Today, Apple has released the final version of iOS 7.1 to consumers, following a very long period of beta testing. The update includes much-needed improvements for Touch ID, fixes several issues, and brings the long-rumoured CarPlay support to iOS.
The update also includes minor UI changes in iMessage, FaceTime, Phone app and much more.
Gábor Balogh, a freelance designer from Hungary, has designed a smartwatch that not only looks nice but that is actually smart. The concept design has been posted on Behance.
The design is based on a concept from Swedish watchmaker Triwa's Havana timepiece (of course with the company's permission to use the design) but replaces the watch face with a circular display. Balogh said:
"In this concept the UI does not have a predefined style, but it would match the housing. Only the navigational patterns have to be taken into consideration."
Google's Nexus 5 have been a well loved upgrade to the company's Nexus line of smartphones, but its camera is still lacking.
Android 4.4.2 aimed to fix the issues and improve the overall performance of the camera, instead, the update made it worse for some users. Google has finally acknowledged the issues with the camera in a post in its Issue Tracker form, and the company promises to roll out a solution soon.
The update will most likely rollout as Android 4.4.3 or it could simply be patched another way.
[via Google]
Samsung has been accused of benchmark-boosting on their Galaxy S4 and Note 3. AnandTech has published a table demonstrating some common phones and their benchmarks.
After the Android 4.4 KitKat the strange results and strange CPU activities have stopped happening. After applying the KitKat update, none of the apps behave any differently from any other application. Most of the time, the CPU cores are running at lower frequencies, and individual cores are often turned off.
[via Engadget]
Today Cryptocat, the secure messaging app, has finally launched on iOS after an initial rejection by Apple in December.
Previously the app was available through a web browser plugin. The app uses the OTR model, which offers strong encryption and forward secrecy for text conversations.
CNN has sold its news reader app, Zite, to Flipboard. As a part of the deal, Flipboard will team up with CNN to launch custom magazines for various CNN shows. The deal could be valued at $60 million over time.
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said:
"By bringing the Zite team and technology to Flipboard, we can deliver an even more personalized experience to every Flipboard reader."
The Verge reports that Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 update will include Cortana, the company's answer to Google Now and Siri. Sources have revealed that the voice assistant will replace the built-in Bing search functionality in the update.
A key part of Cortana is its ability to save information and data in a Notebook system. Notebook will allow the Cortana digital assistant to access information such as location data, behaviors, personal information, reminders, and contact information.
This afternoon at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Motorola announced that the Moto X, along with Moto Maker, will be expanding to Europe, Mexico, Australia and India within the second half of the year.
Starting in Q2 in both the UK and Germany, you'll be able to custom create and order a Moto X in a variety of colours, very much like U.S. customers have been able to. The company has not announced when the device will make it to Mexico.
Today, Apple has released an update which addresses the SSL verification issues that were found in Mac OS X.
The patch was first found in iOS and was promptly patched with iOS 7.0.6 (and iOS 6.1.6 for those who aren’t on iOS 7). When Cryptography professor Matthew Green discovered that this weakness existed in both iOS and OS X, he said:
“It’s as bad as you could imagine, that’s all I can say. Without the fix, a hacker could impersonate a protected site and sit in the middle as email or financial data goes between the user and the real site.”
The major security flaw allowed hackers to intercept email and communications that are supposed to be encrypted. Assuming the attacker had access to the same network as the mobile or desktop user, they could view and change any traffic between the user and any protected website, like Facebook or Gmail.
