Day: May 19, 2015

Gene Munster gives up on Apple television dream

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 19, 2015

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has become something of a joke in the broader analyst community. Arguably the most vocal proponent of a fully-fledged Apple television set, he's been predicting the imminent arrival of a 50+ inch TV with the shiny Apple logo on it for years now.

He wasn't alone in his predictions. Most recently, noted activist investor Carl Icahn put much faith in the mythical Apple Ultra HD TV set in a yet another letter to Tim Cook yesterday.

But as a new report by The Wall Street Journal alleged that Apple has indeed axed the project after researching it for nearly a decade, Munster was quick to admit that he's been wrong all along.

How to display the now playing app in the iOS media controls

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Have you ever glanced at your Control Center or Lock screen media controls, and wondered what app was responsible for playing the now playing song? This tends to happen if you have several music apps installed on your iPhone.

The problem stems from the fact that iOS doesn't display the app responsible for a song's audio output. But a new jailbreak tweak, called PlayingLabel, promises to solve this issue.

Surprise! Apple releases a Lightning dock for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 19, 2015

Getting a new 5K iMac for under two grand was nice, and the addition of Force Touch to the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro was cool. But this release is by far the most surprising release from Apple that we've seen today.

Indeed, has released a Lightning dock for the iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, and 6 Plus. You can even use Apple's new dock with a Lightning equipped iPod touch.

The dock is available for purchase now for $39.99 and ships in 1-3 business days.

LockEditor lets you modify several Lock screen properties on iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

If you find the stock iOS Lock screen to be a bore, then LockEditor is here to spice things up a bit. It's a jailbreak tweak that allows you to modify a plethora of Lock screen features, from the passcode rings, to "slide to unlock" text.

In fact, LockEditor contains nearly two-dozen different settings and switches that allow you to customize the look and feel of the Lock screen. Have a look at our video, which showcases some of the features that you'll find in LockEditor.

Apple launches 15″ MacBook Pro with Force touch, refreshes 27-inch iMac while bringing down price

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 19, 2015

Apple on Tuesday launched a new 15-inch MacBook Pro model with Force Touch trackpad, Intel's faster fourth-generation Haswell chip and other features

In addition, the Cupertino firm has refreshed its 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina screen while making the system more affordable than before.

The new baseline iMac configuration has a slower 3.3GHz chip (previously 3.5GHz) and the traditional 1TB hard drive instead of the Fusion drive. More importantly, it now starts out at just $1,999, a much appreciated discount from the previous asking price of $2,499. In addition, the top-end iMac configuration is now available at a lower price of $2,299.

Spotify and Starbucks sign multi-year streaming music partnership, should Apple be worried?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

How times change. It used to be that Starbucks would partner with Apple on any relevant music-focused initiative. But as the balance of power has slowly but surely shifted from music downloads to streaming, Apple is no longer the preferred partner.

Announced Tuesday, a potentially far-reaching partnership between the U.S.-based coffeehouse chain and Spotify, the world's leading streaming-music service hailing from Sweden, will see Starbucks promote premium Spotify subscription tiers while granting Spotify users access to Starbucks' rewards program.

NoBanner suppresses banner notifications when playing video

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 19, 2015

Have you ever been in the middle of a great video, only to have the experience interrupted by an untimely banner notification? Not only is this visually disturbing, but incoming banners reduce the audio volume of a playing video as well.

NoBanner is a new jailbreak tweak that puts an end to this issue. It suppresses banner notifications whenever playing video on your iPhone. Watch our video walkthrough for a demonstration of NoBanner in action.

The Halo Hybrid iPhone 6 case is practically invisible

Lory Gil ∙ May 19, 2015

Nothing says "minimalist" more than nothing at all. However, most people don’t want to risk scratching up their beautiful iPhone 6 by leaving it completely unprotected.

iBlason's Halo Hybrid case is a mix between a cover and a bumper for the iPhone 6. It is thin, simple, and comes in clear, making it hard to tell that you have a case on your iPhone 6 at all.

Noodles! review: a complex puzzle game (with absolutely no heptagons)

Lory Gil ∙ May 19, 2015

When you are relaxing with a nice, simple puzzle game, do you prefer it to be mindless and easy, or are you the type of gamer that likes things that are hard to solve?

Noodles! is a simple puzzle game with a nice, solid challenge. It isn't so hard that you give up, but it is hard enough to make you feel smart when you finally solve a puzzle. Check out our game review of Noodles! below.