iPod Touch

The new iPod touch lacks auto-brightness as Apple dropped ambient light sensor

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Apple's fifth-gen iPod touch is unable to automatically adjust brightness of the display depending on your environment because engineers unexplicitly dropped the ambient light sensor from the device. This eyebrow-raising omission is that more puzzling knowing all prior iPod touch versions had that sensor, a common feature on iPhones and iPads as well.

News of this 'discovery' propagated throughout the Interwebs today, but our own Jeff Benjamin made a mention of the lack of ambient light sensor in his video review of the new iPod touch from three days ago...

Geekbench: the new iPod touch cannot hold a candle to the iPhone 5

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 15, 2012

Apple's fifth-generation iPod touch has arrived to some raving reviews, representing a major upgrade over the previous model with the same four-inch display as the iPhone 5 (sans a cheaper assembly), the thinner chassis (only 6.1mm), the new Lightning interconnect, a five-megapixel iSight camera with custom optics and the A5 chip, also found inside the third-generation iPad and iPhone 4S. First Geekbench benchmarks show that the new iPod touch is nearly as fast as the iPhone 4S, but not even half as fast as the iPhone 5, Apple's first iOS device to utilize the brand new A6 processor...

RedSn0w receives major update with new restoring features

Cody Lee ∙ October 13, 2012

The iPhone Dev-Team has released a significant update for its popular jailbreak utility known as RedSn0w tonight. The update brings the software to version 0.9.15b1, and includes a number of new features.

A4 device owners will be happy to hear that Cydia is now included in the tethered iOS 6 jailbreak, so no more SSH work, and you can now restore devices to earlier firmware without the lengthy stitching process.

We've got the full change log after the break...

The state of the iOS 6 jailbreak

Cody Lee ∙ October 11, 2012

It would seem that we're now in the heart of what some folks call the jailbreak season. Apple has just released a new iPhone, iPod touch, and a major update to iOS. And as usual, this has really shaken up the jailbreak scene.

When will the new devices be jailbreakable? What about iOS 6? We've seen a dramatic increase in these kinds of questions recently. So we figured it was time to give everyone an update. Here's the state of the iOS 6 jailbreak...

iPod touch 5th generation review

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

I never planned on purchasing a new iPod touch, but the impulse bug got me. I bought one last year for testing purposes. But despite that justification, I still had buyers remorse soon afterwards. That's how bad the iPod touch 4th generation was. It lacked power, had a terrible screen, and the design was, well, disgusting.

But when Apple showed off the new iPod touch hardware last month, my interest was piqued. Still reeling, though, from the 4th generation product, I kept myself from getting too excited about it.

Unfortunately (thankfully?) I struggle to control myself when it comes to Apple product purchases. But that lack of control allowed me to witness first hand a marvelous turnaround to the iPod touch line. Yes, the iPod touch 5th generation shares little with the previous generation hardware, and that's a good thing.

Indeed, the new iPod touch is — wow — it's actually good. I mean, it's really good. If you haven't yet seen it in person, you owe it to yourself to check out this review...

iPod touch teardown: cheaper display assembly, weaker home button, low repairability

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 11, 2012

Apple's fifth-generation iPod touch, which debuted alongside the iPhone 5 during the September 12 keynote, is on sale now, first reviews are great and already the wizards at iFixit have done what they do best: they tore apart the device to peek under the hood and analyze its innards.

Unlike the iPhone 5 that runs the latest A6 chip with 1GB of RAM, Apple's ultra-thin (just 6.1mm) media player packs in the Apple-designed A5 processor with 512MB of Hynix-supplied RAM. The same silicon also powers the iPad 2 (the iPad 3 runs a souped up variant labeled the A5X). Perhaps unexpectedly, the new iPod touch has a weaker home button than that on the iPhone 5...

This web app tells you if your device can be jailbroken

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

If you're a frequent reader of iDB, then chances are you know which iOS devices and firmware can be jailbroken. We are always quick to announce when a new jailbreak is released, and every now and then we even do a "state of the jailbreak" post to bring everyone up to date.

But for casual readers, or novice jailbreakers, device eligibility is not necessarily common knowledge. That's why mathyr, Peter Em and mofodox decided to create JailbreakStats...

We unbox the new 5th generation iPod touch

Jeff Benjamin ∙ October 10, 2012

Just about an hour ago I was able to get my hands on a brand new 32GB Slate Black 5th generation iPod touch. Here is our official unboxing video of Apple's revamped mobile gaming everything device.

The first thing you'll notice about the new iPod touch is how thin it is when compared with the iPhone 5. If you thought Apple's new iPhone was thin, wait until you get a load of the 5th generation iPod touch!

The second thing you'll notice is how drastically better the 5th generation is when compared to the previous generations. The new iPod touch is leaps and bounds above any previous touch when it comes to build quality. Even the screen looks amazing. What do you think? Oh, and uh, the Lightning cable is $19, not $29 like I mistakenly stated in the video.

Apple doubles down on the iPod touch, finally posts ‘new’ ad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

Apple just uploaded to its YouTube channel an old ad for the new iPod touch that started shipping along the seventh-gen iPod nano yesterday, landing on store shelves today to some raving review. Here's that ad, again. The clip is titled "Bounce" and depicts a bunch of colorful iPods jumping to a catchy tune. The homepage was also updated with a prominent link leading to this ad, streaming direct from Apple...

Google redesigns mobile site with slide-out navigation bar, it’s pretty dope

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 22, 2018

Google is rolling out a revamped mobile experience on smartphones as we speak. It's pretty slick as Google has finally adopted the design language used across its other web properties. The company really hit the ball out of the park in terms of design: the refreshed site features a black navigation bar which slides in and out of view smoothly, akin to the Facebook app.

Matter of fact, it almost feels like a native app. Knowing it's been ages since Google updated its Search app on the iPhone, the prettified mobile site will certainly better serve your needs. My favorite capability has to be the ability to navigate Google's most popular services with ease, all without losing track of content at hand...

Have you seen this Steve Jobs tribute in Gmail app screenshots?

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2012

I was a little surprised realizing the blogosphere today reported on a nice little nugget I discovered nearly a month ago, but here it goes. If you visit the iTunes Preview page on the web for Google's Gmail iOS app and check out the screenshots, you will notice a nice tribute to Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs in two screenies. The images depict an email message with the subject line “Your favorite Steve Jobs quotes” and contain the following text in the message body...

Need for Speed Most Wanted: so good you’ll want to break the law

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 10, 2012

EA Mobile just tweeted their first trailer for the upcoming racing game for the iOS and Android platform, aptly named Need For Speed Most Wanted. Prior Need for Speed games all looked great, always raising the bar when it comes to graphics and gameplay. If this trailer is anything to go by, Need for Speed Most Wanted won't disappoint.

The game features dynamic physics-based collisions for realistic visual damage, cop takedowns, high speed chases and what not. You'll have a chance to drive such cars as the Dodge Challenger SRT8 392, the Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale, the Porsche 911 Carrera S and many more. It's coming on October 30 so stay tuned...