Since releasing iOS 6.1, Apple has slowly but surely been working on improvements. iOS 6.1.1 beta was seeded shortly after iOS 6.1 had reached the public domain, but because iOS 6.1.1 and 6.1.2 had to be hurriedly released to the public to see to a number of bugs and security flaws, the next beta was renamed iOS 6.1.3 beta 2, in an attempt to restore some kind of order. Today, rather than releasing iOS 6.1.3 beta 3, the Cupertino company has instead pushed out the update to Maps for those boasting an iOS device - the same updates first seen in those earlier betas.
Peekly For iPhone Gives The iOS Lock Screen A Much-Needed Overhaul, Here’s How To Install It [VIDEO]
With the omni-present iOS Vice President Scott Forstall having been given his marching orders following the disastrous iOS 6 Maps app (among other things), there's a real feeling that iOS 7 will - with Jony Ive at the helm - actually address some of the long-standing issues with Apple's mobile software. Thus, designers have been doubly busy over the past few months in lending their skills and creativity to dreaming up news ways iOS 7 can offer a significantly enhanced user experience, and following the revamped Weather app concept from a couple of days back, a new jailbreak tweak / theme by the name of Peekly adds a beautiful, slide-to-reveal element to the inherently dull iOS lock screen.
We've been using and adoring the iPhone for six years now, and in that time, we've seen Apple iterate the device through a number of aesthetic designs to get to where it is today. It's naive of us to assume that when Steve Jobs and his company first decided to get serious about the iPhone, we believed that the design of the original device was the only one that they considered. During the last six years, we've seen a number of iPhone prototypes popping up all over the web after having been leaked through various sources, but have we ever stopped to consider what the original iPhone looked like?
There's no denying that the Philips hue iOS controlled lighting system is an amazing and extremely sought-after product, but if you had asked us about the potential for awesome third-party apps to be created on the back of the release, then we would have been hesitant. Still, even the initiated are sometimes off the mark, which is extremely evident in this case with the launch of the Ambify iPhone and iPad app that literally turns music into light.
Whenever Apple introduces a new feature in iOS, there is always mixed reaction from consumers. Some will make extensive use of whatever Apple adds, whereas others will have no need for it and will ultimately berate or belittle the feature. Thankfully the introduction of banner based alerts in iOS 5.x was definitely met with positive reaction, but Cydia wouldn't be so popular if new features couldn't be enhanced by the jailbreaking community. The Sticky Icky package released today is one developers attempt at making Apple's banner alerts that little bit better.
The built-in camera is probably one of the most widely used aspects of any of Apple's fantastic iOS devices. Gone are the days of consumers using a mobile telephone purely for phone calls and text messages, meaning that the iPhone and iPod touch are now used daily by most owners for a wide variety of activities including snapping photographs wherever they are. The introduction of the camera grabber option on the lock screen has meant that we now have quick access to the camera to ensure we don't miss that perfect shot, but the InstantCamera tweak from Cydia also has a place on a jailbroken devices for photography fans.
The guys over at App Cubby have been riding on the back of quite a large amount of praise since they released the Launch Center Pro iOS app last year. Although it may not be to everyone's taste, the handy productivity based app takes what can be boring, tedious and repetitive tasks and manages to cut them down into manageable two-tap chunks. That alone probably makes the app worth the purchase for a lot of users, but things in the Launch Center Pro world have improved of late with the release of version 1.1 of the app.
The official WhatsApp messaging platform has been one of the runaway successes of the App Store. The app has consistently been seen riding high at the top of the paid apps charts, with a lot of the success stemming from the fact that it is simple, easy-to-use and genuinely offers a cross-platform messaging experience for those who have friends or family running on Android or BlackBerry devices.
It makes for a great reading when Cydia is refreshed and the list of available packages is populated with new and interesting offerings. It's even better to see that a number of developers are now starting to take an interest in enhancing Apple's native iMessaging service. The new SelectiveReading tweak is one of the latest in a line of third-party enhancements for the fruit company's fabulous messaging platform.
Everyone loves a good feature packed update to an already extremely functional application, which is why the latest version of the Showyou video discovery app is bound to invoke a wave of downloads as well as sounds of satisfaction from existing users. Investor funded Remixation has been keeping a close eye on the usage habits of users while inspecting the development of the social scene in parallel with that research, all of which has resulted in version 4.1 of the app going live with a wave of new social-based features.
