Wallpapers of the week: forests

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Each Sunday, iDownloadBlog brings you the Wallpapers of the Week. Last week, we decided to take things back to the basics. An all natural selection of Earth images, taken by satellite. It proved to be quite popular and improving on the genre, this week is another selection of nature photography.

Staring at our phones for hours each day, it is easy to forget the natural beauty around us. Knowing we are not going to give up our device habits, simply bring nature to your device. Certainly, taking a hike and breathing the fresh air is best for your health, but capture the natural beauty on your Lock screen.

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Developer demonstrates Picture in Picture mode on Apple TV

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 31, 2016

One of the major new features Apple introduced in iOS 9 was the ability to take advantage of Picture in Picture mode on supported iPad models; a multitasking mode perfect for watching videos while tackling other tasks at the same time, such as web browsing, document writing, social networking, and more.

Oddly enough, the Apple TV, which is essentially a media entertainment system in itself, doesn't come with a similar feature for users wanting to multitask more efficiently on their television sets.

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith has demonstrated Picture in Picture multitasking on the Apple TV 4 via a custom app he made for himself, showing that the hardware inside of the Apple TV on the latest firmware is capable of handing the feature, but it appears Apple has chosen not to include it (yet).

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Be more productive in Mail with these 3D Touch shortcuts

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 29, 2019

Apple's Mail is a great place to start trying out iOS's time-saving 3D Touch interactions on your iPhone. With 3D Touch, not only can you create a new email and jump to your inboxes right from the Home screen but manage your emails more efficiently with in-app Peek and Pop gestures.

In this tutorial, you will learn about all the ways Mail takes advantage of 3D Touch to make you more productive by letting you preview emails, contacts, web links, as well as embedded dates and times, airline codes, package tracking numbers and more.

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Ryan Petrich’s Treadmill tweak logs how much scrolling you do

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 31, 2016

Have you ever wondered just how much scrolling you do on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad? Chances are, you do a whole lot more scrolling than you think.

If you're rocking a jailbroken device, Ryan Petrich has just released a new free jailbreak tweak called Treadmill via his personal beta repository in Cydia that keeps track of how much scrolling you do, and can show you in real time just how much exercise you're giving your fingers.

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Everything you need to know about the location services built into your Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 23, 2019

Not long ago, we took you through an overview of the location services settings that come with your iOS device and told you all about how you can increase your privacy by configuring your location services wisely.

It's worth noting, however, that even your Mac uses your location for certain things; and with that in mind, you may want to look at your location services settings on your Mac to make sure you're limiting what you need to limit and are only allowing location services for the things you actually use.

In this walk-through, we'll explain the location services settings that come with macOS and tell you all about what might be using your location in the background.

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‘3D Touch Notifications’ lets you peek and pop your notifications with 3D Touch

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 30, 2016

3D Touch is one of the flagship features of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, allowing users to press firmly on various interfaces throughout iOS to reveal hidden menus with shortcuts to commonly-performed actions.

Despite iOS already having a variety of 3D Touch peek and pop menus, the jailbreak community is continuing to engineer interesting new uses for 3D Touch, such as this recent scale concept tweak, and it doesn't stop there. A new jailbreak tweak called 3D Touch Notifications from Cydia's BigBoss repository is about to change the way you interact with notifications on the Lock screen and in Notification Center using 3D Touch.

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SpotAlarm tweak lets you play any Spotify track for an alarm

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 12, 2022

Spotify users: if you've ever wanted to use your favorite song on Spotify as an alarm for when you wake up in the morning, and you happen to have a jailbroken device, then you're in luck!

With SpotAlarm, a new jailbreak tweak available free of cost in Cydia's BigBoss repository, you can set any one song from Spotify to play when your alarm goes off in the morning – or whenever else you may want to have an alarm go off.

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Review: Spigen Style Ring

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

The Spigen Style Ring ($12.99 on Amazon) is an interesting accessory from Spigen, a company best known for producing smartphone cases. It's a platform-agnostic accessory that attaches to any case or smartphone using an easily-removable, non-residue-leaving, adhesive gel pad.

Once the Style Ring is attached to your case or smartphone, you can use it to assist with grip or let it function as a kickstand. You can also use the Style Ring to mount your smartphone to your car's dash using the included car mount adapter.

If you have problems gripping larger phones, then have a look and see what the Spigen Style Ring might do for you. Watch our video review for all the details.

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Apple has secret team working on virtual reality headset, report says

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 12, 2018

Apple has assembled a large team of virtual and augmented reality experts for a top secret project, reports the Financial Times. The team is said to be building prototypes of headsets that could one day compete against Oculus Rift or Microsoft's Hololens.

Sources say the secret research unit is made up of hundreds of staff Apple has picked up in a series of carefully targeted acquisitions, as well poached employees from companies working on VR tech such as Microsoft and the darling camera start-up Lytro.

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