Twitter now displays popular articles from your timeline

Twitter keeps looking for ways to improve its service to better meet the needs of its diverse and, er, passionate audience. Last September, code in the Android app pointed to an experimental “tweetstorm” feature aimed at helping longer-form content make sense on Twitter. Just a few months earlier, the company also added a new inbox that separates out direct messages from people you don’t follow, too. Now, Twitter is rolling out a new feature that will show you articles shared or liked by the people you follow on the service.

Twitter confirms that it has been testing the news feature for a while and is now rolling it out to everyone on iOS and Android. A spokesperson also reminded us that news has been a focus of Twitter before, like the time it tested a dedicated news tab in 2015. Buzzfeed‘s Alex Kantrowitz also points out that Twitter’s new feature apes that of standalone app, Nuzzel, which aggregates news articles that have been liked and shared by people in your network, as well.

The popular articles feature may take some time to show up on your own mobile device; some Engadget staffers can see the feature while others are still waiting.

Via: Buzzfeed

Cellular Over-the-Air App Download Limit Increased to 150 MB

Following the launch of iOS 11, Apple today announced that it has increased the cellular over-the-air app download limit from 100 MB to 150 MB, meaning users can now download apps and app updates that are as large as 150 MB over a cellular connection.

Apps and app updates over 150 MB will require users to connect to Wi-Fi for content to be downloaded.

It’s been awhile since Apple last updated the cellular download limit. The last increase was introduced in 2013, increasing the 50 MB limit to 100 MB.

Apple has limits in place to avoid causing customers to unwittingly use high amounts of data when downloading apps, but the introduction of unlimited plans from all of the major carriers in the United States has likely alleviated some of those concerns.

Developers often aim to keep their app sizes under the cellular limit whenever possible to prevent customers from having to hassle with connecting to Wi-Fi to download an app or app update.

Tag: App Store
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Procreate 4 for iPad Offers New Painting Engine, Layer Masks, Drag and Drop, and More

Popular iPad painting and sketching app Procreate was today updated to version 4, offering an overhauled experience that provides improvements to the app’s core elements and introduces support for iOS 11.

Procreate 4 adopts support for Metal 2, Swift 4, and Core Video, introducing a new Silica M painting engine that’s been engineered with better color depth, more fluid and accurate painting, and faster performance.

A new brush engine and interface allows for new effects and settings, and there’s a new, faster smudge tool for smudging and mixing paint along with a new wet painting experience. Blending colors in Procreate 4 is 250 times more accurate than in the previous-generation Procreate app.

Layer Masks have been added in Procreate 4 for non-destructive image modifications, and there are new Brush Blend Modes, with support for applying existing blend modes to any brush.

When using the Apple Pencil, there’s a new Bleed setting, and the Tilt and Sketching brushes available with the accessory offer better realism and responsiveness.

With Drag and Drop support, multiple paintings can be dragged out of the app into another for sharing, and brushes and palettes can be dragged in. Layers can be dragged as individual images, and images taken directly from the web browser can be quickly dragged into Procreate for faster editing.

Other improvements include P3 Wide Color support, a new color interface to make it easier to switch between colors, a new interface for image adjustments, and a new gallery for managing artwork and interacting with the Files app.

Procreate 4 can be downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. [Direct Link]

Tag: Procreate
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Drag and Drop Apps for iPad Now Widely Rolling Out on App Store

iOS 11 brings systemwide drag and drop to iPad, providing users with a quick way to move text, images, files, and more from one app to another.

Over the past few days, leading up to today’s launch of iOS 11, a number of iPad apps have been updated to support the functionality.

Todoist

You can now drag text messages, URLs, emails, images, PDFs, files, and more into Todoist, a popular task management app for iOS.

Dropping in a project, label, or filter view will create a new task.
Dropping in the comment screen will start a new comment pre-populated with the relevant information.
Dropping in the Quick Add button will start a new task pre-populated with the relevant information.

Todoist is free on the App Store [Direct Link] with the option to upgrade to Todoist Premium for $28.99 per year.

Zipped

Eytan Schulman, a three-time WWDC Scholarship winner, is releasing a modern archiving utility called Zipped with drag and drop support.

iPad users can simply drag and drop files onto Zipped’s cardboard box icon to zip/compress or unzip/uncompress them.

Quickly open a ZIP file and selectively share or save the contents.
Files can be named manually or automatically.
Save your compressed or uncompressed files to the Files app on your iOS device, share them to any app, or send them via AirDrop.

Zipped currently supports the following file types, with more to come: zip, .png, .jpg, .html, .pages, .docx, .pdf, .numbers, .xlsx, .pptx, .rtf, .txt, .mp4, .mov, .aiff, .mp3, .wav, .psd, .caf, .md, .csv, .json, and .js.

Zipped should be available on the App Store [Direct Link] for 99 cents later today or by tomorrow at the latest.

1Password

You can now drag and drop your 1Password-generated username and password right into login fields while in Split View.

You can also drag and drop other items like credit card numbers and contact information from 1Password into web fields.

1Password is free on the App Store [Direct Link]. A subscription costs $3.99 per month or $35.99 per year.

Others

1Writer

Airmail

Astro

Castro

Things 3

Bear

Procreate

Terminology Dictionary

GoodNotes 4

Related: How to Use Drag and Drop on an iPad and iPhone With iOS 11

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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Kuo: If Face ID is ‘Well Received,’ It’s Likely 2018 iPhones Will Fully Adopt TrueDepth Camera

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo this afternoon published a new research note for investors where he speculates about what Apple might do in future iPhones regarding Touch ID and Face ID. Investors, like many of us, are curious whether Apple plans to eliminate Touch ID in favor of Face ID, embrace a dual biometric solution, or swap back to Touch ID once a viable under display solution is available.

Kuo believes Apple’s future plans will hinge on whether or not Face ID is well received by the public.

A key question on the minds of many investors is whether the new iPhone models to be launched in 2018 will support Touch ID (fingerprint recognition). We believe the key factors are: (1) whether or not Face ID (facial recognition) of iPhone X provide a positive user experience; and (2) the technical issues that Apple (US) will have to address with an under-display fingerprint solution. We believe Apple will replace the existing Home button-based Touch ID with the under-display solution for higher screen-to-body ratios, if it decides to bring back Touch ID.

Should Face ID be well received by consumers who purchase the iPhone X, Kuo believes there’s a higher likelihood 2018 iPhone models will adopt the TrueDepth Camera and support Face ID.

Should Apple choose to return to Touch ID as either a dual biometric solution or a Face ID replacement should Face ID not fare well, Kuo believes any forthcoming Touch ID option will be built under the iPhone’s display. 3D Touch, though, will make it challenging for Apple to develop an under-display solution.

This is because the iPhone’s 3D Touch module makes the entire panel module even thicker, and could potentially undermine the scan-through performance of the under-display solution. If Face ID fails to impress consumers, Apple may turn its focus to the development of under-display solution. However, even if that happens, Apple will still have to find ways to overcome the aforementioned technical issue.

If Face ID does indeed go over well with consumers and makes its way into additional iOS devices in 2018, Kuo believes Apple’s Android competitors will make an effort to speed up facial recognition development, boosting manufacturers who supply facial recognition components.

Face ID will be in the hands of consumers this November, following the launch of the iPhone X. As Face ID is a new biometric system, there have been a lot of questions and doubts about privacy, security, and functionality, but Apple’s Craig Federighi has attempted to alleviate the uncertainty with a series of interviews.

In a recent discussion with Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, Federighi said that once Face ID is in the hands of consumers, all of that uncertainty will just “melt away.” The feature “just works,” he says. “You don’t even have to think about it.”

Related Roundup: iPhone X
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How to Use the iPad App Switcher in iOS 11

On the iPad, iOS 11 merges the Control Center with the App Switcher as part of an overhauled interface that’s meant to put more of a focus on multitasking. The update also adds new ways to access the App Switcher and it brings new, enhanced app switching functionality.

Accessing the App Switcher

On the Home screen, simply swipe up to bring up the App Switcher.
Within an app, swipe up to bring up the dock and continue the swipe further to access the App Switcher.
Alternatively, the App Switcher can still be accessed by a double press on the Home button.
The new App Switcher displays the Control Center options on the right side of the screen, the dock at the bottom of the screen, and your most recently used apps in a tiled view with large icons so you can see exactly what’s open. Swipe left and right to see all of the apps you have open and tap to choose one.

When you open two apps at once using multitasking functionality, the app arrangements are preserved in the App Switcher, so you can quickly switch between multiple multitasking windows with a simple swipe and tap.

Closing Apps

There’s normally no need to close apps on iOS because Apple manages the device’s power needs and keeps apps from using resources when not in use, but if you need to close an app, here’s how:

Bring up the App Switcher.
Swipe upwards on any app to close it.
As mentioned earlier, the App Switcher is linked to the Control Center. You can change what’s displayed in the Control Center portion of the App Switcher by going to Settings –> Control Center –> Customize Controls.

Related Roundup: iOS 11
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Electric bus sets record with 1,101-mile trip on a single charge

Think it was impressive when a Tesla club drove a Model S nearly 670 miles? It has nothing on what Proterra just managed. The startup just drove a Catalyst E2 Max electric bus a whopping 1,101.2 miles on a single charge. That’s the furthest any EV has managed before recharging, and well past the 1,013.8 miles driven by the previous record-holder, a one-seat experimental car nicknamed “Boozer.” It’s not hard to see how Proterra managed the feat when you know about the technology, but this still bodes well for eco-friendly public transportation.

Not surprisingly, a bus can hold a much larger battery than just about any regular car. The Catalyst E2 Max carries 660kWh, or nearly nine times the capacity of a 75kWh Tesla Model S. Also, Proterra was driving in optimal conditions, with no passengers, no stops and a gentle test track. It’d be another story with a fully-laden bus wending its way through a city.

Even so, that kind of range is very promising. In many cases, it could likely handle a long bus route for several hours — it might only need to recharge at the end of a driver’s shift. While it could take an hour or more to top up even with Proterra’s fast charging system, bus drivers are no strangers to changing vehicles. The first E2 series buses are due to reach Los Angeles streets later in 2017, so it might not be long before you can witness this longevity first-hand.

Via: Ars Technica

Source: Proterra

Apple Updates iOS iWork Apps With Drag and Drop Support, Other iOS 11 Features

Following the release of iOS 11, Apple today updated its iWork line of iOS apps with support for the new update. There are new versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote available today, all with new features like Drag and Drop support.

All three apps include a redesigned and updated document manager that makes it easier to access files stored in iCloud Drive or third-party cloud storage solutions. Along with the new document manager, the iWork apps now support Drag and Drop, allowing users to drag and drop text, images, links, and more between apps.

iWork documents can be accessed within the new Files app on the iPhone and the iPad, and with the new iPad Dock, it’s easier than ever to use the multi-tasking Slide Over and Split View features.

There are new Unite, Intersect, Subtract, and Exclude commands to create shapes in each of the apps, and Align, Distribute, Flip Vertical and Flip Horizontal commands can be used to arrange objects. There’s also a new “Break Apart” command for use with complex shapes from the shapes library.

In Pages specifically, there’s a new option to select a paragraph of text with a triple tap gesture, and an improved PDF export feature now lets you view a document’s table of contents in the sidebar in PDF viewer apps.

In Numbers, there are new date, time, and duration keyboards to make it easier to enter values, along with new “smart steppers” for entering the values more quickly.

All three of the iWork apps also have improvements to performance and stability and can be downloaded now from the App Store.

Pages for iOS – [App Store]
Keynote for iOS – [App Store]
Numbers for iOS – [App Store]

Tags: iWork, Pages, Keynote, Numbers
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Have a Mac with a Fusion Drive? Be careful when upgrading to High Sierra

Why it matters to you

The High Sierra upgrade might force Fusion drive owners to jump through a few hoops, but it does offer some benefits behind the scenes.

If your Mac system has one of Apple’s Fusion caching drives, then you may need to take some extra steps when upgrading to the new version of MacOS — High Sierra. The new Apple File System (APFS) will only support flash-based storage devices at launch, so if your drive, Fusion or no, is currently using APFS, you will need to convert it back.

The High Sierra update for MacOS didn’t blow us away when we first got out hands on it, but it will bring a number of changes to the operating system when it launches on Monday, September 25. One of those is a move toward a more modern file system, APFS. It adds a number of new features, including native support for encryption, support for snapshots and clones, optimizations for solid-state storage and support for many more individual files and folders.

However, while beta versions of the High Sierra update did help convert Fusion drives to the new standard, the actual launch release won’t support traditional hard drives or Fusion Drives.

If you haven’t used the High Sierra beta, or didn’t convert your Fusion Drive or hard drive to the APFS file system, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you did, you need to follow Apple’s instructions on how to downgrade your system back to the HPS+ format, according to Ars Technica.

It’s a somewhat lengthy process that involves backing up your data, removing all data on your storage drive and then reinstalling MacOS with the latest version using the legacy HPS+ file system, so make sure you’re well prepared before starting. Don’t be put off though, Apple’s guide is clear and has easy-to-follow instructions at each step of the process.

Since it’s not clear if or when Apple will make the APFS file system compatible with more traditional storage mediums like the Fusion Drives, it’s probably a worthwhile endeavor to update your system to the new operating system version, even if it doesn’t add much for most users. It will help futureproof your system in a number of behind-the-scenes ways and it’s always possible that you will be able to upgrade to the new file system in the future.

HP had abusive students in mind when designing its rugged Chromebook x360 PCs

Why it matters to you

If you’re looking for a new mobile PC for your young student, HP’s new Chromebook x360 devices are designed to take their abuse.

HP added four new models to its Chromebook x360 portfolio on Tuesday, September 19. They follow the Chromebook x360 11 G1 Education Edition released in March, and are the company’s first rugged touch-enabled Chromebook x360 solutions for the mainstream market. They’re designed to handle all the drops, spills, and scratches stemming from abusive young students.

For starters, there are two base configurations, but the only difference between them is the amount of internal storage: One sports 16GB while the other packs 32GB. HP also provides two different colors — Smoke Gray and Snow White — totaling four individual models in the overall rugged HP Chromebook x360 family.

Take a look at the specifications:

11-ae010nr
11-ae020nr
11-ae030nr
11-ae040nr
Screen size:
11.6 inches
Screen type:
In-Plane Switching (IPS) technology with Touch
Screen resolution:
1366 x 768
Processor:
Intel Celeron N3350
Graphics:
Intel HD Graphics 500
Memory:
4GB LPDDR4
Storage:
16GB
32GB
16GB
32GB
Camera:
Front-facing HP TrueVision HD webcam
Connectivity:
Wireless AC (up to 867Mbps) / Bluetooth
Audio:
HD Audio with stereo speakers
Ports:
2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-C
2x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A
1x Headphone/microphone jack
1x Micro SD card reader
Battery:
47.36WHr Lithium-ion
Up to 11 hours and 30 minutes (mixed usage)
Size:
8.18 x 12.04 (D) x 0.76 (H) inches
Weight:
2.98 pounds
Color theme:
Smoke Gray
Smoke Gray
Snow White
Snow White

As the specs show, the new Chromebooks are extremely thin and light for easy mobility. They also have a great battery life according to HP’s numbers, lasting up to 11 hours and 30 minutes on a single charge. What helps is the 11.6-inch screen that doesn’t draw as much power as a 15-inch screen, and the power-sipping Celeron dual-core processor packed inside.

What’s notable about these four Chromebooks is that they include four USB 3.1 Gen1 ports. These can be used to expand the student’s desktop across two additional external monitors. There’s no speed difference between the Type-A and Type-C versions, but at least with the latter, students aren’t required to remember which side of the connector faces up.

The Chromebooks also sport touch-based screens, and a special 360-degree hinge to convert them into four cool form factors: Laptop, stand, tent, and tablet.  Other features include Wireless AC networking, Bluetooth for connecting wireless peripherals, and a full-sized island-style keyboard that’s spill-resistant, although don’t expect a hardware miracle if the laptop is completely drenched at the water fountain.

Finally, the Chromebooks are based on the latest version of Google’s Chrome OS operating system that provides access to millions of Android-based apps on the Google Play store, along with everything listed in the Chrome Web Store. Chrome OS is an ideal platform for students, as it’s easy to use, fast, and highly secure. Chromebooks typically have low price tags too, and HP’s new rugged x360 convertibles are no different.

All four are available now with a starting price of $300 at Amazon, Costco, Micro Center, Sam’s Club, Target, and Walmart.