News

After the release of evasi0n and a barrage of controversy from the jailbreak community, the evad3rs posted an open letter stating that piracy was unacceptable. The jailbreak developers have followed up with a second letter, to address more outstanding concerns and clarify questions surrounding evasi0n and the Chinese app store TaiG.

While TaiG has been completely removed from the current version of evasi0n, the second letter from the evad3rs elaborates on how the deal went south. The main points of the explanation revolve around privacy concerns and the initial inclusion of TaiG in evasi0n and its automatic installation on devices using Chinese.

Developers have until February 1, 2014 to ensure that all app submissions to Apple are optimized for iOS 7. Updates to existing apps as well as new apps are affected by the deadline, which requires developers to utilize the latest Xcode 5. Apple is likely responding to the fact that three quarters of iOS users have installed iOS 7 since its launch three months ago.

Apple announced the new policy in a document titled "Make Your Apps Work Seamlessly with iOS 7". The news blurb also links to the official Designing for iOS 7 section under Apple's iOS Human Interface Guidelines. Building apps with Xcode 5 means access to APIs added to iOS 7 and 64-bit support for hardware such as the iPhone 5s.

Real Racing 3 for iOS continues to receive frequent updates from Electronic Arts. This time, the most significant change adds real-time multiplayer so that several players can race simultaneously using Game Center. Previously, the only way to race another player was to compete against an avatar replaying a completed race.

Version 2.01 irons out some bugs with the real-time multiplayer feature, which initially disconnected all participants when one player was experiencing a bad connection. Real Racing 3 now has even more new cars to race, including the Lamborghini Veneno and McLaren P1 added in the latest update. Real Racing 3 is free to play, with in-app purchases available to enhance the experience.

Since the iTunes Connect developer portal was shutdown for the holidays from Dec. 21 through Dec. 27. there were no new apps released to the App Store this week. Instead we will look at the new iOS jailbreak tweaks released to Cydia. The jailbreak tool evasi0n 7 was released on Dec. 22 for all devices running iOS 7.0 through 7.0.4. You can learn how to jailbreak your iPod touch, iPhone or iPad using Windows here or Mac OS X here.

iOS 6 Icons For iOS 7: Free (Requires Winterboard)

This is a simple theme that allows you to restore your iOS 7 Home screen icons to iOS 6 icons. The tweak is available in the BigBoss repo and requires Winterboard to install.

DockShift: Free (Requires iOS 7 or later)

Another free theme that gives you various dock background options. Does not work with the iPhone 4.

NCAllOnly: Free (Requires iOS 7 or later)

This theme removes the "Today" and "Missed" tabs from Notification Center on iOS 7.

Wireless telecommunications trade group CTIA - The Wireless Association has launched KnowMyApp.org, a website dedicated to measuring the data usage of mobile apps for both the iOS and Android operating systems. Their objective is to inform consumers and developers about various apps' data usage and efficiency before they are purchased and downloaded.

CTIA has partnered with Intertek Testing Services North America to provide this information, and currently offers data usage estimates on about 50 of the top paid and free apps in both the Apple and Google stores. Estimates are derived from information gathered by AT&T's Application Resource Optimizer (ARO) diagnostic