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Yikes: The 12 Biggest Tech Fails of 2015 - Google - Slideshow from PCMag.com Mountain View had a few blunders this year – from the homophobic slurs its translation tool was spitting out to the racist results on its Maps service. Google was also forced to apologize after its Photos app automatically tagged two black people as gorillas. And who can forget the image of an adorable little Android...peeing on Apple in Google Maps, which forced Google to shut down and totally overhaul its Map Maker feature. Let's all agree that it's a passive-aggressive battle and a little overt nerd slap never hurt anyone.

Download Older Versions Of iOS Apps By Tricking iTunes, Here's How [Video Tutorial] | Redmond Pie Want to download an older legacy version of your favorite iOS app for iPhone or iPad? Yes it is legally possible by tricking iTunes into downloading older versions of the apps you want. Check out this comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to do just that. Now if only I could get iOS 7 back.

Apple adds 2008-2009 Macs & more to list of 'vintage and obsolete' products Under Apple definitions, "vintage" products have been out of production for more than five and less than seven years, meaning that limited support may be available in some regions. In California, for instance, Apple is legally required to provide support for Macs, iPhones, and iPods. Dang! I guess they're so last decade.

Android on the desktop: Not really “good,” but better than you’d think | Ars Technica A lot of Remix OS is like this—it adds desktop functionality to Android, but the apps are blissfully unaware of it. Apps know about "phone" or "tablet" modes and not much else, so Remix tends to be a well-designed desktop interface with a bunch of dumb apps inside of window boxes. Good not to judge a product by it's 1.0 version. Windows 1.0, anyone? Not exactly a world-dominating force. Just give it 10 years.

Sailfish OS Lives To Fight Android Another Day As Jolla Secures Series C Funding | TechCrunch Finnish mobile OS maker Jolla, whose Sailfish platform is one of the few remaining alternatives trying to fight the Android-iOS duopoly, has pulled out of its latest financing death valley by closing a delayed Series C financing round. Yes, they said ARM was dead, they also said the Mac was dead. Yet, Mac and ARM flourish and Windows stagnates. Sometimes it's good to be the alternative when customers suddenly are desiring an alternative.

The world's smallest camera drone has a price to match its size [Deals] | Cult of Mac Drones of any size, especially if it carries a camera, usually mean dropping big bucks on a big bird. This miniature flier is an exception to the rule, with a built-in camera perfect for capturing aerial video and photos while fitting in the palm of your hand. It comes with a 2 gig memory card, and all for a mere $34.99. Neato Rick Ocasek!

Here's Johny Srouji: Apple's newest executive pioneered company's custom A-series chips After playing integral roles in two of Apple's most important product innovations — its custom A-series processors and the Touch ID fingerprint sensor — Johny Srouji has been rewarded with a new title that sees him reporting directly to CEO Tim Cook. Nuttin' succeeds like success.

Secret Apple factory developing new microLED displays Apple is allegedly using its secretive new lab facilities in Taiwan to develop microLED displays which are thinner and more energy-efficient than the displays currently used in the company’s products, a new report states. Less is more.

IBM hits 100 MobileFirst iOS apps for enterprise, plans iPad Pro development IBM is "currently developing" apps for the iPad Pro, a press release said. the company didn't offer many details, but promised to exploit the tablet's better performance and screen size, as well as iOS 9 multitasking. Ah, you say Enterprise, I say vertical market.

Craig Federighi discusses open sourcing Swift on the Talk Show | iMore This week's episode of John Gruber's podcast, The Talk Show, features a 30-minute interview with Apple's senior vice-president of software, Craig Federighi. Ah, Swift requires a 64-bit runtime on Mac OS X (and iPhone)?

Apple buys former Maxim chip fab in North San Jose, neighboring Samsung Semiconductor Apple just paid $18.2 million for a small 70,000 square foot silicon chip fab, formerly owned by Samsung, located in North San Jose, California, about a 20 minute drive from its current Infinite Loop headquarters in Cupertino. I like to drop by the plant after work and knock out a few SOC chip designs.

Google has quietly launched an Akamai competitor | VentureBeat | Cloud | by Jordan Novet Google has quietly started offering Google Cloud CDN service, a new content-delivery network (CDN) that should appeal to independent developers who want their applications to load quickly. Hopefully this kind of competition brings down the prices. It would be great if indie developers could bootstrap giant mobile user-bases without VC money. I think that would change the world.

Google Pixel C review: Not perfect, but the best Android tablet yet | VentureBeat | Mobile | by Jordan Novet Two months ago, after spending about 10 minutes with Google’s new Pixel C tablet, I thought the device wouldn’t be very useful, particularly because of its cramped keyboard. After spending several days with a review unit, though, I’ve changed my mind. I use my Nexus 7 and iPad Mini side by side and for some things prefer the Nexus and others the Mini. I wouldn't really say either is better .

Facebook closes down Creative Labs, pulls Riff, Slingshot & Rooms from App Store None of the three dead apps gained any popularity with the public, however. Slingshot tried to compete with Snapchat, while Riff was built to produce viral videos in which users added on to each other's work. Rooms, lastly, provided themed anonymous chatrooms. Making successful apps, in theory, should be much easier for a marketing powerhouse.

BlueStacks hits a billion apps used per month and launches new mobile platform | GamesBeat | Games | by Dean Takahashi In 2011, BlueStacks was a small company when it debuted its virtualization platform that enables people to play Android mobile apps on a PC. Now the company’s App Player has become surprisingly popular, with more than 109 million downloads of the BlueStacks player, which is used to engage with a billion apps per month. Android, again.

Apple programming language Swift goes open source Apple's software team has officially made Swift, its proprietary iOS and OS X development software, open source and available for modification by all developers, via the new website Swift.org. Open source just until critical mass is achieved and then we'll lock it down for security reasons. Just like darwin. Sorry, it's that kind of day.

Adobe launches its first video-editing app for Android, here's how it works | VentureBeat | Apps | by Paul Sawers we’re going to look at the Freeform element of Adobe Premiere Clip to see how much bang you get for your (free) buck. Bang that buck.