Beats Electronics, which was acquired by Apple earlier on this year for the tidy sum of $3 billion, has risen to prominence thanks largely to its extensive marketing campaigns. Many celebrities, particularly those with ties to the music industry and sports, have promoted the company's products simply by wearing them in music videos or in the run-up to major sporting events, and you only really have to turn on the TV to see a pair of Beats headphones floating around. Bose, the audio specialist and thus, major rival to Beats, recently struck a deal with the NFL that would permit players to be seen using only its own brand of audio hardware during and around the time of matches, but while this move also banned NFL participants from wearing any other brand including Beats, one quarterback has decided to flout the rules and has subsequently been fined $10,000.
Since Apple allowed developers some jurisdiction over the keyboard element of iOS, many have obliged in releasing third-party alternatives to the stock offering. Many of these have sought to offer enhanced functionality in helping users to type more quickly, while others have brought a welcome element of fun with GIFs and emojis galore, and today's featured keyboard seems a perfect combination of the two.
As has long since been suspected, Apple will be holding a special event next week on October 16th, and likely topics of conversation will pertain to the iPad, OS X Yosemite, iOS 8.1 and possibly a couple of new Macs as well. Should all of these products roll out at the same time, it'll be a fairly busy affair, and for those wishing to tune in, Apple will be live streaming proceedings right from Town Hall.
Tesla's quite public effort to bring electric cars to the mainstream has been well documented, and it was only back in July that the company announced the $35,000 Model 3 to rival the 3 Series BMW. Now, another very interesting variant of the Model S includes a number of exciting new features, including an autopilot self-driving mode that will eventually allow the machine to drive itself to its owner.
Siri, Apple's famed voice assistant, has been parodied umpteen times, and has once again been utilized for the purpose of pure entertainment in a new comedy sketch. As ever, it's pretty funny, and below, you can check it out.
Recognizing that its once-popular check-in app was hitting something of a lull, Foursquare devised a separate app in the form of Swarm. The idea was that Swarm would work as a kicker to Foursquare, but focus more on finding friends within your locale and subsequently, find things to do. It still includes its very own check-in feature, though, and thanks to iOS 8's widget support, the Swarm app for iOS has just been updated to include a useful button for checking in with a single tap.
Android is not new to news of security bugs and vulnerabilities, but continues to roll on in spite of such news. Just recently, Rafay Baloch of RBH discovered a vulnerability in Android’s stock browser, including all browsers based on the stock AOSP code. This vulnerability was a serious one which caused the browser to fail in enforcing the Same Origin Policy (SOP) protocol, which basically governs how content from multiple resources is securely loaded into the browser. While this issue plagued pre-KitKat devices, Google was quick in patching it up. However, given the nature of Android’s ecosystem, updates aren’t rolled out that quickly, resulting in almost 45% Android devices out there that remain vulnerable according to the security experts at Lookout. Please note that this data is based on their apps user-base that is over 100 million, so it does make an interesting case nonetheless.
Apple first announced its intention to extend its iOS ecosystem to cars was first announced way back at 2013's Worldwide Developers' Conference, but it was only early this year with the release of iOS 7.1 that devices could properly support it. Many car manufacturers have signed up to include CarPlay as a standard feature, but sound and general infotainment specialist Pioneer has been one of a small number of companies to pledge aftermarket support. A short while ago, the first batch of CarPlay-ready in-car systems were launched, but given their fledgling nature, most of us have yet to see what this new Apple-integrated hardware is really made of. One early adopter, who also just so happens to be a member of a tech. repair company, has already had some extensive time with one of Pioneer's new receivers, and for the benefit of the masses, has posted a series of walkthrough clips.
Interbrand, one of the world's leading and most recognized brand consultancies, has just released its Best Global Brands list for 2014, and there's no prizes for guessing who sits on top of the rankings.
Samsung's delay in getting the Galaxy Note 4 out to the masses will surely have an effect on overall sales, particularly given the unexpected popularity of Apple's iPhone 6 Plus, and now, the Korean outfit is facing another hurdle. According to a suit filed by NVIDIA, Sammy's Exynos processors, along with a number of SoCs manufactured by Qualcomm, are in violation of the graphics specialist's GPU patents, and if NVIDIA's claims are founded, the Galaxy Note 4 may face a sales ban in the United States.
















