Apple releases 4 iMessage apps ahead of iOS 10

by JUAN BUIS 

Though people around the world are still waiting for the public release of iOS 10, today Apple released four animated sticker packs — Smileys, Hearts, Hands, and Classic Mac — that integrate with the new version of iMessage.

The new version of iMessage makes it easy to share stickers in conversations, giving users more animated options rather than mere static emojis. Without a doubt, there are going to be a lot of sticker apps when iOS 10 releases, so it makes sense Apple is kicking off the trend.

Unfortunately, the sticker packs are only available for download for users of iOS 10, so for everyone still waiting for the public beta — hold steady.

➤ Smileys [App Store]

➤ Hearts [App Store]

➤ Hands [App Store]

➤ Classic Mac [App Store]

SanDisk’s new insanely fast microSD cards can hold 14 hours of 4K video

by NATE SWANNER 

If you’re into shooting 4K video, you’ll probably be really into the newest microSD cards from SanDisk which can hold 14 hours of footage and transfer info insanely fast.

The SanDisk Extreme 256GB microSD card not only has an insane capacity (seriously, 14 hours of 4K footage!), it can transfer your data at a read rate of 100MBps. It has a write speed of 90MBps.

If you slip one of these into a 4K drone — like a DJI Phantom 3 or 4 — you’d swap batteries far more often than memory cards. It’s peace of mind for getting a ton of B-Roll, at least.

There’s also an ‘Ultra’ version with a slightly lower read speed, which SanDisk is positioning for mainstream use (like your phone). It can hold over 24 hours of full HD video.

The Ultra will go on sale in August for $150, while the Extreme will debut at $200 sometime in Q4 2016. SanDisk also says both are “waterproof, temperature-proof, shock proof, and X-ray proof.”

WESTERN DIGITAL LAUNCHES WORLD’S FASTEST 256GB MICROSD CARD, BROADENS SANDISK MEMORY CARD PORTFOLIO WITH NEW HIGH-CAPACITY SOLUTIONS

TWO 256GB MICROSD CARD ADDITIONS TO RECORD-SETTING SANDISK FAMILY OF MEMORY CARDS BRING BREAK-THROUGH PERFORMANCE

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS SHANGHAI, China 

Western Digital^® Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC), a global storage technology and solutions leader, today introduced a new suite of 256 gigabyte (GB) microSD™ cards, which includes the new 256GB SanDisk Extreme^® microSDXC™ UHS-I card – the fastest microSD card in its class. The new suite of cards also includes 256GB SanDisk Ultra^® microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition, the first 256GB card optimized for mainstream consumers. The new additions deliver leading speed and capacity in a fingernail-sized card, giving smartphone, drone and action camera users the performance and capacity they need to capture professional-grade videos and photos without worrying about running out of space on their device.

“Our microSD cards are now at the center of many consumer devices, and we’re excited to not only raise the bar with the launch of the world’s fastest microSD card, but to also offer a family of 256GB microSD cards that give consumers the flexibility they need to capture life at its fullest,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president of SanDisk product marketing, Western Digital. “As a leading global storage provider with one of the most trusted flash brands, we take pride in transforming the way consumers capture, store and share their content.”

Whether taking pictures, shooting 4K UHD or Full HD video, or storing high-fidelity music, the new 256GB cards give consumers the freedom to capture and carry a massive amount of content on their devices without concern about storage limitations.

“At DJI we focus on creating easy-to-use drone technology for consumers to capture everyday exploration and photography, and our customers need quick and reliable access to their high quality aerial footage,” said Eli Morgan Harris, strategic partnerships, DJI. “With the new 256GB SanDisk microSD UHS-I cards, they now have greater flexibility to capture their content on high-performance storage and the peace of mind knowing they can continue shooting when it matters most.”

The Ultimate Combination of Capacity and Performance

The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card delivers unmatched transfer speeds of up to 100MB/s**, allowing users to save time transferring large files, as well as write speeds of up to 90MB/s** for rapid capture of photos. Users can record an estimated 14 hours of 4K UHD video¹ on the 256GB card, making it ideal for high-performance drones, action cameras, and 4K-capable smartphones, among other devices.

The 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition, is ideal for Android-based smartphone and tablet users who don’t want to worry about running out of space on their devices. The new card is capable of storing more than 24 hours of Full HD video¹, and also features premium transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s**. At this speed people can move files quickly – up to 1,200 photos in just one minute².

Built to perform in harsh conditions, the new cards³ are also waterproof, temperature-proof, shock proof, and X-ray proof. Additionally, the SanDisk microSD card line up is compatible with the SanDisk^® Memory Zone app for Android™, giving users an easy way to manage and back up content on their device. The app is available for free through the Google Play™ Store⁴.

Heritage of Memory Card Innovation

The new suite of cards is the latest breakthrough offering to join the cutting-edge SanDisk portfolio of mobile memory solutions. The first to introduce 128GB and 200GB microSDXC, and 512GB SDXC™ high-capacity cards, SanDisk continues to pioneer technology that keeps up with consumers’ evolving storage needs.   

Pricing and Availability

The 256GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition, will be available worldwide in August 2016 with a U.S. MSRP of $149.99. The 256GB SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card will be available worldwide in calendar Q4 2016 with a U.S. MSRP of $199.99.

The complete line of SanDisk microSD cards can be purchased at more than 300,000 retailers worldwide.

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) is an industry-leading provider of storage technologies and solutions that enable people to create, leverage, experience and preserve data. The company addresses ever-changing market needs by providing a full portfolio of compelling, high-quality storage solutions with customer-focused innovation, high efficiency, flexibility and speed. Our products are marketed under the HGST, SanDisk and WD brands to OEMs, distributors, resellers, cloud infrastructure providers and consumers. For more information, please visit www.hgst.com,www.wd.com, and www.sandisk.com.

About SanDisk

SanDisk, a Western Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: WDC) brand, provides trusted and innovative flash storage products that have transformed the electronics industry. SanDisk’s quality, state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world's largest data centers, and embedded in advanced smartphones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk’s consumer products are available at hundreds of thousands of retail stores worldwide.

For the latest SanDisk news visit www.sandisk.com, or find us on our social channels:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/sandisk

Twitter: www.twitter.com/sandisk

Instagram: www.instagram.com/sandisk

YouTube: www.youtube.com/sandisk

---

©2016 Western Digital Corp. or affiliates. All rights reserved. SanDisk, SanDisk Ultra and SanDisk Extreme are trademarks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates, registered in the U.S. and/or other countries.

The microSD, microSDXC and SDXC marks and logos are trademarks of SD-3D, LLC. Android and Google Play are trademarks of Google Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

*1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes. Actual user storage less.

** Based on internal testing; performance may be lower depending upon host device interface, usage conditions and other factors. 1MB=1,000,000 bytes.

¹ Approximations; Results and 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160) / Full HD (1920x1080) video support may vary based on host device, file attributes and other factors.

² Based on 4.1GB transfer of photos (avg. file 3.5MB) with USB 3.0 reader. Results may vary based on host device, file attributes and other factors.

³ Card only. See www.sandisk.com/proof for additional information and limitations.

⁴ Download and installation required.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes forward-looking statements, including the expected availability and performance of SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card, Premium Edition and SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS-I card. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: our product offerings may not be available when we expect or in the capacities or with the performance characteristics that we expect, or the other risks detailed from time-to-time in SanDisk Corporation’s and Western Digital Corporation’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports. All statements made in this news release are made only as of the date of this release. Western Digital undertakes no obligations to update the information in this release in the event facts or circumstances change after the date of this release.

Facebook is shuttering its news app Paper on July 29th

by BRYAN CLARK 

Facebook today announced it would be shutting down Paper, the company’s innovative redesign of Facebook proper on iOS.

First introduced in 2014, the service was met with acclaim throughout the tech world, but never really managed to gain much traction with users after falling out of the top 1,500 most-downloaded apps in December 2014, and never making its way back.

Paper was beautifully designed and almost universally adored by the design community for its novel animations, clean UI and immersive experience that provided an entirely ad-free way to view your newsfeed. The app transformed the typical newsfeed into a Apple News-esque reader, complete with customizable sections for a variety of topics from food to politics.

But alas, it hasn’t been updated since March 2015, and never made its way to Android.

According to Facebook:

“Our goal with Paper was to explore new immersive, interactive design elements for reading and interacting with content on Facebook, and we learned how important these elements are in giving people an engaging experience.”

Full bleed images, custom designs for individual publishers’ articles and other interactive design elements helped pave the way for Instant Articles, and now, these features (and others) are an integral part of the the mobile experience. So, while we’ll certainly miss Paper, it helps knowing that a lot of what we loved has already made its way to Instant Articles.

Paper will be removed from the App Store later today.

Chrome for Android has a VR mode in the works, and it sounds awesome

by NATE SWANNER 

We know Google is serious about VR, but we weren’t sure how deep their VR love went until now. It seems that deep within the Chrome beta and dev channels for Android is an option to turn anything into VR.

Chrome for Android has an option to activate WebVR, an experimental open source JavaScript API for making just about anything in a browser VR-ready. To make use of it, you’d obviously need a VR viewer like Cardboard or Oculus.

Speaking to Road to VR, Google WebVR developer Josh Carpenter explains that’s it’s not so much about going all-in on VR for the broswer, but bridging a necessary gap:

Today I can view a WebVR scene on an iOS [device], even if Mobile Safari doesn’t support WebVR API, thanks to a polyfill and device accelerometers. Which is awesome. The web’s got reach,. What the WebVR API gives us on top of that is much richer ecosystem support, things like link traversal between WebVR experiences without dropping out of VR mode, and more.

With that explanation, it’s easy to see how WebVR can help make VR apps a lot more like the ones you’re using now. If you were confused about some in-app settings, transitioning to a Web-based VR FAQ section would be a much smoother experience than taking transitioning to a static Web view on your phone.

For websites that don’t use WebVR, Chrome’s dev channel has a ‘VR Shell’ that essentially forces a page into a VR-viewable mode.

WebVR is already being used elsewhere (Firefox nightly builds, most notably), but Chrome is a big deal. It’s also interesting timing, considering Daydream is starting to round into shape.

Google is Adding a VR Shell to Chrome to Let You Browse the Entire Web in VR

By Ben Lang 

Google is working to add fully immersive browsing capability to Chrome, allowing users to browse any part of the web in VR, not just those sites that are specially built for VR.

Google has played an active role in helping to define and deploy ‘WebVR‘, a set of standard capabilities that allow for the creation of VR websites which can serve their content directly to VR headsets. But what about accessing the billions of websites already on the web? Today you’d have to take your headset on and off as you go from a WebVR site to a non-WebVR site. Google’s ultimate vision however is to let people stay in VR for all of their web browsing.

The latest builds of Google Chrome Beta and Google Chrome Dev on Android bring two important new features for making this a reality. Chrome Beta now contains a WebVR setting which enables enhanced VR device compatibility with VR websites built against WebVR standards. Chrome Dev (one extra step back in development from Beta) now contains a ‘VR Shell’ setting which Google’s Chromium Evangelist François Beaufort says“enable[s] a browser shell for VR” which “allows users to browse the web while using Cardboard or Daydream-ready viewers.” Both options are available in the browser’s Flags page, accessed by entering chrome://flags in the URL bar.

The VR Shell doesn’t seem to be fully functional yet, but both options are working their way through Chrome’s various development channels with the goal of eventually landing in the stable release that goes wide to all users.

Google WebVR developer Josh Carpenter tells us what Chrome Beta’s new WebVR option means compared to the limited WebVR functionality already supported by most modern browser through existing standards.

“Today I can view a WebVR scene on an iOS [device], even if Mobile Safari doesn’t support WebVR API, thanks to a polyfill + device accelerometers. Which is awesome. The web’s got reach,” he explained. “What the WebVR API gives us on top of that is much richer ecosystem support, things like link traversal between WebVR experiences without dropping out of VR mode, and more.”

Samsung introduced a VR browser for their Gear VR headset last year which achieves similar functionality, but is not available to the wider Android ecosystem. As the stable version of Chrome on Android has been downloaded between 1 – 5 billion times, it stands to bring VR web browsing to a much larger group. Google is also in development of Chrome support for headsets like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive on desktop.

Report: HTC Nexus specs revealed (most of them, anyway)

by NAPIER LOPEZ

Recent rumors may suggest that Google is designing its own Android phones this year, but that hasn’t stopped reports suggesting HTC is building two new Nexus phones.

Android Police says it’s acquired the specs for the larger of the two devices, codenamed Marlin:

• Quad-core Qualcomm processor
• 5.5″ QHD (2560×1440) AMOLED display
• USB-C port
• 12MP rear camera, 8MP front
• Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner
• 4GB RAM
• 3450mAh battery
• Bottom-firing speakers
• 32/128GB of storage (no 64 GB option)
• Bluetooth 4.2

Previously, Android Police had shared surprisingly similar specs for the smaller Sailfish model:

• HTC-Made
• 5″ 1080p display (~440PPI) AMOLED
• Quad-core 2.0GHz 64-bit processor
• 4GB RAM
• 2770mAh battery
• 32GB storage (unknown if multiple models will be available, or even if this is the base storage level)
• 12MP rear camera, 8MP front
• Rear-mounted fingerprint scanner
• USB-C port
• Bottom-firing speaker or speakers (unknown if dual)
• Top-mounted headphone jack
• Bluetooth 4.2

It’s not clear exactly what processor the phones are using, but Android Police believes they will share the same model.

While it might just be the current flagship Snapdragon 820, it could be the rumored 821 or 823 model.Google has previously suggested that itsDaydream VR platform requires different specs (likely for thermal management) than what current phones offer, and it’s a fair assumption that the newest Nexus devices would be VR-ready.

It’s interesting to note that aside from the screen and battery, the phones appear to be virtually identical, spec wise. That’s different from last year’s take, where the 5X was clearly the underpowered model vs the 6P. It’s a nice nod to the people who simply want a smallish Android phone with powerful specs.

But then again, Huawei says it’s building a Nexus again this year too, so who knows.

Snapchat is down [Update: It’s back!]

by NAPIER LOPEZ

Users around the Web are reporting problems with Snapchat. Indeed, we aren’t able to send raunchy images to any of our friends either.

Downdetector reports the issues started popping up around 11:42AM ET. While we can log into the app, we aren’t able to send snaps. Also, stories aren’t refreshing, so we have no idea how to find out what’s happening in our friends’ lives

We’ve contacted Snapchat for more information and will update this post when we hear back.

Update: Snapchat says the outage lasted about 45 minutes and the issues should be resolved. Carry on, millenials.

A career in C++ programming awaits with this complete programming bundle (92% off)

by TNW DEALS 
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