Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

US Senators’ indulgent treatment of Apple CEO Tim Cook at this week’s hearing on tax avoidance didn’t escape the writers at The Daily Show. On Wednesday’s episode, host Jon Stewart skewered lawmakers like John McCain (R, AZ) and Claire McCaskill (D, MO) with a supercut of fawning and adoration, punctuated with lines like “you’ve managed to change the world,” ” we love the iPhone and the iPad,” and “I harassed my husband until he converted to a MacBook.” Cook was called in to testify about Apple’s offshore profit shifting — avoiding US taxes on over $100 billion of income by keeping it stashed overseas. After throwing in a shot about Apple Maps, the host ripped the senators for asking Cook what kind of tax code he thought… Continue reading…

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‘The Daily Show’ rips fawning Senators at Tim Cook’s tax hearing

Google Translate is coming to Chrome on Android. The Chrome Beta Android app was updated Thursday with a new feature that can automatically translate webpages into different languages. On a phone or tablet, the feature works a lot like the translation capabilities that are included in Chrome on the desktop counterpart — recognizing different languages by scanning websites and translating them after a user prompt.

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Chrome for Android automatically translates the web in latest beta

Sure, Evernote is great for jotting down recipes and syncing notes to the cloud, but users lacking in the memory department still had to rely on external alarm apps to remind them of their to-do lists. That all ends today with the introduction of Evernote’s Reminders feature for Mac , iOS and web applications. Simply tap the alarm clock icon on each note and set the desired date and time you want to be reminded of it. You’ll then get an in-app alarm or an email reminder sent to you if you’ve set it up that way.

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Evernote adds Reminders to Mac, iOS and web applications (video)

Microsoft is updating its Windows Phone YouTube app today. In a statement to The Verge, the company says it’s making some changes to address concerns from Google. “Microsoft updated the Windows Phone YouTube app to address the restricted video and offline video access concerns voiced by Google last week,” says a spokesperson. “We have been in contact with Google and continue to believe that our two companies can work together to hone an app that benefits our mutual customers, partners and content providers.” The update follows Google’s demand for Microsoft to remove the YouTube app fully from its Windows Phone Store.

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Microsoft updates YouTube Windows Phone app to address some Google concerns

Despite being a driving source of interest in books, films, or TV shows, fanfiction faces an uncertain reaction from authors. Some have embraced it, others have tacitly accepted it, and a few have lashed out at fanfiction writers. But so far, virtually no one has done what bookseller Amazon now promises: offered to pay them for writing in other people’s universes. ” Kindle Worlds ,” announced just now, is an offshoot of Amazon’s Kindle self-publishing program.

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Amazon will start publishing fanfiction for ‘Gossip Girl’ and other books with Kindle Worlds

Dr. Terrence Early, a psychiatrist in Santa Barbara, CA, is convinced he’s found the holy grail of care for severely depressed patients — those who’ve tried a litany of antidepressants, and even electroconvulsive therapy, to no avail. “These are the very sickest patients,” Early, who estimates that he’s treated 80 people over 500 sessions with the method, says. “And the results have been dumbfounding.” Continue reading…

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The Special K cure: new tests show club drug’s promise for treating severe depression

In yet another sign of just how crowded the mobile payments market is becoming, Boost Mobile today launched its own mobile wallet app. Dubbed (predictably) Mobile Wallet, the new service allows customers of the Sprint -owned MVNO to make payments in over 135 countries and set up bill payments with more than 3,500 companies across the US. Of course, it also lets you re-up any of your Boost cellular accounts. Continue reading…

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Boost Mobile launches mobile wallet app, offers prepaid Visa card for in-store purchases

One of the most iconic chairs in modern design is returning to its structural roots, thanks to more environmentally-friendly developments in manufacturing. Furniture maker Herman Miller this week announced that its Eames Molded Plastic Chair and Side Chair will now be produced in fiberglass, more than 20 years after designer Ray Eames abandoned the material over environmental concerns. Both models will be available this summer in various bases and nine “vintage” colors. The Michigan-based Herman Miller began producing Ray and Charles Eames’ chair in 1950, using fiberglass-reinforced plastic

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Iconic Eames chair returns to its fiberglass roots

Amazon’s Cloud services are now approved for government use in the US . The Department of Health and Human Services, which includes high-profile bodies like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is now able to make use of Amazon Web Services (AWS) to host part or all of its websites. AWS is wildly popular among web developers — services like Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3) provide the backbone to large portions of the web, including ultra-high-traffic sites like Netflix. Although Amazon has servers throughout the world, the government security clearance only covers those physically located in the US. Back in March, an unverified report claimed that Amazon is building a private cloud for the CIA .

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Amazon’s cloud services cleared for US government use

The US military has shut down Wi-Fi access at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, after receiving threats from the hacktivist collective Anonymous. Army Lt. Col. Samuel House confirmed the move Monday, telling the Associated Press that wireless internet service was shuttered as a precautionary move, and that access to Facebook and Twitter through military networks has also been cut off. Continue reading…

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US shuts down Guantanamo Wi-Fi in response to Anonymous threats

Coming months after the feature’s introduction on Android and PCs , Vudu has updated the iOS version of its app with the ability to download movies for viewing offline. Unlike the Android version, this feature is not restricted to tablets however, with downloads of your Vudu / Ultraviolet collection on iPads and iPhones. Other tweaks include making the Player “easier to use” and adding closed captions on iPhone. The Flixster app already allowed for Ultraviolet movie downloads on iOS, however Vudu has access to some movies that may not be available there.

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Vudu Player update allows movie downloads on iPhone, iPad

After a relative lull in activity, it looks as though the Chinese hacking group uncovered in a February security report has resumed its attacks on US targets. According to new information that security firm Mandiant submitted to The New York Times , attacks against identical, but unspecified, targets have been gradually increasing over the past two months, now sitting at 60 to 70 percent of their previous strength. Obama administration officials say that the issue will continue to be revisited until it can convince the Chinese leadership that “there is a real cost to this kind of activity.” In recent months, President Obama’s national security advisor Tom Donilon has talked tough about Chinese cyberattacks on US businesses and… Continue reading…

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Chinese hackers renew cyberattacks on US targets after brief lull

Since the 1960s and PanAm’s ill-fated Moon Flights Club, commercial passenger flights to space have been a tantalizing dream, one that’s expected to finally come to fruition within the next year. For its cover story this week, New York Magazine takes an in-depth look at the industry, including interviews with Buzz Aldrin, Richard Branson, and several others. In it, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides discusses Branson’s plans to bring his entire family, including his 88-year-old mother to space with him, which will likely happen “by the end of the year,” says Branson. Aldrin also discusses his criticism of fellow Apollo generation astronauts eager for the US to return to the moon while staunchly supporting plans to establish a… Continue reading…

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Inside the private push for consumer space travel

Barnes & Noble’s E Ink e-readers are getting an update next month that will add a web browser and email client, reports TechCrunch . Citing an unnamed source, it writes that the Nook Simple Touch and Simple Touch with GlowLight will start receiving the updates on June 1st. The Nook Simple Touch shipped with a limited, hidden web browser when it was first released in 2011, but Barnes & Noble removed the function in a software update a few months later. The ability to check news headlines and do some light email work should give the $79 Nook platform some extra value, although slow-refreshing E Ink doesn’t really provide the best browsing experience. The low-priced Nooks aren’t the only ones to be getting extra attention from home…

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Nook Simple Touch e-readers reportedly adding web browser and email client next week

Laurene Powell Jobs’ first interview after the death of her husband Steve Jobs was an interview on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams , where she pledged her support for the DREAM act and immigration reform. Now, an in-depth profile in the Wall Street Journal explains why this particular issue caused Powell Jobs to break her silence and step out into the public eye. It seems that it all began in 1995, when she started tutoring low-income students, only to find that those who were in the US illegally were unable to secure financial aid to go to college.

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Why Laurene Powell Jobs broke her silence to support immigration reform

With the PlayStation 4, Sony is trying to lower the friction in buying games from PSN by letting you start playing games while they’re still downloading . Now it looks like the new feature will actually make it to the PlayStation 3 in time for the PSN release of Naughty Dog’s anticipated The Last of Us on June 14th. Speaking with Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann and game director Bruce Straley, Game Informer reports that the game will be playable once 50 percent of the content has been downloaded, cutting wait time in half. Onstage at its big PlayStation 4 announcement in February, PS4 lead system architect Mark Cerny said that players would only have to download “just a fraction” of a game’s content before starting to… Continue reading…

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PS4′s ‘play while downloading’ feature arrives on PS3 first with ‘The Last of Us’

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What would you like to see Google do next after I/O? – Verge Forums

Every time a reality TV star’s mouth is pixelated to obscure a curse, the producers are using a technique pioneered for Yul Brynner’s killer robot in Westworld . John Whitney Jr., who created the effect for director and writer Michael Crichton, wanted to simulate how an android might see the world. To do so, he divided the screen into tiny squares, calculating the average color of each one, and filling them with that color, creating a shifting low-resolution version of normal vision.

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How ‘Westworld’s’ killer android created movie pixelation

Stitcher just announced a new car mode for the iPhone version of its radio and podcasting app, bringing a simplified interface that works in both portrait and landscape positions. Accessible by tapping the Stitcher logo at the top of the screen, car mode offers a pared-down version of the app’s standard UI, with bigger buttons and only the essential audio controls. It’s nowhere near as flashy as Stitcher’s BMW integration , mind you, but the point is to keep your eyes on the road and off your iPhone’s screen. The app gets a few other updates this time around: a front page with top headlines, one-tap access to shows and podcasts you’re searching for and improved playback when you’re picking up in the middle of a show.

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Stitcher adds car mode to iOS app, encourages responsible driving

Twitter’s video-sharing app, Vine, has been used for a variety of teasers, including a Wolverine movie , a TV series , and the new Daft Punk album . Keen to promote its Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft is taking to Vine to create some entertaining and unique six-second sequences. In a series of “not your father’s browser” clips posted to its browser you loved to hate site, Microsoft is once again poking fun at the perceptions of its old web browser. The vines depict a relationship between old Internet Explorer and his son, modern Internet Explorer.

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Microsoft turns to Vine iOS app for entertaining Internet Explorer ads

After four years in office, FCC Chair Julius Genachowski is stepping down today. Genachowski pioneered an ambitious plan for rural broadband and a shift towards net neutrality, but his leadership was also seen by some as plodding and ineffective. Regardless, in a candid interview with The New Yorker, Genachowski says he remains an optimist, though he acknowledges limits to how far he was able to change national policy during his tenure.

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FCC Chair Julius Genachowski steps down today, but what will he leave behind?

Market research firm IDC just released its latest quarterly look at the smartphone market, and for the first time Windows Phone marketshare has eclipsed BlackBerry. During Q1 2013, Windows Phone devices accounted for 3.2 percent of all smartphones shipped, while BlackBerry devices made up 2.9 percent of the market. That’s a change from last quarter, when Windows Phone made up 2.6 percent of all shipments, compared to 3.2 percent for BlackBerry. While that’s good news for Microsoft in a relative sense — they’ve been trailing BlackBerry for third place for quite some time — it’s pretty obvious that we still don’t have a true third smartphone ecosystem that consumers are responding to yet. It’s still a two-horse race between Apple and..

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Windows Phone overtakes BlackBerry to claim third place in 2013 smartphone shipments

Smartphone camera flashes are notoriously weak compared to dedicated models , but what if you could fire them from several handsets at once? Since none of us have the millisecond timing needed to do it manually, Apple has filed a patent application to let any number of iOS (or other devices with a flash) fill in the light automatically. It’d work by using a master device as the camera, which would trigger slave devices positioned around the subject to fire their flashes when the shutter is opened. A test image would first be taken and analyzed by the software, which would then remotely adjust the intensity of the slave flashes to produce the final photo. The filing allows for virtually any device with a sensor to act as the capture device and a broad variety of illumination devices, including dedicated lights, smartphones, tablets or camera flashes — though we imagine Apple would concentrate on its own products .

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Apple patent application teams up multiple smartphone flashes for better lighting

While Jordan Mechner’s Karateka burst back onto the scene through its 2012 remake, that wasn’t good enough for purists who really just wanted a port of the 1984 original. Consider their wish granted, as Karateka Classic is coming to both Android and iOS on May 16th. The release goes the extra distance to recreate much of the Apple II -based fighting experience, warts and all — would-be warriors can even choose a monochrome screen palette or hear a floppy drive churning away. About the only concessions to modernity are touch control, playing tips and a Sands of Time -style rewind feature

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Karateka Classic punches its way to Android and iOS on May 16th

PS3 and Vita game Sound Shapes has some amazing music from some amazing artists: think Beck, Jim Guthrie , and Deadmau5 . But it also lets players create their own levels and sounds, and soon you’ll be able to check out our favorites. On May 28th, the Sound Shapes Milkcrate will add five guest-curated albums, featuring the best player-created levels the game has to offer. Among those guests is The Verge , and you’ll also be able to check out hand-picked albums from the likes of gaming site Gamespot , record label Ghostly International, Pixeljunk Eden composer Baiyon, and Sound Shapes developer Queasy Games. And if you’re looking to get started making some levels of your own, there’s good news, as today the game received two new $0.99 sound…

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Play The Verge-curated ‘Sound Shapes’ album on May 28th