Apple

Whimsical jetpack-flying game Piloteer selected as Apple’s Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2016

Apple's editors have cherry-picked the Piloteer game as its new Free App of the Week on the App Store, meaning you can now download this $1.99 title at no charge until next Thursday. Created by Fixpoint Productions and released on the App Store in June of 2015, Piloteer has an average rating of four stars based on more than 155 reviews.

In this physics-based game, a renowned inventor is determined to overcome the stigma associated with flying a jetpack and convince the world that jetpacks should be revered by all. It sounds easier said than done, however.

Apple issues a recall of AC wall plug adapters in some countries, announces exchange program

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2016

Apple on Thursday announced a voluntary recall of AC wall plug adapters designed for use in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Continental Europe, New Zealand and South Korea that shipped with Mac and certain iOS devices between 2003 and 2015 and were also included in the Apple World Travel Adapter Kit.

“In very rare cases, affected Apple two-prong wall plug adapters may break and create a risk of electrical shock if touched,” notes the company.

New in iOS 9.3 beta 2: accessory firmware updates via iPad Pro’s Smart Connector

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 10, 2023

Aside from headline features such as Night Shift mode, new 3D Touch shortcuts, Notes improvements and more, the most recent beta of iOS 9.3 has been found to allow the iPad Pro to update accessories' firmware through its Smart Connector.

As noted by German developer Stefan Wolfrum and relayed by Oliver Haslam over at Cult of Mac, Wolfrum was greeted with an “Accessory Update Available” prompt after plugging a Logitech Connect keyboard case into his iPad Pro.

iPad Air 3 rumored to have 4K screen, 4GB of RAM and improved battery

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 28, 2016

Apple is widely expected to announce a third-generation iPad Air at a March event in a few weeks time and the latest supply chain chatter has it that the device will come outfitted with an ultra sharp display boasting a 4K resolution, or nearly four times the pixels of Apple's current-generation 9.7-inch 2,048-by-1,536 pixel Retina display.

According to Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes, it'll also have an improved battery life and feature four gigabytes of RAM versus the iPad Air 2's two gigs of RAM.

Apple planning to unveil iPad Air 3 at March event, report says

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple is planning to unveil a third generation model of its 9.7-inch iPad Air in March, reports 9to5Mac. The site's well-sourced Mark Gurman says that the tablet will likely make its debut at an event during the week of March 14, alongside the rumored 4-inch iPhone and new Apple Watch bands.

Gurman doesn't offer much in terms of what the new tablet will look like, though the consensus is the design will resemble the previous Air, or what kind of internals it will have. He does however say that Apple has been testing 9.7-inch panels that support the Pencil, which for now is iPad Pro-only.

76 percent of devices are now using iOS 9

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 4, 2017

As measured by the App Store on January 25, 2016, and published on Apple's App Store dashboard for developers, iOS 9 is now powering 76 percent of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices, a one-percentage point gain versus the 75 percent mark that was recorded two weeks ago.

At the same time, the adoption rate for iOS 8 has dropped from nineteen percent as of January 13, 2016, to seventeen percent, a two-point loss.

Public beta testers: iOS 9.3 beta 2 and OS X 10.11.4 now available

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 27, 2016

Two days after seeding OS X 10.11.4 El Capitan beta 2 and iOS 9.3 beta 2 to members of the Apple Developer Program, public beta testers who are signed on the Apple Beta Software Program can now freely deploy these new beta builds on their Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices.

iOS 9.3 beta 2 is available as an over-the-air update in Settings → General → Software Update on enrolled devices. OS X 10.11.4 beta 2 can be downloaded through the Mac App Store's Purchased tab for those who are enrolled in Apple's beta testing program.

Turn off HDR photo duplicates to save storage space

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is great for making the most from your iPhone's camera, especially in high-contrast situations.

With this feature, your iPhone takes multiple photos in rapid succession, each at a different exposure, and automatically blends them together. You get an image that has optimized highlights and really brings the shadows out of the noise, with way better detail in the bright and midtown areas.

When you enable HDR photography by tapping the HDR icon in the Camera app, your iPhone will save two copies of the image in your photo library: the “normal” image (without HDR) along with its HDR counterpart.

This can put a strain on your iPhone's storage, especially when taking a lot of HDR photos. If your iPhone's storage is low, or you're the type of person who likes to plan ahead, read this tutorial to learn how to turn off HDR photo duplicates and save significant amounts of storage space on your device.

Google updates Chrome for iOS with 70% fewer crashes, Spotlight integration and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 27, 2016

Google's mobile Chrome browser was updated this morning in the App Store and the new release promises a whopping 70 percent fewer crashes along with a few other goodies, such as Spotlight Search integration.

Google said that the dramatically reduced crash rate is due to Chrome's adoption of WKWebView, a rendering engine from Apple which was first introduced with the release of iOS 8 back in 2014.

In addition, this release of Chrome for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad should be faster overall, with JavaScript execution now “dramatically faster.”

Dictate notes on the fly and display them on your watch face with WatchNotes

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 27, 2016

Yesterday, developer Michael Bischoff refreshed its nicely done iPhone application, WatchNotes, with the ability to create, schedule and display notes right on your watch face through a brand new Apple Watch app and a complication.

WatchNotes, which originally made its App Store debut in December 2015 as an iPhone-only app, also lets you dictate a new note directly into your Apple Watch, set up scheduling and travel through time using watchOS's Time Travel feature to look at notes that you've scheduled in the future.

If you've ever wanted to add a note to your Apple Watch face on the fly, you're wholeheartedly recommend to take WatchNotes for a spin, more so considering that watchOS currently lacks a stock Notes app.

How to filter mature language for Siri and Dictation

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 7, 2023

Sometimes when you use the dictation feature on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad—or just converse with Siri and it misunderstands you—you might be in for a surprise seeing explicit language that you don't really want others to see, especially if you talk to Siri on your new Apple TV and kids are present.

Fortunately, both iOS and tvOS give you all the controls you need to prevent profanities from showing up when you use speech-to-text or Siri. In this post, you'll learn how to disable explicit language for Siri and Dictation on your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and filter out explicit language for Siri on your Apple TV.

KGI: iPhone 7 Plus will have dual lenses with optical image stabilization and zoom

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 27, 2016

Reliable analyst (if there is such a thing) Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities sent an interesting report to clients, a copy of which was obtained by AppleInsider.

In it, he predicts that a new, premium edition of Apple's iPhone 7 Plus will be outfitted with a dual-lens system with optical image stabilization and optical zoom, realized through technology Apple obtained from last year's acquisition of Israeli camera technology company LinX Imaging.