Year: 2016

Cut the Rope: Time Travel goes free as Apple’s App of the Week

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion in iTunes with Cut the Rope: Time Travel. This means that from now through next Thursday, you'll be able to pickup ZeptoLab's popular puzzler for free for both iPhone and iPad—a solid savings of $2.

For those unfamiliar with the game, Time Travel is one of the many titles in the Cut the Rope physics puzzler franchise. In it, players are against tasked with helping Om Nom collect candy as he journeys back in time to the Middle Ages, Ancient Egypt and more.

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Facebook Messenger passes 900 million users, unveils profile codes and other new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016

Facebook today announced its Messenger mobile application is now being used by more than 900 million people globally every month, up from 800 million active monthly users announced in January.

Celebrating the milestone, the social network firm unveiled Snapchat-like scannable profile codes.

In addition, it announced some interesting new ways for people to find businesses and friends to start a conversation, including vanity profile URLs on Messenger. More than a billion messages are now being sent every month between people on Messenger and businesses, wrote David Marcus, Facebook's Vice President of Messaging.

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Twelve South unveils ‘TimePorter,’ a travel tote and portable charging stand for Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016

Twelve South, the maker of premium Apple-exclusive accessories, on Thursday announced a combined charge and travel stand for the Apple Watch, dubbed the TimePorter. Resembling a luxury eyeglass case, this stylish accessory is designed to hold your Apple Watch charging cable, as well as extra Watch bands USB chargers and more. The case incorporates the Apple Watch charging disc and converts into a travel charging and display stand in an instant.

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Samsung expects 10 percent profit growth on better-than-expected Galaxy S7 sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016

According to preliminary results posted Thursday, there's a light at the end of a long tunnel for Samsung Electronics and that light is the new Galaxy S7 flagship smartphone. After more than two straight years of decline in its mobile division, the South Korean firm is now projecting more than ten percent profit growth for the first quarter of 2016, beating market estimates.

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge were announced back in February ahead of their March 11 debut. Both phones, which have managed to address some of user complaints like memory expandability, were met with mostly positive reviews. Thus far, the new devices have moved three times as many units in their first month compared to their predecessor,  the Galaxy S6/edge series, according to Bloomberg.

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Siri co-founder to demo Viv, ‘the global brain’ that provides an intelligent interface to everything

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016

Dag Kittlaus, a brilliant artificial intelligence engineer who helped create an advanced personal digital assistant that Apple bought and marketed as Siri, is about to show his brand new artificial intelligence product to the world at TechCrunch's Disrupt NY 2016 conference later this week.

Kittalus, who co-founded Siri and was the CEO of the startup, has since moved on and co-founded another startup with Siri veterans Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham, called Viv Labs, with the goal of radically simplifying the world by providing an intelligent interface to everything.

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Watch teaser trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, upcoming Star Wars Anthology film

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016

The first trailer for LucasFilm's upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film went online and boy does it look great. Set shortly before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope, the story of Rogue One centers on a group of Rebel spies on a mission to steal the plans for the Galactic Empire's new weapon, the Death Star.

Directed by Gareth Edwards and written by Gary Whitta and Chris Weitz from an idea by visual effects supervisor John Knoll, Rogue One will be the very first standalone movie set in the Star Wars universe.

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FBI confirms a tool it bought to unlock terrorist’s iPhone 5c does not work on iPhone 5s and newer

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2016
FBI and Apple logos

James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of iPhones—that is, Investigation—confirmed in an interview with CNN yesterday that a tool that the agency had purchased from a third-party to unlock San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook's iPhone 5c cannot be used to bypass security protections on newer models, from the iPhone 5s onward.

This implies the tool relies on the fact that the iPhone 5c and earlier models lack hardware features like the Secure Enclave embedded in Apple's mobile processors (from the iPhone 5s's A7 chip and onward) which keeps encrypted sensitive information and stuff like the number of passcode attempts isolated from the rest of the system.

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Reddit: The Official App hits the App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Nearly a year and a half following its acquisition of Alien Blue, the popular iOS client for Reddit, the popular social news service today released its long-awaited official client for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Reddit: The Official App, as it's called, is available at no charge in the App Store and if you download it during its launch weekend, they'll treat you to three free months of Reddit Gold membership.

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Mountie: a simple way to mount your iOS device side-by-side with your MacBook

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 7, 2016

Whether you're looking to make multitasking easier by having your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad right next to your computer, or you're using some kind of screen-extension software like Duet Display, the Mountie by Ten 1 Design is a great way to use your iOS device side-by-side with your Mac or PC.

The Mountie, which can be had in either Blue or Green flavors on Amazon for just under $25, is an affordable way to keep your iOS device right where you want it – in front of your face – without needing to shell out big bucks on fancy desk stands.

In this review, we'll show you how the Mountie works and give you our general opinion on why you should or shouldn't consider it for your Apple accessory wish list.

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Lautus is a tweak that lets you clear app caches using 3D Touch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 7, 2016

Over time, apps accumulate cache files that will take up valuable space on your device. Since iOS devices don't have upgradeable storage, users of devices with smaller storage capacities have to be careful and closely monitor the amount of storage space their apps are using.

Lautus is a new free jailbreak tweak that empowers users with clearing app caches as they grow over time and it utilizes 3D Touch for use. In this review, we'll walk you through how the tweak works and talk about what it does.

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Satechi Aluminum Stand review: a great charging dock for your iPhone or iPad mini

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 14, 2016

For the last several years, I have been using a Twelve South HiRise as the main charging dock for my iPhone on my desk. I just like the simplicity of it, in both design and function, but the Satechi Aluminum Charging Stand is a serious contender that I've had the pleasure to use for the past week or so.

Inside, I will share some thoughts and observations about this new dock's design, look, and simple features.

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