Popular Spark email client is now available on iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 25, 2016

Spark, a powerful email client from Ukrainian developer Readdle, has received a much-needed refresh in the App Store today, finally bringing out a native user interface on the iPad, so now you can experience Spark's email magic on all your devices, including the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Spark 1.6 also includes other refinements and improvements, such as an even better wrist app with fully native watchOS 2 support, landscape mode across all iOS devices, nine new languages, the ability to keep your email accounts and settings synced across all devices via iCloud and more.

The update is being rolled this morning so don't panic if you don't see it yet in your local App Store as these things take time to propagate.

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Troubleshooting common software issues on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated June 7, 2019

It happens to the best of us – one day you're using an app that you really enjoy on your Mac, and the next, you start experiencing all kinds of problems with the same app. What's going on? Will it ever end?

Before you go calling support to resolve a problem for you, there are some easy troubleshooting steps you can take in macOS to quickly determine if the problem is going to require help or not.

We'll go through some of those troubleshooting steps with you right here in this tutorial.

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Latest iOS 9.3 beta fixes 1970 bug that bricks devices

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

The iOS 9.3 beta released earlier this week includes a fix for the 'January 1, 1970' bug that has been bricking devices, reports MacRumors. The site points to its forums, where multiple users found that their devices stuck in boot loops were able to be restored to working order via an update to beta 4.

The fix is two-fold. Folks with the beta installed say that you can no longer move the time on December 31, 2000 past 7 p.m.—disabling the bug entirely, since this prevents you from scrolling back to 1970. And as mentioned above, the new firmware can also unbrick devices affected by the glitch.

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Foxconn to acquire Sharp for $6.2 billion

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

Apple partner Foxconn is set to acquire Sharp for roughly 700 billion yen (or $6.2 billion USD), reports Nikkei Asian Review. The outlet says that Sharp's board voted on Thursday morning to accept the offer, and plans to restructure its operations under the Hon Hai umbrella.

The deal, which has not been officially announced yet, comes after years of failed negotiations between the two companies. Foxconn has made several attempts to acquire the struggling electronics giant, or large pieces of it, with the latest offer of $5.3 billion coming in January.

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Session videos from Apple TV Tech Talks now available to developers

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

Apple on Wednesday announced that it has posted videos of several Apple TV Tech Talk sessions to its developer portal. Both paying and non-paying members of Apple's developer program can access the instructional clips for free through the website.

The videos are taken from the 11 Tech Talks Apple has hosted around the world over the past few months. They contain in-depth technical information on building and designing for tvOS, refined coding techniques, and other valuable development help.

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This app lets you crop, zoom and trim Live Photos without destroying the live part

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2016

The Photos app on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac lets you use the Auto Enhance and Remove Red-Eye tools with Live Photos in a non-destructive manner, which is nice.

But use filters, or perform a crop or trim on your Live Photo and it'll get turned into a still image because Apple's Photos solution isn't advanced enough (yet) to support these editing operations in conjunction with Live Photos.

This can be quite cumbersome for two reasons. A) You must manually restore your Live Photo by tapping Edit → Revert; and B) these stills only include the motionless part of your Live Photos.

With Live Crop, a nifty little app by developer MobiLab, not only can you trim and crop out parts of your Live Photo without destroying its live component, but also crop, zoom, trim and resize Live Photos, your videos as well as animated GIFs.

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Netflix app updated with support for 3D Touch, iPad Pro and more

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

Netflix on Wednesday pushed out an update for its iOS client, bringing the app to version 8.0. The release is significant in that it features a number of improvements, including a better Kids experience on iPad and new Post-Play experience on iPhone.

Version 8.0 also features native support for Apple's just released iPad Pro, meaning the layout has been optimized for the tablet's 12.9-inch screen to show more content per screen, as well as support for 3D Touch actions like Peek and Pop within the app.

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How to start your Mac in Recovery Mode

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2024
macOS Recovery

Starting your Intel or Apple silicon Mac in Recovery Mode provides the tools you need to solve various problems. It is typically your last chance to repair the startup disk, reinstall macOS or restore from a backup after a fatal failure that prevents your Mac from starting up properly. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to enter Recovery Mode at boot time and use the built-in recovery tools to bring your Mac in perfect working condition.

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Xiaomi’s new phone has beastly specs for half the price of iPhone 6s or Galaxy S7

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, today announced its latest Mi 5 smartphone, billed as a super flagship device due to some beastly specs.

The new Xiaomi Mi 5 basically packs in as much hardware as Apple's iPhone 6s and Samsung's newly announced Galaxy S7, for half the price, with industrial design that looks like a cross between the iPhone 6s and Galaxy S7.

The maxed-out spec sheet includes things like the latest Qualcomm chip with four gigabytes of RAM, a sixteen-megapixel camera from Sony with sapphire lens protection, a full HD IPS LCD edge-to-edge screen, a fingerprint sensor integrated into the Home button, 128GB of on-board storage with support for micro SD cards and more.

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iOS 9 adoption slowing, stays at 77% of devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 4, 2017

The adoption rate of iOS 9 appears to be stalling at 77 percent of devices, according to the most recent stats published on Apple's dashboard for developers. The figure was derived from device logs capturing iOS hardware that has accessed the App Store on February 22, and is literally unchanged from the same 77 percent mark recorded two weeks ago.

iOS 8 continues to comprise seventeen percent of devices while older editions of iOS accounted for six percent of devices—again, same as two weeks ago.

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