Recent reports have suggested that Apple is notifying its highest-profile developers who are known to be working on Apple Watch apps to be sure the programs are ready for launch by mid-February, about a month earlier than expected. Similarly, Apple is asking Apple Pay partners who will be creating iOS apps with Watch support to have them ready by specifically the 12th of February. Apple CEO Tim Cook has already announced that the Apple Watch will ship in April.
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The iRemocon is an Internet-connected device, intended to allow the user to control multiple home electronics from an app on their smartphone. This is intended to simplify wireless control of one's "appliances" either at home or while out and about. Unfortunately, the device relies heavily on infrared signals, which offer some severe limitations regarding placement and reliability.
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4 hours ago | Posted in: Apple
Apple is opening its latest Chinese Apple Store -- this time a new, standalone store in Chongqing, the second Apple store for the city. Local media were allowed access to the interior as the previously-reported cityscape mural was removed to reveal an all-glass cylinder shape, similar to the store in Shanghai, with a glass staircase leading below ground to the actual store. This will be the third of five stores Apple has promised to open in China by the start of the Lunar New Year.
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This week the MacNN forums have been abuzz with talk of everything from wireless docking to favorite apps. Yesterday, Moderator "P" shared an article about Broadwell vPro processors and wireless docking then goes on to explain how he thinks Apple will use this technology. Yesterday, "jeff k" was trying to figure out a problem he was having with Sophos security software and Time Machine, so far a solution hasn't been found.
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Apple has added a boatload of refurbished Mac Pro configurations to their lineup this week at Apple's online store. Starting at $2,549 is the refurbished Mac Pro with a 3.7GHz Intel quad-core Xeon E5 processor, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics. For $3,219 is the refurbished Mac Pro with a 3.7GHz Intel quad-core Xeon E5 processor, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of PCIe-based flash storage.
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Right now at MacMall.com take advantage of a $211 price cut on the Dell UltraSharp 34-inch WQHD curved LED monitor. It was $1,200, but has been discounted to $988. That discount makes this the best price we have seen by roughly $160. This monitor offers a resolution of 3440x1440, an aspect ratio of 21:9, 8ms response time and includes HDMI, MHL, Mini DisplayPort and Display port connectivity options. It is backed by a 3-year warranty on parts and labor from Dell.
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Twitter has released a new iPhone app linked to its Vine video-sharing network, Vine Kids. The app offers a curated selection of videos "appropriate for a young audience," and further removes the core client's ability to record new material. Animated characters guide kids through clips.
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Major app store operators Amazon, Apple, and Google -- as well as French publisher Gameloft -- have reached a deal with Italy's Antitrust and Competition Authority that will let them avoid fines for misleading people about so-called "free-to-play" or "freemium" apps. The Wall Street Journal reports that the companies have agreed to remove the word "free" from apps that may require in-app payments to be useful. The parties have also committed to making it clearer when a person is about to make an in-app purchase. All of the changes will be applied across the European Union.
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11 hours ago | Posted in apps
Comic Life can be used to turn digital images into personalized comic book panels. The v3.0.8 update has fixed a bug that forced extension balloons to be the same type as the primary balloon.
DEVONthink Pro is an organization tool that mimics the functionality of a filing cabinet. Within the software users can store and manage all of their important documents, e-mails, and multimedia files. The latest release now lets users select and copy text from Quick-Look-based views, and offers automatic wiki-linking support for plain text. A number of issues with syncing have also been addressed, along with other minor bugs and glitches.
CyberDuck is an open source FTP and SFTP (SSH Secure File Transfer) browser licensed under the GPL. The application features integration with external editors, as well as support for many Mac OS X system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour, the Keychain, and AppleScript. A crash that occurred when opening preferences without the default editor installed has been resolved with the v4.6.4 update. Downloading files with Content-Encoding metadata will also now decompress and truncate the content.
Ember is a digital scrapbooking app that can be used to store and organize websites, photos, apps, and many other things. Any content added to the app can be organized into collections, while tags can be used to further sort items. In the latest update, Ember will now automatically detect any new GIFs added to a library. Problems with snapping webpages in the Ember browser have also been fixed, along with issues with screen recording on OS X Yosemite.
Todoist automatically syncs a users tasks across all of their devices. Keyword searches can be used to retrieve any desired task from within the app, while reminders can be set to show up as both e-mail and text notifications. Version 6.1 solves an issue that prevented users from uploading files from either Dropbox or Google Drive. The default date on a quick add has also been removed in this release.
It's the end of the working week, and that means it is just two days until a major sporting event involving football. It's also the time we publish Friday Deals, the post where we collect together deals and offers from around the Internet for you, the discerning MacNN and Electronista reader. Just as always, deals may change or end in the future, but are correct at the time of posting, so check beforehand, and come back over the weekend as more deals will be posted later.
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When it comes to video games, the puzzle genre may very well be the most varied kind. There are the match-3s, the codebreakers, the word games, and the classic puzzle-adventure. Popularized by games like Myst and Monkey Island, the genre has been a long standing fixture of gaming. We took a look at newcomer Tengami, a point-and-click adventure game by developer Nyamyam.
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12 hours ago | Posted in: industry
(Updated with UK rumors) Later today, AOL will announce the closure of two of its best-known websites, Joystiq and TUAW, reports say. Both publications are expected to be folded into Engadget. Another site, AOL Autos, is being merged into Autoblog. In the process AOL will allegedly fire some 150 people, most of them in sales.
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12 hours ago | Posted in: Investor, audio
Rapper Jay Z is moving into the streaming music business, by attempting to acquire the parent company of two services. A press release and local media reports claim management of Swedish company Aspiro AB has agreed to the takeover by Jay Z's own companies, with the acquisition deal said to be worth approximately 464 million krona ($56 million).
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RunKeeper has added Spotify integration to its iOS app. The fitness app will now offer access to Spotify playlists, created both by the user and by Spotify, and stream music while a workout is underway. Both Spotify and Runkeeper have to be installed on the same device with RunKeeper connected to the Spotify account in order to function, and though it is only on iOS for the moment, a similar update to the Android app may also happen in the future.
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If you just send a lot of ordinary emails, you can skip this. If you're in a company that already has designers in-house crafting gorgeous and on-message email newsletter designs, you can skip this. If you're in the middle, though, such as a small company sending out newsletters or HTML updates to a few thousand people, or even just the newsletter editor for a club with a few dozen scattered members, Mail Designer 2 and Mail Designer Pro 2 are worth looking at.
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Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer from California, Barbra Boxer, and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky have jointly announced a proposed bi-partisan bill titled the "Invest in Transportation Act of 2015" in Washington today. The bill would provide funds for the US Highway Trust Fund by encouraging the "repatriation" of funds held by US businesses overseas.
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During its conference call with analysts on Tuesday, CEO Tim Cook noted that "the current iPhone lineup experienced the highest Android switcher rate in any of the last three launches," which he later clarified was how long the company has been measuring the metric rather than that switching rates were higher in 2011. Further analysis by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners suggests that most of the switching is happening overseas rather in the US.
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