How to Set Your AirPods to Change Music Tracks in iOS 11

If you have AirPods, there are new features you should be aware of in iOS 11, including a new option to change tracks directly on the earphones using a double tap gesture.

The new gestures are available alongside current gestures, which allow users to summon Siri with a tap. All of the options for your AirPods can be accessed in the Settings app while the AirPods are connected to your iPhone or iPad. Here’s how:

Open your AirPods case while your AirPods are near your iPhone so they connect.
Open the Settings app.
Select “Bluetooth.”
Tap the little “i” button next to your AirPods.
From this menu, you can customize the name of your AirPods, enable or disable manual ear detection, choose to use the left or right AirPod microphone, and most importantly, choose what happens when you double tap an AirPod.

You can set different gestures for the left and the right AirPod. Options include Siri, Play/Pause, Off, Next Track, and Previous Track. The latter two options are new in iOS 11.

To set a gesture, you only need to tap it. If you choose Next Track for one AirPod and Previous Track for another, you can quickly and easily switch between songs that are playing, without the need to invoke Siri.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Tag: AirPods
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Apple Watch Series 3 Reviews: Freedom From iPhone Held Back by LTE and Battery Life Concerns

Apple Watch Series 3 reviews are out, and the verdict is mixed about its new built-in cellular capabilities and the impact on battery life.

Apple Watch Series 3 via The Verge
The Verge editor Lauren Goode said her Apple Watch Series 3 largely “failed at the LTE part,” particularly due to an issue where the watch would connect to an unknown Wi-Fi network instead of LTE.

You can’t rest easy with the Apple Watch 3 yet, because that seamlessness, that so-called magic, isn’t there. The stutters during the handoff from Bluetooth to Wi-Fi to LTE shouldn’t happen. The music streaming? It isn’t there yet. A built-in podcast streaming option? Also not there. A reliable Siri? Nope, not in my experience.

Apple acknowledged the issue and said it is investigating a fix that will be included in a future software update.

Goode said the one aspect “worth two thumbs up” is watchOS 4, especially for its improved heart rate tracking.

But the watchOS 4 updates to heart rate tracking are really the most noteworthy. Any Apple Watch with heart rate sensors will now record your resting heart rate, your average walking heart rate, your recovery heart rate, and, if you opt in, any spikes in heart rate that occur when the Watch thinks you’re not working out.

TechCrunch editor Brian Heater said the Apple Watch Series 3’s cellular capabilities are “a bit liberating,” but he didn’t find many scenarios where having a standalone connection was particularly useful.

All nice functionality to have on the go, but in the days I’ve been wearing the watch, I’ve been straining to come up with many scenarios in my own life outside of running where untethering myself from my phone is necessary — or even particularly useful.

The Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern said her Apple Watch Series 3’s cellular connection was “unreliable” and “intermittent.”

Most worryingly, my colleague Geoffrey Fowler and I experienced cellular connectivity issues on three separate pre-production models, in two different states, on two different 4G LTE carriers.

On the AT&T-connected models, the cellular connection dropped, calls were often choppy and Siri sometimes failed to connect. On the one that ran on T-Mobile, I experienced several dropped connections.

Stern added that “you’re lucky if the battery allows you to roam on cellular for longer than half a day—especially if you’re making calls.”

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Wells didn’t share that viewpoint, calling battery life on the Apple Watch Series 3 “excellent.”

Battery life on the Series 3 is excellent. The Watch cleverly defaults to the most efficient connection available; when nearby your phone it’ll use bluetooth, move away from the phone and it’ll switch to any available known Wi-Fi networks, disconnect from those and LTE will take over. In my usual day, that meant by the time my Watch was back on a charger at night, it still had around 70 per cent battery left.

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber was impressed with the Apple Watch’s phone call audio quality and didn’t mention any connectivity issues.

Audio quality for phone calls on the watch is very good. People I called via the watch said I sounded great, and I could hear them loud and clear. And all of my testing of phone calls on the watch took place mid-day on busy city streets — full of traffic and pedestrians — here in Philadelphia. People won’t know you’re calling them from your watch if you don’t tell them.

The New York Times reporter Brian X. Chen said the Apple Watch Series 3 is the first smartwatch he can recommend people buy.

Although I think most people can skip buying the cellular model, the Apple Watch Series 3 is the first smart watch I can confidently recommend that people buy. While I don’t personally find it attractive enough to replace my wristwatch, the new Apple Watch is a well-designed, durable and easy-to-use fitness tracker for people who want analytics on their workouts and general health (R.I.P., Fitbit).

Wired writer David Pierce said the Apple Watch 3’s performance “feels dramatically better than any previous Watch.”

More Reviews: The Loop, CNET, Financial Post, 9to5Mac, Mashable, The Independent, and USA Today

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 4
Tag: reviews
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Buy Now)
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Meizu’s new M6 is so keen to be a premium phone, it has fake antenna lines

Why it matters to you

Who doesn’t want to look their best, without spending a fortune doing so? That’s the thinking behind the budget Meizu M6 smartphone.

Meizu wants its new M6 smartphone to look its absolute best, and rather than muscle its way into territory occupied by the M6 Note or Pro 7 with a full-on premium metal body, it has decided to deck the phone out in the tech equivalent of an off-the-peg suit. The back of the Meizu M6 may look like metal in the pictures, but it’s not, it’s polycarbonate. That means the lines which look like antenna bands aren’t actually functional, they’re just for show. That’s right. Fake antenna bands have arrived.

To achieve the metal look, the M6’s body has undergone a process called Non-Conductive Vacuum Metallization, which adds a metallic film over the surface for a high quality finish. The bands change the look of the M6 over the Meizu M5C, which had a clean minimalist style. Love it or hate it, the M6 is definitely eye-catching. Giving the M6 a premium look hasn’t affected the price. Although the international price hasn’t been confirmed yet, the local Chinese price of the M6 converts over to between $105 and $135, depending on the model.

That’s exceptionally good value for any Android smartphone, so what is the specification like? There are two models available, one with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory and a second with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Both have an octa-core processor, but Meizu hasn’t mentioned the manufacturer, and if it was a Qualcomm chip like the M6 Note, we feel it would have said so. This means a MediaTek chip is more likely.

A 13-megapixel camera is on the back, and an 8-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture lives on the front. The screen measures 5.2-inches and has a 1280 x 720 pixel resolution, there is a fingerprint sensor below the display, space for a MicroSD card in the hybrid SIM tray, a 3,070mAh battery, and Meizu’s Flyme 6 user interface is placed over Android Nougat. A choice of gold, silver, black or a very fetching blue color schemes will be available. Meizu phones aren’t sold officially in the United States or the United Kingdom, but are available through importers. The release date hasn’t been confirmed yet.

HTC issues a trading halt ‘pending a major announcement’

HTC will be making a major announcement in the coming days.

Taiwanese media reported earlier this month that HTC was in the “final stage of negotiation with Google” for selling off its smartphone business, and it looks like things are coming to a head. A tweet from Bloomberg Gadfly’s Tim Culpan suggests HTC will halt trading its shares tomorrow “pending a major announcement:”

JUST IN:HTC just announced it’s shares will halt trading tomorrow (Thur) pending a major announcement.

— Tim Culpan (@tculpan) September 20, 2017

From the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE):

TWSE announced trading in the shares of HTC Corporation (Code：2498) and the securities underlying the company will be halted starting from Sep 21 2017 pending the release of material information. The company will apply for resumption of trading after the release of material information.

Google could end up buying HTC’s smartphone business altogether, with reports also hinting at a “strategic partnership” (which seems unlikely at this point). According to China Times, an announcement will be made in two days’ time. According to the publication, HTC CEO Cher Wang is in Taiwan for a Town Hall at the company’s headquarters, with the executive likely briefing staffers over the upcoming announcement.

Evan Blass‏ managed to get a hold of the invitation for the Town Hall, noting that Google will likely acquire HTC’s hardware assets:

[2] According to this person, the companies have finalized a deal wherein GOOG will acquire certain HW eng assets, but HTC retains its brand

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 20, 2017

HTC is confirmed to be the manufacturer of the smaller Pixel 2, and should an outright acquisition occur, Google is better positioned to absorb HTC’s manufacturing facilities into its own hardware unit. As Alex noted in his piece a few weeks ago, the deal would be different from Google’s acquisition of Motorola back in 2012:

Google didn’t buy Moto in 2012 to own a smartphone manufacturer. Instead, it paid up to nip in the bud an existential threat to Android.

If Google buys the smartphone side of HTC in 2017, it’ll be doing so to own a smartphone manufacturer, securing the manufacturing capacity, supply chain expertise and design talent it needs to build Pixel phones, Pixel tablets and, who knows, maybe watches, laptops and other devices, completely in-house. It’d bring some much-needed vertical integration to Google’s new hardware division, at a time when it’s also rumored to be interested in building its own silicon.

Whatever deal Google makes with HTC would exclude Vive, which is a separate business unit. HTC, for its part, has said that it does not “comment on market rumors or speculation.” A trading halt isn’t issued unless a major announcement is imminent, so we should hear more from HTC later this week.

How to link and unlink smart device services from the Google Home app

Some things seem more complicated than they should be.

The Google Home app does more than setting up the Google Home itself. You use it to set up Chromecast devices and smart “things” in your homes, like Hue lights or a Nest. Because you can use the app for so many different things, there is a good chance that eventually you’ll need to unlink one of them from your Google account. At the beginning of September, Google sent out an update for voice control on some of those smart devices which also requires you unlink them to update everything.

More: These products and services work with Google Home

Linking and unlinking a device service from Google Home isn’t difficult, but it’s certainly not the most intuitive process you’ll come across. We can make it a little easier.

Linking a device

• Open the Google Home app, and tap the Menu in the top left corner of your screen.
• If you have more than one Google account on your phone, check to make sure you’re using the right one.
• Scroll halfway down the page and tap the entry marked More settings.
• Make sure you’re on the Devices tab and not the Rooms tab. They are labeled at the top of your screen.
• Tap the blue button with the + to add and link a device.
• Choose your device from the list.
• Follow the instructions that open from your device manufacturer.
• When the pairing is complete, click Done in the upper right.
• Set a name for the device.

• Assign it to a room.

  

A word or two on naming and room assignment. You’ll be prompted to give your device a nickname, and the name you choose is what you’ll be calling it if it uses voice commands. Try to make it an easy one or two syllable name that you’ll remember. It doesn’t have to have the same name your manufacturer assigned it or the name you chose during the manufacturer’s setup.

Room assignment is important when you’re using voice to control the things in your house. You might have a Chromecast, some Hue lights, and a smart thermostat in your living room, and have another Chromecast and smart lamp setup in the bedroom. Assigning a room means you can say “Dim the lights in the bedroom” or “Play the Beatles in the living room” and Google Home will do the rest. If you don’t tell it where your stuff is, you’ll have to remember the device names each and every time.

Unlinking a device

• Open the Google Home app, and tap the Menu in the top-left corner of your screen.
• If you have more than one Google account on your phone, check to make sure you’re using the right one.
• Scroll halfway down the page and tap the entry marked More settings.
• Make sure you’re on the Devices tab and not the Rooms tab. They are labeled at the top of your screen.
• Tap the blue button with the + in it.
• You’ll see the same list of devices as you did when you linked one. Your linked devices are at the top of the list labeled Linked services
• Find the device you want to unlink and tap it.
• Tap the label marked Unlink account in the window that opens.

• Confirm your choice

  

This process removes the permissions the manufacturer had to access your Google account. That means the service itself is removed, but if any data is stored on the device will remain. Follow the instructions from your manufacturer if you need to wipe a device clean so somebody else can use it.

Your account with the manufacturer will also remain in place. You can keep the account in case you need it again or delete it according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

All finished!

You’ll notice this is very different from the process used to add a Google Home or Chromecast device. You won’t need to do this very often, but when you do you’ll have all the directions in one place to get you started!

Google Hardware

• Google Wifi review
• Google Home review
• Everything you need to know about the Chromecast Ultra
• Chromecast vs Chromecast Ultra: Which should you buy?

Google Wifi:

Google
Amazon

Google Home:

Google
Best Buy

Chromecast Ultra:

Google
Best Buy

The Morning After: Wednesday, September 20th 2017

Hey, good morning!

Welcome to your Wednesday. We’ve got our full verdict on Apple’s iPhone 8. You’ll have to wait to see how the iPhone X fares, but now Google is the latest company angling for our new smartphone-buying dollars. And, oops, the phones have leaked (again) ahead of anything official. We also have a portable(ish) fire pit, because the outdoors needs gadgets, too.

Exposed.
Google’s mini Home speaker and Pixel 2 XL leak ahead of October event

Hopefully you weren’t set on waiting until October 4th to find out about Google’s new hardware, because some pricing and specs have already leaked. Droid-Life found details on the Pixel phones, which will have familiar prices and storage setups, as well as the Daydream View VR headset, which is getting a $20 price hike. The biggest news is confirmation of the Google Home Mini, an Echo Dot-like puck that will sell for $49 with a focus on Google Assistant instead of high-quality audio.

If you just can’t give up your home button.
iPhone 8 and 8 Plus review

No, they’re not the (nearly) all-screen iPhone 8, but these new iPhones still have some important upgrades. With a new A11 Bionic CPU inside, upgraded cameras and wireless charging, an iPhone 8 could be the right one for you.

A bigger upgrade on bigger screens.
iOS 11 review

With new iPhones comes a new operating system, but Devindra Hardawar found the big changes in iOS 11 are easier to notice on Apple’s tablets. Now the iPad is better equipped than ever to operate as a laptop replacement (if that’s what you’re looking for), thanks to a new OS X-style dock and Files app. Other tweaks like ARKit, photography upgrades and a more natural sounding Siri give you more reasons to update now instead of waiting.

Here we go again.
CNBC: Sprint and T-Mobile are inching closer to a merger

Once again, there are rumors that Sprint and T-Mobile are considering joining forces. Each company is almost always turning up in one acquisition rumor or another, so teaming up to better fight AT&T and Verizon makes at least some sense. Still, despite years of rumors, it hasn’t happened and CNBC’s sources claim negotiators are “weeks” away from a deal that would make T-Mobile’s parent company a majority owner of the new venture.

‘Neko Atsume’ is coming to VR.
Here’s everything from PlayStation Japan’s 2017 press event

The Tokyo Game Show has been a smaller affair in the last few years, and Sony has typically spun off its own pre-show press event. This year’s no different, and PlayStation Japan had no less than four limited edition PlayStations, and a bunch of games and release dates. Here are the highlights.

First you can feast, then relax in front of the flames.

BioLite’s FirePit goes beyond the camping grill

BioLite’s new FirePit is a best-of-both-worlds solution. It’s a portable grill station that doubles as a warming and hypnotic flame source, opening up opportunities beyond the campsite. There’s flames, and you can cook on ’em.

You just need to fork out at least $560 and board a flight to China.
The dual-screen Yota3 phone has an even a sharper E Ink second display

After a teaser back in June, the third-gen dual-screen YotaPhone — now simply dubbed Yota3 — was unveiled in China yesterday. Pretty much all the main specs are identical to the leak Engadget received earlier, but this was our first time seeing this rounded metallic design. First and foremost, there’s a 5.5-inch 1080p AMOLED screen along with a 13-megapixel camera and a fingerprint reader on the front. Flip the device around and you’ll see its headlining feature: a 5.2-inch 720p E Ink Carta II display — with buttons. Double screens aren’t cheap, however: Prices start at 3,699 yuan — about $560 instead of the rumored $350.

But wait, there’s more…

• 24 hours with the FitBit Ionic smartwatch
• US Navy will use Xbox controllers to steer submarine periscopes
• Oculus tweaks VR audio to seem closer and more realistic

USA Today takes you on a VR tour of Trump’s proposed border wall

After a series of experiments with virtual reality, USA Today launched its full-fledged VR news show last year. “VRtually There” (as it’s known) followed in the footsteps of similar segments from The New York Times and ABC News. Since then, the media outlet’s immersive broadcasts have covered everything from extreme sports to marine life. It even hosted a VR livestream of Donald Trump’s inauguration. The 45th President of the United States also happens to be the catalyst for its latest (and arguably most ambitious) experience. The Wall: Unknown Stories, Unintended Consequences uses Trump’s campaign promise to build a border wall as its launchpad for an in-depth exploration of its possible ramifications.

The interactive experience includes a mixture of 360-degree video, documentary footage, on-the-ground reporting, and an upcoming long-form film. For the VR story, the USA Today Network mapped the entire US-Mexico border. Using a combination of LiDAR data collected from hotspots along the region and photographic surveys, the team built a virtual representation of the landscape. Reporters also took to the skies to provide aerial views of the region.

With the HTC Vive headset, viewers will be able to explore locations along the border, each of which are populated with interactive stories from border patrol agents, armed vigilantes, migrants, and local residents. An interactive map of the border is also available on the project’s dedicated website.

“This [experience] highlights our unique ability to leverage our local footprint along the border to educate and inform Americans on a crucial topic at an important time, as Congress debates funding for the proposed border wall,” said Maribel Wadsworth, SVP at Gannett (USA Today’s parent company).

Budweiser offers 150,000 free Lyft round trips

If you’re on the lookout for a designated driver this holiday season, a brewery can save the day. Starting today, Budweiser is offering up to 150,000 free round-trip Lyft rides (worth up to $10 each way) with its “Give a Damn” program until the end of the year. Every Thursday at 2 PM ET, Budweiser will share a code on its Facebook and Instagram channel that you can use Thursday, Friday and Saturday night (in the US only). The program, which Budweiser piloted in New York, Colorado, Illinois and Florida last year, will also be available in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas, Georgia and Washington, D.C. this year.

When you claim the code, the funds will be transferred to your Lyft account, but only for the three-day period. This year’s program offers round-trips instead of the one-way trips offered during the pilot, which makes a lot more sense. Obviously, Budweiser is offering the rides to gain some feel-good PR and let customers freely consume its product without fear of repercussions. There’s no reason you can’t, say, drink whiskey and still use the codes, though.

Budweiser plays no favorites in the ride-sharing game. Working with Uber’s Otto trucking division, it transported 8,000 cases of Bud over a 120-mile distance, the first such delivery for an autonomous semi-truck. Somehow it makes sense that Uber is delivering the beer, and Lyft is bringing the drunk customers home safely.

London venue is first to eradicate touts with digital-only tickets

Touts are something you’ll no longer see roaming the pavements outside of London’s Islington Assembly Hall. The music venue has become the first in the UK to commit entirely to digital tickets, all of which will be sold through mobile app Dice. Tickets are inextricably linked to the Dice app, so they can’t be posted on resale sites or flogged to touts. That works in your favour, of course, because you’ll only ever pay list price. Just make sure you don’t drain your battery organising pre-drinks with the squad.

That’s not to say you can’t offload your ticket if something comes up and you can’t make the gig. Earlier this year, Dice introduced a simplified refund feature for sold-out gigs. Dice effectively buys back the ticket and sells it on to another fan on the waiting list for the same price. The plan is to expand this option to all events in the future, sold out or not. In addition to giving touts the finger, Dice has other fan-friendly features such as no booking or payment processing fees and the option to send mates their ticket via the app so you don’t have to wait for them at the gates when they’re late.

Touts are unnecessary middlemen, inflating ticket prices purely to create a cut for themselves. Gig-goers hate them, artists hate them, and the government isn’t too keen either. The use of automated online bots to hoover up tickets (that are later listed on resale sites with a mark-up) is set to become a criminal offence thanks to the Digital Economy Act. The government has also implored venues and resale sites to address the ways they might be enabling touts. Sure, we might be lose the stub souvenir, but can we just make digital-only ticketing mandatory and kill all the birds with one stone already?

Via: BBC Newsbeat

Source: Dice

Apple, Microsoft Working to Fix iOS 11 Mail App Issues With Outlook.com, Office 365 & Exchange Accounts

Apple says it is working closely with Microsoft to fix an issue that prevents Outlook.com, Office 365, and Exchange 2016 account holders from sending or replying to emails using Apple’s native Mail app in iOS 11.

Apple published a support document on Tuesday, September 19 – the official launch date of iOS 11 – to acknowledge the issue affecting users of Microsoft email servers.

If you can‘t send an email with iOS 11 and an Outlook.com or Exchange mail account



You might see an error message that says “Cannot Send Mail. The message was rejected by the server.”

If your email account is hosted by Microsoft on Outlook.com or Office 365, or an Exchange Server 2016 running on Windows Server 2016, you might see this error message when you try to send an email with iOS 11: “Cannot Send Mail. The message was rejected by the server.”

On Tuesday, Microsoft also published a support note, which states that Apple’s Mail app in iOS 11 “is not compatible with Outlook.com, Office 365, or Exchange Server 2016 running on Windows Server 2016”.

Both companies’ statements suggest they were caught off guard by the Mail app problem in iOS 11, however MacRumors is aware of several users who installed beta builds of the mobile operating system and flagged the issue with Apple as far back as July.

1/2 I’ve sent bug reports to @Apple during #iOS11 testing that mail cant be sent through native email app using exchange-same on #iOS11GM

— Lt. Andy Norris (@LtAndyNorris) September 12, 2017

2/2- Have you heard any reports of not being able to send mail using exchange on native email app? It works on Outlook app just fine. #iOS11

— Lt. Andy Norris (@LtAndyNorris) September 12, 2017

Despite apparently being aware of the problems for some time, both Apple and Microsoft said they are still working together to resolve the issue. Apple added that it would release a fix soon in an upcoming software update, while Microsoft offered the following workaround in the meantime.

To work around this issue, download the free Outlook for iOS client from the App Store. The Outlook for iOS client fully supports various email services, including Outlook.com, Office 365, and Exchange Server 2016. 

If you use the Mail app to sync data from Exchange Server 2016 that is running on Windows Server 2016, you can ask the system administrator to disable HTTP/2 in Windows Server 2016 as a workaround. The instructions on disabling HTTP/2 can be found in the Workaround section of KB 4032720: How to deploy custom cipher suite ordering in Windows Server 2016.

Stay tuned to MacRumors to find out as soon as Apple releases a fix for the ongoing Microsoft server issues in iOS 11.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
Tags: Microsoft, Office 365
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