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Google’s new ‘Who’s Down’ app shows which of your friends are free to hang out

Google has just quietly released a new app on the App Store called “Who’s Down”. As you might be able to tell from its name, the app will apparently — once there are people who are actually using it — let you see which of your friends are free to hang out. Currently, the app is invite-only, so the only things we know about its functionality are from the app’s App Store screenshots…
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Video suggests Nexus 6P bends easier than iPhone 6 Plus, scratches like an iPhone 5

There’s nothing like a little controversy when a new smartphone is launched to get people debating online. Remember ‘#scratchgate’ when the iPhone 5’s slate blue anodized finished scratched off really easily? Or last year’s iPhone 6 Plus, which some said bent really easily? Put those two hashtag-gates together and you apparently have the latest flagship Android phone. The Nexus 6P is the newest pure Android phone from Google, and is about to come under some new scrutiny from prospective buyers thanks to a video from Jerry Rig Everything on YouTube


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Apple’s latest Android app is already getting trolled by 1-star reviews

Apple can’t catch a break on Android. When Apple released its first app on Google’s platform last month called Move to iOS, Android fans were quick to negatively rate the app that only existed to help people switch from Android to iPhone. To date, Move to iOS has roughly 30,000 1 star reviews to only 10,000 5 star reviews with not much happening in the middle.

Now Apple has its second Android app on the Google Play Store called Beats Pill+. It’s a companion app to Apple’s new portable Bluetooth speaker with the same name, allowing both Android and iPhone users to pair two speakers as stereo or amplified and use a DJ feature for queueing up tracks from multiple phones.

And the reviews? Just as extreme despite Beats speakers working with both iPhone and Android and only recently being bought by Apple…
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Facebook bolstering iOS Notifications tab with sports scores, birthdays, more

If you’re a Facebook user, you’re definitely familiar with the Notifications tab in the company’s iOS app. Although it has barely evolved from being a simple stream of your notifications since its introduction many years ago, Facebook has today come out to outline some changes on the way to make it more useful and personalized.

Assumably since most of us rarely use or view notifications that are more than a day old, Facebook has decided to use the space in the Notifications tab in other, more useful, ways. With the new version, you’ll find the 5 or so most recent activity notifications at the top, with handfuls of additional — and hopefully useful — information below.

Among the things that Facebook says it is adding to the Notifications tab are friends and family “milestones” (which include birthdays, major life events, and the like), sports scores and television notifications based on the pages you have already liked, as well as events that are around the corner (but, seemingly, only those that you’ve already joined).

Facebook says that if you head into the app settings and allow it to see your location history (which many users already have), you can see things like local events based on your physical location, as well as weather updates, movies that are playing at nearby theaters, and even places to eat. Unsurprisingly, most of these features will connect you with many locations’ Facebook pages.

Facebook says that the update is rolling out “gradually,” so it should appear on your device sometime in the next few days.

New screenshots purportedly show Apple Music for Android ahead of release

New screenshots of what is reportedly the beta version of Apple Music for Android have been published, providing what may be a first look at Apple’s first second foray into app development on Google’s competing mobile platform.

The screenshots, included below, show most of the features users would expect, such as Beats 1 availability and the “For Me” recommendations page. Apple Music Connect, the social network for musicians built into the service, is also included.


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HTC announces One A9 iPhone clone but with some ‘interesting’ differences

Prior to today’s launch event, the HTC One A9 has leaked several times, and each time we’ve noted how similar the phone looks to the iPhone 6. Even now that it’s official, we still feel the same. As does almost anyone who has eyes, and has seen them both. HTC’s new phone has a flat metal back plus rounded edges and corners. The front is completely covered in glass, which is slightly curved at the edges. Seem familiar?

HTC argues that that Apple stole its metal-with-antenna-bands design first, and it’s just reclaiming it. That won’t matter too much among general consumers though, they’ll just see it as an iPhone clone…


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iPhone 6s camera ranked by DxOMark – no better (or worse) than iPhone 6

DxOMark recently published its review of the iPhone 6s, and it confirms what we already sort-of new: it’s not a huge step up from the last generation iPhones. In fact, the camera performs ever-so-slightly worse than last year’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which both entered the DxOMark rankings in 1st place when they were reviewed last year.


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HTC One A9 dummy leak gives our best look yet at the unreleased iPhone copy

Yet another leak has shown up of the rumored HTC One ‘Aero’, also known as the One A9. Although it’s shown up a few times in the past, never has it been clearer as to where the design influences have come from. HTC is expected to officially unveil the smartphone during a virtual event on October 20. Today’s leak comes via Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka @OnLeaks) and shows the extent to which HTC has gone to be ‘inspired’ by the iPhone 6/6s..


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Synaptics announces 3D Touch-like touchscreen controller for Android phones

From 9to5Google:

Synaptics has today announced the ClearPad 3700 force-sensing touchscreen controller, which the company hopes will be packed inside many a 2016 flagship Android smartphone. This comes just about a month after Apple’s September 9th event, at which the Cupertino company announced the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, both packing “3D Touch” as a headline feature…
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Site claims to be offering Apple Music for Android beta access

UPDATE: One of our readers over at 9to5Google, with experience of using Betabound commented the following: “Centercode, who runs Betabound, has been around for over a decade running software/hardware betas. I have been through numerous tests with them. I understand the skepticism but this is a legit company.” Perhaps then, we can be a little less skeptical of the beta test.

Apple surprised the tech world back in June when it announced that its music streaming service, Apple Music, would be making its way cross-platform. Up until then, the company has kept all of its mobile products in-house, and hadn’t offered anything on the Google Play Store except for the ‘Move to iOS’ app – and we all know how that turned out. A company is now claiming that Apple has started beta-testing the Android version of Apple Music.

Members of Betabound.com have received emails inviting them to apply to test Apple’s music app for Android. Little detail is given in the email, except a short paragraph and a linked questionnaire which hopeful testers have to fill in. Betabound, a Centercode company, proudly labels the test as an exclusive.

We’re excited to invite you to come test Apple Music for Android. If you’re a current Android user that would like to join the beta for the new music streaming service, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. To learn more and apply, click the link below. Best of luck! The Betabound team.

Contracting out beta-testing would be a very unusual move for Apple, so we’re skeptical. While it could be suggested that the Android community’s response to its last app prompted Apple to try a much quieter launch this time, we haven’t heard of Betabound, so would be reluctant to take the company’s word for it and hand over the user data it wants in return for claimed access.

iOS 9 passes 21% adoption, one ups last year’s Android 5.0 Lollipop in just 48 hours

In just 48 hours, Apple has managed to push iOS 9 to more than 21% of iOS devices, according to the latest data from Mixpanel. That just so happens to be the same percentage of phones that Google recently announced are running the latest version of its mobile OS, Android Lollipop. But unlike iOS 9 which was just released on Wednesday, Android Lollipop was released to the public 10 months ago in November 2014…
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It turns out we may not have really seen Apple’s first Android app after all

While Apple’s new Move to iOS app appeared to be the company’s first ever Android app, Phandroid did some digging around in the code to discover that it in fact appears to be just a rebadged third-party app called Copy My Data.

If we take a look under the hood of Apple’s Move to iOS app, we see the […] android:name is still set to android:name=”com.mediamushroom.copymydata”That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The two applications share a vast majority of code and functionality. In fact, all of the com.mediamushroom.copymydata strings were left inside Apple’s rebranded version. Essentially, the only differences between the two apps are Apple’s artwork being added, the inclusion of Apple’s licensing agreements, and Media Mushroom’s UI elements being removed. That’s really it.

Apple thus appears to have simply licensed an existing app, rather than creating its first Android app – meaning that the Apple Music app expected to makes its way across to Android sometime this fall may be the first Apple-coded app on the rival smartphone platform … 
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Pokemon GO concept video

Pokémon Go brings the game to real life on iOS with new wearable device

From 9to5Toys.com:

Today, the Pokémon Company has announced that it is partnering with Nintendo and Alphabet-owned Niantic to produce a new upcoming mobile game called Pokémon Go. This title will be available on both iOS and Android devices for free. The main focus of the game is collecting, training and battling Pokémon characters against other users based on their GPS location.

However, this new adventure will be supplemented by an optional wearable. Imagine a Pokémon smart watch of sorts.

This new wearable is called Pokémon Go Plus. It connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth and flashes its built-in LED light to notify you of nearby players as well as virtual Pokémon you can catch. For example, say you’re on your morning commute on the subway. Pokémon Go Plus will ping your wrist to let you know that a virtual Charizard is closely located. After capturing, you’ll be able to train and battle with that new character.

The wearable isn’t required to play the game but it is an unique add-on that bring another level to the experience. Be sure to check out the video above for a visual representation of how game play works. Pokémon Go will be released on iOS and Android in 2016 as a free download with in-app purchases. Pricing has yet to be released for the Pokémon Go Plus Wearable. The entire press conference and announcement has been uploaded to YouTube for viewing, as well.

Source: The Pokémon Company

Apple Music ‘adding features and cleaning up’ service this year, says iTunes Intl. VP

While Apple Music’s content library may be plenty, there’s undoubtedly issues with the software behind it as the product is new and faces the hurdle of integration with lots of legacy iTunes cruft. Some may find that okay during the start of the three-month free trial period, but Apple’s streaming music service will have to shape up and quick if it wants to compete with Spotify and others in the same space. Oliver Schusser, iTunes International VP, tells The Guardian that Apple is currently working to clean up and improve the overall product:

“There’s a lot of work going into making the product better. Our focus is on editorial and playlists, and obviously we have teams all around the world working on that, but we’re also adding features and cleaning up certain things,” Oliver Schusser, vice president, iTunes International, told the Guardian.

Schusser is likely referring to improvements coming to the Music app in iOS 9, which Apple is expected to preview again next week and release later this month ahead of the iPhone 6S, but the exec also mentioned the upcoming Android version, Apple Music Connect, and Sonos support.
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Google+ for iOS updated with ‘Collections’ feature

Google+ Collections, a feature that lets like-minded Google+ users connect in forums organized by topic, today comes to iOS devices after first rolling out for Android and web users a few months back.

Users can create Collections for topics they’re interested in and follow Collections created by other users to keep track of posts related to their interests. Google shared a few examples of popular Collections including Homebrewing, Climbing Junkie Photos, Magical, Mystical Mountains and Marine Life. It also features select Collections on a webpage here for easy searching.

When you post a Collection, Google notes that you’ll be able to customize who sees it thanks to recent improvements to the feature on Android that also come to iOS today. It also recently added the ability to add taglines to Collections and search for them on mobile devices. 

The Collections feature is available now in the updated Google+ iOS app with version 4.8.5.

IDC: China slowdown cuts smartphone forecast, cheaper iPhone 6C wouldn’t help iOS erode Android lead

(Photo by Feng Li/Getty Images)

IDC released an updated forecast today lowering its expectations for worldwide smartphone shipments this year with a continuing slowdown in growth in China cited as the biggest contributor to the lower than expected shipments. It also shared some insight into expected growth for Apple in the years to come, predicting Android’s current 81% share of the market by operating system will likely hold strong through 2019 and that a cheaper iPhone 6C model wouldn’t do much to help.
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Nuance launches cloud-based Dragon Anywhere iOS app, new Mac app

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Nuance, the voice recognition and productivity software company behind the iOS keyboard’s Dictation feature, today has revealed a series of updates to its applications and a new cloud-based synchronization service at the core. Nuance provided us with a demonstration last week of the new iOS and Mac apps, and we came away impressed with the accuracy, speed, and capabilities of the upgraded platform.


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