Weekend Roundup: All the best Apple news from last week

BY Kelly Hodgkins

Published 12 Jan 2014

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As we close out one week and kick off another, let’s take a moment to look back at the attention-grabbing headlines from the past seven days. Some of the news you may recall, some may be new to you, but all of the topics below are worthy of a mention.

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Apple seeds iOS 7.1 beta 3 to developers [Updatedx3]

Apple has just seeded the third beta version of iOS 7.1 to developers of the iOS Developer Program.

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evasi0n7 1.0.3 released to fix Retina iPad mini reboot loop issue; support iOS 7.1 beta 3

evad3rs has just released evasi0n7 1.0.3 to fix the reboot loop issues that was affecting Retina iPad mini users.

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How to Disable Gmail integration with Google+ that allows anyone to email you without your email address

Google recently added a new feature in Gmail that lets any Google+ user send you an email even if they don’t know your email address. Google’s decision to add the feature was quite controversial, more so because it is enabled by default for all Gmail users. In this post, we show you how you can disable this.

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Beats Music launching on Jan 21 for $10 per month

Beats Music, the new music streaming service said to be “heavy” on curation, will launch on the 21st of this month, following a limited launch to alpha testers, and letting users reserve their usernames for the service.

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Apple at CES 2014: Five things that mattered

When it comes to Apple products, CES can’t match the excitement of Macworld, which is slated for March of this year. At CES, we heard a lot about 4K televisions and a million different kinds of wearables, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t any gems for iOS and OS X users. Here’s a list of five products unveiled at CES 2014 that I think are significant for Apple owners.

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Patent suggests Apple planning to bring Optical Image Stabilization to iPhone camera

The iPhone camera includes image stabilisation that takes photos in quick succession and combines the images so as to minimise motion. But this solution is software-based, and Apple soon plans on moving away from this approach to optical image stabilisation (OIS) as detailed in a new patent application.

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Fitbit Force getting caller ID support in February

Fitbit confirmed today to SlashGear that the highly anticipated caller ID function is coming to the fitness tracker next month. Fitbit announced this feature when it unveiled the Force tracker last year.

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Apple and Samsung agree to enter mediation in patent dispute

According to a court filing reported by Bloomberg, Apple and Samsung have agreed to use a mediator to help resolve their patent dispute. The legal battle between the two technology companies has played out in a California court room for the past several years.

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T-Mobile to buyback phones, pay ETF for customers who switch carriers

T-Mobile is trying to make it as easy as possible for people to switch away from their current carriers and join the T-Mobile network. Today during CES 2104, T-Mobile unveiled part 4 of its Uncarrier initiative, which offers to pay termination fees and buy back phones from customers who switch carriers.

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Apple: App Store Sales Top $10 billion in 2013; including over $1 billion in December

Apple has just announced that more than $10 billion was spent by customers on the App Store. December was a record breaking month for the App Store with over $1 billion in sales.

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Apple to announce its Q1 2014 earnings on January 27

Apple updated its investor website with information about its upcoming earnings conference call. On January 27, 2014, the company will discuss its Q1 2014 earnings during an investor call that starts at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET

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Pebble announces Pebble Steel smartwatch for $249; Says Appstore coming this month

Pebble today announced its new Pebble Steel smartwatch that has a stainless steel body, as opposed to the plastic body of the original model.

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AT&T introduces Sponsored Data; Lets companies pay for your data

AT&T made a huge announcement today. It introduced a new program called “Sponsored Data” that lets consumers browse and consume certain types of content for free, with the data usage charges being borne by the sponsor and not you.

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SteelSeries’ Stratus is the first Bluetooth Wireless Game Controller for iOS

Apple added official support for Made for iOS Game Controllers in iOS 7, but the game controllers launched till now all connect via the Lightning port. SteelSeries today launched Stratus, the first wireless game controller that connects via Bluetooth.

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Rumor: iPhone 6 will be just 6 millimeters thick; based on iPhone 5s design

South Korean publication ET News claims that Apple’s next generation iPhone, which it calls iPhone Air, will be much thinner than iPhone 5s.

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Popular Jailbreak Tweaks

Now that iOS 7 has been jailbroken, we have covering some of the best jailbreak tweaks now available for your iPhone. Here is our list from last week: