Year: 2014

Yelp updated for iPhone 6 screen sizes

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

Apple's latest and greatest smartphones are more than a month old now, but many popular apps have not yet refreshed to take advantage of the bigger 4.7 and 5.5-inch canvases with more pixels (the price you pay for being an early adopters). Yelp is feeling your pain, too.

Monday, they issued a long awaited update to Yelp's iOS app for crowd-sourced reviews about local businesses.

Yes, it has native display support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but that's not all: there's a new Directions button to help take you from A to B in a more efficient manner, by telling you how long it'll take to walk or drive to the business.

The update has rolled and is now live in the App Store.

Camera+ gains lossless TIFF compression format, brings back iOS 7 support

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

Camera+ by Taptaptap has received a newsworthy refresh Monday that has brought back iOS 7 support killed in the previous release while enabling a new Auto setting for the front flash feature.

More importantly, Camera+ 6.1 introduces a Pro quality setting that lets those who are serious about iPhone photography save their snaps in the TIFF image format using lossless compression.

As if that weren't enough, the team teased “some big things coming down the pipeline” for both the latest iPhone edition of Camera+, along with “a huge, long-overdue update” for the iPad version.

Camera+ is available in the App Store for $2.99.

Here’s what the Apple Watch UI looks like on an iPhone [video]

Jeff Benjamin ∙ October 27, 2014

When the Apple Watch was revealed, it displayed a fairly drastic UI change from the way a typical iPad or iPhone works. The UI showcased many app icons on screen and once, and they could be zoomed in and out via the watch's digital crown.

That UI seems to fit in fairly well with the watch, given that device's limitations on screen real estate. But how would a similar UI work on the iPhone? Would it even work at all?

Developer Lucas Menge helps to answer that question via an open source mockup showcasing the Apple Watch UI on his iPhone 5s. The result is a fairly eye-opening display that may convince some that the Apple Watch UI could indeed work on a large screen device. Have a look inside at the awesome video, and let us know what you think.

Pangu releases iOS 8.x jailbreak untether update to fix Cydia Substrate loading, iMessage bugs, and Safari crashes

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The Pangu team has just released an update to their untethered jailbreak. Users who are already jailbroken can venture into the Pangu app on the Home screen in order to update.

The incremental update fixes the Cydia Substrate loading issue upon reboot, iMessage picture sending, and Safari bugs. It's advised that all jailbroken users update now.

Microsoft treats all Office 365 subscribers to unlimited OneDrive storage, no strings attached

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated December 30, 2017

If you were sitting on the fence of subscribing to Office 365 just to gain editing functionality in Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for the iPad, Microsoft has an offer that will knock your socks off.

All Office 365 subscribers now get unlimited OneDrive storage with their service, the team announced Monday.

Yup, storage limits just became a thing of the past.

And with the recently reduced monthly subscriptions now available as In-App Purchases in Office for iPad, you'll have unlimited OneDrive space for your photos, videos and other documents for as low as seven bucks per month. Again, that's unlimited OneDrive storage and Office from $7 per month.

Alpine launches its first aftermarket CarPlay in-dash receiver

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

Alpine, which specializes in car audio and navigation systems, is an Apple-endorsed aftermarket solutions provider for CarPlay. On Monday, the company announced its first aftermarket in-dash receiver designed to work with Apple's CarPlay, the iLX-007.

The $800 accessory features a seven-inch capacitive touch screen and supports the full range of CarPlay functionality like making and receiving phone calls and messages, listening to music, navigating with Apple Maps, conversing with Siri and more.

Apple wants to enable iPhone 6’s NFC for building security, public transit tickets and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

Most of the talk about NFC inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has centered around Apple Pay, the iPhone maker's mobile payments service, but NFC has other uses, too. Android handsets typically use NFC for proximity-based wireless sharing and now The Information is reporting that Apple is considering adding more NFC-based features to the new iPhones, stuff like enabling secure access to buildings and transit fare systems.

iPad Air 2’s anti-reflective screen reduces ambient light reflections dramatically

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

DisplayMate Technologies has put the screens of the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 through a barrage of tests concluding that the former's anti-reflective screen reduces ambient light reflections dramatically compared to any other tablet display out there.

The technology, DisplayMate discovered, reduces ambient light reflections by about 3:1 over most other tablets, including the previous iPads, and about 2:1 over all of the very best competing tablets and smartphones, including the iPhone 6.

Amazon launches Fire TV Stick, a $39 HDMI dongle

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

Having released its $99 set top box in April 2014, the Fire TV, that also doubles as an Android-driven games console, the online retail giant Amazon on Monday took on Google's Chromecast with a $35 HDMI dongle dubbed the Fire TV Stick.

Amazon is calling the Fire TV Stick “the most powerful streaming media stick.” And at just $39, it's within reach of average consumers who need a pocket-sized device to wirelessly beam their media and apps from an Android phone or tablet (iOS coming soon) to a big screen TV.

FitBit unveils next-generation activity trackers and a $250 fitness superwatch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

After recalling its rash-inducing Force wristband back in February, FitBit on Monday launched a new family of activity trackers, the FitBit Charge and Charge HR, while making its first foray into the smart watch space with the FitBit Surge fitness accessory.

The water-resistant Fitbit Charge, billed as “the Force reinvented”, is an improved version of the activity tracker with an OLED screen and a seven-day battery. The Fitbit Charge HR is an improved version of the Charge wristband with FitBit's PurePulse heart rate sensors and a five-day battery.

As for the Fitbit Surge, this $250 fitness watch packs in a total of eight sensors for more detailed logging of activities such as running and working out. Jump past the fold for more details.

iPhone 6 pre-orders on Samsung’s home turf top 100,000 units, outpacing Galaxy Note 4

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 27, 2014

Ahead of the scheduled October 31 launch, carriers in South Korea have managed to collect 100,000 pre-orders for Apple's new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones, three times the amount of pre-orders for Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Carriers KT Corp., LG Uplus Corp. and SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, started accepting pre-orders for the new devices this past Friday, October 24.

Moving into the post-PC era

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Ever since the first iPad was introduced by Steve Jobs way back in 2010 there has been the argument about whether it is just there to be a media consumption device, or can actually be used for what PC users seem to be so determined to call 'real work.'

Steve Jobs knew, or at least he hoped that iPads would eventually replace computers as we know them. When launching the first iPad he spoke of his new tablet as a car, and the computers that came before it as trucks.

I'm trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them.

He knew the transition wouldn't be easy, and he was right.