Following rumors that BBM for Android and iOS will launch on June 27, BlackBerry has said in a statement to Mashable that the rumored date is incorrect.

BlackBerry first announced BBM for Android and iOS at its BlackBerry Live event last month. They also announced a new BlackBerry, the BlackBerry Q5.

The rumour spread after a tweet by T-Mobile UK said that the messaging application will launch for Android and iOS devices on June 27. T-Mobile has since deleted the tweet.

BBM is one of the major attractions to BlackBerry’s range of smartphones.

What do you think about multi-platform BBM? Does it seem like a great move for BlackBerry?

Source: Mashable

BlackBerry announced that they will be allowing their messenger service, BBM go cross-platform to iOS and Android devices starting this summer.

According to BlackBerry, the first version of the new BBM for iOS and Android is expected to have the following features:

• The immediacy of BBM chats
• Multi-person chats
• Voice note sharing
• BlackBerry Groups, where BBM users are able to set up groups of up to 30 people and share calendar, photos, files and more

Looks like iOS and Android users will have to wait for some features like BBM voice, connected apps, video calling and screen share features. The messenger will run on iOS 6 devices and above while the Android version will be compatible with version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and above.

After the announcement, people on Twitter discussed Blackberry’s decision to make its most loved and exclusive app cross-platform. Many loyalists stated this would finally let them switch platforms, while others said it could be damaging to Blackberry sales, but the company isnt looking at it that way.
“[BlackBerry 10's prospects are] so strong that we are confident that BBM can become an independent messaging solution,” Blackberry CEO, Thornsten Heins said.
We just hope that the move is a positive one for the phone makers.

With users signing up as fast as possible, Appsify.me has quickly gained a reputation as the WordPress of iOS. The project was initiated by former Shopping.com employee Jerome Collomb and Leonardo Apiwan, a mobile web developer. Appsify.me uses an intuitive CMS-like system to make app development accessible to beginners.

You can try out a demo version at demo.appsify.me. Here’s a video showing how it works.

Apple has, today, rolled out iOS 6.1.1 to iPhone users. This update comes exactly two weeks after Apple rolled out iOS 6.1 to it’s users. This update is largely believed to be just for iPhone 4S users with many users citing issues with their cellular connectivity.

UK Cell provider, Vodafone even warned it’s iPhone customers to avoid upgrading to iOS 6.1 until Apple fixes the cellular connectivity issue which is what iOS 6.1.1 aims to solve.

Let us know if you received the update and if it has solved any cellular issues you’ve had in the comments box below.

Source: PCMag

After almost five months after the launch of the iPhone 5 an untethered jailbreak for iOS 6.1 has finally been released. Credit for the Jailbreak goes to a team of hackers known as Evad3rs.

The Jailbreak called “evasi0n” released just about a week after iOS 6.1 is the first to supports all devices which run iOS 6.0 and 6.1 except the 3rd gen Apple Tv and the tool supports Mac OSX 10.5 or higher, Windows XP or higher and Linux systems.

Being “untethered” means you can safely reboot your device without having to worry about losing your jailbreak or any of the built-in features, as opposed to a “tethered” jailbreak that requires you to plug your device into a computer and re-run the jailbreaking app anytime you reboot it.

Below are a list of devices that support this Jailbreak;

• iPhone 5
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• iPad 4
• iPad 3
• iPad mini
• iPod touch 5
• iPod touch 4
• Apple TV 2 (NOT third-gen)

If you need help with the process this video can guide you through.

Days after Apple revealed its earning which showed record iPad sales, the company has announced that it will now be offering the iPad in a 128GB version along its 16GB, 32GB and 64GB line up. The timing of the emergence of the new model is no accident. NAND flash, which is what Apple uses in the iPad, costs far, far less than what it did a year ago, says IHS’ Andrew Rassweiler and Apple quickly went to take advantage of this by quietly charging in the way they traditionally do which is by adding $100 to each bump in memory.

Dont get it all wrong, this is the same fourth gen iPad but beefier. The model will be available from the 5th of February and will start at $799 for the Wi-Fi only, or $929 for the version with 4G LTE connectivity. Apple went ahead to back the pricing stating that this model is aimed at enterprises, educators and artists, as opposed to the standard consumer.

iOS 6 was Apple’s first mobile OS whose builtin maps application wasn’t powered by the google maps platform but instead by Apple’s in-house system. The iOS maps app has been the source of much controversy since it’s release due to a mixture of missing and broken functionality as well as numerous bugs.

iOS users will be pleased to see that the app they know and love has been returned to them with even better features and added functionality including street view, turn-by-turn navigation and transit directions.

Google Maps for iOS is now available as a free download on the iOS App Store.

The iOS camera was completely redesigned and even has a quick camera roll image selector which is only available for the iPhone 5. A break down of its features below:

• Instagram-themed shutter & shutter release button.
• A preview of the most recent photo on your camera roll.
• Improved Camera Roll image selector for quick access to your last photograph.
• Optional grid guide for live photos and a permanent grid guide for the scale & crop screen.
• Speed and reliability improvements.

According to a blog post by the company, this is the most significant upgrade to the iOS camera since its last redesign about a year ago.

The update also features a new Filter called ‘Willow’. The new monochrome filter with subtle purple tones and a translucent glowing white border will be available on both the iOS and Android versions of the app.

Instagram users have always complained in the past about the issue of their edited image not coming out exactly how it looked during editing, well Instagram has gone around and fixed that with Improved ‘Tilt-shift’. According to them this enhancement will increase quality and accuracy . They say that the blur algorithm has been completely rewritten to give a more realistic rendering of depth of field.

Other Improvements include:

• News Feed redesign that’s easier to digest, in addition to larger images.
• Beautiful new welcome screen design.
• Infinite scroll on user profiles and other grid views.
• Filtered photos are now saved to a separate album called “Instagram” in the iOS camera roll.
• Foursquare button on location pages that opens the Foursquare application, or mobile website, with details about the venue.

The App with its updates are available for download right now. Instagram for iOS version 3.2 is available in Apple’s App Store, and Instagram for Android version 3.3 is available on Google Play.

Update or download and tell us what you think in the comments below.

Twitter in its blog post announced that it will let iOS and Android users add filters to pictures before tweeting them. The update will give users eight filters to choose from, the ability to crop images, and a feature that make your photos pop with balanced light and colors by tapping the wand button in the app.

Funny how this announcement comes just a few days after we told you that Instagram stopped their photos from showing up on Twitter. How do you think this would play with Instagram users and photo-sharing on Twitter?

The video below highlights all the features and how they are used:

There has been much ado about the iPhone 5 since it was announced and subsequently launched. It has been everything from the most amazing device ever built to the mark of the end of Apple’s Golden Jobs-ian era. Well, it’s about time I put in my 2 cents as well.

I had the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4 before it. And on launch day, I also received my iPhone 5 in the mail as I had preordered it.
From almost a month of use, and my experience with the previous 2 iPhone generations, there is no doubt in my mind that the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone Apple has ever built.

On picking it up, the first thing you will notice is the profound difference in weight between the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5. The 5 is significantly lighter which is saying a lot as the previous generations weren’t heavy by any definition of the word but this new device has the 4S feeling like a deadweight in your hands.
The iPhone 5 is also significantly thinner than it’s predecessors; what Apple would tell you is impossibly thin.

It’s smaller, bigger, lighter, faster, sharper and basically everything you would expect from a new iteration of the iPhone. It’s so amazingly predictable that it’s remarkably unremarkable.

This brings me back to the title of this post. With all it’s bells and whistles, every time I’m asked how I like my new iPhone, the most honest reply I can muster is, “meh”.

I mean, sure it is much faster and that’s all fine and good, but unless I’m using it for heavy gaming (I’m not) or doing something that requires significant processing power (nope!) I find that doubling the speed of something whose response time was already near-instantaneous doesn’t really make much of a noticeable impact.
And yes, it does have a bigger (~4″) display which one would expect is a great opportunity to do a lot of cool stuff with the extra screen real-estate but it really isn’t something that iOS 6 has taken advantage of and so, all you really gain from the larger screen is an extra row of apps on your home page.

iOS 6 is great and comes with a whole slew of new and improved features but as I’ve had it for the past few months and since one can upgrade to it on the previous generation iPhones, it’s not really something I can call a feature of the iPhone 5 because it really isn’t.

All that being said, however, meh is not always a bad thing. One of the most impressive and subtle things about my transition between the 4S and the 5 is the fact that due to iCloud backups, I barely noticed I switched phones. All my, contacts, apps, messages, email accounts, saved passwords, music, backgrounds, etc. was just sitting on my new phone and this seamless transition between devices is probably going to become a significant factor if I ever decide I want to hop off the Apple ship.

All things considered, the iPhone 5 isn’t a bad device by any stretch of the imagination. It is, as I said, the best phone Apple has ever made. Would I advice you to buy it? Well, the answer to that is a very strong “It depends.”. It depends on what you’re looking for in a phone, and what you’re coming from. If you’re coming from an iPhone 4S I’d recommend sticking to your 4S and waiting for the next one. If you’re coming from the 4, it is leaps and bounds better that the 4 and you do get the advantage of Siri so I’d say go for it. If you’re trying to decide between the iPhone and the Galaxy SIII or the Galaxy Nexus, at this point it’s simply a matter of preference and some people like iOS and others like Android. Whichever is your cup of tea is what you should go for.

On a closing note, it seems that we are arriving at a point in the development of the mobile industry where companies are starting to believe that all the real innovation they can do on devices has been done and now it’s becoming a war of specs. “Our phone is 20% lighter”, “Our’s is 17.3% brighter”, and so on. I really hope this isn’t the case because there are still a lot of new and innovative features that I am hoping to see achieve mainstream adoption in the smartphone industry and it would be such a shame if, a few years down the line, the best phone of 2020 is determined solely by which OEM has the best marketing team.