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• Apps & Updates
• Apps
• iOS
• iPad
• Mac
• iPhone

iBetterCharge puts iPhone & iPad battery notifications on your Mac

Jordan Kahn Mar 7 2014 - 6:54 am PT

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A nice, new utility called iBetterCharge brings those 20% and 10% battery warnings from your iPhone or iPad onto your Mac. Rather than picking up your phone before heading out the door only to realize your battery is almost dead, the app will remind you to plug in with warnings that pop up as desktop notifications on your Mac. This is a handy little tool for anyone that likes to leave their iPhone or iPad out of sight while working on their Mac or people with multiple iOS devices to manage. It has already saved me a few times this week as I’ve been testing it.

You can connect multiple devices, set granular preferences for notifications when your battery gets lower than 50%, 20%, 10%, or 5%, and also select options to play sounds, animate the menu bar icon, or show a notification. Another preference will let you get notified when a device is fully charged and an ignore list lets you quickly mute notifications for certain devices.

The app is rather lightweight and a free download. Once you’ve installed it, iBetterCharge sits in your menu bar and automatically finds your devices over WiFi. Note: For this to work you have to have WiFi Sync enabled on your device.

You can download iBetterCharge for free here.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaWovz5WviI]

• AAPL Company
• iOS
• App Store
• Lawsuit
• Class action

Apple adds ‘offers in-app purchases’ warning in iTunes following class action lawsuit

Jordan Kahn Mar 22 2013 - 11:21 am PT

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After settling a class action lawsuit brought on by parents arguing the iOS freemium model, i.e. in-app purchases, allowed children to easily rack up thousands of dollars, Apple has made a subtle change to the App Store to make consumers more aware of apps that offer in-app purchases. The Guardian confirmed with Apple that it recently added a new “Offers In-App Purchases” warning directly underneath the download button in iTunes following the settlement (as pictured above).

Apple has always listed “Top in-app purchases” on app listings in iTunes and the App Store app, but the new warning is clearly a response to the lawsuit and an attempt to make apps that offer in-app purchases more visible to customers downloading free apps. The new warning isn’t on listings in the App Store iOS app yet, but could presumably make its way there as well.

Apple previously agreed to pay $5 in iTunes credit or a full refund for purchases above $30 to those claiming in-app content was purchased by a minor without their permission. Apple is contacting 23 million iTunes account holders that qualify to receive a cut of the settlement.

Update: As expected, the new warning is now appearing on the App Store on iOS as well: