iOS

PreferenceTag3 lets you organize the iOS Settings app your own way

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 4, 2016

If you're like me, then you don't use every single setting that your iPhone comes with, and it would make life easier in the organization department if you could move around your Settings app's preference cells and hide the ones you don't use.

If this functionality sounds useful to you, then PreferenceTag3, which is a jailbreak tweak you can grab from Cydia for $1.99, is going to be your new best friend because it'll let your organize your Settings app exactly how you like it.

In this review, we'll show you what PreferenceTag3 is all about and how it works.

SafariHistory lets you quickly and selectively delete Safari history on your iPhone

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 4, 2016

SafariHistory is a handy new jailbreak tweak that is now available for free in Cydia and it will give Safari users that don't use Private Browsing mode an easier way to delete their Safari history in bulk.

Although Safari on your iPhone and iPad includes a 'Clear' button to quickly delete all of your browsing history, the only way to delete individual history items is to swipe to the left on them to reveal the red "Delete" button, and this can take forever.

SafariHistory instead makes it easier to remove individual items in bulk without clearing your entire Safari browsing history, as you're about to see in this review.

Unsurprisingly, Samsung stops short of voicing open support for Apple in FBI fight

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 3, 2016

Apple's dispute with the United States government over a court order demanding that it create an insecure version of iOS to help the FBI break the passcode of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c has gained support from more than 40 parties, according to The New York Times.

Samsung, however, likely won't be one of them.

As reported by Bloomberg, Samsung generally supports the notion that “any requirement to create a backdoor could undermine consumers’ trust,” but stopped short of voicing open support for its rival.

Vimeo now streams 4K video on iPad Pro, gains a bunch of other new features in 6.0 update

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 3, 2016

Thursday, Vimeo pushed a significant update to its free of charge app in the App Store which lets you record, upload and share high-quality, ad-free clips on the service.

The new app packs updated navigation tools, has richer uploading options and sports a brand new player with support for 4K streaming and enhanced Picture-In-Picture viewing on compatible devices such as the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Search is now faster than ever and you can browse new curated categories like Animation, Documentary, Travel and more. Saving videos to watch offline is now easier than before, you can now upload clips from your smartphone and tablets and more.

iOS 9.3 beta 5 disables Night Shift mode when your iPhone is in Low Power Mode

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 2, 2016

Along with the latest betas of watchOS, tvOS and OS X, Apple yesterday seeded a fifth beta of the upcoming iOS 9.3 software update to its registered developers. The new beta appears to pack in a few interesting changes as Apple continues to refine the experience ahead of the software's public release.

Night Shift mode, one of the headline new features in iOS 9.3, has been tweaked again in the latest beta and now permits users to manually enable the feature until tomorrow within Settings, and the feature is now automatically disabled in Low Power Mode.

Using your iPhone to diagnose your car’s check engine light

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

All the do-it-yourself mechanics out there love being able to troubleshoot their own check engine light (CEL) to see what's going on under the hood of their own cars. Typically, doing so requires an expensive OBD II scanner tool that plugs into the OBD II port underneath the dash.

But, with an app on your iPhone and a tiny accessory that plugs into the OBD II port, you could save some money and you'll still have access to a lot of the information the scan tool would give you. In fact, because of how advanced your iPhone is, you may even get more information than a lot of the scan tools will offer.

In this review, we'll be taking a look at the LELink Bluetooth Low Energy OBD II car diagnostic tool, which can be had for about $35 on Amazon, as well as the $9.99 OBD Fusion app, which can be had from the iOS App Store.

Tip: use 3D Touch to export PDFs on your iPhone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 10, 2019

iOS includes a Share sheet action for saving PDFs to iBooks. This is great for, say, turning a webpage or other document into a PDF form with one notable complaint—not everyone wants to read PDFs in the Books app.

As it turns out, you can export a PDF to any app on your device with 3D Touch right from iOS's Print Preview screen. This is an extremely convenient feature, but it's unfortunate that it requires 3D Touch so owners of previous-generation and older iPhones cannot take advantage of it.

iOS 9.3 lets your boss lock apps to the Home screen and impose other restrictions

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 1, 2016

Apple's upcoming iOS 9.3 software update will allow employers to lock apps to the Home screen of company-issued devices, preventing them from being moved around, as first discovered by Irish developer Steven Troughton-Smith.

Buried within Apple's documentation for developers, the Home Screen Layout Payload, which defines a layout of apps, folders and web clips for the Home screen, is supported on iOS 9.3 and later.

LMcable: a 2-in-1 Lightning and Micro USB connector

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 1, 2016

Lovers of technology who own both iOS and Android devices are forced to use two different cables for charging their batteries – a Lightning cable and a Micro-USB cable.

The discrepancy in charging cable type can be a pain for people who don't want to carry around more than one cable with them, and that's why a new Kickstarter campaign for a product called LMcable is trying to make its way onto the market to make charging easier for everyone.

Extensify soft launches, lets you install ‘tweaks’ without a jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 11, 2016

Last August, we showed you a really cool project known as Extensify, which is a third-party extension store that allows you to install 'tweaks' for App Store apps on your device without a jailbreak.

Created by iOS developers Majd Alfhaily and Kevin Ko, who are both well-known in the jailbreak community, this extension store works on iOS 9 devices and is side-loaded through Safari.

As of Monday, you can now apply to be a part of the app's soft-launch program via the Extensify website.

Here’s what Apple’s chief lawyer will tell Congress tomorrow regarding FBI’s controversial request

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 29, 2016

As you know, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has obtained a court order demanding that Apple produce a special version of iOS with decreased security to help government spooks brute-force their way into an iPhone 5c which belonged to San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook.

Following the interview that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave to ABC News, in which he said that the government is asking for “the software equivalent of cancer,” Apple's Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Bruce Sewell, will testify before the House Judiciary Committee tomorrow.

Here's his opening statement in which he challenges the government's request and argues that the FBI should have no say over the products American companies create.

iOS 10 concept imagines a customizable Control Center with 3D Touch support, dark mode and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated September 7, 2016

How will Apple improve upon Control Center in the next major iteration of iOS? Sam Beckett has attempted to imagine tight 3D Touch integration for Control Center in iOS 10, and his concept video does a very fine job at that. It shows off some ideas that Apple could take advantage of in order to allow for greater customization of hardware toggles and app shortcuts in Control Center.

A user could press on toggles to enter the edit mode to rearrange the icons, turn off the toggles they use rarely, add new switches for things such as Low Power Mode and Cellular Data and so forth. In addition, Control Center could benefit from 3D Touch by allowing users to quickly access additional options from the contextual menu for a specific toggle.