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Apple’s new iPad Pro is an expansive 12.9 inches, available in November

We were expecting new iPhones today, and we were even expecting Apple TV announcements, but whether Apple would update its iPad line was more difficult to say. It seems Apple is bucking its own announce-new-iPads-in-October trend, however, because the company just added a 12.9″ iPad to its lineup. The so-called iPad Pro is 6.9mm thick and weighs 1.57 lbs—slightly heavier than the 1.54 lbs first-generation iPad. According to Apple, it will have a 10-hour battery life. The new tablet will be called the iPad Pro, and the entry-level version comes with a healthy 32GB of storage, rather than the 16GB of the other iPad base models. The iPad Pro also comes in a 128GB version. Pricing on those Wi-Fi-only tiers is $799 and $949. An LTE version (which comes with a 150mbps LTW modem) will only be available in the 128GB version, and will cost $1079. Apple confirmed that the iPad Pro’s screen has a 2732×2048 resolution, as had been rumored in the weeks leading up to this event, with 5.6 million pixels.Taking the stage at Apple’s launch event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Phil Schiller explained the design choice. “Let’s start with the display: Why make a bigger one?,” he said. “You can touch your documents, touch your books, interact with everything. It does things an iPhone can’t do since it doesn’t have to be pocketable, does things a notebook can’t do because it’s holdable.” Read 9 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple’s new iPad Pro is an expansive 12.9 inches, available in November

Apple unveils huge Apple TV upgrade with new remote, Siri more

SAN FRANCISCO—The Apple TV just got its first big update since March of 2012, and it’s a substantial upgrade for both hardware and software. The fourth-generation box should be much faster, and it will use that extra speed to run apps and games from its all-new app store. It also comes with a redesigned remote control to improve navigation, which has long been one of the Apple TV’s weak points. 13 more images in gallery The new remote control has a glass touch surface, and a button that allows access to Siri. While the touch surface lets users scroll through movies and shows, Siri lets customers find content from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and Showtime, using their voice. “The TV experience itself hasn’t changed much in decades,” CEO Tim Cook said. “We believe the future of television is apps.” Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Apple announces iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, with 3D Touch and A9 SoC

SAN FRANCISCO—Apple has officially unveiled its newest iPhones, the 6S and 6S Plus. Like the 3GS, 4S, and 5S before them, the phones are visually similar to their predecessors, and the devices focus mainly on internal upgrades and tweaks. The new phones will be available for preorder on September 11 and will officially launch on September 18. The new phones are built out of the same 7000-series aluminum used in the Apple Watch, a change which should make them sturdier and less prone to bending. The phones retain their 4.7- and 5.5-inch screens, though, as well as the TouchID sensor and button layout used in the iPhone 6. A new color option joins the line-up, too: Rose Gold. This brings the iPhone more in line with the Apple Watch’s exterior appearance options (especially important if you’re the kind of person who clutches their pearls at the idea of your phone’s color not coordinating with your watch). Unlike the Apple Watch,though, the iPhone’s Rose Gold is just annodized aluminum, not actual-for-real Apple Gold . The front of the devices has been given a new type of glass—one which Apple calls “dual ion-exchange” glass. Behind the new face, the phones’ also have Force Touch-style pressure sensitivity, which is called “3D Touch.” The new devices also provide tactile feedback via a Taptic Engine similar to the one in the Apple Watch. In the Apple Watch, Force Touch is usually used to bring up menu items, and 3D Touch provides similar functionality on the new iPhones. Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Apple announces iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, with 3D Touch and A9 SoC

App lets readers digitize their bookshelf for free

Add / Remove There are many advantages to ebooks — they are accessible instantaneously, very portable and they don’t require any trees to be cut down. But there is something magical about physical books and there are very few consumers who would trade in their entire bookshelf for the digital alternative. Luckily there are platforms such as Shelfie , which enable readers to have their cake and eat it too. Shelfie is an app, created by Bitlit, that lets users obtain free or discounted ebooks of physical volumes they already own. To begin, users download the free app to their smartphone and create a profile. Then they snap a picture of their bookshelf and upload the image. The platform then searches its database and finds out which books are available. Shelfie then provides free copies of eligible books that the user has already purchased, courtesy of various partnerships with publishers. The platform already has over 100,000 ebooks available, which can be downloaded and read on any device. In addition, users can browse each others’ bookshelves to obtain recommendations and inspiration for their next purchase. Could a similar service be offered for music and film lovers? Website: www.shelfie.com Contact: www.twitter.com/getshelfie

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App lets readers digitize their bookshelf for free

Static RAM created out of carbon nanotubes

We’re already at the point where the features we etch into processors are about the same size as some molecules—hemoglobin, for example, is five nanometers across. Too much smaller, and the behavior of electrons will become dominated by quantum effects, potentially causing some unpredictable behavior. One potential solution to this is to actually use individual molecules to create the features on chips. Carbon nanotubes are promising candidates, as they naturally come in both semiconducting and metallic forms. But getting the right kind of nanotubes into a structure where they perform consistently has been a challenge. Now, a team has shown that the properties of nanotubes can be manipulated and preserved in a way that could make them useful for electronics. While the work was done with populations of nanotubes rather than single molecules, it did manage to turn the nanotubes into functional RAM. Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Static RAM created out of carbon nanotubes

McDonald’s Bought Over 4-Percent of the Eggs in the US Last Year

When McDonald’s decides to make a change in its suppliers, it moves markets. The American fast food giant just announced that it would shift to cage-free eggs. That’s a big deal since McDonald’s purchases accounted for “more than 4 percent of the 43.56 billion eggs produced in the United States last year.” Read more…

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McDonald’s Bought Over 4-Percent of the Eggs in the US Last Year

Bitcoin cyberextortionists are blackmailing banks, corporations

A number of large UK corporations and institutions, such as Lloyds Bank and BAE systems, have reported a “marked increase” in Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks from the Bitcoin extortionist group DD4BC, which has been operational since last year . The increased aggressions appears concurrent with reports from other organisations. A cybersecurity case study released by Akamai identified 114 DD4BC attacks against the company’s customers since April 2015, with 41 cases taking place in June alone. In comparison, there were only 5 attacks in January and February 2015. “The latest attacks—focused primarily on the financial service industry—involved new strategies and tactics intended to harass, extort and ultimately embarrass the victim publicly,” said Akamai Security Division executive Stuart Scholly in a press release. 58% of DD4BC’s targets are financial institutions, according to Akamai. The group begins with ransom emails that state their demands, which vary anywhere between 1 and 100 bitcoins (about £160 to £16,000), a deadline for compliance, and warning of a “small, demonstrative attack.” Should the victim prove uncooperative, the figure is raised and a more forceful show of force is made. This technique is particularly effective against financial institutions as DD4BC threatens to publicise their attacks, negating the institution’s reputation and trustworthiness. Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Bitcoin cyberextortionists are blackmailing banks, corporations

Adblock Browser officially launches on iOS and Android

With more than 400 million desktop installations in its pocket, it was only a matter of time until Adblock Plus became available on mobile devices. Eyeo, the company behind the extension, first tested the water back in 2013, but when Google pulled the app, it decided that incorporating its filters into Adblock Browser was the best way to go. After months of testing, the app has finally launched on iOS and Android devices, promising to let users “browse fast, safe and free of annoying ads” on their smartphone or tablet. Like its desktop counterpart, Adblock Browser can block all ads or let users choose to whitelist their favorite sites in order to ensure they continue to receive advertising revenue . It claims to speed up page loads, save data and conserve up to 20 percent of battery life by people choose whether they wish to restrict tracking cookies, malware domains and social media sharing buttons. The launch comes just a day before Apple holds its latest iPhone event, where it’s expected to explain how iOS 9 users will be able to block content from loading in the default browser app. With Adblock’s new browser and Apple backing the use of web filters, more mobile users may choose to block ads and impact the income of online publishers as a result. Filed under: Cellphones , Internet , Software , Mobile , Google Comments Via: Adblock Plus Source: Adblock Browser (iOS) , (Google Play) Tags: adblock, adblockbrowser, adblockplus, android, browser, google, ios, mobilepostcross

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Adblock Browser officially launches on iOS and Android

Jawbone’s fitness trackers will track more of your fitness

“Basically, we’re fixing all of the things that people hate, ” is how one Jawbone rep here at IFA 2015 describes this mid-lifecycle update to Jawbone’s range of wrist-worn fitness trackers. When we reviewed the Up3 earlier this year, we described it as a feature-packed disappointment, since while the wearable had potential to be useful, the execution was bungled. That’s why the company has spent the last few months working on a firmware upgrade that, it’s hoped, will make the device much more attractive to new customers. Slideshow-317496 One of the biggest annoyances that we had with the Up3 is that the device only took your resting heart rate when you woke up. The company had originally said that the single daily measurement was the best indication of your heart’s health, but it’s not as useful as continuous or regular tracking. With this new firmware update, the Up3 and Up4, the mobile-payments variant of the Up3 , will now take your passive heart rate during the day. The idea is that whenever you sit down, it’ll see how your heart is holding up every 20 minutes or so. If you’re worried that all of this extra effort will send you racing to the recharge socket, don’t stress — we’re told that the change will have no detrimental effect on battery life. In addition, if you’re rocking an Up2 or an Up3/4, you’ll no longer have to touch the device’s cap (the solid plastic panel) to enter and leave sleep tracking mode. The company believes that now the gear will be able to detect all of that automatically within seconds of you hitting the hay. The only thing that you’ll have to do with the cap now is to tap it to dismiss alarm clock and inactivity alerts. The company has also addressed complaints over the Up2’s strap, which now comes in a rope-style design rather than the full band that was previously available. Meanwhile, the Up3 now comes in new colors like Sand Twist (beige, but the company is saying it’s closer to champagne gold) and Teal. As before, the Up3 is priced at $179.99, while the Up2 with its new lightweight band remains $99.99 and both, as of right now, are available to pre-order from Jawbone’s online store. Check out all the news from Berlin at our IFA 2015 hub . Filed under: Wearables Comments Source: Jawbone Tags: 2015, Fitness, IFA, IFA2015, Jawbone, SleepTracking, Up2, Up3

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Jawbone’s fitness trackers will track more of your fitness

Pandora’s One Day Pass is 24-hours of ad-free listening for 99 cents

If you find yourself in need of 24-hour access to ad-free music streaming , Pandora now offers an option with its new One Day Pass. For 99 cents, you’ll gain access for the Pandora you know and love without all of the distracting advertisements the free tier includes. This means that for under a dollar, you can switch over to the one-day option for times ( dinner parties , etc.) when you’d rather not have tunes interrupted by the occasional marketing pitch. Pandora’s One Day Pass will be available for listeners in the US Thursday, September 10th through the streaming service’s Android and iOS apps . Filed under: Software , Mobile Comments Source: Pandora Tags: audio, internet, internetradio, mobilepostcross, music, musicstreaming, onedaypass, pandora, software

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Pandora’s One Day Pass is 24-hours of ad-free listening for 99 cents

Ken May

Author: kenmay