Year: 2016

Nintendo drops a live-action commercial for Super Mario Run ahead of release

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

Nintendo is scheduled to debut Super Mario Run, its platformer optimized for one-handed gameplay, on the App Store on December 15. Ahead of this eagerly anticipated release, the Japanese gaming giant released a live-action commercial that's all about speed.

Running two minutes and five seconds long, the ad features people from all walks of life running across scenic locations and in front of landmarks across the globe. The video features an upbeat tune and classic Super Mario notes and sound effects.

WSJ: AirPods delayed because of issues with dual Bluetooth connectivity

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

Apple’s mysterious AirPods delay continues to puzzle us. Marking a rare public misstep, the company's failed to make its first-ever Bluetooth earphones available in time for the critical holiday season because, as Apple said, it needed “a little more time before AirPods are ready for our customers.”

A person familiar with the product's development told the Wall Street Journal on Friday that the problem with the AirPods stems from Apple's efforts to “chart a new path for wireless headphones” and, specifically, resolve what happens when you lose one of the earphones or its battery dies on you.

Apple must replace a Danish man’s iPhone with a new unit rather than a refurbished model

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

Following a five-year fight over marketing manager David Lysgaard's faulty iPhone 4 he bought in 2011 from Apple.com, the Glostrup District Court has ruled that Apple did violate the Danish Sale of Goods Act by giving the man a “remanufactured” device instead of the brand new phone he was entitled to in accordance with local law, Domstol.dk reported Friday. Apple's warranty terms state that refurbs use either brand new parts or those that are equivalent to new in performance and reliability.

Samsung planning a software update to render remaining U.S. Note 7 phones useless

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

Not even the exploding batteries have stopped die-hard fans of Samsung's ill-fated Note 7 from using the remaining phablets that are still in the wild. However, Samsung wants all Note 7 devices to be safely returned and is working on a software update that will render the remaining Notes in the United States useless, according to Samsung's official blog post and a statement given to The Verge.

Siri, cease all motor functions

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

It seems Apple's partnership with Universal Pictures that uses funny Siri responses to promote the animated movie “The Secret Life of Pets” was just the beginning. As revealed by actress Evan Rachel Wood who stars in “Westworld,” Siri is a fan of the show.

In another major movie tie-in for Apple, this time with HBO, Siri has learned some amusing responses to queries related to the science fiction western thriller television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy for HBO.

Here are some of them.

Super Mario Run requires a persistent Internet connection to prevent piracy

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 9, 2016

Super Mario Run, Nintendo's eagerly awaited platformer optimized for one-handed gameplay, requires a persistent Internet connection to play in order to prevent piracy, Mario's creator Shigeru Miyamoto has confirmed to Mashable. Actually, the security element is one of the reasons Nintendo decided to go with the iOS platform first before releasing Super Mario Run on Android.

Convert and push media into any Apple device with WALTR 2, no jailbreak or iTunes needed

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 19, 2017

Softorino, a purely European crew packed with talented developers, recently released WALTR 2 as a successor to the original app that's captured more than 500,000 downloads worldwide in just under 20 months since its debut.

A well-deserved success, if you ask me, because WALTR made it super easy to convert audio and video files encoded in “foreign” formats, such as DivX/MKV movies with subtitles and FLAC audio files, without requiring a jailbreak.

I raved about WALTR in my review, underscoring how its drag-and-drop simplicity allows just about anyone to bypass the mess that is iTunes. And boy, does it fly: in my tests, WALTR transcoded a 2.64-gigabyte MKV file on my 1.3 GHz Intel Core i5 mid-2013 MacBook Air into an iOS-friendly format and sent it over USB to my iPhone 6 in under two minutes.

Building on this remarkable engine, WALTR 2 is now available with new features like support for more than two-dozen legacy iPod models and other devices starting from iOS 5. It uses automatic metadata recognition that works perfectly, gives you the ability to transfer media to your device wirelessly, supports PDF and ePUB file formats and much, much more.

How to find out which apps on your iPhone support Siri

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated January 21, 2026

Find out which third-party apps on your iPhone can work with Siri and let you do things just by using voice commands.

NoATWAKEUP is a tweak that might help you save some extra battery life

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 9, 2016

If you own an iPhone, then chances are your battery life is important to you. The importance of conserving battery life is probably increased even more when you're jailbroken and have lots of tweaks running on your device as you use it.

Fortunately, a new free jailbreak tweak called NoATWAKEUP is here to help, as the developer says it can have a positive impact on your battery life.

Pokémon GO update lets trainers transfer Pokémon in bulk and fixes bugs

Anthony Bouchard ∙ December 9, 2016

Niantic has launched an update (version 1.19.1) for the popular Pokémon GO game on both the Android and iOS platforms on Thursday that addresses several bugs, as well as a highly-requested game improvement.

Those who catch many Pokémon know the struggle of having to transfer out the ones they don’t need to Professor Willow, one by one, but Thursday’s update now allows players to transfer a handful of unwanted Pokémon to the professor all at once.

10 great gift ideas for iMac users

Cody Lee ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Welcome to the latest edition of iDB’s ongoing Gift Ideas series, where we provide curated roundups of some of our favorite products. Throughout the year we cover and test a number of devices and accessories, so we decided to use that experience to help those searching for the perfect present. Today’s roundup is focused on iMac users.

First impressions of Super Mario Run on iPhone

Andrew O'Hara ∙ December 8, 2016

As we noted earlier today, you can now test out Super Mario Run at your local Apple Store. They have preinstalled the game on their demo devices ahead of the games launch on December 15th. I was lucky enough to head over earlier today and put together a video and some first impressions on the upcoming platformer.