GTA: San Andreas rolling out across the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch

Update: The game is now available on the App Store worldwide.

After announcing that the iconic game would come to iOS last month, Rockstar is releasing  GTA San Andreas today. The game is live in certain countries already, and will be available globally in the coming hours at this link. If the link does not work for you currently, it will do when the clock turns midnight in your region’s timezone. The game costs $7 and is compatible with iPhone 4s and later, iPad 2 and later and the fifth generation iPod touch.

The game is a port of the original PlayStation title, but Rockstar says it features remastered graphics. This consists of improved models, expanded color palette and higher resolution textures across the environment.

Gameplay will mirror the original game — including all the classic car heists and gun fights the game is known for. Three different touch control schemes are available to choose from as well as compatibility for iOS 7 MFI game controllers.

In fact, this game is a perfect complement as a token gift for anyone receiving an iOS gamepad accessory for the holidays.

Written by: Benjamin Mayo @BenjaminZAMayo December 11, 2013/11:04 am - 9to5mac.com

iPhone 5c goes on sale for just $27 with a two-year agreement this Friday at Wal-Mart

Update: Best Buy is currently taking $75 off all iPhone 5s models.

Update 2:  Starting today MacMall Retail Stores will offer the iPhone 5c for $19.99 and the iPhone 5s at $119.99.

The holiday deals just keep getting better for Apple fans. Wal-Mart shoppers will be able to get the new iPhone 5c for only $27 with a new two-year contract starting this Friday. The phone typically goes for $99, putting the total discount at $72. Following the 5c’s launch earlier this year, we noted that its higher-end counterpart, the 5s, was outselling it two-to-one. It seems Wal-Mart is quite interested in moving some stock to try to even those numbers out.

Special deals on other Apple devices will be available the same day, including the iPhone 5s at $127 with a contract, a savings of—you guessed it—$72. The retailer is also planning to offer a $50 gift card with the purchase of a new iPad mini. And of course no Apple sale would be complete without discounted iTunes gift cards. A $30 card will only set you back $25 during the sale.

To keep up with all of the latest holiday sales on Apple gear and more, be sure to check out our sister site 9to5Toys, and subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature to make sure you’re always up-to-date with the latest deals.

Written by: Mike Beasley @MikeBeas December 11, 2013/4:23 pm - 9to5mac.com

iPhone market share in China more than doubled following 5s and 5c launch

Data from smartphone market intelligence specialist Counterpoint shows that iPhone market share in China more than doubled between September and October even before launching on the country’s biggest carrier, China Mobile.

Apple’s market share rose from just under 5 percent to 12 percent, taking it from 6th place to 3rd place, behind Samsung and Lenovo … 

Apple had previously seen its share fall from 9 percent in early 2012 as the market was flooded with relatively high-spec Android phones at low prices.

With wildly-varying estimates of the likely effect of the China Mobile deal, there will be huge interest in the numbers following the iPhone’s official launch on the carrier on the 18th.

Pre-orders start today, and Fortune noted that the reservation page was notching up website visitors at the rate of one every two seconds.

Written by: Ben Lovejoy @benlovejoy December 12, 2013/5:11 am - 9to5mac.com

iPhone 5s undisputed king at all four major U.S. carriers ever since launch

The iPhone 5s has retained its status as the best-selling smartphone at the four tier-1 U.S. carriers for the third month running, with the iPhone 5c taking third place after the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Data from Canaccord Genuity showed that the iPhone 5s has topped the sales charts at AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile every month since launch, reports AllThingsD.

“Our surveys indicated continued strong sales of the iPhone 5s, as it was by far the top selling smartphone at all four tier-1 U.S. carriers and at most channels where the smartphone launched globally,” analyst T. Michael Walkley explained in a note to clients. “Our surveys also indicated steady iPhone 5c sales with the smartphone’s color options and more affordable price point proving popular with its intended audience” … 

Prior to the launch of the new iPhones, Apple held the top slot at only one of the four carriers, AT&T, with the iPhone 5 sitting in second place behind the Samsung S4 at the others.

On the basis of these numbers, Canaccord Genuity has increased its forecast shipment numbers for Q1 2014 from 52M to 54M. Supplies of the iPhone 5s have been a limiting factor until recently, but a store survey just a few days ago showed that supplies now appear to have caught up with demand.

The news comes just a day after the iPhone market share in China was reported to have doubled since the launch of the iPhone 5s and 5c.

Written by: Ben Lovejoy @benlovejoy December 13, 2013/4:22 am - 9to5mac.com

iOS 7.1 beta 2 adds Button Shapes, improves usability at the cost of aesthetics; Do you like it?

Apple seeded iOS 7.1 beta 2 to developers of its iOS developer program yesterday, with a number of changes, one of which was an option to enable “Button Shapes” that adds a border around text-only buttons.

Text-only buttons were introduced in iOS 7 as a part of the drastic redesign from the skeuomorphic design traits of iOS 6. It was one of the many design choices that was criticised from a user-experience perspective, since it was hard to distinguish text-only buttons from other, non-tappable labels. From the UX Critique tumblr:

The word “Trim” appears twice on this screen. One of them is a label, and pressing it does nothing. The other one is a button. Which one is which? How is anyone supposed to know? You have to do some guesswork. The “Trim” at the top is centered on the screen, so it is probably a title. To make sure, tap on it and see if anything happens.

After enabling Button Shapes, from Settings > General > Accessibility, the Trim and Cancel buttons have underlines below them. Apple has also changed the text of the label at the top to say “Trimming” rather than trim.

In other apps, the buttons have an actual shape around them rather than an underline:

Steve Aquino says the Button Shapes option is great for vision impaired users. From Steven’s blog:

From a [accessibility] perspective, what the new Button Shapes do is restore a sense of explicitness to iOS 7′s interface. These types of visual cues are so important to many visually impaired users, myself included. Whereas previously I struggled in identifying whether a label was an actionable control or simply a label, iOS 7.1′s Button Shapes hearken back to the iOS 6-style, This is a button. Tap me!, level of usability. And therein is the point: usability. As I stated, it’s perfectly valid to wince at and decry the visual design of the new buttons, but make no mistake, the addition of this feature is a tremendous improvement for visually handicapped users such as myself. These buttons will make iOS 7 infinitely more usable than it is today, and Apple absolutely should be applauded for addressing a serious issue — not only for me, but even for the normal-sighted as well.

Let us know what you think about Button Shapes in the comments below.

Posted by Jason on Dec 14, 2013 - iphonehacks.com

Retina iPad mini supply constraints ease as units land in stores, shipping estimates drops to 1 to 3 days

As noted by CNET,  Retina iPad mini supply is starting to improve with units landing in stores and ship times improving in the Apple online store. With less than two weeks left before Christmas and eager holiday shoppers looking for iPads,  the timing is perfect for inventory to become more abundant. 

As noted by CNET, AT&T is now stocking select Retina iPad mini models in stores across the country. Verizon, too, is receiving shipments into its stores for the first time since the iPad mini launched in November. Apple’s online store is also showing improvements with a shipping time of 1-3 days.

This is an across the board improvement from last week when AT&T was backordered three weeks, Verizon shipments were 10 days out and Apple’s online store was listing ship times of 5-7 days. The new iPad mini is a powerhouse, packing an Apple A7 processor and a 7.9-inch display with a 326 pixels per inch, 2,048×1,536-resolution display. It’s this smaller-sized retina display that some analysts believe is the bottleneck in production that lead to shortages at launch.

Posted by Kelly on Dec 14, 2013 - iphonehacks.com

pod2g dismisses rumors of iOS 7 jailbreak being stolen, says evad3rs progressing slowly

Stefan Esser, aka i0n1c, notorious for trolling the jailbreak community, recently claimed that “someone around the evad3rs stole a jailbreak from them and sold it to a private buyer.”

He didn’t say if this was an iOS 7 jailbreak, but nonetheless made a pretty serious allegation, which, if true, could impact the progress of the evad3rs team.

iDesignTimes spoke to Cyril Cattiaux, aka pod2g, who was quick to dismiss i0n1c’s claim, saying that it was “complete bullshit.”

So apparently someone around the @evad3rs stole a jailbreak from them and sold it to a private buyer.

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) December 12, 2013

Hehe some desperate JBers accuse me of trolling because they fear that the stolen and sold jailbreak exploits mean no iOS 7 jailbreak.

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) December 13, 2013

The only way the @evad3rs could be sure that no one stole their JB exploits is if they have nothing at all to steal.

— Stefan Esser (@i0n1c) December 13, 2013

As for the progress on the iOS 7 jailbreak, pod2g said that “the jailbreak stuff is moving on, but slowly.” iDesignTimes adds that the longest you’d have to wait for an iOS 7 jailbreak will be February 2014, and the earliest — the end of this year. It also adds that there’s a high likelihood that iOS 7.1 is released publicly. Take that with a grain of salt of course, since the writer herself admits the timeline is “complete supposition” on her part.

To keep a close eye on iOS 7 jailbreak related news, stay tuned here at iPhone Hacks or join our Facebook Fan page, follow us on Twitter, add us to your circles on Google+ or subscribe to our RSS feed.

[via iDesignTimes]

Posted by Jason on Dec 14, 2013 - iphonehacks.com