iOS

How to set default reminders for iOS calendar

We've all been there: thought we set a reminder alert for a calendar appoint we added to our calendar two weeks ago.

In just a few taps you can set default reminder times for events in your iOS calendar and never miss a birthday or appointment again!

To set a default alert, follow these three steps:

Open Settings and scroll to Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Select it. Scroll to the Calendars section, select Default Alert Times. Set your default alerts for each respective category.

That's all there is to it! Going forward, any appointments or events entered into … Read more

Hands-on: OnLive comes to iPad and other tablets

Streaming game service OnLive is coming to iPad, iPhone, Android tablets, and even the Kindle Fire, thanks in part to a new universal wireless controller.

Previously, the service was available on PCs (Windows and OS X), as well as TVs, via a standalone interface called the MicroConsole (there was also an iPad app that allowed you to watch games being played on the service, but not play them yourself). The new wireless controller, an updated version of the previous PC/MicroConsole OnLive wireless controller, uses Bluetooth to connect to iOS and Android devices, working hand-in-hand with a dedicated OnLive app for each platform.

If you're not familiar with the OnLive streaming game service, it's essentially cloud-based PC gaming. The original PC client allows nearly any laptop or desktop to play high-end PC games by offloading the CPU- and GPU-intensive tasks of actually running the game software to a remote render farm, then beaming the gameplay back to you as a streaming video.

The game library mixes a handful of new, hit games with some older, casual, and indie games, and most of the 200-odd titles will be playable on Android tablets, the iPad, and even smartphones. Some of these devices, such as the Kindle Fire, can play only a smaller subset of games via onscreen controls, as they currently lack any way to connect the wireless controller (and the Nook Tablet is not supported yet). OnLive will also work over AT&T and Verizon 4G LTE networks, on devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom, and HTC Jetstream.… Read more

My Xbox Live now available for iOS

My Xbox Live, released today, is a universal iOS app that connects you with Microsoft's gaming service for Xbox 360. With this free app, you'll now be able to connect with your personal account on Xbox Live.

With My Xbox Live, you'll now be able to connect with friends, customize your avatar, track achievements, and more, all from your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. You can then view your friends' gamer cards, compare your achievements on games, and view recently played games.

In addition to being able to connect with your account and view friends' info, you'… Read more

Apple hiring iOS engineers for Siri development

According to the descriptions of recent jobs posting on its Web site, Apple is looking for iOS engineers to join its Siri development team to help implement user interface (UI) design for the voice-activated assistant included on every iPhone 4S.

The primary objective of the first position would be to help develop the look and feel of the conversational UI elements while using Siri. This includes a variety of tasks, as the post explains, "we [Apple] take every application that Siri interacts with, distill it down to fundamentals, and implement that application's UI in a theme fitting with … Read more

Instagram photo app for Android is under way

PARIS--Instagram has risen to popularity in the photo-sharing realm just with an iPhone app, but Chief Executive Kevin Systrom today said an Android version is on the way.

"We have two people working on Android now," Systrom told attendees of the LeWeb conference here, though he didn't say when the work would be done. "I'm excited to be able to see our numbers today nearly double."

Instagram, which lets people apply various special-effects filters to photos and share them with their friends, has a notable 14 million to 15 million users so far on … Read more

Amazon PriceCheck app: Use it, get a discount

People who use Amazon's PriceCheck app to compare prices while holiday shopping can score a 5 percent discount this coming Saturday.

Here's how it works:

Amazon's free PriceCheck app lets you look up almost any item to compare the store's price with that of other retailers. You can either scan the product's barcode, snap a picture of it, speak its name, or just simply type its name. In return, the app shows you prices from both online and offline retailers, including of course, Amazon.

The new holiday promotion will start on December 9 at 9 … Read more

Chronic-Dev Team gets 10M crash reports in first week

Whether or not the masses actually jailbreak their iPhones, it seems as though users are willing to support the work that the jailbreak community is doing, feeding the Chronic-Dev Team with more than 10 million crash reports in a single week after the release of the Chronic-Dev Crash Reporter application.

The app was created for Mac and Windows and, once installed, allows the Chronic-Dev Team to access the crash reports from your iOS devices before they are sent to Apple. Once accessed, they are sent instead to a server run by the Chronic-Dev Team and analyzed.

That data is then … Read more

Android's popularity makes it open target for malware, says study

Android's surge in popularity has triggered an accompanying surge in malware aimed at the mobile OS, says a new study today from Fortinet.

Analyzing the malware landscape this year, the security vendor tracked a 90 percent jump in Android malware families in 2011 compared with 2010. That figure doesn't account for infection rates or severity, only the rise in malware seeking to infect Android devices.

In comparison, malware directed toward Apple's iOS rose by only 25 percent over last year.

Fortinet pointed to two reasons for the larger bull's eye painted on Android's back.

Google'… Read more

Google+ iPhone app updated with search, better photo uploads

Google has tweaked its Google+ app for the iPhone to add built-in search and a couple of features previously available only on its Web site.

Users of the social network can now search for specific people or posts, just as they can on the Google+ site. A search field appears at the top of the mobile app where one can enter a query by name or keyword.

The app can now handle full resolution photographs, so images should retain their higher resolution after they're uploaded. Photos also can now be recommended by tapping the +1 button next to the … Read more