Free apps for today: ToonCamera, Pocket Lists, Cleu Alarm, Plants vs. Zombies and more!

June 7, 2013, 12:31 pm

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We have some great iPhone and iPad apps for you today that have gone free on the App Store.  ToonCamera is a photo and video editing app for the iPhone and iPad that lets you apply cartoonish filters to your normal photos. It does all the processing in real-time so that you can see what the final photo would look like before you shoot, and has a variety of sharing options. $1.99 -> Free Pocket Lists is a to-do and list keeping app with a simple interface for your iPhone and iPad. It has sync, notifications, priorities, OCR (create lists by taking photos) and a lot of other features. $1.99 -> Free Cleau Alarm is an alternative to the stock Clock app with a nice interface and an innovative way to stop an alarm, as can be seen in the screenshot above. It also has weather integration and Do Not Disturb support. $.99 -> Free Percepto is an iPhone and iPad puzzle game where you help Bruce, the main character, escape a room by thinking in 3D but moving in 2D. Sadly the game isn’t optimised for the iPhone 5′s talled display. $.99 -> Free Yoga Suite is an app with an extensive catalog of HD yoga videos, along with the ability to manage your Yoga schedule, and set custom classes. It works with the iPhone as well as the iPad. $2.99 -> Free Plants vs. Zombies is a very popular iPhone and iPad game, where you use plants as weapons to kill zombies. IGN is currently giving away promo codes for the game on its site. $0.99 -> Free (Link won’t work unless you access it from a U.S. IP address.) Continue reading →

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WWDC 2013 rumor roundup: iOS 7, OS X 10.9, new MacBooks, iRadio

June 7, 2013, 1:30 pm

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Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference 2013 starts on Monday, June 10. It kicks off with the Keynote at 10:00 am PST at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco. As usual, we’ve heard several rumors and speculations leading up to the event, which indicate that it will be a cracking WWDC this year (assuming they turn out to accurate). Here’s a round up of all the WWDC 2013 rumors we’ve heard so far. iOS 7 Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has confirmed that the company will be give us a sneak peak at iOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Here’s what we know about the iOS 7 so far (please click on the links for more details): Fresh new look: It is internally codenamed Innsbruck, and will feature a fresh new look with a very, very flat interface. The overhaul is being led by Jony Ive, Apple’s SVP of Industrial Design, who took over the design of iOS 7 from Scott Forstall. Maps/Siri: It may bring optimized in-car Maps and Siri integration. Rumors claim Apple is working with car manufacturers on next generation car consoles that would allow iOS devices like the iPhone to be plugged into a car. The iOS device would then display an optimized version of Apple Maps on the car’s built-in display instead of their proprietary GPS system. Camera Filters: iOS 7 may come with an updated Camera app, which includes Instagram-like filters. Motion Sensing technology: Apple is testing motion sensing technology that could move on-screen objects based on the orientation of the device. AirDrop for iOS: It may include AirDrop wireless file sharing feature that will allow users to wirelessly send files to anyone around them with an iOS device or a Mac. Vimeo/Flickr Integration: Flickr and Vimeo are all set to become first-class citizens on iOS, as Apple is apparently working to deeply integrate these popular media sharing services into iOS 7. APIs: At the D11 Conference, Tim Cook hinted that the company plans to open up APIs to allow third party customization. Release: While there have been speculations of a possible delay due to the revamp, we expect Apple to release the first beta version of iOS 7 immediately after the Keynote address. However, iOS 7 is likely to be released in September, couple of days before the launch of the next generation iPhone. OS X 10.9: Apple also plans to unveil the next major update for OS X. OS X 10.9 is unlikely to feature a fresh new look with the flat user interface like iOS, but Apple is said to focus on bringing core iOS features to the Mac, and add certain “power-user” features like a tabbed interface for Finder and improved multi-screen support. Here’s what we know about the OS X 10.9: Finder will now have a tabbed browsing mode and tag-based navigation, a feature that is currently found in a number of third-party Finder alternatives. New Safari browser with improved page loading, speed, efficiency and hopefully its memory footprint will be improved upon. OS X will finally be able to run more than one full-screen app simultaneously on multiple monitors. Currently when an app is switched to full-screen mode, all screens except for one are practically useless. Apple is also reportedly working on bringing iOS-like multi-tasking to OS X, with the same restrictive background capabilities and quick-app switcher. This system could help Apple’s MacBook Air line of products, which are generally resource constrained. OS X 10.9 would also be accompanied with an update to Apple’s IDE for iOS and Mac app development, Xcode. Xcode 5.0 is said to feature a new interface, and improve testing tools. OS X 10.9 may finally bring Siri to Macs. Release: There have been rumors that Apple has been borrowing engineers from the OS X 10.9 as part of an effort to double down on iOS 7 and to ensure that is released on schedule. So as of now it is not known when exactly Apple plans to release OS X 10.9. Apple had apparently originally planned to release the Developer Preview of OS X 10.9 at the end of January, followed by Golden Master version in June and the public release in July. New Macs New MacBook Airs: Based on the leaked SKU and pricing information, it seems very likely that Apple will unveil new version of MacBook Air. They’ll of course use Intel’s latest Haswell chip, and they’ll have a dual microphone system that makes for better voice and video calls. They will also support the new 802.11ac standard. Updated MacBook Pros: According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will announce a slimmer 13 inch MacBook Pro retina. The new 13 inch retina will also supposedly get an upgraded camera, enabling 1080p video calls. However, since Apple released the redesigned 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro only in October, in our opinion it seems highly unlikely that Apple will update it so soon. iRadio Apple is also widely expected to launch a music streaming service, dubbed iRadio at WWDC. According to rumors, iRadio could be a hybrid web and radio service, one that is similar to Pandora but could also include some on-demand features. Apple will most likely offer the service for free, but it could include interstitial audio ads. It remains to be seen if Apple will also offer a paid ad-free option. It could come as a standalone app that is pre-installed with iOS 7, or as a standalone app like iBooks, Find my iPhone etc, which needs to be downloaded from the App Store or the feature could come integrated with the Music app. Apple has been in talks with record labels to offer the service on the Mac and Apple TV. iPhone and iPad Well, don’t expect Apple to launch the next generation iPhone and iPad at the event. Apple is likely to unveil them at separate events later this year. Well, that’s what we’ve heard so far and we expect few more last minute rumors before the Keynote kicks off just over 72 hours from now. Let’s also hope that Apple has some surprises in store for us. We’ll be live blogging the event so don’t forget to join us at 10am PT or 1pm ET or 6pm GMT on Monday, June 10th. Until then, you can check out our iOS 7 wish list. Continue reading →

Playable Pro plays Xvids and more on your iPhone [Review]

June 7, 2013, 1:42 pm

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Watching videos on the iPhone and iPad has never been an easy process. What with having to wait for iTunes to transcode and then copy videos from your desktop to your mobile device. Yawn. It all takes too much time. Playable Pro is a third party video player, which you can add videos to via iFunBox, and happily watch without conversion. Read on to find out more. Playable Pro starts out by scanning the content you’ve added, and it attempts to match what you have against a database of TV shows and movies. For each file,  it will ask you if it has the right match. You can answer Yes or No, and there is also an option to “Search for artwork”. The latter option appeared to have no effect in my testing though. Most of the time it’s easier to tap “No” as the app creates thumbnails for all the videos anyway. If you do find a successful match, there is an option to view a related web page in the app’s built-in web browser. For movies,  it will open the corresponding page on the Rotten Tomatoes movie rating site. The browser can also be used to stream videos from other locations on your home network. Another trick up the app’s sleeve is creating a web server so that other devices on your local network can upload and download files directly to your iOS device. The browser can also be used to view streaming videos online, such as the mobile website for YouTube. Curiously when I let the app identify a video as a TV show, it linked to a web page that was offering to stream the TV show it had selected. Quite why I’d want to stream something I already had stored on my device, I don’t know! Video playback (on the iPhone 5 at least) was smooth with both high and low resolution videos. Tapping the screen reveals controls for stretching and constraining the image size, along with pause, stop and scrubbing through the timeline. Playable Pro can play music files as well, but it by no means suited to being a music player as it has no media library function, which makes working through a dozen or two MP3 files somewhat unfeasible. If you want to get going with HD MKV, MP4, AVI, XVID, X264, MOV, FLV, and WMV files without having to wait for conversion, then Playable Pro is a great place to start. Playable Pro is in the iTunes store for $2.99 and Playable is free and supported highly intrusive adverts. Continue reading →

MacX Mobile Video Converter: Get video easily onto your smartphone [Freebie]

June 7, 2013, 4:21 pm

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If you can watch your favourite videos whenever you want – and wherever you want – why wouldn’t you? This offer will allow you to do just that. Digiarty is pitching in on this offer, delivering MacX Mobile Video Converter – their new mobile video converting Mac app – for free through iPhone Hacks Deals! MacX iPhone Video Converter will help you get your favourite videos on any of the following devices: iPhone Android Samsung Galaxy S4/Note HTC New One Amazon Kindle Fire Google Nexus 7 Windows Phone 8 Microsoft Surface Nokia mobile devices …and more! MacX iPhone Video Converter accepts almost any popular video formats as input, and you can see all of the file formats in converts over at the Deals Hub. This offer is only available for a limited time, so grab MacX Mobile Video Converter for free from the iPhone Hacks Deals Hub now and enjoy your videos anytime, anywhere today! Subscribe to our mailing list Continue reading →

Download WWDC 2013 and iOS 7 Wallpapers

June 8, 2013, 9:12 am

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The WWDC 2013 Keynote kicks off in just over 48 hours, and as you can imagine, we’re super excited about it. To get into the spirit of the event, download these WWDC 2013 and iOS 7 wallpapers created by Silvia Gatta (via Macstories) and @surenix for your iOS devices. The WWDC 2013 wallpaper is based on the logo for this year’s event and the iOS 7 wallpaper is based on the banners that have been put up at Moscone West Center in San Francisco where the event is being held. Visit this page on your iOS device, click on the appropriate link provided below, then save the image, launch the Settings app and navigate to Brightness and Wallpaper to set it as the wallpaper on the home screen or lock screen or both. WWDC 2013 iPhone 5 iPad 4 and iPad 3 iPhone 4 & 4S iPad, iPad 2, and iPad mini iOS 7 Type 1 iPhone 5 iPad 4 and iPad 3 iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 iPad, iPad 2 and iPad mini iPhone 3GS Type 2 iPhone 5 iPad 4 and iPad 3 iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S iPad, iPad 2 and iPad mini iPhone 3GS Please don’t forget to thank Gatta and @surenix for these wallpapers. Continue reading →

Nine iOS 7 features inspired by jailbreak tweaks

June 12, 2013, 6:35 am

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After several months of rumors and speculations, Apple unveiled iOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad at the WWDC 2013 Keynote on Monday. Every year Apple adds new features that have been inspired by jailbreak apps and tweaks, and this year hasn’t been any different. We take a look at the jailbreak inspired features Apple has included in iOS 7. 1. Quick Settings iOS 7 comes with a new feature called Control Center that can be accessed anywhere in the iOS by swiping up at the bottom. Control Center includes some frequently used system toggles such as AirPlane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Orientation Lock. It similar to the popular SBSettings jailbreak tweak. Since Control Center can be accessed from anywhere, it allows users to enable or disable the toggles without going through the hassle of exiting an app, if you’re in one, launching the Settings app, navigating to the setting and then enabling or disabling it. When you tap on the Settings toggles, iOS informs you if the toggle is enabled or disabled with a subtle message and also highlights or greys out the toggle like the NCSettings tweak. Unfortunately, Apple has included only 5 toggles and there is not way to configure the toggle based on your preference, which is possible with NCSettings.   2. Improved App Switcher Apple has finally improved the app switcher in iOS 7, which makes better use of the screen real estate. In iOS 7, when you press the Home button twice, it displays card-like screen previews (along with the logo of the app below it) of the apps you have open. You can swipe up on a card to quit the app. Apple has moved the music playback controls, brightness control and the orientation lock toggle to the Control Center. The implementation of the app switcher is similar to Dash, an app switcher jailbreak tweak. In fact, the implementation is closer to this iOS 7 concept. 3. Parallax Effect One of the coolest features of iOS 7 is the parallax effect that moves shadows and lighting effects on the home screen as the user moves the phone in his or her hand. It creates a pretty awesome 3D parallax effect. Jailbreak tweaks such as DeepEnd and 3DBoard brought the 3D effect to the home screen back in 2011. 4. Live Clock The clock icon now displays the correct time, including the live second hand, which is exactly how it works when you install the Live Clock jailbreak tweak. 5. Dynamic Wallpaper iOS 7 comes with two dynamic wallpapers images, which have subtle animated bubble shapes floating in the background. Jailbreak tweaks like LivePapers have brought animated wallpapers to jailbroken iOS devices. 6. Panoramic Wallpaper Jailbreak tweaks like LiveWallpaper allow you to set panoramic images as your wallpaper, which are scrollable when you flip through home screen pages. Apple has added the feature in iOS 7. In addition to the dynamic wallpaper feature, iOS 7 also allows you to set panoramic images as wallpapers, so you can pan around the image by simply tilting your iOS device. 7. Blacklist You will finally be able to block phone calls, messages or FaceTime from specific numbers in iOS 7, which was previously possible only using jailbreak tweak iBlacklist. 8. Folders iOS 7 will finally allow you to add unlimited number of apps to a folder, which has been possible using jailbreak tweaks such as InfiniFolders and FolderEnhancer. When you tap on the folder, it displays 9 apps in the folder, and you can swipe from left to right to go to the next folder page like the home screen pages. 9. Notification Center The iOS 7 Notification Centre has a nice translucent background instead of the grey linen background. It seems to be inspired by the BlurriedNCBackground and FastBlurredNotificationCenter jailbreak tweaks, which blurs the Notification Center background. Other minor features: Ability to access Notification Center from the Lock screen. Jailbreak tweak such as Bulletin, Springtomize allow you access Notification Center from the lock screen in iOS 6.x. In iOS 7, Safari gets a unified bar for URLs and search, which Apple calls “smart search”. If you’ve jailbroken your device, you can install Safari Unibar to combine the address and the search bar. These are some of the features we could think that seem to be inspired from jailbreak apps and tweaks, please let us know if we’ve missed any anything. This also means that when Apple releases iOS 7 to the public later this fall, there will be fewer reasons to jailbreak your iOS device. Do you plan to jailbreak your device after upgrading to iOS 7? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Continue reading →

iOS 7 gives a warning if you use unauthorized Lightning cables or accessories

June 12, 2013, 8:43 am

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Folks at Life On My Mobile report that iOS 7 gives a warning when you use an unauthorized Lightening cables and accessories.  It prompts the following warning message when you plug an authorized accessory: This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone. You can dismiss the warning message, so it doesn’t stop you from using the accessory. The teardown of the Lightning connector has revealed that it has four embedded chips, including a security chip from Texas Instruments. So Apple is probably using it to figure out if the accessory is made by an authorized MFI (Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad) partner. It is also limited only to iPhone 5, iPad mini, 5th generation iPod touch and 4th generation iPad that have a Lightning connector. It remains to be seen if Apple will crackdown on such unauthorized accessories as Life On My Mobile are speculating. We highly doubt it. But it’s going to be annoying if iOS 7 is going to warn you each time an unauthorized cable or accessories is plugged to the iPhone. Life On My Mobile via MacRumors Continue reading →

Easily edit and securely share PDF files with PDF Converter for Mac [Deals Hub]

June 12, 2013, 10:31 am

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Combining unparalleled functionality, 256-bit encryption, and ease of use, PDF Converter for Mac enables users to edit and securely share PDF files like never before. It provides everything you need to work smarter and faster – and right now we’ve got it at a price that makes it a very smart pick up: only $49.99! Here’s just some of what PDF Converter for Mac by Nuance can do: Edit Directly within PDF Files: PDF files are no longer hard to change. Simply edit, delete, and add text as needed. You can also insert, move, copy, resize, and delete images. Connect to the Cloud: Access to your stored documents in the cloud anytime, anywhere. Now you can save PDFs directly to Evernote and Box. Scan Directly to Searchable PDF: Scanning to PDF isn’t useful if you can’t get access to information. Create PDF documents complete with text that can be copied and searched. Collaborate like Never Before: Exchange ideas and provide directions by adding notes, text boxes, graphics, and more to PDF documents. Mark up documents with highlighting, underscoring, and strike through formatting. Take Advantage of the World’s Most Accurate PDF Conversion: Don’t waste valuable time recreating documents with complex layouts and graphics. Convert PDF files into Microsoft® Word, Excel®, PowerPoint®, RTF, and Corel® WordPerfect documents in real-time. Protect your Information: Black out or erase text from documents to protect sensitive information. Text and images can be edited or deleted to keep safe from prying eyes. You can even use search-and-redact to eliminate the text throughout a PDF document. Additional features include scanning paper documents to PDF, drag-and-drop document assembly, conversion of static PDF forms into fillable PDF forms and opening files from PDF Portfolios. It also includes direct savings to cloud services such as Evernote and Box. (All of the other important reminders surrounding this offer – including hardware and software requirements – are available at the Deals Hub.) Nuance PDF Converter for Mac features industry-standard PDF viewing, editing, and security – and iPhone Hacks is featuring it on our Deals Hub at a savings of 50% for a very limited time. So don’t delay – get PDF Converter for Mac for just $49.99…while the getting is good! Subscribe to our mailing list Continue reading →

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How to enable iTunes Radio outside the U.S.

June 12, 2013, 11:03 am

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At WWDC earlier this week, Apple unveiled iTunes Radio, its free Pandora-like music subscription service for iOS, Mac and PC. Unfortunately, the service will only be available to folks in the U.S. initially. Below, we tell you how to get iTunes Radio working outside the U.S., using a simple “hack”. As it turns out, Apple’s U.S. restriction is based on your iTunes account rather than the region you’re actually in. So even if you’re outside the U.S., but you sign in from a U.S. iTunes account, you’ll be able to play music on iTunes Radio. Fortunately, making an iTunes account for any country’s store without a credit card is pretty straight-forward, as Apple describes in this knowledge base article. So here’s a step-by-step guide on how to enable iTunes Radio outside the U.S. Sign up for a U.S. iTunes account if you don’t already have one. Sign out from your current account and sign into the U.S. iTunes account from Settings > iTunes and App Store. Once you’ve successfully entered your credentials you should see a popup that says your account is only for the U.S. store, and on tapping ok, opens the U.S. App Store. Kill the music app from the multitasking interface by a swipe-up, and then relaunch it. If all goes well, you should see the iTunes Radio launch screen, and from there you can create your own station or listen to an existing one. Here’s a video tutorial: We hope Apple doesn’t add I.P. based restrictions in newer versions of iOS 7 betas. Continue reading →

Apple posts new video: “Making a difference. One app at a time.”

June 12, 2013, 1:07 pm

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Apple has posted a new 10 minute video on its YouTube channel titled ”Making a difference. One app at a time” that highlights the work of a few developers who are helping make people’s lives better. Apple’s description for the video: Each iOS app offers remarkable — and often delightful — possibilities. But the most powerful iOS apps ever are ones that change people’s lives in ways they never imagined. Here’s the video: The apps in the video: Skyscape, Cherokee, Proloquo2Go and Galileo. Apple made a similar video for last year’s WWDC keynote, appreciating the effort put in by developers to create life-changing apps: Via: MacRumors Continue reading →

Lockscreen bug resurfaces in iOS 7 beta; Lets anyone see your photos

June 12, 2013, 1:38 pm

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iOS is infamously popular for its lockscreen security bugs that let anyone bypass the passcode on a device to gain access to information that would otherwise be private. iOS 7 has a similar bug that lets anyone with physical access to your device skirt the passcode requirement to gain access to your photo library. The security hole originates from the newly added Control Center that has shortcuts for various apps including Calculator and Camera. From Forbes: By opening iOS’s Control Room and accessing the phone’s calculator application before opening the phone’s camera, anyone can access, delete, email, upload or tweet the device’s photos without knowing its passcode. Here’s a video demo: The existence of such bugs isn’t surprising given the beta status of iOS 7, but if you’ve installed the beta on your main iOS device, you should be aware of this flaw since it might expose your photos to anyone with access to your device. Most likely, this bug will be fixed in the next beta release. Continue reading →

Get 2 free months of unlimited access to Next Issue [Freebie]

June 12, 2013, 2:18 pm

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If you have dozens of old magazines lying around your house then that might be a sign that you need to go digital. Stop having to store and throwaway old subscriptions because now you can have your ultimate newsstand right at your fingertips, whenever you want it. That’s right, and you can access all of them right from your tablet. Next Issue offers all-you-can-read access to over 90 of today’s most popular magazines on your tablet and now you can test it out with 2 free unlimited months of use – a $30 value – courtesy of iPhone Hacks Deals! Here are just a sample of the titles you can get from Next Issue: Bloomberg Businessweek Car and Driver Esquire Fortune GQ Inc. Men’s Fitness Sports Illustrated Time …and dozens more! (Please note: This offer is available to US customers only. To see other magazine selections available – as well as all other details associated with this offer – check out the Deals Hub.) So ditch the paper magazines, limited access, and expand your subscription base with two free months of unlimited access to Next Issue from iPhone Hacks Deals today! Subscribe to our mailing list Continue reading →

More iOS 7 tidbits: Day/Night mode in Maps, granular cellular data tracking and more

June 12, 2013, 2:21 pm

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Yesterday we told you about a few iOS 7 features that Apple didn’t talk about, and today we have more such features, tidbits and minor enhancements in beta 1 of the OS. Dan/Night mode in Maps Like many apps, Maps in iOS 7 too has a night mode that makes the UI chrome dark to make it easier on the user’s eye at night. The app automaically switches between the two modes based on the time of the day. There’s also Maps bookmark syncing and turn-by-turn directions for walking. Granular Cellular Data Tracking iOS has some amount of cellular tracking built into earlier and current versions, but you couldn’t see data usage broken down by apps. iOS 7 now lets you see per-app data usage, and includes a handy toggle that you can use to disable cellular data for certain apps. If you’re on earlier versions, you can track per-app data usage by installing Onavo. Microphone access permissions Apple already asks for your permission when apps want to access your location, photo library, contacts, and now it will do so for microphone data as well. Landscape multitasking Right now, when you’re using an app in landscape and you double tap the home button, the multitasking bar awkwardly appears in portrait orientation making it very difficult to read the text accompanying the app icons. In iOS 7, the multitasking bar can adapt to portrait as well as landscape orientation, as can be seen in the screenshot below. iTunes Radio Skips iTunes Radio, like Pandora, imposes a restriction on the number of skips you can make in a certain time interval. In the present version, you have 6 skips per station, which reset every hour. Wallpapers Apart from the usual wallpapers we’re used to, iOS 7 also has two dynamic wallpapers that subtly animate in the background. Apple would likely increase this number, and hopefully, let users create and add these as well. Another nice feature is that when you set a panorama as a wallpaper (through Setting > Brightness and Wallpaper), iOS 7 uses gyroscope movement data to pan around the image. On other images, you’d see the 3D parallax effect we told you about earlier. Notification Sync! Notifications you’ve seen on your Mac will no longer show up on your iPhone and vice versa. The Notification Center also gives you a nice summary of your upcoming day containing information about the weather, your calendar events and birthdays. Better anti-theft measures Apple’s constantly being called out by government officials for unsatisfactory anti-theft measures, since a thief can always flash the firmware on an iPhone to make it as good as new. With iOS 7′s “Activation Lock” if you remote wipe your device, the thief would still need to enter your iTunes login credentials to make the device usable. Safari Do not track Do not track, a way to tell advertisers on the web to not track your browsing activities, is now included in mobile Safari and can be enabled with the flip of a switch. Here are the other features added to mobile Safari in iOS 7. Tell us in the comments below if there are any more features/changes in the beta we’ve left out in this post or the earlier one. Via: MacRumors, Macworld Continue reading →

Apple reportedly put marketing team’s print and web designers in charge of iOS 7 icons

June 12, 2013, 3:04 pm

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iOS 7′s drastic redesign has indeed been polarising, with most observers taking objection to some of iOS 7′s stock app icons. Jony Ive, Apple’s SVP for design, led iOS’ transition to a new design language, and reportedly told the designers in the company’s marketing and communications team to come up with a new look for iOS icons rather than the designers in the app design team. From The Next Web: Many of the new icons were primarily designed by members of Apple’s marketing and communications department, not the app design teams. From what we’ve heard, SVP of Design Jony Ive (also now Apple’s head of Human Interaction) brought the print and web marketing design team in to set the look and color palette of the stock app icons. They then handed those off to the app design teams who did their own work on the ‘interiors’, with those palettes as a guide. We’ve also been hearing that there wasn’t a whole lot of communication between the various teams behind say, Mail and Safari. And that there were multiple teams inside each group that were competing with various designs, leading to what some see as inconsistencies in icon design. Fortunately, TNW notes that Apple would be iterating on the design front a lot more than it typically does during a beta release cycle to iron out these inconsistencies. The site adds that “what was presented this week is firmly a work in progress.” What do you think are the areas in iOS 7′s design that Apple still needs to improve upon? Continue reading →

iOS 7 includes Google Now like feature called “Today”

June 12, 2013, 8:54 pm

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Apple has redesigned the Notification Center in iOS 7. It gets a nice translucent background, and comes with three tabs – a new Today tab, a tab for all your Notifications and a tab for the missed Notifications. Today is a new feature, which seems to be Apple’s answer to Google Now. As the name suggests, it gives you a summary of the day’s events, such as birthdays, appointments, weather information, stocks and tomorrow’s summary. Interestingly, as MacRumors points out, Today also provide commute details of locations a user has frequently visited. The feature seems to be similar to Google Now feature, which gives traffic conditions before you leave for work. There is a new option in the Settings app called “Frequent Locations” (Navigate to Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services -> Frequent Locations) that “suggests locations of interest based on historical location usage.” Apple seems to be using this information along with the “Traffic” settings (Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services -> Traffic) to provide the commute details for a location that a user has visited frequently. It is not clear if it also based on time. Users have also found that the Today tab, which displays tomorrow’s summary gives suggestion such as going to bed early if you’ve a busy day tomorrow. You have the option to disable the Today view from the lock screen via the Settings app, which removes the Today tab from the Notification Center. You can also disable today summary, calendar events, reminders, stocks and tomorrow summary from the Today view via the Settings app. It will be interesting to see how the new Today feature evolves as Google Now provides lot more information such as flight delays, package delivery notifications, reminder for events you purchased a ticket for, directions to your hotel when you arrive in a new city etc. Apple vision behind Today seems to be quite similar to Google’s, which is providing contextual information to users just when they might need it. What do you think of the Today feature? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Continue reading →

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Reuters: Apple talking to suppliers about 4.7 inch and 5.7 inch iPhones for late next year

June 13, 2013, 12:34 am

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According to four anonymous sources who have spoken to Reuters, Apple is thinking about making bigger iPhones. They’re thinking of coming out with a 4.7 inch iPhone and a 5.7 inch iPhone at some point next year, probably in the second half. It should be noted that just because Apple is talking to their supply chain partners about larger iPhones, that doesn’t mean said larger iPhones exist. Now let’s think about this logically. First, the source is Reuters, so this isn’t bullshit. It’s one thing to read a rumor on some random Asian blog, it’s another thing altogether when publications like Reuters and The Wall Street Journal say something. Second, you know as well as I do that Samsung is going to come out with a new Galaxy phone in 2014, and it’ll probably be bigger than today’s 5.0 inch Galaxy S4. How much bigger? I don’t know, but the trend is clear, their phones are getting bigger and bigger. Third, Tim Cook isn’t dumb. He and his lieutenants probably travel to Asia on a fairly regular basis and they see what the locals are using. Trust me, the first time I saw a person on the streets of Taiwan make a phone call on a 7 inch tablet, I was taken aback. But then it happened a second time. And a third time. And by the time I left the country three weeks later, I didn’t even notice people doing that anymore since it was so commonplace. But again, just to remind you, the iPhone 5S this year will look exactly like the iPhone 5. And these big iPhones, don’t even think about seeing them until the second half of 2014. Considering that we’re barely two weeks into June, that means you’re going to be waiting at least a year. Continue reading →

How to downgrade from iOS 7 beta to iOS 6

June 13, 2013, 5:29 am

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If you had upgraded your iOS device to iOS 7 beta to check it out and want to downgrade back to iOS 6, then the good news is that you can downgrade. This is despite Apple’s warning which states that you cannot downgrade back to earlier versions of iOS. Important points to note: You will be able to downgrade back only to the latest iOS 6.x.x version (which is iOS 6.1.4 for iPhone 5 and iOS 6.1.3 for the remaining iOS devices). Please take a backup of your iOS device to iCloud or using iTunes. Please note that when you downgrade back to iOS 6.x.x, you will be able to restore back to iOS 6.x.x compatible backup and not the iOS 7 backup to avoid compatibility issues. Please follow these simple instructions to downgrade to iOS 6: Download the appropriate iOS 6.x.x firmware file for your device from the below links: iOS fimrware file for iPhone iOS fimrware file for iPod touch Connect the device running iOS 7 beta to your computer. Launch iTunes and select the iOS device from the top right corner, to the left of the iTunes Store button. Hold the Alt/Option key (Shift Key in Windows) on your keyboard and click on the Restore iPhone/iPod touch button in iTunes. Note: If you’ve Find My iPhone enabled then it will prompt you to turn it off before restoring your iPhone (it’s one of the features of iOS 7). Select the ipsw file you had downloaded earlier. iTunes will inform that it will erase and restore your iOS device to iOS 6.x.x and will verify the restore with Apple. Click Restore. iTunes should now restore your iOS device to iOS 6.x.x. After a restore, the iOS device will restart. You should then see ”Slide to set up”. Follow the steps in the iOS Setup Assistant. You can then restore your device from a backup if required. That’s it. Please don’t forget to let us know how it goes in the comments and drop us a line if you hit any issues. Continue reading →

iOS 7 tidbits: Text Size, Video Zoom, Banner Notifications and more

June 13, 2013, 9:10 am

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We continue to get information about interesting new features and changes in iOS 7, which was seeded to developers earlier in the week. Here is a list of the new features and changes in iOS 7 for today: Text Size: Another cool feature is the ability to adjust the font size across apps. The feature currently works with apps that support Dynamic Type. So initially expect this feature to work with only stock iOS apps. Dismiss Banner Notifications You can now dismiss banner notifications by swiping up on them. You no longer have to use the weird method to dismiss them. (via reddit user devinclark) Video Zoom: You can finally zoom while recording a video in iOS 7. You can now pinch two fingers together to zoom out or spread them to zoom in while recording videos in iOS 7. (via reddit user khanfahad) Redeem iTunes Gift Card You can now redeem your iTunes gift card using your iPhone’s camera in iOS 7. This was spotted by folks at AppleFanSite. According to AppleFanSite, you should also be able to redeem Starbucks app of the week cards using your iPhone’s camera, though it is not clear how it works. Multitasking Apple has finally improved the app switcher in iOS 7, which makes better use of the screen real estate. In iOS 7, when you press the Home button twice, it displays card-like screen previews (along with the logo of the app below it) of the apps you have open. You can swipe up on a card to quit the app. Now you probably already knew that. One small tidbit is that you can close not one but multiple apps with a swipe, which is quite neat. Deleting Messages: In iOS 7, there is a new way to delete messages. You need to tap and hold on the message you want to delete in a conversation, which reveals “Copy” and “More” options. Tapping on “More” selects the message. You can then tap on the trash can icon in the lower left corner to delete it. You can also delete all messages by tapping on Clear All in the top left corner. (via reddit user Ithinkiamjoseph) Weather app As you probably know, Apple has completely redesigned the weather app in iOS 7. It looks a lot like Yahoo’s weather app, but instead of showing you photos of the location from Flickr, the stock iOS 7 Weather app gives you visual representation of the current weather. Interestingly, reddit user khanfahad has noticed that if there are thunderstorms, it occasionally also shows lightning as you seen in the screenshot below, which we thought was a nice touch. Bluetooth icon In iOS 7, you will be able to easily figure out when a new Bluetooth device connects to your iOS device. reddit user cmsj has noticed that the Bluetooth icon in the status bar becomes enlarged when a Bluetooth device connects as you can see in the screenshot below. Photo Stream and Screenshots This is great news for bloggers. iOS 7 no longer uploads screenshots to Photo Stream. (via reddit user MacProClub) That’s it for today. Let us know if you’ve found any other feature or changes which we haven’t covered so far. Low on Battery If your iOS device is low on battery, iOS will now display the following redesigned image. (Thanks Stan!) That’s it for today. Thanks everyone for the tips. Please send us an email at tips@iphonehacks.com if you find any new features and changes that we haven’t covered so far. Our iOS 7 coverage: Apple announces iOS 7, the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone Watch Jony Ive introduce iOS 7 [Video] A gallery of all the redesigned apps in iOS 7 Eight cool iOS 7 features that Apple didn’t talk about More iOS 7 tidbits: Day/Night mode in Maps, granular cellular data tracking and more A demo of iOS 7′s awesome 3D parallax effect on the home screen iOS 7 includes Google Now like feature called “Today” You can finally block phone calls, messages or FaceTime from specific numbers in iOS 7 New in iOS 7: Silence incoming calls and notifications while iPhone is unlocked Which devices is iOS 7 compatible with? Here’s the list Here’s The List of iOS 7 Features That Are Not Available On Older iOS Devices iOS 7 vs. iOS 6: App icons comparison chart iOS 7 gives a warning if you use unauthorized Lightning cables or accessories Continue reading →

Future iPhones with Sapphire display seems highly unlikely

June 13, 2013, 11:09 am

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One of the main reasons for iPhone warranty claims is cracked and broken screens. With the iPhone 5, Apple addressed part of the problem by replacing the glass back casing with anodized aluminum with inlays along the top and bottom made of  ceramic glass (on the white and silver model) or pigmented glass (on the black and slate model). Apple also used sapphire crystal to cover the rear camera. Here’s what Apple has to say about it on the iPhone 5 design page: Although the surface of the iSight camera is as clear as glass, it’s not made of glass. It’s actually sapphire crystal, whose hardness is second only to diamond on the scale of transparent materials. That means the surface of the lens is far less likely to scratch. So we were quite hopeful when an MIT Technology report claimed that future smartphones could come with displays made entirely of sapphire to improve durability. However that is not going to happen anytime soon as Vertu COO Perry Oosting in an interview with Swiss news site Tages-Anzeiger [Google Translation] revealed that Apple experimented with sapphire displays, but found them unfeasible. Vertu makes luxury watches, which come with sapphire display. Oosting claims that Apple had hired a number of Vertu employees to work on the project, but had to shelve it as it is not possible to produce sapphire displays in the numbers required by Apple. Meanwhile, Corning, the company that currently manufactures Gorilla Glass used in iPhones, iPods and iPod touches, claims that Gorilla Glass 3, which was launched earlier this year, is not only less prone to shattering, but it also doesn’t scratch as easily. It will be interesting to see if Apple will use Gorilla Glass 3 in iOS devices that will launched this year. Via MacRumors Continue reading →

Take care of all your photo editing needs with The MacPhun Photo Editor Bundle [Deals Hub]

June 13, 2013, 11:43 am

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The iPhone has really taken photography to a whole new level, as you now have a top-notch camera built right into your phone. Sure, there are other smartphones out there that can take great photos, but take a look at Flickr’s stats and you’ll find that the majority of photos there are taken by iPhones. While the iPhone can do wonders with your photos right on the device, the more serious you get about making those photos stand out means you’ll want to use some great photo editing software to make them pop. That’s where the latest iPhone Hacks Deals offer can help. We’re offering The MacPhun Photo Editor Bundle, featuring three stellar photo editing apps: FX Studio Pro, Snapheal, and ColorStroke. It would normally cost you $69 to buy all of these apps separately, but for a limited time you can get all three apps courtesy of iPhone Hacks Deals for just $29.99. Here’s a brief description of each app found in The MacPhun Photo Editor Bundle: FX Photo Studio Pro: Any photographer can benefit and can have fun with this Mac app. Combine and layer any of the 172 effects to create the perfect looking image. A completely customizable interface allows you to preview each effect, compare original and resulting images, label favorites and even save combinations of effects as presets. You can apply as many filters to one image as you like, save mixes of effects to presets and even share these presets with other photographers around. And that’s just scratching the surface of what this app can do. Snapheal: Don’t let a fantastic photo or memory go to waste because of one minor detail… Snapheal it! This easy-to-use photo editor allows you to simply point and click to remove unwanted objects or individuals from any photo. Don’t worry about ruining the quality of the image. While Snapheal is a breeze to use, this powerful software cleverly blends in the background making it virtually impossible to notice a removed object ever existed. The ability to remove unwanted items from your images can be priceless when dealing with memories that you want to preserve as you’d imagined them – not with someone or something in the way. ColorStroke: Color Splash your photos in any color you want with Colorsplash. Convert color photos to monochrome and reveal the color of specific areas. Select different monochrome layers or add more drama with special effects. Easily import pictures from your iPhoto or Aperture library. Instantly export to Photoshop, Aperture and iPhoto after editing. Then share your pictures via Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr, print or send via email. There’s a lot more to each of these apps, and you can check out everything each has to offer over at the Deals Hub) (along with all other important reminders surrounding this offer). It’s time to take your iPhone photography to the next level – and this is the bundle that will help you along the way. Grab The MacPhun Photo Editor Bundle from the iPhone Hacks Deals Hub for only $29.99 while you can…which won’t be for long! Subscribe to our mailing list Continue reading →