Prettier Banners adds contacts photos to Messages notifications

I miss BiteSMS for so many reasons, and one of them is that the tweak adds the photo of your contacts in Messages notifications, assuming you do have a photo for that contact to begin with of course.

Prettier Banners is a new tweak that will certainly fill that void, at least until BiteSMS gets an update. Developed by Mohamed Marbouh, Prettier Banners will replace the Messages app icon with the photo of your contact when receiving a text message notification.

Square’s new Caviar app lets you order food from top-rated eateries

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's mobile payment startup, Square, earlier this year purchased Caviar, a food delivery service, for a reported $90 million. On Thursday, the company released the official Caviar iOS app in the App Store.

Featuring crisp dish photos, real-time tracking of your order from counter-to-door and more, Caviar makes it easy to order food from your favorite local restaurants right to your door, from the palm of your hand using your iPhone or iPad.

London in a day, as seen through 1,017 Instagram photos

http://vimeo.com/109328046

Italian filmmaker Lorenzo Antico handpicked 1,017 Instagram photos of London to create this short video. It's very similar to this video we posted last year, and arguably not as well put together, but it's still a pretty cool video that I'm sure will inspire some of you to create your own short films based on the concept.

For those wondering, the music playing is a song called Henrietta by The Fratellis. Enjoy!

Themeboard review: iOS 8 keyboard with gorgeous themes, unique Emoji bar, auto-correct and more

There most certainly is no shortage of downloadable iOS 8 keyboards in the App Store, so much so that the proliferation of soft-keyboards makes it virtually impossible for us to cover each and every one that hits the Apple platform.

On the other hand, themable keyboards like CoolKey, a keyboard for the colorful, are few and far between.

Customization matters to an awful lot of people and there's admittedly a void here than needs filling. That's where Themeboard jumps in.

Created by Germany-based Taphive, the brains behind such apps as TodoMovies that we reviewed back in March, this app is an advanced iPhone and iPad keyboard with a built-in repository of wonderfully designed themes by some of the best designers around.

Theme board sports a unique Emoji/Kaomoji bar and has plenty of features that users have come to expect from Apple's default keyboard like auto-correction, Caps lock, slide-shift to capitalize, quick delete with three speeds, text predictions, custom shortcuts and more.

Read on for the full review of this feature-packed keyboard.

Winter is coming: Telltale’s Game of Thrones arrives in App Store

Telltale Games last month posted a teaser trailer and a few scant details about an upcoming game based on HBO’s hugely popular, award-winning fantasy drama television series, itself adapted from of “A Song of Ice and Fire”, George R. R. Martin’s series of epic fantasy novels.

I'm pleased to report that on Thursday, the Game of Thrones interactive action adventure game officially surfaced on the App Store and is now available in an episodic format akin to Telltale's The Walking Dead – A Telltale Games Series and The Wolf Among Us.

The narratively driven, six-episode game puts you in the shoes of different members of the Forrester household. The decisions you take have consequences and will change the story around you and determine your characters' fate.

Lara Croft is back: Tomb Raider II hits iOS

Good news, Lara Croft fans! Tomb Raider, the classic 1990s action-adventure game, is back: a successor to the original Tomb Raider game (which hit iOS last year) surfaced in the App Store on Thursday.

Costing $1.99 a pop, the iPhone and iPad game was created by Square Enix and features updated graphics, grand new locations, over 50 achievements and more.

Jump past the fold for the full reveal.

iPhone 6 Plus grabs 41 percent of US phablet sales

Kantar Worldpanel, a WPP-owned market researcher, yesterday revealed that the latest iPhones helped Apple gain share over Android around the world while the iPhone 5c outsold the iPhone 6 Plus in the U.S. during the last three months up to October 31.

Today, Kantar is back with some additional newsworthy data pertaining to “phablet” sales.

For those wondering, phablets are typically defined as smartphones with a screen size of 5.5 inches and larger. The 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, Kantar said, captured as much as 41 percent of sales of phablets in the U.S. alone. As for the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6, it grabbed 33 percent market share to become the best-selling iOS device in the period.

Dwelp review: try wrapping your head around this puzzle game

Puzzle games are a big hit around here. We love to put our brains through daily workouts to keep our minds fresh and strong. That’s why, whenever there is a new submission to the genre, we jump at the chance to check it out.

Dwelp is a puzzle game that requires you to pay attention to future steps. Not unlike chess, what you do next will have an affect on what can be done in the future. We’ve got a full game review of Dwelp for you below.

Perfectly cradle iPhone in leather with Nodus Access case

It is rare to find a case I adore. Most of my hesitation stems from being an iPhone nudist, which I mention in most of my articles. Further complicating matters is my disdain for overly complicated designs or cases that interfere with the look and feel of iOS devices.

Many case companies get most things right. The protection level is perfect or the look and feel is spot on. Everyone does their thing. However, running into my third year of accessory reviews, most of the marketed cases are boring to me. In fact, my hardware review articles are quite infrequent due to the lack of truly new cases. Many companies are in their third or fourth iteration of the exact same case, merely updated for the newest iPhone form factor.

Standing in stark contrast to the mundane daily cases, Nodus introduced me to their Access collection. Even before holding the product, I thought to myself, here is a company that is doing it all exactly right. Shortly thereafter, I pillaged my mailbox looking for the iPhone 6 Plus Access case.

Get your apps in: Apple shutting down iTunes Connect December 22 – 29

Apple announced to developers on Wednesday evening it will be shutting down its iTunes Connect service December 22 to December 29 as part of the holidays.

In an email to registered developers, Apple said: "During this time, you will not be able to submit new apps, updates, or In-App Purchases." While the connect service will be shutdown, Apple will allow developers to schedule app releases and price changes during the December 22 to December 29 period.