Got Your Plex App for iOS Yet?

If you haven’t got your Plex app yet, it might just be high time you did. Earlier this year, developers released a new update for the iOS Plex app with features that can really enhance your experience when it comes to enjoying digital content on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch from your computers at home.

Plex allows you to stream all of your content from your home computers, such as music, videos and photos via the Plex Media Server as well as content from a varied number of popular channels, such as Aperture, iPhoto, iTunes, Vimeo, YouTube and Revision3. Thanks to the myPlex feature, you can also share with all of your friends, family and colleagues your content, put videos on queue when watching from web browsing. But the best part is being able to stream your content at home from all over the world using only a Wi-Fi or a cellular connection via the Plex Media Server. And all that without being required to convert files.

The update released in May features a significant list of fixes for some annoying bugs, including the one that deleted all content while syncing via a weak network connection. The Retry Sync button was fixed too, as well as the playback performance of MOV files with MP3 audio. There are also a bunch of new features such as the Plex app now using paging when looking for content for improved filtering and faster loading. “You’ll notice the difference no matter how large your library is, but it’ll make a huge difference over remote connections or when accessing large libraries” reads the Plex App blog post. The new version also allows the user to remotely start and control playback on your iPhone, iPad and iPod from other devices running the app and connected to your network.

There are some limitations though. DRM-protected content, like that from iTunes, are not supported and the same goes for ISO images and VIDEO_TS folders.

iPhones Will Feature A Kill Switch to Stop Apple Picking

Looks like Apple remains a first at something. Three days before a scheduled meeting between authorities and smartphone companies over the issue of mobile-devices robberies, Apple announced its iPhones will feature a kill switch, allowing the user to turn it off and track it using a GPS.

Whereas most people have been debating whether or not the iOS 7 design of icons and overall colorful theme are cool enough or not, some new useful features the new firmware is set to implement were put aside. For instance, iOS 7 will implement a kill switch in your iPhone to help you keep tabs on it when it gets lost or is picked by a robber. This makes Apple the first smartphone company to take action following recent law enforcement attempts to limit smartphone robberies.

“We think this is going to be a really powerful theft deterrent” said Craig Federighi, senior vice president at Apple, during the iOS 7 debut at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. Based on the details released during the conference, the kill switch can remotely erase all content via a website and prevents the robber from turning off “Find My iPhone” by requesting an Apple ID and password.

“Apple picking is a huge epidemic in the United States” reads a joint statement by San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón and New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman following Apple’s announcement which was released just ahead of a meeting that aimed to find ways of limiting or preventing mobile-device robberies. “We are appreciative of the gesture made by Apple to address smart-phone theft”.

Apple picking has been so thriving lately that New York has a special police unit dealing particularly with mobile-device robberies. According to a statement by Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne, “if you subtracted just the increase in Apple product thefts, we would have had an overall decrease in crime in New York”.

Colorful New iOS 7 Design Sparks Debates

They’ve been calling it “black and white and flat all over”, the next best thing since the original iPhone or plain ugly, although considerably more practical. The colorful new iOS 7 design has been sparking debates following its debut, earlier this week, at the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

If you ask designers and graphic artists, Apple’s iOS 7 lacks a nuance of finesse, but the new features show there’s promise for improvement. If you ask users, you’ll get a straightforward answer that the looks aren’t all that great, yet it could be something they’d live with, in exchange for the added functionality designer Jony Ive implemented. All in all, it looks like nobody agrees with Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, when he says the new iOS 7 design is “the most significant iOS update since the original iPhone”.

Cap Watkins, ETSY design lead, feels iOS 7 is “unpolished by design”, whereas Phill Ryu, iOS app designer, takes a more practical stand and signaled a frustrating and confusing visual feature in the new iOS 7 lock screen. The legend says “slide to unlock” whereas the arrow below the text suggests you could unlock it by sliding up.

The truth is that there’s something about the new iOS 7 design that put a lot of people off and it is mainly because of the icons’ new look. “The singularly biggest issue – apart from the color – is that so many of the icons are clearly intended to be round, but are crammed inside rounded rectangles” notes Ben Moss of Webdesigner Depot. “Apple set out with good intentions, but their fear of profit margins kept them from designing something truly exciting” he adds.

Yet, at the same time, despite the overall criticism the colorful new iOS 7 design has been getting, Forbes’ Anthony King believes the new look is “subtly dimensional and exquisitely modern”. Jony Ive’s design for iOS 7 “aims to be an unobtrusive interface that elevates content” with hallmarks such as “translucency, levity, expansiveness, fluidity and surprising depth”.

But, enough with designers and media’s points of views! What do you think of the new colorful iOS 7 design?

Best Jailbreak Tweaks for iOS

Your iOS device is now jailbroken. What do you do next? You start downloading and installing the best jailbreak tweaks developers have put their brilliant minds into.

We’ve published a list of the best jailbreak tweaks for iOS you should start considering, but the following are the apps everybody agrees were last year’s best such hacks. Since each jailbreaker’s needs and perception of app performance are different, the following tweaks are listed alphabetically to avoid debates, but you’re more than welcome to tell us which is your favorite or which tweak deserves the No. 1 rank in your opinion.

However if you’re a noob and it is customization of your iOS you’re interested in, the following will improve the overall functionality of common features such as text editing and customize the looks of your Notification Center, Lock Screen and Siri.

Aero makes switching between apps more fashionable

AnimateAll is used to make the Lock Screen, Home Screen and Notification Center a lot more fun

Ayecon was named the best jailbreak theme

Auxo improves the overall functionality of the app switcher

Blutrol allows you to use the iCade arcade cabinet with unsupported games

CameraTweak is a great Cydia app for your device’s camera

Dash puts the app switcher in full screen mode

Dashboard X adds functional widgets to iOS

Deck gives you an useful hotbar with access to numerous system functions

FoldMusic sends music into Home screen folders

Hands-Free Control for Siri

Merge to combine iMessages by contact

Motion to get animated Home Screen icons

Neurotech Siri to give Siri a make-over

NowNow uses Siri for Google voice search

Octopus Keyboard to get a BlackBerry 10 keyboard theme

Quasar allows you to run several apps at the same time side by side

Stride to make unlocking fun, with  8-bit drawings

SwipeBack allows for easy navigation backwards with a finger swipe

SwipeSelection takes away most of the trouble with text editing on iPhone

WeeRoll puts more than a dozen of animations into your Notification Center

OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 Fixes Annoying Compatibility Bugs

Apple released earlier this month a new OS X Mountain Lion update following months users have been reporting about annoying compatibility bugs with iMessages, VoiceOver, Microsoft Exchange and enterprise Wi-Fi networks, to name just a few. As of June 4th, Apple has released the OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 update, available via the Apple Store.

The list of compatibility issues OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 fixes is varied and quite long. Sure, we’re happy the fixes are finally here, but we cannot help wonder if this update will cause other compatibility issues later on. From the looks of it, most believe the v10.8.4 update could be the last version of Mountain Lion to make it to users, before next week’s WWDC event, when Apple is expected to announce OS 10.9.

It goes without saying you should update to OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.4 immediately, although you’ve surely been waiting for this update anxiously over the past few weeks. The fixes to those annoying compatibility bugs that have been bothering so many users lately are included in the last OS X Mountain Lion update, promising to put an end to many users’ frustration, particularly enterprises.

The v10.8.4 update delivers fixes for the following compatibility issues: not being able to call non-US phone numbers via FaceTime, not being able to connect or remain connected via certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks, being displayed iMessages out of order, having difficulties using VoiceOver with text in PDF documents, sending the device in scheduled sleep after running Boot Camp, the Microsoft Exchange fiasco in Calendar and not displaying Calendars Birthday accurately in some time zones.

But that’s not all. There are many more fixes the Mountain Lion v10.8.4 delivers, including resolving the issue that prevented users from saving files to an Xsan volume from certain apps, the one that hindered access to see changes in files when made over NFS, as well as the one that prevented documents from being saved to a server using SMB. Other fixes include improvements for Active Directory log-in performance (cached accounts and .local domains), OpenDirectory data replication and 802.1X compatibility with ActiveDirectory networks.

Analyst Estimates Apple Will Reach 600 M Users By 2014

Despite rumors that Apple lost its huge appeal with consumers, a Morgan Stanley analyst still sees positive figures. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Hubert estimates Apple will reach 600 million users by 2014, a forecast that sees Apple’s client base growing by up to 100 million users.

Over the past year, Apple has recorded a growth of 55 percent, reaching 500 million users by the end of the year, placing the company second after Facebook. It is estimated that on average each of the 500 million Apple users spend about $300 for year, whereas the free cash flow of 95 percent is higher than companies’ with similar appeal to the public, such as Amazon and Facebook.

“Apple’s advantage over other hardware platforms is its ecosystem, which creates ‘stickiness’ and opens new revenue streams” reads an investors’ note by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Hubert. “New services, like mobile payments, video, streaming music, or ad exchange, can help monetize Apple’s user base” explains the analyst and one of the company’s opportunities to grow the number of users is mobile payments, “where Apple can leverage its larger user base, secure platform, and acquired AuthenTec technology”.

Katy Hubert’s extensive report backs up her estimate highlighting three reasons that could boost Apple’s number of users to 600 million. Mobile payments is one of them, particularly since the rumor mill has it the next iPhone will feature fingerprint recognition and the NFC technology. Then there’s also the iRadio rumor, Apple’s very own internet radio service being expected to release next week, at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference event taking place June 10 – 14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West conference center.

Finally, there’s the ad exchange rumor that says Apple is going to release a new ad exchange service on the existing iAd platform. “Developers could potentially charge higher rates than ad impressions on other devices, as Apple could offer better targeting given its insight into the user from information gathered from the hardware, the software, iTunes and app stores, user profiles and cloud storage” reads a report via Macrumors.