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Adobe teaming up with Dropbox to strengthen Acrobat DC + Reader, eSign gaining new partners

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 13, 2015 | Apple

In an effort to make PDF documents more accessible and beneficial for customers, Adobe and Dropbox are teaming up to offer integration in Acrobat DC, Acrobat Reader, and in Dropbox’s site and apps. Dropbox and Adobe customers will first notice the integration in Acrobat DC and Reader on the desktop with Acrobat Reader and Dropbox for iOS picking up the integration later this year. For Acrobat users, Dropbox integration means three things: easily find and send files stored in Dropbox using Acrobat in a single workflow, manipulate and collaborate with PDF files using either service including Adobe eSign integration, and ensure documents are accessible through Dropbox wherever you’re working.

Adobe is also announcing new capabilities coming to its eSign service starting next month with more rolling out across the beginning of next year. All based around making digitally signing documents easier and more security-compliant, eSign is gaining a number of new enhancements and updates: Workflow Designer for creating processes that can be re-used for signing documents during hire onboarding, contract finalizations, and more; EU-compliant digital signatures through Acrobat and Reader; data centers in Germany and Ireland later this year that will support Document Cloud; and enterprise-class control over documents including “in flight” corrections in case of errors.

The mobile eSign Manager DC app will work with enterprise mobility management systems for creating Document Cloud apps for employees using Android for Work, Good Technology, and Microsoft Intune. Signature capture is also being added to eSign Manager DC, which will enable users to photograph written signatures that can be used within the app. Finally, Signature Sync will let users manage these signatures across devices. Adobe is also announcing three new partnerships with Document Cloud: Workday, Salesforce, and Ariba. These new partnerships will spread Adobe’s eSign system into more workplaces across the enterprise.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, Adobe, Creative Cloud, Dropbox

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October 12, 2015 at 09:14PM

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple, Business, Meeting

“Si tú no trabajas por tus sueños alguien te contratará para que trabajes por los suyos”
#Apple #SteveJobs #Frases #LifeStyle #Lider #liderazgo http://ift.tt/1jto4ZL

Apple expanding retail presence in India next month as significant growth continues

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

india
Apple looks to further expand its retail presence around the globe with a new partnership according to a report out of the Times of India. The report claims that Apple has inked a deal with the consumer electronics retail chain Croma that will see Croma build new Apple-dedicated retail spaces in six of its retail locations, very similar to how Best Buy does in the United States.

Each Apple-dedicated retail space will be between 400-square-feet and 500-square-feet and will take many design cues from Apple’s own retail stores. This includes the iconic wooden tables, bright lighting, and demo units. Each Croma location with an Apple section will also have a handful of employees trained by Apple to showcase its products, again similar to Best Buy in the United States.

Avijit Mitra, the CEO of Croma’s parent company Infiniti Retail, confirmed the deal and said he is very excited to work with Apple:

“We are proud to partner Apple to launch the Apple Store in India and extremely bullish about it. These stores will be modeled on the global design and will offer the best experience to consumers, showcasing the entire range of Apple products.”

Near the end of last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two reportedly discussed the possibility of brining Apple Pay to India, as well as Apple potentially setting up a manufacturing base in the country. For Apple, there’s a strong incentive to set up manufacturing in India. Currently, Indian trade laws prohibit companies from opening manufacturer-owned retail outlets unless a certain percentage of the manufacturing is done within the country. If Apple were to set up manufacturing in India, it could theoretically open its own retail stores in the country, too. During this meeting, however, it’s also likely that Cook and Modi discussed Apple’s current method of opening stores within other stores in India.

India has been a market of growing interest for Apple recently. The iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are slated to launch in the country on October 16th. Revenue for Apple in India also recently broke a billion dollars thanks to its launch of an aggressive trade-in program.

With India’s sales growth currently outstripping that of China, the country could be another huge opportunity for Apple and the expansion in retail presence with the Croma partnership certainly helps. These stores are set to launch by Diwali next month.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Apple, Croma, India, retail

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App Store prices rising in Australia, Indonesia and Sweden due to exchange rate fluctuations

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

Apple is raising prices for apps in Australia, Indonesia and Sweden within the next 3 days. In an email, Apple has notified developers that they are updating prices in the three countries in response to foreign exchange rate variations. Prices are being increased across the board. For example, today a $0.99 app in the Australian App Store is sold for 1.29 AUD. When the changes come into effect, customers will have to pay 1.49 AUD for the same app. This is an increase of about 15% in local currency.

Screen Shot 2015-10-12 at 20.16.33

The changes affect App Store prices and In-App Purchases, including automatic subscriptions. Apple will not cancel existing auto-renewable subscriptions, but will let users know via email that the price they pay will be changing. This is a new direction in policy: in the past, Apple has automatically cancelled IAP subscriptions when prices rose, requiring direct user action to resume payments.

Apple will also be offering an alternate ‘cheap’ price tier for apps in Australia, expanding low-price tiers beyond ’emerging markets’ for the first time. Developers will be able to optionally offer apps for just 0.99 AUD which is roughly equivalent to $0.70 US dollars. It will take some time to see if developers choose to utilize the new alternate low-price choices.

Filed under: Apps, General, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: Apps, Australia, iOS, more expensive, price tier

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New data shows TSMC A9 chip slightly outpaces Samsung version in most battery tests

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

With the recent revelation that Apple had (not unexpectedly) sourced the A9 processor in the iPhone 6s from two different suppliers came the discovery that the model manufactured by Samsung is 10% smaller than the one built by TSMC.

Along with the size difference comes a difference in the power efficiency of each model, with many reports indicating—and Apple eventually confirming—that phones with the Samsung chip will likely see 2-3% lower battery life.

Today Ars Technica has published its own findings based on the results of a set of battery tests on each processor, showing that the TSMC hardware outpaces Samsung’s in most test categories, but not all.

For this test, Ars set each iPhone’s display to exactly 200 nits, removed the SIM card from each handset to ensure identical cellular activity, and ran a series of different tests to see how each processor fared.

As you can see in the chart above the TSMC chip has a slight edge in nearly every test, with just one exception: WebGL. In that test, the Samsung A9 actually saw a slight lead over TSMC’s, but for the most part the differences (including Samsung’s lead in the WebGL test) were negligible.

The Wi-Fi browsing test featured the second biggest gap between the two CPUs, and the total difference in that test was only 14 minutes. The GFXBench benchmark showed a 9-minute difference.

The largest gap came from the Geekbench benchmark, which showed a gap of one full hour between the handsets. That outlier aside, the results all line up with Apple’s claim of only 2-3% difference.

With most tests run over the past few days reaffirming Apple’s statement, it seems safe to say that the battery life between the two models is roughly the same, and probably not a big enough difference to cause any great concern. It’s unlikely you’ll see any significant hits to your battery if you happened to get a Samsung unit.

Filed under: iOS Devices Tagged: battery, iPhone 6s, Samsung, TSMC

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Apple releases iOS 9.1 beta 5 for developers and public beta testers

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

Apple has seeded the fifth iOS 9.1 beta for developers and public beta testers. The new beta includes various bug fixes and improvements … we’ll let you know if there’s anything drastically new. The new seed comes less than a week after beta 4 as Apple comes closer to a public launch of iOS 9.1.

iOS 9.1 includes new emojis, new wallpapers, developer support for Live Photos and iPad Pro / Apple Pencil compatibility, amongst several other changes.

Of most interest to many is the addition of new emoji to type and share with others, including the much-beloved ‘middle finger’ icon. These were first introduced in beta 2.

Let us know in the comments if you see anything new.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS, iOS Devices Tagged: beta, developer, iOS, Seed

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These Brands are Proving How Effective Periscope Can Be

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Marketing

When Periscope, the live streaming video app, came out earlier this year with the hefty support of its newly connected parent company, Twitter, everyone in the marketing world had to pause to take notice.

In some cases, we stopped there, labeling it yet another flash-in-the-pan flavor of the month social app. But others of us dipped our toes in the live streaming waters and still others jumped in feet first.

Now it’s been a few months and we’ve seen plenty of examples of how both individuals and brands are using Periscope, so it’s time to take a long hard look at this app and the bigger live streaming video sensation, and ask ourselves: is this going to be a thing, or not?

Live Streaming Video Is Definitely a Thing, and Periscope Is Leading the Way

While live streaming video has been around for a few years already, the launch of the Meerkat app to immediate popularity in March of 2015. Just a few weeks later, Twitter announced its $100 million acquisition of Periscope, a similar live streaming app with a few functional differences.

With the marketing power of Twitter behind them, and the crippling fact that Twitter blocked access to their social graph for the Meerkat app just weeks after its launch, Periscope has quickly grown to be the more popular choice. Other live streaming video apps exist, but Periscope is the clear market leader at the moment with Meerkat a distant second.

According to an infographic released recently by Salesforce, Periscope boasts over 10,000,000 users, more than that many individual posts, and impressions of well over 100 billion (as of August 19^th, 2015.)

But, for marketers, vanity metrics are only one small part of the picture. After all, plenty of those 100 billion impressions were probably loud barroom conversations, snippets of mediocre live music, and illegal pirating of copyrighted content. What have brands actually been able to do with Periscope?

Examples of Brands Who Are Doing Periscope Right

Early adopter brands on Periscope included some heavy hitters, like Red Bull, Target, Mountain Dew, and General Electric. These and many other brands have experimented with live streaming for all manner of uses, including:

Behind the scenes glimpses
Special live event broadcasts
Product releases
Interviews with celebrities/spokespeople
Contests and rewards

Spotify

Spotify, a leading streaming music app – has taken to Periscope early on to broadcast exclusive performances of guest musicians they have in-studio on a regular basis, including Little Mix (pictured below.)

Discussing their very first Scope (filmed the day the app was launched,) Josh Karph, Spotify’s Global Director of Social Marketing, said, “We had 380 or so live viewers and about 1,500 hearts on the stream,” Karph says. “On the replay we had another 200 or so. We’re still looking at how the replay streams work and how quickly they get updated, but it looks like the total is about 450 or 500 people who viewed it.”

Spotify has also turned to Periscope to provide exclusive product announcements like the update made in May to add mood-based playlists and automatic song selection to match your running pace. Their audience has responded with ever-increasing engagement.

Adidas

Adidas used Periscope to give fans an opportunity to watch soccer star James Rodriguez sign his endorsement contract extension with the sneaker maker.

In addition to offering up exclusive behind-the-scenes content and interviews with sports stars, Adidas has also created cooperative Periscope-based events with other accounts. One example is soccer star Leo Messi live streaming a practice session and receiving the newest pair of his signature cleats from the sports shoe manufacturer.

Red Bull

Red Bull is well known in content marketing circles as a leader in brand publishing efforts, and their entrance into Periscope was right in line with their ongoing commitment to creating content experiences. They use Periscope to live stream various live events they host around the world.

Interestingly, as with nearly all their content marketing efforts, Red Bull makes no effort to push their product itself in their use of Periscope. Rather, they’re using it as yet another channel through which to bring together the kind of thrill-seeking, sports-loving, adrenaline junkies who form their core customer base in a fun and entertaining community large and varied enough to keep them fully engaged for a long time.

General Electric

International corporate megabrand General Electric isn’t too large or slow to experiment with new content opportunities. One of the corporation’s most popular early uses of Periscope was a behind-the-scenes interview with popular celebrity scientists Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.

They’ve also done some truly incredible things with cameras on drones providing a bird’s eye view of GE facilities and other interesting sights.

Beyond these examples, many other brands have found success on Periscope as well:

Fashion mainstay DKNY offers Periscope users a glimpse behind the models and runways and into the “closet” where the real work happens through their “DKNY PR Girl” Periscope account. Retail giant
Target takes a similar approach by teasing fashion product launches and offering interviews with designers and others connected to popular products.
Mountain Dew showcased cool new gear on Periscope and rewarded random viewers with free swag.
Taco Bell created a mock press conference to promote the new Biscuit Taco breakfast product and encouraged viewers to enjoy a free one at their local Taco Bell in celebration of Cinco de Mayo.
Nestle’s Drumstick brand was the first to experiment with sponsored streams, connecting with early Periscope influencers to create their own content and backing them up with sponsored tweets by Nestle.
Frito Lay’s Doritos chip brand introduced the app’s first contest, combining Twitter, Periscope, and Vine in support of their Doritos Roulette product launch.

Celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, Justin Bieber, and Mariah Carey have also jumped on the bandwagon to offer their fans behind-the-scenes glimpses of life in the limelight.

All these examples show the incredible breadth of options available to brands interested in engaging with a video-hungry audience online.

Where Does Your Brand Fit In?

As marketers, it’s always tempting to grab onto the newest shiny social media object and start touting it as the cure-all for a flagging inbound marketing program. But that’s a trap, and deep down we all know that.

So, when it comes to Periscope for our brands – or any other live streaming video options available – how do we decide how to best use this shiny object, or whether to use it at all?

The Lay of the Land

First of all, it’s important to note that we’re still well within the spitballing stage when it comes to live video streaming. While this post is focused primarily on Periscope as the current category leader where the biggest audience can be found, there are several viable app alternatives that may turn out to be a better option for your particular needs.

Likewise, brands and individuals are still experimenting with use cases for live streaming with varied results. There’s no clear “best practices” yet when it comes to what kind of content resonates best or how to create the ultimate audience for your broadcast. That being said, there are some basic tips that common sense says will make your Periscope experience more accessible and engaging.

The Problem with Testing

While “test, test, test” is always the mantra when skilled marketers are trying to figure out a new strategy and set of tactics, the most effective method for judging what works is still largely lacking on Periscope: quality analytics.

At the end of each broadcast, the app will tell you how many viewers watched, what your retention rate was, the total amount of viewer time you accumulated, and the number of hearts generated, which Periscope uses as a measure of broadcast popularity. But, as pointed out in this snarky post by Thomas Baekdal, those figures are largely misleading.

Thus far, Periscope hasn’t offered up an API, so there’s no way to dig deeper into analytics through a third-party platform. If you choose to utilize the app’s inherent connection to Twitter (which you’d be crazy not to, if your brand has an established Twitter audience) you can get a few additional insights from Twitter’s own analytics, but it’s still fairly limited.

In the end, the raw data you can obtain to base your testing on comes down to how large an audience of viewers you can attract and how much of your broadcast each one of them consumes, on average. The higher the better, of course, although targeting is a different matter entirely.

What’s Next for Your Brand on Periscope?

When you get down to brass tacks, the answer is simple: try it out.

Make sure you’re not doing it just to do it. But at the same time, don’t assume live streaming isn’t right for your brand. Take a deep dive into your content strategy and consider opportunities for humanizing the brand through fun, interesting, and entertaining glimpses into your world. Experiment and have fun!

Apple supporting refugee crisis aid efforts with exclusive Imagine Dragons single, all proceeds go to charity

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

Screen Shot 2015-10-12 at 17.25.02

To help with the international refugee crisis happening right now, Apple and the band Imagine Dragons have collaborated on an exclusive charity single, called “I Was Me” ($1.29). All proceeds of the song sales go to the UN Refugee Agency to support relief efforts. In addition, SAP will be donating an additional 10 cents for the first 5 million iTunes downloads. The Imagine Dragons track is exclusive to iTunes and available worldwide.

“The refugee crisis is incredibly urgent in terms of the number of vulnerable people being affected every single day. As a band we wanted to get involved and decided to partner with SAP and Apple to try and make a difference,” said Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons. “‘I Was Me’ is a song about trying to regain your life, which is exactly what millions of people are going through right now. Whether it is by downloading this track or by other means, we hope people everywhere recognize the severity of the situation and find a way to assist these families in desperate need.”

Proud to support refugee and migrant relief efforts with @imaginedragons "I Was Me" iTunes.com/IWasMe. Great music, great cause. #one4

—
Lisa P. Jackson (@lisapjackson) October 12, 2015

Apple VP Lisa Jackson has shown her support publicly on Twitter. The charity appeal is part of a wider ‘One4 Project’ which benefits UN Refugee Agency, directly contributing to aid efforts for Syrian refugees fleeing their homes and partaking in very risky journeys across the Mediterranean. You can learn more about the project here.

The charity single is not Apple’s only public charity effort for the refugee crisis cause. Apple is continuing to invite direct Red Cross donations through iTunes and the App Store. In an internal company email, Tim Cook announced an employee donation matching program for the relief efforts. The company has also made an outright substantial donation to relief agencies which provide humanitarian aid to refugees in Europe and around the Mediterranean. Cook said that Apple is dedicated to improving human rights worldwide.

Filed under: Apple Music, General, iOS Tagged: charity, Imagine Dragons, iTunes, One4, refugee donations, sap

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Satechi’s Apple Watch Grip Mount plays music, shows notifications from steering wheels or bike handlebars

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

satechihandlebar

While it’s not the first Apple Watch bike handlebar mount to be announced, Satechi’s Apple Watch Grip Mount ($15) appears to be the first to actually hit stores — and it’s very affordable, besides. Made from two pieces of mostly matte plastic — an Apple Watch-holding clip and a handlebar- or steering wheel-ready cuff — the Grip Mount comes in either 38mm or 42mm Watch sizes. Side controls are accessible from the right edge of the clip, and you can rotate the Watch’s screen to your preferred orientation relative to wherever you’ve mounted it.

satechihandlebar2

How practical is the Grip Mount? Well, if you want a way to Bluetooth stream a playlist full of music directly to your car stereo or a pair of bike-safe headphones, the Apple Watch is the smallest Apple wireless audio device around. And depending on how you plan to use it, it could be a handy way to check a pocketed iPhone’s map or notifications on the go. On the other hand, you’ll either need to enter a passcode to interact with the Apple Watch’s screen, or disable the passcode lock feature, which means you probably won’t be doing a lot of tapping on the display when you’re riding or driving. But if you want to add a little screen to your handlebars or steering wheel, this is about as good of an option as you’ll find at an inexpensive price point.

Filed under: Apple Watch, Reviews Tagged: Apple watch, bike, handlebar, mount, Satechi, steering wheel

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9to5Toys Lunch Break: iTunes Gift Cards 20% off, 12-inch MacBook from $1,150, 1Password for Mac $30, more

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications.

Today’s can’t miss deals:

iTunes Gift Cards 20% off w/ email delivery via PayPal: $100 for $80, $50 for $40, $25 for $20

Apple 12-inch MacBook 1.1GHz/8GB/256GB from $1,190 or $1,150 w/ .edu (Reg. $1,299), more

13″ Retina MacBook Pro (newest) 2.7GHz/8GB/256GB: $1,280 shipped (Reg. $1,499)

1Password secure password manager for Mac: $30 (Reg. $50)

Daily Deals: Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard $40, Lifeproof FRĒ Power Waterproof Battery Case for iPhone 6 $100, more

App Store Free App of the Week: Wake Alarm Clock ($4 value)

The Executive for iOS goes free for the first time as IGN’s Game of the Month ($5 value)

More new gear from today:

Amazon Gold Box – Crucial & Lexar storage up to 65% off: Solid-State Drives 1TB $270, 500GB $140, 250GB $64, more

Headphones: V-Moda Crossfade On-Ear $80 (Reg. $100), Aukey Bluetooth In-Ear $17 (Reg. $25), more
Timbuk2 Classic Messenger Bag for up to 13-inch MacBooks in multiple colors: $44 shipped (Orig. $99)
Games/Apps: Wii U Mario 3D World bundle $250, NBA 2K16 $50, Dishonored DE $26, freebies, more
Outdoor Solar lights: Nitewatch LED Floodlight $50, Two-pack of 200 Lumen LED spotlights $33, more

3-foot MFi Apple-Certified Lightning Cable: $2 shipped (Reg. $5) wp.me/p1xTlR-Ipc http://t.co/1Tq7w9gach

—
9to5Toys (@9to5toys) October 12, 2015

More deals still alive:

USB-C roundup: Aukey 3-Port USB Hub w/ Gigabit Ethernet $17, Aukey USB Adapter $7, more

Headphones: Sony Bluetooth $135 (Reg. $199), Beyerdynamic from $170 (Reg. up to $270), more
Sports/Fitness: extra 25% off PUMA shoes/apparel, 58-pc. backpack survival kit $105 (Orig. $230), more
Crosley Ranchero Classic AM/FM Radio and Aux Speaker: $65 Shipped (Orig. $100, CA Tax Only)
6-pack LED bulbs: SunSun 60W $19 (Orig. $50), Philips 65W Dimmable $34 (Orig. $60), more
Sony announces official PlayStation 4 price drop, bundles now start at just $349
Mac Bundle: 14 Mac Apps incl. RapidWeaver, Voila Screencapture, Kinemac 3D, more: $18
Prime Members: Free 4-month subscription for 3 print magazines – GQ, Wired, more
Headphones: Bose SoundTrue $100 (Reg. $120), Earbuds from $20, more
JayBird BlueBuds X Sport Bluetooth Headphones $90 shipped (Reg. $130), more
Pre-order Microsoft’s latest gadgets right now: Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, Band 2
TP-LINK Wireless N Nano Router w/ 3-pack of networking cables (Refurb) $8 shipped
Aukey USB Power Roundup: 6-Port 50W: $15, 5-port 40W: $10
iPhone 6/s Accessories: 2-Pack Tempered Glass Screen Protector $3, more
Lytro Illum Camera, captures the entire light field: $700 shipped (Orig. $1,300)
Tweetbot for Mac drops to $10 (Reg. $13)
Philips hue Lux LED Starter Kit $60 shipped, 750-Lumen 9W LED Light Bulb $15
Beyerdynamic A200p Portable DAC Headphone Amp $140 shipped (Reg. $200)
Pebble Steel Smartwatch for iOS/Android in black or sliver $100 shipped (Orig. $230)
Motorola Nexus 6 Unlocked 32GB in Midnight Blue: $300 shipped (Reg. $499)

New products & more:

The new Light digital camera uses 16 lenses (!!!) to craft the perfect picture

This clothes-folding washing machine brings first-world laziness to defcon zero

DJI’s new Osmo 4K camera is one expensive selfie stick
The latest littleBits DIY electronics kit turns any kid into an inventor
Handmade at Amazon launches with an eye on knocking off Etsy
Marvel’s updated plans for phase three of its cinematic universe + comicbook goodies
Dyson includes air purification in its newest hot + cool bladeless fan
Ever wonder what a $130K VIZIO Ultra HDTV looks like? Now we know.
The latest entry in the Far Cry series goes Primal, taking gamers back to 10,000 BC
Logitech’s new Harmony Home Hub Extender lets the pizza man in with your remote
Roku’s new streaming media player supports 4K and finds your remote control for you
Review: Rock Band 4 makes an old favorite come alive
The new Dr. Who LEGO set looks just like TARDIS time machine

Filed under: Tips and Tricks Tagged: 12-inch MacBook, 1Password, 9to5Toys, Amazon, app deals, Best Buy, Daily Deals, free apps, Gold Box, itunes gift cards, MacBook, Microsoft Bluetooth Keyboard, video games

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Review: Devialet Phantom, the $2000 single-unit Bluetooth speaker that aims to replace your hi-fi system

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

phantom-1

I’m a strong advocate of the philosophy of buying the right thing once. My view is for any activity you care about a lot, it’s cheaper in the long run to buy an expensive product that will keep you happy for a great many years – maybe even for a lifetime – than a cheap product you’ll end up wanting to replace a few years down the line. Buy cheap, buy twice, as they say.

My hi-fi system is a great example. When I was a lot younger, I splashed out on a Bang & Olufsen hi-fi system that was more than twice the price of everything else I tested. Twenty years on, it now looks like an extraordinarily good value. It’s so old it has a cassette deck (yes, really!), but all it took to bring it back up to date was the addition of a simple Wi-Fi audio receiver to add AirPlay support.

Standalone Bluetooth speakers have therefore been of very limited interest to me – and I’d never have dreamed that one could ever replace a proper hi-fi system. So I was intrigued by one that claimed it could: the Devialet Phantom. As if that wasn’t enough to capture my interest, Devialet is a company with a serious reputation when it comes to high-end audio: they make the amps B&W uses to demo their speakers at audio shows. And yes, I’ll admit that part of what made me want to try it was my profound skepticism that any Bluetooth speaker could be worth $1,990 …

There’s all kinds of clever audio tech in the unit, but the core of it – what Devialet is known for – is what the company calls ADH, or Analog/Digital Hybrid. The unit actually uses both analog and digital amplifiers, operating in parallel. While audiophiles tend to be somewhat dismissive of digital amps, Devialet says that the combination actually delivers better results than a standalone analog amp.

A genuine class A amplifier directly connected to the speaker drives the output voltage: as the master, it sets the sound of the whole ADH core. That’s why what we hear is pure analog sound.

Several class D amplifiers are added in parallel to provide the speaker with the current it requires to sustain the output voltage. They act as slaves to the master class A amplifier, minimizing its workload.

Devialet uses the analogy of power steering. The driver (the analog amp) is in charge, but the power steering system (the digital amps) reduce the physical workload on the driver.

Most Devialet kit runs into five figures, so getting access to this technology for $2000 makes the Phantom, relatively speaking, a bargain. But let’s start at the beginning.

First impressions

Most product first impressions begin when you remove it from the packaging and take a look at it. Sometimes the packaging itself is pretty enough to become the first impression. In the Phantom’s case, I got my first impression as soon as the delivery guy handed it to me: this thing weighs a ton! Ok, not actually a ton, but 26 pounds. That’s an incredible weight for something so small.

The packaging is both beautiful and functional. You slide off the sleeve, then simply pull the box open, dropping the speaker gently onto the floor. This method ensures you don’t have to hold it by any of the speakers themselves, which would risk damaging them.

phantom-3

What you then see is something which looks like a cross between a vacuum cleaner and R2-D2.

Usually I can tell you immediately what I think of the aesthetic appeal of a design, but with the Phantom, it was actually quite hard to say. The resemblance to a vacuum cleaner is a little unfortunate, given the rather vast chasm in price between the two devices, but at the same time there’s no denying that it looks special. I think I’ll just call it unique.

Steve Jobs himself would have approved of the controls. There is precisely one: a power button that doubles as a reset button. Volume control is done from the music source, which is very sensible as you wouldn’t want to get too close to it when it’s at anything close to max volume!

It’s a Bluetooth speaker, so connecting to it is done in Settings on an iPhone and in the speaker selector in iTunes (you can, of course, also choose to output all Mac sounds to it, but I really wouldn’t recommend hearing system sounds through this thing!).

If you prefer wired connections, there are both Ethernet and TOSLINK ports tucked away inside a flap at the back. Pull off the power cable to reveal them. Which is one small complaint: the cable is yellow. Cables, where necessary at all, should of course be black.

phantom-2

The volume curve is quite strange when using the iPhone as the music source. If you use the volume buttons, there are 16 segments, and the speaker is really quiet until you reach about 11 or 12, then it gets very loud, very quickly. It’s a much more normal curve when using the volume slider in the Music app.

The standard Phantom is 750 watts with a maximum sound pressure – aka volume – of 99dB at one meter. That actually beats my BeoLab 6000 speakers – yep, the pair of them – which top out at 96dB. The unit I was sent is the even louder Phantom Silver ($2,390). This has an incredible 3000 watts of power, generating 105dB (remember, decibels are logarithmic, so 105dB is much louder than 99dB). Yes, you read that right: a single unit can actually output the maximum legal sound volume for … a nightclub.

I’ve never run my BeoLabs at max volume beyond a brief test, and couldn’t imagine doing so with this. When I did so briefly just to test it, I went and warned my neighbors first. As with my BeoLab speakers, even maxed out there was zero distortion.

bass

The bass is truly something you feel in your chest. The frequency range starts at 16Hz, which is well below the threshold of human hearing, but you can definitely feel it. The top end is 25kHz – so it has serious range.

The bass was an issue for me. We have wooden floors and minimal furniture, causing sound reflections if speakers are not flat against a wall. Which you can’t really do with the Phantom, as Devialet says the sound is omnidirectional. That’s a slight exaggeration, as there isn’t too much direct sound pumped out at the rear of the unit, but it’s otherwise true, so it was actually quite hard to position without getting a double hit of bass – original and reflected. I had to position in right in a corner of the room to minimize this, and still needed to use the iTunes equalizer to tone down the bass somewhat.

But if you’re a bass fan, you will love this. Just make sure your building insurance covers destruction by sound waves.

stereo

There was one other issue for me. I like stereo separation, and this is a mono speaker. You can pair them up over Wi-Fi (in fact, you can network up to 24 of them), but you’re then looking at $4,000 for a pair, plus the cost of the $329 Dialog box needed to connect them. Sure, you’d be able to use the combined sound output to carry out demolitions of small planets, but even so, that’s a huge premium just to get stereo sound.

But if you can live without stereo separation (which I accept is mostly useful for live recordings), then in these days when you don’t need anything other than a Mac or an iPhone as a music source, the Phantom is essentially a complete, top-quality, room-filling hi-fi system in an extremely compact single unit. That’s a truly amazing achievement, even for $2,000.

Devialet Phantom is available from selected retailers. If you want something whose price is a little more accessible, Seth’s roundup of the best Bluetooth speakers concluded that the Bose SoundLink Mini II ($200) had the best sound quality, while the UE Roll ($90) was the best option for an extremely portable speaker suitable for outdoor use.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Bluetooth, Devialet, Devialet Phantom, Hi-Fi, speakers, Wireless speakers

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Facebook adds 3D Touch Quick Actions for posting photos + updates on iPhone 6s & 6s Plus

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

You wouldn’t know it based on the boiler plate release notes, but Facebook’s latest iPhone app update now includes a new 3D Touch feature on Apple’s latest iPhones. Pressing the Facebook app icon firmly from the Home screen on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus brings up a Quick Action menu to do three things: write a post, upload a photo/video, or take a photo/video…

The first option lets you update your Facebook status which includes the usual location check-in options and more. The other two either let you quickly capture a video or photo and share one you’ve already snapped. Quick Actions support up to four options, so it’s possible Facebook could have a more context-based fourth option as we’ve seen in other apps.

I couldn’t find any examples of Peek and Pop, Apple’s new 3D Touch interactions used in other apps, within this update to Facebook for iPhone, and Live Photos are still just normal photos when you post them for now, but Apple says Facebook will support them before the end of the year.

Facebook-owned Instagram already updated for 3D Touch on the new iPhones, including Peek and Pop within the app as well as Quick Actions like Facebook, and Messenger recently launched its promised watchOS 2 app for Apple Watch, although the iPhone app is 3D Touch-less for now.

Facebook is also testing a new way to wish your friends “Happy birthday!” from the mobile app plus ways to express your reaction to statuses beyond like.

You can grab the latest version of Facebook’s app, version 41, on the App Store.

Filed under: Apps Tagged: 3D Touch, Facebook, iPhone 6s, iphone 6s plus, quick actions

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iTunes and App Store down for some; nothing yet showing on Apple’s status page

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

Some users on Reddit and Twitter are reporting that iTunes and the App Store are down. Other are able to access normally, suggesting that the issue is either small-scale or intermittent. Apple’s status page is not yet showing an issue, though it is common for Apple to be very slow to update the page.

The issue doesn’t seem to be specific to any one country, with reports from the U.S., Europe and Asia (including me in the UK) …

The iTunes store is giving a ‘cannot complete your request’ message, while the App Store is proving unresponsive for those affected.

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: App Store (iOS), App Store down, Apple Inc, iTunes, iTunes Store down

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Federal judge asks Apple to explain why decrypting iPhones would be “unduly burdensome” as tactic to open debate

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

A New York federal judge has indicated that he is likely to refuse a government request to compel Apple to unlock a customer’s iPhone, but will first ask Apple to explain why decrypting iPhones would be “unduly burdensome.” The iPhone concerned is apparently not running iOS 8 or 9, and so Apple would have the technical ability to decrypt it.

The Washington Post reports that Magistrate Judge James Orenstein of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York is an activist judge who is believed to be attempting to open up public debate on the issue of privacy versus law enforcement …

“He’s clearly a judge who is interested in opening topics to discussion in the judiciary, but he also thinks the larger public should know about the debate,” said Brian Owsley, a former magistrate judge in Texas who issued rulings that heightened privacy protections for the government’s use of cellphone-tracking devices.

Other colleagues and analysts have made similar comments, reports the paper.

Apple came under strong fire from law enforcement agencies after it boosted iPhone security in iOS 8 so that Apple has no access to the encryption key needed to access customer data.

If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessages, we can’t provide it. It’s encrypted and we don’t have the key.

FBI Director James Comey said that this was a step too far.

The notion that we would market devices that would allow someone to place themselves beyond the law, troubles me a lot. As a country, I don’t know why we would want to put people beyond the law.2

U.S. Attorney General said that there needed to be a balance between privacy and law enforcement needs.

It is fully possible to permit law enforcement to do its job while still adequately protecting personal privacy.

Arguments have grown increasingly dramatic, the DOJ argued that iPhone encryption could eventually lead to the death of a child” and Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr, suggesting that the iPhone would be “the terrorists’ communication device of choice.”

The opposing argument is, of course, that if Apple builds in a backdoor for use by law enforcement, it is only a matter of time before it is discovered and used by hackers.

FBI Director Comey told Congress on Thursday that the administration would not be seeking a change in the law yet, but would continue to try to persuade companies to cooperate voluntarily.

Filed under: AAPL Company, iOS Devices Tagged: Apple Inc, Barack Obama, Encryption, Federal Bureau of Investigation, iPhone encryption, James B. Comey, Law enforcement agency, privacy, Security, United States Attorney General, United States Department of Justice

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12 Simple Hacks to “Undo” Those Embarrassing Tech Mistakes

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Marketing

In this fast-paced world, when we’re firing off emails, posting status updates, and sending messages a mile a minute, we’ve all pressed “send” or “delete” sooner than we’ve intended at one time or another.

From posting a photo of my “amazung view of the muntains” to sending an email prematurely, I know that feeling of regret all too well.

We’re all trying to maintain control of our online footprint as best we can. But with so many opportunities to mess up on the web, it’s easy to make silly tech mistakes from time to time.

Luckily for us, there are ways to correct some of these embarrassing slip-ups. I consulted my colleagues and scoured the web (hat tip to you, PureWow) to find the following tech hacks that are so simple and yet so life-changing, you won’t believe you ever lived without them.

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1) How to Un-Send an Email on Gmail

Have you ever sent an email and immediately wished you could take it back? If you use Gmail, you totally can. Technically, the un-send feature in Gmail doesn’t actually un-send your email — what it really does is delay the sending of your message for a few seconds, giving you the option to undo the send while the clock is ticking. All you have to do is enable the feature via Gmail Labs. Here’s how to do it …

Step 1: Go to Settings from your Gmail homepage.

The General tab should be open by default. If not, open it.

Step 2: Scroll down until you see the Undo Send section. Click the check box next to “Enable Undo Send,” and choose your cancellation period. You can make it five seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, or 30 seconds.

Step 3: Don’t forget to click Save Changes at the bottom of the screen.

(For you non-Gmail folks, I tried looking for solutions in Outlook and other email clients but couldn’t find any that actually worked. If you know of any, feel free to share tips with readers in the comments section.)

2) How to Restore Tabs in a Web Browser

If you’re like me and keep 10+ tabs open on your internet browser at once, it can be a little devastating when you accidentally close a tab without meaning to — or, even worse, when you close all of them at once.

That’s why I rejoiced when I heard about this hack for Chrome and Firefox, which lets you recover one or of all your previously opened browser tabs without having to dig through your web history. (It doesn’t work if you quit the application altogether.) It’s simple:

On a Mac, hit Command-Shift-T.

On a PC, hit Ctrl-Shift-T.

3) How to Recover an Unsaved Word Document

This is the worst. Has Word ever crashed on you? Or maybe your computer died and you lost hours — or even days — of work? In some cases, you can recover that lost file the way it was at the moment you lost it. Unfortunately, if you never saved the document in the first place, you’re out of luck — but that means you need to get into the habit of saving documents the moment you start them.

If your version of Microsoft Office has AutoRecovery, you can recover a file that’s been autosaved by looking in the AutoRecovery folder the next time you open Word. Here are the instructions for Mac, and then for PC.

For Mac:

Open Microsoft Word and go to File, then Open Recent — and your file will (hopefully!) be listed in the Open Recent list.

Alternatively, you can find it by opening your Finder and looking in /Users/username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 AutoRecovery. (Note that you have to replace username with your personal username.)

To eliminate the guessing game in the future, you can take the precaution of choosing exactly where you want Word to autosave files. To do this, go to Preferences in the Word menu and click File Locations.

Choose AutoRecover files.

Click “Modify…“. Then choose where you want your files to autosave. You can also create a new folder specifically for autosaved files.

Finally — one more Microsoft Word tip! — there’s a feature on some Office applications that lets you save your files automatically on a regular basis. You can set up exactly how often you want your files saved. Just make sure you don’t use AutoRecover in place of actually saving your files. Here’s how to customize it:

On the Word menu, click Preferences. Click Save (in the Output and Sharing section).

In the “Save AutoRecover info every…” box, enter how frequently you want Word to autosave your documents. Click OK.

For PC:

Step 1: Open Microsoft Word and go to File, then Open, and click Recent Documents from the dropdown menu.

Step 2: Scroll to the end of all your recent documents, and then click Recover Unsaved Documents.

Step 3: If you find the Word Document you’re looking for, double-click to open it, and then save it immediately.

Alternatively, you can find it by searching your computer.

If you have Windows 8.1 or Windows 8 …

Step 1: Press the Windows logo key + E to open Windows Explorer.

Step 2: In the Search This PC box, type the document name and press ENTER. (If you’re unsure of the document name and don’t have a ton of documents to sort though, you can also just type .docx in the Search This PC box and press ENTER and look through all your documents by date.)

Step 3: If you see the Word document you’re looking for, double-click the document to open it.

If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7 …

Step 1: Click Start , type the document name in the Start Search box, and press ENTER. (If you’re unsure of the document name and don’t have a ton of documents to sort though, you can also just type in .docx and press ENTER and look through all your documents by date.)

Step 2: If you see the Word document you’re looking for, double-click the document to open it.

4) How to Edit a Facebook Post, Status, or Caption

If you write a post, status, or caption on Facebook that you want to change later, you can edit it via an internet browser. (Unfortunately, you can’t yet change it via Facebook’s mobile app.) Here’s how to do it in a browser:

First, hover your mouse over the post you want to edit. A small, grey arrow will show up in the top, right-hand corner of the post.

Click the arrow and choose Edit.

Edit away! Click Done Editing when you’re finished. Note that edited posts will be labeled Edited, as shown below.

5) How to Undo Typing on an iPhone to Recover Deleted Text

Did you accidentally erase something you just typed? To get it back, you need to Undo Typing. All you have to do is shake your phone, and a window will pop up prompting you to Undo Typing. Click Undo, and you’ll get that text back.

Be warned, though: The “undo” feature only seems to give back text you’ve deleted by selecting the text and then pressing delete — not if you’ve deleted it letter-by-letter.

See it in action:

Image Credit: Chris Wade

6) How to Undo Typing on a Computer

This keyboard shortcut never gets old. Ever delete something you typed out, but really wish you didn’t? Undo typing on a Mac by pressing Command + Z, or on a PC by pressing Ctrl + Z. It’ll “undo” whatever the last thing you typed (or deleted) was. Alternatively, you can click Edit from the menu at the top of your screen and choose Undo Typing. You can repeat this action several times to keep undoing the last few key stroke sequences you made.

7) How to Redo Typing on a Computer

Change your mind and want to “redo” the typing you just un-did? In most applications, there’s a shortcut for that, too. Redo typing on a Mac by pressing Shift + Command + Z, unless you’re in Microsoft Word, in which case press Command + Y. On a PC, press Shift + Ctrl + Z, unless you’re in Word, in which case press Ctrl + Y. Alternatively, you can click Edit from the menu at the top of your screen and choose Redo Typing.

8) How to Unsend a Text Message on iPhone, Android, or Blackberry

Have you ever sent a text message you wish you could take back? There’s an app for that! TigerText is a free app that lets you recall your text message at any time — even after the person has read it. This app can also encrypt your text messages, set them to self-destruct after a chosen period of time (kind of like SnapChat), and can let you know when your texts are read by the recipients. You’ll need to download the app, connect it to your email address and phone, and create a password. This solution only works if both you and the recipient have the app installed, but I still thought it was cool enough to share.

9) How to Un-Send an iMessage

Without TigerText, you can’t un-send an iMessage on an iPhone once it’s been delivered. But if you’re quick enough, you can stop it from sending while it’s still in the process of sending.

How? By putting your phone in Airplane Mode to stop the text from sending. iMessages send pretty quickly nowadays, so you don’t have much time … meaning you’ll probably want to practice if you ever plan on trying this in the future. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: As soon as you realize your mistake, press the Home button.

Step 2: Go into the Settings app. (It may not be in the same place on your iPhone as it is here.)

Step 3: Switch on Airplane Mode by sliding the button to the right so it turns green. If it works, a small airplane will appear in the top, left-hand corner of your iPhone screen.

Step 4: Go back to the text message. If it failed to deliver, then it worked! You can delete it if you want.

(You can usually turn your phone on Airplane Mode by simply swiping up from the bottom of your screen — but note that you can’t do this while you’re texting, which is why you need to go into Settings instead.)

10) How to Rewrite Your Instagram Caption

Can’t think of a super clever Instagram caption on the spot? Not to worry: You can always edit (rewrite) your caption later. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open the picture on your phone and tap the ellipsis.

Step 2: Choose Edit from the menu that appears.

Step 3: Edit the caption to your heart’s desire, and to save it, press Done.

Note: To delete your caption entirely, follow the steps outlined in #11. When it comes to deleting the caption, Instagram treats captions like it does comments.

11) How to Delete Instagram Comments

You can delete Instagram comments and delete your own Instagram caption using the same trick. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Open the picture on your phone and tap the thought bubble icon.

Step 2: Hold down your comment for about two seconds, and swipe to the left. Tap the trash can.

You can also do this with any comment on your photo. You can also do it with any comments you make on other users’ photos.

12) How to Undo a Retweet on Twitter

Ever retweeted a post on Twitter, and later decided you want to remove it from your Twitter feed? It only takes one click of a mouse. If you used Twitter’s retweet feature, the same retweet button you clicked (the rotating arrows) will undo your retweet.

It won’t delete the tweet from the original poster’s page, but it’ll remove it from your own feed.

If you retweeted with a comment, you can remove the retweet by clicking the “delete” link located beneat the tweet, just as you would delete a regular tweet from your profile.

Have any more hacks that’ll help the rest of us correct our tech mistakes? Share them in the comments below!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2014 and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.

Steve Jobs movie opens with highest per-theater earnings of any movie this year, best ever for Boyle

by Cristian De Nardo | Oct 12, 2015 | Apple

Steve Jobs, the controversial Sorkin/Boyle not-quite biopic, achieved the highest opening weekend Per-Theater Average (PTA) of any movie this year, reports Deadline. The movie also gave director Danny Boyle the best ever weekend average of his career.

The feature grossed sizzling $520,942, averaging $130,236. By comparison, Boyle’s Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008) grossed over $360K in 10 theaters its debut weekend, averaging $36K. The drama about the Apple founder, adapted by Aaron Sorkin, easily outpaced Sicario‘s $67K debut PTA.

It’s not an all-time record, though …

Deadline reports that the average fell short of the $202k PTA achieved by one of my favorite movies, Grand Budapest Hotel, and the $158k of American Sniper.

The movie has of course been the subject of significant controversy, with some of those close to Jobs – including his widow – objecting to the portrayal, Tim Cook describing all the Jobs movies as “opportunistic” and Jony Ive saying that he didn’t recognize the man portrayed in the movie.

Others close to Jobs have taken a more nuanced line. Steve Wozniak said that while some of the things shown didn’t happen, he did feel like he was actually watching Jobs. Andy Hertzfeld said that while the movie “deviates from reality everywhere,” it does “expose deeper truths.” John Sculley said that it depicts “only one aspect of the man.”

Filed under: AAPL Company Tagged: Aaron Sorkin, Apple Inc, Danny Boyle, Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs biopic, Steve Jobs movie, Steve Wozniak