An accidental Siri “butt dial” recently saved a teen’s life by allowing him to dial 911 while trapped under a truck, with his arms pinned down.
Siri adds ‘saving lives’ to its list of tricks
Photo: Apple
An accidental Siri “butt dial” recently saved a teen’s life by allowing him to dial 911 while trapped under a truck, with his arms pinned down.
Rock music history is rife with musicians who developed a sort of god complex from money and fame.
A recent posting on Instagram indicates fame is unlikely to corrupt Brittany Howard, lead singer and guitarist for Alabama Shakes, who used the photo- and video-sharing platform to give a fan a guitar lesson.
Vacation films used to be something to fear. The blurry Super 8 home movie from the lake or the two-hour slide show of the neighbor’s trip to the Badlands would quickly put us to sleep (although we might have preferred death).
But these days, anyone can shoot and edit their vacation films with cinematic flair thanks to the latest smartphones and software that gives us tools that once required a film school degree. Just look at these stunning videos and you’ll see state-of-the-art summer memories, circa 2015.
Apple is looking to bring fighter-jet technology to your car’s dashboard, according to a new report that claims the iPhone maker is working on a 27- to 50-inch heads-up display for automobiles that will be completely controlled by gestures.

The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to give a second look to Samsung’s appeal of the original jury verdict saying that it violated Apple’s patents for the iPhone.
Originally slated for announcement during Apple’s alleged September 9 event, the rumored live TV service launch is now being pushed back to 2016. It turns out those stubborn TV networks are foiling Apple’s plans to deliver sooner. Fortunately, the new Apple TV hardware should still get a proper unveiling next month.
We already knew that Apple has taken an interest in how its third-party partners present their wares in the Apple Store, but a leaked memo is describing just how seriously the company is taking this new initiative.
Other than the clean white background that it’s so fond of, Apple is also asking vendors to pay attention to the typefaces they use and even the angles from which they photograph their products.
So it turns out Apple is controlling and particular. Who knew?
Apple’s new Wallet app replaces Passbook in iOS 9, currently in public beta. Just like Passbook, when you wave your iPhone at an Apple Pay kiosk, it will only let you choose your default credit card and pay for the goods or services you bought.
In iOS 9 beta, you’ll also be able to choose any of your other provisioned credit cards from your Apple Pay account without even unlocking your iPhone or accessing the Wallet app.
Here’s how.
While Apple’s long been criticized as a hiring mostly white males, the company has made some big improvements in the last year, hiring its largest-ever group of employees from underrepresented groups.
It’s an open secret that Apple is poised to take on the auto industry with its rumored electric car project, and according to Apple design guru Marc Newson, the automotive industry is stalled.
In a new interview, the Apple designer touches on a number of topics, ranging from his love of fountain pens to his current design pet peeve: boring cars.
Along with the public release of iOS 8.4.1, which added lots of fixes for Apple Music and Beats 1, Apple also has a bevy of iTunes improvements ready today.
Apple just released iTunes 12.2.2, and the update makes using Beats 1 and Apple Music in iTunes a slightly less horrible experience.
We’re eagerly anticipating iOS 9 next month, but Apple’s got a few more fixes to give us in iOS 8.4.1, which is likely the final mobile upgrade to iOS 8.
Apple released iOS 8.4.1 to the public this morning, bringing with it a number of performance enhancements and bug fixes, plus some nice updates for Apple Music and Beats 1.
Bethesda’s runaway hit game Fallout Shelter is getting a well-needed dose of new stuff today, including several balance fixes, some new threats to your vault, and a handy robot assistant who can help you collect resources and scour the wasteland for you.
If you’ve got data, you’ve got a good reason to keep it secure. That’s why we’ve gathered some of the best in the business of backup to guarantee the solution that meets your needs. But act quick, these deals won’t be around for long.
Each of our devices needs a mothership so to speak, that place where, at the end of a long day with the battery in the red, they can all return to one place and dock to recharge. This thought occurs to me every time I go to leave the house and must first round up my phone, iPad, computer and camera batteries from the various outlets I left them at the night before.
The accessories company Satechi has built the International Space Station of power strips.

After announcing its new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 edge+ in New York City this morning, Samsung promised the next big thing is right around the corner.
The South Korean company was referring to its new Gear S2 smartwatch — its first with a round display — which will get its full reveal on September 3.
Mac users can now use Windows 10 on their OS X machines, thanks to an update for Boot Camp released by Apple this morning.The new Boot Camp 6 update is still propagating through Apple’s servers, but some users have found the update is available on Windows partitions in BootCamp.

Samsung’s new phablets aren’t the only thing we got out of its Unpacked event in New York City today; the South Korean company also announced a launch date for its new mobile payments service. Samsung Pay will be coming to take on Apple Pay in the U.S. on September 28.

It’s pretty difficult to use your smartphone while it’s standing vertically. That’s why when we place our phones on a dock or stand, we tend to neglect them until they’re done charging. Challenging this habit are the makers of the Tilt stand, who seem to think you should be able to use your phone while it’s getting juiced.
Apple started a smartphone revolution with the introduction of the original iPhone in 2007, but despite the rise of high-powered phones, people in Japan are still clinging to their flip phones.
The closest Apple ever got to making a flip phone was the disastrous Rokr the company developed in partnership with Motorola, so concept designer Martin Hajek decided to reimagine what it would look like if Apple made a flip phone just for the Japanese market. The concept Apple flip phone comes with two screens — one for typing and another for content — as well as an obligatory lanyard and three color options.
Take a closer look:
Apple hasn’t yet officially announced the existence of the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus and possibly iPhone 6c, but German provider Deutsche Telekom is already letting you place orders.
The carrier has set up a special “online reservation service” where would-be next-generation iPhone owners can get first dibs on the new handsets, set to be announced on September 9.
There was no selfie stick, no hashtags and no sharing with his BFF. In fact, when Robert Cornelius took his historic selfie, he sat still as a stone for 15 minutes, then watched the photo slowly appear on a silver-plated sheet of copper as he breathed in dangerous mercury fumes.
That was instant gratification in 1839.
Cornelius, using a wooden box fitted with an opera glass, likely deserves credit for taking the world’s first selfie. He didn’t make the picture out of vanity, but as an experiment to test a silver-plating method for the daguerreotype photographic process, which had been introduced worldwide just three months before Cornelius’ self-portrait.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been chomping at the bit about an Apple TV since 2011, but according to a new research note he sent to clients Thursday, Apple has a good chance of finally releasing its new television at the company’s reported September 9 event.
Seriously, this time. OK, maybe. Let’s call it 50/50.
A London woman has reported being the victim of “cyber-flashing” after receiving two photos of a man’s genitals on her iPhone via AirDrop.
Everyone is expecting the iPhone 6s to boast 2GB of RAM, but according to a dubious source claiming to be an Apple developer, we may all be wrong.
Switzerland-based Instagram user Fabien Wanner has posted what he claims to be a Geekbench 3 screenshot of the new device, revealing RAM of “just” 1 GB — the same as the current iPhone 6.