Items tagged with ios
If you have never listened to an audiobook, you are missing out on one of the better types of entertainment for long trips or people who drive a lot. The biggest name in audiobooks right now is Audible and it has been for a long time. However, Google wants people to think first of Google Play when they want a new audiobook and to facilitate that Google Play Audiobooks has some new updates to help better compete. These new features are things that some might think Google should have added to its audiobooks service at launch and include things such as smart resume and bookmarks. Google Play audiobooks launched in January and allows fans to get audiobooks directly via the Google Play Books...
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Apple today released iOS 11.3 for iPhone and iPad users, and with it comes a number of welcome updates. The most important update for users -- especially those with older iPhones -- is the inclusion of a "Battery Health" feature, which Apple promised following the revelation that the company was secretly throttling iPhone performance to preserve battery life. After Apple was called out for its actions, it confessed and offered an apology. It also reduced the price of battery replacements for affected devices to $29. The latest step with iOS 11.3 allows iPhone users to see the maximum capacity of their battery along with peak performance capabilities. For those users that have batteries that have...
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Apple landed itself in one of the biggest scandals the company has ever been part of when it was learned that the iPhone maker was throttling older devices when the battery wasn't performing at 100%. Throttling was confirmed by a Geekbench developer in December 2017, and the main problem is that Apple never told users that it was reducing the performance of their devices. The result was over 60 class action lawsuits against the company for its actions and governmental investigations around the world. Apple tried to appease owners of older devices with budget $29 battery replacements, but the damage was done. Apple also promised that it would be more transparent in the future with more details...
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Last Friday mobile gamers got a surprise when PUBG Mobile launched in Canada. At the time the game launched in The Great White North, the only way for U.S. gamers to partake in the fun was to change their region and download the game. PUBG Mobile has now officially landed in the U.S. and the game is available on both Android and iOS platforms. The game is said to be an accurate and faithful reproduction of gameplay currently available on PC and console systems, and promises high-quality graphics thanks to Unreal Engine 4 along with HD audio. Perhaps the best news about PUBG Mobile is that the game is free, whereas it costs money to play on PC or console systems. If you have never played...
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We are still waiting for our invite to participate in the fun of playing Fortnite on iOS, but in the meantime, there are plenty of others who have the chance to check it out. So many, in fact, that it has become the top most downloaded iPhone game in the US, and the second most downloaded app across all categories. So, how is it faring? Surprising well, it seems, though the real question is how mobile players are going to fare against their advantaged PC gaming brethren. It seems counter intuitive to play a game like Fortnite on a mobile screen, trading a keyboard and mouse combination for taps and touch gestures. But dang it all, Epic Games has apparently figured things out. The general consensus...
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If the idea of playing a battle royale shooter on your mobile device sounds appealing, then you should know that Fortnite is available on iOS. Unfortunately, it is an invite-only affair at the moment, with Epic Games having sent out a batch of invitations last night. Even so, Fortnite is proving immensely popular on iPhone and iPad devices—it's already the top most downloaded iPhone game in the US. That's according to Sensor Tower, an app tracking firm that shared its data with GamesBeat, a division of VentureBeat. According to that data, Fortnite is only the most popular iPhone game in the US right now, it is also the second most downloaded app across all categories. The game is faring...
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When it comes to today's smartphone users, they typically fall into one of two camps: Android or iOS. Google's Android operating system is by far the most popular mobile operating system, with nearly 75 percent of the global smartphone market. Apple's iOS, however, is in a distant second place with a 20 percent share. But once someone gets settled into their new Galaxy S9+, Pixel 2 XL or iPhone X, how likely are they to jump ship and try to the "dark side" of the competing ecosystem? According to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), most users stay put once they've bought into a mobile ecosystem. The research firm discovered that Android's loyalty rate is a high 91 percent, while iOS...
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Google has pulled the wraps off the first beta release of its Flutter mobile UI framework at MWC 2018. Flutter is meant to help developers build high-quality native apps for iOS and Android. This isn't to be confused with the Flutter gesture recognition startup that Google bought back in 2013. Google writes, "Flutter targets the sweet spot of mobile development: performance and platform integrations of native mobile, with high-velocity development and multi-platform reach of portable UI toolkits." Flutter is aimed at both new and experienced developers, and promises to help developers build apps in record time. It features high-velocity development with features including stateful Hot Reload,...
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There is new jailbreaking software available for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iPad mini, so long as they have not been updated to the latest version of iOS. Using Electra, a free jailbreaking tool, iOS owners can wedge Cydia onto their mobile device and fetch apps that can only be installed on jailbroken phones and tablets, along with access settings that are normally untouchable. The jailbreak tool is for iOS 11 and works on versions up through iOS 11.1.2. So, it's compatible with iOS 11.0, 11.0.1, 11.0.2, 11.0.3, 11.1, 11.1.1, and 11.1.2. Apple recently pushed out an update to iOS that brings the version number for iPhone, iPad, and iPod devices to 11.2.6, and it appears that Electra does...
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Bugs seem to be a common occurrence when it comes to iOS and macOS these days. That became even more apparent this week after Italian bloggers discovered that you can crash iOS devices (i.e. iPhones and iPads) with a single text message. The bug is actually quite easy to pull off, and involves sending an Indian language (Telugu) character to an iPhone. Once the person receives the text, the iOS Springboard crashes. After that point, the Messages apps can no longer be opened, as it will continually crash while it attempts to load the "offending" character. The only way to break out of the crash cycle with Messages is to have one of your contacts send you a "clean" text message, after which the...
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Apple is on the path to finding "Peace," the internal name of iOS 12 due out this fall. Typically Apple goes all out for its annual software upgrades and crams as many new features and upgrades into its mobile operating system as possible, and then tweaks things throughout the year with incremental updates. This time around, however, Apple is taking a different approach that will see its engineers focus less on new features and more on under-the-hood refinements. That is not to say there will not be any new features for iPhone and iPad users to look forward to. There will be, including a new Digital Health tool to show parents how much time their kids are spending on their mobile device, and...
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Apple keeps an ultra tight grip on iOS and is not keen on sharing its proprietary code. Even so, the company's iBoot source code for iOS 9 was recently leaked to the web, and even though Apple's mobile devices now run on iOS 11, it is very likely that some of the same code has been carried over. At least one security researcher called this the biggest leak in iPhone history, which begs the question, how could something like this happen? The answer may have something to do with peer pressure. The leak apparently traces back to a former low level Apple employee who worked at the company's headquarters in 2016. Motherboard took at look at text messages and screenshots from two people who received...
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Apple is not happy at all today with some of its critical source code having been posted online for the world to see. Source code for iBoot, one of the key components in iOS that runs iPhones and iPads, was posted on GitHub. The leak of such proprietary and confidential software could make it easier for hackers to find and exploit flaws in the operating system. The leak could also make it easier for security researchers to find and report flaws to Apple. Apple, like many major companies, has a bug bounty program and for anyone who finds a fault in the boot process, the payout could be as much as $200,000. The code that found its way to GitHub is responsible for ensuring that a trusted boot of...
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Apple is still trying to dig itself out of trouble over performance throttling of iPhones that have degrading batteries. Apple maintains that it throttles performance to prevent iPhones from shutting down unexpectedly. iPhone users were angry because Apple performed these actions without offering any indication that the throttling was happening. Apple first admitted that it was throttling devices back in December. As part of its penance for the throttling, Cupertino has reduced the cost of a battery replacement down to $29. Apple is also facing a U.S. House inquiry over the throttling of devices. Apple has now announced some new battery features that are available in iOS 11.3 Beta 2 that...
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With iOS 11.3 beta now out for people to dig around in, there are folks doing just that, looking for what Apple has in store for the future. One of the things that has been discovered, while digging around inside the beta OS, is evidence that Apple is working on a single sign-on service for the web. This was evidenced by the discovery of something called "SecureChannel." The indication with that discovery is that Apple is working on a solution that will let users log into various websites using their Apple ID. Think something along the lines of logging into various websites using your Facebook credentials, and you have the idea of what Apple might be working on. Reports indicate that strings...
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After blocking an app in the App Store that was designed to alert iOS users of net neutrality violations, Apple took a second look at the application, called Wehe, and decided it was acceptable after all. However, the developer of the app, Dave Choffnes, is still unclear on why exactly Apple chose to banish Wehe from the App Store, which underscores the mysteries of Apple's review process. There are guidelines that spell things out, of course, but even when all the check boxes appear to be ticked, Apple can still decide to refuse an app entrance into its lucrative App Store. That is what happened to Choffnes, who said he had a "very pleasant" conversation with Apple, but that the company "did...
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Apple has faced a number of embarrassing security mishaps over the past few months, with most of them affecting macOS. However, iOS is not immune to annoying glitches as witnessed by the latest chaiOS bug. Software developer Abraham Masri first discovered the exploit, which affects iOS devices, and can cause them to freeze, respring or reboot. The exploit is made possible by the fact that the Messages app in iOS preloads website links, which allows the app to show users a preview. However, this has the unwelcome side effect of executing code that could otherwise be harmful to the operating system. In this case, Masri created a webpage on Github that had its metadata overloaded with hundreds of...
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Apple created quite the firestorm when it was revealed that the company was throttling the performance of iPhones with older and "well worn" batteries. The company wasn't upfront about the practice, and it only came to light due to some sleuth work by customers and app developers. Now, Apple CEO Tim Cook says that customers will be given the choice to disable processor throttling in a future iOS update. At first, Cook tried to explain the reasoning behind throttling in the first place, telling ABC News' Rebecca Jarvis in an interview: And so you can imagine if you’re making an emergency call or you’re making an important call that’s important to you or a message that you’re...
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Late last week, Apple confirmed that its iOS-based iPhones and iPads along with its Mac computers are vulnerable to the Meltdown and Spectre exploits (which we have covered in great detail over the past week). At the time, Apple confirmed that it silently introduced “mitigations” in previous updates to iOS, macOS and tvOS to help better defend against the Meltdown vulnerability. "In the coming days we plan to release mitigations in Safari to help defend against Spectre," said Apple on Friday. "We continue to develop and test further mitigations for these issues and will release them in upcoming updates of iOS, macOS, and tvOS." True to its word, Apple today released two new updates:...
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Unless you perform high level calculations on an abacus, chances are high that yes, you are affected by the recently disclosed Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities. Between the two, practically every modern processor is vulnerable, including Intel CPUs dating back more than a decade, along with AMD and ARM chips. And yes, if you are entrenched in the Apple ecosystem, you too are affected by all this. But don't just take our word for it—in case there remains any question, Apple confirmed that its platforms are not immune. "Security researchers have recently uncovered security issues known by two names, Meltdown and Spectre. These issues apply to all modern processors and affect nearly all...
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In what will be a boost to iOS developers (and a blow to some Android devs), Apple has gone out and acquired Buddybuild, a Canadian startup that makes tools for app developers. In a couple of months, Apple will discontinue to tools for Android, making Buddybuild exclusive to iOS developers, Buddybuild said in a blog post announcing the migration to Apple. That will go into effect on March 1, 2018. "We're excited to share that the Buddybuild team has joined the Xcode engineering group at Apple to build amazing developer tools for the entire iOS community. We've always been proud to be a Canadian company, so we're also pleased that we will be staying right here in Vancouver—a hotbed of developer...
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It has been a rough few weeks for Apple with regards to its major software platforms. The latest black mark against the company comes in the form of a zero-day vulnerability that was discovered in Apple's HomeKit implantation in iOS 11.2. The vulnerability was first brought to public light by 9to5Mac, and is reportedly highly difficult to reproduce. Nonetheless, it allows for an unauthorized user to gain control of smart home devices connects via HomeKit. Given that the connected-accessories that are compatible with HomeKit extend to security cameras, smart locks, garage door openers and thermostats, the potential for abuse cannot be taken lightly. 9to5Mac has been careful not to describe in...
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