Posts in September 23, 2014

If you want to sling live and recorded local TV just about anywhere, it's hard to argue with the simplicity of Simple.tv.

The post Almost the Best Over-the-Air DVR. Almost. appeared first on WIRED.

-- For more information read the original article here.

BMW motorcycles have long been considered chariots for gray-haired commuters and intrepid adventure riders. Yes, the company makes the occasional insane superbike and even built a cruiser for awhile, but the quintessential Beemer (the cars are “Bimmers”) is a globe-trotting workhorse like the R 1200 GS. There's nothing wrong with that. But we're still thrilled […]

The post BMW Has Finally Made a Gorgeous Bike That'll Appeal to Young Riders appeared first on WIRED.

-- For more information read the original article here.

Siri has been able to handle punctuation commands since the get-go, but they're among the sophisticated features that most people don't know about.

I only discovered them after using Dragon Dictation on my computer and reading the extensive instructions that come with that product. Well, it turns out Nuance, the company behind Dragon, helped build the voice recognition technology in Siri and included a lot of punctuation features.

Basically, all you have to do is say punctuation while dictating a sentence. For instance, you might say: "Text John Green: Hey John comma want to get brunch on Sunday question mark I'm finally free exclamation point."

Weird, right? And people who feel weird talking to their phone will feel even weirder doing this.

But once you figure out those crucial punctuation commands, dictation becomes an incredibly fast and easy way to have a conversation over text, especially for people who can't use phone keyboards as fast as kids these days. When I finally caught on, I sat in my living room for half an hour holding multiple conversations over text like never before. This way of texting is fun, while the old way always struck me as a chore — though, yes, I'm still going to use my thumbs when texting in the office and some other places.

It's worth noting that Siri could be a very useful way to interact with the Apple Watch, even if Apple hardly mentioned the voice assistant during its latest presentation. It's also worth noting that Siri is reportedly coming to Apple computers soon.

The full list of Siri punctuation commands appears below, courtesy of third party site Siri User Guide.

As for the competition, Android's ability to recognize punctuation is reportedly much more limited while Cortana reportedly has no comparable abilities — though users of those phones may be able to download apps to close the gap.

Here's what Siri can handle:

Command	Action	Before	After
New line	Move to the next line
New paragraph	Start a new paragraph
Cap	Capitalise the next word	I like 'cap' sunshine	I like Sunshine
Caps on ... caps off	Capitalise a section of text	'caps on' twenty types of flower 'caps off'	20 Types of Flower
All caps	Make the next word all uppercase	I 'all caps' love summer	I LOVE summer
All caps on -- For more information read the original article here.

As highlighted in a few reports shared in the MacRumors forums, a small but growing number of iPhone 6 Plus owners have reportedly bent their phones after carrying the devices in their pockets just days after launch. In one instance, a new iPhone 6 Plus was bent during a day of dancing, dining, and driving to a wedding.

Photo by hanzoh

Yesterday, I left at 10am with the iPhone in my left FRONT pocket of my suit pants. I drove 4 hours to a wedding, which also involved a lot of sitting during dinner etc but also 2-3 hours of dancing. I left at 2am and went to bed, driving home 4 hours back.

So in total, the 6 Plus was about 18 hours in my pocket while sitting mostly.

As I lay it on the coffee table and sat down on the couch to relax from the drive (yes, sitting again ), I saw the reflection of the window in the iPhones slightly distorted.

This potential for bending is of course not unique to the iPhone 6 Plus, with reports of bent iPhone 5 and 5s handsets surfacing in the past few years. As iPhones get thinner and larger, however, storage of the handset in a pocket becomes riskier. Unlike smaller phones that can slide out of the way, pressure points from sitting or bending now have greater potential to cause the longer iPhone to flex in a way that will damage the device.

Photo by DevinPitcher
To prevent bending, iPhone 6 Plus owners may want to remove their iPhones from their pockets before sitting or bending. If a pocket is unavoidable, then customers may want to place their device in a roomier pocket that allows the device to slide out the way. A rigid case may also provide protection from flexing or bending, as well damage from dropping the device.


Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• Apple Opening Retail Store in Hanover, Germany on September 27
• 'iPod Father' Tony Fadell Comments on Discontinuation of iPod Classic
• Apple Releases OS X Yosemite Mail Update for Developers and Public Beta Testers
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Capable of Faster Charging Using iPad 2.1A Adapter
• iPhone 6 Adoption Easily Outpacing iPhone 6 Plus
• Instapaper Updated for -- For more information read the original article here.

As predicted, iOS 8.0.1 is now in the hands of carrier partners for testing, a source says. The person notes that the update fixes a variety of bugs left in the OS for its debut last week. It for instance copes with glitches in the Phone app, which can affect call forwarding, and cause freezes when accessing Visual Voicemail....






-- For more information read the original article here.

Apple might be planning to unveil both its revamped music subscription service and its new branding alongside the upcoming 2015 Grammy Awards, reports Re/code, citing some "industry scuttlebutt."

When will Apple show off the new version of its subscription service and its new brand? Here's a guess backed up by some industry scuttlebutt: February -- presumably timed to the Grammy Awards, which will be held Feb. 8.

News of an upcoming rebrand first surfaced yesterday, after TechCrunch reported that Apple would be shutting down Beats Music. An Apple representative quickly refuted the claim saying it was "not true." Re/code went on to suggest that while Apple won't be shuttering Beats Music, the company may have plans to "modify it over time," changing the brand name.

Apple first acquired Beats Music back in May, and at the time, announced plans to leave the service untouched. There were no plans to integrate Beats Music into iTunes, with the company suggesting the streaming music service would remain as a standalone product. Beats Music was largely seen as Apple's answer to popular services like Spotify, aimed at improving declining music sales.

In recent weeks, Apple has made quite an effort to promote Beats Music, adding it to the list of "Apps Made by Apple" and recommending the app to new iOS users. Apple also added a Beats Music channel to the Apple TV last week alongside the release of iOS 8.

Thus far, there is no word on what Apple is planning for Beats Music, but a source at TechCrunch has suggested that Apple might roll the streaming music functionality into iTunes.


Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• Apple Opening Retail Store in Hanover, Germany on September 27
• 'iPod Father' Tony Fadell Comments on Discontinuation of iPod Classic
• Apple Releases OS X Yosemite Mail Update for Developers and Public Beta Testers
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Capable of Faster Charging Using iPad 2.1A Adapter
• iPhone 6 Adoption Easily Outpacing iPhone 6 Plus
• Instapaper Updated for iOS 8 With Enhanced Saving Features, Now Free to Download
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Out-Of-Warranty Repairs Cost Up to $299/$329
• Buyer's Guide: List of Cases for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus







-- For more information read the original article here.

Apple has silently updated the Apple TV with an expected FX Now app channel. The app offers on-demand streaming of content from FX, FXX, and FXM, such as American Horror Story and Sons of Anarchy. Viewers must however authenticate a cable subscription from a provider such as AT&T U-Verse, Bright House, Comcast Xfinity, Cox, or Time Warner Cable....






-- For more information read the original article here.

Apple may have acquired Prss, a Dutch-based company that created a web app aimed to help people design magazines for Apple's Newsstand and other magazine platforms, reports iCulture [Google Translation]. While there is no solid proof of the acquisition at this point, iCulture suggests that an inside source has revealed the purchase and Prss co-founder Michel Elings recently moved to the bay area.

The Dutch magazine platform Prss was acquired by Apple for an undisclosed amount. This discovery iCulture thanks to a knowledgeable source. This source confirms that several employees of Prss now employed by Apple.

Several other former Prss employees are also now located in the bay area according to their LinkedIn profiles, suggesting an acquisition might have taken place in the summer months. Prss has also shut down its Twitter account and its website.

Prss was known for creating a browser-based collaborative tool that could be used to design magazines for Apple's Newsstand. The tool included a simple drag-and-drop interface and let up to 30 people collaborate on a project, with the team charging 5 cents per magazine download for published content.

iCulture is unsure what role the Prss team will take on at Apple, but suggests the acquisition might have been about talent rather than product.


Recent Mac and iOS Blog Stories
• Apple Opening Retail Store in Hanover, Germany on September 27
• 'iPod Father' Tony Fadell Comments on Discontinuation of iPod Classic
• Apple Releases OS X Yosemite Mail Update for Developers and Public Beta Testers
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Capable of Faster Charging Using iPad 2.1A Adapter
• iPhone 6 Adoption Easily Outpacing iPhone 6 Plus
• Instapaper Updated for iOS 8 With Enhanced Saving Features, Now Free to Download
• iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Out-Of-Warranty Repairs Cost Up to $299/$329
• Buyer's Guide: List of Cases for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus







-- For more information read the original article here.