Oliver Haslam

TidyTilt: A Smart Cover for the iPhone

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 5, 2012

Smart Covers are awesome! If you own an iPad 2 then you just absolutely, positively must own a Smart Cover. It's a stand. It's a cover. It's smart. What's not to like?

We're not really sure why Apple hasn't made a similar accessory for the iPhone, but there is a new Kickstarter project that's proposing an iPhone-optimized Smart Cover with a unique twist.

In fact, the TidyTilt even has one or two tricks up its sleeve. Tricks that mean the project has already met its modest $10,000 goal, raising $47,000 to date.

iPad Users Have Downloaded 3 Billions Apps Since 2010

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 5, 2012

Apple keeps hitting new app download milestones, with the latest number being all about the iPad and its huge popularity since its initial introduction in early 2010.

Since Apple made the iPad available to purchase, a massive 3 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple's App Store for the tablet. To put that into some kind of perspective, it took the equally-as-popular iPhone a whole six months longer to reach the same milestone after the App Store's opening in 2008.

The news comes as rumors begin to circulate about what Apple could be working on for the next-generation iPad...

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Shows Off Voice-Controlled iOS App

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

It looks like Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is a self proclaimed "Siri-holic" after the streaming outfit's head man waxed lyrical about his love for Apple's digital assistant.

But that's not all. During an interview for Forbes, Ek gave a sneak peek at a potential new feature that could be on its way to the Spotify iPhone app at some point in the future. When asked about the possibility of voice activation coming to Spotify, Ek picked up his iPhone and requested a dose of Coldplay.

Naturally the handset obliged, though God only knows why Ek wanted to hear Coldplay at all. Regardless, the news that Spotify is working on voice recognition will come as a late Christmas present for fans of the streaming music service...

Rumor: Apple Working on 42-Inch TV In Jony Ive’s Design Studio

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 4, 2012

Not many companies can claim to be the biggest thing to hit a trade show without actually being in attendance, but Apple has that honor this year. With so much talk about the iPhone and iPad maker being ready to enter the television market, the competition is already sitting up and taking notice.

Not only that, but word has it that Apple is currently working on a 42-inch television in design guru Jony Ive's top-secret studio. The flatscreen supposedly has onboard Wi-Fi and also comes in a 50-inch flavor. Rumors of such a device are keeping competitors on the edge of their seats.

Apple to Bid for English Premier League TV Rights

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 4, 2012

Apple may be set to join a bidding war for the rights to stream English Premier League (EPL) games to its customers, with the aim of bolstering its sales in the UK.

According to the Daily Mail, who do not give any sources for its story, both Apple and Google are weighing their options in the UK, with both companies wishing to make a grab for the lucrative rights to show EPL on their respective devices.

The current deal with Sky Sports runs out at the end of the current season, with the current owners, ESPN and Al Jazeera, already confirmed to be interested in streaming live games to their own channels. SkySports paid a massive £1.6 billion ($2.5b) for its current package.

Easily Share Your Wi-Fi Credentials in iOS with QuickWiFi Web App

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated September 4, 2016

We've all been in the position where you need to let someone onto your own Wi-Fi network, but you need to give them your password so they can enter it into their smartphone, tablet, or computer. It's a pain, and if you're password is a complex one, the whole process is just something you would rather avoid.

A new web app called QuickWiFi allows you to set up a profile and a customizable URL that will allow other users to install a profile on their iOS device that will grant them access to your Wi-Fi network. You don't need to manually enter anything, and it means that the user will never actually see your password.

It's quick and easy, not to mention secure — assuming you're happy to hand your login details over to the web app.

SMS on the Decline with iMessage and IM to Blame

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 4, 2012

This Christmas saw lower than normal numbers for SMS, according to new numbers released by Forbes. As is to be expected, certain times during the year cause higher than usual numbers of SMS messages to be sent.

Major sporting events are one cause, as is events Christmas and the ringing in of a new year. The numbers this year show that we sent less messages through the carriers' SMS networks than we did last year, which will no doubt be a concern to those same carriers who have been overcharging us for years to send a few characters of text.

Will Apple Kill App Store Apps by Stealing Their Ideas?

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Steve Jobs famously said that great artists steal, and the company has often taken that mantra to the extreme over the years. Some would say that much of Apple's current software bears more than a passing resemblance to some of its competitors' products.

Take iOS 5's Notification Center, for example. You'd need to be blind to say that it does not look eerily similar to the same notification system that Android has packed since day one. Some would argue that there are only so many ways you can handle something like a pull-down notification window. Some would call it stealing.

Apple has even taken some cues from its own App Store. Mobile Safari now sports a "Reading List" feature that offers a similar service to that of Instapaper, the famous web app that also has a popular iOS app in the App Store. Instapaper's developer, Marco Arment, doesn't seem too concerned, but others were not so happy...

iOS Finishes 2011 With 52% Share of Mobile Web Browsing

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 2, 2012

Apple's iOS platform finished 2011 with a strong showing in the mobile web browsing department, with iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches combining to capture 52.1% of mobile devices accessing the web.

Apple was top of the list in 2011 with over half of all devices. Jave ME came second with 21.3% share, while Google's Android took third, coming in with a respectable 16.2% share.

The numbers, courtesy of Net Applications, show iOS actually dropping in share when compared to November (54%) and October (61.5%), although December's result was not Apple's lowest of the year...

iPhone 4S and Nokia Lumia 800 Browser Performance Benchmarked [Video]

Oliver Haslam ∙ January 2, 2012

Geeks really like benchmarks — they're one of the best ways to compare hardware speeds, and things are no different in the world of smartphones.

With the aim of comparing the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and Nokia's Windows Phone 7-powered Lumia 800, YouTube user 359gsm set about running a selection of web-based benchmarks to see just which of the three phones is the quickest when it comes to rendering web pages.

The iPhone 4S did particularly well in the tests, with the older iPhone 4 more than holding its own, too...

What Twitter Got Right and Wrong With Its New iPhone App

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated February 21, 2018

Twitter is the social network of choice for many an iPhone user, and it is particularly near and dear to our hearts here at iDownloadBlog. The popularity Twitter has in the world of iOS is perhaps the main reason that the latest update to the company's app has been so controversial.

Some users of the official Twitter app for the iPhone and iPod touch (the iPad app has not been redesigned just yet) clearly appreciate the changes that Twitter has made to the interface, while others hate it so much that they have sought out other, 3rd-party apps.

Three weeks after Twitter made these big changes to its flagship iOS app, how is one of iDB's biggest Twitter users, namely moi, finding life with the much-changed, much-maligned Twitter 4.0? That's a very, very good question...