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Today was the day, Apple had its media event. Tim Cook started off by saying the event was going to be centered around Apple services. Which most of us going into this knew. But Apple had some surprises up their sleeve.

Apple News+:

They started off with a new service we knew they were doing pretty much since the first betas of iOS 12.2. Apple News+ is a subscription service you can sign up for $9.99 and get access to a bunch of different magazines and a few newspapers like the LA Times and Wall Street Journal.

They just show up in your Apple News app just like any other news source and look brilliant like most articles in Apple News. You can start your subscription starting today once you have updated your iOS device to 12.2 and the first month is free.

Apple Card:

Apple announced a bunch of services today and for me, the event was kind of a weird roller coaster ride. The Apple News+ was expected and pretty meh to me. I don’t really care much about magazines but it's a nice thing to have if you do like them. Now we have left the station and are going up the coast. We are just about at the top. The Apple Card might be the most important thing they announced today.

Apple now has a credit card. That might not really seem too important but it really is. Everything will be done in the Wallet app, sign up, payments, and management all happen in Wallet. Once you are approved you can start using the card right in Wallet. When using the Apple Card it will show you how you spend your money and help you pay the card back so you are paying the least amount of interest. If you have ever used Mint its seems very similar.

Like most credit cards they will have a rewards program, but they will not be using points. Apple will just be doing daily cash back on purchases, 2% cash back on daily purchases and 3% cash back for Apple purchases and subscriptions. Apple will provide a physical credit card to use in case you need to use the card someplace Apple Pay is not available. If you use the physical card you will get 1% back in daily cash back. Sadly this service did not launch today but will be talked about more in the fall.

Apple Arcade:

Now we are descending down the coaster with our arms in the air. Apple talked about gaming on iOS. For the most part, if you go to the game section of the app store you will see a lot of free to play games. Some of them are not bad while others are terrible but they are the most profitable games in the store. If you really look you can find games you can actually pay for up front and enjoy. But because they have that monetary point of entry most mobile gamers don’t give them much attention.

In the fall Apple wants to fix that with a new subscription service called Apple Arcade. Apple Arcade will be a gaming subscription service that allows iOS users to play any game on the service for a set monthly fee. Kind of like Xbox Game Pass but for mobile games. As of right now, they will have 100+ games to chose from. The games are being made by some well-known studios like Annapurna Interactive, Bossa Studios, Cartoon Network, Finji, Giant Squid, Klei Entertainment, Konami, LEGO, Mistwalker Corporation, SEGA, Snowman, ustwo games. Like Apple Card, we will know more about this service in the Fall.

Apple TV+:

We make it down the first exciting hump and now realize thats was the only one now. The track back to the station is kind of long so you take out your phone and look at Instagram or Facebook endlessly until your back at the station. This is when the event went from exciting to meh for me again. They have made improvements to the Apple TV app, like being apple to have your subscription services in one place and not have to leave the app as it does currently. If you have a cable subscription you can easily get access to shows and services like Showtime. Movies show up in the updated Apple TV app as well.

Wait wait there's a service to tie in with the app. Coming in the Fall, you can subscribe to Apple TV+. This subscription service will give you access to all the original programming Apple is making. From show creators like Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, J.J. Abrams, Jason Momoa, M. Night Shyamalan, Jon M. Chu. A lot of star power there. They went on stage one at a time to give like a pitch of their shows. None of them seemed as bad as Planet of the Apps, the Apple original that was like a Shark Tank but for Apps. Still, nothing really caught my eye and made me feel like Apple TV+ will be the NBC of streaming services (sorry Apple).

Like everything else, Apple TV+ will launch sometime in the fall. You might see a show you want to watch but you don’t own or want to own an Apple TV just to watch a show. Don’t worry the Apple TV app will arable on some Smart TVs, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV devices.

Back at the Station:

The event was truly a weird rollercoaster ride. I know the event was mostly about Apple News+ and Apple TV+ but I feel like the real stars where Apple Card and Apple Arcade. I personally can't wait for fall to know the price of the gaming service which may make or break it. Apple News+ was meh for me cause I use Apple News but more for like a Sunday read and Apple TV+ is meh for me cause I watch more Youtube than traditional network shows. The shows on Apple TV+ seem like more of the same normal TV and I want something more like Youtube or TWiTCH. If another one could ever be made.

Hopefully, Apple announced something today you are looking forward to.

Windows 10 Spring 2019 Update

We are entering that time of the year, it’s time to get ready for our quarterly update for windows 10. Some of you might be getting the fall update and now it’s time for the spring update. But don’t worry with the way they roll out these updates it could be months before you see it. It will be at least a month before it is ready to be deployed. Before the update let’s go over some of the most noticeable changes coming in the Windows 10 Spring 2019 update.

Lock Screen:

The lock screen might seem a little different when you first login after the update. It won’t be a huge change. Some may not even notice but when you go to but your password or pin in, you will see the background blur. It’s not a huge change but it is a change in style that started with the fall update with other menus in Windows 10.

Cortona search or Windows search, not booth:

Now that you are logged in you might want to search for a file on your computer. You go to the search box at the bottom Of the screen and search for the file or program you are looking for. Well, you might notice it’s no longer doing a bing search or bring up your calendars. This is because Windows search and Cortona are now separate things. If you are one of the few that use Cortona. You can still use her, she is now an app that you can find right next to the Windows search.

New Fresh Look:

If you are doing a clean install of Windows 10 with this update you will find the taskbar and start menu is now white. With this simple change of paint Windows looks and feels like a whole new OS, even though it's mostly the same. But if you don’t like this and want the black shell back you can change it back in the settings.

Settings New Look:

Speaking of settings, the settings have a slightly new look. At the top, you will notice a new account panel. Showing your Microsoft rewards, Onedrive sync status, the phone you have linked, and if your PC is to date. Another little change for Windows 10 home users, you can pause an update for up to a week. Before only windows Pro and Enterprise users could do this, now anyone can.

Open Safer:

This last thing is a bit more technical and may not even make it to the final build, but is something I'm excited about. Windows Sandbox is a way for you to open files or applications your not sure are safe. Once you do this it will open a Windows 10 virtual machine where you can open the file or application. This is an optional feature for Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise. sadly I couldn't try it since I was playing around with this build in a VM, so it wouldn’t work well if I did it.

Enjoy your Update:

No official word has been made yet about when Microsoft will be making this update public. If I had to guess it will be another month before it comes out. Also for most people, they won't be getting this update a long time. Since Microsoft normally rolls out these updates slowly. Only people like me who seek this update when it comes out. But once people get this update on their computers it will be a nice quality of life change for most people.

Samsung Folding Into Our Hearts

Samsung actually came out with something interesting. Even as an iPhone user I had to stop and admire it. Samsung announced the Galaxy Fold. We have seen plenty of foldable concepts but this is the first from a major mobile company. They even came out with new Galaxy S phones and wearables.

Galaxy Fold:

The Galaxy Fold will have a normal looking front screen. That can be used like any other Android smartphone, but then you can fold it open and now it is a tablet. Without ever losing what you had open on the phone screen. When you have it folded open you can have up to 3 apps open on the screen. So you can use it more like you would a laptop. Of course, the phone will have to have power under the hood with 12 GB of RAM a dual battery which function as one. 

The Fold will have 6 cameras on so no matter how you have it you will have a camera ready to go. It will have 3 in the front 2 on the inside and 1 on the cover. Easily this is the most interesting phone Samsung has come out with, in a long time.

Galaxy S10 and 5G:

Samsung also announced new Galaxy S10 phones. Let's start off with what most people care about, the camera. The Galaxy S10 has 3 lenses and one of them is an ultra-wide lens. This means you will be able to get great wide shots and even grater panoramas. Video recording is even better with, better stabilization. The S10 is the first to be able to shoot HDR 10+. The phones will also have wireless PowerShare. Which is a way for Samsung devices and any Qi-certified device to charge another device. 

The Galaxy S10 will be compatible with WIFI 6 faster LTE, and 5G networks. When we start seeing them (currently no US carrier has 5G). Samsungs Bixby will be integrated with the phone as well. The S10 phones will be available on all the major US phone networks stating at 899.99 starting March 8th.

Wearables:

I should also talk about the wearables that they also announced. Galaxy Active is the smartwatch. It is waterproof and can track your workouts. Like any other smartwatch or can keep you on tasks in your daily life. The Galaxy Fit is a fitness tracker and can do things like blood pressure monitoring. But what would any of these things be without a way to listen to music. Samsung has you covered there too with the Galaxy Buds. They are Bluetooth earbuds that last six hours of playback or 5 hours making a call.

For the Samsung fans, today must have been Christmas in February. But I got to say even as an iPhone user and Apple fan. I saw the Galaxy Fold and had to stop and look at my iPhone XS Plus and feel like it was a little small. This could be the start of a new era for smartphones or it could be a passing fad. But for now it looks really cool and I’m excited.

New MS Paint Leak

It seems a new version of Microsoft Paint has leaked. This will be the first redesign of MS Paint since Windows Vista. It will also be able to work with 3D objects wooooo. Microsoft hasn't officially come out the bits leaked and can be downloaded now if you do a google search. Though I would say just wait. Microsoft has an announcement coming soon and I'm sure they will launch the official preview of the new MS paint for windows 10 around then.  Take a look at the screen shots I took.

Facebook Reactions

Today Facebook started rolling out reactions. Reactions are substitute for "Likes", so instead of liking a post you can love it, wow it, sad, haha, or happy. This is slowly rolling out to everyone. If you have it then all you have todo is hover over the like button with your mouse and the other options should show up.  If you don't see it yet, just wait and it will show up at some point. Now Facebook has said they may add more reactions over time and I'm sure they will add some for special times of year or big time sponsors. What would be cool is if they had an API for it so brands can maybe us it to make their own reactions.

  I think this is a fun new thing for Facebook and it fixes the problem the "Like" doesn't work for everything. If a friends grandma dies "Liking" the post doesn't seem right but sad might be a better option. So if you have this enjoy and if you don't have it yet just be patient.

[vimeo 156502226 w=500 h=281]

Reactions from Facebook on Vimeo.

OSX Now With Photos

For everyone running OSX Yosemite and waiting for the Photos app well its finally here. Back at WWDC last year when Apple was showing off OS 10.10 they showed the new Photos app which would come in a later update that would replace iPhoto.

Photos app is made to look and work just like the photos app on iOS. This will also allow you to use iCloud Photo Library on your Mac. This will upload all your photos to iCloud and allow you to view any photo in your library on any device. Up until now the only way to could do this on a desktop was by going to icloud.com.

Photos also have the same controls for editing your photos which are a lot better than what was in iPhoto. The one tool I noticed that is in the desktop version that isn't in the mobile version is the heal tool. For those who don't know the heal tool lets you get rid of any pimples or scares that you might have when you take selfies.

When Photos was announced it left me and I think a lot of other people with a dilemma. I had recently bought Aperture which is more powerful than iPhoto. But Photos is a replacement for booth iPhoto and Aperture and they as of today are no longer getting any future updates. choices were switch to Adobe Light Room or wait for Photos to come out and switch to it. Well Im impatient and so I went to Light Room. Now that Photos is out I regret my decision. Light Room is a grate if you are a pro photographer. But for me I'm not a pro I'm not shooting in RAW with a DSLR I'm shooting with my iPhone. I went to Aperture because there was some editing tools I wanted that iPhoto could not do. Now Photos can do a lot of what I wanted that iPhoto couldn’t. So after paying for a year of Light Room and PhotoShop I will probably be using Photos as my management system.

Well at least PhotoShop was part of that deal and I do use PhotoShop enough that its worth it. But back to Photos you can get it today by going to the Mac App Store and checking for updates you should get an update for OS X 10.10.3 which has Photos and a lot of other changes. Its just Photos is kind of the major thing.

Here are the Patch notes for this update:

TrueCrypt Audit Report

The NCC group came out with there finding of the Truecrypt audit. They didn't find too much wrong with the code and what they did find wasn't anything earth shattering that would allow any encrypted files to be compromised. What they did find wrong was a problem with the random number generator and they way it deletes information from RAM. Though sadly none of this will be fixed in Truecrypt since the developers decided to end development on the project. Though thanks to lifehacker I found out a program named VareCrypt which has taking up the development of TrueCrypt and hopefully they will fixed what is wrong. If you want you can read the whole TrueCrypt audit here.

T-Mobile Uncarrier 4.0

At the time I'm writing this T-Mobile has just announced that they will pay up to $350 of your fees for leaving a contract from any of the major US carriers. Starting tomorrow according to a press release once you canceled your plan and have your final bill you can mail it or upload it to T-Mobile. Once you have done that you can trade in your current phone and they will apply that tords a credit to get a new phone. 

For me I was kind of hoping that you could keep your current phone and just move to there network. I just want to get off Verizon pay a little less for my phone bill and keep my 4S. So for me it looks like I'll have to wait till my contract is up with Verizon. Most likely ill probably just go back to Cricket when the time comes and get a 5S threw them. But if you live in an area that T-mobile works well in and you are unhappy with your current network this seems like a good deal. 

A link to T-Mobiles deal: http://www.t-mobile.com/offer/switch-carriers-no-early-termination-fee.html 

Top 3 CES Picks

Today since CES is going on, I would like to pick out some things that I've seen via other blogs that seem interesting and cool.

1. Self driving cars:

CES this year has been a bit of a car show from the looks of it, all the car manufacturers showing off all the new things their cars can do and will be able to do soon. Audi brought with them their self driving car. Though from the article from the verge its self driving functions are a little limited. The A7 from Audi can only drive from were you parked it to pick you up using a smart phone app. But the idea is still cool and that we are so close to seeing real self driving cars. Though don't get too excited for this car its not coming anytime soon.

I for one want self driving cars to be a thing. Not that Im a bad driver but more so because I don’t trust other drivers on the road. Plus I just hate driving, I normally take the bus any place I want to go mostly because I feel I can be productive with my travel time. I can read a book or the news, finish up a paper for school. So the idea of not having to pay attention to the road is a big plus for me.

2. Edison:

The other day Intel announced a vary small computer its about the size of a SD card, and they call it Edison. This little computer has a dual core CPU, Bluetooth, and WIFI chips on it. Edison even runs a custom Linix OS with its own app store. I just think this is so cool There is so much that could be done with this computer. I it will probably help our electronics to become even smaller and thinner, computerize things we never thought needed a computer chip in them. I hope Edison is utilize.

3. Sonys Cloud:

Today Sony announced Playstation Now and a TV service. What is special about booth of these services is that they  are cloud services. Playstation now is a cloud service that will stream PS3 games to a PS4, PS3, Vita, and bunch of other Sony products. I believe they will even add current generation games to this service as well, for a fee. The TV service seems to be like having a DVR in the cloud with universal search. 

Now the reason why I think this stuff is cool isn't necessarily cause of the services themselves but because Cloud computing is really starting to become even more of a viable thing for a lot of uses that even a couple of years ago we never would have thought they would make the jump. Playstation Now uses Gaikai which they bought in 2012 to do there streaming of games. On Live also did this as well but I think theses services where just a bit too early.

This is my top 3 list of things I have read about from CES that I think will change the world in the coming years. If I missed anything or just have a comment please feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at mikesworldoftech[at]gmail.com.

Droid Razor

Today Motorola Mobility announced a new phone the Droid Razor. Yes they brought back probably one of their most popular brand of phones. Though I got to say when I look at the phone it dose not really scream Razor. Its more like a Droid that is a little bit thinner then their other phones. Im surprised they didn’t call it the sliver since this is not a flip phone. Though I can’t say much since I have only seen photos of it from the press release they sent me.

If you look at the image its thin but I just don’t feel like it should be called the Razor. It will be out in early November for $299.99. It seems to have all the specs that any Android phone should have at this point.

Powered by Android™ 2.3.5, Gingerbread
1GB RAM for a fast user interface and multi-tasking
8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p HD video capture and image stabilization technology for crisp and clear videos
Front-facing HD camera for video chat over 4G LTE, 3G or Wi-Fi
4G LTE Mobile Hotspot capable so customers can share 4G LTE speed with up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices
Water repellent nanocoating protects the phone, and even the inside components, against everyday spills
Remote wipe, pin lock and government-grade encryption for email, calendar and contacts as well as voice and video chat conferencing
Use Quickoffice® to view, create and edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on your mobile device from anywhere at anytime
Bluetooth 4.0 low energy
32 GB memory: 16 GB on board and 16 GB microSD™ card pre-installed (actual formatted capacity is less)
Powerful 1780 mAh battery

Im a little shocked that is will not be an Ice Cream Sandwich phone (Android 4.0) since they announced it today. I have e-mailed motorola but I have not herd back as of this time October 18, 2011 11:49 PM.

Some of the things that comes with this phone such as the Quickoffice and remote remote wipe make me think they want to appeal to businesses to make this a work phone as well as a toy.

I would kind of like to see this phone up close and hold it and see how it feels. When it comes out I might have to go over to the Verizon Store and take a look at it. But it is nice to know that the Razor brand is not dead.

Technorati Tags: Mototola,Droid Razor,QuickOffice,Android 2.3.5

Cricket 3G outage

UPDATE: As of 2:12 AM data service is back.

Its seems that a little after 1AM EST that cricket wirelesses 3G has gone down. This how ever is the second time in a few days this has happen. I recently sent an e-mail asking cricket what is going on with there service and what they plain to do to stop these outages. I use cricket personally for my phone and have enjoyed their service, I just hope that these outages don't become regular. When or if I get a reply back from cricket I will update you on this matter.

Google Mobile Update

The other day Google updated Search I want just want to touch on the mobile update. As soon as you go to Google on your phone you will see the changes:

When you touch them they will do a search for restaurants, coffee places, bars, and other things around you. When you do one of these searches it will use your GPS in your phone or a location that you have put in. It will look much like this:

As you can see a map of the area comes up and as you scroll down the map does not go away, it stays at the top of the screen and when you go by a place that has a street view image or any image it will put that in the corner of the map so you can see what place is like. They also put a directions button that you can use and it will open up Maps on your phone and give you the directions to the place you want to go.

I like the update to the mobile site. I think for people who travel a lot the new places search will help people find the quick searches useful to find a bite to eat or to find something fun to do in a new city. They have many other searches that you can do quickly.  Here they are:

Technorati Tags: Google,Inside Search,Mobile,Places,Search,Maps

WWDC Announcement: iOS 5

The other day was the start of WWDC and with that was the opening keynote.  Steve Jobs was there talking about three things OS X Loin (10.7), iOS 5, and iCloud. I’m not going to really talk much about Loin only because I don’t own a Mac but what I did see the next version looks cool. You can read up about the next version of OS X at apple.com

iOS 5:

iOS 5 looks to me like it will be a must have upgrade. Some of the new things in this update are wireless sync, iMessages, Android like notifications, and updates to the camera app and the photo app. I think the number one thing I saw from iOS 5 that I want now is the wireless sync so this means you no longer have to plug your iOS device into your computer to add things to your device. This also means when you buy a new iOS device you will no longer have to connect it to your computer to sync for the first so for people who want to use an iPad for their only computer they can now. Don’t worry about updates because in iOS 5 updates will be over the air.

iMessage:

iMessage is an iOS version of Black Barry Messenger (or as one of my friends call it Crack Barry Messenger), iMessanger will allow you to text or MMS people on other iOS devices over WIFI. So if you want to send someone a pic that you took on your iPhone to say an iPad you can just send a pic message to that person’s iPad. iMessage was a surprise to me a BBM style system I would never have imaged that or felt the need to have it, but when they showed it I saw some use for it.

New Notifications:

The last but not least what I think a lot of people have been waiting for a new and improved notification system. This was a much needed change in iOS the notifications as they are now are just annoying. Not to say they are not use full cause I switched from doing Facebook chat form the app to doing it in the windows live messenger app just so I could get notifications. But I have android phone so im use to this:

The screen shot is kind of bad but you get the idea the new notification system on iOS looks a lot like this. They even improved the way notifications look on the lock screen so it shows everything that went on wile the device was locked. Like I said before this was a must needed change almost as important as wireless sync.

If you want to know more about the update or see the keynote you see it all on apple.com.

Technorati Tags: iOS 5,iMessanger,Wireless snync,over the air update,notifacations,iPad,iPod Touch,iPhone,iOS Devices,Android,WWDC

Change Your Facebook Password

I’m watching Security Now Episode 300 Which came out this week and one of the story’s they talked about seemed kind of disturbing. The story was Facebook Applications Accidentally Leaking Access to Third Parties. To get to the point there is a good chance that your Facebook apps might be leaking the permission that you give it. For example if you have an app that asks to post something on your wall well that app could let others wright on your wall too, completely on accident.

Symantec says that the problem has been in the API for Facebook apps since 2007. They are recommending that all Facebook users change their password. Changing your password will reset the apps so they will need to ask for permission again to do things. Facebook did fix the problem as to why changing the password fixes this problem.

Also I wanted add you might want to also go change your passwords to other things like your e-mail, other social networks you are a part of, and even your online banking password. These passwords are not compromised but if you are going to change one why not change them all. You might want to get something like Keepass or Lastpass which are good ways to have good passwords and not need to remember really long and hard ones. So go download Lastpass or Keepass so you can have nice strong passwords. I just thought I would pass this little bit of information along.

Technorati Tags: Facebook,Password,Change,Lastpass,Keepass,Synmantic,Security Now,TWIT,Episode 300

Angry Birds

I was on twitter today and I saw a tweet form Cecily Kellogee on Twitter about Angry Birds coming to the Chrome Web App Store. I from what I see its been there for a few days now but I just found out about it today. I'm not too surprised that it is on the Chrome Store since Angry Birds is every ware. I'm just waiting for the day I can play Angry Birds in the shower… but that was probably way too much information.

Playing on computer feels a little weird. I know that there is a computer version for Mac and Windows already but I have not ever played it on a computer until now. But other than that it is the same Angry Birds know and love, with a few Chrome inspired levels. I have not seen these levels yet but I can’t wait to see them.

I do have one word of warning don’t play with a track pad I had to when I first played it and it was ok but it is way better with a mouse. I can only assume that if you have something like a desktop or laptop with a touch screen you will probably feel right at home with that. You can get Angry Birds on the Chrome Store or if you use Firefox you can go to http://chrome.angrybirds.com/ and it will work just the same and I can only imagine that it will work in IE 9 too.

Technorati Tags: Angry Birds,Chrome,Firefox,HTML5,PC,Mac,Web App