The hit game Flappy Bird was abruptly pulled from the App Store and Google Play over the weekend, with the developer behind the popular title seemingly unable to handle the sudden wave of media attention. At this point in time, it looks very much as though the game isn't coming back, and naturally, some have sought to capitalize on this fact. They say you can get just about anything on eBay, and they weren't wrong; selling for a higher-than-usual price, you can pick up an iPhone 5s in Space Gray - with Flappy Bird installed.
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One of the great things about jailbreak tweaks is that they can be used to cut just about any corner in iOS. If we want to carry out a particular task quicker and more efficiently, there's usually a tweak for that, and every single day, the developers behind Cydia's wonderful exports remind us that the experience can always be optimized in ways we'd never imagined. Such is the nature of Phontact, a new tweak that, aside from having a name that rolls nicely off the tongue, allows you to access a special speed-dial facility by simply swiping the Phone icon in different directions.
Although company executives and CEOs spend most of their public speaking time discussing affairs concerning their own business and products, it's always interesting to hear what the big names have to say about rivals. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Apple CEO Tim Cook was asked whether the ongoing Mac vs. Windows PC battle was in any way similar to the the rivalry between iOS and Android. This analogy is frequently used by commentators and tech fans alike, after all, but Cook completely disagrees that the two famous rivalries are comparable, and here's why.
Flappy Bird is not only enjoying the kind of popularity that Angry Birds achieved in its first year as a mobile title, but it's actually making a lot of people a great deal angrier than Rovio's popular series ever did. Amid the cursing and frustration, the developer has pushed an update to the iOS version of the game, touching up the graphics, offering a better frame rate for a smoother performance, while also adding a few new birds to proceedings.
Certain high-profile devices, particularly in the Android community, tend to have their own range of unique, exclusive features. When the Nexus 5 finally arrived late last year, users found that it contained a special custom launcher, known at the time as the Google Experience Launcher. It has since been re-branded as the Google Now Launcher, and although the Big G has reserved this implementation for its flagship smartphone, there is a way you can have this feature up and running on your non-Nexus 5 Android device.
It took Apple until iOS 4 to finally come through with the basic commodity of folders, and a further three revisions - right up to iOS 7 - before these folders could finally be deemed substantial. But while it's nice to be able to put an unlimited amount of app icons in one spot in iOS 7, there's still room for improvement, and a new tweak called FolderBoard offers a little something extra by allowing you to open folders in full screen mode.
With its pick-up-play ability, simple, nostalgia-inducing graphics and challenging gameplay, Flappy Bird has been the subject of meteoric rise in the mobile gaming industry. Its developer has seen well in excess of 50 million downloads and counting, and it's gotten to the point now that wherever you go, people are talking about it. Some folks seem to be finding it easy to get three-figure scores while others are embroiled in a challenge to hit 50, but if you're looking for a sure-fire way to beat the game, then this video tutorial might help you achieve you goal.
Although Apple does not agree with the jailbreak community and does its utmost to prevent Cydia from reaching our devices, the Cupertino company has clearly been paying attention to some of the tweaks that have manifested from the center of the jailbreaking universe. Control Center, for example, seems heavily influenced by the famed SBSettings tweak, and although a user would previously have to jailbreak if they wished to enjoy animated wallpapers, now, this feature arrives as standard. But while it's easy enough to download other people's creations and set them as the home or lock screen backdrop, it's always nice to be able to cook up something unique, all by ourselves. For this very purpose, a new tweak by the name of WDynamic has just been released over at the BigBoss repo; more details after the leap.
Although Cydia is awash with themes, apps and an endless supply of tweaks that could readily eat away at your device's storage space, sometimes, it's nice to keep things simple. Some of the tweaks we've featured here post-Evasi0n7 have wonderfully demonstrated that you don't need to bombard the interface with widgets and additional fodder just because you can, and that actually, minimalism good. StatusBarSuite follows this kind of ethos, allowing you to de-clutter your status bar of all the annoying little icons you don't wish to see. Check it out after the fold.
Apple products have a reputation for retaining their value much better than rivaling devices made by other companies. The fact that the iPhone doesn't seem to depreciate nearly as much as the likes of the Samsung Galaxies and Lumias of the world means that purchasing a smartphone bearing that famous bitten-Apple logo accounts to a shrewd long-term investment. And as the cost price of an Apple iPhone can vary largely depending on whereabouts you happen to reside, the device is starting to become its very own form of currency.
