Mac Kung Fu LinksList: Friday 30 October 2015

30 October 2015, 06:00

Good M/A/E. Here’s the list of fun and interesting links for today.

“We recorded the highest rate on record for Android switchers last quarter at 30 percent,” Cook said earlier this week after Apple had announced it sold more than 48 million iPhones during the period. But it turns out there’s actually one way to measure whether there’s real interest in switching to iPhone and we need to look no further than the Google Play Store for proof.
➥ Over a million people installed the app that moves you from Android to iOS [News]


Researchers from MIT will present at the conference SIGGRAPH Asia 2015 a new RF Capture technology, which will allow people to literally see through walls. It uses a special radio transmitters that can be installed in smartphones, tablets and other portable devices.
➥ Wi-Fi has taught me to see people through walls [News]


As part of the development of Mac OS X, Apple has also developed Mac OS X Server as a way to provide access to both additional services on OS X and the management tools needed to administrate those services. While Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server used to be separate operating systems, Apple combined them into one release re-branded as OS X and moved the server-specific services and management tools into an OS X Server application available from the Mac App Store.
➥ Automating the setup of OS X Server on El Capitan and Yosemite [Tip]


Nuisance calls can make life miserable. Here’s how to block numbers on an iPhone in iOS 7, iOS 8 and iOS 9 (which is easy) and in iOS 6 and earlier (which is more difficult). We also explain how to deal with and block hidden and unknown callers, and how to find out if someone has blocked you.
➥ How to block unknown numbers & callers who hide caller ID [Tip]


Apple’s EarPods offer great sound for a stock accessory, mainly thanks to the amount of time and effort put into the design and shape of the ear buds themselves. But with that being said, there are much better earphones on the market – some wireless, some use custom parts and some will even track your heart rate, perfect for fitness fanatics. This feature looks at some of the best headphones for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
➥ Best iPhone headphones of 2015: 10 alternatives to Apple’s iPhone headphones [Reviews]


Just because your MacBook Pro is a few years old doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi speeds or Bluetooth 4.0 LE. QuickerTek has come to the rescue with its new UCard for unibody MacBook Pro models. It replaces your MacBook Pro’s built-in Wi-Fi card and uses the drivers Apple includes with OS, which means you don’t lose a USB port for a funky adapter, and using it is just as seamless as the original card from your laptop. The UCard is compatible with Mac laptops back to 2008 and is priced at US$149.
➥ Easy 802.11ac Wi-Fi Upgrade for your Older MacBook Pro [Tip]


TarDisk is launching its new ‘Pear’ product today, a customized SD card solution for MacBook users that can double the device’s storage capacity while using software to create a hybrid drive that works hand in hand with your built-in drive. There are a lot of SD card products on the market that make adding extra storage to MacBooks easy, but TarDisk Pear is different in that it merges with your built-in drives to create a new logically merged volume managed by OS X, meaning you’ll be able to tap into the storage just like a built-in drive:
➥ TarDisk Pear promises to double your MacBook’s HD by creating an SD card-based fusion drive [Review]


Visual Supply Company, the developers behind the popular VSCO Cam photo app for iPhone and iPad, have introduced a new iPhone app all about GIFs. DSCO by VSCO, as the app is called, allows you to capture, edit, and share GIFs quickly and easily.
➥ DSCO is a new GIF app from the makers of VSCO Cam [App]


When Apple TV units finally ship tomorrow, they will bring iOS apps to the big screen for the first time. Some of the best apps from your iPhone are making the jump, including Periscope, Zillow and Airbnb. And of course all the old Apple TV apps like Netflix, HBO Now, Hulu and Showtime will still be available. Now that the new Apple TV’s arrival is imminent, developers are ready to flood the device with a tons of apps focusing on everything from cooking and exercising to gaming and news.

➥ 34 apps to try out on your brand new Apple TV [Reviews]


Microsoft has released the final version of their own launcher for Android — GUI with shortcuts to apps, contacts and other functions. The program supports to automatically change your Wallpaper once a day. The concept of the Arrow Launcher, interestingly, repeats iOS 9, and in very primitive form, so iPhone users, the creation of the developers Microsoft can suit the taste. In most companies, the advantages of the product is called simplicity and ease of use.
➥ Microsoft has released a launcher for Android in the style of iOS 9 [News]


Adobe’s Slate presentation app has been available on iPad for a little while, and the company has now launched a version of the app for the web. Slate allows you to create beautiful presentations using text and photos, and now, projects will sync automatically between the web and iPad versions using Adobe Creative Cloud. The release of Adobe Slate for Web corresponds with an update to the iPad version of the app, which adds text alignment features and more. Check out the list below for the changes.
➥ Adobe’s Slate presentation app makes its way to the web [App]


With the watch now reinvented, a pair of avid runners believe it’s time to reinvent the watch band. They have created a band that moves the face of a smartwatch to the spot on the hand just below where the thumb and forefinger meet. The result for runners, cyclists or anyone using the Apple Watch’s health tracking features is the face of the watch remains in the line of site. The EdgeGear SHIFT is available for pre-order on Kickstarter, where engineers and runners James Gilmore and Andrew Green are trying to raise $45,000 to bring the band to mass production. Early backers who pledge $20 can get a band compatible with several smart watches on the market.
➥ Take your fitness in hand with smartwatch SHIFT band [News]


While you may chat about state secrets while on your Mac at work, you might not want your chats to get out there or be archived. The answer is to use encryption so no one can intercept your messages and figure out you’re really angry at your boss. The Tor Project aims to make anonymous, off-the-record chats simple with a new instant messenger app you can run on your Mac or Windows PC. Simply run the app (now in beta), log in to your preferred instant messaging service or services, and talk about whatever you want, secure in the knowledge that your chats are safe from your boss’ prying eyes.
➥ Pro Tip: Keep your boss from snooping on you with Tor messenger beta [App]


As an Android user, you might feel a little saddened by the fact that you can’t use Apple’s 3D Touch system on your Android device of choice. It’s a pretty neat technology that lets an iPhone sense different pressures on the screen to produce some slick little tricks, like taking a selfie with a strong press on the Camera app icon. Marco Chiappetta figured out a way to do something similar on his Sony Xperia Z3 using a pretty unexpected little trick. The Xperia he used has a barometer within it’s waterproof chassis. Barometers measure pressure. When you press hard on the screen on this particular device, the barometer inside recognizes the change in pressure, and Chiappetta figured out a way to access that sytsem. Voilà — he has a 3D Touch feature on his Android phone.
➥ Clever hacker reproduces 3D Touch on Android device [News]


After two years of exploration work, Google is said to be “folding” its web-based Chrome OS into its mobile Android platform, creating a single operating system strategy that it expects to unveil in 2017.
➥ Google to fold Chrome OS, Android together into new OS strategy for 2017 [News]

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