Apple awarded design patents for slide-to-unlock feature, iPhone 3GS

When Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone back in 2007, he had a blast showing off the handset to the Macworld audience. And one feature he particularly enjoyed demonstrating was the phone’s 'slide-to-unlock' unlocking mechanism.

Apple has since been extremely protective of the feature, going after both Motorola and Samsung for using similar unlock methods. And it's just strengthened its IP portfolio regarding the feature, with a newly granted design patent...

iTransmission 3 released, a BitTorrent client exclusive to iOS 6

One of the utilities you aren't going to find in iTunes is a fully featured BitTorrent client. While BitTorrent doesn't have the best reputation in mainstream media, not all torrents constitute piracy and not all piracy occurs over BitTorrent. A good BitTorrent client is handy to have, and their absence on iTunes provides savvy users with another reason to jailbreak.

iTransmission 3 isn't just an update of the popular iOS BitTorrent client with support for iOS 6 thrown in. The jailbreak app comes complete with an improved UI, an updated backend, and exclusive compatibility with iOS 6...

Popular Reddit client Alien Blue receives major update

Reddit, as you know, is a social news and entertainment aggregation website that is ranked among some of the most popular in the world. Unfortunately, its official client for iOS leaves a lot to be desired, as it hasn't been updated since 2011.

But luckily, the folks of Morrissey Exchange are committed to providing a proper mobile Reddit experience with Alien Blue. The app is considered by many to be the goto client for the popular website, and it just got a whole lot better...

Google testing own built Retina Chromebook?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2dhMKSKGBg

Word on the street, based on a Google+ post by developer François Beaufort, is that Google is developing a Retina-fied Chromebook featuring a 2,560-by-1,700 resolution (that's four million pixels for those counting). Surprisingly enough, it would file as the first Google-built notebook as today's Chromebooks are built by Samsung, Acer and Hewlett-Packard.

For reference, Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has a 2,560-by-1,600 resolution (2,880-by-1,800 on the 15-inch variant). Unlike the MacBook Pro, this so-called Chromebook Pixel will apparently have touch capabilities of some sort...

Dropbox’s new Sync API lets apps treat cloud files as if they were local

The hot cloud storage startup Dropbox today announced a new application programming interface (API) for in-app synch. It makes programmers' life much easier by letting their native iOS/Android apps treat users' cloud-based files as if they were stored locally.

"Give your app its own private Dropbox client and leave the syncing to us", Dropbox proclaims.

By way of plugging in the API, apps can easily gain rich features such as file sharing and seamless real-time syncing akin to the Documents in the Cloud feature found in some iCloud-enabled apps. Without the Sync API, Dropbox apps can only support manual downloads and uploads and devs must do all the heavy lifting themselves...

Photo Organizer let’s you easily edit the Camera Roll and Albums

The developer who goes by the name of Lordscotland should call himself LordOfAwesomeTweaks. His backlog of jailbreak apps includes incredibly useful freebies like Safari Download Enabler and PDF Printer for Safari. His latest tweak is called Photo Organizer, which provides users with more control over all their photo albums including the Camera Roll.

Want to reorder photos and videos in your Camera Roll? Delete photos from your camera roll without removing them from every other album? Move photos without constantly making duplicates and wasting space? If so, Photo Organizer shows us that Apple's default methods aren't always best...

ScreenExtender forces legacy apps to stretch to the iPhone 5’s taller screen

We've seen tweaks in the past like FullForce which essentially transform iPhone apps into full screen iPad apps. Since Apple reassured developers that adding official support for the iPhone 5's screen would be a snap for most apps through Xcode, we didn't think full screen support for the left behind apps would be much of a stretch for jailbreak developers.

Turns out it wasn't a stretch. Just two days after the evasi0n jailbreak is released, a new app on Cydia called Screen Extender brings full screen support to users of the iPhone 5 or 5th generation iPod touch...

Chitika: iPad recovers from post-Christmas dip, now back to 81% share

Apple's iPad appears to have recovered from its post-Christmas slump. The tablet now enjoys an 81 percent share after falling from a high of 89 percent to 79 percent between December 25-27, 2012. Online advertising network Chitika Tuesday released the chart for the U.S. and Canada which proves the iPad recovered some of the ground lost to cheaper tablets.

The latest data obtained from millions of devices participating in Chitika's ad network shows Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet having the second-highest January 2013 market share. Although a distant runner-up to the iPad, the Amazon tablet scored a 7.7 percent tablet share, while Samsung's family of Galaxy tablets reached 3.9 percent...

Belkin launches FastFit Bluetooth keyboard case for iPad mini

Logitech yesterday announced its Ultrathin Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad mini, but its rivals are not standing still. This morning, Belkin said its comparable offering will be available via its web site for the same eighty bucks as the Logitech keyboard case. Built with anodized aircraft grade aluminum, it's a fit for the iPad mini's industrial design. The FastFit Keyboard Case is also 0.3mm thinner than Logitech's (7mm vs 7.3mm).

We're not sure if anyone will be able to tell the difference in thinness, but that sure looks like a damn nice portable keyboard case, if I ever saw one. Jump past the fold for more info...

Apple slashes a bunch of love songs to 69 cents in Valentine’s Day iTunes promo

Hot on the heels of announcing 25 billion song purchases since the iTunes Store's inception nearly a decade ago, today Apple of California has conveniently kicked off a fitting Valentine's Day love music promotion.

The company has discounted some of its most popular love songs, which now cost 69 cents a piece. These music tracks span genres and decades, from artists like Aerosmith, Celine Dion, James Taylor, Kenny Chesney and Whitney Houston, to name a few...

How to easily fix the Weather app after jailbreaking with evasi0n

Some of you who used evasi0n to jailbreak their iPhone earlier this week might have encountered an issue where the Weather app would just crash at launch. The evad3rs were quick to identify the issue, and yesterday, they released a "manual" solution to fix the problem.

This fix, which we detailed and explained, required a bit of code manipulation, and was not really the easiest way to go at it. Fortunately, the evad3rs have now released and update that can be downloaded right from Cydia...

Apple announces 25 billion iTunes songs sold

Just in time for Valentine's Day $0.69 love music sale, Apple this morning issued a press release announcing that music lovers have downloaded more than 25 billion songs from the iTunes Store. The company's song sales now average to 15,000 tracks downloaded per minute. The iTunes Store opened for business on April 28, 2003 and its catalog is now over 26 million songs strong. Remember that it was only back in September 2012 that Apple announced 20 billion iTunes song purchases.

With the recent addition of 56 new markets, music on iTunes is now available for sale in 119 countries. And with the recent Apple TV 5.2 software update, owners of Apple's $99 set-top box can now see upcoming songs when playing music, choose what plays next and access their previously purchased songs from iCloud, right on their television set...