iPhone News

Pebble iOS app is back on the App Store

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 3, 2017

Smartwatch maker Pebble recently issued an update to its companion iOS app, but was quickly forced to pull the software over a fatal flaw that broke the Bluetooth connection between the smartwatch and the iPhone, rendering your Pebble non-functional.

As developers fixed the issue, the Pebble app has just been re-released on the App Store.

Available now free of charge, Pebble version 2.1.1 fixes issue with the previous version while introducing new watchfaces and a couple new features.

Jump past the fold to learn more...

CamText: add a live camera to the Messages app background

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 3, 2014

CamText is a new jailbreak tweak that lets users text using the stock Messages app with a live camera background. The most obvious use for a tweak like this is to provide its users with a safe way to text while walking down a busy street.

Since the camera provides a live view of a user's surroundings using the Messages app background, it's possible to keep one eye on an impending obstacle, and another eye on the ongoing conversation. While I believe it's pretty sad that it's come to this—we can't even look up while crossing the street like a normal person—it's hard to deny the idea's usefulness in the face of the circumstances.

How to add now-playing details to the iPhone’s status bar

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 3, 2014

PlayMe is a super simple jailbreak tweak with one goal in mind—it allows you to add now-playing information to the iPhone's status bar, such as album artist, and song title. PlayMe works well with the stock Music app, but it also plays nice with third-party applications like Spotify.

As you play music, PlayMe will rotate between the album artist name and the name of the song repeatedly. There are no options to configure to change the way the tweak displays the now-playing text, it's totally an install and go affair. Have a look at our video walkthrough after the break for a closer look into how PlayMe works.

Fleeting: an awesome jailbreak tool for speed reading

Jeff Benjamin ∙ April 3, 2014

Fleeting is an Action Menu add-on that allows you to select a block of text for speed reading. It contains its own interface that displays one word from the block of text at a time in quick succession. It's done in a way that makes the text entirely legible, even when moving at hundreds of words per minute.

If you've ever been intrigued by the idea of speed reading, then you should check out Fleeting. Have a glance inside at our full video walkthrough for more details.

Apple confirms WWDC 2014 kicking off June 2

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Apple on Thursday confirmed via a press release that its annual summer pilgrimage for developers, Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), will be kicking off on Monday, June 2, at San Francisco’s Moscone West.

The five-day conference will focus on "the future of iOS and OS X,", indicating that Apple will give us a preview of iOS 8 and the next iteration of its desktop operating system for Macs, OS X.

There will be more than a hundred technical sessions and over a thousand Apple engineers will be available to registered developers to help them integrate new technologies and fine tune their apps.

Apple will also hold its traditional Apple Design Awards to showcase the best apps from the past year and of course hold the keynote on the first day to update us on latest business metrics and hopefully announce "exciting new products" CEO Tim Cook has been teasing for months now...

‘Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance’ hits the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Wow, it has been an absolute monster day for iOS game releases. First there was 'Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft,’ which hit App Stores in select countries, then FTL for iPad came out, and now we have 'Warhammer 40,000: Storm of Vengeance.'

Games Workshop's Storm of Vengeance is a lane strategy game for PC and mobile devices set in the dark, gothic universe of Warhammer 40K. Players can play as both Dark Angels and Orks, tasked with either defending their planet, or destroying it...

‘Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff’ landing on iOS April 10

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

It looks like the highly anticipated Family Guy project from Fox and TinyCo is set to be released next week. At a launch event in Los Angeles last night, the two firms announced that 'Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff' will be landing on iOS on April 10.

First revealed in December of last year, the game will be set in the infamous town of Quahog and feature elements of resource management, with multiple story lines. It looks similar to Fox's other hit TV series-turned-game: The Simpsons Tapped Out...

Microsoft finally unveils its Siri competitor ‘Cortana’

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

It's been nearly three years since Apple unveiled Siri on its iPhone 4s, and Microsoft finally has its answer to the digital assistant: Cortana. Named after a virtual character in the company's popular Halo gaming franchise, the feature is powered by Bing and offers a mix of Google Now-ish and Siri-like characteristics.

We first got a glimpse of Cortana earlier this year courtesy of a developer leak, but Microsoft officially unveiled her this morning at its Build Developer Conference in San Francisco. The assistant will ship alongside several other new features in the Windows Phone 8.1 update, expected to launch in the next few months...

Shapematic turns your iPhone into a 3D scanner

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmb5BcBZhdM

Shapematic is a new app that just launched in the App Store, and that aims to turn your iPhone into a 3D scanner. Simply snap a few pictures under different angles of the object you want to scan, and let the app work its software magic. The result will be a three-dimensional reconstruction of the object. The app also includes a feature that lets you edit your 3D photos to remove little flaws that might have showed up in the process.

The 3D models created are printing ready, and you can request a 3D print directly from the application to get the three-dimensional model shipped to you.

Download Shapematic in the App Store for $0.99.

Amazon unveils its Apple TV competitor: meet the $99 Fire TV set-top box

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Amazon has just taken the wraps off its new media-streaming device designed to compete with the likes of Apple's $99 Apple TV hockey puck, Roku devices and other media-streaming boxes available to cable-cutters today.

It's rather predictably called the Fire TV in a nod to the successful Kindle Fire tablet brand, costs $99 and runs a forked Android version code-named 'Mojito'.

Powered by a quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and a dedicated graphics processor, the set-top box is capable of streaming full HD 1080p resolution video (1,920-by-1,080 pixels) and Amazon claims it's three times more powerful than the Apple TV.

It supports 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound via HDMI and optical audio-out, has dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, comes with a Bluetooth remote and ties into Amazon's vast ecosystem of digital content licensed from Hollywood majors and broadcasters.

I don't think Apple should be concerned because the Fire TV's user interface appears clunky (I even like Chromecast's better) and it's hard to see much that isn't already out there, though I have no doubt in my mind that the Fire TV is here to stay and tie existing Amazon customers even deeper into its ecosystem.

Read on for the full reveal...

Auxo 2 is now available in Cydia

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

The long-awaited update to the hugely popular Auxo has just been released in Cydia. Designed by Sentry and developed by Qusic, Auxo 2 is poised to become one of these tweaks that will go down in history.

But don't just take our word for it. Go get it in Cydia now. It's available for $1.99 for those of you who owned the previous version. If you're new to Auxo, it will cost you $3.99...

Reversible USB Type-C coming in July

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 2, 2017

Apple in late-2012 debuted the then new Lightning I/O as a replacement for the aging, decade-old 30-pin Dock connector. One of its most compelling features: the symmetrical design allowing the cable to be inserted with either side facing up.

I reckoned at the time that the industry would scramble to replicate Apple's innovation. Sure enough, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group last December unveiled a new USB Type-C specification with much smaller, twice as fast connectors and cables.

You guessed right, USB Type-C is reversible so the new cables and connectors can be plugged in without worrying about the orientation. Leaked straight out of the world's top contract manufacturer, Foxconn, the first renders give us a glimpse into the USB's new Type-C, coming this July...