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.

Parachute: Friends don't let friends drive distracted

Parachute, a national charity helping Canadians stop the clock on preventable injuries, is asking young adults to use the power of friendship to impact driver behaviour and stop distracted driving.

Auto collisions are the number one killer of teens in Canada making distracted driving a major issue for young adults. While young drivers make up 13 per cent of all licensed drivers in Canada, they account for almost one in every four road-related injuries and fatalities. 

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iRig Mic Lav is a Lavalier Microphone for iPhones and Androids

While new iPhones and Android devices can now capture ultra-sharp HD video and in some instances 4K video, their built-in microphones leave much to be desired because they're designed for phone use. iRig Mic Lav is a new broadcast audio quality microphone that is compact, chainable with built-in monitoring ability of the iPhone, iPad touch and Android.

As the shift from traditional standalone video and still cameras to smartphones continues, a product like the iRig Mic Lav is a powerful accessory that can elevate the quality of a video. Hit jump for more detai on this new microphone which ships in November.

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