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TypeSnippets is a new keyboard for iOS 8 that makes text expansion visual. Instead of typing your email address or phone number over and over again, TypeSnippets lets you create shortcuts that you only need to tap to activate. Where tools like TextExpander allow you to simplify text entry by creating small, text-based snippets for commonly-used phrases or pieces of information, TypeSnippets takes that simplicity a step further by making your snippets visual and tappable. You can build your snippets in the TypeSnippets app. Tap Create a Snippet to get started, then add things like your name, an email signature, and more. When you use the TypeSnippet keyboard in…

InstaPDF, the popular Mac and iOS app that lets you easily scan documents and pictures as PDFs and upload them to the cloud, has been updated to version 4.0 on both platforms, bringing a number of nifty new features along for the ride. With version 4.0, InstaPDF for Mac has scored some new features to make managing your files a tad easier. Firstly, users can now easily drag and drop documents between their InstaPDF account and their computer. Additionally, the app has picked up a number of keyboard shortcuts, as well as single-click management for bundles. It's important to note, however, that this is a public beta, so you may run into some bugs here and there. …

For many families, next week is March break, when the schools close and the kids come home. If they're coming home to iPhones and iPads, there's a lot to keep them busy — and learning! Whether you're going on vacation or enjoying a much-deserved staycation, there are plenty of apps both built-into the iPhone and iPad and available on the App Store to help pass the time and make the most of it. If you're looking for some projects to get creative with, we originally filmed these for the summer, but they work just as well for the spring. Learn a new language with Duolingo on your iPhone or iPad Make a vacation travel trailer with iMovie on your iPhone or iPad! Make …

Military Masters is a new battle tactics game for iPhone and iPad that centers on tactical vehicular combat. You'll build a collection of land, sea, and air vehicles to help you take on your friends in real-time PVP combat. Military Masters lets you assemble and upgrade a massive stable of vehicles. Each vehicle has special abilities that can turn the tide of battle if deployed wisely. You'll take these tanks, boats, and planes and more into real-time battle against other players. As part of the multiplayer, you're able to team up with others. Clans can be created with up to a dozen other players, who can provide tactical and logistical support for clan member…

iPhone owners who also have a Microsoft Band can now download an update to the Microsoft Health app for iOS. The update bring a number of features to the app. Here's the change log for the new version: Bike Tile: Lets you track your heart rate and calorie burn. Outdoor rides will also track speed, distance, and elevation. Quick Read: Helps you read text, email, and other notifications quickly. A large font size and the rapid succession of words enable you to read messages while in motion and without having to scroll. MapMyFitness Integration: Effortlessly save and upload your workout data to MapMyFitness. HealthVault Integration: Easily share your Microsoft He…

If Twitter is where you hang your social hashtags, we've got two great ways for you to stay up to date with iMore! For those who prefer a carefully curated experience, we have the main @iMore account. It brings you the very best of our original content — features, editorials, opinions, reviews, guides, and the most important news. It won't flood your feed, but it will make sure you know about everything that matters. For those who want absolutely every story we publish everyday, we have the @iMore_firehose account. It will bring you every story, including every bit of news we link to from morning to noon to night. It'll make sure your feed always has the latest and …

We're inching ever-closer to the start of the 2015 baseball season, and the MLB At Bat app for iPhone and iPad has been updated accordingly. Some of the main highlights of the update include a refreshed UI, expanded player search, and Spanish language support. Here's a rundown on what's new in version 8.0 New UI for all 30 team pages & the league-wide scoreboard (iPhone only) Player search expanded to include all active and historical MLB player cards (iPhone only) Re-designed UI for the newsreader (iPhone & iPad) Team-by-team statistical data filters (iPhone only) Native resolution to optimize At Bat for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Easy access to every …

Vimeo has been updated to version 5.2, adding support for Google's Chromecast. Owners of the device can now cast to it directly while watching a video in the app. When you have a Chromecast set up, start watching a video in full screen and tap the casting icon that appears. You'll be able to continue browsing while your current video plays. Vimeo has also fixed a number of bugs. Moving from portrait to landscape should now work properly, video sizes will now display correctly, and Watch Later videos under password protection will now show up in Downloads. The company promises that more updates to the app are on their way soon. You can download Vimeo 5.2 from the A…

I hope the Apple Watch gets this weird. All my life I've been fascinated by weird things. The weirder the better. Apple's product designs were really weird for a while. Weird, and really pretty. The weirder the better When I was a young teen in the 1980s, few things gave me as much pleasure as reading Fangoria magazine from bloody cover to bloody cover. Fangoria was — and is — a great magazine if you're interested in practical special effects in the movies, and at that age I was obsessed with gory movies. One particular horror movie director who caught my attention was David Cronenberg. Cronenberg made his mark with unusual R-rated horror fare like Videodrom…

Google Maps for iPhone and iPad has been updated. The app will now help you find businesses near an address that you search for. You can also find quick facts about local landmarks. Users can also now find information for upcoming events from select venues. Below is a list of all of the changes in Google Maps 4.3: See businesses nearby when looking up an address Get quick facts on popular points of interest See a list of upcoming events and performances at participating venues Add transit directions to your calendar Bug Fixes You can download the latest version of Google Maps for iPhone and iPad from the App Store right now. Free - Download Now …

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Former Apple retail head Ron Johnson has shared some of the lessons that he's learned during his time in retail, including things he learned at Apple. Johnson shared a story about a discussion he had with Steve Jobs before the opening of the first Apple Stores. Before the opening of the first Apple Retail Stores, Johnson expressed dissatisfaction with how the stores were designed, saying that they should focus on activities that people use their devices for, not the products themselves, according to Inc. Magazine: "We've organized it like a retail store around products, but if Apple's going to organize around activities like music and movies, well, the store sh…

Siri now works hand in hand with Shazam, the popular music tagging service. That means, instead of rushing and stumbling to find the Shazam app when a great song comes on and you're desperate to identify it, you can simply have Siri do it for you! How to tag and identify songs with Siri and Shazam Make sure the song you want to identify is playing in the background. Press and hold the Home button to activate Siri. Say something like "What song is this?" or "What song is playing?", any variation should work. Siri will then listen and present a result. If you'd like to purchase the song in iTunes, tap on the Buy button and you'll be taken right to it. If you wan…

We're talking Apple's Spring Forward event with Georgia, Serenity, Peter, and yours truly! Join us now! [/url] Continue reading...

Apple CEO Tim Cook isn't waiting until the company's big press event on March 9 to talk about the Apple Watch. In a new interview, he says he can't imagine living without the smartwatch, which is scheduled to go on sale sometime in April. The UK-based newspaper The Telegraph chatted with Cook while he made a surprise visit to the Covent Garden Apple Store in London today. It stated: Cook, needless to say, is already wearing his new Apple Watch. He couldn't even contemplate living without it anymore, he says. "I'm now so used to getting all my notifications and all my messages," he says. "It's so incredible just to do this." Cook and his team showed the new…

Apple is continuing their advertising push for the Apple Watch, this time with a two-page spread in the Vogue Paris. The March issue of the magazine features models wearing the watch the Edition version of the Watch. From AppleInsider: Boding readers "welcome to the future," the spread discusses the Watch's importance at post-Steve Jobs Apple and its overt positioning as a fashion accessory. The story — first noticed by French blog PomPomComedy — is bookended by photos of fashion models donning the gold Apple Watch Edition. The images of the spread first appeared on PomPomComedy. A multipage advertisement for the Apple Watch debuted in the March iss…

A lot of news and feats happened this week, making today’s Weekend Reading a catalog of great ideas to inspire you. First up, Microsoft announced that its employees raised a record $117 million for nearly 20,000 nonprofits and schools in 2014. And to help employees give their time as well as money, the company unveiled Tech Talent for Good, a new program that encourages employees to help nonprofits with their technical skills. Microsoft also increased its company volunteer match to $25 per hour. “Many of our employees have asked how they can do more for their local communities, and we are proud to provide this increased matching contribution and this new way to part…

It's that time again. Time to bring you up-to-date with the latest happenings around Android Central, Connectedly, CrackBerry, iMore, and Windows Central in our Community Update. Continue reading...

What's up with Apple's March 9 event? The iMore crew weighs in on what we expect to see the company unveil. When CEO Tim Cook teased that the company considers "Early" to be the first four months of the year, most expected Apple's next big thing to appear sometime in April. But joke's on us: Apple's March 9 "Spring Forward" event looks likely to properly debut the Apple Watch a month prior to the media's arbitrary April deadline. Rene Ritchie and I will be on hand at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco to provide color commentary and covetous glances for whatever comes out of Apple's March 9 event; you can additionally watch starting at 10AM…

Just when you thought there would be the possibility of patent battles being a thing of the past, Apple has found itself caught up in a suit with Ericsson. The latter company has filed seven new lawsuits in a US court and is seeking the International Trade Commission to block sales of Apple products in the US market. Ericsson claims Apple is infringing on as many as 41 patents. According to the Bloomberg report: Together, the complaints accuse Apple of infringing as many as 41 patents for some of the fundamental ways mobile devices communicate and for related technology such as user interfaces, battery saving and the operating system. Ericsson states they …

My iPad Air has become an almost constant companion. I've been around computers most of my adult life but the iPad is the first computer that's ever really felt part of my life. My mom is a retired university and elementary school teacher. She's had an iMac for years, received her first iPad in 2011, now has an iPhone and Apple TV as well, and is looking forward to adding an Apple Watch to her setup this April. Since the iPad has replaced the Mac as her primary computing device, she thought it might be interesting to explain how and why. Needless to say, we agreed immediately. — Rene I wake up early and, as I am retired, I can afford to spend the first couple of hou…

Dozens of Mac games are out now and coming soon that will keep you glued to your screen. Here they are. I get insulted for being a Mac gamer, as if that's not a "real" gamer. Don't confuse your ego with your video game system of choice. Bottom line is the Mac is a great game platform. If you don't believe it, there's nothing for you to read here, so move on. Ric Molina over at MacGamerHQ feels the same way I do. He's genuinely excited about what's coming, and he's rounded up 31 of what he thinks are some of the hottest titles coming throughout 2015. Some, like Grim Fandango Remastered, are out already. Molina's also got some juicy rumors to share. This was…

Wunderlist has announced some of its plans for 2015, including the addition of important and powerful features to its apps on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The company has also announced that they will launch service and app integrations, as well as a public API. Folders are coming to Wunderlist, letting users keep their tasks from home, work, and more separate and distinct. The app is also getting a redesigned sidebar, and adding a Quick Add feature, which allows you to quickly create new items and lists, according to Wunderlist: Just like you, we know that when an idea strikes it needs to be quickly captured. With one tap of Quick Add's blue circle, you can inst…

The SURFACE Case is the perfect iPhone 6 hard case; combining a super-slim design, protective outer shell and a magnetic kickstand for convenient viewing. The exterior features a soft coating that provides additional grip to help prevent drops. Get yours in any color today for just $18.95 Continue reading...

République Remastered, the graphically-revamped version of the acclaimed stealth action game, has now been released for the Mac. It's also the first commercially-released game to use the new Unity 5 graphics engine. The game, from developer Camouflaj, was previously released for the iPhone and iPad, using the older Unity 4 game engine. The new Mac version of République Remastered normally costs $24.99, but will be priced at just $19.99 during its launch week. It offers immediate access to the game's first three episodes, and the price also covers the final two episodes when they are released. Here's a breakdown of the game's storyline: In RÉPUBLIQUE REMASTE…