iDB holiday gift guide 2014: Sébastien’s picks

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

My least favorite thing about Christmas is finding gifts for others. I'm usually completely uncreative when it comes to gift ideas, which is why those gift guides are helpful to me. During the last few days, my colleagues at iDB have shared their gift ideas, and today is my turn. Of course, this is really tech oriented, because you know, we're tech heads. There is something for every budget, from big spenders to affordable stocking stuffers, I hope you'll find something to your liking here.

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Apps of the Week: Duet Display, Shift, Emoji Type, and more

Lory Gil ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

It’s the weekend before Christmas and I’m still not finished with my handmade gifts. Around this time each year, I begin to realize I set my goals too high. I just run out of time before I run out of crafts. Luckily, I have a backup plan that involves last minute gifts in the form of apps.

If you can’t think of the perfect gift for that friend who has everything, an app or game may be just right. Whether you are looking for last minute gift ideas or just want to fill your iPhone with new stuff, we’ve got a list of apps and games for you to check out this weekend.

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iDB holiday gift guide: Lory’s picks

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

It’s that time of year again for the writers at iDB to tell you all what to do with your money this holiday season. We all have different tastes, but we share a love of gadgets, especially Apple ones. This is the third year for our gift guide. Hopefully, we’ve given our readers some inspiration for the perfect gift for that special someone. Below is my list of great holiday gifts that I think fans of gadgets and gizmos will find worth checking out. My list is made up of gift ideas for fans of music, gaming, and mobile accessories in general.

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Apple spent $56 billion on stock buybacks this year

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple was the biggest buyback spender among the S&P 500 this year, according to MarketWatch. Citing data from FactSet, the outlet reports the iPhone-maker has bought back more than $56 billion worth of shares from stockholders in 2014.

That's a staggering amount, especially when you consider that the company that came in second place among buyback spenders in 2014, IBM, only spent $19.2 billion. Apple spent almost that much ($18.6 billion) during its first quarter this year.

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Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest games discounted in Square Enix holiday sale

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 12, 2018

Joining Halfbrick and others, Square Enix has launched a holiday promotional sale for all of its iOS games. So for a limited time, you can pickup some of the studio's biggest titles for iPhone and iPad at a significant discount.

The Square Enix library contains a number of popular console ports, including Final Fantasy 1-6, and Final Fantasy Tactics, as well as multiple Chaos Rings and Dragon Quest games. We've listed all of the discounted titles below.

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Facebook Messenger gains read receipts, fresh holiday content and a huge speed boost

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 19, 2014

Facebook-owned WhatsApp quietly introduced blue-ticked read confirmations in its mobile iPhone app a month and a half ago and now the social networking behemoth has refreshed its backend to bring read receipts to Messenger for iOS and Android.

And with Christmas around the corner, the company is helping us celebrate the upcoming festivities by adding holiday-themed content to Messenger like fresh sticker packs, a new festive frame and more.

As if that wasn't enough, Facebook's engineers have done a lot of work under the hood to make the app more fluid and responsive than ever before.

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Facebook launches Stickered, a Messenger companion app

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 19, 2014

There's a brand new app from Facebook in town and it's hitting iOS real soon. Having launched on Android today, Stickered is a companion app for Messenger which allows you to add some fun stickers to a photo before sending it to a friend on Messenger.

The first companion app for Messenger, the lightweight Stickered app should make it easy and fun to pick a photo and then resize and slap a sticker on top.

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T-Mobile agrees to pay $90 million to settle with FTC over unwanted charges

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 19, 2014

Following a complaint that the United States Federal Trade Commission filed over T-Mobile this summer over fraudulent services, the Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless carrier today announced it has agreed to pay $90 million to settle cramming accusation. Carrier cramming, a form of fraud popular among major US carriers, results in small charges being added to a bill by a third party without the subscriber's consent or disclosure.

Such unlawful charges typically cover unwanted text message alerts and other services like unauthorized SMS subscriptions for horoscopes, sports scores, ring tones and similar services that cost ten bucks per month or more.

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Apps get pricier in Russia over collapsing ruble

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 19, 2014

Apple is increasing App Store prices in Russia over the plummeting ruble, the basic monetary unit of the 145 million people country and some other former republics of the USSR, reports 9to5Mac.

So after halting online sales due to the fluctuating currency, now Apple's virtual store is feeling the repercussions of Russia's troubled economy.

Russian ruble, and consequentially the country's economy as a whole, have stagnated for months now due to the falling price of oil and economic sanctions imposed by EU and USA over President Putin's annexation of Crimea.

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Top Farm, a FarmVille-like game from Fruit Ninja creators, now available globally

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 19, 2014

As Fruit Ninja and the rest of Halfbrick's lineup of paid iOS games has gone free for a limited time, the company on Friday released a brand new iPhone and iPad game in the App Store. Top Farm, a would-be FarmVille killer, actually soft-launched in select markets a year ago and it's now available worldwide.

A free-to-play download, Top Farm is a farm simulation game created by Brazil-based studio Vostu in which you must harvest crops, craft goods and explore new colorful and vibrant lands.

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Nest Notification Center widget Thermos gets a warm update

Sébastien Page ∙ December 19, 2014

A couple weeks ago, I told you about Thermos, a widget for Notification Center on Mac that lets you adjust the temperature of your Nest thermostat. At the time, I was quite impressed with the widget, despite the fact that I felt it was a bit limited and contained a minor bug. This is now a thing of the past as Thermos was just updated with new features, and a fix for the pesky bug.

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