Apple is now aiming for a revamp of its Beats Music streaming service, which will see the offering tied in more closely to both iTunes and other Apple products and services, to happen in June -- right around the time of the expected Worldwide Developers Conference, which is likely to happen on June 8–12, according to sources familiar with current plans. In addition to retaining the personalization and hand-curated recommendation features, Apple may be planning to lower the monthly cost.
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Logitech has unveiled another gaming mouse in its range of high-performance peripherals, this time with a high DPI optical sensor. The G303 Daedalus Apex's Delta Zero optical sensor is able to offer a dpi range from as low as 200 to 12,000 with zero smoothing, tracking movement at 300 inches per second and is also able to be tuned to operate optimally with the mousing surface being used.
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Point-and-click adventure games have been popular for quite some time, with titles such as Myst and Neverwood leading the pack. A big draw to the genre is the ability to force players to engage in lateral thinking by giving them cryptic puzzles to solve. One such title for iOS is Alice Trapped in Wonderland by MediaCity Games, a point-and-click adventure set in the classic children's book world.
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Two major auto manufacturers are said to be in talks with Apple about a variety of possible partnerships, from Continental's hopes that it could participate in any rumored Apple Car creation to BMW's desire to collaborate with the iPhone maker about bringing some its existing and future car technology to its auto lineup. BMW went out if its way, however, to specifically deny that its talks with Apple have anything do with developing or building a car.
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18 hours ago | Posted in: software
Microsoft on Thursday released a public preview beta of the programs that make up the forthcoming Office 2016 for Mac. The new versions, which inherit many of the features from the last Windows release, offer a Yosemite-inspired look that support Retina displays, full-screen mode, and other modern Mac and OS X features. The preview versions are completely free to download and use, but are intended to give customers a sneak peek and to gather feedback from users ahead of the final release.
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There are places in the world where the weather is extreme, but people who live there know how to deal with it. There are places in the world where weather remains constant, except for certain parts of the year when everybody freaks out. No matter where you live, there are a few things you can be sure of. Two of them are that the sun rises and sets, and that atmospheric conditions will create some kind of environment people may or may not need to prepare for. Fresh Air by Backcountry Studios, seeks to take a topic most people see as banal, the weather, and put it in context with what's going on in your life.
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Welcome to Daily Deals, the weekday post where discounts, sales, and offers for various gadgets, gizmos, hardware, and software are listed for you, the dear MacNN and Electronista reader. Today, we recap the still-active deals from earlier this week, with the new items including a 40-inch HDTV, a $25 dual-band wireless router, and $20 off the Amazon Kindle.
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Most people know about origami, which is the act of folding paper into three-dimensional shapes and objects. In origami, the crafter never cuts or glues the paper, and instead relies on precise folding techniques. Paper craft, which is like origami's laid-back cousin, is a lot less strict. In paper craft, users make three-dimensional objects, but can use cutting, folding, and gluing pieces of paper together. Often, paper craft employs unique techniques to make the end product kinetic, or moveable. Awesome Paper Toys by Philipp Stollenmayer, teaches users how to create nine unique paper crafts that are sure to entertain anyone who sees them.
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Scan Me by organize.me is an app that will create a multi-page PDF by taking pictures, convert those pictures to text, and scan QR codes. While the other two features are good to have handy as well, it's the creation of PDFs that we found really useful.
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Imgur, the image hosting service, has launched a new app for iOS devices. The free app provides quick access to popular images on the service, as well as voting and commenting on individual photographs, and managing the user's own image collection. This is Imgur's second attempt at the mobile app, as the original iOS version wasn't "native to the platform," founder and CEO Alan Schaaf told The Verge. An Android app is currently available, but Imgur is apparently planning to update it, bringing it in line with the iOS version.
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Not content with making mobile devices, Chinese smartphone producer Xiaomi revealed a new action camera at Mobile World Congress. The Xiaomi Yi is a compact camera in a similar style to GoPro Hero devices, taking the form of a small unassuming white box, with the device offering a 16-megapixel camera sensor capable of 1080p H.264 video recording at 60 frames per second.
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Sopio by Lightwood is an app version of a card game of the same name. Lightwood is no stranger to developing Sopio apps for iOS; they've had a free Sopio score tracker app available on iTunes since 2012. This new app, however, is the full game -- or rather, as full a game of Sopio as one can have with only one human player.
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Wed March 4, 2015 | Posted in: gadgets, audio, Apple
Crews are putting up banners, signs, and other decorations to transform the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco into an Apple auditorium for the March 9 "Spring Forward" event, where Apple is expected to offer a general update on its various initiatives as well as formally debut the Apple Watch, which will arrive in stores some time in April. As reported earlier, Apple is also building on an extension to the center that will likely serve as a showcase room for the press to try out the new Apple Watch.
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Generally, Duckie Deck games tend to be more on the lighter side of problem solving and gameplay, intended for children between ages two and four. Duckie Deck Card Wars, however, is designed for children who are a little bit older, and are looking for their own games to play. We took a look at Card Wars to see just how well it stood up to the task at hand.
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Wed March 4, 2015 | Posted in: industry, Apple
According to a new report, Apple is in talks with movie and original program service HBO to bring its streaming service, called "HBO Now," to Apple TV as a standalone subscription service that does not require an existing cable or satellite connection. The deal, if it goes through, would bring some flexibility to users who would like HBO programming, but don't want to pay for a higher-priced bundle that cable companies often force on customers. The service might launch in time for the Game of Thrones premiere on April 12.
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We wrote a bit about Sync Solver for Fitbit app back in November. We have a Fitbit Zip, which tracks steps -- but doesn't do flights of stairs and sleep analysis, nor does it connect to Apple's Health app. Still, we'd like to get our steps into Health, and that's where a third party app like Sync Solver comes in.
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Wed March 4, 2015 | Posted in: computers, Apple
A Chinese site has posted images not of the forthcoming refreshed MacBook Air itself, but of its specifications gleaned from the "About this Mac" dialog. The images are said to be from a soon-to-be-released low-end MacBook Air produced by Foxconn, according to Feng.com, and reveal that the 13-inch unit will sport an Intel Broadwell Core i5-5250U dual-core processor set at 1.6GHz (with turboboost when required) and an Intel HD Graphics 6000 video chipset, along with 4GB of RAM.
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