Podcast+ Pro picks up a substantial update with several new features in tow
Podcast+ Pro has today been updated to version 4.3. Today’s release bundles numerous new improvements and features to really add something special to the user experience. We previously looked at the app last month when it was temporarily available for free to celebrate the New Year.
WSJ: Apple cut watch health features due to erratic sensors
Apple apparently wanted its smartwatches to focus heavily on health-related features, but the company was forced to changed direction mid-development. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company originally envisioned a device that can monitor heart rate, blood pressure and stress levels (based on the conductivity of the skin). Unfortunately, the sensors they tested just didn’t pass muster, which isn’t entirely surprising, since we’ve reviewed plenty of wearables with patchy heart rate monitors in the past. The company’s engineers found that hairy arms, dry skin and even how tightly the watch is worn can affect the results, and they didn’t find a solution in time.
Apple Watch became known as a black hole within the company, the WSJ’s sources said, as it continued sucking in resources for four years despite all the failures during testing. Its development slowed down once the company realized that a health-focused watch that meets its standards will be very hard to build at this time. The lineup of watches due out in April are a lot different from the original one Apple envisioned and are more of an iPhone companion with a much simpler pulse monitor and pedometer.
Still, the company’s expecting to sell a ton, reportedly ordering around 6 million units from its Asian suppliers just for the first quarter. Half of those are the entry-level Apple Watch Sports, while the mid-tier stainless steel model makes up a third of that number. As for Cupertino’s original vision, well, there’s always a chance that we’ll see it come to life in the coming years. The company has a good track record of substantially improving its devices after a debut model appears — the first iPhone didn’t have 3G.
Via: 9to5mac
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Talk2Watch Pro updated with caller ID support and access to the Pebble appstore
If you’re a Pebble smartwatch owner, you’ll probably be using the Talk2Watch app with your BlackBerry 10 smartphone to make use of it. While a couple of other third party apps came before it, Talk2Watch was the one with the most features available. Today, a long awaited updated has come to the pro version and it brings a really nice bunch of new features.
One of the biggest additions is the Pebble appstore. At the moment, in order to update your Pebble watch firmware or install watch apps and faces, you would need to install the Pebble app Android port. No need anymore. You have access to the official appstore. The developer went out to Pebble HQ to attend one of the developer events and was given access to it. He also works closes with the Pebble team, so the app is recognized by Pebble.
The other feature that people have been waiting is caller ID. Due to API limitations, this could not be implemented before but with BlackBerry OS 10.3, BlackBerry made APIs available for the phone app and caller ID is now available with Talk2Watch Pro.
Full Talk2Watch Pro v30.0.1.6 changelog
Pebble
- App store integration
- Install watchfaces and firmware updates
- Execute javascript watchfaces/-apps (not all will work but many of them)
- App bank, app locker
- Sports mode is working again
Phone
- caller id
- send sms/emails from the watch
Notifications
Calendar
- Account filter
- Notification time is the same as on the BlackBerry
Messages
- Account filter working again
- ‘Mark as read’ function
- Feed
BBM
Superb free gaming today with Bamba – courtesy of the Amazon Appstore
Amazon’s free app of the day today is a real gem. I hadn’t heard of Bamba before this morning but as soon as I saw it was available I downloaded it to my Passport and it was instantly clear that this one was worth sharing.
Tilt Now gets updated with new free color themes
Just a quick heads up for you folk that like to use Tilt Now on your BlackBerry 10 device. The native location based app that provides you with a beautiful aminated list of what’s around you has been updated to version 2.3.0.1 and as well as a few bug fixes there are also three new color themes introduced at no extra cost.
Pebble app version 2.3 hits the Play Store with Android Wear compatibility
Pebble recently announced that they were bringing Android Wear compatibility and actionable notifications to their smartwatch platform, and those features have finally gotten the green light for users. The update is available on the Play Store and brings the Pebble application to version 2.3. This update will let any Android Wear app work with the watch, plus you’ll get the ability to quick reply to text messages with some predefined responses.
You’ll also see some bug fixes, as well as the new option for apps and watch faces to update while Pebble is idle. You can see the full changelog below.
Android Wear Notifications. Reply and act on Android Wear notifications (requires Firmware v2.9+). See http://pbl.io/f for full details.Pebbler-defined replies. Set your own replies to notifications (up to 5, so get creative, buddy!).Reply from Pebble using most Android-compatible SMS messaging appsAutomatic app and watchface updates when Pebble is idle.Support for Android 4.0+ devicesFixed Issues with Whatsapp notificationsUTF-8 support in PebbleKit JSBug fixes and stability improvements
Come comment on this article: Pebble app version 2.3 hits the Play Store with Android Wear compatibility
Sony releases official SmartEyeglass app, demo video for SmartEyeglass Attach
The signs that Sony is getting close to releasing their head-mounted wearable devices are starting to add up. Last week we saw an FCC filing surface for the SED-E1 accompanied by the release of official social media apps for Facebook and Twitter intended to operate on SmartEyeglass devices. Now Sony has released their own dedicated app for SmartEyeglass to the Google Play store.
The SmartEyeglass app is intended for the same model, SED-E1, that just passed through the FCC. According to Sony’s description, the app will be used to control different settings of SmartEyeglass and manage the apps the device can access.
Sony has also released a video that demonstrates their SmartEyeglass Attach device, which is supposed to be the version of SmartEyeglass that can be attached to any pair of eyeglass or sunglasses. This contrasts with Google Glass which has a dedicated frame that the unit rides on. The demo video also shows some use cases indicating how Sony sees the device being able to augment reality for the user.
You can check out the video below and the Google Play listing for SmartEyeglass using the links below.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Come comment on this article: Sony releases official SmartEyeglass app, demo video for SmartEyeglass Attach
Samsung overtakes Apple, jumps to number 3 in Reputation Quotient in Harris Poll
The Harris Poll has released the results of their annual poll of corporate reputation and Samsung has moved all the way up to number 3 in the rankings, surpassing Apple along the way for the first time. Samsung moved from seventh in the prior year while Apple fell from third down to ninth. Some other notable tech companies also made the top ten including Amazon at number two and Google slid in to the tenth place.
Amazon continues to be one of the strongest performers year after year on the strength of their breadth of products, customer focus and public trust, although they did get supplanted at the top by Wegmans Food Markets. Meanwhile, both Microsoft and Sony slipped out of the top ten even as Google managed to slide in to grab the final top ten spot.
On the longer list, Sprint Corporation found itself as one of the biggest gainers from 2014 to 2015, gaining 5.3 points to land in the 72nd spot on the list of the top 100. Competitor Verizon found itself in the 66th spot and the leader amongst telecom companies.
The poll asks respondents to rate companies on 20 different attributes that are grouped into six dimensions of corporate reputation:
- Social responsibility
- Emotional appeal
- Products and services
- Workplace environment
- Financial performance
- Vision and leadership
The Reputation Quotient, or RQ, is the sum of the ratings on the 20 attributes divided by the total number of attributes answered multiplied by seven. That result is then multiplied by 100 to give a final RQ score with the maximum being 100. Wegmens Food Markets top score was 84.36.
source: Harris Poll
via: SamMobile
Come comment on this article: Samsung overtakes Apple, jumps to number 3 in Reputation Quotient in Harris Poll
[New Android Wear App] Get news delivered to Android Wear with PaperWear
Watch any television show from days gone by and chances are good you will see someone break out a newspaper to get caught up on current events. The advent of online news sources delivered via computers and then mobile devices like tablets, smartphones and e-readers have changed the way “news” is created and how it is delivered. The explosion of interest in smartwatches is leading some to look to these new devices as yet another vector to deliver news as seen with the new PaperWear app released to Google Play.
PaperWear pulls top articles from sites like Medium.com, Vox.com, qz.com and others and delivers them to a users smartwatch running Android Wear. The app will automatically refresh the article list every 12 hours although users can pull a refresh manually. If reading an article on a smartwatch is a bit too much trouble, users can save articles to a service like Pocket or read the article on their smartphone.
To get PaperWear, hit the Google Play link below.
Come comment on this article: [New Android Wear App] Get news delivered to Android Wear with PaperWear
Japan’s flip phone market grows for the first time in seven years at the expense of smartphones
Japan’s wireless industry is unique in that their carriers typically charge more for smartphones than any other country, but they also charge the least for basic phones, like flip phones. This has caused a pretty strange event in Japan where flip phones have actually grown in shipments for the first time in seven years. Inversely, that has caused smartphone shipments to decline as more and more people revert back to internet-enabled flip phones to save money.
Flip phones grew 5.7% in 2014, while smartphones shrunk about 5.3%. Smartphones shipments still hit about 27 million phones while flip phones only made up 10 million units, so if we’re looking at a pure volume standpoint, smartphones don’t have anything to worry about it. However, for manufacturers, it’s a tough market to penetrate if you’re trying to sell the latest and greatest touchscreen device. Companies like Panasonic have already left the smartphone market in Japan despite being a native Japanese company.
This news, coupled with the fact that smartphone penetration in Japan is sitting at around 98%, means there’s very, very little room for growth in Japan’s smartphone market, especially considering how long newer smartphones are capable of lasting. We’re past the point of absolutely needing to replace a phone after two years, so customers upgrade devices less often. That’s great news for consumers, but it’s a tough battle for manufacturers.
source: Reuters
Come comment on this article: Japan’s flip phone market grows for the first time in seven years at the expense of smartphones
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