iDownloadBlog.com

Apple reportedly looking to shut down Beats Music [updated]

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 19, 2018

Apple is looking to shut down its Beats Music streaming service, according to a new report from TechCrunch. Citing "several prominent employees" at both companies, the outlet says that many Beats engineers have already been pulled off the product, and moved on to other projects.

If true, such a move would be interesting considering the public praise Apple and its execs—namely Tim Cook and Eddy Cue—have given the service. It also recently added Beats Music to the 'Apps by Apple' section in the App Store, and launched a new Beats Music channel on Apple TV.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smoke competition in benchmarks

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 22, 2014

The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus powered by the Apple-designed A8 processor leave the vast majority of Android competition in the dust in terms of CPU performance and battery life, according to a series of performance benchmarks conducted by the reputable hardware review website AnandTech.

The website's founder Anand Lal Shimpi recently joined Apple for an undisclosed role.

Speaking of the handsets' graphics performance, the site has found the iPhone 6 Plus performing a hair slower versus the iPhone 5s due to the increased screen resolution. It's also approximately fifteen percent slower in GPU performance than the Nvidia Shield-based tablets. Despite this minor setback, performance gains across the board translate into “a pretty solid lead over the competition for the iPhone 6/A8,” wrote the site.

According to Apple, the A8 processor has two billion transistors, twice as much as the previous A7 chip. The piece of silicon incorporates twenty percent faster CPU and a cool fifty percent faster graphics while enabling up to 50 percent more energy efficiency than its A7 counterpart, as per Apple's official numbers.

U2’s Bono says Apple has 885 million iTunes accounts, talks new music format

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 22, 2014

Paul David Hewson aka Bono Vox (also known by his stage name Bono), the frontman of the Dublin-based rock band U2, revealed that Apple now has an astounding 885 million iTunes accounts in an interview Monday with Dave Fanning on the Irish radio station 2FM.

Moreover, he shed more light on the rumored new music format designed to revitalize stagnant digital downloads. The 54-year-old rocker also said he complained to Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs five years ago that the iTunes application “looks like a spreadsheet” and more.

Google updates Chrome for iOS with support for App Extensions in Share menu

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 22, 2014

The Internet giant Google on Monday issued a minor update to its Chrome browser for the iPhone and iPad adding support for the new third-party App Extensions in iOS 8 using the multi-purpose Share sheet.

This allows you to download apps which advertise their own extensions and actions to the system, making them available in any app that makes use of the standard Share menu, Chrome included.

This edition of Google's web browser also includes iOS 8 compatibility as well as stability improvements and bug fixes.

Awesome Screenshot now available as Safari extension on iOS 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 24, 2023

As our own Jeff told you before, Awesome Screenshot, a desktop web app for Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari, is arguably the best way to capture an entire web page as an image on OS X.

Thanks to the various extensibility features introduced in iOS 8, this nifty little utility is now available as a screenshot extension for Safari on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 8.

Upon downloading the free app from the App Store, Awesome Screenshot will allow you to capture a screenshot of any webpage simply by choosing it in Safari's Share menu.

Not only can you capture images of web pages on mobile devices with ease, but also annotate and share them with others using Apple's stock sharing choices or a number of third-party Share extensions available in the App Store.

Apple announces record-smashing ten million iPhone 6/Plus opening weekend sales

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 22, 2014

After announcing record pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus topping four million units in the first 24 hours, the Cupertino firm on Monday said it sold ten million units of both the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 during the opening weekend, including the four million units sold in the first 24 hours of preorder sales.

The figure breaks the previous record of nine million units in the first three days of availability held by the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c last year (the iPhone 5 sold five million unit during its opening weekend).

It must be noted that the iPhone 5s was not available for pre-order. On the other hand, unlike last year's iPhone launch, this time around the iPhone 6 has not launched immediately in China, Apple's second-largest market by revenue.

The new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were announced on September 9 and Apple started accepting pre-orders on Friday, September 12. This past Friday, September 19, the handset hit Apple and carrier stores across the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Skype gains iOS 8’s interactive notifications

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

Microsoft on Monday refreshed its Skype software for the iPhone with support for the enhanced notifications on iOS 8 that can be interacted with on the Lock screen, within the Notification Center and from the banners.

Now available in the App Store, Skype for iPhone 5.5 brings iOS 8 interactive notification support for audio and video calls and messages, in addition to general improvements, compatibility enhancements and bug fixes.

Video shows side by side speed comparison of all 10 iPhone models

Cody Lee ∙ September 22, 2014

YouTube channel EverythingApplePro posted an interesting video this weekend, showing multiple side by side speed comparison tests of all 10 iPhone models. This includes the iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5, iPhone 4s, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and the original iPhone.

The clip, which is about 4 minutes long, shows a wide range of speed tests such as shutdown, startup, webpage loading, and even a GeekBench benchmark test. For the most part everything works out like you'd expect, with the newer devices outpacing their predecessors, but there are a few surprises.

Apple logo wallpapers for iPhone 6

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated November 23, 2014

With new phone upgrades and additional screen sizes comes the struggle to find newly created wallpapers to grace our screens. While the iPhone 6 Plus is 1080 x 1920, standard HD resolution, the parallax effect will add additional pixels to any true iPhone 6/Plus wallpaper image.

My goal with the Wallpapers of the Week section is to bring iOS wallpapers to you on a weekly basis. More importantly, when new devices are launched, we try to have wallpapers at-the-ready. This week is our first posting since the iPhone 6 launched on Friday. With this post, you will find parallax-ready images for iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6, and we still included the iPhone 5s.

The best podcast apps for iPhone

Lory Gil ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

I took a road trip last weekend and wanted to be able to access plenty of podcasts to keep me occupied during my long drive time. I thought about how there are a number of great third-party podcast apps out there. So many, it is hard to choose which one is my favorite.

Basically, the differences between most podcast apps are the user interface and features. It all depends on your personal taste. Check out our list of the best podcast apps for iPhone and see which one you think is tops.

Orcas Bluetooth earbuds are designed for an active lifestyle

Jim Gresham ∙ September 21, 2014

You are pumping iron at the gym. You are training for the half marathon. You are cooking in the kitchen. You are commuting on the train. You are listening to Let's Talk iOS on the couch. All of these scenarios, have you tethered to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with a corded headset. Nothing is more annoying than ripping your iPhone off the treadmill at the gym because you accidentally caught your headphone cable while reaching for a bottle of water.

I am the guy that wraps his iPhone in a sturdy case at the gym because I just cannot seem to stop dropping it. If I had a pair of wireless headphones, all of my problems would be solved. While Bluetooth headphones have been a thing for some time, I have only stumbled across over the ear cans or giant muffs. No one wants to use a giant pair of headphones while doing a physical activity except people who love their Beats. Take a step inside to read about the Orcas Bluetooth earbuds, my new favorite pair of activity minded buds that were sent over by Outdoor Tech.

Almightree: The Last Dreamer is a 3-D platform puzzler with an adventurous theme

Lory Gil ∙ September 21, 2014

Fans of adventure games like Zelda and Oceanhorn will be happy to know that a new action adventure platform title has recently made its way into the App Store. It doesn’t have quite the same mechanics. In fact, it is a puzzle game more than anything. However, it will bring back memories of following a hero on an arduous adventure.

Almightree: The Last Dreamer is an adventure game that is part platformer and part puzzle. It appears there is a new genre in town and it is growing by the minute. Check out our game review of Almightree.