Apptray lets you launch apps directly from Notification Center

There have been a handful of jailbreak tweaks released for Notification Center in the past few weeks, but perhaps none more visually appealing than Apptray, by software engineer Joshua Lee Tucker.

The tweak, compatible with all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, adds a fourth tab alongside Today, All and Missed in Notification Center for opening apps directly from the notifications pulldown. An unlimited number of apps can be added to Apptray, configurable from the tweak's dedicated menu in the Settings app… 

Aura is an upcoming custom icon theme that supports over 200 apps

While theme makers certainly face increasing challenges because of how iOS 7 is designed, we've still seen a handful of great themes for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Aura promises to be the next. The upcoming theme provides well-designed custom icons for over 200 apps and counting, despite its creators—a five-person group called the iApex Team—stressing that it remains in beta with a lot of work to be finished. Even in its claimed infancy, Aura looks fantastic.

Update: This theme seems to be a rip off of another theme called iMIUI we covered last year. We were not aware of that at the time of publishing and we'll not give Aura anymore coverage until its developers come clean.

Google Play Movies and TV app hits iOS

After Google Play Books and Google Play Music, the Internet giant Google on Wednesday has finally released the official Google Play Movies and TV application for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices.

A free download from the App Store, the software allows you to access those purchased or rented movies and television shows you bought in Google's Play Store.

With this move, Google has completed a trio of software offerings that make it easier for people on the Apple platform to enjoy media bought from Google's content store. Die-hard Apple fans may not care much, but those who happen to use both iOS and Android will appreciate that Google is catering to Apple users with these apps...

Give your Mac an iOS 7-style Lock screen with this screensaver

With the release of OS X Mavericks, Apple reaffirmed that it is in no hurry to bring the design of iOS over to the Mac—the two have little in common when it comes to UI. But there are ways to customize your Mac to look more like iOS such as utilities, icon packs, and now this.

What you see above is a new screensaver for OS X that resembles the iconic iOS 7 Lock screen. It features an oversized, 4-digit clock, an animated background, and the text 'Press any key to unlock.' The screensaver is totally customizable and fairly easy to install. Take a look...

Box revamps iOS app, offers 50GB of free storage

Popular cloud storage service Box has released a big update for its iOS client today, bringing the app to version 3.0. The update includes an all-new UI design, real-time search for files and within files, and a number of other improvements.

As for the redesign, Box says it has completely re-written the app from the ground-up with things like speed and easier navigation in mind. In version 3.0, documents render faster, photos load quicker, and sharing is much less painful...

New display panels in development could hint at larger iPhone, iPad and iWatch

If you've been watching the rumor mill over the last 6 months or so, you know that 2014 is expected to be huge for Apple. It's believed that both the iPhone and iPad will receive larger displays this year, and the highly anticipated iWatch could drop as early as this fall.

The highly-regarded NPD DisplaySearch added to the speculation this morning, issuing a new research note saying that its supply chain sources are tracking new display sizes with various resolutions in development that could be used in some of Apple's new devices...

LA school district approves $115M initiative to bring iPads to 38 campuses

The Los Angeles Board of Education has approved a plan to deploy Apple's iPad tablets to 38 campuses ahead of state tests in the spring, which is part of the school district's effort to equip additional classrooms with tablets and computers to "revolutionize instruction", The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

The proposal is worth an estimated $115 million - enough to purchase between 40,000 and 70,000 tablets for deployment across 38 campuses, as well as a bunch of laptops for seven high schools...

Judge approves anti-poaching agreement suit against Apple, Google and others

A few years ago, if you were a Silicon Valley engineer in high demand, landing a job at Apple, Google, Intel or other technology titans likely meant your career was stalling as a result of these companies conspiring to fix wages by not hiring each others’ employees. A probe by the Justice Department into these 'no solicitation' agreements led to a class-action lawsuit.

And after a federal appeals court refused to let the defendants appeal a class certification order, the affected Silicon Valley software and hardware engineers, programmers, animators, digital artists, web developers and other technical professionals have won clearance to pursue the collusion case as group, Reuters reported Wednesday...

Apple agrees to refund users in FTC settlement over unwanted in-app purchases

Parents whose kids were tricked into obtaining virtual items in iPhone and iPad games by way of the iOS In-App Purchase mechanism will get refunded over unwanted spending, according to Apple's settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The penalty dwarfs Google's $22.5 million fine in the Safari website tracking scandal.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was not pleased with the outcome, but acknowledged in a letter to employees that the company "has entered into a consent decree" over long-standing complaints over inappropriate charges in the App Store, alluding his company may have exhausted its legal options and didn't want to risk an enduring legal battle with the government...

Substrate Safe Mode updated with iOS 7, ARM64 support

Good news this morning for jailbreakers. Following the release of the new Mobile Substrate for iOS 7, Saurik has updated Substrate Safe Mode to be more friendly with the newer firmware and newer A7 devices like the iPhone 5s and iPad Air.

For those unfamiliar with it, Safe Mode is what prevents your device from entering a permanent crash cycle by giving you a chance to uninstall problematic packages. And until now, it wasn't behaving nicely with the Mobile Substrate update...

Apple Maps 3D Flyover coverage expanded in Marseille, Cape Town and Helsinki

Apple has already boosted 3D Flyover coverage of its Maps service in the United States, France and a bunch of other key markets around the world and today the company has expanded three-dimensional Flyover views in France, South Africa and Finland.

Customers residing in the cities of Marseille (France), Cape Town (South Africa) and Helsinki (Finland) can now take advantage of 3D Flyover maps, which Apple creates by crunching data obtained by sending a fleet of planes that capture high-resolution terrain imagery at multiple angles...

Chrome for iOS updated with data compression, Google Translate

Google announced an update for its mobile Chrome browser today, which will bring the app to version 32. The update brings about a handful of new features including data compression, Google's popular Translate feature and more.

The search giant says that the new data compression feature can reduce data usage by up to 50% while browsing the web on your device, using Chrome. And with Google Translate for iOS, you can translate full webpages on the go...