Apple has stopped signing iOS 9.2.x on Tuesday, a move that keeps anyone from downgrading their installation of iOS 9.3 or later to any earlier firmware version on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
The move has been expected for some time, as iOS 9.3 was released nearly two weeks ago, followed by iOS 9.3.1 with some minor bug fixes.
I recently talked about sharing Instagram videos on Vine, a multi-step procedure that involves a third-party app to save an Instagram clip to the Camera roll before posting it manually to the Twitter-owned Vine service.
So far so good.
But what about the other way round? Of course that same process applies to posting vine clips on Instagram: save a vine to the device before manually sharing it on Instagram.
As it turns out, there's a bunch of third-party apps in the App Store which can take the pain out of resharing vines on Instagram. With VineGrab, a free iPhone app by Xiaoyu Xia, not only can you watch vines in a more elegant interface than Vine's own, you can also repost your favorite ones to Instagram.
Twitter is making it a lot easier to send direct messages to anyone right from your timeline with today's introduction of an inline button that's present on all tweets. The new Direct Message button is launching later today in Twitter's mobile applications for iOS and Android.
Conveniently located to the right of the Reply, Retweet and Like buttons below any tweet, tapping it attaches a tweet to a Direct Message, ready to be sent to one or more of your followers.
T-Mobile, a Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless carrier, today revived its tabled bundle offer with a cool new deal: you can get fifty percent off up to $200 on any iPad model if you purchase a new iPhone from the carrier on an installment plan. You must purchase both an iPhone and iPad from T-Mobile in order to qualify for this time-limited promotion.
As mentioned, your iPhone purchase must be financed with T-Mobile's Equipment Installment Plan. The rebate is provided on a prepaid MasterCard card up to eight weeks after your purchase.
I discover my news (mostly) on Twitter and I think many other technophiles do just that. Acknowledging as much, Apple has started promoting stories published on the Apple News platform on Twitter, via its @AppleNews handle that started tweeting out curated stories earlier today.
“Follow us here for top stories and great reads from your favorite publishers, curated by our U.S. editors,” reads their first tweet. That account is now officially verified by Twitter.
Another curated tweet links to a Wired story which explains how reporters from around the world secretly collaborated to unveil the complex web behind the Panama Papers, the biggest leak in whistleblower history.
As promised, Sony will release tomorrow a firmware update for its PlayStation 4 console which includes Remote Play functionality for playing PlayStation 4 games on a Mac or Windows PC, the company announced in a blog post this morning.
“With this update, we’re expanding PS4’s Remote Play capabilities to work with Windows PC and Mac,” said Sony. The Remote Play app, which launches tomorrow and will be available for download through the Sony website, lets you connect a DualShock 4 to your Mac via a USB cable as the controller for Remote Play.
WhatsApp today announced it is turning on end-to-end encryption to make it virtually impossible to eavesdrop on your communications.
Starting today, all text messages, photo and video attachments, documents, voice messages and VoIP calls are protected with full end-to-end encryption, developed in collaboration with Open Whisper Systems.
Similar to Apple's iMessage and some other instant messaging platforms such as Telegram, end-to-end encryption makes the contents of WhatsApp chats unreadable to third-parties. And with the encryption keys stored on a user's device, they cannot decrypt chats if served a valid government request.
Starz, a premium cable and satellite television network, today announced a brand new video service which permits owners of the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV to stream shows for a low monthly fee of just $8.99 per month.
A companion iOS app lets subscribers download full episodes to watch offline but does not offer live streaming. On the fourth-generation Apple TV, it supports universal search so you can ask Siri for shows to watch, including original ones like “Outlander”, “Power” and the upcoming “American Gods”.
Twitter has managed to sign an important deal with the National Football League giving it rights to exclusively live-stream as many as ten Thursday Night Football broadcasts worldwide in the next season, the companies said today.
According to Variety, Twitter will carry the games broadcast by NBC and CBS, to be simulcast on the NFL Network, too.
Free live-streams will leverage Twitter-owned Periscope.
In addition to the live games, Twitter will also stream in-game highlights from TNF and pre-game live broadcasts from players and teams before, during and after games.
On April 1, 2016, Apple turned 40. The company's music streaming service, Apple Music, is celebrating the milestone with a special playlist, titled 'Apple 40', that includes forty songs from various Apple ads to “celebrate 40 years of ideas, innovation and culture.”
Some of the songs included in the playlist come from Steve Jobs's favorite artists—Bob Dylan and The Beatles—in addition to other artists such as Coldplay, Gorillaz and more.
In another expansion, wireless carrier T-Mobile this morning added an additional sixteen services to its unlimited video streaming services, Binge On, and unlimited music streaming service, Music Freedom.
Starting today, Amazon Music, ESPN Radio and more music services stream free for T-Mobile customers.
On the video side, such services as Dailymotion, EPIX, Nickelodeon, Spike, TV Land and more are joining the list of providers streaming free to T-Mobile customers on qualifying plans with Binge On. Qualifying Simple Choice customers can stream audio and 480p video through Binge On and Music Freedom at no additional charge, without eating into their cellular data plan or worrying about overages.
Electronics Arts and Firemonkeys today pushed a brand new content update to Real Racing 3, their popular racing game for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Apple TV.
Bumped to version 4.2, the game has introduced three new powerful cars: the Hennessey Venom GT—the fastest accelerating production car in the world according to Guinness—along with the 2015 BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R and 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL.
In addition, players can now take on the all-new Front Runner special event for their chance to win the aforesaid Hennessey Venom GT and participate in other events to bring home that classic 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL or the new 2015 BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R.