Peek

Five 'Peek' stories March 2013 - November 2015

Waze adds 3D Touch shortcuts on iPhone 6s, Fantastical brings Peek & Pop to events and reminders

Zac Hall Nov 16 2015 - 11:53 am PT

Waze 3D Touch

Last month the popular Waze navigation app on iPhone got a major update with a new design and improvements to reporting traffic issues and sharing arrival times with others. Now Waze is out with its next new version which brings 3D Touch shortcuts to the Home screen icon for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users. Firmly press on the updated icon to quickly look up an address, share your location with other users, or get directions to your work or home address from your current location. Waze also says the update includes the usual bug fixes and improvements.

Fantastical already features 3D Touch shortcuts from its Home screen icon, and today the calendar and reminders app is adding more 3D Touch features for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users…
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Skype for iOS adds 3D Touch & video filters in latest update

Jordan Kahn Oct 28 2015 - 8:58 am PT

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Skype is rolling out an update for its iPhone and iPad mobile apps today that introduces a number of ways to use Apple’s new 3D Touch feature on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, as well as support for video filters not unlike competitive video chat services.

For 3D Touch, iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users will find a few ways to use the feature including the usual quick-start actions by firmly touching the Home screen icon. In addition, you can “press on a Recent conversation to Peek the latest IMs or a live video call” and “Force Touch shared locations, photos, contacts and URLs to Peek the content.”

And for both iPhone and iPad users, Skype is adding filters for video messages with various effects to choose from:

Get started by tapping the filter wand at the bottom left of the video message window. Choose a filter to see it in action then, when you’re ready, hit the record button. Add balloons to your video message to celebrate any occasion. If you’re feeling goofy, change the appearance of your face to make it look rounder or longer – we love this one! Or, if you’re sending a video message showing off your Halloween costume, add some ghosts or use the negative filter to set a spooky mood.

And lastly, both the iPhone and iPad apps add improvements to conversations and contacts:

– Hide conversations from your Recent list with a swipe.
– Completely delete a conversation’s history from the chat menu or Recent list.
– Easily share Skype contacts.

The updated Skype for iPad and Skype for iPhone apps are available on the App Store now.

iPhone 6s diary: Day one first impressions – forget the similarities, this is a whole new phone

Ben Lovejoy Sep 25 2015 - 8:02 am PT

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Put the iPhone 6s next to its predecessor, and I’d challenge anyone to tell them apart. You start to notice the difference as soon as you put your thumb on the Touch ID sensor. Apple says that the new sensor is faster, and I was surprised to find that the difference – while small – is definitely noticeable. I had to use both a number of times to persuade myself that it wasn’t just a placebo effect, but I did end up convinced.

I’m going to play with the camera this evening when I have something a bit more interesting to photograph than my office and a view through the window of a very ordinary street, so mostly what I’ve been playing with today is the new Peek and Pop features using 3D Touch.

I was impressed by the idea – it was really this that persuaded me to upgrade despite my earlier doubts – and now that I’ve used it, I would now say there is no doubt at all: 3D Touch fully justifies the upgrade from the iPhone 6 …
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Opinion: Does the iPhone 6s justify an upgrade from the iPhone 6 after all? [Poll]

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2015 - 8:22 am PT

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A few weeks prior to the launch of the iPhone 6s, I wondered whether an S model could really continue the blockbuster sales success Apple enjoyed with the iPhone 6. Based on what we knew then, it seemed like it might be a tough sell. And at the time, it seems many of you felt the same way: in our poll, only 29% of iPhone 6 owners said they would ‘definitely’ upgrade.

But my view now is that Apple may have pulled a rabbit out of the hat. The company has, I think, successfully dealt with three of my five reasons for being skeptical about the sales potential of the 6s:

Force Touch is a techy feature, with limited mass-market appeal
The camera improvements are nice, but the iPhone 6 camera is already great
The iPhone 6 still feels like ‘the new iPhone’

So let’s look at each in turn, and see why I think Apple may have managed to prove me wrong …
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Another impressive lock screen mod shows how much innovation is possible from Apple in iOS 7

Jordan Kahn Mar 11 2013 - 7:25 am PT

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We recently showed you some of the possible innovative and or highly requested new features Apple could add in the next version of iOS. It’s unclear whether Jony Ive’s new software design responsibilities will lead to a radically new design for iOS 7, but many features of iOS are becoming more and more outdated with every slick new jailbreak tweak that gets released. One example is the lock screen—something that new jailbreak tweak Peekly aims to revamp.

Peekly brings weather, a selection of clocks, and a 3-month calendar in a two-page theme that reimagines the lock screen:

Peekly is a 2 page lockscreen theme for iOS. On the first page, you get the time and date. Currently you can choose between the default clock, a digital clock or no clock/date at all. More clocks coming soon! Dragging your lockscreen to the right will allow you to “Peek” at a 3 month calendar. This is the default peek. You can currently choose to put in a Twitter feed, yourGoogle Calendar events or an RSS feed. More options will be added soon. Swiping the lockscreen to the left will bring you to page 2, which has today’s weather. “Peeking” to the left on this page will show you a 4 day forecast.