iPhone News

TwelveSouth’s PlugBug goes on a world tour

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

TwelveSouth makes wonderful accessories for Apple devices and their charging add-on called PlugBug is the perfect epitome of their design approach: not only is the accessory useful, it's damn cute, too. For the uninitiated, the PlugBug will charge your MacBook and iPhone (or iPad or iPod touch) at the same time. The charming little red thingie piggy-backs onto your MacBook's power adapter and has a 10W USB port to connect and charge your iDevice as the MacBook adapter simultaneously juices up your notebook.

How cool is that? Today, a year and half following its debut, TwelveSouth has announced the PlugBug World, an international version with five swappable prong adapters supporting power sockets in the United Kingdom and rest of Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Hong Kong, China and a bunch of other markets...

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Apple offering popular hipKey proximity sensor online

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

How many times have you misplaced your keys in the last few years? Ok, how about your iPhone? Children? Well the good news is that there are actually iOS accessories that can help you with your forgetfulness, like the hipKey.

The hipKey is a simple proximity sensor, powered by Bluetooth, built to help you keep track of your valuables. It has a key ring, allowing you to attach it to your keys, purse, etc., and a companion iPhone app for easy tracking...

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Pebble smartwatches shipping to Kickstarters as iOS app lingers in approval limbo

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 23, 2013

As promised, the Pebble E-Paper smartwatch (actually, it has a memory LCD screen) is now shipping to Kickstarter backers around the world, albeit initial volume is limited over some paperwork complications. As you know, the smartwatch device works in conjunction with a free iOS or Android app.

Pebble Technology today updated its Kickstarter page with a note acknowledging that Apple unfortunately has not yet approved the software even though Pebble submitted it two weeks ago. A version for Android devices is scheduled to go live on Google's Play Store tomorrow, January 24...

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Netflix and YouTube working on an open AirPlay alternative

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 23, 2013

AirPlay, a wireless media technology from Apple featured on the Apple TV, iPhones, iPads, iPods and newer Macs running OS X Mountain Lion, is a major selling point because it allows users to seamlessly beam their photos, music and video from their computer or iDevice to a TV set via an Apple TV set-top box. However, Netflix teamed up with Google's YouTube on an AirPlay alternative and today the two have released official details.

DIAL, as it's called (an acronym for DIscovery And Launch), is an open second screen protocol which automatically discovers compliant devices to stream media. The new standard has impressive support from key content owners and consumer electronics makers, including the likes of BBC, Sony, Hulu and of course Samsung...

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How Verizon almost made Siri an Android exclusive

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 23, 2013

Apple's digital secretary, Siri, arrived as an iPhone 4S exclusive in October 2011, but the feature almost ended up being exclusive to Android devices on the Verizon network. According to a new report, Verizon in the fall of 2009 managed to sign a deal with the startup to make Siri a default app on all Android phones set to launch in the new year. It's interesting that the agreement was signed several months before Apple approached Siri and that the carrier even created unreleased ads highlighting Siri on Android.

Several months later, Apple came into full view to acquire the startup outright, effectively making the feature exclusive to its devices and narrowly escape seeing Siri falling into hands of the Android camp...

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Steve Jobs threatened Palm with patent suit over employee poaching

Cody Lee ∙ January 23, 2013

By now, you've probably heard of the anti-poaching civil suit that's been brought against Apple, Google, Intel and others. Former employees are suing the companies for allegedly conspiring to keep each other from recruiting out of each other's firms, which is definitely illegal.

The evidence in the case before hand was already pretty damning. But looking at these court documents that were just made public yesterday, it might now be open-and-shut. The filing features emails, between executives, openly discussing an anti-poaching agreement...

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The future of jailbreaking is very bright

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Last month, I posted a slightly controversial article entitled: 3 reasons why jailbreaking is waning in popularity. In it, I highlighted several points as to why jailbreaking was on a downturn. In hindsight, although I still stand by the post, I probably should have qualified my reasoning a bit better.

The real reason that jailbreaking is "waning" if you will, is because there simply is no jailbreak available for new devices. The recent bar graph showing jailbroken devices proves as much. I tried to say that, but I don't think it came across that way. Whatever the case may be, it looks as if that primary reason will soon no longer apply.

Hackers pod2g, planetbeing, and others have been working diligently on the iPhone 5/iOS 6 jailbreak for quite some time now. They've made great progress, as highlighted in Mike's post about the collaborative effort.

In fact, things are going so well, that one famous hacker in particular has just proclaimed that the future is looking bright for jailbreaking...

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More developers spotted in the iOS 6 jailbreak effort

Mike Schnier ∙ January 22, 2013

You're probably familiar with two developers by the name of David Wang and Cyril Cattiaux, also known as PlanetBeing and pod2g. If you're reading this, you're likely waiting for them to release an untethered jailbreak for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5. The good news is they're not working on the jailbreak alone.

The iOS 6 jailbreaking effort seems to be picking up speed as other developers have begun contributing their own expertise to the movement. Here are the recent developments...

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This beautiful iPhone 5 theme does not require a jailbreak

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

Lately I guess you can say we've been on a kind of non-jailbreak kick. With that in mind, we're happy to show you how you can get this awesome looking theme on your iPhone 5 without jailbreaking. The theme is called Black Orbs, and it features 31 different app icons that link to some of the more popular apps on the iPhone.

Obviously, since we have no iPhone 5 jailbreak yet, some compromises had to be made. Unlike WinterBoard, you can't outright replace the look of an app icon with that of another. Instead, the developer of Black Orbs strategically used web clips and an easy to install profile to pull it off. It's certainly not the perfect solution for a true iPhone 5 theme, but you have to admire the work here. Take a look inside as I show you how to install Black Orbs on your iPhone 5.

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How to quickly respring your iPhone without jailbreaking

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

It may seem kind of obvious when you think about it, but did you know that you can setup a quick respring shortcut using the Newsstand glitch that we showed you? Basically it involves adding a folder to a folder, which causes the device to crash and respring when trying to open the folder inside the folder.

By establishing this setup permanently, you'll create an easy way to respring at any time. This is despite the fact that the device is not jailbroken. Check out our video tutorial for the full how-to.

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Concept video shows what a 4.8-inch iPhone could look like

Cody Lee ∙ January 22, 2013

Amidst growing speculation that Apple is working on a larger handset, a Russian site has created this mockup of what it believes a bigger iPhone could look like. Created from details in the recent 'iPhone Math' rumor, the device has a 4.8-inch display and 12MP camera.

Contrary to other iPhone concepts, which typically travel outside the realm of possibility, this one opts to stay within the lines of Apple's current design schemes. It looks like the iPhone 5, but its footprint has been both lengthened and widened to support the larger display...

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