iPod Touch

Seventh betas of iOS 10.3 and macOS Sierra 10.12.4 now available

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 16, 2017

Apple on Thursday seeded seventh betas of what would become the third major software update to iOS 10 and the fourth major update to macOS Sierra 10.12.4. Members of the Apple Developer Program can now install iOS 10.3 beta 7 (build 14E5277a) and macOS Sierra 10.12.4 beta 7 (build 16E191a) over the air, via the Software Update mechanism, on devices with a special configuration profile that's available through Apple's portal for developers.

St. Patrick’s Day stickers launch on Instagram

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 16, 2017

Yesterday was the Saint Patrick’s Day, a cultural and religious celebration held on the traditional death date of Saint Patrick who was the foremost patron saint of Ireland. To celebrate the festivities, Instagram has added a handful of themed stickers which you can plaster all over the photos and videos in your Stories. They’re available in the United States, Ireland, Australia and the United Kingdom through the weekend so go ahead and dazzle your followers with St. Patrick’s Day-themed Stories.

This cool iOS 11 concept would bring more power to your iPhone’s Lock screen

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 15, 2017

Various iPhone 8 and iOS 11 concepts have been proliferating lately, with app developer Matt Birchler jumping on the bandwagon with mockups of his own. We're liking some of the smart ideas presented in his batch of thoughtfully done renderings that envision a much more useful Lock screen on iOS 11.

Going beyond simple things like checking the date and time, launching the camera, accessing your favorite widgets and seeing notifications that have arrived since your last unlock, Birchler is proposing a Lock screen with Apple Watch-like complications, user-selectable app shortcuts, alert bundles, smart notifications that could be augmented further with optional location information and so forth.

Facebook kicks off global rollout of Snapchat-like Stories feature in its mainland app

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 15, 2017

Facebook has infamously ripped off Snapchat’s Stories feature wholesale with auto-vanishing slideshows on Instagram and WhatsApp, in addition to the similar recently introduced feature on Messenger, called Messenger Day. The social networking behemoth was recently caught testing Snapchat-like Stories feature in its mobile app. According to TechCrunch, the company has now begun a staggered rollout of Facebook Stories to all users worldwide.

How to clear X app cache and media files to free space

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 21, 2026

Learn how to clear cached media and other temporary files in the X app on your iPhone or Android phone to free up storage space or troubleshoot issues.

Viber rolls out self destructing Secret Chats

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 13, 2017

Messaging service Viber today rolled out a new Secret Chats feature. Not to be confused with Secret Messages, a similar feature introduced in February 2017 that lets you define how long your photos, videos and texts are available after the recipient has opened them, Secret Chats use Viber's end-to-end encryption let you set a timer on individual messages so they disappear after a few seconds, get an alert when a screenshot is taken and be sure no messages get forwarded.

WhatsApp to bring back its original text-only status feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2017

WhatsApp's longstanding text-based status feature was recently supplanted by Snapchat-esque slideshows containing auto-vanishing images, photos, emoji, drawings and other multimedia items. Our tutorial explains how to use this new feature, but it seems many users are unhappy with the overhauled status. If you count yourself in this group, you'll be delighted to learn that Facebook is working on bringing back the original status feature, called About.

Twitter starts censoring profiles that publish potentially sensitive content

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

Twitter recently introduced several features in its mobile app that give users the option to filter out anonymous and “egg” accounts, as well as mute words, phrases, mentions and hashtags in their timelines (be sure to read our tutorial for step-by-step instructions on the new filtering options).

In its continuing mission to fight trolls on the service, the company is taking additional steps to make the platform a safer place, as Mashable reported Friday.

In a nutshell, the service has now begun censoring profiles that post “potentially sensitive” content even if the implementation seems a bit heavy-handed at the moment.

Google is bringing Safari-like Reading List feature to Chrome for iPhone and iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2017

Safari for iPhone, iPad and Mac has long included a tremendously useful Reading List feature that allows you to save your favorite webpages and access them easily between devices—even without an Internet connection. Google has been working on its own version of Reading List and it's slated to arrive in an upcoming update to Chrome for iOS, as reported by 9to5Mac. Like with Reading List on Safari, this nifty new addition will let Chrome users save articles and webpages for offline reading at a later date.

Cortana 2.0 for iPhone brings overhauled interface and faster performance

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 10, 2017

Microsoft today rolled out a major update to its Cortana personal assistant app for iPhone, with enhancements like faster page transitions, improved app responsiveness and overhauled user interface all part of the update. The new version arrived three months after its release on Android. Design improvements in Cortana 2.0, a free download from App Store, include a fresh new look with an improved user experience, immersive full-page answers and overhauled calling, texting and reminders.

Developers required to submit a new app version before updating App Store descriptions [U]

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2017

Developers could refresh App Store's meta data for their apps at any time, but not anymore. According to 9to5Mac, which first spotted the change, Apple's iTunesConnect tool for developers used for editing metadata now requires that a new version of the app be submitted for review before its description, release notes and other metadata can be edited. Any changes made to an app's metadata won't go live on App Store until the new binary has been approved by Apple's editorial team.

UPDATE: Several developers we talked to have confirmed that this was indeed a glitch in the system, saying they're now able to update an app's description and other meta data without submitting a new binary for approval.

Facebook Messenger now lets everyone post status updates that disappear after 24 hours

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 9, 2017

Facebook announced Thursday that a feature in its mobile Messenger app that allows people to post auto-disappearing photos and videos has now begun rolling out globally following a previous soft launch in select countries like Poland and Australia. They're calling it Messenger Day because anything you post there disappears automatically after 24 hours, just like with Instagram Stories or those auto-vanishing status updates on WhatsApp.

You're in full control of the scope of your Messenger Day and can choose to share it with everyone on the service, people you're friends with or cherry-picked contacts.