iPad By Davis: “Verizon increases wait time on upgrades, introduces stricter policies” plus 14 more |
- Verizon increases wait time on upgrades, introduces stricter policies
- Dungeon Hunter 4 hits the App Store, unleashes free-to-play RPG fury
- T-Mobile says iPhone 5 sales going gangbusters
- Pebble releases official public watch face SDK
- This I Gotta See: a $6.95 iPad Case
- Do you want Facebook Home on iOS? [Poll]
- Featured in the iPad App Store this Week: Apps for Elementary Schools
- Travel Channel Layover Guide for iPhone and iPad: find pubs, attractions, and five star dining all over the world
- Apple reportedly set to pay $53 million in iPhone warranty settlement
- How to Sync Google Calendar with the iPad
- T-Mobile iPhone users guide
- T-Mobile iPhone 5 buyers guide
- Deal of the Day: 47% off Body Glove Icon Hybrid Case for iPhone 5
- How to enable Guided Access on iPhone and iPad
- Forget iOS 7, it's Hollywood Super suits that need a texture intervention
| Verizon increases wait time on upgrades, introduces stricter policies Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:08 PM PDT
Verizon today announced that upgrades will now take longer, extending the wait time from 20 to 24 months, and that they'll be harder to get, disallowing upgrades between device types. Here's the new deal, according to Verizon:
The reason for the changes, apparently, is that competition is so strong in the US, networks so equally robust and performant, consumers enjoy so many and such varied choice, that Verizon feels confident they can be even less customer friendly and anyone who doesn't like it can just switch to any of the other dozens and dozens of options. No, wait. That's an alternate universe. Verizon's doing it because they can, and unless you're lucky enough to work, live, and play in a place where one of the other carriers is cheaper and better, they know you're stuck with them. Or maybe that's just me. How do you feel about Verizon's new upgrade policy? Source: Verizon 
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| Dungeon Hunter 4 hits the App Store, unleashes free-to-play RPG fury Posted: 12 Apr 2013 03:48 PM PDT Valenthia is beset by demons and only you have the power and prowess to save your people and set your world right. Yes, Gameloft has just released the fourth chapter of their epic RPG series, Dungeon Hunter 4. It's everything you loved about the first three, but with even better, more in-your-demon-face action than ever before. Dungeon Hunter 4 promises an epic storyline, hundreds of enemies to hack and slash your way through, and lots of loot to reward you for your valiance. There's four classes, so there should be something to appeal to most types of RPG gamers, along with ways to upgrade your skills and customize your character. There are even co-op and PVP modes for you to get your multiplayer game on. Now here's the bad news. Instead of a premium $9.99 price tag, it's free-to-play, and a lot of gamers don't seem too happy about it. Free to play can be done well, but it's a tricky thing to nail. Hopefully Gameloft listens to the feedback and tweaks the system to make it something everyone can enjoy. If you've tried it, let me know what you think.
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| T-Mobile says iPhone 5 sales going gangbusters Posted: 12 Apr 2013 03:06 PM PDT T-Mobile USA says their first full day for iPhone 5 sales are going really, really well. How well? Ina Fried of AllThingsD spoke to T-Mobile CMO, Mike Sievert, and he said:
We sent our own Leanna Lofte over to pick up a T-Mo iPhone 5 and she'll be putting it through its network paces this weekend. Meanwhile, if you're thinking about, or have already gotten a T-Mo iPhone 5 of your own, don't forget to check out our iPhone 5 buyers guide and iPhone 5 users guide. Source: AllThingsD 
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| Pebble releases official public watch face SDK Posted: 12 Apr 2013 02:07 PM PDT
Pebble has released the public watch face SDK for its E-Paper smart watch. Developers can now start making their own watch faces for the device, which iOS users will install via the Pebble iPhone app.
The Pebble smart watch started shipping to Kickstarter backers in January in limited numbers. Many are still waiting for their watch to arrive. While the SDK currently covers watch face apps, you can expect that standard app support will follow soon. Pebble has noted that it isn't currently possible to install apps created with the SDK via the iPhone app, but say that an updated version of the app has been submitted to the App Store. Source: Pebble 
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| This I Gotta See: a $6.95 iPad Case Posted: 12 Apr 2013 01:28 PM PDT
Here's something you don't see every day – an iPad case for $6.95. And it doesn't look half bad – in fact, it looks pretty good in its product shots. It's called the Poetic Covermate Case – for iPad 2 / 3 / 4 or iPad mini – and it costs less than the standard shipping fee for it. The folks from Your Poetic mentioned this one in my iPad Accessories Google+ community, I took a look at the Amazon page for it, and I couldn't resist finding out what a $6.95 case for the iPad mini is like. So I ordered one just a few minutes ago. I'll let you know what I think of the Poetic Covermate once I've had a chance to try it out. In the meantime, you can see more detail or place an order at this Amazon page. © patrickj for iPad Insight, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us         Related Stories
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| Do you want Facebook Home on iOS? [Poll] Posted: 12 Apr 2013 01:41 PM PDT
Facebook Home has just launched on Google Play, the Android app store, today. Kinda. Turns out Android may be openy, but it ain't easy. Right now the full Facebook Home experience is only available on the HTC First. An almost-full experience, minus the deeper system hooks HTC made for the First, can be downloaded and installed on other Android devices, but only if they're flagship Samsung or HTC phones. And only in certain countries. That means the shiny Nexus 4 I have sitting next to me right now isn't (yet) invited to this particular Facebook event, nor is any device in my home and native land of Canada. Of course, Facebook Home isn't available for iOS at all, in any country. iOS does enjoy basic Facebook integration, but Apple doesn't allow for the level of system intermediation Facebook needs to make their alternative Home screen and messaging system work the way it does on Android (or at least some Android devices ins some regions). That's neither a good nor a bad thing, it just depends on what you prefer, and you're welcome to change platforms to the one that does things the way you like best. However, the question remains -- if it was available today, would you want Facebook Home on your iPhone or iPad? You'd get that slick new interface, the ChatHeads, and all the rest, but you'd also be letting Facebook collect even more of your data, you'd be exposing your friends potentially private pictures and messages to anyone within eyeshot, and you'd be giving over the look of your device to whatever pictures were last uploaded to your newsfeed, be they Pulitzer prize material, or awkward drunken swimsuit shots. With cat memes thrown in. It's clear we need new ideas in interface. The icon launcher has been around since the early days of Xerox and on mobile since the Newton. But are these the right ideas? Is Facebook Home something you'd want to have on iOS? I've already written a bunch about Facebook Home, but now it's your turn. Vote in the poll up top and tell me how you really feel in the comments below, and if you have any questions, check out Android Central's ongoing coverage for the answers. 
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| Featured in the iPad App Store this Week: Apps for Elementary Schools Posted: 12 Apr 2013 01:03 PM PDT
This week the Featured section of the iPad App Store is full of even more highlighted app collections than usual. One of the notable app collections that caught my eye is 'Apps for Elementary School' – as I have a daughter in 4th grade. The collection covers a lot of ground. It includes around 275 apps divided into these main sections: Math, Literacy, Science, Social Studies, Art & Music, and Health & Fitness. Each of those main sections has useful sub-sections to make it easier for specific apps that you or your elementary school age kids may be interested in. For example, the Math section has sub-sections for Measurement & Data, Shapes & Spatial Reasoning, The Number System, Drill & Practice, Beyond Drill – Strategy, and Beyond Drill – Brain Busters; and the Social Studies section has sub-sections for World Cultures, Geography, and History &...  Related Stories
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| Posted: 12 Apr 2013 12:05 PM PDT
Whether you travel frequently and need to kill time between airports or you're taking a trip abroad, the Travel Channel's Layover Guide for iPhone and iPad aims to make traveling more enjoyable and less stressful. Layover Guide features most of the more prominent airports in the world and gives you things to do in the cities around them. We aren't just talking about the main attractions everyone knows about, but local pubs, five star restaurants, and things that aren't as well known. If you're traveling soon and would like to fill your to-do list with spots to check out, Layover Guide can help.
Once you launch Layover Guide, you'll be taken to the main menu where you can swipe between places of interest. They're all represented with airport codes such as LHR for London Heathrow, ORD for O'hare in Chicago, and so on. You can tap on any place and a guide will begin to download. There will also be an option to download all guides, which is what we'd recommend doing while you're on WiFi. Since the guides can sometimes include video and many larger files, it could take quite a while over a cellular network and eat quite a bit of data.
After you've downloaded the guide of your choice, or all of them for that matter, you can now launch it from the main menu. You'll see a video at the top that gives a brief overview of that city. Underneath that you'll have some options that will be the same for each city. The layovers section will give you a great list of places to check out. You can choose from the Travel's Channels host Tony's picks or view all spots within the navigation at the top. Tapping on a spot or transit system will give you directions, hours where applicable, price range, and other information including the phone number. The other information provided about a city area around airports will involve getting there, do's and don'ts, and inspiration. The inspiration section is particularly interesting and includes some quotes as well as a playlist tab that will integrate iTunes to show you music that is either popular in that area or influenced by it. Tapping on any of them routes you directly to the iTunes store in order to buy.
The good
The bad
The bottom lineIf you plan on traveling soon, Layover Guide by the Travel Channel will make a great companion. While most other apps just give general directions or information, The Layover takes it one step further by incorporating tips and information that only locals would typically know. That combined with the fact that it shows you distances from airports make it great for liesure and for quick stops between flights.
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| Apple reportedly set to pay $53 million in iPhone warranty settlement Posted: 12 Apr 2013 09:41 AM PDT
Apple has reportedly agreed to pay out $53M in regards to a settlement agreement concerning iPhone warranties. The basis was that Apple turned away customers under their one year and extended two year warranties for iPhone defects. Apple's old liquid damage policy stated that if one of the sensors were turned pink or red, Apple had the right to void warranty claims for any reason. Since, the policy has been changed. Wired's David Kravet writes:
Users involved in the suit claim that Apple turned away warranty claims due to one of the liquid sensors being activated, even if the issue has nothing to do with liquid damage and was a physical defect. Those of us who have went through several iPhones or iPods in past years know how prone to hardware failure they can be, particularly the Home button. Apple's liquid damage policy left a lot of users with no solution when Apple would void their warranty due to liquid damage. For many users, using their iPhone or iPod on a docking unit while in the shower may not be uncommon, and according to 3M, the humidity could cause the sensor to go off as well. Users that live in particularly humid climates could have also been subject to the same situation. Apple then changed their warranty policy and stated that only one triggered sensor was acceptable. On most Apple devices, there are at least three to four liquid sensors with two always being viewable externally, the headphone jack and dock connector with others located internally typically on the logic board. The settlement could leave owners with affected devices with $200 or more in their pockets. Did any of you own one of these devices and find your warranty voided due to a liquid sensor being triggered? 
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| How to Sync Google Calendar with the iPad Posted: 12 Apr 2013 08:08 AM PDT
Google has made some changes this year to how Google Calendar syncs with iOS devices. For years I have just setup Google Sync as an Exchange account in Settings on the iPad and iPhone and it has worked beautifully for me. It had been especially good whenever I got a new iPad or iPhone – as all I had to do was setup that account and within less than a minute all my Calendar info was up-to-date. Unfortunately, Google Sync was shutdown by Google in January of this year. So when I recently bought a new iPad mini I discovered that Google Sync no longer works for Calendar or Contacts. But … there is still a way to sync Google Calendar and Contacts with the iPad – and both are easy to do once you know how. In this post I'll outline how to get Google Calendar sync working; I'll soon write another explaining how to setup Google Contacts sync. Here's how to get Google Calendar sync...  Related Stories
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| Posted: 12 Apr 2013 07:54 AM PDT
Picking up a new T-Mobile iPhone 5? Whether it's your first iPhone, or just your first iPhone in a while, whether you're trying to set up your device for the first time, or figure out Apple features like iCloud, Siri, iMessage, Notification Center, or FaceTime, or simply get a handle on the basics like mail, calendar, or photography, we're got you covered. If you already know everything there is to know about the iPhone, save this link for family, friends, co-workers, classmates, or anyone else who might need some help. We'll do the heavy lifting so you don't have to. If you want to learn more, dive in now! iPhone users guide
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| T-Mobile iPhone 5 buyers guide Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:56 AM PDT
Today, T-Mobile becomes the fourth and final major US carrier to launch Apple's iPhone 5. If you're thinking of heading down to your local store to pick one up, but you're not sure which exact model is best for you, we're here to help. There are a lot of decisions involved when it comes to buying a new iPhone, or any phone for that matter. Is the iPhone really the best phone for you? Is the iPhone 5 really the best iPhone? Is T-Mobile really the best carrier? Even after you've decided it is and they are, there's still the question of which color and what capacity to get. Enter iMore's comprehensive iPhone buyers guide. If you need help deciding what to buy, we've got your back. And if you've already decided, just bookmark, email, Facebook, or Tweet this so we can help your friends and family and you can get on with enjoying your new iPhone! 
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| Deal of the Day: 47% off Body Glove Icon Hybrid Case for iPhone 5 Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:55 AM PDT | ||||||
![Do you want Facebook Home on iOS? [Poll]](http://cdn.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/field/image/2013/04/facebook-home-not-supported.jpg)
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How to enable Guided Access on iPhone and iPad
Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:33 AM PDT
The iPhone and iPad come native with lots of accessibility options that can make using them a lot easier for people with impairments. That isn't the only reason Apple gives many accessibility options though. Guided Access is a perfect example of how you can lock down an iPhone or iPad for use by children or even to create a guest user mode so others using your devices can't access things you don't want them to.
Follow along and we'll show you how to enable and start using Guided Access.
How to enable Guided Access on iPhone and iPad
- Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad
- Tap on General.
- Scroll down towards the bottom of the screen and tap on Accessibility.
- Under the Learning section, tap on Guided Access.
- If it's not already, turn the toggle next to Guided Access to the On position.
That's it, Guided Access is now enabled and ready for you to use.
How to enter Guided Access mode
To enter Guided Access mode on your iPhone or iPad, just enter the app you'd like someone to be locked into and triple click the Home button. If you have multiple shortcuts set up for triple clicking the Home button, you'll be given the option to choose between them. Just tap on Guided Access. You'll now be launched into Guided Access mode and you can begin setting it up.
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Forget iOS 7, it's Hollywood Super suits that need a texture intervention
Posted: 12 Apr 2013 06:29 AM PDT
While many people are no doubt ecstatic that newly appointed head of all human interface at Apple, Jon Ive, is reportedly walking through iOS 7 with a sandblaster, stripping out overly heavy skins and skeuomorphic design elements, one look at the just-released Man of Steel publicity photo above makes me think it's really Hollywood that needs its texture fetish dialed way down.
I don't know what their point is in making the Man of Steel look like the Man of Rich Texas Snake Skin. I do know that, in iOS, an argument can be made that textures serve a purpose.
Even if you're rushed, tired, or drunk -- real use cases that need to be considered in a system design -- and you turn on your iPhone while racing or stumbling around, you'll never mistake the rather mundane contacts page in Phone for the leather appointed one in Find my Friends, or the green felt one in Game Center. When your screen lights up, there's a good chance any app you get dumped into will be immediately recognizable, even under the most extreme conditions. An iOS stripped completely bare would not be as usable.
Moreover, even if a screen represents something potentially quite boring -- ugly lists of mostly data -- good visual design can not only overcome that, but transcend it. Letterpress, however flat it might look, jumps and bounces and pops around delightfully, skeuomorphically, with almost every interaction.
The idea of the iPhone and iPad being totally minimalist when it comes to industrial design is so that the hardware doesn't compete with or distract from the display. Filling that display with awesome is the whole point. Balancing that awesome is the key.
Nature abhors flat surfaces. Most organic things in our world are textured, and for many different reasons. Completely flat surfaces are monotonous, just as completely textured surfaces are tiresome. Our eyes crave areas of interest counterpointed by areas of rest. Good designers use both to lead us.
A good Super Suit design, for example, could tightly texture the main blue body so light always catches it in interesting ways, but leave the red and yellow emblem with a far simpler treatment, letting our gaze come naturally to rest right where it's meant to.
The same holds true for iOS. Subtle textures in the background can help flatter elements in the foreground leap out, and be even more usable, even when stressed. Sure, some Apple apps may have gone too far in the past, and dialing them back could make them even better, but making them flat would be just as bad. Personal taste plays some part, but usability is always king. Too much design or too little are both a bad thing.
It's that balance that's missing from the Super suit above, and Hollywood's inability to let any flat surface go unmolested. And it's that balance, more than any arbitrary dislike of one treatment or another, that I hope Jony Ive is bringing to iOS 7.
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