Mar 16
Mar 16
Today, CNN partnered with interactive entertainment company Magnopus, the company behind the Coco VR experience, to launch a VR app for its virtual reality news stories on the Oculus Rift. It was previously available on iOS and Android to use with Go…
Mar 16
Last year Apple announced their plans to acquire Shazam which seemed like a pretty straightforward deal, however they did run into some trouble with the EU whereby some countries felt that Apple acquisition could have “adverse effects” on the competition. This made the whole deal a lot more complicated.
However Apple is going through the necessary motions to make the deal happen and have recently sought approval by regulators and according to the European Commission, they expect to have a decision by the 23rd of April. Whether or not it will be successful remains to be seen, but as 9to5Mac points out, the implications of Apple acquiring Shazam is pretty big.
It is unclear as to how much Apple will be paying for Shazam, but it isn’t so much the monetary terms, but rather the data terms in which through Shazam, Apple will gain a better understanding of music and TV shows that Shazam users are watching. Also by owning the company, Apple could effectively cut off access to that data to other companies, such as record labels who are said to use Shazam’s “dashboard” feature to identify trending songs.
That being said, the Commission’s decision by the 23rd of April might not necessarily be final either, where they might choose to launch a four month-long investigation which means that a decision could potentially be delayed until this summer.
Apple Seeking Regulatory Approval For Shazam Acquisition , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 16
Imagine the anticipation of buying a brand new phone that you’ve waited for a week to arrive and you can’t wait to use it, only that you can’t because for some reason, you’ve been shipped the wrong SIM card. Turns out that’s exactly what some Samsung Galaxy S9 customers are experiencing.
According to a bunch of user reports, some Samsung customers who ordered the Sprint Galaxy S9 are being shipped handsets with a Verizon SIM instead. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if Samsung handled it better because according to various users on Reddit, it appears that Samsung is backed up and customers are being told they might have to wait up to a week to get a replacement SIM.
One user even claims that a Samsung rep told them to just “eat the $30”, which is the cost of a new SIM that users would have to pay if they were to head to a Sprint store themselves, which is pretty unprofessional. However on the upside it seems that there are some users who are getting much better service, based on this email that Samsung Mobile US sent in which they have shipped out the correct SIM to some users via FedEx which should arrive the next day.
At the moment it appears that this issue seems to only affect Sprint customers as there are no reports of other carrier customers who are getting the wrong SIM.
Samsung Ships Sprint Galaxy S9s With Verizon SIMs , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 16
Emerging markets such as India have a massive population, which means that there are a ton of customers that companies have yet to reach, which is why we’re seeing more developers jump on board the “Lite” bandwagon. However it seems that these “Lite” apps are no longer exclusive to emerging markets.
In a report from Reuters, it appears that Facebook will be bringing its Facebook Lite app to markets such as the US. The app has largely been available in emerging markets but it seems that Facebook plans to bring it to more developed countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand.
According to a statement from Facebook, “We’ve seen that even in some developed markets people can have lower connectivity, so we want to make sure everyone has the option to use this app if they want.” For those unfamiliar, Facebook Lite is a more pared down version of the full Facebook app.
This is meant to benefit users who have older (and slower) phones and who might not have access to fast internet connections. This is similar to Facebook’s Messenger Lite app which was created for the same reason. Facebook Lite is expected to available today and can be found via the Google Play Store.
Facebook Lite Will Be Making Its Way To The US , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 16
The other day French finance minister Bruno Le Maire announced that the French government would be looking to launch a lawsuit against companies like Apple and Google, alleging that these companies have “abusive” developer contracts where they get to unilaterally change contract terms like pricing.
However Apple has since come forward to deny these allegations, claiming that not only do they have strong relationships with French developers, but these developers have also benefited greatly from the App Store where they have made as much as 1 billion euros in revenue generated by their apps.
According to Apple’s statement by Le Figaro (via MacGeneration; via MacRumors), it roughly translates to, “We are proud to have strong relationships with tens of thousands of developers across France, who have earned 1 billion euros on the App Store. Many of these talented developers founded their companies with one or two people and then saw their teams grow to offer their applications to users in 155 countries. This was only possible thanks to Apple’s investment in iOS, development tools, and the App Store.”
They also add, “Apple has always defended the confidentiality and security of users and does not have access to user transactions with third-party applications. We are fully prepared to share our history in the French courts and to clarify this misunderstanding. In the meantime, we will continue to help French developers realize their dreams and support French students in their learning of the code through our coding program.”
Apple Responds To France’s Allegations That They ‘Abuse’ Developers , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 16
After announcing that signups for Fortnite Battle Royale for iOS was live, it looks like the game is now live as well which means that for those who received their invites, the game is now available for play on iOS devices. However it should be noted that not everyone can get in on it right away.
It seems that the initial batch of invites that went out were mostly aimed at gamers who already played the PC, PS4, or Xbox One version of the game. If you already do you can head on over to Fortnite’s website where you will be asked if you already play the game, after which Epic will be able to locate your player data.
However if you don’t play the game, it seems that you will be put on a waitlist in which you will have no choice but to wait until you are invited. However if you already have a friend who managed to receive their invite, they will be able to invite you into the game thus skipping out on the queue.
If you don’t have that either, then we suppose you’ll just have to remain patient. It is unclear as to how long it will take for invites to fully reach all gamers, but presumably Epic is allowing batches in to prevent the servers from overloading. Once things have normalized we reckon players will have no problems getting into the game sans invite. Note that this is only the iOS version as the Android version of the game is expected to arrive later.
Fortnite Battle Royale On iOS Is Now Live , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Mar 16
The CNN host said he and Maisani broke up “some time ago.”
Mar 16
The move marks the first time the United States has publicly accused Moscow of hacking American energy infrastructure.
Mar 16
PNY has just added a new storage capacity ’960GB’ to its CS900 SATA 6.0 Gbps SSD line-up. Just like the 120GB, 240GB and 480GB models, this slim 2.5-inch SSD (7mm thick) is built with 3D NAND Flash memory chips, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, an operating temperature of 0 to 70-degree C and an MTBF of 2 million hours.
Supporting Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, this lightweight and shockproof SSD promises to deliver read and write speeds of up to 535MB/s and 515MB/s, respectively. The PNY 960GB CS900 SATA 6.0 Gbps SSD is available now for $249.99. [Product Page]
The post PNY Outs 960GB CS900 SATA 6.0 Gbps SSD appeared first on TechFresh, Consumer Electronics Guide.
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