iOS

AT&T opens up its Watson speech engine via SDK for iOS and Android

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Realizing Apple and Google are moving swiftly to mainstream speech recognition on mobile devices, U.S. carrier AT&T today announced that it is opening up its own Watson speech engine to iOS and Android platforms via a software development kit (SDK), now available on the AT&T Developer website.

Much like Apple's Siri or Google Voice Actions in Android (and Google Now), Watson takes input, analyzes it, performs one or more services and returns a result. Input can be audio files, speech, gestures, face recognition and text. Here's a video of Watson in action...

Apple begins taking down sites that sell UDID activations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 15, 2024

Apple has begun cracking down on unofficial sites that sell UDID activations to folks who aren't registered Apple developers, letting them download and install iOS and OS X betas on their devices, a strict violation of Apple's agreement with developers.

In fact, a developer's $99 a year membership in the iOS Developer Program can be terminated if pre-release software is provided to non-authorized folks. Apple isn't just revoking access to developers that sell UDIDs, it's now going after sites that advertise UDID activations, filing DMCA requests to hosting firms.

As you can imagine, financial incentives outweigh risks and punishment involved. Savvy "entrepreneurs" have found the business of selling unauthorized access to iOS betas worth tens of thousands of dollars. You don't need an office, staff, a telephone line or even a business name - just a small upfront investment, a web page advertising your "service" and spare time on your hands to get the word out...

Apple updates iCloud Beta website with Notes, Reminders and more

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Apple rolled out a significant update to its iCloud Beta website last night. The page, which only appears to be accessible by registered developers, now features web versions of Reminders and Notes.

As you may recall, these two new web apps were leaked back in May, as Apple was caught testing the iCloud Beta website a month ahead of WWDC. But now it's live, and available for all developers...

Food & Drink section coming to App Store on July 8

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 2, 2012

According to several iOS developers who've received an official word from Apple, the App Store will soon add a new section dedicated to apps related to food and drink. The change takes effect this coming Sunday, July 8, and will affect all existing apps that are food- or drink-related, including apps that manage recipes or help find restaurants....

iPhone’s share in US nearing 1 in every 3 smartphones

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 2, 2012

Research firm comScore is out with a new survey of the United States smartphone market and the numbers paint dire picture for everyone but Apple and Samsung. More importantly, data shows that the iPhone's growth during the three month average period ending May 2012 outpaced Android, with Cupertino's market share approaching 1 in every 3 smartphone subscribers...

Safari Download Manager finally updated for iOS 5

Cody Lee ∙ July 2, 2012

iOS power-users rejoice, the popular jailbreak utility Safari Download Manager is finally compatible with iOS 5. The tweak, developed by Dustin Howett, gives you a large amount of control over your mobile downloads.

SDM has long-since been a favorite in the jailbreak community, but has recently been all-but-forgotten due to its lack of iOS 5 support. But now it's back, and better than ever. Here's our rundown of SDM part deux...

Google and Samsung have a game plan to both get money from Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

As if the fact that Samsung - Apple's main supplier of processors, displays and flash memory chips - has been struggling to fend off Apple's legal blows wasn't enough, a new report out today has it that the maker of Galaxy smartphones and tablets is joining forces with Google as both firms seek to pressure Apple into a cross-licensing deal, with Cupertino paying both Samsung and Google to settle ongoing patenting woes.

If anything, Google openly supporting Samsung in the courtroom suggests nervousness on the part of both technology giants, especially as the latter has recently suffered a pair of legal setbacks concerning devices running Androids software, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the thriving Android ecosystem...

iOS in the lead with nearly two-thirds of mobile web share in June

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Research firm NetApplications yesterday issued a new mobile web usage share report which outlines mobile and tablet operating system share trends for the month of July 2012. iOS leads the pack in mobile web share and by a huge margin, too. The numbers also paint an alarming trend for RIM, which is now heading to a zero market share as the ailing BlackBerry maker struggles to turn its fortunes around...

Come again? How much is the iPhone and iPad nation worth?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 13, 2016

A bunch of numbers have been tossed around thus far to illustrate how valuable the iOS ecosystem and its users are to Apple, but this tops it all. According to none other than Goldman Sachs, a total combined value of the iPhone and iPad customer base is nearly $295 billion (you read that right).

Talk about the value of loyalty! The figure represents more than half the Apple's value of $543 billion and easily exceeds market capitalization of Microsoft ($256 billion), Google ($188 billion) or IBM ($225 billion)...

Apple’s SVP of Hardware Bob Mansfield is retiring

Cody Lee ∙ June 28, 2012

We don't typically cover employee departures at Apple, but in this case, we figured it was definitely worth mentioning. Apple has announced this afternoon that its vice president of Mac and iOS hardware, Bob Mansfield, is retiring...

Future versions of iOS could have simulated 3D UI

Cody Lee ∙ June 27, 2012

One of the main complaints I get about iOS is that it's getting boring (these people are obviously not jailbreaking). And to be fair, the platform hasn't really changed much since it was introduced back in 2007.

But maybe Apple's finally looking to switch things up. We've already seen some cool new tweaks in iOS 6, like the auto-tilting sliders. And now the word is, we could be in for some even bigger UI changes...