Guide to Mac, iPod, iPad and iPhone news and reviews
Instagram today soft-launched its new Snapchat competitor Bolt in Singapore, South Africa, and New Zealand. First hinted at last week, Bolt is a one tap photo and video messaging app that allows users to send ephemeral images to friends, much like Snap…
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Music software company XILS-lab has released XILS DeeS, a de-esser plug-in for all major Mac (OS X 10.5 or higher) and PC (Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8) compatible formats for ridding voice recordings of all sibilant-related defects while preserving precious characteristics to produce perfect-sounding results.
With Apple’s next iPhone, or iPhones, still unofficial devices, analysts and supply chain watchers are still trying to get a feel for what’s coming down the pipe from the Cupertino-based company. A new report is echoing some claims that Apple’s use of sapphire glass in the iPhone 6 may not actually happen after all.
Following up less than a week after it prematurely let the cat out of the bag, Instagram’s new messaging service, named Bolt, is now available for users in some countries. It’s what can basically be described as a Snapchat clone, where you sign in and quickly send pictures back and forth between friends. You use your phone number to sign in rather than an email or Facebook account, and sending pictures to friends is just one tap away — there’s no actual shutter button to press and review the image before it’s sent.
According to TechCrunch Instagram is launching Bolt in just a handful of countries as an initial release to work out the bugs in the app. Those countries include Singapore, South Africa and New Zealand, which were chosen because of their high Instagram usage. If you live in one of the aforementioned countries you can get your hands on the app now, but Instagram isn’t quite spilling the beans on when it’ll be available in other markets.
We’ll have to see how well Bolt is received in the initial launch countries considering the stiff competition in the quick messaging and photo space, where even Instagram itself competes with in-app direct photo messaging and chat of all types from its parent company Facebook. Are you looking forward to trying out Bolt for yourself? Let us know in the comments.
Source: TechCrunch
Open source software group Open Whisper Systems today released a new encrypted phone app called Signal, which is designed to allow its users to make secure calls on the iPhone at no cost. Using end-to-end encryption, Signal secures iPhone conversatio…
There’s a big focus on one-to-one messaging, with as little content as possible, in today’s communication trends, with the likes of Yo, and now Facebook-owned Instagram has released a new effort to compete with the rest.
We have some great apps for you today that have gone free for a short duration on the App Store, including Mad Skills BMX, Timeless, Avoid and more.
Last week, security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski made some hefty claims that iOS devices are vulnerable to attack due to undocumented surveillance services that Apple has included in its mobile operating system. Apple quickly refuted the claim and made those services more transparent for those suspicious of their intent. This week, Bluebox Security came out with […]
Apple refreshed the MacBook product lineup earlier today with new 13-inch and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros that feature improved specs. The new Macs have already started showing up in Geekbench benchmark results, revealing gains in single and multi core performance.
Red Giant has released Shooter Suite 12.5, which includes new versions of two Shooter Suite products: PluralEyes 3.5 and Instant 4K. New to the suite is Denoiser II, Red Giant’s powerful video noise reduction tool.
Also included are the recently updat…
Apple’s been on a bit of an acquisition kick over the last couple years, and it seems to be continuing apace. This week, the company has confirmed the acquisition of two separate firms, both of which may help improve the company’s algorithms for recommending content.
Over the weekend, Re/code reported that Apple was aiming to buy Swell, an app described as “Pandora for talk radio.” Among the company’s partners: ABC News Radio, PRI, NPR, and TED. The service focused on figuring out what users like to listen to and then suggesting similar content. (In and of itself, it’s not different from the NPR One app we recently reviewed, albeit with more sources.) Re/code also reported that the deal would be worth $30 million. As of Tuesday, the Swell app is no longer available for download, and the website has been replaced with a thank-you message; the Wall Street Journal’s Daisuke Wakabayashi tweeted that he had confirmed the sale with Apple.
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Sports tracking app theScore has received a hefty update today, hitting version 4.3 with some major enhancements for baseball fans. These include better box scores, more detail, and better data visualization. MLB box scores now offer more in-depth st…
Plants vs. Zombies 2 has had another content update, continuing on the original Dark Ages update we saw back at E3. Dark Ages Part 2 introduces a new boss battle, a new Arthurian challenge, two new plants (magnetshroom and peanut), 10 new levels, and …
An Apple support page on Boot Camp was updated yesterday to include a mention of a mid-2014 Mac mini, perhaps hinting that a refresh of the desktop computer might be in the works. First noticed by 9to5Mac, a cached version of the support page suggest…
In late 2012, Apple officially upgraded the Mac mini, but then let the little device squander in the shadow of other Apple-branded devices. The wait for a new Mac mini could be coming to a close, though, if a new product support page is any indicator.