iOS - page 16

It may dominate 80 percent of China’s high-end smartphone market, but one place Apple’s not racking up supporters or sales is in the Chinese government.

In fact, according to a new list drawn up by the country’s National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, Apple products are persona non grata when it comes to high tech devices that public money is allowed to be spent on.

The reason is security concerns, in the wake of increased fears about hacking and cyberspying. “When the government stops the procurement of products, it sends a signal to corporates and semi-government bodies,” says Mark Po, an analyst with UOB Kay Hian Ltd. in Hong Kong. “The Chinese government wants to make sure that overseas companies shouldn’t have too much influence in China.”

While everyone’s focused on which virtual assistant can provide the best automated response, the company behind storage solution iDrive has come up with a different idea: Why not hand the job over to humans?

Asking if users are “tired of trying to explain to a computer program what [they’re] searching for,” or are “sick of getting answers that have nothing to do with what [they] need” OOLOO is a free-to-download iOS app, which connects you to real people 24/7, able to give you the kind of personalized answer that you’re unlikely to get from a tool like Siri.

Ever since it arrived on our computers all the way back in 2000, the makers of The Sims have always been great at providing plenty of expansion packs designs to grow your Sim universe out in a variety of different directions.

That same spirit had carried over to the iOS game The Sims FreePlay, which has just added a “Let’s Eat” update, letting your Sim become a master of the culinary arts.

First released in 2008, Bioshock remains, to this day, one of the most unforgettable first person shooters you can play. The game takes place in the dystopian city of Rapture, an underwater metropolis built upon the ocean floor so that it’s citizens can pursue Ayn Rand style objectivism and eugenics. Pretty soon, everyone’s DNA is “spliced,” they’re all crazy, and it’s total chaos.

It’s a great game, and you can already play it on the Mac, but I never thought I’d see Bioshock come to the iPad. But it very much appears I was wrong.

San Diego Comic-Con 2014 may be over, but with all of the announcements out of the way, now we get to reap the rewards. Among the event’s iOS-related announcements was Marvel’s proclamation that its great Marvel Pinball app is getting a new table, to celebrate the company’s new Guardians of the Galaxy movie. To mark the occasion, the app is going free for the first time ever.

There are some pretty great Wikipedia apps out there already (my favorite is Das Referenz, an iPad app which turns Wikipedia pages into what looks like 17th century book entries), but Wikipedia has just made a gambit to be best of the bunch with a major redesign of its own iOS app.

Version 4.0 of Wikipedia Mobile sports a total overhaul of the app’s design, with a complete native rewrite that makes searching for information a faster and more enjoyable experience.

Where there’s a popular idea, you can be sure the clones will follow. Earlier this year the popular app in question was Flappy Bird, and here in July it’s simplified message app Yo, which has to date received $1.5m in funding.

A few weeks back we wrote about Yo spoof Hodor, but it seems that there’s another more pressing clone out there, called Yolo, which Yo founder Or Arbel describes as “a complete fake copy of our Yo app.”

In response to Yolo, Arbel has filed a complaint with Apple, asking it to remove Yolo from the App Store since it allegedly infringes on Arbel’s copyright and trademark.

As the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War continues to unfold, Russian officials have proposed that Apple hand the government access to its entire source code, just to make sure there aren’t any spying bugs in it.

When using your iOS device, you can get used to doing things the same way, day after day. But sometimes there are more efficient ways of getting things done with your iPhone or iPad.

In today’s video, we show you five hidden iOS tricks that can transform the way you use your device. Speed up your typing, browse your music in new ways and so much more by using these speedy tricks.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Snapchat is currently in talks with investors over a round of funding that could value the company at a mind-blowing $10 billion, according to sources for Bloomberg. That’s a little over half the $19 billion Facebook paid for WhatsApp, but double the $5 billion market cap currently held by BlackBerry.

Say whatever you want about the cold reception afforded its Fire Phone, but Amazon’s had a pretty great year when it comes to its core business of selling books: first announcing the creation of its Kindle Unlimited scheme, and now updating its iOS Kindle app with a few nifty features.

Chief among these are Wikipedia integration, letting readers pick selected words from any text they’re reading and link to the relevant Wikipedia page — particularly useful in the case of non-fiction books.

Back in the heady days of the early new Millennium I went out and bought a Sega Dreamcast (still a massively underrated console, in my mind) to play Crazy Taxi, one of the most original and addictive arcade games I’d played in forever.

Jump forward to 2012 and Crazy Taxi finally made its way to the iPhone as a $4.99 premium game, where it played better than expected, and (best of all) retained the nostalgic soundtrack that had helped make the original so much fun.

Leap forwards again to the present, and we’ve received word that Sega’s sequel, Crazy Taxi: City Rush is set for worldwide release tomorrow — bringing players more of the frantic passenger-pickup, traffic-dodging action they’ve been missing.

Having recently snapped up book recommendation tool BookLamp and made moves to acquire podcast recommender startup Swell, Apple clearly realizes the importance of good recommendation algorithms.

In that vein, it’s well worth checking out a similar app called Newsbeat, which launched under the umbrella of the Tribune Company earlier this year, and which recently received a notable update.

Six months after being unceremoniously booted out of the App Store, popular bitcoin wallet app Blockchain is back where it belongs, with Apple having let it back in after seemingly changing its mind about the digital currency.

Blockchain was removed from the App Store back in February this year, having briefly been excised and then re-accepted before that. It followed in the footsteps of fellow wallets BitPak and Coinbase, which were also removed by Apple.

When it comes to iOS gaming, nothing tops the exhilarating feeling of beating your friends’ high scores. But with so many games and so many scores to keep track of, it can be a lot to handle. Luckily, Apple’s Game Center app can help you take down the competition.

In today’s video, we show you how to master the Game Center app and become the best of the best. Find the hottest trending games, challenge your gaming “foes” and more using this underrated stock app.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

The European Commission today gave its approval to Apple’s $3 billion takeover of Beats Electronics and Beats Music. The regulator concluded that the two companies are not close competitors, and that the headphones they sell are “markedly different in function and design.”

You know how it is — you want to share that lovely photo of your new puppy, but you really don’t want the person you hand your iPhone to swiping to those over-the-top party photos from your last lost weekend.

Overswipe, a new app from developer Haley & Hughes, aims to solve that very problem in a super intuitive way. All you do is open the app, tap on the photos you want to share, and then hand over the iPhone. Your intended viewer will only see the photos you chose, and won’t be able to swipe into anything super embarrassing.

Coinciding with the forthcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot produced by Michael Bay, Apple has announced its latest free App of the Week as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rooftop Run.

It’s an endless runner combat game, in which the heroes in a half-shell fight against the sinister Foot Clan and evil associates. If you’re a Turtles fan, you’ll find plenty of familiar faces here — including the obvious (Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael) and less obvious faves (Kraang, Baxter Stockman, Casey Jones).

If you’ve been wary of joining the digital comics revolution because of digital rights management (DRM) concerns, Comixology, a comics portal and mobile app, is creating a solution.

Announced Thursday at the company’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, the new DRM-free backup service will let you keep a local copy of your purchased digital comics from the likes of Image Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, Zenescope Entertainment, MonkeyBrain Comics, Thrillbent, and Top Shelf Productions. You’ll be able to save a local copy in PDF or CBZ (a comic-book archiving format) right on your iPad.

“For those out there who have not joined the comic reading community because of DRM – you have no excuse now,” said ComiXology’s John D. Roberts in a statement. “We’re excited about the launch of DRM-free backups today and look forward to announcing more innovative features as we move ahead with our mission of making everyone on the face of the planet a comic book fan!”

The Angry Birds are, ahem, transforming yet again in this new trailer from Rovio and Hasbro, released to coincide with San Diego Comic Con this week.

You’ve got the red bird cosplaying as a voice-less Optimus Prime, running his way through an island-style world, smashing through crates, and then finally facing a giant, laughing pig-bot Deceptihog. It doesn’t get much better than this. Check out the video below.

Merek Davis is not a coder. The developer never even made an app before 2013. Yet on his first iOS at-bat, he hit an App Store grand slam with Mextures, his photo-editing app that quickly became one of the top photo apps of the year.

Mextures is like Photoshop for your iPhone, only easier to use. The app’s editing tools and formulas let you tweak and re-tweak pics, adding light leaks, textures and color gradients that can turn even your crappiest pics into something majestic.

It’s a bona fide hit, with some of the most-followed names on Instagram using Davis’ creation. But it almost never happened.

When surfing the web or using one of your favorite applications, chances are your iPhone is burning through mobile data. Unless you have unlimited data on your wireless plan, this can quickly become a costly habit. Luckily, it’s easy to control your data on iOS no matter who your carrier is.

In today’s video, we show you how to manage data on your device so you can avoid a hefty bill.

Subscribe to Cult of Mac TV on YouTube to catch all our latest videos.

Just in time for Comic-Con International, iOS game Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff is rolling out an appropriately themed update, adding a whole new storyline and cameos from a bevy of geek-chic celebrities.

The new plot line concerns (surprise, surprise!) a comic convention that comes to Quahog. Chaos naturally ensues, and Stewie somehow gets transformed into the evil octopus monster seen in the above picture. To fight him, Quahog enlists the help of an all-star celeb cast including Patrick Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Stan Lee, Ron Perlman, George Takei, Felicia Day and Nathan Fillion.

With their help, the Griffins and supporting characters are turned into real superheroes, who can use their new-found powers to save the day and restore order to the town.

The console-quality, Zelda-inspired game Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas was one of the best original games in ages when it hit iOS late last year.

Based on the amazing feedback that game deservedly scooped up, developers FDG Entertainment and Cornfox & Bros. have just dropped a brand new victory lap trailer hyping what looks to be an epic “Game of the Year Edition” update the team is currently working on.

Earlier this week, forensic data scientist Jonathan Zdziarski made a bold claim: iOS may be vulnerable to government snooping by design. According to Zdziarski, iOS had multiple backdoors installed that made any device running the OS “almost always at risk of spilling all data,” which in turn made for some “tasty attack points for .gov and criminals.”

Apple, of course, denied having ever worked with the government to install any backdoors. But that didn’t change the fact that these unsecured services do exist, and worse, have gone entirely undocumented. But thankfully, Apple has rectified at least that last problem, penning a new support document that explains what each of Zdziarski’s snoopsome services actually does.