Review

The Trail is a beautiful jaunt in the palm of your hand

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

In gaming circles, the mentioning of Peter Molyneux’s name alone will cue plenty of associations. The Brit gained industry fame at the helm of projects such as Black & White or Fable, inextricably linking his name to figments of fantastical worlds, deep characters and far-reaching decisions on virtue and morality. In 2012, Molyneux founded 22Cans and branched out to mobile gaming. So far, remarkably little has come off it on iPhone.

In view of the latest product out of 22Cans' think tank, the rules might however just have changed. Their latest adventure goes by the name The Trail and revolves around the ostensibly quiet premise of wandering nature. Contrary to some notions inherent to hiking though, it is remarkably entertaining, oddly social and distinctly Molyneux. Oh, and it is a visual treat for your eyes.

Find out if the game with the curious premise is cut out for you in our review.

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Anker’s power banks and solar chargers keep your devices juiced up while on the go

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 8, 2016

If you do a lot of traveling and like to stay connected with your friends and family via your smartphone or tablet, then you probably need as much battery life as you can get. Out and about, you won’t always have access to a plug in the wall, so it’s a good idea to have a backup plan for keeping your devices charged.

Anker makes some great solutions, including the PowerCore 20000 and PowerCore+ 26800 power banks, and a 21W PowerPort Solar charger so you can harness the power of the Sun. Any of these can help make mobile charging easier.

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Round the corners of the multitasking cards in the App Switcher with RoundedSwitchr

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 5, 2016

RoundedSwitchr is a new free jailbreak tweak that lets you add rounded corners to the multitasking cards in your iPhone or iPad's App Switcher.

The tweak adds a preferences pane to the Settings app where you can control the corner roundness radius. The default is 10.0, but our screenshot above is pretty close to the 30.0 mark. You can set this radius amount as low as 0.0 or as high as 100.0.

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Review: PDF Viewer does not stand out from the pack, but delivers on its promise

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated October 17, 2018

When iOS 8 and its slew of extensibility features arrived, facilitating a much simpler experience importing or exporting your files, third-party productivity apps finally became well-rounded products and viable alternatives to Apple’s in-house range. Since then, more file storage and document editor apps than ever inhabit the depths of the App Store and chances are you have settled on your day-to-day favorite for the handling of PDFs a while back.

Enter PDF Viewer, a new and free app available for iPhone and iPad, which sets out to make you question your previous app choices. As the name suggests, PDF Viewer aims to deliver you an all-encompassing assistant for PDF file management including document edits, file dissection and the creation of new files from scratch. PDF Viewer gets a lot right at the first go but will also have to slowly grow its offering in depth and breadth. Find out if its an application fitting your life style below.

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PickPocket helps protect your valuable iPhone from thieves

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 4, 2016

I hate good for nothing thieves just like the next guy, but who says you have to be completely powerless against them when your precious iPhone goes missing?

A new jailbreak tweak called PickPocket aims to help keep thieves away from your iPhone and give you additional piece of mind that you'll be able to recover it if or when it gets stolen.

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Get rid of the clunky stock volume HUD in iOS with SmartVolumeControl

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 4, 2016

The stock volume HUD has always been a pain point of iPhone and iPad users for years. As a result, it's not surprising that so many jailbreak tweak releases have come along in Cydia to bring a better solution for what seems like a major oversight by Apple.

A new jailbreak tweak called SmartVolumeControl is just another one of those releases, and it aims to be a solution that can be customized to your heart's content and also stays out of the way when you don't want it to be.

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Speck’s Presidio Grip iPhone 7 cases handle everyday clumsiness with ease

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 1, 2016

Anyone who knows me personally knows I’m a huge fan of Speck’s cases because they keep a slim form factor, and yet they pack a lot of drop protection and a superior anti-slip feel in your hand into that compact package.

Starting with the iPhone 7 & 7 Plus, Speck has re-worked their case lineup into what’s being dubbed the Presidio series, which features an all new drop protection technology they’re calling Impactium.

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Crypto lets you encrypt any text on the fly

Anthony Bouchard ∙ October 28, 2016

Security is a big thing for many people, and a big part of keeping your information secure is encryption.

A new jailbreak tweak called Crypto lets you quickly and easily encrypt any text on the fly, making it impossible for anyone without a password to read your text.

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