Apple

Spotlight bug exposes your Mac’s IP address and more to spammers

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

An unusual oversight in how OS X's Spotlight feature handles privacy settings in Apple Mail leaves the door open to spammers, phishers and online tracking companies who can obtain private data such as your IP address, current operating system version, browser details and more, whenever an email message is previewed in Spotlight.

First discovered by German technology news site Heise, the bug takes advantage of a common information harvesting technique and a Mail setting which determines whether or not the program loads remote content in emails.

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Piracy on iOS: 60% of Monument Valley installs on iPhone and iPad not paid for

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Even though this particular data point is a few days old now, I think it's highly relevant in light of Apple's glowing App Store stats revealed yesterday.

According to developer Ustwo Games, its award-winning and incredibly successful Monument Valley, an atmospheric puzzle game in which you manipulate impossible architecture inspired by the works of M.C. Escher, has seen a significant chunk of its potential revenue lost to piracy because only 40 percent of the $3.99 game installs on the iPhone and iPad were paid for.

The vast chunk of the remaining sixty percent iOS installs were illegitimate, or to put it bluntly — pirated. On Android, the paid install base is a paltry five percent (you read that right), as a huge hunk of the remaining 95 percent of users opted to steal Monument Vally on Android rather than pay four bucks to enjoy it.

Is the 60 percent piracy rate on iOS a worrying number for Monument Valley developers and a bad sign for Apple's mobile platform? Read on for the full reveal.

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The Princess Bride gets official iOS game

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

The official mobile game of The Princess Bride, the 1987 classic fantasy adventure movie adapted from William Goldman's 1973 namesake novel, is now available in the App Store.

Featuring four different games, The Princess Bride lets you experience all the favorite scenes from the film. You'll be wrestling giants, engaging in sword fighting and more, earning awards along the way and unlocking images and sound clips from the movie.

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Microsoft’s Office Sway for iPhone now available in US App Store and other countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

After soft-launching in the New Zealand App Store in November, Microsoft's Office Sway for iPhone is now available more broadly in a number of markets around the world, including in the U.S. App Store.

Office Sway is a free application that makes it easy to create attractive interactive presentation with images, captions, headers and styled text that can be viewed in a web browser on any desktop computer or mobile device.

In addition to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India, Sway is now available more broadly in a whole bunch of other English-speaking countries.

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5by for iOS will serve up videos based on your mood

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

5by is an app on the iTunes App Store that will serve you with videos based on your mood. I've often done this through YouTube, where I'm in a really bad mood and will search for comedy videos to help brighten my spirits (I'm rarely mad, but it happens). 5by, also available on the web, will help expedite the process.

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OneDrive gains Document Provider extension, Recycle Bin support, push alerts and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

Microsoft's iOS client for its cloud-storage service, OneDrive, has received a significant update Friday bringing out a Document Provider extension of its own. The Document Provider extension is one of the major new extensibility features in iOS 8. With Document Providers, developers can write apps which expose their custom remote or local storage functionality to the operating system.

What this means for OneDrive fans is that they can now access their files in other apps. To see how this works and learn more about other changes in OneDrive 4.6, jump past the fold.

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Apple caught up with iPhone 6 demand, now ‘in stock’ on US online store

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple updated its Apple Store in the US on Friday morning with good news for potential iPhone 6 buyers: it's finally caught up with demand close to four months after the smartphone's release.

The Apple Store now shows the iPhone 6 as "in stock". The only model not in stock is the SIM-free, unlocked iPhone 6 Plus that was just released earlier this week.

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Apple institutes app price hikes in Europe, Canada and Russia as iPhones get more expensive in Brazil

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

As reported by AppleInsider, Apple has raised minimum prices of iPhone and iPad applications in the App Store in Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and in the European Union.

As a result of the changes, customers in Canada will now see a minimum app price raised from $0.99 (USD$0.83) to $1.19 (USD$1.01). In the United Kingdom, the new minimum tier has gone up from £0.69 ($1.04) to £0.79 ($1.19) and €0.99 ($1.17) in the European Union, up from €0.89 ($1.05) before.

In addition, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets Apple sells in Brazil saw their prices skyrocketing by an average of 10 percent due to the steady devaluation of the country's currency, real.

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How to try the Apple Watch’s UI early through the web

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

A new project from the folks behind the news app Pipes allows prospective Apple Watch buyers to test the user interface on the web, before the Apple Watch's launch in March.

All you need to do is head to DemoAppleWatch.com, where you can "use" the Watch, play with 19 apps, and try the Apple Watch's Digital Crown to return to the home screen. The Apple Watch is modeled on official images from Apple, and lets users see how their messages, emails and home screen will look and work.

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