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Bing for iPhone picks up Interests and News, gains private searching, Apple Watch app and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Microsoft's Bing for iPhone app was updated last evening with several new features such as Bing Interests, Bing News, a private searching mode, the Popular Now section on your Apple Watch and other enhancements.

I typically use Google's native search app on my iPhone, but Bing saw some rather interesting improvements in recent months. In my personal opinion, Microsoft's search-based app is better designed than Google's with richer descriptions and prettier images.

More importunely, Bing's popular searches feature produces way more relevant results than Google, at least for me.

Amazon Video app updated to allow offline playback for Prime movies and TV shows

Jeff Benjamin ∙ September 1, 2015

Amazon Video received a fairly significant update today, which brings a compelling new feature to its video streaming app—offline viewing for Prime movies and TV shows. In version version 3.2 of the app, users can now download videos for offline viewing, which means that you can queue up TV shows and movies for watching when you're low on signal, using airplane mode, or for the purpose of saving on mobile data usage.

The addition of offline viewing may not seem like a huge deal to some, but it could signal a change for mainstream video streaming apps in general, which for the most part, have only been capable off online viewing.

Samsung unveils Gear S2 smartwatch lineup with up to 3 days of battery life

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

After teasing its new Gear smartwatch ahead of Apple's upcoming media event, South Korea-based Samsung last evening formally announced a second-generation Gear S family. The Galaxy Gear S2, as it's called, augments the round display of its predecessor with a rotating bezel for navigating the user interface.

The internals have been refreshed, too, so the Gear S2 has NFC. While it has less storage space than the Apple Watch's 8GB, the Gear S2 uses a stronger battery that Samsung claims runs up to three days on a single charge.

Apple Pay transaction limit in UK raises to £30

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 1, 2015

When Apple Pay launched in the United Kingdom in mid-July, it was limited to transactions up to £20 without entering in a PIN number or signature, a cap imposed on almost all contactless payments in the country. Tuesday, the cap rose to £30 per touchless payment without entering a PIN number or providing your signature.

As noted by The Verge, the new £30 cap is applied to all contactless payments in the United Kingdom, including those made via contactless cards that work without any other authentication.

Dungeon of the Endless is a roguelike and dungeon defense mash-up

Lory Gil ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Roguelike games are just about the hardest games to play because of the whole permadeath aspect. What if you were to add a heavy dose of tower defense and action role-playing adventure to your dungeon crawl?

Well, you'd get Dungeon of the Endless, a roguelike that has you sending a party out to protect against waves of incoming enemies. In the meantime, collect goods and upgrade your heroes. The game was previously only on Steam, but is now available on the iPad.

Brookstone’s 100-lumen pocket projector is about the size of Apple TV

Lory Gil ∙ September 1, 2015

One of my favorite summer activities involves watching movies in the backyard on a projector with a group of friends. Sometimes, however, you need a projector that super portable and doesn't need to be plugged into a power source to work.

Brookstone makes a 100-lumen pocket projector that is smaller than the average external hard drive and runs for two hours on a rechargeable battery. So, you can throw it into your backpack and take it with you on your next road trip.

Apple said to be exploring original programming

Cody Lee ∙ August 31, 2015

Apple is exploring getting into the original programming business, reports Variety. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the outlet claims the company has held "preliminary conversations" in recent weeks with Hollywood executives to suss out their interest in producing entertainment content.

It's unclear how large Apple's ambitions are at the moment, but one source says the endgame is to set up development and production divisions that would churn out long-form content in a bid to compete with Netflix, and the like. They say these divisions could be operational as early as next year.

Next-generation Apple TV gaming prowess detailed in a new report

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 31, 2015

Just as the iPhone and iPad have been chipping away mercilessly at Nintendo's dominance in the handheld gaming market, Apple's next-generation set-top box should give dedicated game consoles a good run for their money.

A report by 9to5Mac's well-informed writer Mark Gurman lays out a few upcoming features for a rumored fourth-generation Apple TV that are bound to prompt gamers, casual and hardcore alike, to jump with joy.

Unreal Engine 4.9 hits with push notifications, CloudKit support and ton more goodies

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 31, 2015

Epic Games' widely used Unreal Engine that powers countless graphics-rich games like the Infinity Blade trilogy was bumped to version 4.9 today. New features include better graphics in iPhone and iPad games, the ability to use remote push notifications, support for Apple's CloudKit framework which provides authentication, databases and storage services to developers, and many other perks.

Unreal Engine 4.9 can be downloaded through the official website.

Apple TV’s NFL Now channel revamped, rebranded and enriched with Game Pass subscriptions

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 31, 2015

Right on cue, the official NFL channel on the Apple TV got updated with support for Game Pass subscriptions, as first noted by MacRumors. The new Game Pass service has replaced NFL's Game Rewind. With Game Pass, sports fans can subscribe to premium NFL content directly on their Apple TV set-top box.

Game Pass subscriptions are also available through the NFL Mobile app on the iPhone and the iPad. In addition to supporting Game Pass on the Apple TV, the updated NFL Now channel has been rebranded as just NFL.

University of Oklahoma students can now use Apple Pay across entire campus

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 31, 2015

Notch up another victory for Apple's mobile payment platform as the University of Oklahoma announced Monday that it will begin accepting Apple Pay across its entire campus. The initiative will allow students to pay with Apple Pay using their NFC-enabled devices like the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch at any of the four-hundred service locations scattered across the campus, including restaurants and bookstores.

Apple and Cisco form partnership to ‘deliver fast lane’ for iOS enterprise users

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 31, 2015

In a press release issued Monday, Apple announced a partnership with network giant Cisco designed to deliver “fast lane” for iOS enterprise users. The initiative strives to optimize Cisco networks for iOS devices and apps and integrate the iPhone with Cisco enterprise environments.

The goal is to “provide unique collaboration” opportunities to enterprise customers on the iPhone and iPad.