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The Biggest iPhone Battery Myth Busted

March 14, 2016 By Micheal Baptiste Leave a Comment

For years, any smartphone user has heard at least once in their lives the phrase that suggests you should close unused apps in the background to save battery life. Older iPhone guides have been telling us the same, along with every other presentation on how to save your phone’s battery and keep it going to for longer. However, the App vice president of software engineering and head of iOS – Craig Federighi – recently admitted that at least, in what concerns iPhone 6 and the newest iOS versions, things couldn’t be more false.

Federighi openly stated in an email response that closing the apps on your iPhone in order to save your battery is now nothing more than a myth. The reason behind that is the fact that the most recent versions of the iOS have taken the liberty of adding an option in the system settings that allows you to stop apps from functioning in the background. Federighi explained that the ‘multitasking’ apps do not literally work, even when they’re tabbed out of.

According to him, the method that the iOS handles multitasking does not rely on background processes. Instead, the operating system freezes the apps that you used after a short time, keeping them in the state they were last time they were accessed. If you go back, the phone will update the app in question once you access it, so it matches the real time data it’s supposed to display. Surely, you will have noticed this with apps such as Skype or Facebook, where normally you will have to wait for a few seconds after you’ve launched the app of choice in order for it to display what you wish for it to.

There are, however, some types of apps that will continue running in the background, and you may want to reconsider keeping them on if you’re looking to prolong your battery life. Such apps are music players, location services, recording audio. One of the most notorious ones that tax you on battery life because it constantly checks for incoming VOIP calls is Skype. That one, you may want to put to sleep if you want to preserve battery juice.

Lastly, after bursting the bubble of the apps running in the background, Apple offered some other tips on how you can save battery life instead of always manually going into the app manager to swipe up everything you find open. Their recommendations include keeping your phone up to date with the latest updates, reducing the display brightness, using WiFi over data, enabling low battery power when needed, not exposing your phone to either very hot or very cold temperatures and taking the phone out of its case before charging, if the situation calls for it.

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Users Spent $1.1 Billion on App Store During the Holidays

January 6, 2016 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

users paid $20 billion on apps in 2015

According to an Apple report, users spent $1.1 billion on App Store during the holiday’s season. This is the total sum spent during a period of two weeks ending Jan. 3.

Of all the days, users spent the most during the New Year’s Day when they purchased apps costing a total of $144 million in just 24 hours. The second single-day record was set only a week before, on Christmas Day.

According to Apple’s senior V.P. Philip Schiller who leads the App Store, users spent over $20 billion on apps during 2015, a figure that is more than double compared to 2013. Schiller said he is grateful to all the amazing developers who have created the exciting and innovative apps for the customers.

Since 2008 App Store has brought developers almost $40 billion of which more than one third has been generated during the last year.

App Store’s success has created almost 2 million jobs just in the United States. About three quarters of them (more than 1.4 million jobs) are app creators, entrepreneurs and software engineers creating apps and also non-IT jobs created and sustained by the app economy.

Besides the United States, Apple’s app economy has created about 1.4 million jobs in China and about 1.2 million jobs throughout Europe.

The most popular categories of apps in 2015 were Gaming, Entertainment and Networking. Of the gaming category the most popular games were Minecraft: Pocket Edition, Heads Up!, Monster Strike, Clash of Clans and Trivia Crack. The most famous social network apps were Facebook Messenfer, Snapchat and WeChat.

This year has been full of innovations for Apple, who has also launched Apple Watch and Apple TV which offered users completely new experiences and changed the way people were used to consume TV content. Apple TV has been launched in October and since then the most popular of its apps are HBO Now, Beat Sports and Rayman Adventures.

When it comes to the Apple watch, users preferred fitness apps such as Lifesum and Nike + Running but the travel category worked just fine with popular apps like Citymapper and iTranslate.

Schiller is excited about last year’s sales and looks forward into the future hoping that this year is going to be at least as better as the one that just passed. Apple products, from iPhone, iPad and Mac to Apple TV and Apple Watch will probably continue to lead the market.

Image source: pixabay

iPhone 6c Is Set to Launch in 2016

December 23, 2015 By Daniel Giordano Leave a Comment

The new Apple product will feature a 4-inch touch display.

Lately, there have been a couple of rumors flying in the air according to which Apple is getting ready to launch a new iPhone model. It would seem that these rumors have also been consolidated by China mobile, which announced in a recent conference that Apple will showcase a new product next year. iPhone 6c is set to launch in 2016 and everyone is going bonkers over it.

A couple of days ago, during a corporate conference, China’s mobile carrier, proudly announced that in early April, a new type of iPhone will be available in store. Fueled by the company’s declaration, many Apple fans have inferred that the phone in question could be none other than the iPhone 6c, iPhone 6’s low-budget next of kin.

Also, there were even talks about launching the long-awaited iPhone 7, but such rumors are rather unsubstantiated since Apple hasn’t even released the 6c series. According to several descriptions posted on the internet, it would seem that the new phone, due to air in early April, is smaller in size than Apple’s flagship, iPhone 6s.

Many would speculate that Apple’s bold move was prompted by the user’s comments, according to which Apple hasn’t lifted a finger in terms of miniaturization. Thus, taking a hint, Apple decided that small is not all that bad.

Thus, the tech giant has decided to launch a new iPhone, one that will be capable of taking the place of the iPhone 5 series. The yet-to-be-released phone will feature a 4-inch touch display, much like his predecessor. The only thing that will distinguish the new generation of iPhones would be its cheap price.

Apple intends on manufacturing a new series of low-budget phones which will feature the newest Apple technologies. Unfortunately, according to the same sources, the new mobile phone will not feature the 3-D touch technology, because Apple has decided to implement it in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus series.

Whether this move on Apple’s part will prove to be user-oriented or not, this will remain to be seen. If one is to deduce the future specs of the new mobile phone, then we have all the reason in the world to forward to 2016.

As for iPhone 7 series, this we cannot predict because Apple has been very careful to cover its tracks and to make sure that it will take the public by surprise. iPhone 6c is set to launch in 2016, early April, and everyone is eager to see how the tech group has dealt with the miniaturization issue.

Photo credits:www.pixabay.com

BestBuy Offers iPhone 6s for $1

December 18, 2015 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

Head on over to BestBuy in order to secure your handset.

Are perchance an iPhone aficionado? Then you must know for sure what a bummers it is when you’re planning on changing your phone with a better one. I mean, iPhone sounds nice enough, but not many of us are planning on paying 700 bucks for a piece. That’s where Bestbuy comes in. BestBuy offers iPhone 6s for $1.

And not just any iPhone. For the modest price of $1 dollar, you are now capable of laying your hands of the iPhone 6s, featuring a 16GB internal storage. In the past, BestBuy always amazed us with its bounty of otherworldly cutoffs, but this time, they’ve managed to outdo themselves.

But wait, there’s even more! Now, if you’re planning on heading over to BestBuy in order to purchase your very own iPhone 62, there’s another thing that you should have in mind. If, by chance your are the lucky or, in this case, the unlucky owner of an iPhone 5 smartphone, then BestBuy has quite a deal for you.

Apart from getting the iPhone 6s, you are even capable of trading in your own Apple phone, for an additional $200 discount voucher, which you can use basically anywhere. How about them apples?

But, alas, as nothing is without an ulterior motive, we have also discovered that this deal comes with an additional twist. If you are interested in buying an iPhone 6s from BestBuy, then you should know that the offer also includes a 2-year subscription to Verizon or Sprint mobile data carriers.

Still, according to certain representatives from inside BesBuy, this offer does come with any number of advantages because you’ll be able to save at least $200 if you choose to take this offer.

Now, in term of functionality, we can’t say for sure whether it’s convening or not to take up on their offer. iPhone 6s sounds pretty good and the deal itself is sound, but let’s face it: what can you do with only 16GB?

And the answer is no. BestBuy said that their offers only includes the 16GB model, so if you want a 64GB or a 128GB, you will have to pay for the whole shebang.

But, ask you I will, who worries about additional space, when we have handy solutions such as cloud storage? Or better yet, we can take matters into our own hands, and stop downloading apps we don’t need.

Unfortunately, this means that we will be unable to use the Live Photo utility since a single photo can occupy a heap load of space.

Photo credits:www.flickr.com

Tesla Makes iPhone Cases from Leftover Leather

December 12, 2015 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

Tesla made several version of IPhone cases using repurposed leather.

In order to show that going green is actually a very smart move, Tesla decided to repurpose some of its leather used to make upholstery. Tesla makes IPhone cases from leftover leather in order to cut back on losses.

If you were perchance looking to change that lusterless and old IPhone case of yours and you are all out of ideas, then the Tesla case is just the thing you’ll need. At a first glance, the case isn’t all that different from your common IPhone case which you can get from any market. That’s until you see the big logo engraved on the case.

Tesla’s move is considered to be quite smart from several points of view. Traditionally, many linear meters of fine leather would go to waste after the machine cuts the pieces needed to make the upholstery for the car seats. More leather entails more waste and that does not go well with Tesla’s feeble intention for greener solutions.

And so, the car maker has decided to rethink the whole matter in order to see what can be done regarding the leather leftovers. One of the most profitable solutions was to take all the excess leather and use it to fashion several leather products including wallets and cases.

But Tesla wanted to go over the conventional solution and come up with a product that is both smart and cool. So, the Tesla IPhone case emerged, a product that exhales Tesla’s philosophy through each and every pore. Compact, elegant, smart and sleek, this case has everything an IPhone user could desire.

According to the car producer, the new IPhone case can be purchased directly from their official website for a price of 50 dollars. And the good news is yet to come. Tesla has also announced that the case will have several version. There’s a standard iPhone case, which features a gap for the camera and a magnetical locket. There’s also the “special edition” case which features two slots used to store credit cards. And to make it worth our while, the car producer also announced that they will be throwing in an RFID blocking feature.

Also, the leather case can even be manufactured as to contain additional slots for id cards and even bills. In order to grab one of these babies for yourself, all you have to do is head on over to their website and order one that is in your taste. Happy hunting!

Photo credits:www.wikipedia.org

Pebble Introduces iPhone Message Reply to Pebble Time

November 24, 2015 By Mary Duncan Leave a Comment

Pebble introduces iPhone message reply to Pebble Time line of smartwatches as the features seems to be increasingly attractive.

The voice control feature now enables iPhone users to act upon messaging notification received on their Pebble Time smartwatches. Replying to incoming messages becomes an easy task to be performed directly from your wrist. The messages can either be dictated or one can choose from a wide array of preset messages fit to the situation.

Pebble Time has introduced the same feature for Android some time ago. However, this is the first time it’s being rolled out for iPhone. Considering Apple restrictions regarding this party accessories, the fact that Pebble introduces iPhone message reply to Pebble Time should be considered a success.

Apple does provide this feature. However, it targets specifically Apple Watch and the iPhone. Pebble has found a way to overcome this hurdle and has announced that the voice control feature is and the messages will be routed through the carrier rather than iPhone’s messages. The tricky part is that for now, it only has one partner, and that is AT&T.

The voice control feature for message replies on Pebble Time is available for post-paid AT&T customers. The messages sent from the Pebble Time will not be found in the iPhone’s messaging app. At the same time, they will be sent at text messages, prompting a green bubble to show up on the receiver’s display. Group messages aren’t supported by the feature at the moment.

As for other carriers, Pebble announced that it is taking steps in this direction. Yet no definitive timeline has been set in place.

Nonetheless, adding the voice control feature overcomes one of the biggest barriers that using any other smartwatch than the Apple Watch with an iPhone put up. With a more open approach, the wearables becomes more useful. Especially for iPhone users.

Receiving notifications on any smartwatch is useful. How companies choose to deal with customers being able to act on the notifications is another. With voice control limitations related to the reduced input methods or the small screen of smartwatches are overcome.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia

The Facebook-iPhone Issue Has Been Solved

October 23, 2015 By Daniel Giordano Leave a Comment

The Facebook-iPhone Issue Has Been Solved

Any iPhone user that also happens to be a heavy Facebook app user must have been acquainted by now with the battery drain feeling. The issue was addressed last week when the Facebook app was discovered to drain more battery than intended on all iPhone devices. Luckily, the Facebook-iPhone issue has been solved and Facebook have also decided to take a step forward and come in front of the community.

The main issue behind the Facebook app was that it was consuming a huge amount of battery even when its activities were switched off, or so the devices would indicate. Reports piled up quickly and since Facebook saw that this was a real issue, they mobilized and tried to find a solution as quickly as possible. And they really help their promise.

Facebook released an app that dealt with the situation. But this wasn’t the surprising thing that occurred. Let’s be honest: Facebook usually delivers updates on time and take care of issues as fast as possible. What was actually astonishing is that the company talked freely about the problem in a post, trying to explain the situation in a very friendly way and appreciating the people’s patience for a process that lasted around one week.

Ari Grant, a Facebook representative, described that the battery is being drained so fast because of two bugs that the company is trying to get rid of once and for all. Grant has also stated that the bugs do not look like any intentional interference. Facebook is under no circumstances interested in conducting behind the scenes activities with their app. They have a reputation to uphold, after all.

Grant wanted to make sure that everybody understood what these two issues were all about, so the explanations were quite simple. The first bug was compared to a child in a car who kept asking if they had arrived at the destination yet, over and over again. It was a CPU issue and the child’s “question” was practically the reason iPhones were drained so fast.

The second problem was related to, what Grant calls, audio sessions. If you are watching a video, for example, on Facebook and you abruptly decide to turn off the app, the audio session can still go on from time to time, thus the battery wastes energy on a process which you have no control over.

In short, the Facebook-iPhone issue has been solved and it is really nice that Facebook came forward through one person to tell the world what actually happened.

Photo Credits wikimedia.org

Siri Might Not Be Siri At All

October 14, 2015 By Daniel Giordano Leave a Comment

his might turn into an issue that needs a final resolution in the iPhones to come, but if you do not have the iOS 9, just remember: Siri might not be Siri at all.

Siri Might Not Be Siri At All

The iPhone users should not get too comfortable with Siri nowadays. We know that she might be your closest friend, she might know everything about you, what you hold dear, or the fact that you accessed a porn site last night and she might not judge you for it, but, for the time being, Siri might not be Siri at all. It has been revealed that there are ways to hack into Siri and you wouldn’t want that, would you?

A group of specialists from the ANSSI, a French government agency, have discovered that could gain full control of Siri from around 16 feet away. Yes, you read that correctly: you could be enjoying your coffee at Starbucks, casually browsing the internet on your iPhone while someone from two tables away gets in your phone and, implicitly, into your private life within a couple of minutes.

And there is no extraordinary gear required. In fact, what you need can be easily placed in any backpack or purse that anybody around you could carry. It’s freaky, right? It’s a rather simple hack that only requires some headphones, an integrated mic and another mobile device. Could you ever have believed that Apple devices can be hacked via radio in the 21^st century? Welcome aboard. This is possible.

Headphone cables do pretty well for radio antennas and the experts figured out that the phone can be literally tricked into thinking that the voice is coming from within the phone, but it is coming for the guy behind you who you do not suspect one bit. The next step is for “Siri” to actually ask you a smart question and get some personal information out of you. You might think that Apple did a great job, but you are being robbed of information in plain sight.

But it is not that simple. Almost anybody would figure out that something is not right. What is worrying, however, is that a hacker could order Siri to send texts, call people, relog you to that porn site you were using last night so that you could get a virus or two or even set Siri to call the hacker’s phone, so that he can spy on you whenever he wants to. We are talking serious consequences here.

Luckily, Apple have made significant changes to voice recognition starting with iOS 9 so that Siri can be sure it is you giving the orders and not anybody else. This might turn into an issue that needs a final resolution in the iPhones to come, but if you do not have the iOS 9, just remember: Siri might not be Siri at all.

strong>Photo Credits wikimedia.org

The New A9 Processor Is A Disappointment

October 9, 2015 By David Crozier Leave a Comment

The New A9 Processor Is A Disappointment

Apple’s brand new A9 processor made two big companies want to help develop it. Apple wanted the spotlight for themselves and turned down these companies. They designed the processor, but it looks like they should have thought about the final decision multiple times. The new A9 processor is a disappointment and it is making Apple look back in time to see what they did wrong.

According to Chipworks experts, the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus contain two different CPU models. One of them is a rather small component, designed by Samsung, while the other one is a little bit larger and designed by TSMS. The Samsung and TSMC devices are made on different processes, the former being a 14nm one and the latter a 16nm.

If Apple did bother with dual sourcing parts designed by them alone and released them in the first day, this means that the devices are going to have some disturbing sourcing problems. The issues of power and cost are two very delicate ones and there is practically no reason to use a larger die. Or is there? This situation would only be understandable if the smaller die did not come with the right volumes.

While the entire situation is rather suspicious, Redditors came in with a great number of comments about what is happening with the processor right now. IT appears that battery tests that were made in China have revealed more than we know about the TSMC chip: it has an extra 20% battery life compared to the Samsung one. For most of us, that is a significant number.

Apple came forward defeding the way they test their chips in the lab stating that “Certain manufactured lab tests which run the processors with a continuous heavy workload until the battery depletes are not representative of real-world usage, they spend an unrealistic amount of time at the highest CPU performance state.”

And it is true. The phones that are being tested are continuously bombarded with data so that they can be pushed to the limits. But in our day to day lives we use our telephones for limited periods of time. They do not run 24/7. Sometimes we just require more of them and sometimes we do not use them at all.

Even though battery life is a huge debate, we simply have to wait and see how this entire situation unfolds. Apple still has some explanations to give, so we will see if they give us anything that looks suspicious. One thing is certain for the moment: the new A9 processor is a disappointment.

Photo Credits wordpress.com

Users Can Now Stream iOS Photos On TV With AllCast

January 14, 2015 By Lori David Leave a Comment

Tired of struggling use the zoon to show the details of your holiday iPhone selfies to friends and family? Or maybe you made a really cool video with your phone and want to see it in a good resolution? Now you can boast your photos on a HD flat screen.Users can now stream iOS photos on TV with AllCast. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users can, as of now, shaft photographs, features, and music from their gadget to a TV screen. Presently attuned to the Google Chromecast, AllCast streams to Roku boxes, Apple TV, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Google TV, and also Samsung, Panasonic, and Smart TV equipment, among others.

Designer Koushik Dutta initially manufactured AllCast (a while ago dubbed AircCast) to ease the sharing of local files stocked on a cell phone. As opposed to swarming around an iPhone to zoom in or out holiday photographs, clients can run a slideshow from their HD, extra-large flat display TV.

The developer initially released the service in autumn 2013. At that time Google’s Chromecast banned it and even the December 2013 Android application dispatch came without access to the program.

However, beginning with last year, Chromecast decided to back up AllCast, allowing users to access the content of their computers and smartphones and share it with friends and family far and wide via AllCast.

In May, Dutta discharged an upgraded rendition of AllCast, guaranteeing better synchronizing with other streaming media gadgets. For instance, the AllCast Superuser mode enables users stream Google Music to any AllCast gadgets from the Play Music application, according a statement released by the designers last summer. Additionally, he launched an AllCast Receiver aid app, which transforms any Android gadget into an AllCast mark. iOS clients have been holding up for the streaming app to hit Apple’s mobiles for over a year.

The move to iOS was made with little pomp; Engadget initially mentioned the release Tuesday morning, saying that even without any involvement with its Android correspondent, the platform is incredibly easy to use. Users can move photographs and features from Dropbox, iCloud and Instagram stored on smartphones to a plasma TV.

Allcast offers an easy way to send photographs, features, and music to the wide screen through Chromecast and different gadgets, for example, Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and certain smart TVs. Users can simply open the application, press the Cast symbol to join with the TV, and then select what they want to display.

Image Source: Android Central