iPhone News

iOS 7 smooths out iPhone apps on non-Retina iPads

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

With each passing day we learn more about the subtleties and under-the-hood tweaks that have made their way into the third beta of iOS 7. Today, I want to talk about the iPad's 2x compatibility mode. Hasn't it always bothered you how iPhone apps run pixel-doubled on your iPad mini and other non-Retina iPad devices, resulting in jagged corners and edges and just all-around pixelated appearance?

You can tick that issue off as iOS 7 Beta 3 added a new feature that makes every iPhone app look very clear running on an iPad 2 or iPad mini, in a manner reminiscent of a tweak for jailbroken devices by Ryan Petrich, called RetinaPad...

Microsoft’s fourth iPad-bashing ad touts Windows 8 multitasking

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

iPad-bashing is becoming the recurring theme for Microsoft as the once dominant force in computing struggles to reclaim its relevancy in the post-PC world. Nowhere is this more evident that in Microsoft's inability to hit the ground running with Windows 8 on tablets.

With a few notable exceptions, you can tell an also-ran has run out of ideas when it puts together a television commercial advertising its contender against the industry leader.

Sometimes the strategy of piggy-backing on the top dog's popularity can do wonders (case in point: Samsung), but often times it just backfires. The latter appears to be happening with Microsoft's anti-iPad ads. I'll let you be the judge of that: the latest iPad-dissing 30-second spot sporting two baseball scouts is below the fold...

Plants vs. Zombies 2 lands in Australia and New Zealand App Stores

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Good news this afternoon for those looking forward to the highly anticipated Plants vs. Zombie sequel. Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time has started hitting App Stores around the world, despite EA's warning that the game wouldn't make its July 18th deadline.

Don't get too excited though. Apparently, today's release is just a limited soft launch to help the developers fine-tune the game's new free-to-play experience. For now, only folks in Australia and New Zealand (or with iTunes accounts in either country) can download it...

Massive outage affects one in three iMessage users

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

We thought Apple by now has figured its customers have come to expect better than this, but here we go again: in a massive outage earlier today, the company's messaging service for iOS and Mac devices went offline for nearly one-third of its installed user base, by Apple's own admission.

Now, I know iCloud now has more than 300 million accounts (Tim Cook labeled it “the fastest growing cloud service ever” at WWDC last month). Likewise, I'm aware that with 800 billion iMessages sent and more than 7.5 trillion push notifications received, Apple no doubt has the scale and computing power to drive iMessage.

But something seems to be amiss here. The more I think of it, the more I tend to be bothered by the frequency and sheer reach of these outages. At the very least, I'm beginning to question Apple's ability to cope with such an exponential growth of its cloud service...

Dropbox-owned Mailbox gets Dropbox attachment integration

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

Dropbox, the popular cloud-storage startup, kicked off DBX today, its first-ever developer conference. Dropbox is now 175 million users strong, way up from the 75 million users registered just last November.

The new APIs the team introduced today at DBX promise to make it easier for app developers to integrate Dropbox data synch. Now, iOS developers are expected to take advantage of these new frameworks pretty soon.

Yahoo, for example, has immediately added support for Dropbox attachments to its Android client (it is coming soon to the iOS edition of Yahoo Mail). As Dropbox acquired Mailbox in March, we're not surprised the team just pushed a Mailbox update which lets you send attachments from Dropbox, even if the files don't physically reside on your device.

Better yet, you can now attach any file type you can think of, regardless of whether or not your device understands it. This has got to be the awesome news for fans of cloud productivity (count me excited!) and regular users who could only attach Camera roll images prior to this update...

Yahoo! Mail app now supports multiple personal and Business Mail accounts

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

Yahoo may have been buying popular iPhone apps lately, but that doesn't mean it's not giving Apple's platform some love. Quite the contrary, in the past few weeks the original Internet giant has released a stunning Weather app, updated Flickr with Instagram-y filters, overhauled News and re-released the native Mail software.

And in today's update, they've added two major features appealing to enterprise and power users.

First up, the application now lets you set up multiple Yahoo Mail accounts on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and quickly switch between them without ever signing out...

Hidden code suggests the iPhone 5S could record video at 120FPS

Cody Lee ∙ July 9, 2013

We don't know much about the next-generation iPhone, which is Apple is expected to introduce later this year. It's believed to be an 'S' model, with a faster processor and other upgraded internals. Outside of that, however, we literally know nothing about the handset.

But if past 'S' iPhone releases are any indication, the iPhone 5S will surely offer at least one 'stand-out' feature. The 3GS had video recording, for example, and the 4S added Siri. So what will the 5S' killer feature be? A new report says it could be slow-motion video...

Yelp iOS app updated with new feature for ordering food

Cody Lee ∙ July 9, 2013

Popular rating and review service Yelp has posted an update for its iOS application today, bringing the app to version 6.9.1. The update only really includes one new notable feature, but it's a big one: the ability to order food without leaving the app.

That's right, in the new version of Yelp, you can actually order food for pickup or delivery—provided the option is available. So if you're browsing the app, and come across a restaurant review that makes your mouth water, you can order it instantly...

Samsung’s concept makes the case for wearables

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

Young Sohn, who started at Samsung in August 2012 as President and Chief Strategy Officer, showed this intriguing concept video at MobileBeat 2013, VentureBeat’s sixth annual flagship conference on the future of mobile. In it, the Galaxy maker lays out its vision for wearable computing that calls for new kinds of bendable displays.

The video focuses on a scene depicting a woman using her smartphone of the future outfitted with health sensors to share health data with her doctor. According to Bloomberg, Apple's rumored iWatch includes a pedometer for counting steps and sensors for monitoring health-related data, such as heart rates...

p0sixninja’s ‘openjailbreak’ website now up and running

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 25, 2016

Late last month, Joshua Hill—aka p0sixninja—unveiled a new project he's been working on called 'openjailbreak.' From what we've gathered, it's an open source jailbreak repository that will allow hackers and developers to work collectively on future jailbreak releases.

It's not just Hill. There's a whole team of people working on the project, including popular graphic designer Surenix, who has been working on the website. And while we're still not sure what to make of the whole thing, it appears that the site has just gone live...

Sprint completes Clearwire deal

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 9, 2013

After acquiring a controlling stake in the U.S. mobile and fixed wireless broadband communications services provider Clearwire in October 2012, wireless carrier Sprint the following month announced it would buy out the minority of Clearwire shareholders for $2.2 billion. Sprint, the nation's third-largest telco, this morning has officially confirmed the completion of the transaction, meaning it now has a 100 percent ownership stake in the Bellevue, Washington-headquartered Clearwire...