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.

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Reactions from Facebook on Vimeo.

RedTuu... Youtube Red

Youtube has been bugging me and bugging me to do a youtube red trial. One night i just gave in and did it. The short hand of this is Im enjoying it. Now the longer version. I do like youtube red but I have a few issues with it. Maybe they will change these things but I doubt it.

To begin I hate the name YouTube red, I kind of get what they where going for something simple. The problem is there are plenty sick minded people like me who keep wanting to call it Red Tube. When I first saw the name I thought it was a joke or at the very least they might have changed it. Though this issue is a very little one.

My big problem with YouTube Red is its a pay wall in away. What I mean is in order to watch some content you have to pay Youtube. Youtube Red has original content like the new Pewdiepie show that is exclusive to red. So if you are not paying for Red you are not going to see it. This I take as a problem cause it sort of spits in the face of what youtube has stood for. Why should I have to pay to watch something like that? I feel like its also a spit in the face to his subscribers as well.

I would be ok if it was more of a choice, like if you don't have youtube red you just have to watch some ads and if you do pay for red you get no ads just like normal youtube videos. Some Red shows might do this but I don't know the agreements and stuff but as it stands now it looks like you pay or you don't get the see the red shows. This is my biggest problem with red but we will see how this plays out as shows come out.

Now for a little problem. Paying for Youtube Red also means you can have youtube run in the background on mobile. This is the big draw for me, but my problem with it is other apps like Twitch let me play just the audio in the background for free or on iPad they let me do picture in picture and red still docent do this. I just feel like I shouldn't have to pay $9.99 a month for something other apps do for free and a bit better. On that note I do love being able to listen to videos when Im in the shower threw my bluetooth speaker or out shoveling. I watch longer form shows like WoW Head weakly which is an hour long or more. So being able to start watching it on my Roku and then when I leave the house to be able to open YouTube on my phone to continue it but just the audio is so convenient. But I really don't feel like I should have to pay monthly for that, if they had it as a in app purchase I would pay a one time fee for it.

I guess my final thing is I just think YouTube Red is over priced. I feel like The prices should be closer to $4.99 a month.  Now as much as I don't like these things about Youtube Red what I do like is people paying for red is that some of the money goes to the youtubers that you watch. So as much as I feel like some of the things red does is wrong this is one very good thing for they do and I feel like Youtube Red needs to exist and continue to exist. i just think that you shouldn't have to pay the red tax to get the fullest out of youtube.

New Everything

Well the announcement happened and yes we are getting a new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. But we also got a few other things like a new Apple TV and iPad Pro. Booth these things I really didn't think we would ever see.

Apple TV:

After years of waiting we finally get a new Apple TV. The new Apple TV has an app store we finally get an app store, and Siri. The updated hardware also allows for concal gaming. The new remote has touch area, controls for volume, mic, and a button to switch the source on your TV.

The App Store finally comes to the apple TV. We have been waiting for this for years. The apple TV will be able to use apps like your phone or tablet. Though they will have to make some changes to there apps to make them work on the TV but they can be universal just like the App store on your iPhone or Tablet. You buy once and have access on all your iOS devices. Though the new Apple TV docent run full iOS but it runs a version called TV OS.

I do find it interesting that the new Apple TV is like a conceal it has it own games and exclusives just like an Xbox or PS4. Though your probably not going to be playing Halo or Call of Duty on the Apple TV, so they wont have to worry about Apple. Who should worry is nintendo they have had a lock on kid and casual gamers. With the DS and the Wii U Nintendo has been happyish with their market. Apple has been slowly eating the way at Nintendo's hand held monopoly with the iPhone and iPod Touch and now with the Apple TV being able to play those iOS games on the TV Nintendo might have a problem.

iPad Pro:

Since I got my first iPad which was an iPad 2, Ive wanted a iPad with a bigger screen. But we are getting just blows what I wanted out of the water. The iPad Pro isn't just a bigger screen though it is 12.9 inches, its a way more powerful iPad that takes advantage of iOS 9. Really when you think about all the stuff that iOS 9 is going to do it should have been obvious that something like the iPad Pro was coming vary soon. The Pro will have some accessories a Smart Keyboard cover which is just like the Microsoft Surface though its an Apple device so maybe it will be better than the surface keyboard. The other accessories that artist might like is the Apple Pencil. Its a styles for the iPad Pro that will allow the iPad to detect force so you can have darker lines or lighter. Depending on what you are a pro in I think will depend on what accessories you get. I guess I should shatter your dreams like they did with me. The iPad Pro will start at $799 for 32 GB and goes up to $1079 for 128 GB and Wifi+cellular. Though remember its as Pro device so these prices do make sense. I was a little disappointed with the storage sizes I would have thought maybe we might see at the high end a 500 GB iPad Pro. But at least they didn't do a 16 GB modal.

iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus:

Well hear is what everyone knew we were going to hear. The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus which really was what people where expecting. It was a lot of improvements. 3D touch was one of those things, its like the right click of touch. Depending on how long or hard you touch something on the screen different things will happen. One of the things they showed off was touching the camera app gives you a jump list of different options like quickly getting to the selfie camera or taking a video. Speaking of videos they showed off a thing called live photos which is something the camera will do by default. If you touch a photo it will give you a short video of when it was taken. If you have every seen any of the harry potter movies and notice how the pictures and paintings come to life, its almost like that. The other improvement is the camera it has a 12 Mega Pixel camera. Other than that not much has changed. If you are ready for a new iPhone the 6S or 6S Plus will probably be a good upgrade. Now as far as getting the phone Apple is giving you a new option, the iPhone upgrade plan which will allow you to get a new iPhone every year. Apple will let you pay a $32 fee and when they come out with a new iPhone you just return your old one and get the new one. The 3 major carriers in the US will let you do this. Though Sprint has a iPhone for life deal right now which is only $15 a month. Though thats really only good if you are in a area where Sprint works well.

Final thoughts:

I think this is probably one of the most star studded line ups Apple has had in awhile. We got a lot of things that we have been waiting for, for awhile. Out of everything I have seen I want the Apple TV the most. I will probably get the 32 GB model cause who am I kidding I'm probably going to load it up with games.

The Big Day

Tomorrow is the big day for Apple fans. We get to see the new iPhone and maybe afew other things. The first thing being the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. Its a S update so there probally wont be too much of a change to the phone. Im sure it will have that one thing that will make you most of us want to get it. Though from all the rummors forse touch might be that thing. To me that really dosent compel me to want to get it. But we will see tomorrow what will be the sell for it. We will also brobally see a iPhone 6C and 6C plus. These will be slitly cheaper verions of the the current 6 and 6 Plus. They may also come in bright colors like the current iPhone 5c.

Rummors of seeing a iPad Pro with a bigger screen. This is something I’m intrested in because Ive wanted a iPad with a bigger screen and with true multitasking coming in iOS 9 I think it makes sence that we would see a this. I have been using the public beta on my iPad Air and being able to do PiP with videos is just sooooo cool.

The last thing people have been talking about is a update to the Apple TV. This rummor has been flooting around for years now and truely I will not beleive it untill they say it. The new Apple TV woud have updated hardware and have access to the app store. They are also saying a new touch screen remote that has access to Siri. Im not really sure about this cause we have seen the headlies before "Apple set to refresh Apple TV” then after the announcement the headline is “Apple pulls new Apple TV from presentation”. We’ve just been burned to many times be this. Though it is a needed.

Though there is another thing I have been thinking about. The invetation for the event is “Hey siri give me a hint” This has been fun to play with on the iPhone but could this be a clue for something. Some have been saying this could be a clue about a new Apple TV that could have Siri. This would but them inline with Roku and Amazon TV since they have voice search having siri would but them little ahead of the compation. But what I really think what we might see is siri coming to the Mac in an update to El Capitan like a 10.11.2 or somehting or they could do it as like an app and put it in perveiw like they did with the App Store when it came out. It would be something to compete with Cortona on Windows 10. Also I just would really like to have it. The closes thing we have to it now is Google Now in chrome but I really would like to have siri.

Well we will see what happens tomorrow.

Go Home Microsoft Your Drunk

Last week Microsoft announced all the versions of windows. Their are 9 in total! Though I don't know why they didn't just make a 10th one just to fill things out. But at last their are 9 versions. In the day in age were other makes of OS’s have one that do everything why in hell dose Microsoft need 9 or really any more than 3 versions. They need one for consumers one for embedded devices and one for mobile.

I can see why they cant have just one OS for everything. But 9 just feels a little silly. Maybe one day they will get it. Okay I know thats not true Microsoft never learns. Thats the end of my little rant.

Hearthstone for the iPhone

Like a lot of these things I hear about them on Facebook when I'm on the bus and Hearthstone for the iPhone is no different. I was itching to play it all day and finally I got to play it on my iPhone. 

  

So let's talk about the game. Hearthstone is a Warcraft based card game for just about all mobile and desktop platforms. If you have played it on the iPad or your desktop nothing has changed game play wise. But the UI had to be tweaked for the smaller interface. It might take people who have played it on the bigger screens to adjust to were your hand is but that should really just take a minute.

  

Over all to me the game is solid you need about 1 GB of free space also about 10 mins minks to play. Though I know I can easily play it for 3 hours and now that I can play it on my phone I'm sure there isn't going to be a time I'm not playing it now. Also with the new Blackrock adventure mode there is plenty to keep you busy if you need something to do.

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:

Opinion: Apple Watch

So as the pre-order date comes closer for the apple watch I feel like voicing an opinion about the Apple Watch. I guess for me the Apple Watch seems out of place in my world. When I want to know what time it is I just pull out my phone if its not all ready in my hand. If I want to see who sent me a text I just pull out my phone or ask Siri. Map directions just listen to the phone or have it mounted some place. I have no need to check my wrist to see this information.

The Apple Watch to me seems like a wast of time. Not that all warbles are a wast because I do have a Jawbone up which I have been using since January and I love it and the information it gives me about my day and night. The Jawbone has a purpose it tracks my steps and even my sleep. It dose a few other side things like reminders and alarms but thats about it. This warble docent try to be everything my iPhone can already do.

I feel like in the long run specific devices will be what people adopted not watches. When was the last time you saw someone check the time on there watch? Even the people Ive seen with watches still check there phone to see what time it is. For most people a watch is just jewelry. The last time I wore a watch was in middle school and that was because my teachers would cover the clock in the there classrooms so we might pay attention to them instead of looking at the clock every 5 minutes to see if it was launch time or time to go home.

So if I don't like the Apple Watch then what warble type do I like? Well I got a answer! I want something like Google Glass. I think the reason why is ever since playing Halo when I was in elementary school Ive wanted to be able to have some kind of computer that was either part of a pair of glasses or some kind of eye implant. I want to be able to look things up or have an AI look things up for me or remind me to do something. Thats why when Google announced Glass I was way more excited about that than some watch. But of course we probably wont see anything like that for awhile thanks to technophobic people. Though I would be happy with something like Glass that docent have a camera on it.

Well Apple Watch comes out later this month and it would be foolish to think that it will be a flop. Apple is good with marketing and makes grate devices. They will probably out sell all the Google Ware devices ever made in like the first week of sales. And in this time I might be able to play with a Apple Watch and change my mind about getting one. I know when the iPad came out I felt that way, then I got to use an iPad and I got why it was so good. So I got one eventually. We will see and Im sure I will write about it when I do change my mind.

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.

#givespartanachance

The other day Microsoft released a new build of windows 10 with Spartan. For people who don't know Spartan is the new browser from Microsoft that will replace the Internet Explorer browser in windows. Spartan will be the default browser in windows 10 but that dose not mean Internet Explorer will not be in windows 10 at all. You can turn it on in the settings. 

Microsoft had told people that Spartan would be in the last build of windows 10 but it was absent. But it is finally here and if you are part of the windows insider program you can download the update. I think you have to be in the fast track option. I'll have screen shots of it as soon as I can. 

Amazon Dash

Update: according to Mashable the dash is not a joke. http://mashable.com/2015/03/31/amazon-dash-button/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link

Today Amazon announced a new device for Amazon prime members. They call it Amazon dash and its a little device that can be mounted by your most used products so they can be refilled when you start to run low. One of the example they use in the video is laundry detergent. You put the device by the washer and when you run low on Tied then just hit the button and it puts a order in on your Amazon account for Tied. Now with tomorrow being April 1st this could just be an April fools joke. But if it is it seems real. The only thing that makes me feel like it might be a joke is that it's only available for Prime members and its free. Now this would not be the first time they have had a device with a special offer for Prime members. The Fire TV had a different price if you were a Prime member or not. Though this would be the first device you can only get if you are a prime member.

I hope it's real but I'm not sure. If you are a Prime member you can request to get a Amazon Dash at https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button?reqInv=1.

Roku Remote for Windows 8.1

Here is something I don't talk much about, an app for Windows 8.1. I checked out the Roku Remote app for Windows. I use my Roku everyday and Im on Windows at least twice a week so I thought I should check it out.

I should mention that this app is made for touch screen devices and if you don’t have one you will get a warning before downloading. But the computer I tried it on didn’t have a touch screen and it worked just fine with my mouse. If the app docent work for you then that could be why. 

The app is pretty simple. When you open it, it will search your network to find Roku boxes on your network. Once it has you will see all your channels on the screen.   You just have to select 

an app and your Roku will go right to that channel. It will also pop out a remote that looks just like the one on the Android and iOS apps, to let you navigate the channel UI. 

If you lose the remote screen just right click and click remote to get it back at anytime.

The app seems a little lacking compared to the iOS and Android app. These apps allow you to browse the channel store and to add new channels to your box. The other thing is the mobile apps allow you to stream content from your device to your Roku. The Windows app dosent do this at all. I feel like this is a opportunity missed. But these are things they could add over time. 

For now it dose what the title says it is a Roku Remote and it does a good job. It will have a eternal spot on my start screen. You can get this in the Windows App Store.

Facebook Paper 1.2

Facebook pushed out a new update to its Paper app today version 1.2. I won't lie I haven't used this app in awhile. I liked it when it came out cause it looked and worked a lot better than the normal Facebook app. But over time I just slowly started going back to the normal Facebook app cause I could do more in it. My biggest problem when it came out was you couldn't use your lists as sections in Paper. You still can't do that in this version but I'm still taking a look at what you can do now.

One of the first things I noticed was a new section called trending which shows you all the things that are trending on Facebook. It's nice to see that they are at least adding new sections to the app, but I would really like them to let you create your own sections or pull in your lists from Facebook. If you can't tell I'm a very heavy user of lists.

I always like to look at the settings of apps after a major update, and I noticed a switch that lets you make Paper your default Facebook app for notifications. So when you get a notification that someone has liked your status on Facebook it will open in Paper. This is a nice thing to turn on if you want to use Paper as your Facebook app but would like to keep the normal one for back up.

I also noticed that when I pulled down the section I was in to show the main menu there was a hamburger icon so touched it to see a list of my Liked pages and groups I have joined. I didn't see anyway to pin them to make it a section but it gives the pages a nice look to browse your liked pages and groups. It lets you easily move threw the years of the Page right to its founding.

 

I'm going to try and use Paper as my Facebook app on my phone. They seem to have made enough changes to make it more useable. If you want to give Paper a try for yourself you can download it to your iPhone here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/paper-stories-from-facebook/id794163692?mt=8 . It is a iPhone only app but it will work on iPad.  

Amazon Music a Quick Look

Well it seems the New York Times was right the other day when they said that Amazon was close to launching a music streaming service and today they did just that. So like I said the other day I would take a look at the service and I did. Like the New York Times article said the service docent have a lot of music but I was able to find stuff I like right away. Just like Spotify they have a playlist section and you can make your own as well. You can even download songs that are marked prime to your devices so you can listen when you are offline. I took some screen shots of the iPhone app if you have the Amazon music app and have prime all you have to do is upgrade the app and if you don't have the app already just get it here https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-music/id510855668?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amazon-music/id510855668?mt=8 .

Amazon Music Service

Amazon might be close to launching a music streaming service according to the New York Times. According to them it could lunch as soon as this week but with a limited number of songs. It would be part of your Amazon Prime membership.

Now for me I don't think this will replace Spotify for me, but I can see how maybe one day it just might. Going by the NYT article they don't have a lot of deals with the labs but I'm sure over time they will get the deals they want and then services like Spotify will be in trouble. 

Right now Spotify has the advantage of a free tire even though you can not play song individually. This free tire will probably keep Spotify around even if Amazons streaming service gets the deals they need to have as many songs as Spotify or their competitors. Spotify can run you $9.99 a month for premium though after a year you are paying about $119.88 for premium while Amazon Prime cost $99 a Year. Though keep in mind if the new York Times article is right you wont have the selection like you do with a service like Spotify.

We will see if this happens when the service dose launch. I will take a look at it when it comes out. 

 

E3 Day 1: Nintendo Direct

Today is the official start of E3. Nintendo started the day off with a Nintendo direct video showing off the new games coming to there Wii U and 3DS systems. They showed off a lot of what they showed off last year like super smash brothers and Hyrule Warrior. Nintendo showed off some other things as well like a new Pokemon game Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, Splatoon and Mario maker. To me the most interesting thing was the Mario Maker which is a level editor for the original Support Mario Brothers where you can make any level you want and place mobs and tubes where you want them walls whatever your hart desires.

Splatoon is a Wii U game where you can switch between a human and a squid that can swim threw its own ink. It's really weird game that I think the video dose it more justice than I can. What I will say is just like many other games Nintendo makes this is very much a kids game.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L54s2m1dPs&w=560&h=315]

They also talked a little more about supper Smash Brothers. They are going to let you be part of the action by letting you use your Mii to battle and your Mii will be just as divers as any other character in the game. Mii's will have 3 different types and their own move sets. They showed this off on the Wii U version and I hope that you can use Mii's in the 3DS version as well.

While on the subject of Supper Smash Brothers they showed off a new object to use with your Wii U called amiibo. They are figures with a chip inside them that you can use as an advanced AI. They showed an example of how to use them in Smash Brothers where they had 2 character so fighting it out and the one of them placed a Mario amiibo on his controller and Mario showed up in the game and kicked but. In Smash Brothers amiibo can level up and have different move sets for other amiibos. They will be launching with the Wii U version of the game and they will be coming out with a 3DS adaptor so you can use them in the Hand held version. These toys will also work with other compatible games such as Mario Cart 8.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odUjMhc6YgU&w=560&h=315]

They announced a lot of other games but I thought these were the most interesting. Also the games I mention will be out this year but the Splatoon. All the other games where sometime next year. So if you have a Wii U you will have something to play soon.

E3 Day 0 UPDATED

Today kicked off the unofficial start of E3 Microsoft,EA, and bunch of others have media briefings today's. Day 0 of E3 is normally a day of press events and hyping what is to come in the next couple of days at E3. Tomorrow we will hear more about what these company's have shown off, but today is not with out any news. Microsoft started the day. 

As you might think the most notable thing from Microsoft was the announcement of Halo 5. They didn't give much information about it other than a quick cinematic and little information about the plot. It seems the Chief is still morning the lost of Cortana and what his place is in the future and the past of the halo universe. It will be out sometime next year for Xbox one.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/aPGPiSpTw4w]

Now on the subject of Master Chiefs past they announced Halo: Master Chief Edition. This is a collection of all the current Halo games (1-4) and every multiplayer map ever released for Halo. They said they game Halo 2 content the anniversary treatment. It will have the updated graphics and music much like the Halo combat evolved. You will be able to switch between the original and the new if you choose. You will be able to pick this up this holiday season for $59.99.

The other game that caught my eye at the Xbox event was Fable Legends. They didn't say too much about this one either but what they showed was interesting. You will be teamed up with 4 characters, they seem to emissive on the questing and less on a main story line which they didn't talk about. They did say in this Fable game you can play as the villain and place mobs in the world to try and stop the heroes. They didn't give a release date for Fable Legends but they did say you could sign up for the multiplayer beta which will come out this fall.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/kdMa22YETb4]

Now on to everyone's favorite publisher EA. I will go ever it quick. My excitement is over the Sims 4 which comes out September 2nd 2014. They showed a little video about it which you can see here:

The other worthwhile game they talked about was Battlefield Hardline which went into closed beta today. For a limited time if you Pre order the game you will be able to play the beta on PC or PS4.

Sony has had there conference and they announced a lot of new stuff. Like Little Big Planet 3 which will be out this November, Uncharted 4 and a white PS4. They will be adding new free to play games to the PSN Store and even bring Youtube to the platform.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1Rx-Bbht5E[/embed]

Nintendo will have there digital event tomorrow. Last year Nintendo had a mini E3 at Best Buys where you could play so,e of the games I person. If they do this again and the best buy near me is one that dose this I will be heading over to get a hands on. 

WWDC Part 2

Today we talk about iOS 8 and all the changes going on with this version of the mobile operating system. Yesterday I talked about OS 10.10 and the changes there, you can read that here. Lets get right to it.

iOS 8:

On the surface iOS 8 docent look all that different from iOS 7, but when you dive into it iOS 8 is really a big update. Last time we got a pretty update and this time we are getting features.  One of the first things you might notice is a change with the keyboard. The key board is getting predictive text. So as you type a message at the top of the keyboard it will try and guess what you are typing and you can just touch the correct word or words that you are trying to type. Another big change to the keyboard is Apple is going to allow 3rd party keyboards like swipe keyboard. 

Leading up to WWDC we herd a lot about something called Health Book which was going to be this all in one way to get all the info from your health apps into one app that you can look at. Well We didn't get Health Book, but we got Health and Health Kit. Health kit is basically the hooks that apps and devices can use to interface with Health. For example Fitbit could use Health Kit to put the information about how much you walked or how well you slept last night in to the Health app. Health is good for people who are vary into the wearable health device scene.

Photos will be getting a few new editing features. Right now in iOS 7 you have a few editing things you can do like, cropping, auto enhances, red eye removal, and filters. But in iOS 8 you will have these and more. You will be able to adjust the lighting in the photos the color, exposer highlights, and shadow. They will also be adding time laps video creation to the photos app/video camera app.

Messages is getting some much needed changes. When you are in a group text chat you can now easily silence if it is always going off or you can easily leave the conversation. You will be able to quickly see any photos that were shared in a conversation. You will be able to send a audio or video in messages by holding down the mic icon or the camera icon and just simply swipe up to send. You can even share your location with the people you are texting so you can see where they are and they can see where you are. Just like Where my friends you can set limits and even stop sharing your location when ever you want.

A new thing coming to iOS as well as OS X is iCloud Drive. I talked about this the other day when I was talking about OS X. It is suppose to be a dropbox or Google Drive replacement. So you can host any files you want right in iCloud and have access to them on any device.

Lets move on to Family Sharing. Family Share is away to share things with your family, like your music, movies, iBooks, location, Apps, calendars, videos, and photos. These are all things you can share you can also do find my iPhone on family member devices you can also have a family shared iCloud album. There is also a bit of prenatal control that goes along with this so if you have family share setup and your kid try’s to buy a app or in app purchase the parent will get a prompt asking if it is ok for the kid to make that purchase.

Spotlight the universal search in iOS is getting a bit of an upgrade. It will be able to search not just your phone but the iTunes and App Store as well. So if you want to look for an app that you don't have you can just swipe down and type in the app you are looking for and without having to open the App Store spotlight will find it. It can also search the internet to look for news or movie times and just about anything you can think of.

The last thing I want to talk about is some of the minor changes in the UI in iOS 8. In iOS 7 Apple gave us the ability to swipe up to dismiss a notification when they pop up and you are in another app. In iOS 8 you can do more than just swipe it away you can interact with it now. Say you care reading something in the Kindle app and you get a iMessage from a friend you can pull the notification down and reply back with out having to leave the Kindle app. Another change to the UI is when you double tap to bring up the app switcher you will see at the top the people you contact the most and people you have marked as favorites and have a quick way to call or text them. The last thing is mobile Safari we will be getting better tab view and a new way to view favorites and view later articles.

iOS 8 will be arable this fall and if you are a developer you can get it today.This is just what they announced for consumers they announced so much more for developer even a new coding language called Swift and lots of new API’s and kits.

WWDC Part 1

Apple announced a lot of new things at WWDC some we already knew were going to be announced others we didn’t know. I will keep this post consumer oriented. If you want to know about the new API changes or even the new coding language Apple announced today swift you can go to apples development site or you can go to the iBook store where they have released a book about Swift. 

OS X Yosemite:

After the normal numbers and look how grate we are sepal, the first thing they talked about was OS 10.10 Yosemite. The first thing you will notice is the new flatter UI just like iOS 7. The other thing you might notice is the redesigned icons as well. But there is plenty of things you don't see.

Have you ever been lazy like me and had your iPhone charging across the room or even in another room and then you hear it ring, and you just ignore it cause you don't feel like getting up up from your desk to go answer the call. Well I don't know about you but I have. With Yosemite you will never have that problem cause OS X will connect to your phone and show a little notification on your Mac and let you pick up the call on your Mac. They didn't show it off or mention it but it seems like you will be able to pick up the call on an iPad as well.

This hand off will work with other apps as well. If you start working on a Pages document on your iPad when you go to your Mac you will see the Pages icon to the far left of the task bar. When you click it, it will open pages right were you left off on your iPad. This also works the other way too. So you make some more changes on your Mac then maybe you leave and you need to make some more changes on your iPad you will see the pages icon on your lock screen of your iPad and all you have to do is swipe up and the document will open right in pages were you left off on your Mac. A lot of this is to make OS X and iOS aware of each other and what you are doing on these devices and make it easier to get things done.

If you are some one who has a hotspot plain from your wireless carrier you can simply connect to your iPhones hotspot with out touching your phone on your Mac or iPad. Just look for networks and your phones hotspot will just show up. 

This one is kind of a enhancement to an old feature. AirDrop was introduced a few versions ago but it only worked with other Macs and they added Airdrop to iOS in iOS 7 but to only worked with iOS devices. Now Airdrop you can use Airdrop on the Mac you can Airdrop files to your iPhone or iPad and vice versa. 

 iCloud drive will be a new part of the Apple ecosystem. iCloud drive will be a Dropbox type system were you can store files on iCloud that will sync to all your Macs and your iOS devices. It will also let you view documents that you have created on thrived party iOS apps. This will use your iCloud storage but the good news is apple has come out with new pricing plans with 20 GB of iCloud storage starting at .99 per month.

There was a few smaller things I will go over quickly. If you like to use iMessages on your mac and iPad but wish you could reply to the text messages from your non iPhone friends well your wish has been granted. Your iPhone will pus normal text messages to your iPad and your Mac in the Messages app. Apple has flatten the all the built in apps such as Mail, Calendar, and contacts. Notification center on the Mac will also get a change with a Today tab that will support widgets. The Mail app will gets a markup tool so you can add comments and drawings to photos or PDF’s that you are sending.

So much will be changing with OS X Yosemite and it will be coming this fall. But if you are feeling brave or you have an extra iMac or MacBook and you want it sooner sometime this summer Apple will release an open beta of OS X Yosemite. According to Mac rumors it will be limited to the first million people who register. You can register at Apples beta page. This post is longer than I planed on and so I will do a part 2 tomorrow about iOS 8.

Rumor Round Up

Tomorrow is WWDC and everything will change, well maybe not right then and there but we will find out more about the changes that will be coming. We defiantly know Apple will be talking about iOS 8 and OS 10.10. We might even see some other things as well. 

iOS 8: 

I guess I have to start this off with something we at least know they will be talking about tomorrow iOS 8. I would guess with this update they will have minor changes and tweaks to the mobile OS with a few major features to talk about. One of those features that have been rumored is a split screen feature so you can have two apps up at once. As seen here at macRumors.

One of the other well known rumors would be Health Book. This rumor seems to be like a Passbook type app that would be a one stop shop for all your health needs. They would have some type of hook for people who make things like fitbit to hook in to Health Book and tell you about all the information that it collects about you. It might even  be able to work with blood sugar meters and you would be able to keep track of your blood sugar readings if you are diabetic. The idea would be to have any medical device could have a way to connect to your phone and give you accesses to your own medical information. MacRumors has info about this rumor as well.

The last thing I want to talk about as far as iOS 8 rumors is this live tile feature. If you have used Windows 8 or Windows Phone you might know of live tiles. The idea is to be able to see information about an app with out having to open the app. How this might work on iOS is you maybe tap and hold on the Mail app and once it starts shacking and you might get another option to make the icon bigger maybe up to 4 icon sizes bigger. Once you do that it would not only show the little red dot to say how many e-mails you have but it would also cycle through previews of the new e-mails. Once again MacRumors has info about this.

OS 10.10:

OS X we know will be talked about tomorrow at WWDC this will be OS 10.10 right now we think might be called OSX Yosemite. The major change we think will be coming in this version of the OS is a flater design. Just like the change from iOS 6 to iOS 7 we might be seeing design changes coming to OSX that will make it look similare to iOS 7 with its flatter design. I feel this will be a nice change. iMore has more about the rumor.

Hardware:

Normally WWDC is not a place were Apple announces new hardware. But there are rumors that they might talk about either a new iMac, iPhone 6 or iWatch. I really doubt that they will talk about any of these things. Hardware is normally discussed in the fall.

All of theses are rumors and you never know none of this could be announced tomorrow. They key note will be tomorrow at 10 AM PDT and you can watch it at Apples WWDC site.