News

Unlocking the iPhone, navigating to Settings and burrowing down into several menus just to switch something off can waste a lot of time. Developer Samball has released the jailbreak tweak LockscreenToggles to circumvent the entire process, making settings toggles accessible directly from the lock screen.

Once installed, LockscreenToggles has no settings to configure, simply swipe left on the lock screen clock to reveal five toggles. To see the rest of the toggles, swipe down. Toggles can be rearranged by dragging and the top 5 in the list are the ones that will appear in the horizontal bar at the top. Tapping a toggle will switch the setting ON or OFF.

Reports first cropped up last summer that pre-paid iPhones were coming to several carriers in the US, starting with Cricket and Boost Mobile. Boost was expected to start sales of the iPhone 4 and 4S models starting in September 2012, however the rumor never came true. Now instead of being the second carrier to offer a pre-paid iPhone, a new report from AppleInsider says Boost may be the fourth in line with sales starting during the third quarter of this year.

One reason why iPhone fans are watching Boost closely is the carrier currently offers an unlimited talk, text and data plan for only $50 per month. If Boost, which utilizes the Sprint network, offers this plan for iPhone owners it would be highly competitive and could save subscribers significant amounts of money over the life of their iPhone.

After almost six years of service, the original iPhone is set to be labeled "obsolete" by Apple retail stores starting on June 11, 2013. So what does this mean for owners of the first iPhone? Devices classified as obsolete are no longer eligible for parts replacement or repairs, even if the owner would like to pay for Apple to provide this service. So is it game over for the original iPhone?

Not entirely. Although in Apple retail stores, Asia-Pacific, Europe and other regions around the globe the original iPhone will be classified as obsolete, in the United States the device will officially be "vintage". Vintage status means the original iPhone can still be serviced by an Authorized Service Provider who is contacted directly.

Ever notice when Mobile Safari gives you suggestions to complete a search query that tapping them initiates the search immediately? Other browsers such as Google Chrome don't have the same behavior, the search query can be completed and reviewed before actually searching. Now thanks to the iOS jailbreak tweak Platinum, Safari can complete search queries, too.

Once installed from the Cydia app store, Platinum has no options or settings to configure. The tweak simply adds circular blue arrow buttons to the right of auto-complete suggestions when typing in a Safari query. To complete the words in the query field with one of the suggestions, tap the blue button. If you prefer to initiate the search immediately then touch the words themselves.

Google has updated the iOS Google Search app to version 3.0. The biggest change adds Google Now capabilities to the app, providing information on the go in customized cards that are automatically generated. Instead of performing multiple searches for specific information throughout the day, Google Now can feed you the information you need at the right time or place.

22 cards are now available on iOS, including traffic, weather, sports scores, appointments, flight schedules, transit schedules and more. Swiping up in the Google Search app is all it takes to bring up current cards to find information. Although Google Now on iOS does not feature push alerts at the current time, these are under development for a future version of Google Search.