iPhone News

Apple kicks off Back To School promo in Australia and New Zealand

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2014

We're still a few months away from the Back to School season in the United States, but over in Australia and New Zealand the new school year is looming so the iPhone maker's annual promotion for students is in full swing, giving us a taste of what to expect this coming summer in the United States.

Apple's Back to School promos are certainly more generous than their disappointing Black Friday discounts. Students in Australia and New Zealand can save with educational pricing and get a free $100/$50 iTunes gift card with a qualifying Mac/iPod or iPhone purchase.

The full breakdown is right past the jump...

Rumor: TSMC to start churning out Touch IDs for the next iPhone this summer

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2014

According to industry sources, Apple has seemingly commissioned Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to build Touch ID fingerprint sensors for a next-generation iPhone, dubbed by the press the iPhone 6.

The manufacture of the sensors should start in the second quarter of 2014 at TSMC's twelve-inch fab, using the company's 65-nanometer process, according to a report the Asian industry publication DigiTimes filed on Tuesday...

Review: Battle Supremacy, the best WWII tank sim with a tactical twist to it

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 14, 2014

Atypical Games is well-known for its Storm Raiders title and the Sky Gamblers combat flight series (Lory reviewed Sky Gamblers: Cold War, if you're interested).

Last week, their new iOS game was released in the App Store, Battle Supremacy for the iPhone and iPad, now available for $4.99. In Battle Supremacy, you're in control of the World War II tanks such as the Panzer III.

The game is going to delight you with the visual awesomeness, challenge your gray matter with tactical thinking and single player campaigns scattered across the French, Russian and Pacific theaters of World War II and test your skills with a nicely done online multiplayer mode.

Just don't call it yet another tank shooter because that's precisely what Battle Supremacy is not about. Read my full review right below...

Aaron Sorkin finished with screenplay for Sony’s Steve Jobs biopic

Cody Lee ∙ January 14, 2014

Aaron Sorkin has reportedly completed his screenplay for the highly-anticipated Steve Jobs biopic and submitted it to Sony. It was first announced that Sorkin would be working on the project back in the spring of 2012, but we've heard little of his progress since then.

The fact that he's finished the script is good news though, and should appease observers who have been looking forward to the flick. Needless to say, both Sony and movie-goers alike are hoping Sorkin can drum up the same kind of magic he did with The Social Network...

Let’s Talk iOS 011: Seven years of iPhone

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Episode 011: It's been seven years since the original iPhone was unveiled; Sebastien, Jeff and Cody relive their memories of that momentous occasion. The trio also discusses the new iPad television ad, T-Mobile's latest big idea, and the most notable apps of the week.

Subscribe via iTunes

And just like that, Google buys smart thermostat and smoke detector maker Nest Labs

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 13, 2014

The Internet giant Google has announced that it has bought Nest Labs, the maker of a family of iPhone-controlled smart thermostat and smoke and carbon monoxide detector devices for connected homes. Nest will continue to operate independently of Google and won't share customer data with them. Nest was founded by the brilliant engineer Tony Fadell who used to work at Apple where he was charged with the iPod music player project.

Yes, the iPod Godfather now works for Google! The transaction is valued at a whopping $3.2 billion in cash. Google paid quite handsomely to buy Nest, didn't they? Considering Nest raised about $80 million in venture funding, the acquisition qualifies as one of the most profitable exit strategies among Silicon Valley startups.

iDownloadBlog's Jeff Benjamin reviewed the Nest learning thermostat and was impressed with its sleekness and functionality, the $249 price point be damned...

New in iOS 7.1: remove over-the-air installer from your device

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 13, 2014

I'm still flabbergasted that many non-techies are totally oblivious to over-the-air iOS updates. I mean, I've seen way too many iPhones out there with a badge on the Settings icon denoting a pending iOS update.

When asked why they didn't act on the notification, the normals usually respond that they couldn't figure out what it was so they just left it sitting there, consuming valuable storage space.

Turns out that the upcoming iOS 7.1 includes a new feature which allows you to delete these over-the-air installation files from your device without applying the update, in order to free up storage space for apps and media...

Snapchat apologizes (yes, apologizes!) for spam increase following data breach

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Perhaps realizing that apologizing isn’t a sign of weakness, Snapchat, the popular photo messaging application, took to the official blog to apologize for the spam increase observed during the weekend.

"We’ve heard some complaints over the weekend about an increase in Snap Spam on our service," a Monday post reads. The company has tried to make peace with disgruntled users by offering a formal apology. "We want to apologize for any unwanted Snaps," the team wrote.

The spam increase, the post claims, has nothing to do with a recent breach that saw a group of hackers breach its database and post 4.6 million user names and phone numbers on the web...

Offline mode finally coming to SimCity for Mac, EA confirms

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 2, 2017

Following numerous delays, Electronic Arts in August 2013 finally unleashed SimCity on the Mac.

Unfortunately, the long-expected launch quickly turned into a PR catastrophe as players started to complain about some very steep system requirements, crashes and installation issues.

The bug-ridden rocky launch put super-publisher Electronic Arts on the defensive, especially after the media slammed EA over SimCity's reliance on an Internet connection. Electronic Arts today finally confirmed that a future update will remove that restriction, allowing players to enjoy the city-building simulator when offline...

The Apple-Nokia patent deal is expiring December 31, 2016

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 13, 2014

You may remember that back in June 2011 Apple lost a patent infringement case that the Finnish handset maker Nokia had filed against the Cupertino company, resulting in an undisclosed one-time payment and ongoing royalties to Nokia for use of their patents. The Nokia CEO Stephen Elop was “very pleased” to have Apple join Nokia licensees.

However, the essentials of the contract have for the most part remained confidential. Today, we get to learn more about the terms of the deal as Samsung told a U.S. court that the patent pact is expiring on December 31, 2016...

Vosis for iPad creates cool synthesizer effects from photos and live video

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 13, 2014

There's certainly no shortage of music-creation apps for aspiring musicians on the App Store, even if most of the available programs strive to perhaps dumb down the process of composing music. But every once in a while someone out there comes up with another great idea for music creation on the go.

Although ImageSonification‘s new iPad app called Vosis is not meant to compete with the likes of Apple's GarageBand and similar apps, I can easily see it used in the production and creation of live effects.

Now available in the App Store free of charge, Vosis creates cool ambient and synthesizer effects by analyzing greyscale image pixel data in your photos and live video feed. I've included a nice video after the break so do give it a look to learn what image and video “audification” is all about...

WinZip overhauled for iOS 7, now with Dropbox integration, AirDrop support and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 13, 2014

WinZip Computing has finally updated its WinZip application for iOS which lets you access archived ZIP files on the go, create your own ones and more.

Now available in the App Store in both free and paid flavors, WinZip 3.0 brings out the all-new flattened interface that feels very natural on iOS 7, with AirDrop support making it real easy to share ZIP archives between iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices using Apple's new AirDrop peer-to-peer sharing technology in iOS 7.

WinZip 3.0 also allows you to upload files to your Dropbox and download them on your device, copy or send sharable links of files in Dropbox, take advantage of an improved workflow making it easier to manage your ZIP files on iOS devices and more...