iOS 7 includes new accessibility option that lets you to control your iPhone with head movements

Apple has added an interesting new accessibility option in iOS 7 that allows you to control your iOS device with head movements.

The option can be found in the Switch Control section under Accessibility, which is meant for users who need assistance with physical and motor movements.

Here’s how Apple describes the Switch Control feature:

Switch Control allows you to use your iOS device by sequentially highlighting items on the screen that can be activated through adaptive accessory.

Users can configure the switch control settings to use the left or right hand movement as a tap, access the app switcher, as the Home Button, to access the Notification Center or Siri, or to increase or decrease the volume.

9to5Mac have posted the video to demonstrate how the feature works:

As you can see, you can use the head movements to navigate the device, however it is quite tedious. If you’re planning to give it a shot then it is also important to point out that enabling the switch control feature disable touch input, so proceed with caution.

Let us know what you think of the feature in the comments.

Via: 9to5Mac

iOS 7 beta 2 !! Over view

iOS 7 Beta 2 What’s New  - Yesterday, Apple made iOS 7 Beta 2 available to all of their developers. The update included few UI tweaks and a couple of new apps. Below, we have compiled a list of what this update includes:

iOS 7 Beta 2 What’s New

• Recognize this? That’s right, the Voice Memos app is back in iOS 7 Beta 2 and features an all-new flat UI.

• iOS 7 Beta 2 comes with a built in Nike Plus app. We like what we see.

• The lock screen automatically shows media controls when playing music.

• There are new icons for some email providers in the Settings screen.

• Activated in iOS 7 Beta 2, the iCloud Keychain keeps all of your passwords and credit card information stored on the cloud, across your devices.

• iMessage now includes avatars for contacts in Group Chat. You can drag messages to the left to view the time it was sent. The app also displays nicknames above your friends messages.

• Reminders app features a new schedule button that displays a list of your upcoming tasks.

• The Weather app includes a redesigned button on the bottom right of the screen that shows you forecasts for all of the cities you have added.

• Siri includes the ability to choose a male or female voice.

• Control Center includes a new icon for the stopwatch, and a better layout for music controls.

• The bookmarks screen’s layout is adjusted with new tabs.

• Newsstand gets a new look.

How to check if your iPhone is Unlocked or Not

Having your iPhone locked to a carrier can be a pain if you need to switch SIMs. Especially while you’re travelling, and you try slipping in another SIM card only to find that you’re blocked from using it. Knowledge is power, and to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Here’s how to find out, in advance, if your iPhone is locked to your carrier or not.

The basic method

The easiest way is to get a spare SIM card, from a different network to your current provider, and try it in your phone. A few minutes after changing the SIM cards – you should reboot your iPhone to be sure – you will see the new network name in the status bar if your phone is unlocked. If your phone is locked, you’ll get a pop-up error asking you to insert a valid SIM card.

You should do this sooner rather than later if you will be travelling. You don’t want to be stuck in a foreign country and not be able to buy phone service!

The online method

If you can’t get hold of a spare SIM card and you need to know whether you’re locked or not, there’s a website that can help. IMEI.info can access a public database of IMEI codes which tracks which phones in the world are carrier locked or not. To use this service, you’ll need to obtain your iPhone’s IMEI code – which is a code that is unique to your device.

If you have a SIM card installed, and only if, you can see the IMEI code by dialing *#06#. You can also get the IMEI code via the Settings app by navigating to General > About and scrolling down.

Alternatively, you can plug your iPhone into your Mac or PC and start iTunes. On the device Summary screen, you’ll see a line showing your phone number (the line below the phone’s data capacity). Click on the phone number, which will reveal the IMEI code. The IMEI code is also engraved on the back case near the bottom in case of some iOS devices like the iPhone 5 and the original iPhone or engraved on the SIM card tray in case of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Once you have the IMEI code, return toIMEI.info and input the code. You’ll see a table of basic information about your model of phone. Some details may be incorrect. For example, it reported my 16GB iPhone 5 as having 32GB.

Notice on the right of the page a set of coloured boxes. The “SIMLock and Warranty” check in green is free, however you need to register an account at this stage. After you’ve registered and logged in to your account, click on the “SIMLock and Warranty” button. It will prompt you to spread the word. Click on Check Apple phone details button to continue.

It will take a few seconds to process your request and display if your phone is locked or unlocked (next to the SIM Lock field) as you can see in the screenshot below.

Hidden Settings in iOS 7 reveals new gestures, nested folders and more

Developer Hamza Sood has discovered hidden Settings in iOS 7, which reveals that Apple is testing additional gestures, folder and multitasking options.

The hidden Settings reveals the following features:

• System wide edge swipe and corner swipe gestures, probably for features such as quick app switching. iOS 7 already comes with new swipe gestures to navigate back to the main menu in some of the stock iOS apps. 

• Ability to delete pre-installed iOS apps
• Ability to create nested folders i.e. folder within a folder.
• Pinch to close folders
• Options to tweak blur effects, coloring and animated speeds

Check out the video below, which shows how some of these features work:

It remains to be seen if Apple will enable any of these feature when it releases iOS 7 to the public.

Via: 9to5Mac

Awesome iPhone 6 concept with 4.3-inch edge-to-edge Retina 2 Display running iOS 7(source-iphonehacks)

It’s almost a week since Apple unveilediOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. So while we expect Apple to refine iOS 7 before it is released to the public later this year, we know what the iOS 7 UI will look like.

We now have to wait for a few months to see what the next generation iPhone will look like, which will come pre-installed with iOS 7. Folks at ADR Studio have created an awesome concept of the next generation iPhone to give us a sneak peak.

ADR Studio’s iPhone 6 concept features an edge-to-edge 4.3-inch Retina 2 display running iOS 7. ADR Studio’s iPhone 6 concept also includes a 18-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash and powered by a quad-core A7 chip.

The iPhone 6 concept also features a fingerprint sensor embedded in the Apple logo just below the screen, instead of the iconic Home button.

The concept also shows how the iOS 7 home screen, apps like iTunes Radio, Weather, Camera and Control Center will look like on the edge-to-edge screen. By getting rid of the conspicuous ornamentation, Apple has sharpened its focus on content in iOS 7. So the next generation iPhone with an edge-to-edge screen would be quite appropriate, though we hope it also sports an all-new design.

Let us know what you think of the concept in the comments below. Thanks Alan for the tip!

How to give your iPhone an iOS 7 makeover

Apple gave us a sneak peak at iOS 7 on Monday, and its without doubt the biggest change since the launch of the iPhone back in 2007.

Unfortunately, most of us will have to wait until September to get our hands on iOS 7 as it is currently available only to developers of Apple’s iOS Developer program.

However, if you’ve a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, then you can install twoWinterBoard themes that will give your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch an iOS 7 makeover.

The first one is called iOS 7 theme for the home screen, which as you can see replaces the stock app icons with iOS 7′s flat and colorful icons.

The themes do not include any iOS 7 features such as the dynamic and panoramic wallpapers or theawesome 3D parallax feature, but you will be able to find out what all the fuss about with iOS 7 icons.

The second one is called iOS 7 Lockscreen theme. It gets rid of the slide to unlock button and gives the lock screen an iOS 7 makeover with the minimalist design. You still have to slide at the bottom to unlock your device.

Follow these simple steps to give your jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch an iOS 7 makeover:

• Install iOS 7 theme (by AR7) and iOS 7 Lockscreen theme (by Winesh)
• Launch WinterBoard
• Tap on Select Themes
• Tap on iOS7 and iOS7 Lockscreen 1.1 from the list to select them
• Press the Home button to exit Winterboard
• Winterboard should respring your device.
• You can also download the iOS 7 wallpapers and set them as the wallpapers on your home and lock screen.

Let us know how it goes and what you think of the iOS 7 makeover in the comments below.

Nine iOS 7 features inspired by jailbreak tweaks

After several months of rumors and speculations, Apple unveiled iOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for iPhone and iPad at theWWDC 2013 Keynote on Monday.

Every year Apple adds new features that have been inspired by jailbreak apps and tweaks, and this year hasn’t been any different. We take a look at the jailbreak inspired features Apple has included in iOS 7.

1. Quick Settings

iOS 7 comes with a new feature calledControl Center that can be accessed anywhere in the iOS by swiping up at the bottom. Control Center includes some frequently used system toggles such as AirPlane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and Orientation Lock. It similar to the popular SBSettingsjailbreak tweak. Since Control Center can be accessed from anywhere, it allows users to enable or disable the toggles without going through the hassle of exiting an app, if you’re in one, launching the Settings app, navigating to the setting and then enabling or disabling it.

When you tap on the Settings toggles, iOS informs you if the toggle is enabled or disabled with a subtle message and also highlights or greys out the toggle like the NCSettingstweak. Unfortunately, Apple has included only 5 toggles and there is not way to configure the toggle based on your preference, which is possible with NCSettings.

2. Improved App Switcher

Apple has finally improved the app switcher in iOS 7, which makes better use of the screen real estate. In iOS 7, when you press the Home button twice, it displays card-like screen previews (along with the logo of the app below it) of the apps you have open. You can swipe up on a card to quit the app. Apple has moved the music playback controls, brightness control and the orientation lock toggle to the Control Center.

The implementation of the app switcher is similar to Dash, an app switcher jailbreak tweak. In fact, the implementation is closer to this iOS 7 concept.

3. Parallax Effect

One of the coolest features of iOS 7 is theparallax effect that moves shadows and lighting effects on the home screen as the user moves the phone in his or her hand. It creates a pretty awesome 3D parallax effect.

Jailbreak tweaks such as DeepEnd and 3DBoard brought the 3D effect to the home screen back in 2011.

4. Live Clock

The clock icon now displays the correct time, including the live second hand, which is exactly how it works when you install the Live Clock jailbreak tweak.

5. Dynamic Wallpaper

iOS 7 comes with two dynamic wallpapers images, which have subtle animated bubble shapes floating in the background. Jailbreak tweaks likeLivePapers have brought animated wallpapers to jailbroken iOS devices.

6. Panoramic Wallpaper

Jailbreak tweaks like LiveWallpaper allow you to set panoramic images as your wallpaper, which are scrollable when you flip through home screen pages.

Apple has added the feature in iOS 7. In addition to the dynamic wallpaper feature, iOS 7 also allows you to set panoramic images as wallpapers, so you can pan around the image by simply tilting your iOS device.

7. Blacklist

You will finally be able to block phone calls, messages or FaceTime from specific numbers in iOS 7, which was previously possible only using jailbreak tweak iBlacklist.

8. Folders

iOS 7 will finally allow you to add unlimited number of apps to a folder, which has been possible using jailbreak tweaks such as InfiniFolders and FolderEnhancer.

When you tap on the folder, it displays 9 apps in the folder, and you can swipe from left to right to go to the next folder page like the home screen pages.

9. Notification Center

The iOS 7 Notification Centre has a nice translucent background instead of the grey linen background. It seems to be inspired by the BlurriedNCBackground and FastBlurredNotificationCenterjailbreak tweaks, which blurs the Notification Center background.

Other minor features:

• Ability to access Notification Center from the Lock screen. Jailbreak tweak such asBulletin, Springtomize allow you access Notification Center from the lock screen in iOS 6.x.
• In iOS 7, Safari gets a unified bar for URLs and search, which Apple calls “smart search”. If you’ve jailbroken your device, you can install Safari Unibar to combine the address and the search bar.

These are some of the features we could think that seem to be inspired from jailbreak apps and tweaks, please let us know if we’ve missed any anything. This also means that when Apple releases iOS 7 to the public later this fall, there will be fewer reasons to jailbreak your iOS device.

iOS 7 vs. iOS 6: App icons comparison chart

Apple unveiled iOS 7 at WWDC 2013 Keynote address yesterday, whichfeatures a completely redesigned user interface and new features such as Control Center, AirDrop for iOS, smarter multitasking and iTunes Radio.

As part of the redesign, Apple has also redesigned the app icons to go with the flatter design.

Sentry, UI designer of the jailbreak tweaks such as Auxo points out that Apple has marginally increased the size of the app icons from 114 pixels to 120 pixels in iOS 7.

Twitter user  has created a comparison chart which compares icons of 24 iOS apps developed by Apple in iOS 6 and iOS 7. Do you like the iOS 7 app icons? Let us know in the comments.

Watch Jony Ive introduce iOS 7 [Video]

Apple has posted a couple of new videos on its website. The first one is an introduction video to iOS 7, featuring Apple’s SVP of design, Jony Ive talking about the redesigned user interface and new features. The second one is an ad for Apple’s “Designed by Apple” campaign, that was also shown during the WWDC keynote earlier today.

The intro to iOS 7 video, starts with Jony Ive sharing his thoughts on design as a prelude to the massive visual revamp of iOS. It then shows various screenshots of iOS 7 running showing the redesign, with Ive giving a voiceover in the background, explaining the design decisions Apple took.

The “Designed by Apple” ad features a voice over from actor Ben Affleck, talking about Apple’s design philosophies, its focus, its willingness to say no to certain ideas, and more.

Note: The embed below is of low quality, we’ll update it as soon as it’s available on Apple’s YouTube channel. You can also watch them on Apple’s website here and here.

WWDC 2013 rumor roundup: iOS 7, OS X 10.9, new MacBooks, iRadio(source--iphonehacks)

Apple’s WorldWide Developer Conference 2013 starts on Monday, June 10. It kicks off with the Keynote at 10:00 am PST at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco.

As usual, we’ve heard several rumorsand speculations leading up to the event, which indicate that it will be a cracking WWDC this year (assuming they turn out to accurate). Here’s a round up of all the WWDC 2013 rumors we’ve heard so far.

iOS 7

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has confirmedthat the company will be give us a sneak peak at iOS 7, the next generation mobile operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Here’s what we know about the iOS 7 so far (please click on the links for more details):

• Fresh new look: It is internally codenamed Innsbruck, and will feature a fresh new look with a very, very flat interface. The overhaul is being led by Jony Ive, Apple’s SVP of Industrial Design, who took over the design of iOS 7 from Scott Forstall.
• Maps/Siri: It may bring optimized in-car Maps and Siri integration. Rumors claim Apple is working with car manufacturers on next generation car consoles that would allow iOS devices like the iPhone to be plugged into a car. The iOS device would then display an optimized version of Apple Maps on the car’s built-in display instead of their proprietary GPS system.
• Camera Filters: iOS 7 may come with an updated Camera app, which includes Instagram-like filters.
• Motion Sensing technology: Apple istesting motion sensing technology that could move on-screen objects based on the orientation of the device.
• AirDrop for iOS: It may includeAirDrop wireless file sharing feature that will allow users to wirelessly send files to anyone around them with an iOS device or a Mac.
• Vimeo/Flickr Integration: Flickr and Vimeo are all set to become first-class citizens on iOS, as Apple is apparently working to deeply integrate these popular media sharing services into iOS 7.
• APIs: At the D11 Conference, Tim Cookhinted that the company plans to open up APIs to allow third party customization.

Release:

While there have been speculations of a possible delay due to the revamp, we expect Apple to release the first beta version of iOS 7 immediately after the Keynote address. However, iOS 7 is likely to be released in September, couple of days before the launch of the next generation iPhone.

OS X 10.9:

Apple also plans to unveil the next major update for OS X. OS X 10.9 is unlikely to feature a fresh new look with the flat user interface like iOS, but Apple is said to focus on bringing core iOS features to the Mac, and add certain “power-user” features like a tabbed interface forFinder and improved multi-screen support.

Here’s what we know about the OS X 10.9:

• Finder will now have a tabbed browsing mode and tag-based navigation, a feature that is currently found in a number of third-party Finder alternatives.
• New Safari browser with improved page loading, speed, efficiency and hopefully its memory footprint will be improved upon.
• OS X will finally be able to run more than one full-screen app simultaneously on multiple monitors. Currently when an app is switched to full-screen mode, all screens except for one are practically useless.
• Apple is also reportedly working on bringing iOS-like multi-tasking to OS X, with the same restrictive background capabilities and quick-app switcher. This system could help Apple’s MacBook Air line of products, which are generally resource constrained.
• OS X 10.9 would also be accompanied with an update to Apple’s IDE for iOS and Mac app development, Xcode. Xcode 5.0 is said to feature a new interface, and improve testing tools.
• OS X 10.9 may finally bring Siri to Macs.

Release:

There have been rumors that Apple has been borrowing engineers from the OS X 10.9 as part of an effort to double down on iOS 7 and to ensure that is released on schedule. So as of now it is not known when exactly Apple plans to release OS X 10.9. Apple had apparently originally planned to release the Developer Preview of OS X 10.9 at the end of January, followed by Golden Master version in June and the public release in July.

New Macs

• New MacBook Airs: Based on the leaked SKU and pricing information, it seems very likely that Apple will unveil new version of MacBook Air. They’ll of course use Intel’s latest Haswell chip, and they’ll have a dual microphone system that makes for better voice and video calls. They will also support the new 802.11ac standard.
• Updated MacBook Pros: According to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo,Apple will announce a slimmer 13 inch MacBook Pro retina. The new 13 inch retina will also supposedly get an upgraded camera, enabling 1080p video calls. However, since Apple released theredesigned 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro only in October, in our opinion it seems highly unlikely that Apple will update it so soon.

iRadio

Apple is also widely expected to launch a music streaming service, dubbed iRadioat WWDC. According to rumors, iRadio could be a hybrid web and radio service, one that is similar to Pandora but could also include some on-demand features. Apple will most likely offer the service for free, but it could include interstitial audio ads. It remains to be seen if Apple will also offer a paid ad-free option.

It could come as a standalone app that is pre-installed with iOS 7, or as a standalone app like iBooks, Find my iPhone etc, which needs to be downloaded from the App Store or the feature could come integrated with the Music app.

Apple has been in talks with record labels to offer the service on the Mac and Apple TV.

iPhone and iPad

Well, don’t expect Apple to launch the next generation iPhone and iPad at the event. Apple is likely to unveil them at separate events later this year.

Well, that’s what we’ve heard so far and we expect few more last minute rumors before the Keynote kicks off just over 72 hours from now. Let’s also hope that Apple has some surprises in store for us.

We’ll be live blogging the event so don’t forget to join us at 10am PT or 1pm ET or 6pm GMT on Monday, June 10th. Until then, you can check out our iOS 7 wish list.

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Categories: Apple Rumors, iOS 7, iPad Rumors,iPhone Rumors, iRadio