Apple today said it is bringing live sports to the new Apple TV 4K, though the details aren’t quite clear yet as to how it’s going to play out. The new Apple TV 4K has a dedicated sports tab that has every live and upcoming game, and as seasons change so will the sports tab. There will be scores, and the new TV app is available on the iPhone and iPad. The announcement came as… Read More
In Apple’s big product show today in Cupertino at the new Steve Jobs Theater, Apple COO Jeff Williams unveiled Watch OS 4, which is largely focused on health and fitness. The new OS features a redesigned workout app, high intensity interval training, enhanced swim tracking smart activity coaching, GymKit to pair with machines at the gym, a revamped heart rate monitor and new music… Read More
Apple is now selling and renting digital 4K movies via iTunes, in addition to its HD and SD resolution versions. The addition of 4K content, which you can stream as well as download, is mainly designed to support the new Apple TV, which supports 4K HDR output for the first time. Plus, if you bought HD versions of titles for which 4K HDR is available, Apple is automatically upgrading them… Read More
Today, Apple announced the new Apple Watch 3 will be rolling out several health and fitness features included with OS4 like smart activity coaching, new features for swimmers, Gym Connect and an enhanced heart rate monitor.
Apple will enhance the heart rate app to monitor measurements like resting heart rate, recovery heart rate as well as a notification for an elevated heart rate when you… Read More
The new Apple TV is here, and it offers 4K support. That’s the big reason to upgrade here, and given the growth of the 4K video content and TV hardware markets between now and the release of the last major Apple TV revision, it’s a very welcome improvement. Apple’s new 4K streaming box also offers support for High Dynamic Range (HDR) video, which is a big improvement even for… Read More
The updated software powering the Apple Watch, watchOS 4, will be released on September 19, 2017, for all Watch customers, according to Apple COO Jeff Williams, speaking at Apple’s iPhone press conference today. The updated software, which includes features like new watchfaces, improved fitness coaching, a redesigned music experience, and more, was previously announced this summer at… Read More
The new Apple Watch is now official, offering one big highlight upgrade over the previous version: Built-in cellular support. Wireless cellular LTE connectivity provided by a built-in chip means the new Apple Watch will be able to stay connected even when it’s not tethered to an iPhone, which is a huge step forward in terms of making it an independent mobile device. Read More
Today, U.S. Depart of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao released the DoT and National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration’s new guidelines for automated driving systems. This is version 2.0 of a federal policy on self-driving cars, and Chao said it’s a “living document,” with plans already for version 3.0 to arrive in 2018. Read More
A strongly worded letter from the Democrats of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce questions Equifax on pretty much every aspect of its disastrous breach, from how such an immense security lapse happened in the first place to the company’s apparently non-functional notification site. Read More
The Swedish home goods giant IKEA has been a trailblazer when it comes to applying new technology to improve its products and overall retail experience. Today, it’s taking the latest step into the future of shopping with the launch of IKEA Place, one of the first wave of augmented reality apps getting released today to work with Apple’s new ARKit technology and iOS 11. Read More
Slack today announced a slew of new updates, and also said that the company now has more than 6 million daily active users and has crossed $200 million in annual recurring revenue.
Silicon Valley’s favorite enterprise chat app, still seems to be growing quite a bit and continues to roll out the drip-drip-drip of products you’d see from a company looking to capture new enterprise users. Read More
How’s this for a prediction: “Camera media will be bigger than TV.” That’s according to Camera IQ CEO Allison Wood. By “camera media” she means filters, lenses and other augmented reality effects — Wood told me she’s been studying AR and camera effects for years, including a stint as an assistant professor at the Pratt Institute. Last year,… Read More
WeWork, the behemoth co-work company valued at $20 billion, has filed a complaint with New York’s Southern District Court, alleging that China-based UrWork is guilty of trademark infringement. The argument is that UrWork is a name that is far too similar to WeWork given that both companies operate in the co-working industry. UrWork is reported have a valuation over $1 billion, having… Read More
Disney and Lucasfilm are going with a familiar name to close out the new trilogy of Star Wars films. The currently untitled Episode IX will be directed by J.J. Abrams, who previously directed and co-wrote The Force Awakens. This time around, he’ll be writing the script with Chris Terrio (who won an Oscar for Argo, then worked on Batman v. Superman and Justice League). Episode… Read More
One of the primary benefits of using Slack is the ability to communicate and share information across a company, but as usage scales it can sometimes lead to information overload and an inability to keep work organized. Pingpad released an update today to bring an organizational layer to Slack that could help teams keep their project information more orderly inside the communications… Read More
Comcast’s cable boxes are getting YouTube. The cable TV company and Google today announced the addition of a YouTube app across Comcast’s Xfinity X1 service nationwide, which will allow customers to watch YouTube content alongside traditional TV programming. YouTube videos will also be featured in Xfinity on Demand, and will be accessible via the X1 voice remote. The ability to… Read More
French startup Soundcharts is building a sort of App Annie for music artists. This service gives you a ton of data about what’s playing on the radio around the world, what’s popular in Spotify playlists and more. The company just raised $3.1 million (€2.65M) from Alven Capital, as well as Kima Ventures and Global Founders Capital. Many big music labels already work with companies… Read More
Genetics testing company 23andMe has formally announced that Sequoia Capital is leading an investment round in the company. This confirms the news we broke last week. The press release says that the final amount was $250 million and that Sequoia’s Roelof Botha will be taking a board seat. Others participating in the round include new investors Euclidean Capital, Altimeter Capital and… Read More
Instagram is announcing several new features for advertisers today. The biggest is probably the expansion of the Canvas ad format to Instagram Stories (which supposedly reach 250 million people daily). While businesses have been able to advertise in Instagram Stories since earlier this year, this introduces a new, full-screen, interactive ad format to that mix. “With the ability to… Read More
Software quality-assurance testing has sometimes taken a backseat in today’s rush-rush agile development environment. Into the breach has stepped on-demand testing startups like Test IO, giving developers easy access to a stable of qualified QA testers. The company announced a new plug-in today that embeds the Test IO service directly into the Atlassian Jira development workflow tool.… Read More
