iOS Devices

Photo: Fox

AT&T has announced incentives worth up to $450 for T-Mobile customers who switch to their service. The move is being made in response to T-Mobile’s Uncarrier offers, after AT&T recently said that it too expected to move toward separating device and service charges.

Proving the old adage that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, the deal of course comes with strings. First, $250 of that is the maximum you’ll receive in return for trading in your existing T-Mobile handset. To get the full $250, you’ll need a recent handset in good condition – in which case you’d almost certainly get more selling it privately … 
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Today, the Consumer Electronics Association announced that it will be using Apple’s new iBeacon technology to host a unique scavenger hunt of sorts at its International CES event scheduled for next week. Using the official CES mobile apps for iOS or Android, attendees will be able to collect badges for encountering the location-aware Bluetooth iBeacons placed throughout the CES showfloor. CEA is using a Bluetooth iBeacon development kit from  Radius Networks (pictured above) and Texas Instruments’ SensorTag technology. It hopes the scavenger hunt will encourage attendees to explore more areas of the show.
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Best Buy just sent over word that it will be holding a special New Year’s sale this weekend on a number of products including significant discounts on iPhones. The retailer is dropping the cost of the 16GB iPhone 5s down to $124.99 from its usual $199 and the 16GB iPhone 5c will be available to pick up for free, both available through all major carriers. The sale lasts through Jan. 4 both in-store and online, and the prices for the discounted iPhones are already available through at least Best Buy online. 
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0w36GAyZIA&start=270]

The NSA could access almost all data stored on an iPhone, including location, text messages and contact lists – including the ability to activate both microphone and camera, according to a presentation by security researcher Jacob Appelbaum at the Chaos Communication Conference in Hamburg, Germany.

Appelbaum showed what he said were leaked NSA documents in which the agency claimed to have a “100 percent success rate” at installing spyware on iPhones. The documents date back to 2008, at which point the NSA needed physical access to an iPhone to install the spyware, but a remotely-installable version was said at the time to be in development.

Even needing physical access to the phone was seemingly not a barrier to the NSA … 
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission has fined Apple approximately US$670,000 for its attempts to influence phone pricing set by distributors and service providers in the region. According to a statement from the commission, Apple was forcing at least three carriers to submit pricing plans for iPhone ahead of offering the devices for sale:

“Through the email correspondence between Apple and these three telecom companies we discovered the companies submit their pricing plans to Apple to be approved or confirmed before the products hit the market,” it said in a statement.

The report adds that Apple could face an additional fine of NT$50 million (around $1.7 million US) if it doesn’t change its current methods of negotiating iPhone pricing plans with carriers:
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If you’ve been fortunate enough to unwrap a new Mac over the holidays or need help deciding how to use those iTunes gift cards, I’ve collected some of my favorite apps and utilities for taking your Mac to the next level.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator is one of my favorite Mac apps. For someone interested in design and editing but without the need for an expensive app like Photoshop, it’s an incredible buy for $30. Best of all, it’s constantly being updated and picking up new features.

Whether you are just unwrapping a new iPhone or iPad or have received stacks of iTunes gift cards this holiday season, you are undoubtedly on the hunt for the best apps to fill up your shiny iOS devices. Read on for my recommendations of the best apps and games for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for 2013.

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On Friday we got our hands on one of the first of Apple’s new MFi game controllers for a full review of the Logitech PowerShell. Today we’re taking a look at that controller’s only real competitor: the Ace Power from Moga.

Does Moga’s controller improve on the few nitpicks we had with Logitech’s? What controller is the better buy for the $100 asking price? Head below to find out. 
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Jailbreaking may be for those who want the freedom to step outside of what Apple has decided iOS devices should do, but even jailbreakers are not immune to the influence of the company’s design guidelines, it seems.

The Cydia app, which allows users of jailbroken iPhones and iPads to install software not available on the App Store, has been updated with a flat look, bright colors and translucent overlays in line with iOS 7. This follows the surprise release of an iOS 7-compatible untethered jailbreak by the Evasi0n team.

There’s perhaps a small amount of rebellion in the fact that the app’s icon has not yet been updated to an iOS 7 look.

A thank-you for help with the new look was tweeted by @saurik. Video of the new app below the break …

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After the fall in Apple’s stock value when the China Mobile failed to materialise as expected on 18th December, yesterday’s news that the deal had finally been concluded sent the stock shooting back up again, having climbed more than 3 percent at the time of writing (it was up 4% in pre-market trading but has settled).

With the WSJ having reported that 18th December was the day, the market was clearly jittery when nothing materialized. Everything had appeared to be in place: regulatory approval, Apple putting the handsets on sale in China on the opening weekend, China Mobile posters, a pre-order website, in-store displays – and 4G service up-and-running on schedule … 
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Mockups: T3

Rumors of a larger iPad have been bouncing around since May (complete with the world’s silliest name). They gained credibility (minus the name) when reported by the WSJ in July, and our poll certainly suggests there would be demand for it, with 24 percent of 9to5Mac readers declaring that they love the idea. There have, however, so far been few supporting specifics.

Digitimes is not always the most credible of sources, but it is today suggesting that the 12.9-inch iPad will be manufactured by Quanta Computer, launched in October and targeted at the education market, citing its usual anonymous “supply chain sources” … 
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Yesterday the iOS jailbreaking community was caught off-guard by the sudden release of an updated evasi0n tool compatible with iOS 7. Now, users with an iPhone 4 or fourth-generation iPod touch on iOS 6.1.3 through 6.1.5—versions previously impervious to the iOS 6 jailbreak—can also get an untethered jailbreak for their devices. This is an especially welcome release for users of the fourth-gneration iPod touch and original iPad, both of which are incompatible with iOS 7.

As you can see from the directions, the actual jailbreaking part takes place in the existing redsn0w application, which has been used to jailbreak iOS 6 and other versions in the past. However, this part of the jailbreak is “tethered,” which means the user must connect to a computer and re-run the software in order to boot it or run many stock apps.

To achieve the “untethered” status and allow reboots with no need to connect to a Mac or PC, users can install a newly-released package from Cydia. The package, dubbed “p0sixspwn,” was created by iH8snow, winocm, and several other veteran jailbreak developers.

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Screenshot by <a href="https://twitter.com/saurik/status/414810297937838080">@saurik</a>.

(Updates below)

This morning, the evad3rs released the first public iOS 7 jailbreak. At the time, it seemed like something was off because other key members of the community had not been informed of the upcoming release. For instance, Jay Freeman (@Saurik on Twitter) had not been notified and as such the version of Cydia bundled was not official or up-to-date.

*sigh*: evasi0n, in China, installs an "app store" for cracked apps.
TaiG/cracked: http://t.co/shsanSqxSG
Apple/real: http://t.co/e5nvc5477F

— Jay Freeman (saurik) (@saurik) December 22, 2013

It turns out, however, that more questionable activity has taken place. The evasion jailbreak includes a Chinese ‘alternative’ app store, which is full of cracked versions of real apps and games found in Apple’s App Store.

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The HTC Dream: the first Android handset to go on sale, a year after the iPhone

A pithy quote from a Google engineer working on Android on the day the iPhone was launched has been doing the rounds today.

As a consumer I was blown away. I wanted one immediately. But as a Google engineer, I thought ‘We’re going to have to start over.

The quote, attributed to Google engineer Chris DeSalvo, appears in Chapter 2 of Fred Vogelstein’s Dogfight: How Apple and Google went to war and started a revolution. It suggests that Google had to abandon a Blackberry-style smartphone in favor of a touchscreen one in direct response to the iPhone. This is seemingly supported by Android boss Andy Rubin reportedly saying in response to the webcast of the iPhone launch: “Holy crap, I guess we’re not going to ship that phone.”

There’s just one small problem with this version of events – it may not be entirely accurate … 
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Photo: arstechnica.net

KGI’s Mingchi Kuo has suggested in a note to investors that the mystery of the apparent delay in the iPhone launching on the world’s largest carrier, China Mobile, may be due to last-minute renegotiations with Apple on volume discounts across the two new models.

We believe weak sales of iPhone 5C may trigger a re-negotiation of the Apple-China Mobile partnership. While previously we estimated that Apple originally planned the TD-LTE version would account for 30% of total iPhone 5C shipments, our latest survey indicates that demand for the TD-LTE iPhone 5C has declined dramatically due to 5S being far more popular than 5C among China Mobile subscribers […]

We believe this would necessitate a re-negotiation of the Apple-China Mobile deal and therefore defer its finalization …

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When Apple debuted iOS 7 earlier this year, one of the many new features covered at the keynote event was Activation Lock. The feature is an addition to the existing Find My iPhone system that helps recover lost or stolen iOS devices. While Find My iPhone mainly focuses on locating tracking the missing device on a map, Activation Lock is designed to keep thieves from using stolen phones.

George Gascón, San Francisco district attorney, has called on Apple to enable this feature by default, requiring users to opt-out of the service rather than opting in. Gascón cites a recent survey of 313 San Franciscans which revealed that 79% of responding iPhone users had enabled Find My iPhone and Activation Lock.

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We’ve already heard from Michael, Zac, and Ben on their last minute gift picks for the holiday season. For my gift guide, I’ve decided to only include products that I’ve personally been using on a daily basis. I review a lot of products in all of these categories, and below you’ll find only the best of the best that have earned a permanent place in my setup for both at home and on the go:
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Update: It’s back!

Google has just increased compatibility between its Google Glass wearable computer and iOS: the company has released its MyGlass companion app for the iPhone. The application allows users to setup their Glass, connect to WiFi networks, install Glassware apps, integrate with contacts, and mirror content from Glass to the iPhone’s display. The app is free, but it (obviously) requires the $1,500 computerized shades. Update: Looks like the app has been pulled. Google offered a mention of the app on a help document discussing the XE12 update to Glass:

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