Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Digital mixes mobile calling with your desktop gaming
I don’t necessarily classify myself as a gamer. More so a game enthusiast. Maybe that is the right term. I prefer average Joe really. I am “one of those” guys that enjoys it. I don’t care if I get killed 30 times and only take out 10. I don’t get upset that a bullet goes through a wall and kills me a full 10 seconds after I ducked behind cover. It just isn’t my nature. I have fun either way. I have learned that your gaming gear does make a difference in your playing habits and you enjoyment though. While this might not be the perfect place to talk about a PC gaming headset, I find it to be very useful in my daily Android life as well as my gaming life.
Whether you listen to a lot of music, watch a lot of movies or play a lot of games, there is no doubt that some of you spend a lot of time doing it. In my case, much of it is spent in front of my home computer in my bedroom. I am constantly reading my emails, feeds and articles along with responding and general browsing. While I sit here I tend to have a set of headphones on blasting tunes from Spotify or Google Play Music. The louder the better. It helps me drown out my random thoughts and keeps me focused. There is a pretty major downside though, I tend to miss a lot of calls, especially when gaming. Lets face it, when you are deep in battle the last thing you want to do is reach for your phone. Roccat has designed a rather unique solution with their Kave XTD 5.1 Digital gaming headset units that I found particularly helpful, Bluetooth pairing integration for your phone.
I wrote my full review of the Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 over on our all tech site, thesavvytechs, today, but the Bluetooth integration seemed worthy of mentioning in a separate post here. We do have a lot more followers here then over there still.
The Kave XTD’s have a heck of a lot going for them in-terms of sound, comfort and control. Especially in the realm of PC gaming. With the Bluetooth integration you can pair your phone to the control unit like you would any other Bluetooth device. Simply long press on the “phone” button until the Bluetooth light flashes. Then pair it to your device. Once paired the first time, it will auto pair when it is is in range.
Now, when a call comes in your games audio mutes. You can answer from your phone or by pressing the phone button on the controller unit. It is quite handy when you are in the middle of something a bit more important at the time of a call. It does get a little better too. If you have your phone set up for voice commands, via Google Now or Motorola’s Touchless Controls, a simple push on the phone button on the controller unit will initiate your voice actions and you can speak to it.
I found it to work really well in the middle of games and would allow me to concentrate on what I was doing more so than fumbling with the phone and tucking it under the earcup to talk. Don’t look surprised, I know you have done the same thing and it usually ended in a wreck or a death. There is a group of settings to change your out going voice through the Roccat software. You can change to a rubber duck, monster , man or woman. Unfortunately, as you hopefully read in the full review, I had a cat eat the cable. The mic still works, but the headphone aspect is shot. I never did get to test the voice changing function on mobile prior to the demise of the headset. Right now it doesn’t work, but I can’t confirm if it ever did. It did work out well on games and PC apps though.
While the call functionality and voice controls are nice, that is all you can get out of it. Don’t expect to sit down and connect to the Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Digital and play some Angry Birds on your phone and have full audio blasting to your brain. I wouldn’t want that in 5.1 digital surround sound either. It is a good cross-platform, solution solving, side to the headset that might keep you from sleeping on the couch if you are an avid PC gamer though.
Head over to my full review about the headset for more details and pricing if you are interested.
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Apple wants all iOS apps to use 64-bit code starting in February
Apple may have only introduced 64-bit computing to iPhones and iPads a little over a year ago, but it’s already preparing for the day when legacy 32-bit code is gone for good. The Cupertino crew is now telling developers that their iOS apps must include 64-bit support from February 1st onward. While the company won’t kick out existing titles, both new apps and updated releases will have to make the switch. Theoretically, this is easy — developers just have to build apps using the most recent tools and standard settings.
The switch could have a meaningful impact on the apps you use. At the least, it should reduce the need for iOS to juggle both 32- and 64-bit code. That’s good for performance, whether or not there are meaningful upgrades to the apps themselves. The move may also spur more developers to fine-tune their apps for the A7 and A8 chips in recent iOS gear — even if they don’t need to use higher-precision 64-bit math, that could still lead to faster games, media players and other demanding titles. It’ll likely take much longer for Apple to drop 32-bit support altogether, but the ball is clearly rolling on that transition.
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Apple
Via: 9to5Mac
Source: Apple Developer
Apple Sells 12.3 Million iPads in Q4 2014, Sales Down for Third Quarter in a Row [iOS Blog]
Apple’s iPad sales are down for the third straight quarter according to the company’s earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2014, selling a total of 12.3 iPads which is down from 14.1 million units in the year-ago quarter. The company has sold 68 million iPads in 2014 and has sold 237.5 million iPads total. The news comes after the company announced its new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 last week at its special media event.
Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook commented that the drop in iPad sales over the past two quarters was just a “speed bump” for Apple. In the company’s third-quarter earnings call, Cook highlighted overall sales of more than 225 million iPads since the device launched in 2010 and suggested the tablet market as a whole was still “in its infancy.” The CEO also stated at the time that “significant innovation could be brought to the iPad” ahead of this year’s new iPad releases.
The new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will go on sale this week, although the company focused primarily on the former at its event. The iPad Air features a faster A8X processor, a Touch ID fingerprint sensor, a profile that is just 6.1 mm thick, and a new gapless laminated display that produces sharper images. Meanwhile, the iPad Mini 3 includes a few changes aside from the Touch ID home button and a new gold color option.
Apple is also said to be preparing to launch a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro early next year, although some reports have claimed that mass production of the larger tablet has been put on hold to shift resources towards iPhone 6 plus production. The display of the larger tablet will reportedly near ultra high-definition quality and will likely ship with the faster A8X processor.
iTunes by the Numbers: $4.6B Revenue for Q4, $18B Total Revenue in 2014, 85B App Store Downloads [iOS Blog]
During its financial results call covering the fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter of 2014), Apple shared details on the success of its iTunes Store, which has become an increasingly important revenue source for the company in recent years, mainly due to the ever-growing popularity of the App Store.
$4.6 billion in revenue marks Apple’s most successful iTunes quarter ever, up $2 billion from last year, and its $18 billion in revenue for 2014 is $2b higher than last year’s $16 billion in total iTunes revenue.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple hit an all time high in App Store revenue, with growth of 36 percent compared to Q4 2013. Apple has seen cumulative app downloads of 85 billion, up 10 billion since July. Along with “tremendous” growth in the App Store, the iTunes Store saw all-time record billings, up 22 percent year over year.
Overall, Apple posted revenue of $42.1 billion and a net quarterly profit of $8.5 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $37.5 billion and net quarterly profit of $7.5 billion ($1.01 per diluted share) in the year-ago quarter.
Apple Acquired 20 Companies Across 2014, 7 In Fiscal Fourth Quarter
During today’s fourth quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple purchased 20 companies over the course of 2014, including seven companies during the fiscal fourth quarter. Of the 20 companies purchased, some remain known, but many remain unknown.
Apple’s biggest purchase of fiscal 2014 was Beats Electronics, which the company bought for $3 billion in May. With the acquisition, it gained Beats popular line of headphones, the Beats Music music service, and it took on Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre, aka Andre Young, as executives.
Other recent known acquisitions in fiscal 2014 include iPad-publishing platform Prss, book recommendation platform BookLamp, radio streaming app Swell, social recommendation service Spotsetter, and low-power display company LuxVue.
Last quarter, Apple announced that it had acquired 30 companies thus far in fiscal 2014, which brings the total number of acquisitions since last October up to approximately 37. While some of those acquisitions were known, many of Apple’s acquisitions were kept quiet, going under the radar.
The technology from Apple’s acquisitions will undoubtedly make its way into future products and updates, and details on its acquisitions may become apparent over time.
Earlier this year, Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple was “on the prowl” for additional companies to acquire and that Apple is always looking at acquisition space to avoid letting “money burn a hole in our pocket.”
Apple Sells Record-Breaking 5.5 Million Macs in Q4 2014 [Mac Blog]
Apple today announced during its earnings call that it sold 5.5 million Macs in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2014, which is the highest quarter ever for Mac sales. The 5.5 million Macs sold is up almost 1 million year-over-year and represents a 21% growth from 2013, creating $6.6 billion in sales. The company also noted that it sold a total of 19 million Macs for all of fiscal 2014, saying that sales were particularly strong for the MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air. 
Apple launched updated models for nearly all of its Macs in 2014, aside from the redesigned Mac Pro which was released last year. The MacBook Air was updated in April and brought a price reduction along with slightly faster Haswell processors, while the MacBook Pro saw a minor update in July which also brought Haswell and Crystal Well processors that improved battery life. Last week, Apple launched a new 27-inch iMac with a high-resolution “Retina 5K” display, and updated the Mac mini for the first time in three years with Haswell processors and new Intel HD Graphics.
The company is also rumored to be working on a new 12-inch MacBook, which will feature a new ultra slim design and a high-resolution Retina display. Reports have suggested that the new MacBook will come in the iPhone color variants of Silver, Gold, and Space Gray, and will integrate fan-less internals with a Broadwell-Y low-power Core M processor along with the possible adoption of USB Type C. The 12-inch MacBook is said to be launching in mid-2015.
Apple CEO Tim Cook: Apple’s ‘Creative Engine’ Has Never Been Stronger
During today’s fiscal fourth quarter earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that “obviously” the company is working on new products, but that he was going to keep things in the “cone of silence.”
I’m not sure what to say. I’m not going to give any hints. We look at a lot of different things and we’re fortunate to have a lot of creative people here that want to change the world and have a lot of great ideas.
Cook went on to say that Apple’s “creative engine” had never been stronger and the company had never been more passionate, as evidenced with Apple’s recent launches of Apple Pay and Apple Watch. Apple Pay, said Cook, is “classic Apple,” with the company taking something old and outdated and focusing on making something “very elegant.”
Cook also extolled the virtues of Continuity, which allows Macs and iOS 8 devices to integrate in new and innovative ways. “Use your imagination and think about where Continuity goes,” said Cook. He went on to say that it would be “incredibly important” going forward for customers.
Cook said that Apple’s investors should look at what Apple’s done and what it has delivered, along with the skills of the company. Apple is the “only company on the planet” that has the ability to integrate hardware and software at a “world class level” according to Cook, but the company always has “more ideas than resources” to deal with. He also said as a personal investor, he “feels great” about products that are coming up in 2015.
While Cook declined to mention what products Apple might be working on, rumors have suggested the company has several new devices in the works that could significantly boost future sales, including a 12-inch Retina MacBook Air and a 12.9-inch iPad, dubbed the “iPad Pro” by the media.
Sprint now rolling out LG G2 stability update
Sprint has today published details of an update it’s now rolling out to all its carrier-branded variants of the LG G2 currently situated in the United States. Unfortunately, the upgrade doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of new features, but it does include a handful of bug fixes, stability improvements and speed optimizations.
Hit the break for the full changelog.
- Improvements to LTE attachment
- Enhancements to HD Voice
- Google security patch
If you own a Sprint variant of the G2 and want to initiate the upgrade manually, make sure you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network. Then, from the home screen, press the Menu key, followed by Settings. Scroll to the bottom and tap ‘About Device’, then ‘Software Update and ‘Update Now’.
Source: Sprint
Come comment on this article: Sprint now rolling out LG G2 stability update
“Ambient display” appears to be Nexus 6 spin on Moto Display
When Motorola introduced the Moto X, one of the angles Motorola took in making their sales pitch for the device was how software features could be more useful and valuable than top of the line specs in a smartphone. To drive home this point, they included a variety of features including one originally called Active Display, now Moto Display, that would cause the display to turn on when a notification was received or when it detected the phone had been picked up. It looks like that same feature has found its way into the Nexus 6.
A screenshot of some display setting for the Nexus 6 shows an entry for a feature called “Ambient display” with a description that reads “Wake screen when device picked up or notifications arrive.” This seems to clearly suggest Google benefited from having Motorola produce the Nexus 6.
On the Play Store page for the Nexus 6, there are a couple entries that include a reference to “Ambient Display.” The entries outline the potential impact on standby time for the device if Ambient Display is turned on, which appears to be about a 25% reduction. Despite the hit to battery life, the feature is considered a great convenience and difficult to give up once one gets used to it.
source: +Prashant Gahlot
via: Android Police
Come comment on this article: “Ambient display” appears to be Nexus 6 spin on Moto Display
Google Fit app gets exposed prior to official launch
The next version of Android will include the brand new Google Fit application. Not much of the app has been seen; however, Android Police was able to take it for a spin through a leaked Nexus 6 dump. Even though nothing is at this point, the current state of the Google Fit app shows things are pretty smooth with Material Design being present. The design makes Google Fit unique because otherwise it just acts as any other fitness tracking app would.
The GIF above shows the app’s refresh animation on the main screen. Pull down and your statistics will update accordingly. Below that, users can view charts breaking down activities based on time and other measurements.
There is a manual input option for when the device running Google Fit is unable to communicate. The user just has to put the time, activity, and duration. Google Fit asks users to compose their profile. This includes gender, height, weight, and goals.
Source: Android Police
Come comment on this article: Google Fit app gets exposed prior to official launch
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