Apps

It was once the butt of jokes but Apple has rebuilt its Maps app and service to mean serious business. In addition to offering a more integrated experience for its iOS and macOS users, Apple Maps bills itself as a more privacy-respecting service compared to Google Maps and Google-owned Waze. That, however, only makes sense if Apple Maps is able to offer nearly all the same features as the others. While it may still have a long way to go, this latest update takes it a few steps closer to that goal, at least for those in the US.

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At I/O 2019 a few months back, Google announced two impressive features that not only improve the accessibility of the Android platform but also offered users more ways to interact with the world around them as well as with digital content. Live Transcribe, as the name says, transcribed sounds the phone picks up around it into text while Live Caption did the same for audio playing on the device itself. The former already rolled out with Android 10 as promised but Live Caption has still to see the light of day. That may be coming in two weeks and it could be a very impressive headlining feature for the phone.

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Duplex is one of Google's most interesting, and sometimes most worrying, products to be revealed in recent years. It combines a few key Google technologies, including Google Assistant, Search and Knowledge Graph, language processing, and, of course, machine learning. When it first came out, it was at the service of those trying to book restaurants or even services. Now Duplex is preparing to help smartphone users book movie tickets but, this time, without even saying a word.

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Uber users have raised their share safety concerns with the company, and now it seems that a new feature that could help allay some of those concerns is on the way. Uber is apparently testing a feature that will allow riders to record audio through the app when they feel unsafe during a ride. There are a lot of details we don't know about this feature yet, as Uber hasn't said anything official about it.

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YouTube TV is getting a pretty major expansion today, as it's coming to a wide array of Amazon Fire TV devices. With the regular NFL season in the midst of its 4th week and both the NBA and NHL regular seasons about to begin, this is a big move for YouTube TV, as Amazon's Fire TV devices are some of the more popular streaming devices around.

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The Pixel 4 announcement is still two weeks away but, thanks to the Interwebs, there is almost no mystery left to solve. In fact, even the Pixel 4's supposed apps have started leaking and is getting distributed around. While not everyone will be able to buy a Pixel 4 or is even interested in getting one, a few might be able to enjoy some of what Google's smartphone will bring, provided you at least have an up-to-date phone running the latest Android version.

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Many months after its arrival on the DIY streaming platform Plex, music streaming service TIDAL has officially launched on Roku. Unlike competing music services like Spotify, TIDAL is known for its high fidelity offerings, giving audiophiles access to audio content at higher qualities that the compressed versions offered through most competitors. In addition, the service offers access to some exclusive content and videos.

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It's been a long time coming, but it looks like Spotify is finally going to gain Siri integration in iOS 13. Apple indicated as much when it opened up the SiriKit framework to third-party app makers earlier in the summer, and it seems that Spotify has wasted little time in beginning to work on Siri integration. The feature has been added in Spotify's latest beta version, which suggests that an official release isn't that far off.

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There was a point in time when Apple seemed to be completely ignoring Android users completely. Its first Android app, after all, threw shade at the rival platform by assisting users to migrate to iOS. But in order to truly spread its Apple Music service, it needed to also cater to the other half of the mobile world. That finally happened with the Apple Music Android app which, after a lackluster first launch, may now be considered a proper competitor on Android.

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While Android still exists on tablets and Android tablets do still exist, the launch of iPadOS and the new iPads only served to highlight what has been the platform's problem for years. Apple then launched its Apple Arcade with exclusive titles that made Google Play Pass' selection seem almost outdated and paltry in comparison.

The Android platform boasts of thousands if not millions of apps, from both Google Play Store and other sources, and yet few can perhaps be considered as the most noteworthy on the platform. More than 10 years later, Android still has a problem with apps and games but there's still some ways Google and its allies can turn the platform into a haven for apps.

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Once the darling of the young Web, Yahoo has now become a sort of a joke. Owning a Yahoo email address, while not uncommon, is sometimes a point of ridicule among younger netizens. Trying to salvage the sinking ship, Verizon, under its OATH (now Verizon Media) subsidiary, acquired Yahoo and its assets, including Tumblr. Now Verizon is trying to prove that Yahoo, particularly Yahoo Mail, can keep up with the times with an update to its Android and iOS apps that try to provide features needed by today's modern email users.

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Google Play Pass is the obvious alternative to Apple Arcade for Android devices. Normally I wouldn't say such a thing, but the launch dates and announcements for both services are right on top of one another.* It's like a gas station opening right on the other side of the highway from another gas station - there's nothing wrong with that, it's just business!

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