Change the primary color of the Facebook app with FacebookUICustomizer

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 18, 2017

Facebook uses its signature blue color throughout its mobile app. This particular shade of blue stands out most in the thick navigation bar at the top of the app, but smaller elements throughout the app inherit this color too, such as the selected tab icon at the bottom of the app.

If you’re in the mood to change the blue accents of your Facebook app to another color, then you’re in luck. A new free jailbreak tweak called FacebookUICustomizer by iOS developer Wylliam Altman lets you paint the app any color you want.

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Let’s Talk iOS 196: Out-of-phone experience

Sébastien Page ∙ July 18, 2017

Things are looking up for the two co-hosts as Sebastien fixed his Gmail issue, and Cody got a replacement for his broken iPhone 7 Plus screen. The two talk about Amazon's move to compete with the yet-to-come HomePod, Amazon's rumored messaging service, iPhone 8 production delays, and The Defiant Ones.

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As iPhone 8 delay rumors persist, Samsung gearing up to launch Note 8 soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

Samsung's decision last year to launch its super-sized though ill-fated Note 7 smartphone earlier than usual backfired big time, but this time around the South Korean chaebol is betting that launching a next-generation Note ahead of iPhone 8 will steal Apple's thunder.

The head of Samsung's mobile division, Koh Dong-jin, confirmed to partners last Friday that a Note 8 event in New York has been scheduled for August 23, The Bell reported.

The executive apparently told local news outlets that the next Note will hit shelves overseas, including the US and UK in September, followed by an October release in other nations.

A recent report said iPhone 8 supply may not ramp up until November, with the iterative iPhone 7s/Plus models possibly facing production delays of their own.

On the other hand, The Investor said a Samsung executive would only confirm the month of August, not a concrete date. According to DigiTimes, Koh refuted market speculation of Galaxy S8 sales falling short of those for its predecessor since launch.

Cumulative Galaxy S8 sales, he said, are 15 percent higher than those of Galaxy S7 compared on the same number of selling days thus far. As for the Note family, shipments of these products totaled 2.3 million units in South Korea since their debut in 2011, he revealed.

Smartphone leakster Evan Blass speculated that Note 8 should feature the same edge-to-edge 6.2-inch OLED screen with an 18.5:9 aspect ratio as Galaxy S8 Plus.

Other rumored features should include Samsung's signature S Pen stylus, virtual assistant Bixby, a rear dual-camera system positioned horizontally and comprised of two 12-megapixel sensors, a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and more.

It should cost slightly over $900 in the US and be offered in in black, blue and gold.

Reuters was first to report a month ago that the Note brand would continue with an eighth-generation device due for an announcement in August.

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Samsung launches PayPal integration for in-app, online and in-store payments with Samsung Pay

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 27, 2017

Samsung Electronics today announced expanded partnership with PayPal to make it possible for customers to make in-app, online and in-store purchases with PayPal as a payment method within Samsung Pay. Access to PayPal will be available for all Samsung Pay users in the United States and will expand to other countries soon, the company said.

“Users simply add their PayPal account to Samsung Pay, and can then spend the balance anywhere Samsung Pay is accepted,” said a Samsung executive. Users will benefit from Samsung Pay's services like gift cards, and membership and loyalty programs.

The move will open up PayPal to millions of stores, PayPal noted.

“This partnership will give our customers the ability to pay with mobile almost anywhere consumers can swipe or tap a credit card,” said the Korean firm.

As a bonus, merchants will even be able to accept Samsung Pay as a method of payment in-app and online through Braintree Direct, a PayPal service. Samsung Pay works in almost any in-store POS location in the United States.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR8jxpFW1j8

The PayPal integration with Samsung Pay is supported on select Samsung phones, including Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus. Last week, PayPal announced expanded Apple ID integration allowing customers in additional countries to set up PayPal as a payment method for App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store purchases.

Unlike Apple Pay which works with NFC point-of-sale systems, Samsung Pay supports both NFC terminals and those using traditional Magnetic Secure Transmission technology that lets it replicate a card swipe and work nearly anywhere that payment cards are accepted.

“Thanks to Samsung's advanced technology, Samsung Pay is the most widely-accepted mobile payment platform in the market and works almost anywhere you can swipe or tap a card today,” said the company. “Now, with the integration of the PayPal wallet, customers can use Samsung Pay in the most convenient ways possible.”

Samsung Pay is now available in 18 markets.

A Boston Retail Partners survey on mobile payments ranked Apple Pay first in the United States as having the largest percentage of merchants, with 36 percent accepting the technology, up from 16 percent the year before.

PayPal was a close second with 34 percent acceptance, followed by MasterCard PayPass (25 percent), Android Pay (24 percent), Visa Checkout (20 percent), Samsung Pay (18 percent), Chase Pay (11 percent) and private label mobile wallets with four percent.

PayPal previously said its popular payment system would work with Android Pay to support both mobile payments in apps and those in brick-and-mortar retailers.

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Here are some of new emoji coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch later this year

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

Celebrating World Emoji Day on July 17, Apple on Monday previewed some of the new emoji coming to iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple Watch later this year.

They include a woman with a headscarf, a bearded person and breastfeeding, as well as various new food items such as sandwich and coconut.

“More animals and mythical creatures like T-Rex, zebra, zombie and Elf are a fun way to describe situations and new star-struck and exploding head smiley faces make any message more fun,” said Apple.

The aforementioned emoji are coming to iOS, macOS and watchOS later this year as part of the 56 new emoji recently unveiled by the Unicode Consortium.

Emojipedia provides the complete list of new Unicode 10 emoji.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hIJLOgdSZo

Emoji on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV are part of the Apple Color Emoji font.

Also in celebration of World Emoji Day, App Store will be highlighting apps to create or do fun things with emoji. iTunes Movies is already featuring emoji in place of select movie titles. The new emoji should be delivered via point updates to iOS 11, macOS High Sierra and watchOS 4.

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Pioneer’s Rayz Plus Lightning earphones now support “Hey Siri” function

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

First announced in February, Pioneer's Lightning-equipped Rayz Plus earphones have gained “Hey Siri” support, Munenori Otsuki, CEO of Pioneer & Onkyo U.S.A. Corporation, said today.

With support for this feature, the earphones automatically recognize “Hey Siri” commands and allow customers to accomplish various tasks just by using their voice.

“Today we are pleased to announce that customers can say 'Hey Siri' while using Rayz earphones to easily make a call, send a message, listen to music and much more, even when iPhone is in their pocket or purse,” Otsuki said.

The firmware update also enables other capabilities, like language support for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, audible alerts when the Smart Mute feature is active, AutoPause improvements and more.

Here's our video hands-on with the Rays Plus earphones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axvB9azU0QI

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The noise-cancelling earphones use a wired Lightning connection which lets you listen or talk on your iPhone at the same time you're charging it.

A Smart Button on the earphones can be customized in the free Rayz app to bring up your favorite app, mute or unmute a call, or launch the Rayz app at a single touch.

For instance, you can create and save custom equalization profiles, enable HearThru mode to allow ambient sound, or activate AutoPause to pause music when you remove the earphones.

As of last month, the $149.94 earphones are available in two new colors—Black and Rose Gold—from Apple.com and Apple retail stores worldwide.

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Former Apple creative director: “The pipeline that Steve Jobs started is over”

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

Hugh Dubberly, a former Apple creative director and former member of Samsung’s global design advisory board, was cited in The Wall Street Journal's write-up Monday as saying that the pipeline that Steve Jobs started is now over. “It’s not so much that Samsung has gotten better, but Apple has fundamentally changed,” he added.

While smartphone innovation in general has stalled due to market saturation and other factors as game-changing technologies continue to give way to incremental changes, the article suggests that Samsung has out-designed Apple with its Galaxy S8.

The smartphone war is shifting to how a phone looks and feels, reads the article.

Samsung design chief M.H. Lee was cited as saying:

Companies used to design phones to show off their technology. Now the focus is on designing a product that can be a buddy to the person, inseparable to them. Smartphone design is not just artwork that expresses what you want but a process of making things people around the world can actually use.

Charles L. Mauro, president of MauroNewMedia, a product-design research firm that has done consulting work for Apple and Samsung, said smartphone aesthetics now account for about half a consumer’s purchase decision versus just seven percent of purchases in an older survey.

An excerpt from the article:

Samsung's Galaxy S8 is nudging the bar higher as Apple seeks to impress with its 10th anniversary iPhone this fall. For Apple to outdo Samsung on design, analysts said, it would need a new distinguishing feature, like a fingerprint sensor beneath the display rather than a physical Home button.

Consumer Reports ranked the Galaxy S handset the top phone for the second straight year, praising features like Galaxy S8's industrial design, battery life and camera quality.

Galaxy S8 sales hit one million units in South Korea in half the time it took for its predecessor to hit that milestone. On the other hand, it saw significantly lower global sales during its first two months of availability than the Galaxy S7 model during the same period last year.

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Happy Emoji Day from Apple!

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

Happy Emoji Day, everyone!

Apple has joined the festivities by taking over the rotating carousel on its iTunes Store for movies with a bunch of emoji-themed banners. These have replaced standard movie banners for popular flicks such as Stephen King's “It” remake, “Kong: Skull Island”, “Get Out”, “Arrival”, “Logan”, Disney's action-film remake of “Beauty and the Beast” and more.

Apple has not discounted the movies promoted with emoji banners.

July 17, is celebrated as World Emoji Day.

Why July 17?

Because this date is famously displayed on the iOS Calendar Emoji, which is the date that iCal for Mac was first announced at MacWorld Expo in 2002. The Calendar emoji was approved as part of Unicode 6.0 in 2010 and added to Emoji 1.0 in 2015.

Thanks, Carlos!

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Apple launches major Apple Pay promotion in China to gain market share

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

Apple today launched a large-scale Apple Pay promotion in China, offering various discounts and rewards to customers who would use Apple Pay between July 18 and July 24 to make purchases in participating merchants across mainland China.

Billed as the largest Apple Pay promotion to date in the 1.33 billion people country, it offers discounts of up to 50 percent and as much as 50 times the usual number of reward points for credit cards, with 17 Chinese banks offering 50 times the reward points accrued when transactions are made using credit cards registered with Apple Pay.

Apple's website lists 28 retail locations that are participating in the promotion, including international brands such as 7-Eleven, Watsons, Burger King, Starbucks and more.

JD.com along with an additional fifteen online merchants are part of the promo, too.

Apple Pay launched in China in February of last year.

“I am happy to see that Apple finally has decided to do something to gain market share in China,” IDC China's managing director Kitty Fok told South China Morning Post.

According to research firm Analysys, Chinese mobile payment market is dominated by Alibaba and Tencent, whose Alipay and WeChat Pay held respective 53.7 percent and 39.5 percent of the market as of the first quarter of 2017.

Alipay and WeChat Pay also offer various cash rebates or discounts now and then.

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WhatsApp gains chat pinning, comprehensive file sharing & more in latest update

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

As part of a broader set of capabilities recently teased for the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging platform, the app has now gained a trio of new features in the latest update. WhatsApp version 2.17.40 for iOS brings a chat pinning feature, multi-format file sharing and other improvements.

With the pinning feature, you can make it so your favorite chats remain at the top of the list, so you can quickly find them. To use this feature, just swipe right on a chat in the conversation list, then tap a Pin or Unpin option.

The app has also expanded the file sharing feature, which now allows you to share any type of file with one or more recipients. To send files of any type, open a chat, tap the plus icon at the bottom then choose the Document option.

In the popup menu, select your favorite storage provider like iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and so forth (any app that includes an iOS Document Provider extension should be available from the menu).

And lastly, when you receive multiple photos the app now lets you tap and hold on the group of photos to quickly forward or delete all of them in one fell swoop.

Download WhatsApp for iPhone, iPad and iPod for free from App Store.

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All three new iPhones reportedly yet to start mass production

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 17, 2017

A report Monday in Chinese-language Economic Daily News, cited by DigiTimes, alleged that all three new iPhones are yet to start mass production, with production of the highly anticipated OLED-based iPhone 8 model scheduled to kick off between November and December.

The flagship phone would apparently be shipping only in small volumes initially.

As for the iterative LCD-based 4.7-inch iPhone 7s and 5.5-inch iPhone 7s Plus updates, both these models should enter volume production in August, or between one and two months later than the normal mass production schedules of new iPhone devices in previous years.

The upcoming phones are facing production delays because yield rates at Apple's contract manufacturers Foxconn and Pegatron have not yet reached levels that warrant mass production. Foxconn has reportedly secured about 95 percent of orders for the OLED iPhone model and small orders for the iPhone 7s series.

PEgatron will produce 65 percent of the 4.7-inch iPhone 7s models and “a small portion” of the OLED-based iPhone while Wistron will produce mainly the 5.5-inch iPhone 7s Plus model.

Photo: iPhone 8 concept via iFanr.

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