Year: 2017

The Apple Watch Cerebrates 2nd Birthday

Dan Uff April 24, 2017 1

Today, Apple Watch turns two!

“April 24, 2015: It’s time for the official release of the Apple Watch, the wearable device Tim Cook describes as the ‘next chapter in Apple history,'” Luke Dormehl writes for Cult of Mac. “Fans, having endured a seven-month wait since the device’s unveiling at a keynote the previous September, can finally strap an Apple Watch onto their wrists. Behind the scenes, however, this moment been a lot longer in the making.”

“According to the generally accepted account of the sequence of events, the Apple Watch was not just the first new Apple product since the iPad, but the first new product created—from beginning to end—under Tim Cook’s watch,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reported back in December 2015 for Fortune. “Not so, says Creative Strategies’ Tim Bajarin, whose on-and-off relationship with Jobs dates back nearly 35 years. ‘Steve was aware of the Watch,’ Bajarin told an audience of analysts, developers, and venture capitalists Thursday at Glance, an Apple Watch conference in San Francisco. ‘He didn’t nix it as a product.'”

Read more in the full article here.

Paris Transit Information now available on Apple Maps

Dan Uff April 24, 2017 0

Filling in an important gap in its native Maps apps for iOS and macOS, Apple this weekend introduced public transit directions for Paris, including detailed station information.

The update is available now.

Microsoft to push out major updates to Windows Twice a Year

Dan Uff April 21, 2017 0

On Thursday, Microsoft announced that it will be pushing major updates to its Windows operating system twice a year (in March and September), to not only keep up with the market, but to also to help its enterprise users adopt the operating system at a faster pace.

The company just released its most recent version of Windows, the Windows 10 Creator's Update, and said the next feature update is currently targeted for release in September. The company will update its Office 365 ProPlus suite each time it updates Windows, too.

Microsoft hopes that this new change of pace will help its enterprise customers adopt Windows 10 and plan for the updates six months in advance. It says it will support each version of Windows for 18 months.

The next version of Windows is currently codenamed "Project Neon" and is supposed to bring more sweeping changes to the user interface of the operating system — which means it will look very different from the current release.

It could be one of the more feature-rich updates, at least more so than the Windows 10 Creator's release, since Microsoft is also pushing forward with new augmented-reality initiatives that are expected to work in tandem with Windows 10.

Some of this article came from CNBC.COM.

Google Home adds Multi-User support for Customized Results

Dan Uff April 20, 2017 2

Google Home just stepped up its game with the Amazon Echo by adding multi-user support to the device.

This feature (now available in the U.S.) allows a family to use one device to deliver customized results for the individual user. The new feature is being assisted by a company called Neural networks. The company uses different characteristics of someone's voice to know who's speaking and when. The feature rolling out starting today to Google Home users in the U.S.

When a user sets up the feature, they will be required to say "OK GOOGLE" and "HEY GOOGLE" two times each. The setup will then let an individual speak to it under his or her own account.

The feature will recognize up to six users. The feature will be available in the United Kingdom in the coming months.

For more information, watch the video below:

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