Microsoft airs Cortana vs. Siri ad showing contextually-aware tasks

Microsoft on Monday shared a new television commercial which the company first showed off at its annual conference back in April to rally up developers who were concerned that the software giant was losing its mojo.

The 30-second video depicts a showdown between Cortana, Microsoft’s own digital personal assistant baked into Windows Phone 8.1, and Apple’s Siri.

Microsoft’s assistant is shown completing a number of contextually-aware tasks using a plethora of services and data sources…

From the video’s YouTube description:

Say hello to Cortana, your new personal assistant. Cortana will remind you to leave early to beat traffic and help you get to your destination on time, will remind you that you need milk when passing the grocery store, and will remind you to say happy birthday when your mom calls. Available now on the new Nokia Lumia 635 and on other Lumia phones.

Check it out below.

The Windows maker is allegedly considering porting Cortana to iOS and Android.

According to Microsoft executives, Cortana has been conceived as a “pervasive” feature so not only is the company mulling bringing her over to iOS and Android, but to the desktop and into vehicles and other venues, too.

The Redmond giant is no stranger to anti-Apple advertising.

A series of advertisements for its Surface tablets routinely take aim at the iPad’s sub-par specs, lack of true multitasking and other features Microsoft’s marketing department decides to paint in negative light.

The company even attempted to lure would-be switchers by giving $650 in trade in value to customers willing to exchange their MacBook Air for a Surface Pro 3 tablet.

Is the Cortana ad funny, do you think?

Telltale confirms third season of ‘The Walking Dead’

Folks worried that the final episode of The Walking Dead: Season Two will be the end of the series can rest easy. Developer Telltale Games has confirmed this weekend that the story of the dead will live on in season 3.

The studio made the announcement yesterday at Comic-Con, during a panel hosted by Skybound Entertainment. It publishes The Walking Dead comics, of which both the game and the popular television show are based…

Here’s the tweet from Telltale:

Telltale’s The Walking Dead doesn’t share characters or story lines with its TV counterpart, but it does feature an award-winning script and intuitive gameplay. You play as a main character, and determine your own fate.

The game is split into seasons, broken down into 5 episodes. We are currently in season 2, which follows the story of Clementine, a young girl orphaned by the undead apocalypse. Episode 4 was just released last week.

There’s no word on when season 3 is coming, but we imagine it’ll be sometime in early 2015. Coincidentally, AMC just announced it’s working on its own Walking Dead game, which is also expected to land early next year.

Telltale’s The Walking Dead: Season Two is available on PCs, consoles and can be foundin the App Store for $4.99. Each episode can be purchased via IAP for $4.99, or you can buy a multipack (episodes 2-5) for $14.99.

Wallpapers of the week: Colorado landscapes

During the last two months, the Wallpapers of the Week section was populated with contrived or graphically designed wallpapers. While walls like the “Complex Geometry” andPuerta del Sol Apple Store opening were very well received, today we celebrate natural beauty of the Colorado landscape.

A skill I always envy is an artist’s ability to capture nature through a camera lens. Much more complicated than pointing and shooting your Photo app on a smartphone, true beauty is difficult to capture. An artist I keep up with published these images recently and shared them through Twitter. Get downloading!

Wallpapers

Today’s wallpaper entries are courtesy of Solefield Photography. Lauren’s images are always excellent snapshots of the great outdoors, or sometimes her favorite pups. To keep up, catch her on Twitter @Solefield or browse her additional work on Deviant Art. The iOS device wallpaper images were captured in Keystone, Colorado.

Download: Left; Right

For those commenters each week who complain about never getting a desktop wallpaper, we have an option for you today. While the Wallpapers of the Week section is specifically designed to share images for iOS devices, we do aim to please. In an effort to make some people happy, below is another fantastic image by Solefield. The treetop canopy was captured in Golden, CO.

Download: Dancing

The best dating apps for iPhone

Dating is a very important social event that practically every human being experiences, or at least hopes to experience, at least once in his or her lifetime. It is also incredibly difficult to meet people after the age of 18 when your social circles are blown away with your graduation caps. Those in their early 20s can still survive the dating game, but it doesn’t take long for our social options to dwindle.

Luckily, in the age of technology, it is easier than it was a decade ago to find that special someone. Whether you are looking for your life partner, want to send sweet nothings to your current love interest, or just want to hook up, we’ve got a list of what we think are the best dating apps for iPhone…

Tinder

Tinder may be the most popular dating service in the App Store right now. It took off like wildfire shortly after it launched and now boasts millions of users across the world. Users find dating matches by location instead of interests. It started out as a great way to meet up for a quick romp in the sheets, but has quickly gained a reputation for being a way to connect with people in real life that you may already know through friends via Facebook. It’s still a great way to hook up, but it can also lead to long lasting relationships. This app is available for free.

Match.com

This dating service is huge, probably the largest in the country. You will almost definitely find someone for you with the many millions of users on match.com. This site builds possible connections by matching you with others who have similar interests. Once you find someone that fits the bill, you can send a “wink” to begin a correspondence. You can chat with potential dates, look at photos of matches, and even find people nearby that you might want to meet. This app is available for free.

HowAboutWe Dating

Sometimes, you just want to do something specific and wish you knew someone else who wanted to do the same. With this app, you can find that person by posting a date idea. Maybe you want a companion to see the latest rom-com. Maybe you’ve always wanted to try ice-skating and want a friendly tutor to show you how. Post your idea, “How about we…” and see who else is interested. This app is available for free.

eHarmony

For those who are looking for a serious relationship that will potentially lead to marriage, this is the service for you. My mom met her second husband using this service and she has been married for 10 years now. Similar to Match.com, users are connected to others based on compatible interests. Finding your soul mate could be as easy as entering a list of your favorite movies. Once you’ve filled out an in-depth questionnaire, the wedding bells will be ringing. This app is available for free.

OkCupid

From my personal experience, OKCupid was the first dating service that made dating services cool. I have many 20-something and 30-something friends who have successfully found all manner of dating companions from this service. After building your profile, send your face and personality out into the world and see who likes you. If you see someone with a cool profile, like them back. After that, it’s up to you how far you take things. You can chat in-app, filter match options, and see what people think of you without getting caught. This app is available for free.

Let’s Date: Fun & Easy Social Dating

This iOS dating service takes a page or two from Tinder by allowing users to approve or remove potential dates with just a swipe. It also requires that you have a Facebook account with at least 50 friends for a year. So, it is quite a bit harder to make up your online persona just to be a jerk on a date. Once two people approve of each other anonymously, Let’s Date will notify both parties involved and even suggest a safe place to meet for the upcoming rendezvous. This app is available for free.

Coffee Meets Bagel

I can’t count the number of times my single friends have asked me if I have any other single friends that they would be interested in. When on the spot, I can never think of anyone. This app makes it possible for my single friends to dig through my contacts in order to meet up. That is, users log in through Facebook and the app lists friends of friends that also use the service. If your old high school buddy is an acquaintance of a pretty single woman he forgot he knew, you’ll be able to ask her on a date and your mutual friend can be the conversation starter. This app is available for free.

Pure

This is one of those dating services that seem to be dedicated to the great hook-up. In today’s world, a one-night stand is more common than it used to be and services like Pure help facilitate that kind of meeting. If you want to meet up with someone in your area, post your request. The request will be visible to other users for one hour. If someone in the area likes where you are headed, you will be connected via chat and be able to arrange the location with no fuss or muss. This app is available for free.

Twine

Most dating services allow you to remain anonymous until you find someone you are interested in. This service allows you to remain anonymous while you are getting to know someone and you are the one who chooses whether to reveal your identity to your suitor. The app also makes conversation starting easier with the “ICE Breaker” feature, which suggests topics that it recognizes as a common interest between two parties. This app is available for free.

Smart Search spices up Spotlight search on iOS 7

Spotlight can be used to search for content (music, app, mail etc.) on your iPhone, iPad or iPod and it can be accessed by swiping down the Home screen. Personally, I’ve never found Spotlight search useful and I rarely use it except when I’m tempted to. However, iOS 8 takes the feature to a whole new level by allowing users to search for an iTunes song, App Store app, website, Wikipedia entry and much more directly from Spotlight.

Inspired by iOS 8 Spotlight search, Smart Search is a new jailbreak tweak that improves the functionality of Spotlight search on jailbroken iOS 7 devices by expanding its search capability. It gives users the ability to search for a keyword from the App Store, iTunes Store, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and more. We decided to give Smart Search a try and it worked flawlessly as advertised.

Once you install the tweak, swipe down the Home screen to open Spotlight. You’ll notice a revamped Spotlight search with a number of new app icons above the search field. Tap on an app icon and enter your keyword or phrase to search it from that particular app. For instance, if you tap on the App Store icon and type in a keyword, it will display a list of results derived from the App Store. Likewise, you can search from the following sources:

• App Store
• iTunes Store
• Google
• Spotify
• TMDb
• Wikipedia
• YouTube

When you tap on a search result, the corresponding app will launch if you already have it, otherwise it will launch Safari. For example, if you tap on a search result from Spotify, it will open the Spotify app if you already have it, or else, it will launch Safari. Smart Search also includes an iPhone icon that allows you to search for content on your device.

Once you’ve installed the tweak, you’ll find a new preferences panel in the Settings app for Smart Search. There, you can choose which search sources or plugin you want to enable as well as rearrange the icons in Spotlight by making use of the drag handles.

Smart Search is an impressive Spotlight extension and displays the search results accurately and quickly. If you’re keen to enjoy iOS 8′s Spotlight search or a similar concept on your jailbroken iOS 7 device, you might want to give Smart Search a try. The developer also notes that more search sources will be available in the future.

The tweak is available in Cydia’s BigBoss repository for $2.49 and is compatible with iOS 7 devices.

Tweetbot 3 quietly rolls out animated GIF support via iOS media player

You’re probably aware that Twitter began supporting animated GIFs via its web interface in mid-June. If so, you may also recall that Twitter’s iOS client has picked up support for this popular file format a mere week later.
The feature isn’t exclusive to the company’s own mobile apps: Twitter soon after updated its API to let makers of third-party clients implement direct GIF sharing via pic.twitter.com links.
Tapbots’ Tweetbot, one of the best Twitter clients for the Mac and iOS devices, does not officially recognize animated GIFs. That’s why tapping a pic.twitter.com GIF link in Tweetbot for iPhone opens the detail view for the tweet itself rather than play the embedded animation inline.
This has been driving me nuts – but not anymore. As it turns out, Tapbots yesterday issued a maintenance update to Tweetbot for the iPhone and iPod touch which apparently adds support for animated GIFs via Twitter’s pic.twitter.com links. Strangely enough, the official release notes make no mention of this nice little addition whatsoever…
As first noticed by Aldrin Calimlim of AppAdvice, updating your Tweetbot 3 copy to version 3.4.1 makes animated GIFs play within the app.
I can confirm that this is true.
With the previous Tweetbot 3.4 installed on my iPhone, I tapped the animated GIF embedded in this example tweet, to no avail. As can be seen on the screenshots top of post, Tweetbot simply took me to the tweet detail view.
Once I updated to the latest Tweetbot 3.4.1, animated GIFs started showing thumbnails inline with a play icon, indicating the media could be played within the app, as shown below. Tap it and Tweetbot reproduces the embedded animated GIF, though still not inline.

Instead, the software passes the link to the iOS media player provided as a card hovering above your timeline. There’s a full screen button that can be tapped to enjoy the animation without any UI distractions. You can also pause the playback and access other standard iOS media player controls as you normally would.

That’s how Tweetbot now handles animated GIFs in both the latest version of iOS 7 and the iOS 8 Beta 4. It’s different to how Tweetbot handles pic.twitter.com links for regular images or App Store links, both of which render inline.
If I had to take a wild guess here, I’d say Tapbots has decided to use iOS’s built-in media player as a stop-gap solution of sorts as they’re working on implementing animated GIFs inline. Regardless, this is great news because previously, you had to paste a tweet link into your web browser to see the GIF animated inside Twitter’s web app.
For those wondering, Tweetbot for Mac still won’t do animated GIFs, nor would Tweetbot for iPad [$2.99 download].
The only viable explanation must be that Tapbots has either forgotten to mention this feature in its release notes or the company intentionally isn’t making any fuss about it, perhaps to quietly test the feature with its customers.
At any rate, release notes accompanying the download mention three minor improvements : a fix for iOS 8 beta issues, another fix dealing with Flickr image previews and various other bug fixes.
Tweetbot for the iPhone and iPod touch is $4.99 in the App Store.
The native app requires iOS 7.0 or later.
If you want the extend your Tweetbot experience to the Mac, the OS X client will run you $19.99.

Claimed circuit board hints at NFC-enabled iPhone 6 - again!

Combing through our archive of posts mentioning “iPhone” and “NFC” is all it takes to realize that talk of Apple allegedly adopting NFC is intensifying, not dying down. In fact, rumors calling for NFC-enabled iPhones date as far back as 2011!
Thus far, however, the iconic smartphone has not picked up support for NFC technology, which is an acronym for Near Field Communication. On the other hand, Apple has numerous NFC-related patents.
Additionally, it doesn’t really hurt to mention that a growing number of high-end Android handsets include NFC as part of their standard feature set. Well, today a claimed image has surfaced apparently picturing an iPhone 6 printed circuit board with what appears to be an embedded NFC chip…
Shared by the French blog Nowhereelse.fr [Google translate] which obtained them from one of its Chinese sources, a series of photographs show the purported logic board said to belong to a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 model.
In addition to the expected  components such as three times faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi, there seems to be an NFC chip in there. The publication’s well-informed source has stated that the iPhone 6, internally referred to as N61, has unspecified NFC capabilities.
Despite the obvious similarities between the supposed iPhone 6 logic board and the iPhone 5s motherboard, the former’s layout appears slightly redesigned with screw holes matching up perfectly with those spotted in recent leaks of iPhone 6 rear shell parts.

MacRumors editor Eric Slivka took it upon himself to visualize just how this circuit board compares to the existing iPhone 5s part. In addition to a much longer part extending across what would be the top of a 4.7-inch iPhone 6 model, the components pictured on the images indicate the part could be genuine (though it’s hard to tell for sure).

Slivka explains:

With the photos showing only the bare printed board and no chips or other components installed, it is difficult to tell much new information from the part, although the locations of some components can be identified based on their similarities to other iPhone logic boards.

NFC is commonly used for contactless transactions and data exchange.
Android, for instance, uses NFC to pair devices securely before establishing an ad-hoc Wi-Fi Direct session between them. This is called Android Beam and select Samsung devices come with the company’ own implementation, dubbed S-Beam, which only works across Galaxy devices.
It’s fairly safe to speculate that Apple doesn’t need NFC for wireless file sharing – AirDrop gets the job done over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Mobile payments? It’s been suggested before that Apple’s own mobile payment solution would pass on NFC due to security concerns – marketing boss Phil Schiller famously said that it wasn’t clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem.
Apple’s many patents may offer some additional clues in the form of NFC-powered digital media gifting between iOS devices, wireless data exchange over NFC, proximity-based data transfers, the connected home (see below) and, yes, the mythical iWallet.

Another possibility: as NFC exchanges are possible between an idle NFC device and an unpowered NFC chip (often called a “tag”), maybe Apple is looking to enhance iBeacons with NFC support?
Let’s also mention that AuthenTec, a smart sensor maker Apple bought to build Touch ID, used to build NFC chips for clients.
With so many conflicting rumors pertaining to NFC-enabled iPhones having been swirling for years now, you’re advised not to get ahead of yourself predicting what this claimed circuit board leak may or may not indicate in terms of rumored iPhone 6 features.
Coincidentally or not, VentureBeat (not the most reliable of sources) earlier this week said that the iPhone 6 packs in an NFC chip, wireless charging, a better 4G antenna and “a much bigger screen”, among several other highly-anticipated features.
One thing’s for sure: Fall can’t come soon enough.

Truefilm is a comprehensive photo editing app with unique features

Though there is a ton of camera apps on the App Store, one recent addition caught my eye: Truefilm. This app is a spin on your normal photo editing app with filters, basic controls, and frames, however, the app offers a couple features I’ve never seen implemented in a mobile photo editing app, such as version tracking. Read my full Truefilm review to see if it’s worth your $0.99.

Usage

When first launching Truefilm, you’re brought to a menu where you can choose whether you’d like to take a photo to edit in the app or choose one from your Camera Roll. When taking a photo in the app, you’re brought to a standard camera view.
Once in the editor, you’ll notice a huge library of editing options from the bottom of the screen. Tapping on the first button from the left-hand side of the screen will bring you to the app’s core editing features where you can edit clarity, brightness, and other basic options.
To access Truefilm’s  library of photo filters, tap on the flower-shaped button to the right of the editing button. To apply a filter, just tap on it. Additionally, you can crop, rotate and adjust your photos from the button directly to the right of the filter button. In Truefilm, you can crop your photo by hand or choose an aspect ratio.
Two of Truefilm’s more unique features, Smoothen and Patch, are available for use from the circular button located to the right of the crop button on the bottom of the screen. Smoothen lets Truefilm users selectively smoothen their iPhone photos. When using the feature, you’re prompted to set a brush size and then selectively smoothen using your finger.
The Patch features simply lets you patch a part of your photo with another section of your photo. For instance, if you’re editing a portrait and want to edit out a skin blemish, tap into the Patch tool and select the blemish. Then, select another point in the photograph that you’d like to replace the blemish with. In most cases, this would be another part of the person’s face.
To add frames to your photo, tap into the frame section of Truefilm and select the filter you’d like to use. You can change the color of your frame from the top of the app and adjust its size from the bottom of your screen.
Finally, if you look to the right of the frame button, you can tap into the Truefilm’s version viewer. From the viewer, you can scroll back to view every stage of edits you’ve made. To revert to a previous edit, just tap on said edit and Truefilm will load it. Pretty neat if you ask me.

Design

When editing photos in Truefilm, you’ll notice that the app’s design is very simple with all features being within reach from editing menu’s home screen. This is nice when editing photos on-the-go as you don’t have to search through multiple menus when you want to upload a photo to Facebook.

The Good

Truefilm has a large library of filters that can be used to enhance any photograph. Additionally, being able to view your photo’s version history is very nice, especially if you want to revert your photograph to a previous edit while leaving other earlier edits untouched. Additionally, Truefilm’s editing features are stellar as you can make loads of adjustments, from contrast to tint to brightness, within the app’s editor.

The Bad

Truefilm’s interface feels a bit unoriginal to me as the app’s interface looks very similar to that of Afterlight and other photography apps I’ve used in the past. If the developers could spice up Truefilm’s interface while still keeping the app’s usability, I’d be satisfied.

Value

With such a large amount of filters and editing features, I believe that Truefilm is a great deal for any iPhone photographer who wants to edit photos on the fly.

Conclusion

If you’re a filter geek, and are looking for another app to add to your photo collection, I’d highly recommend purchasing Truefilm. The application includes all necessary photo editing features with a large selection of filters and a few very unique features like version tracking. Download Truefilm in the App Store for $0.99.

Related Apps

If you’re big on filter-heavy photo editing apps, you’ll definitely want to check out Afterlight and Camera+. Both apps feature large libraries of filters and tons of great photo editing features.

The best jailbreak tweaks for the Music app on iOS 7

If you’re a big fan of music, you might be interested in taking a look at a list of top jailbreak tweaks that will spice up your stock Music app and allow you to customize it. Although the Music app in iOS 7 has a sleek design and offers most of the features a user might want, there are many tweaks available in Cydia that give you more control over this stock app and enhance your music listening experience. This is why we have compiled a list of the best jailbreak tweaks that will boost your Music app…

MiniPlayer

Developed by MPow and designed by Surenix, MiniPlayer is a tweak that ports the iTunes 11 mini player to iOS 7 and allows you to control music from anywhere within iOS. The tweak adds a small widget which hovers over your Lock screen, Home screen or any app that is open and displays the information about a currently playing song, provides playback controls such as play/pause, next and previous, displays the album artwork and provides a scrubbing ability to move to a specific portion of the currently playing track.
The most interesting feature of MiniPlayer is the ability to search for a song and add it to the queue to be played next. It also allows users to arrange the songs in the queue by making use of the drag handles. You can move the music widget around on your screen and hide it by swiping it to the left or right side of the screen. If you don’t want it to hover on your screen, you can assign an activator action to show or hide it.
MiniPlayer is available in Cydia for $1.99 and works on all iOS 5, 6 and 7 devices.

Musiex

Next in the list is Musiex, a tweak that is somewhat similar to MiniPlayer but instead, it appears at the top of your screen just like the iOS notification banner. Compared to MiniPlayer, Musiex lacks the ability to queue songs to be played next but allows users to play/pause a currently playing track, move to the next or previous song, scrub songs and provides shuffle and repeat options as well.
The tweak can be accessed from the Lock screen, Home screen, or within an app by making use of an activator gesture to show it. Swiping it up or pressing the Home button will hide the tweak. It also supports many third party music apps from the App Store.
One favorable feature of Musiex is the ability to customize the tweak’s interface including the background color, opacity as well as the text color. It gives you a complete control over how the tweak looks.
Musiex is available for $0.99 via Cydia’s BigBoss repository and is compatible with all iOS 7 devices excluding iPad.

Aria

One of the most popular music tweak available on Cydia, Aria brings the stock iOS 7 Music app to life and provides users with the most wanted features. The notable change that Aria brings is the grid view which displays albums and artists as grids instead of a list. Additionally, the tweak provides the following features:

• Queuing: You can choose which song you want to be played now, next or even last
• Change the look of the “Now Playing” interface and apply a tinted dark view to it
• Continue to play in shuffle mode after the last track of an album has been finished
• Apply a dark theme to lyrics view and enlarge the fonts
• Many other customization options

Aria is compatible with iOS 7 devices and is available in Cydia’s BigBoss repository for $1.99.

Colorize

If you are bored of the stock Music app’s look, you may want to try out Colorize. The tweak colorizes the “Now Playing” interface of the Music app based on the song’s artwork. It brings a pretty nice look to the Music app and the color really matches the song’s artwork.
Colorize is available in Cydia for $0.99 and is compatible with iOS 7 devices.

Articon

Articon is a simple yet an interesting tweak that brings a change to your media app icons. The tweak changes the icon of the Now Playing music app to that of the album artwork. Not only does it support the stock Music app but also other third party media apps including Spotify, etc.
If you want to spice up your Home screen, you can purchase Articon for $0.99 from Cydia.

Pluck 2

Pluck 2 is definitely a useful tweak that comes in handy in many situations especially when you’re driving a car. The tweak allows users to pick a song directly from the Lock screen or Control Center without having to unlock the device to choose a song. It adds a small icon beside the media controls in Control Center and tapping on it will open up your music library. Additionally, an icon is also added to the bottom left corner of the Lock screen and holding on it for a short period of time will display your music library.
Pluck 2 is worth a try and is available via Cydia’s BigBoss repository for $0.99.

Lyricalizer

A free and useful tweak that automatically fetches the lyrics of a currently playing song and displays it to you in the “Now Playing” interface. This saves you the time of having to add them through iTunes. I tested the tweak with several tracks and found out that it displayed the lyrics of about 60% of the songs I selected.
Lyricalizer can be download for free via Cydia and it supports iOS 5, 6 and 7 devices.

MusicAppMods

While most of the tweak listeds above provide you more customization options and add new features, MusicAppMods aims at providing more details about a particular song when you tap and hold on it. It displays the:

• Duration of the song
• Number of times played
• Skip count
• Release Date
• Last Played
• Track number
• Album track count

MusicAppMods also allows users to hide in-line album artwork. The tweak is compatible with iOS 7 and is available for $0.99 via Cydia.

CustomCover

CustomCover spices up your lockscreen by providing a range of themes which you can apply to the song artwork in the lockscreen to customize its look. The following themes are available:

• CD Case
• Circle
• Clean
• Default
• Faded
• Insert
• Ripped
• Vinyl
• Vinyl Mini

You can also set the artwork as the wallpaper, remove or adjust the position of the media controls on the Lock screen, colorise the Lock screen based on the song’s artwork and more.
CustomCover is compatible with Aria & MusicGestures. It costs $0.99 and is available in Cydia.

MusicGestures

MusicGestures gives you the ability to control the currently playing song in the stock Music app by making use of gestures instead of tapping on the buttons. A total of 7 gestures are available (Swipe, Tap and Long press) that allow you to perform the following actions:

• Previous Track
• Next Track
• Play/Pause
• Show Flipside
• Show Lyrics/Rating
• Seek Backward/Forward

If you want a Music app with gesture based controls, you may want to try out MusicGestures. It supports iOS 4 – iOS 7 devices and is available for free in Cydia.

EqualizerEverywhere

If you’re looking for a way to customize the sound of an audio track, you might want to try out EqualizerEverywhere. The tweak adds equalizer settings to Control Center, which can be accessed by swiping the audio controls from right to left. Swiping once more will provide you access to a list of equalizer presets. Users can also create their own custom EQ preset and save it for future use.
The tweak not only works with the stock Music app, but with other media apps as well. EqualizerEverywhere is available in Cydia for $3 and supports iOS 7 devices.
These are the top jailbreak tweaks that will spice up your iOS 7 Music app and bring a new look to it. Have you tried any of them before? Is there any other tweak that deserves to be on the list? Let us know in the comments section below.

Apple Acquired 'Pandora for Books' Startup BookLamp In April

Apple has acquired BookLamp, a "Pandora for books" startup that aimed to provide personalized book recommendations to readers via specialized algorithms, reports TechCrunch. BookLamp first shut down in April.

BookLamp was known for its Book Genome project, a book discovery engine that analyzed the text of books to break them down by various themes and variables to let readers search for books similar to books they liked.

For example, analyzing The Da Vinci Code, the search engine would break it down to elements of 18.6% Religion and Religions Institutions, 9.4% Police & Murder Investigation, 8.2% Art and Art Galleries, and 6.7% Secret Societies and Communities, and then it would be able to recommend a book similar to The Da Vinci Code based on that data.

BookLamp screenshot via Mashable
This type of analytics service could be directly used to improve recommendations and search in iBooks, and as noted by TechCrunch, BookLamp's technology could be used to create a competitor to Amazon X-Ray, which lets readers see where in the book certain terms or characters appear.

BookLamp also provided content analysis services to a number of e-book distributors like Amazon, Apple, and other publishers, screening books for categorization and providing a platform for publishers to screen manuscripts. The acquisition will see Apple ramping up its focus on books, according to one source with knowledge of the acquisition.

Part of the reason that Apple made the move to acquire BookLamp was because of this long list of clients. "At first Apple and BookLamp talked about growing their contract, but then they talked more from a strategic standpoint," a source says. "What Apple wanted to do was, instead of contract, they wanted to make sure whatever work was done was done just for them."

And what is that work? The details are not clear yet, but the source says, "in broad strokes, the goal that [founder Aaron] Stanton and three of the folks he was working with from the original BookLamp crew is to beat Amazon at their own game."

BookLamp was purchased for a sum between $10 million and $15 million and while Apple has yet to confirm the purchase, a large amount evidence gathered by TechCrunch suggests several former BookLamp employees have relocated to Cupertino and are now working for Apple.

Update 6:30 PM PT: Apple has confirmed the purchase of BookLamp, giving Re/code its standard statement on purchases: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans."

EqualizerEverywhere makes it possible to adjust audio in any app

EqualizerEverywhere is a recently released jailbreak tweak that makes it possible to create and activate custom equalizer presets on the fly. If you’re someone who listens to a variety of different audio types on the iPhone, and you’re looking for a way to customize sound based on the type of audio, this is a tweak that you should definitely investigate.
We’ve taken EqualizerEverywhere for a spin, and we were pretty impressed by what we found. Have a look at our video walkthrough after the jump.

After installing the tweak, you’ll find a new preference panel in the stock Settings app dedicated to EqualizerEverywhere. The preferences contain your standard kill-switch toggle, a toggle for displaying the equalizer in Control Center, a group of presets, and the equalizer itself.

Users can choose to adjust the equalizer settings within the tweak’s preferences, but you’d be better off doing so from Control Center. While music is playing, swipe from right to left on the audio controls to reveal the same equalizer that’s found in the preferences. You can swipe once more to access the same list of presets as well.

The tweak’s presets contain a nice helping of pre-built equalizer settings available for certain music playback situations. You’ll find settings such as Earbuds for when listening via headphones, or Techno, appropriate for when you’re listening to EDM genre of music. There are well over half a dozen different presets to choose from, and each can be deleted entirely if you deem them unnecessary.
Users have the option of adjusting the equalizer settings and then creating custom presets based off of the current adjustments. You can give your custom preset its own name, and quickly access it on the fly from the tweak’s preferences or from Control Center.

Although the tweak worked fairly well from my testing, I must say that I did run into an issue when streaming audio via HTML5 audio tags in a browser. HTML5 audio simply would not play with EqualizerEverywhere installed. I never encountered a problem elsewhere in my testing, but this is something that you should be aware of, especially if you often enjoy listening to HTML5 audio streams via the browser.
If you’re an audiophile, or even if you just want to have more fine-grained control over your listening experience, then EqualizerEverywhere is a tweak that’s worth your time.  It’s a little pricey at $3.00, so if the idea of having an equalizer that you can adjust on the fly is never something that occurred to you, chances are you probably wouldn’t use it enough or be interested in it enough to justify the investment.
What do you think about EqualizerEverywhere? Share your thoughts and comments down below in the comments.

Congress passes bill making phone unlocking legal

Earlier this year, a DMCA exemption expired, which made unlocking your iPhone not only illegal, but also punishable by a $500,000 fine, five years in jail, or both.
Today, Congress passed a bill that makes unlocking your phone without permission from your carrier legal. The bill was first unanimously passed by the Senate a couple of weeks ago, and the policy was unanimously passed by the House of Representatives this afternoon. The last step is for President Obama to sign the bill, which will officially turn it into a law.

The legislation approved by the House Friday, which the Senate unanimously approved last week, reinstates a 2010 rulemaking by the Librarian of Congress so that consumers can transfer, or “unlock,” their cell phones without running afoul of copyright laws. It also directs the Librarian of Congress to consider whether other wireless devices, like tablets, should be eligible for unlocking.

As it stands, this bill does not fix the issue permanently. If anything, it only governs the Library of Congress to allow users and third party companies to legally unlock devices acquired from a carrier without breaking copyright laws. The Library of Congress will examine the legislation in 2015 and tri-annually after that to ensure that the law is still relevant. However, due to huge backing of the bill by not only the public but the unanimous vote of the Congress, the chances of the new rule being revoked anytime soon are slim.
The results of this policy largely affect carrier competition and the freedom of consumers to use their devices on whatever carrier they choose. This liberty works to encourage competition among cellular carriers in terms of network quality, availability, and price, as customers won’t have to buy a new phone when switching carriers.

Bose sues Beats over noise-cancelling patents

As Apple is prepping to shell out $3 billion to buy Beats Music and Beats Electronics’ high-end headphone biz, reports are coming in that audio equipment specialist Bose has gone on the offense and is now taking Beats Electronics to court over its noise-cancelling headphone patents.
Bose alleges its patented tech is used in the Beats Pro noise-cancelling headphones and other products like the Beats Studio and Beats Studio Wireless.
Furthermore, Bose is now seeking financial damages and a sales ban on some Beats headphones, claiming patent infringement. Bose develops, markets and sells a vast range of loudspeakers, noise-cancelling headsets, automotive sound systems, amplifiers and headphones.
Needless to say, Bose holds a number of patents in this space. Its QuietComfort line of headphones has in particular proven itself popular with consumers who want to get away from outside noise. And just like Beats, Bose gets frequently criticized as some reviewers slam their high-end products for being overpriced and of average quality…

The news was first reported in a tweet by CNBC.

Bose’s current lineup of noise-canceling headphones incorporate “at least 36 U.S. patents and applications,” according to court documents, 22 of which are granted patents and 14 applications are currently undergoing review by patent authorities.
According to Bose’s full complaint filed with the United States International Trade Commission on Friday, listed on Priorsmart, the following patents are being asserted against Beats:

• 8,073,151: “Dynamically configurable ANR filter block topology” by Joho et. al.. Includes 30 claims (2 indep.). Was application 12/430,994. Granted 12/6/2011.
• 8,073,150: “Dynamically configurable ANR signal processing topology” by Joho et. al.. Includes 24 claims (2 indep.). Was application 12/430,990. Granted 12/6/2011.
• 6,717,537: “Method and apparatus for minimizing latency in digital signal processing systems” by Fang et. al. Prosecuted by Thelen Reid & Priest LLP Robbins; Steven J.. Includes 19 claims (3 indep.). Was application 10/179,930. Granted 4/6/2004.
• 8,345,888: “Digital high frequency phase compensation” by Carreras et. al.. Includes 16 claims (3 indep.). Was application 12/750,309. Granted 1/1/2013.
• 8,054,992: “High frequency compensating” by Sapiejewski.. Includes 23 claims (6 indep.). Was application 11/409,894. Granted 11/8/2011.

The civil complaint (Bose is a privately-owned company) mentions Beat Electronics and Beats Electronics International as defendants. if you want to read the court document here

Beats has been building high-end headphones since 2005. Bose, on the other hand, has been in the business since 1964 so it’ll be interesting seeing how this one plays out.
Each company has found lucrative success, but the timing of Bose’s complaint is impeccable, no question about it.
CEO Tim Cook said during last earnings call with Wall Street analyst that the Beats transaction would close during the current quarter. Because the transaction is still pending regulatory approval, any damages stemming from the lawsuit could be factored into sale price.

The Beats Powerbeats noise-cancelling headphones.

Various Beats products, as explained on the company’s website, tap three different technologies to surprise outside noise: noise-isolation, noise-cancellation and adaptive noise-cancellation.
Founded in 1964 by Amar G. Bose, Framingham, Massachusetts-headquartered Bose Corporation specializes in audio equipment. The company has eight manufacturing facilities, 153 retail stores as of April 2013 and an automotive subsidiary in Stow, Massachusetts.
I’m not a big fan of lawsuits though I’ll be the first to admit it’d be heck of a fun watching Bose’s legal sharks cross examine Beats’ Jimmy Iovine.
I’ve reached out to both Apple and Bose and will update the story if either company responds, or as more information becomes available.