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iPhone 8 again rumored to sport iris scanning and wireless charging

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 10, 2017

Apple's iPhone 8 is (again) rumored to feature wireless charging and iris scanning to permit users to authenticate themselves securely with their eyes, DigiTimes reported Friday. The report, citing sources from Apple's supply chain, adds that the Cupertino company has moved up iPhone 8 production earlier than the schedule in previous years.

According to the report, suppliers are scheduled to begin delivering parts and components for Apple's tenth anniversary handset later in the first quarter of this year.

Following delay, Apple’s W1-equipped BeatsX are now available for purchase

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 10, 2017

Following an extended delay, Apple's BeatsX earphones are now available for purchase from Apple.com, Apple’s retail stores and other retailers. The $150 earphones file as Apple's most affordable audio product powered by the in-house designed W1 wireless chip, also found in the $160 AirPods, $200 PowerBeats3 and $300 Beats Solo3 headphones. The W1 chip enables seamless iCloud pairing with Apple devices and reliable wireless audio connection. BeatsX also work on non-Apple hardware as standard Bluetooth headsets.

The earbuds sport 8-hour battery life and come with a Siri-compatible RemoteTalk with built-in playback controls that let you control your music without using Siri.

FingerTouch lets you assign gestures to the Touch ID sensor

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 10, 2017

Lots of jailbroken iPhone owners will tell you that it’s never a bad idea to have more gestures. After all, that’s the whole basis behind the popular Activator extension, which gives you more ways to interact with your device to perform actions.

A new free jailbreak tweak dubbed FingerTouch by Michele Primavera, on the other hand, makes use of the same Touch ID sensor that you use every single day to unlock your device and make App Store purchases to create even more gestures.

SmartVPN toggles your iPhone’s VPN automatically on a per-app basis

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 10, 2017

Many people take their security very seriously, especially when they’re connected to the internet and personal sharing information with apps and websites.

If you’re one of the people who likes to stay secure and you also have a jailbroken device, then you might find yourself really interested in a new free jailbreak tweak called SmartVPN by developer zyb.

CRSettings lets you apply an image background to the Reachability view

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 10, 2017

I feel like Reachability is a must-have feature on any 5.5-inch display, but Apple really just wastes all that space at the top of the screen by not using it for anything.

A new free jailbreak tweak called CRSettings by ChanYu makes use of the empty space in a particularly fun way by filling it with a background image of your choice.

The Mujjo Sleeve looks classy and keeps your Mac notebook safe as you travel

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 10, 2017

If you bring your MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro with you everywhere you go, then you should consider protecting your expensive investment with some kind of sleeve.

Because the outside world can be a lot rougher than the comfort and safety of your home computer desk, Mujjo makes classy protective sleeves that will fit every one of Apple’s notebooks. In this review, we’ll be showing you the Mujjo Sleeve for the 15” MacBook Pro.

The best HomeKit accessories

Cody Lee ∙ Updated July 10, 2018

In 2014, Apple announced a new connected devices platform called HomeKit, with the hopes of making smart home technology easier and more accessible. It sounds complex, but the gist of it is you can control HomeKit-compatible appliances with your iPhone or Siri.

To make it easier to find the best HomeKit-compatible accessories, we've put together a list of some of our favorites. We made our selections based on a handful of factors including price, features, user feedback and of course our own personal experience with the products.

iCloud was storing deleted browsing histories, but Apple fixed the issue

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 9, 2017

A Russian forensics firm named Elcomsoft has discovered that Apple was storing users' Safari browsing histories in iCloud going back more than a year, possibly much longer. This was happening even after users had asked for any deleted records to be wiped from their iCloud-connected devices. Soon after Elcomsoft announced a way to extract deleted browsing histories from iCloud, Apple applied a server-side fix to stop the retrievals and apparently purged all records older than two weeks.

Solution to 7-day signing for Yalu may be coming: avoid other methods!

Joaquim Barbosa ∙ February 9, 2017

Those of you who have jailbroken in recent times, with either yalu1011, yalu102, Home Depot, or Pangu 9.2-9.3.3, can't have failed to notice a new feature of these tools which jailbreakers never had to contend with before.

I'm not referring to the semi-untether here, but rather to the installing of a profile on your device which signs the jailbreak app for a certain amount of time. iOS 10 jailbreakers particularly have felt the irritation of this limitation, but all that may be about to change, based on some tentative words from Cydia creator Jay Freeman (Saurik).

At the same time, other workarounds for the seven-day signing limit have started surfacing; these are almost all a bad idea, and should be avoided.

All BeatsX purchases come with three free months of Apple Music

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 9, 2017

Apple's W1-equipped BeatsX earphones with a new flexible neckband design should be available to purchase this Friday in Black or White along with a pair of new color options: Gray and Blue. A few hands-on videos have gone live ahead of the official launch.

Comparing BeatsX to AirPods, YouTuber Jonathan Morrison has discovered that all purchases of BeatsX come with a code that customers can redeem for three free months of Apple Music (on top of Apple Music's existing three-month free trial).

KGI: all 2017 iPhones to have wireless charging, iPhone 8’s 3D Touch pricier to build

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 9, 2017

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted in a new note to clients, obtained by MacRumors, that all new models of iPhone introduced this year would feature wireless charging. In addition, the report cautions that production costs of iPhone 8's enhanced 3D Touch module might rise between 30 and 50 percent.

A report yesterday by FastCo stated Apple would pass any increased production costs stemming from iPhone 8's OLED screen and other hardware advances onto the consumer, speculating that the final sale price of iPhone 8 could pass $1,000 in US.

New malware uses auto-running macros in Word documents to infect your Mac

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 9, 2017

Taking advantage of a primitive Windows technique relying on automatically-running macros embedded in Microsoft Word documents, a new type of Mac malware attack has been discovered recently. As first noted in a research compiled by Objective-See, the technique used may be crude but once an unsuspecting user opens an infected Word document and chooses to run the macros, the malware installs itself silently on the target Mac and immediately attempts to download a hazardous payload.