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Popular Twitter app Tweetbot for iPhone has scored an update today, bringing it up to version 3.5.2. As far as new features are concerned, it's a bit light, but users will gain support for playing Twitter-hosted videos and GIFs, along with the usual helping of bug fixes. Here's the full breakdown of what's new and improved in version 3.5.2: Support for viewing Twitter videos Better support for Twitter GIFs Various bug fixes Twitter videos were recently added to the micro-blogging service at the end of January, and enable users to upload videos directly to Twitter itself, rather than going through third-party services such as Instagram. While this most rece…

One of the most common misconceptions when it comes to the iPhone is that Apple could simply double the thickness to double the battery life. It then follows, under that train of thought, that Apple is deliberately sacrificing longevity for cosmetics. That the company is putting an obsession for thinness over usability. I used to wonder about that myself. Then I had the chance to speak to some people in the industry and discovered that batteries and battery life are, well... complicated. Here's the case for the thicker, longer-lasting iPhone as most recently made by Christopher Mims of the Wall Street Journal: Take the latest iPhone. Let's do a thought experiment…

Mac adware is bad. Windows is worse. Who's to blame? Free software download sites. Weren't we just talking about how to get rid of Mac adware? This is a real and malevolent threat on the Mac. We have it easy compared to our Windows using colleagues with horrors like Superfish. InfoSec Taylor Swift on Twitter recently made me aware of a feature on How-To Geek that explains what's going on with popular PC download sites like CNET Downloads. As we've shown before, if you make the huge gigantic mistake of trusting CNET Downloads, you could already be infected with this type of adware. Two of the top ten downloads on CNET (KMPlayer and YTD) are bundling two diffe…

Apple has launched their new crash reporting service with the latest beta release of Xcode 6.3. The new service is designed to make it easier to find and fix crashes quickly. Apps submitted with debug symbols to both the TestFlight beta service and the App Store will have their crash log data aggregated into crash reports, according to Apple: Apps that you've submitted with debug symbols to the App Store and to TestFlight will have their crash log data collected and aggregated into crash reports that will automatically download into Xcode. The enhanced Organizer window makes it easy to triage your crashes, jump directly to the offending code, and mark a crash as res…

Apple Watch anticipation has reached a fever pitch, with folks speculating on costs, crown and band pairings, the Watch's health sensors, and when the thing will actually reach our wrists. As such, it's no surprise the Watch has been on my brain, as well — specifically the Edition model. There's been a lot of speculation on pricing and whether Apple will legitimately charge $10,000 (or more) for the gold models. To compete in the high-end watchmaker's space, that kind of cost isn't out of the question, but I do wonder: Can the company get away with selling a five-figure Apple Watch that's obsolescent in two years? The $10,000 Watch I should preface this by sayi…

Fans of Marvel's superheroes will soon have yet another mobile game to check out that pits their biggest characters against one another. Today, DeNA and Marvel Entertainment revealed that Marvel Mighty Heroes is coming soon to the iPhone and iPad. The free-to-play brawler will feature online co-op for up to four players in a game that has a cartoon-theme art style. Marvel and DeNA stated: Marvel Mighty Heroes lets players choose their favorite Marvel comic book characters, including Iron Man, Groot, Captain America, Star-Lord, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow and Spider-Man, and dozens of their allies and nemeses. Players will build a dream-team of Super Heroes and Supe…

Vemedio, the developer behind the Instacast podcast app, has announced their latest app for Mac, Snowflake. Built for OS X Yosemite, Snowflake lets you stream internet radio from thousands of stations. The app is available right now as a free public beta from Vemedio's website. Snowflake helps you find internet radio stations easily using search or a genre list. In addition to helping you find free music, Snowflake will also auto-detect available purchase links to the tracks you listen to on both the iTunes Store and Amazon. The app offers a number of controls for playing music. You can select multiple audio devices for Snowflake's sound, switching them on and off…

Toyota's national manager for Toyota's advanced technology communications, John Hanson, has confirmed that the Japanese manufacturer will not be adding CarPlay integration to its US vehicles. Rather than Apple's interface — or Google's Android Auto — Toyota will stick with its own Entune system for now. That's according to a statement given to the New York Times: "We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions." Toyota is still listed as a "committed partner" for CarPlay and "remains in talks". Based on the wording, it's possible the company could change its mind in the future,…

YouTube (and the internet in general) can be quite the daunting place for parents to have their kids roaming free on. Google has released a new YouTube app, specifically developed for younger audiences. It's a new portal for parents to have their children learn about various topics and discover exciting resources. As one would imagine, the app is designed to make it easier for younger web surfers to check out the massive catalogue of videos tailored to children, whether they be hunting Pocoyo or the latest episode of Sesame Street's The Furchester Hotel. There's also no requirement to type and search as navigation sports big bold icons and images, allowing those who …

It has often been said that air travel shrank the world, bringing people closer together. While true, that change was nothing like the transformation brought about by information and communications technologies (ICT). ICT has transformed every aspect of digital work and life, creating a globally connected society whose members have new social, economic and educational opportunities. In this new environment, being multilingual, or knowing more than one language, increases our overall readiness to relate and to communicate cross-culturally. Since the ability to speak a language also gives us insight into a culture and a broader world view, language learning gives us more…

This might just be what the next-generation Pebble smartwatch will look like. The render of the smartwatch was found on the company's servers, hidden away with its wider design and color screen. Pebble is expected to officially announce the device Tuesday, February 24, at 10 am Eastern time, which is when the current countdown on their website reaches "zero". The render would appear to confirm earlier rumors that the next generation Pebble will have a color display but maintain the same four-button control scheme of the current devices. The image also shows what looks like a bigger bezel than the current Pebble design. We expect that we'll be learning a lot more abou…

Have a lot of appointments and meetings to juggle? Would it make your life a little easier to be able to easily see how long it will take you to get from one place to another? Apple's Calendar can use location information to figure out just that, and best of all, it's easy! How to get travel times with Calendar for iPhone and iPad Launch the Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap on the event you'd like to calculate a travel time for or create a new one. Tap on Edit at the top right. Tap on Travel Time. Turn On travel time. Tap on Starting Location and tell Calendar your starting location either by entering an address or the name of a place or business. Tap…

One of the best ways to get more life out of an aging Mac is to upgrade the storage. In some cases you'll want to go faster. In other cases, you'll want to go bigger. I carried a MacBook Air for two years but gave up on it in favor of a Retina MacBook Pro with beefier SSD storage, and haven't regretted it. The MacBook Air is still with us, in the hands of my college-aged son. It's time for a storage upgrade to get him a couple more years with it. Here's how. Apple changed the architecture of the MacBook Air's flash storage interface with the mid-2013 models. If you have a MacBook Air older than that, like mine, you'll find storage upgrade kits readily available fr…

A lot of our readers who switched from Android to iPhone didn't come from outdated Samsung phone but from the most updatable phone Google has to offer — the Nexus. When I recently asked why people dumped their Android phones for iPhones, that's what came up again and again. And it was a big surprise. I expected people would switch from Samsung now that Apple has bigger and better screens, or from Motorola to get features like Touch ID and Apple Pay, or from LG because of easy access to Apple Stores and AppleCare, or from HTC because of the quality and coherence of the software. Nexus converts, I assumed, would be few and far between, because to own one you've got to re…

Digital security vendor Gemalto has announced that its products are "secure" following a report last week stating that the NSA and its UK counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), hacked into the vendor's SIM cards. With a production run of over 2 billion SIM cards a year, Gemalto is the leading SIM card manufacturer in the world, and counts the four major US carriers among its clients. The leaked documents revealed that US and UK government agencies were able to gain encryption keys for Gemalto's SIM cards, allowing the agencies unfettered access to a user's call logs and messages. The hack also allowed them to monitor communications without fi…

If you're looking for a fun Mac, Windows or Linux game to play this weekend, check out Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball from 82 Apps. Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball is a futuristic first person shooter that's what would happen to Dodgeball in the Tron world. What's more, it's on sale right now for $11.99. Unicycle-style robots populate chambers equipped with ramps, walls and obstacles, lobbing explosive dodgeballs. Catch them when they're thrown at you and eliminate your opponent; pick up a ball and hit your opponent and score. The game sports a variety of different play modes, including Capture the Flag, Elimination, Hoops and Grand Prix, along with po…

Apple's Health app for iPhone debuted with iOS 8. Health provides a central place for all your medical, fitness, nutrition, sleep, and related information. Categories include Diagnostics, Fitness, Lab Results, Me, Medication, Nutrition, Sleep, and Vital Signs. Data is presented in both graphs — which can be added to the dashboard view — and in separate sub-catagories. Once the information is collected, you can either keep it just for yourself, or you can choose to send it to other apps, or even share it with your medical professional via Apple's HealthKit framework. There's even a medical ID feature to help responders to find out vital information in case of emergency.…

This iPhone 6 bumper features 4-corner protection against drops and keeps the display and back of your device safe from scratches by elevating it away from flat surfaces. Choose from 5 different colors and save 67% today! Continue reading...

The iMore show brings you everything you need to know about the week in iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple! On this episode — CarPlay vs. Apple Car, bit rot, Apple Watch and design, Astropad, Records, Calcbot, and more! With Serenity, Peter, and Rene! Support the iMore show: Visit thetiebar.com/iMore and use promo code iMore50 by the end of February for free shipping on orders of $50 or more! Sign up for a FREE 10-day trial by visiting lynda.com/imore! Subscribe in iTunes: Audio Subscribe in RSS: Audio Download directly: Audio Hosts Serenity Caldwell Peter Cohen Rene Ritchie [/url] Continue reading...

The Calendar app on the iPhone and iPad supports alternate calendars, including Chinese, Hebrew, and Islamic. By default, in America, it's set to U.S. format. However, you can easily change it to any of the other formats. Here's how! How to enable Chinese, Hebrew, or Islamic formats in Calendar for iPhone or iPad Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad. Tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Tap on Alternate Calendars under the Calendars section. Tap on any one of the supported alternate calendars you'd like to use instead of the standard format. Your Calendar app should now reflect those changes. Continue reading...

Apple Maps Connect is a service that provides small businesses with a way to add and edit their location information on Apple Maps. In other words, to roll up their sleeves and help make Maps better for their customers and for everyone. Now, businesses in France, Germany, and Canada can contribute their information to Apple Maps Connect as well. Maps Connect debuted in the U.S. but spread to the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore earlier this year. Today's update brings the total to nine. If you're a small business in France, Germany, Canada, or any of the supported countries, you can access the service now: Apple Maps Connect …

There's a lot we don't know about Apple Watch. We don't know how much it will cost, beyond the $349 price tag Apple's hung on the entry-level Sport model. We don't know if any other straps will be made available, including gold links to match the gold Edition. We don't know if we'll be able to buy additional straps separately so we can take advantage of the stellar strap-swapping mechanism Apple has included in all the collections. We know the broad strokes, but we know few if any of the fine details. Our own Kevin Michaluk, a watch enthusiast most of his life, has been guessing/hoping the Apple Watch Edition will start at $10K and could go higher. In point of fact, he…

Apple announced today that new Mac apps and app updates will no longer be able to use garbage collection, a system for managing an application's memory use, after May 1. Instead, developers must switch to using Automatic Reference Counting (ARC). Garbage collection was deprecated quite some time ago in OS X Mountain Lion as Apple wanted developers to start adopting ARC, which made its debut in the previous version OS X Lion. As developers make the transition, Apple notes that they can take advantage of the migration assistant in Xcode to ease the process. Source: Apple [/url] Continue reading...

Marvel and comiXology have teamed up to offer a buy one, get one free sale on Marvel comics on their websites from today, Feb. 20, through Monday, Feb. 23. When purchasing any number of Marvel comics either the Marvel or comiXology site, use the code MARVEL during checkout to to get an equal number of comics of the same or lower value for free. The offer does not apply to bundles, or titles under the MAX or Icon labels. Titles being promoted under the deal include Captain America, Uncanny X-Men, Ms. Marvel, and Black Widow. As a reminder, this deal is only available on the web. However, after purchase, you'll be able to read your new books right from the Marvel or co…

Speaking up for yourself is hard enough. When others try to silence you through threats of violence and intimidation, what should be the appropriate response? A game developer announced plans this week to withdraw from exhibiting at the upcoming PAX East game conference in Boston, Mass. Giant Spacekat cited death threats against the company's head of development as the reason for the decision. What's happening is nothing less than a mental health crisis in online communities. Giant Spacekat is the developer of Revolution 60, a game that debuted for iOS in 2014 — one that iMore crowned iOS Action Game of the Year for its multitouch-optimized interface, delightful a…