iDownloadBlog.com

Official: Apple’s boss Tim Cook to testify for four hours in e-books trial

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 13, 2013

This past Sunday, Bloomberg reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook may be required to testify in an antitrust lawsuit the United States Department of Justice filed against it and major e-book publishers over an alleged price fixing of e-books. Reuters confirms today that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan granted the Justice Department's request to compel Cook to sit for a deposition.

The Judge said the death of Jobs was a key reason in ordering the deposition. Cook will be testifying for four hours in the lawsuit, a risky move for the CEO and potentially damaging to Apple. The Cupertino company is now the main target of the suit after all named publishers had settled with regulators...

Security firm says iOS configuration profiles pose malware threat

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

Last week, Apple's Marketing SVP Phil Schiller tweeted out a link to a mobile malware report that showed Android devices accounted for a staggering 79% of new mobile threats last year, while iOS devices accounted for just 0.7%.

Of course, the fact that he tweeted the link was far more surprising than the report's data. After all, we've known for years that Android is far more susceptible to mobile malware than iOS. Right? Security experts say not so fast...

Netflix rolls out the improved social experience to US viewers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc82e7GGHl8#!

Netflix, the popular provider of on-demand Hollywood movies and television shows, Wednesday showed off a slew of new features aimed at making the experience more social and engaging. After being available internationally for well over a year, Netflix customers in the United States can now finally connect their Netflix account with Facebook.

This enables you to check out what your friends are watching and optionally share your favorite shows with them. Interestingly enough, there's a new Do Not Share button to mark those kinky videos you don't want your parents to know about. More Social Settings are available in Your Account on Netflix.com, where you can turn on additional sharing to Facebook or stop sharing altogether...

Teardown reveals the Pebble isn’t repairable at all

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 13, 2013

Perhaps in a slight indication of the kinds of limitations we could expect from Apple's rumored iWatch, repair wizards over at iFixit tore apart the Pebble smartwatch, having concluded that the components are so densely packed in such a tiny space that the gizmo is not repairable at all. As a result, iFixit refrained from giving the Pebble a repairability score in the first place.

And because the makers of the Pebble smartwatch had to use excessive adhesive for waterproofing, the battery is “very inaccessible” and there's no way of prying open the device “without compromising the display”...

Samsung outspent Apple in 2012 smartphone marketing by $68 million

Ed Sutherland ∙ March 13, 2013

For years, the knock (unfairly) against Apple has been its slick marketing was what pushed sales. A report earlier this week put a dent in that urban myth, showing South Korea's Samsung outpaced the iPhone maker in terms of self-promotion.

Samsung spent $401 million to promote its mobile devices in the U.S. during 2012, above Apple's $333 million during the same period, according to the Wall Street Journal. Although Apple's brand is much better known, Samsung is pouring money toward raising brand awareness in the U.S. market, trying to overcome the lead the iPhone already has.

Indeed, Samsung's marketing budget may be cutting into its profits - spending that will only increase as sales of the company's smartphones climb, say analysts...

Android head Andy Rubin steps down, Chrome VP Sundar Pichai takes the reins

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 13, 2013

In a totally unexpected move, Google Wednesday announced its long-time Android head and Senior Vice President of Mobile and Digital Content, Andy Rubin, is stepping down.

He will be replaced by Chrome vice president Cundar Pichai, who will lead Android, in addition to his existing work with Chrome and Apps. Google CEO Larry Page wrote in a blog post he expects Pichai to "double down on Android", noting "the pace of innovation has never been greater".

Despite Android's indisputable lead in terms of device activations, latest data suggests that Apple's iOS stole some share from Google's mobile platform in the United States, the most important market for smartphones. The iOS platform is also the preferred choice for developers because Apple leads in terms of metrics that matter.

The decision to replace Rubin at the height of his career cries for parallels with Apple CEO Tim Cook's firing of iOS boss Scott Forstall in August 2012, whose abrasive management style is said to have created unnecessary friction between key Apple executives...

Let’s Talk Jailbreak – 01: Thanks Alyssa Milano!

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

It's been a long time in the making, (remember this?), but we have finally started our first weekly podcast. This particular podcast, entitled Let's Talk Jailbreak, will be focused mostly on jailbreaking, and the jailbreak community. We hope to have some great developers and influential members of the community on soon. In this first episode, we talk to iDB founder Sebastien Page, as he gives us a high level overview of iDownloadBlog.

Automatic Link in-car dongle brings your car’s diagnostics to iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 12, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AyXNeRbpRk

Automatic today announced an interesting new dongle which connects to your iPhone and leverages its Bluetooth connection to retrieve some useful data from your car’s onboard computer, adding a dash of Google Maps and gas pricing info so you can plan your trips and track fuel efficiency, but also keep tabs on your vehicle's critical data, check those engine alerts with actionable recommendations and more.

It connects to your car's OBD-II Data Link Connector to retrieve fuel, mileage and engine data and beam it to your iPhone via Bluetooth. A companion iPhone app combines this data with your GPS location, current fuel pricing and map data to track your drives, offer assistance for a bunch of issues and even automatically call 911 and your family members in an unfortunate case of a car accident...

Chrome for iOS updated to fix jailbreak-related startup crash

Cody Lee ∙ March 12, 2013

Last week, Google rolled out an update for its Chrome browser on iOS. The update included a new sharing feature, the ability to quickly view your browsing history, and unfortunately, a major bug for jailbroken devices.

Users on jailbroken iPhones and iPads noticed that after installing the update, Chrome would crash upon startup. And it's a good thing we found a fix for it when we did, because Google is just now getting around to it...

PPSSPP: The first PSP emulator for iOS

Jeff Benjamin ∙ March 12, 2013

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELqzUY-SZEA

PPSSPP is a PSP emulator that looks quite amazing. Yes, the framerate is slow, but that's to be expected for an early build of a hardware emulator. The fact that this is running a PSP game (Wipeout Pure), and it looks almost exactly like it does on the PSP, is pretty incredible.

According to the audible YouTube commentary, the emulator is running so slow, because it's using interpreter instead of Just In Time compilation (JIT), which would increase performance significantly. If the developer, Henrik Rydgard of Dolphin Emulator fame, and the rest of the development community can solve this issue, then we'll have a pretty solid PSP emulator on our hands.

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

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 11, 2018

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

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

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...