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Pocket adds new features, introduces Premium tier

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

Pocket (formerly Read It Later), is a popular read-later service that lets you save content you don't have the time to read right now. You can then enjoy saved items later on all your mobile/desktop devices and in the web UI.

Saved stories are stripped of all unnecessary graphics, ads and other bells and whistles that clutter online articles. Folks who research a lot like bloggers tend to use read-later services as their central repository of URLs.

For example, I use Pocket to keep stories containing snippets of information that I may or may not use in my future writing. There's just one tiny problem: a saved URL is no good if an article gets deleted on the web. Enter Pocket Premium, your new subscription Pocket library that keeps a permanent copy of anything you save to it...

iTunes Radio set to stream a bunch of ESPN and NPR stations

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Apple sure seems adamant to bolster up its music ambitions. Shortly after confirming that it's purchasing Beats Electronics and Beats Music in a transaction valued at $3 billion - by far the largest acquisition in company history since the 1997 NeXT deal, we're now hearing some encouraging news concerning iTunes Radio, its Internet radio service.

Specifically, iTunes Radio has now started streaming content from ESPN, including the World Cup stream. Moreover, Apple will be adding a bunch of local NPR stations to the service soon...

Beats Music apps to remain in Android, Windows Phone stores

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

Now that the long-rumored Beats deal has been confirmed by Apple, folks are wondering what's to become of the Beats Music service. Although it just launched in January, it has already built up a [small] loyal following of subscribers.

The good news is, it sounds like Apple is going to allow Beats to operate as a separate company, which will include its streaming music service. And according to reports, it has no plans to pull the Android and Windows Phone clients...

App Store’s Top Charts now shows fewer apps for performance reasons

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 28, 2014

TechCrunch has spotted an interesting change under the popular Top Charts section in the App Store. The popular section now displays only half as much ranked apps as before.

Whereas previously you were able to scroll through the top 300 apps listed across Paid, Free and Top Grossing categories on the iPhone (or Top 1,500 on the iPad), Top Charts now shows only 150 results.

It's a small but interesting change that shows Apple is still figuring out how to best surface noteworthy and trending apps among the more than million items it now carries in the App Store....

Tim Cook issues memo to Apple employees regarding Beats deal

Cody Lee ∙ May 28, 2014

After weeks of rumors and speculation, Apple confirmed that it has reached an agreement to acquire Beats Electronics this afternoon. The deal is worth $3 billion, split into a $2.6 billion payout and $400 million that will vest over time.

In the press release, Tim Cook said that 'music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple.' And he shared a similar sentiment in a memo he just emailed to the company's employees...

Beats Music drops annual subscription fee to $99, free trial extended to 14 days for everyone

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2018

Hot on the heels of officially announcing the major $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics LCC., and ahead of its SVP Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi's joint appearance at the Code Conference tonight, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre's four months old music service has just sweetened the deal.

The startup has dropped the price of Beats Music yearly subscription free to $99.99, down from $119.88.

Additionally, the previous 7-day free trial of Beats Music has now been extended in a “no strings attached” move to fourteen days to all users...

Samsung introduces ‘Sami,’ an open health-tracking platform

Cody Lee ∙ Updated June 16, 2016

In less than a week, Apple will be taking the stage at its WWDC keynote event to talk about OS X, iOS 8 and its new health-tracking 'Healthbook' app. Unsurprisingly, Samsung tried to beat them to the punch today by announcing its own healthcare initiative.

They're calling it 'SAMI,' short for Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interactions, and it's a cloud-based platform capable of reading and storing data from various sensors. It's compatible with Samsung's S-Health products, and completely open to developers...

InCaseOf adds emergency info to the Lock screen

Joe Rossignol ∙ Updated April 17, 2018

While we obviously do not wish it upon anyone, you never know when you might find yourself in a medical emergency. You also never know where you might be at the time, or who you will be with. That is why a new jailbreak tweak called InCaseOf is more important than you might think. InCaseOf adds important emergency information to the Lock screen, so that first responders and others can gain a better understanding of your health situation. Take a look at how it works…

Darkrume review: a beautiful Flickr client for the iPad

Lory Gil ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

Flickr is one of those great social photography websites that got lost in the shuffle when Instagram hit the mobile world. While the service has done a lot to stay relevant, it still lags behind when it comes to sharing photos with friends.

Darkrume is a high-quality Flickr client for the iPad that may just rekindle your love of the photo storage online service. With an immersive interface and 64-bit performance, your Flickr pics have never looked so good. Read on for our Darkrume review…

First beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 seeded to devs

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 28, 2014

Sticking to its accelerated releases schedule for operating system upgrades which now calls for one major OS X release each year, Apple's software teams have now began work on what would become the fourth major update to OS X Mavericks.

Simultaneously, its main group continues work on OS X 10.10, which will be previewed at next Monday's WWDC alongside iOS 8 and other "exciting" goodies.

The first OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 beta (build 13E9) has now been seeded to Apple's registered Mac developers. The work-in-progress software should become available to the general public through the company's OS X Beta Seed Program...

Chrome iOS update brings improved handling of search queries and other treats

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 28, 2014

Google has issued a brand new Chrome iOS browser version, bringing out several nice-to-haves and refinements to its popular Safari alternative for the iPhone and iPad.

In addition to the usual stability improvements and bug fixes, the new Chrome build 35.0.1916.38, available free in the App Store, improves upon its handling of right-to-left input method for Arabic and Hebrew in Omnibox, which in Google's parlance stands for the browses combined search and address box.

More importantly, the app will now display your exact search term in Omnibox instead of the long search query URL, just like Apple’s Safari. And upon landing on Google's redesigned mobile search results page, the browser now makes it easy to refine your search queries and view more results...

Chart of the day: why Apple must buy Beats or build own subscription music product

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 16, 2016

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty released an interesting chart highlighting the need for an Apple-branded on-demand music streaming product. Currently, the company only sells individual songs or whole albums on iTunes.

The analyst worryingly writes in a note to clients issued Wednesday that iTunes sales are down 24 percent year-on-year. Moreover, Apple's 800 million iTunes users are spending an average of $3.29 on iTunes.

For the sake of clarity, the figure represents combined per-user purchases of music, movies, iOS and Mac apps and more. That being said, Apple is clearly taking a heat due to its refusal to introduce a subscription music service because iTunes users seem to spending more on apps and less on music nowadays...