Apple

Apple Watch makes its US magazine cover debut ahead of April launch

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2015

In line with Apple's promise of a functional yet fashionable device, its forthcoming Watch has already graced the cover of Vogue China. And now, as reported by AppleInsider, the wrist-worn gizmo has just made its magazine cover debut over in the United States.

Featured in the March issue of ‘Self’ magazine, the Apple Watch Sport and its stock Activity app can be seen prominently shown on the wrist of supermodel and Victoria's Secret Angel Candice Swanepoel as Apple appears to have extended device advertising to fitness enthusiasts in a need of a comprehensive activity tracking accessory.

IFTTT rebrands iOS client, launches three dedicated task automation apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

IFTTT (an abbreviation of If This Than That), a popular Internet mashup service, announced in a blog post Thursday that its flagship mobile app shall be known henceforth as just “IF by IFTTT”. Available free in the App Store, it features an updated icon and a revamped new look.

In addition to it, the company has announced a trio of task focused ‘Do’ apps: Do Button, Do Camera and Do Note, each available free in the App Store.

With these dedicated apps, and more to come in the future, users can create specific on-demand workflows and tie them to buttons for quick one-tap access.

Twitch reflex based Duet Game is Apple’s new Free App of the Week

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2015

The full version of Duet Game by Melbourne, Australia-based Kumobius has just been slashed to zero bucks as Apple's latest free app of week. As you know, each Thursday App Store editors get to cherry-pick an app or a game that goes temporarily free for a week.

This twitch reflex title was on the App Store's Best of 2013 list and shouldn't be missed. Easy to play, hard to master, Duet elevates the act of dodging falling blocks into something “captivating, beautiful, even profound.”

Next-gen Pebbles likely unveiling next Tuesday: thinner, revamped OS, Bluetooth 4.0 and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Whether it's the Apple Watch effect or part of Pebble's annual product pipeline, but California-based Pebble Devices, Corp. refreshed its website this morning with a nice countdown timer which possibly teases a new smartwatch model coming next Tuesday, February 23, 2015.

The announcement is scheduled at 7am PT, 10am ET.

Pebble seems undeterred by the highly anticipated Apple Watch launch in April.

Company CEO Eric Migicovsky told The Verge a little more than two weeks ago that new hardware products are in tow for 2015.

Apple may be building a dedicated Watch booth at Parisian Galeries Lafayette

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2015

French website Mac4Ever is alleging, via MacRumors, that Apple may be building a small booth for its Watch at Galeries Lafayette, a high-end department store in Paris. Located on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, the Watch display should be located on the department store's first floor.

Furthermore, it might expand to other stores along the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, as claimed by French media outlets.

Apple’s automotive hires strongly indicate a car project rather than work on CarPlay

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated June 25, 2016

Talking to sources, 9to5Mac has put together a list of key experts Apple's hired and assigned to its rumored car thing, code-named Project Titan. The project is led by product design Vice President and former Ford executive, Steve Zadesky.

Another big hire is Johann Jungwirth, President & CEO, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America.

He specializes in integrating smartphone functionality and developing advanced user experiences. All told, the Cupertino firm is reportedly is assembling a thousand-people team under Zadesky. Hundreds of them are from an automotive hardware background and were hired recently or around the time Tim Cook reportedly approved the project.

Here are some of them.

Review: Alto’s Adventure, an endless snowboarding odyssey unlike any other

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2015

As promised, developer Snow's much anticipated game called Alto's Adventure has backflipped into the App Store. Two years in the making, Alto's Adventure challenges you to embark on an endless snowboarding odyssey across procedurally generated alpine hills and breathtaking scenery.

You're zipping through neighboring villages, drifting through peaks and valleys, collecting shooting stars, passing through ancient woodlands and long-abandoned ruins while enjoying with simulated night and day, weather conditions, awesome lighting effects and more, courtesy of the Unity graphics engine.

Featuring a somber soundtrack and smooth execution, the game has you rescuing runaway llamas while performing various tricks to progress and unlock new characters, each with its own distinct set of capabilities and snowboarding styles. Best of all, Alto’s Adventure is a premium game with no ads or In-App Purchases.

How to get 100GB of free OneDrive storage

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2015

Microsoft's cloud storage thing called OneDrive has been on fire lately. The service has been generous with free space in the past few months. For starters, each account gets fifteen gigabytes of free storage and Office 365 subscribers get to enjoy unlimited storage as long as they continue paying their subscription. For some time now the Windows maker's been offering free OneDrive storage to US residents who've signed up for Bing Rewards program.

Starting today, this offer is now available globally so everyone can now get 100GB of free OnDrive storage for two years. Here's how you can claim your free storage.

OneNote for iPad gains handwriting, stylus support with palm rejection and OCR for images

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

After updating the Mac edition of OneNote with enhanced optical character recognition (OCR) features and other goodies yesterday, Microsoft on Thursday announced that users of OneNote for iPad can now extract text within all images that are added to notebooks saved on OneDrive.

In addition, the iPad application now has handwriting support, a top requested feature which permits users to highlight documents, scribble notes or just draw sketches with their finger. With this update, handwriting is now available in OneNote across all platforms.

Google releases Inbox app for iPad

Jake Smith ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Google has released an iPad version of its Inbox app, its new service that allows “a completely different type of inbox”. The app strives to surface the most relevant stuff that often gets buried and forgotten due to an avalanche of unwanted emails we get bombarded with.

Apple releases iTunes 12.1.1 for Windows users with fix for Outlook syncing and more

Cody Lee ∙ February 18, 2015

Apple today rolled out a new version of iTunes specifically for Windows users. Windows-only iTunes updates are rare for Apple, but the changelog says that today's release fixes some significant bugs related to Outlook-device syncing, as well as an audio playback glitch.

Users can update to 12.1.1 by either visiting the Updates section from the Updates tab within iTunes, or they can visit Apple's website and download the software in its entirety. Windows users must be running Windows Vista 64-bit or later, and have 400MB free space.

Samsung buys Apple Pay competitor LoopPay

Jake Smith ∙ Updated March 4, 2017

Samsung announced on Wednesday that it's buying Apple Pay competitor LoopPay as it looks to bolster a mobile payments product. LoopPay, similar to Apple's offering, offers a mobile wallet that allows wireless payments to take place on existing magnetic stripe readers.