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Visa bringing tokenization to Europe by mid-April, paving the way for Apple Pay

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2015

Tuesday, financial services corporation and credit card issuer Visa announced that it will be rolling out tokenization technology in Europe by mid-April, a move that could speed up the arrival of Apple Pay and other new contactless payment services to the 743 million people continent.

The payment tokenization technology will be “be at the heart of new mobile payment solutions.” Needless to say, Apple Pay has mainstreamed tokenization, which basically replaces sensitive credit card and payment information with a one-time digital token exchanged between your iPhone and an NFC-enabled payment terminal.

WordPress for iOS gains WYSIWYG visual editor, in-line image management and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 24, 2015

Blogging on the go has just become a whole lot more easier thanks to an update issued to WordPress's mobile application in the App Store.

Bumped to version 4.8, the software at last brings out an all-new visual editor with additional text styling features and the ability to add images in-line, align them, access image formatting options and more.

What's more, the WYSIWYG editor takes the guessing work out of the equation as it renders your post as closely as possible to what it will look like when published, so you'll preview less and edit more.

Apple reportedly buys music plug-in and effect maker Camel Audio

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Apple appears to have acquired London-based maker of audio plug-ins and effects, Camel Audio, signaling its intent to bolster its own professional audio software such as Logic Pro X and the consumer-focused music making app GarageBand.

As noted by MacRumors, the revelation came indirectly via a change in the company's listing on the UK government’s Companies House website.

Hero Keyboard wants to reinvent the way you type

Lory Gil ∙ Updated May 17, 2018

Although our brains and fingers are most familiar with the QWERTY layout of a keyboard, it really isn’t such a smart design when you think about it. I mean, how often do you use the letter Q?

HERO Keyboard is a third-party keyboard app that completely redesigns the layout of letters so that the most-used are conveniently located in a center circle with secondary and tertiary letters in the outer layers.

Apple updates World Travel Adapter Kit with slashed price, new socket

Jake Smith ∙ February 23, 2015

Apple has released an update to its World Travel Adapter Kit on Monday, now available on the online Apple Store with seven AC plug types and a reduced price of $29.

With the new version of the kit, Apple has expanded support to travelers visiting Brazil, a country with Type N electrical outlets. Support for North America, Japan, China, United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Korea, Australia and Hong Kong are also found for globetrotters.

Tweetbot for iPhone gains Twitter video support, improved GIFs

Jake Smith ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Tapbots has updated its Tweetbot app with new features on Monday with the release of version 3.5.2, most notably bringing support for Twitter's native video.

Apple adds 10 new Flyover locations to Maps

Cody Lee ∙ February 23, 2015

Apple today added a handful of new locations to the 3D Flyover feature in its iOS and OS X Maps applications. The new locations include Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Boise, Idaho in the United Sates, Venice, Italy, and other cities around the globe.

First introduced in Apple Maps when it launched in 2012, the Flyover feature allows users to take close-up, 3-dimensional looks at buildings, landmarks and various other areas of interest.

Ex-Apple engineers write a killer app for artists that turns iPad into a professional graphics tablet

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 23, 2015

Former Apple engineers Matt Ronge and Giovanni Donelli have created an absolutely amazing software solution called Astropad which magically turns your iPad into a professional graphics tablet for your Mac.

The iOS application talks to the Mac client via Wi-Fi or USB which then translates your stylus strokes on the tablet into corresponding actions in virtually any Mac app such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Pixelmator and many more.

Drawing on your Mac with your iPad works with most pressure sensitive styluses on the market. Your stylus strokes are transferred to the Mac in a silky-smooth sixty frames per second, thanks to a proprietary technology called Liquid that provides nearly three times more fluid responsiveness than Apple's AirPlay.

Samsung buys rumored Apple Car battery partner Magna International

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 23, 2015

The Apple Car rumor just took a more interesting twist with news that Samsung is acquiring Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc. for an undisclosed sum.

Samsung SDI, the South Korean firm's material and energy solution providing arm, itself confirmed the acquisition in a media release Monday, saying it was acquiring Magna International’s battery pack unit.

Magna, which has its headquarters in Aurora, Ontario, Canada, sells its vehicle battery technology to Tesla and other car makers and has recently been linked to Apple's secret electric car project.

Siri learns eight new languages in iOS 8.3 beta 2

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 23, 2015

Apple today seeded new iOS 8.3 and OS X 10.10.3 betas to its registered developers and included in the former are more than half a dozen new Siri languages, 9to5Mac said.

When iOS 8.3 is released for public consumption this March, owners of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices will be permitted to converse with the voice assistant in Danish, Dutch, English for India, Russian, Swedish, Thai and Turkish.

Here are Apple’s new diverse emojis

Jake Smith ∙ February 23, 2015

Apple has included diverse emojis into OS X 10.10.3 beta 2 and iOS 8.3 beta 2 that were just seeded to developers on Monday.

Emojis have exploded in popularity after being released within iOS 5, as they're seen as a quick way to show expression. With the change within the new betas, more ethnicities are now being supported, along with 32 new country flags.

Apple to no longer support logging into iTunes through AOL come March

Jake Smith ∙ February 23, 2015

Apple said in a support document on Monday that it will no longer allow iTunes customers to use their AOL screen names to sign into the iTunes Store.

"Starting March 31, 2015, AOL will no longer allow customers to use their AOL Username (also known as an AOL Screen Name) to sign in to the iTunes Store, App Store, or iBooks Store," Apple wrote on its support website.