Is South Korea's Samsung preparing to settle ongoing mobile patent disputes with Apple, perhaps curtailing the firm's dependance on smart phones for future profits?
That's the conjecture as Samsung's chairman prepares to meet reporters later this week, following comments on returning from a three-month trip to Japan and Hawaii.
According to one South Korean newspaper, "several pending issues" will be on the plate of Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee...
WhatsApp, the cross-platform instant messaging application for smartphones, is rumored to be close to negotiating a landmark acquisition deal with Google. Sources reportedly close to the negotiations claim the Internet giant is considering dropping a whopping one billion dollars on the popular service that as of March 2013 had a cool 200 million users, a hundred million ones on Android alone.
The report ties nicely with talk of a new instant messaging brand from Google called Babble, and even more so given Facebook with its new Home UI layer for select Android devices is basically encouraging its one billion users to use its Messenger service right from their Lock screen or from whichever app they happen to be using at any give moment...
Enough has been said about so-called Apple dictatorship and app rejections on iDB so far and although I, for one, am usually first to support Apple in its curation efforts because it keeps junk away from the App Store, sometimes the company rejects submissions for competing with its own software or over offering a feature Apple plans on introducing in the near future.
Now, Apple's been after various app discovery apps for some time, even more so in this latest example involving AppGratis, a service which curates programs from the App Store and makes paid apps free for a day via revenue-sharing deals with their creators.
In fact, it's the revenue-sharing scheme which appears to go against Apple's rule which forbids software providing access to other third-party programs by using marketing tactics similar to Apple's App Store promotions...
Apple, along with Google and five other Silicon Valley technology heavy-weights, has won a court order blocking a potentially devastating class-action antitrust lawsuit concerning alleged anti-poaching conspiracy.
Bloomberg reported that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh Friday denied class action certification over accusations that said companies illegally conspired not to recruit one another’s employees, which the plaintiffs said resulted in their incomes being held down by their employers...
Like every Sunday, we bring you the stories that were the most popular on iDB during this past week. Whether it is a news piece, an editorial, a tutorial, a new jailbreak tweak, or an accessory review, we sum it all up in one convenient place.
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Pod2g confirms evad3rs are not working on 6.1.3 jailbreak iOS 7 rumored to be running behind due to major UI refresh New iOS 7 concept shows off quick reply, widgets and other features Customize your Lock screen with widgets and more with LockHTML 2 ‘TouchPal’ is a free Swype inspired jailbreak tweak LS Climacons, a tranquil theme for your Lock screen WeatherIcon comes alive for iOS 6 LockLauncher 2.0 is out with support for iOS 6 and iPhone 5 I just tested out a very early version of Badger Apple rep says Steve Jobs helped design next two iPhones Preview BlackBerry 10 on your iPhone now Turn ordinary photos into extraordinary iPhoneography with texturesOf course, don't forget to listen to the latest episode of our podcast, Let's Talk Jailbreak:
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Former ad man and longtime Apple consultant Ken Segall has been very critical of his old company in recent months. And he continues that trend with a new blog post called 'iPhone naming: when simple gets complicated.'
In the post, Segall argues that Apple screwed up the way it names its handsets—particularly on the 'S' models. He says that iPhones marked with an 'S' not only look awkward, but also send a weak message to consumers...
In a decision issued on March 26, but kept classified until earlier this week, an International Trade Commission judge found Samsung to be infringing on Apple's US RE41,922 patent that covers things like text selection and translucent buttons.
It's only a preliminary decision, and the judge only found Samsung guilty of infringement on one of two patents listed in the complaint. But if the decision gets upheld, Samsung could once again be looking at a major product ban in the US...
Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the only people in the world that doesn't use biteSMS. Don't get me wrong, I really like some of the tweak's features, like quick reply and compose. But in my experience, it's not very stable and tends to clash with the stock Messages app.
That being said, you can understand my excitement when I saw 'Messages' pop up in my Cydia stream today. The new jailbreak tweak, by Ma Jun (the creator of Bulletin), offers up biteSMS-like quick compose and reply features, without all of the extra biteSMS fluff...
What do you get when you take a jailbreak tweak that can clear an app's notification badges, and cross it with one that can clear its cache, backup and restore its data, and more? Easy, Icon Tool.
Icon Tool is a new tweak by developer ioshack that offers up all of the above-mentioned options in one easy to access menu. Simply put your device into wiggle mode, and triple tap on an app icon...
Welcome back to another installment of Lessons in iPhone Photography here at iDownloadBlog. After seeing the amazing images you have been sharing on Instagram, it is clear you are all enjoying your newly discovered creativity. In today's lesson I hope to share a new idea to fuel your own creative adventures. Today's lesson is a bit subjective, but I hope you learn a new idea and use it to make some of your own magic.
A fun way to add interest and mystery to your iPhone imagery is the use of textures. What are textures, you ask? In short, the idea is to take an image of the texture you might find in a burlap sack, brick wall, etc. Apply it over your original image so that only the texture can be seen and not the color. That's pretty much the idea behind it, but it might be better just to look at an example...
Without a doubt, one of the biggest differences between iOS and Android is its fundamental handling of information. Google decided to allow widgets onto a phone's Home screen so that, theoretically, users would have the information they need right at their fingertips. Apple, on the other hand, has doggedly stuck to its guns over the years, with iOS remaining a collection of app icons rather than live widgets.
Over the years there have been plenty of arguments amongst those in the tech community as to which was the best way to go. Android users will repeatedly point to widgets as one of the main reasons they prefer their phones over the iPhone or even one of the Windows Phone handsets. Sitting halfway between iOS and Android, Windows Phone features live tiles that offer up information from the phone's Home screen a la widgets, but that's just not enough for some. It's widgets or nothing, man, and that's the way it is.
But iOS users can have their cake and eat it. They can have widgets on their home screens just like Android users, whilst still having that iPhone they so love. But the real question is: should they? Even if they should, I'd argue that fewer people actually would than we might think...
I'm a big fan of the Panorama capture feature that was added in iOS 6. I'd like to be able to use it while holding my iPhone in landscape mode, but other than that I think Apple did a great job with it.
It doesn't always work very well in low-light conditions though. And that's where the jailbreak tweak LLBPano comes in. It enables Low-light mode on the iPhone 5 when taking panoramic photos...