iPod Touch

iOS 9 downgrades no longer possible as Apple stops signing iOS 9.3.5

On Tuesday, Apple pulled the plug on signing iOS 9.3.5 for its entire iOS device lineup, and since it was the last iOS 9 release since iOS 10’s launch last month, that means you can’t downgrade your firmware anymore.

It’s worth also mentioning that the signing process was also killed for iOS 10.0.1, which means anyone who tries to restore their device(s) in iTunes will be forced to install iOS 10.0.2 or later (10.0.3 is only for iPhone 7 & 7 Plus).

Apple seeds iOS 10.1 beta 5 for iPhone 7/Plus to developers and public beta testers

Apple on Wednesday morning released a fifth beta of iOS 10.1 for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus only. The latest beta came out two days after the release of iOS 10.1 beta 4 on Monday.

iOS 10.1 beta 5 is available as an over-the-air download on an iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus with a prior beta. Today's iPhone 7-focused release likely contains a cellular connectivity bug that Apple patched with an emergency update on October 17. macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta 5 also released today.

Scanbot 6 is out: PDF editing, on-demand OCR, enhanced annotations & more

Scanbot, the popular PDF, document and QR code scanner for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, received a major update this morning billed by its developers as “our biggest release yet”. And it certainly is. In Scanbot 6.0 for iOS, you can now add, rotate, delete and move pages in a PDF at any time, use a new pen tool to annotate scans, print documents with one tap, run OCR on existing documents and much more.

Facebook gains food/ticket ordering, collated friends’ recommendations for restaurants

Facebook today announced a new update for its iPhone and iPad mobile app focused on discovering new things in the world around you, deciding what to do or where to go and connecting with local businesses in easier and faster ways.

For starters, the app will now automatically collate recommendations for restaurants that your friends post on the service, identify posts asking for recommendations using artificial intelligence and even help you make reservations or appointments from within the app.

Google’s iOS keyboard gains 3D Touch trackpad, new themes, iOS 10 emojis & more

Google's Gboard keyboard for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch was bumped to version 1.2 on the App Store this morning, gaining a few new features such as more than a dozen new themes, support for trackpad-like functionality on 3D Touch devices akin to the stock QuickType keyboard, the ability to search and share your contacts without leaving the conversation and support for the new iOS 10 emojis.

Your Stories to begin appearing in Instagram’s Explore tab beginning today

After launching Snapchat-esque Stories two and a half months ago, Instagram today started promoting these auto-dissapearing slideshows within the app's popular Explore tab.

Instagram's been surfacing recommended Stories in the Explore tab for a subset of its users since August. Today, Recommended Stories in Explore has officially started rolling out to everyone.

“Starting today, you’ll begin to see Instagram Stories on Explore,” announced the Facebook-owned service in a blog post Tuesday.

Facebook enhances 360-degree photos with initial viewport selection, album support & more

Facebook yesterday announced some overdue new features designed to elevate the user experience when it comes to posting 360-degree photos, which you have been able to upload to the service since June 2016.

Initially, the experience with these panoramic photos left a lot to be desired: you couldn't upload them to albums nor could you select the area in a 360-degree picture for others to see in their feed.

Both of these omissions have been addressed in the latest version of Facebook for mobile and desktop, the social networking behemoth has confirmed.

Facebook getting ready to ape Snapchat with Messenger Day, a visual storytelling feature

If you live in Poland or Australia, you might have stumbled upon a brand new feature at the top of Facebook's Messenger app, called Messenger Day. As reported by Mashable on Tuesday, Facebook has begun expanding this new feature across the globe following launch of Instagram Stories last month. Available in the mobile Messenger app for iOS and Android, Messenger Day is about sharing what you're up to in the form of auto-dissapearing updates, stickers and sketches.

Apple seeds iOS 10.1 beta 4 to developers and public beta testers

Apple today released a fourth beta of iOS 10.1 to its registered developers and public beta testers. Coming just a week after the previous beta, iOS 10.1 beta 4 has an interesting build number of “14B72 | 14B72b”. Today's release does not, however, appear to contain any outward-facing user features. We'll make sure to update the article with any new information as it becomes available.

Early App Store Search Ads adopters seeing $0.40 CPA and 49.4 percent conversion

Announced in June of this year, first ads started cropping up in search results on the App Store beginning October 5. Aside from a few launch hiccups, App Store search advertisements seem to be performing pretty well in their early days.

A new study by mobile data intelligence firm Mobile Action—based on a random and anonymous sampling of 77 Search Ads campaigns—has determined that the average Conversion Rate (CR) is 49.4 percent while Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) sits around $0.40.

Search Ads, the survey concludes, is “the biggest opportunity in app marketing right now.”