Hasta La Gadget!

Netflix pushed out a pretty significant update, which brings the streaming app up to an even version 3.0. The update includes an improved player user interface, where you can just tap to display the video titles if you’re using the app on the iPad. Netflix also brought the zoom control back, which allows you to watch shows in full screen.

The app also has a slightly rearranged player as well, including better placement of the play/pause button, as well as the 10-second rewind button, both of which are on the left side at the bottom. We also want to say that the volume slider and playback slider are a little bigger, but that could just be our imagination playing mean tricks on us.

The zoom control being brought back is certainly an interesting change that Netflix decided to change its mind on. They got rid of the feature in past updates, but brought it back this time around. While personally I never use the zoom button, some viewers enjoy switching between fullscreen mode and widescreen mode.

Netflix is a free download and the update is available now in the iTunes App Store. Of course, though, you’ll need a Netflix subscription to enjoy the app, which is $7.99 per month. Back in December, the PlayStation 3 was considered the number one device that Netflix users used, but it’s nice to see the streaming service give attention to other platforms as well with updates.

Netflix for iOS updates with improved UI and zoom controls is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Microsoft Office making its way to iOS has been an ongoing rumor for years now with a new report being published today that puts a dollar amount on how much the company is losing each year the application doesn’t receive an iOS version.

According to Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Holt, Microsoft is estimated to be losing $2.5 billion a year from potential iOS customers who would prefer to use Microsoft Office as their ideal writing application across all iOS devices.  (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Rumored To Be Opening Their Own Retail Stores This Year, Apple Reportedly Pushing Out iOS 6.1.2 Early Next Week To Fix Passcode Exploit,

Taking a page from its Thunderbolt cable book, Apple has released a shorter Lightning-to-USB cable that measures just 0.5 meters long. Aimed at those who only need a couple feet of cable to charge their devices, this shorter offering will still set you back the same $19 that the 1-meter Lightning cable costs.

While it’s odd to see no price different between the two cables with different lengths, it provides users another option if they’re seeking out less cable clutter. This shorter cable is half the length of the regular Lightning cable that ships with newer iOS devices. Of course, while a shorter cable could be handy in some situations, we personally don’t see the problem with just wrapping up your normal Lightning cable in order to make it shorter.

Nevertheless, if you’re after a shorter cable, similar to the Thunderbolt offerings, Apple has you set. Furthermore, the company also updated its in-ear headphones with a redesigned mic switch to make it match the design Apple’s recently-released EarPods. The in-ear headphones will still cost you $79, and there doesn’t seem to be any changes to the headphones themselves.

While Apple is known for holding special events when announcing updates to their product line, it’s also not rare for them to quietly make changes and update their products without telling anyone for the most part. Case in point: the company recently updated its MacBook Pro and Air lineup yesterday, stuffing in faster components and cutting the price down a bit.

[via MacRumors]

Apple releases shorter 0.5-meter Lightning cable for $19 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The latest jailbreak, dubbed Evasi0n, has been the most popular jailbreak ever, with over 7 million iOS devices tampered with since the jailbreak’s launch four days ago. This is according to Jay Freeman, the man behind the jailbreak app store Cydia, who says he noticed around 7 million iOS 6 devices roaming his store.

Speaking with Forbes, Freeman says that this most recent jailbreak has brought in “insanely more new traffic” for Cydia than the past jailbreak releases, including those for iOS 5. According to Freeman, The breakdown of these seven million iOS devices includes 5.15 million iPhones, 1.35 million iPads, and 400,000 iPod Touches.

Of course, the increase in jailbreak traffic could be due to the fact that there are more iOS devices out in the wild, but Freeman says that Evasi0n’s popularity also stems from the fact that it’s taken a lot longer for a jailbreak to come to iOS 6, further intriguing users to want to jailbreak more so than before.

Case in point: It took hackers 136 days to crack the iPhone 5, while it took just 98 days for the iPhone 4S, 38 days for the iPhone 4, and only 14 days for the iPhone 3GS. Freeman says that hunger for a jailbreak for many iPhone 5 users was intense. Sadly, though, this upward trend of a longer wait in between jailbreaks might keep increasing as Apple spends more time and effort to increase the security of their firmware.

[via Forbes]

Evasi0n jailbreak sees 7 million iOS devices hacked in four days is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This week Apple has made it clear that they’re continuing to bust up the record books with a massive 25 billion songs sold. This record takes on the digital sales record with the iTunes Store having reached a 15,000 song downloads per minute mark on average – crazy stuff! The 25 billionth song sold goes to none other than Chase Buch with the song “Monkey Drums” (Goksel Vancin Remix), and rewards are in store!

This 25 billionth song not only gets the distinction of being that mark-maker, but also has the artist winning a beastly €10,000 iTunes Gift Card. One wonders if they’ll simply purchase thousands of copies of their own music or if they’ll pick up every single song recorded in the last several years. One thing is for certain – even with that amount of iTunes cash, Chase Buch won’t be able to purchase everything the iTunes Store has to offer.

Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services spoke up this week about the masterful mark. Noting the 15,000 songs per minute average sales point as well, Cue spoke up on how “the iTunes Store connects music fans with their favorite artists … on a scale we never imagined possible.” It was also made clear once again that the iTunes Store is “the world’s most popular music store” complete with 119 countries on its roster and 26 million songs available for download.

In their most recent release on the iTunes Store, Apple reminded the world that they push songs with “iTunes Plus”. This is Apple’s own brand format for songs which offers DRM-free action with 256 kbps AAC encoding for what Apple describes as “audio virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.” It’s high-powered!

iTunes breaks 25 billion songs sold – a new record! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.