Apple’s Changes in Policies on Notification Centre Widgets

Apple seems to have ordered another developer to make changes in its nebulous policies on Notification Centre widgets, informing Drafts developer Agile Tortoise that the app’s widget is not permitted to be used in creating drafts or opening the Drafts app.

Developer Greg Pierce in his tweet stated that he has been asked to re-submit Draft without functionality for opening the app or creating a new one, which essentially removes all the features of the Notification Centre Widget. Earlier the indecisiveness of the company for widgets led to an app known as `Launcher being pulled from sale’, with a similar fate met by the popular pCalc widget till Apple changed it. The widget on focus today was created by Pierce which is part of the popular note taking app `Draft’, enabling users to create new entries in the app.

This is done by pressing a button in the widget that opens the app’s composer. The introduction of Drafts 4 in October is an update to the existing Draft app presently and helps users to post a variety of social networks as well as perform various actions with notes such as the creating of emails, messages, calendar event and much more.

Drafts Faced Confusing Restrictions and Rules

The Draft app widget like other several apps having Notification Centre app permits users to open the app directly creating new draft or draft from the clipboard. In fact it has very little function in the Notification Centre besides opening up the Drafts app which earlier was like an acceptable use of the Notification Centre.

Pierce states that he was told that the present view in the Notification Centre is `for information presentation only’, which could be a point of view in ruling out the almost all Notification Center apps and he draws the attention that there are many similar apps which offer the same widget function as Drafts, like the Evernote which enables users to launch the Evernote app together with new notes besides other content within the Notification Center.

Draft is one of the numbers of apps,which has come across confusing restrictions and rules that were delivered by the review team of Apple’s app. Apple had told pCalc developers in October that calculator functions were not allowed in the Notification Center before a change in decision a few weeks ago, informing Neato to remove the note taking functions from its Notification Center widget.

Apple’s App Extensive Guidelines

The Extension Guidelines of Apple’s App recommends that the Notification Widgets should have a `simple streamlined UI’ with `limited number of interactive items’, though the vague language could lead the developers in spending time and effort in the creation of a variety of useful functions which are eventually not permitted since Apple seems to refine how it needs the Notification Center to be used.

It is not known why Drafts has been removed out by Apple’s app review team since it offer similar functions as other widgets. However if the Draft widget is singled out, there is a possibility that several other similar widgets would be in danger of getting into violation of the Notification Center widget rules.

Apple’s Patent – Fall Protection System

Apple was recently awarded a patent which covered the futuristic iPhone protection system that can detect when a phone is dropped, calculate an estimated point of impact and move its centre of gravity to avoid striking sensitive components.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted the patent for `protective mechanism for an electronic device’, that seems to protect expensive computer hardware from dropping accidentally which has become a familiar problem with the latest slim iPhone designs.

Apple’s latest invention not only estimates where a device may make an impact but also actively shifts the unit’s centre of gravity in order to protect the sensitive components such as glass screens as well as the camera and save them from being damaged.

Apples’ system relies on sensors as mentioned in the patent text to physically monitor device activity and positioning with accepted embodiment leverage on-board accelerometers, gyroscopes and GPS that are incorporated already in the new iPhone and iPad models though more advanced designs would be needed for ultrasonic sensors besides other things.

Generated by Positioning of Sensors

The data that is fed in is generated by the positioning of sensors to a central processing unit enabling quick and accurate device positioning determination as it applies to a state of free-fall and when such a situation is detected, the sensors and processor function together measuring the speed of the decent, the time to impact, together with orientation and other metrics.

The processor could then conduct an analysis of the fall by taking the gathered data into consideration against embedded information stored in the device memory. On completion of the calculation, the system then activates a protective mechanism designed to re-position the device in mid-air in order to provide the least damage to the fragile component.

The main example utilises a motor accompanied with eccentric mass which enables to impart a force on a falling phone’s rotational axis thus causing it to land on a preferred site like on its side or back.

Vibrator motor – Adequate to change Angular Momentum

The vibration motor of an iPhone is adequate to change the angular momentum of an iPhone spinning in a free-fall and based on the rate of the spin, angular velocity, time to impact together with other factors, the vibration motor could be powered at higher rotational speed than the normal, thereby effectively managing the momentum and eventually landing angle.

The recent iPhone 6 and 6 Plus of Apple incorporated bespoke linear oscillating motors which do not use eccentrically connected rotational mass while previous model did which means that the patent can easily be worked in to an upcoming variant.

Other exotic embodiments comprises of internal mechanisms which latch on or jettison headphone cables in a free-fall incident while some others involve motors capable of extending and retracting foils in the air or aerodynamic surfaces in controlling landings.

Moving ahead into unconventional are miniaturized gas canister which exert thrust forces in slowing down a fall and moving the weights along an internal track through linear motors. The official patent credit has been granted to Nicholas V King and Fletcher Rothkopf as its inventors.

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.