How To Toggle iPhone’s Display On / Off Using Wave Gesture

When it comes to gimmicky new features, all of the major smartphone vendors are at it in one way or the other, and with every new Galaxy S release from Samsung, the company has tried to impress the world with a plethora of perks. Air Gestures is one such feature, but if you’re an iPhone user with no inclination to make the jump to an Android, you probably haven’t interacted with this interesting implementation on any kind of level. Luckily, the jailbreak scene enables the rules to be broken from time to time, and if you’ve ever wanted to enjoy an element of control over device by throwing the odd wave here and there, a new tweak by the name of WaveOff has you covered. Details after the jump!

While WaveOff is not quite as feature-rich as the likes of Air Gestures, it does allow you to turn your device’s display on and off by simply waving across the proximity sensor located atop the display. Since the tweak doesn’t offer any interaction thereafter without actually touching the display, it’s rather pointless, but it is a well made, rather cool tweak.

The main point of being able to use a device without touching it is, at least by Samsung’s suggestion, the fact that you can, for example, open apps and check messages without having to touch the display. This is ideal for those with grubby fingers who don’t want to risk blemishing their treasured gadget, but unfortunately, WaveOff‘s limited offering means that once you’ve turned your display on, you’ll have to touch the display anyway.

Still, WaveOff is a paid package costing 99 cents, which is a reasonable price for a pretty good tweak. We’ve given it a try ourselves, and can confirm that it does indeed work as advertised, so if you want to get involved, you can grab it from Cydia. It’s up right now on the BigBoss repository, which is a default of your Sources list provided you haven’t opted to manually delete it. 

Grab it right now, give it a whirl, and be sure to leave your thoughts and comments via the usual mediums below.

Opera’s New ‘Coast’ Browser For iPad Offers A Clutter-Free And Clean UI [Download]

Although most browsers initially plied their trade on desktop, today’s mobile-centric world sees the likes of Chrome and Firefox used extensively by smartphone and tablet owners. While Google and Mozilla’s efforts are among the most popular, there are plenty of other decent browsers out there, and with Opera being another fairly big name in this field, the company has just released a new offering for Apple’s iPad by the name of ‘Coast.’

One mistake some developers make is to simply augment an iPhone app for use with iPad, rather than upscale it proportionally. The smartphone and the tablet are two very different types of device, and seeing as many of us hold and use them differently, there’s perhaps nothing more cumbersome than trying to use a tablet app that feels as if it was built for a smartphone.

Luckily, Opera has taken its time to ensure Coast is optimized for comfortable use on the larger-displaying device. It’s very much a gesture-based experience, allowing you to flit through pages and 

content with relative ease, and is actually rather smooth to use.

When it comes to browser switching, folks are often as partisan as they are with consoles, or brands of smartphone. Having said that, you’ll never know if Coast suits your needs better than your current setup unless you download and give it a try.

The gesture-based experience bears vague resemblance to Flipbook, arguably the best example of how an app’s interface should look and feel, and although we’re not quite ready to ditch Chrome just yet here at Redmond Pie, we’re definitely keeping Coast on standby for those times when Google’s browser doesn’t want to play ball.

The app is, as most browsers tend to be, free of charge, and can be downloaded right now from the App Store link we’ve provided below. It’s simple, clean and minimalistic, so if you’re looking for a hassle-free Web-surfing experience, you should definitely give it a try.

If you’re not a big fan of Opera, then be sure to check out Chrome for iOS instead, which offers great cross-platform syncing across devices.

(Download: Coast for iPad on the App Store)

How To Alter The Pitch Of Your Voice During A Live Call On iPhone

The Cydia Store is a cauldron of weird and wonderful tweaks, apps and themes all designed to make the iOS experience just that little bit more enjoyable. While plenty profess to enhance the software’s rather lackluster functionality, others are simply there to make iOS a bit more fun to use, and VoiceChanger, a new tweak that allows you to alter your own voice when in-call, perhaps falls under this category. With a lot of well-known character voices to choose from, you can fool your friends into thinking they are conversing with a Smurf, Dark Lord, or even Rumpelstiltskin, and if that isn’t your idea of a good joke, then, well.. you don’t have a sense of humor!

The App Store features plenty of apps allowing you to change the sound of your voice into just about whatever you like, but where VoiceChanger is interesting is in the fact that it offers the ability to process audio as you speak. This means you can be in-call and talking to one of your friends or family members, and the app will relay whatever you say in one of a number of different voices.

Those looking to enjoy the tweak will need to be rocking an iPhone 4/4s/5, since it doesn’t work with the iPhone 3GS or older, and it also requires iOS 5 or higher in order to work its voice-morphing magic.

At $2.99, it’s quite pricey for a tweak that is only to be used for fun (we wouldn’t recommend calling anybody important and offering them your best Smurf impression), but nevertheless, is still a lot of fun.

We tried it out for ourselves here at Redmond Pie, and it actually works a lot better than we’d initially thought. With more voices to be added by the developer in the future, it has the potential to be even better, so if you want to get involved, it’s available to purchase right now from the BigBoss repository.

If you’re a fan of prank calls, and more so if you know somebody who isn’t, we’d highly recommend giving this tweak a try, and if you happen to do so, be sure to leave your thoughts and comments below!

PS Vita TV Is A Powerful Companion For PS4 And Vita, First Real Competitor To Apple TV [VIDEO]

OK, it’s been a pretty big day for Sony already, what with the announcement of the newly announced PS Vita 2013, but the Japanese firm isn’t done there. Also announced today, the PS Vita TV is much more than it may first seem, and it’s going to cost around $100 to buy, too.

As the name suggests, the new box ties in with Sony’s PS Vita console. In fact, when we say that what we actually mean to say is it kind of replaces it. See, if you’ve ever wanted to play a Vita game on your TV, then this is the box for you. Featuring slots for both Vita games and memory cards, the Vita TV takes previously handheld games and displays them on a TV screen, with controls taken care of by a Dual Shock controller. Interesting, no?

It’s not just games, either. Sony’s new diminutive box hooks into its own music and video services, putting it squarely in competition with the Apple TV, too. Twitter and Hulu are also supported, and we can only assume it’s a matter of time before Netflix is in attendance – it’s on everything else, after all!

But wait, there’s more!

As if being able to play Vita games on the big screen using a proper controller wasn’t enough, Sony says that its new Vita TV will also be able to remote play games that run on its unreleased PlayStation 4 console. That means, folks, that a PS4 and a Vita TV give you multi-room gaming without the need to buy multiple consoles. Things just got interesting, right?

The PS Vita TV takes up next to no room, either, thanks to its 60mm x 100mm footprint. It even looks the part, so you won’t mind having it out on display alongside the rest of your A/V equipment.

The complete set of specs of the PS Vita TV are as follows:

Sony says that the PS Vita TV will go on sale in Japan on November 14th for 9,954 yen – which equates to about $100 in the US – but has not yet confirmed when it will see the light of day in other territories. Another model which will cost around $150 will come bundled with a Dual Shock controller, this is something which you might want to get instead if you’re a diehard gamer. So long as it’s released before or alongside the PS4, we don’t know if we really care. What we do know though is that one of these will be getting added to our PS4 orders ASAP!

PS Vita (2013) Announced: Slimmer Design, Bigger Battery, Six Color Options [VIDEO]

With its PlayStation 4 due for release in a couple of months, Sony could be forgiven for being a little preoccupied. In fact, we’d even forgive the Japanese firm from almost forgetting all about its portable games console, at least in the short term. At a press conference today though, Sony showed that it’s not just well aware of its portable machine, but is also working to make it as popular as possible.

Officially announced just now, Sony’s new update to its existing PlayStation Vita is pretty much more of the same, but with some aesthetic changes. The first thing people will notice is that the new, improved Vita is 15% lighter and 20% thinner than the original model. We wouldn’t have called the old Vita big and heavy, but any slimming down is always welcome in a mobile device of this ilk.

This iteration of Sony’s portable console also now features a micro-USB port for charging, which means that the cable you got with your smartphone will likely charge the Vita just fine, assuming you didn’t get an iPhone of course! The change to micro-USB is a welcome one, seeing as we’ve got so many of the cables knocking around our homes already. It also means that we don’t need to get one of Sony’s proprietary charging cables just to get juice into our Vitas. Yay!

And for those who like color options, the new PS Vita comes in a variety of different color options, six to be exact. The colors include black, white, yellow, olive green, blue and pink.

Perhaps the most controversial change is the decision to dump the original OLED screen in favor of an LCD solution. The OLED screen was one of the selling points for the Vita when it was first announced, so the decision to move to the cheaper LCD is an interesting one indeed. We’ll have to see the new Vita in action before we decide whether the change makes too much of a difference or not.

The new Vita goes on sale in Japan on October 10th with a price equating to around $190 and is WiFi-only but does pack 1GB of internal memory

No word yet on when this refreshed Vita will be on sale outside Japan, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground for an update.

Xbox Music App For iPhone And Android Released, Free Streaming Now Available On Web Version

Microsoft has finally launched iPhone and Android apps for Xbox Music, a service that lets users stream unlimited music for a monthly subscription.

Today’s release also adds free streaming option to the web version of Xbox Music which was first launched in July this year.

Now available on Xbox, Windows 8, Windows Phone, iOS (iPhone only, native iPad version not available as yet), Android and web (for OS X and other platforms), Xbox Music is now shaping up into a compelling offering with 30 million music tracks on offer for streaming, cross platform compatibility, and free access to anyone with a desktop web browser.

Some of the basic features of the iPhone and Android app includes: streaming ad-free music, adding songs, music, albums and playlists to Collection and access them on other devices, create and sync music playlists across multiple platforms, radio stations and more.

While the Xbox, Windows Phone and Windows 8 version offers the ability to download tracks for offline playing, the just released iOS and Android versions doesn’t. But Microsoft is promising the support for offline playing coming soon in a future update to the said apps.

The subscription to Xbox Music Pass costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year and is required to use the apps. Free 30 days trial is available for first timers. You can navigate tomusic.xbox.com to subscribe to the service. Those of you who already have the subscription to Xbox Music Pass can download the iPhone and Android apps from the links given below to start streaming music.

(Download: Xbox Music for iPhone, Xbox Music for Android)

Be sure to check out our iPhone Apps Gallery and iPad Apps Gallery to explore more apps for your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and also our Android Apps gallery to explore more apps for your Android device.

Leaked Photos Of iPhone 5C Logic Board Shows Only Minor Changes [IMAGES]

It may be unadulterated chaos at times, but there’s little doubt that iPhone announcement weeks are some of the most exciting and interesting that we face. A culmination of weeks and often months of guessing, calculating and wishing always comes down to one glorious moment when we get to see a new iPhone for the first time.

This year is unique in that we will see two new iPhones be announced on the same day. With Apple set to unveil the flagship iPhone 5S at the September 10th event, it’s perhaps the lower end iPhone 5C that will be of most interest to us. It may technically be last year’s sheep in this year’s wolf’s clothing, but it’s going to be quite the striking package when it’s assembled. Assuming the rumors and leaks are accurate, of course.

Speaking of leaks, new photos have appeared online showing what appears to be a logic board from the unannounced iPhone 5C. Looking rather similar to the iPhone 5S parts that have leaked before, the new shots show a board with shielding that prevents prying eyes from seeing just what markings the chips are adorned with underneath. All the mounting holes seem to be in the same place as those iPhone 5S leaks, too, so fitting in with leaked cases and shells that have suggested the same thing already.

Apple is set to announce both the flagship iPhone 5S and the cheaper iPhone 5C on this coming Tuesday. With the iPhone 5C coming in a range of striking colors and essentially being an iPhone 5 in a new body, buyers of the budget-conscious device will not only get a very good smartphone on the inside, but also one that will grab attention on the outside.

We’ll find out in a couple of days just what the folks in Cupertino have been working on for the last twelve months, and we’ve got a sneaky suspicion that whatever it is, it’ll sell in the millions.

(via Nowhereelse.fr)