iOS

The BlackBerry loses another government agency to the iPhone

Oliver Haslam ∙ February 29, 2012

Research In Motion is having a bit of a hard time of late. Their BlackBerry brand of smartphones are seeing slower sales than the Canadian firm is accustomed to, and the company's PlayBook tablet is floundering at best.

Business across the globe are dropping BlackBerry as their smartphone handset and business software provider in droves, and now it appears that there is another nail being driven into the RIM coffin, with the news that The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is dropping BlackBerry in favor of the iPhone.

The ATF's Chief Information Office claims that the agency is going to "delete the BlackBerry form the mix," which cannot be good reading for RIM's latest CEO...

Ads are coming to Twitter for iPhone

Jake Smith ∙ February 28, 2012

Two years ago, Twitter introduced 'Promoted Products', which are essentially ways for companies to advertise across the Twitter platform and gives Twitter the ability to make revenue. Companies can sign-up for Promoted Accounts, Tweets, and Trends as a way to bring notice to their service.

Today, Twitter announced that their iPhone app will start featuring Promoted Products. The advertising service was included in the latest Twitter for iOS update released last week. The Twitter crew will start sending out more Promoted Tweets, Accounts, and Trends to mobile devices over the next few weeks...

AT&T plans to allow developers to pay for users’ data

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 3, 2018

In an interesting move, AT&T plans to allow developers to pay for users' data, when users are using the developer's app, reports the WSJ. AT&T's network and technology head John Donovan told the WSJ in an interview at MWC 2012 that the service will be similar to a toll-free 1-800 number.

The move will surely be interesting, letting a user use an app without any data being charged to them whatsoever. Donovan says AT&T hopes to roll out the new service within the next year...

Is Facebook reading your text messages? [update: no]

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Adding to the recent privacy scare that has been taking place among iOS apps, London-based newspaper Sunday Times is reporting that popular social network Facebook has read users' text messages.

In the report, Sunday Times says that when Facebook was gearing up to launch their new Messenger app, they "admitted" to reading text messages. Facebook's Messenger app plays a similar role to texting, letting you quickly fire off messages to your Facebook friends. It's not known if the issue still continues, but is scary nonetheless...

Tim Cook thinks Apple and Facebook could work together more

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

Apple's iOS and Mac integration with Twitter is a relatively new thing, and one that has had impressive results for the social network with reports of a 25% increase in sign-ups coming after the release of iOS 5. While Twitter is currently the only social network tied into iOS, that may not always be the case.

During a shareholder's meeting today, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted that the company could become closer to Twitter's largest rivals, Facebook, and that he has personally always thought the two could work more closely.

The news will come as music to the ears of Mark Zuckerberg and his band of cronies, with any link to Apple being a veritable gold mine these days...

How to quickly open your last email draft in iOS

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 4, 2016

Even though iOS has seemingly been turned inside out over the past few years, there are still a few easter eggs hidden in the software. Earlier this month we told you about the invisible buttons on the iPad's split keyboard, and now we've come across another little-known feature.

Apple sued over voicemail patents

Jake Smith ∙ February 22, 2012

Adding to its large array of ongoing lawsuits, Apple has been sued by patent holding company Brandywine Communications Technologies over two voicemail patents. The lawsuit was filed in a local Florida court on Tuesday, reports GigaOm.

The patents in questions are No. 6,236,717 and No. 5,719,922, which were filed in 2001 and 1998 respectively by Brandywine. One patent is officially described as...

The Simpsons to land on iOS soon

Guest Author ∙ February 21, 2012

Electronic Arts has recently confirmed that it will soon launch an official Simpsons game for iOS, with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch all getting a piece the action.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out will be a free title and include all the main voices from the legendary cast. While no official release date has been set in stone, EA did tell CNET that the game would be out “within the next few weeks”...

Apple sold more iOS devices last year than it ever sold Macs

Sébastien Page ∙ February 17, 2012

We don't really need more proof that the iPhone and iPad are a success, but every now and then we still like to be reminded of it. This time, it's Horace Dediu from Asymco that shares some incredible stats about the success of iOS.

To put things into perspective, Dediu created a graph that shows the cumulative sales of Apple computing products over the years since their launch. The conclusion is just breathtaking. More iOS devices were sold in 2011 than all the Macs ever sold...

Google caught overriding Safari users’ privacy settings

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 18, 2018

User privacy has been a hot button issue over the past few months thanks to high profile scandals like the CarrierIQ fallout, and the more recent Path debacle. And now it looks like we can add Google to the list of violators.

In a recent investigative report, The Wall Street Journal claims that the search giant has been intentionally overriding the privacy settings of both desktop and iOS Safari users to better track their web browsing activity...

March Madness launching on iOS March 7th for $3.99

Jake Smith ∙ February 16, 2012

Every college basketball fan's favorite time of the year is coming up, also known as March Madness. For those of you out of the loop, March Madness is the division I tournament for NCAA basketball, where college basketball's best teams duke it out to become the champion.

Like last year, there will be a March Madness app available to watch every game played. March Madness for iOS will be available March 7th, for only $3.99...

Apple wins injunction against Motorola in Germany over ‘slide to unlock’ patent

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

When the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) awarded Apple a patent late last year regarding its 'slide to unlock' feature, we didn't think it would be very long before we saw it pop up in Apple's Android war. And it wasn't.

Hot on the heels of Motorola winning an injunction against Apple in Germany, which resulted in a temporary ban of some of its products, the Cupertino company has fired back by winning its own injunction against Motorola in the country...