As avid iPhone users, we here at The Gadgent are extremely excited to announce that

We all knew it was coming, and now it’s here. Apple CEO Tim Cook just put months of breathless speculation to rest by pulling back the curtain on iOS 8 during the company’s WWDC 2014 keynote address in San Francisco. It doesn’t look like the sort of quantum leap that iOS 7 was, but Apple’s head honcho assures us that it interacts in some fantastic ways with the new version of OS X and that it pairs great end user features with great developer features. Well, we’ll be the judges of that. The big keynote just wrapped up — here’s what we know and what it means for you.

First things first. There’s a lot to dig into, but you’ll get iOS 8 as a free update sometime this fall for the iPhone 4s and newer, the 5th gen iPod touch, and the iPad 2 and newer. If you’re a developer though, you’ll be able to access the iOS 8 beta and SDK today. Now, let get into the new features and let us fill you in on our first impressions.

INTERACTIVE NOTIFICATIONS

This is big Gadgent Nation. I don’t know about you all, but sometimes you find yourself in a bind and you don’t have the time to type in your password to view a notification or you may even be your doing something in a particular app and you don’t necessarily want to exit that app to view a notification. Well, now this inconvenience has been addressed.

IMPROVED MAIL

iOS 8 has indeed made some vital improvement…Goodbye mailbox app!!!

SPOTLIGHT

Is Apple entering the search engine business? Spotlight definitely seems like an Apple version of Google search. Similar to how Apple introduced their own version of Google Maps.

 

QUICKTYPE

Predictive text on steroids!!! Finally Apple’s heard the cry of the “slow typer“!!! This is a small but extremely impactful upgrade.

IMESSAGE TAKES ON WHATSAPP

Wow, so Apple decided to steal all of the features from the WhatsApp App. Oh well, we highly doubt Apple users will complain.

CONTINUITY

More connectivity between devices. Apple, you guys actually listened to us. Airdrop between iOS and OS X…Yes, now we’re talk!!!

HEALTHKIT AND THE HEALTH APP

This Health App and developer toolkit is revolutionary. We cannot wait to see it in action.

FAMILY SHARING

 

Finally!!! Our families can share apps and songs with jumping through hoop! Good job Apple!!!

 

A SLIGHTLY SMARTER SIRI

 

Goodbye Shazam and Sound hound apps. Siri can now interpret music. And now we can talk to Siri through our vehicles! Is Siri slowly becoming Jarvis from Ironman?

EXCITING FOR DEVELOPERS, EXCITING FOR US

 

This is phenomenal!!! We just hope the developers capitalize on the potential of these new features.

Altogether, iOS 8 has some amazing things in store for us. What upgrades are you most excited about?

Apple’s just unveiled the latest update to its desktop operating system for Macs and it’s called Yosemite. While last year’s Mavericks brought the inevitable reality of iOS/OS X integration even further with the introduction of familiar apps, like Maps and iBooks, this time around Apple’s Tim Cook promises both systems are now “engineered to work seamlessly together.”

Craig Federighi, SVP of Software Engineering at Apple, explained that Apple’s focus for OS X Yosemite was on clarity, continuity and clear font type throughout the operating system.

Developing…

BY JOSEPH VOLPE

Apple will indeed grace us with a live stream for its World Wide Developers Conference’s (WWDC) keynote address on June 2, 2014, the company announced in an update to its Apple Events page. The stream will kickoff at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) after those lucky enough to procure a ticket have filed into San Francisco’s Moscone West center.

Sticking to its standards, Apple will ask that users tune in using its Safari browser to view from the Web or mobile devices, and Quicktime 7 for Windows users. Alternatively, you can use its Apple TVstreaming box to project the livestream onto the big screen.

It’s that time of year again, when the Apple faithful descend on San Francisco’s Moscone Center for the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

The Cupertino, Calif., electronics giant from June 2 to 6 will give the world a glimpse of what’s coming this year. Apple has used its WWDC keynote as a chance to introduce new products in the past, but more recently has focused on software, saving new mobile device announcements for separate events. This year’s conference — and the two-hour keynote at 10 a.m. PT on June 2 — likely won’t be any different.

“Apple needs to keep the momentum going on development for iOS and to a lesser degree OS X,” Gartner analyst Van Baker said. “That’s what’s going to be the focus of the event.”

The company, in typical Apple fashion, is being coy about what it will announce this time around. Its WWDC app lists many of the developer session topics as “No Comment,” “This One Is Sealed,” and “Shhhh, Can’t Tell You Yet.” That has caused some blogs to speculate Apple could have something “really big” in store. The big news about Beats Music? Apple already made that official.

So what will we likely see in June? Mostly, a lot of software. CNET has heard there won’t be new hardware at WWDC, but there always could be a few surprises from Apple.

Sure Bets

iOS 8

WWDC is Apple’s annual chance to talk to developers, and most of its announcements will be geared to app makers. An update to Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS, is all but guaranteed. iOS 8 likely won’t be as dramatic a change as iOS 7, but it should have some nice tweaks to keep app makers and users happy. There is some speculation, however, that many new features could appear in iOS 8.1 instead of iOS 8.

 

OS X 10.10

Apple also likely will use WWDC to show off its latest Mac software. The prior version — Mavericks — unveiled at the conference last year, featured improved battery life, many new applications, better power management, tabs in Finder, and the ability to add tags to file names so they’re more searchable.

Possible

 

Mobile payments

Several clues have surfaced over the past few months that point to Apple working on its own mobile payments business. We’ve seen patent filings, rumors of secret meetings, executive hires, and analyst predictions.

Home automation software

Apple plans to launch a new smart home platform at WWDC that will allow iPhones and iPads to control a home’s lights, security system, and other connected appliances, according to a Financial Times report.

Long Shots

• Macs

• Beats

• iWatch

• Apple TV

• iPhone and iPad

 

Written by Shara Tibken

Read the full story here

CNBC.com staff | @CNBC

Microsoft is planning a smartwatch that will sync with iPhones, Android phones and Windows phones, Forbes reported Thursday afternoon.

The device will continuously monitor heart rate, which is key for fitness tracking, and will have a battery that lasts for two days, Forbes said.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Forbes the company had “nothing to share.”

Read the full story here

That’s right! The iPhone 6 can possibly be released on September 19, according to a source in Germany.

This certainly will fall in line with the current trend of Fall release dates for the device.

Following reports that in Germany Apple has frozen retail store staff holidays for September, suggesting that the iPhone 6 will be released during the month, German publication ApfelPage has apparently learned that country’s main mobile operator is trying to ink new deals with customers whose contracts are about to expire by revealing to them when the iPhone 6 will launch.

Apparently, Deutsche Telekom Call Center staff is contacting customers and telling them that the iPhone 6 will launch on September 19, hoping that the news will be enough for them to agree to a contract extension. The publication says the iPhone 6 will be available on that date in Deutsche Telekom stores and also from Apple.

Those customers who will prove harder to budge will apparently be further annoyed, as the carrier is supposedly planning to send a written notice in July proposing an iPhone 6-related contract.

Apple has launched new iPhones around the same time in previous years: the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c started selling on September 20, 2013, while the iPhone 5 launched on September 21, 2012. Before that, the iPhone 4s launched on October 14, 2011.

Germany is usually part of the initial markets to receive new iOS smartphones, so it’s likely Deutsche Telekom subscribers will get the iPhone 6 as soon as Apple makes it available.

Tonight at Code Conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella brought his Skype team onto the stage to prove that his company’s got the next big thing. Taglined “the pre-beta of magic,” the service, called Skype Translator, turns your real-time conversation into a Star Trek-like universal communicator. You can speak to someone who speaks a different language; the service adds the other person’s translations for you in subtitle format at the bottom of the screen. It’s not an immediate translation: You’ll need to wait until the other person is done speaking before the service starts whirring away. We’ve seen similar demonstrations in the past, but the key point here is that the beta service is due out by the end of the year, and will be on all devices that run Skype. The company isn’t committing to specific language support yet, but it likely will be a matter of which ones Skype is able to do the best at launch.

 

Yahoo has final decide to take on Google’s Youtube.

Yahoo is closing in on a summer launch for a YouTube-like video platform, according to a report by Ad Age, after contract issues snagged the service that aims to lure stars from Google’s massive site with more lucrative ad-revenue deals.

Citing unnamed people briefed on the plans, the report said Yahoo is in talks with video producers to premiere the video service this summer. It will let creators set up their own channels and host videos on Yahoo, setting up a publishing dashboard that can distribute across Yahoo properties like its home page and blogging service Tumblr, while offering a more favorable ad-revenue split than YouTube’s standard 45 percent cut. Word of Yahoo’s aims for a YouTube-like service bubbled up earlier this year.

Yahoo…Good for you!

We were concerned for Yahoo these last few years as Google took over the search engine market. However, Yahoo has made a great stride in recent years through rebranding and providing captivating content on their homepage . Even though we here at The Gadgent prefer to use Google for our search engine needs, we equally prefer Yahoo for our casual news updates and movie reviews. And now they’re looking to offer an alternative for youtube! This should be interesting.

Read the full article here

What are your thought?

By Todd Wasserman | 1 day ago

Fellow Gadgents…This is Big News!!! The Future is Now!!!

Apple is planning to introduce a smart home concept at its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, according to a report.

The Financial Times says the company is planning to showcase a system that lets users control their lights, appliances and security systems with their iPhones when the conference kicks off June 2. The rumored introduction comes after Google purchased Nest Labs, a smart thermostat started by former Apple execs Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, for $2.8 billion in January.

Read the full story here

Early-May trial verdict found Samsung infringed three Apple mobile patents. Apple wants gadgets using the features banned.

Apple is looking to ban the sale of Samsung gadgets yet again.

The company filed papers Friday related to the patent-infringement trial that was brought to a close in California early this month. In a mixed verdict, the jury found that Samsung had violated three of Apple’s patents and that Apple had infringed one of Samsung’s.

Apple is asking that the Samsung gadgets found to violate its “quick links,” “slide to unlock,” and/or “automatic word correction” patents be prohibited from being sold. Those devices are the Admire,Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note II, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S III, and Stratosphere phones.

Newer Samsung gadgets weren’t part of the trail, but Apple’s attorneys address them, as well as future devices, in Friday’s filing, saying the ban should also apply to any “software or code capable of implementing any Infringing Feature, and/or any feature not more than colorably different” from the infringed Apple features.

 

Be careful, you could receive a fake email from Google.

There’s a dangerous new threat that’s trying to steal your Google password. If you fall for it, hackers will have full access to your Gmail account, YouTube account, Google+ account, Google Search History and any other Google services you use.

From there, they can break try to break into other similar accounts, like Facebook, or pretend to be you to trick your friends and family into giving away important information. So, you definitely don’t want to fall for this one.

THE THREAT

The threat arrives in the form of an email, supposedly from Google. The subject line varies, but it’s some form of “Mail Notice” or “Lookout Notice.”

The body of the email says this:

GOOGLE MAIL NOTICE

This is a reminder that your email account will be locked out in 24hours

Due to not being able to increase your Email storage Quota

Go to the INSTANT INCREASE to increase your Email storage automatically. INSTANT INCREASE

=================================

Sincerely Gmail Team,

Copyright ©2014 Gmail. All rights reserved.

In the real email, the words “Instant increase” are linked. If you click the link, you’ll end up on a page that looks like the Google login page.

However, if you put in your username and password, they’ll be sent right to the hackers behind the email. Then they have full access to your Google account. One thing that makes this message especially dangerous is the link itself. It’s designed to bypass Chrome and Firefox’s normal checks for phishing links, so you won’t get a warning.

HOW YOU KNOW THE EMAIL IS FAKE

As I demonstrated when I pointed out 5 things wrong with this email from Amazon, there are a few giveaways that this email isn’t real.

Spelling isn’t really an issue this time around, but the grammar isn’t up to the standards of the one of the most profitable companies in history.

There’s no Google logo and the From address says “Gmail,” but isn’t a Google domain name (i.e. there’s no “google.com” in it).

Finally, as always, Google will never ask you to click in a link in an email. It will tell you to go to Google.com to sign in and where to go to fix your account settings. This is true of any major company.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET THIS EMAIL

Obviously, don’t click on the link. Instead, just delete the email and continue on with your day. Opening the email won’t hurt anything, so don’t panic.

If you got this email and fell for it, then you need to immediately change your Google account password. You should also change the passwords of any other accounts that used the same password. Click here to learn how to create strong and unique passwords.

In the future, any unsolicited email you receive that has a suspicious link or attachment, you can just delete. If you aren’t sure whether or not it’s real, go to the company’s website to get its contact information.

Then call the company, or individual, to confirm if the email is legitimate. Don’t use contact information in the email itself.