Emblem brings OS X inspired notifications to the iPad

Today at WWJC, Joshua Tucker revealed a new tweak that he created in collaboration with fellow developer, Kyle Howells. The tweak — Emblem — is an iPad exclusive that brings OS X inspired notifications to iOS.

Emblem features smooth animations, and swipe to dismiss among other things. Take a look inside as we give you a sneak peak of Emblem via our video walkthrough...

Facebook Messenger refreshed with chat bubbles, iPhone 5 support, Favorites

Facebook's standalone chat client called Messenger has been updated yesterday to version 2.0. In addition to bug fixes and support for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5's taller four-inch display (so you can see more messages with less scrolling), the app comes with the handy new Favorites feature and the interface has been tweaked around chat bubbles. I also weigh in on why you'll want to keep the chat app and the full-blown Facebook client both running on your device...

Merge is a brilliant jailbreak tweak that combines messages by contact instead of by address

The idea of iMessage is great. It allows you to easily chat with friends and family across all iOS devices and Macs without incurring SMS fees from carriers.

Though iMessage is extremely convenient, it does have plenty of opportunities for improvement, which isn't surprising, considering it's only been out for a little over a year. But Apple has been steadily making improvements, for instance, the latest update to OS X, allows Mac users to sync iMessages sent and received from phone numbers.

Another major issue that iMessage runs into is organization. For example, if you're chatting with a friend that has three separate iMessage ID's, each chat started with each individual ID will result in a new iMessage thread for that contact. That's a total of three threads, just to talk to a single contact. This, obviously, can become extremely disconcerting when trying to carry on a conversation. Wouldn't it be nice if you could easily combine messages by contact, instead of iMessage ID?

That's the exact premise behind Merge — a new jailbreak tweak from developers Joshua Tucker, and Andrew Richardson. Take a look inside as we explain how Merge works...

3% of Apple’s supply chain workers still putting 60+ hour weeks into someone else’s dream

Determined to prove the world it's doing the right thing to prevent labor abuses in its supply chain, Apple has quietly updated the Labor and Human Rights web page with some interesting data points. The company's suppliers in August employed 60 percent more workers than in January of this year.

Three percent of supply chain workforce was putting more than 60 hours a week into assembling Apple products, data suggests. Ending the industry practice of excessive overtime "is a top priority", Apple writes.

It's easier said than done considering the unemployment rate of China’s youth of 7.6 percent in 2012 and Foxconn's reputation for shoddy working conditions and army style discipline in its sweatshops...

When Apple was designing the original iPhone, Maps was an afterthought

Piggy-backing on the ongoing Apple Maps drama, The New York Times gives us a couple interesting tidbits that help explain the origins of Google Maps on the iPhone. For starters, Apple never intended to put maps on the iPhone. It was a decision late CEO Steve Jobs made last minute, one that would cost Apple its reputation five years later as Apple rushed its own solution out of the door too early.

In a way, the report notes, Apple Maps continue on a string of Internet services missteps, with notable examples of the recently axed Ping social network for music, Siri, a controversial digital assistant, the MobileMe suite of web tools and recent iCloud outages.

These blunders expose Apple as a hardware and design-focused culture, which is more often than not a difficult match for online services on a world scale, where Google rules the landscape by a wide margin...

Watch the JailbreakCon event live

For those of you who won't be able to make it to JailbreakCon in San Francisco this year, you won't have to feel left behind as the event is being streamed live.

I was able to experience first hand that the wifi situation at the venue isn't very ideal so you might have to deal with some lagging and images freezing, but we can all agree that it's better than nothing.

The event will start streaming here starting at 9am sharp...

Apple removes superlatives from Maps description

Apple appears to be really determined to avoid having this Maps thing snowball into a devastating PR catastrophe which, by the way, already has tarnished Apple's reputation. Following yesterday's unexpected CEO apology and the subsequent recommendation of mapping services on the web as well as third-party Maps alternatives, Apple has made a subtle change in Maps wording.

No longer are Apple Maps being referred to as "the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever". Instead, the app's now about "a beautiful vector-based interface that scales and zooms with ease"...

Another mini iPad mockup, pictured next to a 15-inch MacBook Pro

There has been an unusual shortage of rumors about a mini iPad, especially given a recent reliable assertion calling for an October launch. Macotakara, a Japanese blog with a fairly accurate track record, has gotten hold of another mockup of the iPad mini, molded according to the rumor-mill and pictured sitting next to a 15-inch MacBook Pro, giving us a feel of its size relative to Apple's notebook...

A course on black and white iPhone photography

Welcome back to iDonwloadBlog's lessons in iPhoneography. You can can catch up on previous lessons here. If you need a quick start, feel free to check out my free iPhone Photography tutorial.

Today I want to talk about Black & White Photography. I'm not talking about taking photos and performing black and white conversions. Nope, I'm talking about 100% pure uncut black & white iPhone Photography. The app we are going to be using is a totally cool app called Hueless. Why is it so cool, you ask? Well, because it was the first true black & white camera app for the iPhone. It's a true camera application. There's no editing images from your camera roll. When you fire up Hueless, you have to set your exposure, contrast, focus, and filtering at the time you take the photo. Today we will only be looking at exposure, contrast, and filters...

How to downgrade iOS 6 to iOS 5.1.1 on A4 devices

Have an iPhone 4, iPod touch, or below running iOS 6, and would like to downgrade back to iOS 5.1.1? Doing so is easy is you have your SHSH blobs saved for iOS 5.1.1 and can follow the steps inside. Unlike the beta period of iOS 6, you must have your SHSH blobs for iOS 5.1.1 save for you device now, because Apple has stopped signing iOS 5.1.1.

To downgrade, you will need the latest public version of RedSn0w. We will use the SHSH Stitching feature to combine the appropriate IPSW file for 5.1.1 and your corresponding SHSH blob for the device you wish to downgrade. It may sound a bit confusing, but it's extremely easy if you follow along carefully.

Take a look inside for the full walkthrough and video how-to.

Breakdown of iPhone 5 pricing across 25 localized Apple Stores

We know from before that countries like Russia, India and Brazil sell the most expensive iPhones in the world, both in relative and absolute terms. While the iPhone 5 is yet to launch in these markets (Apple plans to have the gizmo available in 100 countries across 240 carriers by year's end), with today's addition of 22 new countries the iPhone 5 is now officially available in 31 major territories around the world.

One thing becomes readily apparent just glancing at Apple's localized online stores: the iPhone 5 prices vary depending on the region, based on local policies, taxes and other factors influencing price calculations...