Foxconn to acquire Sharp for $6.2 billion

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

Apple partner Foxconn is set to acquire Sharp for roughly 700 billion yen (or $6.2 billion USD), reports Nikkei Asian Review. The outlet says that Sharp's board voted on Thursday morning to accept the offer, and plans to restructure its operations under the Hon Hai umbrella.

The deal, which has not been officially announced yet, comes after years of failed negotiations between the two companies. Foxconn has made several attempts to acquire the struggling electronics giant, or large pieces of it, with the latest offer of $5.3 billion coming in January.

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Session videos from Apple TV Tech Talks now available to developers

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

Apple on Wednesday announced that it has posted videos of several Apple TV Tech Talk sessions to its developer portal. Both paying and non-paying members of Apple's developer program can access the instructional clips for free through the website.

The videos are taken from the 11 Tech Talks Apple has hosted around the world over the past few months. They contain in-depth technical information on building and designing for tvOS, refined coding techniques, and other valuable development help.

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This app lets you crop, zoom and trim Live Photos without destroying the live part

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2016

The Photos app on your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac lets you use the Auto Enhance and Remove Red-Eye tools with Live Photos in a non-destructive manner, which is nice.

But use filters, or perform a crop or trim on your Live Photo and it'll get turned into a still image because Apple's Photos solution isn't advanced enough (yet) to support these editing operations in conjunction with Live Photos.

This can be quite cumbersome for two reasons. A) You must manually restore your Live Photo by tapping Edit → Revert; and B) these stills only include the motionless part of your Live Photos.

With Live Crop, a nifty little app by developer MobiLab, not only can you trim and crop out parts of your Live Photo without destroying its live component, but also crop, zoom, trim and resize Live Photos, your videos as well as animated GIFs.

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Netflix app updated with support for 3D Touch, iPad Pro and more

Cody Lee ∙ February 24, 2016

Netflix on Wednesday pushed out an update for its iOS client, bringing the app to version 8.0. The release is significant in that it features a number of improvements, including a better Kids experience on iPad and new Post-Play experience on iPhone.

Version 8.0 also features native support for Apple's just released iPad Pro, meaning the layout has been optimized for the tablet's 12.9-inch screen to show more content per screen, as well as support for 3D Touch actions like Peek and Pop within the app.

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How to start your Mac in Recovery Mode

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 17, 2024
macOS Recovery

Starting your Intel or Apple silicon Mac in Recovery Mode provides the tools you need to solve various problems. It is typically your last chance to repair the startup disk, reinstall macOS or restore from a backup after a fatal failure that prevents your Mac from starting up properly. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to enter Recovery Mode at boot time and use the built-in recovery tools to bring your Mac in perfect working condition.

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Xiaomi’s new phone has beastly specs for half the price of iPhone 6s or Galaxy S7

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Chinese handset maker Xiaomi at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, today announced its latest Mi 5 smartphone, billed as a super flagship device due to some beastly specs.

The new Xiaomi Mi 5 basically packs in as much hardware as Apple's iPhone 6s and Samsung's newly announced Galaxy S7, for half the price, with industrial design that looks like a cross between the iPhone 6s and Galaxy S7.

The maxed-out spec sheet includes things like the latest Qualcomm chip with four gigabytes of RAM, a sixteen-megapixel camera from Sony with sapphire lens protection, a full HD IPS LCD edge-to-edge screen, a fingerprint sensor integrated into the Home button, 128GB of on-board storage with support for micro SD cards and more.

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iOS 9 adoption slowing, stays at 77% of devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 4, 2017

The adoption rate of iOS 9 appears to be stalling at 77 percent of devices, according to the most recent stats published on Apple's dashboard for developers. The figure was derived from device logs capturing iOS hardware that has accessed the App Store on February 22, and is literally unchanged from the same 77 percent mark recorded two weeks ago.

iOS 8 continues to comprise seventeen percent of devices while older editions of iOS accounted for six percent of devices—again, same as two weeks ago.

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Report: Siri for Mac coming this fall via OS X 10.12 software update

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2016

This fall, Mac owners will at long last be able to converse with Siri as the voice-activated personal assistant makes its way into OS X 10.12, the next major release of Apple's mobile operating system that powers Mac desktops and notebooks.

According to 9to5Mac's reliable Mark Gurman, “Apple currently plans to use its next major release of the Mac operating system this fall to continue to expand Siri across its product lines.”

The news will no doubt make Mac owners happy. Siri, which debuted in 2011, is currently available across the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple Watch and the new Apple TV. It makes a lot of sense to bring Siri to the Mac given that processing power and battery life on desktop is much better than on mobile devices.

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Apple releases first over-the-air firmware update for iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2016

Apple has issued its first firmware update for the iPad Pro's $169 Smart Keyboard accessory. After attaching a Smart Keyboard to their iPad Pro, users will see an iOS prompt informing them of the availability of the new software. They can postpone updating the Smart Keyboard update or select to apply the new firmware immediately.

As reported by AppleInsider, the new firmware software for the accessory is delivered as an over-the-air download and is transferred to the Smart Keyboard through Apple's new magnetic Smart Connector on the iPad Pro.

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Instead of a much-wanted Dislike button, Facebook adds six reactions to its Like button

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2016

Facebook on Wednesday announced a move that has been long in the making: the company is extending the functionality of its ubiquitous Like button with six different reactions that help describe users' mood and express how something they see in the News Feed makes them feel.

Available to all users globally across all mobile and desktop platforms, the six new reactions—Like, Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry—can be applied by holding down the Like button on mobile or hovering over the Like button on desktop.

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