Posts in news

Inbox by Gmail to Add New Smart Reply Feature This Week→

Inbox by Gmail is about to get a whole lot smarter this week with a new feature called Smart Reply. Bálint Miklós on the Official Gmail Blog explains:

Smart Reply suggests up to three responses based on the emails you get. For those emails that only need a quick response, it can take care of the thinking and save precious time spent typing. And for those emails that require a bit more thought, it gives you a jump start so you can respond right away.

The feature will be rolling out to the Inbox by Gmail app on iOS and Android later this week, but will only work in English for now. Smart Reply uses machine learning to recognize which emails need responses and then generate three appropriate responses for the user to pick from. The Google Research Blog also has some more details on how the researchers got the feature to work.

And much like how Inbox gets better when you report spam, the responses you choose (or don’t choose!) help improve future suggestions. For example, when Smart Reply was tested at Google, a common suggestion in the workplace was “I love you.” Thanks to Googler feedback, Smart Reply is now SFW :)

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AgileBits Announces 1Password for Teams→

AgileBits yesterday announced 1Password for Teams:

1Password for Teams allows you to share the convenience and security of 1Password with everyone in your life. It gives you the tools you need to control and manage access to your most important information.

New to 1Password for Teams is the Admin Console, a central location to manage your team, vaults and items. The Admin Console makes teamwork a breeze and it completely changes the way you use 1Password in a group environment. It’s packed with features you’ve been asking for, and several new ones you didn’t know you needed :)

Agile Bits is currently accepting sign ups for the 1Password for Teams beta, which will run for the next couple of months. 1Password for Teams is free during the beta period, but when it launches it will cost $4.99 per user per month (which will include licences for all of the native 1Password apps).

I’ve been using 1Password for years and this seems like a fantastic product for any business or team that needs to share logins between users. Just the ability to easily control who has access to which passwords and easily remove access to employees who leave the company will be invaluable. You can view all of the features of 1Password for Teams here.

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Plex Now Available on Apple TV, and Apple Adds Top Charts to Apple TV App Store

The highly anticipated official Plex app for the new Apple TV is now available on the App Store as a free download. The Plex Apple TV app can play all of your video, music, TV and photo collections from any computer or NAS device that you install the Plex Media Server on. You can view more screenshots of the Plex Apple TV app on the Plex Blog.

There truly isn’t any other platform we’ve wanted to be on for as long as we have the Apple TV. Today’s the day, and we’re celebrating. The app is free in the app store for everyone, and requires the latest media server.

Meanwhile, Apple appears to have listened to some of the complaints about the lack of discoverability in the Apple TV App Store and added a Top Charts section. Just as it does on iOS, the Top Charts section is broken down into Top Free, Top Paid and Top Grossing lists.

Top Charts is currently limited to the US App Store, but it seems likely that the feature will roll out to international stores over the coming days. Unsurprisingly, the lists for the Top Paid and Top Grossing apps are dominated by games, whilst the Top Free list is mostly occupied by media and entertainment apps. If you don’t have access to an Apple TV or live outside the US, you can see the top 10 apps in each list on MacRumors.

Perhaps in another effort to increase the discoverability of Apple TV apps, Apple has refreshed the App Store Featured page and is now highlighting some new apps. Typically on the iOS App Store they only refresh the App Store Featured page once a week on Thursdays. Hopefully this happens more frequently on the Apple TV App Store, at least until they introduce categories or some other ways to discover apps that aren’t featured or trending.

Ministry of Supply: Inventing Apparel [Sponsor]

Dress shirts should be smarter by now. They should be designed to work with your body, not against it, and keep you comfortable throughout the entire day. From the crowded train, to the cold office, to your favorite nightspot, we should expect more from the clothes that we wear everyday.

This is the vision that drives Ministry of Supply, a performance menswear company that launched out of MIT three years ago. The company uses the latest in apparel technology to make clothes that fit better and provide technical benefits, like body temperature regulation to keep you from overheating, moisture management to keep you dry, and wrinkle resistance to keep you away from an iron. Each product begins with a problem statement and comes to life through a human-centric design process that involves studying the human body, prototyping, testing, and iterating based on ongoing feedback. Once a product launches, they start the process all over again, continuously refining and evolving the products to perform better.

That process led to the Apollo and Gemini Casual dress shirts. The Apollo is their most tech-forward dress shirt, optimized for temperature management and mobility. It’s made with moisture-wicking polyester fibers that are infused with NASA-engineered phase-change material for temperature regulation. A light knit construction with four-way stretch enhances the Apollo’s breathability and mobility. The Gemini Casual is a tailored button-down designed to be worn untucked. It’s made with a more traditional cotton/spandex blend for a full range of motion that is also infused with phase-change material. The laser-cut chest pocket, button holes, and shirt panels round out the shirt’s clean, sleek aesthetic.

You can shop Ministry of Supply online – and risk-free, with free shipping on all US orders and any international orders over $250, free returns, and a 100-day return policy. Alternatively, you can visit one of their retail locations in Boston, San Francisco, and New York City.

Our thanks to Ministry of Supply for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Nintendo Announces First Free-to-Play Mobile Title ‘Miitomo’, New ‘My Nintendo’ Cloud Service

At an investor meeting, Nintendo announced today that their first smartphone app will be called ‘Miitomo’ in the Japanese market, and it’ll be a free-to-play title with a focus on communication for the company’s Mii avatars. Miitomo will launch in March 2016; first screenshots are available at Nintendo’s Japanese website.

From a statement sent by Nintendo to Vooks:

Miitomo, Nintendo’s first smart device title, is a free-to-start communication application that helps friends share fun personal facts and interests. Consumers create and use their own Mii characters to engage friends in a welcoming social environment, answering questions and sharing information to discover more about each other and what they have in common. Miitomo is designed to appeal to a wide range of global smart device users and introduce them to uniquely Nintendo experiences beginning with Miitomo and carried through future applications.

From The Wall Street Journal’s live blog:

The new smartphone game will be “Miitomo”. It will be free to play, with attractive add-ons that people can pay for, Mr. Kimishima says. Other smartphone games will be pay-to-download, he says.

Looks like Miis go ahead and communicate with other Miis without your knowledge. This will help people who are hesitant to talk about themselves to communicate with others, and reveal a side of your friends you never knew, Mr. Kimishima says.

Based on information shared by the company today, Miitomo appears to be a riff on Nintendo’s Tomodachi Life, a 3DS game focused on Mii communication and collectible items.

In addition to Miitomo, Nintendo has also revealed a new ‘My Nintendo’ membership service, which will allow users to register a profile and store information about their characters and game data in the cloud, transferring it across mobile devices and dedicated consoles. My Nintendo (also called ‘Nintendo Account’ by the company today) will be compatible with popular signup services such as Facebook and Google accounts, and it’ll offer the ability to view game purchases, game information, and game-related messages on the web. Friend lists will be supported by My Nintendo, and they will work on both console and mobile platforms.

My Nintendo will also be a replacement for the discontinued Club Nintendo program to earn digital and physical rewards for buying Nintendo games. Unlike the old Club Nintendo, My Nintendo will offer points for buying and playing Nintendo games on consoles and mobile debices. Customers will be able to use points for physical goods, game coupons, and DLCs.

At this point, it’s not clear on which mobile platforms Miitomo will be released, but it’s fair to assume Nintendo will launch the title on iOS next year. Nintendo has once again confirmed they’re aiming to release a total of five mobile titles by March 2017, created in collaboration with DeNA.

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Apple Posts New iPhone 6s Ad Featuring Bill Hader

Apple aired a new iPhone 6s commercial last night, once again focused on Siri’s hands-free capabilities on the new devices running iOS 9.

Titled ‘Prince Oseph’, the ad shows Bill Hader activating Siri via the “Hey Siri’ command, asking the assistant to check his unread emails. One of the messages found by Siri is likely to be a spam message sent by the aforementioned Prince Oseph in relation to “life-changing opportunities” for the making of “many of millions of currency”. Hader asks Siri to reply with “Sign me up”.

The ad follows Apple’s latest campaign focused on highlighting Siri features on the iPhone 6s, which previously saw Jamie Foxx interacting with Apple’s virtual assistant in similar scenarios. Hader isn’t new to Apple ads, having previously contributed to the company’s WWDC video in June 2015. You can watch the video below.

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Apple Q4 2015 Results: $51.5 Billion Revenue, 48 Million iPhones, 9.8 Million iPads Sold

Apple has just published their financial results for Q4 2015, which covered the three months from July to September 2015. The company posted revenue of $51.5 billion. The company sold 9.8 million iPads, 48 million iPhones, and 5.7 million Macs, earning a quarterly net profit of $11.1 billion.

“Fiscal 2015 was Apple’s most successful year ever, with revenue growing 28% to nearly $234 billion. This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week.”

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Igloo: An Intranet You’ll Actually Like [Sponsor]

We all struggle with productivity. We are constantly pressured to accomplish more, and to do it quicker. There is no one definitive way to accomplish that, and we have all devised our own little method to make things work. At Igloo, they think your way is the best way, they just want to support you, and make your way better.

With Igloo, you don’t have to be stuck at your desk to do your work. And just like your favourite Apple devices, Igloo helps you do your best work. You can manage your task list from your laptop during a meeting, quickly update your team on the progress of the most recent project from your phone, and access the latest version of a file from home – all within a secure environment. Everything is now mobile – work should be too.

Never email yourself a file again. Bring your company into the 21st century - send your IT guy to try Igloo Software for free. Igloo is an intranet you’ll actually like.

Our thanks to Igloo for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Orders for the New Apple TV Are Now Open, Begins Shipping This Friday

The new Apple TV is now available for order on Apple’s website, with deliveries expected to start arriving from this Friday, October 30.

The new Apple TV, now in its fourth generation, features a familiar but overhauled user interface, a new Siri remote and there’s now an App Store for apps and games. The new Siri remote, which primarily operates over Bluetooth and charges via a Lightning port, features a touch surface for navigation, as well as dual microphones so that you can use Siri to interact with the Apple TV. You can learn more about the new Apple TV here.

Pricing & Availability

When Apple announced the new Apple TV at its September Keynote, it noted that it will be available in 80 countries at launch and over 100 by the end of the year. It also revealed US pricing which is US$149 for the 32GB model and US$199 for the 64GB model. Now that the Apple TV is available for order we can see the international prices, some of which I’ve included below:

  • United Kingdom:
    • £129 for the 32GB model
    • £169 for the 64GB model
  • Canada:
    • $199 for the 32GB model
    • $269 for the 64GB model
  • Australia:
    • $269 for the 32GB model
    • $349 for the 64GB model
  • France, Germany, Italy:
    • €179 for the 32GB model
    • €229 for the 64GB model