Jimmy Iovine: original TV series and movies part of Apple Music pop cultural experience

The Wall Street Journal thinks Apple wants to buy rights to original television shows and movies as another way of enticing users into choosing Apple Music over competitors like Spotify and Pandora. Monday, The Hollywood Reported published an interview with Apple executive Jimmy Iovine, who said that adding original video content to the music-streaming service is part of the plan to turn Apple Music into a pop cultural phenomenon.

Samsung reportedly discovers that faulty battery caused Note 7 fires

Official investigation conducted by Samsung Electronics has determined that a faulty battery was the main reason for Note 7 fires, a fiasco which led to a worldwide recall of the handset before the device was fully discontinued, Reuters reported Monday. A person familiar with the matter told the news gathering organization that Samsung should officially announce the results of the investigation next Monday, January 23, a day before the company is scheduled to reveal its fourth-quarter earnings.

Want podcasts on your Apple Watch? There’s finally an app for that

The ability to store and play podcasts on Apple Watch is one of many features advocated for regarding future watchOS updates, but so far it has fallen on deaf ears at Apple. With the cries for podcasts on Watch slowly reaching fever pitch, developers have taken matters into their own hands and released a fully functional podcast app that enables the transfer of your favorite subscriptions from iPhone to Apple Watch.

The app goes by the name WatchPlayer and (while moody at times) gives a solid account of itself, effectively beating Apple to the punch in the podcast race. Find out below how the data transfer is realized, where it trumps Apple's stock apps and what areas of WatchPlayer could do with some attention.

Store and watch the latest news stories offline with Hyper News

If you have ever travelled on a metro line you know what it’s like to whiz from one station to the next, always holding out for the next patch of reception somewhere between the constant outages afflicting your iPhone. Most times, the internet will cut out in the least opportune moments, like on your commute home when you slump in your seat and want to mindlessly gaze at moving images on your phone.

To weather the crisis of poor connection, Hyper News functions as a pocket of pre-downloaded news clips to fall back on whenever your data leaves you hanging.

In a spell of news apps being tested at iDB, Hyper News stands out for its utter simplicity and the concerted effort to occupy a unique space in the news realm. Here are the ins and outs to know about Hyper News.

Wallpapers of the week: geometry pack

With a weekly collection of wallpapers spanning a few years, it is easy to see a trend in reader preference. One of the top Wallpapers of the Week categories is geometry. You vote with your page views and your social shares.

Each time we host a collection of geometric inspired wallpapers, it goes really well! So, to continue to give the people what they want, take a step inside for another set of similarly inspired images. Also, you will find backlinks to many of our previous geometry wallpapers.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: OnceMore, Photicon, & more…

Despite what appeared to be a couple of busy weeks previously, it seems the jailbreak tweak assembly line has slowed down slightly once more, as releases weren't as rapid this week.

Nevertheless, we wrap up with a jailbreak tweak roundup every single Sunday, so we'll be taking this opportunity to talk about all of the jailbreak tweaks that were released this week, starting with our favorites.

The top stories of the week on iDB

Like every Sunday, we get to take a look at some of the most popular posts that were published on iDB during the week that just ended. Whether it is a news item, a new jailbreak tweak, a tutorial, or an app review, we sum it all up in one convenient place for you.

As always, if you like what you're reading, please feel free to spread the love by sharing our posts on your favorite social network.

We're usually hanging out a lot on Twitter and Facebook, more rarely on Google+.

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AdaptiveColorAlerts colorizes all your alert messages to match anything behind them

Most people use banner notifications for their day-to-day notifications, but some apps like Calendar and Reminders default to alert-style notifications because they require a little bit of extra attention.

For the most part, these alert messages look pretty boring on a stock iOS device, but with a new free jailbreak tweak release called AdaptiveColorAlerts, your alerts can automatically color themselves based on whatever background is residing behind them.

New fitness-focused Apple Watch ad challenges you to close your Activity rings

Apple's official YouTube channel was refreshed Saturday with a new advertisement for Apple Watch Series 2, challenging viewers to close their Activity rings by moving more, having some exercise and standing up every 50 minutes for a bit. The firm also shared three new ads for AirPods today, highlighting such features as Siri integration, seamless Bluetooth pairing on Apple gadgets via the W1 chip and more.

Apple shares new AirPods ads showcasing Siri, seamless Bluetooth pairing & more

Male headshot showing a profile of a young person wearing an AirPod in their left ear

Apple on Saturday shared four brief television commercials for AirPods on its official YouTube channel, running fifteen seconds long each. The videos showcase some of the key user features of the wireless earphones, like accessing Siri with a double-tap and seamless Bluetooth pairing on Apple gear made possible by the firm's in-house designed wireless chip, dubbed the W1. Watch the new ads and let us know how you like them in comments.

In addition to the company's first-ever AirPods ads, they also released a new fitness-focused Apple Watch advertisement which challenges you to close those Activity rings.