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Apple beefs up Keynote, Pages and Numbers with new features
You can now add a live video feed to Keynote slides.
Apple refreshes Pages, Numbers and Keynote with new styles and functions
Today, Apple's suite of productivity apps, iWork, is being refreshed. The company announced updates to Pages, Numbers and Keynote across both Mac and iOS. Thanks to the changes, all of the apps will now let users stylize their text by filling it in with gradients or images and using new outline styles. Face detection will help better position photos, and you'll be able to place images, shapes and equations in text boxes so they move with text.
After Math: Hello Darkness, my old friend
Well, this week lasted years. While we weren't being bludgeoned by the cantankerous Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, we were learning about how 50 million Facebook users had their accounts hacked, that Elon Musk is being sued by the SEC for his Twitter posts (the ones about privatizing Tesla, not the ones wherein he libels a rescue diver), and that Red Dead Redemption 2 will rustle the remainder of your hard drive's free space.
After Math: Xs and Os
It's been a wild week for schemes and strategies. A band of thieves made off with a load of new iPhones, the CIA released more of bin Laden's hard drive contents, and Netflix nixed House of Cards because Kevin Spacey turned out to be a sexual predator. Numbers, because how else will you know if your fence is underpaying for those looted wares?
After Math: Business as Usual
It was a fairly uneventful week for the tech industry. Apple continued its quest to know everything about its customers. The FDA finally approved a genetic therapy for the first time Lyft spread its operation to 32 more states. And Juicero, purveyors of a $400 juice maker, shut down completely. Numbers, because how else will you know you've overpaid for a proprietary bag squeezer?
After Math: Come out and burn
As the current presidential administration keeps trying its best to be America's last, let's take a moment from the existential horror of nuclear annihilation at the hands of the world's other wannabe king and see who's been killing it in tech this week. Game of Thrones roasted way more horses and stuntmen than necessary in the name of VFX (spoilers, duh), Nissan is shelling out nearly another $100 million in hopes that the Takata airbag scandal will just drag itself into the woods and die already, and Facebook quietly took the Groups app out behind the woodshed mere days after axing the teen-targeting Lifestage app. Numbers, because how else are we going to accurately describe the literal decimation of the global human population when this pissing contest is over with?
After Math: Are you not entertained?
It's been an exciting week for the entertainment industry. Netflix is leading Emmy season with 18 nominations, Oculus permanently dropped the price of its VR headset and Whiz Khalifa has been crowned the new king of YouTube. Numbers, because how else are you going to count the domestic box office gross?
After Math: Bigger and better
It was a bumper week for big ideas. Jay-Z's latest album went platinum in under a week, despite it only existing in the ethers of the internet. RED (of high-end camera fame) revealed that it's working on a "holographic" cellphone. And Tesla is going ahead and building the world's biggest battery array down in Australia. Numbers, because how else will we decide which is best?
After Math: Big Business
It's been a bumper week for corporate America. Apple pledged a billion dollars to support US manufacturing jobs, Facebook announced it's closing in on two billion users and Valve let on that it receives 75,000 complaints every day. Every. Day. Numbers, because how else are the books going to get cooked?
After Math: Merry Christmahanukwanzakkahs
It's been a festive week and, for once, not a complete socio-political trainwreck. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are, but some good things really did happen. Like, we found an effective vaccine against Ebola, Super Mario Run broke iOS download records, both the UK and France have come to embrace renewables and Canada set some impressive broadband speed rules. Numbers, because how else are we going to count down the million years until Sweet Meteor O'Death finally comes calling?
After Math: Come undone
It's been a hell of a week, folks. American intelligence confirmed that Russia conspired to hack of our election, Uber unleashed a pack of poorly trained autonomous automobiles upon the streets of San Francisco, Snapchat's Spectacles went all medicinal and Super Mario Run debuted on iOS. Numbers, because how else are you going to know how many fingers are feeding you magic?
Recommended Reading: Trump's own polling models prove accurate
Trump's Big Data Mind Explains How He Knew Trump Could Win Izzie Lapowsky, Wired While it could take some time to uncover the finer points of why the polls were so far off in the 2016 presidential election, the head of President-elect Donald Trump's data team knew the candidate had a good chance of pulling out a stunning upset. Wired talked with Cambridge Analytica's Matt Oczkowski to get some details on their internal polling models which correctly predicted how most of the states would vote.
Apple knows that the new iPhones will sell out
Apple has traditionally opened iPhone pre-orders on a Friday and then reported on how many people laid down cash the following Monday. The company issues a press release saying that it's seen unprecedented demand and that the latest device is the biggest selling iPhone ever. But that trend won't continue into 2016 because, guys, it's the iPhone, and it's gonna sell out, no matter what.
The After Math: iPhone 7 edition
The newest iPhone is out -- well, all of it except for the headphone jack. But that's not all Apple announced during its press conference in San Francisco this morning. The company also showed off its new Apple Watch, boasted about its wildly popular App Store and Music service, explained the 7's dual-camera system and debuted some fancy new wireless earbuds. We broke out the numbers, because how else will you know how much it'll cost to replace those AirBuds you've already lost?
HBO Now tallies 800,000 subscribers in 10 months since launch
A standalone HBO streaming service was supposedly what the masses were clamoring for. Well, it turns out "about 800,000" people were really interested. HBO CEO Richard Plepler revealed the figure during an earnings call for the network's parent company Time Warner earlier today. He went on to say that the figure isn't as bad as it sounds for the $15 a month service that debuted on Apple devices in April. Of course, HBO Now was exclusive to Cupertino's gadgets for 90 days, which likely didn't help keep the interest of viewers who had to wait until later in the summer to sign up. However, it's not too much of a reach to expect the first numbers the company revealed to be at least a million subscriptions.
Latest IDC wearable numbers show Xiaomi's continued surge
While there was no change in the top two spots for the Q3 2015 IDC wearable numbers, Xiaomi made a staggering jump. In terms of market share, Fitbit is still in the top spot with a 22 percent market share and 4.7 million units shipped in the quarter. The company's numbers were padded by the fact that a number employers are giving their workers Fitbit devices, including Target's order of 335,000. Apple remains at number two, where it debuted in Q2. Cupertino shipped 3.9 million units, aided by both the release of WatchOS 2 and its gadgets going on sale in more locales.
The After Math: Splitting things down the middle
So much happened this week! There was the bisecting Ultimate Hacking Keyboard, Amazon's Destinations site which lasted just half a year, a bunch of products that cost exactly $50 (aka half a Benjamin) and, of course, the best trolling of the year. Because math isn't half as fun if you don't do it by the numbers.
Apple updates iWork productivity apps for OS X, iOS and the web
Now that OS X El Capitan and iOS 9 are available to everyone, Apple's updating its iWork productivity suite to take advantage of certain new features. The refreshed Keynote, Numbers and Pages apps come with support for 3D Touch and Force Touch, as well as Slide Over, Split View and Picture-in-Picture modes. But keep in mind some of these will only work if you have compatible hardware, including the iPhone 6s or 6s Plus and the ultra-thin MacBook -- either way, you'll need to have the latest versions of iOS and OS X installed. In addition to this, you can also preview shared Keynote, Numbers and Pages documents on iOS and Android browsers, while iWork '08 and '06 users get the ability to start opening and editing files. Lastly, Apple says iWork for iCloud is officially out of beta and there are "many new features" on the service, such as support for 10 extra languages and a way to comment on docs.
Answer: Don't Be Stupid game impractically expects just that
Answer: Don't Be Stupid is a game that makes you feel ever so slightly, well, stupid. That's because it's based off of simple math problems most of us learned in the first grade. However, when put in this format, it's not so easy. The objective is to determine if the number on the left is less than, equal to or greater than the sum of the numbers on the right as quickly as possible. If you're not quick enough, you lose. If you're wrong, you lose. Time to recharge that brain with fast-moving numbers. The game is free for iPhone and iPad and requires iOS 7.0 or later. In every round, a blue box holding a random number is steadily in place on the left. A mathematical expression slides in on the right in its own box, creeping closer to the other number. Before the two boxes touch, you must use the three buttons below: the less-than symbol, the equal symbol or the greater-than symbol. Tap these in accordance with the numbers and expressions and how they relate to each other. Don't worry, the expressions don't get too out of hand. For instance, if the number in the blue box is nine and the expression is eight plus one, tap the Equal button. The game is in a constant rapid fire mode, so there's no time to pause and celebrate each time you finish. After the first level, you're on to the next. As Answer progresses, it gets more difficult. The expression on the right starts sliding at a faster pace giving you less time to choose the correct answer. The numbers get more complex, too, growing larger and eventually broadening to include all integers rather than solely natural numbers. This means you might come across some negatives. I have yet to get far enough to see if Answer transitions into harder problems like multiplication or division. There's some subtraction at times, but my suspicion is that it doesn't go beyond that based on the app description stating it's for "practicing addition." Answer has two modes to boot: Normal and Hard. The Hard difficulty seemingly just starts off on a similar intensity to when Normal is about 25 levels in. Math was always a pretty strong subject for me in school, but don't let that fool you. The "Don't Be Stupid" slogan in the title gets somewhat challenging to fulfill. To score well, you have to act quickly, wisely and under pressure. The game integrates with Game Center to store your rankings and unlock badges for each level you pass. You won't find a multiplayer mode, in-app purchases or settings. Down the road, it might be nice to have modes for multiplication, division and other kinds of math so Answer can train your brain to learn more than just addition. Answer is a fun title that simultaneously gets easier and harder the more you play. The levels get more difficult, but it really does train your brain to respond quicker and with the correct answers. "Fun" and "educational" are two concepts that don't always coexist, but Answer: Don't Be Stupid accomplishes just that. Get it in the App Store for free.
WoW and FFXIV see boosted playtime on Raptr; ArcheAge playtime 'cratered'
Another month, another Raptr report. Yesterday Raptr.com posted its most played PC games list for November, and MMOs did rather well. Unsurprisingly, World of Warcraft surged up the list to #2 thanks to the Warlords of Draenor expansion. "The MMO's monthly play time was up 71.3% versus October," Raptr's press release says. And though WoW "likely" drew from League of Legends' numbers, it couldn't quite usurp the MOBA's #1 seat. Among other MMOs, ArcheAge playtime "cratered by 39.97%," but World of Tanks and Final Fantasy XIV both saw rises in theirs. Guild Wars 2 rose in rank, Raptr says, but lost playtime in November vs. October. SWTOR fell two places since October. As always, Raptr roundups come with the caveat that they represent Raptr users on PC, not all gamers; some MMO studios are also known to boost their Raptr numbers with in-game incentives. But since some of these games refuse to release population data, you might call this the next best snapshot of popularity outside of touring the servers yourself.
