DataMan was one of the first iPhone data trackers when it debuted back in 2010, after AT&T 86ed the utopian guarantee of unlimited data.
This new iteration, DataMan Next, is much prettier, but essentially does the same thing: It tracks your data usage and warns you before you spend money needlessly on data overage charges; it can even predict whether you’ll end up going over your monthly allowance. And today, it’s free.
The iOS developer behind Home Remind has published a blog post about the Facebook apps for iPhone, iPad and Facebook Messenger. He says that according to his testing, the Facebook apps consume way more CPU time than is strictly necessary. Excessive CPU time can lead to battery drain.
The developer used Apple’s own Mac-based app, Instruments, to look at what was running on his iPhone, and found that his Facebook app was activating, doing something for ten seconds, then going back to sleep. It did this all day long during his test. He tested the Messenger app and the Facebook iPad app, and found the same pattern.
If that’s the case, the Facebook app is never truly going to sleep and then terminating like a good app. As a result, it’s using up CPU time, and a lot of your battery.
Want T&A beamed directly into your eyeball? The first porn app has come to Google Glass and it’s named after what it shows you: “Tits & Glass.”
The U.S. Department of Justice’s case against Apple has gotten underway in New York. The DOJ has accused Apple of colluding with publishers to raise the price on eBooks.
To start the trial off, the DOJ has released an 81-page slide deck containing its opening statements against Apple. The trial is expected to run for about three weeks, and both sides gave their opening arguments today.
The DOJ’s 81-page document includes a number of email between Apple execs, as well as sections of Walter Isaacon”s biography of Steve Jobs.
You can search through the DOJ’s opening arguments after the break:
Google just released Chrome 27 for iOS. The big update for Google’s third-party browser for iOS should have faster page reloading speeds as well as improved voice search.
Google included voice search in its Google Now app for iOS, but the conversational search tools are now being packed directly into Chrome as well. The update also gives Chrome the ability to speak search results back to you so you pretty much never have to look at your screen again if you don’t want to.
Here are the full release notes:
WordPress just released a new update for its iOS app that is sure to make WordPress bloggers happy. The new app features a overhauled UI that makes it easier and faster to blog from your iPhone than before.
The new update ditches the single pane view for a multi-pane view that users can swipe between to access different areas of the app (kind of like the Facebook and Rdio apps). WordPress also added a shortcut to the sidebar to make posting faster, there are also new translations for Russian, Danish, and Korean, improved Tumblr importing, and bug fixes.
Here are the full release notes:
AgileBits, creators of the popular 1Password tool for Mac and iOS, have today announced that 1Password 4 for Mac has entered beta. The release comes six months after 1Password 4 came to iOS, and you can get your hands on the early release by joining the AgileBits Beta Family.
Ever since Tim Cook ousted Scott Forstall last year, the Apple CEO has preached a lot about how collaboration within Apple is one of the most important aspects of the company’s culture.
Speaking at a reunion for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, Tim Cook outlined what kind of attributes he looks for in employees and what it takes to be a great collaborator.
Here’s what Cook had to say about collaboration:
Google has just updated their official Drive app for iOS, making it easier to navigate between documents and collaborate with others upon them. Not only can you now comment upon Google Drive documents within the app, you can quickly swipe through images.
You probably already know the Macintosh Portable, Apple’s first Mac laptop released for $7,300 in 1989, which looked and weighed about as much as a small suitcase full of dark matter. No joke: you could ship an entire crate of MacBook Airs inside of one.
But can you believe that there was an even bigger, more unwieldy Mac laptop that preceded it? It wasn’t an official Cupertino joint, to be sure, but meet the Walkmac: a 1987 modded Mac SE with a working LCD screen and a battery pack.
Apple has released a new WWDC 2013 companion app for iOS, which is designed to give developers the opportunity to follow the event each day. Designed for both attendees and those who cannot make it, the app offers a WWDC schedule, the latest news, daily session videos for registered developers, and more.
PopCap has today confirmed the release date for the much-anticipated Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time, which will be exclusive to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The company has also released an awesome new launch trailer that teases some of the new plants and new worlds.
Apple is expected to announce a new low-cost iPhone later this year in an effort to compete with rivals like Samsung in emerging markets. Reports have suggested that to keep costs low, the Cupertino company will give it a plastic form factor similar to that of the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
And now that plastic shell appears to have been leaked for the first time.
Thanks to Apple’s strict software approval process, iOS devices are generally considered some of the most secure. But you might want to be careful about where you plug them in for charging. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a modified charger capable of installing malware onto any device running Apple’s latest iOS operating system.
This is the Bracketron, a robot which will help you fill out your NCAA tournament charts. Not really. The Bracketron is in fact a robot which will help you put up shelves that won’t fall down as soon as you place something breakable up there.
NOT REALLY AGAIN. The Bracketron is a USB charger which leeches its power from an outlet that is already in use. Which actually makes it better than my first two lies… Except for the robot part.
This amazing little iPhone stand has two great features: it is the size and shape of a credit card, letting you carry it with you always. And it somehow manages to hold the iPhone at any angle you like, in vertical or horizontal orientations. Is it magic?
Brett “I just built this” Terpstra has been at it again. Inspired by Evernote’s new reminders feature, launched last week, Brett decided to add something similar to his app NValt, itself a fork of the notable Notational Velocity. It’s called “nvremind,” and it’s pretty awesome.
Now, just by tagging a note with “@remind,” you’ll be sent a notification or an e-mail at the chosen time, and in Mountain Lion, clicking the notification will take you to the note in NValt.
The Genii is a case which adds flashing LEDs and media buttons to your iPhone 5. That’s right – just like the Walkmans you rocked out to in the 1980s, the iPhone 5 can now have four real, physical buttons along its edge letting your play, pause and skip tracks without dragging the iPhone from your pocket and unlocking the screen.
Sick of tangled cords when traveling? Want to look more like a cool-headed doctor than a disorganized teenager when you tend to the charging of your various iGadgets? Then the Cordito Wrap is for you: It’s a super-stylish (and super-simple) leather sheet for organizing cables and chargers.
I like the direction iPhone docks are headed in, post-Lightning. It seems that making a dock with the little connector is too hard, or manufacturers have already been stung once by the switch from 30-pin connectors, or that they’ve just gotten sick of paying Apple’s Made For iPhone fees.
The upshot is that they’ve gone back to basics. Instead of making a dock, they’re making things that do the job of a dock. And what is a dock’s job? To hold your iPhone, and to (optionally) charge it.
The Alupocket does both, but it does it on the form of an aluminum taco which is stuck to the wall.
We’ve been hearing about Apple’s plans for a music streaming service for over a year now. Negotiations with the labels have kept Apple’s product, commonly referred to as “iRadio,” at bay. With competitors like Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, and now Google, the race is on.
Word on the street has been that a least a couple of the big labels have been holding out on Apple, but now Warner has signed on. All signs point to Apple wanting iRadio to be ready in time for an unveiling at WWDC on June 10th.
I was browsing around the internet, looking for a fun, inexpensive game to play on my Mac, and maybe pass along to you Cult of Mac readers for your weekend fun. I found Tower Wars, a fairly deep tower offense and defense title, and it seemed to be a nice price at eight dollars.
Then I went over to the Steam store and found it going for 40 percent off, making this already inexpensive Mac game even cheaper at $4.79.
So, if you’ve got five bucks, some time to spare, and you like tower defense (and offense), you might want to grab yourself a copy, too.
Tired of slingshotting those angry birds at ever-more preposterous structures build by pigs? Bored with trying to best your friends using nothing more than words?
Bloom Box is a new, cutesy puzzle game from Nexx Studio (Pig Shot, Glow Puzzle) where you’ll need to set up chain reactions to explode the aforementioned boxes, make flowers bloom, and collect all the stars in each level.
The Chicago Sun-Times, one of the remnants of traditional paper journalism, has let go its entire photography staff of 28 people. Now its reporters will start receiving “iPhone photography basics” training to start producing their own photos and videos.
The move is part of a growing trend towards publications using the iPhone as a replacement for fancy, expensive DSLRs. It’s a also a sign of how traditional journalism is being changed by technology like the iPhone and the advent of digital publishing.
It takes practice to learn how to efficiently type on the iOS keyboard. Because all the keys are virtual, you have to tab through multiple layouts to access all of the available characters. I remember how slow I was at alternating keyboards to type numbers and punctation when I got my first iPhone. Over time, muscle memory kicks in and it becomes second nature.
What if there was a more productive way to type on iOS? A new jailbreak tweak called AltKeyboard is a fantastic enhancement every iPhone typist needs.