News - page 1164

Apple has finalized an acquisition for the augmented reality company Metaio in a move that could soon bring the German firm’s AR tech to iOS and other Apple devices.

Metaio, which specializes in creating augmented reality tools for other businesses as well as other computer vision solutions, mysteriously announced last night that it would stop selling its services, but filings with the German government reveal that the company has transferred all of its shares over to Apple.

Take a look at their incredible tech in action:

From smartphones to the Internet of Things, Google wants to be woven into the fabric of our lives.

The company detailed some of its latest hardware and software projects — some truly innovative, some strictly playing catch-up — during the annual Google I/O developer conference Thursday.

From the iterative improvements coming in Android M to the blue-sky thinking of Project Brillo, everything plays into Mountain View’s master plan, which Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president in charge of Android, Chrome and apps described as “putting technology and computer science to work on important problems that users face” — and doing it “at scale for everyone in the world.”

Google’s goals are similar to Apple’s: Both companies are trying to integrate their products (and possibly their worldviews) into every facet of our lives to make tech personal and useful. In many ways, Google’s approach is far more ambitious.

Here are the six things you need to know from the Google I/O 2015 keynote.

When a camera bag claims to be water resistant, it feels a little like the brand is hedging its bets. It will protect your gear up to a point.

But the designers at miggo have a bag they declare confidently is storm-proof and all-weather. They even say with certainty the ironically named Agua will remain protective for five minutes in rain falling at 10 liters a minute with up to 22,000 pounds of force.

If you’re in a Biblical hard rain, you may have bigger problems then keeping your camera dry. miggo just wants you to feel comfortable with Agua if you’re out on a typical rainy day.

If you’re in and about New York after June 13 you’ll have an extra Apple Store to check out, since that marks the date when Apple will open its new retail location on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Signage was put up overnight, revealing that customers have just over two weeks to wait until construction is finished on the impressive 4,000-square foot upmarket retail outlet.

Not that everyone’s happy about it, of course.

The best camera is the one that is with you, so the saying goes. But if that is indeed your iPhone, what is the best photo app? You have several thousand from which to choose.

This can be particularly maddening to older generations, for whom robust digital living seems foreign and frightening. They like the ease of the smartphone camera, but they just want to share their pictures with a few people and store securely without all the extras, like locators, timelines or random followers.

Sherish – an iOS app whose name combines the words share and cherish – was developed for the older user who just wants a few functions, a couple of screens, easy album management and, of course, privacy.

Apple just can’t get rid of its shady antitrust compliance monitor.

After making another appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to disqualify Michael Bromwich as its monitor, Apple was rejected by the federal court this morning, even though the judge said Apple’s allegations against Bromwich ‘give pause.’

The potato is one of the least colorful of the good Lord’s creations. But somehow, two French inventors figured out how the dud spud could help put color in our photographs using a process they called Autochrome.

 Before brothers Louis and Auguste Lumiere tinkered with taters, photographers were shooting three different pictures of the same scene through colored filters — red, blue and green — and then sandwiching the images for projection.

In 1904, the Lumieres pulverized potatoes into a starchy powder, which they then divided into three separate batches for dying violet-blue, green and orange-red. When mixed together and applied to a glass plate, the microscopic grains of potato filtered the light, creating a negative that could produce a color photo. That was Autochrome.

Once, Jawbone was king of the fitness tracking set. Then, after a series of missteps and disastrous, half-baked product launches, Jawbone’s popularity waned in favor of Fitbit.

Now, of course, the Apple Watch rules the roost, but Jawbone and Fitbit are still at war… and Jawbone just dragged it all into the courts.

When Samsung dropped its Iron Man-themed Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge variant, I had a feeling I’ve never experienced in my days as an iPhone owner: Android envy.

Fortunately that brief emotional response can now be banished to the furthest limits of the Negative Zone courtesy of this gorgeous, metallic-flake-finish “Hero Collection” adhesive skin for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

No, it’s not Tony Stark’s titanium alloy, but in so far as it gives your iPhone the familiar metallic red-and-gold look associated with everyone’s favorite billionaire philanthropist superhero, it’s pretty darn good.

As one of the best Photoshop competitors on Mac and iPad, the superb photo editing tool Pixelmator is finally available for iPhone.

Promising to be more powerful than other iPhone image editing apps, Pixelmator’s universal app boasts support for layers, in-depth color adjustments, pro-level photo retouching, real-time photo warping, and even digital painting.

Check out a preview video below:

The rumor mill continues to churn about what the hell Apple is going to do with Beats Music. It’s been a year since Apple paid $3 billion to acquire the upstart music service and headphone maker, but we are no closer to understanding why Cupertino laid out the cash.

When Apple purchased Beats Music and Beats Electronics, it did so with a splash it generally reserves for the unveiling of a game-changing product like the Apple Watch. Since then, it’s basically been crickets.

It is clear Apple has a way to go to compete in the streaming music game against Spotify, Pandora and the other services scrambling to get a piece of the music industry pie. But what form will Apple’s next music play take?

If you’re sick of not being able to just swipe your iPhone or Apple Watch in front of a terminal at Target, here’s some welcome news: Target plans on rolling out Apple Pay terminals at the chain of mega stores soon.

Every report we’ve heard suggests that Force Touch is practically a lock for Apple’s next-generation iPhones, but a rumor coming out of Taiwan claims that the feature was originally planned as a handset exclusive for the iPhone 6s Plus.

According to supply chain sources, the iPhone 6s Plus alone was originally designed to include Force Touch sensors, although Apple has since changed its mind and decided to incorporate the technology into both the 6s Plus and smaller 6s.

That’s certainly good news if — like the majority of customers — you plan to buy the smaller 4.7-inch iPhone 6s, but still want to take advantage of the latest Apple tech.

The “secret” developer port on the Apple Watch has yet to be harnessed by third-party developers, but it definitely possesses cool powers, as this new video shows: The tiny port hidden by the Apple Watch band can actually charge your device faster than normal.

In case you hadn’t noticed, Apple is pretty darn keen on making Apple Pay into the de facto mobile payments solution.

With that in mind, the company is reportedly set to announce a new Apple Pay Rewards Program at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, offering exclusive perks to customers who use the service, while driving people to return to participating merchants.

We’ve had a new Steve Jobs biography and documentary already this year, with a movie biopic based on the Walter Isaacson book just around the corner.

If you thought Jobs’ life hadn’t been explored enough by biographers, however, think again! The National Geographic Channel is getting ready to a air a new documentary series called American Genius, which will explore famous business rivalries throughout history.

And it’s kicking off with an episode about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Everyone knows that talking on your cellphone while driving will get you a ticket in most places, but one driver in Canada recently found himself taking heat from the police after he was caught tapping his Apple Watch while behind the wheel.

The Cult of Mac faithful have spoken: Apple’s cuddly co-founder The Woz will be the latest tech icon recreated in wax as a Madame Tussauds statue.

Beating out other possible candidates including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak will take his rightful place alongside the waxen visages of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg at Madame Tussauds’ San Francisco museum this fall.

You can spend $90,000 on a Richard Prince “piece of art.” Or you can get the same thing from the original source he ripped off at a 99 percent discount.

Prince used screenshots of people he followed on Instagram and converted them into a large inkjet paintings he then sold for thousands of dollars. Prince did not alert the subjects their Instagram shares were being displayed and sold.

Some of the images were from the popular trend-setting SuicideGirls, whose founder has offered the same pictures printed in the same way for sale for $90 on its website.

Need a new Lightning cable right now but don’t have time to drive all the way to the Apple Store? Starting today you don’t even have to leave your couch to get your Apple fix, now that the Apple Store app has added same-day delivery via Postmates integration.

Designer Frank Costa uses his iPhone 6 Plus for lots of things, but he noticed that when typing on it one-handed, the anatomy of his thumb use wasn’t as ergonomic as it could be.

Costa decided to design a new kind of keyboard for the thumbs, one that would only need you to tap and then move your thumb a short distance away from wherever you tapped. This would require less stretch and — perhaps — less stress on the thumb joints.

“So, being a designer,” Costa writes on Medium, “I played with the idea of a keyboard thought (out) for the thumb. A keyboard requiring only a single tap and some short swiping to construct words and sentences.”

Apple has confirmed the existence of the “Unicode of Death” security exploit in iMessages.

“We are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update,” an Apple rep said today in an e-mail to Reuters.

The new Apple TV streaming service might not be launching as soon as we hoped, but when it does, CBS will probably be part of the package.

CBS CEO Les Moonves made an appearance at Recode’s Code Conference and revealed that he just met with Eddy Cue last week to talk about Apple’s upcoming plans. When asked whether CBS will be apart of the new service, Moongraves said “probably.” However, it’s going to take a lot of money to close the deal.

Apple’s VP of operations, Jeff Williams, took the stage at Recode’s Code Conference today to talk about everything from his pride and joy (ResearchKit), to the future of Apple Watch.

A full lineup of new software and products are sure to be announced next month at WWDC, but Williams revealed some of the surprises early, telling Walt Mossberg that Apple Watch apps are about to get a new SDK so they can run faster.  Apple’s electric car project came up as well with Williams calling cars  ‘the ultimate mobile device.’

Here are seven juicy insights into Apple’s future from the interview:

Apple Watch is one the most incredible watch I’ve ever owned, but there’s just one problem — the apps are all soooo slow.

That could change pretty soon, according to Apple VP of Operations Jeff Williams, who says Apple will give developers a preview of native Apple Watch apps at next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference.