Alphabet & Chipotle Test Drone; iPhone 8-No Home Button, etc; Samsung to Kill Phone Jack; iOS 10 Bricking Issue Supposedly Solved

Posted: September 14, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s really all about the food, right? Alphabet and Chipotle are testing drone deliveries at Virginia Tech, according to 9to5google.com. So far, the Project Wing drones have only flown short distances, and they have pilots standing by…but it’s a peek into the future when you could have a burrito or pizza delivered to your door in 20 minutes or so by…drone. The drone won’t expect a tip, either!

There have already been plenty of rumors about the iPhone 8 next year being ‘all glass’. Zdnet.com says expect a full front screen with no home button..it’ll be haptic and under the screen. The screen may also wrap around the edges. As for Jony Ive’s all glass phone, don’t expect that…actually, according to bgr.com, it may be a Zirconia ceramic and polymer body. One of the new Apple Watch 2’s is ceramic. It’s stronger and more scratch resistant, dissipates heat better than aluminum, and no antenna bands….they can transmit right through it.

The hating goes on over no phone jack on the iPhone 7. Meanwhile, thenextweb.com says Samsung is considering following Apple’s lead and ditching it, too. On top of that, Sammy may roll out their own proprietary jack like Apple’s Lightening connector, so they can charge licensing fees to accessory makers. It looks like we can kiss universal standards like USB and phone jacks goodbye when it comes to phones.

Some users upgraded to iOS 10 yesterday, and bricked their phones. According to macrumors.com, the only cure was to plug into your computer and update through iTunes. That’s fine if you were near your computer or have a computer…some don’t. Apple put out a statement within hours, saying the bug is squashed, and it’s all clear…but you might want to wait another day in case. Messages has gotten a lot of add ins, and there’s a redesigned lock screen and much more, when you finally download it.

HoloLens Rolls Out Email and Calendar Apps; 72 New Emoji Late June, Including All-Important Bacon!

Posted: June 3, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Because everybody needs to be working all the time, even when you’re using your Virtual or Augmented Reality system, Microsoft has rolled out dedicated email and calendar apps for HoloLens. Theverge.com says the apps look just like the standard ones, except…you know….in AR. The apps can be pinned into the side area of your view, so as not to spoil your game quite as much. Microsoft did throw in an image of the Seattle skyline at least. If you’re a developer, and have a $3000 HoloLens system, now you’re in luck…you can check your work email constantly.

72….count ‘em….72 new emoji have been approved, and will be out in Unicode 9 June 21st. 9to5google.com reports this includes the all-important bacon one, as well as a selfie one and a clown face…and as the saying goes, ‘many more.’ It’s worth noting that we probably won’t actually get our hands on these until Google releases Android N, and Apple drops iOS 10 this fall.

Xiaomi Getting Ready to Bring Their Smartphones to the US; Apple’s WWDC Starts June 13th

Posted: June 2, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

After following the lead of Samsung and shamelessly aping Apple’s iPhone in their home country of China, it looks like maker Xiaomi is ready for their US closeup. Bgr.com reports that they have become the fastest growing smartphone maker, and now they’re coming to the US. Their latest crop of phones barely resemble the iPhone now, and they’ve purchased about 1500 patents from Microsoft. Xiaomi is known now for selling affordable smartphones with designs and specs that rival much more expensive ones, so if you’re on a budget but want a top flight phone, this could be the real deal.

We knew it was coming soon, and now we have a date. Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference will kick off in San Francisco Monday, June 13th, with the keynote at the usual 10 am Pacific. Bill Graham Civic Auditorium will be crammed to the rafters with tech reporters and developers. By noon that day, we should have lots more details about the next version of Apple’s iPhone/iPad software — iOS 10 — as well as news on Apple Watch, Apple TV and Macs. Cnet.com says they’ll have live coverage, as will a number of other tech sites. We’ll recap things right here. Stay tuned…

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.