Oh, Wow, This Isopod iPhone Case Is Particularly Hilarious and Amazing

I've seen a lot of weird iPhone cases in my day, and if there's one thing I've learned it’s that there’s always room to set the creepy bar a little bit higher. Behold:

You might not know much about isopods, which are crustaceans with segmented exoskeletons and two pairs of antennae. But if you want some type of creepy crawly to curl up around your iPhone (a major priority for everyone, right?), you need this. Thankfully, the Verge dug it up. Debuting on July 7 for $80 or $120—there are, of course, two models—the isopod case “is made for iPhone, but it can probably fit lots of other models!”

If you're not getting quite how it works, here's a handy step-by-step guide:

There’s something beautiful about the smooth lines of the exoskeleton, but the case loses some of that charm when you’re on the phone and it looks like a giant beetle (or shrimp) is biting your face off. Oh, and remember the two models? There’s silver, but there's also gold! A blinged-out isopod is just what the iPhone has been missing.

How to recover lost photos and data on your iPhone

Users who want to delete data on their iOS devices and make sure it never comes back should check out a handy iOS app called Kruptos that happens to be available free of charge right now. However, many iOS users may be wondering how to solve the exact opposite problem where they accidentally delete photos or files and are looking for a way to recover them. That’s where PhoneRescue, a new Mac and Windows app coming from iMobie, can come in handy.

According to the company, the recently launched application can recover lost data from iOS devices, but also from iPhone backups. PhoneRescue can recognize up to 22 types of files found on iOS devices, including contacts, messages, voicemail, calendar, photos, videos, Safari bookmarks and history and app data from various apps.

PhoneRescue could be useful whenever you accidentally delete data on the iPhone or other iOS devices, especially photos, which appears to be a problem for certain iOS users. For example, a thread on Apple’s Support Communities titled “iPhone 5: How to recover deleted photos?” has almost 250,000 views.

The application currently sells for $69.99 ($40 off its regular price), requires at least Windows XP or OS X 10.7 to run, and will retrieve lost data from any of the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch model ever made.

Apple iOS 8 adds manual camera controls to iPhone via third-party apps

The iPhone is the most popular smartphone camera, and it does a darn good job at taking photos. But photographers are limited to an automatic mode, where the camera does all the thinking for the user. That’s fine for most, but that leaves advanced shooters, who like to adjust camera settings, feeling jilted. But the latter group is getting some love: at WWDC 2014, Apple announced that several changes will be made to iOS 8′s photography features, which will include full manual control of the iPhone camera.

When Apple said “full manual control,” they really meant it: iOS 8 will give iPhone users access to “real” photo features such as ISO, shutter speed, focus, white balance, and exposure compensation, through custom camera applications. According to AnandTech, Apple added “gray card functionality” to bypass the camera’s automatic features, giving third-party developers free reign to offer manual camera controls.

The stock iOS 8 Camera App will only have exposure compensation control, and it’ll be up to developers to decide which features their camera apps will have. But Apple’s decision to open the camera controls brings the iPhone somewhat on par with those advanced standalone cameras that let you tinker with camera settings – giving users more reason to ditch the traditional pocket camera. (Of course, those advanced cameras have other features that make them stand out, like longer optical zooms and larger sensors.)

For photo purists and enthusiasts, the iPhone’s new camera features won’t replace their DSLRs anytime soon, but the smaller and lightweight smartphone makes it a stronger casual camera for everyday shooting. As AnandTech points out, these new features will give iPhoneographers so many more options when composing their images. 

Apple’s iOS 8 won’t go live until this fall, so we’ll have to wait-and-see what third-party developers might have in store for the iPhone.

ReadMe! Ebook Speed Reading App for iPhone Now Available to Download

Speed reading has been around for more than half a century, but new apps are bringing the technique into the digital age, helping users breeze through books faster.

ReadMe!, a new app for iPhones, lets readers control the pace of their reading from 50 to 1,000 words per minute.

"It's about being able to read a book like 'Harry Potter' in an hour and a half and still have the full comprehension of it," said Pierre DiAvisoo, who created the app and is based in Boras, Sweden.

Readers select an ebook in the app, which is available worldwide and costs $0.99. After opening the speed-reading technology it shows one word at a time. The app does not work with ebooks that have sharing restrictions.

Within just minutes, most readers can learn to double their reading speed to between 400 and 450 words per minute without losing comprehension, according to Spritz, the Boston-based company that created the speed-reading technology.

"Reading hasn't really changed in thousands of years. Speed reading techniques are still focused on consuming texts in lines and reading left to right line-by-line," said Frank Waldman, the chief executive of Spritz.

He added that the technology combines rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), with eye research to present words at the ideal recognition point for quick understanding.

As people start reading on small devices, and even smartwatches, Waldman said Spritz will be a more convenient way to comprehend information.

But a small study from the University of California San Diego showed that speed reading may not lead to the same level of comprehension as normal reading because it is harder to go back to clarify understanding.

"If you're looking for the equivalent level of understanding as natural reading then I think it will make comprehension poorer," said Elizabeth Schotter, a researcher involved in the study.

The study, which did not include Spritz technology, showed comprehension was about 25 percent lower using the RSVP technique. But Schotter added if people just want to skim content quickly, the apps might be beneficial.

"If people just want to see text and absorb it passively then this is the way to go. It's a treadmill provided to you and you don't need to do much work," she said.

"But if you want to get more out of it, it might be worth the effort required to move your eyes over a line of text," she added.

DiAvisoo admitted that not all types of reading are suited for speed reading.

"If I were to read about atomic physics or something I would probably not pick up as much through speed reading," he said.

Spritz also has an app for all Web browsers called Spritzlet, which lets users speed read on the Web. Several other speed-reading apps also use the Spritz technology.

Velocity, an iPhone app that costs $2.99, and ReadQuick, which costs $9.99, use RSVP, as does Speed Reader, a free app for Android devices.

Lenka is a beautifully simple iPhone app that gives photos that moody monochrome magic

What would noted photographer Ansel Adams do if he packed an iPhone in his pocket? Likely one of two things: seek out the best noir settings among the vast range of available color shooting apps or perhaps dig up a dedicated black and white app.

Whereas the vast majority of iPhone camera apps shoot natively in color, there’s a small but dedicated cadre of black and white apps that go the way of traditional monochrome. Lenka, a brand new iPhone app developed by photographer Kevin Abosch, who also created Kwikdesk, joins that group.

While Lenka does have some competition – such as Curious Satellite’s Hueless and JixiPix’s Dramatic Black & White, among others – it’s distinguished by its shooting technology and streamlined operation.

There are fewer options available with Lenka: Just shoot, observe the result, and accept or do over. The app’s automatic focus and exposure are surely time savers for quick shots, but you can also tap to focus, as with most other camera apps.

Lenka opens to a monochrome interface that offers two shooting modes: Normal and high contrast, which you access via a toggle button to the right of the large yellow shutter button.

What you see on the screen is pretty much what your photo will look like, so there’s an opportunity to shift focus, alter composition and adjust lighting to improve the results.

Lenka’s simplicity removes the new-app learning curve by featuring just two in-camera controls, and offers added value by altering the flash setting to something perhaps more useful — a light bulb icon at the upper left-hand corner of the interface, if enabled, continuously illuminates the scene.

Both the high-contrast effect and the high-illumination proved very powerful and will likely be used sparingly.

While the image previews, you can also choose between a rectangular or square aspect ratio with an on-screen pinch. Photo editing consists of crop and rotate — that’s it. And, in the spirit of keeping things ultra simple, there’s no filters and no front facing camera — so forget about selfies.

The app is a here-and-now affair, so you can’t reach back into the camera roll and use Lenka as a filter the way you can with other photo apps, though you can certainly apply filters to Lenka’s images in other apps after the fact, if you wish.

Lenka is not a social network — you can’t follow or like other photographers or comment on their photos from within the app.

There is, however, an option to export your images to Instagram, allowing that social network to assume those functions. Or you can share images on Twitter or Facebook or via email or message. Your images are also saved in the app’s own gallery and your camera roll.

Lenka is $2.99 and requires iOS 7. It’s optimized for the iPhone 5 series but can also be used on the 4 and 4s as well.

Apple's Plan To Stop iPhone Thefts Is Working

The kill switch is working

That was the message Thursday from law enforcement officials who said new statistics show iPhone thefts have declined since Apple introduced a stronger anti-theft feature in September. They said criminals are responding by targeting people who carry other smartphones that don't have a similar feature to disable them if stolen.

In New York City, robberies involving Apple products fell 19 percent during the first five months of this year compared with the same period the year before, officials said. Meanwhile, violent robberies targeting people with Samsung smartphones, many of which do not have a kill switch, increased more than 40 percent in the city during that same period.

In San Francisco, iPhone robberies fell 38 percent during the six months after Apple released its new anti-theft feature, compared to the six months before its release, officials said. Robberies of Samsung devices increased 12 percent during that time, they said. In the corresponding period of time in London, iPhone robberies declined by 24 percent while Samsung thefts increased by 3 percent.

The new statistics were released by the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative, a coalition of mayors, attorneys general, district attorneys and high-level police officials. While the statistics may prove that Apple's kill switch is deterring thieves, smartphone thefts can fluctuate for other reasons. San Francisco police have found that iPhone thefts tend to rise in the summer, perhaps because more people are spending time outdoors with their devices.

Apple introduced its anti-theft feature, Activation Lock, last fall as part of the latest iPhone operating system, iOS7. It shuts down the phone when a thief attempts to turn off the Find My iPhone program that locates missing devices. Consumers must still turn on the feature, and police have expressed concern that many iPhone owners won't do it.

Samsung introduced a kill switch for its smartphones in April, but at the time it was only available to Verizon and U.S. Cellular customers so far. AT&T made the feature available to Samsung Galaxy S5 owners last month.

In a statement, a Samsung spokeswoman said the company "will continue to work closely with [the Secure Our Smartphones Initiative] and our carrier partners towards our common goal of stopping smartphone theft."

Law enforcement officials say if the industry introduced a universal kill switch that disables stolen phones, it could virtually eliminate thefts because criminals would no longer have an incentive to steal them.

They compare the kill switch to canceling a stolen credit card, and liken its potential impact to the anti-theft features introduced by the auto industry in the 1990s that led to a dramatic decline in car thefts.

But the smartphone industry opposed such a measure for months, claiming that hackers could exploit a kill switch to turn off phones, and lobbied against legislation that would have required anti-theft features in every smartphone sold in California. In April, smartphone makers and wireless companies announced a voluntary commitment to offer free anti-theft features on all phones made after July 2015.

Law enforcement officials say that the industry should implement a kill switch immediately and make it "opt-out," meaning it would automatically be activated on a consumer's phone.

“We can make the violent epidemic of smartphone theft a thing of the past, and these numbers prove that,” San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement Thursday.

Law enforcement officials also said Thursday that Google and Microsoft had agreed to incorporate a kill switch feature into the next version of their mobile operating systems. Google’s Android operating system runs on more than half of smartphones sold in the United States last year. Microsoft’s operating system runs on all Nokia smartphones, which make up only a small sliver of the market.

“The statistics released today illustrate the stunning effectiveness of kill switches and the commitments of Google and Microsoft are giant steps toward consumer safety,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement.

About 3.1 million phones were stolen in the U.S. in 2013, nearly double the number of thefts from the previous year, according to Consumer Reports. A recent study found that consumers could save an estimated $2.5 billion each year on replacing phones and buying premium insurance if a "kill switch" technology significantly reduced thefts nationwide.

Earlier this year, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation in Congress requiring all smartphones sold in the country to include kill switch feature. Neither bill has been voted on yet. Last month, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to mandate a kill switch on all phones.

Unauthorized Third-Party Chargers May Damage iPhone 5 Charging Circuitry

Apple has warned consumers against using third-party power adapters with their iOS devices as they can cause safety issues such as burns and electrocutions, but as it turns out, third-party chargers that have not been approved by Apple may also be responsible for causing damage to one of the chips in the iPhone 5. 

According to UK repair company mendmyi and first reported by iMore, cheap third-party iPhone chargers and USB cables can possibly damage the U2 IC chip on the logic board of the iPhone 5, which might the device to fail to boot up or charge past 1% battery life after the battery drains. 



The U2 IC chip controls the charge to the battery, the sleep/wake button, some USB functions, and regulates the charging power to the power IC that actually charges the phone. When damaged, the chip can fail to work properly, which prevents an iPhone 5 from turning back on. While a fresh replacement battery will power the iPhone, once the battery is depleted, the issue resurfaces. 

Mendmyi says that it has seen multiple iPhone 5 devices with a damaged U2 IC chip and has narrowed the problem down to third-party chargers and USB cables, which do not properly regulate voltage.

The cause of this component becoming faulty is really quite simple -- third party chargers and USB leads! 

The original Apple chargers and USB leads regulate the voltage and current to a level that protects your valuable iPhone and prevents it from damage. 

Charging your iPhone using a third party charger or USB lead that does not regulate this as much allows for larger variables in voltage and current, this then damages the U2 IC and can leave you with a seemingly dead iPhone 5.

It is not clear if the issue is limited to the iPhone 5 as some users have also reportedthird-party charger issues with the iPhone 5c, which may use the same component, but the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5 use different U2 IC components. Users with an iPhone 5 experiencing charging issues that have used a third-party cable may have damaged their devices, which will need to be repaired by Apple or another repair outlet. 

Apple has regularly recommended against using third-party chargers and cables. In mid-2013, the company even launched a third-party power adapter recycling program, following the electrocution of a Chinese woman allegedly caused by a counterfeit charger. Apple ran the recycling program from August to October of 2013, recycling counterfeit adapters and providing customers with a $10 credit towards an Apple-branded charger. 

As of iOS 7, Apple also warns customers when they are using unauthorized cables or accessories with their devices. The company's Lightning connector, introduced with the iPhone 5, fourth generation iPad, and original iPad mini, utilizes several different chips to manage dynamic pin assignment and to recognize whether connectors came from authorized channels. 



Apple's own chargers, as well as those that have been MFi certified, "undergo rigorous testing for safety and reliability," according to the company, and are designed to be safe and work properly with iOS devices.

Coin Pocket App Lets iPhone Users Send and Receive Bitcoins

Apple now allows coin Pocket-Bitcoin Wallet lets users create bitcoin wallets and transfer the virtual currency Reuters

Following Apple's decision to update it's App Store guidelines to allow for transactions of "approved" cryptocurrencies, a new bitcoin wallet app has been launched called Coin Pocket to allow iOS users send and receive cryptocurrency.

The application is available for download now from the App Store and can be used by both iPhone and iPad users.

There have previously been bitcoin wallet apps available on the App Store - such as Coinbase and Blockchain - but these were removed by Apple as the tech giant worked out how to deal with the growing interest in these cryptocurrencies.

Apple recently updated its App Store Review Guidelines to allow for transactions of "approved" cryptocurrencies:

Making good on the promise, Apple has now released Coin Pocket with the feature set of the new app being similar to those available previously through Coinbase and Blockchain.

Coin Pocket offers simple send and receive functions as well as getting live bitcoin prices from three different sources. It also offers a nice function where you can quickly add bitcoin funds from other wallets into your Coin Pocket wallet. 

Following Apple's update to its App Store guidelines the race to get fully-featured apps submitted and approved will be on, with Coin Pocket's developers wanting to win the race to be first by releasing a wrapper of a previously available HTML5 version of Coin Pocket.  

Coin Pocket is not the only app to appear in the App Store with support for bitcoin. The eGifter app has been updated (version 3.1) to accept bitcoins. eGifter lets people shop for gift cards, and allows users to choose from more than 200 gift-card brands.

Japan manufacturers said to gear up for Apple and iPhone 6

Manufacturers are getting ready to make a 5.5-inch Apple device.

Activity at Japan-based machine tool manufacturers and component suppliers is brisk for the next-generation iPhone. But it's not all good news, according to Japan's Nikkei business daily.

Domestic orders for industries connected to the next-gen iPhone are "booming," Nikkei said in the online Japanese-language version of the daily.

Orders from China for machine tools are at a "high level" as select Chinese component makers for the next iPhone have begun mass production, the report said.

Specifically, orders for machine tools bound for China jumped 7.5 times compared to a year ago, accounting for 15 percent of all orders received by Japanese manufacturers, "thanks to demand created by the new iPhone model," Nikkei said.

While not all machine tool orders are necessarily for the so-called iPhone 6, orders related to specific Apple procurement -- aka the "Apple ecosystem" -- are a big factor in driving the orders, according to Nikkei.

And it's not just machine tools. Orders are increasing at Japan-based suppliers for iPhone-related parts such as ceramic capacitors and optical image stabilization-related components.

The boom in orders is tempered by a fear of over-reliance on Apple, however.

Sales of Apple devices after the iPhone 4S have been "muted" relative to prior generations, and Apple's total global share of smartphones has fallen since 2013, Nikkei said.

One precision machine tool supplier, for example, says that the special Apple-related "procurement" is expected to fall off sharply in a few months, which will impact profits.

Component makers too are looking to diversify away from Apple, as low-cost phone makers like Huawei and Xiaomi begin to gain prominence, Nikkei said.

LCD display maker Sharp, for instance, is in negotiations with more than 10 smartphone makers in China.

Finally, the report mentions that a large-screen 5.5-inch Apple device is being readied, citing industry sources. (That's in addition to the rumored 4.7-inch model, which Nikkei discussed in an earlier report but not in today's.)

In related news, a report today at MacRumors repeated a persistent rumor that the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will be available only in limited quantities initially because of, in part, its use of a display cover made from sapphire, which is not available in large quantities yet.

Alleged iPhone 6 Dummy Pictured Again; New iPad Air Purportedly Spotted With Touch ID

It seems keeping Apple's next generation iPhone out of the news is almost impossible. After being compared with the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S5, the fresh bunch of leaked images of the rumoured iPhone 6 show the handset posing alongside iPhone 5s and HTC One (M8).

The leaked images of the alleged iPhone 6 dummy show the handset from different angles and reveals the unannounced smartphone in its full glory. The purported leaked images of the alleged iPhone 6 corroborate what's has been widely expected based on earlier leaks, that the next iPhone will take design cues from Apple's current generation iPod touch and would come with curved edges.

The alleged wider, thinner iPhone 6 (seen in the middle) seems to feature a 4.7-inch display, and is slightly shorter than the HTC One (M8) (which sports a 5-inch display) in side-by-side comparison. The alleged iPhone 6 in the leaked image also appears to be thinner than current iPhone 5s, which is 7.6mm thick.

The new bunch of leaked images come courtesy a Korean publication and a Japanese publication, both first reported by GSM Arena.

On Monday, a set of leaked images posted on Twitter claimed to reveal the alleged 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 dummy models. It's worth noting that this was the first time both the rumoured iPhone models (Apple has for a while been rumoured to be making 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch variants of the iPhone) were pictured side-by-side.

Amidst the alleged iPhone 6 leaks, we have for the first time also been treated with leaked images of Apple's next-generation iPad, first spotted by Phone Arena, that claim to purportedly show the tablet from different angles.

One of the prominent features tipped by the leaked iPad images is the fingerprint scanner feature. The leaked images show the alleged iPad Air 2 or iPad 6 embedding a circular home button; reminiscent to the one found on the iPhone 5s.

If the leaked images of the alleged iPad tablet comes out to be true, we might see Apple introducing its much-touted fingerprint scanner feature on the next-generation iPad tablets.

Harvard Scientists Send the First Transatlantic Smell via iPhone

  Harvard professor and oNote co-inventor David Edwards shares 
  the scent with a member of the audience. (Alyssa Bereznak/Yahoo Tech)

NEW YORK — Did you hear about the latest iPhone app out of Harvard? It really stinks.

Harvard scientists successfully transferred the first scent from Paris to New York on Tuesday morning via an iPhone app. The champagne and passion fruit macaroon-scented message was transferred via a new communication platform called the oPhone.

It works like this: A custom-made app allows you to take a photo of something and “tag” it with a few aroma notes (from more than 3,000 scents). These smells — which range in category from “Paris Afternoon” to “Plantation” — are transferred via a pipe-like smelling station called an oPhone Duo and are controlled by an iPhone app called oSnap.

When you send an oNote, your recipient will click a link that leads him to a photo, as well as the specific aromatic notes you have chosen. When connected to the oPhone Duo, the hardware piece, it’ll emit slight scents from two separate pipes to be smelled in conjunction with the message. Otherwise, the app will just offer some vivid description of the scent your sender is trying to convey. 

You don’t have to own the oPhone hardware, which starts at $149 on the company’s Indiegogo page, to send or receive a smell. Anyone without the contraption will still be able to tag images using the oSnap app (out in the App Store now) and mark it with around 16 different high and low notes. Currently, user creations range from “Lady Gaga” to “My Room” to “Smoky Beach.”

WebMD Relaunches iPhone App as a Hub for Fitness Data

The updated WebMD WBMD +4.34% iPhone app can pair with fitness bands such as the Jawbone Up in order to collect your exercise data.

 

Nathan Olivarez-Giles/The Wall Street Journal

Health apps and fitness trackers can be a bit of a mess nowadays—and in that mess WebMD sees an opportunity. You might have a fitness band with a corresponding app, another app for tracking runs or bike rides, and yet another to track what you’re eating each day. On Monday, WebMD updated its iPhone app to be a catch-all for the data produced by different wearables, as well as a daily fitness tracker and health minder.

WebMD has added a new “Healthy Target” section to its flagship iPhone app (but not yet to the Android version). The app already has two other parts: “Health Tools,” providing explanations symptoms, illnesses and medical terms, as well as local listings for doctors, pharmacies and hospitals; and “Healthy Living,” a daily lifestyle magazine offering tips on exercise, beauty, food and relationships.

Healthy Target can pull in data from devices made by Entra, Fitbit, Jawbone, Telcare and Withings—everything ranging from fitness bands to Web-connected bathroom scales. (One glaring exception: It’s not compatible with any Nike NKE +0.72% products.) The app can also use your iPhone to track steps—something I’ve been doing for the last week.

The app helps you set simple goals—lose weight, eat healthier, be more active, sleep better. To help you reach these goals, WebMD recommends certain “habits.” One example: “Tone up before tuning in,” a suggestion to do 10 jumping jacks, five squats and five pushups before turning on your TV each evening. An interactive calendar lets you tell the app whether or not you’re following through. You can add or remove habits at any time, but the object here is to bring about an actual lifestyle change.

The new Healthy Target section of WebMD’s iPhone app combines daily goals with your own fitness data.

 

WebMD

For the data-driven, there are plenty of bar charts and graphs to make sense of your sleep, steps, weight and blood sugar over time. Daily and weekly recaps let you know whether or not you’re reaching your goals. After using the latest version of the app, I found Healthy Target to be only as effective as you let it be. You can ignore Healthy Target in its entirety or you can let it become as addictive as Twitter or Instagram.

The app isn’t very attractive from a user interface or design perspective, but it’s easy to use and informative and certainly worth looking at if you’re looking for a central place to make sense of your fitness data. While it works with many brands of fitness bands, it doesn’t work with other fitness apps such as RunKeeper or Strava. If you use them a lot, WebMD could complicate your life by giving you yet another app to look at. But it could also simplify your life by being the one go-to app.

A big plus is that WebMD is well known in the health care industry; it’s not just some startup that you’ve never heard of, out to gather your data for who-knows-what. But Apple,  Samsung and—reportedly—Google are all working on major efforts to gather and manage data from the next generation of smart watches and fitness gear—and a host of health and fitness apps.

Samsung has said that it not only wants to be a central hub for health data, it wants to store your health data in the cloud and serve it to other apps and devices. Already a smart watch pioneer, Samsung also says it wants to lead the way in the development of new wearable sensors and devices. Apple’s approach involves aggregating data from wearable sensors and devices, too. However, rather than hosting and serving data, Apple will likely focus on getting devices and apps to communicate with one another. Google’s unannounced health initiative will likely follow a similar path.

Hands-on: Slingshot app by Facebook (for iPhone) review

Facebook has introduced a new app called Slingshot for Android and iOS. The app is limited to the US at the moment, but it combines quick messaging with the ability to create fun photos and videos.

You've probably heard this already, but we should repeat it before going any further: Slingshot is a lot like popular photo-messaging app Snapchat. That said, we aren't going to spend the next 10 paragraphs nitpicking all the similarities and differences between the two apps. Pocket-lint will only tell you how Slingshot for iPhone works and whether it's worth downloading. Keep reading to learn more.

Upon opening Facebook's new app for the first time, you'll need to enter your phone number, then pick out a screen name, and swipe through a bunch of quick tips on how to get started. After that, you will enter a camera view. This is the main view you shall see every time you open Slingshot. You can tap the Shoot button toward the bottom of your screen to start capturing photos or hold the button to start recording videos. Simples. You will also see options to the left and right of the Shoot button. They let you turn on your device's flash or selfie mode (flips the camera), respectively.

Once you shoot a photo or video, the Flash and Selfie options promptly turn into Reshoot and Draw. Reshoot allows you to recapture your photo or video, in case the first attempt didn't quite work, while Draw lets you go wild on whatever you captured. You can select Draw, for instance, and then slide from the right to choose various colours and brush sizes. You'll then be able to scribble away. You can add a caption to your photo and video too, by tapping the "Tap to add text" area beneath your name at the top of the screen. You should hear funky music playing in the background while you enter a message.

You can then hit the Use button when finished composing your work of art. A black and white menu will instantly appear with a list of all your recent contacts as well as the ability to find people via Facebook and invite people via SMS. If you're new to Slingshot, like we are, you'll see Slingshot Crew in your recents list. Slingshot Crew is like MySpace Tom. They're your first "friend" on Slingshot, meaning you can send photos and videos to them straightaway. Why would you do this? To learn the app's functionality better and goof around, of course.

We didn't have much luck when it came to finding friends on Slingshot. None of our Facebook friends are currently using Slingshot, probably because the app is barely a few hours old. But once they start downloading and using the new app, we will be able to send them Slingshot friend requests via Facebook. We could even encourage them to download the app right now. Slingshot has a built-in option that'll message your contacts for you. Just enter your contact name or phone number, and the app will spam them with an invite link. Your friends will love you for that (trust us).

Because we didn't have any friends on Slingshot, we downloaded the app on another iPhone and messaged ourselves. We're so cool. So, with a "friend" now showing up in our contacts, we were able to sling (a.k.a. send) our shot (a.k.a. doodled photo). All we had to do was tap on the friend's name, followed by the orange Sling button. And away our message went...with an entertaining swish sound and all. If you have a lot of friends showing up in your contacts (aren't your Mr. Popular), you'll be able to tap multiple contacts or tap "Select All" to send your shot to a group of friends at once.

By now you're probably wondering how Slingshot is different from Snapchat. We'll tell you: You can't view shots from friends until you send them a return shot. That's right. Facebook is forcing you to engage with friends on Slingshot. Upon sending return shots to friends, their "locked" shots will become "unlocked" to you. You can see exactly how many locked or unlocked shots you have from within the camera view, because there will be a notice at the top of your screen, or you can swipe down from the camera view to access another contacts area and see all your locked shots.

You will also notice this mini contacts area has an option for you to add friends. Tap that option to manually search for usernames on Slingshot. We imagine this option is only useful for people who don't have a Facebook or maybe if you want to find celebrities by their widely-used online handles. We can't picture too many celebrities Slingshotting with random fans any time soon. But, hey, you never know.

Anyway, going back to locked shots. After you create a shot and send it to a friend to unlock their shot, the locked shot will immediately appear just for you. Literally. It'll declare "just for you" on the shot. Stare at the shot as long as you want. Maybe even take a screenshot. Because once you're finished looking at it, you'll have to swipe it away. The shot will disappear into cyberspace, never to be seen again. You will however be able to flip through all your recently unlocked shots, kind of like flipping through a mini Facebook feed full of photos tailored for you, but eventually you'll need to swipe them all away.

Sounds a lot like Snapchat, right? But Facebook has added one more twist to this process: you can react to unlocked shots. Before you swipe away a shot for good, tap on the shot to bring up mini camera view from the bottom. This little areas essentially lets you return a shot directly from the shot you have unlocked. You can add a caption, but you can't draw. It's like a paired down shot, meant only to show your reaction. And, like Snapchat, every reaction you've made is gone forever once you sling it to a friend.

And that's it. Slingshot for iPhone is pretty sleek and simple. It took us a few minutes to get a feel for the app and become familiar with its workflow, but Pocket-lint is confident both young and old users should find it easy enough to navigate. It's not too complex to figure out - though remembering gestures and how to find certain menus or options can take some time. We should mention that the design probably won't blow your mind. After all, the app is basically all about the camera view and full-screen shots. There's not much room to get fancy with the interface.

We did however like the ability to add captions and draw when in camera view. All those tools were very fun and simple to learn and access. Kudos, Facebook. But we thought the sound effects throughout Slingshot were a bit much, especially in camera view. And we found ourselves turning our device volume off several times like when toggling from creating to viewing video shots. Between all the swishes and funky tunes, it sounded like we we're in the middle of a children's arcade.

And finally, it was a strange feeling to get a push notification from Slingshot yet not have instant gratification. We couldn't view our messages in that very moment. We had to engage with friends first. And we're not accustom to apps or services making us work for our entertainment or content. We're not entirely sure if many users will like being put in that same situation as well. But Facebook, which recently shut down other failed apps like Poke and Camera, is giving it a shot anyway. Pun intended.

eBay’s new Valet iPhone app helps you sell your stuff (for a 30% cut)

eBay has taken its Sell for Me valet service onto mobile with the release of an eBay Valet iPhone app that does your selling for you, as reported by TechCrunch.

With the app, users can get estimates from eBay representatives, print out shipping labels for items, and track auctions once they’re live. When the item sells, you’ll get 70 percent of the money. Unsold items are either returned to you for a charge or recycled.

The app’s implementation actually sounds similar to Sold, a startup that solditself to Dropbox late last year.

eBay Valet does sound like a great option for those of us with valuable goods that we’re no longer using. You won’t exactly be able to make a living from eBay Valets with them taking a 30 percent cut, but it’s handy for people who don’t have the time or expertise to list their own stuff.

If you’re going to give the new app a try, keep in mind that valets won’t sell anything in poor condition, worth less than $40, heavier than 25 pounds, breakable, media, license or codes, clothing or high-value items that require authentication.

With iOS 8, The iPhone Will Become Your Digital Hub

At Macworld 2001, Steve Jobs famously introduced the “digital hub” strategy for the Mac, making it the device where all of the single-purpose gadgets for things like recording movies or playing music would be managed. At this year’s WWDC event, Apple showed that the iPhone is the new hub, and your Mac, iPad, and everything in the cloud is now just an accessory.

This is quite a pivot for Apple — at Steve Jobs’ last WWDC keynote, he declared that iCloud would be the new center of everyone’s digital lives: “We’re going to demote the PC and the Mac to just be a device.”

So far, iCloud hasn’t really lived up to that promise. While things like Contact syncing across devices work seamlessly on iOS, developers found that using the service to store data didn’t work as well as Apple had promised, forcing them to roll their own solutions or integrate offerings from Dropbox, Amazon or Google.

Meanwhile, a massive portion of total device usage shifted from laptops, desktops and tablets to phones. As Andreessen Horowitz analyst Benedict Evans wrote in April: “It may be better to think of tablets, laptops and desktops as one ‘big screen’ segment, all of which compete with smartphones, and for which the opportunity is just smaller than that for smartphones.”

We can look at Facebook’s monthly average user numbers to get an idea of how this trend is reflected in real-world usage. There are more people who only access the service via mobile devices than there are desktop – and laptop-only users, and 79 percent of users spend some of their time on the service via mobile:

Graph courtesy of Andreessen Horowitz analyst Benedict Evans.

With iOS 8, Apple encourages this trend by pushing nascent ecosystems to focus on mobile. Nearly every aspect of the “new” ecosystem Apple showed this week revolves around having the iPhone as the center of your digital experience:

• Placing calls and sending SMS messages in Mac OS X Yosemite requires access to your iPhone.
• HealthKit and the new Health app make your iPhone the main repository for information from all of your fitness and dietary apps and sensors, putting the iPhone at the center of an entire burgeoning ecosystem unto itself.
• Similarly, HomeKit puts your iPhone in control of any smart device in your home. Notably, HomeKit is also the first time Apple has given developers a chance to expand Siri’s vocabulary themselves — users will be able to define rooms and “zones” in their homes in order to give Siri commands like “Siri, turn off all the lights in the kitchen” or “Siri, turn on the lights downstairs,” for example.
• CarPlay transforms the infotainment system in your car into a dumb interface for the iPhone to take over, with “Hey, Siri” making the entire experience hands-free when your device is charging.
• Touch ID will be available to third-party developers, making the iPhone the most secure way to access things like banking applications or private messages.
• With Apple using peer-to-peer connections for AirPlay in iOS 8, pushing video or game content to the Apple TV won’t even require a Wi-Fi network.

The iPhone may not be as powerful as your home computer, but it’s good enough, almost always on your person, and packs software features and sensors that wouldn’t really make sense on a desktop machine.

iCloud is what makes the magic happen in iOS 8, but it does so by facilitating your interaction with the world immediately around you and your device. That’s what moving away from the desktop (and the cloud) allows. It makes computing more personal and more attached to the world we actually live in.

The tagline for Apple’s latest commercials has been “With the power of iPhone 5s, you’re more powerful than you think.” They’ve shown how it’s used to express our creativity, to take better care of our bodies — to be more human.

How to unlock an iPhone: Use any SIM in an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C

How to unlock your iPhone 4S, iPhone 5C or iPhone 5S so that you can use any SIM card from any mobile network

If your iPhone is locked to a particular carrier, it can be truly frustrating. Some iPhones will only work with a SIM card provided to the carrier they're locked to – O2, EE or Vodafone, for example. But there are ways to unlock your iPhone so that you can use any SIM card. Here, we show you how.

How to unlock an iPhone

Some iPhones are easier to unlock than others, depending on the carrier and the phone's circumstances. Your mobile phone provider may be able to unlock the phone for free, and this is more likely if your iPhone's original contract has ended. However, it's trickier to get your iPhone unlocked if your contract is still valid.

Unlocking your iPhone is completely legal if you purchased the device unsubsidised of have finished paying for your contract. However, if you're still paying for your contract, you technically don't own the iPhone yet, so you really should check with your carrier before unlocking it.

Of course, not every iPhone needs unlocking. Most of the iPhones Apple sells in the UK work on all networks. It's the iPhones that you have purchased from a carrier that are more likely to be locked to that network.

You'll discover that your iPhone has been locked to a particular network if you insert a SIM card from another network into the iPhone and attempt to make a call. If it doesn't work, it's likely that your iPhone is locked to your network.

Don't forget that the iPhone 4S uses a MicroSIM, which is bigger than the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, so be sure you're using the correct sized SIM. 

Here's a list of popular UK carriers and how to go about getting your iPhone unlocked by them:

O2 requires you to fill out an online form to unlock your iPhone.

Three also has an online form to allow you to unlock your iPhone.

Virgin Mobile: Call 780 from the iPhone or 0345 6000 789 from any other phone

Tesco: Tesco says it will only provide you with a code to unlock your iPhone if you've been with the carrier for 12 months or if you've completed your contract. If that's you, you'll need to call 0800 0321 320

EE (including Orange and T-Mobile): To unlock your EE iPhone, you'll need to have had your account for at least six months, and you'll need to have paid all of your bills to date. EE says it'll take up to 20 days to unlock your iPhone, and it'll cost you £20.42.

If you're happy with that, you'll need to fill out the online form.

Vodafone: Vodafone charges a fee of £19.99 to unlock your iPhone, which you can do by filling out its online form. The carrier says it could take 7-10 days.

What to do once your iPhone has been unlocked 

When your carrier has agreed to unlock your iPhone and has processed your request, you'll need to replace the old SIM card with a SIM card of the carrier you wish to change to. Make sure your iPhone is off when you do this, and when your turn your iPhone back on it will talk you through any further updates that may be required.

If you don't have the original SIM card but have requested for your iPhone to be unlocked by the original carrier, you'll need to reset your device.

Make sure you back up your iPhone by connecting it to your computer and using iTunes to perform a backup, and then completely reset your device by going to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. Everything will be wiped from your iPhone following this process, so backing up your iPhone is EXTREMELY important to do first.

You can now complete the setup assistant on your iPhone and restore your iPhone from the backup you created. Insert your new SIM card. This should mean that your iPhone is now unlocked.

You don't have to go through your carrier to unlock your iPhone, though we think it's better if you can. If that's not possible, you can use an unlocking service. You might know of an unlocking service in a retail area local to you, or you can visit MobileUnlocked.com or OfficialUnlockPhone.co.uk. They'll charge you a small fee, and we'd recommend avoiding anyone who attempts to charge you more than £25 to unlock your iPhone.