CES 2015: Connected Cycle Reveals Smart Bike Pedal with Location and Fitness Tracking Features [iOS Blog]

French startup Connected Cycle has introduced its new smart bike pedal at CES 2015, which is able to track a bike’s exact location in the event of a theft and a number of distance and fitness statistics during biking activity.

The aluminum pedal works with a companion app on iOS to track where a bike is located, and can send a push notification if the bike has been moved or give a location as to where a bike was last parked. The pedal and the app also automatically record metrics like the speed of a bike, the incline of a given location, routing info and even calories burnt. Connected Cycle notes that the pedal generates its own energy and that installation takes less than two minutes without the need for mechanical skills, although removing the pedal requires a specialized key that comes in the box.

The Connected Cycle comes with two pedals, with one pedal containing smart functionality and the other pedal sporting a similar look for aesthetic purposes. Connected Cycle has yet to announce a price or release date for its smart pedal, but does note that it will come in colors including black, red, green, blue, and orange.

CES 2015: Blue Spark Introduces ‘TempTraq’ Wearable Thermometer and iOS App [iOS Blog]

Blue Spark Technologies has unveiled its new TempTraq wearable Bluetooth thermometer at CES 2015, which pairs with a companion app to give live updates and alerts on body temperature. The company notes that the thermometer is great for parents who want to measure their child’s temperature without disturbing rest, as data can be viewed and shared in real time.

The TempTraq contains a patented flexible battery and can measure temperatures between 86.0°F and 108.3°F, providing both real time and historical data in graphical or tabular view. Caregivers can receive real-time data from the thermometer from up to 40 feet away, and simply press a button on the thermometer while typing in a unique access code on the companion app to start using it.

Blue Spark also details how it simplifies the temperature reading process on the app with the thermometer:

TempTraq further simplifies the temperature reading process by providing easy-to-follow colors that indicate temperature levels: Green, less than 100.4°F; orange, equal to or greater than 100.4°F; red, equal to or above the user-set temperature level. Caregivers can even receive alerts when a child’s temperature enters this designated red zone.

Blue Spark’s TempTraq wearable Bluetooth thermometer is pending FDA approval and will be available in the near future.

CES 2015: Parrot Unveils RNB6 In-Dash Entertainment System with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto Support

Drone and headphone manufacturer Parrot has unveiled its new RNB6 in-dash car entertainment system at CES 2015, which features a 7-inch, 720p touchscreen with built-in support for Apple CarPlay and Siri Eyes Free as well as Android Auto and Android Auto Voice.

Parrot’s RNB6 system also boasts a number of internal specs and features including Bluetooth 4.0 and configurable 5GHz Wi-Fi, as well as rear ports for GPS, HDMI, microphone input, ethernet, onboard diagnostics and USB devices. The in-dash system features a built-in dash camera with a wide-angle lens and full HD support, and also supports steering wheel control for UI navigation.

Parrot did not give a suggested price for the RNB6, but noted that it would be shipping during the latter half of 2015.

CES 2015: Withings Reveals ‘Activité Pop’ Watch with Activity and Sleep Tracking Capabilities [iOS Blog]

Withings today revealed its new Activité Pop wearable at CES 2015, which is an analog watch that contains advanced activity and sleep tracking capabilities. The Activité Pop is a follow up to Withings’ Activité watch which was revealed last year, and comes with a lightweight design that features a swappable silicon strap, a body that is water-resistance for up to 30 meters, and a battery that lasts up to 8 months.

The watch contains two hand dials, with one hand dial showing the current time and a secondary hand dial tracking activity and progress as determined by Withings’ Health Mate companion app. For example, if a user sets 10,000 steps as a goal in the app, the secondary hand dial moves as steps are made, and the watch vibrates when a goal is achieved. During the day, the watch can automatically track swimming and running and tracks sleep quality at night with all info available through Health Mate.

The Activité Pop will be available to purchase online in the United States from BestBuy.com on January 5th for $149.95, and will be available at Best Buy stores in March 2015. The watch will come in three color choices including “Azure”, “Shark Grey”, and “Sand.”

Internal Foxconn Sketch Said to Be of Apple’s ‘iPad Pro’ Surfaces

A new internal sketch of Apple’s larger-screened iPad Pro has surfaced by way of a Foxconn worker (via Nowhereelse.fr, Google Translate), showing what may be our first look at the large tablet and its physical features.

The employee who captured the sketch notes that initial testing phases for the larger iPad were halted last summer after Apple received new prototypes, but adds that mass production on the device will begin soon. The source also notes that the tablet will be between 6.9 and 7.5mm thick, and feature four integrated speakers with two on the top and two on the bottom.

Previous rumors have suggested that the iPad Pro is expected to feature a screen size between 12.2 and 12.9 inches along with an A8X processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Most recently, Japanese magazine Mac Fan published possible schematics of the upcoming device, which suggested that the tablet would carry a 12.2-inch LCD display and carry the name “iPad Air Plus”.

It is currently unknown as to when Apple would launch its larger-screened iPad, with reliable KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggesting that the tablet would not enter production until the second quarter of 2015 due to increased attention on iPhone 6 Plus production. However, with the supply of its larger phone greatly improving as of late, it is possible that Apple is now ready to put its full production efforts towards its larger iPad for a launch later this year.

LaCie Unveils Designer Mirror Hard Drive, New Rugged RAID Thunderbolt Drive [Mac Blog]

LaCie today unveiled two new products ahead of this week’s Consumer Electronics Show, including the new LaCie Mirror, a hard drive encased entirely in Gorilla Glass, and the LaCie Rugged RAID Thunderbolt hard drive, the newest product in its Rugged collection.

The LaCie Mirror is a 1TB hard drive that’s designed to be fashionable as well as functional. Created by product designer Pauline Deltour, the LaCie Mirror features a mirrored design that comes with an accompanying ebony stand.

“You have to look twice to discover the LaCie Mirror’s true ambition,” said Deltour. “Covered by mirrored glass, it’s first an elegant and functional object, and only on second glance is it revealed to be a slim high-performance hard drive.”

Through a collaboration with Corning, the LaCie Mirror is encased entirely in Gorilla Glass 3, making it ultra durable and resistant to chips and scratches. The 1TB LaCie Mirror will be available in late January for $279.99 from the LaCie website.

LaCie’s second new product is the 4TB Rugged RAID Thunderbolt hard drive, which LaCie is calling the fastest HD available on the market with upload speeds that reach 240MB/s. Like all of LaCie’s Rugged lineup, the new bus-powered Thunderbolt drive includes an aluminum shell that’s encased in orange rubber for maximum protection and portability when used in the field. At 4TB, it includes two 2TB hard drives with RAID 0/1 options to optimize for speed or data security.

Aimed at audio/photo/video professionals and those who often travel, the Rugged RAID is the first mobile RAID hard drive with Thunderbolt and with resistance to shock, dust, and water thanks to its rubber casing. LaCie’s Rugged RAID 4TB Thunderbolt hard drive will be shipping during the first quarter of 2015 for $449.

LaCie’s parent company Seagate is also introducing several new products, including the Seagate Seven, the Seagate Personal Cloud, and the Seagate Wireless hard drive for iOS devices.

Seagate Debuts iOS-Compatible Storage Option, Personal Cloud and Ultra-Thin Portable Hard Drive

At the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, tech companies often take the opportunity to unveil new products. Well-known data storage company Seagate is no exception, and is introducing three impressive new products at the show.

The new 500GB Seagate Wireless portable hard drive is the company’s latest HD designed specifically for use with tablets and smartphones like Apple’s iPad and iPhone, introducing additional storage at affordable price. Available in five bright colors (lime green, cool blue, slate gray, fire-engine red, and white), the hard drive offers a nine hour battery life and the ability to store media like photos and videos, which can be streamed directly to an iOS device through the Seagate Media app.

It includes a new auto backup feature for making a secondary copy of photos and videos, and it can be used for storing documents and other file types. Because it has built-in Wi-Fi, the Seagate Wireless does not need an existing network connection. The Seagate Wireless will be available in January for $129.99 from the Seagate website and through retailers like Amazon and Best Buy.

Seagate’s second product, the Seagate Personal Cloud, is designed to offer an alternative to traditional server side cloud-based storage. The Personal Cloud allows users to backup their computers (with the Seagate Mobile Backup app) and store content securely on a dedicated hard drive that’s located within the home rather than on a server.

Content can be accessed outside of the home much like any other cloud-based storage option through the Seagate Media app, and as a home media storage option, it can stream video and play full HD content with no buffering or lag.

Seagate Personal Cloud demystifies the often frustrating process of finding, accessing and enjoying photos, videos and music on the device of your choice. Once connected to a wireless router and after a free download of the Seagate Media app, users will be treated to an intuitive, media-rich browsing experience that makes playback of content an effortless and enjoyable experience.

The Seagate Personal Cloud can be used with any device that’s supported by Seagate Media apps, including Smart TVs from Samsung and LG, many consoles, streaming media players like the Chromecast and Apple TV, and smartphones and tablets like Apple’s iPad and iPhone.

The Seagate Personal Cloud can also be set up with a secondary backup to other popular cloud services, like Amazon S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more for additional offsite protection. There’s also a Seagate Personal Cloud 2-Bay option available with two internal drives for duplicate storage.

Seagate’s Personal Cloud will begin shipping to retailers in January, in 3TB, 4TB, and 5TB capacities with pricing starting at $169. The Personal Cloud 2-Bay will be available in 4TB, 6TB, and 8TB capacities as well.

Seagate’s most notable product this year is the Seagate Seven, which the company is calling the world’s thinnest 500GB portable hard drive. At just 7mm thick, it uses Seagate’s latest mobile hard drive technology and is aimed at tech enthusiasts who want the thinnest devices. With a brushed aluminum finish, the hard drive is ultra portable and is, according to Seagate, the culmination of 35 years of experience.

The Seagate Seven will be available at the end of January for $99.99 from the Seagate website and from retailers like Amazon.

Seagate is also debuting several new LaCie products, including the designer LaCie Mirror hard drive and the LaCie Rugged RAID thunderbolt hard drive.

iCloud Photos Web App Experiencing Technical Difficulties [iOS Blog]

As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple’s iCloud.com Photos app has been experiencing difficulties for the past few days, with many users reporting the icon missing from the web interface entirely and the direct link to the app also producing a “problem loading application” error. In our own testing today, performance has been spotty, with the icon missing at times but present at other times. Even when the icon is present, clicking it has sometimes generated error messages while at other times properly loading the Photos app, albeit with some delays.

Apple has not commented on the situation, and the company’s status page shows no issues with any iCloud web apps. As a result, the reason for the issues remains unknown.

The iCloud Photos app is part of Apple’s iCloud Photo library, which was introduced in beta alongside iOS 8.1. The service stores all iOS photos and videos and shares them across platforms. Images can be viewed using the iOS Photos app and the iCloud Photos web app, which was last updated in November with the ability to upload photos to the user’s library from the web interface. Apple is also working on an upcoming Photos app for Mac, which will replace Aperture and iPhoto.

U.S. Music Fans Continue Shift to Streaming Services as Apple Readies Beats Revamp

Paid music downloads, which have dominated the digital music market for years thanks in large part to Apple’s iTunes Store, showed accelerating weakness in the United States last year as music streaming services like Spotify and a resurgence of vinyl record sales exploded in popularity.

According to Nielsen SoundScan (via The Wall Street Journal), streaming music grew a remarkable 54 percent in 2014, moving from 106 billion songs in 2013 to 164 billion in 2014. That growth contrasts with traditional song downloads that dropped off significantly from 2013. Paid downloads for full music albums declined 9 percent in 2014, with individual song downloads seeing an even larger 12 percent drop-off. Overall, according to SoundScan, Americans bought 257 million albums in 2014, 106.5 million of which were downloaded digitally.

Amid the digital shift from individual downloads to streaming, an older technology also saw a resurgence in 2014 with vinyl record sales at their highest levels since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991. Nielsen’s tracking shows 9.2 million vinyl records sold, representing a 52 percent overall increase in sales from 2013.

With lackluster overall digital music downloads mirroring a similar drop in iTunes Store sales, Apple has been looking at ways to improve its positioning in the music market. Apple’s initial effort with iTunes Radio to offer a Pandora-like experience that also seeks to drive iTunes Store purchases has had a less-than-stellar reception with availability in only the United States and Australia. That weak entry likely spurred Apple to pursue last year’s acquisition of Beats Music for a full-fledged subscription streaming service.

Recent reports have indicated that Apple will be pursuing a major revamp of Beats early this year that may see prominent integration of the paid streaming service into iOS and iTunes, perhaps including a rebranding under the iTunes name.

Montblanc Unveils ‘e-Strap’ Band Accessory With iOS Integration for Analog Luxury Watches

With luxury watchmakers turning their attention to the smartwatch market ahead of the Apple Watch launch later this year, Montblanc is one of the first to announce specific plans. As noted by aBlogtoWatch, Montblanc’s initial foray is an “e-Strap” accessory band for traditional watches that connects wirelessly to a smartphone.

The Montblanc e-Strap incorporates a small 0.9-inch wide screen into a high-quality leather band that attaches to a traditional analog watch. The screen lays flat against the underside of the wrist, allowing users to receive notifications, count steps, and control music playback on a connected smartphone. The band connects to an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth and offers up to five days of battery life.

How impressive as a connected wearable device will the e-Strap’s electronic module be? It will have a 0.9 inch monochromatic OLED touchscreen display with a 128×36 pixel resolution. That isn’t exactly industry changing, but this is more than just a mere notification device. Montblanc has made it clear that in addition to basic calls, texts, e-mails, calendars, social media, and reminder notifications, the e-Strap will function as an activity monitor/tracker with a pedometer and accelerometer to measure data that feeds into an included iPhone or Android phone app.

The e-Strap will reportedly sell separately for 250 Euros and will also be available initially as an option with select Timewalker Urban Speed watches. The band will, however, apparently be compatible with all 42-mm or 43-mm wide Timewalker watches.

Montblanc is one of several luxury watchmakers adding smartwatch-inspired products to their 2015 portfolios. Timex and Fossil reportedly are partnering with Qualcomm and Intel, respectively, on upcoming smartwatches, while Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer is exploring partnerships and acquisitions in order to jumpstart its own smartwatch projects.