Apple’s “one more thing…” moment at today’s developer conference was all about its much rumored music streaming service. It’s called Apple Music, and it has finally been made official. Apple Music is an on demand streaming offering, but it also comes with Beats One, a live radio station that’s being broadcast worldwide 24/7 from three cities – New York, Los Angeles, and London.

Apple Music features Connect, which is a way for artists to upload music, videos, and photos directly to their fans. This is supposed to make Apple Music stand out from its competitors by creating a more direct connection between artists and listeners, just like the name “Connect” implies. And through Connect, you can ‘follow’ artists a la Twitter, to be notified when they post new things. Read more »

Nokia’s post-Microsoft foray into Android apps began with the Z Launcher, a launcher that is built entirely around the less is more principle. The dev team took it slightly too far though and there was no support for Android widgets – until now that is and this was the most requested feature.

The team still stayed true to their mantra in how the widgets were integrated. Read more »

Here are some of the best apps and games that came out this week. Read more »

It is no secret that Sony takes great pride in its gaming console and frankly it should, as, it has the PlayStation to thank for a large chunk of its current revenue. The PlayStation Network has always been an integral part of Sony’s sprawling ecosystem and as such, it has naturally found a home on a lot of Xperia devices in one way or another.

Most-recently the Sony Xperia Z3+ featured a new application for integrating with PSN in a clean and centralized manner. It is dubbed simply “PlayStation Network” and acts like a central hub for all other PS-centric apps, like PlayStation, Remote Play, PS Video and PS Music. It offers little added value in itself, but definitely keeps things tidier. Read more »

Smart thermostat company Tado has launched a new device that it claims makes any remote-controlled air conditioner smart. Dubbed Smart AC Control, the device carries a price tag of $199, and is currently available directly from the company’s official website (click the Source 2 link below).

The device connects with any remote-controlled in-room AC via infrared, and works in conjunction with a companion app which senses your location to decide whether to turn the AC off or on. You can also use the app to easily change the AC settings. Read more »

Facebook has started rolling out a new feature that allows you to send locations as messages using the company’s Messenger app. “Now you can choose to explicitly send a map of your location or another particular place as a separate message,” the company said.

To use the feature, just tap the More icon or the location pin present the bottom of the app’s window, and you can share your (or any) location with the one you’re chatting with. Read more »

Today Facebook started rolling out its Lite app for Android across Asia. The app first surfaced without an official announcement back in January, and so far it’s only been available in eight countries in Asia and Africa.

In the coming weeks, however, you should be able to install it wherever you are in Asia. It will also arrive in more places in Africa, as well as parts of Latin America and Europe in the near future. Read more »

Now that it’s finally available for Android as well, Periscope is getting a new update for iOS. With version 1.1, which is already up for grabs from the iTunes App Store, Twitter’s live video streaming app gains an important new feature.

Namely, Periscope now lets you explore broadcasts from around the world on a zoomable map. Additionally, replays are instantly available, without the need to wait for them to upload after a broadcast finishes. Read more »

Google recently showed off its machine learning skills at Google I/O, but this is likely to blow even Google’s socks off. Presenting Hound, from the people who made SoundHound, the music recognition app. Hound is an app that uses voice search to find you relevant information, just like Siri or Google Now. Just that it’s way, way better at it.

Hound gives you quick search results for all your queries. You don’t have to mollycoddle it with specific queries that won’t fall within its search parameters. We already got that to quite an extent with Siri and Google Now, both of which can understand natural language fairly well, but they can still only deal with one query at a time. Read more »

Over a month after announcing that its mobile payments service will be launched in the second half of 2015, Samsung has confirmed that Samsung Pay will debut this September in the United States and South Korea.

The confirmation came from the company’s Executive Vice President Rhee In Jong, who also revealed that the service will be launched in conjunction with Samsung’s next high-end mobile device, which – given the time frame – could well be the Galaxy Note 5. Read more »

While the initial batch of the Pebble Time started shipping last week, those hoping to use the smartwatch with their iPhones will have to wait as its companion iOS app, which allows users of the wearable to install software updates, new apps, and watch faces, isn’t yet available for download on the Apple App Store.

Pebble is blaming Apple for the situation, saying that the Cupertino-based company’s App Store review process is responsible for the delay – the smartwatch maker had requested an “expedited” review of the app, which was last submitted on May 22. Read more »

Apple is planning to make its mapping service – which is currently exclusive to iOS and OS X – available on all platforms via the Web, according to a job listing posted by the company last month.

First spotted by tech analyst Benedict Evans and titled Maps JavaScript Engineer, the listing seeks a web technology expert to help make maps work seamlessly on the web. “This role requires a deep knowledge of the JavaScript language, plus a solid understanding of the performance and compatibility issues that arise when delivering a cross-platform web solution,” its description said. Read more »

Microsoft has updated its Skype for iPhone app to version 5.13, bringing web link previews for chat, as well as more ways to manage conversations from Apple Watch.

The updated app now shows you a preview of the content whenever you send or receive a web link, thus making it “much easier to see the cat video or information that’s been shared before you open the link,” the company said in a blog post. Read more »

It’s already been rumored once before that the Android 5.1 update will bring RAW support to the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 edge. This update might make its way to devices this month or in July.

Today a new rumor comes to confirm the addition of RAW support in the camera arriving with Android 5.1 on Samsung’s latest flagships. Furthermore, lower ISO values will also be added. Read more »

Imgur is one of those services you never really pay too much attention to when using on and off. Once you get into it, however, you will quickly discover that, just like reddit, the image platforms has grown into somewhat of an internet sensation and has an amazing ecosystem of its own.

There is tons of content to discover, trends to follow and all the viral memes and jokes you can handle. After only have a web app on Android for a while, Imgur now finally has a proper native app. Its interface is quite intuitive and user friendly. It is almost entirely card-based and swiping left and right navigates the endless stream of content. A tap brings out additional options like commenting, voting and adding to favorites. Read more »