News

With Square, More Restaurants to Integrate Apple Pay

More likely than not, your only exposure to Apple Pay so far has been at NFC ready terminals found at Starbucks or Whole Foods Market. That’s because most other vendors are hesitant to adopt a mobile payment system like Apple’s without proof that it’s more than just some passing fancy. So, in hopes of keeping Apple Pay alive and kicking, Apple has teamed up with Square (best known for their widely popular Square Reader peripherals) to bring Apple Pay to a wider market by introducing a brand new device: the Apple Pay Square Reader. This new reader will be much more affordable and easier to institute than relying on NFC terminals. […]

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iOS 9 News and Features Round Up

Coming this Fall (possibly September) you can expect to see Apple rollout their free upgrade to iOS 9. There’s been minor upgrades pretty much everywhere to help streamline CPU and GPU usage, and a host of updated app icons. Read on to learn more about some of the extensive new features and fixes that 9 brings to the table. •Improved battery life: iOS 8 gets a lot of grief for it’s issues with WiFi and poor battery management, but now with iOS 9 we’ll see something called Low Power mode. In a nutshell, Low Power mode will turn off background refresh and downloads on apps, mitigate screen brightness and motion

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Samsung Reveals List of Devices in Line for Android M

Even before Lollipop has had a chance to permeate the market completely, Google went on to announce Android M, the newest iteration of Android OS, at the Google I/O recently.  And Samsung seems to be gearing up to bring most of its top-end devices up to scratch with Android M. Devices announced to be getting the Android M update include the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the Note Edge and the Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 and S6 Duos and Galaxy Alpha.  Most of these devices should be updated to Android 6.0 before the year is up, but expect delays as

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Apple’s New Streaming Music Service Unveiled

Apple often plays the tortoise in the race — slow to start, but come the end of the race, might be the one ahead. On Monday, at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Fran, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the new software they’re launching for streaming music. The service, simply named Apple Music, combines a couple of music-focused features (including Beats One and Connect) and will debut on June 30th. Beats One, also unveiled at WWDC, is a 24-hour streaming station curated by popular DJs in NYC, LA and London. (Apple purchased the Beats Music subscription service last year

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LG G Pad 10.1 LTE Gets Lollipop OS Update

Verizon is bringing an over-the-air update to Android 5.0.2 Lollipop to the LG G Pad 10.1 LTE. Aww yeah. Users can expect to see the usual Lollipop ornaments in full tow, albeit with a UI adorned by a thin LG facade. You know, to ensure users get that old-timey LG experience. The navigation buttons are a prime example, as they follow the usual Lollipop scheme while adding a new, fourth button into the mix. You can read more about this update direct from Verizon here. OTA updates can be a little fickle at times, so don’t lose hope if this update isn’t immediately available to you

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Microsoft Unveils Two Portable, Windows 10 Computers

Windows 10 is just around the corner (July 29th), so there was a good deal of anticipation for Microsoft’s Computex 2015 keynote address. Nick Parker, Corporate Vice President OEM Division at Microsoft revealed two new computers powered by Windows 10. Borrowing elements from the relatively new category of “pc on a stick,” both highly portable computers plug directly into your tv by way of HDMI. Here’s a quick rundown from Microsoft: “FoxConn Kangaroo is an ultra-portable desktop PC that turns your TV into a full Windows PC, including a fingerprint reader to support Windows Hello and up to six hours of battery life. Quanta

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Samsung Pay Coming Soon, No Need for Vendors to Have NFC

When Samsung debuted their Galaxy S6 lineup this past April, they teased their own forthcoming mobile payment system (á la Apple Pay, Google Wallet), and now we have a projected launch window. Senior Vice President, Rhee Injong announced June 3rd that Samsung Pay will launch in the US and South Korea sometime this September, in time to coincide with Samsung’s next flagship smartphone release. A followup release in China and South America was hinted; however, no specific details were given as to when that would be. While effectively identical to its competition, Samsung Pay promises to stand out above the competition in at least one major way: it interfaces

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Windows 10 Build 10130 Updates for Microsoft Edge

Hold on to your butts, because, as of this past Friday, Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 Build 10130 was released to those in the Fast ring update track. Microsoft’s Gabriel Aul mentioned this in regards to current and upcoming quick turnaround updates: “As I mentioned with the last build, from here onward you are going to see a lot of tuning, tweaking, stabilizing, and polishing which means fewer big feature changes from build to build. You’ll see that in this build which has a number of small improvements and more polish.” Ok, so nothing groundbreaking to introduce to you with this latest Build

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Amazon Echo

How to Add Google Calendar Support to the Amazon Echo

It’s getting there… The recently launched Amazon Echo, aka Amazon’s way of trying to become the central, voice-controlled hub in your smart home, is slowly getting support for the major apps and systems that it frankly needs. Yesterday, a big one was just added: Google Calendar. As someone who uses Google Calendar exclusively, that’s a big deal to me. The ability to say the following: “Alexa, what’s on my calendar today?” “Alexa, what’s on my calendar tomorrow at 9PM?” “Alexa, what’s on my calendar Saturday?” “Alexa, when’s my next event?” With more features (hopefully being able to add events, Amazon…)

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Android Wear New Features Debut at Google I/O Conference

The War of the Smartwatch rages on. It’s Google against Apple in a fight for survival and dominance in the smartwatch market. Google highlighted the latest improvements to their line of Android Wear watches at this year’s Google I/O conference, so here is a quick roundup of some of those advancements: Unlike Apple Watch, Android Wear allows for an Always On screen. You know, just in case you want to flaunt one of your awesome 3rd party watch faces. Gestures will become more integrated. For instance, a flick of the wrist in one direction can help you scroll through pages. Director

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Android M’s New Features

Announced at the Google I/O conference, Android M is the precursory name given to the newest Android OS. Likely to come out later this year with a dessert themed name (I’m betting on Mochi), M will likely look a lot like Lollipop –but have some new features added. A new developer build is available and with it come a few exciting features to whet our appetites while we wait for the full release. Here are some highlights: The revamped Google Photo app will come with M and with it unlimited storage (up to 16MP pics/1080p video) and intelligent auto-tagging functionality. App permissions will also be tweaked allowing for developers to

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Project Brillo is Google’s New OS for Internet of Things

Just announced at Google’s I/O conference, Project Brillo is Google’s latest OS. Presenter and Senior VP, Sundar Picha was scant on specifics about the OS, but he imparted the basic concept of how it’ll work and why we should look forward to it. In short, Project Brillo is a sanded down, no-frills version of Android that’s designed to operate with efficiency and function ubiquitously as the primary language shared between all your Internet of Things appliances and devices. What this potentially means is that your microwave, TV, front door, and sound system may all some day be running a basic version of Android. Moreover, all

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HBO NOW Announced for Android

HBO has been good to us, you guys. Seemingly, HBO unofficially encourages HBO Go account login sharing which makes it possible for the economically disadvantaged to keep up with John Oliver and Arya Stark. But that may not be enough for some people. What if you have a spare $14.99/month and a dream to possess your very own HBO account in your name? Well, the Google I/O conference brings more good news for Android users: HBO has just done us another solid by announcing the streaming HBO Now app for Android devices due out this summer (in time for Season 2 of True Detective, June 21st). Originally exclusive to iOS

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Google Photos Brings Visual Search, Free Unlimited Storage

Skynet Google is pretty smart. They must recognize the compulsory human need to visually capture all major/minor kodak moments in life, and the resulting, incrementally ballooning data swell in the average person’s photo library. In response to this burgeoning data crisis, we now have Google Photos: a free app (Web, Android, iOS) which seems to address a couple of unavoidable issues with intriguing new features in tow. Here are a few: Free, unlimited storage for high quality photos and video, or up to 15GB of uncompressed files shared across your google account, also for free. Visual Search allows you to search your photo library based on people, places, and things

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Apple Patent Hints at New Hybrid Keyboard

A fork that’s also a spoon. A phone that’s also a computer. A man that’s also a bear, and also a pig. We have a fascination with hybrids and no degree of absurd portmanteau (save for the abominable Island of Dr. Moreau) will quench our thirst for more fusions. A patent application dating back to 2011 will now have us believe that Apple’s next move may be to combine a mechanical keyboard with the multi-gesture functionality of the Apple trackpad. This could mean any number of enticing new functionality for future Macbooks and desktop keyboards. For instance, it could potentially grant the user more flexibility with one handed typing or

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