Stories by Gary Ng

Developer Steve Stroughton-Smith has revealed Apple's code names for iOS firmware all the way back from iPhone OS 1.0. The code names are from the book iOS Forensic Analysis: 1.0: Alpine (1.0.0 – 1.0.2: Heavenly) 1.1: Little Bear (1.1.1: Snowbird, 1.1.2: Oktoberfest) 2.0: Big Bear 2.1: Sugarbowl 2.2: Timberline 3.0: Kirkwood 3.1: Northstar 3.2: Wildcat...

Last week, the Chronic Dev Team released a tool for iOS users to re-route their crash reports so they would be sent to them, instead of Apple. This plan was to accumulate information towards a new untethered jailbreak exploit, as existing loopholes had been closed by Apple. Joshua Hill just sent out a tweet that...

Stephen Colbert has found yet another reason to love Siri. With the recent kerfuffle over Siri’s inability to locate abortion clinics in New York City, and directing similar request in Washington, D.C. to anti-abortion centers, Colbert is using the opportunity to have some fun with Siri. (Note: Apple quickly responded to the New York Times, attributing the poor search results...

Earlier this week Bing posted their search data trends for 2011. Today Yahoo! Canada released their much-anticipated Year in Review. Based on aggregated visitor activity, Yahoo! Canada’s 2011 Year in Review editors sifted through billions of searches to uncover search trends. And, the most popular News search term in Canada was – "Apple." It's been a big year for Apple, from...

If you're a fan of racing games, here's a cool free download for the day. Electronic Art's Need for for Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed is a free as part of their EA Daily Deals. The graphics look pretty stunning and are optimized for the Retina Display, while the universal download comes in at 312MB. I'm...

According to Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, there is a large surveillance industry that has increasingly gotten larger since the attacks of 9/11. Speaking at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at the City University of London, Assange said the following: “Who here has an iPhone? Who here has a Blackberry? Who here uses Gmail? Well, you’re all...

If you're about to sign a new contract with the 'Big 3' carriers in Western Canada, you might want to take note of the following: Rogers, Telus, and Bell are offering unlimited long distance to three-year contract sign ups. Your voice and data plan must be at least $50 per month, and this promo applies...

If you want to have some fun this Christmas, check out Sympatico's Magic Santa iPhone app. This cool app lets you create personalized videos tailored to specific answers you provide for recipients. The information you provide shows up in the final video itself, and looks pretty awesome. You can even include pictures into the video...

Prior to the iPhone 4S announcement, Rogers informed customers about the option to pre-order the device through their online reservations system. Devices would be available on a first-come, first-serve basis dependent on stock, and emails would be dispatched to customers informing them when they could pick up their phone. The reservations system resulted in long...

Health Canada, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Best Buy have issued a recall on Rocketfish iPhone battery packs as they pose a fire hazard. Sold at both Best Buy and Future Shop from April 2010 to September 2011, there have been instances of the cases overheating during charging in the U.S., but not...

Apple is looking to get into the business of unique device identification, Patently Apple reports, filing a patent that details plans for a "digital handshake" capable of transferring data between nearby devices. The patent application, published by the US Patent & Trademark Office today, preposes using a camera that could identify barcodes or invisible ink that would allow devices to recognize...

Last week Samsung posted a series of commercials (see here and here) that pokes fun at iPhone owners. Today they're continuing the campaign on their US Facebook page with a series of graphics that suggests the iPhone is dated and uncool. Samsung clearly wants their message to go viral. One graphic illustrates a comparison between “Cutting edge” (their Galaxy S II) and...