Macworld 2014 First Look: Petcube, Motion Control Ring, Lumo Lift, and More

The annual Macworld conference, which will see hundreds of companies showing off Apple-related apps and products, officially kicked off today with the innovation showcase for media and workshop attendees.

While Apple stopped attending Macworld in 2009, causing the conference to shrink considerably, there are still a number of innovative products being demoed at the show, including the Petcube, the motion-controlled Ring, unique wearables from Lumo, and more.

Many of the products at Macworld originated on crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, including the Petcube, which reached full funding back in November of 2013. The Petcube is a small iPhone-connected cube equipped with a camera, motion detection, and a laser toy, allowing users to keep an eye on and play with their pets while they’re away from home.

The first Petcube devices will launch in May of 2014, but the company is debuting its Petcube app [Direct Link] at Macworld, which is a sort of social network for pets at the current time. App functionality will be expanded in the future, first allowing users to interact with Petcubes placed in shelters and then letting them interface with their own cubes after the product ships. Petcubes can be preordered for $199.

The Ring, another product being demoed at Macworld, also made its debut on Kickstarter. While wearing the somewhat bulky Ring on an index finger, users can make small gestures to interface via Bluetooth with an iPhone or iPad app, completing tasks like spelling out letters, opening apps like the camera, or making mobile payments.

In a demonstration, the Ring’s creators used it to write letters that were then transmitted to an iPad app and also demonstrated it opening the camera app. The current functionality of the Ring seems to be a bit limited, but the creators are planning to release an SDK for developers to incorporate its technology into their own apps. The Ring is expected to ship in July of 2014 and can still be preordered via Kickstarter for $185.

Lumo is showing off its new Lumo Lift product, which is a small wearable device that is designed to track daily activity and improve posture as well. It comes in an array of colors and designs and can measure steps and calories burned like many other fitness devices.

Lumo Lift is unique in its ability to keep an eye on posture, letting users know with a slight vibration when they slouch too often. The Lumo Lift can be preordered for $79 and will ship in the Summer of 2014.

There are also several other products available that have been demoed at conferences like CES, including the Flir One thermal camera and the Livescribe 3 Smartpen that transfers traditional writing to iOS devices. A slew of up and coming apps are also available today, including video/photo hybrid Flashback and MotionPortrait, an app that takes photos and transforms them into 3D avatars.

Macworld will continue through March 29, with the Expo Hall opening tomorrow morning.

TV Commercials Vault Games to Top Tier of App Store Rankings

Analytics firm App Annie has released its February data (via AppleInsider) on top-performing apps on iOS and Android for the month of February, highlighting how large developers have increasingly been able to leverage television commercials to help boost their rankings. Such tactics are obviously not within financial reach of most developers, but established players such as King and Big Fish Games have the resources to make an impact on television.

In looking at the top App Store games by revenue in February, App Annie notes that King’s Farm Heroes Saga leapt sixteen places from the previous month to land in seventh place, while Big Fish Casino moved up six places to just break into the top ten. Both games have benefited from television advertising in recent months, driving their visibility and user interest.

Farm Heroes Saga made major gains in iOS revenue in February, giving publisher King three of the Top 10 positions. […] Farm Heroes Saga received extensive TV and print campaigns in the United Kingdom and United States, and performed strongly in both markets.

Another app receiving extensive TV commercials in the United States in February was Big Fish Casino, which made significant gains to join the Top 10 games by iOS revenue. It was interesting to note that the commercials for Big Fish Casino targeted female players, a marketing stance that has been adopted by several big game publishers in 2014.

Long-standing top performers Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga have also seen significant television advertising in recent months.

The Flappy Bird phenomenon was obviously strong in the month of February, with developer Dong Nguyen’s .Gears Studio ranking number one in total App Store game downloads in February, despite having only three titles in the store and Flappy Bird itself having been taken down on the 9th of the month. Even so, Flappy Bird ranked as the most downloaded game for the month, while another title, Super Ball Juggling, placed seventh.

And of course the rush of copycats also saw an impact, with a number of Flappy Bird clones seeing substantial success during the month, particularly in the wake of Flappy Bird‘s removal. At one point late last month, one-third of all new App Store games were either clones of Flappy Bird or inspired by the title. Only a small fraction of those titles seeking to ride on the popularity of Flappy Bird experienced success, but those that did saw very high numbers of downloads.

More Options for 128 GB Mac Pro RAM Upgrades Now Available [Mac Blog]

Earlier this month, Transcend announced the launch of 128 GB RAM kits for the new Mac Pro, offering users willing to spend nearly $2500 the ability to go beyond Apple’s maximum of 64 GB.

Several new options for 128 GB RAM upgrades have launched since that time, offering consumer more choices in sourcing their RAM. Last week, MacMall began selling 32 GB modules from Axiom for $620, thus matching Transcend’s $2480 price for the full 128 GB kit.

And today, OWC announced its own kit, offering the full 128 GB for $2130, a savings of $350 over Transcend and Axiom for the time being.

As with all of the other 128 GB kits, OWC’s will run at 1066 MHz due to limitations in Intel’s chipset for addressing the higher capacity of RAM. Lower-capacity RAM kits can run at faster 1866 MHz speeds, but OWC notes that the performance hit of the 128 GB kit is generally minor compared to the benefit of having much more RAM.

While current DRAM device technology limit 32GB modules to a 1066MHz memory clock in the Apple Mac Pro 2013, due to enhanced CAS Performance of OWC MaxRAM 32GB Modules, actual real-world performance is insignificant in low memory need scenarios while offering incredibly significant performance gains in all cases where application use benefits from greater than 64GB of total memory installed.

In addition to its new kits of 32 GB modules, OWC also offers RAM kits for the Mac Pro using 8 GB and 16 GB modules at much lower pricing than through Apple. As a result, customers may prefer to order their Mac Pro from Apple with a minimum of RAM and save some money by upgrading the RAM through OWC or another vendor offering high-quality RAM for lower prices than at Apple.

Inside the Room Where Apple Developed the Original iPhone Software [iOS Blog]

With permission from Apple, senior software engineer Greg Christie recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal about the development of the original iPhone, disclosing some details ahead of a new patent trial involving Samsung. The original article focused on the iPhone’s software features, while a follow-up report highlights the environment and hardware that was used in this software development process.

Apple’s hardware setup for testing early prototype iPhone software
According to Christie, design decisions on early versions of Apple’s iPhone OS were made in a drab, windowless room with Mac hardware running the software and a large touchscreen device, “Wallaby”, simulating the screen of the mobile device. The room is also where Christie met with Steve Jobs to present the iPhone team’s work.

It doesn’t mean that the windowless room, lit by fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling, looked like anything special. Christie recalled the walls had signs of water damage from a flood in an adjacent bathroom. A few images covered the walls including one of Apple’s “Think Different” posters of famous graphic designer Paul Rand and another of a large chicken running around without its head.

These details on the development of the iPhone were released in advance of a second U.S. patent infringement trial between Apple and Samsung that is set to begin March 31. Apple prevailed in the first trial and was awarded a judgement of $890 million. This upcoming trial targets more recent products such the Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy S III, the iPhone 5, and the iPad 4.

Drobo Announces New 4-Bay Gen3 with USB 3.0, Enhanced Time Machine Support [Mac Blog]

Connected Data today announced the Drobo Gen3, the next generation of its popular 4-bay storage array. The Gen3 is faster and cheaper than previous Drobo models. It also features enhanced support for Apple’s Time Machine backups.

This third generation Drobo is more affordable, three times faster than the previous release and includes new features such as USB 3.0, significantly faster rebuild times and enhanced support for Apple’s Time Machine®.

Mac owners will be interested in the improved Time Machine support now available in the Drobo Gen3. Instead of using an entire drive for Time Machine, users can maximize their data storage space by allocating a fixed amount of capacity for their Time Machine-derived backups.

Drobo is accepting pre-orders for the Drobo Gen3, which is priced at $349 for the base model without pre-installed hard drives. Through June 9th, select existing Drobo customers are eligible for a $50 discount on the Gen3 when they purchase the new Drobo through the company’s online store. Shipments of the Gen3 are expected to begin in late April.

Apple to Launch Retina MacBook Air Later This Year, According to Supply Chain Sources

Apple is gearing up to release new MacBook models in 2014 including a MacBook Air with Retina Display, according to a new report from DigiTimes citing supply chain sources. The story notes that while some Taiwan-based supply chain makers are expecting MacBook shipments in 2014 to fall to 10 million units, others are projecting higher numbers with the belief that Apple’s will refresh of its notebook line later this year and release a Retina MacBook Air.

However, other Taiwan-based supply chain makers hold the opinion that 2014 MacBook shipments estimates may not be accurate because Apple will launch new models in the second half of 2014. Apple will reportedly launch a MacBook Air with Retina display, the makers said.

Last week, a forum post from a previously accurate source on Weiphone.com claimed that the MacBook Air would be updated soon, with new MacBook Pros to be released in September. Most notably, the report claimed that both will be accompanied by the release of a new slim 12-inch MacBook, which will come without a fan assembly and feature a redesigned trackpad.

It is also possible that the new MacBook Air mentioned in the report and the slim 12-inch MacBook mentioned in the forum post could be the same laptop, which would fall in line with a report from NPD DisplaySearch last year claiming that Apple is planning to introduce a 12-inch MacBook Air in 2014. That report added that the 12-inch MacBook Air would come with an ultra-high resolution 2304 x 1440 display, and was corroborated by the reliable Ming-Chi Kuo.

The post also comments on Apple launching a larger iPad with a near 12-inch screen, however a report earlier this month claims that the project has since been put on hold due to development hurdles and incompatibilities with the existing iOS ecosystem.

Apple is working on getting more diversity into its emoji characters

Sometimes, the awkward white lady with hand to the side emoji doesn’t quite represent, or express, who’s using an iPhone — and it’s been that way for quite a while. Good news, then, that Apple is apparently working with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to bring more breadth to the emoji pictures it can offer. Katie Cotton, Apple’s VP of Corporate Communications, explains in an email reply to MTV Act‘s Joey Parker, who raised the issue:

“Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”

There’s no firm date for an emoji upgrade until the Unicode issue is sorted, so for now, well, there’s stickers elsewhere.

(Update: There’s also been a recent groundswell for the less important addition of a hot-dog emoji.)

Filed under: Cellphones, Apple

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: MTV Act

Apple Planning to Add More Diversity to Emoji Character Set

Apple has plans to expand its emoji set to include emojis that are non-caucasian, according to Apple’s vice president of worldwide corporate communications, Katie Cotton, who spoke to MTV Act (via The Verge). The company says it is working with the Unicode Consortium to add more characters to its emoji offerings.

“Tim forwarded your email to me. We agree with you. Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms. There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard.”

After originating in Japan, emoji were incorporated into Unicode, which allowed them to be used on multiple platforms. The character set has largely featured caucasian icons, however, which Apple aims to change.

Apple’s last change to emojis came with iOS 6, when the company added additional characters and made emoji accessible to all users. Previously, special apps were required to access emoji on iOS. iOS 7, released in late 2013, did not include any new emoji, but it is possible Apple could make some changes to the characters with iOS 8 later this year.

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.

Original iPhone Engineer Greg Christie Gives Details on Development Process

A few new insider details on the development of the original iPhone have come to light thanks to Apple senior software engineer Greg Christie, who gave an interview with The Wall Street Journal with permission from Apple, ahead of a new patent infringement trial against Samsung that is set to begin tomorrow.

According to Christie, who joined the secret “purple” iPhone project after an invitation from Scott Forstall, his team was responsible for many key iPhone elements, such as sliding to unlock, placing calls from the address book, and more. He and his team spent countless hours perfecting details like the speed of scrolling, and the feel of bouncing back at the end of a list.

He said his team “banged their head against the wall” over how to change text messages from a chronological list of individual messages to a series of separate ongoing conversations similar to instant messaging on a computer.

He also said the team was “shockingly small.” Apple declined to specify the number of members.

Christie gave two progress reports to Jobs each month, in a small, windowless meeting room at the company’s Cupertino headquarters. Few people had access to the room and even cleaning people were not allowed to enter. The secrecy surrounding the original iPhone’s design was incredible, with Jobs even requiring employees to encrypt images of the device.

Jobs was initially unhappy with Christie’s progress on the device, and gave his team two weeks to improve.

“Steve had pretty much had it,” said Mr. Christie, who still heads Apple’s user-interface team. “He wanted bigger ideas and bigger concepts.”

Christie’s team was able to impress Jobs within the deadline, later giving presentations to Apple’s design chief Jony Ive and Apple director Bill Cambell, who said the iPhone “would be better than the original Mac.” All three approved the 2005 design, kicking off a “2 and a half year marathon” where the iPhone was designed from the ground up with Jobs clearing every minor detail, as has been noted in several previous reports of the iPhone’s development.

Christie’s details on the creation of the original iPhone come just ahead of a second major patent infringement lawsuit with Samsung, set to begin tomorrow. Apple initially accused Samsung of grossly infringing on both its patents and its designs in 2011, a lawsuit that resulted in a $890 million penalty for the South Korean company in the United States.

While the first lawsuit covered older devices, the second U.S. patent lawsuit between the two companies covers more recent products like the Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy S III, the iPhone 5, and the iPad 4.

The full interview on The Wall Street Journal, which is well worth reading, also includes additional tidbits on the secrecy behind the development of the iPhone, major last minute changes, and details on the original iPhone’s unveiling.

Apple Updates ‘iTunes Movie Trailers’ App With Full Critic Reviews, Favorites Notifications [iOS Blog]

Apple today update its iTunes Movie Trailers app to version 1.4, adding several new features to the app that provides users with an array of HD movie previews and clips.

The app now includes a Favorites feature that notifies users with a push notification when a movie debuts in theaters or becomes available in the iTunes Store, and full critic reviews from popular site Rotten Tomatoes are now included for movies that are in theaters. Previously, the app displayed only aggregate scores.

Links to movie trailers can be shared using AirDrop, and the app has also gained bug fixes and performance enhancements.

What’s New in Version 1.4
This update includes the following improvements:

– Add a movie to Favorites to be notified when it debuts in theaters or becomes available in the iTunes Store
– Read critic reviews provided by Rotten Tomatoes for movies that are in theaters, right from the app
– Share links to your favorite movie trailers using AirDrop
– Additional bug fixes and performance improvements

iTunes Movie Trailers can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]