Looking for some new games to play this weekend on your iOS device? Well you’re in luck as Gameloft is offering up two of its most popular games, N.O.V.A. 3 – Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance and Gangstar Rio: City of Saints  for free this weekend.

In case you haven’t heard of the games, N.O.V.A. 3 is a first person shooter with impressive graphics and a science fiction theme. The main storyline takes place over 10 levels of sci-fi combat, while the multiplayer is rounded out by 7 different play modes, support for up to 12 players and also features voice chat communication with friends in real time.

Whereas Gangster Rio: City of Saints was released in late 2011 and is Gameloft’s version of Grand Theft Auto. The game provides players with more than 60 missions to complete across locations based on Rio de Janeiro.

It’s the first time that this kind of an offer is provided by the French game makers on such massively popular titles, so take advantage of the offer now and save up to an impressive $11 before time runs out this Sunday. Following are the official download links for both games:-

Gangster Rio: City of Saints [iTunes]

N.O.V.A. 3 [iTunes]

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Apple has unexpectedly released a new version of iOS this morning, exclusive to iPhone 5 users. The update brings the firmware to 6.1.4, which brings no substantial changes other than the update to “audio profile for speakerphone.”

You can get the new iOS version for your iPhone 5 via OTA (over the air update), in which case the update (11.5 MB) will downloaded and installed automatically. If for some reason you don’t want to do that, you can always update your iOS device by hooking it to your computer running Windows or Mac having the latest version of iTunes.

If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone 5, then keep in mind that this update will remove Jailbreak access to your device. If you care about jailbreak, then it’s best to stay away from this update as there’s no crucial addition to this iOS firmware.

This is the first update since Apple patched the jailbreak exploit in iOS 6.1.3, and presumably the last one until we see iOS 7 at its WWDC event next month. Following are the download links for the latest IPSW :-

• Phone 5,1 (GSM) (AT&T, T-Mobile, etc)
• iPhone 5,2 (CDMA) (Verizon, Sprint etc)

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When iPhone 4 hit the stores in 2010, people faced problems with the phone’s reception. They complained for the device to lose signals upon holding it in a certain way, specifically when the black strip at the bottom left corner of the device was covered. Apple tried its best to dodge the bullet at first, by advising users to hold it properly but with alleviating number of complaints, this became a scandal known as Antennagate.

As a result of this, Apple held a special press conference to ease up the users’ frustration by offering them free bumpers, which would solve the reception problem, if they bought the iPhone 4 before a certain date. For those iPhone 4 adopters who didn’t take advantage of Apple’s offering of a free bumper, it had been settled for those users to get $15 compensation. Several reports are now floating, which indicates that users are starting to receive the promised compensation in the form $15 checks.

The checks were first issued on 17^th April, which will remain valid until 16^th July (as shown in pic above). Apple had stopped accepting claims on August 28 of 2012, so if you have a defective iPhone you can’t lodge your claim now. Have you received a check from Apple yet?

(via  9to5mac)

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Keeping up with its high measures of standards, Apple has been rumored to have returned a batch of an astounding 8 million iPhone devices to Foxconn, as it allegedly wasn’t on par with the Fruit giant’s quality requirements.

This citation has been made today by The Register, which pointed to a report published by China Business. According to the report, the whistleblower was an anonymous Foxconn employee, who revealed that around 5-8 million iPhone units were sent by Apple, “due to appearance of substandard or dysfunctional problems.”

If this report is true, then it’s a huge setback for both the companies, especially Foxconn. With an estimated manufacturing cost around $200 per handset, the iPhone assembler would face a damage of nearly $1 billion, and it would it would leave Apple facing disturbance in iPhone supply.

The report doesn’t mention how many of those allegedly defective iPhones consisted of iPhone 4, 4S or 5. Keeping up with quality control with the introduction of iPhone 5 have been a daunting challenge for Foxconn workers. At one point Foxconn even admitted that iPhone 5 was the most difficult device to assemble. With Foxconn already facing problems in manufacturing iPhone 5S, if today’s setback turns out to be true, than the manufacturing of iPhone 5S is likely to face yet another delay.

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Around two weeks ago, Analysts reported that Apple’s upcoming products including iPhone 5S, lower-cost iPhone 5S and second-generation iPad mini could be facing a delay in their release due to production issues. The report specifically targeted the iPhone 5S to be facing a delay in release, due complications arising from the inclusion of fingerprint sensor.

A new report published by Reuters, paints a similar picture to that shared previously by the analyst, as it suggests that the production of the iPhone 5S was initially scheduled for June but got delayed.  Here’s what the report says:-

 date may have begun to slip beyond June, the sources said. The phone, widely referred to as the iPhone 5S, is expected to include new features such as a fingerprint sensor. A supply chain source in Taiwan said Apple was trying to find a coating material that did not interfere with the fingerprint sensor, and this may be causing a delay.

With that said, the report also confirmed that Apple will indeed launch a cheaper iPhone, which will use the same 4-inch display of iPhone 5, but will sacrifice some features such as the fingerprint scanner, and will ship with a plastic body to keep costs down. Its small-scale production will commence from May, with mass-production beginning the following month.

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If you’ve ever used Siri, then you must be wondering what happens to all the queries you make? Well, all that data related to your queries are collected by Apple to improve adaptive quality of Siri and is kept on the company’s server for nearly two years before it’s discarded. This discovery was made today by an Apple representative, Trudy Muller, after the privacy advocates called out the company to reveal what exactly it does with the data fed by the user.

Considering the fact that Siri stores personal information, the user might feel a bit violated. However, Apple ensures that all the voice clips store by Apple remain anonymous, as these clips are coupled with random numbers to represent the user and is by no means associated with the user’s Apple ID or any contact information to disclose the person’s true identity.

After six months, the random numbers are no longer associated with the clip, but the audio files remain for the duration of nearly 2 years. Also, if the user turns off Siri on his/her device then along with the random numbers, all the data associated with iis wiped from Apple’s server as well. It’s worth mentioning that other companies like Google, also collect data from users with similar data retention policies in place.

Nicole Ozer, the American Civil Liberties union lawyer who first expressed concerns over privacy, urged for Apple to put this data retention policy in their FAQ section to help understand the users what they’re getting into. Last year IBM banned Siri on their internal networks due to privacy concerns, it wouldn’t  have been the case if Apple had detailed their data retention policy then to avoid any misconception. Are you satisfied with the way Apple handles queries from Siri?

(via SiliconBuzzard)

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Microsoft’s interest regarding small sized Windows tablet had surfaced recently, and today the Redmond giant has dropped the first official word that it’s indeed working on Windows 8 tablets smaller than 10 inches. This confirmation comes from Microsoft’s CFO Peter Lein, who during a call with investors about the company’s earnings report, said that small-screen Windows tablets were in the works.

According to the previous rumor, Microsoft was said to be only bringing its own affordable 7” counterpart of Surface tablet, however Klein sheds more light on the matter by clarifying that the Software giant is working with its manufacturer partners as well to develop  ”a new suite of small touch devices powered by Windows” at “competitive price points,”.

Microsoft had recently revised its Windows 8 (W8) specification to allow OEMs to create Windows 8 tablets with minimum resolution of 1024×768, which it intends to deliver with Windows 8.1 upgrade. So it’s much likely for the new small sized tablets to come pre-installed with Windows 8.1. At the moment, Microsoft spokespersons are refusing to elaborate any details regarding the upcoming mini versions of W8 tablets. Are you looking forward for small sized W8 tablets?

(via AppleInsider)

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Apple has a pretty regulated procedure when it comes to warranty claims. However, an electronic store in China found certain loopholes in Apple’s warranty system and turned a huge profit from it.

An ingenious group of five employees carried out a high-tech scam by returning fake iPhone components to Apple by claiming them to be broken “official parts”, and in return they received genuine Apple components from which they built and sold real iPhones.

According to the report, the retailer had managed to submit an astounding number of 121 fake iPhone 4S internal boards to Apple, until the Fruit giant found out that components were not genuine. It took Apple a month to detect this fraud, after which police took action and arrested store engineers along with staff members.

Looks like these Chinese folks misunderstood what Apple actually does with those faulty parts, they might have presumed for the wealthy iPhone maker to just destroy the parts that came in for replacement instead of inspecting them.

(via 9to5mac)

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After Apple squashed the jailbreak capability in their latest iOS version, this is the first time we’re hearing some positive news regarding the matter. What’s more interesting is the fact he found the required exploits, “on his own”.

Well, so far it looks like the next jailbreak might be created entirely by me.

— Joshua Hill (@p0sixninja) March 29, 2013

He also commented on the evad3rs

Evad3rs haven’t gone anywhere, I’ve just discovered all the needed exploits on my own over the past few months

— Joshua Hill (@p0sixninja) March 29, 2013

Aside from this, Planetbeing of the evad3rs, have also claimed to have jalbreak exploits in reserve but they’re planning to save it for iOS 7 as they would have to work all over again to find necessary exploits if they release it now.

At the moment, P0sixninja still hasn’t demonstrated his jailbreak publicly and it’s not knoiwn if he ever plans on to actually releasing it. Even though things are looking great for the future of jailbreak, in the mean time stick with iOS 6.0.2. 

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To demonstrate the flaw, Dutch web site iPhoneclub.nl passes along the video, shown below,  by YouTube user‘videosdebarraquito’. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCGJTuTZf8M

As you can see from the video, the trick involves using the iOS device’s Voice Dialing feature to dial any number and while the call is being connected, just eject the sim card to end the call and that’s it! The hacker would now be able violate your privacy by accessing your contacts, call history and photos.

However, you can easily prevent this from this happening by disabling the Voice dialing feature on pre A5 devices and Siri on A5 and A6 devices.

For iOS device without Siri:-

Disable your device’s Voice Dial feature located in Setting -> General -> Passcode Lock.

For iOS device without Siri:-

Disable your device’s Siri feature which can be found in  Setting -> General -> Passcode Lock.

 That’s it! Your device is secured now from unauthorized access by intruders. It’s quite odd that Apple didn’t even have the decency to even inform iOS users regarding this simple fix or even apologize for their clumsiness, it’s a shame really. But then again, what would you expect from a company that can’t even aim a little higher and release features like a customizable Alarm tone? Nothing!

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