Mitchel Broussard

Homebuilding company KB Home today announced "the nation's first HomeKit-enabled community," which comes with the opportunity for buyers to build homes with Apple's HomeKit platform integrated from the get-go. A report last month brought news that Apple was working with homebuilders to install HomeKit and the Apple ecosystem of connected devices into properties at the beginning of construction. ...

Apple has hired a former reporter and columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Wei Gu, to its public relations department in Shanghai, China. Gu's role, per LinkedIn (via TechCrunch) will be PR Director, which she began this month. Gu's professional history spans 18 years and includes jobs at CNN and Reuters, working as a video journalist and reporter to break news regarding technology companies ...

A few weeks after Microsoft unveiled the Surface Studio to the public at a media event in New York City, a few websites have begun publishing the first reviews for Microsoft's new desktop PC/tablet hybrid. During its announcement in October, the Surface Studio was revealed to have a 12.5mm thin touch screen, with a 28-inch PixelSense Display that packs in 13.5 million pixels. Microsoft said that...

Twitter's first-party iOS app recently began rolling out support for rich notifications for anyone on iOS 10, letting users get a larger glimpse at their incoming notifications without having to open their iPhone or the Twitter app. The new notifications include a few formatting retouches, as well as the inclusion of images in relevant posts. With the new notification set-up, users will get...

Adding to the pile of recent guesswork rumors centering around the launch of Apple's AirPods, this week a collection of foreign retail websites have listed the Bluetooth headphones with new dates suggesting availability before the end of the year. First off, today Mac4Ever discovered that French retail website Fnac has posted the AirPods for pre-order, with a suggested shipping date of...

Mozilla today launched a new app called "Firefox Focus," which automatically blocks advertisements as well as online trackers. The company said that due to the new app's removal of heavy ads and tracking software by other companies, "web pages may require less data and load faster." The privacy-focused web browser also comes with an easily accessible "Erase" button at the top of the app, which ...

An incoming update to Google Translate on the web and mobile app will enhance the service's ability to translate whole sentences at a time, instead of going word by word. With the help of "Neural Machine Translation," Google said that Google Translate will be able to look at the "broader context" of a phrase to parse out a more naturalistic representation in the native language of the app's user. ...

Amazon today has expanded its Music Unlimited streaming service with a new subscription tier: $14.99 per month for a "Family Plan." The option supports up to six family members (at least 13-years-old) for simultaneous listening and personal recommendations. There's also an alternative payment option to pay $149 upfront for an entire year of the Family Plan, cutting the subscription down to about...

Popular task-managing app Todoist today announced a new AI-powered feature called "Smart Schedule," which intelligently takes into account user habits and pre-existing tasks to organize and schedule tasks on its own. The company said that it created the feature because so many of its users -- 70 percent in total -- face unfinished tasks each day. With Smart Schedule, Todoist hopes that...

Reddit today updated its official iOS app to version 2.0, fixing a few bugs for Reddit Live as well as introducing full support for the iPad. The first-party app, which launched in April of this year, has been available only for the iPhone and iPod touch until today. On the iPad, Reddit keeps essentially all of the same features and tabs that users can expect: timeline, subscriptions, inbox, ...

Almost three months after news first broke that Twitter was planning to launch new features in order to address a bevy of concerns leveled at the company in regards to bullying and harassment among its users, the company today announced the launch of a few anti-abuse steps it'll be taking to make its platform more inclusive. The final product is slightly different from what was detailed in...

Nintendo today confirmed that its iOS endless runner game, Super Mario Run, will launch on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch on December 15 for $9.99, a price that will allow users "full access" to the game's three modes. Players will also be able to download the game for free, gaining limited access to elements from each mode so that they can try out the game before deciding whether or not they want...

Music-recognizing app Shazam retains access to the Mac's microphone, keeping it in a constant on state, even when Shazam has been turned off. The potentially worrisome feature was discovered by security researcher Patrick Wardle, who developed an app called "OverSight" to warn users of when other apps are using their webcam and microphone. After its launch, one OverSight user contacted Wardle and ...

Apple today announced the release of a new hardbound photo book, called "Designed by Apple in California," that chronicles 20 years of Apple product designs through 450 photographs. The book ranges from the iMac in 1998 to the Apple Pencil in 2015, and "also documents the materials and techniques used by Apple’s design team over two decades of innovation." It is dedicated in the memory of...

Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, recently continued the company's stance against turning its desktop and laptop devices into touch screen-enabled computers, which some customers believe could be advantageous additions to the macOS platform. With the new addition of the "Touch Bar" on the MacBook Pro line, seen by some as a potential step towards a full-on Mac...

Samsung Electronics has announced that it will spend $8 billion to purchase Harman International Industries Inc, a company which designs and manufactures connected automobile infotainment systems. The buyout of Harman is Samsung's "largest ever overseas acquisition" and sets up the company to become the "go-to supplier" for automobile accessories and systems (via Bloomberg). Harman's...

Microsoft plans to launch its integrated developer environment Visual Studio for the Mac later this week, turning its cloud-first development program into a cross-platform experience that developers can use on both Mac and Windows. Although the official press release has since been deleted, TechCrunch spotted the news and noted that the launch of Visual Studio on the Mac is expected to happen...

A collection of companies based in the United States could face "impaired" blowback if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his campaign plan of imposing a 45 percent tariff on imports from China, as well as considering China "a currency manipulator." According to Chinese newspaper Global Times, these actions will not only negatively affect China's reputation, but "the trade...

Apple today opened up a new section of its iOS App Store called "For Those Who Serve" in honor of Veterans Day today, November 11. The company said that the collection of apps within the new category focus on "the latest military news, essential health and wellness info, and other valuable tools for everyday life." Each app in the section can be found listed below. News - MarinesMobile [Dire...

In September, Yahoo confirmed that at least 500 million of its users' accounts had been compromised during an attack in late 2014. Now, in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, it was revealed that the company knew about the hack when it originally happened in 2014, but waited two years to divulge it to the public (via TechCrunch) Describing the investigation, the new...