You have to hand it to the folks of Starbucks. When they want to, they can move rather quickly. Hot on the heels of its blog post earlier today addressing security concerns regarding its iPhone app, the coffee company released an update this evening.
The change log for the update, which is marked as version 2.6.2, notes the new release brings 'additional performance enhancements and safeguards.' And we're hoping this means that the app no longer stores user passwords and data in plain text...
If you prefer Google's Chrome over Apple's Safari on your Mac desktops and notebooks, good news: the search monster yesterday updated the browser with a few new features that help restrict kids' use of the Internet while boosting their parents' protection from malware.
I was instantly sold on the incredibly useful noisy tab indicators that make it easier to figure out which tab sound is coming from.
Now, why didn't I think of that? Chrome 32 for Mac, Windows and Linux is now available for download and there's a detailed description of the new features right below...
Excluding Instagram, the social networking giant Facebook currently counts five iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store: in addition to the main Facebook client and the recently revamped Messenger, there's also Pages Manager, Camera and Poke, the latter an ill-fated attempt to counter the rising popularity of "disappear" apps like Snapchat.
They're all available free of charge but only the main Facebook app and the new Messenger have managed to pick up steam.
Pages Manager is somewhat useful for those who manage Pages on Facebook, Camera was quickly forgotten and Poke was a joke to begin with. Not content with standing still, Facebook is seemingly reading a host of standalone native apps on mobile this year.
These apparently include a Flipboard-killer said to use summarization technologies to deliver a sharply focused news-reading experience, among a few others...
QuickActivator is a recently released jailbreak tweak that allows users to add customizable Activator shortcuts to the quick launch section of iOS 7's Control Center overlay. The tweak works with any valid Activator action, including launching an app, opening a menu, toggling a switch, composing tweets and Facebook status updates, etc.
Existing quick launch shortcuts found in Control Center—Flashlight, Timer, Calculator, and Camera–can be customized with custom glyphs and tap and hold gestures. Brand new quick launch shortcuts can be added as well, and users can select from well over 70 glyphs, and mate them with any of the actions available via Activator.
QuickActivator is a tweak that you shouldn't overlook if you're searching for a way to add customized functionality to Control Center. Have a look at our full video walkthrough after the jump for more information.
If you thought Bluetooth headsets were dead, think again. Jawbone makes some of the finest portable audio devices and wireless headsets and was among the first to release a Bluetooth headset for Apple's iPhone. On Thursday, the San Francisco-based company has streamlined its headset offering by announcing a second-generation Era.
It's 42 percent smaller, comes with its own charging case and looks good enough to be worn in public while offering interesting new voice features aimed at Apple's Siri and Google's Google Now voice assistants. Read on for more info and some nice press shots...
Apple has seeded the second OS X 10.9.2 beta to registered Mac developers this afternoon. The release comes nearly a month after the first beta, which was posted on December 19.
The new build is available to registered developers through the Software Update tab in the Mac App Store, or as a full download via the Mac section of Apple’s online developer portal…
We've seen our fair share of Touch ID-related tweaks since the release of the evasi0n7 jailbreak a few weeks ago, and we keep being amazed at some of the ideas developers come up with.
French developer Eric Castro came up with yet another brilliant idea to take advantage of Touch ID, but this time, the tweak is not used to directly interact with your iPhone, but rather with your Mac...
Last summer, Imgur released an official client for iOS, essentially putting all of the web's most popular memes in the palm of your hand. Now it's bringing the ability to create your own meme to that same hand, with MemeGen.
It looks like MemeGen has actually been in the App Store since late last year, but like others, we're just finding out about it today. At any rate, the app allows you to tap Imgur's vast photo library to create your own viral web pic...
Earlier today we told you about a report that raised security issues concerning the Starbucks iPhone app. A researcher discovered that the most used mobile-payment app in the US stores unencrypted user data like passwords and emails.
The problem with this is that by connecting your iPhone to a computer, someone could easily retrieve this info from a crash log—no jailbreak required. And the only way for Starbucks to fix the vulnerability is through an App Store update...
Despite Apple's pretty handy password-saving and syncing feature in iOS Safari, I myself continue to prefer AgileBits' 1Password for iOS and OS X (our own Jeff is a recent convert, too). The reason is simple: 1Password allows me to save and sync just about any piece of information rather than just passwords and credit cards.
There's just one slight annoyance: to take advantage of 1Password's auto-fill feature for usernames and passwords, I must open a website in its built-in browser.
I generally tend to avoid the embedded web view in third-party apps and instead spend most of my mobile web browsing time in Safari. From now on, whenever you want to visit a website that requires a login, you can use this handy Safari bookmarklet to send the current tab to 1Password.
Though far from perfect, this removes some of the friction when visiting websites that require logins and auto-fill information kept in 1Password...
Up until recently, it used to be that news junkies like yours trulls diligently put every conceivable news app on their Home screens in order to make sure they kept tabs on the latest news as it happened. As an unintended consequence (or was it?), this has led to information overload which in turn gave birth to apps like Yahoo's excellent News Digest (free in the App Store) and Gist by Michael Mamiye.
Both of these intelligently summarize news articles so you can consume key takeaways in the shortest amount of time.
Gist for iPhone, $1.99 in the App Store, is especially interesting due to its gorgeous and sharp user interface and a clever algorithm that can summarize most articles into approximately five bullet points - that's why the iDownloadBlog team put it on the list of 10 Best News Apps of 2013.
Following up on its mid-December debut, the developer this morning issued a major 2.0 update bringing out a host of goodies, such as a more robust implementation of the summarization technology, rich Pocket support and lots more...
Shopkick announced today that it is expanding its iBeacon trial to a number of American Eagle retail stores. The shopping app has been testing Apple's new geolocation tech in a handful of Macy's outlets since December of last year.
Once the pilot goes live next month, Shopkick's iBeacon tech will be available in 100 AE locations, making it the largest trial of the technology in the country. And it'll essentially turn your iPhone into a personal shopping assistant...