Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reached a deal with Apple to supply its next-generation A8, A9, and A9X processors for iOS devices, according to industry sources. The company will reportedly begin manufacturing the chips using a 20-nanometer process, then upgrade to 16-nanometer and later 10-nanometer processes in the future.
Facebook’s getting into the content scraping biz. So claims The Wall Street Journal, at least: they say that the world’s largest social network is putting together a news aggregation service, a la Flipboard or Zite.
Do you have an easier time remembering faces than names? Have a ton of contacts with the first name “Mike” but want to reach a specific one that you know by seeing him rather than hearing his name? If so, Cult of Mac Deals has an offer that is going to help you deal with your contacts with that sensibility in mind.
Ensoul is the easiest way to create perfectly sized wallpapers and full-size contact images for your iPhone, and Cult of Mac Deals has it for a limited time for the low price of only $5.
A Tokyo court has today found Samsung guilty of infringing an Apple “bounce-back” or “rubber banding” patent that covers the popular scrolling feature built into its iOS platform. Apple has been using the patent against Samsung in a number of courtrooms all over the world, but back in April, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office deemed it invalid.
Apple has begun charting iOS adoption figures to help developers establish the percentage of users running different versions of iOS. Google has been doing the same thing for Android developers for some time, and Apple’s chart only highlights the massive difference in fragmentation between the two platforms.
Apple’s beautiful new wave wallpaper for OS X 10.9 Mavericks can now be enjoyed on your iPhone too. iOS designer and developer, AR7 published two great wallpapers for the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S this morning that are a redesign of the Mavericks wave.
Here are the download links: iPhone 5 | iPhone 4S
Source: Twitter
If you’re growing tired of the way iOS 6 keeps your photos together in one big shoebox of sorts, only letting you categorize photos and create albums manually, there’s a new app out that will help you do much more than that, and it’s free to boot.
Photoful is a new, free app that offers something of what you can expect to find in the upcoming iOS 7 version of Apple’s own Photos: an elegant, good-looking, well-designed app focused on helping you organize and display your camera photos in a better way.
Sonic fan? Well now’s a great time to load up your iOS device with new Sonic games, because Sega has made each and every one just 99¢ for a limited time. That includes Sonic CD, Sonic The Hedgehog 4 episodes one and two, Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing, and the original Sonic The Hedgehog.
Basically, if it has Sonic in it, you won’t pay more than 99¢ for it.
Lytro, makers of the crazy Light Field camera that will let you refocus an image after it’s taken, is bringing its incredible editing powers to the iPhone and iPad.
This afternoon Lytro released a new iOS app that can connect to Lytro camera to import images, edit them, and then share to Twitter or Facebook. Wait, you didn’t know the Lytro had Wifi capabilities? Yep, Lytro kept it a secret from everyone but is now enabling the feature with a firmware update.
Apple just scored a big win with the education industry last night as the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced it has signed a $30 million contract with Apple to supply its students with iPads in the classroom.
The terms of the contract show that Apple will provided the iPads to LAUSD at a cost of $678 per iPad. That price is a bit above retail, but the iPads will come pre-loaded with a bunch of educational software, and Apple’s giving them a three-year warranty as well.
Apple SVP Phil Schiller had the following to say about the deal in the official press release:
Readdle’s awesome Calendars+ app, which is normally priced at $6.99, is now free for 48 hours. It’s one of the best Google Calendar apps for iOS, packed with useful features and a great user interface, and it won’t cost you a penny if you download it now. But hurry!
XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the highly-acclaimed tactical role-playing game from 2K Games, is coming to iOS this week, and it’s just begun its App Store rollout. It’s an exact port of the title that first hit the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 late last year, so you can expect a true console-quality experience and amazing visuals.
Those things don’t come cheap, however, with XCOM priced at $19.99 in the U.S.
Apple just rolled out a new software update for the Apple TV that adds new channels for HBO GO and WatchESPN, as well as Sky News, Crunchyroll, and Qello. The iOS 5.3 release is compatible with both the second- and third-generation Apple TVs, and is available to download now.
When you set up a personal hotspot on your iOS device, the first thing you should do is delete the password Apple generates for your and enter your own. Researchers at the University of Erlangen in Germany have discovered a way to crack Apple’s hotspot passwords in under a minute, leaving your iOS device vulnerable to attack.
An exciting new update that brings new maps, weapons, and guns to Gameloft’s Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour is now available to download on iOS. Called Meltdown, the update is free to existing owners of the popular first-person shooter, and it’s one of the biggest the game has received since it hit the App Store back in December.
Facebook just came out with version 6.2 of its iOS app. The update includes a new feature that allows users to add icons to status updates that show what you’re feeling based on a number of categories.
To use the new icons feature, just draft a status update in the new app and tap the new emoticon icon. The new icons screen is divided into 7 categories: Feeling, Watching, Reading, Listening to, Drinking, Eating, and Playing. You also change who can see something you’ve shared and start new conversations with photos.
What’s New in Version 6.2
Twitter’s video sharing app, Vine, just got a new update that makes sharing your favorite Vines easier than ever.
Vine version 1.1.3 comes with a new share button underneath posts on your feed that allows you to share Vines to Facebook and Twitter or get the embedded code so you can post it on your own blog. The update also includes a number of interface improvements and bug fixes.
You can pick up the new version of Vine from the App Store for free right here.
Source: iTunes
The Clock app in iOS 7 has been updated so that users can choose whether they want time to be displayed in a traditional clock face or switch to a digital clock.
If you’re not quick on the draw with your clock face reading skills then you’ll love this neat little feature. To switch clocks in the app all you have to do is tap anywhere on the screen.
Here’s a GIF of how it works:
Paper for iPad creator FiftyThree has today announced that it has secured $15 million in funding to build a suite of “mobile tools for creativity.” It’s quite an achievement for an app startup, particularly one that isn’t a smash-hit game, but if FiftyThree’s upcoming apps are anywhere near as successful as Paper, the investment will surely pay off.
Eddy Cue is at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in lower Manhattan testifying in the Department of Justice’s e-books antitrust case, and he’s been sharing more information on the work that went into developing iBooks prior to its launch in 2010.
Cue reveled that Steve Jobs, then Apple’s CEO, chose to give away a free copy of Winnie-the-Pooh not just because he liked the book, but because its colorful illustrations showcased the capabilities of digital e-books in the iBooks app.
iTunes Radio won’t just be available on your iOS devices, but also on your Apple TV, according to a new beta release now available to registered developers. The update also adds some other minor features, and makes improvements to Home Sharing to make it more reliable.
IOS Fonts is the most concisely-named website of the day. It shows you all the fonts available on your iOS device, lets you search them and even preview your chosen text in them. I love it… and yet I’m struggling to find any practical use for it.
Mailbox, the wondrous new email client for iOS that lets you manage your emails as they come in, has just gotten another update. Now you can use Mailbox on your iPad in the portrait orientation, instead of the landscape-only mode that was previously the only option on the bigger iOS devices.
Shazam released version 6.1 of its iOS today on the App Store. The new version comes with a special feature called ‘Pulse’ that can be used to discover new music that is trending on Shazam’s charts.
Included in the big update is a new look for the tab bar, better chart updates, improved Friends page loading, and of course some bug fixes. The new version is available on both iPhone and iPad in the App Store for free.
Here are the release notes:
Apple’s iOS platform has continued to be the top platform for users who actually like to buy stuff via their smartphone, says a new study from Forrester. Consumers with iOS devices are 30% more likely to buy something via their device, than Android users.
Even though iOS is where more of the money is at, Android isn’t getting ignored by U.S. companies. Forrester’s study also reported that 96% of ebusiness professionals surveyed for the study plan to launch a native or hybrid Android app by the end of 2013, while 99% said they plan to do the same for iOS.
