Apple

Microsoft invites a limited number of iOS users to beta-test Cortana assistant

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Microsoft today announced that a limited number of iPhone owners in the United States and China can now sign up to test-drive the first public beta of its personal digital assistant, called Cortana. “Over the coming months, we’ll continue to deliver frequent updates to the app to expand the features and functionality,” notes the Windows maker.

While Cortana offers the most complete experience on Windows devices due to its tight integration with Microsoft's operating system and Apple-imposed restrictions related to iOS development, Cortana for iOS does take the intelligence of its Windows counterpart and brings that experience to the user's iPhone.

Steve Jobs considered Apple car eight years ago

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 4, 2015

According to the famous iPod creator, former Apple engineer and Nest founder Tony Fadell, Steve Jobs did consider an idea of Apple building a car as far back as 2008, but ultimately decided not to move forward because he had other projects on his mind.

In a video interview with Bloomberg, Fadell said that Jobs and himself discussed how a hypothetical Apple car would we build, what features it would have, what a dashboard would be like and so forth.

iOS 9 is now powering two-thirds of Apple’s mobile devices in the wild

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 4, 2015

Apple's iOS 9 mobile operating system is now installed on two out of each three iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices in the wild just a little over a month and a half following its September 16, 2015 release.

According to the official stats available through the company's App Store dashboard for developers, iOS 9 is now powering 66 percent of Apple's mobile devices in active use versus the adoption rate of 61 percent recorded just two weeks ago.

How to control your TV or receiver volume using the Apple TV remote

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2023

In addition to using your Siri Remote to navigate the tvOS user interface and play games on the fourth-generation Apple TV, you can program it to control power and adjust volume levels of your television set or home theater receiver.

That's because your Apple TV and the Siri Remote that came with it are compatible with HDMI-CEC and outfitted with a built-in infrared receiver and blaster.

This means owners of the new Apple TV can adjust the volume of their TVs and home theater receivers via the HDMI cable or line of sight, using just their Siri Remote.

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to program your Siri Remote and configure it to work with your home entertainment equipment.

Apple seeds OS X 10.11.2 beta 2 to developers

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

In addition to iOS 9.2 beta 2 and tvOS 9.1 beta 1, members of the Apple Developer Program can also download OS X 10.11.2 beta 2 (build number 15C31f).

Arriving a week after the first beta of OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 hit, the new software is now available to download on Macs with a previous beta through the Mac App Store's Software Update mechanism, or as a standalone download via Apple's portal for developers.

Apple researching completely switch-less Mac keyboard with Force Touch feedback

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

Apple's new Magic Keyboard is awesome—if you don't believe me, check out my colleague Jeff Benjamin's excellent video review—but it lacks Force Touch feedback currently found on the Apple Watch and iPhone 6s display and MacBook trackpads.

But Apple seems to be interested in bringing this technology to a future Mac keyboard, according to a patent granted to the company on Tuesday by the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO).

For better or worse, Twitter’s Stars and Favorites are now Hearts and Likes

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

So you've been starring and favoriting tweets for later use in your favorite Twitter client, just like many other die-hard Twitter fans do? Well, starting today all those Stars and Favorites shall be presented henceforth as Hearts and Likes, the micro-blogging startup unexpectedly announced today.

The rebranding effort is meant to permit Twitter fans to show how they feel on Twitter “without missing a beat,” but already the change seems to have drawn ire and ridicule from hardcore fans of the service.

Google rolling out Smart Replies to Gmail’s Inbox app later this week

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

The Gmail team's Inbox mobile email client, which was born out of Google's 2012 acquisition of the popular iPhone email app Sparrow, is about to get a whole lot smarter with a new feature called Smart Reply, the company announced on the Gmail blog Tuesday.

The feature analyzes your emails and uses machine learning to recognize emails that need responses and then generates the natural language responses on the fly.

How to change the video resolution on your Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 3, 2024

In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the resolution, frame rate, and dynamic range settings for video playback on your Apple TV to achieve the perfect viewing experience.

Nomad’s Wallet puts a full charge for your iPhone 6s in your wallet

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

Nomad today launched an interesting lifestyle accessory for your iPhone, dubbed the Wallet. It's literally a premium bifold leather wallet with an integrated 3.5-inch Lightning cable and a built-in 2,400mAh battery, enough to provide a full charge for your Lightning-based iPhone and then some more.

The wallet holds six credit or gift cards, cash, is made from Saffiano leather and is just 0.75 inch thick when closed. If you're a fan of real wallets, not those iPhone cases that double as wallets, you can pre-order Nomad's Wallet for $79.

Activision Blizzard is buying Candy Crush Saga maker King Digital for $5.9 billion

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 3, 2015

Renowned games publisher Activision Blizzard is purchasing King Digital, the maker of the popular Candy Crush Saga videogame series, in a transaction valued at a whooping $5.9 billion, the two companies announced Tuesday.

Activision, best-known for the World of Warcraft, Diablo and Call of Duty videogame series, said ABS Partners, a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, will acquire all of the outstanding shares of King for $18 in cash per share, for a total equity value of $5.9 billion.

Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal and Intuit form coalition to promote financial technology

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 20, 2016

Silicon Valley giants Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal and Intuit have formed a coalition to promote the benefits of financial technologies in order to help the U.S. government better understand these technologies and ensure greater innovation in financial services, Re/code reported Tuesday.

The initiative is called the Financial Innovation Now and aimed at accelerating the pace of change in financial services, according to the official website.