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Opinion: 8 reasons Chromebooks are beating iPads in education, and what Apple could do about it

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Apple for a time led the tech market in education, even making education-specific Mac models. More recently, the company made a big push on iPads, signing a $30M deal (that would eventually have been worth a quarter of a billion dollars) in 2013 to equip every student in the LA Unified School District with an iPad.

If that program had succeeded, it would have created a template for rolling out similar ones across the whole of the USA. Instead, it failed catastrophically, and it now appears that Chromebooks are winning where iPads have failed.

CNBC reported last month that Chromebooks now make up more than half of all devices in U.S. classrooms, while Apple’s share of classroom purchases more than halved between 2012 and 2015. Why is that, and what – if anything – can Apple do to reverse the trend … ?


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Apple Music Android app updated with Beats 1 fix, Sonos support and more

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Apple has updated the Apple Music Android app with a bug fix and a couple of new features.

This update fixes an issue that prevented listening to Beats 1 without an Apple Music membership. It also includes support for the upcoming beta of Apple Music on Sonos, and for playlist folders created in iTunes.

It also includes stability and performance improvements.

Apple first offered the app to Android users last month, and offers a three-month free trial, after which an individual subscription costs $10/month while a family of up to five can share a $15/month subscription.

Check out our setup and first impressions video for a taster.

Xiaomi reportedly plans to join Samsung in offering iPhone 6s-style pressure-sensitive touchscreens

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Following Synaptics’ announcement that it would be offering pressure-sensitive touchscreen controllers to allow Android manufacturers to offer features similar to 3D Touch on Apple’s latest iPhones, it appears that Xiaomi will be adopting the technology.

It has previously been suggested that Samsung plans to use the Synaptics system in next year’s flagship Galaxy handsets.

The report from a well-known Chinese tipster says that Xiaomi has patented a technology similar to 3D Touch, notes GforGames. It’s unclear whether Xiaomi plans to use the Synaptics controller or has created its own technology.

Google, Apple & Microsoft called out on “pretend” overseas tax arrangements by Citizens for Tax Justice

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Lobbying group Citizens for Tax Justice has called out Google, Apple and Microsoft and others for what it described as “accounting tricks” in which companies “pretend” to be based overseas for tax purposes. The claims were made in a report entitled Offshore Shell Games 2015.

Many multinational corporations use accounting tricks to pretend for tax purposes that a substantial portion of their profits are generated in offshore tax havens, countries with minimal or no taxes where a company’s presence may be as little as a mailbox. Multinational corporations’ use of tax havens allows them to avoid an estimated $90 billion in federal income taxes each year.

Google’s overseas tax arrangements came under fire in the UK back in 2013 when it was revealed that the company paid just £6M ($9.4M) on a UK turnover of £395M ($620M), claiming that all its advertising sales were made by staff in Ireland (a claim later challenged) …


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Samsung had a few taunts of its own after Apple’s iPhone 6s, iPad Pro event last night

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Leading up to Apple’s eagerly anticipated keynote presentation last night, Sony had a jab prepared for the iPhone-makers before they unveiled the iPhone 6s, Apple TV and iPad Pro. It seems, however, Sony wasn’t the only manufacturer attempting to rain on Apple’s parade. Arguably Apple’s biggest competitor, Samsung had a few of its own jibes to share with us and took to its UK Twitter handle to publish them…


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Samsung denies reports of job cutting, says it’s ‘relocating’ workers

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In one of the most ambiguous rebuttals of recent memory, Samsung has denied reports claiming it is looking to reduce its workforce by 10%. It’s not reducing its workforce, it says, but “relocating” them. One of Samsung’s high-ranking officials spoke to Yonhap News, claiming that it will “only be relocating workers”, denying rumors that it was looking to move on 10 percent of its management staff in sales and PR. What it didn’t say was what “relocating” actually means, leaving us speculating a number of possible translations for the phrase…


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HTC teases another press event, this time for September 29

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Battered mobile technology manufacturer HTC has a new press event scheduled for September 29, to be held in Hankone, Japan, where a “double flagship” device will be released. That’s according to an image spotted by popular Twitter user @upleaks, who says in his tweet that the image was posted to HTC’s account on Weibo, the Chinese social networking equivalent to Twitter…
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Amazon to sell $50 6-inch Kindle Fire tablet for holidays, add 10-inch to roster

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The WSJ is reporting that Amazon is going to strip down a 6-inch tablet and sell it for $50 for the holidays. What’s amazing is that the theoretically color tablet was cheaper to make than even an ebook display version:

Mr. Bezos had set an internal goal of the $50 price tag for versions of both the Fire tablet and Kindle e-reader, viewing the rock-bottom prices as a crucial lure for a more cost-conscious group of buyers, the people said. But the e-reader screen technology from its vendors ultimately proved too expensive to drop the retail price, the people said. Amazon’s cheapest Kindle sells for $79.

It is likely that the $50 Tablet will be a pared down version of the already minimalist $99 6-inch Kindle which has gone on sale for as little at $69 in recent months. The report cites a mono speaker as one of the cost cutting initiatives but the company will likely drop things like cameras, display quality and battery life.

What might be more interesting to me is that Amazon is said to have fired many from its FireOS group in the wake of the Fire Phone flop and subsequent $170M writedown…
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Kantar: Samsung & Apple account for 64% of US smartphone market w/ 9 of 10 best-selling models

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The latest data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that Samsung and Apple continue to dominate the U.S. smartphone market, taking a massive 64% of the total market share between them, and accounting for nine of the ten best-selling models.

If share alone was not enough to demonstrate market dominance, our data also shows that these two vendors sold nine of the top ten best-selling smartphones in the three months ending July 2015 – with LG making a cameo appearance in the ranking.

Android increased its U.S. market share by 1.7% in the 12 months ending in July this year, though dropped 7% in Japan and 4.1% in Europe … 
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Android Wear on iOS: Setup and first impressions [Video]

Android Wear finally has iOS support after Google pushed its iPhone-compatible software to the App Store. This means that Android has beaten Apple Watch to the cross-platform game. Or, at least it would, if iOS didn’t restrict it to a state of almost uselessness. The only device officially supported is the LG Watch Urbane although — as we previously revealed — the older generation Android Wear watches do work. I got it set up with my Moto 360, and have been mostly disappointed by my experience so far.


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IDC: China slowdown cuts smartphone forecast, Android will continue to hold lead through 2019

IDC released an updated forecast today lowering its expectations for worldwide smartphone shipments this year with a continuing slowdown of growth in China cited as the biggest contributor to the lower than expected shipments. It also shared some insight into the future of Android, expecting its current 81% share of the global smartphone market as of 2015 to hold strong through 2019, citing continued price sensitivity in the markets with the biggest growth potential (read: China, India, and everyone else in the Asia-Pacific region).
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Gartner: Samsung sees worldwide sales fall 5.3% YOY, losing out to Apple & Chinese brands

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New data from Gartner suggests that Samsung saw its worldwide sales fall by 5.3% year-on-year, its market share dropping from 26.2% in Q2 2014 to 21.9% in the same quarter this year. The company lost ground to both Apple and Chinese brands Huawei and Xiaomi.

Despite the launch of new S6 models, Samsung’s premium phones continued to be challenged by Apple’s large-screen iPhones. Samsung lost 4.3 percentage points in market share and declined 5.3 percent in unit sales in the second quarter of 2015.

Samsung was hit hardest by Huawei, which saw sales growth of 46.3%, followed by Apple, which increased its sales by 36% … 
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9to5Toys Lunch Break: Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones $79, 2TB portable hard drive $69, more

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: TwitterRSS FeedFacebookGoogle+ and Safari push notifications.

TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:

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Bose SoundSport In-Ear Headphones: $79.95 shipped with promo code EMCAWKX23 (Orig: $149.95) 

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Sony (SRS-X3) Portable Bluetooth NFC Speaker: $71.99 shipped with promo code EXTRA (Orig: $149.99) 

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Xbox One bundle + $50 Xbox gift card + Assassins Creed Unity: $399 shipped (Orig: $460+)

MORE DEALS FROM TODAY:

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WD Elements 2TB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive: $69.99 shipped (Orig: $110) 

Kitchen/Home Oral-B 1000 electric toothbrush $29 (Orig. $60), Deep Sweep 5000 $113 (Orig. $133+), more

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Amazon has the Oral-B PRO 1000 Electric Rechargeable Toothbrush Powered by Braun for $29 with free shipping for Prime members (free trial) or on orders over $35. Be sure to clip the $5 coupon on the listing page. That’s about 35% under the original listing, $5+ under the average selling price.

You’ll also still find the Oral-B Deep Sweep 5000 w/ Bluetooth Electric Toothbrush for $113 shipped with the $20 on-page coupon (Reg. $133+) and up to $30 off Oral-B toothbrushes, brush head re-fills and more.

DEALS STILL ALIVE:

NEW PRODUCTS & MORE:

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Never lose your keys again with the new-and-improved Tile Bluetooth tracker

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Train to be a Jedi with this oversized Yoda toy you will

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The new AfterShokz headphones bring bone conduction audio to Apple Watch

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HTC One Max fingerprint sensor data left unsecured for apps to see

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A report from FireEye Labs (a security firm) reveals that some smartphones with fingerprint sensors aren’t as secure as we’d like them to be. The one device named specifically was the HTC One Max which was supposed to store fingerprint data in a secure enclave that no one could get to. Turns out, that wasn’t the case and any app could have potentially gained access to the fingerprint data and even recreated a bitmap image of the fingerprints stored. Thankfully, HTC fixed the gaping hole “in all regions” before the report went public.

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FireEye shared images they managed to gain access to inside the HTC One Max, and cropped them to protect the identity of the owners. What you see to the left is just a small portion of someone’s fingerprint. Data obtained through the One Max’s supposedly ‘secure’ enclave. If there’s one small comfort to be taken from this, it’s that the HTC One Max isn’t the most popular phone around, and by now, it’s also relatively old. What’s more, HTC told The Verge that the flaw was only present in the HTC One Max, and doesn’t effect any of its other phones or devices.

While the One Max is the only device specifically named in the vulnerability report, the company does suggest devices from other manufacturers suffer(ed) with the same issue. What’s more, another issue present in a number of devices was a vulnerability which could potentially allow any app to interrupt the fingerprint scanning process as a user was using the sensor. If taken advantage of, this would see software with the ability to take fingerprint data as it’s being read, in real-time.

All devices mentioned (including the Galaxy S5) and others hinted at, have all be locked down since the vulnerability was discovered. When it comes to fingerprint data, we like to think that the information is being treated with paramount focus. Once someone gets your fingerprint data, there’s not a lot you can do about it. You can’t change it like a PIN, password or pattern.

Exclusive: Google planning an affiliate program for Google Play, starting with Movies & Music

Google is working on launching an affiliate program for Google Play similar to the one Apple runs for its own digital content stores, a source briefed on the matter has told 9to5Google.

The affiliate program, which is said to still be in its early stages of development and could get called off or change significantly between now and its time of launch, is said to be powered by Performance Horizon Group, the same company which in 2013 began supporting Apple’s affiliate program.

Our source, who requested to remain anonymous, said the program will initially cover only content sold through Play Movies and Music but eventually expand to include apps and even hardware, presumably those devices sold through the Google Store
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OnePlus 2 shipments delayed 2-3 weeks for United States and Canada

OnePlus may have increased manufacturing capacity this year in preparation for the launch of its successor to the OnePlus One, the OnePlus 2, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely ironed out its processes: North American customers will have to wait a little longer to receive their phones.

In a post to its community forums, a staff member of OnePlus today said that “due to production schedules,” shipments to the United States and Canada will begin 2-3 weeks after shipments to Europe. We’re not sure exactly what this means and why it’s the case, but hiccups in the manufacturing process happen regularly before the release of new products, even to large companies like Samsung and Apple.

OnePlus says that customers in North America will still be able to place their orders starting tomorrow, August 11th, though. That’s if you even have an invite to buy one, which you’ll need. The waitlist to get yourself an invite if you weren’t an early adopter of the OnePlus One is 3 million people strong, however, so these shipment delays shouldn’t even impact you if aren’t fortunate enough to have one. Sans-invite purchases will open up at some point weeks or months after the phone goes on sale tomorrow.

Latest comScore data shows iOS continuing to gain on Android in US market

Research firm comScore today released its report on United States smartphone subscriber market share for the three month period ending in June. The report, released monthly, tracks the rankings of the top smartphone OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and operating systems by consumer adoption. Month-to-month fluctuations in market share aren’t often major, but the data gives us more context around how the top players are doing as we eek towards the 2015 holiday season.


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Kantar: Samsung and LG account for 78% of US Android smartphone sales

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Consumer insights and research firm Kantar Worldpanel has released its smartphone sales data for the second quarter of 2015, which runs from April through June, and it’s a bit of a mixed bag for Android. Growth in the United States and China, but declines in Europe. Android also saw market consolidation stateside during the three month period.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way. In the second quarter, Kantar says Android posted its “strongest year-on-year share drop in Germany” since the beginning of 2015. 81% of all smartphones sold in Germany during the same period last year were powered by Android, compared to 75% this year — other smartphone operating systems have seen gains in the country during the same period.


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Report: Android device fragmentation has increased 28% over last year

Android is notorious in the developer community for its rampant fragmentation. Developing an app for Google’s platform means wrestling to make the app work optimally on the ecosystem of thousands of devices in different shapes and sizes. And according to a new report out today giving us a look at the state of Android fragmentation as of this month, August 2015, there’s both some bad and good news: There are more devices than ever before, but fewer users that are spread out across different operating system versions.


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Dozens of popular apps found ‘vulnerable to password cracking’

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Popular iOS and Android apps from companies like Walmart, ESPN, Slack and SoundCloud have been found vulnerable to password cracking, according to a recent report from AppBugs. The security firm found that dozens of the most popular apps are lacking, in that they allow you to make any number of attempts to login without restriction. These clearly opens up a gap for attackers who have the means to guess those passwords and gain access to your accounts.


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Report: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ due to be announced on August 12, released August 21

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By now we’ve heard multiple rumors and reports on Samsung’s next generation phablet. In today’s latest report from SamMobile, the publication claims that it knows when the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ will be unveiled and released to the public. Citing its “insiders”, the report states that the Galaxy Note 5 will be announced on August 12th and be available to buy shortly afterwards on August 21th.


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WSJ: Samsung bringing Galaxy Note 5 launch forward to August, ahead of Apple

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Samsung is planning to bring forward the launch of the Galaxy Note 5 from September to August, according to the WSJ. It’s believed the change in schedule is designed to get the device on sale ahead of Apple’s anticipated September launch of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, which is likely to dominate tech media coverage that month.

Samsung has always previously launched its Note models on the eve of the IFA conference, which takes place in Berlin in September. The WSJ cites only a single source for the claim, but it’s not the first time we’ve heard suggestions that the company may bring forward the launch this year … 
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Google among those asking Obama to reject calls for government access to encrypted data

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Google and Apple have co-signed a letter calling on President Obama to reject any government proposal to allow the government backdoor access to encrypted data on smartphones and other devices. The Washington Post says the letter, due to be delivered today, is signed by more than 140 tech companies, prominent technologists and civil society groups.

The signatories urge Obama to follow the group’s unanimous recommendation that the government should “fully support and not undermine efforts to create encryption standards” and not “in any way subvert, undermine, weaken or make vulnerable” commercial software.

The FBI has been pushing increasingly hard to require tech companies to build in backdoor access to their encryption systems to allow access by law enforcement, even going so far as to say that Apple could be responsible for the death of a child. a NY District Attorney has also cited public safety as justification for demanding access to encrypted data.

The letter calling on Obama to reject this argument is also signed by five members of a presidential review group appointed by Obama in 2013 to assess technology policies in the wake of leaks by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

Many in the tech industry have pointed out that, aside from the obvious concerns over government intrusion into the private lives of its citizens, any backdoor used by the government could potentially be discovered and exploited by hackers and foreign governments.