Review

Using your iPhone as a remote for your Mac or PC

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 4, 2018

You're probably familiar with Apple's Remote app for iOS devices, which allows you to control your iTunes playback on your Mac from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad so long as you're on the same network.

On the other hand, when I think of the word "remote," I think of much more than just controlling music.

It would seem that the makers of the popular Mobile Mouse Remote app for iOS thought the same, and in this piece, we'll talk about how the app works to make your iOS device a superior remote for your Mac.

Getting your point across, artfully, with PointOut

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 13, 2016

PointOut for iPhone, an exciting image annotation app, is celebrating its first birthday with a feature-packed update that surfaced yesterday on the App Store.

As its name hints, this app lets you point out things on your photos and iOS screenshots with pointers such as arrows, dots, circles, lifelike loupes, precision glasses, different canvas layouts, focus areas and more.

These tolls make it super easy to highlight or enlarge specific details on your photos in a manner that'll make an impact on your audience.

In its latest update, PointOut has gained some new pointers with draggable text labels for making even greater impact, a flat magnifying glass for those who couldn't stand the skeuomorphic ones, full support for non-standard iOS keyboards and more.

Having been using this app for months, I've grown to like it quite a lot. This quick review should give you an idea why I deem PointOut a unique iOS annotation app.

Opera VPN offers a free and unlimited VPN service

Andrew O'Hara ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

VPNs can afford a lot of benefits to users. They route your data through special servers that can help you access content that is only available in certain regions, bypass firewalls that block content like iDownloadBlog or music streaming services, and protect yourself on public networks. They grant these features, usually in exchange for a monthly fee. The new Opera VPN app brings all of this and more, for free. However, it isn't without compromises.

A quick overview of the new System and Security Info app

Andrew O'Hara ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

Security has always been a top priority for Apple and its ecosystem, especially as of late. Tim Cook has made it clear that maintaining encryption and tight security protocols are here to stay. Users that are equally as concerned about protecting their personal information have had few options in actually monitoring their security however. A new app called System and Security Info from security firm SektionEins aims to help with that.

Review: freeing up your Mac’s storage with Gemini 2, a smart duplicate file finder

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 10, 2016

Ukrainian developer MacPaw, the makers of the versatile and powerful CleanMyMac and CleanMyDrive apps, today pushed a major new update for Gemini as a brand new app. For those unfamiliar with it, Gemini is an intelligent duplicate file finder that can help recover tons of storage space on your Mac wasted to duplicate files.

Aside from identifying identical duplicates, Gemini 2 uses a proprietary algorithm to spot similar files that are not 100 percent identical, but can be considered redundant due to little difference between them.

It scans your iTunes and Photos libraries in search of retakes of the same picture or different formats of the same song, and becomes smarter and more precise in automatic selection of duplicates the more you use it.

PersonalAssistant: a 7-in-1 tweak that supercharges your Lock screen

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 10, 2016

There comes a time every once in a while where a jailbreak tweak is groundbreaking and has the potential to shake up the entire jailbreak community, and folks, we definitely think a new tweak release in Cydia called PersonalAssistant is one of those tweaks.

In this review, we'll walk you through this monster of a tweak, which the developer notes has seven tweaks built into one unified interface.

Excited yet? You should be...

Facer brings Instagram feeds, flash style cards and more to your Apple Watch face

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 9, 2016

About a month ago, Facer, a smartwatch customization platform, landed on the Apple Watch via a free of charge App Store app. Unlike most other apps for customizing watch faces, Facer puts your style and individuality on full display with thousands of custom watch faces and the ability to design your own with an online creator tool.

The app can pull watch face images from a variety of sources, including your Instagram feed, and it even has neat flash card style faces for learning things like languages, constellations, Solar System's planet names, the elements of the periodic table and so forth.

Jailbreak tweaks of the week: Audicy, LiveRinging, & more…

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 8, 2016

It has yet again been a relatively quiet week in Cydia for the jailbreak community, which is growing ever so more impatient with the lack of a jailbreak for the latest iOS version.

Nevertheless, Cydia is still turning over new jailbreak tweak releases from those persistent iOS developers out there. We'll show you everything that was new in Cydia this week, starting with our favorites, and then we will quickly go over the rest.

Audicy lets you import media to your iPhone without iTunes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 7, 2016

Audicy is a great new jailbreak tweak that lets anyone running a jailbroken installation of iOS 7.0 to 9.1 import media from various sources to their stock media apps. These include the Music, Podcasts, and Videos apps that come pre-installed on your iOS device.

In this review, we'll talk about how Audicy works and show you how it'll come in handy for quick, on-the-go media importing without having to tether yourself to a computer to use iTunes.

How to use your iPhone as a mouse or trackpad

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated July 3, 2018

Your iOS devices have some of the best touch screens out there. As a matter of fact your iPhone screen makes for a great mouse, or trackpad.

The idea of using iOS devices as a trackpad for your computer isn't new, but Mobile Mouse Remote is a great app that provides this kind of functionality with ease of use in mind. It even packs some useful bonus features.

If you're interested in this kind of functionality for your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, then this is something you're going to want to check out.

LiveRinging brings video ringtones to your jailbroken iPhone

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 5, 2016

For deeper customization of the incoming call screen from iOS that goes deeper than just blurring your wallpaper background or showing the contact picture of the person who is calling you, you may want to check out a new jailbreak tweak called LiveRinging.

This tweak replaces the background of the incoming call screen with a video of your choice and gives iOS a feature Android users know and love known as video ringtones.

In this review, we'll show you how LiveRinging works and demonstrate its capabilities.

Twelve South TimePorter for Apple Watch review

Andrew O'Hara ∙ May 3, 2016

I travel quite often and have spent an embarrassing amount of time looking for the perfect travel charger for my Apple Watch. I want to pack a few extra bands, the charging puck, and the wall adapter. Yet nothing I've run across can handle all that, let alone while looking good. That was at least the case before I ran across the TimePorter from Twelve South.