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Amid marked improvements, the biggest YouTuber in tech switches to Final Cut Pro X

Jeff Benjamin ∙ January 1, 2016

There's a significant movement of change happening behind the scenes of the tech's biggest YouTuber. Marques Brownlee—better known as MKBHD—a professional YouTuber with more than 3,000,000 subscribers, has taken his talents to Final Cut Pro X.

Newsworthy? Indeed. For one, Brownlee used Adobe Premiere Pro before making the switch, Apple's biggest competitor among non-linear video editing systems. Even more significant is the reason why he switched—Final Cut Pro X results in quicker turnaround time—it allows him to export videos much faster, which allows him to keep his subscribers updated with new content more often.

The team at Apple deserves some major props for basically resurrecting an application that more than a few left for dead when it was rebooted back on June 21, 2011.

Since that fateful day, Apple has incrementally added many of the features back that the initial release eschewed for the sake of a starting with a clean 64-bit slate. 2015 was no different, as last spring's 10.2 update added a unified import interface, smart collections for libraries and events, 3D Text, and custom presets.

That update followed significant improvements and additions like multicam support, XML import and export support, GPU-acceleration, RED camera support, ProRes 4444 XQ support, 4K support, and many other features that professional workflows demand. Just look at the Final Cut Pro X version history—it's crazy how much the team has been able to both add and reimplement since 2011.

While it may be true that Apple's updates to Final Cut Pro X aren't as splashy and as sexy as Adobe's updates to Premiere Pro CC, Apple's iterative approach seems to be working over the long term. Not only is Final Cut Pro X adored by many popular YouTubers, it's being used in Hollywood as well. More importantly, however, it has gained the love and respect of the most popular YouTuber in tech. For someone as influential as Brownlee is, that's a significant feather in Apple's cap going into the new year.

Cydia’s most popular repo gets a redesign for 2016

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

If you noticed something a bit different with Cydia when you opened it this morning, you're not alone. Cydia itself didn't change, but the repo that hosts the majority of the popular jailbreak tweaks did.

The BigBoss repo underwent a significant redesign, resulting in a cleaner look, and a more friendly interface. Of course, since this change is limited to the BigBoss repo, you won't see any changes in packages hosted on other repos.

The best apps to start 2016 off right

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

I've recently heard a couple of friends talk about how glad they are to see the end of 2015 and are looking forward to starting anew in 2016. The beginning of a new year always presents a future of unknown promises and prospects, and we tend to use this time as a reason to resolve to make our lives better in the year to come.

Here at iDB, we all have our favorite apps for keeping fit, sustaining productivity, and learning new things. Take a look at some of the ways we try to better our lives with the apps below. Who knows, maybe they will be the inspiration you need to start 2016 off with a bang.

Happy New Year

Sébastien Page ∙ December 31, 2015

This message might reach you a little late, or a little early, depending where you are in the world, but Christian, Cody, Jeff, Jim, Lory, Timothy, and myself wholeheartedly wish you and your loved ones a happy new year.

I’d like to take advantage of this occasion to also thank you for the continued support you have demonstrated. Having such a vibrant community surround iDB is a blessing we never take for granted.

As we’re about to start 2016, our most loyal readers will be happy to hear we are working on something new for iDB. If everything goes well, it should be available for prime time in the next month or so. Of course, we will let you know, but in the meanwhile, I’ll let you speculate about what it might be…

Here is to 2016. Happy new year!

Pixite’s Union photo app is free right now within the Apple Store app

Cody Lee ∙ December 31, 2015

Heads up folks, Apple is giving away free copies of the popular Union photo app by Pixite right now. You can find promo codes for the app, which normally retails for $1.99, within the 'Stores' section of the Apple Store app on iOS.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Union is an elegant image blending tool that allows you to create superimposed, silhouetted, and double-exposed photos. It comes from the same team that created Fragment, Shift and Pigment.

Square Enix announces Final Fantasy IX coming soon to iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Great news Final Fantasy fans! Square Enix on Thursday confirmed that FF IX is coming soon to iOS, Android and PC. As noted by TouchArcade, the studio has posted a teaser page for the game on its website, as well as an official trailer on YouTube.

Originally released in 2000, FF IX is the ninth title in the popular RPG franchise. The story follows a talented young thief named Zidane Tribal, who joins with others to defeat Queen Brahne of Alexandria, the one responsible for starting the great war.

Vote for your favorite Apple product of the year

Sébastien Page ∙ December 31, 2015

With only a few hours left in 2015, we'd like to ask you to take a few seconds to take our poll and vote for your favorite Apple product of the year.

For relevancy reasons, we only take into account products that have seen a significant update, and we did not include accessories (sorry Smart Battery Case lovers) and peripherals.

The best apps and games of 2015

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 27, 2019

At the end of every year, we bring you the best of the best when it comes to apps and games. In the past, we've bombarded you with about 10 categories of our top favorites in different posts. This time, however, we decided to skim the top and really give you the cream of the crop.

Below, we present you with the top 10 apps and games that came out in 2015 based on content the editors of iDownloadBlog submitted and voted on. We have even included what we consider to be the number one app and number one game of 2015. If you don't see your favorites this year, feel free to include them in the comments below.

Some AT&T customers can now make VoLTE calls to people on other carrier networks

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 31, 2015

United States carrier AT&T said yesterday that some of its customers in select areas can now make Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) calls to users on other carrier networks. Cross-network VoLTE calls are currently supported for just one unnamed carrier, but AT&T will eventually implement support for multiple carriers.

Unlike traditional calls that use a carrier's voice network (which is separate from a 3G/4G data network), VoLTE calls use a 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network, resulting in crisp sound quality and optimized bandwidth use.

Multi-Angle DODOcase for iPad Air 2 is a folio with style

Lory Gil ∙ Updated November 5, 2017

Today's accessory spotlight series is on folio cases for the iPad Air 2. In this series, we provide information on a variety of different accessories for iPhone and iPad to help you pick the right item for your needs. We choose the products in this series because of their significant consumer rating, even though we may not have tested them ourselves.

Dodo makes high quality, executive style folio cases for all models of the iPad. Current US president, Barack Obama has been spotted with a DODOcase in the past. We want to tell you about the company's most popular model, the Multi-Angle DODOcase, which has a sleek, business-like look, but also has useful functionality.

Apple’s Kevin Lynch talks Apple Watch timekeeping, says it’s far more accurate than iPhone

Cody Lee ∙ December 30, 2015

Apple VP of Technology Kevin Lynch spoke with Mashable on Wednesday, touting the Apple Watch's ability to keep precise time. Lynch told the publication that the Watch is far more accurate as a timekeeping device than the iPhone—four times better to be exact.

"With New Year’s coming, those who have the Apple Watch will be the most accurate watch in the room... There will be no question about when New Year's Eve actually is now." The VP went on to explain the various features in the Watch that help make it so accurate.

Microsoft said to be considering smaller Xbox to compete with Apple TV

Cody Lee ∙ December 30, 2015

Microsoft is said to be once again looking to create a device that would go head-to-head with the Apple TV and similar products. Citing internal sources, veteran blogger Brad Sams reports (via Business Insider) that the company is considering plans for a "lightweight Xbox One."

The smaller console would feature access to a variety of streaming services, and be capable of playing games from Microsoft's Windows store. Sams believes the device, if it materializes, will launch in the second half of 2016 with a much lower price point than existing Xbox models.