New study shows that iPads are replaced less often than iPhones

While most iPhone users look to upgrade their Apple smartphone once every two years, coinciding with the end of their contracts, a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners reveals that the iPad has a much longer replacement cycle. Based on a survey of 2,000 customers in the United States who purchased an iPhone, iPad or Mac last year, the tablet is believed to be closer aligned to the Mac's average lifespan of 2 to 4 years… 

How to enable Drunk Mode on iPhone

You are out for a night on the town with your friends, and perhaps you've had one too many Long Island Iced Teas or Peppermint Schnapps. We're not judging you, but others might be when you send them a misspelled text message or perhaps worse. Fortunately, if you have an iPhone, this is an easily avoidable situation.

While it might sound stupid, a jailbreak tweak called Drunk Mode actually serves a relatively useful purpose. The tweak is a very simple one; when enabled, it prevents you from sending iMessages to your friends, family, boss, co-workers or whoever else you probably shouldn't be talking to at the time. Details ahead… 

Apple highlights indie games via new App Store section Indie Game Showcase

Apple has created a new section in the App Store to feature iPhone and iPad games by independent devs.

Titled 'Indie Game Showcase' and available on iTunes here, the section highlights such highly acclaimed titles as Year Walk ($3.99) by Simogo, an eerie adventure game based on the ancient Swedish phenomena of year walking, Space Invaders Infinity Gene ($4.99) by Taito, Bumpy Road ($2.99) by developer Simogo Handelsbolag and more...

Watch Jimmy Fallon introducing Billy Joel to iPad beatboxing app Loopy HD

Jimmy Fallon, the host of NBC's Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, gave Apple's iPad and a beatboxing thirdy-party app called Loopy HD a cool exposure during last night's show. Loopy HD costs eight bucks in the App Store and with it anyone can create music by layering looped recordings of singing, beatboxing or playing an instrument.

Loopy HD is rather sophisticated: it can receive live audio directly from other Audiobus-compatible apps like Apple's free GarageBand and more.

Jimmy and Billy Joel have used the app on air to loop their voices and form a two-man doo-wop group singing 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' by The Tokens in four-part harmony.

The video is a nice reminder that one can create quite remarkable music on the iPad. Even Apple's boss Tim Cook enthused over their "magical" performance...

Virgin Mobile brings contract-free iPhone 5s/5c down to just $385/$315

Virgin Mobile, a subsidiary of Sprint, has discounted contract-free iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c to just $385 and $315, respectively, representing significant savings over Apple's respective asking prices of $649 and $549 for the entry-level models with sixteen gigabytes of storage.

If you do the math quickly in your head, that's $264 off the iPhone 5s and $234 off the iPhone 5c. You'll need to sign up for one of Virgin's unlimited data plans starting at $35 per month ($30 if you choose to auto-pay by PayPal or your credit/debit car).

These deals are web exclusives and valid for a limited time only...

Tweetbot for Mac gains thumbnail size option and three-finger swiping

Tapbot's popular Twitter client for iOS and OS X, Tweetbot, has been refreshed on the Mac with a few fixes and two new features.

Version 1.5, now available in the Mac App Store as a free upgrade to existing users, lets you choose the size of inline image thumbnails in your timelines, a feature developers added to the iPhone and iPod touch client earlier this month.

And for those who take advantage of multitouch gestures in OS X, Tweetbot now supports swiping left and right with three fingers to navigate through your timelines without having to manually click on the back button...

Avadon 2: The Corruption HD review – the role-playing adventure continues

Spiderweb Software makes amazing role-playing adventure games that let players follow deep storylines and utilize teams of fighters in order to complete missions and destroy bad guys.

Avadon: The Black Fortress HD first launched in mid-2011, back when companies were not as interested in putting expansive, explorative games on the iPad. Today, there are plenty of team-based RPGs to satisfy my love of the genre, but Avadon holds a special place in my heart.

Two-and-a-half years after the first story made it to the iPad, Spiderweb Software has finally launched its sequel, Avadon 2: The Corruption HD, in the App Store…

Winocm shows off untethered iOS 7.1 jailbreak on iPhone 4

Well known hacker and future Apple employee winocm posted a video demonstrating an untethered jailbreak of iOS 7.1 earlier today. The video, which he posted to YouTube, shows off what appears to be an untethered jailbreak on a Verizon iPhone 4.

In a brief tweet, winocm sent out a link to the video with the caption 'iOS 7.1 untethered boot.' Now, details regarding the clip are very scarce right now, but the fact it exists is fueling hope for folks on newer firmware wanting to jailbreak their devices...

Medium launches read-only iPhone app

After somewhat of a brief delay, Medium's app finally landed in the App Store today. It's for the iPhone only, and has a focus on reading and recommending stories. In fact, that's about all it's capable of doing right now, as there's no way to write using the app.

"It’s a simple app because every week, thousands of people come to Medium to write," says Medium's founder Ev Williams in a blog post. "They share their stories, their ideas, their dreams and visions. That’s the hard part. We’re just helping amplify their voices."

Theme Thursday: Inversify, Ayza, VectrOS and more

It is quite impressive that even as this eighth edition of Theme Thursday has come upon us, there are still a number of quality Winterboard themes being released each week. It is equally as impressive how collaborative the theming community is in general, as a number of iDownloadBlog readers and others continue to share themes with us that they feel are deserving of making this column. This week, we are proud to share Inversify, Ayza, Rollypop and VectrOS. Here they are…

Luna Calculator puts a unique twist on a basic calculator app

I don’t normally focus too much attention on calculator apps. Some of them can be pretty cool. But for the most part, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. There has to be something special about a calculator app to catch my attention.

Luna Calculator is an app that has something special. In addition to the simple mathematical equations that the average calculator app includes, this one lets you create lists of numbers and save them for future reference…

Ridge Racer Slipstream goes free until next Thursday as Apple’s Free App of the Week

Today, like any given Thursday, Apple is refreshing its Free App of the Week promotion by making a new iOS tittle free for the next seven days.

Last week's promotion brought us the free download of Mildmania's Darklings [review], a gesture-driven endless atmospheric adventure game that incorporates visually enticing Noire-style graphics akin to Limbo and Badland.

Today, Namco Bandai's Ridge Racer Slipstream has gone free as the App Store's new Free App of the Week.

Normally a $2.99 download, but now available free in the App Store until next Thursday, Ridge Racer Slipstream recreates this ultimate arcade racing franchise on your iPhone and iPad with pretty graphics, Career and Arcade game modes, twelve beefy cars with plenty of horse power, over a hundred racing competitions across six Grand Prix series, real-time multiplayer and lots more...