Alex Heath - page 86

The iPhone’s app switcher is where you go to quickly navigate between apps in iOS. Apple has added more features to the little switcher tray over time, like handy music controls. Double tapping the Home button on your iPhone reveals one row of recently opened apps to choose from, and you can swipe from right to left to see more icons. Without getting into the debate about whether the app switcher is a true multitasking environment or not, it’s safe to say that it does its job. But could the experience be improved?

When Brent Caswell detailed his rethinking of the iPhone’s app switcher a few days ago, he had no clue the concept would come to life. Thanks to the ingenuity of the jailbreak community, a new Cydia tweak implements Caswell’s ideas to extend the functionality of the app switcher.

Try to not fall out of your chair or trip face-first into the pavement, because we have some breaking news for you: men love Zooey Deschanel. We’re not quite sure why, but it probably has something to do with her drop-dead gorgeousness and delightful quirkiness. Her hair is also very nice.

Apple knows that Zooey Deschanel is wonderful too, and you can see Zooey on TV talking to Siri in the newest ad for the iPhone 4S. Her spot with Apple runs alongside a similar iPhone ad starring the one and only Samuel L. Jackson.

According to new research, Apple’s latest ads are being received very well. Specifically, men between the age of 18-34 seem to really be showing interest in the Zooey ad. We wonder why.

In December of 2011 the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of Apple for placing a ban on the U.S. import of multiple HTC smartphones. It was the first major exclusion ban of its kind, and it all hinged on one Apple patent.

The HTC import ban went into effect on April 19, 2012, and the delay was meant to give HTC time to re-engineer around the infringing issues. HTC said it was going to have everything cleared and ready to go in time, but U.S. Customs has now halted the One X and Evo 4G LTE from crossing the border.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner at the U.S. Capitol today. The details of the meeting remain unknown, but Cook was likely sweet talking Boehner to pass the the tax holiday Apple wants so it can bring back billions in offshore cash at a low tax rate.

An official ESPN app could eventually make its way to the Apple TV set-top box, according to a new report today. Bloomberg says that Disney, parent company of ESPN, is open to offering Apple digital access to its sports network for Apple TV users. While a deal is by no means confirmed, it appears that the companies could be in talks to add an ESPN Apple TV app in the future.

The Socialmatic Instagram camera concept caused quite the buzz after we posted it last week. After making the rounds on all kinds of blogs and design sites, the concept’s creator, Antonio De Rosa of ADR Studios, decided there was enough interest to try and turn the dream into reality.

De Rosa has launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise funds for turning the Socialmatic into a real-life camera. The concept is based entirely around Instagram and the idea of physicalizing the way we share on social networks. Will the camera actually see the light of day? That’s up to you.

While the threat of the Flashback trojan has seemed to largely subside, Apple has released a tool for removing Flashback from older Macs running OS X 10.5 Leopard. A Flashback removal tool was released for Lion and Snow Leopard users a month ago, and now Leopard Macs can get in on the action. Yay for antivirus software!

Apple has also released a Leopard security update that automatically disables outdated versions of Adobe Flash player.

Rumors surrounding Apple’s new lineup of MacBook Pros have been picking up steam over the last couple weeks, with several reports over the last several days revealing more and more details surrounding the next-gen notebooks.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, Apple will announce its new MacBook Pros at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) on June 11th. The new MacBook Pros will feature super hi-res ‘Retina’ displays, Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors, and solid-state drives. We can also expect more announcements at WWDC regarding OS X Mountain Lion, iCloud, and iOS 6.

We all remember the Zune. Microsoft’s failed attempt at an iPod competitor gained about as much traction as Windows Phone 7 has during the last two years. Apple already had its hands around the music industry’s neck with the iPod and iTunes — there was no room for something like the Zune. It wasn’t that the Zune was a bad product, it was just too late to the game.

Former Microsoft executive Robbie Bach was in charge of the Zune division, and in a recent interview he acknowledges that Microsoft made a mistake releasing the Zune in the first place.

Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) will be the source of many new announcements from the Cupertino company in the coming weeks. iOS 6 is widely expected to be demoed for developers, and there are whispers that we may even see some new hardware. Expect June to be a crazy month.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal says that Apple is planning significant upgrades to iCloud that it will announce at WWDC. New photo sharing features for posting and commenting on pictures in iCloud will be announced alongside the ability to wirelessly upload and sync videos across iOS devices.

Remember when Siri was saying that Nokia’s Lumia 900 was the “best smartphone ever?” Obviously it wasn’t Apple that programmed such an answer; Siri uses WolframAlpha to those kinds of questions. In this instance, it was a case of out-of-date information and poor review ranking.

Now that the whole fuss is over, you can ask Siri “What’s the best smartphone ever?” and get the correct result. Looks like Apple changed the answer. Who would have thought our iPhones would have their own egos in the year 2012.

Last week a Chinese news site called ChinaDaily published a report saying that Foxconn CEO Terry Gou said his company was “making preparations for iTV, Apple Inc’s rumored upcoming high-definition television.” The statement was then turned into a whirlwind of Apple iTV/HDTV “confirmed by Foxconn CEO” stories that made the rounds.

Foxconn is now saying that its CEO did not confirm Apple’s rumored television set in any way.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak recently made some comments concerning Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s upcoming IPO. In an interview with Bloomberg, Woz said that Zuckerberg was a combination of himself and Apple’s other co-founder, Steve Jobs. Woz cited Zuckerberg’s shrewd business sense combined with his passion for engineering and tinkering, with the latter set of qualities embodying Woz’s expertise.

Not only did Woz praise Facebook for its upcoming IPO valued at $96 billion, but he also said that he would invest in Facebook regardless of the opening price.

The hacker known only as pod2g has been working an a new untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 that’s been in the works for several months. Pod2g’s jailbreak was originally set for iOS 5.0.1, then 5.1, and now it’s been confirmed that it will work on the newly-released iOS 5.1.1. The only catch is that the third-gen iPod, iPhone 3GS, and third-gen Apple TV won’t be able to install the untethered jailbreak while running Apple’s latest version of iOS.

Pod2g has posted a short FAQ detailing some more info about the upcoming jailbreak.

Apple is expected to refresh its MacBook Pro lineup this summer, and rumors have widely agreed upon a May-June announcement timeframe. The upcoming notebooks are expected to feature Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors and possibly sport higher-res, Retina-like displays.

Benchmarks have been revealed for what could very well be one of Apple’s upcoming MacBook Pro models.  The mysterious computer runs an unknown build of OS X Mountain Lion and features one of Intel’s high-end quad-core Ivy Bridge processors.

Apple has made a change to how it markets the new third-generation iPad around the world following complaints from an Australian competition regulator. The ACCC took Apple to court in the land down under over the latest iPad’s “4G” branding. Apple marketed the tablet in Australia as being capable of 4G data speeds despite the fact that the new iPad cannot currently use a 4G network in the country.

Without any public statement or announcement Apple has quietly changed the new iPad’s “Wi-Fi + 4G” label to “WiFi + Cellular.”

You see that giant table of smartphones and tablets? Those are all of the Android devices app development firm Animoca uses to test its apps. You see, when you have dozens of manufacturers cranking out phones, tablets and phablets running different versions of Android, you run into a development issue. How do you make sure your app will work on the majority of Android devices? For Animoca, you test your apps on 400 different Android devices.

That’s what Steve Jobs meant when he said that Android was “fragmented.”

Following the site’s report that Apple is planning a 7-inch iPad for an October release alongside the next iPhone, iMore today says that Apple hasn’t finalized the design of its sixth-gen smartphone (commonly referred to as the “iPhone 5”). All of the metal casing and 4-inch display rumors are still up in the air, but Apple has zeroed in on a smaller dock connector, according to iMore.

Have you ever wanted to know the definition of a word without having to perform a Google search or open an app? If you have an iPhone 4S you can use Siri to look up definitions, but older iOS devices are have immediate way to show a definition.

Apple has a built-in dictionary in iOS that’s easy to forget about, but luckily a jailbreak tweak called SpotDict makes it simple to lookup words on the iPhone. SpotDict uses Apple’s dictionary to let you quickly define words from the Spotlight window in iOS.

Earlier today we showed you that Apple was working on bringing the iOS Notes and Reminders apps to iCloud.com, and Apple has since removed the evidence from beta.icloud.com. After others have dug around to see what Apple is up to with its iCloud beta URL, an interesting find shows a new iCloud developer icon.

It looks like Apple is working on new iCloud developer tools or at the very least some sort of web portal for devs to access beta iCloud features. Will we see new iCloud features at WWDC this summer?

Droplr, the popular web and app service for sharing files and links online, has launched its Droplr Pro plan. In case you didn’t know, Droplr is an incredibly slick way of sharing and storing media in the cloud. The iPhone and Mac apps can also be used to share files with shortened links, much like CloudApp.

Droplr Pro offers a completely ad-free experience, views/downloads statistics, increased storage, private drops, customized drop views, and custom domain configuration for short URLs. The service costs $3 per month or $30 per year.

If you login to iCloud.com with your Apple ID you can access Apple’s Mail, Address Book, Calendar, Find My iPhone, and iWork apps on the web. Interestingly, beta.icloud.com briefly featured two more apps this morning that are currently unavailable to regular iCloud.com users. Apple pulled the icons after they were discovered a few minutes ago.

The beta version of iCloud.com revealed Apple’s plans to bring its Notes and Reminders iOS apps to the web. You would assumedly be able to see your notes and reminders as they are synced between your iOS devices by logging into the website.

Spotify announced a major update to its Mac and Windows desktop apps today. Version 0.8.3 has begun rolling out to users of the popular music streaming service, and the update brings several new features and improvements.

Pandora-like radio stations can now be created based on Spotify playlists. Like Google’s search results, Spotify has also added Instant Search for immediately displaying search results. Playable song buttons can now be copied and embedded with HTML on the web. Sharing options have also been expanded for social networks like Tumblr.

Earlier today Apple released a minor update for Apple TV owners. HD iTunes Store previews have been added for movies and TV shows alongside several bug fixes and stability improvements.

4G mobile broadband provider FreedomPop has started taking preorders for a $99 case/sleeve that gives free 4G data speeds to an iPhone 4/4S. Backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, iPhone owners who purchase FreedomPop’s case will be given 500MB of free 4G data each month. Full data packages will also be sold in the future, but those details have not been given at this time.

We know what you’re asking: Will this thing actually work? Take a look at this video and find out: