Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Moto 360 gets $100 price cut from Motorola, now just $149
Motorola has lowered the cost of the Moto 360 on their own site by $100, with configurations now starting at just $149.
The Moto 360 has seen a number of sales and price reductions in recent times, as the device nears the one year mark in its life cycle. There have already been rumors of a second generation Moto 360, and it wouldn't be overly surprising to see Motorola announce something sooner than later.
Angelina Jolie
Vanessa Hudgens
Danneel Harris
Zoe Saldana
This HTC One M9 flip case stores cash or cards and is only $19.95 today
Made of a smooth Italian polyurethane, the Seidio LEDGER Case keeps your HTC One M9 protected from scratches and impacts while inside. There's a single storage slot for keeping credit cards or cash while on the go, and when it's movie time, simply rotate your device horizontally to prop it up!
Olivia Wilde
Megan Fox
The future of Jony Ive and Apple
Steve Jobs once said no one had more operational power at Apple, aside from himself, than Jony Ive.
Jony Ive, the man who helped reignite Apple with the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad had more operational power than the finance group, the engineering group, the services group, even the operations group. Apple, the company that put design first, put design first.
For years Ive ran industrial design (ID) at Apple. When Tim Cook became CEO in the fall of 2011, he added human interface (HI) to Ive's responsibilities. The goal was to remove silos and increase collaboration. Ive, who'd long had Richard Howarth as a lieutenant for ID, brought Alan Dye over from marketing to run lead on HI. The immediate result, launched in the summer of 2012, was the redesign of iOS 7, and the "designed together" motif for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.
It was the Apple Watch that showed what a unified Apple design organization was really capable with under Ive.
OS X Yosemite followed, and the new MacBook. But it was the Apple Watch, a product driven by Ive and longtime friend Marc Newson and introduced in the fall of 2014, that showed the full power of Apple's new, unified design organization.
A couple of interesting events framed the Apple Watch launch: Marc Newson was officially brought on board by Apple, and Ive did extensive media appearances, foremost among them a profile in the New Yorker under the banner "The Future of Apple. The first gave Ive a collaborator again, the second gave him position.
Or rather, it started to get us ready for Ive's evolving position.
Few consumer product companies have a senior vice president of design. Fewer still have a chief design officer. At Apple, only Cook himself and chief financial officer Luca Maestri had C-level titles. Ive becomes the third, with Howarth taking on the day-to-day responsibilities of vice president of industrial design and Dye, vice president of user interface design.
That's to free up time for travel — which is being interpreted by some in the community as meaning Ive will be spending more time in his native England — and working on other projects like Apple's Campus 2, and the next phase of Apple Retail.
That the change was announced on Memorial Day in the U.S., when the markets were closed, might reflect its gravity. Or it might simply recognize that markets, like people, are averse to change, and that it's worth pausing a reflecting, and realizing that this change, like the last one, won't play out in days or weeks but in months and years.
This change, like the last one, won't play out in days or weeks but in months and years.
Ive appears to have avoided the traps that typically plague highly successful creatives. He doesn't seem to feel like there are no worlds left to conquer, and so isn't retiring or retreating from the world. He also doesn't seem to feel like his ideas are unassailable, and so isn't forcing the production of sequels (or prequels) that are pale shadows of their originals.
Apple's culture likely insulates against those extremes. Ive is used to working with a team in ID, and needed to work with one in HI. And it's no coincidence that Apple's current and future projects, including the new campus and new stores, and the Watch and Titan, are ones Ive seems to care about deeply.
This new position, freed of its day-to-day managerial duties, keeps Ive where he is — at the head of the most successful design company in history, with all but unmatched operational power. And it positions Apple for where the company needs to be — with a foundation and future below and beyond Ive as well.
Eliza Dushku
Adriana Lima
Freida Pinto
Taylor Swift
Sienna Miller
Inside Cyanogen OS Themes
The modding scene has been theming for years, so it makes sense that Cyanogen OS would be one of the most verbose offerings out there.
Theming and third-party versions of Android have gone hand in hand for quite a while now. Originally themes had to be applied on a system level, making it so you were effectively flashing entire roms to tint the whole OS in a shade of blue or purple. We've come a long way from that point, and now modifying the way certain elements look and behave are being baked right into the operating system. There are some out there who questioned whether a theme experience is something the "average consumer" is interested in, but by the end of this year theme engines will likely play a huge part in how many folks use their devices.
The Cyanogen OS theme engine is unlike anything else available on retail products today, but it's up to the user to decide if these differences and the availability of community-made themes actually make this a better product.
Lindsay Lohan
Eva Mendes
Julianne Hough
Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man edition is now official, launches in South Korea May 27
After teasing the Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man edition, Samsung has launched the device in South Korea. The phone features a red color scheme with gold accents, and comes with a wireless charger fashioned in the form of an Arc Reactor.
Dubbed the Galaxy S6 edge Iron Man Limited Edition, the device offers 64GB internal storage and will launch in South Korea on May 27, with 1,000 units up for grabs.
Bar Refaeli
Malin Akerman
Mila Kunis
Sony Xperia Z3+ is the new flagship for the rest of the world
Sony today announced the Xperia Z3+ for an international launch. The smartphone should look familiar as it's essentially an international version of the Xperia Z4, which launched in Japan.
Olivia Wilde
Megan Fox
How to check the weather on your Apple Watch
If you want to keep informed about the weather, there's no better place than on your wrist.
Like time, weather is something that a lot of people want to stay updated on as often as possible. Having it on your Apple Watch means quick information about temperature, precipitation, and even sunrise/sunset can be just a turn of the wrist away. What's more, thanks to Siri and the built-in Weather app, you can get more detailed information about any city in the world, and any day in the next week, with just a word or a few taps. Here's how!
- How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with complications
- How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with Siri
- How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with the Glance
- How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with the app
How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with complications
You can set up your Apple Watch's clock face to show you a wealth of weather information. That way, any time you glance at your wrist, you'll be updated.
- Pick a clock face that allows for a good quantity of complications. (Utility is good for analog, Modular for digital.)
- Customize the clock face to show local weather, temperature, as well as sunrise/sunset and moon phases if they're of value to you.
- To change the location of the weather shown in the complication, use the Apple Watch for iPhone app.
- Tap any weather complication to launch the Weather app.
How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with Siri
The fastest way to find out weather on your Apple Watch is simply to ask Siri, the built-in virtual personal assistant. You can ask for the weather in any city, for either the same day or the coming week.
- Bring your Apple Watch towards your mouth and say "Hey Siri", or press and hold the Digital Crown to activate Siri.
- Ask for the weather information that interests you. For example, "What's the weather?" "What's the weather in Cupertino?" "What's the weather in Cupertino next week?" or even, "Will I need a jacket tomorrow?"
How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with the Glance
The Weather Glance provides most of the pertinent local weather information all on one screen, including day or night, temperature, precipitation, and high and low.
- Press the Digital Crown to go to your clock face (if you're not there already).
- Swipe up to activate Glances.
- Swipe across until you get to the Weather Glance.
- Tap the Weather Glance to launch the Weather app.
- To change the location of the weather shown in the Weather Glance, use the Apple Watch for iPhone app.
How to check the weather on your Apple Watch with the app
The Weather app shows you current condition (day or night and what time the transition occurs), the percentage chance or rain, and the temperature. It defaults to your local city but also shows any additional cities you have set up in your Weather app for iPhone.
- Press the Digital Crown to go to the Home screen. (Or just say, "Hey Siri, open weather".)
- Tap the Weather icon to launch the Weather app.
- Swipe to see the weather in any additional cities you have set up.
- Tap the screen to cycle between condition, rain percentage, and temperature. (Or press firmly to see all the options at once).
- To change the locations and order of locations on your Apple Watch, change them in the Weather app on your iPhone.
Marisa Miller
Cat Power
Moon Bloodgood