iPad

From the latest news to the most comprehensive tutorials, learn how to get the most out of your iPad with our step-by-step guides and expert tips.

Snapchat’s sweet new update makes a handful of things a tad easier

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

A brand new version of Snapchat is now available in the App Store on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It's a point update but don't let that fool you as it makes a handful of things a bit easier. For starters, you can now finally preview a person's public Stories without adding them as a friend. Before today, you had to add a contact as your friend to view their Stories so just this nice improvement alone could go a long way toward helping us discover new accounts and content on Snapchat a bit more easily than before.

Where Cards Fall from Alto’s Adventure creators gets its first trailer

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

Back in March, we told you about a promising upcoming game, titled Where Cards Fall—a collaboration between Alto's Adventure developer Snowman and LA-based studio The Game Band. Today, they shared with us their first-ever trailer for the game and it's definitely worth a quick watch.

Even though the video doesn’t reveal much about game mechanics, we can tell from it that Where Cards Fall is going to have atmospheric look to it. The game will task you with building and re-building various structures in different ways using cards and today's trailer shows off some of its eye-candy visuals.

Instagram’s popular Explore tab now recommends Stories from people you could follow

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 30, 2016

Today, Instagram's Explore tab will start showing some users a bar of Stories from accounts they could follow, TechCrunch reported yesterday, saying these algorithmically personalized suggestions will roll out to everyone soon. Stories recommendations are based on who you follow and the topics you care about, making it easy to add someone new to your Home feed’s Stories section.

Steven Levy confirms that some of the data in Apple iBrain can be restored to a new phone

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 29, 2016

Journalist Steven Levy's excellent in-depth look at Apple's machine learning and artificial intelligence systems used throughout iOS and its other products have left some people wondering about transferring the so-called iBrain database to a new device. Apple told Levy that iBrain is local to a device and doesn't get sent to the cloud.

The explanation promoted some people to wonder if that means that iBrain has to start all over again after getting a new phone, and lose all memory of what it learned in the process. As it turns out, some of the information in that “brain” can indeed be restored and moved to a new device in a safe manner.

New Surface Pro 4 ad calls MacBook Air “less useful, like a hat for your cat”

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 29, 2016

Following its recent iPad Pro-dissing commercial, Microsoft today released another nicely done Surface Pro 4 ad which takes aim at the MacBook Air, calling it “less useful, like a hat for your cat”. Surface ads have successfully promoted competitive advantages of the hybrid device, which comes with a detachable keyboard, pen, touchscreen and more. And thanks to an Intel chip, it runs the full Office suite and most other Windows programs, like Photoshop.

Bonk!, tldarling, Jam Looper, and other apps to check out this weekend

Cody Lee ∙ Updated March 17, 2019

We'll keep things short and sweet this week. The latest edition of our Apps of the Week roundup includes a fun new photo editor from Jimmy Fallon, an app that auto-summarizes long web articles, a minimal music-maker, and of course two new games for you to check out.

Apple issues iOS 10 beta 8 to developers & beta 7 to public beta testers

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 26, 2016

Apple today released an eighth beta of iOS 10 (build number “14A5346a”) to members of the Apple Developer Program and the seventh beta of iOS 10 to public beta testers who are signed on the Apple Beta Software Program. It's worth repeating that iOS 10 beta 8 for developers and iOS 10 beta 7 for public beta testers contain the same features.

The devices on a prior beta can be updated in Settings → General → Software Update, but some users are reporting issues trying to update to beta 8.

Intel could begin fabricating iPhone and iPad chips as early as 2018

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Both in-house designed 'A10' and 'A11' chips for this year's iPhone 7 and 2017 iPhones/iPads, respectively, are believed to be manufactured solely by Taiwan's semiconductor foundry TSMC (sorry, Samsung).

According to Nikkei Asian Review, Intel is now perfectly poised to give TSMC a good run for its money in as little as two years because any Apple chips after the A10/A11 should be fabricated by Intel.

The recently signed licensing deal between Intel and UK-based ARM Holdings lets the former fabricate chips for smartphones based on the latter's CPU technology.

iOS 9.3.5 update patches three major security vulnerabilities

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 1, 2018

The just-released iOS 9.3.5 update patches three major security vulnerabilities, reports The New York Times. Apple was alerted to the flaws just 10 days ago by security researchers Bill Marczak and John Scott Railton, and is urging users to update.

Investigators discovered that Israeli-based digital arms dealer NSO Group was using the exploits in software it sells that can track smartphones. The program can read texts and emails, track calls and location, and can record sounds and passwords.

How to opt out of WhatsApp-Facebook account data sharing

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 25, 2016

As you may have heard, WhatsApp is starting to share some of users' account data with Facebook (things like your registered phone number and the last time you used the service) to improve targeted advertising and friend suggestions on Facebook and better fight spam on WhatsApp. Thankfully, you can easily opt out, right when the prompt goes up, or within 30 days of accepting the new terms, here's how.

WhatsApp begins sharing account data with Facebook to boost targeted advertising

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 25, 2016

Facebook-owned WhatsApp today updated its Terms and Privacy Policy for the first time in four years to reflect that the messaging service will start sharing select account data with Facebook in order to improve targeted advertising. Wait, does that mean that you're going to be inundated with ads on WhatsApp? In a word, no—at least for the time being. As per the amended terms of service, “We still do not allow third-party banner ads on WhatsApp.”

A fascinating look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 22, 2017

Respected journalist Steven Levy has scored another nice exclusive with a new write-up over at Backchannel, a Wired Media Group property, giving us a rare inside look at how artificial intelligence and machine learning work at Apple.

The article contains a lot of gems, with company executives Eddy Cue, Craig Federighi, Phil Schiller and Siri leads Tom Gruber and Alex Acero providing a bunch of previously unknown facts about Apple's AI efforts, including this one: machine learning has enabled Apple to cut Siri's error rate by a factor or two.