iOS

While we don't know when iOS 7 will make its debut, here's what we do know: it will be the biggest reinvention of Apple's flagship OS in years -- perhaps ever.

iOS was Scott Forstall's baby since its inception. He was an advocate of skeuomorphism, a design philosophy that brings the look and feel of real-world objects into software design. iOS' linen backgrounds, notepads, and famously terrible podcast app are all examples of this philosophy in practice.

Skeuomorphism has dominated iOS for years, thanks to Forstall and Steve Jobs, who also advocated for the approach. Its … Read more

Both Apple and Samsung have been in ongoing talks with the Department of Defense to bring their devices to the agency's employees, and now it looks like approval for device security is finally around the corner.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Defense Department reportedly plans to give security approval for Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and Apple's iPhones and iPads within the next few weeks.

The Defense Information Systems Agency, which rules what commercial technology the Pentagon can use, will decide within the next two weeks whether to accept Samsung's Galaxy smartphones loaded with Knox security … Read more

Amazon has enhanced its Kindle iOS app with new features of benefit to anyone but especially to those who are blind or visually impaired.

Released Wednesday, the latest version of the app supports Apple's VoiceOver technology, which reads aloud text that you've selected. More than 1.8 million books in the Kindle store are compatible with VoiceOver, according to Amazon. More than 900,000 of them are less than $4.99, while more than 1.5 million are less than $9.99.

You can turn on VoiceOver through the Accessibility options in the Settings menu on your iOS … Read more

Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president of industrial design and the visionary behind its hardware products, is taking his role as head of software design at the company very seriously, according to a new report.

Ive, just six months since taking over for ousted Scott Forstall as head of iOS design, has been going over the next iteration of the software, iOS 7, with a fine-toothed comb, Bloomberg is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the matter. His oversight and desire to dramatically change some parts of the software could cause the operating system to fall … Read more

Path recently announced it has reached 10 million users, and is now growing at 1 million users per week. The total number of users is low, especially when compared with Facebook's numbers, but don't let that fool you.

Path is a useful social platform, especially for those who aren't about sharing with large groups of friends, but instead keep a smaller list of friends to share personal moments with. With the growing popularity, you're likely to see posts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and even Foursquare.

Path is a private social network. Instead … Read more

This may be a post only a tech blogger could love, but if you have the need to take screenshots of entire, full-length Web pages on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, please continue reading.

It's easy to take a screenshot on an iOS device by pressing the sleep/wake button and Home button simultaneously. But what if you want to capture an entire Web page, beyond what is merely visible on the screen? Enter Barry Webpage Screenshot, a 99-cent app that lets you easily capture entire Web pages.

There are two ways to capture an entire Web page … Read more

Twitter said today that it has updated its stand-alone Vine mobile app to allow users to shoot video with both their front- and rear-facing cameras.

In a blog post, Twitter also said that Vine users now can tag someone in a post, meaning that people can, for example, shoot a video with a friend and add that person's name, or Twitter handle, in the post.

With the old version, users could only use the rear-facing cameras on their iPhones. Also, while it was possible to enter someone's name or Twitter ID in the associated text of a Vine … Read more

It's no secret Apple plans to show off the next major version of iOS at its annual developers conference in June, though what exactly will be different about the new software has been fuzzy.

Citing multiple people who have actually seen Apple's next iOS endeavor, 9to5Mac says Apple's making big changes in the look and feel of the software. Specifically making everything -- from app icons to interface features -- "very flat," as opposed to the bubbly and oftentimes realistic interfaces that have stayed mostly unchanged since 2007.

On top of this, the report adds … Read more