News

Proximitus will notify you when you leave a Bluetooth device behind

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 26, 2019

If you’re like me, then you’ve got a lot of Bluetooth devices connected to your iPhone at any given time including some of the most pertinent, like the Apple Watch and AirPods. But if you aren’t thinking straight, it can be easy to leave your Apple Watch on the nightstand charger or to leave your AirPods on your desk when leaving your house with your iPhone.

iOS developer LaughingQuoll knows the struggle, and that’s why he’s working on the release of a brand-new jailbreak tweak called Proximitus.

Pwn20wnd releases unc0ver v3.0.0 to the public with significant improvements

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated April 26, 2019

Hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd published the official release of unc0ver v3.0.0 to GitHub on Friday, officially bringing the tool of out its beta stages. The move came shortly after the release of unc0ver v3.0.0 beta 51, which brought with it a small number of changes.

Pwn20wnd announced both of the updates Friday afternoon via Twitter:

Lionsgate’s former executive Danielle DePalma to oversee Apple’s film and TV series marketing

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2019

Apple has hired Danielle DePalma, studio Lionsgate's former Executive Vice President of Worldwide Digital Marketing & Research, as its Senior Film and TV Series Marketing executive tasked with pushing the company's upcoming Apple TV+ video-streaming service.

Pwn20wnd considers refining Substitute for the unc0ver jailbreak

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 19, 2019

Saurik delivered a Twitter-based Tropicana speech on Friday regarding the state of Cydia Substrate for A12(X) devices, and from what we can tell, its release is anything but imminent; in fact, there’s no telling if it’ll ever be released. Not only is Saurik getting tired of updating Cydia Substrate, but Apple made things more difficult in A12(X) by adding new logic and challenges.

Prominent members of the modern jailbreak community are now responding to Saurik’s words of wisdom, beginning with unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd:

Apple’s newly appointed retail boss Deirdre O’Brien joins Instagram to detail her world tour of company stores

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2019

Deirdre O’Brien, who was promoted to Apple's Senior Vice President of Retail + People after the departure of ex retail head Angela Ahrendts, is touring Apple Stores around the world to familiarize herself with Apple's retail efforts, documenting her experiences on Instagram.

Also coming to macOS 10.15: Shortcuts, Screen Time, iMessage effects & other iOS features

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2019

Shortcuts, Screen Time, iMessage effects, better Siri, streamlined Apple ID management and other iOS features are coming to your Mac with the major new macOS 10.15 software, which will be previewed at WWDC 2019 on June 3 ahead of launch some time this fall.

Netflix is testing a shuffle feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 19, 2019

Netflix is testing a new feature that would serve a random episode of a specific TV show without having to navigate the interface and pick which one you'd like to watch.

Snapper 2 augments your iPhone’s screenshot-centric capabilities

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 19, 2019

Apple stepped up how iOS handles screenshots in some of the latest iterations of iOS, but that’s not to say it’s perfect. With that in mind, we can usually expect that the jailbreak community will respond with a solution whenever Apple leaves anything to be desired, and that’s precisely what happened in this particular instance.

Snapper 2 is a jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Jonathan Winger-Lang that augments iOS’ screenshot handling with a whole trough of new features, including sticky screenshot previews and privacy protection, among other things.

7ower cures your nostalgia for the iOS 7-esque power down menu

Anthony Bouchard ∙ April 19, 2019

Among the plethora of things Apple changed over the years with respect to iOS’ user interface is the power down menu that appears when you press and hold a certain button sequence on your handset. On older handsets, you could access it merely by pressing and holding the sleep/wake button, but on newer handsets, you must hold sleep/wake and a volume button.

Like with most changes, not all users take as kindly to the updated interface as others, leaving plenty of wiggle room for nostalgia. For that reason, iOS developer PeterDev has just released a new jailbreak tweak called 7ower that ports the pre-iOS 7.1 power down slider to pwned iOS 11 and 12 handsets.

BlackBerry Messenger shutting down next month

Cody Lee ∙ April 18, 2019

BlackBerry announced on Thursday that it will be closing its once-popular messaging platform next month. The company says the consumer-side of the BBM service will officially shut down on May 31st, but it plans to keep the enterprise version online for the foreseeable future, and it will be opening that up to all users.

Amazon offers free ad-supported music to US Alexa users

Cody Lee ∙ April 18, 2019

Amazon on Thursday announced that customers in the U.S. are now able to listen to streaming music for free via Alexa. The service is of course support by ads, and is extremely curated, but you won't need a membership with Amazon Prime or its Music Unlimited plan—just an Alexa-enabled device.

Apple estimated to have paid up to $6 billion in Qualcomm settlement

Cody Lee ∙ April 18, 2019

Apple's recently-announced settlement with Qualcomm didn't come cheap, according to UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri. In a research note released Thursday, Arcuri said the iPhone-maker likely paid between $5 and $6 billion to put a stop to the bevy of legal battles between the two companies.