iPhone News

iOS-Facebook integration reportedly a reality

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2012

Following months of rumor mongering and speculation, it would seem that one of the headline new features of iOS 6 indeed is system-wide Facebook integration, TechCrunch has learned from sources. This capability will reportedly work as seamlessly as Twitter integration in iOS 5.

You'll simply provide your Facebook account credentials in Settings and then approve apps to automatically use your account when needed. The report jives with news of apps, not the OS itself, being the focus of iOS 6 that iDB broke today.

As our credible source with deep connections at Apple pointed out, big stuff is expected in stock apps across the board as Apple has apparently re-written them from the ground up to take advantage of new iOS features.

At this point, there's no reason to doubt that Facebook sharing will be rolled out across Apple's apps in iOS 6,, much like Twitter comes enabled in Safari, YouTube, Maps and so forth...

An easy way to seamlessly play Safari videos in the background

Jeff Benjamin ∙ June 1, 2012

Web Background Video Playback is a relatively new tweak by iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith. The aim of the tweak is to allow video content to continue playing in Safari while it is running in the background. This is especially helpful when you're listening to video content, and seeing the video isn't necessary; for example, when watching a music video, podcast, etc.

This tweak is also handy in the cases where you wish to send a quick tweet or text message, but don't want to completely interrupt the video playback. I've noticed that it even plays nice with video that's streaming to a television via AirPlay.

Take a look at our video demonstration of Web Background Video Playback for more details...

Scoop: big iOS 6 features are in stock apps across the board

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2012

With just ten days until Apple’s keynote at WWDC in San Francisco, details about iOS 6 and the next iPhone have been trickling out steadily on a daily basis in past weeks.

A credible source has now stepped forward, casting more light on growing expectations concerning the next major update to Apple’s iOS operating system which drives the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

In a nutshell, there’s going to be little, if any, Earth-shattering additions to core OS features. Instead, I was told, headline enhancements are focused on stock apps across the board…

Analyst says iOS 6 brings “notable upgrade” to native Camera and Photos apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2012

Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu writes in today's note to clients that Apple is working on a "notable upgrade" to its stock Camera and Photos apps which come included with the iOS mobile operating system powering iPhones, iPads and iPods.

This isn't terribly surprising given that "notable upgrades" are presumably needed to enable new photo and video sharing functionalities recently mentioned by more credible sources.

I guess Wu's a regular reader of the Wall Street Journal newspaper, which reported last month that iOS 6 will bring the ability to synchronize video clips across devices through iCloud, as well as share sets of photos with other iCloud users and comment on them...

iPhone allegedly going prepaid on Boost Mobile in early September

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

Apple made waves earlier this week by diving into the prepaid market with the addition of Cricket Communications, America’s seventh largest wireless company which has thus officially become the nation's very first prepaid carrier to offer no-contract iPhones come June 22.

Cricket iPhones are gonna be available with a cool $150 discount compared to Apple's asking prices for unlocked devices, along with unlimited everything month-to-month plans. Per new rumor, the iPhone is about to go prepaid on Boost Mobile, too...

Munster on iTV: ‘if’ has been decided and now the question is ‘when’

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2012

Riding on his iTV predictions, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to clients today that a number of factors, including Tim Cook's D10 talk earlier this week, have led him to confidently assume that a full-fledged television set from Apple is a now a matter of 'when', not 'if'.

He is expecting iTV models ranging from 42 inches to 55 inches, costing between $1,500 and $2,000. Apple will announce its standalone television set later this year, he speculated, with general availability six months later...

Apple’s 40 percent smaller Nano SIM proposal gets a go-ahead

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 1, 2012

Following an amusing public back and forth between Apple on one side and Research In Motion, Motorola and Nokia on the other, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) this morning decided to officially back Apple's proposal for an upcoming miniaturized SIM card standard that provides for a thinner, smaller mobile devices...

Video compares 4.07-inch iPhone 5 glass panel vs. current iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2012

Japanese blog Macotakara just posted an interesting video which seems to compare an alleged next-generation iPhone glass panel against the current iPhone model. The clip depicts a taller but wider glass panel, supporting the mounting evidence that the iPhone 5 will introduce a new display size measuring slightly above four inches diagonally...

iPhone 5 likely has S5L8950X CPU, 1GB of RAM and SGX543 GPU variant

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2012

9to5Mac did an awesome job combing through an iOS 6 build running on a prototype next-generation iPhone unit.

They were able to surface a couple interesting details which help paint a pretty accurate picture of the innards likely to power the final product.

These reportedly include a variant of the A5x chip sporting an ARM S5L8950X processing core, 1GB of RAM and "something entirely new" for the graphics subsystem...

This jailbreak tweak allows you to have a more engaging Siri conversation

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 31, 2012

Are your Siri conversations feeling a bit like a dead end? Are you looking for a more conversational personal assistant? If that's the case, then PersistentAssistant is a jailbreak tweak you need to investigate. PersistentAssistant forces Siri to continuously listen for new queries until your close the Siri window, making for a more engaging conversation.

PersistentAssistant is especially useful if you're in a situation where you can't use your hands to continuously re-invoke Siri — for example, when driving. Check out our video walkthrough inside to see how it works...

PaperLock adds yet another mod to your iPhone’s Home screen

Jeff Benjamin ∙ May 31, 2012

PaperLock, like Unfold, and Unlockize before it, adds another "slide to unlock" modification to your iPhone's Lock screen. PaperLock — as its name not so subtly implies — is a tweak that lends a paper-like "page turning" look to your iPhone, similar to what you see when you turn a page in iBooks.

Out of the box, PaperLock comes with three high quality themes: paper, plastic, and bandage. It should be noted that the graphics where designed by renowned iOS theme designer Surenix; hence, when I say high quality, you can believe it. How does it match up with other Lock screen mods? Check inside for the details.

Office for iPad reportedly landing November 10

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 31, 2012

News Corp.-owned The Daily reported this morning that Microsoft's development team has apparently locked the code for Office on the iOS platform last month, followed by the design team's approval of the user interface. The long expected office suite is now being tested, with Microsoft internally shooting for an October 10 release date, giving Redmond a five-month lead time to smooth out the rough edges...