When iOS 8 launched last year, it was definitely not a smooth start to the life of a new operating system. It was the first year during which you could install iOS as a public beta; This opened up an entirely new avenue of people who would now be streaming their feedback to Cupertino. The release was no slouch, either. Building upon the momentum of iOS 7, 8 included such niceties as a redesigned notification center, health kit and a health app, Continuity features, spotlight redesign, and a new multitasking switcher. A month after release, we had 8.0.1, which completely broke the radio of the new iPhone 6, and apps crashed more frequently. VoiceOver was riddled with a far greater number of bugs, including the famous “app store clearing search” issue.
Five Reasons to Buy (or not to Buy) the Apple Watch
At Apple’s “Hey Siri!” event on September 9th, the company announced a slew of new Apple Watch models and bands, along with the iPhone 6S, iPad Pro, and Apple TV. To be clear, these watch models are not a second generation product internally; The specs and components remain the same. They are already in stores, so our best guess is that Apple is trying to squeeze as many sales as possible out of the product with this refresh. For example, there is now a new “rose gold” watch, which is a popular colour choice among many.
Latest Windows Phone 10 Previews are Accessible with Microsoft’s Edge browser, Lock Screen changes
When Microsoft revamped Windows Phone as just “Windows 10 Mobile”, everyone was at a surprise. For the first time, Windows Phone would share a very heavy codebase with Windows 10. This meant that the features and resource requirements had to shrink, and Microsoft needed to redesign the user interface from almost scratch again.
Stepping over the Threshold: Windows 10 in 10000 words, thoroughly reviewed
Introduction
A Keyboard Worth Typing on for Android, Designed with Accessibility in mind
If you are a fan of Android, you might be aware of how different the typing experience on most keyboard solutions can be for the platform. Samsung, LG, and even Google all design specific keyboards which differ in the way they present key layouts or even speak some of the names for keys.
CBT Prime: Breaking out of a Walled Garden Jail
Over the last few months, the staff at Cool Blind Tech have attempted their best at providing you with comprehensive information on how various devices can be modified to suit the needs of even the least and most technical among us. As originally pointed out in our First article introducing this subject matter, the legality of this varies considerably depending on your jurisdiction and country, and all of this will void your warranty in some form with your manufacturer and sometimes cellular company. We continued by dipping your feet into Flashing Nexus-based Android phones which provided you with a good grasp on how these devices can be restored to factory settings should anything go wrong. Leo also did a follow up podcast to this where he demonstrated the Nexus root toolkit , which gives you the ability to flash any rom after unlocking and rooting the bootloader of your Nexus.
WWDC Highlights: Apples are becoming self aware through watching us, and now they can make music, too!
What a busy week! We return with another VIP Roundtable podcast, with me as your host alongside Hugo, Nelson, and Justin. This year’s WWDC event was a large one, as it is where Apple reveals to us its mysteries at their core. OK, maybe not quite, but we did gain a nice glimpse into what is coming down the pipe especially in terms of software. Join us as we talk about Mac OS 10.11 and how mature the platform might be, iOS 9 and its features or surprises, along with the Apple Watch which is becoming so much more, quicker than people have thought. The big push for Apple this year dealt with making iOS more aware of your routine and habits, while keeping your privacy intact. Can they pull it off? Will the new Apple Music be good enough to gain interest for people? We also talk about a new assistant on the block, which could seriously Hound both Apple and Google and their artificial intelligent creations.
Cool picks:
Paying With Fruit – Using the intuitive and easy Apple Pay System
Apple introduced NFC-based digital technology into their iPhone last year with the 6 and 6+, a technology which has been present in many other phones for a long time. The hardware allows you to make seamless purchases at supporting stores with only a touch of your finger on the home button.
Rooting Galaxy devices is not complicated, but will forever void warranties
Let’s talk about rooting Android devices. While previously we have discussed flashing a Nexus back to factory settings for tinkerers out there, we have not yet touched upon how most Galaxy devices are rooted. This podcast is applicable to non-newer Samsung’s, anything S5 and below. For most of Samsung’s flagships, the guide applies, although some might have different ways to boot into recovery or boot loader mode. This was tested personally to work on Galaxy S4 and S5 models, but the procedure is the same for Galaxy Note 3/4 as well.
There’s Another Screen Reader, and it Wants to Shine on your Android device
For the longest time, Talkback has been the only good and useful screen reader on Android — though this was not always the case. Senior Android users might fondly recall Spiel, which was alive around 2011 last, a screen reader that even surpassed Talkback in functionality and speed. Google then suddenly changed the entire framework for how accessibility is done on their platform, and Spiel was no more. Although current compiled releases of it can be run successfully even under Android 5.1, the code is not often maintained and needs a lot of work to be a daily driver.
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