Enormously popular WhatsApp goes free: gains iCloud chat backups and other features

WhatsApp, arguably the most popular cross-platform chatting solution, has just gone free on the App Store. We’re not sure whether the move is part of the upcoming iOS subscription switch or if there was a change of heart.

Either way, we’re not complaining. Previously a 99-cent download, WhatsApp for the iPhone and iPod touch is now provided free of charge (jump past the fold for the fine print).

In addition, the app’s been updated with the much-needed ability to back up your chats to iCloud so you don’t loose your chat history upon reinstalling WhatsApp. Other changes in WhatsApp 2.10.1 include support for URL schemes and the ability to send multiple photos at the same time…

URL scheme is a useful feature that allows WhatsApp to integrate more tightly with other third-party apps, provided you’re familiar with URL schemes in the first place.

When the App Store in May hit the 50 billionth download, Apple said WhatsApp was the sixth most popular paid iPhone app of all time, despite costing 99 cents a pop.

WhatsApp promised to detail its upcoming subscription model for new users by year’s and and if iTunes release notes are an indication, the app will be free for the first year and then cost $0.99 per year.

As for iCloud support, to manually back up your chats navigate to WhatsApp Settings > Chat Settings > Chat Backup and hit the Back Up Now button. And if you want to enable the automatic backup feature, just set the Auto Backup frequency to Daily, Weekly or Monthly.

iCloud backups include media files received and sent in chats, except for videos. A word of warning:  you’d be wise to limit Auto Backup to Wi-Fi only in order to avoid unwanted cellular data usage.

This has to be done outside the app so navigate to your iOS Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data and set Use Cellular Data to OFF (to disable cellular iCloud data for all apps that support it) or set just the WhatsApp entry to OFF.

So what are you waiting for?

Go grab your free copy of WhatsApp from the App Store Inc.now.

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Walmart expands iPhone scan-and-checkout option to 200+ more stores

It is an idea that was just waiting to be implemented: using your iPhone to scan product barcodes at retailers. Apparently, the world’s largest chain of retail stores agrees. Walmart announced Wednesday it will offer the feature across more than 200 stores in twelve additional U.S. markets, stretching from Seattle to Oklahoma.

Although the move triples the size of the retail chain’s Scan & Go program, Walmart said it still wants to get customer feedback before rolling out iPhone-based price checks in all stores…

“Shoppers scan bar codes on items they want to buy, using the Walmart app on their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to keep track of the planned purchases and the total cost,” Reuters reported Wednesday morning. “Then they pay at a self-checkout screen, bypassing the typical registers.”

Begun in late 2012 near the Walmart headquarters in Arkansas, the program grew to Atlanta and 70 stores. Today’s announcement moves that figure to more than 200 outlets – though a small portion of the company’s more than 4,000 locations in the United States.

The 12 new locations include: Denver, Phoenix, Omaha, Dallas, Austin, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Wyoming, Bozeman, Mont., Seattle, San Jose, and Portland.

Head over to this Walmart web page for additional tidbits on the Scan & Go service and a promo video.

To use Scan & Go, you’ll need Walmart’s free iPhone app.

Scan & Go is currently available in select stores and on iPhones only, but Walmart said a build for Android is coming soon.

“We want our customer feedback to dictate the experience,” explains Gibu Thomas, senior vice president of mobile and digital at Walmart Global eCommerce. More than half of the Walmart shoppers who have tried the feature are repeat customers, according to the report.

Along with increasing the bar code reading, Walmart is also upping the number of self-checkout areas at its stores. In 1,500 stores now, the self-serve areas should reach an additional 1,000 to 1,500 locations this year, Walmart executive Jeff McAllister told the news service.

There may be further streamlining at Walmart as iPhones and other smartphones become common shopping accessories.

The Scan & Go feature may be followed by digital coupons, as well as a mobile payment network from Walmart and other retailers similar to services from Paypal and Google.

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iOS 6.1.3 is out with a few fixes

Apple has just issued iOS 6.1.3 (build 10B329), an incremental update to its mobile operating system powering iPhones, iPads and iPods. This particular update brings fixes to the widely reported Lock screen vulnerability, first discovered a month ago, which lets people with access to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to easily bypass your passcode and get to your personal information on the device.

Today’s firmware also contains Maps improvements for Japan. If you’re jailbroken, you’ll want to stay away from this update until we collect more information…

According to release notes accompanying the 18.2MB download, this update contains the following improvements and bug fixes:

• Fixes a bug that could allow someone to bypass the passcode and access the Phone app
• Improvements to Maps in Japan

You’ll recall that Apple earlier this month has delivered a bunch of much-needed fixes and improvements for its iOS Maps application in Japan via an over-the-air update to non-iOS 6.1.3-beta devices.

To apply this update, go to General > Software Update in your iOS Settings or connect your device to iTunes.

The previous update, iOS 6.1.2, fixed an Exchange calendar bug that could result in increased network activity and reduced battery life.

Per The Next Web and a bunch of other blogs, iOS 6.1.3 also fixes some of the vulnerabilities needed to make the latest Evasi0n jailbreak work so you should hold off updating your jailbroken devices for now.

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iOS 7 concepts: actionable Notification Center, better Safari

What better way to sign off as my weekend starts than a fresh batch of iOS concepts which imagine the capabilities Apple should have long implemented? Above is Shaik Imaduddin’s mockup of a more interactive iOS Notification Center with actionable alerts where you could, say, delete email messages, mark them as read and send new ones, all without ever leaving your iPhone’s Notification Center.

Very doable and frankly, even Android isn’t currently doing that. He’s also envisioning making phone calls, responding to text messages (existing tweaks address this) and setting alerts in Reminders to call back a person. The latter makes me wonder how on Earth Apple missed combining Reminders with the Phone app. I’ve also included a nice iOS 7 Safari mockup right past the fold…

Shaik’s concept evidently makes the Notification Center more powerful by taking usual actions right from it, without having to open apps.

Here’s how it works:

Swiping left on a notification brings up a set of options that would usually have to be done by opening relevant apps and could take 2-3 steps. This works with all notifications.

Apps from the App Store can take advantage of this too. For example: a Facebook notification can be commented on, liked, or shared right from the Notification Center.

I sincerely hope Apple will make Notification Center in iOS 7 lots more actionable because, frankly, it’s of little use to me as it is now: a bunch of endless alerts that cannot be interacted with without being yanked out of the Notification Center.

Meanwhile, designer Brent Caswell went about juicing up Apple’s mobile Safari browser and he’s come up with some noteworthy, if not obvious, solutions. First up, Caswell is calling for a Chrome-like Omnibar, basically a single bar at the top which acts as both the address and search bar.

 

 

It should be a no-brainer: OS X Mountain Lion already unifies Safari’s two bars into one.

 

 

He’s also thinking about improving Safari’s handling of bookmarks, with the ability to share bookmarks with others through iCloud (agreed). He proposes a revamped UI to file your URLs, which kinda reminds me of the nice to-do app, Clear.

Last, but not the least, a new grid view when browsing open tabs puts more page thumbnails on your screen so you could pick a desired tab with less swiping. Note the two buttons alongside the bottom that let you pick between browsing your local or iCloud tabs, another nice touch which would definitely make Safari’s tabbed browsing better and less cumbersome.

I’m also liking his enhanced iBooks style layout controls for Safari’s Reader feature.

Some handy keyboard shortcuts here to access Safari tabs and bookmarks.

I like how this guy’s brain work. It’s a high time Apple enhanced Safari with new gestures, like swiping left and right from the edges of the screen to quickly navigate between tabs, Google Chrome style (at least on the iPhone).

Speaking of which, Apple should re-think the whole multitouch thing in iOS 7.

How?

For starters, get rid of the inconsistencies. For example, swiping from left to right deletes email and text messages, but not Calendar or Contacts entries.

More importantly, refine your multitouch language and deploy a set of easily remembered gestures across all stock apps, uniformly.

Mockups of what Apple should have done, but isn’t is why we jailbreak.

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Rovio to air Toons series through Angry Birds apps

 

 

As we told you, Finland-based Angry Birds maker Rovio continues to milk its franchise with the announcement of an animated series titled Angry Birds Toons. It’s premiering on the weekend of March 16 and 17 and today Rovio revealed that it will be airing the episodes directly via its Angry Birds apps, in addition to other more traditional distribution channels.

That’s a clever move considering more than 1.7 billion Angry Birds downloads across devices and operating systems. If they offered a standalone Toons app, I don’t think many people would download it. The first episode titled ‘Chuck Time’ will be airing in the Angry Birds Toons channel this Sunday, March 17, with a trailer for it included right after the break…

Rovio says that come this Sunday, users should start noticing a new Toons channel button in any Angry Bird app’s menu. This will provide access to on-demand episode streams, with a brand new cartoon airing the same time every weekend.

We haven’t seen yet, at least to my knowledge, a games maker launching a video distribution channel across all of its game titles on smartphones and tablets.

Here’s the episode 1 trailer.

The series will have 52 episodes.

Additionally, Angry Birds Toons will be distributed through select video-on-demand channel providers (like Roku and Comcast platforms, including Xfinity on Demand, online at Xfinity.com/tv and the Xfinity TV Player app), Smart TVs and connected devices.

 

 

The series will also air on select TV networks around the world, including on FOX8 in Australia, JEI TV in Korea, ANTV in Indonesia, Cartoon Network in India, MTV3 Juniori and MTV3 in Finland, the Children’s Channel in Israel, 1+1 networks in Ukraine, Gulli and Canal J in France, SUPER RTL in Germany, TV2 in Norway, Canal 13 in Chile and Gloob in Brazil.

In addition, Activision, Paramount Pictures, BlackBerry and Sony Pictures are partnering with Rovio at the launch of the Angry Birds Toons channel.

More information is available at the official Toons web site.

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30 cydia tweaks for iPhone , iPod touch and iPad

The tweaks chosen are both new and old, popular and unpopular.

 

 

30 is a big number so, I hope that most of you are able to find a tweak that you will enjoy having on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

 

 

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Auxo designer posts new concept video for Lock screen toggles

Sentry, the designer behind Auxo, has been extremely busy this year. In addition to helping design one of the most popular jailbreak tweaks we’ve seen in a long time, he’s also posted a number of well-received iOS concept videos.

And today, we’re adding another concept clip to the list. It’s entitled ‘iOS Lock Screen Toggles,’ and as you might have guessed, it showcases Sentry’s vision for a Lock screen tweak that offers users quick access to Settings toggles…

 

 

In typical Sentry fashion, the video is short and to the point. And while I really like the overall concept—the toggles are easily accessible and don’t take up Lock screen space—I’m not sure I like the design or the size of the actual icons.

 

 

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Cody, there’s already several jailbreak tweaks available that let you access Settings toggles from the Lock screen.” And you’re right. Off the top of my head there’s SwipeCam, PowerLock and SBSettings.

But there are a lot of tweaks out there that perform similar functions to others—but maybe present the function in a different way. This equates to variety and competition, and is one of my favorite things about the jailbreak community.

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Skype updated with all new calling experience

Good news today for all of you Skype users out there. The video-chatting service released a solid update for both its iPhone and iPad applications this morning with some UI changes, and other improvements.

Those improvements include a fix that makes one-on-one chats [finally] show up in correct order, and the ability to quickly dismiss your recent chats as ‘read.’ But the star of the update is the new calling UI…

Here’s the change log for today’s update:

 

 

-Beautiful new calling experience.

-Mark all your recent chats as read with just a few taps.

-General fixes and improvements.

-One-to-one chats now appear in the correct order.

As you can see, Skype describes its new interface as a “beautiful new calling experience.” And it’s true, the new look is cleaner and more modern than before. Though functionality-wise, it’s not that different.

Frequent Skype users will want to grab this update for the iOS client immediately. It’s not a must for casual users, but it’s always nice to have the latest version. As usual, you can find Skype in the App Store for free.

 

 

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