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Burger King has announced that its mobile app is now available for customers in the UK and Ireland. The app itself provides access to personalized discounts at participating restaurants, a handy store locator to find the nearest Burger King and there's even a complete guide to all products offered by the fast food chain. The official app has been updated to help customers through its restaurant experience, providing a feature-rich solution. Should you be a fan of vouchers then this app is well worth the download for the discounts alone, which can be used in-store right from your smartphone. The menu also provides nutritional information and some other useful details.…

UK communications regulator Ofcom has today announced more radio spectrum will be available at auction for mobile operators next year (or early 2016). The two bands that will be up for grabs are the 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz frequencies that will offer high data capacity for the increasing use of mobile connectivity. The 2.3GHz band has been deployed in 10 countries outside Europe, including China, India and Australia. Already compatible with various mobile devices available today makes the auction an obvious option for Ofcom to work in more capacity for the UK. It's worth noting that the UK government is also looking to address signal issues as well as expanding the 4G LTE …

October may have left you in a candy-induced haze, but the first week in November comes with opportunities for increased productivity and news of inspirational people, and their actions. Read on! Microsoft Thursday announced new and updated Office apps and experiences for the iPhone and iPad, a preview of Office for Android tablets and the ability for customers using these devices to create and edit Office content without a subscription. “With Office on nearly every device, it’s incredibly important to us that customers have a consistent experience and the ability to do more – anywhere and everywhere,” writes John Case, corporate vice president for Microsoft Office. …

There have been a bunch of virtual keyboards launched for iOS 8 in the past couple of months, but a newly launched app called Slated can serve as both a keyboard and a translator for the iPhone and iPad. Slated currently supports over 80 languages. You type, it offers a translation, and you choose whether or not that or your native language will be what you send. According to the app description: Slated is a keyboard extension - it can replace your keyboard in other apps, letting you converse in another language. And just by simply copying any text in that language, you'll see it translated back into yours. So you can and a friend can both type in a foreign lan…

The guys behind Runtastic, a well-known fitness app, have launched Sleep Better, a dedicated app for keeping tabs on how you sleep and providing custom alarms to wake you up at the ideal point in your sleep cycle. Sleep Better promises to track all sorts of data. All it has to do is stay tucked under your pillow before you hit the sack and it will keep tabs on how restful your sleep is based on your movement. By manually inputting caffeine, exercise, food, and alcohol intake before you go to bed and logging dreams once you wake up, Sleep Better provides insights as to how you can improve your rest. Sleep tracking is a great feature that's bundled into many fitness…

Yesterday we told you about a big overhaul coming to Google Maps, and today that overhaul has arrived. The Google Maps app for iPhone and iPad has been bumped up to version 4.0, bringing a whole new "Material Design" look to the mapping, search, and navigation app. In addition to the new look, which features a lot of bright colors and a flatter design, the Google Maps update is also bringing integration with OpenTable for finding restaurants and making reservations at said restaurants, and integration with Uber that will allow you to estimate the wait time and fare for a ride with the private car service. By and large Google Maps still works the same way on iOS an…

Electronic Arts's Frostbite game graphics engine team have been working to get at least part of their hit first-person shooter Battlefield 4 running on an iPad in an internal tech demo, but it may be a long time, if ever, before the full game is released for iOS devices. Kristoffer Benjaminsson of Frostbite Stockholm gives some of the credit to Apple's recently launched graphics API Metal for allowing the team to add "both high visual fidelity and a large number of objects" in their iOS tech demo. He adds: So to see exactly how far we could take the engine on mobile we set ourselves up for a real challenge: getting selected parts of the Battlefield 4 – truly a …

Calcbot for Mac is the latest app from Tapbots, maker of the original Calcbot for iOS, and the extremely popular Tweetbot. What it is and what it does is all right there in the name — it's a calculator, it runs on the Mac, and it's got some robot-like smarts built right in. There's all the visual and sound design flare you'd expect from Tapbots, including bright colors and deep, vibrant translucency — all the OS X Yosemite bells and whistles. Feature wise, you can make calculations and convert units — 500 units across 22 different categories. There's a tape to help you keep track of what you've done, and favorites to access calculations at any time. There's also scient…

Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel launched on iPad last spring with the requirement for an Office 365 subscription to do any real editing, but starting today not only can you get the renown productivity suite on iPhone, it's also free to do any editing. PowerPoint helps you put together and run slide-based presentations, Excel helps you crunch numbers in spreadsheets, and Word is an all-purpose rich text editor. As you can imagine, all three of these have cloud capabilities, making it easy to share and collaborate on projects. For a deep dive into what Office on iOS can do, check out our review. Go ahead and get downloading the new office apps at the links bel…

Pixelmator is a popular and favorably rated image editing suite available for Mac and the iPad. The app has just been bumped to version 3.3 (codename Limestone), introducing numerous new features and changes to make everything work like magic with OS X Yosemite. As well as a redesigned interface offering a new look and feel inspired by Apple's latest OS release, Pixelmator 3.3 Limestone includes support for iCloud Drive, Handoff and more: OS X Yosemite Support: Complete OS X Yosemite new features and technology support. Handoff Support: Instantly switch between Pixelmator on your Mac and iPad. iCloud Drive Support: Safely store and access your images on all devices.…

More Macs are supporting external 4K displays than ever before. Here's a roundup of some Mac-compatible displays you can use if you'd like to expand your Mac's desktop real estate in leaps and bounds. I've also provided some details about 4K display support on specific Mac models, to help guide your decision-making, because 4K displays are still a really significant investment. Before we get started As of November, 2014, the following Macs support external 4K displays: MacBook Pro (Retina, Late 2013 and later) Mac Pro (Late 2013) Retina iMac (27-inch, Late 2013 and later) Mac mini (Late 2014) If you're using a Mac that's more than a few months old, mak…

Opera launched version 9 of its Mini browser for iOS today, bringing a Video Boost feature that cuts down on video load times by incorporating a compression technology. The browser has also been optimized for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Here's how the Video Boost feature works, according to Opera: So, what exactly happens to the video data when it is optimized? When you select a video to watch, our servers take a quick peek at the video's resolution and quality. Video data that's too big is shrunk before it lands on your phone, lessening buffering time. All this happens in the blink of an eye. Video boost can be enabled when Data Savings is set to Opera …

EE TV has just launched in the UK and is now available throughout the country at the mobile operator's stores. The company announced the new set-top box last month, which enables consumers to enjoy over 70 Freeview channels, catch-up and on-demand services, as well as DVR functionality to make good use of the 1TB hard drive. Should you already be an existing customer with EE, it's possible to grab the set-top box for free. There's a slight catch though, as EE requires you to subscribe to the network's broadband plans, starting from £9.95 a month. To mark the launch of EE TV, the network teamed up with TV's famous Gogglebox families to trial the service – you can see …

In March, we announced Office for the iPad®, a major step in commitment to bring Office to everyone, on every device and anywhere they need it. Since then, customers took to the App Store and downloaded Office for their iPads more than 40 million times and we’re delighted with the feedback we’ve received. Customers told us the apps are beautiful. They told us that they appreciated the familiar Office experience designed specifically for the iPad. And most importantly, they told us they wanted us to do more. Since then, we’ve released native apps for OneNote, Lync, Yammer, OneDrive for Business and OWA for iOS and Android and we’ve continued our investment in the Mac pl…

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has issued security rankings for several popular communication platforms, including Apple's iMessage Google's Hangouts and Skype from Microsoft. Both iMessage and Apple's FaceTime were named as the best mass market options for secure messaging according to the EFF's criteria. These categories include message encryption in transit, independent code review, and proper documentation of security. While Apple's applications met most of the requirements, the EFF took marks off both FaceTime and iMessage for their inability to verify contact identities, and the lack of independent code review for either. Skype, Hangouts, and BlackBer…

Every week Apple adds tons of new media content on iTunes — music, books, movies and more. It's impossible to keep up with all of it, but it's not impossible to pick out the very best. Here they are! This week we've got a new album from one of the 1980's biggest pop bands, the retelling of the story of one of Disney's most notorious villains, a biography from famed Monty Python member John Cleese and more! Big Music - Simple Minds Most people associated Simple Minds with their mid-80s anthem Don't You, made famous from The Breakfast Club soundtrack. But Simple Minds, formed in 1977, has been plugging away ever since. They've released 16 albums over the years, culm…

Google Maps is getting a redesign that will make the app on iPhone and iPad look a lot more like its Android counterpart. The design draws on Google's new "Material Design" language, which pervades the updated Android 5.0 Lollipop, bringing a layout that's flatter and layered, yet with lots of colors. In the case of Google Maps, lots of blue. It's a similar look and feel to the recently-released Inbox by Gmail. Overall things generally work the same way, but you'll find many more instances of swaths of color. It's very much a new look for Google Maps, and it works well, though there's plenty of empty space to it. Google Maps is getting new services integrated with…

The best budget apps for iPhone to help you spend smarter, save faster, and get your finances under control! Looking for the best iPhone apps to help you take control of your finances? Budgeting may not sound sexy, but it's what lets us afford all the truly sexy things we love, including iPhones, iPads, and Macs! From bill payments to saving for vacations and holidays, financial planning is all about making the most of what we have, and that's where budgeting apps can help! But which budgeting app is the best choice for you? BUDGT BUDGT for iPhone doesn't require you to give it any personal account information or login information, so it's simple to start a…

We've gathered together some great discounts on iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps, accessories, and devices for you today. We'll keep showing sales that are ongoing after double-checking that they're still active and the price is the same, as well as updating the list with anything new that we find. Of course, if you spot any great deals, don't be shy - drop a tip in the comments! Oh, and though there isn't a lot of Apple-specific products here, ThinkGeek's half-off sale has some really fantastic stuff included. Today's top iOS and Mac app deals Minuum - $3.99 $0.99 A Dark Room - $0.99 Free Bonza - $0.99 Free Toca Builders - $2.99 $0.99 Toca Hair Salon - $2.99 $0.9…

Today, we provide advance notification for the release of 16 Security Bulletins. Five of these updates are rated Critical, nine are rated as Important, and two are rated Moderate in severity. These updates are for Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Office, Exchange, .NET Framework, Internet Information Services (IIS), Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS), Input Method Editor (IME) (Japanese), and Kernel Mode Driver (KMD).

I stood in a cul-de-sac in Reading, a suburb 30 minutes west of London, preparing for one of the most unique journeys of my life. “Journey” may seem a strong word for walking a few blocks and getting on a bus. At my normal pace, it should only be 444 steps from the Tudor-and-brick-walled quietude of Tamarisk Avenue to the bus stop around the corner. But considering the deeply meaningful work happening in this small corridor of England, and the way I’ll feel after my trip (as topsy-turvy as if I’d spent the day at Six Flags), there’s nothing else to call it but a journey. It was midday on a Tuesday. The weather was capricious, scattering raindrops across our jackets …

Unless and until the Retina 5K iMac is ignited, you’d be hard-pressed to tell it apart from last year’s model. It’s got the same design, almost all-display design, and the same razor-thin edge that makes it, from some angles, almost impossible to believe Apple managed to cram a computer inside. When you do ignite it though, when those 14,745,600 pixels fire up, everything changes. The iPhone going Retina was a revelation. Pixels — the building blocks of computer displays — disappeared, and only clean, crisp text and images remained. It was like going from blocky to smooth, from newsprint to magazines. When the iPad went Retina that experience scaled from 3.5 to 9.7 inc…

New data from Kobalt Music Publishing — which represents songwriters like Lenny Kravitz, Paul McCartney, Max Martin and more — suggests that artists are receiving more revenue from Spotify than iTunes in Europe. Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that digital music sales through iTunes fell between 13 and 14 percent in 2014, and today's data from Kobalt reinforces those claims. The report found that Kobalt writers earned 13% more from Spotify streams than from iTunes downloads in Europe during the first quarter of 2014. The statistics from 2013 reveal the shift to streaming services, as in the third quarter last year, iTunes revenues outpaced Spotify…