Hamza Khalid

Handles Windows Phone, iOS and Cydia. A big WP7 fan, who just loves writing about anything and everything. Google+

Get iOS 7′s Wallpaper Parallax Effect In Older iOS Versions With 3DBoard

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It is not really a secret that Apple often looks to the iOS jailbreak community for inspiration. iOS 6 offered Cydia-inspired features like Do Not Disturb, and the recently unveiled iOS 7 has an alternative to the famous SBSettings in the form of Control Center. It will be unfair to say though that only Apple copies features from jailbreak tweaks, as many tweaks are also inspired by existing or upcoming features of iOS. As iOS 7 is such a major update to the platform, it makes sense that a lot of developers are itching to bring the promised awesome features to users much before this fall, which is when the update will officially come out. There are already a number of Cydia packages that can turn your iOS 6 device into something much closer to iOS 7. 3DBoard is one such tweak, adding the newly introduced parallax effect to the SpringBoard of your iPhone. Read More

Create & Manage Collaborative Magazines In Flipboard For Android & iOS

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The addition of user-curated magazines to Flipboard seems like a step in the right direction, since many people prefer getting the latest news from ordinary people rather than journalists, as Twitter’s rise to fame has clearly demonstrated. Flipboard’s last update didn’t deal with magazines to a large extent, but now the user-created collections are back in the spotlight. With Flipboard 2.0.3, you can ask anyone to contribute to your magazines. Such collections have multiple curators, with any contributor being able to add new content to the mix whenever they want. To make sure the changes are put to maximum use, Flipboard also pushes notifications whenever a new user invites you to start contributing or adds some new content to a magazine you created. Read More

A Complete Summary Of Major New Features & Changes In iOS 7

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Apple is known for calling all of their new products "the best ever”, and has been claiming to be the most innovative player in the tech world for a long time. Having said that, a lot of people were a bit disappointed when iOS 6 was released, as despite offering some new features, the update wasn't too different from iOS 5. This summer, however, excitement looked to be on the horizon since several reliable sources from the industry (including some having ties with Apple) revealed that iOS is finally getting a much-needed makeover. The blogosphere has been rife with rumors and speculations regarding iOS 7 - especially its departure from skeuomorphism to a flat design - but just hours before the WWDC 2013 keynote, a few people started claiming that all the rumors regarding iOS 7 have been wrong. Now that the cat is finally out of the bag, we must say that some of the iOS 7 mockups got surprisingly close to the truth. The update has a decidedly flat look, iTunes Radio is finally here and almost all of the stock iOS apps have gone through some degree of change. Read More

Live Score Tennis Might Be The Best Free Tennis Tournament Companion For iPhone

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These days, it is the norm for tennis Majors to have their very own official smartphone apps. In the past, we have covered apps for the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, but it can get a bit tedious to download each event’s own app before it commences. There are plenty of generic sports apps that offer tennis coverage, but the stats and features available in such apps are nowhere near as comprehensive as the ones that come with official grand slam apps. Now, however, there is an iOS app that has been designed for tennis fans, but without too much focus on just a single tournament. Live Score Tennis keeps you in the loop regarding your favorite players and all the ongoing events using notifications. The app will get updated with the arrival of each big tournament to highlight features related to that event, and that way, you won’t have to worry about downloading a new app every few months. Read on past the break for more details. Read More

QuickCall Adds A Global, Gesture-Triggered Dashboard Of Call & Message Shortcuts To iPhone

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The idea of a shortcut collection appearing over the SpringBoard whenever a certain gesture is performed is nothing new. In fact, Cydia tweaks like Speero and SubIc0ns have offered pretty good implementations of the concept. While you might not need any other tweak of this kind if your interest lies only in app shortcuts, the idea still has some room for expansion. The newly released QuickCall tweak does not deal with app shortcuts, but what it does offer can be very useful in its own right. With QuickCall, it is possible to invoke a beautiful overlay of your contacts, and then call or text them without ever leaving the app you are currently using. The contacts displayed by the tweak include all of your favorites, and some that you have interacted with recently. QuickCall can also be used to quickly perform a search, or go to a particular website. Read More

TweetShrink For iOS Uses Shorthand To Squeeze Lengthier Tweets Into The 140-Character Limit

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One can certainly understand Twitter’s reasoning behind limiting tweets to 140 characters, but there are times when you just have to say something that refuses to fit inside anything less than 150 or 160 characters. If you are on Android, there are a plethora of apps capable of letting users post tweets that are longer than 140 characters. Owners of the iPhone can enjoy some workarounds to the issue as well, with apps like the previously covered TweetAmplius. If you think about the whole issue though, there is another way of looking at it as well. Rather than bypassing the limit, what if there was some way of somehow bringing your tweet within 140 characters without losing any of its meaning? This is the approach adopted by TweetShrink for iPhone. The app uses an intelligent algorithm to reduce the word count of tweets before they are posted to your account. Read More

VSCO Cam Is A Flat-UI iPhone Camera App With Great Filters & Its Own Sharing Network

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VSCO Cam might not be as feature-rich as Camera+ or as gorgeous as Blux Camera but there is still something about this app that sets it apart from all of its competitors. For one thing, it is one of the first camera replacement apps for iPhone that have a flat UI. It doesn’t lack much on the features front either, offering image effects, editing options and full control over the camera while snapping pictures. You can even unlock additional filter packs via in-app purchases, which makes VSCO Cam a perfect photo editor as well as a viable alternative for the stock Camera. The significance of VSCO Cam’s flat UI has increased manifold in the light of Apple’s revelation that iOS 7 is going to be “flat, black and white”. Read More

Voice Butler Supercharges Windows Phone 8 Native Voice Commands

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Windows Phone 8 has been around for some time now, but the platform still hasn’t lost all of its novelty and retains the capability to surprise users every once in a while. Voice-controlled personal assistants aren’t something new for Windows Phone, but Go To was quite unique as it showed the platform’s ability to let third-party apps integrate with TellMe. Voice Butler though, takes this integration to a whole new level, as this app supports a staggeringly wide variety of commands. Not only can you use Voice Butler to set reminders, it can also help in photography, controlling system settings and getting information regarding the weather of your area. As the app integrates with TellMe, you don’t have to actually launch Voice Butler to perform any of the available actions, and commands can be spoken even when you are on the lock screen or using another app. Read More

Readmill For iOS Gets Online Collection Of Free Books & Better Search

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When it comes to reading eBooks, if you are looking for an app that provides the perfect ambience, iBooks has no parallels. It doesn't come with too many distracting features, importing files to it is pretty easy, and there are a few nice free books available in the library as well. As has been highlighted by the recent price fixing fiasco though, you might not get books from the iTunes store at best prices. Sure, there are alternatives like Sony’s Reader, but they lack the refined UI and variety on offer in iBooks. Readmill, however, has been around in the App Store for long enough to garner a fan base of its own. The app’s reading screen is great, whereas all of its social aspects make books even more enjoyable. Despite all of its positives though, Readmill has never been known for its own library of books - something that has finally been addressed in the app’s latest update. Not only does Readmill now allow you to download books without using any external sources, but all the books it offers are free as well! Read More

Swipe To Open & Tap To Dismiss iOS Notification Banners With Cybernetic

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Not everyone might use their iPhone this way, but I rarely feel the need to use notification banners in order to jump from the current app to a new one. Thanks to Notification Center, there is no need to hurry in responding to notifications, so you can keep on playing Temple Run a little more before checking what exactly your friend has said on Facebook. One course of action is to wait for the banner to go away on its own but if you are too impatient, a simple swipe is all it takes to make the alert go away. Alternative methods of quickly dismissing notification banners include Cydia tweaks like NCQuickDismiss and Sticky Icky. All these tweaks, however, fail to solve a very basic problem, which is the accidental tapping of the banner that launches the notification's app, taking you away from the app you are currently using. Cybernetic might just be the perfect solution for this problem, as it makes the default launching gesture dismiss the app, and comes with customization options as well. Read More

How To Enable Push Notifications For Gmail In Stock iOS Mail App

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Being a Gmail user on iOS, I never realized the importance of push notifications until Google turned evil a few months back and took away these nifty alerts in a bid to get more iPhone users to switch to the official Gmail app. The Gmail app is pretty good, specially after its recent tabbed inbox update, but it can get a bit cumbersome trying to use multiple email apps on your iDevice, which is bound to happen if you are using services other than Gmail as well. You can try living without push notifications, but getting mails 15 minutes late is never fun and bothers a lot of people. Thankfully, a developer over at the Cydia store has finally taken note of the situation, resulting in the release of a tweak named Push for Gmail. The jailbreak community has come up with solutions to fix other push notifications in the past, but this tweak is a little more specific. As much as we would have loved to see the tweak do all the dirty work automatically, this is not the case and you have to do some manual tinkering before the push notifications start working. Read More

Boxer For iPhone Is A Super-Efficient Alternative To The Mailbox App

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For an app that has been designed to make your inbox clutter-free and your life easier, Mailbox itself can be accused of coming loaded with too many bells and whistles. There can be no denying the fact that the concept behind the app is great, and the UI looks pretty cool as well, but learning to use it efficiently is not the easiest of tasks. Also, the app treats your messages a bit too much like to-dos, and most users are likely to end up needing a separate email client to use in conjunction with Mailbox. The Mail app from Taskbox has been around in the App Store for some time, and might seem pretty similar to Mailbox upon cursory inspection. The app’s latest update, however, strikes a perfect balance between email management and maintaining a to-do list using the messages you receive. It has also been rebranded to Boxer. Read More

Wallpaper Cyclr Periodically Changes iPhone Background Using Tumblr Images

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For quite some time, PCs have had the ability to automatically cycle through wallpapers to keep things fresh on your desktop without any hassle. The feature has seeped through to smartphone platforms as well, as Android has some third-party apps that are capable of changing wallpapers automatically, whereas Windows Phone 8 came out with support for such apps as well. Strangely though, not many similar options have yet come to light for iOS, and the new Cydia tweak Wallpaper Cyclr is certainly among the pioneers of this genre. The tweak doesn’t cycle through images stored in your camera roll; it does something even cooler instead. With Wallpaper Cyclr, you get to define any number of tags, and the tweak then loads images related to these tags automatically and sets them as the background for both your iPhone’s lock screen & SpringBoard. It is even possible to make the tweak look for photos that fit a combination of the defined tags. Read More

Musyc Combines iPhone Accelerometer & Basic Physics To Create Music

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Even if you choose not to splash your cash on the awesomeness of Garage Band, iOS has plenty of third-party music-related apps available as well. All such tools, however, require users to have at least some level of knowledge regarding musical instruments, and not just anyone can create beautiful pieces of music merely by using such apps. There are some options available in the App Store though, which challenge this notion and add unique fun elements to the serious business of music creation. We have already covered a rather unique app by the name of Crossfader, which allows you to remix a bunch of songs simply by moving your iPhone around. Musyc is somewhat similar, but offers a staggering level of detail. The way music is created using this app is slightly different as well, and rather than depending solely upon your device’s accelerometer, Musyc coverts your drawings into snippets of music. Sounds confusing? Read on, and things are sure to become a whole lot clearer. Read More

A New & Improved Official MSN App Comes To Windows Phone 8

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When Windows Phone 8 was introduced, it seemed that Microsoft’s mobile platform will finally be able to shed its label of being starved of apps. In a perfect world, WP7 apps would have started getting updates for the new platform as soon as it was released, but that flurry of updates has somewhat belatedly begun just now. In the past week, we saw WP8 updates for Shazam and Adobe Reader, and now Microsoft has released a revamped version of MSN. The MSN app has been around on Windows Phone for a long time, and the current web version isn't too bad either but if you still want a standalone app for the service on your device, the newly updated MSN might be a good option. The app offers all the news categories that are available on the MSN website, and you can also use it as a weather app now, thanks to the thorough data it offers on its main page. Read More

First Unofficial Snapchat Client Available For Windows Phone 8

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Despite the release of Facebook Poke a few months back, Snapchat continues being the most popular app of its kind. The idea of sending photos and messages that self-destruct after a fixed period of time has a certain charm that keeps people coming back to Snapchat. The app is currently available for Android and iOS, while its concept has been implemented by various third-party web services as well. Recently, rumors started circulating around the web that Snapchat is looking to expand its reach, and will soon be arriving on Windows Phone. There are also a few third-party Snapchat clients in the works, but Snapchat (Unofficial) has beaten everyone in the race to the WP Store. This app might not be as good-looking as the official Snapchat variant on iOS, but it gets the job done and lets you share messages and media with Snapchat users even if they are on a different smartphone platform. Read More

Gmail For iOS Gets The New Tabbed Inbox & Better Notifications

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Due to the competitive nature of the market, it is impossible for even well-established companies like Google to rest on their laurels. This is why Gmail has had some pretty decent updates in the not-so-distant past. Google gives priority to Android apps when it comes to big updates, but iOS is rarely left far behind, as has happened with Gmail’s new tabbed interface and categories. The new inbox was rolled out first for the web version of Gmail, and the Android update was hot on its heels. Today’s Gmail update for iOS brings the app on par with its Android counterpart, as support for the new category-based inbox has been added to it. Gmail’s notification system on iOS has been significantly improved as well, as you can now configure the app to push notifications only for important mails. Read More

FlipSwitch Adds Activator Gesture-Based System Toggles To iPhone

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Activator is among the most popular and useful tweaks available on the Cydia store. With the passage of time, it has grown in stature and is now almost a full platform for which many developers have come up with additional extensions and toggles. FlipSwitch might seem like just another Activator extension at first glance, but actually it is an entire toggle system in itself. Admittedly, it relies on Activator to work, but Ryan Petrich, the tweak’s co-developer alongside A3Tweaks, has made it clear that it is pretty easy to make new tweaks and toggles that are based on FlipSwitch. As a proof of this claim, SwitchIcons is a tweak that you can take for a spin. Ryan Petrich has recently developed some pretty decent tweaks like Topography and Memo Toggle, but FlipSwitch looks like a release that has the potential to really gain huge fame among the jailbreak community. It basically adds a set of system toggles to Activator, which are capable of changing a number of settings with a single gesture. You won’t see a physical manifestation of the toggles, as performing the gesture is enough. If you want to actually see the toggles, that’s where SwitchIcons comes into the picture. Read More

How To Use The New Voice Search Feature In Google Chrome For iOS

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The revamp of Hangouts, a new Google+ UI and plenty of other exciting announcements were made at this year’s Google I/O, but a lot of people might have forgotten that Chrome has been updated with an awesome new feature as well. Chrome 27 for web and Android now supports voice search, and is also capable of reading out some of the search results for your convenience. iOS was a bit slow in getting Google Now, but the official Google Search app was finally updated with the feature a couple of months back. Following that pattern, some might have assumed Chrome 27 and its awesome voice search won’t arrive for the iPhone for the next few months but surprisingly, the app has been updated a few hours ago and now supports almost all the new features that are available in Chrome for Android. Read More

This App Is The Closest Thing To An Official Gmail Client For Windows Phone 8

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Everyone was a bit surprised when Microsoft came up with a YouTube client of its own that didn't have ads and was capable of downloading videos for offline viewing. Some went as far as labeling the app even better than the Android version of YouTube. Pretty quickly though, it became apparent that Google wasn't happy with the new app, and it was soon taken down from the WP Store, temporarily at least. In this context, it looks highly unlikely that Windows Phone users will be receiving an official app for any Google service in the near future. After Google Maps, Gmail is probably the most popular service offered by Google to smartphone users. While WP8 has some pretty decent options when it comes to navigation, now the Gmail app from iOS has been ported to WP8 as well (sort of). Of course, Gmail for WP8 is an unofficial app, and has its fair share of problems, but if you are a regular user of the service, it is worth a shot. Read More