Instagram yesterday announced a new Events channel in the Explore section of its free of charge iPhone app. Currently limited to users within the United States and resembling Snapchat's Discover channel with Live Stories, it brings in one place all of the photos and videos posted on the service during specific events, such as concerts, sports games and more. Like the rest of Explore, the new Events channel is personalized for you and highlights events you might like.
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.
Instagram update brings camera improvements to Stories feature
Instagram's new Stories feature caused quite a stir as some users took issue with the fact that the Facebook-owned photo sharing service basically ripped off Snapchat Stories. Be that as it may, Instagram's iPhone application, which is available at no charge on the App Store, has just received a nice update which packs in a few useful camera-related improvements to the Stories feature.
What’s a computer? Just ask Cortana.
Apple's most recent iPad Pro commercial attempts to position the powerful tablet as the ultimate computer, but Microsoft begs to differ.
But in its latest commercial for the Surface Pro 4 laptop/notebook hybrid, the Windows maker challenges Apple by basically saying that just because you call something a computer doesn’t mean it fits the description.
“Cortana knows that the Surface Pro 4, with its powerful Intel Core processor, detachable keyboard with real keys and a trackpad, pen, touchscreen, full Office and external ports fits the description. Everything else is just late to the party,” says Microsoft.
Microsoft’s mobile Office apps pick up support for drawing with a finger/stylus on iPhone
Microsoft today issued updates to its mobile Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps on the App Store, adding support for drawing with your finger on the iPhone. Back in January 2016, the Windows maker brought its inking tools to the iPad Pro with Apple Pencil support. With the latest update, iPhone owners can take advantage of the Draw tab to draw, highlight and annotate documents with their finger or a stylus.
KGI: 10.5″ model joining iPad Pro lineup in 2017, radically overhauled AMOLED iPad in 2018
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo—who has a decent, but not stellar track record in predicting future Apple products—just issued a peculiar note to clients regarding the future of Apple's iPad lineup.
In the note, a copy of which was obtained by MacRumors, the well-connected analyst does not expect any major refreshes to iPads in this year.
But for 2017, the analyst is calling for three new models: a brand new 10.5-inch iPad Pro size joining a second-generation 12.9-inch iPad Pro and a low-cost 9.7-inch iPad. These devices are predicted to be followed by a “revolutionary” iPad model in 2018 that should bring “radical changes” in form factor design and user behavior while adopting flexible AMOLED panels, which so-called Tenth Anniversary iPhone is expected to gain in 2017.
Laugh.ly, Yearly, Habitify and other apps to check out this weekend
The Apps of the Week post is iDB's weekly roundup of apps and games we feel are worth checking out over the weekend. This week's edition features some great selections such as a new streaming service for stand-up comedy, a beautiful calendar app, a habit-tracking app with an interesting twist, and as usual, we've included two awesome new games for you to try.
Apple’s free app of the week: Dr. Panda’s Ice Cream Truck
Apple on Thursday updated its App of the Week promotion with the game Dr. Panda's Ice Cream Truck. This means from now through next Thursday, you’ll be able to pick up the hit children's title for free—a solid savings of $2.
Dr. Panda's Ice Cream Truck was developed for ages 6-8, but anyone can have fun making ice cream. Choose from several flavors and toppings, pile your scoops as high as you can, and then serve your creation to hungry customers.
Tip: quickly measure your Netflix streaming speed with this iPhone app
Netflix yesterday announced a brand new iPhone app on the App Store which it designed to let you quickly measure how fast your broadband downlink is by testing the connection to Netflix’s servers. The goal of the free app, aptly named Fast, is to give Netflix subscribers a better understanding of the streaming quality they can expect from the service on their Internet connection. It's not a replacement for SpeedTest or similar software and does not measure the uplink speed because it has little effect on streaming quality.
Everything new in iOS 10 beta 5
Somewhat unexpectedly, Apple this morning issued new developer-only betas of iOS 10, macOS Sierra, tvOS 10 and watchOS 3—a mere week after posting their respective fourth beta. While Apple's release notes for iOS 10 beta 5 (build number “14A5335b”) mention no new features as we inch closer to a Gold Master, there are a few tidbits and tweaks to wet your appetite.
Aside from other changes, for instance, iOS 10 beta packs in a new lock sound and lets you download apps from the App Store after a reboot without needing to re-authorize Touch ID purchase with your Apple ID password.
How to send and listen to voice messages on WhatsApp on iPhone
Learn how you can record voice clips inside WhatsApp on your iPhone and send them to a person or group. Additionally, we’ll show you how to listen to voice messages if you receive one and go over some troubleshooting tips in case you can’t do these things.
Nearly half of all iPads are now being bought by corporations and governments
iPad sales fell another nine percent in the June quarter down to 9.95 million units, but that drop would have been deeper had it not been for big corporations and governments, which are now buying nearly half of all iPads, according to a Forrester research quoted in a New York Times article titled “Once Taunted by Steve Jobs, Companies Are Now Big Customers of Apple”.
“In the primordial days of computing, IBM machines were so common inside corporations that there was a running joke in the industry: Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM,” reads the report. “These days, the same could be said about Apple. Even IBM is promoting Apple gear.”
Craig Federighi comes clean on how Night Shift avoids ghosting artifacts when scrolling
Night Shift, a feature that was introduced in iOS 9.3, reduces the amount of blue light emitted from the display of your iOS device at night to help avoid disrupting your sleep cycle. In helping you getting a good night’s sleep, the feature looks at your geographical position and the time of the day to shift the colors to the warmer end of the spectrum.
But we all know that. Today, we learn that Apple's engineers also built this feature in a way that avoids ugly artifacts that could appear on LCDs while scrolling and animating.