Future Apple Watch Could Adjust iPhone Volume Based on Ambient Noise
The United States Patent and Trademark Office today published a patent filed by Apple in March 2014, which depicts an Apple Watch automatically adjusting an iPhone’s audio volume or other alert characteristics based on ambient sound samples (via AppleInsider).
The invention would be most useful in noisy environments where alerts might otherwise go unnoticed or unheard. The system could also serve to automatically lower iPhone ringtone or notification volume in quieter situations.
The patent details an Apple Watch using its microphone to listen to ambient sound at regular intervals or when triggered to do so by a host device. Using the data collected, the Watch analyses the difference between the background noise and the alert audio level, and makes a volume adjustment accordingly.
The system is also able to work out the iPhone’s orientation and location in relation to the user’s body, including whether the handset is tucked in a pocket or stowed away in a bag, in order to account for physical sound barriers.
In one example, an iPhone sends a notification audio signal to the Watch before playing an audible alert. The receiving timepiece analyses the wave signal and compares it against a stored reference signal based on ambient noise samples. Through a combination of sound threshold analyses, the Apple Watch then sends the appropriate command to raise or lower the iPhone’s output volume.
The invention could also be used to filter audio signals received by voice-activated control functions — for example, by increasing the physical distance that a user can successfully activate Siri using the “Hey, Siri” spoken command.
Apple has researched the use of sound sensors before as a possible accompaniment to existing light sensors in its devices. However, ambient sound monitoring is now an established technology in the consumer space, for instance in several auto-adaptive noise cancelling headphones, suggesting implementation of the feature in Apple products could happen sooner rather than later.
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iDevices Sells iGrill and Kitchen Thermometers to Weber
iDevices has announced that its app-enabled iGrill and Kitchen Thermometer accessories have been acquired by Weber-Stephen Products, a worldwide manufacturer of charcoal, gas, and electric outdoor grills and related accessories. The acquisition includes the iGrill2, iGrill mini, Kitchen Thermometer, and Kitchen Thermometer mini. The terms of the agreement are confidential.
Weber will partner with iDevices to release a new iGrill app, which is expected to be available in spring 2016. Until then, iGrill and Kitchen Thermometer users can continue using their accessories through the existing iDevices Connected app. Unlike some of its other products, iDevices’s iGrill and Kitchen Thermometer accessories are not compatible with Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform.
iDevices said it will now be able to focus more on becoming a leader in the home automation market. The accessory maker already sells multiple HomeKit-enabled products, including a Switch, Outdoor Switch, and Thermostat. It introduced four more HomeKit accessories at CES 2016, including a Socket, Wall Switch, Dimmer Switch, and Wall Outlet. The products will be released throughout 2016.
iGrill is an intelligent thermometer that allows you to monitor the temperature of the meat you are grilling on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
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My toxic relationship with fitness wearables
Fitness gadgets were meant to make me a better man. Or at least a healthier (possibly more attractive) one. Over the course of my wrist-based romance, I’ve strapped on a Fitbit, a Jawbone Up, two types of Nike FuelBand and an Apple Watch. Surprisingly for me, it’s the Apple Watch that got the most extended use, given that it wasn’t defined by its fitness features. Yet, since November (midway through a fitness challenge at Engadget), I haven’t worn anything when I’m working out, nor anything to monitor my activity during the day. I’ve had enough of the constant nagging.
At the very start it was fun, maybe even cool, to have a wearable — one with an earnest aim, and not so modest battery life. Wearables were going to make us better! Healthier! Fitter! Sexier! For the past few years, if you stepped into a tech press event without something Bluetooth lashed around your wrist, counting things, you were in the minority.
I know I should go walk up the stairs or something, but I also know I went to the gym this morning, and dammit, I had a salad for lunch. Like some weirdo.
I could give a blow-by-blow rant about each and every fitness wearable I’ve used, but as much as the designs can differ, the features don’t. There’s the option of healthy competition with my friends, and a gentle poke/notification/vibration to get me moving after sitting at my desk practically all day. But clichéd as it is, we’re creatures of habit. Months — sometimes mere weeks — later, they simply stop being effective in the fight against lazy Mat.
How fair is a step-count challenge against friends whose jobs keep them on their feet, moving all day? I work at a desk, not even a standing one, and my wearable (pick one) regularly cried out that I hadn’t met my target for the day or week. The first few times, I felt guilty, ashamed, but then I’m soon just pissy — because the notifications appear when I’m busy with other things. I was in the middle of a phone call, or trying to hit a tight deadline. I know I should have gone for a walk up the stairs or something during the day, but I also know I went to the gym this morning, and dammit, I had a salad for lunch. Like some weirdo.
Despite my experiences, I tried again. I thought Nike’s FuelBand looked pretty cool, and I explained away half the cost of the Apple Watch because “fitness goals.” I kept going back, just to be disappointed all over.
And there was the watershed moment. What’s the actual point? Does it matter how many steps I’ve taken? I didn’t lose weight or become more mobile back when I strapped on my FuelBand. At the start, I moved around more, sure. But that didn’t solve my aching back or my blogger’s slouch, or give me the Olympian body I (don’t really) deserve. Why am I charging this thing twice a week? Why am I letting it irritate me as I type on a laptop, pinching at my hairy wrists and nagging me with reminders? I didn’t have a good answer, so I stopped. No more wearables of the week. I’ve kept hold of my Apple Watch, but the rest have been distributed to family members and friends who, despite my protests, think this is going to be “The One.”
75 HD wallpapers from your favorite video games
Many of you are video game enthusiasts and we have collected 75 HD and QHD wallpapers from your favorite video games, from Call of Duty to Super Mario Brothers we have you covered.
We’ve changed things up lately and will be sharing the entire collection through Google Photos rather than hosting them on our servers. There are thousands of you who love these wallpapers and rather than drain the speed on our server, we’re offloading that responsibility to Google. All you have to do is join the collection through this link and you’re free to download all of the wallpapers to your device.
We would also love it if you tweeted screenshots of your home screens to us at Twitter.com (@AndroidGuys). We might feature your background in an upcoming wallpapers collection!
See the entire collection by clicking on this LINK to Google Photos.
Here some of our favorites from the collection.
The post 75 HD wallpapers from your favorite video games appeared first on AndroidGuys.
‘Final Fantasy IX’ is now on iOS and Android
You could argue that Final Fantasy IX is the long-running series’ high point. It’s certainly the highest-rated Final Fantasy game on Metacritic, even if its sales and nostalgic value pale in comparison to Final Fantasy VII. Putting that argument aside for a moment, it’s easy to say that it’s definitely a game worth playing if you like JRPGs. And now — less than two months after it was announced — it’s available on iOS and Android. The bar for entry has never been lower.
The mobile port includes “high-definition movies and character models,” autosave, achievements and a collection of “game boosters” that let you essentially cheat your way through the game. You can speed up time, cut out random encounters or hit every enemy for 9,999 damage. The idea of the boosters is to make the game, which in its original incarnation involved well over a full day’s worth of grinding, more playable for casual gamers.
If grinding on a phone or tablet isn’t your thing — or you don’t have a phone with the necessary 8GB of free space to install it — Final Fantasy IX will also be coming to Steam in “Early 2016,” together with the enhancements mentioned above and some Steam trading cards.
Via: Kotaku
Source: Square Enix (Google Play), (App Store)
Dear Veronica: Become a cosplay master!
I start this episode with a little rant about some Apple rumors that have been circulating about: I’m pro-headphone jack, though many Apple fans out there seem to disagree with me. Insanity, I tell you!
However, my friend Bill Doran lightens the mood a bit with some tips for making your own cosplay! In my opinion, he’s one of the most creative guys out there in that world, and you can’t have a better teacher. He even made me look cool!
Finally, I give you a little tutorial for adding people on Snapchat. Specifically, I cover searching for people’s names, but you can also add new friends by taking a photo of their Snapcode (the QR-code like image in your profile) or by using location to find people in your immediate area. I will shamelessly use this opportunity to link you to my account (open on mobile), in case you’d like to add me there! 😉
Keep sending those questions in using the hashtag #DearVeronica! Subscribe in iTunes, RSS or YouTube!
Apple Fixes Broken Twitter Links in Safari in Third Beta of OS X 10.11.4
Apple has fixed an issue that prevented shortened “t.co” links on Twitter from loading in Safari on the third beta version of OS X 10.11.4, seeded to developers for testing on Monday, according to developer Dieter Komendera. The bug affected many users in the MacRumors and Apple Support Communities forums.
Apple just sent back my radar about https://t.co/JewBctgsV7 urls not working in Safari, saying it’s fixed in latest 10.11.4 beta. #finally
— Dieter Komendera (@kommen) February 10, 2016
http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsSince November, Twitter users who click shortened “t.co” links with the secured HTTPS protocol have encountered a bug that prevents content from loading. Oftentimes, when a “t.co” link is clicked, it opens up a blank web page and hangs at a loading screen for several minutes before giving an error message.
Safari users have used temporary solutions, including reloading the “t.co” link several times, removing “https” from the URL, clearing Safari’s cache, or switching to a different browser, but until now there was no official fix yet for the link loading issue. Chrome and Firefox are not affected, nor are links that do not use HTTPS.
Last month, WebKit Developer Experience Manager Timothy Hatcher tweeted that the problem was lower level than WebKit, Safari’s underlying rendering engine, and that Apple had a fix identified. OS X 10.11.4 should be released to the public by no later than the end of March, depending on how many beta versions are tested.
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Apple Music officially comes to Sonos Controller for Android
The Sonos Controller for Android app in its latest update received support for streaming Apple Music.
Apple Music originally came to Sonos in the form of a public beta back in mid-December. And now, after nearly two months of ongoing testing, it’s ready for prime time with the home speaker system!
Now with the Sonos Controller app, users will be able to play music from their own Apple Music library, listen to curated results in the “For You” section, and users will even be able to use the Beats1 radio. There’s also a “New” section, where users will be able to play and listen to music they may not have heard of yet. It’s essentially a glorified “discovery” category.
If you have the Sonos Controller app, Apple Music won’t show up as a service straight away. You have to manually add it by opening the menu and selecting “Add Service.” From there, you should be able to select Apple Music as a service, enter your Apple Music account information, and be ready to go!
If you haven’t gotten the update for the Sonos Controller app, you can do so manually by hitting the download link below.
What do you think of Apple Music on your home speaker system?
Come comment on this article: Apple Music officially comes to Sonos Controller for Android
New Bill Introduced in U.S. Congress to Block State-Level Efforts to Weaken Smartphone Encryption
A new bill introduced in U.S. Congress today by representatives Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Blake Farenthold (R-TX) would attempt to block state-level efforts to ban sales of strongly encrypted smartphones, reports Ars Technica.
The federal bill will need to pass the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, and be signed by the president, in order to become law. If passed quick enough, the bipartisan legislation would set precedent over state-level bills.
California and New York assemblymen have introduced new bills over the past year that would require smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Google to create devices that can be decrypted or unlocked, or be subject to fines.
The virtually identical bills would require any smartphone manufactured after January 1, 2017 and sold in New York or California to “be capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider.” Apple and others would face a $2,500 fine per phone in violation of the proposed law.
Apple is strongly against government efforts to weaken smartphone encryption. The company ceased storing encryption keys for devices on iOS 8, making it impossible for the iPhone maker to unlock content on passcode-protected devices under police request. Both iOS and Android share these default encryption settings.
In September, FBI Director James Comey expressed concerns that Apple and Google are “marketing something expressly to allow people to place themselves above the law.” Meanwhile, Apple CEO Tim Cook believes providing the U.S. government with back door access means the “back door’s for everybody, for good guys and bad guys.”
Read the full text of the “ENCRYPT Act of 2016” for more details about the new house bill.
Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
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Apple Recruiting Specialized Engineer to Focus on Apple Watch Clock Faces
A job description for a software engineer on Apple’s “Clock Face Team” discovered yesterday points to the possibility of more robust Clock Face and Complications options in a future watchOS update. As discovered by iPhoneHacks, the listing is specifically seeking a software engineer with 3+ years of software development experience to join the Apple Watch team.
Responsible for planning and implementing new Clock Faces and Complications for Apple Watch users, the software engineer will work in close proximity to the UI design, iOS Frameworks, and QA teams. Besides the expected timeliness and attention to detail stipulations, the rest of the description for the position at Apple includes the following:
Description
As a member of the team you will have many responsibilities relating to the design, development, and testing of the device software.
- Collaborating closely with the design team to push the envelope on human-computer interactions.
- Creating solutions tailored to the constraints of the software and the hardware of a small, low power device.
- Working closely with the iOS Apps, iOS Frameworks and Hardware teams to create robust and maintainable systems that will stand the test of time.
- Coordinating with the quality assurance teams to ensure full test coverage as well as to initiate focused testing on critical components.
New Apple Watch Clock Faces and Complications have been assumed to be in the cards for future watchOS updates, but what we still don’t know is when they will be released. Last September, Apple released the first major public update for Apple Watch in watchOS 2, which introduced three new Clock Faces: two variations on Photo Album (one that shuffles through a set album, and one that sticks to a specific image) and Time-Lapse.
Currently on watchOS 2.1, the next update to the Apple Watch software (watchOS 2.2) is predicted to debut at a rumored March media event. Recent beta tests of 2.2 don’t hint at the inclusion of new Clock Faces and Complications, so there’s a possibility users will have to wait a little longer for these additions. The specific details for the event remain nebulous, but so far the “iPhone 5se,” iPad Air 3, and new Apple Watch bands are all rumored to be included in next month’s yet-to-be-announced Apple event.
Tag: Apple job listings
Buyer’s Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)
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