Yandex continues its push onto Android with a Launcher for low-end smartphones

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Russia’s Internet giant Yandex continues its experiments with UI. Less than a year after releasing its own browser, the company has announced a new product, Yandex Launcher that targets low-end devices running Android. Currently the launcher is available for users in Latin America, where low-end smartphones make up most of the sales and people are “more eager to try something new than elsewhere,” Yandex spokesperson Vladimir Isaev told TNW. New regions will be rolled out gradually in the future, with fine adjustments in the app recommendation system, one of the launcher’s core features. Yandex’s new product for Android shows, among other…

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Landr just took a big step towards making all recorded musicians sound better

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Although many people aren’t familiar with it, mastering is a key part of professional music-making. Often described as a ‘dark art,’ it used to require a special set of tools, a lot of time and a well-trained pair of ears, but a product called Landr has turned it into a one-click process – and a new feature could see it take work from human mastering engineers. Mastering is the final step in the production process before a song is ready to be released. First you record a song, then you mix it, adding effects and adjusting volume levels to make it…

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Roku rolls out UI refresh that lets you follow shows, actors or movies

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Roku has announced a new version of its media streaming platform today, as well as a new mobile app that better integrates its Roku Feed feature introduced earlier this year. The update, which is rolling out to devices from “mid-October,” focuses on expanding the Roku Feed to make it easier to find shows and movies you want to watch. Previously, the feed allowed you to ‘follow’ box office movie titles and would then tell you when they became available on any of the streaming services available via the Roku platform. Now, it (far more usefully) lets you follow movies, TV shows, actors…

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Twitter adds giant emoji to Direct Messages

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Twitter just unveiled a quirky new feature for direct messages:  you can now send super-sized emoji. Emojis are already a big deal in Direct Messages. We just made them bigger. Send super-sized emojis today! http://pic.twitter.com/4mBLKRQGNL — Twitter (@twitter) October 5, 2015 …And that’s it really. You can’t change the size or dynamically make them larger or smaller. They also are still regular tiny emoji if adjacent to text – the larger size only shows up when sending them independently. Still, people love their emoji. The new size is available now, and shows up on both mobile apps and the Web. ➤…

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Nylas N1 could do for email what Google Chrome did for browsing the Web

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No matter how much you like your email app, there’s probably something you’d change about it. A new client named N1 wants to bring you the changes you want — or let you design them yourself. Developed by a small firm named Nylas, N1 is open source, and accepts extensions beyond the framework the team has already laid down. The core offering focusses on “clean typography, subtle drop shadows and delightful buttons.” N1 also works with most major email providers including Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and Exchange. It runs on Mac, Windows or Linux, too. Extensions for N1 can be written in…

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Peeple shuts down its social media accounts but will launch its nicer, more boring app next week

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Controversial people-rating app Peeple took a new path today and now it seems like it’s going to be available sooner than we expected and in the form of a more pleasant app than previously reported. Originally, the cut-throat app was due to be released officially in November and let you review everyone you know. However, after deleting its social media accounts, Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray took to LinkedIn to describe the app’s new direction: You will NOT be on our platform without your explicit permission. There is no 48 hour waiting period to remove negative comments. There is no way…

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Review: Adobe Photoshop Fix is a turbo-charged retouching tool for your images

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In the wake of a huge build-up surrounding Adobe’s mysterious Project Rigel, we now have its result: Photoshop Fix. Exactly one year after a sneak peek at Adobe’s annual MAX Creativity conference — the crowd will assemble to witness the launch of the shipping version. In addition to being a retouching tool, Fix is something of an aggregator in that uses the company’s recently unveiled CreativeSync technology to gather photos from a variety of online sources, such as Creative Cloud, Lightroom, Facebook and Dropbox as well as local photos residing or captured on your device. Despite its complexity under the hood, Fix is…

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Peeple’s app has pivoted and is now completely pointless

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After her app garnered hate from around the world before it even launched, Peeple co-founder Julia Cordray decided it needed some changes. Unfortunately, they won’t make users like it any more than before. Peeple was designed to allow you to rate just about any person you know — friends, coworkers, neighbors and everyone in between. It may have had good intentions behind it, but it creates the possibility for people to be defamed quickly and easily — potentially hurting their relationships and careers in the process. Cordray took to LinkedIn to explain how she plans to make Peeple a ‘100…

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Lookmark lets you save iOS apps to download later

Lookmark
I frequently come across iOS apps that I want to try, but getting them on my device isn’t always just a click away. If I spot the app while browsing on my desktop, I need to send myself the link using PushBullet to grab it. And if it’s a free app that I want to install on another iOS device, I can’t save it to my wish list (the feature only works with paid apps). Fortunately, Lookmark makes all those problems go away. The free service, available for Chrome on desktop and iPhone or iPad, lets you save any iOS…

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