Devs can use the iPhone 5’s low-light boost mode in their own apps

The iPhone 5's iSight camera on the back features the same eight-megapixel sensor as its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, only thinner and with sapphire lens cover. In addition, the module has been improved for better low-light performance, yielding major quality improvements when snapping up your photos under artificial light or in low-light situations. And now, developer can optionally tap the iPhone 5's low-light camera mode in their own apps, which bodes well for dozens upon dozens of photography apps in the App Store...

Verizon won’t charge iPhone 5 owners for unwarranted cellular data usage

The nation's #1 carrier Verizon Wireless today officially confirmed it won't charge iPhone 5 customers for any unwarranted cellular data usage stemming from flawed carrier settings on the device. In case you didn't know, Apple has quickly identified the issue and delivered a patch to iPhone 5 customers on the Verizon network.

The affected customers feared Verizon would charge data traffic incurred as a result of the bug on their monthly statement. This is certainly good news, especially coming from a carrier who overcharged the government for voice and data communication services and earned its notoriety for incurring mystery fees on people without data plans who visited web pages that were supposed to be free...

Analysts: Mapgate not affecting insatiable demand for the iPhone 5

With last Friday's addition of 22 new countries, the iPhone 5 is now available in 31 major markets but many would still be hard pressed to buy one due to dwindling stock both in the United States and in other countries around the world. By all accounts, the iPhone 5 demand is off the charts, Mapgate be damned.

Matter of fact, quite the opposite is happening: demand for the iPhone 5 is surging as mapping woes don't appear to slow sales (though customer satisfaction ratings did take a hit). Looks like that CEO apology was a pre-emptive maneuver to smartly protect the brand in the long haul...

Netflix for iPad updated with ‘Just for Kids’ section

Netflix last week updated its iOS app with for the iPhone 5's larger four-inch display and iOS 6. Today, the company announced another update to its iPad app which brings Just for Kids user interface to help parents and their children browse and instantly watch a large selection of kid-friendly TV shows and movies appropriate for kids 12 and under...

Google is now worth more than Microsoft

Shares of Google have been rising lately due to a number of factors boosting its revenue, from the growing Google Apps hosted productivity suite stealing biz from Microsoft to the successful launch of the Nexus 7 tablet and a new range of Motorola phones to nice ad sales, relentless Android march and steady dominance in search and maps, only highlighted by Apple's iOS 6 Maps woes. And now, the search giant has passed another milestone as its market capitalization surpassed that of Microsoft in early trading...

EU to probe Apple over ambiguous warranty advertising

Bloomberg reports today that EU Justice Minister Viviane Reding is calling for local authorities in the European Union’s member states to see whether Apple complies with local laws pertaining to product warranties. If they determine that Apple did not advertise its warranty policies appropriately, the company could face an EU-wide probe into its practices by all 27 of the European Union’s member states.

Apple already clashed with Italy, where authorities found it guilty of selling its $99 a year AppleCare coverage even though a two-year warranty is mandated by the European Union, for which Apple was fined $1.16 million and even faced temporary closure of Italy operations...

Carrier update for iPhone 5 pushed to Verizon subscribers

Have you noticed Verizon cellular data usage increments on your iPhone 5 while connected to Wi-Fi? If so, then you definitely want to apply a recently released carrier settings update, which was issued to Verizon subscribers to fix the issue.

The update will change the Verizon carrier settings from 13.0 to 13.1. Although, under most circumstances, cellular data should not be used while connected to a Wi-Fi network, that appears to be exactly what has been happening for some customers.

Ping bids farewell. Do you care?

With much fanfare, Apple launched Ping alongside iTunes 10 as a social network for music on September 1, 2010. Steve Jobs hailed it as being "sort of like Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes". Despite signing up over a million users within the first 48 hours from launch, the experiment quickly went wrong.

The promised Facebook integration was pulled shortly after Ping was released, reportedly because Facebook wanted "onerous terms" that Apple could not agree to. Making good on Tim Cook's promise, earlier this month Ping began alerting users it was no longer accepting new sign ups and would shut down Sunday, September 30.

Are you sad that Apple sent Ping to the technology graveyard?

The iDownloadBlog top 10 news stories of the week

A new week is coming, but that doesn't mean you have to miss out on what happened last week. If you think you may have missed a few of the top stories from last week, don't sweat it, we've got you covered.

We've gathered the top 10+ most popular stories from iDB last week for you to check out. As always, make sure that you're friends with us on Facebook, Google+, and that you are following us on Twitter...

pod2g at JailbreakCon: there is no iOS 6 jailbreak

iOS hacker extraordinaire, and my new friend since this week, pod2g just took the stage at JailbreakCon. After going over who he is and his hacking CV, pod2g went on to explain how he came up with Absinthe, his iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak.

But the question that was on everybody's mind was "when are you coming up with an iOS 6 jailbreak"...