The internet was set ablaze last weekend with rumors that Google's close to acquiring the WhatsApp team and its popular messaging app. One report claimed that negotiations went on for several weeks, and a deal was finally reached for $1 billion.
Not so fast. According to a new report, the two companies aren't even holding talks right now, let alone discussing a buyout. WhatsApp's business development head Neeraj Arora told AllThingsD last night that the Google acquisition rumors are false...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fpggknHC2c
When it comes to UI design, Google up until recently used to make what you'd call Spartan programs, more often than not resembling old-school software your parents might use. What a difference a leadership change makes: after co-founder Larry Page took over from Eric Schmidt as Google's CEO in April 2011, we started noticing radical changes to how the Internet giant approaches app design.
I think it is safe to say that some of Google's contemporary iOS apps are starting to look arguably better than Apple's. But what's so special about Google's newly found design language? To answer that question, Google recently uploaded an interesting video to its Life at Google channel on YouTube. The entire clip is dedicated to highlighting how the new app design philosophy lends itself to the nimble, streamlined and interactive search experience on the Apple tablet...
As most of you have probably heard by now, Apple pulled the popular app discovery app AppGratis over the weekend. There's been a few reasons given for the removal, including notification abuse, but not much else has been said about the situation.
Until today, that is. AppGratis CEO Simon Dawalt took to the company's blog this morning to talk about the recent removal of his team's app, and shed some light on what it means for them moving forward. And to be honest, it doesn't look good...
Panic is one of my favorite Mac developers, was even more so in the pre-iPhone days when top-notch Mac apps were somewhat few and far between.
Now, Panic has successfully transitioned itself to the world of concurrent Mac/iOS development, having released a very nice iOS SSH app aptly named Prompt.
And if you're a web developer, an iPad version of Coda is a must-have. The firm has kept mum on its future iOS releases, but they've been obviously working behind the scenes on a major new app. Both a tweet and the Panic web site now tease the upcoming software, with a ticker on panic.com reading "current status: this Wednesday, a brand new iPad app from Panic."
UPDATE: we think we know what the app is about and you're going to love it! Go past the fold for the full disclosure...
Velox is an upcoming jailbreak tweak that I've had my eye on for months. I've been anticipating the release of this tweak for a very long time, because I think it has the potential to make a huge impact on the jailbreak community.
Rarely does a jailbreak tweak come along that has the capability to change the way that you use your device. A very exclusive number of tweaks belong to that group, and Velox has the potential to crash the party.
Yes, Velox is in the same hemisphere, and it contains, perhaps even more long term potential than Auxo. That's because it's a completely different type of tweak that can interact with multiple apps, and features its own API for extended development.
Primarily, Velox is a tweak that allows you to interact with apps on your Home screen in order to check notifications without opening Notification Center. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Velox also features custom "folders" that can be individually tailored for specific apps. Each of these folders can be accessed using a simple swipe up or swipe down gesture on the app icon that you wish to interact with.
What does this mean? It means that if I swipe up on the Settings app, a folder containing settings toggles is revealed. It means that if I swipe down on the Camera app, the camera is revealed in a folder right there on my Home screen. Trust me, reading these words just doesn't do it justice; you have to see it in action to really appreciate the potential here. Thankfully, I've got an exclusive hands-on video to showcase how it works...
I use my MacBook and iPhone all day, every day. If I'm not on one, I'm on the other, and sometimes I'm on both. So I'm constantly using features like iCloud's Safari tab sync to ensure a streamlined experience as I switch between devices.
The sync feature itself, which Apple introduced last year in iOS 6, works great. But I have to admit, it would be nice if it wasn't buried in mobile Safari's Bookmarks menu. Luckily, that's not a problem anymore with this new jailbreak tweak...
Apple's former SVP of Retail Ron Johnson just got booted as the CEO of JC Penney over dismal earnings and for failing to sprinkle a little bit of Apple's magic dust to fix the retailer's depressing mid-range brick-and-mortar department store biz.
And in a fitting twist of fate, it just so happens that Apple, where Johnson spent a decade refining the retail experience which is epitomized in the Genius Bar concept, has been struggling to find a suitable replacement to Johnson for nearly two years now.
We're asking you to take a moment, asses the situation and make an educated guess as to whether Tim Cook should make an offer to Johnson or just ignore him in order not to send the wrong kind of message, that people can leave Apple on a whim resting assured the company would always take them back...
Ron Johnson, 54, Apple's former SVP of Retail and the guy largely attributed with turning the beleaguered computer maker into America's greatest retailer at the turn of the century, nearly two years ago left Cupertino to take the job as president of the mid-range department store chain J.C. Penney.
He was supposed to apply some of Apple's secret magic sauce to JC Penney's outdated retail stores. But alas, the company instead has continued to struggle under his leadership and has experienced its worst sales year in more than two decades. Johnson’s Apple experience obviously didn’t translate well to Penney’s customer base of bargain hunters. Hopefully, Tim Cook still has Johnson on speed dial...
Trying to find a decent Lock screen theme in Cydia is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. There are thousands of them in there, and there are way more bad ones than there are good. So you're forced to spend hours browsing.
But what if I told you there was an app in the App Store that, when coupled with a jailbreak theme, allowed you to either create your own custom Lock screen themes, or download hundreds of free themes, with a few quick taps?
Well, such an app exists. And if you haven't seen it yet, this post is going to make your day...
HBO's free iOS streaming software is a nice companion app provided you're already subscribed to the service.
And if you believe the continuing ramblings, the Time Warner-owned premium cable network is considering offering additional subscription options in the not-so-distant future, potentially allowing cable-cutters to subscribe to HBO for online-only access.
In the meantime, HBO has updated its Go app for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with two new useful features. The first will appeal to the fans of HBO's Game of Thrones series as they can now enjoy enhancements related to the show's interactive experience. The other improvement includes AirPlay multitasking capability. What's that, you ask?
Apple thus far has filed for a number of patents related to mobile payments, all seemingly pointing to a unified mobile payments solution dubbed iWallet. The most recent filing details a new transaction patent which goes to great lengths highlighting methods for conducting and managing financial transactions on smartphones such as the iPhone, giving hope that Apple engineers could in fact be secretly developing an on-the-go financial transactions service aimed at owners of iOS devices.
Titled "A method for conducting a financial transaction," it focuses on Apple's previous iWallet patent claims, with one publication suggesting that Apple could now be one step closer to launching a mobile payments solution on iOS devices, uite possibly based on NFC technology, which stands for Near-Field Communications...
Last summer, Apple acquired AuthenTec, a Florida-based smart sensor company known for its embedded security and identity management technology. The news of the acquisition has sparked speculation that we will see fingerprint sensors in future iOS devices.
And Apple itself is adding fuel to that fire today, with a new job listing posted on its website. Apparently the Cupertino company is looking for a software engineer to join its team of fingerprint sensor engineers down in Melbourne, Florida at AuthenTec's headquarters...