Sometimes I despair, I really do. Just when you think that the madness has come to some sort of logical end, someone proves you wrong. Samsung did that rather emphatically when it announced a pair of Galaxy Mega handsets that take what the company did with the Note and Note II and then, well, make it bigger.
As much as we love the iPhone, and iOS in general for that matter, we are perfectly able to concede that it has some pretty basic flaws that wouldn't take Apple long to resolve if they saw fit. There are certain aspects of interacting with native apps that often leave us feel infuriated, with the Camera app and the way Apple has chosen to handle the LED flash being a prime example of this frustration.
iOS 5 brought native Twitter integration to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and this was followed up nicely with a deal to bring a similar offering to iOS 6 with Facebook. But while this deep affiliation has done wonders for seamless sharing of various content, the Notes app is missing this ability to share a note via Facebook or The Twitters. Thanks to a nifty little tweak called ShareNotes, this restriction needn't stop you sharing your notes with your followers and friends, and although Twitter's 140 character restriction will also apply to your notes as well, at least you won't have to be cutting and pasting anymore.
Widgets may not be as commonplace on iOS as they are on Android, but the jailbreak scene has presented us with a great deal more in terms of options than we'd otherwise have at stock level. MusicWidget is a very simple, clean, and aesthetically in-keeping widget for music fans which presents you with album art, song title, and artist when you double-tap the Music app icon on your home screen. Said information reveals itself in the same way a folder does when opened, while the icon is in turn minimized to place further focus on the widget itself.
The existence of an entry-level iPhone, at least in concept, has been a matter of fierce debate over the past couple of months. It is widely thought Apple could use such a device as bait in a push to increase its presence in developing markets, but with the Cupertino company ever reluctant to sell less-capable devices to meet that low price point, there have been quite a few naysayers. Today, however, the guys over at Japanese blog Macotakara have gotten their hands on a previously-unseen dual-head vibration motor, which, due to its low-end nature, is not the kind of thing you'd expect Apple to be packing into the eventual successor to the iPhone 5.
We could be just a couple of months away from gaining an insight into what Apple plans to do with iOS 7, but as the Cupertino company's software development team continues to work in collaboration with lead hardware designer Jony Ive to create the next revision, many Apple fans have also been offering their own ideas on what could be done to improve the look of the famed mobile OS. We've seen quite a few concept designs hitherto, but a theme we recently discovered over at MacCiti rather delightfully combines elements of the current iOS interface with a tiled, Windows Phone-esque appearance which in turn borrows from the HTC One design. It's an interesting recipe for sure, but as I suspect you'll agree after seeing the screenshots below, it's one that works very well indeed.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is due to hit the market later on this month, but already, iOS developers have begun the task of offering Apple device users some alternatives to the new, S4-specific features. Earlier on this week we featured DuoCam app which introduces the Dual Shot feature for iPhone, an app which seeks to replicate one of Galaxy S4's most applauded features, and today, an iPhone-made take on the Smart Pause feature has just emerged over at the App Store. With so many different applications making up Sammy's "Smart" range, it's difficult to keep track of them all, but Smart Pause, which automatically pauses media when a user looks away from their device, has somewhat manifested itself on iOS in the form of LookAway Player.
T-Mobile, the United States' fourth largest mobile carrier, recently revealed its intention to officially carry the Apple iPhone. Since then, PR mode has been in full flow, and as well as already offering one of the best deals around - particularly with the flagship iPhone 5 - T-Mo has now begun a trade-in program hoped to entice consumers into making the switch.
Spring is here, and the analysts are out in force with all kinds of predictions and estimations pertaining to Apple's upcoming major products. According to a series of previous reports, Apple's one-per-year iPhone release cycle could be finally breached in 2013, with many reckoning the Cupertino company to be readying two separate devices. This sentiment has been echoed today by Topeka Capital's Brian White, who believes the device will retail in "at least" two different screen sizes, in a move said to help counteract the vast range of choice offered by Android-powered handsets.
Like many jailbreakers, one of the very first tweaks I install upon jailbreaking a device for the first time is SBSettings. Its effortless toggling of any and every major setting within iOS is a commodity that cannot be enjoyed at stock level, but it's certainly something quite a few of us would love to see right off the bat. Designer Ran Avni certainly seems to concur, and has dared to dream with a very elegant design bringing toggles for alarm, orientation, Wi-Fi and others right to the home / lock screen.
