Saturday, February 01, 2014

APPLE'S NEXT MOVE: The iWatch Will Monitor Your Health And Fitness Too

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-exploring-health-tracking-iwatch-2014-1

Apple iWatch concept design

Apple is planning to make a push into health-tracking and medical devices according to two reports in the New York Times and 9to5Mac. It's likely that these efforts will eventually work their way into Apple's so-called iWatch, an wearable wrist-computer that Apple is expected to launch later this year.

Let's start with the New York Times report, which says high-level Apple executives have met with the FDA to talk about bringing medical devices and apps to market. Nick Bilton, who co-bylined the NYT report, was the first person to break the news that Apple was working on the iWatch.

Then there's the 9to5Mac report from Mark Gurman, the best Apple reporter in the world. Gurman says Apple's next version of iOS, the operating system for iPhones and iPads, will have a new app called "Healthbook" that will be used to monitor stuff like calories burned, steps taken, and weight lost. 

It's sounding more and more like Apple's iWatch is going to be a breakthrough product. Right now, smart watches are pretty dull with limited features and clunky designs. Many have compared the current state of smart watches to what smartphones looked like before the iPhone launched. 

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Friday, January 31, 2014

How the Super Bowl Turned the NYC Macy's Building Into a Massive Screen

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-the-super-bowl-turned-the-nyc-macys-building-into-1512709552

How the Super Bowl Turned the NYC Macy's Building Into a Massive Screen

There's endless Super Bowl hoopla happening in New York right now, what with the big game just days away. But you might miss one of the coolest if you don't look up: The projection-mapping specialists Moment Factory have turned the grand Herald Square facade of Macy's into an orgy of light. It's incredible. Here's how they did it.

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Sony upgrades smartphone-pairing QX10 and QX100 lens cameras with higher ISO and 1080p video capture

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/31/sony-qx10-qx100-firmware-update/

Shutterbugs who shunned traditional point-and-shoots in favor of Sony's QX10 and QX100 lens cameras can now take even better images and videos. Thanks to a firmware upgrade, both smartphone lens attachments are now capable of recording clips with a higher resolution (1,920 x 1,080) than before (1,440 x 1,080). It also cranks up the clip-ons' max ISO settings from 1,600 to 3,200 on the QX10 and from 3,200 to 12,800 on the QX100, which is bound to please those especially fond of nighttime photography. Other than these two feature boosts, folks with the more expensive QX100 get an extra shutter speed mode for their devices. Unfortunately, users can't upgrade over their phones and will have to download the firmware on a Windows (XP/Vista/7/8) or a Mac computer.

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Via: SonyAlphaRumors, Softpedia

Source: Sony (for Mac), Sony (for Win XP/Vista/7/8)

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Thursday, January 30, 2014

Japanese 'smart clothing' uses nanofibers to monitor your heart-rate (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/30/ntt-docomo-toray-smart-cloth/

Japanese mobile carrier NTT Docomo and materials developer Toray have been working on joint projects for a while and now they're publicly announcing one. Welcome Hitoe (Japanese for "one layer"), cloth that contains Toray's nanofibers that are coated in a transmittable layer. It's not the orange cloth (that's just standard material), but the nicotine-patch sized square you attach to it that does the sensing.

Place two of these on you and they'll act as electrodes, measuring your heartbeat and even offering metrics resembling a cardiogram. The plan is to connect this cleanly non-invasive health monitor to NTT Docomo's health app platform that's already on its smartphones, developing practical... soft... hardware for sale alongside it. The pitch didn't just include sports clothing, however, with pajamas and other sleepwear planned for launch. Look! There's even a little hat! The sensors will apparently survive tumbles in the washing machine and, having seen an earlier prototype late last year, we can confirm that the patches are suitably lightweight and flexible -- now the work is down to reducing that lumpy hub sensor that we also spotted. Wearable gadgets might finally be going subtle. There's a quick video from our allies at Engadget Japanese after the break.

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Source: Engadget Japanese

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Facebook announces Paper: a 'distraction-free' news reading app for iOS

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/30/facebook-paper-news-app/

Facebook is making its own play in the news app category, going up against incumbents like Flipboard and Google's own Currents service. It's called Paper and it promises a "full-screen" distraction-free layout, with the app separating out your own Facebook News feed to begin with. You can then add to that, picking from Facebook's curated themes that'll include photography, sports, food, science and design. If you feared this would be populated exclusively by giant media corps, Facebook is promising that articles will come from from well-known sites as well as "emerging voices," although it says it'll also ensure that trusted publications will be easy to spot within the mix.

Navigation from article to article is done through swipes. and you'll be able to tilt the phone and arch across bigger panoramic pictures. From the early screens that Facebook's been sharing, the social network is going heavy on the visual appeal: pictures dominate the navigation, with soft white icons laid on top of pictures for navigation -- there's certainly flashes of iOS 7 in places. Videos, full-screen, will also auto-play (we're hoping there will be a toggle for that). The app launches February 3rd and marks the premier release for the social network's Creative Labs department: more apps are promised from the team going forward.

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