Google released a nice little update for Chrome yesterday, bringing the app to version 23.0.1271.96 (yeah, I know right). The update only brings two changes to the popular iOS web browser: a fix for a character encoding bug, and the added ability to listen to audio playing from within the app while it's in the background...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTsYGun6l0M
Welcome to The Daily Recap for December 13th, 2012. Watch our video for a quick look at some of the top stories from the day in less than two minutes. If you missed out on any of today's big news, this is a great way for you to get caught up fast.
For your convenience, you'll also find links to all of the stories listed in today's recap inside...
Following the iPad mini's debut in China a week earlier and the iPhone 5 arrival in South Korea, Apple today like a clockwork started sales of the iPhone 5 in China. While the handset is scheduled to launch in an additional 31 markets on Friday, including Russia, China is the top priority. Home to population of 1.33 billion people, China is a huge opportunity for the California-based company.
The company has only a few stores in China, but the country now accounts for fifteen percent of Apple's fiscal 2011 revenue, second only to US.
Monday, China Unicom announced more than 300,000 pre-orders for the device and rival China Telecom is thought to have similar figures. Unfortunately, China Mobile, the largest carrier in the world, will once again be sitting on the sidelines, thought its president is adamant that the iPhone deal is in the works.
Hopefully the iPhone 5 launch in China will help recover some of market share losses Apple suffered during the third quarter over an avalanche of inexpensive Android handsets and local brands...
In addition to its iTunes update, Apple has rolled out a new version of its iCloud system status page today. The portal, which once only showed the operating status of iCloud services now offers a comprehensive look at several of Apple's online assets including the App Store, Apple's Online Store, and more...
The App Store on iOS 5 and below had an interesting feature I really used to love a lot, the ability to send your friends the gift of apps.
You'd just pick a piece of software in the App Store, hit the Gift This App button and Apple would send a nicely formatted email message to a lucky bastard along with a link to download an app, just like that.
With iOS 6, the feature was removed with seemingly no apparent reason. Now, app gifting has been available on desktop iTunes all this time. Fortunately, the company's quietly updated iTunes backend to re-enable app gifting on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, just in time for the holidays...
With iTunes 11, Apple's music software received a complete, much-needed, makeover. Unfortunately, it also removed some much-loved features like Cover Flow and the ability to find your duplicate track listings.
Well today, users can get at least one of those features back via a new update. Apple has just released iTunes 11.0.1 to the public, and as expected, it includes the duplicate item finding feature and other fixes...
Back in August of this year, Facebook released a completely rebuilt app for the iPhone that was much faster than its predecessor thanks to its new coding. The social network ditched HTML5 in favor of a native approach.
Today, the app gets even faster with version 5.3. The update also includes a few new features, like the ability to choose an album from within the app while uploading photos, but the main focus here is definitely speed...
There's been a lot of talk over the past few months about the reasons behind Apple's decision to kick Google Maps out of iOS 6. Everyone has their opinions, but it seems like the biggest factor was Google's unwillingness to bring voice-guided turn-by-turn directions, among other features, to the pre-installed app.
Fast-forward to last night, when Google Maps returned to the iPhone in the form of a standalone App Store app. It has the same beloved features like Street View and transit directions, but it now has voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, and fast-loading vector graphics. Maybe Apple got what it wanted....
With its now-confirmed 2013 iPhone launch looming, T-Mobile continues its aggressive rollout of its HSPA+ network today with launches in Chicago, Illinois, Reno, Nevada, and Sacramento, California, along with enhancements in other areas.
Just last Monday, the carrier activated the iPhone-friendly network in several major cities including Atlanta, Seattle and Minneapolis. And with the new areas added today, that network now covers more than 100 million users throughout the US...
Since word got out that Google purchased Sparrow, folks have been clamoring for a new third-party email client for iOS. Sparrow is still available in the App Store, but the team has said that because of the acquisition, it will not be receiving anymore updates.
Enter Mailbox, a next-generation email client that looks like a cross between Sparrow and Clear. The app was unveiled by Orchestra, the company behind the cloud-based to-do app, today and it has a lot of people talking. Keep reading for a video preview...
Last night, Google released its new version of iOS maps to much fanfare, but sadly, iPad owners were left without a version designed for the larger display.
True, you can always run Google Maps in 2x mode on the iPad, but truth to be told, it looks hideous when doing so. Thankfully, one of our favorite jailbreak tweaks for the iPad always seems to come to the rescue when there's a big iPhone only release.
RetinaPad, a tweak by Ryan Petrich that we've covered extensively in the past, allows you to run Google Maps, and any other iPhone app for that matter, using the 2x mode assets included with the app. This not only provides a full screen experience, but significantly improved visuals in full screen as well...
Apple today posted a comprehensive list of the top iTunes sellers in 2012, ranging from e-books and podcasts to television shows and movies to apps and songs. The charts representing the best iTunes content in 2012Â list the top sellers for every iTunes category. Paid and free apps are listed separately, and then again for the iPhone and iPad. Go past the fold to see if your favorite apps made it on the list...