Apple has its sights set on another industry ripe for reinvention: the mobile healthcare and fitness world. Apple currently plans to release a new version of the iPhone operating system this year with health and fitness tracking integration as its headline feature, according to sources briefed on the plans. Apple’s work on such an operating system likely indicates that Apple is nearing the introduction of its long-awaited, sensor-laden “iWatch,” which sources say is well into development…
Pedometer++ rose to fame after developer David Smith moved quickly to have an M7-enabled fitness app available for the iPhone 5s. The newest update builds on the original in several key ways. Importantly, it changes the design of the app from a list to a chart-centric format showing one week of activity at a time. You can flip through a week at a time, a big improvement of the previous layout.
The tint color of the app indicates the current day’s progress towards the daily step goal. If you have hit your daily limit, it changes the feel of the entire look. The navigation bar, buttons and titles turn green to reflect your achievement. It’s a really clever detail that just adds that extra level of polish to the app.
Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature.
Today’s can’t miss deals:
Best Buy 2-Day Doorbusters: $100 off all Apple MacBooks and 21″ iMac for $1,150 ($150 savings)
Game/App Deals: Up to 70% off 2K iOS games, Tilt to Live: $1 (Reg. $3), 100 Rogues: $1 (Reg. $3), iOS freebies, more
Samsung Smart 3D Blu-ray Wifi BluRay player (refurb): $55 shipped. Add Godfather series Blu-ray for an offer you can’t refuse
Today’s your last chance to get a free copy of Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour for iOS http://t.co/dwzk8CQ1ue
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) January 31, 2014
Other great deals from today:
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Just months before the original Mac debuted 30 years ago, it was deeply troubled by an in-house 5.25″ flimsy floppy-disk drive it relied on called the Twiggy (you know, for it’s flimsiness). This was replaced by a more stable 3-inch Sony drive before shipping, but the Twiggy Macs had more than just a different drive.
Interestingly, the operating system featured a Steve Jobs rendtion of Microsoft’s dreaded, now retired Clippy assistant. The Ashton Kutcher resemblance has never been clearer… er… pixelated.
Check out the full article for other tidbits at Cult of Mac (via Daring Fireball).
Was Apple’s long time advertising partner Lee Clow— the guy behind Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl ad, PC vs Mac, and many others— really hinting at an Apple Super Bowl ad for this Sunday? Would you like to see a commercial from Apple at the game this weekend?
NFL Super Bowl XLVIII between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks officially kicks off this Sunday at 6:30pm ET in chilly New Jersey, and this year there are a few options for live streaming the game from your iPhone or iPad. It’s going to be tough to get an official stream on your iPhone if you’re not a Verizon and NFL subscriber, but all iPad (and Mac) users will be able to get an official stream of pre-game coverage and the actual game for free through FOX in the US. Head below for all the info on what apps will have live streams and the best places to find Super Bowl ads, replays, and more.
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If you’ve decided you’ve waited long enough for Apple to update the Mac mini with a Haswell processor, you can always create a Hac mini.
A user posting on the Hacintosh site tonymacx86.com has documented his successful squeezing of an Intel DH61AG motherboard with i3-3225 CPU (55w TDP), 4GB Ram, 128GB mSATA SSD, half mini PCIe Wifi and an external Dell laptop power supply into a 2010 Mac mini case …
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Adobe VideoBite, an iOS app designed to make video editing as quick and easy as possible, has been updated to allow titles, photos and music to be added, turning it into a fully-fledged editor while retaining its simple user-interface.
Heartwarming Apple ads aside, I’ve always been rather skeptical of the real-world practicality of video editing on a phone, but I have to confess that VideoBite does make it a very slick process. Trimming clips, for example, involves nothing more than pressing a heart icon at the beginning and end of the bit you want to keep. Adding transitions and music is just as easy, and your finished masterpiece is saved to your camera roll, with exports to Facebook, YouTube and email also supported …
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A couple of weeks after describing Google as more innovative than Apple, and suggesting that Tim Cook was vulnerable to a shareholder revolt if he didn’t quickly release disruptive new products, Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson has downplayed his remarks in a round-table discussion on Bloomberg TV.
I think [Google is] very innovative. I was not trying to contrast it to Apple or something. I know, all the Apple fans got mad […]
The one thing I will say is innovation is great, but it ain’t everything. It’s not the holy grail. Execution is what really matters, and Apple is the best at execution …
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A week following the previous seed, Apple has provided build 13C48 of OS X 10.9.2 beta to registered developers. The new beta has yet to appear on the Apple online developer portal, but it is available in Software Update on the Mac App Store. The previous build was labeled 13C44, so this new build is only a few builds newer. This indicates that Apple is nearing a public release. OS X 10.9.2 brings FaceTime Audio and blocking for iMessage and FaceTime to the Mac.
After noting my past three reports regarding Apple’s work on a sensor-packed iWatch, along with reports noting Apple hires from both the fitness and medical industries, MobiHealthNews reported that it received a tip that Apple has also hired Dr. Michael O’Reilly. According to his LinkedIn profile, O’Reilly served as Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for nearly five years at a company called Masimo. A video of a product that company created is below:
Last year it was reported that Major League Baseball fans would soon be able to take advantage of iOS 7’s iBeacon support inside professional baseball stadiums. The technology would be utilized in the MLB.com At The Ballpark app to customize the app’s interface to any given ballpark.
The app could direct users to their seats or points of interest such as concessions stands. Similar to Passbook’s lockscreen functionality, plans were also reportedly underway to allow the app to automatically present a ticket upon entering the gate.
Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang spoke to CNNMoney about his company’s recent acquisition of Motorola from Google today. In the interview, Yang was asked if his goal for Lenovo was to eventually catch up with more established competitors in the mobile space, such as Apple and Samsung.
With Motorola, Lenovo will be the No. 3 smartphone maker worldwide. Do you think your company can catch up with Apple or Samsung, who are still far ahead of you? And how long will it take?
Definitely, over time. Our mission is to surpass them.
Yang says that Lenovo’s smartphones will probably be released under the Motorola banner, a smart branding decision given Motorola’s existing name recognition and popularity in the U.S. and other countries.
The branding choice combined with the infrastructure and personnel from the Moto buyout could help propel the company to the top of the market, but it will be a hard road to the level of success that Yang is after—especially with Apple and Samsung already locked in a fierce, years-long battle for the top spot.
Throughout the interview, Yang continued to note that several decisions still need to be made with regards to how phones will be branded in certain countries and whether the Lenovo name will be associated with Motorola at all. It will certainly be interesting to see how Yang uses the Motorola brand to push Lenovo forward.
When Apple reported its Q1 2014 earnings results this week, it couldn’t deny the fact that, as Tim Cook put it, “iPod is a declining business.” That’s because Apple’s results showed it only sold a little over 6 million iPods in the holiday quarter— about half of what it sold the same time the year before. That sparked endless headlines (pictured above) that the iPod is dead, but Apple appears to at least have one more new iPod product launch in the works.
We’ve discovered a few job listings posted on the company’s website looking for managers to facilitate a new product launch for iPod.
Several listings for New Product Introduction Operations Program Managers are seeking individuals to oversee and manage an iPod product launch by working with OEMs, the product teams, and suppliers:
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I’ve recently found myself wishing there was a space between banners and alerts with OS X’s notification system. Alert style notifications that require manually dismissing can be rather annoying, but quick banner notifications often fly by before I’ve had time to glance at the information. It turns out despite not having a toggle in the system preferences, a little Terminal code shared by OS X Daily allows you to toggle the duration down to the second…
Be sure to follow 9to5Toys to keep up with the best gear and deals on the web: Twitter, RSS Feed, Facebook, Google+ and subscribe to the new Safari push notifications feature.
Today’s can’t miss deals:
Last Call updates:
Apple AirPort Extreme (6th gen) 802.11ac wireless base station $169 shipped (Reg. $199)
Headphone Deals:
HooToo USB 3.0 Hubs: 7-port $27 (Reg. $65), 4-port slim bus-powered $11 (Reg. $15)
Other great deals from today:
Sony RX100 Cyber-shot 20.2 MP digital camera w/ Carl Zeiss lens (black): $400 shipped (Reg. $650) http://t.co/NdKmrrZd68
— 9to5Toys (@9to5toys) January 29, 2014
More great deals still alive:
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Evernote pushed out a nice update to its iOS app today that brings a new customizable homescreen that will offer a few ways for users to personalize their experience. First off, the new home screen includes three color themes– Light, Dark, and Classic– but it will also now let users “add, remove, and rearrange sections” and quickly hide & reveal details for each:
The first thing you’ll notice are the redesigned New Note buttons that now sit at the top of the screen. They’re big, clear and easy to tap. Right above them, is the Settings gear. Tap it to get to the home screen customization options.
Also new in today’s update is the ability to automatically save scanned business cards to your contacts and adjust the quality of audio notes to “optimize for sound or file size.” Another new option will put the sync status bar below the Settings gear. In addition, Evernote said in a blog post that the new app is faster and more responsive:
We’ve made the app snappier and more responsive. For example, titling and retitling notes is now approximately a lot faster. Tap into the note title and the cursor pops in right away, note title suggestions appear to make things even quicker. We’ve also tweaked the note editor to make frequently used features easy to find. No more delays. In and out.
Version 7.3.0 of Evernote for iPhone and iPad is available on the App Store now.
If you jump back to calendar Q3 2013, Apple was falling behind Samsung in US smartphone marketshare with just 34% of the market compared to Samsung’s 38%. The theory at the time was that US buyers were holding out for the new iPhones that launched in September. Fast forward to last quarter, the three month period ended December 31, and that theory appears to be holding up. Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) just sent over its latest reports showing Apple has once again taken the lead thanks to a strong holiday quarter of iPhone sales.
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PayPal is clearly feeling the threat posed by Apple’s plans to use Touch ID to facilitate payment for physical goods from other retailers: re/code is reporting that the company has offered to help.
PayPal is essentially willing to white label parts of its payment service to be used in an Apple mobile payments system — anything from fraud detection to back-end infrastructure, even possibly down to the processing of payments.
“They’re telling them, ‘We’ll do it in the background,” one of these people said. “Basically, it’s just, ‘We want to be a part of this.’”
The plea is likely as desperate as it sounds, with two of the three payment industry execs re/code spoke to saying it’s unlikely Apple has any need of PayPal’s assistance. Apple has over 575 million iTunes accounts, most linked to credit cards, and already allows purchases from its own retail stores using the Apple Store app on iPhones. Apple also has patents in place for payment via both NFC and Bluetooth electronic wallet systems, so there doesn’t appear to be any part of the process the company couldn’t handle unaided.
PayPal’s relationship with Apple seems set to remain limited to that of a payment option for iTunes and online store purchases, and a reseller of iTunes gift cards.
Last October I reviewed Launch Center Pro for iOS 7 and shared a few actions and shortcuts I found useful. Today Contrast is out with Launch Center Pro for iPad, and it’s just as neat for anyone wanting to build shortcuts and more efficient workflows on the iPad.
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Meatbags beware: the App Store’s most popular sadistic artificial intelligence is back. CARROT Fit, a brand new app from the creator of the to-do and alarm clock apps in the CARROT family, was launched today.
The latest addition to the CARROT family is designed to help you get your massive bloated body into something resembling a respectable shape.
Google CEO Larry Page (centre) with Nest co-founders Matt Rogers amd Tony Fadell (photo: technologyreview.com)
‘Father of the iPod’ Tony Fadell (right) and the rest of the Nest team will become Google’s “core hardware group,” working on a variety of hardware projects and given access to “as many resources as it needs,” according to an unnamed source cited by TechCrunch.
The new division will still work on hardware devices, but not necessarily thermostats or smoke detectors. In fact, Google would like Fadell to work on gadgets that make more sense for the company. Will it be a phone or a tablet? It’s unclear for now […]
When it comes to budget, Google is willing to let the Nest team use as many resources as it needs. In other words, the company is getting serious about consumer hardware, and Motorola was just a false start …
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SwiftKey, a popular Android keyboard option, has arrived on iOS. No, not as a keyboard that you can install to replace Apple’s iOS touchscreen keyboard, but in the form of a free App Store application. The name of the application is SwiftKey Note and it is available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. More details below:
The UK’s Office of Fair Trading has today published its final “principles” for free-to-play games, after starting an investigation back in April last year. Publishers have until April 1st to comply to the regulations or their titles breach UK consumer law and may result in legal action …
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Facebook has made many changes to its newsfeed over the years (each usually generating howls of protest on launch and then viewed as business as usual within a week or two), but the interface on web and iOS app alike has seen only minor tweaks. Popup photos aside, it’s essentially remained a clean but uninspiring scrolling layout.
All this is set to change with the launch of Paper, a new iOS-only app set to launch in the U.S. on 3rd February.
Paper makes storytelling more beautiful with an immersive design and fullscreen, distraction-free layouts. We’ve also made it easier to craft and share beautiful stories of your own …
