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iOS 9 updates will temporarily delete apps to make room for themselves

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A few weeks ago, at WWDC 2015, the new iOS 9 was officially unveiled along with the promise for a free update on eligible devices this fall. There is no doubt that Apple wants to push the new version of its popular mobile OS as cleanly as possible and on a broad a scale as possible. Mass adoption will ensure better uniformity on the market and create a more-favorable environment for development and innovation.

If you have been an iPhone user for some time now, you surely remember the major update problems associated with iOS 8. Its 6GB free space requirement left a lot of Apple users struggling to cram everything in on their phones. This, along with some serious initial bugs, led to a slow rate of adoption, a setback that Apple doesn’t want to repeat with iOS 9. Consequently the tech giant has taken measures. An iOS 9 beta adopter managed to spot a rather intriguing prompt, revealing that if your device has insufficient storage to install the update, Apple can automatically delete some of your apps, with the promise of reinstalling them immediately afterwards. Read more »

Parrot launches five new affordable MiniDrones for land, air, and water

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Parrot has introduced five connected toy drones which can be controlled using smartphones. The new FreeFlight 3 app has been released which can be used on iOS or Android based smartphones or tablets.

Three different MiniDrones lines are Jumping Drones for land at $189, Airborne Drones for night patrol $129, cargo carrying ones at $99, and the hybrid Hydrofoil Drones at $179 that can even sail on water. Read more »

Fitbit products up for pre-order in India

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Yesterday, we reported on Fitbit planning on entering the Indian market with Amazon as its launch partner. The company had said that the products will be up for sale starting July 1.

Amazon has now put up the entire range of Fitbit products for pre-order. Read more »

WhatsApp voice calling comes to Windows Phone

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After launching it first on Android and the later bringing it to iOS, WhatsApp has finally brought over its voice calling feature to the Windows Phone version. You can now finally call your buddies using Android or iOS devices on WhatsApp, instead of Viber, or Skype, or any of the other dozen services.

Along with voice calling, the update also brings with it the ability to send voice notes, which is only available on devices running 8.1 and above. Other than that there is not much else new in this update. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 edge themes crosses 6 million downloads

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Samsung has tweaked the new TouchWiz interface with several new features including the new theme engine and themes section. The Galaxy S6 and S6 edge buyers went ahead to try out different themes which has lead to over 6 million downloads already. Now this number is expected to grow rapidly as Samsung is reportedly expecting to ship 45 million units of Galaxy S6 and S6 edge units this year.

The Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Limited Edition spurred the craze of superheroes among rest of the owners with the release of the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie in the summer. Not all could buy that limited edition unit so it seems a lot of people went for the next best thing and the Avengers: Iron Man theme was the most downloaded theme globally. Samsung has shared an infographic about top five themes globally as well as in different regions. Read more »

WhatsApp for Android now lets you perform an app-wide search

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The Android version of popular messaging app WhatsApp now allows you to search across all your conversations. According to an Android Police report, the feature was possibly added in the version 2.12.134 of the app.

Previously, you could only perform a text search in a single WhatsApp conversation, but now when you start a search in the app’s Chats tab, you are also presented with results from within various conversations in addition to your contacts. Read more »

Latest Instagram update brings revamped Explore tab and better search

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Instagram 7.0 for iOS and Android has been made official today, and it should become available in both the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store within the next few hours. The newest version of the popular photo sharing app comes with some pretty big changes, though unfortunately one of them is US-only for now.

The Explore page inside the app has been completely revamped. It now shows trends as they emerge, making it easy for you to follow current events and conversations through Instagram. You will see trending tags as well as trending places. Read more »

Undo Send finally leaves Labs section of Gmail on the Web

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It’s pretty amazing that it took this long, but the Undo Send feature has graduated from Gmail Labs in the Web version of Google’s email service. Labs is where the company adds experimental things, and the most successful of those eventually get out of there and become actual options in the Gmail Settings.

Undo Send was added to Gmail Labs in 2009, believe it or not. And now, more than six years later, the company finally decided it’s worth moving to the main Settings tab. Read more »

Amazon Echo wireless speaker with voice control is now available to everyone in the US

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Amazon announced the Echo Bluetooth speaker which comes with an integrated personal assistant back in November of last year, so a long time ago. However, only today has the Echo actually gone on sale for everyone in the US.

Until this point, you needed an invite to buy one (no, seriously, Amazon got inspired by OnePlus’ strategy or something). Well, that isn’t the case anymore. The gizmo has also received a $20 price cut on this occasion, now costing $179.99. Shipping is set to start on July 14. Read more »

Google Play Music gets free, ad-supported radio in the US

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Clearly meant as a response of sorts to the launch of Apple Music, Google has today announced it’s adding a free tier to its Play Music streaming service. Previously, this was accessible only through a subscription.

From this point on, however, it also has a free, ad-supported radio version. Unfortunately it’s only going to be available in the US for the foreseeable future (Google has yet to announce when it will go international). Read more »

Samsung and T-Mobile now offer $100 off the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge

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There is really no doubt that Samsung has created a highly likeable flagship pair. Both devices offer cutting edge tech and stellar performance and you can’t really go wrong if you pick one up. There is, however, the question of the steep price tag. So if you happen to live in the US and are waiting for a better deal on a new Galaxy device, now seems to be a the most opportune moment, as both Samsung and T-Mobile are running promotions on the Galaxy S6 and its edged sibling.

Samsung just announced its Ultimate Upgrade promo. It boils down to a price cut of $100 on the 64GB model, bringing it down to the price of the 32GB one. Double the space for the same price really sounds like a nice deal. The promotion is live now and will remain up until July 5. You do have to apply for the $100 rebate, but, the extra hustle is worth it. Read more »

Fitbit to launch in India on July 1

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Fitbit has announced its plans to enter the Indian market. The company will be introducing its range of fitness products and will be selling it first through Amazon India, who is the launch partner.

Steve Morley, Vice-President and General Manager Asia Pacific for Fitbit, told The Indian Express that, “We are establishing an Indian entity and the first employees will be joining soon. We are here for a proper brand launch and Amazon will be our launch partner.” Read more »

Snapdragon video sheds some light on hybrid auto focus technology

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Mobile camera tech has really taken off recently, thanks to the introduction of advanced technologies, like OIS, color sensors, laser auto focus and PDAF. But, this technological leap can easily be overlooked by the average user, simply due to lack of understanding. Qualcomm has realized the need for more palatable explanations of recent advancements and has put out a short, upbeat video with a quick overview of how current Snapdragon chips achieve camera focus.

The technology in the company’s current SoCs is dubbed – “hybrid auto focus”, simply because it features intelligent algorithms for switching between laser and phase detection focus and for using them in tandem. There is nothing really hard to understand about both technologies, once you get a proper explanation. Read more »

Periscope for Android update brings new notification settings and ability to edit profile information

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The Android version of Twitter’s live video streaming app Periscope – which was launched last month – has scored yet another update. It bumps the application to version 1.0.2, and brings along several new features as well as bug fixes.

The updated app now not only lets you edit your profile information, including your photo, display name, and description, but also allows you to watch your personal broadcast history. In addition, it brings along improved comment synchronization for replays, as well as new sound/vibrate/silent notification settings (see image above). Read more »

Google lets you disable Google+ notifications from the web

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Ever noticed how there is always an unread notification every time you use a Google web service in the top right corner, and when you click it, it’s some random person who has added you to their circles? Never mind how legit this actually is, it’s just annoying to click on that and just find a Google+ notification, especially when you could be expecting a notification from one of Google’s other services, such as YouTube.

Google has now pushed an update that will let you choose which notifications appear there. Google+ is available by default and depending upon which other services you use you might get additional options. But best of all, you can finally disable Google+ notifications from appearing here. Read more »