Western Digital buys SanDisk for US $19 billion

Western Digital purchased SanDisk, the world's third biggest maker of storage, in a US $19 billlion deal that will better position it to make flash memory chips for smartphones and tablets. Sandisk has long been an innovator in the field of computer storage back to the days of floppy drives up to various generations of USB flashdrives, SD cards, SSD cards and various other forms of micro storage for Ultrabooks, tablets and smartphones.

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Mac, iOS and Apple Watch users get a trifecta of software updates

Apple's quietly rolled out software updates to OS X El Capitan, iOS 9 and Watch OS today. The updates bring a lot of improvements, fix bugs and improve the compatibility of these operating systems with various third-party apps.

OS X 10.11  for El Capitan gets bug fixes and improvements related to Office 2016 which has been quite problematic, Mail, VoiceOver also get updates and Apple's released more than 150 new emoji characters including some for tacos and the much anticipated middle finger emoji.

For iOS 9.1, Live Photos functionality on the iPhone 6S with motion sensing capability that avoids recording Live Photos when the iPhone is moving, we also get new wallpapers incliuding Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune. It is has been noted that this release is in preparation for AppleTV (coming next week) and the iPad Pro (November).

For WatchOS 2.0.1, focus is on a fix for an issue that could cause software updates to stall. Fixes for issues that were impacting battery performance. A resolution for an issue that could prevent a managed iPhone from syncing iOS Calendar events to Apple Watch. All of these updates are available via Software Update right now.

The 2015 Back to the Future II Air Mag sneakers finally get power laces

Nike first outed Nike Air Mags back in 2011, the kicks worn by Marty McFly in Back to the Future II, but it was missing a key component: power laces. Nike promised they would bring those to the shoes and this year on Back to the Future day (October 21, 2015) they have delivered. The new Air Mags look identical to the previous version but comes with a hidden powered mechanism that will automatically cinch the sneaker’s laces one you put them on. In case this runs out of battery, there’s a manual mechanism, too. But that doesn’t sound too futuristic, does it?

Of course, Michael J. Fox or Marty to the rest of us is the first to get the new kicks. The limited edition shoes will be auctioned off with all proceeds going to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. The specific details on the auctions will be posted to Nike News and via Twitter @Nike in spring 2016. We’re not going to lie, we really, really want one. As for how much this will cost you, let’s just say a lot.

Source: Nike | Via: Gizmodo

Google Play starts showing icon for Android Wear-compatible apps

While it could be easier to browse for Android Wear-compatible apps through a link in the Android Wear application, sometimes you’re just browsing through Play Store and looking for new apps to try out. Some apps on the Play Store now show a watch icon to denote that they support Google’s wearable platform. You can see it just below the “What’s New” section and near the age rating after you tap on “Read More.” The icon shown after you tap on “Read More” has the words “Enhanced for Android Wear” attached to it. Hopefully, Google brings this soon to all Android Wear-compatible apps.

Source: Android Central