Apple

Android TV now plays nice with iOS

If you're invested in Android TV and own a compatible TV set or set-top box, you'll appreciate that you can now control your Android TV from the comfort of your couch with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, as Google was kind enough to release the official Android TV app on the App Store.

The free of charge app works with all Android TV devices and includes remote functionality much like Apple's own Remote app lets you control Apple TVs with an iOS device.

Intel wants to replace the 3.5mm headphone jack with USB-C

Apple may not be the only company about to ditch the century-old 3.5mm analog audio connector with the release of the next iPhone this fall. AnandTech reported this morning that the semiconductor giant Intel is backing the industry's “strong desire to move from analog to digital” by proposing that the 3.5mm audio jack be replaced with USB-C on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

This is what your Instagram app might look like soon

Instagram's reportedly been testing a fresh new design for its mobile application for iOS and Android, MacRumors discovered yesterday. If leaked screenshots are anything to go by, in adopting much of iOS's aesthetics the overhauled app sports a simpler, monochromatic look providing a cleaner, flatter appearance.

It's unknown when the new design will launch for everyone. For now, Instagram appears to be testing the forthcoming app refresh with a small subset of its massive user base.

Nintendo confirms Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem will be hitting iOS this fall

Japanese gaming giant Nintendo on Wednesday announced that it will be releasing more mobile games on the iOS platform later this fall, including Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem. The announcement came during Nintendo's earnings announcement for its full fiscal year, ended March 31.

“Building on the positive consumer reaction to Miitomo, Nintendo announced that its next two mobile apps would be based on the familiar and beloved Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing franchises,” reads the press release.

Nintendo released the first information about its next video game system, the NX.

How to change your Apple ID

Many of us still have the same email address associated with our Apple ID that we made years and years ago when we got our first device. We use it to sign into each and every one of our devices when we buy one new from the store or restore an existing one to factory settings.

On the other hand, times change. Sometimes you may get new email addresses, and sometimes you want to use something new to log in with rather than your high school email address. Perhaps you've made one that is a little more professional looking and seek to use it instead.

Apple provides a way to change your Apple ID email address so you can use something different to sign into everything you use. In this tutorial, we'll show you how that's done.

15 interesting points from Apple’s Q2 2016 earnings call

Apple announced the financial results for its fiscal second quarter of 2016 this afternoon, and the numbers are pretty rough. While they fall within the company's own guidance, iPhone sales are down 10 million units from the year-ago quarter, and revenue is down $7 billion.

We’ve just finished up the conference call, where Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri discussed Apple’s performance over the three-month period, and offered up some insights into its future. And as usual, we’ve rounded up the 15 most interesting points from the call below.

Apple’s Q2 2016 earnings: 51.2M iPhones, 10.2M iPads, $50.6B revenue

Apple on Tuesday released its earnings report for the second [fiscal] quarter of 2016. The Cupertino company fulfilled expectations that it was going to report its first ever year-over-year decline in iPhone sales, moving just 51.2 million handsets vs. 61.2 million in Q2 last year. Revenue is also down substantially from the year-ago quarter.

YouTube’s revamped Home feed is smart, too, thanks to Google’s deep neural network algorithm

Google just said that YouTube's mobile apps for iOS and Android are gaining a revamped homepage design today. The newly redesigned Home feed within the mobile app has a clean look and a simple format “that invites you to discover and enjoy,” said Google.

More importantly, the overhauled Home feed now does a better job spotlighting content you might be interested in with smarter recommendations based on deep neural networks and larger high-resolution video thumbnails which make it easy to identify videos you want to watch.

Hangouts 9 for iOS drops with Low Power Mode support and share extension

Google's Hangouts application wants to become a unified communications solution for all your messaging needs despite not seeing new features in months. Now we know why: Google's been busy working on a major new version.

Now available on the App Store, the new Hangouts 9.0 brings a pair of new features, including one that'll automatically suspend video sharing during VoIP calls when an iPhone enters iOS 9’s Low Power Mode.

How to remove Adobe Flash from your Mac

The succession of vulnerabilities found in Adobe's Flash Player shows no signs of dying down: not a month goes by without Adobe releasing another yet emergency update for Flash to patch a bunch of newly discovered vulnerabilities (measuring in the dozens).

Some of them can be pretty nasty as they introduce new attack vectors for spyware, ransomware, trojans and other malicious applications that you don't want anywhere near your computer.

A few years ago, Flash Player was impossible to avoid because a bulk of web video was encoded in Adobe's proprietary Flash format, but not anymore: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and many other popular web services now use HTML5-based video players that work in any modern browser.

While Apple does block older, vulnerable versions of Flash in the Safari browser on macOS, you should do yourself a favor and remove Flash Player from your Mac using step-by-step instructions provided in this tutorial.

Facebook hopes a standalone camera app with Live Video might re-engage users

Facebook used to have a dedicated camera app on the App Store that didn't get much love from users so it was eventually pulled.

But now, the company is said to be working on a brand new, standalone mobile application designed to encourage its 1.6 billion users to create and share more photos and videos, including live video broadcasts, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.