iPhone

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Why Apple should be more bullish on Virtual Reality

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

2016 will unquestionably be remembered as the year Virtual Reality made a meaningful entrance to the tech world. Granted, there were murmurings and early adaptations long before, but with the staggered release of Oculus Rift in March, the HTC Vive in April, or the new Samsung Gear VR in August, Virtual Reality (of varying degrees) appears to have accomplished the shift from nascent tech-demo material to becoming a more legitimate contender for a share of your wallet.

On October 13, Playstation joined the fray, releasing the arguably most consistent and yet affordable VR experience with Playstation VR. If early numbers and reviews are anything to go by, this could be the product to help the technology cross the consumer chasm once and for all and attract mainstream interest.

Conquer the sea in easyBoat, an arcade style shooter game for iPhone and iPad

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 24, 2016

EasyBoat is a new arcade-styled action shooter game for iPhone and iPad with a great balance of both fun and challenging game play.

It comes with clear inspiration from the sailing feature in the Zelda Wind Walker game for Nintendo devices, so if you're familiar with it, you might like this release. Bundled together with fluid graphics and well-executed game mechanics, this is a game for people of all ages.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: OneHanded, ShutterSoundSwitch, & more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 23, 2016

As the weekend comes to an end, we have another roundup for you all that showcases all the jailbreak tweaks released in Cydia this week.

We will start by showing you all our favorites first, and then we'll get into the rest of them.

Video showdown: Siri on iPhone 7 Plus vs. Google Assistant on Pixel XL

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 22, 2016

Siri continues to receive criticism over at times unreliable performance although Apple's been advancing its personal digital assistant by leaps and bounds since its debut in October 2011.

Google, on the other hand, is regularly praised for its powerful knowledge graph and accuracy.

You probably know that the search company's exciting new feature, Assistant, recently made its debut on the new Pixel smartphones.

With that in mind, YouTuber Marques Brownlee took it upon himself to pit the Pixel's Assistant against the iPhone's Siri in a cool side-by-side video comparison.

Let the battle of the smartphone voice assistants begin!

Notion, Owlie, ZIG, and other apps to check out this weekend

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Looking to pass some time this weekend? iDB has you covered. The latest edition of our Apps of the Week roundup features some great apps and games for you to check out, including an intelligent email client, an app for polling your friends and family, and a pop culture news aggregator. And of course we've got two great new games you won't want to miss.

Qualcomm could buy NXP, which supplies iPhones with NFC and motion-tracking chips

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated July 5, 2017

Bloomberg's Alex Sherman and Ian King reported yesterday that fabless chip designer and Apple supplier Qualcomm could be buying NXP Semiconductors, a global semiconductor and analog circuitry manufacturer headquartered in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

NXP employs approximately 45,000 people in more than 35 countries and provides chips that give Apple devices features like power-efficient motion tracking and NFC for Apple Pay.

Latest Chrome for iOS update comes with a hidden game

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 21, 2016

Google yesterday pushed a small update to its Chrome browser in the App Store, bumping the app's version number to 54.0.2840.66. In addition to the usual stability improvements and bug fixes, the latest version of Google's mobile browser for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch packs in a charming side-scrolling mini game that you can play when without an Internet connection.

Pixel XL teardown reveals modular components, earpiece mesh made of cloth & more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 21, 2016

YouTubers like JerryRigEverything and repair wizards over at iFixit tore apart their Pixel XL smartphone from Google to peek under its hood, revealing easily removed battery, standard screws, the use of modular internal components that can be replaced independently and—quite surprisingly—the front-facing earpiece slit which is made of cloth.

Launched on October 4, both new Google-designed smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, are exclusive to Verizon in the U.S. Contract-free Pixels are available via Google's online store and from Best Buy.

How to enable Apple’s hidden one-handed keyboard [Jailbreak]

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 21, 2016

OneHanded is a new free jailbreak tweak that enables the recently dicovered one-handed keyboard, which includes the extra text editing buttons in the keyboard itself.

It's designed to work on iPhones with larger displays, and if you have trouble typing on these kinds of devices without using two hands, then this tweak might be worth trying out.

iPhone 7 hitting Armenia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Central African Republic on November 4

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 21, 2016

Two weeks from today, November 4, Apple's iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will arrive in Armenia, Mali, Guinea-Bissau and Central African Republic. The next wave of iPhone 7 expansion has been confirmed by local Apple websites for the aforesaid countries.

With about three-dozen countries left to go, the iPhone 7 will have been available in all of the markets Apple sells handsets by the end of this year.

iPhone 7 catches fire and destroys an owner’s car, Apple investigating

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

As local outlet 7 News reported, Australian surfing instructor Mat Jones said he had left his iPhone 7 under clothes in his car while taking a surf lesson. Upon returning to his vehicle, he was shocked to discover it filled with smoke and burned up in the same area where he'd placed the phone.

“His pants, which he had wrapped the iPhone 7 in before heading to his lesson, were still on fire when he got to his car,” Fortune added. Could Apple have a massive iPhone 7 overheating problem on its hands akin to Samsung's exploding Galaxy Note 7?

It’s official: I’m a 1Password user

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

For the last several years, I’ve battled with a password problem. It seemed like every new service I used wanted me to create an account, which involved making a new username and a strong password. Making matters worse, some services want you to make difficult passwords you can’t even remember, containing capital letters, numbers, and special characters.

The problem reveals itself the most whenever I get a new phone, like the iPhone 7 Plus I recently purchased. When I go to set it up, I download all the apps I typically use on my device. Afterwards comes the hard part: trying to remember the credentials to log into all of them.