Messages in iOS 10

Messages got some interesting updates, revealed in the Keynote of WWDC last Monday. So what can you expect?

LINKS. Now when you drop in a link in iMessage, a full preview will show up with rich links. If it’s a VIDEO, it’ll start to play. If you share an Apple Music link, you can listen without leaving iMessage.

EMOJI get bigger and better: YAY. We’re talking three times bigger than usual. Tap to Replace brings a list of predictive emoji that can replace text.

TAPBACK, will make is so you can send your friend six preset answers to a question of theirs like a thumbs up, a heart, and a question mark.

INVISIBLE INK makes it so you can send a message or photo to your friend. It’ll appear fuzzy until they swipe on it to see what you wrote or drew.

STICKERS, JUST STICKERS EVERYWHERE.

ANIMATIONS AND BUBBLE TEXT! You can make certain texts appear bigger or smaller, at a slant, ETC. If you’re celebrating something, you can make an animation take over the entire screen.

Apps for iMessage are now a possibility: You can now add certain apps to use just within iMessage, like JibJab.

Similar to Snapchat, you’ll be able to draw on a photo or video, add stickers, or include your HEARTBEAT.

So much fun, Messages on iOS 10! Almost as fun as CAPITALIZING AND BOLDING THINGS.

WWDC Keynote is almost here!

WWDC Guys! Who’s excited? Amped? Psyched? So excited they can’t sleep?

We’ll have all the details about the Keynote coming at your face as soon as possible!

We’re looking at having solid updates to iOS, OS X, WatchOS and TVOS. The one suspected item that people are most excited about is Siri on OS X, and the HUGE possibility of Siri being open to developers.

The Keynote starts at 10AM PT in San Francisco and will be live streamed on the Apple website and on the Events App on Apple TV.

WWDC Live Stream

As expected, Apple will be live streaming the WWDC Keynote at 10:00 AM PT on June 13th.

To watch, you need a  Mac, and iOS device (through the Apple website)  or an Apple TV.

Check out the announcement page here.

WWDC will see the reveal updates of all the main Apple software, OS X, iOS and WatchOS and TVOS as well as some surprises? Still waiting on that teleportation feature, Tim. Stillll waiting.

Apple’s Echo competitor details

So you know how Apple’s designing an in-home Siri house that would compete in the same space in your life as the Amazon Echo (otherwise known as Alexa)?

Well, the latest reports/rumors have it coming equipped with a camera and facial recognition capabilities. That’s right, Siri will be able to tell who you are when you’re in the same room, and she’ll probably be able to learn what you as a person like (such as lighting and music preferences), as well as what you usually ask for. Now that’s some spooky AI ish! No Wonder Jeff Bezos just told the world that-

“The emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning in household gadgets is gigantic.” Yump.

In-Home Siri will also have a speaker and a microphone, so that you can interact seamlessly with her. This, along with the potential possibility of Apple letting third-party developers work on Siri, promises a pretty awesome product.

Another recent report/rumor predicted that instead of a stand alone device, in-home Siri will actually live in a next generation Apple TV.

We’re looking at probably announcement date of late 2016-mid 2017.

Tim Cook’s appearance at Startup Fest

Tim Cook recently appeared and spoke at Startup Fest Europe, where he offered both general business advice and some insight into Apple’s future.

He spoke about how he believes healthcare specifically related to the AppStore has massive potential for growth and is incredibly important because of the ability to make people’s lives better through tech:

“The things that interest us the most are things where we can bring our ability to integrate hardware, software, and services into something that’s magical and enriches people in some way. If you look at some of the things we’re doing that do not drive revenue but they have massive interest in them from our teams – health is very much one of those…

The net of that is we believe that health is something that is a huge problem in the world, a huge issue, and we think it is ripe for simplicity and sort of a new view and we’d like to contribute to that. So that’s an area where we’re very focused.”

He spoke about how the Apple Watch will become vital in people’s lives, also in direct relation to healthcare:

“For those of you that own a car. You get in your car, you crank it up, you drive for a while. If it gets a little too hot a light comes on and says you know pull over or check out. If you need an oil change, it comes on and says check the oil. It has all of these things in it that alert you that you need to do something. What is the equivalent for the body?

Well, it’s our minds, but our minds unfortunately convince all of us all too often not to seek help. And many times, we don’t even know. There’s no symptom. So if you could have a device that knew so much about you, it would be pretty incredible and would extend life and extend quality. I’m not saying one device will do all of that, but when you solve such a big problem it takes several contributions. That’s the way I feel here.”

His main business advice?

“Don’t get full of yourself. Don’t smoke your own exhaust. Don’t worry about cannibalizing yourself…I think being hungry — not being driven by money, but being driven by some higher purpose and building great products — is really key. Never do something strictly for money. Do it for love, do it for passion.”

Thanks for our Friday wisdom, Mr Cook!

Apple also working on Amazon Echo Competitor.

Siri’s going to be living with us! In our house as well as in our pockets!

Following the announcement of Google Home, reports are that Apple is developing a Siri based device that will be in direct competition with both Google Home and Amazon Echo.

Here’s the exciting bit – apparently Apple will be opening up the device to outside developers! Siri’ll be able to do all kinds of ish!

There’s a strong possibility that opening up Siri to developers could happen as soon as WWDC (June 13-17) which also means that third party apps could be incorporated into iOS 10 AND OS X 10.12, the latter being rumored to have Siri capabilities.

It’s not clear when Siri’s home device will be released or even announced, but it’s reported that they’ve been working on it since before the Amazon Echo was released.

Would you want Siri living in your house?

Tech of the week – Lazy edition!

Everyone knows that when your Wi-Fi stops working, 99.9 times out of 100 resetting your router will fix it. It just does. It’s part of the rule – if something tech related isn’t working, turn it off and on again, dummy.

Here’s the thing, and it’s not a great thing, really, more of a sign of how freakin’ lazy we are thing, but getting up and actually resetting your router like, with your hands, is kinda boring.

Welcome to the thanks-for-not-making-me-do-that club, ResetPlug. It’s a $60 piece of tech that will reset your router for you.

The plug constantly tests your wi-fi connection to ensure it’s working, and if it isn’t, it will automatically turn your router (and/or modem) on and off until the connection is restored.

Yay tech!  Get it here. 

Dare to see your Google search History? NSFW?

Ok, so here’s the deal. There’s a way you can see your Google search history, and it’s super easy. The NSFW part means that we don’t know what you’ve been looking up, dudes, but it’s probably Not Safe For Work.

Nothing against you dudes, but Googling happens. Crazy unintentional Googling. Or crazy intentional googling, who are we to judge? Anyways, Google has a record of it, isn’t that nice of them?

You (and, supposedly, only you) can check it out here.

You can also check out your YouTube search history here. 

Happy looking through the past!

Google to unveil Amazon Echo competitior

Tomorrow at I/O, Google will unveil ‘Google Home’, a voice activated home device that will will compete with the Amazon Echo, and in the same sphere as Siri herself.

There’s no word as to what shape the device might take, although it seems as though the rumors are centering on a speaker similar to the Echo. Also like the Echo and Siri, it will be able to answer questions and take commands.

Google Home will be unveiled and demonstrated tomorrow but, apparently, won’t ship until the Fall. Just enough time for you to build up nough anticipation to get excited and buy it, right? Oh, Tech guys and your marketing.  This also, however, means that developers could get their hands on it before the official release, building apps and all the fun things developers do.

Keep an eye and an ear out for Google Home! It may just be your future.

Twitter changes in the air!

Hoorah!!!! Everyone celebrate! Why?

Twitter has decided (as per a report from Bloomberg) that it will stop counting links and photos towards it’s 140 character limit!

What.

So much more room for activities!

The change isn’t public yet (officially, that is), although sources are predicting that it will come into full effect within the next 2 weeks. Currently, links take up 23 characters.

But hold on to your chair there, guys, because apparently, Twitter was considering raising the character limit to 10,000.

Holy Twittoly!

Well, even if it’s not thousands more characters, we’re still happy with the extra moving space, so thanks, Twitter!.