Alex Heath - page 29

More than two million videos from the web are being saved to Pocket each week now. To make the viewing experience more seamless, Pocket has integrated AirPlay into its iOS app for sharing with the Apple TV. The update went live today in the App Store.

Thanks to the slickness of AirPlay, users can exit the Pocket app when a video is streaming. There’s a new AirPlay button embedded in the app’s video player.

“This is just the beginning of how Pocket plans on truly becoming the DVR for the Web, and we think it’s going to be a great addition to our users’ experience in general,” said Pocket.

Source: App Store

Twitterrific 5, a popular third-party Twitter app for iOS from The Iconfactory, was updated today with a few new features.

Beats Music launched yesterday as a Spotify/Rdio alternative, and the new music service is already having scaling issues.

Due to an “extremely high volume of interest,” Beats Music has stopped adding new users until it can support the unexpected demand. The app is currently sitting in the number one position in the free chart of the App Store’s Music category.

Have you had problems with iOS 7 randomly crashing and rebooting? For many, the white screen of death (or black, depending on your device color) has been a big enough problem to fill countless pages of complaints on Apple’s support forum.

“We have a fix in an upcoming software update for a bug that can occasionally cause a home screen crash,” said Apple today in a statement. While Apple hasn’t specified when the fix will be released, iOS 7.1 would be a safe bet. The software is rumored to drop in March.

Source: Mashable

Today Apple released a minor update to iTunes that brings the ability to view your iTunes Store wish list directly in your local library. Support for Arabic and Hebrew has also been improved with other stability improvements.

Source: Apple

Today Apple’s Phil Schiller tweeted a link to Cisco’s 2014 Annual Security Report. The biggest takeaway from the report is that mobile malware is becoming much more prevalent on Android vs. any other platform.

Cisco has calculated that 99% of malware targeted Android last year. 71% of Android users came into contact with web-related malware while iOS only saw a 14% encounter rate. Last year, Schiller tweeted a link to another security report that said 79% of malware targeted Android in 2012.

Via: @pschiller

Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has uncovered screenshots of Apple’s unreleased interface for iOS in the Car, a feature that integrates an iOS device with a vehicle’s in-dash system. According to Troughton-Smith, iOS in the Car is in the current, public release of iOS 7.0.4. He assumedly found it after digging through the software’s code.

When Apple unveiled iOS 7 at WWDC last June, it teased iOS in the Car with a design that is pretty different from what Troughton-Smith has leaked. The screenshots reflect the iOS 7 aesthetic, and could very well represent the design Apple will ship to the public.

iOS in the Car has been labeled as “coming soon” since it was originally announced last summer. Apple has said at least a dozen automobile partners are on board with the technology, like Honda, Nissan, and Acura. It has been reported that iOS in the Car will go live alongside the release of iOS 7.1 in the coming months.

Some more screenshots provided by Troughton-Smith compared to Apple’s current materials:

Today Skype updated its iPhone and iPad apps with two-way HD video calling. The enhanced resolution is only available on the iPhone 5s, iPad Air, and Retina iPad mini.

Chatting over text has gotten much better with today’s release. Skype has integrated with Apple’s Notification Center to show incoming messages even when the app is closed. In the past, Skype had to still be running in the background for push notifications to work. Group chats will be receiving the same upgrade in a future update.

Source: Skype

Google has finally released its official iOS app for the Movies & TV section of its Play Store. The universal app is available for free in the App Store, but it comes with several severe limitations.

First off, you can’t buy content through the app due to Google not wanting to give Apple a 30 percent cut of all in-app purchases. Another con is the lack of offline playback, meaning you can’t cache a video to watch later when Wi-Fi isn’t available. And for some odd reason, video only plays back in standard def on the iPhone.

The app is pretty barebones, but it is nice for the Chromecast, Google’s little streaming dongle that plugs into the TV. Chromecast users with iOS hardware have previously been limited to Netflix and Hulu Plus, but Google Play offers more recent movie and TV selections.

Source: App Store

The City College of New York is investigating its use of former Apple exec Scott Forstall’s photo in advertisements for the school’s student ID card.

Cult of Mac contacted the college Wednesday afternoon about Forstall’s strange appearance on the promotional materials. “I’m not commenting,” said Ellis Simon, City College’s public relations director, who added that he was aware of the situation but needed time to “get all the facts straight” before talking about the apparent mixup.

When Sunrise Calendar got its big iOS 7 makeover last fall, it solidified itself as one of the leading third-party calendars in the App Store. The biggest thing it was lacking was an iPad version—well, until now. Released last week, Sunrise had made its way to the iPad, and it’s great.

Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has been working on a big-budget Steve Jobs biopic for awhile now. Not only will it have way less zero Ashton Kutcher, but it will be funded by Sony and probably go down as the Jobs movie of record.

Sorkin was confirmed to write the script back 2012, but there’s been little news out of the project since then. Today it was reported that the script has finally been turned into Sony, which means that production is just around the corner.

Google has bought Nest Labs, the hot startup co-founded by the father of the original iPod, Tony Fadell, for a hefty $3.2 billion. Nest has been making forward-thinking gadgets for the home, like its popular thermostat, since 2011. The Nest Protect smoke detector was just announced in October of 2013.

Interestingly, Google has promised that Nest will remain its own distinct brand and operate under the leadership of Fadell.

Wearables are all the rage at CES this week, but everyone is waiting to see what Apple does with its rumored iWatch. The mysterious device has been in the rumor mill for several years now, but reports have started picking up more frequently in the past year.

According to The Information, Apple is running into problems developing its watch-like device. Specific panel technology isn’t mentioned in the report, but Apple has apparently had problems choosing the right display. A “sizable” team is working on the project, which was reported last year. Battery issues (which are tied to the screen problems) have also been slowing development.

LAS VEGAS — There are countless ways to catch up on the news thanks to the advent of services like Flipboard and Feedly. You may stick to traditional papers like The New York Times or USA Today, scan Twitter or Facebook, use RSS, visit a few of your favorite sites every day, or a combination of all the above. The possibilities are endless.

Then there’s Yahoo. At a big keynote today during CES, the tech giant announced its new News Digest app for iPhone. It’s a beautiful, bold take on presenting the news that has a good chance of being quite successful.

Apple released iOS 7.1 beta 3 to developers today, and like always, many have already combed through the new software to find what’s new. The second beta of 7.1 brought a few additions and UI tweaks, and beta 3 also includes several noticeable changes.

Here are 8 design changes Apple made in the latest iOS 7.1 beta today:

LAS VEGAS — Mophie’s Juice Packs are widely considered to be the best battery cases you can get for the iPhone. They attach via Lightning and give you a backup power reserve for long days when a normal charger isn’t available.

Today at CES, Mophie unveiled its new lineup for battery cases for the iPhone. The Space Pack not only doubles battery life, but it has a pretty cool trick up its sleeve: additional storage.

Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 7.1 to developers today as a direct download and OTA update. The release comes after beta 2 was seeded in the Apple Dev Center on December 13.

Apple hasn’t said what new features are in beta 3, but rest assured that we’ll let you know. New betas for the Apple TV and Xcode were also released alongside 7.1 beta 3 today. The public release of iOS 7.1 hasn’t been revealed, but this new beta is a sign that the software is getting closer to prime time.

Apple will hold its earnings call for the first fiscal quarter of 2014 on Monday, January 27th. During the call, Apple executives will talk about the company’s sales during this last holiday season.

Most notably, this will be the first quarter to see how sales of Apple’s latest iPads have been, and iPhone sales should also be interesting. Apple announced a deal to sell the iPhone on China Mobile last month, but sales from that big partnership won’t be very noticeable until after preorders are over and sales officially start.

With all of the pressure Apple faced in 2013 from Wall Street, the U.S government, legal disputes with other companies, and growing competition in the smartphone market, this earnings report will show us just how well Apple managed to close out the year. Based on Apple’s own guidance to investors, it could turn out to be the company’s best quarter ever.

Source: Apple

LAS VEGAS — Square sells its own cash register replacement for the iPad, but the mobile payments company has yet to debut any iPhone-compatible accessories for its card reader. Well, until now.

Griffin has made a Merchant case that is designed specifically to work with Square’s tiny reader, and it doubles as an added layer of protection for the iPhone.

LAS VEGAS — Not to be confused with “Blue Steel” from Zoolander, the Pebble smartwatch brand is branching out into the more premium, classic world of timepieces with Pebble Steel.

Announced today at CES, Pebble’s new watch has the same OS current owners know, but the physical materials have been upgraded from plastic to CNC-machined stainless steel. With a new developer SDK and its own app store on the near horizon, Pebble is leading the smartwatch race. But does it have what it takes to make the smartwatch cool?

Today LaCie announced its new lineup of hard drives, including the Fuel, a wireless 1TB hard drive that works with the Seagate Media iOS app. This is the first collaboration between the two storage companies since Seagate bought LaCie last year.

Besides the Fuel, LaCie is also unveiling three new hard drives at CES, including the Little Big Disk portable drive with Thunderbolt 2.

Apple has acquired SnappyLabs, the small startup behind the SnappyCam iPhone app, according to a report from TechCrunch. SnappyCam gave the user the ability to shoot 20 full-res photos per second with the iPhone’s camera. By comparison, Apple’s new Burst Mode on the iPhone 5s can only capture 10 photos per second.

The price Apple paid and exact date of the acquisition remain unknown, but the SnappyCam app was recently pulled from the App Store.

Since the iOS 7 jailbreak came out, one of the hottest new iOS hardware features that hackers have been looking to utilize is Touch ID in the iPhone 5s. For example, a tweak was just recently released that allows jailbreakers to use Touch ID to simulate pressing the home button.

The coolest use of Touch ID I’ve seen in a jailbreak tweak so far is AppLocker, which was updated to version 2.2 today in Cydia with 64-bit and iPhone 5s support. The premise is simple: AppLocker lets you lock individual iOS apps (stock or third-party) with a password. On the 5s, you can now use Touch ID to unlock.

Here’s a hands-on look:

Today Corning announced that it’s ready to manufacture a new 3D-shaped Gorilla glass for availability this year. The new glass is designed with curved phone and wearable displays in mind.

As the main glass supplier for iOS devices, Corning’s 3D Gorilla glass could very well end up in future Apple products.