Apple

Google brings custom snooze times and other perks to Inbox by Gmail

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 31, 2015

Inbox, a gesture-heavy, sleek looking email client for the iPhone by the Gmail team born out of Google's acquisition of the Sparrow app, is getting new features later today.

Among them: custom snooze times for your messages. Normally, Inbox lets you snooze messages you don't necessarily need to act right now using its built-in snooze options: Evening, Tomorrow, Next Week and Someday.

But sometimes a message wants to be snoozed until a specific date and time. This is now possible thanks to new features letting you customize your morning, afternoon and evening Snooze times in Inbox, Google said Tuesday. This new feature, along with other enhancements listed further below, is rolling out to Inbox later today.

Kids under 13 can now have Facebook presence with new Scrapbooks feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 31, 2015

Facebook on Tuesday announced a better way for parents to organize photographs of their toddlers and kids under 13 on the service, the Scrapbook.

Rolling out in the United States across Facebook's mobile apps for iOS and Android, in addition to the desktop interface, this optional new feature actually allows children under 13 who are not normally permitted to create a Facebook profile to have an official presence on the service, sans the actual profile.

Facebook's internal survey has found that 65 percent of the parents who share pictures of their children on the service tag their partner in these photos to share them with their partner’s friends.

NYT launches one-sentence stories on Apple Watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 31, 2015

If you ever wondered how the Apple Watch's tiny screen might lend itself to news consumption, one possible answer came Tuesday as The New York Times newspaper announced one-sentence stories designed specifically for the Apple Watch.

It's like the ultimate news summarization technology, only curated fully by human editors and copywriters. This new form of storytelling should help readers “catch up in seconds” on Apple's wearable device.

Jay Z suggests Apple’s Jimmy Iovine tried to lure artists from Tidal

Jake Smith ∙ March 31, 2015

Following the re-launch of Tidal on Monday, now music streaming boss Shawn "Jay Z" Carter suggested in an interview with Billboard that Apple's Jimmy Iovine had been trying to lure artists from the new service.

Microsoft announces low-cost $499 Surface 3

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Microsoft on Tuesday upped the ante in the tablet race by announcing a new version of its Surface tablet/laptop hybrid, the Surface 3. Matching the iPad Air's starting price, the $499 device is being advertised as Microsoft's lightest, thinnest and least expensive tablet yet.

This non-Pro, low-cost version of the Surface runs Intel's new 1.6GHz quad-core Atom x7 chip (the highest performing Atom processor on the market) rather than an ARM-based processor, putting another nail in the Windows RT coffin.

The hybrid device has two gigabytes of RAM and sixty-four gigabytes of flash storage, runs full Windows 8.1, is upgradable to Windows 10 and offers an optional colorful keyboard at $129 for a $628 total before taxes.

Google+ Photos now appear in Drive, Auto Backup for images and videos available in iOS app

Christian Zibreg ∙ March 31, 2015

The search giant Google announced yesterday it is adding support for Google+ Photos to the Drive app on iOS, Android and the web. “Starting today, the photos and videos you keep in Google+ Photos will also be available in Google Drive,” said the company.

In addition to storing your photos and files together in Drive, the refreshed Google Drive for iOS app has introduced a new Auto Backup feature to ensure that your Camera Roll photos and videos are safely backed up in the Google cloud.

Jay Z, other prominent artists look to take over music streaming with Tidal

Jake Smith ∙ March 30, 2015

Shawn "Jay Z" Carter has banded together a formation of artists looking to take on the music streaming industry with Tidal, the music streaming company he bought for $56 million. With fierce competition from Spotify, Google, Rdio, and soon Apple, Jay Z has put together an elite list of artists that want the value of music to be recognized again. The group detailed their plans at a media event on Monday evening.

ITC to investigate Apple following patent infringement complaints from Ericsson

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

The US International Trade Commission plans to investigate Apple, following two patent complaints from Ericsson, reports PC World.

It regards Apple’s use of an LTE patent for which it had a licensing agreement with Ericsson, up until earlier this year. When the agreement expired, Apple complained that Ericsson asked for too much money for the patent during re-negotiations and sued Ericsson. Ericsson counter-sued saying Apple infringed on the patents and that it had given the Cupertino-based company a fair price.

Apple to announce Q2 2015 earnings on April 27

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple just confirmed via its Investor Relations portal that it will be announcing the financial results for its second fiscal quarter of 2015 on Monday, April 27. As usual, the company will be hosting a live conference call to discussing its earnings, beginning at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.

While Q2 is typically an uneventful quarter for Apple this one should prove quite interesting. Industry watchers are anxious to see how it follows up its record-breaking holiday quarter, and the firm is sure to share initial thoughts and feedback regarding the just-launched Apple Watch.

Apple seeds OS X 10.10.3 beta 6 to developers, public testers

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple seeded another beta of OS X 10.10.3 on Monday for both members of the Mac Developer Center and public beta testers. The new build, available to download through the Mac App Store's Software Update mechanism, carries the build number 14D127 - compared to the previous build number of 14D113 that was released one week ago.

Purported iPad Pro casing points to dual ports; could it be USB-C?

Jake Smith ∙ Updated February 3, 2017

New photos posted on China social media site Sina Weibo and shared by HDBlog on Monday point to the rumored, larger, iPad Pro having two ports - if the photos prove to be legitimate. The images were first shared by VandaagApple in February.

The unconfirmed photos show an iPad with the typical Apple logo, rear-camera, and side volume buttons. However curiously, there's a port of some sorts on the left side of the device, something never before seen on the iPad line.

Facebook updates Messenger with third-party app support

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

After announcing support for select third-party applications inside its Messenger service last week, Facebook on Monday issued a refresh to the mobile messaging app which officially enables third-party integration.

Now available free in the App Store, the update puts a new button in the chat interface of Facebook Messenger. Tapping it brings up a sheet where you can browse and download supported third-party apps that extend Messenger's functionality, like apps for sending and receiving animated GIFs and more.