Sketchy rumor calls for 256GB iPhone 7 Plus with 3,100 mAh battery

According to a sketchy rumor published yesterday by Chinese-language Mydrivers, Apple's forthcoming 5.5-inch 'iPhone 7 Plus' will come with a pair of exclusive features versus its 4.7-inch 'iPhone 7' sibling: a new 256-gigabyte storage option and a larger 3,100 mAh battery.

By comparison, the current-generation iPhone 6s Plus has a 2,750 mAh battery inside. The publication did not specify whether the inclusion of the 256GB option will result in the removal of the oft-critized sixteen-gigabyte option from the iPhone lineup.

iPhone and iPad prices increase slightly in Germany to comply with new private copyright levies

Apple has slightly raised prices of select iPhone and iPad models sold through its webstore in Germany in order to comply with new private copyright levies, as first reported by Apfelpage.de.

The iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus and iPhone 5s now each cost 5 euros more versus their December 31, 2015, prices on the Apple Online Store. iPad models such as the iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad Air, iPad mini 4 and iPad mini 2 have increased in price by 8 euros for each model.

Original Fantastical for Mac is now officially over, Fantastical 2 is 20% off until January 10

The original Fantastical, the popular calendar and reminders app which basically launched developer Flexibits back in 2011, has received its final update in the Mac App Store. While support for Fantastical 1 is now officially over, Fantastical 2 for iPhone, iPad and Mac will of course continue to be updated, maintained and supported for the time being.

“After more than four years of free updates and support, it’s time to focus our efforts, energy and resources on Fantastical 2,” Flexibits said.

eMail Widget 2, Song of Pan, TIPIT and more apps to check out this weekend

It is officially 2016. Hopefully, last year treated you well, or at least didn't cause you too much pain. With a new year, comes a new hope of things to come, and new apps and games to fill your time.

This week, thanks to the holidays, the App Store was a little dry. So, instead of focusing on brand new titles, we are presenting a general list of apps and games that we just think are cool.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.