As first noted by MacRumors, Apple now lets you buy extended warranty coverage for your iPhone up to twelve months after your device purchase.
Previously, customers had up to 60 days following an iPhone purchase to buy an extended AppleCare+ coverage for their phone. This information, originally provided by “multiple people familiar with the matter”, has been subsequently confirmed by a senior AppleCare advisor and other sources.
Netflix is abandoning star ratings in favor of a binary thumbs-up/down system set to start rolling out in a few weeks, Fast Company reported Friday. Variety says Netflix is also planning to stream content in High Dynamic Range (HDR) quality on supported mobile devices. HDR video offers a more dynamic and richer range of colors, brighter whites and deeper blacks. Lastly, they're experimenting with mobile-specific cuts of movies and TV shows tailored to viewing on smartphone screens.
Apple's mobile shopping app, aptly named Apple Store, now requires iOS 10.0 or later. This requirement happened in the last three days and even though it's not a huge deal, it deserves to be mentioned. The app's most recent update, dated March 9, included only “various improvements and performance enhancements,” according to Apple's release notes. Apple Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch is available at no charge from App Store.
Anyone who's serious about taking videos on their iOS device would agree that FiLMiC Pro for iPhone and iPad leaves Apple's stock Camera app in the dust.
The filmmakers' go-to app, this ultimate video recording and editing software has become even better thanks to yesterday's update which brought out a redesigned user interface along with a number of new features.
The update includes iPhone 7-exclusive capabilities such as gamma curve controls for Natural, Dynamic, Flat and LOG (a first for mobile video), live adjustments for Shadow, Highlight, RGB, Saturation and Vibrance curves, temporal noise reduction up to 1080p resolution and more.
Apple has dedicated a new “Indie Games” collection on App Store to showcasing some of the best iPhone and iPad games crafted by independent developers. The new section, the store's permanent fixture, has arrived following Apple's twelve-day “Celebrating Indie Games” event.
Running from March 9 through March 20, that promotion is showcasing games from self-funded and self-published teams while temporarily marking down titles like Bicolor, Road Not Taken, The Room Two, Samorost 3 and Surgeon Simulator to 99 cents.
Apple announced on Friday that it will be building two additional research and development centers in China, its major market. The new facilities will be built in Shanghai and Suzhou, joining Apple's upcoming R&D centers in Beijing and Shenzhen. All four facilities will open later in 2017. The company has allocated about 3.5 billion yuan, or approximately $507 million, on research institutions overall.
One of the ongoing pain points of notification banners circa iOS 7 is their large size. Banners were originally introduced to keep notifications out the way, but Apple eventually made them taller, causing them to get in the way of more of what you’re doing.
A new free jailbreak tweak called SleekNotifications by Rishanan is now available to help quell the misery in this department, as it shirnks down the size of your notification banners so they take up less vertical space on your screen.
Admittedly, I have a love/hate relationship with read receipts. I like getting them, and I don’t particularly mind sending them to people, but sometimes I want to read someone’s message in peace without notifying them until I'm ready to deal with the consequences.
You could go into Settings and disable read receipts temporarily, but this becomes more of a nuisance than it’s worth. Fortunately, a free jailbreak tweak called Delay Read Receipts (iOS 10) by iOS developer HiDan helps by preventing read receipts from getting sent to your recipient until you’re ready.
If you ever want to change Wi-Fi-related settings on your device, you typically go into the Wi-Fi section of the Settings app where you can then toggle the feature on or off on demand and/or pick the network you want to connect to.
A new free jailbreak tweak called WiFi Top Toggle by Mohamed Marbouh does a little bit of rearranging in your Settings → Wi-Fi preferences pane, yielding an end result that feels tidier.
When you drag Notification Center down from the top of your screen, the interface normally just falls into place. The stock animation is a little boring, and some might argue that it could do with some additional creativity.
That’s the idea behind a new free jailbreak tweak called BouncyNC10 by CydiaGeek, which adds an enhanced bounce animation to Notification Center as it strikes the bottom of the screen.
Hulu recently updated its experiencehulu.com mini-site, which highlights the company's existing video on demand service and a forthcoming live television offering. The website refresh has revealed previously unconfirmed features such as cloud DVR, multi-device streaming, user profiles, support for guest accounts, real-time notifications for live events and other perks. The sub-$40 service is expected to launch across iOS, tvOS and other platforms in the coming months.
Siri competitor Alexa has come to the world's most popular smartphone via an incoming update for Amazon's shopping app for iPhone and iPad. The release marks the first time Amazon's personal assistant has supported non-Alexa hardware.
Just tap the mic in the app's search bar to ask Alexa questions, get weather updates, shop and search items, order and track products, play music, use Alexa Skills and Smart Home features, and much more.
By sneaking Alexa into its iPhone app, Amazon's made it possible for Apple customers to experience its Siri rival in full glory without needing to buy an Echo speaker.