Learn speed reading and finish 300 books in a single year

Literacy was once a rare skill, now it's effectively mandatory for modern life. Although people may read fewer books than a century ago, the average person is reading way more than ever. Only instead of literature, it's articles, e-mails, text messages, and websites. Ultimately though, reading itself hasn't changed. If you read slowly or struggle with comprehension, it affects you no matter the medium.

Arcade review: Dear Reader

Dear reader, do you love books as much as you love video games? Would you like to play and read at the same time? Do you want to play and improve your vocabulary while reading some of the world's most famous books? I don't know how, but this went from an Arcade review to an infomercial really quick.

Setapp Mac app subscription service adds team support

Setapp for Teams Beta

Setapp is a subscription service aimed at Mac users created by MacPaw Inc. The service provides access to more than 160 applications for $9.99 per month. Up until now, only individual memberships have been available. Starting today, though, MacPaw is offering Setapp for Teams. The company is providing early access to the new teams feature as a public beta.

Microsoft consolidates Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office Mobile

Mobile Office

For years Microsoft has offered mobile versions of its Office productivity suite. Today the company launched a public preview of Office Mobile, a new consolidated app that combines the functionality of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single unified experience. The public preview is capped at 10,000 users, though, so you might want to enroll quickly if you want access.

New Apple AR headset rumors point to Valve as partner

DigiTimes is certainly not the most reliable rumor source for what's actually happening at Apple, so take this with a big grain of salt. But according to the publication, which tracks the Chinese semiconductor and electronics business, Apple and video game maker Valve are collaborating on an Augmented Reality (AR) headset to be revealed in 2020.

Adobe releases Photoshop for iPad, announces Illustrator

Photoshop on iPad

It's been a year since Adobe first previewed a version of Photoshop running on an iPad at its Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles, with a promise to release the app sometime in 2019. Now the software is available for download from the App Store. It's a free download, though unlocking and using it requires an active Creative Cloud subscription.

How to reverse a track in GarageBand on Mac and iOS

Reverse Playback switch in GarageBand on Mac

When you’re creating or editing a song in GarageBand, you might want to add something unique to it by reversing a track. Playing a track backwards can give you an unusual sound that you might not be able to replicate another way.

Here’s how to reverse a track (or region) in GarageBand on Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

ScreenSafe protects your iPhone’s display from burn-in with screensavers

Handsets equipped with OLED displays are particularly adept at displaying high-contrast colors due to the true blacks they exhibit, especially when compared to handsets sporting traditional LCD displays. On the other hand, OLED displays are also notorious for screen burn-in issues, and that’s where screensavers come in.

Modern iPhones such as the iPhone X, XS, and 11 Pro (including their larger counterparts) come standard with OLED displays, and while Apple has already done plenty to mitigate screen burn-in with these devices, they haven’t yet adopted screensavers on the iOS platform. With that in mind, a new jailbreak tweak release called ScreenSafe by iOS developer Kushy comes off as particularly interesting.

Add haptic feedback to the Instagram app with HaptiGram

If you’re a jailbreaker that uses the Instagram app and also happens to enjoy subtle vibrations when performing actions (better known as haptic feedback), then we think you’ll take a particular liking to a newly released jailbreak tweak called HaptiGram by iOS developer iCraze.

As you may have inferred already from the context clues above, HaptiGram integrates haptic feedback into various actions performed in the official Instagram application for iOS. According to the developer, haptic feedback can be felt when doing any of the following things:

Apple commits $2.5 billion to fund affordable housing in California

Tim Cook and Gavin Newson

Apple on Monday announced a $2.5 billion, two-year plan to help address issues related to housing availability and affordability in California. The plan includes investments in building affordable housing, a first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance fund, and the commitment of Apple-owned real estate in San Jose for development of affordable housing.