AudioExplorer+ lets you extract audio from any app and import as a ringtone

Looking to create some awesome ringtones? Then look no further than AudioExplorer+, a new jailbreak tweak, which scans all of the apps you have installed on your device in search of audio files. You can then use the audio files found, and import them into iTunes and use as ringtones.

After a few minutes of usage, I can firmly say that AudioExplorer+ is worth its $1.99 asking price, especially if you're someone who likes to have custom ringtones. This means that any music contained with an app — whether it's an email client with a particular jingle that you enjoy, or the music from your favorite game — can be used as a ringtone, or saved to your iTunes library. Check inside for a demonstration as to how it works.

Apple’s smaller A5 chip is still being fabbed by Samsung

As we reported Monday, a retooled version of Apple's $99 set-top box has been found to have a die-shrunk version of the iPad 2's A5 chip rather than the A5X package, as previously speculated. Some market watchers even thought the new package is fabbed on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) new 28-nanometer process. However, after conducting a thorough analysis of the silicon under sophisticated microscopes, chip wizards over at Chipworks and Silicon-IP have determined that the new A5 package is being fabbed on Samsung's 32-nanometer process after all...

Alleged Google Now for iOS promo video surfaces on YouTube

This is pretty interesting. An alleged promotional video showcasing a Google Now—Google's impressive voice assistant that debuted in Android Jelly Bean last summer—for iOS app surfaced on YouTube this afternoon.

The big deal here is that while Google added some Now elements to its iOS Search app last fall, it kept location and contextual-based features exclusive to Android. But if the promo clip is real, that could be changing soon...

RokDock is the new iPhone throne [review + giveaway]

Rokform is quite a regular on the review stream around these parts and it should come as no surprise. Before you assume, no, this is not a sponsored post. Simply, Rokform makes extremely quality products and I am always impressed by them.

The most recent chunks of T-6061 aircraft grade aluminum that Rokform CNC machined into a usable hunk of metal is the RokDock. The heaviest accessory on my desk, the three pound dock is a hyper-masculine throne upon which my iPhone rests. The RokDock is just awesome, no need to complain about my open love affair with their products...

As smaller tablets catch on, IDC expects Android to overtake iPad in 2013

Research firm IDC today updated its tablet shipments forecast to reflect the growing popularity of low-cost tablets coming from the Android camp.

IDC now predicts that Android tablets will overtake the iPad in terms of volume during the course of 2013.

The firm pegged Apple's share of the global tablet market in 2012 at 51 percent, with Android-driven tablets accounting for 41.5 percent of shipments. The new forecast calls for Android’s share hitting a peak of 48.8 percent in 2013, mostly at the expense of Apple’s iOS predicted to drop down to 46 percent this year.

But why stop there, IDC futurists project tablet shipments nearly four years into the future: in 2017, they expect Android to own 46 percent of the market, with the iPad dropping to a 43.5 percent share. As we know all too well, Apple isn't one to blindly pursue market share, as evident in smartphones where it captures three-quarters of industry profits with barely one-tenth of total handset shipments...

iWatch concept, the traditional edition

Hot on the heels of releasing a set of renditions depicting what an iPhone 6 with a 4.6-inch screen might look like, 3D artist Martin Hajek is out with a new concept for the iWatch, Apple's rumored iOS-powered smartwatch that has been reportedly cooking in Jony Ive's kitchen for quite a time now.

Unlike a bunch of sci-fi renderings and some pretty radical mockups that couldn't be farther from the real thing (or so we hope, from the bottom of our hearts), Martin's new renderings featured on the April cover of the MacUser magazine employs a more traditional approach to what an everyman's app-enabled wristwatch should look like...

LinkedIn reportedly buying Pulse for up to $100 million

When word started spreading around yesterday that Pulse was about to be acquired by a "major platform" company, I would have guessed it was either Yahoo or Microsoft. The popular news reader app seems like it would be a great fit for either firm.

But according to the latest reports, the buyer is actually the social networking site for business professionals LinkedIn. The company has allegedly already sealed a deal with Alphonso Labs, the maker of Pulse, worth between $50-$100 million...

Twelve South launches sleek BookArc stand for iPad mini

Twelve South makes some of the finest and most beautifully designed accessories for Apple gear, such as its highly-regarded BookBook case series for the MacBook Air, iPad mini, iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5, the premium, nearly invisible SurfacePad iPhone sleeve or the charming PlugBug charging kit.

Today, Twelve South announced an iPad mini variant of its iPad stand. The arc-shaped BookArc stand looks like a piece of sci-fi furniture and is designed (like its MacBook Air counterpart) to support your iPad in either portrait or landscape on a bunch of flat surfaces...

Apple social networking patent would track your stalkers and spammers

Apple wants to get into social networking, but not as a rival to Facebook or Twitter. Instead, the iPhone maker envisions a way to better protect mobile users against spammers and stalkers.

Tuesday, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved a 2010 application for a friend service of sorts which could underlie current social networks.

The patent titled "Apparatus and method for efficiently managing data in a social networking service" describes methods for maintaining three databases which oversee friends within a network, handles for out-of-network contacts and a third to log changes. Among the potential advantages: preventing a flood of friend requests and ignoring contact attempts by stalkers...

FCC approves T-Mobile and MetroPCS merger

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just approved a merger between Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile and MetroPCS, an American mobile phone service provider formerly known as General Wireless. Though FCC head Julius Genachowski clearing the merger, it still has to be approved by MetroPCS shareholders to become official.

The FCC told Bloomberg that the merger will "benefit millions of American consumers and help the US maintain the global leadership in mobile it has regained in recent years." At any rate, it should help bring T-Mobile's struggling 4G LTE network online sooner than later...

Filippo Bigarella’s Harlem Shake now available on Cydia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDeibFpJk3U

Want a Harlem Shake on your Springboard like we showed you in yesterday's post? Then head over to Cydia right now, because Harlem Shake is now available to download for free. To activate the tweak, simply assign an Activator gesture to Harlem Shake, and have at it.

Vevo wants to become the next MTV, launches always-on broadcast channel

Today at SXSW, Vevo announced a 24/7 channel coming to your traditional television via the Roku set-top box and the Xbox gaming console, but also to the Vevo web site and mobile platforms like Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Microsoft's Windows Phone. As you know, Vevo streams official music videos licensed from record labels, both through its web site and via a dedicated YouTube channel, where most of its 52 million monthly uniques come from.

Vevo's mobile apps will be updated with an around-the-clock curated experience of original programming, including live concerts and television shows. The experience is being described as multicast, meaning everyone gets to watch the same programming at the exact same time, regardless of the platform they're accessing it from. Vevo TV will even feature a 24-hour schedule of static programming blocks, just like your regular dumb-ified tube...