Upcoming jailbreak tweak lets you unlock your iPhone with virtual NES controller

Over the years, we've seen some pretty cool jailbreak tweaks that allow you to unlock your device in unique ways. There's PatternUnlock, which allows you to unlock your device by drawing a pattern, and Piano Passcode, which lets you do it by playing a tune.

And today we're adding a new one to the list, which might just be the coolest of them all. It's called NESUnlocker, and it's a new jailbreak tweak that allows you to unlock your iPhone by entering in a custom sequence of button presses on an NES controller...

How Samsung is beating Apple in China

Reuters:

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook believes that "over the arc of time" China is a huge opportunity for his pathbreaking company. But time looks to be on the side of rival Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, which has been around far longer and penetrated much deeper into the world's most populous country.

Some great insights in this article where the authors break down how Samsung is outdoing Apple in China. In shorts, it all comes down to the different strategy Samsung adopted in China: multiple devices with low to high prices, creating "perceived innovation", a large retail presence, and maintaining good relationships with carriers.

Apps of the week: djay 2, Iron Force, rithm, and more

As the summer heat reaches its full potential, we are left sweaty, exhausted, and ready for a nice, long weekend. To beat the heat, I’ll be heading to the coast for a comfortable few days of drinking, eating, and playing Cards Against Humanity with 20 of my nerdiest friends. I probably won’t be touching my iPhone for 72 hours.

If you are stuck in the middle of a heat wave, or just want something to occupy you over the weekend, we have a list of apps and games to make you feel as unproductive as possible…

Instagram users hacked by smoothie spammer [update]

If you've been having trouble logging into your Instagram account this morning, or have noticed any strange photos posted to your stream, you're not alone. Several users are reporting that they've been hacked on the popular photo sharing network.

Reports first started surfacing about the issue on Twitter around 11PM last night, according to a report by The Verge. Users who suffered attacks complained that unauthorized photos along with strange URLs had been posted to their accounts...

Morning: a dashboard for your iPad

I love my iPad. I love watching movies, playing games, and reading magazines on it. I set it on my nightstand at night and display a clock with the sounds of the ocean in the background. I could sit and stare at my iPad all day. Sometimes I do.

Especially when I have an app like Morning. This app displays all of the important information that I need to know throughout the day in bright, bold colors on my iPad and it looks great…

Apple TV vs. Roku vs. Chromecast content options

On Wednesday this week, Google unveiled a handful of new products. There's the second generation Nexus 7 tablet, Android 4.3, and the Chromecast TV dongle. The latter has proved rather popular, selling out in most online stores within the first 72 hours.

The accessory is very similar to the Apple TV, or the Roku box, as it lets you stream Internet content to your television. That content varies, however, depending on which product you go with. So we thought this breakdown of their differences was worth a look...

‘UnthreadedJB’ untethered jailbreak released for CDMA iPhone 4 on iOS 5.1

Make sure you read that title very carefully before you get too excited. Yes, there's a new jailbreak out, and yes, it's untethered. But odds are, you're not going to fit its compatibility requirements. It only works for CDMA versions of the iPhone 4, and the app only runs on Linux.

It's called UnthreadedJB, and it's developed by a group of people under the same name. To be fair, this is the first untethered jailbreak we've seen for iOS 5.1—I believe Absinthe 2.0 was for iOS 5.1.1—so it doesn't come without acclaim. And several users have confirmed that it works...

New Nexus 7 vs iPad mini comparison [Video]

The new Nexus 7 has touched down in stores, and it's a pretty compelling little device at $229 for the base 16GB Wi-Fi unit. It's much improved over its predecessor in nearly every facet, and will likely become a thorn in Apple's side as time goes on without a significant iPad mini (Retina) refresh.

With that all said, the iPad mini still has a few distinct advantages over Google's latest offering. Its main advantage is readily apparent, as its screen size completely dwarfs the smaller screen of the Nexus 7. Interestingly enough, the bezel on the older iPad mini is still smaller on all four sides when compared to the Nexus 7. Lastly, the iPad mini is still thinner than the Nexus 7. By themselves, all of these advantages may not amount to much in the eyes of consumers, but when compared side by side, they all add up for a pretty intense debate regarding which is superior.

Make no mistake though, in terms of sheer power and screen prowess, this is no competition. After comparing the two, running benchmarks, playing games, etc, it's evident that Apple has a legitimate competitor on its hands when it comes to the low end of the tablet market. Check inside as I compare both the new Nexus 7 and the iPad mini in our hands-on video walkthrough.

Apple says Motorola asked for more than 12 times going rate to license its patents

As Apple continues to hold unfruitful settlement talks with Samsung, it seems to have reached an impasse with Motorola as well. The iPad-maker has submitted a new court filing, accusing the Google-owned company of overcharging for its standards essential patents.

The complaint lodged against Motorola was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit today, as part of Apple's opening brief in an appeal effort. Apple wants the court to force Motorola—which is Google at this point—to license its technology at a fair price...

Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto games are 40% off until July 30

Don't declare the weekend yet before taking a closer look at a nice little promotion the merry fellows at Rockstar Games have put together for us, avid iOS gamers. I'm sure you're aware that Rockstar makes some of the finest games around for the iPhone and iPad.

Earlier this week, the UK-based developer kicked off a time-limited promotion where its Max Payne first-person bullet-time shooter is half price now. Also 40 percent off: three Grand Theft Auto Games for the iPhone and iPad, including the awesome Vice City.

Your download links are right below...

How to customize Twitter sharing text from Safari

Would you like to be able to customize the share text that appears when sharing a link from Safari using Twitter? If so, then there's a new jailbreak tweak available that allows you to do just that. SafariSharePatcher is a beta tweak that's not available on the default Cydia repos just yet. It allows you to customize text by means of a handy preference panel located in the settings app. Have a look inside to see what I mean.

Dev Center is back!

Apple's Dev Center has been knocked down for more than a week following an attempted breach last Thursday that exploited an iAd Workbench vulnerability, warrantying an emergency shutdown.

Seven top priority sub-systems have gone back up this afternoon (scammers won't like this), with eight more to follow suit soon.

I'd checked the portal out briefly prior to publication and nothing seemed out of ordinary. Most major sub-systems seem to be working now, with current iOS and OS X betas available for downloaded as if nothing had happened.

New betas of iOS 7, Xcode 5 and OS X Mavericks should become available after Apple brings the remaining systems online. It was just yesterday that Apple updated us on the outage and posted a brand new Dev Center System Status page...