It’s not difficult to open up the Settings app and activate or deactivate things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Airplane Mode. But it could be a whole lot quicker. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have an icon on your home screen that allows you to toggle these things instantly — without having to navigate the Settings app? Thanks to IconToggles, you can.
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is a brand new update to Instagram — the world’s most popular photo sharing service — that introduces an improved user interface and new features. We’ve also got a new Food Network app that every foodie should have, the official WWE app for wrestling fans, and a great educational app for the iPad that promises to teach your little ones how to write capital letters quickly and efficiently.
Kicking off this week’s must-have games roundup is a new game from Zynga that will blow your mind. It’s called Horn, and it’s a third-person action game with incredible, console-quality visuals and great gameplay. That’s accompanied by Mad Skills BMX from the creators of Mad Skills Motocross; Jack Lumber, the first game from the SEGA Alliance; Cafeteria Nipponica from Kairosoft, and more. Look out for the awesome new platformer from Ravenous Games, creators of the award-winning League of Evil.
Sprint is looking to entice families (or individuals with numerous lines) away from their current carriers by offering an instant $400 store credit towards the purchase of “qualifying devices.” While that $400 is sure to catch your attention, it’s the “fine print” that caught mine. In order to receive this promo, you have to activate three or more lines on an Everything Data Share or Simply Everything Data plan — one of which, must be ported over from a non-Sprint company (Virgin Mobile, Boost Mobile, and Common Cents Mobile are subsidiaries of Sprint). The stipulations don’t end there.
The most striking point in a recent report commissioned by Trend Micro was that IT administrators are beginning to rank Apple’s iOS ahead of RIM’s BlackBerry and other mobile platforms, but there were some other significant details in that report.
The report focuses on mobile security and issues related to bring your own device (BYOD) programs. Such programs encourage employees to use their personal iPhones, iPads, Android devices and other mobile technologies to access business resources and perform work related tasks. Many IT professionals believe that BYOD programs introduce security risks – and it looks like they’re right believe that. Decisive Analytics, the company that prepared the report, notes that nearly half the IT professionals that they surveyed in the U.S., U.K., and Germany admitted that their companies had already experienced a mobile-related security breach.
The WWE is ready to bring the pain, with its up close and personal WWE app for Android and iOS. Get in the ring with your favorite WWE Superstars, with instant access to profiles, biographies, social media feeds and more. Relive thousands of face smacking matches thanks to a video library consisting of thousands of clips. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or just looking for a little nostalgia, the WWE app has it all.
Yesterday, Instagram launched version 3.0 of their iOS and Android app. Along with some new UI improvements, the coolest thing about the update is the new Photo Maps feature which allows users to organize photos via geo-location data to provide more interesting narratives for their followers.
The new Photo Maps feature is great, but it comes with some privacy concerns. Private user photos that are added to a Photo Map are viewable to any Android Instagram user thanks to a bug in the 3.0 update.
Back in February, I told you about an iPhone case from a company called cellhelmet that comes with one major advantage: If your iPhone breaks while it’s inside the case, cellhelmet will fix or replace it for free. Now the company is expanding, and it’s about to launch a new line of screen protectors that offer a similar guarantee. If your iOS device’s screen gets scratched while wearing one, cellhelmet will replace the display.
iOS hacker and security researcher Pod2g has uncovered a major SMS security flaw with the iPhone that could lead to text message spoofing. The problem is with the way in which the iPhone handles text messages, and it’s present in the latest version of iOS — including the iOS 6 beta 4 release. However, Pod2g insists he’s pleading with Apple to get it fixed.
Say what you like about Windows 8, but Microsoft seems to have knocked developers into line when it comes to interface design. Exhibit a: Skype for Not-Metro, which not only matches the minimal tile design of the OS, but manages to make the iOS version look positively baroque.
Last week, Square announced a partnership with Starbucks to provide back-end payment processing and CRM for the coffee mega-company. Today, Square brings news of the other end of the business spectrum. Small businesses who make less than $250,000 per year will no longer have to pay the standard 2.75 percent per swipe processing fee (though they can still opt for this) if they pay one flat rate, currently set at $275 monthly.
If a small businesses chooses the flat rate option, they’ll essentially end up paying 1.3 percent per swipe – a significant savings if they meet the criteria. IF the business goes over the line, they’ll be charged the standard per-swipe rate.
This is Square making sure that it can have as many users as possible, from super corporate giants to small mom and pop shops with a bit of tech savvy.
Instagram 3.0 is launching today on both Android and iPhone. Whereas previous updates focused on bug fixes, new filters, and speed enhancements, Instagram 3.0 is brings some big UI changes so users can interact with photos in a new way. The key? Geotagging and Photomaps.
When Apple purchased AuthenTec back in July for $356 million, the news was a surprise to us all. Unlike most of the company’s movements, this one hadn’t been surrounded by rumor and speculation for months prior to the official announcement, and none of us saw it coming. But now it’s time to take note, because the acquisition could spell exciting things for future iOS devices.
You see, Apple acquired AuthenTec for its 2D fingerprint scanners, which it insisted it needed urgently due to its “product plans and ongoing engineering efforts.” This suggests the Cupertino company is ready to use the technology sooner rather than later — fueling speculation that it will make its debut in the sixth-generation iPhone as the perfect accompaniment to Passbook.
If you can’t make it through the day without some D&D (I’m not talking Dungeons & Dragons you nerds) then this next bit of news is for you. Dunkin’ Donuts wants to keep you running with their new app for Android and iOS. Released today, the Dunkin’ Donuts app allows customers to easily locate the nearest D&D, make payments, gift DD, and more. The app is supposed to make your Dunkin’ run easier, but the payment system seems a bit awkward to me.
I generally don’t favor Apple-themed wallpapers on my Macs or iOS devices, but I just had to make an exception for these meticulously designed, beautifully rendered schematic wallpapers for the iPhone by Ethan Allen Smith. If anything could give you an appreciation of the majestic geometry and elegant ratios that define every visual aspect of iOS, right down to the badges on every icon or where the pips at the bottom of every homescreen are placed, a couple days with these wallpapers will have you thinking hard about them: in iOS, every little line means something.
Smith has provided two wallpapers: one for the standard homescreen and one for the iOS lockscreen. The lockscreen one is nice, but it’s the homescreen wallpaper that really shines.
Magnificent. I hope these get updated for the longer homescreen of the iPhone 5. You can download them at the link below.
Google has issued an update to Google+ for iOS that makes it the first app to offer an “Open in Chrome” button for URLs. Version 3.1 also brings teen Hangouts, and bug fixes that promise to improve performance.
Remember The Simpsons: Tapped Out? It was a free iOS game from EA that launched earlier this year, but it only spent a short time in the App Store because it became so popular that EA’s servers couldn’t handle it and it was pulled. The company promised, however, that it would return, and it’s making its comeback this month.
Social bookmarking service Pinterest today announced a new app for Android and iOS in a move to appeal to an even larger audience. If you’ve not used the service, it’s like a image-based social bookmarking system. You “pin” websites to your own Pinterest account, then share the pinned bookmarks via categorical lists. It has a heavy Facebook and Twitter integration as well, and last week it opened the doors to the general public, not requiring an invite any longer.
For any fantasy football fan, draft day can be filled with mixed emotions – excitement at the impending start of the season, hope that you’ll get to build your dream team, and nervousness about where you’ll be in the draft order and whether or not you’ll get your top picks before someone else does.
Predicting the outcome of any fantasy draft is hard to do because there are so many variables in terms of drafting order, draft type, the team that you want to build, and the choices that other members of your league will make. That said, solid research and preparation can go a long way to helping you build a winning team and there are some great iPhone and iPad apps out there to help you before and during your draft.
Here’s a handy feature in Apple’s new Maps app in iOS 6: When you’re traveling and you get near to roadworks, or there are roadworks ahead of you, Maps will throw up a new roadworks icon to alert you to them. What’s makes this feature really awesome is that you can then tap on that icon to find out more about the construction, including its start and description.
Launchpad tries to bring an iOS-style app interace to OS X. Whether you like it or not, it’s here to stay. Introduced in OS X Lion, Launchpad arranges the apps you have installed on your Mac in a grid array, much like the apps are arranged on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Of course, your Mac has a much bigger screen than these iOS devices (hopefully), so there’s even more of a need to filter out the apps you don’t want so that you can find the apps you do want to find.
In iOS, as you get more and more apps installed on your device, you’re gonna end up swiping to the right of the home screen at some point and typing the name of an app into the Search field there. Prior to Mountain Lion, there was no way to do this in OS X. Now, however, there is, and I sincerely hope they bring this concept back to enrich iOS itself.
Verizon Wireless has announced that Viewdini is making its debut on iOS today, allowing users with an iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, or new iPad to enjoy the video-on-demand service on the go. The app provides access to both free and subscription-based providers, including Comcast Xfinity, Hulu Plus, mSpot, Netflix, Vimeo, and more.
With Nintendo adamant it’ll never bring its games to iOS, the only way to enjoy your favorite titles on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad is to jailbreak your device and download an emulator. But that’s no longer the case. You can now enjoy more than 100 NES and Game Boy games in your iPhone’s web browser.
I do all my work these days on an iPad. From organizing reviews through gathering story ideas to actually writing posts and features, and even photographing and editing gadgets for those reviews, it’s all — every last bit — done on Apple’s tablet. I just spent two weeks away from home using the iPad’s 3G connection to work, only opening up my MacBook to sync my FitBit.
And they still say the iPad is just for consumption.
One of the biggest problems with the iPad has been writing blog posts. You really did need a Mac to take care of the multiple browser windows and — most of all — the image uploading. Now, though, while there isn’t quite a wealth of options, there are certainly several credible methods to do this all from the iPad. So make a coffee, sit back and enjoy this how-to:
Your iPhone contains a whole lotta information about your personal life. You got your bank apps, email, text messages, phone calls, browsing history, plus all those embarrassing songs you listen to on Spotify you don’t want people to know about.
You don’t expect to get hardcore encryption security on a tiny iPhone, and when the iPhone was first released in 2007 you didn’t. Huge security holes allowed hackers to easily take over the device, but Apple learned from their mistakes, and now your iPhone is like a freaking Fort Knox for data. Even the NSA is having a hard time breaking iPhone encryption, and it’s frustrating the hell out them.