MacRumors

Although Apple remains conservative regarding the battery life of the Apple Watch, many users have noted that the wearable device makes it through one day with plenty of charge left over in its 18-hour estimated life. Still, third-party power banks and portable chargers have been popular mainstays in the Apple Watch accessory line, and recently Kanex launched its own charging device for the Apple Watch, called the GoPower Watch.

Kanex's charger is packed with a 4,000 mAh battery and a claim that, on a full charge, it can recharge the Apple Watch up to six times with an integrated inductive charger. As a bonus, the GoPower Watch also includes a USB port, letting you charge your iPhone (or any USB-powered device) simultaneously with the Apple Watch. There's also priority charging, so your devices charge first and the battery pack second.

Design

Kanex's GoPower Watch meets the form and function that any successful portable battery pack needs to be used on a daily basis. Its small 3-inch square will fit comfortably in a backpack, and the quartered LED lights -- surrounding the only button on the housing -- provide quick and easy reminders of how much juice is left in the pack.

The slightly raised inductive charger is surrounded by a smooth Space Gray material (admittedly, a few shades darker than Apple's definition of Space Gray), that feels sturdy despite the small frame of the GoPower Watch. Interestingly, the actual inductive charger on Kanex's device is a bit larger than Apple's own inductive charger, but its added 1/4 of an inch appears negligible and doesn't affect the charging of the device.

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Alongside the first iOS 10.1 beta and the first macOS Sierra 10.12.1 beta, Apple has seeded new betas of watchOS 3.1 and tvOS 10.0.1 to developers, just over a week after the latter two operating systems were released.

On the Apple Watch, the software update can be downloaded through the dedicated Apple Watch app on an iPhone by going to General --> Software update.

To install the update, the Apple Watch needs to have 50 percent battery, it must be on the Apple Watch charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. watchOS 3 also requires an iPhone running iOS 10 to install.

On the Apple TV, installing the tvOS beta requires the Apple TV to be connected to a computer with a USB-C to USB-A cable, with the software downloaded and installed via iTunes or Apple Configurator. Once a beta profile has been installed on the device through iTunes, new beta updates will be available over the air.

It is not known what new features might be included in the watchOS 3.1 and tvOS 10.0.1 updates, but they are likely to include bug fixes for issues that have been discovered since the release of watchOS 3 and tvOS 10.

We'll update this post with any new features that are found in the two betas.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today confirmed that the company is planning to launch an online streaming video service, called DirecTV Now, sometime in the fourth quarter of 2016 (via CNET). Featuring "very, very aggressive price points," the service is said to include more than 100 premium channels and will come in app form on smartphones, tablets, and set-top boxes, although the specifics of the launch were kept to a minimum.

Stephenson remarked on the company's ability to introduce the service at a low price point, due to the fact that DirecTV Now won't require customer visits and installation, and "all of the ordering, customer service and billing is done digitally, reducing the need for more traditional tech support." The streaming service will also provide the option between one and two streams per household, with customers able to increase simultaneous streaming by paying a little more each month.

Cord cutters have seen an explosion of options when it comes to streaming video, including services like Hulu, Netflix and HBO Go. But cobbling these services together is costly and complicated, which is why many consumers still stick with the easier package deal of a cable subscription.

AT&T believes it can offer something more attractive. The company plans to initially go after the 20 million households with no pay TV subscription, Stephenson said. When asked if DirecTV Now could threaten its traditional DirecTV business, Stephenson acknowledged some risk. But "that's a good sign," he said.

"If you don't see them threatening your legacy products, 99 percent of the time they don't go anywhere," he said. "It means you found something the market really wants."

Users will also be able to bundle DirecTV Now into the company's broadband and mobile services, and all of the various aspects of AT&T's offerings will work in the same ecosystem, so customers who stream DirecTV Now on their smartphone won't get hit with data overcharges.

AT&T has struck deals with Disney and HBO for its new streaming platform, but Stephenson noted that a few "holdouts" still remain, preventing DirecTV Now from a more immediate launch. Still, the CEO said the content deals process is around 90 percent done. By the time customers begin signing up for the service after its late-2016 launch, Stephenson thinks that "in 2017, this will be a big driver of video for us."

The amount of video streaming apps and services has been growing steadily over the past few years, and new companies consistently announce their presence in the space. This year, Hulu confirmed an upcoming live cable TV service, and premium channels like HBO, Showtime, and Starz each have their own content specific, monthly subscription services that range between $9 and $15. Apple was even attempting to get a similar $30-$40 web-based TV package launched last year, but failed deals with networks caused the company to put its plans on hold.

Pokémon Go has been bumped from the top of the United States iOS App Store's top grossing chart, seventy-four days after originally being titled the highest grossing app in the country. The game has been beaten by Clash Royale, which recently received an update "that sent players into a spending frenzy."

In new data collected by Sensor Tower, Pokémon Go's success was put into comparison with other apps that surged in popularity for a period of time. In terms of most consecutive days as number one on the App Store's top grossing chart, Pokémon Go's 74 day streak came out third, behind Clash of Clans (347 days) and Candy Crush Saga (109 days).

Pokémon GO managed 42 more consecutive days atop the chart than the game that unseated it, Clash Royale, and more than twice as many days as the 10th game on the chart, The Simpsons: Tapped Out, which stayed at the top for 15 days. Not all of the top 10 were games; Pandora and Spotify have both spent more than two consecutive weeks at the apex of the Top Grossing ranking, at 20 and 18 days, respectively.

Due to the staggered rollout of Pokémon Go, Niantic's game is still the top grossing app in the App Store in some countries, including Australia, Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Thailand. It's also still earning the top spot in revenue on the Google Play Store in the United States.

Although popularity has waned, Niantic and The Pokémon Company have kept up with consistent updates to the game, most recently introducing a "buddy" system that allows players to choose a favorite Pokémon as a buddy. The Pokémon acting as a buddy then earns candy after a certain distance is traveled, making it much easier to get candies for upgrading rare Pokémon. Players are still waiting for trading, friend battling, a new generation of Pokémon, and the now-confirmed Apple Watch app.

Instagram is introducing a "Save Draft" feature to its mobile app, allowing users to start working on a post and then save a copy of the edits for finishing later (via TechCrunch).

The option appears if users tap the "back" button after they have added effects, filters, a caption or a location to a photo. Previously this only threw up a warning that any changes would be discarded, but now users can opt to save a draft to their phone.

To return to the draft post, users need to tap the Camera icon at the bottom of the screen, then select "Library". Posts appear at the bottom of the screen under the title "Drafts".

The relatively minor addition has been welcomed by Instagram users, some of whom were aware that the company had been trialling the feature among a select number of account holders since July.

Blogging site Tumblr has announced web support for Live Photos, the animated image format Apple introduced with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

Now when visitors to a Tumblr-hosted site see the concentric circles in the top-left of an image, they can click and hold on the picture to play it, audio included.

"That’s right! Live Photos work on the web now," reads the company's announcement. "Whenever you see that famous Live Photo icon, click and hold to make them swing."

Nine months ago Tumblr introduced support for the format to its mobile app, which also allows users to turn them into GIFs. Since then, the ability to view Live Photos has spread to other third-party apps like Facebook.

To make Live Photos compatible with all browsers, Tumblr developers wrote some JavaScript code that converts the MOV file captured by an iPhone into an MP4, and merges it with the still JPEG image.

Tumblr has also published open source code on GitHub, enabling other web developers to build support for Live Photos into their own sites. An Android version is also in the works, says the company.

Tumblr claims to be the first to support Live Photos on the web, although The Verge points out that some independent developers have made them work before, but it was never easy or widespread.

Netflix is aiming to fill half of its streaming catalog with original programming over the next few years, according to company CFO David Wells (via Variety).

The announcement marks a renewed push towards offering original TV shows and movies commissioned by Netflix over stocking licensed content. The streaming catalog is already one third of the way toward reaching the target, according Wells, who said the company was undergoing "a multiyear transition and evolution toward more of our own content".

Netflix expects to launch 600 hours of programming in 2016, up from 450 hours in 2015, said content chief Ted Sarandos at the start of the year. The company has projected content spending on a profit/loss basis to rise from $5 billion in 2016 to more than $6 billion in 2017.

Wells said the original TV series and movies will continue to be a mix of content owned and produced by Netflix, as well as co-productions and acquisitions. The streaming market is seeing a decreasing cost of production and an increasing number of bidders, making it cheaper to take risks on new programming.

"You have supply and demand settling out," Wells continued. "We don't necessarily have to have home runs. We can also live with singles, doubles and triples especially commensurate with their cost."

The goal, he said, is to release something that appeals to each individual subscriber, every single month, and on that front "we’ve got a ways to go" across different genres and formats. "The nice thing about the platform is it allows a lot of creative freedom," Wells added, offering the production of episodes of varying lengths as an example.

Netflix is in the process of transitioning all U.S. subscribers to its standard $9.99 monthly plan, which it says will help generate revenue for investing in original content. However, the forced switch increases the price for some older subs by $2 per month and has led to higher cancellation rates than the company anticipated. Netflix reported a lower-than-expected 160,000 net U.S. streaming subs for the second quarter.

A follow-up season of Stranger Things, one of Netflix's most recent breakout hit shows, has already been confirmed. On August 31, the company renewed the series for a second season of nine episodes, to be released in 2017.

Google has launched Allo, its new intelligent messaging app. Allo combines now-standard messaging features like stickers, changing font sizes and marked-up photos with Google Assistant, an intelligent chat AI that brings Google's services to your conversations, and Smart Reply.

The second form is within your conversations. Google Assistant can be brought into chats by tagging the service in a message line and issuing a command. For example, a user can type "@google show me local burrito places" and Google Assistant will show you local burrito places. Users can also bring in other forms of information, like Google Search, Images and YouTube results. However, Google points out that Google Assistant is in "preview edition" and isn't complete. To help improve Assistant, users can submit real-time feedback with conversations.

Allo also comes with a feature called Smart Reply. The app can learn your texting habits and suggest quick replies for more basic communication. Allo can, for instance, learn whether you're more prone to using "lol" or "haha," or whether you like to say "sup?" or "hey how's it going." Once it figures out your reply patterns, it can suggest basic responses. Smart Reply can also adjust to how you respond to certain people. As BuzzFeed notes, it can change its suggestions based on whether you're talking to your wife or boss.

Google stores the chat data on its servers, but has also extended its Incognito private mode to Allo. Incognito mode comes with end-to-end encryption and self-destructing chats. Users can set time limits for their messages, setting them to self-destruct after 10 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, an hour, a day, or longer (via The Verge).

Allo is only available for iPhones and Android phones and, like WhatsApp, uses a phone number for registration. The app is currently rolling out and propagating through Apple's App Store services. Allo was first announced in May, at Google's annual I/O event alongside Android Nougat, Android Wear 2.0, and Duo.

Allo is available in the App Store for free. [Direct Link]