Oliver Haslam

SmartFolders Lets you Create Folders and Rules for Mail App

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 27, 2011

Even with all the improvements Apple has made to the iPhone's Mail app in iOS 5, there are still some glaring omissions, especially if you're the kind of person who likes to create folders and have them populated based on a selection of rules.

Smart folders are something that Apple has embraced on the desktop, with Mail on OS X featuring them heavily, which makes it all the more surprising that they haven't brought them to its mobile platforms.

As always, the jailbreak community has some to the rescue, and SmartFolders is just what the doctor ordered...

This Tip Could Cure Your iPhone 4S Battery

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 27, 2011

As someone who has been lucky enough to spend the last few months testing iOS 5 in various beta stages, it has to be said that the version we're all currently enjoying has come a long way since the early days.

When Apple released the iOS 5 GM not that long ago, I instantly noticed that my iPhone 4's battery life was lasting roughly half of what it was before. A coincidence, I thought. It'll sort itself out, I presumed. After getting the iPhone 4S, the problem persisted. Twitter and forums on the web over lit up with similar problems, and a few fixes were suggested, mostly to no avail.

There may be light at the end of the tunnel. Switching one little toggle in iOS 5's Settings app may hold the key to curing your iPhone 4S battery...

Newsstand in iOS 5 Causes Huge Spike in Subscriptions for Publishers

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Apple has already revolutionised the way the music industry works with iTunes, and arguably changed the way mobile phone companies work forever. They set about doing the same thing with publishing when the original iPad was released in early 2010, but things haven't really taken off. One of Apple's latest additions in iOS 5 may have just changed all that, according to reports.

While magazine and newspaper publishers have put out their own apps in a bid to claw new life out of their ageing model, the take-up amongst customers has been hit and miss (with more misses than hits).

Apple's latest addition to its content arsenal is Newsstand, a "custom news stand for all your subscriptions" which, the company hopes, will provide increased exposure for magazine and newspaper subscriptions. If Condé Nast's recent figures are believed, Apple might just have cracked it...

Quickly Send Emails and iMessages From Notification Center with WeeCompose

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated October 25, 2016

As time goes on, and as more people get their hands on iOS 5, Notification Center is fast becoming the next big thing in the world of jailbreaking.

Originally designed by Apple to offer a new home for push notifications, emails, messages, and anything else that pops up on-screen, Notification Center is also home to the Stocks and Weather widget. The jailbreak community clearly thinks that's a waste, and has set about releasing new and interesting widgets at an alarming rate.

The latest widget to catch our eye is WeeCompose – a handy widget that offers a quick way of sending new emails, iMessages, and texts...

LockMessages Adds a Level of Privacy to Notification Center Messages

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 26, 2011

We've all had those situations when we've received a text message that we don't necessarily want anyone else to see. The problem is that such a message always seems to come through when your iPhone on a desk, or on a table in plain sight.

So there you are, your message pops up along with the sender's name and, if you have default settings turned on, a preview of the message's contents.

A new jailbreak tweak allows you to minimize such embarrassing situations by giving you control over what iOS shows when you receive a new text or iMessage, and it's called LockMessages...

Instatweet Brings Fast Tweeting to iOS 5

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated February 19, 2018

If there's one thing we all love, it's Twitter. There's just something about those short little bursts of wisdom that compels us all.

If you're an iPhone user, you're certainly not short on choice when it comes to Twitter apps for your beloved phone, so you don't need another one, right? Well, if it offers something a little different, you just might.

Instatweet does just that by giving users a fast way to send out tweets in iOS 5...

Apple Retail Stores to Begin Offering In-Store Pickup for Online Orders

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 24, 2011

We've all wanted to order a new Apple product online, but have not wanted to wait for it to via companies like UPS. Wouldn't it be much easier if we could just place an order and then go to a local store to pick it up?

If a MacRumors source is to be believed, we could be doing just that at some point in the near future, with the trial program known as 'Sherwood' getting underway.

The system, the report claims, will include any product currently available via the online Apple Store, including built-to-order Macs and engraved iPods...

‘AppLocker’ Password Protects Your Individual iOS Apps

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 24, 2011

Here's a pretty useful little iOS tweak, especially if you've got kids who like to go tapping icons on your iPhone, with little regard for your saved game progress or super-important work document you've been editing.

Just as AppLocker's name might suggest, this $0.99 tweak adds a new pane to Settings.app, in which a password lock can be added to all your iOS applications, meaning they won't launch unless you know the special word.

That's all fine and dandy, but AppLocker goes one step further than that...

Apple Quietly Updates iPad 2 Smart Covers

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 24, 2011

Apple today took a hammer to its curent lineup of iPad 2 Smart Covers, discontinuing one color and adding another. The rest of the lineup has also been given a minor makeover, according to MacRumors.

The move comes alongside a silent MacBook Pro refresh, with Apple choosing not to make an announcement about the changes to either product.

Smart Covers have proven popular amongst iPad 2 owners who want to protect their giant 9.7" screen without adding the unwanted bulk of a full-on case. These changes refresh the six-month old colors, while also making the interior of all Smart Covers the same color as the exterior – a change that should have been made before they ever went on sale! The Product RED cover is still two-tone, though...

Video Shows iBooks Running on Jailbroken iOS 5

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 24, 2011

As is always the case when a new release of iOS comes out, jailbreaking can cause a few weird and wonderful things to happen with certain apps.

One such oddity is the way jailbroken iOS 5 devices seem unable to run Apple's iBooks app, with tapping the icon resulting in an immediate crash.

With the new Steve Jobs biography going on sale, not having a working release of iBooks could be a potential deal breaker for many jailbreakers out there, but as this video shows, there may be light at the end of the tunnel...

Enterprise Market Leaning Towards iPhone and iPad Instead of Android

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated April 3, 2018

Apple's iOS platform rules the roost in the enterprise, according to new figures released by Good Technology.

The firm, which offers push e-mail, mobile device management, and security products for mobile phones, released the numbers that appear to show both the iPhone and iPad dominating device usage in the enterprise market.

According to Good Technology, the results show a "clear preference for Apple products," with the figures seemingly proving their point conclusively...

Siri Can Also Search Bing and Yahoo

Oliver Haslam ∙ October 21, 2011

If you've spent any time with Siri, you may have noticed that you can actually ask it to search the web for pretty much anything. At this point, Siri fires up a Google search and populates the search field with whatever it thinks you asked. The degree of accuracy here very much depends on your accent and whether it's a full moon or not, but on the whole, it does the job fairly well.

But did you know that you can also have Siri work its magic with both the Microsoft Bing and Yahoo search engines? Well, you can...