iOS 7

Siri guide: everything you should know about Siri

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Siri is a personal assistant feature found on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, that allows you to use your voice to control your device. You can use Siri to send messages, emails, tweets, and more. You can also use Siri to get movie showtimes, sports scores and times, make dinner reservations, etc.

The great thing about Siri is that it doesn't require you to look at your device's screen in order to interface with it. And Siri is smart enough to consider your location along with the context of your commands and conversations. By doing so, Siri can respond intelligently to your requests.

Inside, we'll teach you some of the history of Siri and show you some of its basic usage features. We'll then present to you with an exhaustive list of voice commands, and discuss Siri's dictation features. Check inside for all of the details...

Theme Thursday: Habesha, Mary and Myrea

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

It is already March and time for the sixth edition of Theme Thursday, a weekly roundup that features some of the best Winterboard themes for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Even over three months since the iOS 7 jailbreak was released, there continues to be a number of high-quality theme releases each week. Ayeris captured the attention of the jailbreaking community last week, and this time around we present you with Habesha, Mary and Myrea…

Real Racing 3 gains iOS 7 controller support, Photo mode, car customization, Aston Martin and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already since Electronic Arts released its free-to-play Real Racing 3 in the App Store. On the downside, a year is a long time in mobile so aside from avid fans, many casual gamers may have by now stopped enjoying this otherwise excellent racer.

If you needed an excuse to re-download and fire up Real Racing 3 on your device, Electronic Arts is celebrating the game's first anniversary and has marked the occasion by issuing a fresh content update today. It contains a bunch of new goodies, including support for the physical iOS 7 controllers helping turn Real Racing 3 into a more of a console experience.

Some of the surprises include deep car customization options along with a brand new Photo mode to go with it. "After seeing everyone creating amazing screenshots with Replays, we're excited to see what players do with Photo mode," developer Firemonkey teased.

As a bonus, you can now drive Aston Martin sports cars and everyone gets to grab a free 1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7. Jump past the fold for the full reveal...

SixBar: enable the black and white status bar from iOS 6

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 28, 2014

SixBar is a recently released tweak for those of you who are tiring of the status bar present in iOS 7. It forces the status bar into the old-school black and white mode that was last seen in iOS 6.

SixBar is not a theme, so it doesn't require WinterBoard or any other theming utility. Once you install SixBar, you'll need to go to the Settings app to find the tweak's preferences. Inside the preferences you'll notice a lone toggle—a kill-switch—used to enable or disable the tweak. When you enable the toggle and respring, you'll see the familiar black and white status bar inspired by iOS 6...

Polus: a customized QuickLaunch experience for Control Center

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 28, 2014

A3tweaks—the development team behind great jailbreak releases such as Auxo—is back with a brand new upcoming tweak, and we want to show it to you. The tweak, which is called Polus, is an extension that adds significant improvements to the QuickLaunch section of Control Center.

With Polus, you can customize Control Center's apps shortcuts, and assign them with Activator gestures...but that's not all. We've taken the upcoming tweak for a detailed spin on video. Check past the break for more information.

How to quickly swipe between message threads in iOS 7

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 28, 2014

MessageSwiper7 is a recent Cydia release that brings the ability to swipe between Messages app conversations in iOS 7. We posted about the original MessageSwiper almost a year ago, and as you'll see, that version differs quite a bit from the latest version.

Since iOS 7's Messages app already features built-in actions for swipe gestures on both the right and left side of the app, more thought had to be put into the tweak to get things right in iOS 7. We've taken MessageSwiper7 for a brief spin on video to show you how it works. Have a look at our full walkthrough inside.

Theme Thursday: Axla, FlatIcons, Gusht and more

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated November 30, 2016

This fifth edition of Theme Thursday marks one month since we began highlighting some of the best Winterboard themes available for iPhone and iPod touch. It has been a lot of fun putting this column together each week, and I'm glad that so many readers have been enjoying it. iPad users, your roundup is on the horizon.

Best of all, it makes me proud that we're able to give some well-deserved recognition to the talented graphic designers in this community. If it wasn't for those people, we wouldn't have these great themes to use on our devices. So, without further ado, this week's featured themes are: Axla, iOS 8 Concept, FlatIcons, Gusht and iOS 8 Infinity Theme. Dive right in…

An in-depth look at how Touch ID, A7, and Secure Enclave boost iOS security

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 26, 2014

We know quite a lot about the iPhone 5s's fingerprint scanner, Touch ID. The advanced sensor works seamlessly and learns more about your prints over time so it continues to expand your fingerprint map as additional overlapping nodes are identified with each use.

It can match prints in any orientation, unless your fingers are greasy or wet, or there's some dirt or debris on the Home button. There's a 1 in 50,000 chance of a successful random match with someone else’s print, which is much better than the 1 in 10,000 odds of guessing a typical four-digit passcode.

The Touch ID sensor doesn't store actual fingerprint images and instead creates an encrypted profile of your print and stores it on a module on the A7 processor called the Secure Enclave that's walled off from the rest of the system.

After five unsuccessful fingerprint match attempts, or after every restart, the system asks for your passcode so that hackers can’t stall for time. These are pretty much key pieces of information on Touch ID that was made public since its inception.

Today, Apple updated its iOS Security white paper [PDF download] with a few previously unknown specifics relating to how Touch ID works side by side with the A7 chip and its Secure Enclave portion to detect a fingerprint match in a highly secure manner. The document also details other security safeguards Apple put in place to prevent tampering with fingerprint data...

IMDB’s fresh update lets you swipe both ways

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 25, 2014

IMDb (abbreviated from Internet Movie Database) is my go-to source for information related to films, television programs and video games. The service is reliable and accurate so I can safely rely on their data.

The Amazon-owned company (they bought IMDb outright in 1998 and attached it to Amazon.com as a subsidiary, private company) has a pretty nice iPhone and iPad application, available free in the App Store.

We haven't seen a major update since last December's refresh brought out iOS 7-friendly look, plus a brand new Road to the Oscars section, among other features. Today, IMDb got bumped to version 4.1. This new edition of the software sports a few cosmetic changes, but that's not what captured my imagination.

My interest was piqued by a cool design choice which makes it possible to use both left and right swiping to navigate through the app. Can we have this in all iOS 7 apps, please?

In time for the 2014 season, MLB.com At Bat app receives iOS 7 makeover

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 25, 2014

In time for the start of the 2014 Major League Baseball (MLB) season, the official MLB.com At Bat app has finally received its long-expected iOS 7-focused redesign. This is a major refresh as the app was last updated in October 2013.

MLB.com At Bat version 7.0, now available free in the App Store, has hit a home run for iOS 7 with a brand new interface (flatter, of course), a new league-wide scoreboard functionality and inline video playback. I've included a few screenshots of the new design and some additional tidbits right below the fold...

BattSaver for iOS 7: manage your iPhone’s radios to increase battery life

Jeff Benjamin ∙ February 23, 2014

BattSaver, a battery saving jailbreak app that we reviewed in-depth a couple of years ago, has been updated for iOS 7 compatibility. It's basically the same jailbreak release that we reviewed before, except this time around it works for iOS 7 and arm64 devices like the iPhone 5s.

As we explained in our initial review, BattSaver isn't necessarily performing any magic, it just manages the radios on your device in such a way so that you can save battery life. Many of the same strategies are incorporated in this updated version of BattSaver, including Normal and Aggressive battery saving strategies. Have a look inside for more details.

iOS 7.0.6 update patched a major SSL bug, OS X still vulnerable

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

When we told you that Apple had released iOS 7.0.6 to the public yesterday, all we really knew about the update was that it fixed an SSL connection verification issue. We didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that this was actually a major security flaw in iOS 7.

In a support document, Apple noted that the patch repaired a specific vulnerability that could allow an attacker with a "privileged network position" to capture or modify data protected by SSL/TLS. In other words, iOS was vulnerable to a 'man-in-the-middle attack.'