Create a masterpiece on the Switch’s touchscreen in ‘Qbics Paint’

A new game coming to the Nintendo Switch promises to make good use of its touchscreen. Qbics Paint, developed by Abylight Studios, lets you sculpt and paint works of art from the comfort of your living room — or wherever else you’ve toted your Switch.

The game starts you off with a big cube made up of smaller blocks; with your fingers, you “sculpt” the blocks away to create your masterpiece. You can then paint your sculpture with a 24-color palette and set a background image from the provided stock photos. All told, there are 50 different models for players to unlock.

Abylight receiving funding for the game’s development from the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports in Spain where the company is based. And this is hardly their first foray into creative gaming. Their Music On guided series helps users play a variety of instruments like piano, guitar, and drums.

Touchscreen-exclusive games have so far been limited for Switch players. So, this might be a welcome addition for those looking to utilize the feature more and provide a different gameplay experience than you’ll find on the Xbox One or PlayStation 4. There’s no set release date yet, but Abylight expects the game to be available later this year.

Via: VentureBeat

Source: Abylight

Inside Grado Labs: A legacy of hand-built headphones

Grado Labs is a special place.

That sounds hyperbolic, but allow me to explain. Behind a graffiti-covered Brooklyn facade, there’s a small factory where the family’s namesake headphones and turntable cartridges are assembled. When you step inside the door off of Seventh Avenue into what used to be the family’s fruit market and home, a history lesson awaits. And it’s not just about this particular company, but of the audio industry as a whole. It just happens to be told through the lens of one New York City family.

Unless you’re really into headphones, it can be easy to overlook Grado Labs. The likes of Bang & Olufsen, Bose and Sony crank out new models every year — sometimes multiple new headphone options in a 12-month span. As I would discover, Grado’s smaller stature has its advantages when it comes to working with new materials and dialing in a new product. Things aren’t released until they’re ready, and sometimes that can mean years between products. The company’s last flagship headphone was introduced around 10 years ago.

Of course, a small workshop-like outfit in Brooklyn doesn’t pop up on your radar unless you’re paying close attention — the company hasn’t advertised since 1964. After spending a day with the Grado family, I now understand why they don’t need to.

Joseph Grado

The company began in 1950 when Joseph Grado, a watchmaker at Tiffany, started making phono cartridges for turntables in his kitchen. Within three years, production exceeded what Grado could reasonably make at home, so the business expanded into the building that housed the family’s fruit store around the corner. In 1965, Joseph’s nephew, John, began working there. His first job? Sweeping the floors, of course.

“I started working here as a 12-year-old,” John remembers. “I came on full-time after college in 1975. I was kind of thrown in — my uncle moved out in 1978 and he threw me into running the place.” He must like it — he’s been there for over 50 years.

John Grado bought the company from his uncle in 1990; since then, he has been the president and CEO. John explains that after the introduction of the compact disc in the 1980s, the hype around turntables started to decline. The company wasn’t selling as many phono cartridges, its sole focus since 1964.

“We knew that if we wanted to continue to exist, we had to get into something else,” he explains. “We decided on headphones.” In 1990, John built and released the company’s first line of headphones. By 2014, Grado had more than 60 models, and today, the headphone line is still growing.

“Those first three or four years, we were just barely getting by,” John says about starting in the headphone business. “No money was being made.”

John and his wife, Loretta, lived on the top floor of the same building where the company still makes headphones, phono cartridges and headphone amps today. When Grado Labs began making headphones, the couple would sit at a workbench and make new pairs every day. Some of the same equipment Joseph operated in the early days of the company is still used for very specific tasks in both cartridge and headphone production. Walking through that basement feels like you’re walking through a time capsule. And I mean that in the very best way possible.

John Grado at the company’s booth in 1995.

John admits he had bigger plans than headphones when he took over in the early ’90s, but the success of the $69 SR60 model in persuaded him to shelve ideas for a line of speakers and other audio gear. In fact, the new speakers were almost ready for production when the focus shifted primarily to headphones. A pair of the massive wooden towers sit in the listening room at Grado Labs today, prototypes of what the final versions may have looked like.

“That headphone really put us on the map — it took off like a rocket,” he says. “I also wanted to do speaker systems and electronics. I had just about finished the speaker designs when the SR60 headphone came out. When it took off, I made an executive decision, and we just stuck to the headphones.”

The company is known for making its products out of wood. In 1994, John created what would eventually become the first wooden Grado headphones: the RS1. It wouldn’t limit the use of wood to its headphones, though. In 1996, the company introduced its first wooden phono cartridge and its first headphone amp built from a single block.

When it took off, I made an executive decision, and we just stuck to the headphones.

John Grado

“We do most of the work here,” John explains. In the beginning, the company made about 25 pairs of wooden at a time there. Several models are made out of wood or feature it in some way, so it would require a massive investment to keep everything right there in Brooklyn now that Grado has increased production. John turned to a friend to do the woodwork and manufacture some metal parts at a facility in upstate New York. He enlisted another friend on Long Island to produce the headphone speakers.

What exactly is still done in Brooklyn? All of the injection molding of plastic parts for both headphones and phono cartridges takes place in the basement. There are also machines that punch metal covers for cartridges and make parts of the headphone assembly. A number of the machines have been there for decades doing the same specific jobs.

One floor up, the phono cartridges are assembled in a room next to the company’s office. All of the coils for those components are wound in-house, and that area of Grado is not unlike the back of a jewelry shop. A dozen or so employees do the very detailed work of assembling turntable cartridges with tiny tools and parts; the areas where these pieces are assembled are very similar to a jeweler’s or watchmaker’s bench. Headphone production, where all the parts are put together, is on another floor. One employee who walked me through the assembly of a pair of SR60e headphones has been there since 1994. If you own a pair of Grados, there’s a good chance she constructed them.

A tray of phono cartridges during production

John Grado runs down the list of what makes his company special. In addition to being a family-owned world-class audio-gear business, the company is able to do one-off versions of its headphones for special occasions — something most bigger mass-produced brands can’t accommodate. We’re talking a single pair for Billy Joel; a small run made of wood from a General Mills yogurt mill; two pairs of white-oak cans for E&J brandy; and limited-edition headphones from a tree just down the street in Brooklyn.

“There have been a number of things that like over the years,” John explains. “It makes it fun for us.”

Grado prides itself on building headphones for every price point without sacrificing sound quality. The entry-level SR60e retails for $79 (an even-more-affordable $49 eGrado wraparound style on-ear set uses the same drivers as the SR60). Higher-end units sell for well over $1,000. The company just announced its latest flagship model, the PS2000e, this week; at a retail price of $2,695, those will sit at the very high-end of the Grado line. When asked which model would be the best introduction for someone unfamiliar with Grado’s products, John doesn’t hesitate.

“I always start with the SR60,” he says. “A lot of people shy away from it because of the price, when some of the competition starts at $200 to $400. They listen, and they’re amazed at what you can get for $79.” He’s right. having only been exposed to some of the higher-end Grado gear, I admit wasn’t expecting much from a pair of sub-$80 headphones. I was blown away by the clarity and natural tuning.

The listening room at Grado Labs

In 2002, what once was the family living room became the place where the sound for all Grado products would be designed. Rows of vinyl are stacked neatly on the floor, ranging from blues and jazz like Clapton and Duke Ellington to newer artists like J Dilla and Jack White. John points out that the newer stuff belongs to his son, Jonathan.

“I grew up in this room,” Jonathan tells me as he and his father explain what happens in the listening room.

A number of companies have heard about this room and the system to dial-in new products; they all want to send him their gear to install. “If I do, I lose my reference point,” he explains. “This is a higher-end system, but it’s closer to what a lot of people would have at home. That’s who we’re building for.”

Grado Labs won’t be leaving the family any time soon. Jonathan returned home after a post-college stint with Sonos, and he’s now Grado’s vice president of marketing.

John and Jonathan Grado

It’s 2017, so you can’t talk about headphones without mentioning wireless. We consume most of our music digitally via streaming services and on our phones. Heck, some companies have ditched the headphone jack entirely. So, I had to ask.

John makes the comparison to closed-back headphones. “Wireless technology has never been very good, so just like closed-back, we could make them, but people would expect them to sound like our wired headphones,” he says. “And they won’t.”

It’s not all bad news if you’re a huge fan of wireless headphones, though. “We’re going to get into wireless,” he says. “We’re working on it, so it’s not out of the question. We were waiting on the technology to catch up.”

But he’s still a wired purist. “I still don’t think it will sound as good as the wired stuff,” he says. “But we feel the technology has gotten to the point where we feel it would be worth it for use to start getting our feet wet.”

The resurgence of vinyl has been documented in detail. As you might expect, that means great things for a company that once relied solely on phono cartridges to drive its business. He never imagined turntables would make such a comeback. “We never expected to still be making them in 2017,” John says.

Image credits: Grado Labs (Joseph Grado, John Grado and RS1); James Chororos (John and Jonathan Grado)

Facial recognition software can sense when a sheep is in pain

Animals can’t tell us when they’re in pain, so owners and veterinarians have to rely on other cues to help treat animals in discomfort. But determining that amount of pain might have just gotten easier: Researchers at the University of Cambridge used facial recognition software to figure out the amount of pain a sheep is in simply by looking at it.

When a sheep is hurting, it makes certain predictable facial expressions. It’s so reliable, in fact, that scientists recently introduced the Sheep Pain Facial Expression Scale (SPFES) to easily determine the amount of pain a sheep feels. However, training humans to read these facial expressions and tics is time consuming; that’s where the computer comes in.

Scientists programmed a computer to recognize sheep facial expressions, based on techniques for human face recognition. “Our multi-level approach starts with detection of sheep faces, localisation of facial landmarks, normalisation and then extraction of facial features,” says the study. Each of these items is associated with a different level of sheep pain, according to SPFES.

The computer system was able to classify 9 different sheep faces and consequently estimate their pain levels. The overall accuracy was 67 percent, which was calculated by dividing the number of detections the computer got right (double checked by a human) by the total sample size.

It’s not a breathtaking result, but it certainly is an encouraging one. The team believes they can increase accuracy with more data, and that this technique could be extended to apply to other animals such as mice, rabbits and horses. It’s a preliminary result, to be sure, but eventually this could make it much easier for veterinarians to diagnose and treat animals.

Via: Fast Company

Source: University of Cambridge

iTunes Launches Sale on ‘Iconic’ and ‘Essential’ Decade-Based Movie Collections

Apple recently opened up a limited-time sale within iTunes for a selection of movies dating back to the 1950s, which the company has grouped into “Iconic” and “Essential” collections (via Variety). The bundles include movies like Dr. Strangelove, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, and many more.

The sale starts with a group of $19.99 “Iconic” movie bundles for each decade, beginning with the 1950s, each including ten movies.

All of the movies included in every collection are listed below:

• 1950s: The Country Girl, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Sabrina, Sunset Boulevard, To Catch a Thief, War and Peace, Houseboat, A Place in the Sun, The Greatest Show on Earth, Funny Face
• 1960s: The Odd Couple, Alfie, Barbarella, Hud, Barefoot in the Park, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, In Harm’s Way, True Grit, The Italian Job, The Nutty Professor
• 1970s: Paper Moon, The Great Gatsby, Love Story, Grease, The Out-of-Towners, Harold and Maude, Heaven Can Wait, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Bad News Bears, Plaza Suite
• 1980s: The Naked Gun, Airplane!, Footloose, Urban Cowboy, Clue, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Terms of Endearment, Crocodile Dundee, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
• 1990s: Wayne’s World, Clueless, The Truman Show, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Galaxy Quest, Ghost, Kingpin, Superstar, Runaway Bride, Tommy Boy
• 2000s: Zoolander, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Tropic Thunder, Almost Famous, School of Rock, I Love You, Man, She’s the Man, Mean Girls, Old School

The “Essential” films aren’t bundled under one price point, and instead iTunes has accumulated popular films from each decade and marked them down to $4.99 each. The amount of movies included in each decade’s Essential sale ranges from 26 to nearly 100, although the 1950s are not included.

Some of the $4.99 films in each decade’s sale are listed below:

• 1960s: Dr. Strangelove, Lawrence of Arabia, The Graduate, Psycho, West Side Story
• 1970s: Rocky, Carrie, Apocalypse Now, The French Connection, Serpico, Marathon Man
• 1980s: Back to the Future, Die Hard, The Breakfast Club, Dirty Dancing, WarGames, The Thing
• 1990s: The Big Lebowski, Fight Club, American Beauty, Jerry Maguire, Reservoir Dogs, The Silence of the Lambs
• 2000s: Shaun of the Dead, Juno, (500) Days of Summer, Cloverfield, Ghost World, Legally Blonde, Bring It On

iTunes has also marked down specific categories of Essential films, including “Summer Blockbuster Essentials,” “Based on a True Story Essentials,” “Essential Actors + Directors,” and more.

Apple regularly runs sales within the movies section of iTunes, most recently giving the storefront a LEGO-themed makeover and placing some DC movies on sale to coincide with the digital release of The LEGO Batman Movie. Last year, the movies section of iTunes turned ten years old and in celebration Apple debuted bundles of ten films for $10 each.

Tag: iTunes
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Review: Elgato’s New HomeKit-Connected Eve Degree is a Sleek, Palm-Sized Temperature Monitor

Elgato recently updated its Eve lineup of HomeKit-connected products with the Eve Degree, a temperature and humidity sensor that joins the existing Eve Weather and the Eve Room.

Priced at $69.99, the Eve Degree feels like an iteration of the cheaper Eve Weather. It monitors temperature, humidity, and air pressure like the Eve Weather, but it’s smaller, better designed, and it includes an LCD display.

Design

Eve Degree is palm-sized and the tiniest of Elgato’s temperature sensors, measuring in at 2.1 x 2.1 x 0.6 inches. For comparison’s sake, the Eve Weather is a good deal larger at 3.1 x 3.1 x 1.3 inches.

The Eve Degree features a square-shaped anodized aluminum body with a temperature readout that makes it easy to see the room’s temperature without needing to check an app. Compared to the white plastic Eve Weather and the Eve Room, it’s more stylish and better able to blend in with a range of decors, plus it’s lighter so it’s easier to mount on a wall if desired.

Eve Degree compared to Eve Weather
Compared to the Eve Degree, the Eve Room and the Eve Weather look bulky, clunky, and cheap. The Eve Degree is sleeker, feels sturdier, and looks like a higher-quality product, but there is a visible logo on the front.

At the back, there’s a cutout so it can be hung with a nail, but it’s light enough that it would also stay up with an adhesive strip. Aside from the front display, there are no markings on the device. At the back, there’s a battery slot that can be opened with a coin to accommodate a CR2450 battery, and a button for turning it on, switching between temperature/humidity readings, and resetting it should the need arise.

Because it uses a replaceable CR2450 battery, the Eve Degree does not need to be charged. According to Elgato, the battery should last for a year and it costs around $5 to replace.

Eve Degree has an IPX3 water resistance rating, which means it can withstand spraying water for up to five minutes. That means it can hold up to a little light rain, but in a downpour, it needs to go indoors.

Sensors

Eve Degree can measure temperatures between 0°F and 130°F with a +/- 0.54°F accuracy range, and between 0 to 100 percent humidity with a +/- three percent accuracy range. That’s identical to the older Eve Weather and superior to the Eve Room, which can only measure 32°F to 130°F and 5 to 95 percent humidity.

Its air pressure operating range is 260 – 1260 mbar/7.7 – 37.2 inHg with an accuracy rating of +/- 1 mbar/0.03 inHg, slightly more accurate than the Eve Weather.

Temperature readings matched what I saw on the Eve Room, Eve Weather, an independent temperature/humidity monitor, and on my thermostat, so the measurements seem accurate. According to Elgato, the Eve Degree has been built to track temperature and humidity with “unrivaled precision.”

Connection

Unlike most HomeKit devices, the entire Elgato Eve lineup, Eve Degree included, works over Bluetooth. No WiFi network or hub is required, but to use it away from home, an Apple TV or iPad is necessary.

When HomeKit was new, Bluetooth HomeKit devices were unreliable and were prone to spotty connections, but thanks to improvements introduced over the last two years, that’s no longer the case. Eve Degree is reliable and works regardless of where I’m at in my apartment. It also connected fine outside on my patio from inside the house. Be aware, though, that this doesn’t have quite the same range as WiFi and could be unreachable at times in some setups depending on house layout.

Setup, App, and HomeKit Integration

Setting up the Eve Degree took less than a minute, which is the case with most HomeKit devices. I opened the Elgato app, chose to add a new device, turned on the Eve Degree, scanned the HomeKit code, and it connected to my HomeKit setup immediately.

The Elgato Eve app is one of the better HomeKit apps on the market. Elgato was one of the first companies to come out with HomeKit connected devices and has had a lot of time to refine its app and figure out what works and what doesn’t. The app is simple, straightforward, and easy to use. It’s great for Elgato devices, and it plays well with other HomeKit products. When using the app, it takes just a couple of seconds to connect and get a temperature reading.

For the Eve Degree, the main “At a Glance” view displays temperature and humidity, and a 3D Touch on the Eve Degree icon offers more detail, including temperature, humidity, and air pressure readings over time.

The Eve app lets you drill further down into the readings, offering up hour, day, week, and month views for each of the metrics measured by the Eve Degree. You can even see specific measurements at a certain time and make comparisons to previous days.

There’s also a “Rooms” section in the app that offers up a look at all of the HomeKit accessories in a specific room, while “Types” groups devices by what they do, lumping together temperature monitors, lights, motion, power, and more. Through the “Scenes” section of the app, the Eve Degree gains some of its most useful functionality.

A Rule can be created that uses the Eve Degree as a trigger to activate a Scene when a certain condition is met. As an example, a trigger can be set to turn on a HomeKit-connected fan when the temperature hits 75 degrees (as detected by Eve Degree), or it can turn on a humidifier when the humidity in a room dips below a specific threshold. It can activate any kind of scene and combination of HomeKit products, so you can create a range of useful temperature-based automations.

People who use multiple HomeKit devices will may prefer to use Apple’s Home app. When set as a favorite device, Eve Degree will display temperature and humidity readings that can be seen on the main Home screen. You can’t create the same kind of rules in the Home app, which is somewhat confusing, and hopefully a problem Apple will solve with future iOS updates.

As far as Siri integration goes, the voice assistant can be asked questions like “What’s the temperature in the office?” or “What’s the humidity in the office?” Air pressure isn’t a response Siri can give, though, so the app will need to be used for that measurement.

Bottom Line

The Eve Degree is far from cheap at $69.99, especially when a standalone temperature/humidity monitor can be purchased for less than $10, but it has the potential to add valuable functionality to a HomeKit setup.

If you already have a HomeKit-enabled thermostat, you likely won’t need a device like the Eve Degree, but if you don’t have a HomeKit thermostat, it offers a handy way to keep an eye on the temperature in a room both at the moment and over time, plus it can be used as a trigger for connected devices like humidifiers or fans.

The Eve Degree is also potentially useful if you have an area that needs separate temperature monitoring, like a wine cellar, or if there’s an area in the house out of range of the thermostat. Eve Degree can go outside, but since it only offers an IPX3 water resistance rating, it’ll need to be kept out of direct rain and moisture.

Elgato’s Eve Degree is functionally identical to the cheaper Eve Weather with the exception of the display, the new design, and better air pressure accuracy, so if a display isn’t needed, the Eve Weather is $20 less expensive at $49.99 and perhaps the better buy for outdoor use, where most monitoring will be done from inside the house.

Indoors, the Eve Degree doesn’t have the air quality sensor in the $79.99 Eve Room, but it features a sleeker, simpler design, it doesn’t require an app to get a quick glance at the temperature, and it works in a wider range of temperatures, which makes it arguably more useful.

As someone who has been using the Eve Weather and the Eve Room continuously for almost two years, I am impressed with the new design and prefer the Eve Degree to either of the older sensor solutions. Those who already own an Eve Weather or an Eve Room probably shouldn’t upgrade due to the similarities between the devices, but for those new to HomeKit-connected temperature monitors, this is the one to get.

How to Buy

Eve Degree can be purchased from the Elgato website for $69.99.

Note: Elgato provided MacRumors with an Eve Degree for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received.

Tags: HomeKit, Elgato
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Apple Paying Freelancers to Improve the Accuracy of Apple Maps

In an effort to improve Apple Maps, which many iPhone users still consider to be inferior to Google Maps, Apple has enlisted the help of contracted freelancers to validate the accuracy of points of interest and other information, in exchange for micropayments, according to French blog iGeneration.

For the past year, through a platform called TryRating, Apple has reportedly paid freelancers 54 cents per task on average, with each task often only taking a few minutes to complete. The fine print allegedly limits freelancers to 600 completed tasks, and no more than 20 hours worked, per week.

A typical task, for example, could be verifying the accuracy and relevance of the search results that Apple Maps shows for a “McDonald’s” query for a particular location. The freelancer’s task would be to ensure the McDonald’s restaurants listed are within a close distance, have accurate addresses, and so forth.

Apple’s so-called TryRating platform with a typical verification task
Apple supposedly has a 200-page Maps Search Evaluation Guidelines document that freelancers are required to follow.

One of the examples Apple provides is a search from Somerville, Massachusetts for “Machu Picchu,” a well-known historical site in Peru, but also the name of a local restaurant in the city. A freelancer’s task would be to ensure all of the search results for “Machu Picchu” are contextually relevant.

iGeneration’s in-depth report provides further details about Apple’s so-called TryRating platform, which it likens to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk.

Apple Maps launched in 2012 and was quickly criticized for having incomplete and inaccurate mapping data, which led some iPhone users on dangerous routes. Apple CEO Tim Cook offered a rare public apology for the frustration it caused customers, and then iOS chief Scott Forstall was ousted just one month later.

Apple Maps still gets a bad rap among some users, but Apple’s continued efforts to improve the app should help reverse some of those opinions.

Tags: Apple Maps, igen.fr
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Google is making it easier to speak to your spreadsheets

Why it matters to you

Google continues to improve its alternative to traditional office tools and software.

Google’s latest update for its Sheets spreadsheet tool makes it easier to give it commands through the use of natural language. New commands can include asking it to make a chart or graph, thereby presenting you with a visualization of data without the need to click through a bunch of menus to make it a reality.

Sheets already supports the ability to ask a dataset a question, but Google’s latest additions make it even easier to visualize this. Inputting commands such as “bar chart of X” (thanks Verge) will output the dataset you’re interested in, but in a much more visual form. You can then use it alone or quickly insert it into the document so that others can benefit from its summation of information.

Alongside the language improvements of Sheets, Google’s new update also helps synchronize data between tables in Sheets, Google Docs, and Slides. Hitting the ‘update’ button within any document will refresh the dataset in the others, keeping them all sychronized and letting you jump between different files without having to manually copy over information.

That could also aid collaboration, with multiple people working on different documents all having access to the latest data.

For those who want to print off the spreadsheets they’re working on, the interface for doing so has been overhauled. You can now tweak the margins and change the scale and alignment of various aspects of the document. There is also the ability to clone rows and columns as part of the print process.

Charts have seen improvements with a new sidebar, too. This adds the ability to create 3D charts and graphs, which along with the new language commands could open up a whole new way to order your datasets.

Of course if these updates don’t excite you too much or you’d rather not use Google Sheets altogether, we do have a handy list of alternatives you can try out.

iOS 10 problems and the solutions to deal with them

Update: Added problems related to Wi-Fi, CarPlay, notifications, email, and unresponsive apps.

The latest version of Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS 10, has a lot going for it. The biggest additions changed how people use their iOS devices — transforming the way they write and send texts, interact with notifications, and use Siri within apps. The latest version of iOS was in beta for quite a while and was made available to the public, meaning thousands of people got to experience iOS 10 prior to its official release. People came to grips with the new features during this period, but there were some iOS 10 problems that Apple didn’t catch.

Fortunately, making the beta available to the public resulted in more bugs, glitches, hardware and software issues being discovered, which gave Apple a chance to fix them before the official release. That said, it’s always convenient to have one place to find any and all iOS 10 problems, which is where we come in. We’ve scoured as many forums as we could to find the biggest problems people have run into while using iOS 10, and provided workarounds and solutions for as many of them as we can.

Problem: Battery drain

Excessive battery drain is a problem for some people using iOS 10, even when the iOS device is being used as it should. The problem isn’t universal, as many people report that their batteries are performing as expected, but if you’re using iOS 10.3.2, you should be prepared to charge your phone more than usual. Forbes has reported on this issue, and this thread from Apple’s own forums is filled with people saying their phones are draining rapidly. A previous iteration of this issue stated the battery indicator would sometimes suddenly drop to 1 percent, then shut down. Needless to say, those affected are not happy.

Potential solutions:

• If you haven’t updated to 10.3.2 yet, consider holding off until this issue has been worked out. If you are using 10.3.2 and are experiencing excessive battery drain, restoring your phone using a 10.3.1 or 10.2 backup may be your best bet at removing the problem.
• Turning off the Raise to Wake feature has been said to help some users. To do this, go to Settings > Display & Brightness and toggle off Raise to Wake to disable the feature.
• We’ve written a few iOS guides that include tips for fixing poor battery life. Here are a few for the iPhone 6S, iPhone SE, iPad Air and Air 2, and the iPad Pro.
• You can find more tips and suggestions in our battery tips roundup for the iPhone.

Annoyance: Raise to Wake feature doesn’t work

Apple’s iOS 10 adds an incredibly useful feature known as “Raise to Wake,” which does exactly what you’d expect — when you pick up your phone, the screen automatically comes on. For some on Apple’s forums, this particular feature has stopped working, or the feature isn’t even available.

Potential solutions:

• This isn’t as widely known as it should be, but if you’re using an iPad Pro, Raise to Wake won’t work because the feature is currently only available on the iPhone 7, 7 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, and SE, as those have the M9 motion coprocessor inside the A9 chip. The iPad Pro does as well, but for one reason or another, the feature isn’t there (at least not yet).
• Another thing you can try, if you’re using one of the aforementioned iPhone models, is to check and make sure the Raise to Wake feature is on. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness and toggle on Raise to Wake to enable the feature.

Annoyance: Stutters while switching apps

With the current iteration of iOS 10, there have been a small number of people on the Apple Discussion forums saying that they’ve noticed a bit of stuttering and lag when switching apps (double-clicking the Home button to launch the app switcher). It still works, but it’s not as seamless or smooth as it was in iOS 9.

Workaround:

• If you use multiple apps throughout the day, brace yourself for an app switcher that doesn’t perform as well as it should. Consider closing apps that aren’t being used, or haven’t been used for a while. While in the app switcher, swipe up on an app to completely close it.

Potential solutions: 

• Setting a slower click speed for the Home button has been said to help but, of course, you’ll have to adjust to it. To set your Home button’s click speed, go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button.
• A future iOS 10 update may contain a fix or improvements for the app switcher. A few people on the Apple forums linked above have said the iOS 10.3 beta has fixed this particular problem.

Problem: Mail app not working

After updating to iOS 10, or one of its subsequent versions, email accounts used in the Mail app may stop receiving new mail, show an error message that claims your password is incorrect, or the email appears as a blank white page when viewed. Re-entering the password does not fix the second issue, or prevent the error from appearing again. People have been having various problems with the Mail app and discussing it on the Apple Discussion forums since September 2016.

Potential solutions:

• Go to Settings > Mail, and under the Threading section turn off Complete Threads.
• Remove all of the affected email accounts and re-enter them. Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts and tap the account you wish to delete. Tap Delete Account at the bottom of the page. To enter and set up new accounts, simply tap Add Account on the previous screen.
• If you have multiple email accounts, consider turning the Mail toggle off for each one to see if it improves the app’s performance. It has also been suggested that turning off accounts requiring a VPN will keep the app from crashing and improve performance.

Annoyance: HomeKit automations don’t trigger/run automatically

In iOS 10, Apple added a new Home app that allows users to control their HomeKit accessories and other smart home devices. However, as seen on these three threads on Apple’s forums, many people have been unable to set up their Homekit devices so that they run automatically. With the Lock/Unlock actions, in particular, users are prompted to control their devices via a notification.

Workarounds:

• Some have found partial success by putting their devices on individual timers, instead of grouping them into Scenes so they all work via one command or action.

Potential solutions:

• There doesn’t appear to be a definitive solution to get Homekit accessories to perform their actions automatically based on a user’s location, as many have expected. It has been suggested that automations such as the Lock/Unlock are designed the way they are as a security measure, perhaps to prevent the action from triggering while the owner is away, or if the owner has their iPhone or Apple Watch stolen.
• iOS 10.3 included and improvement to the Home app that added “support to trigger scenes using accessories with switches and buttons.” iOS 10.3 or a later version may help.

Glitch: Siri will activate when trying to unlock the device

iOS 10 introduces a new way to unlock your iPhone by using the Home button. However, when attempting to use this method, Siri will activate instead, preventing the phone from being unlocked properly. On the Apple forums, this has been said to also happen even if the “Siri on the lock screen” setting is off.

• Just to be sure, check your Siri settings again. Go to Settings > Siri, and toggle the Siri on the lock screen setting off if it’s on.
• It’s possible you’re pressing the Home button for too long. It only takes one press to unlock the screen. Any longer and you may trigger Siri instead if the above feature has been turned on.
• If you have Touch ID enabled, head to Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button and turn on the Rest Finger to Open setting. This will allow you to simply rest your finger on the button to use the fingerprint reader, instead of having to apply pressure to the Home button. If this doesn’t work immediately, restart your device.

Problem: “Hey Siri” doesn’t work after updating to iOS 10

Following the update to iOS 10, people on the Apple forums have said that any attempts to use the “Hey Siri” voice command to prompt Siri will fail. However, Siri can still be used by holding down the Home button and will function as intended.

Potential solutions:

• Go to Settings > Siri and make sure the “Hey Siri” feature is on.
• Turn Siri and “Hey Siri” completely off and restart your iOS device. Turn Siri back on and set up “Hey Siri” once again.
• Try resetting your settings by going to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. Then, set up Siri once again.
• If you have Bluetooth on, try turning it off and trying Siri again.
• One person found success by separating their iPhone and iPad that both have “Hey Siri” enabled and setup. When both were within range, only one reacted to the voice prompt. When separated, both responded individually.

Best app deals of the day! 6 paid iPhone apps for free for a limited time

Everyone likes apps, but sometimes the best ones are a bit expensive. Now and then, developers put paid apps on sale for free for a limited time, but you have to snatch them up while you have the chance. Here are the latest and greatest apps on sale in the iOS App Store.

These apps normally cost money and this sale lasts for a limited time only. If you go to the App Store and it says the app costs money, that means the deal has expired and you will be charged. 

Preview 8

Preview 8 is an app that allows you download any file from the Cloud, and also happens to feature a music player that includes the ability to listen to music in background mode.

Available on:

iOS

Thankful

The Thankful app is the most beautifully designed personal way to privately, quickly, and easily record things that you are thankful for in your everyday life.

Available on:

iOS

Remote Drive

Turn your iPhone or iPad into the wireless flash drive for your Mac. Have full access to your Mac files – use your iOS device to stream videos, view photos and documents, from anywhere within your home.

Available on:

iOS

Time Manager

Time Manager is an easy way to keep track of your daily activities. With one touch you can access all your common tasks and edit them at any time. All your tasks will be totaled and broken down into reports and graphs for you to see how well you’re spending your time.

Available on:

iOS

HourFace

Ever wonder what you or your friends would look like decades from now? What about decades earlier? HourFace is the mind-blowing way to transform your face into an amazing interactive 3D image that instantly displays the effects of aging.

Available on:

iOS

My Translator

Not a polyglot? Not a problem. Instant translation begins to work as soon as you begin writing. It automatically completes the translation as you type.

Available on:

iOS

Mobile device popularity is only expected to rise, says research firm

Why it matters to you

2016 wasn’t a great year for smartphones, but don’t worry — they’re expected to rebound this year.

Last year may have been a bad one for smartphones, but they don’t deserve your pity. Fret not, friends. Your precious mobile devices are not going anywhere. As per the latest conclusions from the International Data Corporation (IDC), our smartphone addiction shows absolutely no signs of waning. Despite the devices’ lowest-ever year-over-year growth in 2016, the research corporation believes that the market will “rebound slightly” this year, and that some 1.52 billion units will be shipped around the world.

Part of this uptick can be attributed to “improved economic conditions in many emerging markets,” the IDC says. And seeing as these markets will only continue to become more lucrative, experts suggest that growth between 2017 and 2018 will be even more robust at 4.5 percent (as compared to the anticipated 3-percent growth this year).

Also enticing is the much anticipated iPhone 8, which is already being credited with spurring a potential uptick in smartphone shipments next year. After all, Apple is already slated to sell 223.6 million iOS devices in 2017, a 3.8 percent increase over 2016’s numbers. And while Android still reigns supreme with a 85.1 percent market share, Apple certainly has its devoted followers.

The IDC also noted that while technology has previously been involved in a race to the bottom with regard to size, the trend is now reversing itself. Bigger, it seems, is now better for customers. While smartphone buyers previously preferred smaller 4 or 5-inch models just a few years ago, the larger models that once seemed almost comical are now reigning supreme. In fact, the research company says that both the 5 to 5.5-inch and 5.5 to 6-inch models are performing better among customers. And moving forward, they will only trend larger, as 5.5 to 6-inch phones are expected to bypass the 5 to 5.5-inch category by 2021.

So buckle up, friends, as it looks like the smartphone is here to stay.