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NFC/fingerprint sensor patent tips off exciting iPhone 5S Home button potential

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 9, 2013

Much has been made about the highly-expected iPhone 5S containing a fingerprint sensor within the Home button. Other talk has surrounded the promise of Near Field Communications (NFC) and Apple's off-and-on interest in the technology. It appears both a fingerprint sensor and NFC may join together to turn the next iPhone into an electronic wallet and more.

According to a new Apple patent that's surfaced in Europe, the iPhone 5S may include an updated Home button encircled by a ring which detects your finger. But this super-charged Home button also adds NFC, potentially replacing passwords and enabling secure wireless e-commerce, next-generation docks and other exciting opportunities...

NSA slides: Steve Jobs is Big Brother, Apple users are ‘zombies’

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 9, 2013

In case you missed our Sunday coverage of the newly exposed NSA tactics, the snooping agency - thanks to its secret 10-year initiative code-named Bullrun which runs at $250 million a year - has been able to successfully crack much of the Internet's widely-used encryption technologies to compromise everyone's online communications, banking transactions and other sensitive data.

And now, internal NSA slides from a 2010 report titled 'Exploring Current Trends, Targets and Techniques' and leaked by the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden shamefully depict iPhone customers as 'zombies'. As if that weren't enough, in a reference to the George Orwell book '1984' Steve Jobs himself is being portrayed as Big Brother...

VoiceChanger brings live voice effects to the Phone app

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

VoiceChanger is a new jailbreak tweak from Elias Limneos — the same developer that brought us Call Recording, and CallBar for the iPhone. Needless to say, he's a very experienced developer when it comes to getting more out of the average phone call on iOS.

As you've probably already figured out, his latest tweak allows users to change the sound of their voices while on a phone call. VoiceChanger allows callers to select between 4 different voice effects (plus the normal voice), and you can do so while on a live phone call. Have a look inside for more info.

Apple’s budget-minded iPhone 5C will fit T-Mobile ‘like a glove’

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 9, 2013

Apple's much-expected iPhone 5C, noted for its multi-colored plastic body and inexpensive price, could become known for something more: mortally wounding cellular contracts. The test could come this month as Apple unveils the less-expensive iPhone at around what analysts believe will be $400-$500, unsubsidized. For the first time, US carrier T-Mobile - which doesn't require subscribers sign a two-year contract - will go head-to-head against traditional carriers AT&T and Verizon.

Both carriers may lose customers to T-Mobile as all four domestic carriers offer the new iPhones simultaneously, analysts say. While both AT&T and Verizon provide a subsidy on the iPhone's price in return for a two-year contract, T-Mobile lauds its absence of such a requirement. T-Mobile began selling the iPhone in April of 2013...

Opera unveils new iPad-only browser, Coast

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 23, 2018

Opera Software, a Norwegian developer primarily known for its Opera family of web browsers with over 350 million users worldwide, today unleashed a brand new iPad browser.

It's called Coast and they're billing it as "the browser that should have come with the iPad." If anything, Coast strives to answer the question, "What should a tablet browser be?”

It's packed with advanced features and features an unassumingly minimalistic user interface. Opera insists it's not a mere mobile browser tweak, nor a scaled-down PC browser.

"It is something new," Opera teased Monday, although I'm not sure that's the right choice of words as Coast is based on Safari's WebKit engine, in accordance with App Store rules. Anyway, the new browser is based on intuitive swipe gestures and Opera claims to have invented a lot of technology that "works under the hood, keeping you safe and secure".

Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

Video of blue iPhone 5C up and running?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 12, 2016

The Chinese technology blog C Technology over the past week posted purported shots of the iPhone 5C packaging as well as an alleged video of the fully assembled and powered on red plastic iPhone 5C variant, running the stock iOS 7 Safari browser.

Monday morning, the blog posted another video apparently depicting a light blue iPhone 5C in action, running iOS 7. The short clip takes us through the Home screen, user interface transitions, Safari tabs, the Lock screen and other aspects of Apple's redesigned mobile operating system...

Amazon posts ‘required’ Kindle app update for users upgrading to iOS 7

Cody Lee ∙ Updated December 4, 2013

With the public release of iOS 7 on the horizon, users should expect to have to install a number of app updates over the next several weeks. Developers have a lot of work to do to prepare their apps for the big upcoming change.

Amazon took the first step this weekend, issuing what it is calling a 'required' update for its Kindle app. The company says that users of the popular e-book service must download the new version prior to upgrading to iOS 7...

Microsoft’s Xbox Music app now available in the App Store

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 12, 2018

Music fans can now add another streaming music service to their list of options on iOS. Microsoft quietly released an official app for its Xbox Music platform this weekend, which allows users to stream music to their iPhone or iPod.

The app features ad-free streaming from Microsoft’s stout catalog of over 10 million songs, with the ability to create custom stations and playlists. And of course, you can then sync those playlists with other Xbox Music-capable devices...

Instagram hits 150 million users as it prepares to introduce advertising

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 14, 2018

When Facebook first announced that it was purchasing Instagram last year, a lot of folks were afraid it would ruin the popular photo-sharing network. They feared Zuckerberg's group would come in, add a bunch of ads, and mess up the whole experience.

But here we are, nearly 18 months later, and nothing of the sort has happened yet. Instagram is thriving—in fact, it just announced that it has surpassed 150 million users—and there's not a single ad in sight. But that doesn't mean that they aren't coming...

Preview: VideoExplorer

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

VideoExplorer is an upcoming jailbreak tweak from the same developer that brought us AudioExplorer. As you might expect, the tweak works very much in the same way as AudioExplorer, in that it allows you to quickly identify all valid files stored on your iPhone.

From there, you can play, share, and import any of the video files available on your device. Files can even be taken directly from the apps you have installed. Have a look inside for a sneak preview showing how it all works.

NSA can hijack ‘most sensitive data’ on your iPhone, top secret files reveal

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has pretty much compromised every online user's security through a previously unknown ten-year program against encryption technologies that made "vast amounts" of collected data "exploitable."

After these shocking revelations came to light Thursday, a new report Sunday in German news weekly Der Spiegel has given the privacy scare a whole new meaning.

See, owners of iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices are at risk of their "most sensitive data" being fully exploitable because the NSA is able to crack protective measures of these systems, previously believed to be highly secure...

Martin Hajek’s vision of the Lord of the Rings iPhone 5S Home button

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

A pair of sketchy images posted Friday by the Chinese-language blog C Technology prompted quite a stir among technology denizens. If you haven't seen them already, the purported photographs show an odd-looking iPhone 5S packaging (likely Photoshop'd) sporting device graphics on the box's front. The most curious aspect of it: a redesigned Home button, without the square in the middle and with a silver ring around it.

The photos led armchair analysts to postulate that the ring is actually a fingerprint sensor - nevermind that virtually every single rumor points to the sensor being actually built underneath the Home button. Anyway, here's 3D artist Martin Hajek's awesome Lord of the Rings mockup which draws from the supposedly "leaked" packaging...