Apple iPad and iPhone users rejoice, an iOS 6.x jailbreak solution for all iDevices has finally arrived. Now that you can get your jailbreak on, what are some of the jailbroken apps you are most looking forward too?

We’ve put together a list of some of the apps and tweaks that are considered the “best”, and could likely end up as must-haves. Keep in mind that while most of these should already work with iOS 6, they might not be quite yet optimized for the iPhone 5 and there may be some other issues to work out.

That said, most of the developers are working hard to ensure their apps are compatible with iOS 6 and 6.1 as soon as possible.

NowNow

What’s Now Now? Basically this is a jailbreak tweak that allows you to press and hold the home botton and launch Google Voice search as an alternative to Siri. Keep in mind that this isn’t the full “Google Now” experience as you would get with an Android Jelly Bean device– but it is as close as you’ll find with iOS.

Also worth mentioning, Google Voice Search doesn’t communicate with other iOS apps, so no setting appointments or anything of that nature. Instead, this is a way to get more accurate voice search than perhaps you feel you’d get with Siri.

Browser Chooser

Although Safari is a solid browser choice, for whatever reason, you might decide to go a different route. Maybe Google Chrome, maybe Firefox OS or even something else.

Regardless of what alternative you use, you’ll notice that clicking on links will still often end up bringing you to Safari. With Browser Chooser you can actually set a different browser as the default.

A simple tweak, but a useful one nonetheless.

Auxo

This unique app switcher favors small cards instead of app icons, additionally it adds alot of extra functionality including the ability to easily kill multiple apps, a great new music player integrated and easy access to settings like Wi-Fi, Airplane and much more.

IntelliScreen X

IntelliScreen X has been around for a while now, but it is still one of the most useful programs out there, providing a great Notification Center ‘tweak’ that allows you to read status updates, post new tweets, quickly respond to SMS, Email and much more.

5 Icon Dock

This one isn’t that “impressive” of a tweak, but it is nonetheless useful. Basically it adds the ability to add a 5th icon to the dock. Simple, but ultimately rather useful.

AssistantLove

*According to one of our readers, this one is confirmed to NOT be compatible with iOS 6.1 just yet, hopefully soon.*

AssistantLove has several unique features that extend the functionality of Siri. The two biggest features have to do with GPS and music.

For music, AssistantLove takes Siri beyond controlling music directly on your device, giving you the ability to force the playback of any Spotify track as well. Of course you’ll need to have a Spotify Premium account.

As for GPS? With AssistantLove there is integration for Waze, MotionX-GPS, Navigon and TomTom. This means Siri can ask for directions and the program of your choice can launch with the current device location and specifcied destination information already in place.

Ifile

This is exactly what it sounds like, a file explorer. Ifile makes it easy to create, modify or explore anything and everythign with iOS’ file structure. This also makes it easy to install packages without having to know terminal commands.

Summing it up…

Is that it? Of course not, there are unlimited possibilities out there when it comes to apps and tweaks for your jailbreak iDevice.

This is a good starter list, and one that I hope to expand with the help of our readers. Is there a specific tweak or app that you’d recommend to those new to the jailbreaking scene? If so, mention it in the comments below. App suggestions with a high amount of upvotes will be added in as an edit to this guide.

The post Recommended Apps for your iOS 6.0 or iOS 6.1 Jailbroken Device appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

A new agreement has been forged between TomTom and Samsung that will bring the Wave 3 “Bada” smartphone access to the company’s GPS-related services.

Charles Cautley, Managing Director of TomTom Automotive and Licensing had the following to say about the new agreement:

Signing the deal with Samsung highlights TomTom’s ability to deliver the map and enhanced content needed to enable the location based services for wireless users. TomTom is excited to collaborate with the global leader in the smartphone market.

So what kind of features does the new agreement bring to the table? Here is a breakdown:

• Map coverage for over 200 countries globally, providing over 35 million kilometers of road network
• Points of Interest providing information that enables users to find the people, places and services they need, wherever they are
• 3D City Maps and 3D Landmarks adding a dimension of clarity and reality to the map, enhancing recognition and providing a visual orientation aid
• Enterprise Traffic delivering live road conditions, including the location and length of a traffic incident, helping drivers find the quickest route to their destination
• Speed Cameras providing a location alert for safety related cameras to promote safe driving habits and optimize the navigation experience.

For now, there’s no word on if the service will be free to use or when it’ll be available. While this is a fairly interesting announcement, it really doesn’t effect those of us in the States since Samsung hasn’t released its Bada OS this way. Of course this could all change in the future.

[ source ]

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Ford

Big Brother is obviously a concern, the concept seems entirely incredible, and incredibly vulnerable. Using cloud-based storage and computing, the system is able to collect and process information about how you drive your car. By using this information, it is also better able to predict what you’ll do the next time you take your car on the road.

Perhaps the best example of this is in a hybrid; One who travels the same route – to work and back – can be told the best time for running off the gas engine versus the electric motor. This gives you optimal efficiency with no real direct input on your part. Essentially adapting to your driving style.

Ford say it’s an opt-in service and the data would only be collected if you agree. Whether or not it will be sold to third parties, like another TomTom wasn’t disclosed. But your location data (which is then stored in a cloud) would be encrypted accordingly.  So tell me why can’t Ford put an 8GB flash memory drive on the thing and keep it local?

Photo: Fabrizio Pilato

The post Google Turns Zoltar: Prediction-based Fords Tracking You From The Clouds appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The Dutch company is apparently taking all of that GPS-laden data from the navigation devices and turning them over to police and other local authorities for a profit. The good news is that the data is completely anonymous, but you have to realize that they’ve been selling this data without customer permission (or knowledge, for that matter). That can’t be good. Apparently, it only affects customers in the Netherlands too.

“When you connect your TomTom to a computer we aggregate this information and use it for a variety of applications, most importantly to create high quality traffic information and to route you around traffic jams. We also make this information available to local governments and authorities. It helps them to better understand where congestion takes place, where to build new roads and how to make roads safer.…

“We are now aware that the police have used traffic information that you have helped to create to place speed cameras at dangerous locations where the average speed is higher than the legally allowed speed limit. We are aware a lot of our customers do not like the idea and we will look at if we should allow this type of usage.”

Yes, I understand that TomTom’s business might be hurting as more people turn to their smartphones for navigation rather than these standalone devices, but going behind their back to sell this aggregate data is a big no-no in my books. For shame. Now it makes you wonder if others, like Garmin and Magellan, are getting in on the data-selling business too.

The post TomTom Caught Selling Customer Driving Activity Data appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

If you’re having trouble keeping up with the exercise routine you’ve suddenly imposed upon yourself for the New Year, you might want to check out the new Nike+ sportwatch. Not only will it add a new layer of technological novelty to something as old-fashioned as jogging, but it will even nag at you when you haven’t gone for a run in a few days.

Using a combination of sensors in the watch and your shoes, plus TomTom GPS, Nike+ gathers information about your run – including time, pace, location, distance, heart rate and calories burned – and uses this information to give you an “attaboys” message if you’re doing what you’re doing better than the last time you did.

Run’s over for the day? Sync the watch up to Nikeplus.com through your computer to check out your run history, set new goals or talk with other people who wear the same things that you do.

Though the sportwatch won’t be commercially available until April Fool’s, it’s already won Nike two innovation awards at the CES in the Health and Wellness and Personal Electronics categories.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Obama himself endorse the thing. A watch that badgers you to get off the couch and go run. Could be a real boon in his commitment to lowering obesity in America. Not only that, it’ll give his wife some time off too.

[Nike]

The post The Nike+ sportwatch GPS will nag you into shape appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The major feature we have all been waiting for is multitasking, our iPhone 4G poll showed over 52% of iPhone owners would like multitasking, and Apple delivered. Improved Battery Life topped the charts at 61%, but with added multitasking this may only worsen performance.

1) Multitasking
Scott Forstall, Senior VP of iPhone software for Apple stated that multitasking would perform without incurring a performance hit.  The iPhone 4 will be fine tuned for different scenarios for developers.  One example shown was with Pandora’s Internet Radio streaming app, the app will play your music in the background all the while you are accessing other applications, you will even be able to control the playback when the screen is locked.

Example #2 was with Skype, allowing it to continue receiving calls while running in the background, great for other VoIP apps too.

Example #3 is for apps like TomTom or Loopt, constantly calculating your location from cellular sites, rather than using the GPS which will kill your battery in no time.

Example #4 is for push notifications.  A new “local notifications” service lets apps  bypass Apple’s servers when posting reminders or events.

Example #5 was a simple start and stop job, where a user can be using an app for say posting photos to Flickr, then changes to another app, but can return to the photo app and continue posting photos.  A no brainer but critical to many.
Example #6 is a “freezing” type of function, that lets your app freeze when you leave it, sort of like VMWare suspending another OS when your not using it.

2) Folders
A major innovation comes with Folders.  You will be able to create a folder with apps inside it, much nicer and cleaner for your iPhone desktop.  Simply drag apps on top of another folder, and it will reside inside it.  The folder will name itself by using a new feature Apple calls “intelligent naming.”  iPhone 4.0 will support 180 folders, 2160 apps, 12 apps per folder.

3) Improved Mail
You will be able to view all your mail accounts in one inbox, just like the Mail.app in OSX. iPhone Mail will also allow organization of messages by thread, open attachments with an app similar to the iPad’s ability to open Office or iWork attachments within Mail.  It’s not clear whether this feature can be set to multiple inboxes, but I don’t think Apple would intentionally make a mess of your mail.

4) iBooks for iPhone and iPod touch
Yes, not just for the iPad, iBooks is available for iPhones and iPods too.  Books and pages are synced wirelessly.  It comes with a free copy of Winnie the Pooh book, either to drive you crazy to quickly buy another iBook, or to put you to bed and forget all about it.

5) New Enterprise Features
Encrypted email and attachments are improved.  Enterprises need the toughest security, and an API will let developers encrypt data with their apps.   Support for multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange Server 2010, SSL VPN and wireless app distribution for updating multiple devices will be supported.

6) Game Center
Game Center will have over 50,000 gaming titles from the App Store.  Social gaming networks will be created, allowing users to invite friends, setup matches for multiplayer mayhem, stats and leaderboards, and tracking in-game achievements.

7) iAd
Apple intends to take the mobile advertising world by storm.  With millions iPhones and iPods out there, how can they not get involved?  A new 60/40 rev share for developers and Apple will allow them to implement more interactive ads within apps.  Previously ads in apps would launch the browser and take you away from what you were doing, so no one clicked on them.  Now they will be fun and exciting, taking you on a marketing journey through HTML5 innovations.
One such ad demonstrated by Apple was for Toy Story 3.  Created in HTML5, the fancy ad allows the user to view characters, videos, posters and downloads, play sound clips, and of course return to the app you were using previously.
Air Jordan shoes also had an interactive app, it allows users to build custom shoes, view the history of a product, and find a nearby store.  For some reason you can also build a custom dorm room but I think they were just showing off.

Here is a list of other “minor” features to enhance iPhone 4.0:

• File & delete Mail search results
• Search SMS/MMS messages
• Web search suggestions
• Choose image size in Mail messages
• Bluetooth keyboards
• CalDav invitations
• Larger fonts for Mail, SMS & alerts
• Cell data only setting
• Spell check
• Persistent Wi-Fi
• Gift Apps
• Birthday calendar
• Recent Web searches
• Create Playlists
• Top Hit in search
• 5x digital zoom
• Nested Playlists
• CardDav
• Tap to focus video
• Upload workouts to Nike+
• Places in Photos
• iPod Out
• Home screen wallpaper
• Search SMS/MMS messages
• Wake on wireless

Expect iPhone 4.0 to be out for iPhone and iPod touch users this summer, iPad users will have to wait until the fall.

The post iPhone 4.0 is official: Apple brings you multitasking and more appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Magellan RoadMate app for Apple iPhone

Hey! There’s an app for that! It seems that more and more GPS companies are starting to realize that fewer and fewer people want to have standalone GPS navigation devices mounted to their car windshields. Like me, they’ve converted to using their GPS-enabled smartphones to do the job.

Following in the footsteps of offerings like the TomTom app, Magellan has announced an iPhone app of its own geared toward people who need to find their way around town. The Magellan RoadMate app works with the Apple iPhone, of course, as well as the iPod touch.

The kicker is that you need to purchase the required Magellen Premium Car Kit in order to get any real functionality of the kit. This is quite different from the TomTom version where the kit is recommended but optional.

Using the Magellan RoadMate App for iPhone, you get the “same award-winning interface” as the decided Magellan devices, spoken street name guidance, highway lane assist, in-app music control, iPhone address book integration, Pedestrian Mode, and current NAVTEQ maps for the United States and Puerto Rico.

Don’t forget about the Premium Car Kit, it locks on to your windshield and charges your iPhone in the meantime; the app itself sells for an “introductory price” of $39.99 from iTunes.

The post Get going with the Magellan RoadMate iPhone app appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

TomTom Navigation App with real-time traffic updates for the Apple iPhone version 1.3

I’m not much of one to use standalone GPS navigation devices, I can’t even recall the last time I needed one as I prefer to use the free Google Maps application on my Nokia smartphone.  But that’s not to say traditional GPS makers aren’t gonna go down without a fight.  TomTom, still one of the world’s leading providers of navigation solutions and digital maps, is shifting their focus to the world of smartphones. More specifically, enhancements for the iPhone TomTom app.

TomTom’s press announcement explains how full real-time traffic information will be available from the TomTom iPhone app (version 1.3), getting you around those nasty traffic jams rather than taking what is suggested as the fastest route. Need to stop at a dry cleaners, perhaps a falafel? You can find out by accessing the local search powered by Google.

Nifty pinch and zoom is one of the neatest advanced features added to the Version 1.3 list of enhancements, new map updates, automatic day/night mode, music fading, and the ability to save locations from other iPhone apps are also added to the TomTom app.

Existing users get the update for free. New customers can buy the app that includes US maps, for $59.99. If you want to add Canadian maps, the total price is $69.99. The traffic portion is $19.99 extra for 12 months of service.  Other versions available are for the U.K. & Ireland, Western Europe, Australia and South Africa.

The post TomTom iPhone app gets Google local search, real-time traffic appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The new turn-by-turn GPS navigation application is set to make its debut with the new Google Android 2.0 platform. Google Maps Navigation is fully integrated into Google Maps, so you get everything that you had before, plus turn-by-turn directions and more.

Other features include voice search, keyword search, satellite view, traffic view, and even street view. You also get the “layers” that were recently introduced in Google Maps, overlaying with information for parking, gas stations, and so on.

For now, the application will only be made for Android 2.0, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a version of Google Maps Navigation eventually gets released for iPhone, BlackBerry, and Symbian too.

Not surprisingly, the stocks of conventional GPS companies like TomTom and Garmin tanked on the news. Check out the video below for a look at the beta build of Google Maps Navigation. Looks pretty slick, wouldn’t you say?

Source: iPhoneInCanada

The post Google Maps Navigation for Android Announced appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

I still have a cheap Garmin nuvi kicking around, but I’ve found that it’s been collecting dust in my desk drawer lately. This is partly because the maps are a little dated, but it’s also because I don’t need to use a standalone personal navigation device (PND) anymore. Instead, I use my Nokia E71 with Google Maps for day-to-day navigation. Why?

The smartphone accompanies me on my daily journeys anyway, so I’m not carrying around any additional hardware to find my way around town. Further still, the Google Maps are much more up to date than the pre-installed Garmin maps I have on my nuvi. There really is no reason to use the Garmin anymore, unless I want a bigger screen. If that were the case, I could go with something like an iPhone or BlackBerry Storm instead.

Is the standalone GPS dead? The guys at TomTom and Garmin don’t want to believe so. Harold Goddijn of TomTom says that they’re “becoming more optimistic” and they they’ve seen “quite a good development in demand.” Even so, I have a feeling he knows what’s coming around the corner.

You’ll recall that the PDA market went through a similar situation when smartphones started to pick up in popularity. They told us how it would still be superior to have a standalone personal organize, but how many of us have standalone PDAs anymore when a smartphone can do that and so much more?

Source: Crunchgear

The post Are Standalone GPS Devices Going the Way of the PDA? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.