Apple iOS 9 to Feature Force Touch, New Keyboard and Group Read Receipts!

The next-generation iPhone will feature some form of Force Touch as one of the biggest new additions to the hardware, a rumor that has been circulating since the beginning of the year and only gaining forward momentum. The report today, however, specifically mentions that Apple has designed iOS 9 “to be Force Touch-ready” and is already hard at work with developers to integrate the technology into various apps.

Since Apple’s work on Force Touch runs the gamut of iOS devices, there’s also a possibility of updated Force Touch displays on new iPad models sometime this year. All iOS versions of Force Touch are also expected to provide the real-time haptic feedback buzz similar to that of the Apple Watch to provide users a physical response when their deep presses have been noticed. As 9to5Mac points out, however, since any new Force Touch on iOS announcement automatically requires the confirmation of new hardware, any iPhone and iPad support for the feature is unlikely to happen at WWDC.

Next, Apple is rumored to be working on a new keyboard experience for iOS 9, with the company experimenting on multiple designs, like one that is “slightly longer than the current keyboard” and provides users with a more robust suite of editing options while in portrait mode. Also in the works is a more accessible way to access the QuickType keyboard and a redesign to the unpopular Shift Key to provide an easier visual understanding of when shift or caps lock is engaged.

Today’s report also falls in line with previous rumors reporting that Canada will be the first country outside of the United States to support Apple Pay, with the report claiming that iOS 9’s Passbook app includes a “necessary foundation” to support various banks, credit and debit cards, and credit unions within the country. Although Canada is well-prepared for such a service, with many retailers and businesses across the country equipped with the contactless payment terminals needed for Apple Pay, such an expansion outside of the United States has proved difficult for Apple, especially in places like China, so a WWDC announcement yet again seems unlikely.

The final minor update to iOS 9 reported today includes the addition of read receipts to both group chats in iMessage as well as on a per-contact basis. Users will be able to turn on the read receipt functionality for specific recipients while leaving the read status of a message in the dark for other contacts. The company also seems to be considering removing the little-used Game Center app altogether in iOS 9, and minor data points suggest a few additions and updates to the new Health app, as well.

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Best tech-related April Fools’ hoaxes 2015!

Remember Google Maps Pokemon Challenge? It’s that time of the year, folks. Outlandish news, imaginary products unveilings, and outrageous announcements – tech companies are trying to one-up each other with the wildest April Fools’ day hoaxes. Some have even jumped the gun by a day, or in the case of OnePlus, by a few weeks.

If you don’t have the time or patience to sift through all the fake news today, we’re doing the hard work for you. Here’s what transpired so far.

Chrome Selfie

The Google Chrome team thinks it’s too damn hard to share what you really feel when you read the news online. So it’s fixing things with a new feature available now in the Chrome for Android app. Chrome Selfie lets you take a selfie, along with a screenshot of whatever your reading, and send it to whomever you want. Handy! All kidding aside, we can totally see some cash-flush venture-funded startup trying to make this into a real product.

Amazon Website

Retro style Amazon.com website, that introduced a new Dash button with future of Shopping for everyday shoppers.

Google Panda

Google Japan thinks the best way to spur the adoption of Google Now is to put Google’s virtual assistant in a cute and fluffy panda body. They even got bigwig Chris Yerga to introduce in on stage at a press conference.

Google Panda has three main functions: cuteness (“soft, rounded design”), mobility (it hugs you!), and durability (fluffy fur absorbs shock! if only smartphones had fur as well…). More about the groundbreaking new Google Panda here.

Google party horn keyboard

Typing is too hard! How about if, instead of pushing inconvenient keys, you could spell out words by blowing into a party horn? Not satisfied with Panda alone, the Google Japan team is introducing a Bluetooth-enabled party horn that will make tedious key pushing a memory.

Google Smartbox by Inbox

“Introducing a new way to interact with the mail you love. The good old-fashioned kind of mail that you touch with your hands… and smell with your nose.” Thank you Inbox team!

Moto Selfie Stick

Hipsters of the world, rejoice. You will definitely appreciate Motorola’s new product: handmade, leather-bound, custom selfie sticks. Because when you have to embarrass yourself with a selfie stick, you should at least do it in style.

T-Mobile Pets Unleashed

Your carrier hates puppies! So put it to the doghouse and switch to T-Mobile, where Pets Unleashedlets your favorite furry friends get their paws on their dream devices, starting at five bucks a month. What would your pet do with a smartphone or tablet, you ask? Easy – swipe through Pet Tinder, use FitPet, and watch zebra porn. Yes, really.

MS-DOS Mobile

Microsoft has had a hard time with its mobile operating system, so it’s going back to basic with MS-DOS Mobile. Black and white text has never looked so good! Launch apps or send messages, with a simple text command!

Reddit invasion

Visit r/Android today, that bastion of all things blessed by Duarte (okay, that’s r/AndroidCircleJerk actually) and you’ll be in for a nasty surprise. At least r/Apple users are probably just as confused.

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Updating with more silliness as it comes! Missed anything? Tell us in the comments.

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Oscar-Nominated ‘American Sniper’ Wins Top Box Office Position!

“American Sniper,” Clint Eastwood’s war-drama that’s nominated for six Oscars, was the top-grossing movie in the U.S. andCanada over the weekend, collecting $90.2 million in ticket sales to set a record for January.

“The Wedding Ringer” came in second with weekend sales of $21 million for Sony Pictures (6758)’ Screen Gems, industry researcher Rentrak Corp. said Sunday in a statement. Weinstein Co.’s “Paddington” collected $19.3 million.

Eastwood’s movie surprised the industry by reaping amounts usually not seen until summer weekends, helping kick off a year that’s expected to haul in at least $11 billion for the first time on the back of new entries from past successful franchises including “Star Wars,” “Terminator” and “Jurassic Park,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst with Rentrak. The three-day take for “American Sniper” was a record for a January weekend, surpassing the $68.5 million brought in by “Avatar” over the first weekend of 2010.

“No one saw this coming. This really obliterated expectations,” Dergarabedian said of Eastwood’s movie. “He’s an octogenarian and he’s still rocking it.”

In a crowded box office over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, “American Sniper” benefited from Oscar nomination buzz. The Warner Bros. film entered the weekend after picking up Academy Award nominations on Thursday, including best picture and best actor for Bradley Cooper.

Weekend sales for the top 10 films percent rose 22 percent to $179.7 million from a year earlier, according to Rentrak. The following table has U.S. movie box-office figures provided by studios to Rentrak. The amounts are based on gross ticket sales for Jan. 16 to Jan. 17, with estimates for Sunday.

Movie               Rev.    Pct.  Theaters   AVG    Total 
=========================================================
1 American Sniper  $90.2   15,466  3,555  $25,374   $93.6  
2 Wedding Ringer    21.0     --    3,003    6,993    21.0  
3 Paddington        19.3     --    3,303    5,839    19.3  
4 Taken 3           14.1    -64    3,594    3,909    62.8  
5 Selma              8.3    -27    2,235    3,714    26.0  
6 Imitation Game     7.2      0    1,611    4,464    50.8  
7 Into The Woods     6.5    -32    2,758    2,372   114.3  
8 Hobbit             4.9    -48    2,220    2,189   244.5  
9 Unbroken           4.3    -48    2,602    1,640   108.6 
10 Blackhat          4.0     --    2,567    1,571     4.0 


Top 10 Films Grosses

   This Week     Year Ago      Pct.
     (mln)         (mln)       Chg.
===================================
    $179.7        $146.9      22.4


Year-to-date Revenue

     2015          2014
      YTD           YTD        Pct.
     (mln)         (mln)       Chg.
===================================
      $618          $598       3.4

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Samsung and BlackBerry Announce Strategic Partnership

Samsung and BlackBerry announced a strategic partnership. The deal will bring the Canadian company’s highly praised mobile security solutions to the Korean giant’s lineup of Android devices.

The end result of the partnership between the two companies will be available in early 2015. It will merge BlackBerry’s BES12 cross-platform EMM solution and Samsung’s KNOX into a single security suite for Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

Samsung KNOX and BES12 will offer complete separation of business and personal data. The upcoming security suite will also provide enhancements that address some of the Android-specific security issues.

The deal is a win for both parties. It will instantly make Samsung a major player on the enterprise market. BlackBerry on the other hand, will surely welcome the fresh stream of cash to its business.

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Microsoft skipped Windows 9 altogether! Meet Windows 10!

Microsoft just announced the newest version of Windows. It’s called Windows 10. Yes, Microsoft has decided to skip a digit in search of the perfect name. More importantly, Windows 10 will finally span all of Microsoft’s Windows powered devices, from desktops and laptops all the way through to tablets and phones. “Windows 10 will be our most comprehensive platform ever,” says Windows boss Terry Myerson.

We’re learning about the new operating system right now at a San Francisco event, and Microsoft revealed the name first, so expect us to fill in details in real-time over the hour to come.

First up: Microsoft says it’s aiming at the enterprise first, not regular PC users. The company’s calling it its most managable operating system ever, which is probably not a phrase that makes you drool! “I’m not going to spend much time on fanciful end-user features,” said Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore as he fired up a demo.

But here’s one feature you might care about. Sure enough, the Start Menu is back in full force. The jarring Windows 8 Start Screen which obscured everything on your desktop is totally obsolete, because you can add all the same automatically refreshing Live Tiles to this new Start Menu.

In fact, you can customize it however you want: shrink it down to be short and stout, or pull it up to be tall and lanky. No problem.

You know what else? Forget about having to deal with icky Windows Store apps that take up your entire screen. Windows is all about windows, and you can run those apps in a window just like anything else.

Mix and match “new” apps and “legacy” apps across multiple windows and even multiple desktops if you like, and snap them into place with a new feature called Snap Assist:

Snap Assist can grab windows from your other desktops, in case you need to mix and match tasks.

For power users, Belfiore even showed that you can now copy and paste in the old-school Windows Command Prompt using standard keyboard shortcuts.

That doesn’t mean that touch is getting deemphasized, though: Belfiore says touch is the direction that Microsoft sees computers trending towards, and sure enough you can still swipe in from the right side of the screen to pull up the Charms Bar.

In fact, Microsoft wants Windows 10 to be able to intelligently detect when you switch a 2-in-1 device (like the Microsoft Surface) between tablet and laptop modes. Belfiore showed off a demo called “Continuum” where the Windows 10 user interface would shift between two different views when you dock or undock it from a keyboard, and adding a new Back button to help you navigate when the touchscreen is your only option.

“Yesterday they were driving maybe a first-generation Prius… and we got them a Tesla,” is the vibe of the new OS, says Belfiore. It’s an advanced experience, he says, but it’s still just like driving a car.

Microsoft says it will launch Windows 10 in 2015, and won’t talk about the consumer features of the new operating system (or presumably, the smartphone experience) until early next year. They’re not talking about the business model for Windows 10, or whether we’ll be seeing it a single release of the operating system or staggered for different types of devices.

Microsoft also says that it won’t necessarily require new hardware: Belfiore says the intent is to make Windows 10 available as an update for “the vast majority of devices,” though when and how is still a mystery.