MagicLabels lets you colorize your app and folder labels individually

Those of you who are into theming and customizing your iPhones or iPod touches so they look different from everybody else's may find a new free jailbreak tweak called MagicLabels to be quite useful.

It'll let you colorize your app and folder icon labels individually to any color you want, which can be tailored to fit any theme you might be using, or to fit your feelings and personality at a specific point in time. In this piece, we'll take you through how the tweak works.

German court rules against Apple in OpenTV patent case

A  German court on Wednesday ruled against Apple in a case over video streaming patents, reports Reuters. The court found the iPhone maker in infringement of digital content streaming patents owned by OpenTV.

OpenTV first sued Apple in 2014, alleging that various products infringe its patents, including the iPhone and iPad. It has also gone after other major technology companies as part of an ongoing IP licensing campaign.

Apple posts new ‘Timer’ iPhone 6s ad starring Cookie Monster

Apple on Wednesday shared a new iPhone 6s ad on its YouTube page called 'Timer.' The spot stars the popular Sesame Street character Cookie Monster, and is set in a kitchen where he is baking—you guessed it—cookies.

With a humorous tone, the commercial demonstrates the hands-free 'Hey Siri' feature on Apple's iPhone 6s. Cookie Monster uses it to accomplish a variety of tasks, including setting a kitchen timer and playing a music playlist.

Apple shifting some of its iCloud services to Google’s Cloud Platform

Apple has signed a deal with Google to use the search giant's Cloud Platform for some of its iCloud services, reports CRN. The site says that the two firms inked the deal late last year, and it's believed to be worth somewhere between $400-$600 million.

This is a major coup for Google’s enterprise cloud business, and its newly appointed chief Diane Greene. Although Apple has not publicly discussed its cloud backends, it's been reported that the iPhone maker spends $1 billion per year on Amazon's AWS.

What you need to know about the AceDeceiver trojan that’s affecting some iOS devices

Stock, non-jailbroken iOS devices appear to be vulnerable to a new security threat; a trojan known as AceDeceiver, which can be installed on an iOS device without the user's knowledge and without the help of an enterprise certificate. Once installed, it will spread malware and unwanted software to the user's device.

AceDeceiver only seems to be affecting those located in China at this point in time, but because that could change on the fly, you need to know how to protect yourself so similar threats don't affect users across the globe in the future.

As Apple News Format opens to all publishers, Apple launches ad campaign for News app

The native Apple News Format is now open to all independent publishers of all sizes as Apple has kicked off a brand new advertising campaign meant to persuade more people to use iOS 9's News app, Vanity Fair reported yesterday. Currently, the News app, which is basically an aggregator, has about forty million readers.

Last September's iOS 9 release brought out the News app with support from more than a hundred major publishers as launch partners.

Now everyone, bloggers included, can take advantage of the rich-media Apple News Format to deliver their content to iOS users in immersive ways, with interactive graphics, video, auto-resizing layouts, crisp typography and smooth animations.

Will iPhone 7 bring a new 256GB model to the mix?

MyDrivers, a Chinese-language outlet, recently posted a sketchy rumor claiming that Apple's next smartphone refresh includes an all-new 256GB model as an iPhone 7 Plus exclusive.

Today, Italian-language HDblog posted a picture of a 256GB NAND flash memory produced by US-based SanDisk Corporation which could give Apple the option of introducing a 256GB iPhone model.

Deezer Music launches Apple Watch app

Deezer, a cross-platform music streaming service, is now available on your Apple Watch as a native app.

The new watchOS 2 app lets you access your favorite music, use Deezer's Flow feature, see the latest hits and access Deezer's personalized mixes, all with the flick of your wrist.

On iOS devices, Deezer now provides lots of new recommendations to your Flow feed and lets users unlink devices connected to their Deezer account using the mobile app.

iPhone 8 might run a cutting-edge 7nm processor

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), the world's top semiconductor foundry, and ARM holdings plc, a British multinational fabless semiconductor designer, have joined forces to make an upcoming 7-nanometer FinFET process a reality in time for volume production in early-2017.

TSMC currently manufactures the iPhone 6s's A9 chip on its 16-nanometer process, while Samsung-made A9 chips are fabbed on a smaller 14-nanometer process.

The timing of TSMC's seven-nanometer FinFET process suggests it might be used to fabricate Apple-designed 'A11' processors for the iPhone 8 in 2017. By comparison, Intel has said it will produce 10nm node processors in the second half of 2017.

Waze for iOS picks up ‘Planned Drives’ feature

Waze, a Google-owned community-based traffic and navigation app, today rolled out a new feature called Planned Drives which lets you schedule a drive and get a reminder to leave on time, based on live traffic conditions.

In addition, the traffic bar in Waze 4.3 for iOS now shows the reason for a jam, like an accident or object on the road, and the app now mutes automatically during an incoming or outgoing phone call.

WSJ: Apple working to strengthen iCloud encryption without inconveniencing users

In the wake of the high-stake fight between Apple and the United States government over encryption and the right to create products with nearly unbreakable security measures, Apple is now working hard to make it impossible for law enforcement to gain access to data inside device backups on iCloud.

As reported today by The Wall Street Journal, Apple executives are “wrestling with how to strengthen iCloud encryption without inconveniencing users.”