Tech Trends- Feb 27-28
Siri coming to the Mac, WhatsApp killing app for Blackberry, Samsung Pay takes on China and more in this week’s Weekend in Tech Trends.
Tech Trends 1) Siri may be included in El Capitan’s next update
Starting this fall, your Mac will have the same personal assistant as the rest of your Apple devices- Siri. 9to5Mac is reporting that Apple has been testing Siri for the Mac since 2012 and that Apple is nearly ready for a public launch.
According to 9to5Mac, Siri on the Mac will have its own pane in System Preferences and users are said to also have the option to choose a keyboard shortcut for activating the service. Like with recent versions of iOS, users will be able to enable Siri at the first startup of OS X 10.12, according to sources. If the Mac running the new OS X version is plugged into power, a “Hey Siri” command will work much like with recent iPhone and iPad models.
You can expect to see Siri for Mac be unveiled at this year’s worldwide developers conference is June.
Source: 9to5Mac
Tech Trends 2) WhatsApp is ending service to BlackBerry and other older platforms by the end of this year
By the end of this year, WhatsApp will no longer be available on most BlackBerrys as well as other older devices. The WhatsApp team released a blog post over the weekend reminiscing about when they launched and how most smartphones were either a BlackBerry or Nokia. Unfortunately for BlackBerry and Nokia, times have changed and WhatsApp has to cut them off due to that they don’t offer the kind of capabilities needed in order to expand WhatsApp’s features in the future.
On top of ending support for BlackBerry, WhatsApp is also no longer supporting Nokia S40 and Symbian S60, Android 2.1 and 2.2, as well as Windows Phone 7.1 devices. If you are absolutely bent on having a BlackBerry and being able to use WhatsApp, you can get the BlackBerry Priv that runs the Android OS. But if you’re looking for to use the BlackBerry OS, it looks like you’re out of luck.
Source: Engadget
Tech Trends 3) Samsung Pay is taking on China
Samsung Pay, Samsungs mobile wallet and mobile payment service, has begun it’s rollout in China. Samsung seems to be following the footsteps of Apple, who rolled out Apple Pay in China earlier this month. With much competition between different mobile payment platforms in China no one seems to sure that either Samsung Pay or Apple Pay will see much success. Regardless, both companies are moving forward.
More rollout are also on the agenda for Samsung Pay. Samsung is planning to launch Samsung Pay in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Spain and the UK by the end of the year. No specific timeline has been given.
Source: ZDNet
Tech Trends 4) YouTube adds new tool that makes blurring objects a breeze
YouTube is launching a blur tool that would allow any uploader, no matter their skill with editing software, to blur out moving objects within videos. While YouTube has offered a face blurring tool since 2012, the updated tool will work on items that move, so that you can keep things like license plates blurred throughout a video.
The tool seems to be extremely easy to use. Just draw a box around the portion you want blurred out, lock it to that object and you’re good to go. YouTube hopes this will make it easier for people to block out sensitive information as well as identities that didn’t give consent to be featured in the video.
Source: TheVerge
