See the Heartwarming Message Ariana Grande Left for Her Fan

After facing rumors that she's difficult to work with, Ariana Grande is proving that she's a total sweetheart when it comes to her fans! The singer recently posted a screen shot of a direct message she sent to fan named Maya, offering her advice and support.

The Arianator asked for help about feeling confident in her own skin, and Ariana responded with a long and heartfelt message about working hard on loving yourself.

She wrote in the caption, "Life is a gift and there is no need to waste it hating on the things we can't control."

Obviously, we think it's totally sweet that Ariana took the time to write such a personal message to a fan who's having a rough time. The singer has struggled with only wanting to be photographed from one side of her face, so she can probably relate to her fans' struggles with self-acceptance.

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Did Harry Styles Admit He Wants to Go Solo?

One Direction constantly denies the rumors that they're breaking up and claims they want to keep making music together for a long time, so we were shocked by what Harry (didn't) say at their recent press conference! While promoting their new album Four, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne bothconfessed that they would never be able to leave the group. But Harry Styles — who is alwaysrumored to be going solo — kept completely silent.

Louis and Liam gushed about how much they value having a support system in the other members of 1D, and how they would never want to give that up.

“I personally don’t think I’d be able to do it as a solo artist," Louis said. "It’s very intense and hard to comprehend, so it’s good to be able to speak to people who obviously know exactly what you personally are going through."

“Yeah and it’s nice to have somebody there every day who’s going through exactly the same stuff you are," Liam added. "It’s beautiful being in this position but it’s also difficult at times. It’s nice to have guys you can turn to."

Meanwhile, Harry didn't say a thing! While his rep has called his solo rumors false multiple times, we're definitely wondering why the 1D guy didn't speak up. We know how much he loves his bandmates, so we're hoping that there's no secret reason why he didn't say anything.

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Apple pushes digital wallet with Apple Pay

Apple pushes digital wallet with Apple Pay

Associated Press 

NEW YORK — Apple is betting that people want to pay with a tap of the phone rather than a swipe of the card.
The technology company on Tuesday introduced a new digital wallet service called Apple Pay that is integrated with its Passbook credential-storage app and its fingerprint ID security system.
The announcement came as Apple introduced several new products including a new, larger iPhone 6 and a watch. Apple Pay is designed to let iPhone 6 owners use their smartphones to pay for purchases at brick-and-mortar stores as well as online via apps. The company says it's easier and more secure than using a credit or debit card. And it puts Apple in direct competition with services like PayPal and Google Wallet.

So-called mobile proximity payments are expected to grow exponentially over the next few years. Citi Investment Research analyst Mark May said they could grow from $1 billion in 2013 to $58.4 billion by 2017. Still, consumers will have to weigh the convenience of not pulling out a card with the possible danger of storing important financial information on their phones, particularly as retailers like Target and Home Depot report data breaches, and hackers crack celebrities' iCloud accounts.
In stores, the system uses a technology called near-field communication, which allows mobile phones to communicate with other devices at close range. Many Android phones already have a near-field communication antenna, but iPhones have not until now. Users will pay by holding a phone close to a contactless reader with their finger on the touch ID fingerprint system. It's also set to work with the Apple Watch when that debuts in 2015.

"Apple Pay will forever change the way we pay for things," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Apple addressed security concerns Tuesday, saying Apple Pay is even safer than using a plastic card. Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of Internet software and services, said credit card information will be stored on the phone via a secure chip and payments will use a one-time security code. The Find My iPhone service can erase the data if the phone gets lost or stolen — canceling a card will not be necessary. The service will be able to store Visa, MasterCard and American Express credit card information.

"A cashier doesn't see your name, credit card number or security code," when you pay with Apple Pay, Cue said. He also said Apple won't track people's financial data.
"Apple doesn't know what you bought, where you bought it or how much you paid," he said. "That transaction is between you, your merchant and your bank."

Contactless payment isn't new: Retailers like Starbucks and McDonald's already have their own contactless payment system in stores, and Apple Pay is similar to Google Inc.'s Google Wallet, which is available on Android smartphones and iPhones. But Apple Pay adds some security features and makes a digital wallet option more accessible for iPhone users. About 15 percent of smartphones are iPhones, according to research firm IDC.

The service will be available beginning in October. Retailers will need to invest in updating their cash registers and point-of-sale units. Apple said department stores like Macy's and Bloomingdales, drugstores including Walgreen's and Duane Reade, and other stores including McDonald's, Staples, Subway and Whole Foods are participating in Apple Pay.

But some of the largest retailers are not participating. Wal-Mart said it has no plans to participate. Amazon.com did not respond to a request for comment. And Target said it is currently participating only via its app.

"We know mobile is becoming the front door to Target, and we're focused on creating the best possible mobile experiences for our guests," Senior Vice President Jason Goldberger said in a statement. "We're thrilled to support Apple Pay to streamline how our guests pay in the Target app - this absolutely makes purchasing from Target's mobile app easier than ever."

Gartner analyst Avivah Litah said the payment system will only succeed if major retailers get behind it. Apple's security features are a plus for merchants, but it's not clear if that will be enough.
"It's 50-50 if merchants will get on board," she said. "The security aspects are attractive, but it's not clear if the security features alone are going to be enough of a selling point."

IDC analyst James Wester said the move is in some ways Apple playing catch up to Google Wallet, but that the system uses Apple's fingerprint technology is a plus.

"It's not that different than what other mobile wallets have done," he said. "The important part is that it's Apple. We've been waiting for them to get into this."

Citi analyst May said eBay Inc.'s PayPal is the closest competitor to Apple Pay, but PayPal shouldn't be overly concerned since near-field communication and digital wallet payments are less than 1 percent of its business. In addition, consumer adoption of Apple Pay remains uncertain.

"That said, Apple has raised the bar for the digital wallet category, not only for offline point-of-sale but potentially also for m-commerce, which is more directly competitive with PayPal today," he said.
For its part, PayPal's chief product officer, Hill Ferguson, emphasized PayPal's relationships with merchants and customer service, and the fact that it can work across devices.

"Businesses and consumers don't want to be restricted to a particular device or hardware," he said.

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Ariana Grande Slams Rumors That She's Horrible to Work With

Ariana Grande has already been the subject of major drama after she was accused of throwing a tantrum at a charity event, but now the singer faces even more rumors that she's horrible to work with! Reports have emerged describing her insane list of demands and crazy photo shoot requirements, which Ariana completely denied during an interview with Mike E and Emma on 96.1.

"It was just a photographer or something who got mad at me because I left to change my outfit mid-photo shoot because I didn't like my top," she said.

"I was like, 'Oh, I'll be right back!' and then I came back and he had left. And then he came out and said all these ridiculous untrue things about me. I was like, 'That's not real. That's nonsense!'"

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Apple Now Has The Strongest, Most Diverse Line Of iPhones In History — And That's The Only Thing That Matters

Apple Now Has The Strongest, Most Diverse Line Of iPhones In History — And That's The Only Thing That Matters 

Jay Yarow
Business Insider 

Here's what you need to know about Apple's mega event — the iPhone line looks great, and that's all that matters.
Apple is the iPhone company. It gets 53% of its revenue, and ~70% of its profits from the iPhone. As long as Apple can keep iPhone sales chugging, it's going to keep doing well.
Today, it put the iPhone line up on steroids.

Starting September 19th, Apple will be selling four different iPhone models and all of them are really good phones at a relatively diverse number of price points. Here is the complete line with pricing on a two year contract. For the off-contract price, just add $400. (What's not pictured here is the iPhone 4S, which will likely be circulated in emerging markets like India for ~$300.)


Apple now has an iPhone for just about everyone. If you want a mid-range phone, buy the iPhone 5C. If you want a premium phone with a small screen, buy an iPhone 5S. Want a big screen phone? Get the iPhone 6. Want a phablet, and money is no object, get the iPhone 6 Plus.
For years, analysts have been pounding the table for Apple to introduce a "cheap" iPhone for the mass market. Apple has resisted, claiming it doesn't want to make the most phones, just the best phones.

Apple isn't making a "cheap" phone, but it has very slyly introduced a low cost option with the 5C. And the 5C is still a really good phone.
But, Apple has managed to differentiate its high end phones with big screens, and exclusive features for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus like Apple Pay, its new mobile payments system. The two iPhone 6 models also have a motion tracking chip and a finger print scanner that make them a cut above the 5C.

Also, Apple has managed to raise the price of the iPhone with the iPhone 6 Plus. This is going to boost Apple's sales and margins. Or, at minimum, offset any margin pressure if the 5C sells really well.

Apple Pay, Apple's mobile payments system is another thing analysts have been saying Apple should do for years. It's too early to say how well it's going to work, but if Apple's demo is close to real life, this is a genuine game changer. It's going to change how people pay for stuff.
Apple Pay may not generate much in terms of revenue initially, but because it's an iPhone exclusive product, it's going to lead to more iPhone sales, and that's all that matters. Again, Apple is the iPhone company.

When it comes to satisfying the analysts, Apple didn't stop at just the big iPhone and Apple Pay. It also introduced a new product category, the Apple Watch.
Frankly, the Apple Watch looks very much like a first generation product. It seems a bit bulky and not as sleek and sexy as we would expect from Apple. The demo for the Apple Watch was a bit clumsy with Apple saying you could look at photos and maps on the watch. Why would you do that on the watch when you have a big new iPhone?

Where the watch looks genuinely useful was when Apple showed people working out with it. It had all sorts of data for tracking a workout.

We're guessing the first version of the watch sells well, but isn't a blockbuster. However, Apple very quickly refines its products making them thinner, and better — think about about the iPad Air today versus the original iPad. We expect the same is going to happen with the Apple Watch, and then it will be a big success.

In terms of Apple's business, the iWatch isn't going to make much of a dent, but that's okay.
The only thing that matters is the iPhone, and it's never looked better for Apple. 

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Microsoft Said To Be Close To Purchasing Minecraft’s Parent Company For Around $2B

Microsoft Said To Be Close To Purchasing Minecraft’s Parent Company For Around $2B

Alex Wilhelm

TechCrunch

It appears that Microsoft is prepping to follow Facebook into the YOLO territory of gaming acquisitions. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the software giant will buy the gaming company behind the mega-hit Minecraft for around $2 billion, perhaps as early as this week.
The deal, which Microsoft can well afford with its nearly $86 billion in cash and equivalents, would bring a popular title into the company’s software domain.
The purchase would be massively ironic given that Markus Persson, Minecraft’s founder, has been hailed by some in the gaming community for his criticisms of Microsoft, especially its Windows 8.x operating system.

Microsoft has several irons in the gaming fire: Its Xbox line of games, Xbox on Windows Phone, and, of course, games sold through its several applications stores that are part of its operating system platform.

The oddity here is that Microsoft tends to build platforms that other companies and developers then build on top of, and has tended to have less of a focus on building games itself. Perhaps with the Minecraft deal, Microsoft is looking to change that fact.
You can imagine a few synergies: Bundling Minecraft with new devices, adding exclusive content for Windows users, and the like.

Minecraft has become a sensation, with a gameplay set around free-play, the creation of virtual worlds that are bent to the whim of the user, and are generally limited only to the creativity of the user playing. The game has also spread its roots into the physical world, with toys sourced from in-game creatures finding retail homes at Walmart, Toy R Us, and other locations.

Facebook recently spent $2 billion on Oculus, a virtual reality gaming headset. If Microsoft buys Minecraft, expect a bevy of hilariously bad op-eds parsing why the deal makes great sense.
Microsoft declined to comment.

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Meet The Apple Watch

Meet The Apple Watch

Frederic Lardinois

TechCrunch

During its iPhone 6 launch event this morning, Apple announced the Apple Watch, its first foray into the world of wearable tech. It’s a smartwatch with inductive charging, a square face, sapphire glass, swappable bands, a heartbeat sensor and a rotating digital crown.

Users will be able to choose between six different straps, including a sport band, a leather loop, a classic leather buckle and a stainless steel strap that is easily adjustable. The watch will come in two different sizes and three different collections: Watch, Watch Sport and Watch Edition.

Unsurprisingly, the Apple Watch will only work in conjunction with an iPhone, but you will need a relatively recent model, starting with the iPhone 5.

“We love to make new products that improve people’s lives. We love to make things that allow our users to make things that they could never have imagined,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said today. “We think it will redefine what people expect from its category.” He called it “the next chapter in Apple’s story.”

Cook stressed that Apple didn’t just take the iPhone and put it on your wrist. Pinch to zoom, for example, wouldn’t work on a watch. Instead, the watch has a small dial on the side — Apple calls it a digital crown with IR and LED diodes. Pressing the dial will take you to the watch’s homescreen, which users can personalize just like the watch face.

The interface makes full use of the digital crown, and developers will be able to use it for their own apps. The Apple Watch will also be using voice input through Siri.

In addition, Apple developed something it calls “digital touch” to allow you to quickly share a sketch you draw on the watch face. Given that the watch doesn’t have a keyboard, these sketches allow you to still communicate relatively complex ideas easily.

The dial also understands the difference between a simple touch and a press, and the watch will offer at least some haptic feedback.

As expected, the watch interface will heavily center around notifications and like Android Wear, it will feature the ability to send quick replies, but in a typical Apple twist, the company will look at the text and analyze that to automatically select a few possible replies. The watch also features customizable animated emoji.

By default, all standard iPhone notifications will appear on the watch homescreen, but developers will be able to create custom notifications for the Apple Watch. In addition, developers will also be able to create apps specifically for the watch and some of the brands Apple featured today include Apple, American Airlines, BMW, Nike and Starwood Hotels.

Apple itself has developed two different fitness apps for the watch, too. The “Activity” app is meant to track your movement throughout the day. The “Workout” app, on the other hand, focuses on specific sports.

Apple also built a cool way to see your photos. You start out zoomed out, with all of your photos showing as minuscule thumbnails. Then you use the crown to zoom in. The watch uses the same gesture to zoom in and out of Apple Maps, too.

Ahead of the event today, the Apple rumor mill went through its usual cycle of going from rather outlandish ideas like a solar-powered watch (an idea Apple supposedly canned pretty early on), to more realistic ideas like curved screens, scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass and the possibility that Apple could release the watch in at least two different sizes.

The early word was also that the battery life was going to be less than optimal. Over the last few days before the event, we also started hearing more about Apple integrating the watch with its rumored new NFC-based payments system. Overall, the rumors weren’t all that far off.

The Apple Watch starts at $349 and will be available “early next year.”

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Apple to reveal its next big thing

Apple to reveal its next big thing

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is poised to reveal its next big thing Tuesday in a crucial attempt to prove its technological tastemakers still have the power to mesmerize the masses.
The trend-setting company is expected to rouse the still-slumbering market for wearable computers with a smartwatch or bracelet equipped to monitor health, help manage homes and even buy merchandise.
Apple is a late arrival to this relatively new niche: several other companies already sell smartwatches that are being greeted with widespread indifference.
If any company can transform the landscape, it's likely to be Apple Inc. after the company shifted the direction of digital technology with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. Other MP3 music players, smartphones and tablet computers were first to market, but the devices didn't enthrall consumers until Apple imbued them with a sense of elegance, convenience and wizardry.
"It means more to us to get it right than to be first," Apple CEO Tim Cook explained to analysts earlier this year.

Apple is likely to provide the first peek at its wearable device at an event set to begin at 10 a.m. PDT in the same Silicon Valley auditorium where Apple's late co-founder, Steve Jobs, unveiled the industry-shifting Mac computer 25 years ago.
Rumors have been swirling that U2, one of Jobs' favorite musical groups, will perform live to promote its new album, as well as Apple's latest gadgetry, which is likely to include an iPhone with a larger screen.

As usual, Apple hasn't said what's on tap, though the company's top executives have repeatedly promised major breakthroughs without providing any details.
"The location suggests this will be a historic event and the historic aspect will be their movement into a new category," predicted technology analyst and longtime Apple watcher Tim Bajarin.
After Tuesday's glimpse, it still may be several months before people get a chance to wear the device. There's speculation that the smartwatch won't be available until early next year, although Apple is expected to take orders during the holiday shopping season.

A smartwatch or high-tech bracelet would mark the first time that Apple Inc. has rolled out a new product line since the iPad's release nearly four-and-half years ago. In that time, the Cupertino, California, company, has been sprucing up its selection of iPhones, iPads and Macs with new models each year since Jobs died in October 2011 after a long battle with cancer.
The innovation void raised questions as to whether Apple's creativity was fading under Cook, Jobs' hand-picked successor.

Those concerns have waned in recent months amid high hopes for the products Apple has lined up for the holiday shopping season. The fervor propelled Apple's stock to new highs last week, a dramatic swing in sentiment from 17 months ago when the shares were trading about 44 percent below current levels. The stock closed down less than 1 percent at $98.35 in Monday's trading.
Even with all the anticipation surrounding the potential smartwatch, the next generation of the iPhone will still be the star of Tuesday's show, as well as the main source of Apple's profits for at least the next year.

The device, likely to be called the iPhone 6, is expected to feature a screen spanning at least 4.7 inches diagonally, up from the 4-inch display on the previous models released during the past two years. Some analysts have speculated Apple may also offer an iPhone model with a 5.5-inch screen.
Any significant increase in the iPhone's size would make the device more competitive with smartphones made by Samsung Electronics and other rivals, and virtually ensure that Apple would have one of the holiday season's hottest selling items. "There is incredible pent-up demand for a larger-screen iPhone," Bajarin said.

Besides a larger screen, the new iPhone is expected to include a near-field communications chip that would enable the device to transmit payment information wirelessly to receivers at store check-in stands. The technology is expected to be accompanied with a mobile wallet feature that taps into the more than 800 million credit card account numbers that users store on Apple's remote servers to buy songs, video and apps from its iTunes stores. The mobile wallet could be secured with a fingerprint reader that Apple introduced last year on the iPhone 5S.

The mobile wallet conceivably could also work on a smartwatch or high-tech bracelet.
Apple's latest mobile software for the iPhone 6 and other recent models, iOS 8, also includes two features called HealthKit and HomeKit that represent the next step in the company's to play an even bigger role in the lives of the people tethered to its devices. The tools are designed to turn Apple's products into a suite of digital servants that do everything from monitoring a person's eating habits and exercise routines to turning on the coffee maker in the morning to turning off the lights at night.
If Apple follows its recent traditions, the free iOS 8 software will be released shortly before the iPhone 6 goes on sale later this month

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See Pics from Niall Horan's 21st Birthday Celebration

Credit: Splash News

Niall Horan's 21st birthday is coming up very soon (this weekend! September 13! Mark your calendars!), but the One Direction star celebrated his big day ahead of time with friends and family in London.

Credit:Twitter

 His bandmate Louis Tomlinson came with  Eleanor Calder

Eleanor Calder 

Louis Tomlinson

 and they looked very nice dressed in casual but coordinating styles.

Niall and Greg Horan

Credit:Twitter

Instead of your typical party cone hats, the birthday boy even had his guests wear silly masks with his face on them! 

Credit:Twitter

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Taylor Admits She Has a Major Enemy

One of the best parts of listening to Taylor Swift's music is figuring out who she wrote her songs about. While Taylor reportedly dissed Harry Styles and Kendall Jenner in her song "Shake It Off," the singer reveals that the subject of her upcoming song "Bad Blood" isn't about an ex — it's about a major female artist.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Taylor discusses her frenemy-turned-enemy.

"For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not. She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?' [Then last year] she did something so horrible. I was like, 'Oh, we're just straight-up enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy!"

"It had to do with business," Taylor said. "She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people out from under me. And I'm surprisingly non-confrontational — you would not believe how much I hate conflict. So now I have to avoid her. It's awkward, and I don't like it."

That's so sneaky! We can't believe that someone would try to sabotage Taylor's tour, especially if they're successful on their own.

We're definitely interested in finding out who it is, even though we don't have much to go on. However, we can definitely rule out Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato — they're both still friendlywith Taylor.

Our guess? We'll have to wait for the song to come out to fully decode her clues, but we think it could be about Katy Perry. They used to be photographed at award shows a lot together, but haven't been recently.

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'Telepathy' experiment sends 1st mental message

'Telepathy' experiment sends 1st mental message

Leon Neal

AFP

For the first time, scientists have been able to send a simple mental message from one person to another without any contact between the two, thousands of miles apart in India and France.
Research led by experts at Harvard University shows technology can be used to transmit information from one person's brain to another's even, as in this case, if they are thousands of miles away.
"It is kind of technological realization of the dream of telepathy, but it is definitely not magical," Giulio Ruffini, a theoretical physicist and co-author of the research, told AFP by phone from Barcelona.

"We are using technology to interact electromagnetically with the brain."
For the experiment, one person wearing a wireless, Internet-linked electroencephalogram or EEG would think a simple greeting, like "hola," or "ciao."

A computer translated the words into digital binary code, presented by a series of 1s or 0s.
Then, this message was emailed from India to France, and delivered via robot to the receiver, who through non-invasive brain stimulation could see flashes of light in their peripheral vision.
The subjects receiving the message did not hear or see the words themselves, but were correctly able to report the flashes of light that corresponded to the message.

"We wanted to find out if one could communicate directly between two people by reading out the brain activity from one person and injecting brain activity into the second person, and do so across great physical distances by leveraging existing communication pathways," said co-author Alvaro Pascual-Leone, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School.

"One such pathway is, of course, the Internet, so our question became, 'Could we develop an experiment that would bypass the talking or typing part of Internet and establish direct brain-to-brain communication between subjects located far away from each other in India and France?'"
Ruffini added that extra care was taken to make sure no sensory information got in the way that could have influenced the interpretation of the message.

Researchers have been attempting to send a message from person to person this way for about a decade, and the proof of principle that was reported in the journal PLOS ONE is still rudimentary, he told AFP.

"We hope that in the longer term this could radically change the way we communicate with each other," said Ruffini.

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Home Depot confirms payment systems were breached

Home Depot confirms payment systems were breached

Reuters

Home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc confirmed on Monday that its payment security systems have been breached, which could impact customers using payment cards at its stores in the United States and Canada.
Home Depot, however, said it has found no evidence that personal identification numbers (PINs) have been compromised, it said in a statement.
The breach was first reported by security website KrebsonSecurity on Sept. 3, which had said the problem could extend back to April and affect all of Home Depot's 2,200 stores in the United States.
Home Depot said it is focusing its investigation from April this year, after its banking partners and law enforcement agencies first notified them of the breach last week.
"We owe it to our customers to alert them that we now have enough evidence to confirm that a breach has indeed occurred," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank Blake said.
"It is important to emphasize that no customers will be responsible for fraudulent charges to their accounts."
Home Depot had said earlier it will roll out PIN- and chip-enabled cards at all its U.S. stores by the end of the year.

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