makes buying tweaks and apps undesirable.

It's true; Cydia purchases can be more difficult than the average App Store purchase, but they don't necessarily have to be. Inside, I'm going to show you how to use Amazon Payments to make Cydia purchases as easy as pie.

Task-focused email app Mail Pilot hits Mac App Store

Available as a free public preview since December 3, 2013, Mindsense on Thursday released its Mail Pilot for public consumption in the Mac App Store, priced at $9.99 a pop. Originally a 2012 Kickstarter project, this email application for the Mac promises to change the game by being task instead of email-oriented. What does that mean?

Well, all your messages in Mail Pilot are action-based. For example, Mark as Unread becomes Complete/Incomplete, a message can have a reminder attached to it so you can get notified when it’s time to deal with it, you can Set Aside messages that you want to come back to later (great for Inbox Zero fanatics) and lots more.

This task-oriented approach allows for a more intuitive email that lets you get stuff done faster and get on with your life...

Check out Google Now integration on your Mac in latest Chrome Canary release

CNET reported last summer that Google Now cards were heading to Google’s Chrome browser for the Mac. Six months later, Google releases a brand new Google Canary build with Google Now cards functionality nested right inside the browser's notification center which sits in your Mac's status bar.

Although not all Google Now cards are available in this alpha release of Chrome, the search company has integrated a few of the most popular ones like sports scores, real-time weather updates, and travel information...

Baldurs Gate II: Enhanced Edition arrives on iPad

The official sequel to BioWare’s classic role-playing game set in the Dungeons & Dragons universe, Baldur's Gate, has just launched for the iPad and is now available to download from the App Store, priced at $14.99.

Basically a 21st century version of the original 2000 release, Baldurs Gate II: Enhanced Edition includes new party members, a seamless multiplayer mode, a bunch of expansions packs such as the Throne of Bhaal and Shadows of Amn, a new combat mission titled The Black Pits 2: Gladiators of Thay as well as a host of other goodies...

Skype gains push notifications for chats, two-way video calling in HD on A7 devices

Skype for iPhone rolled out the ability to conduct two-way video chatting back in December 2010, but the quality of these video calls left a lot to be desired. Back then, the iPhone 4's back camera could only capture video in 720p and the front-facing camera was good only for VGA-grade video chatting.

Besides, the handset lacked the processing power to make two-way video calling in high-definition a reality.

Today's update to Skype's free iPhone and iPad client brings HD video calling to the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, along with an improved chatting experience and more...