The accessibility of AI is on the rise, and with it, content platforms now have to grapple with how to handle the potential issues AI can introduce.
A new report indicates that TikTok is about to ramp up its efforts in AI transparency. It will do this by automatically labeling all AI-generated content. Or at least, the content it knows about.
| Read more »Version 2.7 of the t:connect iOS app – which is used to control delivery of insulin by the t:slim X2 pump – has been urgently recalled by the FDA.
The FDA issued a Class I recall, which is reserved for products likely to cause “serious adverse health consequences or death” …
| Read more »Enlarge / A screenshot of the Apple iPad ad. (credit: Apple via YouTube)
An advert by Apple for its new iPad tablet showing musical instruments, artistic tools, and games being crushed by a giant hydraulic press has been attacked for cultural insensitivity in an online backlash.
The one-minute video was launched by Apple chief executive Tim Cook to support its new range of iPads, the first time that the US tech giant has overhauled the range for two years as it seeks to reverse faltering sales.
The campaign—soundtracked by Sonny and Cher’s 1971 hit All I Ever Need Is You—is designed to show how much Apple has been able to squeeze into the thinner tablet. The ad was produced in-house by Apple’s creative team, according to trade press reports.
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| Read more »Well, that was fast.
The M3 chip, introduced last October, is already yesterday’s news. We’re living in an M4 world, courtesy of the surprising announcement that the new iPad Pro is powered by Apple’s next generation of chips.
Even if you don’t care about iPads, this announcement will affect the trajectory of the Mac and iPhone in quite a few ways.
The first question to answer is: why so soon? The iPhone gets a new chip generation once a year, when the new iPhones arrive. Apple likely wants...
| Read more »A new streaming video bundle has been announced, comprising Disney+, Hulu, Max. It will be available in two tiers, starting sometime this summer.
Given the that it will include ABC, CNN, DC, Discovery, Disney, Food Network, FX, HBO, HGTV, Hulu, Marvel, Pixar, Searchlight, Warner Bros, and more, it raises the question of whether the big networks are simply reinventing cable TV …
| Read more »When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996 one of the first things he did was drastically streamline the company’s product portfolio. Slashing over 70 percent of the company’s products, everything was focused on a simple 2×2 grid: pro/consumer on one axis, desktop/portable on the other. Among other things, he argued that if consumers don’t know which product to buy, there are too many products.
Obviously, Apple is in a very different place today. It’s many times larger and competes in many more markets (both product markets and territorial markets). While it’s arguable that Apple makes too many products today, one could scarcely argue that it has too many Apple Pencils. There are four. Four!
Apple Pencil (x4)
It wouldn’t be crazy to suggest that Apple doesn’t even need to be the one making styluses for its tablets—just build the frameworks and let the accessory makers take care of it. But it’s hard...
| Read more »Hollywood names have criticized Apple’s new iPad Pro ad, as it depicts the crushing of musical instruments, paints, camera lenses, books, movie characters, sculptures, and more.
Actor Hugh Grant was one of those speaking up against the ad, tweeting that what it showed was “the destruction of the human experience, courtesy of Silicon Valley” …
| Read more »If you were dreaming of Baldur’s Gate 3 hitting the iPad following a rumor that this port was en route, it won’t be happening. While Apple has recently gone out of its way to attract AAA game developers to its Mac, iOS, and iPadOS platforms, going so far as to develop a game porting kit […]
| Read more »In addition to Apple’s healthy number of new product announcements on Tuesday, the company also seeded release candidate versions of the upcoming iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 updates to the developer community for testing. Registered developers can opt into the betas by opening the Settings app, going to the Software Update section, tapping the “Beta […]
| Read more »The first thing an entrepreneur learns is the importance of social media for marketing. The second thing they learn is how time-consuming that can be, but UNUM Pro is an tool that lets you plan your posts and helps increase engagement with a fraction of the drudge work.
Social media managers are nothing new, but UNUM offers several advantages over comparable services like Planoly or Later. For one thing, there are no monthly fees for the Pro Plan — just a single $49.99 payment for a lifetime of...
| Read more »The drought is finally over! Apple has announced new iPad Pros, new iPad Airs, the Apple Pencil Pro, and more! We talk about the latest Apple product announcements in this episode of the Macworld Podcast.
This is episode 883 with Jason Cross, Michael Simon, and Roman Loyola.
Listen to episode 883 on Apple Podcasts
Listen to episode 883 on Spotify
Get info
Click on the links below for more information on what was discussed on the show.
| Read more »Whether due to a hard drive crash, a virus attack, or a simple mistake, the surge of panic and frustration that accompanies the realization of possibly lost data is about as unpleasant as it comes.
Fortunately, there are solutions to help alleviate such stress. You can easily restore lost, corrupted, or otherwise inaccessible videos, photos, and other files with a lifetime subscription to EaseUS Fixo, only $49.99 (reg. $119).
EaseUS Fixo is an all-purpose fixer, ready to jump in and repair some of your most...
| Read more »Following the announcement of new iPads on Tuesday, Logitech today announced a new version of its popular Combo Touch keyboard case for the latest and M4 iPad Pro. The accessory works as a great alternative to Apple’s Magic Keyboard, as it also features a full-size keyboard and multi-touch trackpad.
| Read more »Michael Larabel reports via Phoronix: Building off the recent release of Fedora 40, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 is now available for this downstream of Fedora Linux that's optimized to run on Apple Silicon ARM systems. Fedora Asahi Remix continues to be one of the best ways of enjoying a Linux experience atop recent Apple Macs making use of their in-house M1/M2/M3 SoCs. With the Fedora Asahi Remix 40 release there is now conformant OpenGL 4.6 support thanks to the upgraded Mesa. There is also improved device compatibility with its newer kernel.
Fedora Asahi Remix continues to cater to using the KDE Plasma desktop by default. With the upgrade to Fedora Asahi Remix 40 this also means now transitioning to the KDE Plasma 6.0 desktop environment for their flagship desktop experience. A GNOME variant using GNOME 46 is also available. You can learn more about the release via FedoraMagazine.org. Installation options are available at FedoraProject.org.
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| Read more »A new report from Bloomberg today gives an in-depth look at who could replace Tim Cook as Apple’s CEO, who has held the title since 2011 and turns 64 this year. While the report says there’s “no reason to assume that a change at the helm is imminent,” there are multiple possibilities as to who code eventually take over.
| Read more »The new iPad Pro and iPad Air are here, and some of the biggest changes are to the design of the iPad Pro. The design changes make the iPad Pro significantly lighter and thinner…and it has me wondering what exactly “Air” means nowadays for the iPad.
| Read more »Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
Sponsored by iMazing 3: The world’s most trusted tool to manage Apple devices and transfer data from a Mac or PC. Redesigned for the future.
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| Read more »Apple has released yet another Apple Pencil during its Let Loose event, but it’s only compatible with the new iPad Pros and Airs. So if you have an older iPad, you’ll need one of the older Pencils. And today, you can one for cheaper than ever: Amazon is selling the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil for $79, a savings of $50 and the lowest price we’ve ever seen.
The 2nd-gen Apple Pencil magnetically attaches to the side of an...
| Read more »Developer LateNiteSoft launched its pro photography app for iPhone in 2023 called Photon Camera and has been upgrading it regularly. Now a new companion app has arrived for professionals who want a seamless solution for image display and management.
| Read more »Remember iTunes? Although it was discontinued years ago on macOS, the Windows version lives on to this day. And if you’re one of the people who still has iTunes installed on your PC, there’s an update available with an important security patch.
| Read more »It’s been nearly five years since the Apple Card first debuted as an iPhone-exclusive credit card option from Apple. Early adopters of the Apple Card were recently notified that their titanium physical card would soon be replaced due to its expiration date drawing near.
Users have now started to receive their replacement Apple Cards, and with them, a surprising addition to the packaging: a prepaid envelope to send your old titanium card back to Apple.
| Read more »Apple on Tuesday announced the new iPad Air and iPad Pro, and an interesting detail about both of them is that their respective Cellular versions are eSIM only, which means that they no longer have a SIM card tray. While eSIM-only iPhones are only available in the US, Apple is making eSIM-only iPads available worldwide – and this might be a hint of what will happen to the iPhone soon.
| Read more »More functionality for Vision Pro has landed with two new third-party app updates. The popular Duet Display and Screens are both now available for Apple’s headset. Here are all the details and features.
| Read more »One takeaway from the latest iPad event is that matte versus glossy is a polarizing topic when it comes to displays. This take is based on some of the reactions to Apple bringing its nano-texture matte display technology to the iPad Pro at last. For me, nano-texture coming to the iPad is easily my favorite piece of news from Apple’s Let Loose event.
| Read more »Yesterday Apple unveiled the next generation of the iPad Pro, a major update including an M4 chip, OLED-powered Ultra Retina XDR display, ultra-thin industrial design, and more.
In the last couple generations of iPad Pro, there was a key difference between the 11-inch and 13-inch models that many shoppers didn’t know about. The larger model came with significantly better display technology than its smaller sibling. That’s changed with the M4 iPad Pro, with Apple giving both models with the same top-tier Ultra Retina XDR.
However, while it was not announced in the keynote, Apple is nonetheless shipping two very different tiers of M4 iPad Pro. This time around, the differences aren’t tied to the display. Rather, there are significant, unadvertised changes that will come depending on the storage option you choose.
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| Read more »Enlarge / The new M4 iPad Pro. (credit: Apple)
When Apple announced the Apple M4 chip during its iPad Pro event yesterday, it mentioned that the chip came with "up to" four high-performance CPU cores.
Those short, easily missable words always mean that there's a lower-end version of the chip coming that doesn't include that many CPU cores, and the tech specs page for the new iPad Pro has the full details: iPad Pros with 256GB or 512GB of storage...
| Read more »CIRP is out with a new report today focused on the sales patterns of iPhone buyers when it comes to storage tiers. They highlight how storage tiers have become a major way for Apple to increase its profit line for each new iPhone sold, as the iPhone’s margins get increasingly better when storage is upgraded.
According to CIRP’s findings, almost half of iPhone buyers opt to upgrade the storage on their device. And this trend skews even higher, reaching over 50%, when considering the iPhone 15 lineup in isolation.
| Read more »Apple is losing another veteran design team members, according to a new report from Bloomberg. Duncan Kerr, a designer who has been at Apple for over 25 years, has reportedly informed the company that he will depart in the near future.
| Read more »Apple has launched the 2024 iPad Air with an upgraded M2 chip, a larger 13-inch version joining the 11-inch model, Apple Pencil Pro compatibility, and more. Join along for everything that’s new and improved for the M2 iPad Air vs M1 iPad Air.
| Read more »For as long as we can remember, Apple has included a little gift when you buy a new iPhone, Mac, or iPad that makes users feel like they are valued members of a community: A small sheet with two Apple logo stickers. However, if you buy one of the new iPad Pros or iPad Airs, you won’t receive any.
According to 9to5Mac, Apple has distributed a memo to its store employees explaining the change, which is due to the environmental push to remove all plastic from its packaging. Stickers are included in products as recent as the new M3 MacBook Airs that were released in March, though notably the Vision...
| Read more »If you spend hours typing each day, it’s important to find the keyboard that suits your needs – whether that’s a mechanical keyboard that provides satisfying tactile feedback or a keyboard packed with media controls and macOS shortcuts. There are plenty of options to choose from, and here we look at some of the best keyboards for Mac to help you decide.
We have all sorts of Mac keyboards in this round-up, including Apple’s 2021 Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and the cheaper, and still-on-sale, Magic Keyboard. We have some wired keyboards (for those fed up with searching for new batteries every few weeks) as well as ergonomic solutions to help you avoid RSI, the best gaming keyboards for Mac, and some pretty stylish offerings that give Apple a run for its money.
And, talking of money, there are quality Mac-ready keyboards out there that cost a lot less than Apple’s – and do more too.
You might also be...
| Read more »While pre-orders are now live at major online retailers for Apple’s new M4 iPad Pro, iPad Air, and Apple Pencil Pro, the deals are still rolling elsewhere this afternoon. Firstly, we are tracking straight up $100 price drops on Midnight, Silver, and Starlight Apple Watch Series 9 models. Those offers also join AirTag bundles at under $20 per tracker as well as a solid discount for folks who still pledge allegiance to Apple’s AirPods 2nd Gen. Everything is waiting below in today’s 9to5Toys Lunch Break.
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| Read more »Today the Walt Disney Company announced it would be launching its “first-ever interactive Disney+ Original story coming exclusively to Apple Vision Pro.”
What If…? An Immersive Story is described as a new app for Vision Pro that will enable an interactive mix of immersion, video, storytelling, and more. The app will connect to the Disney+ series, Marvel’s What If…?
| Read more »Less than 24 hours after Apple held a special event to unveil the new, record-thin (0.20 inch, the thinnest Apple device yet) iPad Pro with M4 chip inside, which the company says is optimized for AI, it is facing a loud and fast-spreading public backlash to one of its new marquee video advertisements promoting the device -- a spot called "Crush." VentureBeat: The video features a giant, industrial hydraulic press machine -- a device category famous for appearing in viral videos over the last decade-and-a-half -- literally pressing down upon and destroying dozens of other objects and creative instruments, from trumpets to cans of paint. The ad concludes with the press lifting to reveal these objects have somehow been transformed into a new iPad Pro. The metaphor and messaging is pretty obvious: the iPad Pro can subsume and replace all these older legacy instruments and technologies inside of it, and all in a more portable, sleek, and more powerful form factor than ever before....
| Read more »You might expect the introduction of the first OLED screens and uber-thin form factor to result in strong iPad Pro demand, but a new forecast from market intelligence company TrendForce suggests it may actually be lower than last year.
The company predicts that total shipments of the latest iPad Pro models “will only reach between 4.5 to 5 million units in 2024” – which would be down on 2023. It gives two reasons for this pessimistic picture …
| Read more »2024 is shaping up to be the year of ads for Amazon Prime Video.
In January the streaming service, which has long been ad-free, debuted an ad-based tier and instantly moved nearly all its users into that tier. Since then, the only way for Prime subscribers to avoid ads has been to pay an extra $3 per month.
Pretty soon, that $3 option may be more compelling as Prime Video is planning to increase the number of ways users will see ads and make shopping a key component of those ads.
| Read more »Update: A court filing has confirmed that the company now has more than enough money to repay customers. In recognition of the lost gains, creditors owed $50k or less will receive around 118% of their deposit value at the time of the Chapter 11 filing.
In a surprise development, bankruptcy lawyers say that FTX customers – once considered to have lost almost everything – are now expected to get their money back in full from the remains of the cryptocurrency company …
| Read more »Smart home company Brilliant has announced that it has run out of money, after failing to raise more capital in an attempted funding round.
While its smart home controllers and light switches continue to work for now, there’s no guarantee that will remain the case for long given the lack of either HomeKit or Matter compatibility …
| Read more »Love those artistic Apple logos promoting the latest iPad event? It turns out the new carries that same energy with its packaging.
| Read more »Meta is testing a new option which allows users to cross-post from Instagram to Threads. The move is likely intended to boost engagement on the company’s newest social network …
| Read more »Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok, is suing the US government, arguing that the threatened ban is unconstitutional. The company had previously said it would do so, though it had been unclear whether it would follow through.
The company is fighting a law which forces it to either sell the app to an American company, or be banned from operating in the US …
| Read more »Today Matter, the Internet of Things (IoT) standard developed by major players like Apple, Google, and Amazon, has been updated to version 1.3.
This release introduces support for a host of new device types, such as EV chargers and kitchen and laundry appliances, while also adding enhancements like energy tracking, upgraded TV features, and more.
| Read more »Yesterday’s Let Loose event announced new iPads, Apple Pencil, Magic Keyboard – plus a few surprises, some pleasant, some not.
There were no major surprises to the actual iPad announcements, as they were very much in line with what we’d been expecting …
| Read more »Why your iPad is failing to meet its potential
After a lengthy quiet period Apple has announced a raft of new iPads, and demand is sure to be hot among the company’s loyal fans. Boasting insanely fast processors and all-new screen tech and sizes, the 2024 iPads are sumptuously designed and specced.
Combining the work and entertainment capabilities of a laptop with the portability and convenience of a smartphone, the iPad has the potential to be the most versatile Apple device of all. Which makes it all the more disappointing that so many iPads end up as sofa computers with a very limited brief.
If you feel that you’re not getting the most out of your high-end tablet, or you’ve been holding off on upgrading because it doesn’t seem worth it for something you use to check your emails while watching Netflix, we’re here to tell you that the iPad can be far more. The key to harnessing its capabilities is to...
| Read more »Which iPad should you buy? There are a lot of choices and it can be confusing. There are four different varieties of iPad, listed below, and each is available with or without cellular (including 5G on certain models), which costs extra. That’s before we get into storage capacity, colors, and second-hand alternatives.
Our in-depth buying guide assesses the whole range of iPads sold by Apple and explores all the factors that should influence your iPad buying decision such as value for money, how much storage you need, and whether or not to buy a cellular version. We also reveal whether an updated version of each device is likely to be launched soon–answering the question of whether now is a good time to buy an iPad.
If you’re thinking of buying an iPad for college or university you might also like to read our guide to the...
| Read more »If you’ve been paying attention to the rumors leading up to Apple’s Let Loose iPad event, you knew what to expect: iPad Air and iPad Pro in 11- and 13-inch sizes with new processors, a new Apple Pencil, and an updated Magic Keyboard.
Still, there were a few details during the announcement that hadn’t been predicted, and which caught us a little bit by surprise. None of these are earth-shaking revelations, but they can be enough to slightly color our views of some of these products. Here are some of the things we hadn’t expected going into the event.
Prices that didn’t go up
The iPad Pro is $200 more expensive no matter which size you pick–a price you might justify with that fancy new OLED display and twice the storage, perhaps. But the 11-inch iPad Air did not get more expensive...
| Read more »Once again, the rumors were true (if not entirely specific), and over at Apple’s media event the company announced a refreshed iPad Pro lineup, complete with OLED displays, an M4 chip, and a thinner case. Other new features The updated iPad Pro tablets are available in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes and are slightly thinner and […]
| Read more »Over at its Tuesday media event, Apple announced its updated Magic Keyboard, complete with the following improvements over the previous version: Like the previous version, the new Magic Keyboard offers USB-C charging as well as a backlit keyboard. The unit retails for $349, and is only compatible with the new M4 iPad Pro. Like its […]
| Read more »It was due for an upgrade, and Apple officially announced its sixth-generation iPad Air tablets, this time in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes. As expected, the updated iPad Air units incorporate an M2 chip, and also include a front-facing camera on the landscape edge, stereo speakers in landscape orientation, a stronger base on the 13-inch model, […]
| Read more »Based on the , Dark Matter is a new sci-fi drama series that starts streaming today on Apple TV+. It is written by the author of the novel, and stars Joel Edgerton in the lead role as Jason.
Jason, a physicist and teacher, is abducted into an alternate reality in which he gets a glimpse of other ways his life could have gone. Intrigue quickly turns to madness, though, and he must find a way back to save his family from himself.
| Read more »The hints and rumors were true, and Apple on Tuesday announced its new Apple Pencil Pro stylus at its media event. The unit features a new squeeze gesture, gyroscope, haptic feedback, Find My support, and more, and a new sensor in the Apple Pencil Pro allows users to squeeze the accessory to bring up a […]
| Read more »With social media posts, videos, blogs, marketing materials and more all expected to be part of any company’s identity or any individual’s personal brand, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the requirements of constantly feeding the digital beast.
Thankfully, AI is here to help. With a lifetime subscription to a Unifire.ai Scale Plan on sale for $149.99, you can start leaning on the power of artificial intelligence to start pumping out all of that necessary content...
| Read more »The power, capacity, and look of Macs and MacBooks are impressive, but certain features are left to be desired.
Want a more powerful and customized Mac experience? MacPilot is a platform offering 1,200 features to optimize your user experience. Now, lifetime access is only $29.97 (reg. $99).
With MacPilot, users can unlock these features to enhance their computing. Customize your dock by adding spacers and sleek smart stacks and menus, repair your Mac’s system by running maintenance scripts like launch services, display...
| Read more »Earlier this year, Google launched a Circle to Search feature for Android that takes a screenshot and lets you select what to look up. Thanks to Google Lens and iOS Shortcuts, the underlying Circle to Search capability can now be replicated on any iPhone.
| Read more »Apple today unveiled its new iPad Pro and iPad Air lineups, which are available to order now and will begin shipping next week. Unfortunately, there will be a key piece of memorabilia missing from iPad boxes this go around: Apple stickers.
| Read more »Apple CEO Tim Cook had a busy day as the company held a special event on Tuesday to announce the new iPad Air and iPad Pro. Even so, he took time out to announce that Apple is donating to help the victims of tragic floods in southern Brazil.
| Read more »Listen to a recap of the top stories of the day from 9to5Mac. 9to5Mac Daily is available on iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.
Sponsored by iMazing 3: The world’s most trusted tool to manage Apple devices and transfer data from a Mac or PC. Redesigned for the future.
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| Read more »Google's Android team has advised outside security researchers that it will no longer fix security bugs found in Jelly Bean or earlier releases, despite the fact that "pre-KitKat 4.4" software powers the majority of active users' devices currently accessing Google Play. Meanwhile, less than 0.1 percent of Android users have received Android 5.0, and those who have report an "unfinished/unpolished" experience.
| Read more »Imagine squeezing your retina iMac screen down onto an iPhone 5. You can do it. It might look a bit silly and initially you might wonder why you'd bother, but it has long been possible to see and remotely control your Macs and PCs on even your iPhone. Now Google has released Chrome Remote Desktop for iOS and you can do it for free. You'll do it, too: try this once and you will forever keep finding other reasons why it's incredibly useful. It's fantastic when you forget a file, for instance, and can now just find and email it to yourself from afar. And it will save your soul, your sanity and yo...
A new lawsuit filed against gyroscope and accelerometer supplier for Apple, InvenSense, accuses the company of failing to tell investors about the concessions it made to secure a recent deal. InvenSense parts are used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus; executives should have warned investors, the suit alleges, that Apple was given a "sweetheart deal" that would hurt profits. "Instead of revealing the true condition of the company and its prospects, defendants hid those facts from investors and chose to issue strong guidance and paint a picture of a bright future with a new mega-customer," the complai...
With over half a year remaining before Apple is expected to unveil its next-generation iPhone, a fresh rumor out of Taiwan suggests that the company may be considering a new dual-lens camera system and the addition of "Force Touch," the pressure-sensitive touch technology set to be introduced in the Apple Watch.
| Read more »A new port of AllCast, a popular Android app, has just been released for iOS. The title lets users stream personal photo, video, and music libraries to a variety of platforms, not just the Apple TV, the only format natively supported by Apple. Some compatible targets include Chrome, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, WDTV, Xbox One/Xbox 360, and various platforms compatible with DLNA....
Ten years after giving away its first song, Apple has reportedly wound down the "Single of the Week" program that offered iTunes users a chance to download a free track from up-and-coming artists.
| Read more »Taiwan-based supplier Quanta Computer has entered into "volume" production of Apple's upcoming 12-inch MacBook Air, according to supply chain sources. The laptop is reportedly on track to ship in the first quarter of the year, despite other rumors pointing to the second quarter. The new sources say that Quanta has escalated recruitment efforts in order to speed up production....
Makeover apps tend to be somewhat serious, and are generally geared toward adults. Instead of being a fun game, they tend to be more akin to photo-editing software, which is generally pretty complex and low on the amusement scale. Toca Boca, however, has stepped forth with Toca Hair Salon 2, a makeover game that offers a lot to younger gamers or future beauticians....
Facebook will start to post into its users News Feed alerts about missing children in the future, in an effort to locate them. A partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will involve the social network showing Amber Alerts to Facebook users located in specific search areas, both on mobile devices and desktops....
Google has expanded its Chrome Remote Desktop app to include iOS compatibility. Now available for download on iTunes, iOS users can now orchestrate accessing their desktop computer for free by downloading the accompanying Chrome browser app. Chrome Remote Access has been available for Android users since last year....
Apple appears to have ended its Single of the Week promotion on iTunes, visitors note. No tracks have been offered in the first two weeks of 2015, and a person on Apple's support forums claims to have been told by iTunes Support that the company has officially dropped the initiative. It's missing from iTunes Stores across the globe....
South Korean electronics giant Samsung has officially unveiled the Galaxy A7, the latest entry in the company's premium all-metal Galaxy A series that brings a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, 2 gigabytes of RAM and an 8-core application processor.
| Read more »The Los Angeles Unified School District's failed iPad deployment was botched early on, according to a review by the US Education Department. The federal agency says that it first of all put too hard an emphasis on using Apple hardware and software, ignoring cheaper options that could have saved money for the District and taxpayers. In July the USD said it was shifting to a strategy involving Chromebooks and Windows devices, such as the Microsoft Surface....
It's a fact that Spanish is the world's fourth most spoken language, with over 350 million native speakers across 21 countries. It's also a fact that people who are bilingual tend to do better in both academic pursuits as well as their career. If you've ever been curious about learning another language, Learn Spanish by Brainscape offers a solution for those who are trying to learn Spanish on the go....
It's a different world. You might be the sort who would never take photo from a website and use it in your own book, but today if an image is online, it's as if the world sees it as fair game. Maybe that's a peek into our base immorality and the ultimate cataclysmic self-destruction of humanity, or maybe it's just that cut and paste is easy. Whatever it is, though, it's happening and you cannot stop it – not even with an application like this: but if PhotoWatermark can't prevent the copying of images, it can help photographers and artists considerably by adding identifying text to your image...
Flickr has updated statistics for 2014 in its "Most Popular Camera" and "Most Popular Mobile Camera" categories, with the combined models of iPhone taking second place in the general "camera" category -- beating out DSLR maker Nikon and popular point-and-shoot maker Sony for second place. While Canon remains the most popular overall camera, the built-in cameras on smartphones from Apple and Samsung have -- despite inherent limitations -- steadily risen in popularity....
This week, Viawear has launched pre-orders for a gold or rhodium-plated edition of the new Tyia "smart bracelet." The bracelet serves as a fitness tracker, with an RGB LED notification light embedded behind quartz and mother-of-pearl accent. As with fitness bands, the Tyia is marketing as letting users put away smartphones without missing an important call, text, or social-media notification -- and offers some basic fitness tracking compatible with Apple's HealthKit....
While the idea that Apple probably had another record-breaking holiday quarter (what the company calls fiscal 2015 Q1) is unsurprising to all but selected pundits, a spate of reports released on Monday may be painting a general portrait of not just significant improvement, but more importantly growth in key areas of importance both to investors and analysis as well as to the health of the company. Sales of Macs look to be way up, iOS devices are selling much better in a key foreign market, and Apple's suppliers are flourishing -- all signs that point to better-than-expected quarter....
A good magic trick, even in the 21st century, will still get people to stop and watch and try to figure out how it is done. Over the weekend, Apple retail stores around the US debuted a new window display showcasing the company's iPad line and Smart Cover accessory on a thin tabletop that features a line of the products, with the Smart Cover opening and closing itself to demonstrate the magnetic latch feature that wakes or sleeps the machine automatically....
New information has been revealed on the specifications Apple has in mind for its planned licensing of the female Lightning port for third-party accessories. Manufacturers have reportedly been briefed on details and objectives, which include spreading Lightning to as many different accessories as possible in place of micro-USB. Possibilities include not just things like docks and headphones, but battery cases, gamepads, and Bluetooth speakers....
Apple is now seeding a fourth beta of iOS 8.2 via the company's developer portal, and as an over-the-air update for existing beta users. The build is listed as 12D5461b, and follows a little less than a month after beta 3, which was issued December 18. That build was 12D5452a. Accompanying the beta is a new version of WatchKit, the SDK and framework needed to build Apple Watch support into iOS apps....
Word games are fairly numerous at this point. You've got your Boggle-style games, your Scrabble-style games, your crosswords and word searches. There are a lot of duplicates out there -- so when we find a fresh, new game, we tend to get pretty excited. One such app is Word of the Rings, by James Porter, a game that quite literally puts an interesting twist on the genre....
Spotify is continuing to enjoy rising user numbers, with the popular music streaming service announcing it has reached a total of 15 million subscribers. At the same time, reports claim that the majority of Spotify streams stem from mobile listeners, with 52 percent of listening taking place on smartphones and tablets rather than desktops....
Marsh Supermarkets and inMarket have announced a new iBeacon platform, the first to emphasize the Apple Watch. The plan is to use iBeacons at Marsh's 75 locations to push ads, shopping lists, and other content to both Watches and iPhones. Initially, the platform will support the official Marsh app and inMarket's List Ease, but other apps should follow as long as they support inMarket's Proximity SDK. All apps will have to update with Watch support, but the platform itself is Watch-ready....
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| Read more »The 2016 model of the Chevy Volt will support Apple's CarPlay, at least if an early demonstration version is accurate. The car is on display at this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and its dash system shows options for both CarPlay and MirrorLink connections. Google's Android Auto is notably absent, but since the 2016 Volt isn't due to go on sale until mid-2015, there may be time to implement it....
People wanting to control HomeKit-enabled devices remotely through Apple's Siri must have an Apple TV at home to serve as a hub, according to Verge sources, including two launch partners and a person said to be "close to HomeKit's development." Siri controls will always work while an iPhone or iPad is on the same network as a HomeKit device, but until now it wasn't fully clear how remote operation might work. The Apple TV must also be a third-generation model running at least v7.0 firmware or newer. Notably, remote operation without Siri -- using the vendor app for a HomeKit product directly -...
You could just look out of your window, of course, but Weather Wall aims to set your wallpaper to an image that's right for the weather where you are. But if you ever had views like these from your office window, you would not stay sitting at your desk. These wallpaper shots are simply beautiful....
Over the weekend, Apple launched a new subsection of the App Store called Games for Kids, following the opening of the dedicated Kids category in September 2013. The Games for Kids section breaks out groups of games for various age groups, mirroring the other actions that offer more educational apps for children divided by age. Interestingly, most of the featured games avoid in-app purchases....
In order to nullify a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that the carrier was still throttling users on unlimited plans even when there was no network congestion, AT&T is claiming for the purposes of the lawsuit that it qualifies as a Title II "common carrier." This is the opposite of what it has told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with regards to possible actual Title II regulation of broadband....
Spotify will not include support for Google Cast any time in the near future, the company has revealed. Rather than allow for its apps to connect to the audio streaming technology Google Cast, Spotify will instead reportedly continue to work on its own competing Spotify Connect audio system, one which allows users to stream music to a number of networked speakers and audio equipment....
Every Sunday at Electronista and MacNN, we offer a one-stop look at a few of the significant events that occurred in the video game industry during the previous week. In this week's look back in the Weekly Game Replay, we discuss a new game in the Baldur's Gate series from Beamdog, the closure of Zombie Studios, Hellblade coming to PC, the lawsuit over EA using retired NFL player likenesses in Madden NFL moving forward, and Sony delaying the release of the PlayStation 4 in China....
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