Latest news

Alongside the launch of the iPad Pro, Apple also unveiled a new high-precision stylus, the Pencil.

The Pro is aimed at professional artists and designers who could use the higher resolution and larger canvas and the stylus, at least in practice, looks like a great way to keep drawings precise.

Additionally, the Pencil can respond to different pressure and different angles, allowing for a reportedly seamless transition from pin point to broader brush strokes.

"Highly responsive sensors built into the tip of the Apple Pencil work with the iPad Pro display to detect position, force and tilt," says Apple's design chief Jony Ive. "With force data you can press lightly to get a thin stoke or press harder to get a darker, bolder stroke. Signals emitted from two locations in the tip calculate the angle and orientation to produce broad or shaded strokes."

Here is a good look at the Pencil:

Microsoft has announced today that their new Edge browser will soon support the open source WebM/VP9 video format.

The software giant says the support is now in development, and initial support will be available for Windows Insider Preview builds in the very near future.

"This is part of our continuing effort to expand codec offerings in Windows. We continue to evaluate other formats and look forward to receiving feedback as we work on implementing them," added the company.

Microsoft also got more technical about how VP9/WebM will work with the browser: "Our initial VP9 implementation in Microsoft Edge will support adaptive streaming using Media Source Extensions, and will be detectable using the MediaSource.isTypeSupported() API. It will be specifically targeted to meet the needs of websites that use VP9 to deliver video in combination with MP4/AAC or other audio codecs already supported by Microsoft. We are working on future support for VP9 for media tags and local playback, as well as considering support for additional audio formats likely to be used with VP9 such as Opus."

Popular DVR maker TiVo has sued Samsung over patent infringement this week, claiming that Samsung's own DVRs violate four specific TiVo patents.

The move is unsurprising as TiVo has a long history of suing over its DVR patents. In the past decade the company has racked up $1.6 billion in settlements from companies like Dish, AT&T, Motorola and Cisco.

"Today's action should help address one of the questions regarding the value, breadth and applicability of TiVo's IP portfolio," said TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers in a statement.

TiVo also made it clear that the lawsuit is to protect their future value: "This morning we filed a patent infringement suit against Samsung in the Eastern District of Texas. Our complaint asserts four patents, including the '389 Time Warp patent and the '195 Trick Play patent, both of which we have litigated before. Our complaint also asserts two patents that are related to the '389 patent but have expiration dates further into the future. Today's action should help address one of the questions regarding the value, breadth, and applicability of TiVo's IP portfolio post the 2018 expiration of the '389 patent."

One of the smaller announcements today at Apple's event was that of the iPad Mini 4, which will offer "the performance and power of the iPad Air 2" just in an incredibly thin enclosure.

The new Mini will feature an A8 processor, a big update from the A7 seen on previous models.

Apple says the device is slightly thinner and lighter, at 0.65 pounds, and the tablet will have an 8MP rear camera, just like on the iPad Air 2.

Starting at $399 for the 16GB/Wi-Fi model, the update is likely to finally get iPad Mini 2 users to upgrade as last year's update featured nothing of note minus the addition of Touch ID. In addition, the company dropped the price of the Mini 2 to $269, a very compelling price for the tablet.

Apple is pursuing your living room again with the first major hardware and software revamp of the Apple TV since 2012.

The new Apple TV device (which just looks slightly bigger on the outside) will run on a new operating system called tvOS, which is based on iOS. Apple will provide the tvOS SDK to enable developers to utilize the increased power under the hood, and especially the considerable remote control upgrade.

The Siri Remote improves how you can select, scroll and navigate through your favorite content using a glass touch surface that handles both small, accurate movements as well as big, sweeping ones. It features a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope which developers can use to create motion-controlled apps and games.

With its internal mic, the Siri Remote can be used to search TV shows and movies by title, genre, cast, crew, rating or popularity using your voice, and Apple TV now supports Universal Search like Microsoft's Xbox services, meaning you won't have to know which content is available from which app beforehand.

Viewers will also be able to use voice commands during playback, such as asking "Siri, what did he say?", which will prompt the playback to skip back a few seconds and enable captions.

The iPad Pro has gained considerably in size and power over the iPad Air 2, and Apple has decided to embrace the stylus.

iPad Pro measures 12" x 8.68" x 0.27" (305.7mm x 220.6mm x 6.9mm) dominated by a 12.9‑inch Retina display with a resolution of 2732 x 2048 (264ppi). It weighs 1.57lb (713 grams) for the Wi-Fi only model, and slightly heavier at 1.59lb (723 grams) for the Wi-Fi+ Cellular model.

Under the hood it packs Apple's latest SoC, the A9X which boasts improvements over the A8X inside the iPad Air 2, including double the memory bandwidth. Apple decided to focus on its improvements over the A7 mostly though (iPad Air), claiming the A9X provides 2.5x faster CPU processing and 5x faster GPU processing over the A7. As for how much RAM is packed in the iPad Pro, honestly we have no idea right now but the suggestions around are that it has 2GB, just the iPad Air 2.

There isn't much to talk about in regard to camera improvements, the iPad Pro features the same 8MP iSight camera on the back and FaceTime HD camera on the front as the iPad Air 2.

It promises up to ten hours battery life (nine hours if you spend all of your time surfing) on a full charge.

Apple spices up its iPhone stocks with 4K video recording, 3D touch, Live Photos, the powerful A9 chip and more.

The details leaked about the latest iteration of iPhones from Apple in recent weeks came pretty close, which has become commonplace for a company that once kept its secrets so close to its chest. The new iPhone 6s is accompanied by the iPhone 6s Plus - available in gold, silver, space gray and the new rose gold metallic finishes - and both packing Retina HD displays and ultra-strong glass. Additionally, both use 7000 series aluminium so we're unlikely to see "bending" claims this time.

As expected, the iPhone 6s retains a 4.7-inch LED-backlit display (1334 x 750), and the iPhone 6s Plus keeps the 5.5-inch display (1920 x 1080).

Apple paid special attention to "3D Touch", which is basically the "Force Touch" feature that Watch owners will be familiar with. With it, users can press down on elements on the screen with different levels of force to bring up content. For example, you can press down lightly to peak at a photo, or an e-mail on the relevant app, or you can press down with more force to get into the content itself. Apple calls this "Peek and Pop".

Internet radio giant Pandora has officially made their previously announced "Day Pass" subscription available.

Pandora will now allow you to pay $1 for a "Day Pass" that gives you ad-free streaming for 24 hours, perfect for consumers who do not want to subscribe to the $4.99 Pandora One premium package but may have an event coming up like a party.

To get the Day Pass, you need to login, go to 'Settings' and then choose 'Pandora One' followed by 'Day Pass.' Easy enough.

Of course, Pandora hopes you will like the test run so much that you sign up for Pandora One moving forward and judging by how successful Pandora's experiment is, we may be seeing Spotify or other day passes in the future.

Lenovo and Google have teamed up to bring Android Wear to China, a surprising move as the search giant has been notably absent in the world's most populous nation.

The Moto 360 smartwatch will work with most Android devices but will not work with iOS, as has been rumored.

In order to bring the watch to China, Google also had to remove a lot of what makes the Android Wear operating system so easy to use, mainly its dependence on Google Now and Google Play. Lenovo/Motorola has partnered with Chinese company Mobvoiz to provide the search and voice recognition including the ability to dictate messages.

Additionally, the companies will use Sogou for maps, and downloading compatible apps means you will have to go through whatever local app store is available since Google's Google Play Store is not available in China.

Antivirus pioneer John McAfee has filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to officially run for president of the United States in 2016.

The paperwork was independently confirmed and later in the day McAfee created a new site dedicated to the run.

When asked, McAfee implied that his run would focus on strong encryption and a computer-literate administration.

McAfee also noted that he is "founding a new party yet to be announced."

According to a new report, Samsung is preparing to cut up to 10 percent of its headquarter employees.

The company will cut employees in human resources, public relations and finance in addition to other cost cutting measures that will start next year.

Samsung has been struggling for some time after an astronomical rise in the smartphone market just a few years ago. While still wildly popular, the company's new Galaxy S6 flagships have not lived up to lofty expectations and Samsung's stock has been hit hard. Overall smartphone shipments fell 3 percentage points in the Q2 2015, and Samsung also said it is no longer the top seller in China.

As of the end of the Q2, Samsung had 100,000 employees at its headquarters, so the layoffs could be significant if true.

Popular mini computer Raspberry Pi now has its own official 7-inch touchscreen display, allowing home users to create their own tablets.

While the Raspberry Pi has an HDMI port - making it easy to connect to most displays, it was pretty inconvenient if you wanted to take the computer on the go where you may not have access to a monitor.

Priced cheaply at $60, you can build your own tablet for under $100 although it is important to remember that the Pi is built to educate and not necessarily as a high-end device.

The display has an RGB 800×480 resolution at 60fps, 24-bit colour, 10 point capacitive touchscreen, 70 degree viewing angle and metal-backed display with mounting holes for the Pi.

According to the WSJ, Amazon is preparing a $50 tablet for the holidays, a device that would be even cheaper than the company's basic Kindle e-reader.

The tablet will have a 6-inch display, but will be priced at half of the cost of the company's own 6-inch Fire HD tablet.

With such a price tag, there is little hope for the performance of the tablet. The report claims that the device will "test the limits" of cost savings, including using a mono speaker. Yikes.

Most likely, the device will also have lock screen ads like its Fire tablets have, to help subsidize the costs.

Camera giant Canon has announced this week a 250 megapixel CMOS sensor that sets the record for highest resolution at its size.

The AOS-H CMOS sensor offers resolution of 19,580 x 12,600, and Canon's APS-H sensors were used in EOS-1D DSLRs not too long ago so the sensor is incredibly relevant even though the smaller APS-C is used now in current cameras.

"When installed in a camera, the newly developed sensor was able to capture images enabling the distinguishing of lettering on the side of an airplane flying at a distance of approximately 18 km from the shooting location," reads Canon's press release, an incredible feat.

Furthermore, "the new Canon-developed CMOS sensor, however, despite its exceptionally high pixel count, achieves an ultra-high signal readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second, made possible through such advancements as circuit miniaturization and enhanced signal-processing technology."

If you were looking for the sensor in your next DLSR or smartphone - keep waiting. Canon is looking for applications in "specialized surveillance and crime prevention tools, ultra-high-resolution measuring instruments and other industrial equipment, and the field of visual expression."

In a surprising development, Chinese smartphone OEM ZTE has taken 8 percent market share in the U.S.

The numbers come via IDC who says ZTE nearly doubled its share year-over-year for the Q2 2015. At 8 percent, the company is now in 4th place in the U.S., beating out much bigger brands like Sony, Lenovo/Motorola, HTC, BlackBerry and Alcatel.

"We came from nowhere, and now we are a solid force," says Lixin Cheng, head of ZTE's U.S. operations.

ZTE first started with smaller pre-paid carriers like MetroPCS but is now available on Sprint, T-Mobile and AT&T. Additionally, the phones can be found in Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy.

Unfortunately for the company, IDC says revenues are not moving in line with the market share growth. Revenue only grew 4 percent year-over-year even though sales were up 100 percent, suggesting ZTE is only taking share by cutting prices. The company just launched a high-end model for $450, but it is unclear whether consumers will care about that device when they can get their iPhone or Galaxy.