Year: 2016

How to use your old iPhone as a home security camera

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated September 20, 2018

If you have an old iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch laying around that is just collecting dust, why not put it to work by turning it into an affordable home monitoring camera? We're not talking about a full-featured surveillance system here, but just a simple setup that can live stream anything happening in your house, and send motion alerts directly to you should it detect activity.

In this post we'll be showing you how to convert your spare iOS device, whether it is an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, into a video monitoring camera. The best part is, it's completely free and you should be up and running in just a few minutes.

Android TV now plays nice with iOS

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 27, 2016

If you're invested in Android TV and own a compatible TV set or set-top box, you'll appreciate that you can now control your Android TV from the comfort of your couch with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, as Google was kind enough to release the official Android TV app on the App Store.

The free of charge app works with all Android TV devices and includes remote functionality much like Apple's own Remote app lets you control Apple TVs with an iOS device.

Intel wants to replace the 3.5mm headphone jack with USB-C

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 27, 2016

Apple may not be the only company about to ditch the century-old 3.5mm analog audio connector with the release of the next iPhone this fall. AnandTech reported this morning that the semiconductor giant Intel is backing the industry's “strong desire to move from analog to digital” by proposing that the 3.5mm audio jack be replaced with USB-C on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

This is what your Instagram app might look like soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 27, 2016

Instagram's reportedly been testing a fresh new design for its mobile application for iOS and Android, MacRumors discovered yesterday. If leaked screenshots are anything to go by, in adopting much of iOS's aesthetics the overhauled app sports a simpler, monochromatic look providing a cleaner, flatter appearance.

It's unknown when the new design will launch for everyone. For now, Instagram appears to be testing the forthcoming app refresh with a small subset of its massive user base.

Nintendo confirms Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem will be hitting iOS this fall

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 27, 2016

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo on Wednesday announced that it will be releasing more mobile games on the iOS platform later this fall, including Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem. The announcement came during Nintendo's earnings announcement for its full fiscal year, ended March 31.

“Building on the positive consumer reaction to Miitomo, Nintendo announced that its next two mobile apps would be based on the familiar and beloved Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises,” reads the press release.

Nintendo released the first information about its next video game system, the NX.

How to change your Apple ID

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Many of us still have the same email address associated with our Apple ID that we made years and years ago when we got our first device. We use it to sign into each and every one of our devices when we buy one new from the store or restore an existing one to factory settings.

On the other hand, times change. Sometimes you may get new email addresses, and sometimes you want to use something new to log in with rather than your high school email address. Perhaps you've made one that is a little more professional looking and seek to use it instead.

Apple provides a way to change your Apple ID email address so you can use something different to sign into everything you use. In this tutorial, we'll show you how that's done.

How to close your PayPal account

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 25, 2018

If you're done using PayPal as your go-to online payments solution, why not close your account? With Apple Pay hitting new countries and points of sale on a regular basis, more and more people can choose to pay for their purchases with Apple Pay.

Aside from Apple Pay, a number of other payment solutions are available, such as Square. PayPal accounts are usually closed for a variety of other reasons as well.

For instance, if you’re moving abroad or want to change your street address to another country, you’ll need to close your existing account and open a new one in your new country of residence. In this step-by-step tutorial, we'll take you through the process of closing your PayPal account.

15 interesting points from Apple’s Q2 2016 earnings call

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Apple announced the financial results for its fiscal second quarter of 2016 this afternoon, and the numbers are pretty rough. While they fall within the company's own guidance, iPhone sales are down 10 million units from the year-ago quarter, and revenue is down $7 billion.

We’ve just finished up the conference call, where Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri discussed Apple’s performance over the three-month period, and offered up some insights into its future. And as usual, we’ve rounded up the 15 most interesting points from the call below.

Apple’s Q2 2016 earnings: 51.2M iPhones, 10.2M iPads, $50.6B revenue

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple on Tuesday released its earnings report for the second [fiscal] quarter of 2016. The Cupertino company fulfilled expectations that it was going to report its first ever year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, moving just 51.2 million handsets vs. 61.2 million in Q2 last year. Revenue is also down substantially from the year-ago quarter.

YouTube’s revamped Home feed is smart, too, thanks to Google’s deep neural network algorithm

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2016

Google just said that YouTube's mobile apps for iOS and Android are gaining a revamped homepage design today. The newly redesigned Home feed within the mobile app has a clean look and a simple format “that invites you to discover and enjoy,” said Google.

More importantly, the overhauled Home feed now does a better job spotlighting content you might be interested in with smarter recommendations based on deep neural networks and larger high-resolution video thumbnails which make it easy to identify videos you want to watch.

Hangouts 9 for iOS drops with Low Power Mode support and share extension

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 26, 2016

Google's Hangouts application wants to become a unified communications solution for all your messaging needs despite not seeing new features in months. Now we know why: Google's been busy working on a major new version.

Now available on the App Store, the new Hangouts 9.0 brings a pair of new features, including one that'll automatically suspend video sharing during VoIP calls when an iPhone enters iOS 9’s Low Power Mode.

Apple seeds iOS 9.3.2 beta 3 to developers

Cody Lee ∙ April 26, 2016

Apple on Tuesday seeded the third beta of iOS 9.3.2 to developers. The update is available to registered developers either via an over-the-air update, or as a standalone download through Apple’s online developer center.

Today's release comes just one week after beta 2, suggesting 9.3.2 may soon be ready for launch. From what we've seen so far, the update will bring about various under-the-hood improvements, but few user-facing changes.