AOTW: The Dumbest App Of All – Yo

0
10 years
by in AOTWs, Recent Posts

Have you ever thought, when looking at an app on the App Store or Google Play, “Man, that is one dumb app. I can’t believe anyone bothered to pay even 99 cents for this %$@.” I’d bet you have. Unfortunately, this has been becoming a trend on the App store, mostly in the game category, with apps on the top of the charts such as Flappy Bird, 100 Balls, Stay In The Line and more. Now, I’m sad to say, the virus is catching. Starting with social media. There already are irrational social apps out there, such as Snapchat, but this one has passed the line from “that’s odd…” to “wow that’s stupid”. And it’s called Yo.

Yo is pretty self explanatory. It’s a communication app, but not really. The main page is full of all your friend’s names. If you click on one of them, it sends them a message. Can you guess what that is? You’re right, “yo”. And that’s all. Want to catch up with an old pal? Just Yo them, instead of actually spending the time and effort they deserve. Isn’t that great?

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Well, it doesn’t sound great, but apparently, some people think it is. Yo has a userbase of 1 million and expanding users. I have to admit, the design of the app isn’t terrible, but come on. They are really overdoing it here. The makers of Yo call it “context based messaging”. You can understand what the “yo” meant based off your last interaction with this person, or something like a sports game that you both are watching. Sure, if you are extremely lazy. To remind you, texting only takes about 10 seconds of your life. It’s not as if you reduce the time spent texting by 5 seconds you would instantly become smarter.

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Yo also claims that it’s good for business. For instance, the example Yo used is of an ice cream truck sending out a Yo when it’s near you. Sure, that might work. But what other business could possible use this incredibly reduced form of messaging. Only businesses that are daily, and have a route, such as a mailman or milkman, both of which are declining in popularity significantly.

To conclude: do not waist your time on this app. Yes, that may seem ironic, but I hope we have not reached a point in humanity where we care so little about other human beings that we want to reduce the time interacting with them down to the very very minimal. The whole idea of saving 9 taps is incredibly lame. Sure, as a joke, this app can be good, but Yo’s idea of making it your first choice of communication is just illogical.

FastNews: Surface Mini Confirmed

0
10 years
by in FastNews, Recent Posts

Many companies such as Apple and Google live for drama and surprise. Both have annual conferences, the WWDC for Apple and the I/O for Google, and they both hold the element of surprise highly. Before the grand opening, little is known of what will be on display during the talks. For Apple is year, they released Swift, a new programming language. There wasn’t one person who thought that Apple would definitely release a whole new program, overtaking their old Objectve-C.

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The Surface Pro 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, after how Apple and Google create so much hype over their companies because of this secrecy, you would think other companies would pick up on the tactic. Well, some have, but certainly not Microsoft. Last month, Microsoft unveiled their new tablet, the Surface Pro 3. Now, there were some rumors that Microsoft would also unveil a Surface Mini, a Surface competitor to Apple’s successful iPad Mini. Come on Microsoft, at least come up with a creative name. Anyway, they didn’t release it, and there were even reports that they were, but they changed their mind 2 days before the conference.

So, big deal, right? We might have been wrong about the whole thing. No Surface Mini after all. Well, not really. In the Surface Pro 3 user manual, some, let’s say, hints were given away. Take this section on the new Surface Pen: “You’ll pair your new pen with Surface Mini a little later during setup.” Ohhhh, someone is getting fired.

There are even more of these gems throughout the manual. In many places, there are very obvious references to a “Surface Mini”. Wether Microsoft actually comes through on their hints, and does release a Surface Mini later on in the year is unknown, or if they will abandon the product to escape the media ridicule. Still, lesson learned, eh, Microsoft?

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TOTW: World Cup Fever! The Best Star Studded World Cup Ads

0
10 years
by in Recent Posts, TOTWs

There is no denying that the World Cup is the biggest sporting event of all. After all, football(soccer) is the world’s most loved sport. Sorry all you American football and basketball fans, but the World Cup blows both the Super Bowl and the NCAA Final out of the water by a order of magnitude. And, when the most people are watching, that can only mean one thing: ads. And lots of them. The Super Bowl is known for it’s great ads, but the World Cup once again destroys it’s Americanized equivalent, with better, more viewed and more expensive ads. Many sports companies (and non-sport) make incredibly star-studded ads to increase it’s overall amazement factor. In some it worked, in some it looked like they just added in the stars for the fun of it.

Neymar, Chicharito, Robin Van Persie, Gotze, Jozy Altidore, Schweinsteiger, Fabregas, Suarez, Demarcus Beasley, Sturridge, Rio Ferdinand, Baracry Sanga, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rooney, Ibrahimovic, Higuain,  Eden Hazard, Pique, David Luiz, Iniesta, Pirlo, Tim Howard, Thibaut Courtois, Thiago Silva, Landon Donovan, Messi, Aguero, Ozil and more are featured in all these ads combined. Even Nicki Minaj, Dr. Dre, Lebron James and Michael Jordan are in some. If you know anything about soccer, you know that every single one of those players I just mentioned are in the top 50 players right now. So this must have cost a fortune. If they spent this big amount of money on one ad, you would think it would be amazing right? Well, some are and some aren’t, so I’ll let you decide. Here are the best of them:

Nike’s Last Game


Out of all the World Cup ads, this one is the best done. The animated short released by Nike depicts what would happen if clones of the best soccer players took the place of the original players because of their consistency. But, lead by the old Ronaldo, the original best 11 players from this world cup take on the clones. They really nailed the players personalities and bodies, creating a fun little short, promoting their new slogan, Risk Everything.

Beats’ The Game Before The Game


The newly acquired company Beats really went all out for this world cup. Their ad, chocked full of world-class players, is mainly featured by Neymar, and his father, who is saying dramatic and inspirational words of encouragement in between shots of the best players on the planet washing their socks and listening to Beats. A little overboard, but I have to say, the whole this is very dramatic.

EA’s Always In The Game

EA went for humor for their ad, and they nailed it. Perfectly. A a promotion for their World Cup version of Fifa 14, they had Landon Donovan, who made headlines for not being picked for the USA world cup squad, winning the world cup on Fifa. That’s funny, by itself, but they topped it off by Landon muttering under his breath, “I’m not going to brazil.” in the classic chant sung by fans. Well played EA, well played.

Nike’s Winner Stays


Another ad by Nike, but this time featuring a bunch of real, top-class players. Well, not at the start. The idea of this ad is that a group if 11 on 11 ametuer players, when they decide that the winner stays, can suddenly turn into players like Neymar and Pique whenever they feel like it. Handy. The camera work in this ad is great, having foreground people walk right in from of the camera so the young player can be switched out by Rooney or Eden Hazard. Very creative, and very well done.

McDonald’s Gol!


Like usual, McDonald’s made an ad that really had nothing to do with their chain of fast food resturants. Basically, a bunch of people were doing trick shots and fancy juggling in public. Sure, it may be fun and entertaining, but the only way you know it’s for McDonald’s is the big M logo at the end. Sigh.

Adidas’ The Dream


For some reason, Adidas decides that their commerical would be another star studded ad about Messi having an nighmare/dream thing about all the other players and whether he trained hard enough. Again, like Beats’ ad, it may be dramatic, but not a great way to depict the party attitude of the Brazilian stadiums and jumbotron gatherings.

 

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Videos Of The Week: E3 Edition

0
10 years
by in Recent Posts, Videos Of The Week

There are many big technology conventions every year, for every topic, and the one all gamers wait for every year is E3, the annual big gaming conference. At E3, tons of new games are released, some just trailers, other in full. Xbox, PS4, and Nintendo all release all their best new games. Besides for the trailers I have highlighted here, there were many more released. But, I picked the 3 that surprised and impressed me the most.

#1. Destiny

Destiny, the very highly anticipated first person shooter by Bungie, the creators of Halo, is a post-apocalyptic space game, in which you, one of the last survivors on earth, has to defend and defeat what looks to be aliens with incredibly sophisticated technology, called “the darkness”. And this is all after the human race was at it’s peak, traveling space and living up to 3 times as long. The “cowboys in post apocalyptic space” vibe it’s giving off certainly enhances the excitement over this game, and the expensive and very well made certainly trailer shows that off. After all the hype, the release of Destiny was one of the highlights of E3.

#2. Nintendo Amiibo

This cheesy video by Nintendo introduces, Amiibo, Nintendo’s line of toys that interact with their console Wii U. You can use these toys to gain points and experience with the same character throughout some different Nintendo games, including Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. Of course, this isn’t a unique idea, and Disney Infinity and the original Skylanders both are the exact same game as Amiibo, except they only play their own game, one an adventure and one an open world game. It seems as if this is Nintendo’s last ditch attempt to catch some of their success, because after all, both of those game can use Nintendo’s consoles.

#3. Legend Of Zelda open world

Like Nintendo Amiibo, this video is introducing another one of Nintendo’s games at E3, but this time just another update to the long and storied Legend Of Zelda series. Zelda has always been one of those “open world but not really” games, where you can move around but are very restricted. In this new release, Legend Of Zelda will be going full open world, and the amount of graphics put behind this is amazing. Everything from each individual blade of grass to Zelda’s horse is exquisite.

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TOTW: The Basic Threshold Into Sentient AI Has Been Passed – Kinda

0
10 years
by in Recent Posts, TOTWs

For the last 60 years, artificial intelligence experts and computer experts have been striving to solve one puzzle. Or really, pass one test. The founder of the modern computer, Alan Turing (the guy who cracked the Enigma code) created a test way back in 1950 as the threshold onto efficient artificial intelligence. The test is fairly simple. All the computer had to do was convince a panel of judges that it is a real person. Any type of person. A 60 year old professor. A 20 year old computer scientist. Doesn’t matter. And the computer doesn’t even have to fool all of the judges. Just 1 one third of the panel. Even though this seems like this would be fairly easy, it hasn’t been done in 60 years.

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This test was Turing was to test the age old question: can computers think. When this test is passed, he though we would be somewhere near that age. There have been some sketchy wins in the past, not really confirmed or in an official setting. But, in the Turing Test 2014 official event, a program called Eugene Goostman completed the test successfully, tricking 33% of the judges into thinking he is the average 13 year old Ukrainian boy. The description given by his “parents” about Eugene is that “His Dad is a gynecologist and he has a hamster”. Seriously. That’s the description they gave him.

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Now, before you go around screaming about robotic armageddon in gas stations I should remind you that this means a pretty much nothing. First of all: he is not a sentient being. He isn’t even a being. Eugene is a chatterbot. A program that responds to you in chat, posing as the person they are testing. A chatterbot would have a hard time taking over the world. Secondly, he only convinced 30% of the judges. As the Guardian wrote, 30% of Americans think the Bible is literally true. That doesn’t make it so. It is an achievement, being the first in history to complete this task made by the founding father of technology, but it’s not game changing. When 100% of the judges are fooled, then watch out.

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This is a transcript of the conversation between Eugene and a judge that voted human.

Plus, the makers of Eugene were pretty tricky about how they won. Because the target was a 13 year old, they made it acceptable that Eugene could just basically reject the question by saying he didn’t know. Of course, a normal 13 year old would probably do that, and making a program admit to not knowing everything is very smart in trying to duplicate a person. Oh, and english is his second language, so his answers don’t have to perfectly intelligible. Yet, despite all these facts disregarding Eugene’s accomplishment, it still is a fairly big event for all AI geeks out there. After all, this test was made by Alan Turing, computer genius extraordinaire. It may not mean we have sentient computer beings from sci-fi movies, but it’s not nothing. A man-made object fooled a man. Sheesh, we humans are dumb.

If you want to see if Eugene can fool you, here’s your chance. Eugene’s creators put Eugene’s code online, so anyone could try it. I spent a couple of minutes with Eugene, and I wasn’t fooled. I asked him is he was sure if he was 13, and he answered yes then started pressuring me to tell him where I lived. I told him I had a giant candy cane and he said candy is a geek. Obviously, there’s a way to go until computers will be functional as a replacement human.

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TechSpot: The CIA’s Controversial First Tweet

0
10 years
by in Recent Posts, TechSpots

It seems as if everyone is on twitter. Obama is on twitter. Katy Perry is on twitter. Even an 104 year old woman is on twitter. So there’s really no excuse if you are not. I’m on Twitter (@FFtechdotnet), and pretty much everyone else it to. Just the top 5 most followed people combined have 233 million followers. That’s a lot of people. So, it seems like it wouldn’t take that long for a gigantic government agency to join in on the global phenomenon. Well, they finally have. That’s right, the CIA have finally joined Twitter.

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@CIA is their address. The agency’s first tweet really shows why they made the account and how they really feel about joining social networking: ”

That’s right. In their first tweet, the CIA made a joke on themselves. For all of you out there who don’t get why this is funny, this type of response is called a Glomar response, named after a case involving the Soviet Union and a sunken sumbarine. Long story short, the we had to come up with a response to an information inquiry while also staying within the constitution. That’s when they came up with this “We can not confirm or deny blah blah blah.” response and named it after the company trying to fish the sumbarine out of the ocean, Global Marine. Since then, the CIA and other government bodies have been using this response constantly for any inquiry for information they would rather not give away.

Rather surprisingly, instead of a lighthearted response to this first tweet, the reaction (at least from some people) was something close to disgust. The NYC Review of Books, (@nybooks) really disagreed with the CIA on the desision to joke about themselves, and made this clear is a couple of tweets they put out days after the CIA join. The first was a ICYMI (in case you missed it), reminding people to read a book about the unethnical techniques of CIA torture. In later tweets, they highlight these one by one.

 

There were many more of these tweets from NYC Books, and none of them have been responded to by the CIA, even though all of them were sent to them and had @CIA tagged. Instead, the CIA released a tweet saying,

 

We will see if they do respond to the outrage or they just let NYC rant on and on without any recognition. Even though joining Twitter seemed to have no downside back when the agency thought it up, it now seem as they are regretting it a bit. They just let all those people who just spend their whole life negatively commenting on everything they can find a way to channel their rage at the government. And I’d bet they certainly didn’t expect that someone would go into such detail about the CIA’s unethnicality. We will just have to wait to see exactly how the CIA uses it’s account, either as a way to edjucte the public and really share informing data, unclassified or not, or wether it just says promotes themselves and doesn’t say anything helpful. If it does do that, you can’t really blame them. That’s what most people do. 

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Top 3 Videos Of The Week

0
10 years
by in Recent Posts, Videos Of The Week

Here are the top 3 videos of the week:*

#1. Look Up


This thought provoking video is a spoken word poem about the downsides of the global addiction to the internet, and how you can miss so many chances is you stay on your phone rather than going outside. Although everybody can relate to this on some level, the video fails to mention all the interesting, educational, amazing, fascinating and lifesaving videos and articles on the internet. Just like in real life, you can show and release you feelings, through whatever form you choose; writing/blogging, making videos, gaming, anything. I’m not the only one who thinks that the video has an extremist point of view, and there is even two parodies of the video, in the same poetic style, that says the exactly the opposite.

#2. A Future With Superhumans

Will we eventually become superhumans, looking along the line of a mix Captain America and the Hulk? It is an interesting question, answered in this video, which is basically a animated interview with the sci-fi theorist/robot expert Daniel H. Wilson. If you have the option to become artificially super smart, super fast, super everything, would you take it, even if it means putting a chip in your brain? What would this do to society? Would the standards of intelligence be raised? By the end of this video, with all the unanswered questions and daunting problems that come with this futuristic idea will make you almost want it to not happen.

#3: Festo – BionicKangaroo

As you can probably tell, this video is of a very accurate robotic version of the complex movement of the Kangaroo. Kangaroo’s have an odd way of moving about, using their long legs with ridiculously big feet and tail to propel them along. You would think this would be impossible to replicate in a robot, as just making a humanoid walking robot is hard, but Festo did it. That’s why this robot is so awesome.

*Not all these videos were made this week. That just happens to be the time I’m featuring it.

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FastNews: Flappy Bird Recreated Using Swift In a Day

0
10 years
by in FastNews, Recent Posts

It was bound to happen. After Apple’s release of Swift, their new programming language, the whole developer world was turned on it’s side. Along with the release, a book on how to learn Swift was put in iBooks, and it’s no doubt that all the Apple developers are scrambling to learn it. After all, the language was made to be Objective-C, Apple’s now old language for making iOS and OS X apps, without the C, which slows the coding down. This could really speed up the coding process, and make the developer’s lives easier.

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So, as a test, the Github user fullstackio made their own Swift version of a already simple game. You guessed it, Flappy Bird. Obviously, since this code is new and the developer behind FlappySwift barely had time to learn it, the bounding of the bird is a bit rigged, but I’m sure with more experience and expertise, it will be polished off. FlappySwift is just one example of what can be made with Swift, and gues what. It was made in a day. After all, the WWDC was yesterday morning. This just proves the speed of Swift, but next time, to all you developers out there, make something useful.

TOTW: WWDC 2014 Reveiw

0
10 years
by in Recent Posts, TOTWs

The day we all were waiting for has come and gone. Apple’s WWDC keynote speech is over, but the amazing amount of software, new tools and features make it just the beginning. Like expected, iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite (yes, it’s called Yosemite),  and I’ll make sure to go over all the changes made to both systems, but, as we predicted, there were some things that NOBODY predicted. Some things that surprised the whole tech world.

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Swift

The first of which is Swift. Now, what is Swift? Well, in a completely unpredicted and suspenseful manner, Apple announced that they had made a new programming language, made for building iOS and OS X apps. Supposedly, Swift is several times faster than their earlier language, Objective-C. AND by fast, I mean the amount of code to program something in significantly reduced using Swift rather than another language like Objective-C, C or Python. Also, Apple introduced an app called Playground, allowing developers to code in a efficient manner. Playground is not just for coding small, simple projects, it can even produce complex 3D games using the two developer kits Apple released, Spritekit for 2D games and Scenekit for 3D.

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That alone is incredible. Not only is it very rare that a big company like Apple makes their own language, but that it is many times faster that any other language is many departments is great. I promise you, every Apple developer will be spending every waking hour learning and testing Swift. If you are that kind of developer, Apple even made a learning guide on iBooks, which you can buy HERE.

OS X Yosemite

Swift was really the only completely surprising part of this years WWDC. As expected, the new OS X 10.10 was released, and it was called OS X Yosemite. Again, as expected, Yosemite was upgraded to look more like iOS 7, and I have to say, they really went all out. Everything from the Finder logo to the red, yellow and green buttons at the top have been changed to fit with the flat style. Also like iOS, the slightly opaque, silky texture has pretty much replaced everything in every app, from Maps to Safari. Unlike Mavericks, iLife apps such as Garageband and iMovie has stayed pretty much exactly the same, except for maybe the small texture change that wasn’t worth mentioning in the presentation. The same goes for iWork apps such as Pages and Keynote.

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The only apps really updated are Safari and Maps. Both had the top bars shrunken and detextureized, along with the overall look flattened. There was one big unexpected change, though, and that was Spotlight. Spotlight, which I almost never use and sits in the top of my screen unused and sad. Now, instead of popping up that attractive blue bar in the top right corner, it shows up right in the middle of the screen in a sleek, good-looking way. Again, unlike the old Spotlight, the if you type in the new Spotlight, not only apps and people will show up, but also pretty much everything else. Restaurants like on Yelp, movies, current text messages, apps, documents, and calendar events. It will act like a centralized train station, drawing you in and then sending you off in a thousand different directions. And just so I don’t have to mention it later, Apple applied this technology to all their software, and it’s in app such as Safari, Maps, and even in Spotlight for iOS 8.

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A clear goal of Apple’s this year was to make all your Apple (and even Windows) seamlessly connected. This was made true in many different features, one of which is called Handoff. Lets just say you’re writing and email on your phone as you are walking home, and once you get home, you go straight to you computer to finish it up. Usually, you would have to save it to drafts and wait an hour while you emails load. With Handoff, you will just get a notification on your computer when your phone is close by, and you can just swipe up and start right where you left off. This works both ways, for Emails, iWork and iLife documents and more.

Another way Apple realized their seamless dream was with their calling system. Again, lets make up a scenario, and say your phone is across the room charging, or more realistically, sitting somewhere in your house and you have no idea where it is. Now lets say somebody calls you, and to make it even more drastic, it’s your boss. And it’s very important. Instead of scrambling around frantically, eventually finding it right when it stops ringing and awkwardly calling him or her back, the new system lets you answer that call right on your computer. Really. And even better, you can read all your calendars, documents and tabs up so you can sound prepared for your boss. Very handy.

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As the demo for the new calling system, they called Dr. Dre, Apple’s newest, most famous employee.

iOS 8

Just like we knew they would, Apple released iOS 8 at the keynote speech. Like predicted, iOS 8 looks very similar in general to iOS 7, but with some slight changes. For instance, when you double tap the home button, the recently used apps will pop up like normal, except this time, on top of the apps, a list off your most recently contacted people will show up. Or how you can interact with the notifications popups at the top of your screen such as texts and emails. Basically, anything that will stop you from having to move around your phone so much and maximize your time playing Candy Crush.

One of the most anticipated parts of iOS 8 is the previously rumored Healthbook, a hub for all your third-party health apps and products. Well, this rumor was right, and the app released was called Health. Heath will, like anticipated, be a hub for all your health products. But also, if some of your statistics go below or above what it should, in a big way, Health will automatically send a report to your doctor, along with the statistics needed for a diagnosis. Apple has even collaborated with the Mayo Clinic, who will have even better access and reports of their patients stats.

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Family Sharing is a new feature that nobody predicted. It is a way for families to squeeze all their photos and calendars into one, organized place. You can see where all your other family members are and where their devices are. But that’s not that amazing. What is amazing is that family members now get access to all the others purchases, from songs to apps. Plus, if you want more control over your kids ability to buy apps, when your child buys an app, it first goes through you. Very useful in case your 5 year old wants to buy Call Of Duty.

Along with Apple’s delve into programming, they also dived into the world of business. Many features were added to iOS 8 that were completely made for the average entrepreneur, such as automatic responses, passcodes for importants apps, multiperson documents and even devices already set up right out of the box, all ready for your business.

According to Apple, Messages is the most used app of all. So, they decided to upgrade the app, adding multiple different new features. A “Details” page has been added to each message and group thread, so you can add and subtract people from the thread, see all the sent photos in one place, even send you location and see everybody else’s(of course they have to share it to). Also, even though it is a blatant copy of What’s App, you can now send a voice recording as a text, just by flicking up in the top right corner of the keyboard.

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Speaking of Keyboards, Apple introduced a new feature called QuickType. All QuickType does is predict your next words, by displaying three words above the keyboard that you can quickly add into your text. It predicts your next words by looking at your previously written words. Say, if somebody texts you, “Which do U like better? Candy Crush or Angry Birds?”, QuickType might show the words, “Candy Crush”, “Angry Birds”, and “Clash Of Clans”. Potentially helpful, but I think I will mostly just type regularly.

Overall

All in all, this years WWDC was pretty much a success. The biggest change to the OS X line for a long time was released, and Apple added the word “Continuity” to the long list of words they use to describe themselves with Handoff and iCloud Drive. iOS 8 got some pretty useful, small new features, and Swift was released, the programming language that will shape Apple’s future. Fairly good for 2 hours.

If you really, really, really can’t wait until the fall for iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, there are two ways to get the software now. The first one is to fork up the $99 to be a developer, which will grant you access to the beta versions of both softwares. The other option is trying to get into Apple’s new public beta program, but’s it probably already to late for that. Sorry.

WWDC 2014 Keynote Speech Live Blog

0
10 years
by in FastNews, Recent Posts, TechSpots

Apple’s WWDC 2014 keynote speech is the best, most informative part of the whole WWDC event. Most, if not all of the groundbreaking and surprising features will be released during the 2 hour long talk. If you want to watch the talk live go HERE, but if you can’t feel free to stay here, where I’ll be describing the talk with words and pictures for you.

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