Apple Watch Effect - Fitness Band Market Likely to Shrink

According to reports released recently by Canalys and Gartner, top positions in the smart-watch market have been claimed by Samsung and Motorola while other wearable market would probably shrink by next year. The wearable device market is still in its development stage with over 17 million wearable bands forecast to be shipped.

As per Canalys figures it shows about five million smart watches together with smart bands were shipped in the third quarter and despite a 37% increase on quarter on quarter sales, Android Wear devices made up 15% of the market while Samsung claimed 52% more than Motorola and Pebble on smart watch market, including others like LG and Sony, claiming 21%. Fitbit and Jawbone seems to be the two largest fitness band makers at the moment.

 Gartner on the other hand has published figures which suggest that the total wearable market which includes wristbands, chest straps, and smart-watches together with other fitness monitors could shrink by next year. The figures forecast the overall market shrinking from 70.2 million units in 2014 to 58.1 million in 2015 prior to rebounding in 2016 to 91.3 million units, inspite of the release of the Apple Watch. As per the forecast smart watches growth, from 18 million in 2014 to 21 million in 2015 would be small than the slump sales for fitness band which was 20 million to 17 million while other fitness monitors from 20 million to 12 million.

Temporary Dip 

Though Apple Watch will not be launched till early 2015, it is already expected to cause a reason for worry for its rivals. Fitness wearbles shipped next year is likely to drop according to Gartner and the segment include smart wristbands like the Jawbone Up, sports watches, smart garments, heart rate monitor chest straps and other fitness monitor.

The tech research firm as attributed the declines known as a `temporary dip’, to `an overlap in functionality between smart wristbands, and other fitness monitors as well as smart-watches. Apple Watch in particular which has several health features will also affect sales of the fitness connected devices.

Gartner analyst Angela McIntyre informed CNET that half of the consumers who have purchased fitness wristband would buy smart-watch instead next year. She also noted that the companies will ship 40 million smart-watches by 2015 quadruple the number which is expected this year. She further added that Apple has the capabilities to make up as much as half of the shipment volume by next year.

Hold up Purchase of Rival Devices 

In September Apple had made it first progress in the hot smart-watch market by presenting its three designs for its first wearable namely the stainless steel cased Apple Watch, the aluminium cased apple Watch Sport and the 18 karat gold cased Apple Watch edition and the smart-watches would go on sale early next year with a price of $349. Moreover the devices must be accompanied with an iPhone, and are compatible with the iPhone 5 5C, 5S, 6 and 6 Plus.

Apple managed to accomplish two things by announcing its first smart-watch more than a quarter before it availability for purchase. It first put the rumour to rest by informing and showing what is expected from its wearable and secondly, Tim Cook, CEO and his team led by design chief Jony Ive, got the would be smart-watch buyers to hold off the purchase of rival device from Samsung, LG, Motorola together with other competitors from trying to grab a share of the emerging market for these smart devices.

Apple Macs with Latest Graphic and Processor Technology

Apple Macs are some of the most advanced computers in the market with the latest graphic and processor technology. Macs are excellent for gaming and besides Apple Store, there are a variety of collection of games on several high profile publishers who are committed to Mac gaming. When gaming on Mac one could check on all the Apple Mac models and opt for the one which is the best for playing games.

Choosing a Mac with the best graphics card is not a difficult task and it is the new Mac Pro with Dual AMD FireProD500 with 3GB GDDR5 which makes a good option. One can also upgrade the graphics cards to Dual AMD FirePro D700 with 5GB of GDDR VRAM with additional cost if interested in enhancing the game. MacBook Air, Mac mini, MacBook Pro – non Retina and Entry level iMac all use Intel HD Graphics cards rather than Intel Iris or NVIDIA. To get the right Mac for gaming also depends on other internal hardware besides the graphics card. Apple utilises two main forms of Intel chip in its computers namely the Intel i5 and Intel i7 with clock speed between 2.7 GHz and 3.4 GHz which are sold in either dual core or quad core configuration.

High End Video Card Graphics Performance

An interesting fact with regards to the game is that it does not depend on cores as raw processing power and most of the games do not take advantage on the availability of the cores but the CPU speed seems to be the important factor. Playing the new video games has a heavy demand on the computer in terms of graphics as well as processor performance and hence it is important to get a Mac with sufficient power.

Besides this, speed being the main factor across the boards, it is essential to have a fast hard drive or Flash Drive which is also known as solid state drive or SSD. Due to its visual medium, excellent display is also essential. Video games tend to have the latest in high end video card graphics performance and Apple utilises three varieties of graphic cards in its computers: Intel HD Graphic 4000/5000, Intel Iris/Iris Pro Graphics, NVDIA GeForce GT750M & GT750M, Dual AMD FirePro D300 and D500.

Intel HD Graphics 4000/5000 – Integrated Graphic Card

While the Intel HD Graphics 4000 and 5000 tend to be an integrated graphic card, NVIDIA card which is found in the higher end MacBook Pros and iMacs seems to be discreet together with the Dual AMD FirePro in the Mac Pro which means that the graphics card is independent from the main CPU. Hence it tends to act as a second card instead of drawing power from the main CPU and for playing the latest high end games one could opt for a Mac with a NVIDIA GeForce graphics card.

Once the Mac is chosen, one needs to know where to get the games and which ones to purchase which are direct from the Mac App Store and seems to have some of the best selection of various forms of options. Another option to buy games is from Steam which is an online portal developed and managed by Valve while Feral Interactive also distributes several Mac games having some of the most recent releases available.

Apps on App Store No Longer `Free’

Currently in the app purchasing world `free’, is not always free. Apple and Google have come under the scanner from the Federal Trade Commission – FTC, for in-app purchases in their respective app stores and Apple has settled a lawsuit earlier this year, stemming from children racking up large iTunes bills with in-app purchases on games.

Apple has ended up with over $32.5 million in refunds to customers in settling the matter and is now taking an additional step is bringing about an awareness among customers that `free’ app especially games is a rare occurrence. The company is not listing apps with a `Free’ label any more but has changed it to `GET’.

The Apps that have in-app purchases available will now be `GET’ with small subtext which states `In-App Purchases’. Apple is not marketing apps as `Free’, on its App Store because of the pressure coming from the EU on the issue of in-app purchases and has changed its way of labelling apps in its iTunes as well as Mac App Stores, in a ways that the apps which have no cost to download, are no longer marketed as `Free’.On the contrary, when a user navigates to an app’s page, they are presented with a new `Get’ button which enables them to download the app to their device without any charges.

Free Download – Not Free to Play

With no public explanation made,Apple has gone ahead and made this change, though the re-labelling is due to the European Commission pressure which had warned Apple earlier this year that they could face legal action if their app policies were not changed.

According to the commission, the problem is that games labelled as `free’, could misled consumers on the true cost involved and should not directly market in-app purchases to children or pressure them in asking their parent to fund for the additional features.

Their main concern was for children racking huge bills by making in-app purchases within the apps that were labelled as `free download’ though not free to play. The Commission had stated that more than half of online games in the EU have been advertised as `free’ with many hidden costs with purchases which automatically debits from a registered credit card. Apple does not seem to be the first company to make this change in its approach to market apps which are free to download.

`Get’ Them But Not `Free’

Google too, earlier this year, removed the `Free’ labels from the Play Store, renamed `Top Free Apps’ as `Top Apps and `Top Free Games’ as `Top Games’, though the changes were applicable only in EU countries.

Apple seems to decide on not making an EU specific change but has re-labelled all the free apps across its App Stores with `Get’ buttons irrespective of whether they offer in-app purchases or not which was probably easier than making regional adjustment and is also a little honest about the nature of some of the apps like `You could get them but they may not be free.

Apple’s Top Charts sections at this point of time tend to be unaffected and there are still Top Free Apps as well as Top Paid Apps which are listed in both the stores.

Apple’s Latest Virtual Reality Project

Apple is known for developing technologies and is reportedly working on project that is related to virtual reality which has become obvious with the job listing posted for a virtual reality developer. Apple has focused on many tech markets right from phones to music players together with its upcoming smart watch and is now heading towards the world of virtual reality.

For the creation of the virtual world, advanced technologies are essential and the very basis of virtual reality is a combination of software, hardware together with electronics. Earlier this year, Apple had filed for a patent application connected to head mounted virtual reality goggles, and many are speculating on this issue.

According to the listing, the app engineer would be designing the `next generation software experience, creating high performance apps which would integrate with Virtual Reality system, for prototyping and user testing’ and would be working with the team in the firm’s Santa Clara Valley office. The tech company while developing technologies preferred a slow and steady way in being the first in its endeavor.

Oculus Rift and Samsung’s Gear VR

The iPhone was not the first smartphone though as Tim Cook, Apple CEO said, was the first modern smartphone. Apple Pay also was not the first payment platform but several believed that it could be the technology which will eventually bring about mobile payments to the mainstream. It is not clear whether the company is planning to develop hardware and software and an Apple headset would compete with Oculus Rift and Samsung’s Gear VR.

The patent which was published in December suggested that the firm did not have ambitions for a head mounted display and the patent first filed in May 2007.stated `goggle system for providing a personal media viewing experience to a user’.

Apple informed that the goggle system may resemble ski or motorcycle goggles and for enhancing the comfort of the user, the goggle system would include breathable components’, which included breathable foam which would rest against the user’s face.

Recent VR Firm Jaunt Release

VR firm Jaunt recently released its first cinematic virtual reality release a gig of Paul McCartney in San Francisco which was filmed during summer where the Jaunt camera system recorded simultaneously a 3D stereoscopic video in all directions coupled with 3D sound field microphones.. The computational photography algorithms was used by the team to process the recorded video by adjusting the angles and colours to make it appear more immersive and the footage is now made available as a free app from Google Play.

 It works with Google’s Cardboard and the gig will be available for Samsung’s Gear VR as well as Oculus Rift very soon. Apple could use its experience with iTunes if intending to enter the cinematic CR market as opposed the gaming VR industry. Right now it is not clear on what exactly Apple is trying to work on. Companies tend to file patents all the time but sometimes do not end in accomplishing it though it is clear that Apple is getting serious on its next venture on virtual reality and we need to wait and watch to know the outcome of their plans.

How To Make The Most Of Apple's Healthkit In iOS 8 With Compatible Apps

HealthKit Tracked Nutrition/Calories Burned/Activity/Biometric Readings

Before the debut of Apple’s HealthKit in iOS 8, individuals managed their fitness data through multiple apps, third party cloud services and web tools wherein some of the platforms such as Fitbit incorporated calorie counting as well as tracked activity into a universal solution, though it fragmented and worked with the company’s hardware.

HealthKit together with the Health app enabled users to track nutrition, calories burned, activity as well as took biometric readings through various apps which could be seen in one place. It has the potential of being used as a wellness and fitness tool with data on diet, exercise, activity and sleep from different sources together with serious medical tool to manage and monitor chronic conditions.

It could be considered as a dynamic platform which works behind the scenes providing a personalized experience to iPhone user, utilising the data from iPhone’s M7 or M8 sensor, enabling the user to view the health data in a single app. Being a medical tool, the HealthKit provides great values and can aggregate data from a various app or connected medical devices such as glucose meter or blood pressure cuff and consumer oriented fitness devices.

Platform More of Data Store on iPhone

Moreover it also provides the potential to automate the recording of medical metrics and if one is using connected devices, it maintains the accuracy of the data since it goes straight from the device to the associated app on the iPhone and to the HealthKit. Another possibility is that if your physician’s office tends to use electronic records system, which supports HealthKit, the data automatically is entered in the medical records.

The platform is more than a data store on the iPhone and apps can use the information from it or write information into it. There are some apps that do both though there are others which only retrieve data or input data.

The actual processing of the HealthKit data like comparing calories eaten together with the number of it burned through the course of the day or obtaining data from a fitness tracker or other devices, compiling information and then sending to the doctor is done by the third party app which sends the information to and retrieve it from HealthKit.

Medical ID Feature to Record Medical Information 

The Health app is pre-installed on the iPhone 4s or the latest running iOS 8 and helps to view all HealthKit data from all HealthKit compatible app. Besides this it also enables the user to manually edit data and includes a dashboard to visualize the data. It also includes a Medical ID feature which enables the user to record essential medical information, medications, conditions, allergies as well as emergency contacts.

The person has the option of choosing to have a Medical ID available from the phone’s lock screen in an emergency when unable to provide the same which can be accessed on tapping the Emergency button when prompted to enter a passcode and also enable the iPhone to make 911 calls when it is locked.
HealthKit is built to respect user privacy in part with permissions model which enables user to see what apps can access the data and has also barred developers from selling HealthKit information to data brokers for any purpose besides medical research, and in such a case, the data should be made anonymous.