Meet Siri

Is it weird that millions of people around the world know this lady’s voice, and that they communicate with her, sort of, every day without her knowing anything about it?

It’s weird, right?

It’s Susan Bennett’s life. She’s a voice over actress from Atlanta, and has for the first time been publicly identified (by CNN) as the voice behind Siri.

Probably.

“I’m the voice actor who provided the voice of Siri,” Bennett told CNN in an interview, although Trudi Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple, declined to comment.

CNN said an audio-forensics expert “has studied both voices and says he is ‘100 per cent’ certain the two are the same.”

Hi Siri! Thanks for letting people record your answers to our stupid questions from the future!

Super nice of you.

Image courtesy of eonline.com

New YouTube Mobile App feature!

Youtubers!

Good news! Very soon you will be able to download video using the mobile app on your phone or tablet AND watch said video later, when you’re offline for some weird reason.

Cool huh? Well, it’s like a 6 on coolness. Could definitely come in handy, definitely good for flights and camping and space flights.

But… some commercial partners, such as the music video service Vevo, have the option and are taking the option to not participate. Wah.

The service will still be free, still contain ads, won’t work for movies or TV episodes that it currently rents, and the downloaded video will work to watch offline for up to 48 hours.

Thanks, YouTube.

Image courtesy of YouTube.

(Future) App of the day

This is one we’re pretty excited about! Even though it’s an app that isn’t here yet, will only affect a specific type of person and at the beginning will only be in one particular location, it’s just so cool we had to share it with you guys.

Who here like’s football? We do! We do! And, we’re lucky enough to be fans of the 49er’s… cos, stay with me, their new Levi’s stadium in Santa Clara will be fully tech equipped to enhance the experience of the fans ( and opposing teams fans too we guess). Don’t forget this is the stadium that will host Superbowl 50 in 2016  OHMYGODSOEXCITING.

It has been announced that come the 2014 season, the stadium will have a high speed mobile infrastructure so you can post your Facebook fanpics and twitter your hearts out all you want without the signal being blocked.

So, that’s pretty cool, right?

Here comes the app. An app specific to Levi’s 49er’s stadium will be released that not only let’s you stream close-up game highlights and see stats relevant to the match you’re watching, but, and here’s the kicker- the app will let fans check the shortest food, beer and toilet lines in the stadium.

Whaaaaaat?

No more waiting for that delicious Hot Dog, or that sweet sweet beer, and that inevitable crossed legged dance in the toilet line can be avoided altogether!

Sweet Jeebus that sounds nice.

We’ll for sure be writing a detailed review of this app next year.

The things we do for you guys, honestly.

( Go 49er’s! )

Image courtesy of businessweek.com

Back to School!

So guys, back to school time, huh? Time for a back to school app review then I guess! Hooray for school and work and stuff! ACTUALLY hooray for iOS apps that make it all easier!

Whether you’re going back to high school, college or have a kid doing one of those, here are the top apps we recommend for helping to educate oneself the besterest!

And, because we understand the life of a student, most of these apps are free! But Priceless! Like that Mastercard ad! Kinda. Also, there’s a couple on the end that we think are worth a little bit extra cashola.

Enjoy kids! Don’t forget that all work and no play makes Homer …something… something

*StudyBlue has over 150 million pieces of student authored content, taken from tens of thousands of colleges and high schools from around the world. Browsing is easy, group collaboration makes those dreaded group projects easier, and if you don’t want to use other people’s quizzes, review sheets and flashcards, you can create your own to perfect your study experience. FREE from the Appstore!

*MyHomework Student Planner App.
This beautifully designed app will sync and track your schedule, classes, assignments, exams and homework. Even better- if your teacher or Professor uses the amazing Teachers.io, you can get a buttload more information such as syllabi, attachments, resources and communication from your professor.
MyHomework is FREE with ads, however if you want the ad-free experience, it’s only $1.99 per year.

*EasyBib.
Here’s some big words for you: Automated bibliography and citation generator. We like the sound of that. You know what we don’t like the sound of? Writing Bibliographies. Ugh, right? Well, sigh no more kids, the EasyBib App is here to save the day!
All you need to do is scan the barcode of the book you’re referencing, or type the name into the app and EasyBib will automatically create MLA, APA and Chicago style citations for you. These can then be emailed to yourself or exported into EasyBib’s online bibliography management service.
FREE from the app store.

*Mint.
Picture this: you’re in class when suddenly you realize that you are almost 94.6% sure you were supposed to pay, like, 5 bills in the last week and you actually have no idea how much money you have because you’re educating yourself and shouldn’t have to worry about things like rent and when you get paid and debt and lalalala. Well, the Mint.com App has all these things covered, so you can go ahead and not worry you’re pretty little smart head over it. Mint categorizes and organizes your bills, spending, income and debt into lovely little tables so you can keep a track of what money is going where and when chunks of it are incoming and need to be outgoing. Just remember to check it! Free from the App store.

* iSlick
So we all know education is big money right? But you still gotta eat, drink, have household items, maybe catch a baseball game, take your girlfriend out and party right? Welcome to the wonderful world of Slickdeals. Slickdeals.com has a mobile app- iSlick, which will show you the wonders of secret sales, unbelievable deals and the dream that is double (or triple ) couponing. Free with Ads or $1.99 ad-free.

*Gasbuddy. Y’all wanna get the cheapest gas prices out there? Get the Gasbuddy app and you’ll always know where to get the cheapest Gas. Simple as that, and it’s FREE from the App store.

*OnWatch.
Our pick from the range of Campus safety apps- a tool which shouldn’t have to be used but stays in the better safe than sorry category of must-download apps. A safety blanket even if never needed. And we hope that is the case!

OnWatch has 6 ‘watch’ modes that stay on your phone when you think you may be at risk or are feeling a little uncertain. From there it’s only two taps to contact friends, 911, campus police or a combination of those. You can also set an alarm for a future time and when that time arrives, you are asked to enter a passcode- If you don’t- the app will send your pre-selected friends a message and your location.
There is currently a 30 day free trial, after that It is $19.99/year or $2.99 per month. Even if you discontinue with the app for whatever reason, the call 911 and call campus police features remain free forever.

*BenchPrep. This app is essentially a be all, end all tool for study and exam preparation with a huge interactive course library with study features, reports and test preparation materials.
The App includes a massive amount of material for academic subjects from Algebra to Spanish to Biology, Test preparation for those special flowers smart enough to be taking the LSAT GMAT MCAT and a bunch of others, as well as courses on practical subjects such as eMarketing, Accounting, and Word.
An invaluable study tool, as seen by this: Students who learn with Benchmark receive 15% better grades than before they started using the app. 15% better? Not much to lose here, except the fee, which is a $25/month for one course and $99/month for access to all courses.

*Wolfram Alpha Mobile App
The best computation and expert knowledge search engine app out there in our opinion- it’s really impressive. Simply ask the app what you want calculated or a question you want the answer to – from complex mathematics to how old a president was when he entered office. $2 or – try out Wolfram Alpha Pro, which goes beyond text input and includes downloadable results. A monthly subscription is $4.99/ month or $2.99/month for students, and for a very short time ending TODAY; you can get the first three months free with an annual subscription.

*iStudiez Pro is the established and award winning student planner app that will track and summarize in simple and yet extensive detail, your assignments, due dates, schedule for classes, work and extra curricular activities, as well as your grades. It will give you alerts for upcoming exams, classes and assignment due dates and sync with other co-existing apps such as the calendar. Each class has the ability to include your professors contact information with simple tap to connect features to be able to reach them on your mobile. Highly recommended for years, this is one well worth checking out. $2.99 or free for the Lite version.

For those of you looking for some extra tutorials, or for those of you not going back to school but still looking for some education, we also recommend downloading the iTunes University app. It’s awesome.

Also, because we totally understand procrastination, there is SelfControl. Not an App, but something that may just change your life…even though you might end up hating us for introducing you to it!
Available only on Mac OS X 10.5 and above, SelfControl is a way to try and curb your Internet based distractions whilst studying. Simply add any website or access to your mail server to your ‘blacklist’ and an amount of time you would like to be blocked from them, and BAM! No more distractions ( on the internet) until that time is up. Restarting or deleting the application from your computer will not make a difference either! Useful and annoying! And FREE!

Also handy is ratemyprofessors.com, check it out to make your class choices a little more informative. Last but not least, don’t forget that good ‘ol Tinder app… College is all about making friends, right?

So that’s it! If you have any other handy apps or tips for going back to school let us know!

Hope we’ve given you a l’il bit of help!

Good luck Kids!

Images courtesy of Mashable.com, laptopmag.com, beautifulpixels.com, readwrite.com, crunchbase.com, Glamour.com, kicks99.com, zdnet.com and easybib.com

The iPhone 5c? Wha?

So here’s the juice, kids. Apparently, according to super secret sources, Apple will be introducing a cheap version of the iPhone named the iPhone 5C, with the C standing for color.

Interesting.

Although the idea of Apple releasing a cheaper version of the iPhone has been kicked around and  rumored for a reallllly long time, these rumors have ramped up recently suggesting that perhaps there may be a grain or more of truth to them!

Here’s what’s been making the rounds:

* Sonny Dickson, an Australian dude in the know leaked these photos of the alleged phone:

*This supports the rumor and earlier leaks that the iPhone 5C will come in a variety of colors, green, yellow, red and blue for starters, much like the iPod mini. Sonny Dickson also leaked this photo of the supposed volume buttons:

*The shell will be polycarbonate, slightly thicker, and will have rear curved edges.

*There is believed to be a single flash camera.

*Although there seems to be quite a lot of information leaked about the aesthetics and hardware of the iPhone 5C ( trustworthy or not is up to you to decide!), there has been in comparison hardly any information leaked about the software capabilities, except that the 5C will most likely not have Siri.

*The iPhone 5C is believed to be released either on September 10th with the iPhone 5S, or, if separately, by the end of the year. The price is believed to be in the $400 range before carrier subsidy.

*Gene Munster, an analyst from Piper Jaffray predicts that Apple will discontinue all iPhone device’s except for iPhone 5, iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C.

That’s all we have for now, but we have a feeling we won’t have to wait for too long to discover the truth…. cos it’s out there. X-Files taught us that.

images courtesy of Sonny Dickson’s website, Macrumors.com

New iPhone Announcement!

iPhone Announcement!

<<TRUMPETS!!>>

Yesterday the announcement date of the next iPhone was revealed to the world by the good folk over at AllThingsD ( or the secret mystery sources of AllThingsD).

You guys wanna know? Yes? No?

Thought so. OH MY GOD IT’S THE 10^TH OF SEPTEMBER!

That’s only a month away!

Last year Apple announced the iPhone 5 on the 12^th September, and released the phone to pre-order customers on the 21^st September.

If Apple sticks to its previous announcement and release schedule that means that the new iPhone will be available to the public by around the 23^rd September.

ONLY A MONTH AND A LITTLE BIT AWAY!

Uh… we’re pretty excited.

Of course, Apple doesn’t have to stick to their previous schedule and can do anything they want… and there is no indication of whether this announcement will be about the rumored next generation iPhone 5S, or the also rumored cheaper model iPhone 5C… or both!

Stay tuned for a round up of rumors surrounding the release(s) so you can get just as excited as us (is it possible? We’re not sure… ) AND know how and why and what and when to upgrade to the new phone!

Excuse us, we have to go run around in circles now. Bye!

Image courtesy of intermezzo.typepad.com

Now Samsung are trademarking names for smart watches!

Samsung has officially trademarked the name ‘Samsung Gear’ last week. Cool, cool, but what has that got to with watches iPhone Antidote?

Included in the  trademark application made by Samsung are mentions of ‘Parts and fittings for watches, wristwatches, electronic clocks and watches, bracelets  watchbands, control clocks and watches that communicate data to personal digital assistants’

Sounds like a smart watch and smart watch accessories to us!

Add this up with a quote in March from Samsung’s executive vice president of mobile business who said that they have been ‘preparing the watch product for so long’ and that ‘We are preparing products for the future, and the watch is definitely one of them.’

So much smart watch excitement! Who will release it first? Will that person then sue the other person for ever and ever over stolen ideas? Will anyone wear them or is the time for watches over? Will they make our lives better? Will they solve global warming? Will they have sandwich making capabilites?

Only time will tell!

Image courtesy of Mashable.

iWatch trademark update

So, we now have news that Apple has applied to trademark the name ‘iWatch’ in more countries across the world.

All of the applications were filed on June 3rd but have only become public in the last few days.

As well as Russia and Japan, Apple has filed to trademark ‘iWatch’ under both software and hardware categories in Jamaica, Taiwan, Turkey, and Mexico.

Momentum is building! Aghhhh!

Image courtesy of Forbes.

Free Stuff!

You heard us! Free stuff! And actually good free stuff too!

To celebrate the 5 year anniversary of the App store, Apple are giving away 5 games and 5 regular apps.

This is for a limited time, so get in there quick kids!

The apps you can get are:

Barefoot World Atlas
Day One ( Journaling app)
How To Cook Everything
Over
Traktor Dj for phone

The games you can get are:

Badland
Infinity Blade 2
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery
Tiny Wings
Where’s My Water?

All for freeeee! Happy Free Stuff Monday!

Image courtesy of appadvice.com

Hell is other people- the app that helps you avoid people

So, we’ve done a review of the lover-ly app that is Tinder, we were planning a review of the similarly themed ‘Bang with friends’ app, however it has been unceremoniously dumped from the Apple App store ( for the time being…).

We thought maybe now we should review an app for the people who are not really interested in human interaction, or face-to-face interaction specifically. Cos it be scary. We get that, so this one is for you guys!

The app?  ‘Hell is other people’. Got a nice dystopian ring to it doesn’t it? People are calling this an Anti-social app, and as unfriendly as that sounds, we think that it has definite potential in certain circumstances.

Here’s how it works.

You download the app onto your device. You go out for a quiet Sunday afternoon stroll. Say….say you might not have slept at home last night, say you’re on what some people might call, a ‘walk of shame’. Who you wanna see? Altogether now: No-one.

Change the situation to your good self hung over and wearing track pants and not wanting to see that girl/guy, or when you might not be where you’re supposed to be and yet there you are staring at your very unimpressed boss in the bar down the road.

Or, imagine you’re just somewhere in the world, you walk into a cafe, and look, there’s that guy that does that weird long silence thing between sentences. Or worse, that chick who does the weird silence thing in the middle of  her sentence, and then you react to their weird half sentence, and then you realize that they hadn’t finished and oh my god just walk away.

Here is that magic thing that you’ve been waiting for- a chance to avoid that particular awkward awkwardness.

So, is it really magic? Will I never have to have an awkward social interaction ever again?

Well, no, sorry kids. The above ( and many more too)  are all situations where the Hell is other People App would come in handy- as long as the people you know and want to avoid in certain situations all use the location based social media app Foursquare. Frequently.

If they do, then you’re in luck. The app will track, record and plot your friends most recent check in’s on an ‘avoidance’ map for you, so you know where people are and when they checked in, making it perfect for sneaking around them.

The man behind the app, Scott Garner, a student at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Programme, says that he hopes to include check in’s from facebook and geo-tagged tweets in the future.

This would create an even more comprehensive way to avoid your friends in sticky situations, or just, you know, cos your friends suck.

This is not a downloadable app, and you have to me a member of foursquare for it to work. Go to http://hell.j38.net/ to sign up using your foursquare log in information and you can see your ‘Avoidance’ map from there!

Happy avoiding guys!

Image courtesy of Hell is other people.