Apple’s Split Screen Multitasking Feature

It is reported that Apple is likely to advance the functionality of the iPad by adding an updated split screen multitasking feature to the iOS 8 tabletsaccording to 9to5Mac and Apple’s latest mobile operating system would probably give iPad users the capabilities to use two applications simultaneously on a single screen in landscape mode with the new multi app split screen support.The new feature is believed to be in the works for iOS 8 with Apple anticipating the next major release of its mobile platform wherein the features have been designed with its full sized 9.7 inch iPad model in mind as well as the iPad Air though speculations are on, regarding the availability of its multi-application support on the 7.9 iPad mini.

Divide iPad Home Screen in Half

For a long time now, iOS had only one app which was displayed on the screen at a time and in early days of iOS, multitasking support was limited to only basic background functions for Apple built apps and multitasking support was not added till iOS 4 which was then iPhone OS 4.0 enabling developers to run specific processes in the background. This new feature would enable users to divide the iPad home screen in half using different app on each side of the partition screen. The feature according to reports will be making it easier for using the two apps together and also making it easier to interact and though this feature is not something which people are looking out for, the split screen multitasking would probably be a shot at Apple’s competition which is similar to Microsoft’s snap multitasking on the Surface as well as resembles multitasking features which have been added to larger Samsung Galaxy devices.

Multiple Application Simultaneously 

The capabilities in viewing multiple application at the same time and snapping them into place on a limited screen space is presently offered by Microsoft’s Surface tablet platform where AppleInsider had the privilege to test the Surface 2 and found that the ability to run two application on the screen simultaneously was the main advantage over Apple’s iPad with regards to productivity. Apple has favoured simplicity over flexibility that has been offered in running two apps at a time and it is difficult to blame the company for this strategy since the iPad remains the most sought after and popular consumer tablet in the market. With ease of use, the iOS has been in demand and Apple is making the utmost efforts to avoid making any more complexes with its latest features.

Unveiling iOS 8 at WWDC

Tablets are excellent and many manufacturers are striving to put their creative minds at work in making them more useful and demanding. It was also reported through 9to5Mac that iOS 8 would also allow apps on screen for interaction with one another where the user would be able to drag and drop content between them. It is said that Apple would be unveiling iOS 8 at its WWDC event early this June. Its focus in multitasking is reportedly centred on iPad Air according to reports, though it is still not clear if the smaller sized iPad mini would be offering support for the feature.

Apple’s Doxie Go Battery Operated Scanner

Apple, it was reported has recently joined hands with Doxie battery powered `Doxie Go’, portable scanner which is considered to make the task of scanning much simpler. Doxie has been selling a series of portable scanners which are battery operated with a sheet feeder that could feed one sheet of paper or one photo at a time.

The scanners are pretty good for immediate and short task which promises to lighten up the function of scanning while on the go. The Doxie Go could be something useful sinceit is a small battery powered scanner which can be used in a variety of options to scan photos, sketches, book etc.

Doxie Go priced at $199 which is designed to be used on its own can occasionally be connected to a computer when its memory is full. Its unique design fits into this purpose accurately and while the scanner is made of matte, soft touch black plastic with Apple style white cover over the top, it is slightly taller and wider than the ultraportable Fujitsu ScanSnapS1100 which was used as a benchmark.

Scanner with Adequate Built-in Memory 

Inspite of its packing of a built in battery which according to the company is fairly good for scanning around hundred pages per charge, the Doxie seems to be marginally heavier than its Japanese counterpart and those dealing with adequate paper needed along with scanner around are unlikely to feel burdened by the Doxie presence.

It sports a single powered button at the upper right side which includes a built in multicolour LED that acts as the scanner’s status indicator, where a green light indicates the scanner is in its default 300 DPI mode while the orange glow indicates a higher resolution 600 DPI setting.

The scanner comprises of enough built in memory to contain around 450 pages of documents or 1800 photos in 300 DPI mode though heavy user could plug a USB thumb drive or SD card in its chassis for any additional storage. Moreover it works with Wi-Fi enabled DS cards, enabling users to eschew wires while downloading documents.

Power Brick and Interchangeable Plugs

The unit is packed with apower brick and interchangeable plugs which are used for different outlet layouts together with a USB cable for charging and sync, quick start documentation, along with a photo sleeve, a cleaning and calibration tool.

On connecting to the power, the unit takes around an hour to charge out of the box and then scanning is a very simple process with turning on the Doxie and sliding a piece of paper into the slot. The scanner can scan anything from a business card of 8.5 inch by 15 inch sheet though large documents which can be scanned was 8.5 inch by 14 inch as per U.S. legal size paper.

The process of scanning is swift, with sheets sliding in within a span of six seconds each though it seems to be nearly one second per page slower than the ScanSnap; Doxie is much preferred due to its paper handling design which does not angle the paper as in the case of the ScanSnap.

Doxie’s Software Smart Caching & Triaging App

Doxie is essentially on par with ScanSnap with regards to image quality. Colours seems to be fading slightly with some black and white documents showing odd colour in finely textured areas though none of these affect the readability of the documents.

Images can also be pulled out from the Doxie memory as from a digital camera and is more useful when combined with a software organiser. Doxie’s software offer is a smart caching and triaging app which is only available for download through the company’s site and is not included in the package. On importing, each scan shows a separate document leaving the option to the user to collate, save and export them.

It is to be noted that the Doxie gets automatically mounted in OS X once the same is plugged in and with the combination of the scanner’s power saving auto off feature, it can be a random `disk not ejected properly warning from OS X which does not seem to harm the data.

Capabilities to Export Documents as PNG/PDF/JPG

The software also enables uses to rename or even rotate their scans before deciding what needs to be done besides the individual pages of multi-page document which can be stapled back together. While Doxie could be relied as a sort of digital junk drawer, people would tend to take advantage of its various integrations.

Moreover, documents could also be exported directly as PNG, PDF or JPG files with provision of options of sharing through email, iMessage or AirDrop and send them to cloud service like Dropbox, OneNote or even pushing them to post processing application like Photoshop of iPhoto.

Before the entry of the Doxie Go, Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 was used due to its portability but with Doxie Go, many prefer it, due to its paper handing, ease of use as well as the ability to run through its pile of documents without the interruption of administrative details.

Apple in Talks to Acquire Beats Electronics

Apple, it has been reported is in talks to acquire Beats Electronics, the high end headphone company and streaming music created by Dr, Dre and Jimmy Iovine, a deal which is worth $3.2 billion and according to Financial Times, the deal is likely to be announced if the negotiations works our well in the next week.

It is reported that Apple would be paying the deal amount for the company, a sum which dwarfs the $404 million that Apple spent to acquire NeXT in the year 1996 and is one of the largest purchase as of date. As per its last earnings call, Apple had around $150 billion in cash on hand with plenty for coverage on large acquisition.

Beats Streaming Service

Besides, its line of bass boasting ear pieces, Beats has been in the competitive market for subscription streaming services with mobile offering, which unlike apple’s iTunes and iTunes Radio, offers ad-free on demand music listening for around $10 per month and if the deal goes through, Apple will be acquiring the subscription business together with Beat’s hardware division accompanied with Beats management team that will be reporting to Apple CEO, Tim Cook, as reported by Financial Times.

Beats at the moment has refrained from commenting on this and CNET though had contacted Apple will get back on hearing from them. Since Apple had long favourable relationship with Beats, their branded headphones lines are featured in both its physical Apple stores as well as the accessory section of its online store where the crux of the deal may turn out to be Beats Music.

Beat’s streaming service may become a central part of Apple’s music strategy after the launch of its online radio service of iTunes Radio last year. Moreover, Beats Music debuted with billing and marketing partnership with AT&T and as per reports has been swiftly growing.

Launch of Beats Music Service

Besides producing a range of popular premium headphones and speakers which Apple has currently been selling in its stores, Beats has also launched its Beats Music service which is a direct competitors to Spotify, Pandora as well as Apple’s own iTunes Radio service and is a subscription based on demand service which would be bolstering Apple’s free station based iTunes Radio service.

Beats Electronics purchase comes as Apple has been rumoured to be working on a complete revamp of iTunes, to boost the declining sales in music. Part of this revamping would include an on demand streaming music service similar to Spotify though the company may intend to purchase Beats instead of designing its own service from the ground level. Subscription for Beats Music is available for $9.99 per month is focused on curation.

Moreover the company had also hired experts in music from popular radio station across the country to create stations and playlist from the service’s twenty million song catalogue and it is yet not clear if Apple would be keeping the Beats Music format intact if it intends acquiring the company though the curation would be fitting well with the iTunes music stores that would be offering music choice which would be picked by Apple editors. Do get back to Macmyth to get some insight on the latest information on Apple Technology.

Apple hired Senior Medical Professionals

Apple, it has been reported has hired a team of senior medical technology professionals who would be working on projects.

The technology pacesetter has hired a medical team of senior medical technology executives who had previously worked in the biotech field and over the past year, Apple has hired about six prominent experts in biomedicine as per LinkedIn profile changes and a prominent research had just moved in a couple of weeks ago with Apple recruiting other medical professionals as well as hardware experts.

It is stated by undisclosed source that the number of hires is not clear. Most of the hires are well versed and have some expertise in medical sensor technology which will enable Apple products to analyse everything right from blood sugar levels to heart rate.

Wearable Device Using Sensors

Health, fitness together with medical care has now drawn the focus of major technology companies. Samsung for instance has built up several health’s related features in its Galaxy S5, together with many wearable technology devices recently have similar elements.

Moreover Samsung also has plans of organising an event later in the month to engage in talks related to health issues. It is believed that Apple would be working on some sort of a wearable device which would be unveiled later this year.

It would be using sensors and other technology to track health though it was not initially believed that Apple’s long wait of iWatch would probably be launched this year, it seemed more likely that Apple would launch a smartband instead in partnership with Nike which would deliver those features.

Headphones to Monitor Heart Rate/Blood Pressure 

Although the company has not declared any formal announcement with regards to a smart watch product, Apple is said to have registered the trademark `iWatch’, in Japan.

Most of Apple patents focus on wrist worn devices and in February, the company had filed a patent for a smart ear bud patent which could track steps as well as detect gestures of the head. Recently, a poster on anonymous secret sharing app Secret, revealed that Apple had plans on releasing a set of headphone which could monitor heart rate as well as blood pressure.

The earpods would be using Apple’s iBeacon technology in order to locate them just in case they would be misplaced and would need the lightening jack to work, as reported through a source. Besides, the phone would store the data in a similar way to thumbprint point data, fully encrypted and nothing identifiable.

Recruiting Engineers with Experience in Monitoring Body’s Perimeter

A mobile health executive informed Reuter that he had recently sat down with Apple executive from the iWatch team and said that the company had aspirations beyond wearable devices and speculating on a full health and fitness service platform which would be modelled on its apps store.

The med tech community is hoping on Apple to develop the apps store style platform in order that start-ups can make their own software and hardware mobile medical applications. According to Ted Driscoll, a Silicon Valley based partner at Claremont Creek Ventures that specializes in digital health and medical devices, states that Apple seems to be focussed on recruiting engineers with experience in monitoring the body’s perimeter.

Apple Invented Touch Sensitive Button to distinguish Accidental or Actual touch

An updated Apple patent published by the U.S Patent and Trademark Office reveals that the touch sensitive button would be capable in distinguishing from an accidental activation and an actual finger touch. Apple being a pioneer in touchscreen devices has come up with this new entry where the concept comes from a patent continuation and discovered by AppleInsider entitled `Configurable Buttons for Electronic Devices,’ A

pple’s invention is related to a touch sensitive depressible button which can generate input based on a depression of the button or based on a gesture performed on a surface of the button. Moreover, the button can generate input based on the depression as well as the touch event.

Physical Button – Associated Touch Sensor

The Touch ID featured first in the iPhone 5s and recently, a hacker group showed that the biometric security function could be tricked with a fake finger. In spite of the risk and according to findings being negligible, this feature will be making its appearance very soon.

This invention by Apple has a physical button with an associated touch sensor, touch sensitive buttons, which could detect instantly when the user is touching it.

In doing so, the button would be capable of knowing when it is being activated by a finger or an accidental touch and with this method; Apple has made it possible in identifying an accidental touch from a real finger press touch on portable device.

Beneficial to Users

These functions would be very beneficial especially with wearable electronics like the company’s latest rumoured iWatch, a portable device which is susceptible to accidental touch as it is being worn by the user. Apple’s patent provides a method by which the system can detect that the touch is unwanted and can ignore the same.

The patent includes illustration for what seems to be an unused design for the wearable clip on iPod shuffle and an example of one is that the buttons on the device are temporarily disabled when the clip on the rear of the device is squeezed enabling the user to place the device on their clothing without the need of activating the buttons in the front.

Avoid Unintentional Operation

The invention takes into account the need to avoid unintentional operation of button which is applicable to all portable electronics which include smartphone, media players, tablets, as well as notebooks. Some examples given by Apple include sleep, menu, power, volume and multipurpose buttons. Since Apple has a touch sensitive button of sorts on the iPhone 5s as the smartphone’s home button which includes the touch ID fingerprint scanner.

With the use of the Touch ID, users can now securely unlock their iPhone once the handset identifies their fingerprint from an actual finger when placed on the button. In continuation of the patent it is also revealed that more basic touch sensing possibilities could also be used on other buttons for future portable devices likely to come up from Apple as indicated by the USPTO recently. And inventors like John Benjamin Filson, Stephen Brian Lynch, Emery Sanford and Pinida Ian Moolsintong have been credited by U.S. Patent No 8,717,199. Do get back to Macmyth and get acquainted with the latest updates on Apple Technology.