Episode 15: On this week’s episode we discuss the untimely demise of Flappy Bird, Apple’s recent hires for the iWatch, Tim Cook’s latest interview with the Wall Street Journal, the upcoming Apple TV refresh, and our thoughts on the new app store for the Pebble Smartwatch.
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A couple of mockup images surfaced on the web today, hoping to visualize what Apple's rumored health-tracking app could look like. A January report from 9to5Mac said that the app, codenamed 'Healthbook,' would gather health and fitness data from iWatch and launch alongside iOS 8.
In its current state, the Healthbook app is said to resemble the UI of Apple's Passbook application, with various cards offering health and fitness data points. This is what designer Carlos Quijano based his concept on, and according to those with knowledge of the app, it's vaguely accurate...
Hoping to continue its efforts to attract and retain top talent, Apple has named Denise Young Smith its new head of human resources. Smith replaces Joel Podolny, who will now focus all of his energy on Apple University—a platform for teaching 'Apple' culture.
The announcement is notable for a few reasons. First, Smith will be the latest woman to join Apple's top ranks— the company has taken heat recently over the lack of diversity on its executive team—and two, she will be in charge of attracting and retaining talent...
Yahoo has posted a small but significant update for its iOS Mail client this afternoon, bringing the app to version 2.0.5. Aside from the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, the update brings about deeper VoiceOver support.
This is more of a PSA than an update alert—a lot of folks depend on Apple's VoiceOver feature in iOS to help them navigate about apps, input and read text, and perform other actions. And now they can utilize the feature in Yahoo Mail...
One of the downsides to using complex passcodes, outside of the fact that they generally take more time to enter than the standard 4-digit passcode, is that complex passcodes aren't auto-submitted upon entry. Unlike the standard passcode, which automatically unlocks your device upon correct entry, complex passcodes force you to tap the 'Done' button once you're finished typing.
AutoOK7 is an updated version of the original AutoOK tweak that we reviewed several months back, and it serves to eliminate the need to manually submit complex passcodes after typing them. It's not a tweak that will save you loads of time, but as the saying goes, every little second helps. Have a look at our full video walkthrough inside for a demonstration of how it works.
I'm not big into social networking—Facebook, Path, Instagram, etc.—but I'm a longtime and frequent user of Twitter. I could give you a dozen reasons why I like it, but it comes down to its pool of high-profile users and its in-line streaming design.
That design, however, could be going by the wayside in the not-too-distant future. Twitter has been caught testing a major redesign for user profiles and tweet streams which features larger photos, rearranged tweets, and several other UI changes...
It appears that an issue in iOS 7 that disabled the geolocation functions on apps that were force-closed by the user is being corrected in iOS 7.1. Developers say that in the latest iOS 7.1 betas, force-closing an app does not disable its location-aware functions.
This has been a major problem for developers since the launch of iOS 7 last fall—particularly for those who had location-based apps. Some devs have even reported that their App Store ratings have plummeted in the last 6 months due to the technical change...
Your selfies will receive a significant and much welcomed upgrade next year as Sony - which last week announced plans to unload its computer business and spin off its TV segment - is gearing up to kick off production of front-facing cameras for next-generation iPhones in 2015, if a report from Japanese business site Nikkei is an indication.
The Japanese consumer electronics giant has been making iSight back cameras since the iPhone 4s, with current estimates in the ballpark of a hundred million CMOS sensors a year. It also makes cameras for Samsung and Huawei smartphones.
Therefore, landing that contract would mark a major win for both parties and a huge loss for OmniVision, which currently supplies CMOS sensors for the iPhone's rather unimpressive front-facing camera...
Good news for Rdio users this afternoon. The music streaming service has posted an update for its iOS client, bringing the app to version 2.5.7 and adding a few new features including Playlist Editing and the ability to read and write reviews in-app.
Users can now edit their playlists from any mobile device by adding, removing and rearranging songs, and editing playlist artwork. They can also now write reviews for those playlists, and albums, and read reviews written by other other Rdio users...
The low power alerts that pop up at the most inopportune times when using your iPhone need to die. At least that's according to developer hiroshit, the creator of a new jailbreak tweak dubbed NoLowPowerAlert.
NoLowPowerAlert is an extremely simple tweak with no options to configure. It allows you to completely disable the low power alerts that pop up on your iOS device when your battery hits 20 or 10 percent of remaining power. Have a look at our walkthrough inside to see how it works in action.
If you can't get enough of Flappy Bird news, the app's creator has come clean on the reasons behind the app's sudden removal. Speaking out for the first time since he pulled his sleeper hit of a game from Apple's App Store and Google's Play store, Vietnam-born Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen said in an exclusive interview with Forbes that he made the decision to kill the game because it has become "an addictive product".
I wish I could kill half as much addictive product of my own! Some have suspected that Flappy Bird got yanked out of the App Store over intellectual property complaints from Nintendo, but the Japanese games took the unusual step of going on the record yesterday to confirm that Mario had no hand in killing Nguyen's game...
Analysts and high-profile outlets like The Wall Street Journal are expecting not one, but two new iPhones this year, each outfitted with a display significantly larger than the current four-inch iPhone 5/5s/5c. The Japanese magazine Mac Fan claimed in a report last October that the iPhone 6 will be the first phablet on the market optimized for one-hand operation.
A month earlier, analyst Ming Chi-Kuo opined that Apple would want to honor its self-imposed “unwavering principle of one hand use”. But how does one make a five-inch iPhablet optimized for one-hand use? By dropping the side bezels, that's how...