Opinion

iOS 9: should you jailbreak?

Every year, it seems jailbreaking loses a little bit of its appeal. It's not that the community is dying. It's just that hardware and software upgrades brought to iOS devices can make it a little less compelling to jailbreak.

If you are on the fence about jailbreaking, take a moment and read the next few paragraphs. I won't try to convince you to make the jump, because ultimately, jailbreaking is a personal decision, which as you will see, has much more drawbacks than benefits to offer.

Magic Mouse 2 review: rechargeable and sturdier, but is it worth the upgrade?

I've been a huge proponent of the Magic Mouse ever since it first debuted. I use this mouse almost daily, even though I have a MacBook with a trackpad.

When editing video in Final Cut Pro X, a mouse is pretty much a necessity due to the precision required. With this in mind, the Magic Mouse is one of my most cherished companions when it comes to my daily workflow.

As you know, Apple just updated its Magic Mouse with several new features. The headlining feature of the new Magic Mouse is its built-in rechargeable battery. The new mouse is also lighter with a sturdier build and features an optimized foot design for better movement. But for existing Magic Mouse users, is it worth the upgrade?

Why I switched to the smaller iPhone

As many of you readers know, I’ve been in the midst of a serious mental debate involving the new iPhones.

As an iPhone 6 Plus user for the last year, I'm intimately familiar with all of the things that make the larger-sized iPhones so desirable. This generation, however, I decided to forgo the added luxury brought on by the Plus model, and rolled with the "regular" sized iPhone instead.

This decision, as you can probably imagine, didn’t come easy to me. If you’ve followed any of my recent blog posts or tuned into our recent podcasts, then you know how much I’ve waffled on this subject.

Why did I end up going with the iPhone 6s, when I was initially set on re-upping with the iPhone 6s Plus? In the end, it all boiled down to one particular reason...

If you’re serious about video, the iPhone 6s Plus is the iPhone for you

You have a big decision to make. That's because iPhone pre-orders open up at 12:01 AM PDT. While things like color and storage size certainly matter, choosing the type of iPhone is an even bigger decision.

In a few hours, you'll have to decide whether to go for the iPhone 6s or the larger iPhone 6s Plus. There are pluses and minuses associated with each device. For example, the iPhone 6s Plus is much less pocketable than the iPhone 6s.

But there's one particular area of interest that makes the iPhone 6s Plus hands-down the right choice. If you plan on using your iPhone extensively for video, then the iPhone 6s Plus is a no brainer. Here's why...

Six reasons breaking up iTunes into highly focused, lightweight apps totally makes sense

Most people will agree that iTunes for Mac and Windows is a hot mess. Indeed, the app has long been ripe for a thorough change from top to bottom and inside out, if not a complete reboot.

The reasoning is simple: after more than fourteen years of adding one layer of code atop another and cramming every little feature it could possibly think of into iTunes, Apple has made the app bloated and painfully frustrating to use.

At some point during its development, iTunes has become inundated with various user interface inconsistencies. The most recent version with poorly implemented Apple Music has only made things worse.

Now, some have suggested that Apple break up this resource hog of an app into highly focused apps, each dedicated to managing and syncing their own media type. As someone who belongs to that camp, I've put together an opinion piece listing six solid arguments why breaking up iTunes into smaller apps might just make sense.

Privacy is more dead than we think

The concept of privacy has shifted from the connoted right it once was to a fading dream. Where family discussions once never left the dinner table, what a person does and thinks are now plastered across social media in a way once deemed unthinkable because it simply “wasn’t anyone’s business” not that long ago. Now, everything is everyone’s business, and this change in culture has come about largely if not solely because of technology.

Sure, social media has played a large part in changing the way people share information, making what was once personal now more or less public domain. However, there are more subtle forces at work. One common instance many people overlook is the simple request of an app to access your phone’s contacts.

My #1 next-gen iPhone feature request has nothing to do with Force Touch or better cameras

A bunch of short-sighted analysts are downgrading $AAPL on the basis that the rumored Force Touch screen on the 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' won't be enough of a hardware differentiator to motivate owners of the present-generation iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to upgrade.

To them, I say: you'd be hard-pressed to call Force Touch the defining feature of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. A convenience, yes. But a marquee new feature? No way.

But wait, what about “the biggest camera jump ever”? Surely a rumored 12-megapixel back shooter with 4K video capture and a five-megapixel upgrade to the iPhone's paltry 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera would warrant an upgrade?

While perks like substantial camera upgrades, force-sensing screens, faster chips, two times faster LTE and a stronger body are much appreciated, these expected enhancements won't convince me to upgrade my rusty old iPhone 6 Plus unless the forthcoming phones offer this one feature I have been craving for years now.

Why Force Touch makes sense for iOS platform

Yesterday's report by a credible outlet provided an interesting outline of how Force Touch works and feels under iOS and on Apple's upcoming 'iPhone 6s' and 'iPhone 6s Plus' smartphones. The basic premise behind outfitting an iPhone with a force-sensing screen is making user interface interactions faster with focus on shortcuts.

But there are still plenty of doubters out there who don't think Force Touch iPhones make much sense, arguing the technology is but a marketing gimmick which doesn't provide any benefit versus long-tapping items on the screen.

While there's some merits to those voices, I'm inclined to think they're missing the big picture and here's why.

10 jailbreak myths debunked

Over the years, there have been lots of misconceptions about jailbreaking, the type of people that jailbreak, and the overall purpose of jailbreaking. What's true, and what's not? Does jailbreaking void your warranty? Is it hard to do? Is it even necessary nowadays?

In this post, I'll break down and debunk 10 jailbreaking myths. I'll show you why I still jailbreak, and why jailbreaking may be quite different than you perceived it to be.

5 things I like about the LG G4

I've had the privilege of testing out an LG G4 for the last 3 weeks, and I've finally found the time to write down my impressions about the highly esteemed flagship phone. If you've been keeping up with all of the rumblings regarding the G4, then it probably won't be the first time you've heard some of the things I have to say in this overview.

At iDB, we strive to stay in the know about competing devices, and freely acknowledge that some of them do things better than the Apple devices that we're most intimately familiar with. In this post, I'll share five features about the LG G4 that particularly stood out to me.

First and foremost, the camera is bonkers! Not only is the general quality of the camera really good, but it excels in low light situations, features a great 4K video camera, and has tons of manual controls to fool around with. Check out our video overview of the camera inside.

Poll: Are you buying the new iPod touch 6th generation?

The new iPod touch has arrived, and although its buzz is far below that of iPhone or even iPad levels, the excitement can still be felt throughout the community. As you know by now, this is the first new iPod touch since 2012, and it brings with it a much-needed and hefty specs update.

With this in mind, will you be purchasing a 6th generation iPod touch? Please participate in our poll and let us know.