Phone Hacks | iPhone Tricks and Tips

Just over two weeks after the first public beta of Sileo was released, the package manager now works with unc0ver jailbreak which is a popular and frequently updated iOS 11 – iOS 11.3.1 (iOS 11.4 beta 3) jailbreak . The original version of Sileo was compatible with Electra jailbreak. If you have been using unc0ver jailbreak on your iPhone or iPad, you can now use Sileo as your package manager of choice. All you need to do is add a repo from developer  Samg and proceed to install Sileo for unc0ver on it. To ensure full compatibility, the unc0ver jailbreak team has also updated the required dependencies. This is compatible with all versions Sileo works with, and comes in the form of two (well, really three) packages:* Sillyo Installer — downloads and installs Sileo (beta) [unc0ver] to your device *Sileo Compatibility Layer — resolves Cydia “duplicate sources” error, provides package information to Sileo, fixes Sileo’s “Restart SpringBoard” button so that it doesn’t depend on electr...

Apple decided that 2019 was going to start off with a bang as the company announced that AirPlay 2 support was landing on several different smart TVs from different brands. So far up to this point, Samsung kicked things off in announcing AirPlay 2 support for its smart TV lineup. Soon after that, we heard that Vizio was doing the same thing , followed by Sony and LG announcing support . That basically means all of the major TV manufacturers are on board with this, which makes sense as Apple is going big with this particular shift in strategy. Of course, with all the attention being put on the biggest TV manufacturers, what about some of the other brands out there? TCL, for instance, has started to gain traction with the TV market in the United States, so would that company be adopting support for AirPlay 2 and HomeKit at some point in the future? Turns out that’s a big no. MacRumors got a comment from a TCL spokesperson on this very subject, learning that the tV manufacturer ha...

As another year ticks by, more of Apple’s older devices become officially listed as obsolete or vintage, depending on the region. 9to5Mac is reporting on Friday that the late-2012 iMac is going to become listed as another obsolete device on Wednesday, January 30. In California and Turkey the device will be listed as “vintage”, which means in those areas the device will continue to be supported by the company as dictated by local law. However, as noted in the report, even outside of those regions the late-2012 iMac can still be repaired in some cases, thanks to the Repair Vintage Apple Products Pilot program, which was officially introduced in November of last year . If you have a late-2012 iMac that needs to be repaired, you can still take it to an Apple Store. However, the folks that will repair your hardware need to have the parts on hand to actually go through with the repair and complete it. If the store doesn’t have the tools to repair it, then the repair w...

Best Buy is offering some sweet discounts on various Apple products for the weekend including discounts of up to $75 on the 9.7-inch iPad, $400 on the iPhone XR and iPhone XS, iPad Pro, and more. The deals on the iPad Pro from Best Buy are pretty sweet, but discounts on other Apple products are not that attractive. Amazon and B&H have been frequently discounting the 9.7-inch iPad by $100, so Best Buy’s $75 discount pales in comparison to it. iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR For the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and the iPhone XR, Best Buy is offering a $400 gift card provided you trade-in your existing iPhone and have a qualified activation. There are also carrier offers, with Verizon offering up to $300 discount and AT&T and Sprint running a BOGO offer. ➤ Deal iPhone X Best Buy has started selling the unlocked variant of the iPhone X for $899. It is currently offering a $50 discount on it if you have a qualified activation. ➤ Deal iPad Pro Best Buy has discounted the...

A new WSJ report claims that Apple will again be unveiling three new iPhones this year. The company plans to add a triple-camera setup to the high-end iPhone XS Max successor, with the iPhone XS and iPhone XR successors featuring a dual-camera setup. Right now, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max feature a dual-camera setup while the iPhone XR features a single-camera setup. It is likely that the 2019 iPhone XR will gain a secondary telephoto lens like the iPhone XS. It remains to be seen what the third lens on the high-end ‘iPhone XI’ will be for. Most Android OEMs have recently started adding an extreme wide-angle lens on their flagship devices and Apple might take a similar approach.   A leaked render from earlier this week had also confirmed that the iPhone XI will feature a triple-camera setup . Apple will also continue to stick to an LCD display for the 2019 iPhone XR successor. This is despite the iPhone XR not doing as well as Apple had hoped for. Citing sources, the report stat...

The latest numbers from Gartner show that Mac shipments declined by nearly 3.8 percent in Q4, 2018. Apple is estimated to have shipped 4.9 million Macs in Q4, 2018 for a total market share of 7.2 percent. In comparison, the company had shipped 5.1 million Macs in the same quarter in 2017. Despite the decline in shipments though, Apple’s market share increased marginally from 7.1 percent in Q4, 2017 to 7.2 percent in Q4, 2018. This is because the overall PC shipment itself declined by a total of 4.3 percent, with the likes of Dell, Acer, and Asus suffering a far worse decline in their PC shipments than Apple. Overall, Apple continued to remain the fourth largest PC OEM in the world. Preliminary Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q18 Lenovo was the only OEM to have posted a notable 5.9 percent rise in its PC shipments which allowed it to become the number one PC manufacturer for Q4, 2018. In the United States also, Gartner data indicates that Mac shipments declined by ...

You get a streaming service! You get a streaming service! And you get a streaming service! Variety is reporting on Thursday that Amazon is launching a brand new ad-support video-on-demand service called “Freedive”. Unlike some services though, this one’s free (thanks to the ads!) to stream. The content is from the international movie database, or IMDb, which Amazon owns. There are over 130 movies available to watch, and 29 different TV shows to chose from. It’s only available in the United States to start. As far as TV shows are concerned, you’ll be able to choose from episodes of Heroes , Fringe , Gilligan’s Island , The Bachelor , and many others. Freedive’s movie collection includes titles like Memento , Drive , Foxcatcher , Run Lola Run , and others. “Titles licensed for Freedive come from studios and networks including CBS, NBCUniversal Television, Sony Pictures Entertainment/Columbia Pictures, Newmarket Films, Warner Bros. Televisi...

One of the pieces of the giant data puzzle that carriers are able to routinely obtain from a smartphone on its network is geo-location, but unfortunately for customers that data hasn’t been handled all that well. In a report from The Verge , two of the three wireless carriers that were specifically named in a recent in-depth report regarding the misuse of customer geo-location data have responded in a hopefully meaningful way, indicating that change is (finally) coming. As a quick recap, it was recently reported this week by Motherboard that all it took was paying $300 to a bounty hunter and supplying a phone number to track down a device, and its owner, to a specific location. That bounty hunter picked up the data, which required no hacking at all, from a third-party company called Zumigo, which was providing data access from major phone carriers by way of another company called Microbilt — which has been offering its services to several companies for quite some time. The ...

Apple appears to be fast-tracking the next release for iOS, as it seeds another beta to developers. Apple today officially seeded the fourth beta of iOS 12.1.3 to developers and public beta testers. The latest beta arrives just three days after the company seeded the third developer beta for the same software. That earlier beta did not add any specific forward-facing new features to the mix, which isn’t too surprising given the scale of the minor update. As to why Apple is seeding another developer beta so quickly remains to be seen. To update, registered developers simply need to go into Settings –> General –> Software Update and follow the onscreen instructions. While it is not likely that Apple is tossing in any major new features with this specific beta seed, we will update this post if there are any major new discoveries. As for what’s new, it’s likely that Apple is seeding behind-the-scenes tweaks and improvements, aiming to refine the overall experi...

Samsung is reportedly looking to unveil the Galaxy S10 and its foldable phone on February 20 at an Unpacked event to be held simultaneously in San Francisco and London. If true, this means the company will not be waiting for MWC 2019 to unveil its flagship smartphone for the year.  Samsung has usually unveiled its flagship Galaxy S handset at MWC. Only on a few rare occasions has the company unveiled the handset at a separate Unpacked event. This time around, the Korean company seems to have decided to unveil the Galaxy S10 ahead of MWC 2019. While Mobile World Congress 2019 is scheduled to take place from February 25-28 in Barcelona, Samsung is planning on unveiling the handset on February 20 itself. Samsung Electronics Co. plans to unveil its 10th anniversary flagship phone lineup and show a fully functional foldable-screen handset at Feb. 20 events in San Francisco and London, according to people familiar with the matter. In addition to the Galaxy S10, Samsung will also be unveili...

Samsung has confirmed via its official social media platforms that it will indeed be launching the Galaxy S10 at an Unpacked event on February 20 in San Francisco. While not mentioned in the invite, Samsung is also expected to unveil its foldable phone at the event. The Galaxy Unpacked event will start from 11 a.m. PT on February 20 and just like always, Samsung will be live streaming the event for fanboys and interested folks to follow. The February 20th event date means Samsung will be unveiling the Galaxy S10 five days ahead of MWC 2019 in Barcelona. Welcome to the next generation. Galaxy Unpacked on February 20, 2019. #SamsungEvent pic.twitter.com/M1Gh0F9Fs5 — Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) January 10, 2019 While not mentioned in the event invite, Samsung is also expected to unveil its foldable phone at the event. Unlike the Galaxy S10, the foldable phone will see a limited release. This will be the tenth anniversary of the Galaxy S series and so expectations are quite high...

Apple has rolled out turn-by-turn directions for Apple Maps in India. Right now, the service is only available in selected metro cities of the country. Similar to Google Maps, Apple is also offering users option to book cab rides from Uber or Ola right from within the app.  Up until now, one could not use Apple Maps in India to get turn-by-turn directions to any place in India. After today though, Apple Maps will provide users with proper turn-by-turn directions for the place they search for. For now, Apple has rolled out turn-by-turn directions in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, and Delhi. Other key cities are expected to gain the feature soon as well. While Apple has added turn-by-turn directions to Apple Maps, most iPhone users are likely going to stick to Google Maps for directions. The latter has an expansive coverage of tier 1, 2, and 3 cities in India, down to every nook and cranny. In comparison, Apple Maps lacks a lot of data and key features like traffic status, public tran...

If you want to get a digital personal assistant in your car, there are ways. And Amazon’s aftermarket option has apparently proven very popular. In 2018, Amazon announced a variety of different Alexa-enabled devices , including a microwave. At the time we also heard about Echo Auto, which is an aftermarket, wired accessory that goes in your car and gives you access to the wide range of Alexa skills and features. At the time, Amazon opened preorders for the device, but those were invite-only, which definitely limited the number of people who could preorder the accessory. However, according to TechCrunch confirming as much with Amazon, that hasn’t stopped over a million people from ordering the device. The Echo Auto is still technically up for preorder, but you still need an invite, so it stands to reason that even more people out there who didn’t get the chance to order the accessory want to — and once they can, will do so. “Apparently, the Echo Auto was i...

The Apple Watch Series 4 launched not too long ago, and Apple (eventually) brought with it a brand new ECG app that’s meant to help identify specific heart irregularities. And while some doctors are on the fence on whether or not the ECG app in the newest Apple-branded smartwatch is a good thing or not , the device has already been pegged for potentially saving one person’s life even before the end of 2018 . And now, just as 2019 is getting started, we have another report that says the new app was crucial in identifying AFIB heart conditions in one man over the holidays. WMUR has the report on Wednesday, telling the story of Barry Madden, a self-identified “tech geek”, who purchased the new Apple Watch Series 4 mainly for its ability to detect falls. Madden suffered a brain injury in the past, and he figured that particular feature would be a good one to have, just in case. And to help him keep a better eye on his overall health. But it turns out the ECG app act...

There are always two sides to every story, and that definitely appears to be the case when it comes to how the iPhone market is doing. Earlier today, there was a report that Apple had cut iPhone XS and iPhone XR production by upwards of 10 percent for the firs quarter of 2019. And that comes after plenty of other analyst memos and separate reports that have suggested that Apple’s iPhone sales aren’t that great. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that Apple warned of a less-than-stellar first fiscal quarter coming up. Still, Apple is confident in the iPhone, and has said that the iPhone XR, specifically, is doing just fine . Here we are with another report out of China, though, painting a different picture. According to National Business Daily , Apple has informed Chinese vendors to cut the price of several different iPhone models. That includes the iPhone 8, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max. The report indicates that the majority of the models are seeing a di...

Apple has made sure that privacy and user security is one of the major tentpoles for the company over the years, so some hires just make sense. According to The Financial Times , Apple is starting 2019 pounding that privacy drum. The report states that Apple has officially brought on board Sandy Parakilas, formerly of Facebook, to serve in an internal product privacy position. If Parakilas’s name sounds familiar, it might be because he has been an outspoken policy critic of the social network for quite some time, after he monitored privacy and policy compliance at Facebook for over a year. Parakilas left Facebook in 2012 and, ever since, he has been criticizing Facebook for its lackluster privacy policy. When he was working at Facebook, he reportedly told the company that their security protocols weren’t great, and that user privacy wasn’t being taken seriously in any meaningful way. “Mr Parakilas has urged the tech industry to improve its data protection practic...

In his interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer for Mad Money , Tim Cook said that Apple has not been involved in any “settlement discussions” with Qualcomm since Q3 of 2018. He also shot down reports and statements from Qualcomm of both companies working together on finding a resolution. Qualcomm’s spokesperson has now called such remarks from Apple’s CEO “misleading.” The spokesperson also said that Cook’s statement was a “deliberately timed attempt to tarnish” the company’s reputation and that Qualcomm sticks to the original comments made by its CEO Steve Mollenkopf in November. The statement also reiterated that Qualcomm has been in discussions with Apple “at various times” about a possible resolution for their ongoing dispute. “We have been consistent for the last eighteen months in making clear that we have, at various times, been in discussions with Apple about a possible resolution to our licensing dispute,...

Apple is reportedly cutting production for the iPhone XR , iPhone XS , and iPhone XS Max by 10 percent for Q1, 2019 of the calendar year. The company has already informed its suppliers about the order reduction. The specific details of the production cut are not yet clear but Apple will now be producing around 40-43 million iPhones in Q1 compared to the original estimate of 47-48 million. The reason behind the cut in orders has again been put on the slow and sluggish iPhone demand in China. Production volume in the January-March quarter of 19 is expected to be cut by about 10% from the original plan, and we informed the manufacturers of countries and regions that are responsible for parts etc. It is because sales are sluggish, especially in China. Apple was reported to have reduced iPhone production orders during the lucrative holiday quarter as well. The company then went on to confirm the slowdown in iPhone sales by revising its revenue estimates for the quarter and lowering it by ...

In his extensive interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the company’s most important contribution to mankind will be in health. Tim Cook spoke about varying topics in the interview and dismissed reports of the iPhone XR not doing well as a part of it. The CEO even hinted at Apple launching new services this year. Cook revealed this when Cramer asked him how Apple would increase the total contribution of its Services business to its total revenue. He did not go into the specifics but clearly stated that Apple will announce new services this year, with “more things coming” and the company working on them for a few years now. On services, you will see us announce new services this year. There will more things coming. I don’t wanna tell you about what they are and I’m not gonna forecast precisely, the ramps and so forth. But they’re things that we feel really great about, that we’ve been working on for multiple years. Apple is rumored to...

As mentioned earlier today, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, took some time out of his schedule to discuss Apple’s current state of affairs . And, unsurprisingly, the chief executive wasn’t having any of it when it comes to dark times for the company. CNBC shared some of the major points earlier today, but one of the more interesting parts that came out of the full interview was Cook’s stance on how the iPhone XR — the company’s other iPhone it launched late last year alongside the iPhone XS and XS Max — is faring out there in the market. As you may have heard by now, some folks don’t think the iPhone XR is doing too well. However, Apple has never agreed with that belief . While the company won’t go into the nitty gritty details, and won’t even offer sales numbers for the iPhone lineup later this month during its upcoming quarterly earnings call, Cook did reiterate that the iPhone XR has been the most popular iPhone for customers to buy...

Password sharing is a thing. There’s no denying that. Whether it’s a college campus or family and friends, services like Netflix, Hulu, and others have their content shared all the time. Right out of the gate, that’s not a bad thing. Companies love to have people viewing their content, and it gets word of mouth out there. However, there’s a point where a company reaches a certain maturity level and watching its content get pirated just doesn’t cut it anymore. That’s where a company called Synamedia, which is based out of the United Kingdom, comes in. The Verge has a profile of the company out of CES 2019, and how it will be using artificial intelligence to track down people who share passwords and then share that information with the companies. Synamedia has a platform that companies can buy, which will then be used to analyze data from that company’s user base. From there, Synamedia will be able to see when an account is being accessed, from w...

It isn’t a secret that wireless carriers gather a lot of data from phone users on their networks — yes, even iPhones. But a new report sheds light on why that may be a bigger issue than some may have assumed. Motherboard has a story out on Tuesday that tells the tale of an individual, in this case the author of the article, Joseph Cox, and how Cox cave $300 to a bounty hunter and ultimately discovered that the data that person was capable of gathering was pretty extensive. Cox got permission from someone else to be the target of the test. It only took a phone call and handing over a few hundred dollars to learn the precise location of the target’s phone. According to the report, carriers like AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile are selling customers’ location data to third-party aggregators, but there appears to be a bit of a gray area where that customer information can get purchased by some relatively unsavory characters at the same time. There isn’t much su...

If anyone is going to go to bat for a company, it should be the chief executive. Enter Tim Cook, stage left, following warnings of a forthcoming weak first quarter . In an interview with CNBC , Tim Cook says that the company is doing just fine as a whole, and that the company’s ecosystem is ” probably underappreciated”. Cook also reaches back and pulls out an oldie but goodie, saying that there is still a “culture of innovation” at Apple, that the company hasn’t lost sight of that. As it relates to stock prices? Well, Appel’s CEO says that he’s seen the same negative remarks in the past, and has seen the same shortcomings in the market, too: “In terms of the naysayer, I’ve heard this over and over again,” Cook said in an exclusive interview with Jim Cramer. “I’ve heard it in 2001, I’ve heard it in 2005, in ‘7, in ‘8, in ’10, in ’12 and ’13. You can probably find the same quo...