Jordan manages the internal Partner Program for sponsorships and partnerships across the 9to5 network’s media brands including 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, Electrek.co, SpaceExplored and DroneDJ.com.
Accessory maker Dodocase just announced this Dual Charging Dock Organizer that accommodates both an iPhone and Apple Watch for charging. It all fits into a book-like design that will also hold your cables and headphones and make for easier traveling. Expand Expanding Close
The company provided a breakdown of what you can expect to see on your Apple Watch with each of the apps:
Yahoo Weather App on Apple Watch will feature morning updates and evening forecasts through notifications. With a Glance, users can find out if it’s a t-shirt or sweater day with Yahoo’s new “feels like” feature, or learn more about the conditions outside by tapping into the app.
With the Yahoo Sports Fantasy App, users can see what’s going on in their matchups or check on their lineup for injuries with a Glance. They can even talk smack with their league using the Apple Watch dictation feature.
Yahoo News Digest brings users in the U.S. the most important story on the hour, every hour so they are always up-to-date. Enjoy new microsummaries, visual atoms such as a map, stock ticker or infographic that bring the story to life, and a brand new speed reading feature to get you in-the-know in seconds.
With the Yahoo News Hong Kong App, users in Hong Kong will receive breaking news delivered to their wrist and enjoy the top 10 headlines of the hour with a Glance.
Here’s a look at the News Digest and News Hong Kong apps:
Microsoft Studios is today releasing a new top-down shooter set in the Halo universe for iPhones and iPads (in addition to Windows mobile devices and Steam for PC).
The game, developed by Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries, and Vanguard Games, is set during the timeline of Halo 2 and follows a Spartan supersolider on “30 challenging missions while leading UNSC troops through cities and jungles with an all new arsenal of weapons, abilities and vehicles.”
The company is also making Halo; Spartan Assault, the first top-down Halo shooter it developed, available on both iPad and iPhone today. It’s available in a $9.99 bundle with the new Halo: Spartan Strike title:
Also available on iPad, iPhone, and Steam is the Halo: Spartan Bundle. The bundle includes both Halo: Spartan Assault – the original Halo top-down shooter that plays through the historic first missions of the Spartan Ops program as Commander Palmer – and Halo: Spartan Strike for $9.99 ERP.
After announcing a new partnership earlier today with The Conservation Fund to protect 36,000 acres of forest, news of another environmental effort by the company comes as SunPower announces plans to build a new solar power project in China.
SAN JOSE, Calif., April 16, 2015– Continuing its growth in the world’s largest solar photovoltaic market, SunPower Corporation today announced that it plans to partner with Apple to build two solar power projects totaling 40 megawatts (MW) in ABA Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefectures, Sichuan Province of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). When complete, the two projects will be co-owned by Sichuan Shengtian New Energy Development Co., Ltd., SunPower’s project development joint venture, and Apple.
The two new solar sites, Apple’s first in the region, are already under construction and expected to be complete by the end of the year. Apple previously worked with SunPower on its solar projects in the US, including locations in California, Nevada, and North Carolina. Expand Expanding Close
If This Then That (IFTTT), the service that lets users automate tasks from a long list of other mobile apps and web services, is about to launch two apps for Apple Watch.
Do Button, its iOS app for controlling hardware and software connected to the service with a single tap, and Do Note, a notepad app that uses IFTTT to save and share to other services like Google Calendar, Evernote, and Twitter, will both be receiving updates for Apple Watch by tomorrow. Expand Expanding Close
Skype today released version 7.7 of its Mac app and with it is rolling out a new web link preview feature that will automatically provide snippets of web content in chats when sharing links.
With web link previews, you no longer need to type the: “check out this funny cat video” alongside the actual link to the cat video. When you send the link in chat, a rich visual preview of the web page is automatically displayed, making it much easier to see what’s been shared. Finding a link in your chat history also becomes quicker, saving precious time to let you focus on the conversation.
The previews will only show up if a link is the only thing in the message, so it won’t break up long blocks of text that happen to include a URL (an annoyance with similar web previews in other chat apps). Skype also notes that it puts “extra focus on optimizing for video and image content, so we encourage you to try links to video, image or even gifs first.”
The update also includes a couple bug fixes:
Fixed an issue where some users cannot start Skype due to a corrupted index
Fixed an issue preventing some users from disabling “User XYZ went offline” notification
You can access the feature by downloading the latest version of Skype for Mac, version 7.7, here.
Apple is taking a different approach to pre-orders and sales for Apple Watch, which has a lot to do with the product being Apple’s first fashion accessory. For that reason, many customers will actually want to try the Apple Watch on in person before making the purchase. To get a feel for the new try-on experience — Apple started letting customers schedule appointments to try-on the device in-stores on April 10 — the company is surveying customers afterwards to get feedback and see if they plan on purchasing the device. Expand Expanding Close
Glide, the app that lets users send live video messages, today becomes the first to bring the feature to Apple Watch. With an update to Glide’s iOS app, users of Apple Watch will be able to receive live videos messages right on their wrist, although it’s a one-way experience for Apple Watch as the device doesn’t yet include a camera; your responses will be limited to text. Expand Expanding Close
Apple has released an update to its iCloud for Windows beta, the service that lets Windows users access files and photos stored in iCloud and Apple’s new iCloud Drive feature. Expand Expanding Close
Now that you’ve ordered an Apple Watch or two, you’ll want to start pre-ordering any accessories that you want to have by the time your watch arrives. Most of the products on this list of protective covers, cases, and bags are shipping around the same time as the Apple Watch — sometime between April 24th and June— but many can be preordered today for delivery in the coming weeks. Expand Expanding Close
As Apple continues to approve more Apple Watch apps following the device going up for pre-order late last week, a long list of healthcare companies are showing off apps for the Apple Watch at the HIMSS 2015 conference this week in Chicago.
Inlcuded are apps from HCSC, WebMD, Kaiser Permanente, Dexcom, HealthTap, Vocera and many others, enabling everything from health records for patients to medication reminders and continuous glucose monitoring on the Apple Watch. Head below for a full list of healthcare apps for Apple Watch on show: Expand Expanding Close
Apple has seemingly moved to block desktop apps that allow users to manage files on their iOS devices in its recent iOS 8.3 update, as noted by MacRumors. Many popular file transfer apps, such as iFunBox, iTools, iExplorer, iBackupBot and PhoneView, have experienced the issue that prevents users from accessing file directories for apps on iOS devices. The apps were previously a popular way for users to install software on iOS devices that Apple does not allow in the App Store, like game emulators. Expand Expanding Close
Apple has expanded support for 4K displays in its recent OS X 10.10.3 release and officially confirmed specifics for using 4K displays with its new 12-inch MacBook.
While previously Apple only officially supported certain Multi-Stream Transport (MST) displays at a refresh rate of 60Hz, it now says that “most single-stream 4K (3840×2160) displays” are officially supported at 60Hz as well following the recent OS X Yosemite v10.10.3 update. That should mean support for a lot more inexpensive 4K displays that don’t include DisplayPort’s Multi-Stream Transport feature.
A full list of Macs that will support Single-Stream (SST) displays with a 60Hz refresh rate include: Expand Expanding Close
A new report from Bloomberg today claims that Apple is considering $10-$15 month plans for its upcoming music streaming service while the company approaches high-profile artists to get exclusive content.
The report today follows our own report last month that Apple was planning to relaunch its Beats Music streaming service at its WWDC event in June. At the time we noted that Apple was considering a $7.99 price point, but today’s report suggests Apple could go with paid tiers ranging from $9.99/month for a single user to $14.99/month for a family account. Expand Expanding Close
You don’t want to admit it, but you were talked into being an early adopter of Android Wear or Pebble before Apple Watch was even a thing. Now that Apple Watch preorders have kicked off and the Watch is almost in your hands, it’s time to unload your Android Wear watches before people catch on and resale values plummet.
Dexcom announced today that it’s preparing updates to its two mobile apps that will allow users of its Continuous Glucose Monitor System to track everything straight from Apple Watch. The apps will not only let users view their own glucose information, but also invite others– parents or caregivers for example– to monitor the data from their own Apple Watch. Expand Expanding Close
You’ll need something to do while you wait for your pre-ordered Apple Watch to arrive — things officially kicked off online at 12:01 PDT last night, or 3AM if you’re on the East Coast like me — so we’re compiling a running list of Watch apps hitting the App Store to keep you busy. When you actually get your Apple Watch — sometime between now and July — will depend on what model and how early you placed your pre-order.
These apps are either already available on the App Store or plan to update with support for Apple Watch by its launch on April 24th. Install the apps on your iPhone now, and you’ll be ready to go when your Apple Watch arrives on April 24th or after. Head below for the full list of apps: Expand Expanding Close
Adding to recent reports that Google is working on iOS support for Android Wear devices, today The Verge reports that the company is “close to finishing the final technical details” on the companion app for iOS. The report cites sources close to the development of the project and also includes the image above showing a FaceTime notification on the LG G Watch R. More from the report:
In its current state of development, Android Wear works along with a companion app on the iPhone and supports basic functions like notifications — as you can see in the photo below. As it does on Android, on the iPhone Android Wear also supports Google Now’s ambient information cards, voice search, and other voice actions. It should also support some more advanced features with Google’s own iOS apps, like replying to Gmail messages.
A previous report noted that Google was developing Android Wear support for iOS and could debut the project as soon as its I/O developer conference in May.
Today’s report brings up the possibility that Google might have a bit of trouble getting through the App Store’s approval process. At the very least it could run into guidelines that prevent it from bringing over all of the features it offers on Android devices to iOS. Pebble and other smart watches have companion apps, but like them Google will be limited to working within the iOS and App Store guidelines, unlike on Android.
Apple bought keyboard app maker Dryft sometime last year and brought on talent from the company to lead development of its onscreen iOS keyboards, according to a new report from TechCrunch. Expand Expanding Close
Apple Watch goes up for preorder on April 10 and becomes available April 24 through retail stores and online, but some of Apple’s online stores are listing ship dates ranging from April 24th to sometime in May depending on the model.
Earlier today some of Apple’s online stores, including its German and UK stores, listed various shipping dates for the device for those willing to do a little digging on the site. While the Sport models and the Apple Watch with classic leather strap or Milanese bracelet are listed as shipping between April 24th and May 8th, other models are listed as shipping in 4-6 weeks or simply in “May”.
macerkopf.de first spotted the shipping dates on the German Apple online store and we later spotted the same dates on the UK and other international stores: Expand Expanding Close
PopcornTime, the controversial torrent client for movies disguised as a Netflix-like streaming service, is today making its way to iOS without the need of a jailbreak, albeit without Apple’s official blessing and therefore using a workaround to get onto your device outside the App Store. Expand Expanding Close