Best travel apps for iPhone

Around this time of the year, families are preparing to hit the road, over the mountains and through the woods. Holidays mean travel. You may be only be a few hours away from the in-laws, or you may be thousands of miles from home.

If you are planning a trip this Thanksgiving, or anytime in the future, you can use your iPhone to take care of pretty much all of the arrangements. Whether you want a great deal on a hotel, recommendations on good eats, or are planning an all-inclusive trip to the Bahamas without the kids, we’ve got a list of the best travel apps that will help make that come true…

Wallpapers of the week: whimsical aura borealis

Another Sunday, another set of reader wallpapers. Each week readers submit different kinds of wallpapers, from completely graphic to photographs to abstract modifications. It is great to see what type of artwork our iDB readers regularly produce.

The posts also spur excellent conversation in the comments section. While all of the feedback is not completely useful, we do keep an eye on the reactions below. Criticism and negative comments are not useful without a suggestion for progress. However, some readers help guide the section with their constructive feedback. This week, we present two manipulated photographs by Anxanx. Take a look inside for the full downloads...

Developer ports iOS core to Nokia N900

Winocm, the developer leading the work on the iOS 6.1.3/4 jailbreak, has managed to port iOS to a non-Apple device. The photo you see above is the iOS core, known as the "XNU Kernel," running on a Nokia N900 smartphone.

The port is extremely primitive, as it doesn't include any of iOS’s or OS X’s user-interface elements and cannot be run as a useable operating system. But it does signal a major development for the ongoing open source project...

Apple updates Genius Bar reservation page with new self-help option

Apple products, for the most part, have a reputation of 'just working.' The company controls the entire experience, from hardware to software, and takes other measures to ensure that there is little room for consumer error.

But as with all electronics, sometimes things don't just work and you need help. And while Apple is known for its in-store Genius service, it's launched a new initiative encouraging users to stay home and get help online...

Red Mac Pro designed by Jony Ive, Marc Newson sells for $977,000 at auction

Remember that beautiful, one-of-a-kind red Mac Pro designed by Apple's Jony Ive and Marc Newson we told you about last month? Well it and several other items designed by the pair sold this weekend at their Sotheby’s (RED) Auction in New York.

And as with most high-profile charity auctions, the selling prices for most of these items were pretty ridiculous. The Mac Pro, for example, was expected to sell for between $40,000 and $60,000, but it ended up selling for just shy of a million dollars...

Concept video imagines what the iPhone 6 could be

Things have started to get out of hand very quickly with iPhone concepts over the last few months, so we decided to slow down our coverage of them. As a matter of fact, I don't believe we've published one iPhone concept since last June.

Today we're making an exception for this iPhone 6 concept by Arthur Reis...

How to switch to T-Mobile the right way

I recently reached the uneventful end to my two and a half year run with Verizon Wireless. After flirting with the possibility for a few weeks, I decided to take the jump, and port my phone numbers over permanently to T-Mobile. I guess you could say that I fell for a very effective marketing strategy, but it's hard to argue with the fact that I will be saving a bunch of money each month by switching.

My current Verizon bill is approximately $165 every month; that's with two iPhones, and an iPad. A comparable setup on T-Mobile should position me well within the $100 range, effectively saving me around the ballpark of $60 each month.

Granted, this isn't a cookie cutter solution for everyone; there's tons to consider before taking the plunge, but I think it will work out nicely for me. It could work out nicely for you too, as long as you take into consideration a few important points...

16/32GB Wi-Fi Retina iPad mini shipping times slip to 5-10 days

Apple's iPad mini with Retina display used to ship in 1-3 business days for the more popular versions with sixteen and 32 gigabytes of storage, with the more capacious variants with 64 and 128 gigabytes of storage being delivered in 5-10 days.

In another development that won't please holiday shoppers, the entry-level 16GB Retina iPad mini along with its 32GB variant have become harder to come by as shipping estimates on the online Apple Store slip to 5-10 days. Matter of fact, now all capacities, colors, wireless and carrier models (Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + Cellular) of the iPad mini with Retina display are shipping in 5-10 days...

Apps of the Week: Oceanhorn, Boxer, Flight Track 5, and more

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away? I could swear that Father Time is sitting in his dusty old study, moving the clock hands forward during this holiday season. I don’t even have my meal plan ready yet.

If you are looking for a new email client, want to do a little coding, or have a hankering for classic video game ports, we have a few apps that will make you smile this weekend…

Improve Do Not Disturb with ‘DNDPro’

DNDPro is a new jailbreak tweak from dba Technologies. It serves to improve iOS's native Do Not Disturb capabilities by letting you control notifications while using certain apps.

DNDPro offers more granular control than the stock Do Not Disturb functionality. You can decided to disable all alerts while within a specific app, or only let banner notifications through.

If you like Do Not Disturb, but don't feel like it caters enough to power users, DNDPro is a tweak that should pique your interest. Have a look inside as we break down its features.

Google+ gains full-res photo/video backup, location sharing, inline translation and more

The search monster Google has posted another update to its Google+ app for the iPhone and iPad, this time bringing a new iOS 7 perk: the ability to upload your iOS Camera roll photos and videos automatically and in glorious full resolution, to a private album on Google+ Photos, viewable only by you (unless specified otherwise). This brings the iOS app to parity with its Android counterpart.

It's really useful because your photos get sent to the cloud in the background, even if you haven't opened the app. You could previously enable Camera backup in Google+, but this would not back up full resolution images and the app would upload for only a few minutes after it quit.

It's a very interesting addition that turns the Google+ thing into a viable cloud backup of your iOS Camera roll. This Google+ update comes with other tweaks and nice-to-haves so jump past the fold if you're interested to learn more...

Amazon app redesigned for iOS 7

Just in time for the holidays, Amazon has redesigned its iPhone and iPad app for iOS 7. The update comes a week before Black Friday—the beginning of the biggest shopping weekend of the year for most retailers.

The app gives users virtually full access to the ecommerce giant's staggering selection of products, which ranges from electronics to clothes, and everything in between. And now it looks right at home on iOS 7 devices...