iPhone News

Tangent transforms your photos with shapes, colors and other effects

Watch out Instagram, there's a new photo editing app out that uses one-tap effects to enhance photographs taken with the iPhone. It's called Tangent, and it promises to transform your photos into amazing works of art.

The app doesn't use your typical filters though—you won't find Earlybird or X-Pro II here. Instead, it uses scalable shapes, color fills, light blends and other effects to allow you to customize your photos like never before...

The iDownloadBlog top news stories of the week – July 21, 2013 edition

Like every Sunday, we bring you the stories that were the most popular on iDB during this past week. Whether it is a news piece, an editorial, a tutorial, a new jailbreak tweak, or an accessory review, we sum it all up in one convenient place.

If you like what you're reading, please make sure to spread the love by sharing our posts on your favorite social network.

We're usually hanging out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, more rarely on Google+.

Apple seeds iOS 7 beta 3 to developers: this is what’s new p0sixninja’s ‘openjailbreak’ website now up and running iOS 7 smooths out iPhone apps on non-Retina iPads Top iOS apps go free ahead of App Store’s 5th anniversary New hack claims to enable free hotspot tethering, no jailbreak required Wallpapers of the Week: beautiful naturescapes by Solefield Preview: ayra Instabot takes your Instagram experience to a new level Will the iPhone get its own Mac Pro moment? Google shows off new Google Maps features, coming soon to iOS Extend your iPhoneography creativity with Color Moves in Photoshop Touch Apps of the week: WunderMap, Instabot, Pure for Flickr, and more…

Of course, don't forget to listen to the latest episode of our podcast, Let's Talk Jailbreak:

We’re social! Find iDB on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, App.net, YouTube, and in your RSS reader. Also make sure to subscribe to our new podcast!

‘InstaChooser’ lets you import videos into Instagram

I think it's safe to say that Instagram's foray into video, as delayed as it may have been, has turned out to be a resounding success. Many of the folks I follow on Instagram have happily embraced the new video feature, and services like Vine have suffered as a result.

Now it's time for the jailbreak community to have their say. The first jailbreak release to alter the functionality of Instagram video is InstaChooser. InstaChooser is a tweak that allows you to import videos from your device's Camera Roll right into Instagram. This allows you to mix and match video created outside of Instagram along with the service's own video authoring tools.

InstaChooser is not perfect, but it works decently enough to suit the needs of those who absolutely must have importing capabilities. Have a look at our full video walkthrough inside for the details...

Apple releases OS X Mavericks graphics update

Apple has released a new graphics update for OS X Mavericks. The update, which is aimed at users running OS X Developer Preview 3 is to resolve an issue where a Mac running OS X Mavericks Developer Preview 3 may reboot without warning. The graphics update, which is a 1.0 release, comes in at 4.9 megabytes and requires a restart after installation.

Supply of touch sensitive coating used on iPhones is dwindling

Bad news for smartphone and tablet makers. It seems that the coating used to make devices like the iPhone touch sensitive is beginning to run scarce, and could completely disappear from the planet within the next decade or so.

The transparent material is called indium tin oxide, and it's used to sense when a finger makes contact with a smartphone's display. And apparently the situation is so bad that industry experts are rushing to find an alternative...

Square Enix apologizes for Deus Ex anti-jailbreak bug, promises fix

Jailbreakers who went to download the newly-released Deus Ex: The Fall yesterday were met with an unpleasant surprise. They were unable to properly play the game, because the developers built in code that disabled firing on jailbroken devices.

Of course, it wasn't an issue for very long—a jailbreak tweak called xCon patches the code that identifies jailbroken devices. But today, Publisher Square Enix apologized for the whole thing and said that it would remove the code in a future update...

AT&T buying prepaid U.S. telco Leap Wireless

In another sign of a major consolidation taking place in the U.S. wireless industry, carrier telco on Friday made known its intention to buy regional prepaid carrier Leap Wireless.

AT&T has agreed to pay $15 per share in cash to acquire all of Leap Wireless’s assets. As you know, Leap provides wireless services through its prepaid Cricket Wireless brand.

The transaction, pending customary regulatory approval, is meant to bolster AT&T’s coverage, enhance its spectrum, increase AT&T's retail store presence and make AT&T more competitive to customers interested in low-cost prepaid service...

Tempo Smart Calendar updated with Mailbox support and other new features

In some ways, Mailbox and Tempo Smart Calendar are very similar. They're both sold as 'new takes' on old ideas and they both used waiting lists when they launched in the spring of this year. So it's fitting that the two are getting friendlier.

Tempo Smart Calendar received a significant update today, bringing the young app to version 1.08. And the new version brings about, among other things, the ability to index and search your Archived email folders in both Gmail and Mailbox...

Russia’s #3 carrier Beeline drops iPhone over ‘harsh conditions’

Looks like Apple's just been dealt a major blow over in Russia as another carrier reportedly quit selling iPhones. Vimplecom-owned Beeline, the nation's third-largest wireless carrier, has allegedly cut its ties with Apple. The firm will not renew its iPhone distribution agreement over too "harsh conditions", the story goes.

While the move doesn't mean the iPhone isn't popular in the country (just ask the local elite and celebrities), it does leave Apple without a major carrier presence there. Russia's two biggest carriers MTS and Megafon stopped selling the handset earlier.

Both telcos criticized Apple's demanding requirements: committing to large-volume purchases, generous subsidies and advance payment...

Apple’s lower Mac sales created by ignoring iPad demand

When is a tablet a PC? When it's running Windows 8. Conversely, when is a tablet not a PC? When it bears the Apple logo. In a second quarter littered with negative sales figures, it took some fancy footwork to lump Apple Mac shipments in with an industry decline that's lasted five quarters.

In its estimates of PCs shipped during the last quarter, Gartner earlier this week announced PC shipments on average fell 10.9 percent. Even Apple - which has consistently beaten PC numbers - fell 4.3 percent. However, in a curious note, the firm explained the figures included desktops, mobile PCs and mini-notebooks - but not iPads. What gives?...

Apple may have bought into chip plant to perhaps build processors in-house

The SemiAccurate blog is known for a mixed track report in terms of hardware news (hence the name).

For instance, it correctly predicted Apple would switch back to Nvidia's graphics processors for 2012 MacBooks, but got it all wrong calling for an Intel-to-ARM transition for the Mac lineup by early 2013.

Today's exclusive story, hidden behind a $1,000 paywall, claims Apple has made the unthinkable by buying into a third-party chip plant.

The semiconductor facility is believed to be operated by United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a Taiwan-based chipmaker established more than thirty years ago...

Star Wars: KOTOR for iPad is half price for a limited time

If you've been on the lookout for a deep discount on BioWare's excellent role-playing iPad game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, now is the perfect time to grab your copy.

Publisher Aspyr Media has just slashed the game to five bucks, down from $10, as part of KOTOR's 10th anniversary. The massive download is discounted for a limited time so you'd be wise to pick it up like right now before this rare promotion expires...