iDownloadBlog.com

Apple confirms January 10 ‘Red Friday’ sales event in major Asian markets

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 7, 2014

Apple has announced that it will be holding a one-day special sales event in a number of key Asian markets this coming Friday, January 10.

The promotion known as Red Friday is in celebration of the Lunar New Year, which refers to the beginning of the year in several calendars across Asia. The shopping event actually takes place three weeks before the Lunar New Year.

Red Friday is akin to Black Friday in the United States, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November) which unofficially marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the States.

And what surprises and discounts does Apple have in store for its customers in Asia? Read on for the full reveal...

Apple announces record-breaking App Store stats: $10B revenue in 2013 and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 7, 2014

Apple has just announced via a press release this morning that customers have spent north of $10 billion in the App Store in 2013, including over an astounding $1 billion in sales in December alone.

It was the best year for the App Store business thus far. The more than $10 billion in 2013 revenue should be music to developers' ears as Apple's platform continues to lead in terms of user engagement, stickiness, profitability and other metrics that matter.

And how much money did Apple pay to its "incredible developers," as the company put it, since the App Store's inception nearly seven years ago? Fifteen billion dollars (not a typo) - and that's after its customary 30 percent cut!

The company said developers really took advantage of the new iOS 7 APIs to overhaul their apps and mentioned successful App Store developers such as Evernote, Yahoo, Pinterest and a few others. The company also cast spotlight on some surprise 2013 hits such as Ellen DeGeneres’ Heads Up and hit games from international developers like Clumsy Ninja and Candy Crush Saga, which reached half a billion downloads in just a year...

Street Notes will get you ready for the most organized trip of your life

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

I know I’ve mentioned before how much I love lists. I am a big fan of organizing everything. I know it is silly, but I am not a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of girl. I like to know what is coming, even when I’m trying to plan a trip to go sit on a beach and do nothing.

Street Notes is an organization app that lets you prepare for your trip in advance by collecting and storing notes, websites, and other information to get you ready for the best, most organized trip of your life...

Loot Hero grinds its way onto your iOS device

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

I am a former World of Warcraft gamer. Technically, I’m a current player. I just haven’t logged in for a while. I know how monotonous grinding can be. Kill 10 of these to earn this token. Skin 20 of these to get another reward. Sometimes, you just want to loot without having to waste time killing mobs, one-by-one.

Loot Hero is a role-playing “grind fest” that takes the boring parts out and leaves you with nothing but super fast kills and lots of rewards…

How to access your calendar app from Notification Center

Sébastien Page ∙ January 6, 2014

You've probably noticed how you can access the Weather app just by tapping on the weather condition in the Today tab of Notification Center. If you've tried to do the same with the calendar app, then you probably realized that tapping on today's date in Notification Center doesn't do anything.

This is a minor annoyance that a new jailbreak tweak called TapTodaysCalendar is now eradicating...

SkipLock lets you bypass the Lock screen altogether

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Regular iDB readers may remember a tweak we talked about last year called SkipLock. SkipLock is a simple tweak that allows you to bypass the Lock screen of your device, unless it is password protected, or unless there is a pending notification on the screen, in which case, you will still have to slide to unlock your device.

An original idea by yours truly, and developed by famous jailbreak dev Filippo Bigarella, the tweak was only available on Filippo's repo and never made it to the public.

iOS 7 broke SkipLock so I asked Filippo if he could do something about it. A few minutes later, he came back to me with a .deb file which I quickly installed on my iPad mini, and it worked just as advertised. The good news is that SkipLock is now available on Cydia...

Apple to discuss holiday sales in January 27 conference call

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 9, 2016

According to the Apple Investor webpage, the company will hold a conference call on Monday, January 27, to discuss financial results of its first fiscal 2014 quarter. The call is scheduled at 2:00pm Pacific / 5pm Eastern Time.

Apple typically announces quarterly earnings via a press release issued half an hour ahead of these calls and we'll be providing around the clock coverage to make sure you're up to date on all matters concerning the company's business metrics.

The upcoming earnings report should be interesting on many levels as it will cover the all-important holiday season sales data for the iPhone 5s/5c, the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display...

CES 2014: Pebble announces next-generation ‘Pebble Steel’ smartwatch

Cody Lee ∙ January 6, 2014

For weeks, Pebble has been hinting that it had a big announcement coming up at CES, and today it finally let the cat out of the bag. The smartwatch-maker unveiled its next generation wearable, the Pebble Steel, with an all-new band and face design.

The Steel features a stainless steel body with a leather or steel band—a huge upgrade from the plastic used in the previous model— and a face covered with Gorilla Glass. The new Pebble is lighter, and has a thinner profile thanks to slimmer bezels...

iBeacons arrive to 200 grocery stores, including Safeway and Giant Eagle

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 6, 2014

By all accounts, 2014 should be the year of iBeacons, a Bluetooth 4.0 powered indoor micro-location technology that Apple created and the industry readily embraced. I mean, the CES itself is running a promotional scavenger hunt utilizing iBeacons, how's that for an endorsement?

And chip maker and Apple supplier Qualcomm is rolling out its own inexpensive iBeacons platform called Gimbal, another vote of confidence to the cross-platform nature of Apple's technology.

And now, inMarket announced the roll-out of iBeacons to about two hundred grocery store locations, including Safeway and Giant Eagle locations in Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland. What sets apart inMarket's implementation of iBeacons to others is the multi-retailer approach.

Although the system would only work with inMarket's own apps, the company plans to roll it out to brand partners and independent developers in the future, ensuring the consistent user experience across multiple retailers and coupon/reward apps...

Apple amends corporate bylaws following criticism over lack of female leaders

Cody Lee ∙ January 6, 2014

Bloomberg is reporting today that Apple has come under criticism from some of its major shareholders over the absence of women on its board and throughout its executive team. Specifically, Trillium Asset Management LLC and the Sustainability Group have engaged the company on the issue.

The shareholders have met with Apple a number of times over the past few months to address the its lack of diversity in top-level ranks. They intended to bring the issue to a vote at the February shareholder meeting, but Apple agreed to address the issue via new language in its corporate charter...

Amazon updates Kindle app with Flashcards and several improvements

Cody Lee ∙ January 6, 2014

Amazon posted a major update for its iOS Kindle client this afternoon, bringing the app to version 4.1. The update includes a number of new features, like Flashcards for students, and several improvements for things like search, X-Ray and Dictionary.

Perhaps one of the biggest changes in 4.1 is the new Flashcards feature. It's only available for print replica textbooks, but students can use the feature to convert important terms from X-Ray, or their own notes, into flashcard sets for studying...