iPhone News

AT&T reportedly considering buying DirecTV for $40 billion

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 20, 2018

Following the news that Sprint is considering buying T-Mobile comes word of another major acquisition. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that AT&T has approached DirecTV to begin possible buyout talks. The deal, the outlet says, could be worth over $40 billion in cash, stock and other assets.

Between DirecTV's satellite business and AT&T's U-verse arm, the move would result in a combined 26 million TV subscribers—which would be second only to the hypothetical Comcast/TWC combination, should that deal go through. So essentially, the two companies would hold most of the market...

Sprint said to be preparing to buy T-Mobile this summer

Cody Lee ∙ May 1, 2014

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Sprint is preparing to acquire T-Mobile this summer. It's a rumor we've heard before, but the outlet says that the carrier has met with a number of banks, and plans to make a serious bid as early as June.

SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, which own majority stakes in Sprint and T-Mobile respectively, are said to be in 'active discussions' over the buyout and possible CEO prospects. And unsurprisingly, T-Mobile's John Legere is the leading candidate...

1Password for iOS updated with background Dropbox syncing and more

Cody Lee ∙ May 1, 2014

1Password users will be happy to hear that AgileBits posted a new version of the iOS app this week, bringing the popular password manager to version 4.5.1. The update includes several enhancements, including background Dropbox syncing and more.

In fact, much of the update revolves around data syncing. In addition to the Dropbox fix, the app now uses the network activity indicator to show when sync is occurring, and conflict resolution during syncing has been improved. Full change log below...

AutoBlue: enable or disable Bluetooth connectivity based on Wi-Fi connection

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 30, 2014

AutoBlue is a smart idea wrapped into a somewhat unassuming package. It disables Bluetooth when connected to your home Wi-Fi network, and reenables Bluetooth when disconnected from the Wi-Fi network.

The goal of AutoBlue is to save battery life by keeping Bluetooth disabled when it's not needed. Of course, this is only useful if you don't use Bluetooth at home, and there's really no telling how much battery life you actually save by disabling a Bluetooth connection when it's not in use in the first place.

But it's still a good idea if you happen to meet the criteria necessary to not make this tweak a hinderance. Check out our video walkthrough of AutoBlue in action after the fold.

New Fantastical, Calculator, and iDB ProWidgets reviewed

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 30, 2014

Slowly but surely, the ProWidgets add-ons keep trickling out. Today's bounty—a release of three new widgets to the ProWidgets library—is the result of the efforts of a single developer. Tim Perin, the developer of Calculator ProWidget, Fantastical ProWidget, and an unofficial iDB ProWidget, is the one responsible for single-handedly turning the platform into something that's a bit more decently supported.

In my review of ProWidgets, I stated that only time would tell the true success of the tweak, with much of the success relying on the jailbreak community to lend its support developing new add-ons. I think it's safe to say that the support hasn't been as good as most would have hoped, but today's series of releases is a definite step in the right direction.

Check out our video walkthrough after the break, as I showcase all three widgets in action.

Beats Music is coming to iPad soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

Beats Music, a new streaming music service from music mogul Jimmy Lovine, musician and producer Dr. Dre and other industry figures, is about to extend to the iPad soon.

According to the startup's teaser image shared on Twitter - captioned with the 'Something Big is Coming' tagline - the iPhone-only app should soon be available on Apple's tablet, too.

The $9.99 per month service launched on January 20 and is still struggling to hit the ground running despite an impressive set of features and a library of over 20 million songs that can be streamed on-demand to the iPhone, Windows Phone and Android devices and to your web browser...

Reddit to develop official apps for iOS and Android

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

Reddit has long been one of the most popular websites on the Internet, serving as an online discussion board for users to discuss a wide variety of topics. But one thing it has always lacked is an official mobile app — fortunately, that's about to change. The San Francisco-based company has posted an official job listing within the /r/forhire subreddit, looking for mobile app developers to help create official apps for Reddit…

Apple begins sending sapphire to China as iPhone 6 production ramps up

Cody Lee ∙ April 30, 2014

Apple announced last fall that it was opening up a new crystal sapphire production plant in Mesa, Arizona with partner GT Advanced Technologies. It's believed that the company is using the facility to make sapphire display covers for the upcoming iPhone 6.

Adding weight to the theory is a new report claiming that GT shipped small quantities of sapphire from Arizona to one of Apple’s partners in China this month. The news comes as manufacturers are believed to be ramping up production on the next-gen iPhone...

Apple’s upcoming HQ is beginning to take shape

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 30, 2014

After completing demolition of a site located along Cupertino's Ridgeview Ct. where Apple is set to construct a 2.8 million square foot ring-shaped structure dubbed iSpaceship (officially called Campus 2), a new aerial image reveals that the upcoming corporate campus has started to take shape.

KCBS news and traffic reporter Ron Cervi was able to capture a photo from the air which shows that a large portion of the site has been demolished now, with the rubble completely cleared out...

Google launches new Docs and Sheets apps for iOS

Cody Lee ∙ April 30, 2014

Google has launched a pair of new productivity apps for iOS this morning: Google Docs and Google Sheets. For those unfamiliar with the two apps, they're front-end clients for the company's web-based word processor and spreadsheet editor.

The move follows the release of Microsoft Office for iPad last month, and Apple's move to make its iWork apps free late last year. Can Google's business software suite compete in this space? Keep reading for an overview and more screenshots...

Hold2Speak now available in Cydia

Sébastien Page ∙ April 30, 2014

I'm sure Jeff would have liked to share the news himself, but since he's currently unavailable, I'll be the one to announce that Hold2Speak is now available in Cydia.

Hold2Speak was born from an original concept by Jeff, who wanted a way to answer phone calls directly into speaker mode. Thanks to the jailbreak community and developers @isklikas and @sharedRoutine, this concept has now become a reality...