Glympse brings its location sharing to connected home devices

The Internet of Things is set to expand in a big way if all the voice-controlled and Alexa-equipped tech we saw at CES last week is any indication. Glympse has been offering handy location sharing from its apps for quite some time, but now the company is diving into the connected home. With FamilyMap, Glympse allows a group of people to privately share location details not only through an app, but with the help of connect devices like smart appliances, smart TVs or a home assistant like Alexa.

What’s more, Samsung is a big partner in the push. In fact, Glympse FamilyMap works with the company’s Smart Hub 2.0 software that it announced last week for its 2017 lineup that includes 10 new connected refrigerators. Those appliances have a large display in the door where you can access news, weather and your family schedule with ease. Other companies integrating FamilyMap in their devices include Logitech, General Motors, Volvo, Logitech, Garmin, Navdy, GoGo and Mojio.

Basically, the new Glympse feature serves as a hub for your family’s location info, whether it’s a smart camera picking up when your kids get home from school, your car sharing details about your evening commute or entering info with an app on your phone. Glympse’s FamilyMap SDK is available for developers to employ now, but the company says the new tool is heading to its mobile apps “in the upcoming weeks.”

Source: Glympse

Flash Sale: Get a $100 iTunes Gift Card for $85 and More

Best Buy is holding a flash sale that offers U.S. customers a $100 iTunes gift card for $85, which is 15% off, until 12 p.m. Pacific Time. The gift card is a physical version delivered with free two-day shipping to most U.S. addresses.

iTunes gift cards can be used to purchase apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books, and more on the App Store, iTunes Store, the iBooks Store, and the Mac App Store. The credit can also be used towards an Apple Music subscription. The gift cards can be used on iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Mac, or PC.

If you are reading about this deal after it has expired, be sure to check out Best Buy’s other deals on Apple products this week, including $100 off select iPad and MacBook Pro models and discounted Apple Watch models. U.S. only.

MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy and may get paid if you click one of the above links and make a purchase.

Tags: deals, Best Buy
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Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of iOS 10.2.1 to Developers and Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 10.2.1 update to developers and public beta testers, a few days after seeding the third iOS 10.2.1 beta and a month after releasing iOS 10.2, the second major update to the iOS 10 operating system.

Registered developers can download the fourth iOS 10.2.1 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.

It isn’t yet known what features are included in iOS 10.2.1, but as a minor 10.2.x update, it appears to focus on bug fixes and performance improvements rather than major outward-facing changes. No new features were discovered in the first three iOS 10.2.1 betas, but we’ll update this post if any changes are found in the fourth beta.

iOS 10.2.1 follows the release of iOS 10.2, a significant update that brought Unicode 9 emoji, a new TV app, Messages Screen Effects, Music improvements, and a whole slew of bug fixes.

Related Roundup: iOS 10
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Court Rules Apple Can be Sued for Monopolizing iPhone App Market

A U.S. Appeals Court today ruled that App Store customers can move forward with a lawsuit claiming Apple created an illegal app monopoly because it did not allow users to purchase iPhone apps outside of the App Store, reports Reuters.

The decision reverses a 2013 ruling that dismissed the lawsuit, originally filed in 2012. The case, Pepper et al v. Apple Inc., alleges that by not letting users purchase apps from third-party sources, there was no price competition, leading to higher app prices.

When the lawsuit was originally filed, Apple requested that it be dismissed because developers, not Apple, set prices for App Store apps. Apple simply provides the platform developers use to sell apps to customers.

According to today’s ruling, because iPhone users purchase the apps directly from Apple, they have the right to file a lawsuit against the company.

An attorney for the plaintiffs in the case told Reuters that the aim of the lawsuit is to allow people to shop for iPhone apps wherever they want, an outcome that’s unlikely due to security implications.

But if the challenge ultimately succeeds, “the obvious solution is to compel Apple to let people shop for applications wherever they want, which would open the market and help lower prices,” Mark C. Rifkin, an attorney with Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz representing the group of iPhone users, told Reuters in an interview. “The other alternative is for Apple to pay people damages for the higher than competitive prices they’ve had to pay historically because Apple has utilized its monopoly.”

The Appeals Court ruling does not address the specific monopoly allegations levied at Apple and pertains only to whether or not Apple can be sued for this issue.

Tag: App Store
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