You’ll need the latest Alexa app, which is available for iOS 9 and later. The app also supports Drop In. This is a feature primarily intended for those who have multiple Echo devices around the home, and you can quickly send a message without the other person needing to answer – effectively an intercom system. If you have Echo Show or Echo Spot devices, then you’ll also be able to view video from those....

The scene it seems means, “Apple could become a meaningful revenue contributor to Cirrus starting in the second quarter of fiscal 2009,” well, that’s what Roth Capital Partners analyst, Jay Srivatska said. He added: “In our recent trip to Asia, our channel checks at consumer electronics manufacturers confirmed that Cirrus has been designed into next-generation Apple’s Classic, touch and nano iPods," according to the AP. If true, this deal’s going to iPour around $20 million in revenue for the company, “over the next 12 months”, the report says....

2018 was a great year for women in film. There were dozens of movies that featured women as leads or co-leads, and, in fact, movies with female leads did better than movies with male leads at the box office. If you’re looking to make sure you’ve seen all of the best movies with female leads from 2018, we’ve got you covered. While there were many powerful and well-made indie films that featured women, too, we’ve collected a list of all of the blockbuster films that featured female leads in 2018....

Netflix has unveiled the first full Altered Carbon season 2 trailer alongside a foreboding new poster. In the world of this inventive sci-fi series, consciousness can be swapped and uploaded to different bodies (called sleeves), which can be used to disappear, find a new life, or even cheat death. That last one is an exclusive privilege of the mega-rich, who can even live forever in the same series of designer sleeves....

It’s no secret that Siri is far behind its competition in the digital assistant space, and this continues with Apple’s new product, HomePod, which features Siri at the core of the experience. For example, saying “Alexa, good morning” could trigger a specific playlist, album or song, in addition to other automations such as starting your coffee machine, or rolling up your blinds. As it currently stands, HomePod has no form of audio automation whatsoever, down to the fact that it is unable to play a custom sound when your alarm goes off....

This year, most of the predictions were not about particular technologies, like Hadoop, Kafka or Spark. And they weren’t even about tech genre issues like the battle between data warehouses and data lakes. Instead, this year’s predictions (for next year) focused on broader business or even societal issues, many of which stem from the world’s collective experience of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic and the changes it has imposed. Technology’s in there, of course; for example, there was a lot of discussion of artificial intelligence (AI), low code/no code platforms and architectural approaches to analytics, like Data Fabric and Data Mesh....

Developer Joe Hewitt scored acres of anti-Apple coverage when he slammed the company for its closed iOS development environment — I wonder, then, just how much coverage his latest rant will achieve now Hewitt is slamming Google for claiming Android is “open”, when it isn’t really. At the center of Hewitt’s argument is that Google’s Android code — which claims to be open in the same sense as Firefox or other open projects — isn’t really developed in the same way....

Following Tim Cook’s introductory comments, retail head Angela Ahrendts took the stage to talk about Apple’s retail experience. Ahrendts touted Apple Retail as the company’s “largest product.” Ahrendts said that over 500 million people visit Apple retail stores every year and talked about Apple’s recent expansion of retail efforts, including its new Today at Apple initiative. She also talked up Apple’s biggest retail stores, which include things such as a boardroom for collaboration, a public forum, the Genius Grove, and more....

If you thought it was annoying having to buy MacBook/MacBook Pro dongles, spare a thought for owners of Microsoft’s Surface Pro and Surface Laptops … If they want to connect any USB-C devices, they’ll need to lay out $80 for a dongle. Not only that, but the Surface Connect to USB-C Adapter is huge, measuring more than 3 inches by 1.5 inches by 3/4-inch – which The Verge notes is about the size of the Surface power brick....

WhatsApp has finally fixed one its annoying bugs in the latest update to its iOS update: you will no longer see unread notifications badges for muted chats … Muted chats are one of the most handy features of WhatsApp. It’s quite often the case that there will be a thread in a WhatsApp group that doesn’t interest you. Muting that thread means you no longer get sounds, vibrations and banners for that chat, nor will you see it in your notifications – but that pesky badge would still indicate a new message....

Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature. Also, check out our updated Daily Deals page (for iPad/iPhone) featuring the day’s best deals from across major US retailers. Today’s can’t miss deals: Giveaway: Dropcam Pro Wi-Fi video monitoring camera ($200 value) Save $50 on any Apple iPod Touch 32GB (newest version) $250 shipped (Reg....

Keep up with the best gear and deals on the web by signing up for the 9to5Toys Newsletter. Also, be sure to check us out on: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and Safari push notifications. Today’s can’t miss deals: Last Call Updates: Upgrade to a new smartphone (iPhone 6/Plus) at Best Buy, get a free $150+ gift card Mad Catz brings console style controllers to Android devices with the L.Y.N.X.3 Pioneer’s SPH-DA120 adds Apple CarPlay to your car for $445 (Reg....

Update 11/17/2020: You no longer need this utility to connect your Outlook.com accounts to modern versions of the Microsoft Office Outlook client. Start by closing Microsoft Outlook and downloading the Connector client. Depending on your install of Outlook, grab either the 32-Bit or 64-Bit version of the connector. If you don’t know, checking which version of Outlook you’re running is simple. Once downloaded, Launch the install by double-clicking it (OutlookConnector....

Adobe today released a new iPad app dubbed Comp CC that offers “rapid creation of layout concepts for mobile, Web and print projects” that can later be used in Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC and InDesign CC. Adobe first previewed the new app last year when it was still an early prototype, but today the app is arriving on the App Store for all. The Adobe Comp CC app is available as a free download on the App Store and requires at least a free Create Cloud membership....

Adobe is currently testing a new presentation app for the iPad similar in purpose to PowerPoint and Keynote, via CNET. The project is currently called Ginger. Although details are sparse, it seems to be focused on the creation of sales pitches and what Adobe calls “explainer videos”. Adobe has said that the app is in the beta stage of development, but is yet to confirm whether the app will ever be publicly released....

Sigourney Weaver surprised the high school cast of the play based on Alien. With less than a month to go before the date arrives marking exactly 40 years since the initial US release of Alien, some fans are going that extra mile to deliver something befitting of the iconic sci-fi/horror film. As celebrations continue all over the world, including special screenings of the film, artwork, and even a handful of professional quality short films from amateur filmmakers, it’s safe to say that 2019 has so far brought Alien back into the public consciousness....

The Alita: Battle Angel cast is stacked with award-winning and fan-favorite sci-fi genre actors. Produced by James Cameron and directed by Robert Rodriguez, Alita: Battle Angel adapts Yukito Kishiro’s beloved manga Battle Angel: Alita for the big screen. James Cameron had been developing Alita: Battle Angel since 2000 and the screenplay is by Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, adapting a portion of Kishiro’s manga. Though Rodriguez took on the challenge of directing this massive production, the true magic of Alita: Battle Angel was achieved by Weta Digital’s VFX team....

Update: Nope: It looks like this is just an iPad Mini digitizer as pointed out by nowhereelse.fr. We’ve already seen more than a few alleged iPad 5 parts pop up online. Most rumors, including images of the device’s front glass from April, and the shots of the device’s back cover we posted in January, would seem to indicate that Apple is heading for the obvious– a redesigned full-sized iPad that borrows many of the characteristics of the slimmer, smaller bezel iPad mini....

An adaptation for The Dark Tower was in the works for many years, with Ron Howard initially working on a cross-platform saga that would have seen the adventure told on both the big and small screens. The project ultimately didn’t come to pass, with Howard stepping back to serve merely as a producer on a solo film outing. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel (2009’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), the eventual film adaptation starred Idris Elba as Roland and Matthew McConaughey as his nemesis....

Pardon a Forstallism in the headline (“blow-away”), it’s actually a fitting description of AMD’s just announced Radeon HD 7970 graphic card powered by the Tahiti GPU. Traces of support for Tahiti-driven AMD GPUs have recently been found in a beta of OS X Lion 10.7.3, indicating Mac Pro users will probably be able to pop in this beauty inside their system for a pretty significant boost in the oomph department. According to HotHardware, the 7970 is between 1....