Siri has plenty of tricks and features, but there's still room to grow. And now Oprah is helping the digital assistant with that.
You can now ask Siri what Oprah is reading as part of her book club
News
Apple will preinstall mandatory government-approved apps on iPhones sold in Russia
As part of the device setup procedure, Apple will soon show iPhone and iPad users in Russia a dialog box offering to preinstall government-approved apps in order to comply with new laws.
Apple and the Redford Center launch a youth filmmaking challenge supporting environmental justice
Supporting young filmmakers is an important endeavor, giving them the means to launch short films to tell their stories. The Redford Center is teaming up with Apple this year to help with that.
How to insert the current date and time in Numbers app
Learn how to quickly insert the current date and time in your Numbers spreadsheet without manually typing them, and change their format to one that works best for you.
Google will reduce Play Store commissions to 15% for developers who earn their first $1 million per year
It took long enough, but Google has finally decided to follow along with Apple's own commissions associated with its digital storefront.
Tom Hiddleston will co-star alongside Claire Danes in Apple TV+ series ‘The Essex Serpent’
One of the many projects in the works for Apple TV+ is a new series called The Essex Serpent. It's had a bit of a rocky road when it comes to casting, but it looks like all of the rough parts have been smoothed out. And now we've got new casting news to share.
Leaker corroborates rumor AirPods 3 won’t launch in March
The rumor mill isn't giving up on AirPods 3, even as it recently moved the goalposts as far as a release date is concerned. Unfortunately, even the leakers are jumping on the same train as the analysts.
Instagram will prevent adults from messaging teenagers who don’t follow them
To make its platform safer for teenagers, Instagram today announced new policies to restrict direct messaging between teens and adults they don’t follow. In other words, adults will no longer be able to send messages to Instagram users who are underage and don't follow them.
Downtime podcast #387: In loving memory of the HomePod
Sebastien and Cody discuss the wild ride of last week’s AirPods 3 rumors and give their thoughts on talk of a bigger iPhone battery. The pair also talk about Apple discontinuing the original HomePod and what that means for the fledgling smart speaker line. Finally, they answer listeners' questions.
Spectral gives jailbreakers a sleeker Now Playing interface with an audio visualizer
Given that iOS devices continue to be some of the best music players on the market today, it’s not surprising that we continue to see more and more jailbreak tweaks for pwned handsets that try to out-do Apple at their own game, or at the very least, offer a level of personalization for the end user that otherwise wouldn’t be available on a stock handset.
For those wanting to expand on Apple’s award-winning music player experience, a new jailbreak tweak dubbed Spectral by iOS developer Beckett O’Brien just might be of interest.
WidgetRadius brings more consistent corner radiuses to legacy Today widgets on iOS 14
We graciously applaud Apple for introducing a worthwhile widget experience in iOS 14. It’s leaps and bounds better than what shipped with iOS 13 and earlier, and thanks to strong-willed app developers, these new widgets are exponentially more versatile than their predecessors.
Kind words aside, one thing that really bugs me about the iOS 14 widget experience is that Apple appears to have made no effort to help legacy widgets conform to the newer design standard. More specifically, when compared side-by-side, newer widgets have a rounder corner radius than legacy ones.
Hestia brings jailbreak detection bypass capabilities to pwned iOS 11-14 devices
Whether you’re new to jailbreaking or you’ve been jailbreaking for a long time, one thing we all have in common is that we’ve come across an app that doesn’t want to work on our pwned device. In most cases an error message materializes when launching certain types of apps, such as banking, media streaming, or the gaming variety that bar usage on jailbroken devices.
This is a common quandary known as jailbreak detection, and it’s where the app developer tries to prevent jailbroken devices from accessing their app to prevent unauthorized changes, cheats, or even security breaches. As common as jailbreak detection might be, it’s not fool-proof. We often see workarounds in the form of jailbreak detection bypasses, which can prevent certain apps from discerning that you’re jailbroken, and this prevents such frustrating messages from appearing in the first place.