Year: 2014

Candy Crush Soda Saga releases globally, get those soda bottles popping

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

The official sequel to Candy Crush Saga, the hugely popular match-3 puzzler, is finally available worldwide following its soft-launch in Canada nearly a month ago!

Released by King Entertainment as a freemium download, Candy Crush Soda Saga packs in more than 140 brand new levels and features new modes of play (Soda, Frosting, Honey and more), with plenty new candies and candy combinations to keep you glued to the screen.

As the title suggests, the level-based game has you popping all the soda bottles by swapping gems. This raises your soda level and in some levels will expand the board to have more tiles in it.

For those wondering, the mouth-watering puzzler packs in updated graphics, too. Developers haven't changed game mechanics much so those who've played the previous game should feel right at home in the Soda.

Download Candy Crush Soda Saga for free.

Judge green-lights lawsuit against Apple over text message delivery issue

Cody Lee ∙ November 11, 2014

Federal judge Lucy Koh has green-lighted a lawsuit against Apple over its long-standing iMessage issue that causes some former iPhone users to not receive their text messages, reports Reuters. The lawsuit was filed in May by San Jose, California resident Adrienne Moore.

Moore says Apple didn't properly warn her that she'd quit receiving text messages after switching from an iPhone to a Galaxy S5. There's no word yet on what kind of damages Moore is asking for, but she is seeking class action status, which would allow others to join the suit.

Netflix’s iOS 8 refresh adds 1080p playback on iPhone 6 Plus and support for iPhone 6 screens

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Netflix, a $7.99 per month over-the-top streaming video service, at last has gotten around updating its iPhone and iPad application for Apple's latest mobile operating system.

Released Tuesday, the new version is now optimized for iOS 8 while supporting 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch display sizes of Apple's latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, respectively.

And if you own an iPhone 6 Plus and are a Netflix subscribers, you can now stream TV shows and movies in glorious full HD and enjoy 1080p content natively on that stunning Retina HD display.

Netflix 7.0 is available for free in the App Store.

Walking Dead: The Game – Season 2 goes free for the first time on App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 11, 2014

The Walking Dead: The Game — Season 2 has gone free for the first time following its December 2013 App Store debut.

Created by Telltale Games and based on the namesake comic book series by the Eisner Award-winning writer Robert Kirkman, the five-episode adventure game follows the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse.

Keep in mind that only the first “All That Remains” chapter is available at no cost, with the remaining four episodes titled “A House Divided,” “In Harm’s Way,” “Amid the Ruins” and “No Going Back” available as In-App Purchases.

Grab the game now for free before it goes back up to its regular asking price of $4.99.

Living Earth gains universe simulator, adds weather essentials to iOS 8’s Notification Center

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 11, 2014

Living Earth by Radiantlabs marries world clock functionality to a gorgeous weather app where you spin a virtual globe (similar to Google Earth) to get a visual overview of the current weather conditions for any part of our planet.

Bumped to version 3.5 on Tuesday, the app now features support for the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screens and includes a Today widget giving you a quick overview of your current weather along with sunrise and sunset times, your world clock and more, right within the Notification Center in iOS 8.

In the app itself, the virtual globe now acts as a universe simulator of sorts, with the stars, constellations and the Milky Way backdrop created from a database of thousands of stars and celestial object and placed exactly “as if you were floating in space orbiting our planet.”

Living Earth sells for $1.99 for the iPhone and iPad.

How to unlock Apple’s hidden battery usage menu in iOS 8

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Developer Hamza Sood, well-known for his innate ability to uncover hidden items in iOS, has discovered another hidden feature, and created a tweak out of it. Dubbed DetailedBatteryUsage, this new tweak allows you to unlock the hidden battery usage menu that Apple uses internally during development.

Want access to hyper-verbose details on your iPhone battery usage? Have a glance inside to see what it looks like on video...

IntelliScreenX 8 teaser

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Mario Ciabarra, the man behind IntelliScreenX among others, recently tweeted a photo of an iPhone 6 running ISX8, an updated version of the feature-rich tweak compatible with Apple's latest mobile operating system. While there is no specific ETA for ISX8 to hit Cydia, it appears that the tweak is in late development stage and could potentially be available sooner than later.

SoundHound gets iPhone 6 support and fresh new look for faster music discovery

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 11, 2014

SoundHound's music-tagging iOS app has received a makeover Tuesday morning putting the software in line with the design aesthetic in iOS 7. New features are available for faster music discovery, with native display support for the new 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus display sizes and other goodies.

The refreshed interface features swiping based navigation that tucks the Search button and other options under a left-side column revealed by swiping left.

You can also swipe right like you would in other iOS 7 apps to go back to the previous page and you'll notice a new nicely animated listening screen as well.

SoundHound is free in the App Store.

MyReachability: reach all four corners of an app by mating the accelerometer with Reachability

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

MyReachability is the first compelling tweak that I've seen thus far involving Reachability. I don't want to sound hyperbolic, but this could be a game changing tweak with a little bit of TLC.

MyReachability is from Korean developer Shine, the first such tweak I've seen of his, but hopefully not the last. That's because what I found was something extremely impressive, innovative and practical.

MyReachability allows you to access various areas of an app via Reachability by tilting your device. It taps into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus' accelerometer to do this, and it makes accessing most areas of an app with one hand feasible.

Check out my video walkthrough of MyReachability after the break, and see why this new jailbreak tweak has me so excited.

Twitterrific 5 gains large image previews, another new font, Today view improvements and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 29, 2016

Twitterrific by Iconfactory, a great looking Twitter client for the Mac and iOS, got refreshed Tuesday with a plethora of improvements, enhancements and several new features. Bumped to version 5.8.2, the freemium app now lets you enable large image previews in your timeline.

You can adjust your settings between small and large image previews in the Theme panel. Tip: consider turn this option off when on cellular in order to optimize bandwidth use. The team has added another new font, Zosimo, to appease those that didn't like the built-in Helvetica, Avenir, Proxima Nova, Signika, Museo Slab and Calluna fonts.

Twitterrific is free in the App Store, with In-App Purchases for unlocking additional features.

WSJ: Apple and Alibaba ironing out specifics of Apple Pay partnership

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 11, 2014

Following reports that Apple CEO Tim Cook during last month's visit to China discussed a rumored mobile payments partnership with UnionPay, The Wall Street Journal said Tuesday that the Cupertino firm met with Alibaba's Jack Ma to reportedly iron out an Apple Pay alliance with the popular Chinese e-commerce company.

This could give Apple Pay a major boost in the 1.4 billion people country. Alibaba, founded in 1999, is the world’s largest online marketplace and has a commanding 80 percent market share in the country.

The company raised a whopping $231 billion during its initial public offering. Cook at the WSJ Digital conference last month hinted (the full uncut interview now available) that his company was in talks with Alibaba regarding partnering on Apple Pay.

How to use Facebook profile pictures for your iOS contacts

Lory Gil ∙ November 11, 2014

I have dozens of contacts in my iPhone that don’t have a picture attached to them. Sometimes, I’ll get a band’s information at a show and will even forget who they were months later. Pictures always help in situations like these. I’m better with faces than I am with names.

For a while now, Apple has included the ability to merge your friends’ Facebook information, including updated profile pictures, to your contacts in iOS. It only takes a few seconds and we’ve got a short tutorial for you below.