PSA: Dragon Age Inquisition is currently free to play on Xbox One for Gold subscribers
Critically acclaimed RPG Dragon Age Inquisition is currently (and exclusively) free to play on Xbox One for Xbox Live Gold members.
Xbox made the announcement via their twitter account, stating that Bioware’s latest and greatest is ‘unlocked’ between March 10th and March 16th, so get in there while you can party people!
Adobe Photoshop Mix scores stylus support and new editing features in latest update
Adobe has updated Photoshop Mix for the iPhone and iPad today with several new features, including the ability to merge images and support for styluses.
Also included in today’s update is support for the Creative Cloud Clipboard, as well as a new tutorial to show users how to create combination images.
Here’s the official rundown on what’s new in Adobe Photoshop Mix version 1.5:
- Stylus Support – For times when you wish you had smaller fingers, Photoshop Mix supports the Adobe Ink stylus. The Creative Cloud Clipboard lets you quickly store, access, and paste favorite creative assets in Mix using Ink. Mix supports Wacom and Pencil styluses, too.
- Merge Images – In Overview, drag one image on top of another to combine them into a single image.
- Download More Apps from Settings – Explore all Creative Cloud mobile apps just by tapping the Settings menu.
- Send to Desktop Enhancements – Got Photoshop CC? Use the Send to Photoshop command in Mix to launch Photoshop CC on your desktop and open your file automatically. Don’t have Photoshop but want to try this feature? Download the trial and use it with Mix.
As for the aforementioned combination image tutorial is concerned, Adobe notes that it should run the next time you open the app after updating. If you’re pumped to check out all of the new features in Photoshop Mix 1.5 on your iPhone or iPad, be sure to hit up the store link below to grab the update.
- Free – Download Now
The next iPhone may feature force touch, pink color option
According to a new report out of The Wall Street Journal, Apple is planning to bring the force touch technology used in the Apple Watch to the next iteration of the iPhone.
Along with the reported force touch addition, the report also states that Apple is considering adding a pink color option to its lineup, in addition to the current gold, silver, and space gray options.
From The Wall Street Journal:
Apple Inc. plans to add sensors to detect how hard a user is pressing on a screen to its next iPhones, incorporating a technology used in its forthcoming MacBook and Apple Watch, according to people familiar with the matter.
Additionally, the report notes that Apple isn’t planning to stray from the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch display sizes of the current iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
If force touch does make its way to the next iteration of the iPhone, it could bring all-new ways to interact with the device. We’ve already seen some examples of this with the Apple Watch and how different levels of pressure prompt different commands. Additionally, the new MacBook also makes use good use of the technology in its trackpad, as our own Serenity Caldwell demonstrated with her hands-on with the device.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Dropbox patches security flaw in its Android SDK
Dropbox announced today that it has fixed a security vulnerability in its Android SDK that could allow others to siphon data from its service through third-party apps.
Apple invests $50 million to get more minorities working in tech
Just like Intel, Apple is also pledging millions of dollars to various initiatives in an effort to make its workforce a lot more diverse than it has been these past years. When its diversity report was published in 2014, Tim Cook promised to be “innovative in advancing diversity,” and now Apple’s VP of Human Resources has revealed some of the company’s plans. In an interview with Forbes, Denise Young Smith said Cupertino is earmarking $40 million for the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, which supports students enrolled in historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The non-profit will create a database of computer science students studying at HBCUs, so Apple can offer them training, scholarship and even paid internships.
Another $10 million is going to to the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT). This non-profit, on the other hand, plans to use the money to double the number of women enrolled in four-year-degree programs that it supports through internships and scholarships. Since the the money will be doled out over the next four years, it could benefit up to 10,000 middle schoolers when they eventually go to college or university. Fingers crossed this move paves way to a time when at least one female exec takes the stage during an Apple keynote.
Apple seems to be focusing on hiring more women and minorities at the moment. But Young Smith also told Forbes that the iDevice-maker eventually wants to expand its diversity efforts so that its workforce “reflect[s] different lifestyles and sexual orientations.” The company has already begun doing that by talking to military leaders about the possibility of providing tech training to veterans, but there are no solid details about that initiative yet.
Source: Fortune
You can enter Amazon’s $25,000 sweepstakes by downloading just one app
If you think about it, you can buy just about anything you’d like from Amazon. So wouldn’t it be awesome to win $25,000 to spend on whatever you’d like? That may be possible, thanks to a new sweepstakes put on by the company. To help bolster its Appstore installs, Amazon is giving out a $25,000 shopping spree to a lucky Android user from the US. As long as you’re over 18 and live in the United States, you can enter.
To enter, you’ll want to first download the Amazon Appstore, which can be found at this link. Next, fill out the entry form on the contest page. After you fill out the form, you’ll be sent to a link that will either launch the Appstore or begin downloading it if you haven’t already. Once you’re inside the Appstore, simply download an application, free or paid, and you’ll be instantly entered into the sweepstakes!
The contest is going on now until Sunday, April 15th, and there’s only one entry allowed per user. So if you like free money (and who doesn’t), head to the source link below to begin the entry process.
If you had $25,000 to spend on Amazon, what new gadgets would you get?
Apple May Add Force Touch and Pink Color Option to Next iPhones, Screen Size to Stay the Same
Apple will add pressure-sensing Force Touch technology to its next-generation iPhones, reports The Wall Street Journal in an article that covers a range of new details on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Currently built into the upcoming Apple Watch and 12-inch Retina MacBook, Force Touch lets devices distinguish between a light tap and a hard press, enabling new gestures.
According to the report, which is sourced from Apple suppliers, Apple’s next-generation iPhones will continue to be available in 4.7 and 5.5-inch screen sizes, with plans to “keep the resolution similar.” New colors are a possibility though, and Apple is said to be considering adding a pink option to its existing space gray, silver, and gold iPhone lineup.
Production may begin on components for the next-generation iPhones as early as May, but The Wall Street Journal notes that Apple often tests technologies and designs with various suppliers that may not make it into finalized products.
Today’s report echoes several other reports that have also pointed towards Force Touch for the next-generation iPhone. Supply chain sources first hinted at Force Touch technology back in January, and those rumors seem more plausible now that the feature has been incorporated into both the Apple Watch and Apple’s recently announced MacBook.
Beyond the Force Touch rumors, little is known about the next-generation iPhones, which will likely be called the “iPhone 6s” and the “iPhone 6s Plus.” The devices are expected to receive upgraded A9 processors and have been rumored to include features like camera upgrades, more RAM, and improved Touch ID. Apple will presumably release the new iPhones in September.
Stock Android could be getting its own mult-window feature
Various Samsung and LG devices have a feature that allow two applications to run simultaneously on the same screen. It eliminates the need to jump between apps, something that is especially tedious when the two apps are needed at the same time. Samsung calls the feature Multi Window while LG uses the term Dual Window. Soon, Google could be getting into the enhanced multitasking game. The term “multiwindows” was listed within the code for stock Android.
There were not any details included with the term, but it does show that Google’s attention to what the hardware manufacturers are doing. We should find out more later this year at Google I/O 2015.
Source: Google
Via: Phone Arena
Come comment on this article: Stock Android could be getting its own mult-window feature
The CIA is giving its surveillance tech to US law enforcement
The Justice Department’s newest electronic dragnet–plane-mounted “dirtboxes” that can slurp thousands of cellular phone ID’s from the air — was originally developed by the CIA to hunt terrorists in the Middle East, The Wall Street Journal reports. Now however, it’s being used domestically to track American citizens. That’s not good.
According to a new report from the WSJ, the US Marshals Service, with assistance from both the CIA and Boeing, developed these Cessna-mounted devices. They are electronic sniffers that mimic cellular tower signals to incite any cellular telephone within range to broadcast its identifying registration information. It’s essentially an aerial man-in-the-middle attack and one that has cost US taxpayers more than $100 million to create. With this information, US Marshals can effectively locate, identify, and lock on to specific cell phones — out of a sample population of thousands or even tens of thousands of devices — to within an accuracy of just three yards. What’s more, once the suspect phone is found, Marshals can then listen in on any calls originating from it. According to the WSJ, these devices have been in operation since 2007, mounted on Cessna aircraft flying out of five metropolitan airfields throughout the US and can access a majority of the US population.
This isn’t the first time that this technology has been put to use by US officials, mind you. Dirtbox technology first debuted in the Middle East where it was utilized in the hunt for terrorists in both Afghanistan and Iraq. However, this new program marks a troubling collaboration between domestic law enforcement and the nation spy agency that blurs a very important operational distinction between the two agencies.
That is, the CIA is an outward-looking agency; its purpose is to gather information from abroad regarding external threats to national security. The US Marshals (and the DOJ in general), instead is tasked with enforcing federal law here in the States. To provide the DOJ with more than a million dollars worth of equipment designed specifically to hunt people that aren’t protected by the Constitution and then allow federal officials to listen in on calls may conform to the letter of the law — as both the CIA and DOJ have asserted to the WSJ — but it certainly doesn’t conform to the spirit. And it could very well lead to further and more aggressive domestic surveillance efforts in the future.
Both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union have already filed FOIA requests regarding the program and have requested “additional information about the Department of Justice’s and Department of Homeland Security’s acquisition, possession, and use of cell site simulators deployed on aircraft” ahead of any further legal action.
We’ve already seen that the Feds have very few qualms about utilizing digital dragnets like PRISM. This Dirtbox technology appears to signal a newfound readiness to apply these overreaching information gathering practices to not just our online lives but to our mobile devices as well.
[Image Credit: AP Photo/Las Cruces Sun-News, Shari Vialpando]
Filed under: Transportation, Mobile
Source: WSJ
Pocket Casts gets Material Design and a ton of new features in version 5.0 update
Pocket Casts, one of our favorite podcast applications here at Android Authority, is receiving quite the update today. The update to version 5.0 gives the entire app a Material Design overhaul and adds a few notable features to the already advanced podcatcher. There’s a lot to cover here, so let’s get to it.
First and foremost, the app is completely redone with Google’s Material Design guidelines. It now features a full-height navigation drawer, a redone Settings menu, a new look for the podcast discovery screen and much more. Developer Shifty Jelly has also added in new animations for just about everything you touch throughout the app.
A few new features have come to the app as well. Most notably is Up Next, which lets you queue up podcasts easily so you don’t waste a minute of your time trying to find the next one to play. You can also add, remove and jump between podcasts all from the mini player at the bottom of the screen. For more information on all of these changes, check out the attached images below:
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margin: auto;
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float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
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width: 33%;
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margin-left: 0;
/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
Also in the update are new audio effects. These two effects are small, but will greatly enhance your listening experience. “Volume boost” simply increases the playback volume of each episode without changing your device volume. This will let you listen to your podcasts at a greater volume without worrying about super loud notifications blaring in the background. Next up is “Silence removal”, which reduces the length of extended pauses in each episode so you can listen to more podcasts in less time. You can apply both of these new features to all podcasts at once, but you can’t use either of them unless each episode is downloaded to your device.
Another notable feature in the update is the ability to left-swipe on an episode to toggle between played and unplayed status. So, instead of long-pressing an episode and clicking on the “mark as played” button, you can now swipe to the left to complete the action. Shifty Jelly has even added in podcast listening statistics (under the “help” section), that will show you how long you’ve listened overall, and how much time you’ve saved using all of the shortcut features. Oh, and if you have an Android Wear device, you can now launch the app straight from your wrist and begin listening, without ever having to open it on your phone.
This is a huge update, if you couldn’t tell by now. For those interested, here’s the official changelog for version 5.0:
- Material Design! We agonised over jokes/puns using the word ‘material’ for hours, but in the end we spared you. I still have ‘Material Girl’ playing on loop in my head though
- Swipe episodes to mark as played/unplayed. Viva la revolución!
- New Audio Effects: Volume Boost and Silence Removal. If you can’t guess what the first one does then you’re beyond help.
- Up Next list now in your mini player, swipe across to see what’s coming up and quickly add more.
The developer explains each feature in much more detail in their most recent blog post, which can be found at the source link below. If you’re a Pocket Casts user, head to the Play Store link below to grab the update.
Side note: Have you subscribed to our Friday Debate Podcast yet? If not, you can listen to the most recent episode here!
AIVAnet 