Apple today announced its plans for Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when all retailers will be hosting flash sales on many of their products. As usual, the deals aren't as good as other major stores are offering, but they are worth mentioning.
As part of its RED campaign for World AIDS Day, Apple will be giving away free gift cards with the purchase of select products on Friday. The cards can be used on apps, books and other iTunes content, and their values will depend on what you buy.
You may have noticed that the official eBay Now shopping software for the iPhone and iPad has been pulled from the App Store over the weekend. Attempting to download the app yields an error message confirming the removal.
eBay Now allowed users to find and buy various products from local stores. This particular app removal has nothing to do with Apple, mind you.
According to TechCrunch on Monday, the e-commerce website is planning to fold eBay Now functionality into its main iOS client as the Now service is “moving to core” and the company rethinks its same-day delivery plans.
While some photography apps in the App Store — such as the $49.99 Vizzywig 8xHD — make shooting film-like 4K footage on an iPhone a reality by taking a series of individual eight-megapixel images in rapid succession, the general public and techies alike are totally unaware that the latest iPhones are actually capable of rendering 4K 3,840-by-2,160 pixel video.
And who could blame them? After all, Apple's been conspicuously mum about it. But as it turns out, the A8 chip ticking inside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus provides enough oomph to seamlessly handle 4K content playback.
The surprising discovery was made public last week by Softorino (via TUAW), the developers of WALTR, a new Mac app which makes it easy to upload and convert any video or audio file to an iOS-friendly format for native playback on iPhones, iPads, iPods and Apple TVs.
While it makes little sense to render massive 4K videos on the 1,334-by-750 and 1,920-by-1,080 pixel resolution screens of the respective iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones due to inevitable downsampling, the very fact that the A8 processor can handle 4K content is important on many levels.
SnooScreens is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to change your iPhone's wallpaper based on images appearing on a subreddit of your choice. Once the tweak is installed, all you need to do is configure a subreddit, adjust some of the tweak's options, and assign an Activator gesture.
Upon invoking the Activator gesture that you assign, SnooScreens will cause the Home screen and/or Lock screen wallpaper to reflect the top image post on a subreddit or an image at random from the front page. Have a look at our video walkthrough after the break for a look into how this tweak works.
As reported by Ad Age this morning, Chase, one of early launch parters for Apple Pay, will begin airing its very first television commercial highlighting Apple's mobile payment service later today. The ad depicts Fun lead guitarist Jack Antonoff and his indie band the Bleachers relying on Apple Pay to make purchases at several locations while making preparations for a rooftop concert.
The commercial is meant to boost Apple Pay's appeal in small business environments. Businesses using the Chase Paymentech service for payment processing can now tap the bank's Future Proof Terminal to accept Apple Pay payments at the register. Moreover, Chase has released updated SDK tools for developers to implement paying for goods and services in apps with Apple Pay.
Toronto-based Cordon Development Labs is making rounds Monday with the Pinć, a $99 iPhone case which doubles as a Minority Report style virtual headset with spatial interaction, multi-touch hand gestures via a pair of finger tacks and more, effectively expanding your device into an immersive computing experience.
Data from the wireless rings on each hand is combined with camera input from your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus to track hand motion. Cordon Development Labs is working on a software development kit built on the Unity engine so third-party developers will be able to customize and create various types of experiences for the Pinć.
What's it like to interact with the Pinć? Check out promo vids included after the break.
If you've ever wanted to be able to browse your entire music library from Notification Center, then you should check out Music Center in the App Store. Developed by jailbreak alumni Akhil Tolani, Music Center is a great idea that is unfortunately handicapped by Apple's restrictions on what you can do with Notification Center extensions.
For me, there really is nothing better than a good, old-fashion side-scrolling platformer. As a kid, those were the types of games that first got me into spending all of my quarters at the local arcade. Although gaming technology has improved and the mechanics have gotten more advanced, I still love the 2-D world of my past.
Space Expedition: Classic Adventure is just that, a classic adventure. As a lone astronaut on a research space station, players must uncover the events that led to its abandonment. We’ve got a full game review of Space Expedition for you right now.
Slide2Kill8 Pro is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to kill apps in a variety of different ways via the App Switcher. The tweak includes "switcher actions", which allow you to kill apps directly via the switcher cards, along with "icon actions", which let you kill apps using the app icons that reside beneath the app switcher cards.
Each action in Slide2Kill8 Pro can be customized to some degree, allowing you to kill all apps, kill single apps, do nothing, or show a quick menu. The quick menu allows you to close all apps, invoke Control Center, and invoke Notification Center.
If you're looking for a way to enhance app management, particularly when it comes to force-closing apps, then you need to take a look at Slide2Kill8 Pro. Check out our full video walkthrough inside.
KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo issued a new report to investors today with some adjusted predictions for iPhone sales during the all-important holiday quarter. Buoyed by the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, the prominent Apple analyst sees the company selling 71.5 million during the 3-month period.
For some context, Apple sold 51 million iPhones during the year-ago holiday quarter. Kuo believes the iPhone 6 will be the leading cause for the dramatic jump, accounting for 41.6 million iPhone sales—nearly 60%. The 6 Plus, he says, is in a distant second due in large part to supply shortages.
Apple on Sunday night announced its RED campaign for World AIDS Day 2014. For the next two weeks, Apple is devoting a special section of the App Store called "Apps for (RED)," which will feature 25 apps with exclusive new content where all proceeds will go directly to the Global Fund to fight aids.
Additionally, Apple says that it will donate a portion of all sales from both its retail and online stores around the world to the Global Fund from during Friday, November 28 and Monday, December 1. These days are known as 'Black Friday' and 'Cyber Monday,' and are two of the biggest shopping days of the year.
Apple pushed out an update for the iOS version of GarageBand on Sunday, bringing the popular music-making app to version 2.0.5. The update adds the option to purchase the RED Loop Pack, a limited-time in-app purchase that features an exclusive collection of 300 guitar, bass, synth and drum loops in a variety of genres.
The pack will only be available until December 7, via a $0.99 in-app purchase, but of course once paid for it will be permanently accessible from the GarageBand loop browser. Apple says 100% of the proceeds will go to the RED foundation, a charity that raises money for a global fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.