Ad impressions reached a record high during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to data from Opera’s latest State of Mobile Advertising report, with revenue to publishers more than twice that of any previous quarter throughout the year. The figures show that Android continues to increase its share of the market, but it’s got a long way to go before it topples iOS, which boasts a whopping 41.91% share.
Hot out the oven, a new iOS 6.1 jailbreak is ready to set free your iPhone! On our newest CultCast (episode 58), we’ll tell you why you should and shouldn’t jailbreak your precious iDevice, and the story of how a team of geniuses hacked into the brain of iOS to make it possible.
Then, what’s next for Mac Pro; the apps and gear you need to live an iPad-only life; and our favorite apps and tech on an all-new Faves ‘N Raves!
Eager to listen but not sure how? Easy! Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.
Time to get CULTY YAAA’LLL. Show notes ahead.
A recent hire by Apple might suggest that Apple is interested in finally following the likes of Samsung and LG and release an iPhone with an Organic LED, or OLED, display.
Springtomize 2 from Filippo Bigarella is one of the easiest and most effective ways to customize your iOS device after jailbreaking; it’s so good that we recently chose it as one of the best tweaks to install after jailbreaking with evasi0n. And now its even better, thanks to its latest update — which introduces support for the iPhone 5’s larger display, and fixes a whole host of bugs.
Boy, things are really heating up in the minimalist heck-with-all-this-crap-I-only-want-to-carry-one-thing space. Earlier this week, Distil Union unveiled Wally, basically a strip of leather that clings tenaciously to the back of your iPhone, with a small cavity you can fill with cards or cash.
But the $35 Crossover, created over at crowdsource-design site Quirky, looks like it might be even more minimalist than Wally — it’s just two silicone straps that grip the edges of your iPhone. And it comes in all kinds of colors to boot.
Using Skype to subvert your monthly voice minutes is great when the service. Every now and then you get a dropped call because of crappy Wifi or cellular reception though and then you have to go back in and make the call all over.
A new update for Skype just hit the App Store today, and it makes calls a lot better. Rather than having to redial a number when a call is dropped, Skype 4.5 for iPhone will automatically reconnect your call regardless of whether you’re on Wifi or cellular data.
Ever need to quickly send a file over to your iPad from your Mac. Or from your iPad to your Mac? Or between iOS devices? Then you need Instashare, an app which also has the distinction of completing the hat-trick of Insta-apps on your iDevice (Instapaper and Instagram being the other two).
The problem with inboxes isn’t just that the mail piles up in them. Without constant vigilance, inboxes fester.
That message you meant to get back to gets buried in a pile of PR pitches, or deal mailers, or unsolicited spam, until the prospect of doing something as simple as writing back to an email from a week ago becomes as onerous a task as snorkeling in a sewage tank. In a day and age where walking away from a computer for just a few hours can result in dozens of emails piling up, all of which have different priorities, email has undergone a horrible mutagenic transformation in the minds of most users: from a supremely useful communication tool to a digital black hole where information, once trapped, inescapably leaves the universe forever.
The idea behind Orchestra’s new iOS emailing app, Mailbox, is simple. As we know, inboxes fester without constant vigilance… so why not make remaining vigilant as easy and satisfying as ticking off items on a to-do list? That’s what Mailbox is in a nut shell: an app that takes the GTD ethos and gesture-based interface of an app like Clear and applies it to your inbox.
How well does it work? So well that we’re comfortable saying that if you get any volume of email, Mailbox is worth throwing any other iOS email client in the trash.
This is a rather specialized iPhone case, but if you’re, say, an interior designer or even just a fan of the color scheme of the end-of-level doors on first-person shooters, you’re going to love it.
The case comes from Incipio, and it turns your iPhone into a virtual tape measure.
Fantastical and 1Password, two essential applications for any Mac OS X user, have both had their price tags slashed by 50% for a limited time. Fantastical is now down from $19.99 to $9.99, while 1Password is down from $49.99 to $24.99. They’re both available to purchase from the Mac App Store now.
To paraphrase the immortally wise words of Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel, how much more minimal could this iPhone case be? The answer is none. None more minimal: It’s nothing more than a piece of cleverly cut leather and a rubber band.
The Australian Department of Treasury has made a move a lot of large organizations have been making in recent years — and that’s giving up their BlackBerry smartphones for an iPhone. Over the next six weeks, it will ditch its existing fleet of devices and replace them with a different kind of fruit, the iPhone 5.
I was thinking that I’d make an incredibly clever play on the Wash’n’Go ads here, drawing a comparison between the new Horizon app, which lets you check the weather and your calendar at the same time. “Use two apps when you leave the house?” I would ask, before wrestling with the punchline, and somehow turning the original “Not me – I just want to Wash… And Go!” into something clever and calendar/weather related.
But as you can plainly see, I failed. I made a cup of delicious coffee instead, and then typed the code to add the break to this post…
Sprint has today announced its fourth quarter and full year financial results for 2012, and they don’t make for pleasant reading. Despite healthy smartphone sales driven by the iPhone, the carrier reported a loss of $1.3 billion for during the three-month period, which is the same figure it lost during Q4 2011. It also saw more than 1 million Nextel subscribers jumping ship.
Some have the mad iPhone movie-making skillz of an Anderson or a Scorsese. Others, not so much. If you fall in the latter category, don’t worry — just jam some fancy graphics in there with the free Jollyfy app and you’re good to go.
It’s a pretty simple process. Fire up the app, pick a theme (the app’s App Store page says there are hundreds to choose from) and start shooting.
Back when I lived in SoCal, I was fixated with the coast. The sand, the surf, the sailboats. In fact, I often sailed out of Oxnard, a sleepy seaside burb just north of Los Angeles, which also happens to hide Mac-friendly bag-maker HEX.
Makes sense, then, that they’d launch the nautically themed Cabana collection, a heavily striped gathering of MacBook carriers and cases, and even an iPhone case. And nothing says “boating” more than a copious helping of stripes. But the bags aren’t just all about looks; they’re also all constructed of tough, water-resistant waxed canvas. I can practically hear the seagulls.
When it comes to smartphone manufacturers, right now there are really only two companies that really matter – Apple and Samsung. Not only do they both have the most marketshare, but they’re making a ton of profit. In fact, they’re making so much money that the two companies combined account for 103% of the total cellphone profits of 2012.
Wait, isn’t it impossible to account for 103% of the profit? Well, no. Because operators like BlackBerry, Motorola, and Nokia operated at a loss last year, Apple and Samsung were able to make more than 100% of the profit, which is pretty insane.
Fandango is pretty cool. You can buy tickets right on your iPhone with the Fandango iOS app, send them to Passbook, and then just waltz right into the theater without stopping at the box office. Of course, you’ll still need to stop at the concessions stand, unless you’re smuggling in a bunch of wrapped candy in your coat pockets. Just sayin’.
Using Fandango is fairly easy, but Siri can make it easier still in iOS 6.1. Here’s how.
iOS 6.1 has only been available to the public for a couple of days, but Apple’s wasting no time getting some new bug fixes tested. Apple just seeded iOS 6.1.1 to developers. The update can be downloaded from Apple’s iOS Dev Center.
Right now it doesn’t look like there are many surprises in the iOS 6.1.1 beta for U.S. users as it mostly contains some improvements to Maps for Japan.
Here’s the notes on what’s changed:
I could get lost in Reddit for days. It’s beautiful. It’s horrible. If it weren’t for Alien Blue my Reddit binging would be confined to my desktop, but alas, they make a hell of an app that feeds my addiction on the iPhone too.
To make things even better (or worse), Alien Blue just received a major update this week that makes browsing Reddit from your iPhone more alluring than ever. They’ve added a crapload of UI improvements, some new moderator tools, better navigation, and a ton of other stuff all for free.
Here are the release notes on everything new in version 2.7:
Even though she can barely understand me, Siri can do some pretty cool stuff. She can find the answers to movie trivia and tell me if it’s raining, but she still can’t do really useful things yet, like turning off the lights or adjust my thermostat, even though home automation is going to be Apple’s next big thing.
A YouTube user by the name of Elvis Impersonator decided it’s time to take Siri to the next level, and make her a truly great personal assistant. So thanks to a Raspberry Pi, Siri can now open and close his garage door, turn off his house alarm, change his TV channel and so much more.
Here’s a video of this awesome Siri home automation hack in action:
Display Recorder, a popular tool that records what’s happening on the display of a jailbroken iOS device, has today been updated to support the iOS 6.1 firmware. The update follows this week’s evasi0n release, which became the first untethered jailbreak which supports the latest iOS devices — including the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini.
Apple may lose its right to use the iPhone name in Brazil, according to a report on Reuters today. The trademark has been given to Gradiente Eletronica SA, a Brazilian electronics maker who registered the name in 1998, well before Apple had an iPhone to even trademark. The decision is set to be made public on the 13th of this month.
Apple can still challenge the ruling in Brazilian courts once the announcement is made.
There’s nothing quite like hunting for something misplaced to drive one crazy. If you’ve ever lost a set of keys or Bluetooth headset under a couch pillow, you know exactly what I’m talking about. And if just the thought of a scenario like that triggers a burst of panic, you’ll want to pay close attention here — because Item TrackR just might keep you from losing more stuff, along with your remaining marbles.
It seems like every year it takes longer and longer to jailbreak the latest iPhone… which is because, ever since the release of the iPhone 3G, it has been true. To date, the number of days it takes for jailbreakers to release a public jailbreak for the latest iPhone has increased by an average of 67.58% every year… and the recent evasi0n jailbreak for all iOS 6.1 devices landed a record 136 days after the iPhone 5 went on sale.
Looking forward, we were curious what that meant for the iPhone 5S. Given historic trends, how long will it take jailbreakers to release a public jailbreak for Apple’s next phone? Here’s what we found.