iOS software

An Apple patent application published yesterday reveals that the company has seriously looked into the notion of using near-field communication to allow its devices to take over your home, from the garage door to your gaming console.

The patent was originally filed in April of 2010 and is quite lengthy, with dozens of illustrations showing Apple products (largely the iPhone) using mostly NFC to act as a remote control to turn various household devices like televisions, projectors, standalone cameras, and DVRs into their slaves.

No, I'm not saying Apple has applied to patent digital slavery -- unless you already consider yourself a slave to Apple products in your house, in which case this patent could certainly tighten your iShackles while also making them a lot more comfy and amazing.… Read more

Are you reading this blog post on a Mac? Would you like to continue reading it on your iPhone or iPad? With Web2Go, you can beam it straight to Safari on your iOS device. Here's how it works:

First, install the 99-cent Web2Go app for your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch; it's a universal app. Next, head to the Mac App Store and install the free Web2Go companion app for your Mac.

Once you have both apps installed and have Web2Go on your Mac running in the background (it opens a small icon in your Mac's menu … Read more

Months ahead of when Apple plans to bring its own photorealistic 3D maps to iOS, Google has beaten the company to the punch.

Google today is updating its Google Earth app on Apple's platform to include the same 3D imagery it showed off in early June. That same feature rolled out to users on Google's Android in late June.

iOS users are getting those same 14 regions, including Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Boston and others. As Google adds more 3D cities to its database, both those platforms will get them at same time.

So just … Read more

The iTunes U app update includes several new key features sure to enhance any student's or teacher's experience. Most notably, version 1.2 supports the ability to take notes while listening to, or watching, lectures and then search those notes later.

Users are also now able to search posts, assignments, and other materials in any of their subscribed courses.

And, as Tim Cook promised, Apple has gone more social, giving students the ability to share their favorite courses with family and friends using Twitter, Mail, or Messages.

The update also helps teachers by adding the ability to create … Read more

A Windows malware worm has been found embedded in an application being distributed in Apple's App Store for iOS. The worm is a relatively low-threat malware package that will not affect the iOS or the MacOS platform but may be harmful to those who manage the app in their iTunes accounts on Windows machines.

In a recent post to an Apple discussion forum, user "deesto" mentioned he had downloaded the free "Instaquotes Quotes Cards for Instagram" app from the iTunes store and noticed that his ClamXav antivirus program had flagged the downloaded file as containing … Read more

The iPad, along with competing tablets and even the growing list of highly portable ultrabooks, is quickly becoming a staple in the classroom for teachers and students alike. It seems more and more likely that taking notes with a pen and paper will one day be an antiquated practice we'll all reminisce about to our grandkids.

The iPad can be a great tool for taking notes, but the native iOS Notes app doesn't cut it for everyone. To take truly useful notes that can replace that spiral notebook, you're going to need the help of an app … Read more

Many iTunes Cloud users outside the U.S. can now watch their favorite synced movies on any computer or iDevice.

As of yesterday, such countries as the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, along with several in Latin America and the Asia Pacific region, are now on Apple's list for cloud-based movie support. This means that movies purchased from iTunes are automatically synced to the cloud and made available for viewing on any eligible device -- computer, iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Apple TV.

Entertainment available through iTunes in the Cloud includes music, videos, movies, TV shows, books, … Read more

This morning, I installed the Firefox 15 beta on my two favored Android devices: a Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and an Asus Nexus 7 tablet.

Big deal, you say. Installing a browser. Ho-hum.

It shouldn't be a big deal, but it is -- because you can't install Firefox on an iPhone, an iPad, or a forthcoming Windows RT tablet.

But on Android, Google has chosen to let any other browser compete directly against its own. For that reason, I regularly use Opera Mini and Opera Mobile alongside Google's Chrome. The Dolphin Browser HD, installed more than 10 … Read more

The current developer's edition of iOS 6 restricts the number of apps you can run on your device. But the threshold is high, and a fix is on the horizon.

As revealed in a blog by a developer called Mid Atlantic Consulting, iOS 6 users who install more than 500 apps on their device will start to run into slow boots, auto-reboots, and other problems. Install as many as 1,000 apps, and the device won't boot at all.

How many people actually install more than 500 apps on their iPhone or iPad? That was apparently Apple's … Read more