The iRig HD-A equips Android users for mobile guitar recording
IK Multimedia’s iRig series of mobile recording wares have long be an option for the iOS faithful, and now its guitar-minded add-on is prepped for Android. The iRig HD-A is a $100 accessory that allows you to plug your axe into a mobile device track riffs while on the go. Just like previous efforts, this Android version is very much a plug-and-play setup for guitarists to use the company’s AmpliTube amplifier and effects simulator app to toy with sounds and virtual rigs. It packs in a 24-bit 48kHz analog to digital converter, and can be paired with a computer via USB when you’re stationary for a while. As you might expect, other entries in the iRig line can be used alongside the HD-A for a more robust mobile arsenal. However, there’s one important caveat: the device only works with gadgets running Samsung Professional Audio. This means that the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge can sort the goods now, and compatibility for the Galaxy S5, Note 3 and others is said to be on the way. The aforementioned AmpliTube is available as a plug-in for Samsung’s SoundCamp app, so you can record tunes with whatever setup you come up with while toying around.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Mobile
Source: IK Multimedia
Facebook plans to dominate Russia’s social networks through apps
While Facebook is effectively the default social network in many countries, that’s not true in Russia — it frequently plays second fiddle to local service VKontakte and old-school LiveJournal blogs. The company thinks it knows how to crack this nut, however: apps. The internet giant tells Business Insider that it’s persuading Russian developers to write games and other web-based titles that might lure people away. It’s hoping that the potential of reaching a wider audience will be hard to resist. You may please Muscovites by producing for VKontakte, but you could capture a global audience through a smash hit on Facebook.
Whether or not the strategy works is up in the air. Russia is fond of homegrown technology, and that’s reinforced by a government that makes life difficult for foreign companies. However, Facebook is optimistic. It notes that Eastern Europe is home to very successful, internationally-minded developers like Wargaming; it wouldn’t be a big stretch to imagine the next Candy Crush Saga emerging from a St. Petersburg startup. If nothing else, it’s clear that the Mark Zuckerberg and crew won’t settle for anything less than first place.
[Image credit: AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev]
Filed under: Internet, Facebook
Source: Business Insider
Congratulations to our Insert Coin winners: Poursteady and Noke
The vote have been tallied, the judges deliberated and we have our winners for this year’s Insert Coin. The judges tossed their support behind Poursteady, a robot that makes five pour-over cups of coffee and handed the company $10,000 to help get off the ground. Noke took home the $15,000 readers choice prize. While we’ve seen plenty of smartlocks before, this is the first time we’ve seen bluetooth crammed into the padlock form factor. You can relive the entire competition, from the initial presentations by the 10 semi-finalists, to the grilling by the judges, and finally the prizes being awarded after the break.
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Filed under: Meta
Apple Hires Developers Behind Defunct ‘Pin Drop’ Mapping App
Rumors have suggested that Apple is aiming to open a new research and development facility in Cambridge, England, over the coming weeks, and it appears the company has also made some hires in the area.
According to TechCrunch, Apple has hired five employees that created the Pin Drop mapping app. The hires are not part of an acquisition of the Pin Drop technology, but have included multiple former Pin Drop employees.
Pin Drop was a map app that allowed users to drop custom created tags and pins that could be shared with others to point out interesting landmarks and spots to visit. Pins could be kept private, shared with friends, or shared with the community. Pin Drop’s service was shut down on October 31 and the app was removed from the App Store. On Facebook, the app’s creators said they were unable to secure the necessary funding to “turn Pin Drop in to the world changing app we envisaged.”
The now-defunct Pin Drop app
An initial Pin Drop blog post mentioned the core Pin Drop team had acquired their “dream jobs” ahead of the shutdown, and one former employee tweeted that he had been hired by Apple, though both hints of new jobs were later deleted. Currently, five former Pin Drop developers are listed as Apple employees, with the following jobs: Senior Product Designer, Software Engineer, Software Engineer, iOS Software Engineer, and Maps Data Analyst.
All of the former Pin Drop employees who now work at Apple continue to be located in London and have not moved to Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, suggesting they could eventually be housed in the company’s upcoming Cambridge office. It is unclear what their specific roles include, but at least one employee is working on Apple’s Maps team.
Apple has worked hard to improve Maps over the last two years, acquiring several mapping companies including C3 Technologies, Broadmap, Embark, Hopstop, WifiSlam, and Locationary. Some major Maps improvements are said to be in the works, like transit directions and indoor mapping, both of which could come in a future iOS 8 update.
Android Slips as Apple Gains Enterprise Market Share in Q3 2014 [iOS Blog]
Reversing a trend of quarterly declines, Apple’s iOS mobile operating system gained market share this past quarter as it continued to dominate in the enterprise market. Apple’s expansion came at Android’s expense, which lost ground, according to Good Technology’s latest Mobility Index Report (via VentureBeat).
In Q3 2014, iOS device activations in the enterprise sector grew two percentage points, expanding from 67 to 69 percent. Android, concomitantly, slipped 2 percent, accounting for 29 percent of net device activations. Windows Phone remained a very distant third with only 1 percent of activations, a figure that has remained flat for the past six quarters.
Much of Apple’s quarterly gain can be attributed to the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which caused a surge in iOS device activations in September.
Good Technology says “The release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus accounted for all of this gain.” More specifically, iOS was down to 66 percent of activations in July and August, but comprised 73 percent of September activations thanks to sales of the new devices.
In the tablet enterprise market, Apple also remained the dominant tablet manufacturer with its iPad models, but faced an increasing challenge from Android tablets. In the just-ended quarter, Android increased its market share, climbing slightly to grab 11 percent of tablet device activations as compared to the iPad’s 89 percent share.
Apple increasingly has been focused on the mobile enterprise market, updating its enterprise-level mobile device management tools earlier this year and recently partnering with IBM to develop new business apps and services for Apple’s iOS devices. As part of the Apple-IBM collaboration, IBM will provide iOS-optimized cloud services, develop industry-specific apps, and begin selling iOS devices to its corporate clients. 
Target Offering Gift Cards up to $140 With iPad, iPhone Purchase on Black Friday [iOS Blog]
Black Friday, a major shopping holiday in the United States, is quickly approaching and deals have begun to leak out. Last week, Sam’s Club’s Black Friday deals were revealed, and this morning, Target’s Black Friday Ad was leaked.
Target is offering quite a few deals on iPads, providing hefty gift cards with purchase. The company will give $100 gift cards to customers who purchase a 16GB Wi-Fi only iPad mini 2, iPad mini 3, or iPad Air, which are priced at $299, $399, and $399, respectively. Other colors and capacities are also included in the deal.
With the purchase of a $249 original iPad mini, Target is offering a $80 gift card, and with the purchase of a $499 iPad Air 2, Target is offering a $140 gift card. Though the iPad Air 2 is regularly priced, a $140 gift card is the best deal we’ve seen on the tablet yet.
Target will also be offering a $30 gift card with the purchase of any iPhone 6 (priced at $179.99) or iPhone 5s (priced at $79) with a qualifying two-year contract, and customers who buy a 32GB iPod touch can get a $50 gift card.
Other deals include $11 off the Apple TV, dropping the price to $89, and iTunes gift cards for buy one get one 30 percent off. Target will also offer the Beats by Dre Solo HD headphones for $97, down from $170, and the Beats by Dre Studio headphones for $250, $50 off their regular price.
Target will open its doors at 6 PM on Thanksgiving Day, and it’s likely popular deals will go quickly. Customers with a Target REDcard can save an extra 5 percent on their purchases.
For more Black Friday discounts, make sure to keep an eye on our Black Friday roundup, where we are aggregating all of the Black Friday deals on Apple products and related Apple accessories.
Here’s how Android Lollipop differs from KitKat on the Galaxy S 4
Last week, we were able to see what the Android Lollipop update will look like on the Galaxy S 4, but if you want a more detailed comparison with the current KitKat version, you’ve come to the right place. Sam Mobile put together a video detailing the differences as well as some screenshots.
The overall look of the UI will be the same, but the core apps will get updated with Material Design and a lot of the functionality gets improved. There are a notable amount of performance improvements as well.
We have a bunch of screenshots and the video after the break.
KitKat is on the left and Lollipop is on the right in all screenshots
Click here to view the embedded video.
source: Sam Mobile
Come comment on this article: Here’s how Android Lollipop differs from KitKat on the Galaxy S 4
OnePlus One pre-orders Round 2 to take place November 17 with steep discounts on accessories
As promised, OnePlus is hosting another round of pre-orders for the OnePlus One on November 17. The first round took place on October 27, and didn’t go so well due to software issues. What is it about companies not being able to handle pre-orders properly? Obviously OnePlus isn’t alone here.
Anyways, the ordering will go live at 16:00 GMT (8am PST, 11am EST) on November 17 for one hour. You can still prepare your cart ahead of time (right now actually) with your shipping and billing information. Once the ordering begins, you will be able to check out and complete your order. It’s also possible that your order would ship right away if stock is available. If not, your order will go to pre-order status and you will get an estimated ship date.
Also, as a celebration, OnePlus will be offering steep discounts on any accessories that you bundle with your order.
The OnePlus is a nice phone for the money, but is it really worth all of this to get one? What happens if something goes wrong with it? Do you really think you will be able to get service?
source: OnePlus
Come comment on this article: OnePlus One pre-orders Round 2 to take place November 17 with steep discounts on accessories
Pegatron Reportedly Boosting iPhone 6 Production, Adding iPhone 6 Plus to Meet Strong Demand
Apple’s assembly partner Pegatron is boosting its production capacity in order to help Apple increase inventory of the popular iPhone 6, reports Nikkei. According to local press sources, Apple may also be turning to Pegatron to supplement production of the iPhone 6 Plus, which has seen tight supplies as Foxconn has struggled to meet demand.
Local press reports suggest Apple may also tap Pegatron to produce the iPhone 6 Plus since Foxconn has been struggling to cope with demand. Pegatron officials did not comment directly on the media speculation.
Pegatron’s Chief Executive Jason Cheng confirmed in a recent earnings conference call that the company has invested more than $200 million this year in capital expenditures to boost production output, with an additional $300 million planned for 2015.
Pegatron repeatedly has benefitted from strong iPhone sales with an increasing amount of revenue coming from its communications products division, which is responsible for smartphone and tablet production. Though the company’s overall Q3 2014 revenue fell due a dip in its computer assembly business, revenue from its communications division increased 10 percent year-over-year.
Pegatron is a long-time manufacturing partner for Apple, serving as a supplementary assembler for previous iPhone and iPad models. The company took a lead manufacturing role for the first time in the assembly of Apple’s iPhone 5c, which was introduced alongside the iPhone 5s last year.
Android 5.0 Lollipop commences for Moto X
This month is shaping up to be one of the best months Android has ever had. With new Nexus devices hitting the shelves soon and a major update to Android, fans have plenty to choose from. Typically with new Nexus comes new Android and as usual new Android comes to Nexus first. This year Google allowed developers and manufacturers to use the new Android months before release. This allows phones and apps to update faster than ever.
With recent news Android 5.0 aka lollipop was set for release last week on Nexus devices all the way back to the Nexus 4. Apparently there was a slight hiccup to the release in the form of battery bugs that Google quickly saw and subsequently pulled the update. That has not stopped other device makers to release 5.0 for there devices ahead of Google.
Over the weekend Motorola had started a soak test for the Moto X. The soak test did not have a lot of information about it until recently Moto itself leaked a log on their help portal for the Moto X (2014). This is not too much a surprise considering Motorola’s strong ties with Google. The Moto X (2013) was also one of the first devices to receive KitKat 4.4. the information leak has been pulled rather quickly however various sources have captured an image of the change log. Over on the Xda side a user has already released a copy of the 5.0 update for Moto X pure edition.
This is an exciting year for Android marking whats is shaping up to be one of the fastest roll outs of new software outside of Nexus devices. Google has just about updated all there apps for material design and we are seeing other apps follow suit. AndroidGuys will keep you informed on any new information regarding Android 5.0 as soon as we receive it.
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