iOS 8

Saurik releases updated version of Cydia for iOS 8 to be installed manually

Alihassan Mahdi ∙ October 22, 2014

In a move that caught us by surprise, the Pangu Team released the jailbreak tool for iOS 8 today, although it doesn't install Cydia, but rather provides SSH access so that developers can update their tweaks and make them compatible with iOS 8.

Earlier we reported that Saurik has already started working on updating Cydia to make it compatible with iOS 8 and 8.1. The good news is that he has now released the updated version of Cydia compatible with iOS 8 and comes in the form of a .deb file. You can now download the file from his website, and install it manually on your device.

Fantastical gains fantastic iOS 8 Today widget, Interactive Notifications, Share extension and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

Flexibits on Tuesday issued a major update to its calendar, reminder and to-do replacement app, Fantastical for the iPhone and iPad. Now an iOS 8-only download, the new Fantastical 2.2 is fully optimized for some of iOS 8's headline new features.

It has an informative Today widget for your upcoming tasks, ability to create events in any application that supports iOS's multi-purpose Share menu, notifications that can be interacted with on the Lock screen, within the Notification Center and from the banner alert, and more.

This update is free to existing users. And to celebrate this major new release, good folks over at Flexibits have slashed Fantastical for iOS: the iPhone edition is now $3, down from its regular price of five bucks, while the iPad edition will run you $7 for a limited time, down from its regular asking price of ten bucks a pop.

Pangu v1.0.1 brings bug fixes to this limited iOS 8 jailbreak

Sébastien Page ∙ October 22, 2014

The Pangu Team has released an update to their iOS 8 jailbreak tool which was released out of the blue earlier today. Although no clear changelog is available, Pangu v1.0.1 brings a few bug fixes, including one that might have caused users who successfully jailbroke their device with the initial version to lose their photos.

Although promising, Pangu v1.0.1 is still more of a tool for developers rather than end users. As we noted earlier today, the current version of Pangu doesn't install Cydia, which hasn't been updated to bring compatibility for iOS 8. It simply allows developers to test out their tweaks and update them for iOS 8.

Cannot activate iOS 8’s Text Message Forwarding and iPhone Cellular Calls? Here’s a fix.

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 22, 2014

As soon as iOS 8.1 hit two days ago, I immediately went about checking out a pair of new features I care about the most, Text Message Forwarding and iPhone Cellular Calls.

As a quick reminder, Text Message Forwarding lets me mirror text messages sent to my iPhone in the Messages app on the Mac or iPad. With iPhone Cellular Calls turned on, I can finally make and receive phone calls on my other Mac and iOS devices through my iPhone's cellular connection.

But something was amiss, or so I thought, because I just couldn't get either feature to work. While attempting to enable Text Message Forwarding, the system prompted me to enter a confirmation code my Mac was supposed to generated, but didn't.

Likewise, trying to enable iPhone Cellular Calls yielded a FaceTime error message saying my devices must use the same iCloud account, even though I was using FaceTime without any problems before.

Having spent a few hours restoring my devices as new, reseting network settings, changing settings on my router and checking the status of iCloud services, I eventually came to the same realization as did the other affected users: Text Message Forwarding requires you to use an email address and for iPhone Cellular Calls to work properly, FaceTime must be signed in with your Apple ID.

Pangu jailbreak for iOS 8 – iOS 8.1 released

Sébastien Page ∙ October 22, 2014

The Pangu team has released a jailbreak for iOS 8 - iOS 8.1 devices today, just about 35 days after the launch of Apple's latest mobile operating system. The download link for Pangu for iOS 8 was briefly available on the official Pangu website before being pulled a few minutes later.

Although this is great news for jailbreakers, it does come with a few strings attached that make this initial iOS 8 jailbreak release somewhat useless for the time being.

Apple to start requiring apps to use iOS 8 SDK, offer 64-bit support in February

Cody Lee ∙ October 20, 2014

Apple sent out a notification to developers today, giving them a heads up on a few upcoming changes to its App Store submission policy. Posted in its developer portal, the bulletin says that beginning in February of next year, iOS applications must meet two new requirements.

Starting February 1, 2015, new apps and updates must be built using the iOS 8 SDK (software development kit), and they must include 64-bit support, otherwise they will be rejected. Apple made a similar announcement around this time last year for iOS 7 app optimization.

Apple releases iOS 8.1 with Apple Pay, Camera Roll, Text Message Forwarding and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ October 20, 2014

As promised, Apple on Monday released iOS 8.1 for public consumption. Users who have an older version installed on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad can now update to the latest software over-the-air, by choosing Software Update under Settings > General.

iOS 8.1 flips the switch on Apple Pay in the United States on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, as well as the newly released iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3.

It also re-enables the missing Camera Roll album in Photos and beta iCloud Photo Library (in beta) while bringing additional Continuity features like Text Message Forwarding between iOS 8 devices and Yosemite Macs and more.

Wunderlist for iOS gets 1Password integration, Mac app gains Handoff, Today widget and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Wunderlist, an increasingly popular cross-platform to-do and task manager by German developer 6Wunderkinder, got updated both for iOS and OS X with cool new features.

The iOS edition now includes support for 1Password signing and the ability to see your to-dos in iCal while fixing UI issues on iPad and more.

The Mac edition has received a substantial Yosemite-ready refresh adding a more productive Today widget in the Notification Center, interactive push alerts, a more powerful “Add to Wunderlist” feature along with the complete Handoff experience for seamless moving between devices and more.

Rdio ushers in iPhone 6 and CarPlay support, interactive alerts and more in major iOS 8 update

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Following a recent overhaul with new features, free streaming in more than two dozen countries and other perks, Rdio, the popular Internet service, on Thursday pushed a major iOS 8 focused update.

Following in the footsteps of rival Spotify which two weeks ago added support for CarPlay, Apple's in-car iPhone entertainment system, Rdio has now jumped on the automotive bandwagon, too.

In addition to music playback and navigating your favorites and playlists from the built-in display in CarPlay-enabled cars, Rdio 3.0.4 has a handy new control to adjust streaming quality (should prove indispensable to those concerned about cellular data usage).

Moreover, this update adds support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus screen sizes, iOS 8's Interactive Notifications (you can play music and follow other users directly from an alert) plus other nice-to-haves mentioned after the jump.

Apple to temporarily remove ability to track blood sugar levels over iOS 8 Health bug

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 3, 2016

Apple will soon issue a software update that will temporarily remove the ability to track blood glucose levels in iOS 8's Health app following reports from users in the United Kingdom and Australia that the software is incompatible with standard measurements in these countries, Cnet reported Wednesday evening.

Existing blood glucose data won't be deleted from users' devices, said Apple in a support document detailing the issue. “Third-party apps will continue to be able to support both units of measurement and can continue to use HealthKit APIs to store blood glucose data,” reads the document.

A fix for the issue is being worked on and will be released in due time. Once the patch has been released, the previous blood sugar data will reappear in the Health app.

Jonathan Mann’s new song has lyrics written by an iPhone, using iOS 8’s autocomplete feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Jonathan Mann, a musician, songwriter and unabashed Apple fan, has been churning out one song a day for nearly six years straight.

You may remember his iPhone Antenna song, posted to YouTube on the eve of the Antennagate presser.

Apple actually used it to open the event and Steve Jobs even danced to it. The song-a-day man also created a Siri duet not long after the iPhone 4s was released and another one to wish Siri a happy birthday.

He's back today with an entirely different experiment that somehow manages to sound catchy and listenable, which is remarkable given the meaningless lyrics were actually written by an iPhone using iOS 8's autocomplete function.

Activity by LogYourRun helps you visualize the intensity of your activity

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

I'm not a slug but I'm also far from being a health freak. You won't find me at the gym, and if you ever see me running, then call 911 because it means something went terribly wrong. Yet, with the introduction of the M7 coprocessor in the iPhone 5s which helps you keep track of how many steps you made in a given day, I became more aware of little things I could do to maintain my health. I quickly established a daily goal of 6,000 steps, which I usually track with Pedometer++, a beautifully simple step tracker.

Federico Viticci of Mac Stories recently introduced me to a similar application called Activity by LogYourRun. Just like Pedometer++, Activity tracks your steps but it also helps you visualize the intensity of your activity in a very original way.