Zac covers Apple news for 9to5Mac and hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast.
Smartphones and tablets can be great educational tools and sources of entertainment for kids, but finding appropriate games and content can be tricky sometimes. PBS is helping make that easier with its new PBS Kids Games mobile apps for Android and iOS.
Snapchat is changing how you communicate with friends in a major way through what it’s calling Chat 2.0. The social network says it focused two years ago on making chatting more like face-to-face conversation with features like letting you know when your friends were present and “listening” to what you were typing, and the latest Snapchat update refocuses on the 1-to-1 chat aspect of the app with new features around voice and video calling plus stickers and more. How you watch Stories is also getting a change in the new update.
The never-ending battle between Apple and Samsung over an alleged design patent violation is going all the way to the Supreme Court. Apple previously formally requested that the Supreme Court not grant the case a hearing, but the decision to hear the case was issued this morning.
Google is on a roll lately with readying its iOS apps for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro announced last September and released last November.
Google’s YouTube app gained native resolution two weeks ago, but lacked iOS 9 multitasking features like Split View and Picture-in-Picture, then yesterday we saw Google Photos update with iPad Pro support in an update that actually includes Split View and Slide Over features.
Now it’s the Google Docs apps turn, at least to start, as the latest version of Google Docs for iOS adds native resolution support for the iPad Pro.
Google Photos already lets users backup and view an unlimited number of high-resolution photos and videos for free, and Google recently added a button that lets users manually purge downloaded content to make room for more free storage. There’s a new update awaiting Google Photos users today that adds support for the latest software and hardware features on iPhones and iPads.
Just over one year ago Adobe brought the first version of its Photoshop Lightroom image editor to Android for the first time, and today the first major overhaul of Lightroom for Android is being released with version 2.0. Lightroom for Android 2 brings the mobile image editor up-to-speed with the iOS version of the same software, and actually goes a step further with RAW image support made possible by Android.
New data released this week from Strategy Analytics shows how global smartphone shipments and marketshare from major brands has changed between 2014 and 2015 as well as the holiday quarter from both years.
Insights that standout include Samsung remaining on top in both metrics, and regaining marketshare during the recent holiday quarter. Meanwhile, Huawei has hit a new milestone for the brand with its 2015 smartphone shipments.
AT&T first announced its new NumberSync feature back in October and said it’d come first to Samsung’s Gear S2 which launched on the network last month.
Today AT&T says NumberSync is rolling out through an update to Gear S2 smartwatches, marking the first product to pick up the new feature which lets you share your real smartphone phone number with other connected devices to make calls and texts simple.
Existing customers can get NumberSync on Gear S2 through a software update. New customers can enjoy NumberSync upon initial setup.
NumberSync lets you send and receive texts1, as well as make and receive calls, from your smartwatch2 using the same mobile number that your family, friends and colleagues already recognize.
NumberSync operates on the AT&T wireless network and is not dependent on a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone. You can even use it when your smartphone is off or disconnected from the network.
AT&T is also temporarily offering the Gear S2 for $99 on a two-year contract, $100 off the regular contact price. Check out our Gear S2 unboxing and review video here.
Android Pay launched earlier this fall bringing a fresh approach to NFC payments in stores to Google’s mobile platform, and today Android Pay is taking payments virtual. Google announced that Android Pay will now support in-app payments in supported apps. This means you can easily make secure payments when making purchases on your phone without having to type in your credit card information. Google also shared that it expects Android Pay to go global in 2016 starting with a launch down under in Australia.
Back at Google’s big event in September, the company announced a new feature destined for Google Photos later this year: Shared Albums. This lets you invite friends and family to view albums that you create and add photos to, and you can optionally allow them to also add photos to these shared albums. As promised, Google will begin rolling out its new Shared Albums feature for Google Photos starting today.
Google is out today with an interesting new app for VR fans called Cardboard Camera for Android. The new camera app lets users shoot their very own virtual reality photos right from a smartphone. Simply launch the app, start shooting a photo and pan in a circular motion like you’re shooting a panorama image, and you’re set.
Then throw your phone in a Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer and you can experience the immersive shot as if you were back in the moment, adding a new dimension to still images.
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A few weeks ago we noticed that Google has started testing pre-release versions of Chrome through Apple’s TestFlight beta distribution service, and today the version in testing then has been released to everyone through the App Store. The latest version of Chrome for iOS takes advantage of Apple’s new pressure sensitive iPhone 6s displays and offers even more hardware keyboard shortcuts that will benefit iPad users.
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Sony announced today that it’s PlayStation Vue Internet TV service will soon be expanding to support Google’s Chromecast HDMI streaming hardware for the first time. The news comes as Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick streaming devices become the first devices beyond PlayStation consoles to support Vue. While Amazon’s hardware is getting support today, Chromecast support will follow as it’s coming soon.
After first being announced and previewed in screenshots at WWDC in June, Apple has officially brought its subscription music service Apple Music to Google’s Android platform. Apple Music joins the iPhone maker’s other Android apps Move to iOS and the Beats Pill+ companion app on the Google Play Store.
Apple Music offers access to a large catalog of streaming music and music recommendations. Music and music videos can be saved for offline listening as well. Memberships costs $9.99/month for individuals, the same as Beats Music subscriptions which Apple Music replaces, after a three-month free trial period. Apple Music family plans for up to five different accounts is available through Family Sharing on iOS and Mac for $14.99/month.
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Google is now rolling out a major new feature to its Maps app for Android: full offline support. Google Maps has some utility already when used offline, but an update coming as soon as today will make it much more robust when used without Internet access. For example, before you could see an area on Google Maps offline but not do much else with it. With the latest version, Google will enable features including navigation and business information lookup without requiring an active Internet connection.
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Facebook is said to be planning to launch its standalone news app with a list of media partners on board sometime next week. That’s according to Financial Times, which reports the app will be called Notify and include content from a list of media partners including CBS, The Washington Post, and Vogue. Reports of Facebook working on a separate mobile app focused on news rather than the social network first surfaced in early August.
The news comes just as Facebook announced today in its earnings report that it’s currently serving an average 1.01 billion daily active users each month…
Officially offering a denial to a report last week claiming Chrome OS would merge into Android by 2017, Google has taken to its Chrome blog to say Chrome OS is here to stay. Chromebooks that run the Chrome operating system has taken off especially well in the classroom, giving Google added incentive to ensure Chrome OS users that the platform isn’t facing any dramatic changes in the near future. Hoping to convince users that recent reports of the future of Chrome OS are wrong, Google has shared some usage numbers and even offered a peek into the future of Chrome OS…
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A few weeks ago AT&T announced an upcoming network-level feature called NumberSync, which will allow customers to use one phone number on multiple connected devices like smartwatches, tablets, and connected cars. As promised, the carrier is unveiling the first two devices that will work with NumberSync: the Samsung Gear S2 and LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.
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Blackberry’s first Android-powered smartphone, the PRIV, is coming to the United States this Friday on November 6 through AT&T. The carrier revealed that it will be the first in the US to carry the privacy and productivity focused BlackBerry. AT&T will offer the BlackBerry PRIV both online and in stores at the end of the week from $249.99 on a traditional two-year contract or from $24.67/month on a financing plan.
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AT&T is announcing a new network-level advancement called NumberSync capable of sharing one phone number with all connected devices. With NumberSync, AT&T customers will soon be able to use what’s called mobile twinning to share a single phone number with multiple SIM cards in smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and other connected devices. The goal is to let you send and receive phone calls or messages from all your connected devices without relying on a specific app or operating system feature.
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Update: Google says all services are restored!
Seeing Google Drive and other services unresponsive this afternoon? Rest assured that it’s not just you. Google has acknowledged the service disruption on its app status page with this message posted within the hour:
We’re investigating reports of an issue with Google Drive. We will provide more information shortly.
One of the many things Facebook does well is make it nearly impossible to miss when one of your friends turns another year older. On the web, birthday reminders are placed prominently near the top right with links to easily wish your pal a happy birthday, and on mobile Facebook has experimented with alerts and other ways to help you not forget someone’s big day.
Now Facebook appears to be testing an even more personal way to make your birthday wish stand out: video messages. The Next Web reports that some mobile users have seen a new ‘birthday video’ option appear under Facebook’s Birthdays section (although don’t worry if you don’t see it yet, I don’t have it either).
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iFixit’s 2015 Chromecast + Chromecast Audio teardown
Two years after the original Chromecast HDMI streaming stick, Google decided it was ready last week to unveil the sequel with a redesigned and more capable 2nd-gen Chromecast as well as an entirely new product for streaming audio to old speakers called Chromecast Audio. Readily standing by, the folks over at iFixit have already picked up and torn apart both new streamers. Both look remarkably similar on the inside at first glance, and iFixit has some praise for how Chromecast handles HDMI this year…
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I’m an Apple guy. I have enough Apple hardware around my house to serve as a mini-museum and I use Apple’s software and services every single day. But when Google makes something interesting like Chromecast Audio, I can’t help but want to try out the new toy.
Sold for just $35 (Google Store, Best Buy), Chromecast Audio lets you stream audio over the Internet from services like Spotify and NPR to old speakers. This varies from Apple’s AirPlay in that audio streams directly to the Chromecast Audio rather than from device to device, using your iPhone or iPad only as the remote. In practice, Chromecast Audio is most similar to Sonos, but with Google’s accessory selling at a much lower, irresistible price as it relies on your existing speakers rather than all-in-one units.
So what exactly is Chromecast Audio and what can it do? Read on for details…
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