When it comes to success stories, they don't come much bigger than Rovio and its Angry Birds franchise. Since its initial release back in 2009, the world has gone Angry Birds crazy, with merchandise ranging from lunch boxes to food and beyond. It's fair to say that Rovio has done OK for itself, and as a result it's found itself confident enough to branch out from the tried and tested formula of flinging birds at pigs. Relatively hot on the heals of Angry Birds Go, a kart racer, Rovio earlier this month teased Angry Birds Epic, and now it's ready for prime time. At least, partly.
A security researcher has discovered major a flaw in the iOS 7 security system, apparently brought about by a botched attempt by Apple to patch an issue specific to iOS 6. The kernel exploit, if anything, has only been aggravated by the Cupertino's intervention, and as such, Azimuth Security researcher Tarjei Mandt believes that iOS 7 is "much worse" than its predecessor with regards security.
As well as offering some big improvements upon existing features, iOS 8 is expected to deliver some significant new implementations of its own, and with fitness and tracking-related devices and applications currently in vogue, it is thought that Apple will hop aboard the bandwagon with a new, native app called Healthbook. As the name implies, the app will be to fitness and wellbeing what Passbook is to vouchers and tickets, presenting the health-conscious with an all-in-one hub for tracking key aspects such as exercise, diet and activity. 9to5Mac first shed light on Healthbook a while back, and is now back with some more in-depth tidbits regarding the forthcoming app.
The final version of iOS 7.1 download links have just been released by Apple for those on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. As well as bringing support for the Cupertino company’s recently-unveiled CarPlay feature, iOS 7.1 brings a host of smaller enhancements, as well as the usual supply of bug fixes and general performance enhancements. Full details and download information, as well as the full change log, can be found after the break.
As well as bringing forth some exciting new changes and features, including the likes of CarPlay and the enhancement of Siri in some markets, iOS 7.1 has also ironed out and refined a few gripes and snags of iOS 7.0.x. Having made some big changes with the seventh version of its mobile OS released back in September, there were always going to be a few issues to work on in the first major update, and with iOS 7 offering many of the UI elements a translucent finish, iOS 7.1 also allows you to reduce the transparency, or depth, of the interface to better suit your tastes.
Tes Mat, developer behind the Vocab Ninja app, has posted a novel list of all 32 sample voices of the iOS 7 text-to-speak feature. Freshly updated with some of the newly-added languages for iOS 7.1 including Mandarin Chinese and UK English, the run-down of samples takes you on something of a journey throughout the world using only utterances included in Apple's text-to-speak, and whether you have an interest in languages or just wish to check out what others get to listen to when using their iOS dictation feature, it's very much worth checking out.
It was back in late 2012 that Crazy Taxi, the popular title from way back in the SEGA Dreamcast era, re-emerged for the iPhone and iPad, and a short while later, the Android version also manifested itself over at the Google Play Store. With Crazy Taxi: City Rush due for release later on this month, SEGA has made the original Crazy Taxi absolutely free, but since the offer is only good for a few days, we'd strongly advise grabbing it sooner rather than later.
Shortly after the release of iOS 7 back in September, it became apparent that some users were experiencing motion sickness and nausea, attributable to the various new animations Apple had applied with its largely-altered software. Supposed to give the revamped iOS 7 a touch of finesse, it proved, quite literally, to be a headache for some, but with the update to iOS 7.1 earlier on this week, the issues related to parallax and zooming animations appear to have been addressed.
There's no denying that the public launch of iOS 7.1 brings with it a number of positives for users. However, to go with those positives, it also seems like there could be a substantial negative attached to iOS 7.1, with many users reporting significant battery drain after updating to the latest firmware.
The act of taking a selfie and sharing it with the world may be thought of as a flash-in-the-pan phenomenon by most of us, but it looks like Apple could be on a mission to give it some credibility and longevity.
