WWDC!

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference kicked off this morning with CEO Tim Cook’s keynote speech which revealed a rather unsurprising list of updates and new services being rolled out.

As unsurprising as that list was, it should make Apple customers happy with solid OS updates, including that of the Apple Watch, as well as the introduction of a very strong competitor into the music streaming industry with Apple Music.

Click on the links below to get a detailed look at what we’ve got coming from Apple in the next couple of months.

iOS 9

OS X 10.11 – El Capitan

Watch OS 2

Apple Music & Beats 1 Live Radio Station.

Apple pay also got a couple of updates: The ability to support rewards and loyalty cards, compatibility with Discover cards, a massive launch in the UK and Square is launching a special reader that will allow small businesses to accept Apple Pay.

You can watch the whole keynote yourself here when it’s uploaded shortly.

Say hello to your new friend: iOS 9

iOS 9 will be coming at your phone this Fall, and with it comes an array of improvements designed to make your life better! Here’s what you need to know:

For the iPad exclusively, iOS 9 brings a function called Slide-over, which will let you open apps without leaving the one that you’re in,  a brand-new QuickType keyboard, and a picture-in-picture feature that allows you to watch video from another app while you do something else.

There’s also a multi-tasking function called ‘Split view’ which lets users use 2 apps at the same time, on the same screen. This is a yay moment for iPad users everywhere – except it’ll only be available on the iPad Air 2… Bummer. Kudos to you iPad Air 2 owners.

For both iPhones and iPads, we get a better looking and more helpful Siri, a brand new Search window, which offers commonly used apps or contacts, one-tap links to nearby locations and breaking news, and – finally- transit directions in Maps and integrated with Siri.

*Siri will now react to context, which is a little scary – offering to play music when headphones are plugged in, or searching email when an unknown phone number calls and displaying it if found.

*There’s a new ‘News’ app for reading news stories, sourced from (so far) ESPN, Politico, the New York Times, Conde Nast publications and local news.

*A new optional iCloud Drive app on iOS that will let users access files stored in iCloud Drive.

* Passbook has been renamed Wallet.

*Notes has a bunch of shiny updates and additions, including new formatting options,the ability to add links, maps, and photos directly into the app, checklists, and sketching tools.

* iOS 9 brings us the ability to browse through images quickly using the new scrubber for iOS Photos.

* Find My Friends and Find My iPhone are both default apps in iOS 9 and come installed automatically.

*When setting a Passcode in iOS 9, you’ll be required to enter six digits instead of four for increased security.

* Exciting video stuff! .With iOS 9 you’ll have way more options-  720p HD at 30 fps, 1080p HD at 30 fps and 1080p HD at 60 fps for standard video and 720p HD at 120 fps or 720p HD at 240 fps for Slo-mo.

* THIS ONE IS REALLY EXCITING TO US but may not be for others… with iOS 9 you’ll have the ability to add email attachments to messages in the Mail app, which sources documents from iCloud Drive. SWEET! BECAUSE WE LOVE ATTACHING THINGS TO MAIL.

*Extended battery life. 1 hour additional battery life for the iPhone 6, PLUS a Low Power mode that will extend battery life for 3 hours. The time it takes to download its latest software updates is reduced and AWESOMELY  and ABOUT TIMELY, downloading iOS 9 will only require 1.3 Gb of spare space on your device.

*In order to save battery power, if your iPhone is facedown on a table, it will not turn the screen on, even when a Notification is received.

To sum things up-  a pretty solid if unexciting update to the iPhone and iPad operating system. Sign up here if you’re interesting in testing out the public beta which will be available in July, however we’d recommend waiting until after the public release of the more stable version in the Fall.

iOS 9 will be available for iPhone 4S and up, as well as iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 2/3.

Salute El Capitan! OS X 10.11

After last year’s OS X Mavericks named after the beach break south of the Bay, Apple introduced us all today to OS X El Capitan, named, of course, after the stunning, big a** rock found in Yosemite.

El Capitan brings with it a few cool things that will probably make your life easier.

* Split view! Work in two apps at the same time on the same screen!

*Less exciting, but still useful – when you lose your curser, shake your finger back and forth on the trackpad or give your mouse a shake, and the cursor gets bigger so it’s easy to spot.
*A new pinned feature in Safari lets users keep websites listed at the top of the window, similar to a bookmarks bar. There will also be a mute feature that will function even with several tabs open.

* The Notes app gets the same updates as in iOS 9, with checklist ability, and ways to add a photo, video, URL, or map location to a note. All your notes are kept up to date across all your devices on the cloud.

* The new Mail app features enhancements to its full-screen mode, tabs in the compose window, the ability to hide in-progress messages and go back to the main Inbox. There are also new gestures built into Mail for archiving and deleting — simply swipe on the trackpad.

* The Photos app will come with support for third-party editing extensions and tools that will be available from the Mac App Store and accessible right in the Photos app.

* Spotlight search goes deeper into our souls with a higher level of understanding, contextually aware search results from a greater number of sources.

* Metal for Mac has arrived, with 50% improvements in rendering with 40% less CPU processing power required for graphics. Metal on OS X El Capitan offers better battery life and improved graphics performance for both games and professional apps. It will also make it up to 1.4 times faster to launch an app, up to 2 times faster to switch in-between apps, up to 2 times faster to display email addresses and up to 4 times faster to open a PDF in preview.

OS X 10.11 El Capitan is available to registered developers today. For the rest of us, it will be available in public beta in July and will publicly launch in the fall. For FREE! Yessir!

Watch OS 2

The Apple Watch! Soon to be updated to SUPER APPLE WATCH! Or, in laymen’s terms, Apple Watch OS 2.

*The most exciting thing about this update in our minds is that with it, the Apple Watch will support native apps (meaning apps that don’t have to go through the iPhone first). Booyah.

*There will also be third-party ‘complications’, which means that you can change and add to the data you see on the clock face, as well as new apps that will have access to the Taptic engine, microphone, accelerometer and heart rate sensor as well as the crown.

*The Watch will naturally be benefited by the device-wide Siri improvements, Apple pay updates as well as the transit directions in Maps.

*The Watch will be able to play videos as well as – very exciting- the ability to make FaceTime Audio calls.

* The Watch will also have a bunch of different Watch faces to choose from, including iconic locations around the world shot over 24 hours and the user’s own photo albums. When you select an album, every time you raise your wrist a different photo form the album will show.

* Users will be able to add more than 12 friends and have the ability to send sketches in multiple colors.

* The Apple Watch will, with OS 2, come with Activation Lock which, as in iPhones, will prevent another user from wiping or activating the Apple Watch if it is lost or stolen.

WatchOS 2  will be available to the public in the fall alongside iOS 9 and will be FREE.

Apple Music & Beats 1 Live Radio Station.

Apple Music is here! Well, not yet, but all the information about it is!

Come June 30 users will be able to use it to  stream songs, access curated playlists, and tune in to a 24-hour, live worldwide radio station called Beats 1.

Apple Music can be split up into 3 different facets that Apple hopes everyone will use and enjoy (D’uh), as well as making the music world a fairer and more creative place to be.

First, there’s the streaming service. Your own collection of music, as well as tens of millions of tracks in the Apple Music library. Handpicked by a ‘dedicated team of experts’ just for you, (not too sure yet on the logistics of this) and a bona fide way to discover new music.

Unlike some of their biggest competitors like Pandora and Spotify who use Algorithms to select songs in their product, Apple Music will have human curation, which, in Jimmy Iovine’s words,

“Algorithms alone can’t do that emotional task,” argued Iovine. “You need a human touch.”

Next, there’s the radio station – Beats 1.  24/7 radio broadcast to over 10 countries, and headlined by former BBC radio DJ Zane Lowe alongside other famous DJs from Los Angeles, New York and London such as Ebro Darden and Julie Adenuga. Beats 1 will offer exclusive interviews, guest hosts and other music world gossip and goings-on.

Third, we have Apple Music Connect, a social platform for Artists ( both known and as-yet-unknown) to interact with listeners and fans, with extra multimedia offerings such as lyrics, videos, photos etc.

So what do we think? Looks like a pretty solid service with a likely very big boost from grandfathered in Apple customers and the offer of a 3 month free trial. It will work, and it will be a strong and exciting competitor. It will add to the way that we listen to music. Even so, Pandora already has 80 million users, Spotify 60 million – so even with the boost, Apple might have a fight to the top.

Apple Music will be available for iPhone, iPad, Mac and PC on June 30, with support for Apple TV and Android coming in the fall. For full membership, you’re looking at a monthly fee of $9.99 or $14.99 for a family plan for up to 6 family members, although there will be a 3 month free trial available for all.

If you’re not down for commitment, you can still listen to Beats 1 radio, see what artists are posting on Connect, and hear ad‑supported stations on Apple Music (with limited skips) without a membership.

Check out the Ad for Apple Music here for the ‘feel good about the world with Apple’ feeling!

WWDC!

You wanna see some cool numbers? Yeah? Why not on this beautiful Warriors winning Sunday?

In just under 2 weeks you’ll be able to waltz on in with your cool self to any Apple retail store in the US of A and take home some Apple Watch candy!

As of June 26th, if you find yourself lusting after an Apple Watch whilst on holiday in Italy, Mexico, Spain, Taiwan, Singapore, Switzerland or South Korea, you’ll be able to satisfy that lust in an Apple retail store there too!

The most imminent number to get excited about? Apple’s WWDC Keynote speech starts TOMORROW at 10am PDT! That’s…16 hours and 42 minutes away! Check out what to expect and how to watch it here!

We’ll also be publishing a detailed outline of all the goings on down there at San Francisco’s Moscone Center shortly after the keynote so make sure to get your good self back here if you’re unable to catch the main event!

…Go Warriors.

WWDC new releases and predictions

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off next week with the whole shebang starting on the morning of Monday the 8th with Tim Cook’s keynote speech at the Moscone West center in San Francisco.

So, what to expect? The keynote is known for being the time when Apple announces new products and services to the industry, with the week afterwards being used to introduce the new Apple products to developers in the aim of getting them ready for public release in the months afterwards.

This year we can expect an update to both mobile and computing operating systems – this time iOS 9 and OS X 10.11. Both systems will reportedly become more stable with less bugs (Yay bye bye bugs), have increased synchronicity between computer, device, and iCloud, and be showing off the Apple Watch’s San Francisco font.

iOS 9 will apparently have lots of applications for Force Touch, transit directions in Maps, and a new Spotlight Search app, currently called “Proactive” which will sit to the left of your first App page. It will purportedly have live data which it learns to be pertinent to you as a user – i.e, showing dinner reservations at the right time with directions on how to get there, or by showing the Mail app if it learns that you like to check your email the minute your alarm goes off in the morning.

Also expect iOS 9 to include a ‘Home’ app that will work as the controller of your Homekit friendly gadgets for the so called, way overhyped buzzphrase – ‘Internet of Things’

As well as the new look OS, we’re looking at getting a reboot to iTunes radio, possibly in combination with a new streaming music service under the helm of the Beats guys. It was rumored that Apple TV would get a rebirth in the form of a new set top box and possible streaming content service, however those rumors have lost steam in the past few weeks with the additional rumors that these new products are not ready for the public yet.

Good news for Apple Watch owners – it is expected that Tim Cook will announce that the devices will be opening up to developers to build native apps.

Finally, as an extra service push, Apple Pay may be getting some kind of reward program for users.

Then….hopefully… the ‘one more thing’ moment! When they announce their new iTeleport device. Yes, please Mr Cook!

If you’re planning on catching the WWDC Keynote, it’s being streamed live here at 10 am PDT, or on it’s own devoted channel on Apple TV*. Go to Apple’s own WWDC website to learn more about the schedule and sessions post keynote.

*Viewers must watch the stream online with Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X 10.8.5 or later; Safari on iOS 6 or later. If you’re watching through Apple TV, it requires the second- or third-generation set-top box with software 6.2 or later.

Deals of the week Thursday!

Andd…. we’re back with some super awesome deals for you guys!!

Check THIS out: (to the tune of can’t touch this….obviously.)

*Discover are running a promo where they will double your earned cash-back for twelve billing periods (twelve months). It’s only available for Discover IT cardmembers, and all you have to do is call and ask for the promotion to be added to your account.

Also be aware of the  5% bonus that they currently offering on Restaurants next quarter with Amazon, Department Stores and Home improvement stores.
Call ’em! : 800-347-3085

*Amazon Prime now includes free same day delivery in 14 Metros!! SAME DAY DELIVERY BI*CHES!

Check your zipcode here!

*Chase has a new promotion, offering $200 Cash-back with New Chase Freedom Credit Card Approval after you Spend $500 in First 3-Months. Offer ends 6/24/15.

*Green Man Gaming has Fallout 4 Pre-Purchase (PC Digital Download) for $46.20 with voucher code SLICKD-EALS23-OFFGMW (apply at checkout). Game will require a free Steam account to activate.

*Get your hands on 2 free Fandango movie tickets (up to $20 value) by purchasing 2 participating Schick’s or Edge Men products. Combine this deal with $2.00 off any one Schick Xtreme 3 Razor Pack. The Schick Xtreme 3 Sensitive Razor is 5.97 at Walmart

*Are you an Amazon paid prime member? Get $10 off with First Subscribe & Save Order! Shipping is free. Here’s how: Add item to cart by clicking “Review Subscription” or “Subscribe Now”, Proceed to checkout. Enter promotion code TRYSNS10 and a $10 Credit will appear at checkout if your order qualifies.

In order for this to work, you must be logged into your account. Coupons are typically one use per account. You may cancel your Subscribe & Save subscription any time after your order ships.

* Been a rough week? Get some lovin’ from the Magic Wand HV-260 Original Personal Full Body Hand with Held Massager from Newegg for just  $29.99 with free Shipping

*Love your teeth too! Amazon.com has select Oral-B Electric Toothbrushes on Sale for the prices below after ‘clipped’ $10 or $20 off coupon (clipped automatically through link when logged in to Amazon). Shipping is free.

* Use coupon code “X1020001” to cut $10 off orders of $10 or more at Kmart, or use coupon code “X1020003″to cut $25 off orders of $25 or more.  Opt for in-store pickup to dodge shipping fees which start at around $5.

*Amazon now offers free shipping for all customers on select small goods, with no minimum order required, as part of its new Fulfillment by Amazon Small and Light program. It will apply to select items weighing 8 oz. or less, with eligible purchases including phone accessories, earplugs, and makeup; however eligibility won’t be revealed until the final stage of checkout. Delivery will take four to eight business days.

* Now, get your funk on for the weekend y’all!  Grab yourself some EL Wire Neon LED Light Up Glasses in one of seven colors for $6.97 with free shipping.  They feature three lighting modes and use two AA batteries (not included).

Deal away, amigos!

Google’s Project Tango

Google’s Project Tango is now for sale. Aimed at developers and invite only, the device sells for $512 and, in Google’s words, “combines 3D motion tracking with depth sensing to give your mobile device the ability to know where it is and how it moves through space.”

Nifty. Check out these youtube videos if you, like us, are still a little lost.

Got it? Yeah… us too…

New Emoji rejoice

It’s that time again – the Unicode Consortium Emoji present giving time!! Well, kind of. It’s that time when they tell us what we’re getting as a present in June next year. 

But the present is pretty cool, so we’ll be chill with that for now.

Wanna know what kinds of fascinating and emotive new Emoji’s you’ll be conversing with next year? There’s 38 of them, and some of them are pretty rad, just sayin’. ALSO please note – your chosen operating system does have the choice to implement them or not!

Here’s what’s coming at your face:

Face with cowboy hat
Clown face
Nauseated face
Rolling on the floor laughing
Drooling face
Lying face
“Call me” hand
Selfie
Raised back of hand
Left-facing fist
Right-facing fist
Handshake
Hand with first and index finger crossed
Pregnant woman
Face palm
Shrug
Man dancing
Prince
Man in tuxedo
Mother Christmas
Wilted flower
Scooter
Motor scooter
Octagonal sign
Clinking glasses
Black heart
Croissant
Avocado (Yay!)
Cucumber
Bacon
Potato ( Yay!)
Carrot
Fox face
Eagle
Duck
Bat
Shark
Owl