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Wednesday, October 29, 2025
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The DxO One Turns Your iPhone Into a DSLR

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DxO One Camera

The DxO One is an awesome add-on that can make your iPhone shoot DSLR-quality photographs.

We all take a ton of pictures on a monthly basis – whether we’re taking pics of our loved ones, or just quickly snapping something funny that you’ve witnessed on your daily commute. At the current moment, we don’t need to worry that our pics will be pixelated, and indescribable because the market is saturated with devices that offer average camera units.

But none of the smartphones on the market can output a DSLR-quality photo.

DxO One pic sample

Shot with a DxO One camera

Here’s where the DxO One comes in handy. It’s due to be released this Fall, and the digital image processing company that is behind the DxO One states that it’s going to be pocket-sized, and it’s going to connect easily to your iPhone, or iPad device – you pair them using your Lightning connector.

Basically, the DxO One uses your iPhone, or iPad, as a viewfinder. The company is promising DSLR-quality photos, but this won’t come cheap. The DxO One is going to cost $599. Yikes! That’s quite expensive. The company states that their little pocket friendly camera will compete with full-sized mirrorless cameras.

Here’s another sample of the quality that it can output:

DxO One Camera

Shot with a DxO One camera

The camera is super light weighing at about 3.8-ounces, and measuring 2.65-inches tall. The cherry on top is its camera unit that features a 20.2 megapixel sensor, and because it’s paired with an f/1.8 lens, it can compete with 32mm-equivalent lens’.

The DxO One is going to come with its very own Apple app. You can use it to change the ISO, and the aperture, as well as swivelling the camera when it’s connected to your iPhone, or iPad, in order to take photos from different perspectives. Don’t forget those awesome DSLR-quality selfies. Also, you can shoot video at 1080p.

Shot with a DxO One camera

Shot with a DxO One camera

The photos you take are stored on DxO One’s microSD card, but you can easily transfer them to your device of choice.

If you jump on the bandwagon and pre-order the DxO One now, you can get the company’s very own image processing software for free.

Now, the DxO One doesn’t have a flash of its own, and it will use your iPhone’s, or iPad’s flash, but the company noted that the camera will work perfectly in a low light setting. I haven’t tested it yet, and all we have are these photos that the company has released. They look pretty good, but it isn’t the first time a company has lied to sell their product.

Image Source: 1, 2, 3, 4

Tablet Sales Are Declining

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tablet-sales-are-declining

Image source: apple.com

We were all shocked when the former CEO from BlackBerry, Thorsten Heins said back in 2013 that within five years the tablet will be dead. His prediction doesn’t quite seem as ridiculous now, just two years after he made it, seeing how tablet sales are declining. IDC claims that for the first time ever, the sales of tablets have declined in the fourth quarter. This basically means that consumers have ignored tablets during this holiday season and focused more on other devices such as drones, Chromebooks and fitness trackers.

The decline

Four from the five major tablet manufacturers, including Apple, have reported serious declines in sales. Even though Apple released the new iPad Mini 3 and iPad Air 2, the tech giant saw negative growth of around 18 percent. Similar declines were reported by Samsung as well. However, Apple still dominates Samsung in terms of market share.

The fourth quarter is still a very successful one for Apple because of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Despite this, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said the iPad is facing challenges.

We may get a new iPad in the future called the iPad Pro. This new device is said to have a 12 inch display and better multitasking capabilities. However, an analyst at IDC, Jitesh Ubrani said the new device won’t be able to take back the fortunes that Apple has seen in the market.

Amazon seems to have taken the biggest blow in the tablet market. The company’s growth declined by 70 percent and we wonder if the Fire smartphone had anything to do with this. But Ubrani thinks there is a much simpler explanation than that. The fact is that Amazon dominated the low-end of the market until now but companies such as Asus, Acer, RCA and E Fun are taking over.

There are other things that are responsible other than dropping prices. The innovation of these devices has simply disappeared. All the people who wanted a tablet in the past all have one at the moment and the small differences from one generation to the next one are simply not enough of a reason for people to upgrade.

It seems that the only big improvements on next generation tablets are better cameras, better screens and relatively faster CPUs. The truth is that there is not dire need to upgrade to a newer generation as long as all the games and apps work just as well on older ones.

Some people also believe that the phablet trend is more or less responsible for the death of the tablet.

Microsoft’s Tablet PC was intended for the masses but ended up being successful only with field workers and professionals. The iPad was able to reinvent the market by being able to put apps and the Internet at everyone’s fingertips. However, smartphones with bigger screens are able to do the same thing right now which means that tablet manufacturers will have to focus on more specific things their tablet devices could offer.

The tablet is currently being reinvented for smaller audiences such as kids and gamers and even though the tablet market will probably never see the attention it has seen in the past this doesn’t necessarily mean these devices are dying.

Leaks Showcase What Could Be the Next iPad

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Leaks Showcase What Could Be the Next iPad

The Internet is a great source of information; the greatest even. So it’s not a surprise that because of it nothing stays a secret anymore. Sneak it a couple of photos of it, and it’s done – everyone and their family will find out in no time.

That’s exactly what happened with the latest rumors of a new iPad coming out. Based probably half on common sense deduction and half on word of mouth, the rumors seem to have been true. An image travelling around, depicting a mold said to make Apple’s upcoming, larger tablet pretty much confirmed speculation. The image is said to have been taken in China and was posted on Chinese website Weibo – saying that it was taken in Apple’s Foxconn factory.

What do the experts say?

Experts have taken the photo and got to work on estimating size and weight of the upcoming Apple iPad – rumored to be either iPad Air Plus or the iPad Pro. From the looks of it, the next iPad will be a 12.2 inches tablet – the dimensions seem to be 305.3 mm x 220.8 mm x 7 mm which is definitely quite a leap from the current largest model, the iPad Air 2. As a comparison, the Air 2’s dimensions are 240 mm x 169.5 mm x 6.1 mm so the difference is tangible to say the least.

Leaks Showcase What Could Be the Next iPad

The Future for iPads 

So the question will surely arise: what made Apple take such a turn when it comes to releasing tablets? Before the iPad Air 2, Apple seemed to have steered production the other way around by releasing the iPad Mini series – something that to some seemed to defeat the purpose of tablets in the price place, when users confronted the 7.9 inch iPad.

Recent studies reflect some explanations when it comes to handheld device sizing issues however. Given the fact that the smartphone market is partially turning into a phablet one raises several concerns. The mere fact that the term “phablet” exists and is considered a viable term for some devices hints towards that in the first place.

So we live in a time when there’s a crossing of roads happening – with the steady increase in size of so many smartphones out there, while companies release actual phone and tablet hybrids sized as large as 6 inches, users tend to lose interest in tablets for many of the things they normally do on portable smart devices.

Why bother with watching a movie on your 8 inch tablet when you can do it on the nearly just as large phablet that you recently acquired?

iPad Pro

And stop to think of it, that’s precisely the way things work. While tablets might give you a little more versatility when it comes to work, making things such as text editing much less of a pain even without an attachable or Bluetooth keyboard, let’s be frank. If work is what you’re using your devices for, might as well go for a notebook or at least a tablet/notebook hybrid instead.

So if we’re talking entertainment alone, with the diminishing difference in size between tablets and smartphones, the number of reasons you’d use your former over the latter are very few.

Taking all of these into consideration, Apple seem to be doing a great thing – by focusing on producing larger scale tablets again, they can draw back the interest of people who purchased devices such as the iPhone 6 Plus for example.

Whether the intent will catch on to users out there or not is something we will have to wait and see once the actual thing is released. It’s not as certain that people will still give up the option of having a device that allows you all forms of media entertainment while still being able to keep it in your pocket for a large, 12 inch tablet that despite having to carry it around will most likely offer outstanding performance and visual goodies.

Jailbreak iPhone 6, 5S and iPads with iOS 8 or iOS 8.1

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There has been a lot of heated discussion on the topic of Apple’s iOS 8 operating system. Since it was first released, customers complained that the OS has a lot of glitches and bugs. According to statistics, only 56% of Apple clients have upgraded to the 8.0 version of the OS, and over 40% of devices remain on iOS 7. The good news is that iOS 8.1 was recently released, and it provides with significantly better functionality.

We have already tackled the importance of upgrading to iOS 8.1 in a previous article. The conclusion was that the iOS gets more advanced every year and by not upgrading it you are missing out on a lot of nifty features.

According to recent news, the company actually rolled out the iOS 8.1.1 update on Monday for iPhones iPods and iPads. A word of advice for those with Pangu8 jailbreak in mind: stay away from this update as it will bug your device.

jailbreak-ios-8-1

Today we would like to tackle the subject of jailbreaking for iOS 8.0 and 8.1 devices. But first, what does jailbreaking mean?

Jailbreaking is the process of circumventing Apple’s security measures in iOS to install tweaks, hacks, and mods that aren’t allowed in the App Store. The U.S. Library of Congress has ruled that it is now illegal for you to unlock your smartphone if it was bought after January 26th, 2013.

Not everyone can afford to purchase all of Apple’s apps. This is where jailbreaking becomes useful. We have prepared for you an extensive tutorial that will help you jailbreak iPhones and iPads. As a disclaimer, we would like to mention that jailbreaking your device will void your warranty. You can easily restore your phone to its previous settings by uninstalling everything with iTunes. So if you decide that you want to go back to the non-jailbreak state of your phone, you can do that quickly.

For those of you who are prepared to take the risks –waking up with a 500$ doorstop- here is a great tutorial that will help you jailbreak your device.

Getting Started

You will obviously need an iOS device (anything that runs on iOS 8 or 8.1 will be perfect – this includes iPhone 6, 6 Plus, iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3), and a Windows/Linux computer. At the moment, there is no naitive Mac jailbreak tool for iOS 8. The first thing you have to do is to install iTunes on your computer. If you don’t have it you can simply download it from the official page of Apple. Next, you must plug-in your iOS device and make sure that iTunes recognizes it.

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What You’ll Need:

Before you start, you should create a back-up of your iPhone/iPad, just to be safe. Although the process differs from that of iOS7, the steps are relatively easy to follow and safe. Backing up or restoring to factory settings will also remove unwanted apps that might disrupt your jailbreaking process.

Pangu81

Once you have completed all these steps you are ready to jail-break your iOS 8 device. The Pangu team is relatively new to the jailbreaking scene, but it has successfully managed to create a tool that will help users jailbreak their untethered iPhone 6, 6 plus, 5c, 5s, 5, 4s, all iPads and the iPod touch 5. At first, they created a tool in Chinese, available only on Windows which did not include Cydia. Saurik updated it Cydia for iOS8 but it required manual installation.

Finally, the 1.1.0 version of Pangu was released. It includes English language and bundled Cydia. Hop on over to Pangu’s official website, and hit the ‘download’ button for the software’s latest system. If you already have a device that was jailbroken with Pangu8, you have to update to the latest untether package (more on this subject later in the article).

Jailbreaking your iOS 8.0 – 8.1 Device

You are now ready to begin the jailbreaking software.

  1. Once you have downloaded Pangu8 from the official website you have to track down your file and ‘run as administrator’. If you downloaded the latest version you should see instructions in English.
  2. Wait several minutes for Pangu8 to recognize your device and click on “Start Jailbreak” – the blue button in the middle. Right now, all you can do is to sit tightly, grab a cup of coffee and wait. It will probably take a few minutes for the process to complete.
  3. If the tool stops without jailbreaking, your button will become blue again and you have to try again. Assuming that everything worked well, your iDevice will reboot.
  4. You will be taken through Apple’s initial setup. Upon rebooting you should see the following message:

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  1. Once you are in your menu again you have to track down your Pangu app icon (as displayed in the image below). Open it and click on “Install Cydia”. Cydia is basically an app store for jailbreak iPhone tweaks.jailbreak-iphone-6-iphone-6-plus-ios-8-7
  1. After you hit install, and the software is finished with the process, you will be prompted that the device will ‘respring’ (a respring is a soft reboot). Upon rebooting you will see the Cydia icon on your home screen.
  1. Click on it and let it do what it has to do (it will probably display the message “preparing filesystem” for several minutes). After it finishes, open Cydia again and you are ready to go.

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That’s it! You have successfully managed to jailbreak your iPhone device.

You will now be able to install third-party applications, themes, utilities, mods and tweaks that are usually not authorized by Apple. In other words, you will be able to improve and enhance your device beyond the limitations of what Apple allows. Although jailbreaking is not illegal, it will violate the End User License Agreement (EULA), and your warranty will become void.

How to Un-jailbreak your iO8 Device

Let’s say you decide that jailbreaking isn’t for you after all. What can you do? It’s actually quite simple. The following steps should help you restore the device to its previous settings:

  1. Connect your Apple device to iTunes (on a Mac or Windows).
  2. Cancel any auto-syncing, if it starts.
  3. Hold your home button and power/sleep buttons pressed at the same time.
  4. Wait 10 seconds like this, then continue pressing the power/sleep button for 5 seconds. After that, you can let go of the phone.
  5. If you respected steps 3 and 4, the device of the screen should go black and iTunes will give you an option to restore it.
  6. Follow the steps on iTunes to download the latest version of iOS for your device.

.7. Restore your back-up.

iOS 8 and Above Jailbreak iPhone Tweaks and Apps

Since the iOS 8.1 update rolled-out Apple users have been asking themselves if there is any point in jailbreaking anymore. The truth is that Apple has added many interesting features that were not previously available on iPhones and iPads. Nevertheless, there are still several tweaks and apps that you should definitely consider using on a jailbroken phone. Here are a some of them:

  1. HideMe8

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For those of you who want to get rid of several iOS 8 interface elements, HideMe8 is the perfect tool. With it you can customize many things such as badges, apps, date text etc. You can also modify screen elements, the Control Center and many more. HideMe8 is one of the most advance customization tools for jailbroken devices.

More About HideMe8: click here

  1. F.lux

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Another app that you might enjoy is F.lux. This nifty tool has been around since iOS 7 and it works perfectly well on iOS 8 as well. What it does is adjust your lighting for night and day. iOS devices change screen temperature based on time of day (it’s warmer at night to make it easier to read).

“Each evenining at sunset, f.lux warms up the colors of your phone. At dawn, F.lux returns your phone to daylight colors.

More info about F.lux: click here

  1. MyWi

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MyWi quickly adds tethering for your iOS device irrespective of whether or not you are paying for it through your carrier. The app costs 20 dollars, but considering that most carriers charge twice as much monthly, it is well worth its price.

More info about MyWi: click here

  1. iFile

If you’ve ever used Android devices you are probably already familiar with EsFileExplorer. iFile is siminar to it. This file manager for iOS will enable you to view files, unzip them, edit text files, import music and many more. It’s a lot more than what it seems at a glance.

More info about iFile: click here

  1. Netflix ++

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Netflix++ is one of the best movie streaming services out there. With Netflix++ you can view trailers for your favorite movies before viewing it. This will make browsing for great movies a lot easier.

More info about Netflix ++: click here

  1. Winterboard

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Winterboard is without a doubt one of the best ways to customize the look of a iOS device. The problem is that there is not a stable iOS 8 version of it yet (it will be released shortly). Among the customization features we will mention adding personalized images, themes, icons and more. To install it you have to open Cydia and download the app. Restart your phone and download a theme of your choosing.

If it is given to you in a .theme folder you will have to install an iPhone explorer and copy it in your computer (/library/themes). Open your Winterboard app, tap select themes and play around with the appearance of your phone.

  1. Activator

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This is one of the most cherished tweaks for jailbreak iphones. With it you can assign custom actions and gestures to your swipes. For example, if you want to automatically open an app you can assign a gesture to it. There is no limit to what this tool can do for you.

More info about Activator: click here

  1. Slide2Kill8

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Another tweak that you might enjoy is Slide2Kill8. It makes closing and managing apps as simple as swiping the screen. Everybody knows that multiple apps are app killers, but Slide2Kill8 will help you manage them easily.

More info about Slide2Kill8: click here

Other interesting iOS8 Jailbreak iPhone apps/tweaks: Aeternum, Asos, CyDelete8, Dotter, Instagram++, NoLiveClock, SendDelay, TransparentVolume8, Apex2, Aria, Backuplt, Bridge, InstaLauncher, NC Customizer, PdaNet, SleekPhone, Snapper, TetherStatus, UIRotation8, Protube HD.

With this we will conclude the Jailbreak tutorial for iOS8 Devices on Windows. There is a special tutorial for Mac users, to run a virtual Windows install. Whatever you do, make sure that you have a back-up available for your device. Although there have been very few cases of bugs reported, you don’t want to lose all of your data for nothing. For further questions feel free to contact us!

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