Apple’s Greg Joswiak apologizes for iOS 8.0.1 bug, blames it on distribution

Continuing with their high profile interviews, Recode's Ina Fried and Walt Mossberg brought Apple's VP of iPhone marketing Greg Joswiak up on stage today at their Code/Mobile event. The trio discussed a number of topics, including Apple Pay, Apple Watch and Apple's recent software woes.

Given the nature of the questions, and Apple's devotion to PR control, a lot of Joswiak's answers sound very similar to things we've heard Tim Cook say recently. However, Fried and Mossberg do manage to pry some original, interesting tidbits from the executive during the course of their talk.

The iPhone’s financial impact

An excellent read by Jeff Sommer for the New York Times about the financial impact of the iPhone on the global economy.

“The iPhone is having a measurable impact,” said Michael Feroli, the chief United States economist for JPMorgan Chase. “It’s a little gadget, but it costs a lot and it seems that everybody has one. When you do the multiplication, it’s going to matter.” He estimates that iPhone sales are adding one-quarter to one-third of a percentage point to the annualized growth rate of the gross domestic product.

If you want to learn more about the economic ramifications of the iPhone, I recommend you read the whole piece.

Amazon App and Path updated with iPhone 6 support so you can see more content

iPhone 6 related updates for your favorite apps continue to roll in more than a month following the release of Apple's bigger handsets.

Following Plex's iPhone 6 update earlier this morning, both Amazon and Path have now refreshed their respective iOS applications with native display support for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus models.

If you're an early iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus adopter, you know why these updates matter: not only do optimized apps look crisp as anyone would expect, but also take advantage of greater pixel count to display more content, thereby requiring fewer taps and less scrolling.

Black Tower Enigma cuts role-play gaming down to just the puzzles

For years, role-playing adventure games have captured the hearts and minds of gamers around the world. Whether you were catchin’ them all with Pokemon, helping Link rescue Zelda, or bringing back light to the world of Final Fantasy, the games all shared a deep storyline and epic adventure.

Black Tower Enigma has the same deep story development, but instead of traveling across dangerous lands to rescue the damsel in distress, players face riddles and puzzles in a tower of never-ending floors. Solve the puzzle to reveal the stairs to the next level. Eventually you will find your damsel.

Nike+ Running now integrates with iOS 8 Health, adds elevation tracking and more

Apple CEO Tim Cook has had a seat on the Nike board for quite some time now and the sports equipment giant was first out of the gate with an app that showcased the iPhone 5s's low-powered M7 motion coprocessor. But despite close Apple ties, Nike's been suspiciously mum regarding integrating its many iOS apps with iOS 8's Health database.

That changed Tuesday as a new version of Nike+ Running got released with support for NikeFuel data sync with iOS 8's Health application. The refreshed app brings out a few other nice-to-haves, such as tracking your elevation on latest devices and more.

Nike's other iOS apps will hopefully pick up Health integration in due time. Nike+ Running is a free download in the App Store.

FTC drags AT&T to court over ‘deceptive and unfair’ throttling of unlimited data users

It's sad that we've grown accustomed to greedy carriers and their unlimited data deals. Not only does unlimited service typically come with lots of strings attached, carriers have dumb excuses ready once folks realize their data speeds are being throttled.

Having decided not to let it slide, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now taking AT&T to court over what it called “deceptive and unfair data throttling” policy.

As announced on Twitter and via a media release, the FTC's federal court complaint alleges that the Dallas, Texas headquartered firm in some cases reduced data speeds for unlimited customers by up to 90 percent while failing to explain in clear and concise manner why and when throttling would take place.

“AT&T promised its customers 'unlimited' data,” reads the complaint, “and in many instances, it has failed to deliver on that promise”.

“The issue here is simple: 'unlimited' means unlimited,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. AT&T's other sin: the company avoided mentioning throttling to customers who were about to renew their unlimited contracts.

OneNote gains Touch ID, iOS 8 Storage extension and more

Microsoft on Tuesday updated OneNote for iOS and OS X with useful new features, including fingerprint based Touch ID authentication to unlock password protected sections of your notebooks.

There's also a new Storage Provider extension in iOS 8 which let you easily add files to your notebooks from your favorite cloud storage service like, say, Dropbox.

On the iPhone, OneNote finally allows you to move and rearrange your notes anywhere you like. Moreover, the note-taking app has now gained ability to open notebooks stored on SharePoint Servers.

OneNote for the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps are free downloads.

Time Warner Cable’s new app lets you use their home phone service on iPhone at no additional cost

Your Home Phone service from Time Warner Cable is no longer limited by physical location as the nation's second largest cable company behind Comcast revealed a new iPhone application Tuesday.

Dubbed Phone 2 Go and available as a free download from the App Store, the software allows existing TWC Home Phone subscribers to use text, voice and video calling for no additional fees.

In addition, you can decide whether you'd like to use your Home Phone service to receive voice and video calls and text messages on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad anywhere there's Wi-Fi or cellular coverage, including overseas.

Microsoft launches iOS developer tools for deep integration with Office 365 features and services

Tuesday, Windows giant Microsoft announced that mobile developers can start building better apps by taking advantage of a brand new Office 365 mobile software development kit (SDK) for native app development and a set of Application Programming Interfaces (API) for mail, calendar, contacts and files. The tools debuted at the company's TechEd Europe 2014 conference.

The move aligns with the Microsoft Open Technologies initiative. The iOS SDK for Xcode supports Objective-C, with Swift support “coming soon”, wrote the team.

More on the SDK, which is currently in preview, is available via Microsoft's Office Dev Center. The Office 365 SDK for iOS can be grabbed through GitHub and the Getting Started with iOS page has details on how to get started with the iOS SDK.

ConvoPics brings the iPhone 6 Plus Messages app avatars to all devices

It’s only a matter of time before the deluge of iOS 8-only jailbreak tweaks begin surfacing on Cydia. Until then, I just thought I’d bring it to your attention that another one of the first such tweaks has appeared on Cydia.

The release is called ConvoPics, and it’s an iOS 8-only tweak that enables the iPhone 6 Plus’ conversation list pictures found in its stock Messages app on all devices. Have a look at our video demonstrating the before and after comparison inside.