Multi-Platform Updates

 

Viber

This week's update brings the ability to make VoIP phone calls to any phone number, landline or mobile, for an allegedly low rate (calls to other app users are free). The app also displays your phone number on caller ID, so your far-flung friends need not know you're calling them on the cheap, and the app is 100% free, no ads involved. [Android] [iOS]

Socl

Microsoft's try at social media (it's even pronounced "social" - get it?) has a new app for Android, iOS and naturally, Windows Phone. The search-based social network focuses on the visuals, letting you create collages and respond to others' images by making your own changes. Let's see where this one goes. [Android] [iOS] [Windows Phone]

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Android

Convert Everything

This is one of those rare, pleasant apps that does just one thing, and does it exactly the way you'd want it to. Think of a parameter - seriously, any unit, be it shoe size or kinematic viscosity. Convert Everything will let you convert between standard units of measure with ease. The lite version is ad-supported, but if you work in a field where you've got to juggle standard and metric, this app will totally justify itself. [Free]

Cover (beta)

A smart lockscreen that promises to give you the right apps for whatever you're doing, Cover gives you quick app access based on the time of day and your location. It's also got a smooth single-swipe app switching function to make for quick navigation. [Free]

Android Device Manager

Android's formerly desktop-only device locator now has an accompanying phone and tablet app. Like the desktop version, the app shows you where your misplaced device is, and offers to blast its ringer, change the lockscreen password, or nuke it entirely. Now you can use your Android to find your other Android. [Free]

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iOS

Peek

This brand-new app helps you find the best things to do in a bunch of major U.S. cities, London and Paris. Start by taking a quiz to determine your "travel persona", then browse activities by category, neighborhood, or date. Offline browsing even lets you figure out what you're going to do while you're in the subway. [Free]

Pandora Radio

The popular streaming music app's iOS 7 update brings fresh new design, and perhaps most importantly, the return of the alarm clock feature. Now you can wake up to a genre, not just a specific song like iOS's built-in alarm clock. [Free]

Fiverr

Fiverr, the anything-for-five-bucks freelance marketplace just rolled out this app that lets you hire yourself or someone else to do the things you need done. It's even got in-app direct messaging and push notifications to ensure you never miss out on a gig. [Free]

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Windows Phone

MetroMail

Finally, a slick third-party Gmail client designed from the start for WP! MetroMail brings unbroken conversation threads, easy organization and plenty of options to search and archive old messages. [$1.50]

AccuWeather

Nice big update to this weather app this week, including adding Location Search and making the local forecast summary more prominent for quick appraisal of what you should wear. Finally, the app can now support unlimited locations, so you can swipe to see what the weather's like anywhere. [Free]

LinkedIn

The ubiquitous professional social service now lets you add photos to your profile and monitor who's been checking you out. It also can pull contacts from your address book to help you boost your connections. Now get out there and start networking! [Free]

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iPhone 6 could get refocus-able light field camera

A company the size of Apple puts in for a staggering amount of patents, many of which amount to nothing, but there's a recent patent that has people thinking that the iPhone 6 could have a different type of camera than we've seen on a smartphone before.

Reported by 9to5Mac is a patent granted to Apple for a light field camera, which allows people to refocus their shots after they’ve been taken.

The technology works by capturing light fields, rather than a single 2D capture of the moment. The net result is that a photo is no longer a fixed capture, but one where you can select a part of the picture to completely refocus the im


age.

This technology is most famously used in the Lytro Light Field camera. While an interesting technology demo (you can see a sample shot that you can refocus below), the low-resolution photos weren't much use for printing or using on high-resolution devices.

While the Lytro camera may only be of interest, if Apple can apply the same kind of technology to a higher-resolution sensor, then it could offer a completely different type of smartphone photography experience. It remains to be seen what Apple can do, as the patent refers to both a high-resolution and low-resolution mode, with the patent stating that it covers "A digital camera system configurable to operate in a low-resolution refocusable mode and a high-resolution non-refocusable mode".

As well as being smart technology, refocussing tools would fit in well with iOS. As Apple has shown with its intelligent Slo-Mo editing tools in the iPhone 5S, adding smart tools for refocussing shouldn't be a problem.

Part of the patent is listed as being prior art, which is likely down to the work done by Lytro. Of course, as with all patents, there's no indication of a launch date of the product. We've also got no further information on how Apple can or will slim down the light field sensor to fit into a smartphone. We can only hope that the company is already hard at work and we'll see something new for the iPhone 6's camera.

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iOS 7 Jailbreak Update: Other Jailbreak Options – Scams & Downgrades – Surface as Wait-Time For Team Evad3rs Evasi0n JB Drags On

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iOS 7 Jailbreak: iH8sn0w and MuscleNerd Confirm iOS 7.0.4 Safe for Future Jailbreaks

To kill time, as numerous reports claim that the Evasi0n solution is not touching down until late January or February 2014, jailbreakers look for temporary solutions. Indeed there are options are out there for the taking.
But as what legit iOS hackers have been harping about, jailbreak-seekers, especially the newbies, should proceed with extreme caution. Reckless decisions could lead to catastrophic results - bricked iPhones or iPads, being locked out from future jailbreak patches (as warned by iH8Snow in the past weeks) and lost cash.
One offer worth considering for now is the downgrade from iOS 7 to iOS 6x, which is exclusive for Apple devices in the A4 processing chip series. Of course, the most popular member of the family is the iPhone 4.

This fix, according to SidTech, is mainly for iPhone 4 owners who got excited when the iOS 7 was released. Most of them upgraded only to end up disappointed by the accompanying glitches. The usual case would be: "There's no turning back."
Thankfully, that is not the truth anymore and SidTech prepared the easy to follow procedure here. As always, the reminder would be 'Do this at your own risk'. But there is no denying the whole procedure is worth the try.
Or the iOS 7 sorry bunch can simply wait out for the ultimate solution, which should be coming in a matter of few months or even weeks. A separate report from SidTech stressed its reminder that jailbreakers should keep in mind the trusted names so far in picking the right iPhone and iPad unlocker.
They are the usual suspects: the Team Evad3rs, from which the Evasi0n iOS 7 JB will come from, iH8Snow and RedSnow.
Any JBs not endorsed by these people are likely bogus as proven by the recent floods of untethered iPhone 5S jailbreaks, which TechiNews blogger Ravi Mandalia quickly discredited. To him, there may be many ways for a specific jailbreak to raise suspicion but the most obvious red flag would be when the creators demand payment for their trouble.
That is not the Evasi0n modus operandi. As asserted by SidTech: "The Evad3rs always offer jailbreaks free of charge, so if anyone wants money for the jailbreak, steer clear."
So the safest route for jailbreakers for now is hold out and let Team Evad3rs finish its works, which jailbreak watchers said should be ready for distribution as soon as Apple dispatches the official iOS 7.1 update release.
Should that happen by end of January 2014, than that's only around three to four months of waiting time for the iOS 7 jailbreak, which is faster still considering that Evasi0n had completed its iOS 6x jailbreak work in more than five months.

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