iOS 7 Find My iPhone Security Loophole

The latest iOS software for the iPhone, iOS 7, has many positive and negative new features. For those that aren't keen on pastel colours and transparent affects then iOS 7 is not you. Of greater importance though is a potential security flaw with Control Centre. Control Center is a new feature which lets you control a variety of system settings.

When using Control Centre from the lock screen you can activate Airplane mode - this prevent's Find My iPhone working if your device has been stolen.

However this device is still not usable to criminals due to iOS 7's Activation Lock:

With Activation Lock, your Apple ID and password will be required before anyone can:

• Turn off Find My iPhone on your device
• Erase your device
• Reactivate and use your device

To avoid this is turn off Control Center for the Lock Screen from the Settings app on the iOS device.

Apple have released iOS 7.0.2 to patch a security flaw where users could gain some access to the iPhone through the Control Centre.

iOS 7 Released 18/9/13

Today Apple have released the latest version of their mobile devices operating system, iOS 7. It is available for millions of iOS devices through the 'Software Update' page on the General section of the Settings app.

iOS 7 is completely redesigned from iOS 6, which had previously followed the UI look from each previous version of the mobile operating system. iOS 7 takes a new approach of simplicity, layering and a new colour palette. All of the Apple apps, Camera, Messages etc. are also completely redesigned.

The new design minimises intrusion and hopes to give the user the information they exactly when and where they need it. For example FaceTime is full screen, as the conversation you are having is the focus of your attention.

The redesigned Photos app looks really good. It automatically groups your photos in 'moments' based on the time and location that the photos were taken. Other changes include the Control Centre which you can pull up from the bottom of the page to turn things like bluetooth and wi-fi  on and off. Also included in Control Centre is brightness controls, music controls and a torch (flashlight).

For more information see Apple's webpages: http://www.apple.com/uk/ios/

Siri in your car

Apple's Siri comes to selected new cars. Once the iPhone is paired the car entertainment system can be used to interact with Siri to listen to text messages and make basic enquiries.

Facebook Poke

Incredibly Facebook now has over one billion active users each month! This huge success is often accredited to Facebook's constantly changing service, always adapting to include new features or keep up with (or purchase!) competition such as Instagram and Google+. Today they have launched yet another iOS application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It's simply called "Poke".

Poking a friend has been a decreasingly used feature amongst many users. Since poking became a feature of Facebook a lot has changed. Your profile's wall as become a timeline and the use of mobile or third applications has increased massively. Messages have become a defacto way to prompt a response from a Facebook friend. The new app brings more to poking your Facebook friends.

With the new Poke app you can poke your Facebook friends who also use Poke app too, and you can include a message, photo or video along with your poke. You can even control how long that the recipient can see your poke for, down to only 3 seconds! Poke allows you full control of who gets your poke, and you can select whole groups of users.

Will Poke be a success? Will it replace dropping a quick message to your mates or posting a pic on your timeline? Only time will tell. Many of the options are already built into Facebook, and this app isn't yet cross-platform. It may just be a flash-in-the-pan novelty, but at last it keeps Facebook's ever changing list of services fresh.

Let us know what you think by dropping a comment below.

Google Maps for iPhone

Google Maps have released an iPhone app bringing Apple's mapping service back to millions of iOS 6 users who are discontent with Apple's in built maps. The upgrade to iOS 6 forced users to lose their Google maps but users gained turn-by-turn navigation and an incredible new 3D mapping system. Google have been quick to release a similar 3D mapping service on Google Earth, fly over San Francisco on Google Earth to see for yourself.

Apple's maps have been built using vector images, and load quickly at all scales. Google previous maps used to load at each scale but have been redesigned to uses vector imagery as well. Google have also included turn-by-turn navigation to compete with Apple's maps and the many other navigation apps available, often for free on the iPhone platform.

To download today just click here


 More information from Google: click here

Survey: How many Google apps?

If you use Google's extensive range of free services how long is it till you ask the question, should I get an Android device? If you are reading this on an Android device then I suggest you are convinced, but for iPhone users, or even non-smartphone users, an Android phone can be increasingly tempting.

Once Google is your main source of email it makes sense to move your master contacts list to GMail. With the ease of access through the website, mobile apps or browser extensions before long it's a convenient place to store almost everything, calendar, notes, and documents. All accessible on any computer through a browser and on your smartphone via apps. With an Android device all of these services are smoothly integrated into the system and sync so that you are always up to date.

The big question for non-Android users is, 'how many Google apps do I have to use before I switch to Android?'

The below survey should provide some insight into whether or not people are shifting from the iPhone and the Blackerry to Android powered smartphones.
 

Is Android ahead of iOS 6?

This video from Wicked4u2c on YouTube runs through a lot of the new iOS 6 features which will be coming to Apple's iPhone in the Autumn.  A lot of these features where met with rapturous applause at Apple's WWDC conference earlier this year, but how many are already included in Android's Ice Cream Sandwich operating system?

 

Comments welcome!

iOS 6

The Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) earlier today included the announcement of iOS 6. iOS 6 is the sixth major version of the Apple mobile operating system which rus the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. There are hundreds of new features but some of the major new features are listed below.

• Maps - All new Apple Maps including Turn-by-Turn Navigation and Siri integration.
• Facebook integration throughout the OS
• FaceTime over a cellular connection
• Improved Safari including better iCloud integration
• New options for controlling alerts, including "Do Not Disturb" mode
• Shared Photostreams
• Passbook - for a paperless ticketing system

iOS 6 will be coming to iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 4th Gen, iPad 2 and the New iPad this Autumn.

Samuel L Jackson stars in a new iPhone 4S advert

Apple's latest iPhone advert features Samuel L Jackson. Apple are really pushing Siri in a lot of different advertising campaigns at the moment, they obviously see Siri as one of their key unique selling points.


Share you thought's about Siri in the comments area below, or send a tweet to @webwarpblog.

Glowing Apple Logo iPhone Mod

It's a very cool iPhone mod, but quite expensive at $159! Perhaps this will make it as a standard feature for Apple's next generation iPhone and iPad models? It's a little flashy on a mobile device though, even for Apple. Check out the video below from iphoneforums.net. Other video's show that this is linked to the screen brightness settings, just like a MacBook.



Do you like this iPhone mod? Feel free to leave us your comments below.

Emoticons on iOS: Emoji Keyboard

Everyone uses the classic smiley face :-) or winking ;-) but on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad you could be showing your emotions in a lot more detail! These faces look great on the retina display too.

To enable the Emoji keyboard follow these quick and simple instructions below!

Mac OS X Mountain Lion's Messages Beta

If you are excited by today's Mac OS X Mountain Lion announcement and can't wait till the summer to experience some of the apps then you are in luck! Apple have released a beta version of Messages. Messages brings you the iOS iMessage feature to your Mac. You can communicate to and from Mac's and iOS devices and even include attachments such as pictures and HD video.

You can start a conversation on your Mac and then continue it on your iPhone whilst on the move. All of your iOS devices can receive your new message notifications. You can even go from messaging a contact to joining them in a FaceTime call, to speak to them face to face.

Download the Messages beta here.

Mac OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview

Apple have announced that their next version of Mac OS X will be called Mountain Lion. It will be released in the summer of 2012. For those of you who are Apple developers you can download the developer preview today.

The new feature list is heavily influenced by iOS as many predicted and Mac OS X Mountain Lion will include dedicated Mac apps for Notes, Reminders and iMessage. All of which work with iCloud. There will also be a notification centre, which can be accessed via a trackpad gesture, to centralise notifications of new iMessages, emails and notifications from third party apps. Lots of the iOS features within apps, such as the share button will be included so you can tweet from within apps, just like on the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.

For more information see Apple's Mountain Lion Preview.

Poll: iPhone 5 in 2012?

The tradition of the past few years is that Apple have released a new iPhone every year. We want to hear you prediction for 2012.

As a reminder:
2007 iPhone
2008 iPhone 3G
2009 iPhone 3GS
2010 iPhone 4
2011 iPhone 4S

 

Google Maps Style Improvements

Google Maps has become the standard for mapping in the last few years. Their maps are accessed by people all across the globe for accurate and up to date maps of the world.

The recent 2011 update is compared to 2009 on Google's Lat Long blog, the images are below.

New York is a good demonstration of how the map is easier to read as the main roads are shown narrower.

This is most dramatic change is in Sydney, where there is a large concentration of main roads. The colours used in the map are toned down, and as a result more information can be displayed. This increases as you zoom in, where labels appear and are resized at every zoom level. The images below show London's South Bank.

And zoomed in London South Bank University shows the names of individual buildings. Try it yourself in the embedded map below.

View Larger Map

So how did an internet search engine become so dominant in the world of cartography?

iPhone 4S 3G Speed

Apple's latest handset, the iPhone 4S has two antennas. Whether this is a quest for speedier mobile internet access or just a necessity for Apple's iPhone 4S to overcome the signal problems which affected some (mainly left handed) iPhone 4 users, is a debate for another day.

The key thing to note is that this change increases the theoretical download speed over the 3G mobile network from 7.2 Mbps to 14.4 Mbps by using both antennas at full capacity. From Apple's website:

Image: Apple Inc http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/features/#performance

This claim is easy to make (and probably confirm) in laboratory conditions, but in the real world is it likely to happen? As any speed below 7.2 Mbps can't for certain be coming from this new dual antennas feature (despite the chances being that it probably is) I have set 7.2 Mbps as a benchmark. In a recent speed test with the iPhone 4S, in an urban area where there is good 3G coverage a download speed of 8.8 Mbps proves that this feature works in practice. And given the correct level of coverage, iPhone 4S users can benefit from faster speeds than (at the moment) any other 3G enable handset.

This is quite a turn around from the signal issues with the iPhone 4, and a welcome addition to an already fully featured handset. If you have tested the 3G speed of your handset, feel free to tweet @webwarpblog with details. Web Warp Blog recommends www.speedtest.net for internet speed testing. Mobile applications are available for iOS and Android devices.

My Starbucks Rewards

Starbucks have been running a card loyalty and benefit scheme called "Starbucks Card Reward" for some time. From tomorrow their new scheme "My Starbucks Rewards" replaces it. The same physical card can be used and the existing feature of topping up the card to make coffee purchases will remain. The differences are all in the benefits/rewards.

Previously you received benefits for using your card:

• "Free Extra Shot for your drink
• Free Soy and Whipped Cream for your drink
• Free Syrup for your drink
• Free Tall drink when you buy a bag of whole bean coffee (250g)
• Free Tall drink with a VIA® 12-pack 50p off Fresh Filter Coffee"

The new My Starbucks Rewards scheme features two levels of benefit.

App of the Day - Facebook Messenger - iOS, Android and Blackberry

Facebook Messenger is a new app for smartphones from Facebook. It's basically an exert from the main Facebook app which still includes messaging as a feature. The new app is purely for messaging and opens very quickly on iOS4 compared to the Facebook app.

Facebook messenger features more control over messaging alerts, it allows you to hide notifications for 1 hour or until 8am.

The new app looks to be aiming to compete with over online messaging service apps such as:
Skype
Microsoft Live Messenger
Google+
Twitter (to some extent)
BBM (on Blackberry)
What's App (which is a paid download)
iMessage (iOS 5 - due 12/10/11)

So with all these options, and many being cross platform, will operators loose out on revenue from SMS and MMS? More than likely.



Rating 3/5
Price - Free
Developer - Facebook

Image: Facebook

Angry Birds Infographic

Angry Birds can cause addiction, and for Rovio, huge profits! This info graphic explores the Angry Birds stats!

 
Infographic by: AYTM Market Research

You can now even play Angry Birds within Google+!

App of the Day - Facebook - iOS and Android

Facebook is 2nd most popular site in the world (Alexa rating page) and it has over 500 million active users. A lot of these users have smart phones and if you have an Android device or iPhone, iPod Touch etc. then the Facebook app is a must for you! Keep up to date with your friends latest statuses/photos/event invitations, all on the go. The Facebook app runs through a web fetching system so essentially all of the content within the app is actually online. This means that it is updated and improved all the time without the need to constantly download updates to the app itself. Facebook's mobile app incorporates all of the recent changes to Facebook's News Feed and privacy enhancements such as post approvals to add tagged items to your own wall.

The Facebook app also features Check In which uses your smartphones GPS to quickly determine your location, and also alerts you if a friend checks in nearby. You can look at pages on the go and read and respond to private messages. If it wasn't so buggy and often unreliable then it would get 5/5 but sadly it is so it's getting a 3/5 rating. It's also spookily similar to the Google+ app following recent changes...



Rating 3/5
Price - Free
Developer - Facebook

Image: Facebook