
Microsoft Cortana is now officially available on Android and iOS following its beta run. The digital assistant, which has long been baked into Windows Phone and now Windows 10, hopes to compete with Siri and Google Now for a place on your device.

Microsoft Cortana is now officially available on Android and iOS following its beta run. The digital assistant, which has long been baked into Windows Phone and now Windows 10, hopes to compete with Siri and Google Now for a place on your device.
The latest iteration of Apple TV’s operating system, tvOS 9.1, is out of beta and ready for the big screen.
The new update includes support for searching Apple Music with your voice, via the fantastic Siri Remote, so you no longer have to type in long artist names with the weird keyboard line that Apple offers you.

Sony’s PlayStation app for mobile has always been something of a disaster, with a poor user interface and painfully slow performance. That’s still true today — but now you don’t have to use it when all you want to do is message friends on the PlayStation Network.
In an effort to be a better messaging service, PlayStation Messages has gone solo. With the new PlayStation Messages app for Android and iOS, you can keep in touch with the rest of your clan without having to use the main PlayStation app at all.
Teaching your kids how to code is pretty much as important as teaching them to write, according to Apple’s senior VP of Software Engineering, Craig Federighi, in an interview promoting the company’s Hour of Code project.
Apple is turning all of its retail locations into coding centers for kids this week. The classes will offer hands-on instructions into the basics of coding that Federighi says will hopefully set of a spark with the young learners.

Google Calendar is bringing your appointments and to-do list together with a new update that adds support for reminders. Calendar will display your tasks and to-dos alongside meetings and events so they’re harder to forget, and sync them across Inbox, Gmail, Google Keep, and Google Now.
From a photography app with a difference to a math training app with human curation and a fantastic classic iOS puzzle game going free, we’ve sifted through this week’s most exciting apps to bring you the ones you absolutely need to download now.
Check out our picks below. Trust us, this is the way you want to spend Sunday!
If you’re still subscribed to Beats Music instead of Apple Music, your days are numbered. Until January 19, you have the opportunity to save all of your playlists and migrate your account data over to Apple Music if you wish to do so. But after that, Apple will discard of your current data.
I made an Apple Music playlist of Paste’s top 50 albums of 2015 via iTunes on my Mac. I was able to share it out on Facebook and to my friends via Messages, but I wasn’t able to see the playlist on my iPhone.
I made sure that I was logged in to my iTunes account on both my Mac and my iPhone, I signed in and out of iCloud, and I even force-quit Apple Music on my iPhone to try and fix the issue. None of these options worked.
After a bit of searching on the internet, I figured out what the problem was.
Here’s what you can do if you’re having the same issue.
Swift, the fast growing computer programming language created by Apple, is officially going open source starting today.
Apple unveiled Swift at WWDC in 2014 with a promise to make it open source in the future. Now that the language has become one of the fastest adopted languages in history, the company announced this morning that the time is right to open up access.
Apple’s iPhone family becomes even more successful every year, and the latest models aren’t just a hit with faithful fans. According to new research, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are attracting Android switchers at an unprecedented rate.
Tremendous iOS puzzle game Monument Valley has just gone free on iOS for the first time in its history.
Inspired by the surrealistic designs of M.C. Escher, the title is a triumph of isometric design, in which the player guides a princess through a series of impossible structures in a game that Apple lyrically described as, “akin to a walk through a museum or listening to a music album.”
Seriously, download it now.

Samsung is working on its first app for iOS, and it’s going to allow iPhone owners to use its new Gear S2 smartwatch. The South Korean company is working on the Gear Manager app now, according to sources — and Samsung is keen to make it available as soon as possible.
Early Thanksgiving online sale reports suggest that Apple devices were once again the platform of choice for people doing their holiday shopping.
How dominant were Apple devices in this category? Well, according to analytics firm Custora E-Commerce Pulse, iOS devices accounted for a massive 78.3 percent of all mobile e-commerce orders in the U.S., compared to 21.5 percent for Android devices.

Instagram is bringing a great new update to Android and iOS that allows users to seamlessly manage multiple accounts. The change means you’ll finally be able to access your personal and professional feeds — and the one dedicated to your cat — without having to log out and back in.

Fossil’s first Android Wear watch, the stunning Q Founder, has finally arrived. The device ships with a bunch of exclusive Fossil faces, and it can be ordered from Fossil’s online store now for $295.

Google Maps offers a ton of local info when you use the navigation system on your Android or Apple smartphone, including local businesses, eateries, or interesting spots.
The company is expanding its Local Guides program in Google Maps, which will let you share your own discoveries directly to the map, making it more useful for others as well as competing with Yelp, which has a similar service.
But wait, there’s more. With every bit of local expertise you share with Google Maps through the Local Guides program, you’ll get points.
Readdle’s beloved Spark email app for iPhone and Apple Watch is also coming to the iPad and Mac. A spokesperson for the company confirmed that development is underway for the apps in an email to Cult of Mac. The iPad version will likely make its debut next month in December, while a Mac version is a little further down in the pipeline since it’s only currently in the planning stages.
Foursquare is now contributing “business listings data” to Apple Maps. Since the launch of Maps, Apple vowed to collect data from multiple sources to improve the service over time, and is living up to that promise with this new addition.
The weekend may be halfway over, but you know what isn’t? The imagination of app developers.
This week’s collection of awesome apps encompasses everything from new web browsers for your iOS device, to a great new music app, to two spectacular games. Check below for our picks of the most noteworthy downloadables of the past seven days.
You won’t regret it for a second!

Apple has confirmed that it will shut down its Beats Music streaming service on November 30. The news comes just days after Apple Music finally arrived on Android, and users are being encouraged to switch over to its new platform.

YouTube Music has arrived on Android and iOS, and it promises to make it easier than ever to discover new music on YouTube. Simply hit play and enjoy an endless journey through the platform’s entire music catalog, or check out YouTube’s recommendations based on your listening habits.

Are iPhones really more secure than Androids? Google’s platform certainly gets more stick thanks to high-profile vulnerabilities like Stagefright, but according to a new study, Android is still safer and more secure than iOS.

All of the games Nintendo is currently planning for Android and iOS will be free-to-play titles, according to development partner DeNA. That means you won’t have to pay a penny to download them — but they will almost certainly be filled with in-app purchases.

Google Maps is getting offline navigation to ensure you never get stranded in a strange place when your data connection disappears. Users can download entire areas onto their smartphone, then get turn-by-turn directions even while they’re offline.

TAG Heuer is ready to take on the Apple Watch.
Its first smartwatch, powered by Android Wear and called the Carrera Connected, is set to make its debut later this week, and it will retail for $1,500.