Hands-On With iOS 9’s New iPad Multitasking Feature [iOS Blog]
In iOS 9, the iPad is gaining a feature that will completely change the way a lot of us use our tablets, introducing functionality that will make it much easier to use the iPad as a serious computer replacement. That feature, which has been much-desired for several years now, is multitasking.
We went hands-on with iOS 9 to check out the multitasking feature on an iPad Air 2, and made a quick video to share what the new features look and feel like.
There are three different aspects to multitasking on the iPad: Slide Over, Split View, and Picture in Picture. Slide Over can be activated in any supported app. Pull over from the right side of the screen to the left to open up a second window, which takes up 1/3 of the screen.
This isn’t true multitasking because it pauses the background window, but it’s a way to quickly send an email or answer an incoming email without having to stop what you’re doing. You can change the app shown in the Slide Over by swiping down from the top of the screen.
On an iPad Air 2, if you pull the Slide Over window further to the left, it’ll enter Split View. Split View shows two apps at once and is a true multitasking feature. You can use both apps independently of one another and both are fully functional, with each taking up half the screen.
The third new multitasking feature is Picture in Picture, which works similarly to the picture-in-picture function on televisions. When watching a video or participating in a FaceTime call, the video window can be minimized to one corner of the iPad so you can continue to use other apps while you watch (or chat).
For now, all of these features are compatible only with Apple’s apps, but third-party apps will also be compatible with multitasking with developer support. Slide Over and Picture in Picture work on the iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, and iPad mini 3, but Split View feature is limited to the iPad Air 2, which has a more powerful A8X processor.
Multitasking is built into iOS 9, which is currently only available to developers. Apple plans to release a public beta of iOS 9 in July, with the official public launch coming in the fall
For more on what’s new in iOS 9, make sure to check out our detailed iOS 9 roundup.
Last.fm for Android gets redesign, new features
For the first time in years, Last.fm has updated the design for its Android app.
The update also brings new features. The main one addresses scrobbling, which allows Last.fm to detail the specific songs, albums, and artists and the number of times users listen to them. Now, users can scrobble songs from services such as Spotify, Deezer, Rdio, Google Play, and SoundCloud.
Additionally, personalized charts of artists, albums, and songs accompany the update, and tracks can be loved, meaning you can favorite them.
Source: PhoneArena
The post Last.fm for Android gets redesign, new features appeared first on AndroidGuys.
The original number-pushing puzzle game, ‘Threes,’ goes free
Threes is a deceptively simple puzzle game. You slide numbered tiles across a 16-slot board, combining twin numbers to rack up the highest score possible. It seems like something timeless, like it should have been next to the crossword puzzle in The New York Times back when your grandpa was a kid (if newspapers supported touchscreens, that is). In reality, it took Threes creator Asher Vollmer and artist Greg Wohlwend over a year of careful planning to create the perfect number-squishing puzzle game. When they released Threes, Vollmer and Wohlwend charged $1.99 on the iOS App Store. Just 21 days later, clones of Threes began popping up in mobile stores, most of them for the low, low price of free. You’ve probably heard of 2048, the Threes clone that refuses to disappear. Now, Threes is closing the gap between itself and those clones, and opening itself up to even more players by launching — you guessed it — for free.
“After the clones started to crop up there were certainly discussions of, ‘Should we just put out a free version now?’ but I’m glad we didn’t,” Wohlwend tells Engadget. “It would have been rushed and we would have made mistakes and probably treated the player poorly in some way like so many free games do.”
Threes has had a successful run, despite the clones. It’s on iOS, Android, Windows Phone, the Amazon App Store and Xbox One, and it took home the 2014 Apple Design Award plus an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Independent Games Festival. There’s even a new gallery of adorable Threes art available to buy on iam8bit. Threes is most popular on iOS, Wohlwend says, and that’s not surprising since the game hit Apple’s App Store first. Even the Xbox One version has “definitely” been worthwhile — it’s playable in Snap mode, a unique feature on the console.
“I’m ecstatic,” Wohlwend says. “Threes has done better than I ever imagined it would…. We want to do everything we can to continue establishing Threes as the original, premium and best sliding-number-tile game out there. Is that a genre?”
To that end, the free version of Threes doesn’t contain pesky in-app purchases or unsolicited pop-up ads. Instead, download Threes Free and you’ll have a certain number of plays. Watch an ad to get another play, or download the $2 version for completely uninterrupted gameplay. Ads won’t play unless you specifically choose to see one. The Threes team put as much thought into its free strategy as it did into the actual gameplay, and Wohlwend is pretty proud of that.
“We have figured out how to make Threes Free properly and honestly,” he says. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. While the clones are somewhat a byproduct of a market moving towards free, we’re excited to introduce some new ideas into how to make that sustainable for both players and developers.”
Lucky Number 66: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition sold for $91,000 in China
style=”display:block”
data-ad-client=”ca-pub-8150504804865896″
data-ad-slot=”8461248232″
data-ad-format=”auto”>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();
A few weeks ago, we covered the story of how early preorders of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition were being listed for more than $3,000 USD on eBay, and onwards up to $9,000. That seems cheap by comparison to this story out of China which says that a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition sold for $91,000 USD, or 568, 788 Yuan in the native currency. The unit in question was number 66 (of a planned 1,000 unit run), and garnered so much attention because “6” is a lucky number in Asian cultures, as are the colours red and gold – no less than 92,429 bids were seen during the online auction before the unit was sold. I can’t wait to see how much unit 888 is sold for (another set of auspicious numbers in Asian culture).
Considering the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition is retailing for $1,079 USD, it seems a bit ludicrous that someone would buy one for 90 times that amount, but considering that there is only a limited run, and is basically an Iron Man fan’s dream with its Iron Man theming and Arc reactor charging pad, it’s not surprising that people are going just a little bit crazy over it.
Would you pay $91,000 for a smartphone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Business Korea via Phone Arena
The post Lucky Number 66: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Iron Man edition sold for $91,000 in China appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Android-based BlackBerry smartphone with slide-out keyboard could be coming in the future
style=”display:block”
data-ad-client=”ca-pub-8150504804865896″
data-ad-slot=”8461248232″
data-ad-format=”auto”>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();
We don’t talk about BlackBerry much here at AndroidSPIN so it’s even more unusual when we have to say the words “Android-based” and “BlackBerry” in the same sentence. According to a report from Reuters, however, that’s exactly what is happening as BlackBerry is allegedly planning an Android-based BlackBerry smartphone for release sometime in the future and could come with BlackBerry staple features like a slide-out keyboard. Whether this would be running pure Android or a forked version of Android (like Nokia and Amazon) remains to be seen.
BlackBerry has all but faded into obscurity in the mainstream smartphone market so changing to Android as its operating system could just be the drastic measure the company needs to claw back some of its long lost market share. Enterprise software (and hardware) is remarkably weak on Android so there is definitely a place for BlackBerry to succeed, so we’ll see if, and when, such an announcement comes from BlackBerry in the near future.
What do you think about BlackBerry making an Android-based BlackBerry smartphone? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: Reuters via Android Police
The post Android-based BlackBerry smartphone with slide-out keyboard could be coming in the future appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Razer looking to buy Android gaming company, Ouya
style=”display:block”
data-ad-client=”ca-pub-8150504804865896″
data-ad-slot=”8461248232″
data-ad-format=”auto”>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();
Remember Ouya? I distinctly recall visiting E3 2013 and being excited to visit the Ouya stand which included a giant outdoor setup to show off the crowdfunding wonder that was the Ouya Android gaming console. Two years on, the name Ouya has all but faded into obscurity (as has the industry of Android game consoles) but they’re going to make headlines once more. According to reports, Ouya is currently in talks with PC-peripheral maker, Razer, to get acquired, allegedly for a sum in the region of $10 million.
Razer, who is well known in the PC gaming industry, could be looking for an outlet to diversify its portfolio and finally branch out of PC gaming – a cheap Android gaming console company does make sense in this respect. However, it could be a hard sell as Razer would have to single-handedly revive the Android game console industry, and Ouya is additionally trying to make a deal where all its employees are kept on. We’ll have to keep tabs on this one as gaming in Android could take an interesting turn if this deal pans out.
What do you think about Ouya possibly getting acquired by Razer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
The post Razer looking to buy Android gaming company, Ouya appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus will have 5.7-inch dual curved display and Android 5.1.1
style=”display:block”
data-ad-client=”ca-pub-8150504804865896″
data-ad-slot=”8461248232″
data-ad-format=”auto”>
(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();
If you’ve been holding out for a larger Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, this is the news for you. According to SamMobile, they have exclusive information which says that the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, which is essentially a larger S6 Edge, will have a 5.7-inch dual curved edge display and come with Android 5.1.1 out of the box. None of this is particularly surprising seeing as we expected the S6 Edge Plus to be a bigger device and Android 5.1.1 is basically the industry standard for the time being.
For those wondering, the display on the original S6 Edge was 5.1-inch so an upsize to 5.7-inch with the S6 Edge Plus would appease those who find that the curved edges take a little too much away from the flat part of the display. The device will allegedly be released some time in Q3 this year, which could be anytime before September really, so we’ll have to see when and where the S6 Edge Plus is released.
What do you think about the rumoured Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus so far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Source: SamMobile
The post Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus will have 5.7-inch dual curved display and Android 5.1.1 appeared first on AndroidSPIN.
Here’s how to enable the large icon view on a New Tab page in Chrome for Andorid
Back in March, Google’s own François Beaufort teased on Google+ that the Chromium team was working on an experimental New Tab page that would render much better looking icons instead of thumbnails of your most visited websites in Chrome. Larger icons, in this instance, are a much cleaner looking replacement, though the feature still has yet to roll out to the masses. But now in the most recent version of Chrome Beta for Android, you can turn on this new feature by simply enabling a few flags.
It’s pretty easy to do so, and only takes a few seconds. All you need to do is type in chrome://flags/#enable-icon-ntp into your browser’s search box, then make sure the highlighted box has been switched to “enabled” from “default”. After that, hit the Relaunch now button that pops up at the bottom of the page, and you’re good to go.
It should be noted that Chrome will only display large icons if the website’s default image is large enough to use. Otherwise, you’ll see the icons replaced with single-colored boxes with the first letter of the website’s name inside.
#gallery-1
margin: auto;
#gallery-1 .gallery-item
float: left;
margin-top: 10px;
text-align: center;
width: 33%;
#gallery-1 img
border: 2px solid #cfcfcf;
#gallery-1 .gallery-caption
margin-left: 0;
/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
-
- Default
-
- Large icons
-
- Enable flags page
The flag can be enabled in Chrome stable, but I couldn’t get it to work on any of my devices. It does, however, work on both Chrome Beta and Dev channels, so you’ll have to use one of those versions if you want to try it out. Head to the Play Store link below to grab the latest version of Chrome Beta, if you haven’t yet.
Planes take to the runway in a glorious 8K 360-degree video
We haven’t even had a chance to fill our homes with 4K TVs and already YouTube is moving on to 8K. To get an early jump on the coming wave of mega-high resolution videos, Dubai360 says that it has posted the world’s first 8K 360-degree video. World’s first or not, it’s mesmerizing to watch a 24-hour time-lapse video of a busy airport that you can spin in 360 degrees. The video was created using 88,000 individual shots to create four time-lapse videos. Those videos were then stitched together into a single spin-at-your-will extravaganza. Like its earlier 360-degree time lapse from atop Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, Dubai360’s airport video requires multiple viewings to really get the whole experience.
Source: YouTube
Apple and Beats Scrapped Sonos-Like Speaker Post Acquisition
Before it was acquired by Apple, Beats Electronics was working on a Sonos-like Wi-Fi-connected loudspeaker that would play music from services like Pandora and Spotify straight from the Internet, reports Variety. The news comes days after learning that the new Apple Music streaming service will not immediately be compatible with Sonos speakers.
Beats Pill speakers
Case in point: Beats Electronics, which Apple acquired for $3 billion last year, was working on a Wifi-connected loudspeaker that could be used to play subscription music services straight from the Internet, according to multiple sources familiar with the project. That would have put Beats in direct competition with Sonos, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based speaker manufacturer succeeding with a very Apple-like product lineup.
The product was set to be launched during the holiday season of 2014 but was scrapped after Apple acquired Beats. The headphone maker was looking to first introduce a powerful speaker for the living room before introducing smaller, more affordable speakers for other rooms like kitchens and bedrooms. The speakers would incorporate Bluetooth alongside Wi-Fi and NFC to make music playback as seamless as possible when entering rooms. The biggest speaker would cost around $750, according to Variety.
Beats was looking to build the technology for the speakers from scratch, but ran into problems and had to switch chipset manufacturers and delay the project multiple times. Because of these issues, Apple decided to kill the project. However, another source tells Variety that Beats and Apple management have simply decided to put the project on hiatus.
It’s unclear if or when the project will be revisited, especially as Variety reports that the workforce at Beats is far smaller than it was pre-Apple acquisition, with one source saying the headphone company is 50% smaller than before. Additionally, Beats chief product officer T.J. Grewal and head of loudspeaker engineering David Titzer have left the company, according to their LinkedIn accounts. In July 2014, it was reported that Apple trimmed 200 employees from Beats in areas where Beats and Apple overlapped.
Apple has discontinued speaker projects in the past, most famously the iPod Hi-Fi in 2007. More recently, the Cupertino company has had to recall Beats Pill XL speakers due to a possible fire hazard, with Apple issuing customers a $325 refund rather than replacing the units.
AIVAnet 