After months of speculation, Google bought popular social mapping startup Waze in June of this year. And following the purchase, Google's VP of Geo said the company was looking forward to bringing its search capabilities to the app.
Today, it has made good on that promise. An update just posted for the Waze iPhone and iPad app, which brings it to version to 3.7.6, that includes a handy new voice-based search option for addresses and places in over 40 languages...
Last week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration appeased to gadget lovers by announcing that it will allow airlines to expand use of personal electronics such as tablets and smartphones during nearly all phases of flight. The much-welcomed development means busy folks who detest having to switch off their gadgets before takeoff and landing for fear of messing with the avionics now have plenty to smile about.
The new FAA rules pledge responsible travelers on both domestic and international flights to agree to using their devices in airplane mode most of the time. Following the announcement, American Airlines said yesterday it will permit all passengers to use their gadgets gate-to-gate...
Rdio, the popular Internet radio service, has just pushed a long-expected update that has finally enabled a music recommendation engine in its iPhone and iPad app. Fans will remember that the inaugural 1.0 build had that useful feature front and center.
Unfortunately, it was inexplicably pulled as the company started experimenting with stuff like Pandora-style personalized Stations and got busy implementing social features and other enhancements.
It was a little over a month ago that Rdio confirmed plans to bring back the popular music-recommendation capability and today they've made good on that promise...
Early in the game, Apple took advantage of its Volume Purchase Program (VPP) to allow Business and Education customers to buy iPhone and iPad apps carried on the App Store in bulk and with volume discounts.
Following the free OS X Mavericks update earlier in the month, the company has now updated VPP rules to include Mac App Store apps as well. With this change, Education and Business customers can for the first time buy Mac apps in volume.
In addition, the company has introduced a new Managed Distribution feature for iOS 7 and Mavericks devices which lets businesses and education institutions easily assign and revoke app licenses to individual users. Previously, these high-value customers had to rely on redemption codes to distribute software in bulk...
Apple has long been rumored to be adopting Sharp's sophisticated IGZO display technology for iPhones and iPads, but the reported ongoing yields issues have prevented it from making the switch over concerns on maintaining a minimum level of capacity.
At the same time, it hasn't gone unnoticed that the iPad Air achieves the same 10-hour battery life (and 24-hour LTE hotspot performance) in spite of packing in a powerful 64-bit A7 processor and, more importantly, a much smaller battery than its predecessor, 32.9 Whr versus 43 Whr for the iPad 4.
Now, one of the benefits of using IGZO display technologies is vastly reduced power consumption. So, has Apple switched to IGZO panels for the iPad Air or not?
Apple has released an update for iTunes this afternoon, bringing the software to version 11.1.3. Don't get too excited though, it appears to just be a maintenance release with a handful of improvements.
Those improvements include a fix for a known issue where the equalizer may not work as expected, as well as enhanced performance when switching views in large iTunes libraries and other bug fixes...
Apple has issued a public report this afternoon entitled 'Report on Government Information Requests.' The piece details the number and types of requests it receives from governments around the world for user and device information.
The company said it considers it a responsibility to provide its users with "the best privacy protections available," and that it has published the report "in the interest of transparency for our customers around the world." More after the fold...
Yesterday, New Hampshire-based materials manufacturing company GT Advanced announced a multi-year agreement with Apple to provide steady supply of the sapphire glass, a crystalline form of aluminum oxide known for its superior durability and scratch resistance. Apple relies on this pricey gemstone to protect the iPhone 5s's Touch ID sensor and has been using it for camera lens cover on all iOS devices since the iPhone 5.
The strategic supply agreement is valued at more than half a billion dollars in cutting-edge equipment and some folks have combed through Apple's patent filings for a clue to building next-generation iDevices with sapphire glass covers instead of Gorilla Glass.
Here's a video tour of GT's manufacturing process behind making the scratch-resistant, tougher-than-Gorilla-Glass sapphire displays for smartphones...
Earlier this morning, T-Mobile filed its September quarter earnings and announced selling 540,000 iPhones amid iPhone 5s shortages, representing fifteen percent of T-Mobile’s prepaid and MetroPCS-branded devices sold. During an earnings call with Wall Street investors, company executives dropped another interesting factoid: just on the iPad Air launch day this past Friday, the Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier has managed to move more tablets than it'd done throughout the entirety of the prior quarter.
It's an ambiguous data point which doesn't reveal much in terms of numbers, nor does it tell us which specific tablet brands moved the needle on the iPad Air launch day. However, it jibes with claims made by other carriers such as AT&T, which yesterday said its Apple tablet activations over the iPad Air launch weekend tripled compared to last Fall’s launch...
I'm a big fan of TwelveSouth's work. Andrew and Leigh Ann and the team are good people who make stylish, Apple-exclusive accessories. The company's won me over with its BookBook series of cases for iPhones, iPads and Mac notebooks. I'm currently using their BookBook for MacBook Air which looks a lot like a Harry Potter spell book, along with the BookBook for iPhone that doubles as my wallet for cash, credit cards, IDs and stuff like that.
But now, there's one carrying case to rule them all, the BookBook Journal. It may look like another vintage book, but this dapper, hardback leather case has compartments, pockets and adjustable bands to hold your iPad along with a bunch of accessories, such as power adapters, cables, USB drives, styluses, mice, earbuds or and more...
Spotify, the popular Swedish streaming music startup, today gave its iPhone and iPad app a little love. In addition to support for new languages like Japanese, the new Spotify 0.9 for iOS now includes artist tour information, including such details as concert dates.
Several search-related improvements and the usual bug fixes are also part of this Spotify release.
The free update is available immediately on the App Store and I've included additional details below the fold...
Google has just updated its native Search app for the iPhone and iPad with a slew of new features, starting with a number of new types of Google Now cards and the ability to activate the voice search handsfree, simply by saying “OK Google” like on Android. This feature works on the iPhone 4s or later devices. You can now enjoy one-touch sign-on and elect to receive alerts for delayed flights and upcoming appointments and events, as well as for public transit reminders.
The app now supports new types of reminders for movies, actors, TV shows, musicians and web content updates, including location-based and time-relative entries like “Remind me to buy coffee beans at Starbucks,” or “Remind me to check out the fair this weekend”. Jump past the fold for the full reveal...