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The jailbreak community has been pretty unpredictable lately; just as you begin to think Cydia is going through a lull, developers surprise you with a bevy of fun and useful new releases.
In this piece, we'll discuss all of the jailbreak tweaks that were released throughout the week, starting with our favorites. We'll outline the rest of them afterwards.
Hong Kong-based equity research firm CLSA is saying there's a “high chance” that Apple's OLED-based iPhone 8 could come with a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor after all.
JPMorgan analysts who track Apple's supply chain in the Asia-Pacific region, including Gokul Hariharan, shared a new research note this week. In it, the they predicted that the company's upcoming iPhone 8 will come outfitted with an enhanced earpiece sporting “further improvements” to stereo sound and waterproofing.
The note, obtained by MacRumors, does not specify what acoustical improvements Apple could introduce to iPhone 8's earpiece.
JPMorgan also made the prediction that AirPods could come as a free accessory with iPhone 8. If true, Apple's $159 wireless earbuds could replace the firm's $29 wired EarPods with Lightning connector that come in the box with current iPhone models.
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The research note mentions other previously rumored iPhone 8 features, like an OLED display, a stainless steel and glass design, a faster A11 processor, a larger battery, wireless charging and enhanced cameras with new sensors for 3D mapping, 3D selfies, facial recognition, augmented reality capabilities and more.
The analysts estimate that iPhone 8 will be $75 to $80 more expensive to manufacture.
iPhone 7 became the first iPhone to feature stereo sound.
Rather than use two separate speakers at the bottom of the device, Apple has opted to combine a speaker unit at the bottom with the earpiece at the top to create “immersive stereo sound” delivering two times the audio output of iPhone 6s and increased dynamic range.
Any time you open a folder to launch a containing app, and then you close it, you find yourself back inside the folder where you originally launched that app rather than on the main Home screen.
A new free jailbreak tweak dubbed FolderAutoClose 10 by iOS developer yuripeyamashita is now available that automatically closes folders in the background when launching apps from them.
Some might consider the date information in the Today page unnecessary because the date appears in several other places on your devices. If you agree, then a new free jailbreak tweak called No Date Today by TheComputerWhisperer could be useful to you.
This tweak removes the double-line date from the Today page and makes more vertical room for cramming additional Today widgets into a single screen; the benefit being that you won't have to scroll down as much to see their information.
While browsing the web in Safari, two bars typically appear in the app: the navigation bar (top) and the toolbar (bottom). As you scroll through a page, on the other hand, the toolbar disappears and the navigation bar shrinks to conserve vertical space.
There are other modes you can use in Safari to complement the web browsing experience, such as full screen mode in landscape orientation and Reader mode in either orientation, but if you’ve ever wished Safari would just use either mode automatically for every page you visit, then you’re going to love using a new free jailbreak tweak called SafaReaderFullScroll by CydiaGeek.
This week’s edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes an app for capturing printed text, a simple image editor, and a budget manager for couples. And as always, we have two new games for you to check out this weekend.
If you're looking to dip your toes in the smart home pool, there's perhaps no easier or less-expensive way than with smart light bulbs. Simply install them into the appropriate light sockets, pair them with their mobile app, and you're ready to go.
As with most electronics, there are a lot of choices out there, and some are much better than others. So to help you separate the good from the bad, we decided to compile a list of some of the best smart bulbs you can can control with you iPhone.
German engineering and electronics company Robert Bosch GmbH has reportedly landed orders to manufacture motion sensors for Apple's upcoming iPhone 8. According to a report Friday by Bloomberg citing a person familiar with the deal, the German firm could build as much as half of the motion sensors in upcoming iPhones, with InvenSense supplying the rest.
InvenSense counts Apple as its client and files as the primary supplier of the smartphone motion-sensing components, with the iPhone maker accounting for an estimated 60 percent of InvenSense's revenue. In that regard, the Apple-Bosch deal could be a major blow to Invense, shares of which declined more than five percent in extended trading Thursday.
InvenSense is currently seeking to complete its $1.3 billion sale to TDK Corp. The deal is partly aimed at boosting the Japanese company’s business with Apple. Apple was already one of TDK’s biggest customers before the Japanese firm agreed to buy InvenSense in December.
“We aim to become a strong player in the sensor business with InvenSense as our perfect partner,” TDK CEO Shigenao Ishiguro said at the time.
Bosch did supply gyroscopes and accelerometers for Apple in the past and it currently supplies barometric pressure sensors for iPhones. Before iPhone 5s came out, STmicroelectronics used to supply gyroscope sensors for iPhones.
Since iPhone 5s, Bosch has been supplying gyroscopes and accelerometers for iPhone 6 models, with California-based InvenSense providing the gyroscopes and accelerometers in iPhone SE, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 on an exclusive basis.
The first Bosch microelectromechanical systems to make its way inside any iPhone was their Sensortech BMA220 unit in iPhone 5s, which initially suffered from inaccuracies that were later fixed via a firmware update.
The iPhone 6 series uses a three-axis accelerometer sensor built by Bosch and InvenSense’s six-axis MPU-6700 accelerometer. Relying on accelerometers from two different vendors helps increase power efficiency.
The Bosch accelerometer has a significantly faster cold start up time than the InvenSense—3ms vs. 30ms, respectively—meaning users see less of a delay.
For games and other apps that require sophisticated inertial sensing capabilities, iPhone 6 uses the InvenSense sensor. For simpler tasks, such as tracking footsteps and rotating the screen to match the device's orientation, the device uses the Bosch sensor.
Photo: Bosch's Sensortech BMA220 accelerometer in iPhone 5s, via Chipworks.
iCloud Photo Library is one of these great features that you think you don't really need until you actually start using it. One of the promises of the service is that it automatically keeps every photo or video you take in iCloud. These photos and videos can then be accessed from any of your devices, assuming the feature is enabled on these devices. iCloud Photo Library is great... at least when it works as it should.
While some people like using the Today page on the Home Screen, Lock screen, and in Notification Center, others don’t. It really comes down to whether or not you actually use any of your Today widgets.
If you find yourself missing the simplicity of the iOS 9 Spotlight page because you don’t use any Today widgets, then a new free jailbreak tweak called Spotlife by iOS developer pxcex could be a beneficial addition to your device.
“If you find yourself on holiday in Turkey, Brazil, Russia or Greece, try to avoid the Apple Store as iPhones are 25-50 percent more expensive than in the United States,” cautions strategist Jim Reid. And he's right.
According to Deutsche Bank’s annual “Mapping the World’s Prices”, iPhone prices can vary wildly from one country to another but one thing has remained true: the United States is still the cheapest place to buy an iPhone.
Here's what an iPhone 7 costs in Apple Stores in the following 33 countries:
Turkey—$1,200 Brazil—$1,115 Russia—$1,086 Greece—$1,028 Poland—$1,005 Italy—$995 Czech Republic—$994 Norway—$993 Denmark—$986 Sweden—$982 Portugal—$973 Finland—$973 Ireland—$973 New Zealand—$972 France—$962 Spain—$962 Netherlands—$962 Belgium—$962 Austria—$951 Germany—$951 Mexico—$941 Australia—$926 India—$902 China—$899 United Kingdom—$898 Switzerland—$886 The Philippines—$885 Singapore—$874 Canada—$855 Malaysia—$846 Hong Kong—$821 Japan—$815 United States—$815To be sure, the aforementioned prices are for the 128-gigabyte 4.7-inch iPhone 7 model.
Deutsche Bank has obtained the prices from official Apple websites and online retailers. “In the absence of official prices via the websites, we have used prices from online retailers and news websites,” cautions Deutsche Bank.
It's important to note that US prices exclude the sales tax because it differs from one state to another. Online prices in the United Kingdom and other countries include the sales tax so that's something to keep in mind when comparing local iPhone prices to those in the US.
I'm based in Europe, one of the worst places to buy an iPhone.
Apple likes to say that the cost of doing business in Europe is higher than in the US, which is true, but that doesn't fully explain why people in Turkey are paying nearly one and a half times as much as users in the United States. Other factors are clearly at play here, including import taxes and other regulations specific to every country.
It's interesting that Turkey has now replaced Brazil as the most expensive expensive place in the countries surveyed to buy an iPhone 7.
As Business Insider explains, that's due to the combination of political instability in the country and the big ramp in US dollar appreciation against global currencies after Donald Trump’s win smashed Turkey's Lira currency late last year.
As a result, Turkey has replaced Brazil as the most expensive place in the countries surveyed to buy an iPhone. By the way, Brazil now ranks second on the list with a 37 percent higher iPhone 7 price vs US.
With iPhone 7 said to cost north of $1,000, I'm afraid to think what