Episode 136: A controversial new unofficial Cydia website arrises, Auxo Legacy Edition gains iOS 9 compatibility, Activator gets a huge update, and several tweaks are reviewed, such as NCCards, Fern, Homemade Bread, AnySpot, PwnTunes, and more.
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For the first time in its history, well-respected iOS game Monument Valley is available as a free download on the App Store. The beautifully designed puzzle/platformer has been the recipient of many awards and accolades since its debut, including a prestigious Apple Design Award.
As such, the popular title, downloaded over a million times already thus far, has generally commanded a more than fair price of $3.99.
There's currently no indication as to how long the game will remain on sale. With that in mind, we highly advise you to scurry on over to the App Store and claim this game.
Google is seriously lagging when it comes to updating its YouTube app with all the latest iOS 9 and iPad Pro features. For example, there's no support for Split View side by side multitasking, and the app lacks optimization for the iPad Pro's extra large screen. But what I find to be most egregious, is the lack of support for Picture in Picture mode.
For an app like YouTube, which is solely centered around watching videos, it's frustrating that the app doesn't yet have support for the handy multitasking feature.
But there is a way to get Picture in Picture mode for YouTube videos, if you're willing to use a third-party app. Once such app, entitled YouPlayer, does a very good job of presenting YouTube videos with many of the popular iOS 9 and iPad Pro niceties.
Apple has posted two new advertisements on its YouTube channel to highlight features found on the iPhone 6s. The first spot, entitled "Hey Siri", is a 30-second clip aimed at showcasing the revamped hands-free voice assistant functionality. The second spot, entitled "Ridiculously Powerful", is a longer 1-minute ad that shows off the speed and power of Apple's latest flagship phone.
Both new spots can be found over at Apple's YouTube channel, or you can continue reading to check out the embeds. What are your thoughts on the ads? Do you find them effective?
T-Mobile has been on a roll lately with its brazen approach, and despite how some may balk over what seemingly violates the spirit of net neutrality, the overall consensus from the public seems to be positive.
Last month, T-Mobile announced its Binge On program, which allows users to stream pre-approved video services without it counting against their data. The Binge On program is essentially the evolution of its Music Freedom program, which T-Mobile started last year.
Music Freedom, like Binge On, will allow T-Mobile's Simple Choice customers to stream pre-approved music services without it counting against data. Many of the big players, such as Apple Music and Spotify, are already there, but T-Mobile isn't resting on its laurels.
Today, it announced that it's adding 11 additional music streaming services to Music Freedom, and many of them aren't widely known.
The Blue Spark Digital ($127.74 on Amazon) is a handy little condenser microphone that's much smaller than its better-known big brother, the Blue Yeti. While the Blue Yeti excels at a lot of things, and can handle a wider variety of applications than the Spark Digital, the latter has one big advantage—the ability to directly connect to an iOS device via the included Lightning cable.
Just try to connect your Blue Yeti to your iPad, and you'll be quickly met with the dreaded "this device uses too much power" message. You'll see no such ominous messages when using the Blue Spark Digital, because it was made with iOS, specifically the iPad, in mind.
Although this microphone lacks the versatility of the Blue Yeti, most users will be more than satisfied with the sound quality for things like podcasting and voice-overs. The Spark lacks the varied polar patterns of Yeti, and thus can't be used as an all-in-one microphone, but for a one-man gig, it's almost perfect.
Episode 111: It's Cyber Monday, and that can only mean one thing: deals, and lots of them. Cody, Sebastien, and Jeff talk about the latest deals that they've stumbled upon during the last week. Jeff also talks about his latest experience with the iPad Pro, and Cody, who just received his iPad Pro, shares his thoughts.
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"Cydia Online" is the name of a new website that provides direct links to Cydia packages, repos, and information. The website, created by SwiftCracker, has no official affiliation with Cydia. We think it's only a matter of time before the name is changed, as it's blatantly infringing on saurik's trademark.
That said, the premise behind the so-called Cydia online is pretty cool. It's a fast online searchable vault of apps and tweaks found on Cydia's default repos and even popular third-party repos.
It's probably not going to last much longer under its current name, but the idea is, admittedly, an interesting one...
If you want to do serious gaming on the Apple TV, then using a wireless Bluetooth controller isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. Yes, Apple controversially made it a requirement for all games on its platform to support the Siri Remote, but that’s not going to cut it for any game with an even mildly complex control scheme.
Games like Alto’s Adventure and Mr. Jump play perfectly fine, and are even suited for the Siri Remote, but in most cases, you’re definitely going to want a controller as an option.
Unfortunately, there is no Apple-branded controller to speak of, but Apple did co-design a controller with the help of SteelSeries. The result of that partnership is the SteelSeries Nimbus, and Apple is promoting this controller as the de facto standard alternative input device for the Apple TV.
All of that considered, while there are other 3rd-party Bluetooth controllers that work with the Apple TV, the most obvious choice is the SteelSeries Nimbus.
I purchased a Nimbus on day one, and have been playing with it for weeks. Is the $49.99 controller worth your time and hard-earned money? Is it really the best way to control games on the Apple TV?
Good news for those of you who are fans of Auxo—Auxo Legacy Edition, the jailbreak tweak created via a collaboration of Ryan Petrich and Sentry, has been updated for iOS 9. As you might remember, Auxo LE was a release that was built in the image of the original version of Auxo, which was a legendary jailbreak tweak that brought a new multitasking interface to iOS.
No new features can be expected with this latest update, but if you're running an iOS 9 jailbreak, you'll be happy to hear that Auxo LE should play nice with your jailbroken iPhone.
Fern is a nicely designed app launcher tweak for jailbroken iOS 8 and iOS 9 devices. It’s a relatively simple launcher that can be accessed via an assigned Activator gesture.
Included in the launcher are two views: App and Favorites, and each can be customized to varying degrees via the tweak’s preferences. If you’re looking for a well-designed jailbreak tweak for launching your favorite apps quickly, then Fern may be worth its $1.99 asking price.
Homemade Bread is an iOS 9 jailbreak tweak that makes the Home button breadcrumb-aware. This means that when an app forwards you to another app and there’s a “back to app” button in the upper left-hand corner, then a press of the Home button will go back to the previous app instead of closing the current app. The end result is a tweak that lets you use the Home button to activate iOS 9's new breadcrumb links that appear in the status bar.