Apple’s Next Generation iPhone Cameras

Posted: August 28, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

You have probably heard that Apple is holding their rollout event for the new iPhones and more on September 9th. One of the marquee features, as reported by 9to5mac.com and others is a 12 megapixel main camera, and upgraded signal processor for larger, higher resolution pictures. 4K video is also in store on the 6S and 6S+…which a lot of people won’t need as they don’t have 4K TVs or monitors. One thing you WILL use is the upgraded front selfie cam with flash…no, there’s not a front-facing LED flash…Apple will flash the screen white when you shoot, like Snapchat and Photo Booth. The front cam is also likely to get panorama and slo-mo video, too.

In a move that will improve performance, Google’s Chrome web browser will start pausing Flash ads by default September 1st. The function has been in the beta version for a while now. By pausing auto-playing flash, Chrome users should see speed improvements and better batter life. Google, in addition to Apple, has been trying to get away from Flash tech for quite a while. YouTube switched over to streaming HTML5 video by default the first of the year.

Fuel Cell Could Run Your iPhone for a Week!

Posted: August 25, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some companies have been working on hydrogen fuel cells for cars since the 80’s. Now, one has managed to shoehorn one into smartphone size. Geek.com says Intelligent Energy has added a very slim hydrogen fuel cell to an iPhone 6! It reportedly doesn’t replace the rechargeable battery, but complements it. The company has been working closely with Apple on integrating it without modifying the phone. The back of the phone with the hydrogen cell is covered with vents to allow heat and water vapor to escape, but not enough that you will notice that. The upside? You can use your iPhone for a week without recharging! They are working on a disposable cartridge at this point, and have to decide on pricing, but this could be a huge game changer in smart devices and our other portable electronics!

Amazon has added home town Seattle and surrounding area to it’s one hour delivery service Prime Now. It was already available to Amazon Prime members in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Manhattan, Miami, and Indianapolis. More cities are on tap for later this year. Speaking of on tap, they have added the option to order beer, wine, and liquor for quick delivery, according to techcrunch.com. Other last minute needs are included in the service, which is via a standalone iOS or Android app…including party supplies, gifts, household items, and cold items like milk or frozen ones such as ice cream. Cheers!

Twitter Nixes Services That Tracked Politicians’ Deleted Tweets

Posted: August 24, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Because we wouldn’t want any politicians’ hasty and foolish, embarrassing Tweets to bite them later, or journalists to be able to actually report them, Twitter has kindly blocked Politwoops and sister site Diplotwoops from access of it’s API. Techcrunch.com reports Twitter says it violates terms of service. Surely it can’t be from pressure from politicians and governments? The US version was shut down earlier this year. The Open State Foundation and watchdog Sunlight Foundation said they will look for other ways to report deleted Tweets, noting that politicians shouldn’t have the same expectation of privacy as private citizens.

According to businessinsider.com, Apple is bringing a couple of major changes to the Apple Watch with the software update due out next month. Watch OS 2 will have native access to the watch, which means it won’t have to ‘phone home’ to your nearby iPhone constantly. Apps should load much faster. It will also remember WiFi connections you’ve used previously with your phone, allowing you to connect to the web without having your iPhone tagging along. This won’t work for everything, but will for iMessages and using Siri.

Super King Sized Samsung Tablet Coming?

Posted: August 21, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Samsung had good success for a while supersizing smartphones into phablets, and now theverge.com says SamMobile is reporting the company is working on an 18.4 inch Android tablet. Internally, it’s called Tahoe, and it has a TFT LCD display with a 1920 x 1080 resolution, a 1.6 GhZ processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and rear and front cameras — 8 megapixels and 2.1 megapixels, respectively. SamMobile speculates that it wouldn’t be aimed at mainstream users, but for salespeople to make presentations, and architects needing a large mobile device for site visits. No word on when it might hit the market.

As Apple is rumored to be working in secret on their own electric car that would run their Car Play software, Mercedes-Benz is apparently open to different types of collaboration with Cupertino. In an interview out in the last few days, the Daimler CEO, Dieter Zetsche, was quoted as saying “Google and Apple want to provide system software for cars and bring this entire ecosystem around Apple and Google into the vehicle. That can be interesting for both sides.” According to macrumors.com, Apple hired former Mercedes R&D VP Johann Jungwirth, who is now Director of Mac Systems Engineering.

Dragon Anywhere Mobile Apps Coming

Posted: August 19, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

As Apple does more and more with Siri, and Microsoft does the same with Cortana, a long time player in speech recognition will be dropping mobile apps this fall. Thenextweb.com reports that Dragon Anywhere…the app…will be released for iOS and Android, with the focus on professionals. At least the initial release will be designed for lawyers, social workers, insurance adjusters, and public safety officers, according to Nuance…which envisions such pros using the app to create and edit complete reports and documents, or take detailed notes on the go. It will play nice with Evernote and Dropbox, according to the maker. Updates to the PC desktop app will be out in August, and for the Mac in September.

We previously reported on Silent Circle’s 2.0 product, the Blackphone 2. Now, techcrunch.com says it should be launching in September….a little bit of a slide from a promised summer launch, and still no word on a price. It will sport an all-glass front and rear, plus a larger 5.5 inch full HD display, have a 64-bit processor, and more RAM.

Useful New iCloud Restore Feature

Posted: August 14, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Without fanfare, Apple has added a restore feature to iCloud. 9to5mac.com says it’s hidden in the advanced settings pane, and allows you to recover accidentally deleted documents. You can also restore contacts and calendars. The feature shows snapshots of the recently deleted documents, with the contacts and calendars appearing as time stamped. With the latter two, you just recover earlier versions…you can’t go back and grab a single contact like you can with documents.

As we reported, Samsung showed it’s Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge + yesterday at their Unpacked event. Meanwhile, the phablets appeared on their websites with capacities of 32 gigs, 64 gigs, and 128 gigs. According to Cnet.com and others, it was a goof…there’s no 128 gig version…sorry high capacity buffs. If you absolutely must have the 128 gigs and don’t want an iPhone, buy the slightly older Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.

Apple May Also Show iPad Mini 4 September 9th

Posted: August 10, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New leaks show a thinner, 6.1 millimeter fourth generation iPad Mini. Appleinsider.com reports that renderings found by generally reliable KGO Securities show a lot of design cues taken from the iPad Air 2. The latest mini may have an A8 processor like the Air 2, and 8 megapixel camera. If Apple goes ahead and rolls out the 13 inch iPad Pro September 9th along with the new iPhone 6S models, this new mini may be featured as well.

From the ‘not so good news’ department…a security researcher showed a $30 gadget he made at Defcon 2015 that will open keyless cars and garage doors that use rolling codes. Rolling codes let cars and garage doors skip to a new code each time, preventing thieves from nabbing the code as it transmits through the air. Engadget.com says this device jams the signal to the car or garage door motor and records the code. When the driver hits the fob or remote the next time the car or garage opens…making them think all is well, but the crook can return later and use the stored code the car or door never received, and steal at his leisure. Many car companies are aware of the issue, and have switched to codes that expire, but the security researcher hopes his demonstration will force car makers and garage door companies to upgrade older models, too. He says his own car is susceptible to such an attack.

Twitter Toys with Dedicated News Tab

Posted: August 4, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twitter is experimenting with a new tab for featured news…you may be one of the iOS or Android users that has noticed it popping up along with the other icons at the bottom of your Twitter screen. Hit it to check what’s currently happening in the world. When you touch a news item, it opens up a screen with an image, block of text and link from the source, and also but a list of tweets from other publishers and Twitter users about the item. As with test features in the past, a limited universe of users will see it, and it may not be permanent.

One of the best features of the original iPhone was Visual Voicemail…a great feature that continues to this day. It freed us from the aggravation of listening through voicemails in order, then deleting or saving them as the phone carriers made us do to use more minutes. Now, Apple’s taking it a step further, and another killer feature may show up in iOS 10 in 2016. Apple is testing having Siri record and transcribe messages from missed calls, and sending them to iCloud where you can read them as text later.

Leak Has More Reveals About iPhone 6S

Posted: August 3, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

In a leak similar to one last year near the release date of the iPhone 6, we now know a bit more about the successor iPhone 6S. The next generation handset will be slightly thicker to accomodate the Force Touch and Taptic Engine features borrowed from the Apple Watch. Force Touch tells the handset different things, depending on how hard you press on the screen, while the Taptic Engine gives it a more versatile vibration motor for alerts. Despite the increase in thickness from 6.9 to 7.1 mm, there is still a bump on the back for the camera…which has unduly bothered some in the tech media…despite the fact that nearly everyone else buys a case for their iPhones that negates that issue.

As rumored earlier, Nokia has sold its HERE mapping business to a group made up of Audi, BMW, and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz. Previously, it was rumored that Uber, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple had shown interest. The German car makers are dropping $3.07 billion for the service. It was probably only a matter of time before some car makers started to ‘roll their own’ for their navigation systems.

LinkedIn Kills Feature, Angers Users

Posted: July 24, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Networking site LinkedIn has removed the ability to download all a person’s contacts into an offline file. Businessinsider.com reports that now, the only way to get your contacts is to request an archive of your data, which takes up to 72 hours. Previously, with the contact download feature, it was immediate. Numerous users are complaining about the removal, and are accusing LinkedIn of using this as a way to keep people on their platform. For a job seeker, 72 hours can be a lifetime, and mean possibly missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Advance purchase commitments by Apple indicate that they expect a huge launch for iPhone 6S. According to appleinsider.com, they’ve pledged 26.5 billion, which is a 26% year over year increase. In fact, the cash committed to outsourcing and components is up 41%, which shows that Apple plans a sizable jump in year over year iPhone sales.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →