Apple Plans Web TV Service in Fall

Apple’s - Internet Based TV Service

Apple, it has been revealed, is in talks with several leading television groups for an Internet based TV service for its iPhone, iPad as well as Apple TV set-top box. It has been reported that the technology company is working out in offering slimmed down bundle of TV networks this coming fall and the service would be having around twenty-five channels which would be anchored by broadcasters like ABC, CBS and Fox that would be made available on Apple devices like the Apple TV.

An anonymous source has informed that the service which would be announced later this year offers a bundle of channels and would be smaller and cheaper than the overstuffed catalog offered in a cable subscription. Apple’s plans for a web TV series was followed by an announcement that it had formed an exclusive partnership with HBO offering the premium cable network’s new digital TV service, known as HBO Now.According to sources familiar with the matter, at present, the talks does not involve NBCUniversal, the owner of the NBC broadcast network and USA and Bravo cable channels due to a fall-out between Apple and NBCUniversal parent company – Comcast Corp.

New Service – June, Launch – September 

Till last year, Comcast and Apple had been in talks and were working together on a streaming television platform which would be combining Apple’s expertise in user interfaces along with Comcast’s strength in the delivery of broadband. According to source, Apple was of the belief that Comcast was easing it along while the cable giant had its focus on its own XI Web enabled set-top box. Another media executive had stated that it would be difficult to launch a service without NBCUniversal channels, for Apple.

Apple in the meantime was in talks with Walt Disney Co; CBS Corp. and 21st Century Fox Inc.; besides other media companies to offer the well-known channels while leaving the several smaller networks in the standard cable TV package. News Corp and 21st Century Fox, the owner of The Wall Street Journal were part of the same company till mid-2013. Some sources have also revealed that the company would announce its new service in June and its launch would be in September while media executive has stated that they believed that Apple is planning to price the service at $30 to $40 per month.

Live TV Streaming Service 

For years now, Apple had been on and off talks with media companies with a hope of creating a subscription TV service which could be delivered over the internet and several of its proposals turned out to be essential but failed to succeed. Apple’s TV services would now be entering the market amidst strong competition in Internet TV services and most of the companies are looking for means of targeting those who would not want to pay the nominal $90 price for a TV cable package with hundreds of channels and intend to enjoy online video.

Apple is continuing with its proposal in creating a live TV streaming service in its recent talks, with a huge on-demand library which would be stored in the `cloud’ and it could be difficult for Apple to get rights to all the programming intending to offer, including full seasons of shows. Several of the media companies tend to have deals to license contents like these to outlets such as Hulu and Netflix.

What you can do with Digital Touch on the Apple Watch

Apple Watch – New Feature of Taps & Drawings

Apple has recently included a new feature in the Apple Watch which enables two users to communicate through taps and drawings as well as by sharing their heart rates. The new feature known as Digital Touch enables two Apple Watch users to communicate with one another without the need of texting or calling.

Last fall when the company had unveiled its watch it had only provided demo models of the new device – polished prototypes of the hardware running on non-working loops of the software. The company has disclosed that the device would be priced at $350. Instead of making any attempts in writing the text message on the small screen, the Digital Touch feature enables two Apple Watch owners to communicate via taps and doodles and once the two users are connected they can start communicating.

The method which is used first in order to contact a colleague is by tapping the screen on the Apple Watch which is similar to the Poke feature on Facebook. The user can tap a certain patter on the watch face where the friend will be able to feel it on their wrist through mild vibrations.

Digital Touch – Sharing Heart Rate 

The next method is sketching an animated message which can be done on dragging the finger across the screen to draw a coloured sketch quickly which could be sent across to their friend. Sharing heart rate with others could also be done with the Digital Touch and when one presses two fingers on the screen the built-in heart rate sensor automatically tends to record sending the beats per minute reading to the friend.

 According to Apple this is `an intimate way to inform someone about their feelings.’ The watch is an interesting creation with its stainless steel middle tier together with the steel mesh Milanese loop wristband and besides being beautiful it is also one of the best looking computers one could have on their wrist.

Earlier the company had made a show of the rotating crown on the side of the device, what most of us would call a watch dial and held the crown as the next great interface something as the mouse, the iPods’ click-wheel or the touch screen on the iPhone. It has two main functions. When it is pressed, one gets to the watch’s main screen of apps or if the user is already on that screen, it switches displaying the clock. One could consider the crown as a home button.

Watch – Computer for Wrist

Moreover, it could also be used for scrolling as well as zooming while in the music app, one could turn it to scroll through the artists. If the user is in the photos app, they could turn the crown to zoom from the various set of photos and focus on an individual one. Scrolling could also be done with the finger on the screen and this method seems to be much faster than the crown where touching and tapping is much easier than turning the dial.

Besides the standard taps the screen has another tap mode known as force touch that functions just as it sounds which is press the screen harder. With force touch it provides an extra level of settings in the apps where in the case of force touch an email, one would have the options of deleting, replying or marking them as unread.

Yet it is difficult to forget that the watch is a computer for your wrist and in its top end versions it misses the understated elegance of old fashioned high end analog watches and Apple is working on something unusual in trying to develop an electronic device which would match the timeless appeal of a piece of jewellery.

Microsoft Plans To Bring Siri Competitor Cortana To iOS Devices

Microsoft to put Cortana on Machine

Microsoft is now making its way towards advanced version of its competitor, Apple’s Siri researching from an artificial intelligence project known as `Einstein’. The company is running its personal assistant – Cortana on its Windows phone for around a year and would be putting the new version on the desktop with the forthcoming Window 10 somewhere this autumn which would be available as a stand-alone app that could be used on phones and tablets and powered by Apple’s Inc.’s – AAPL.O, iOS and Google Inc.’s GOOG.O Android, according to users familiar with the project.

Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research and part of the Einstein project, in an interview at the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, stated that `this kind of technology that can read and understand email will play a central role in the next roll out of Cortana which they are working on for the fall time frame’. Microsoft and Horvitz refrained from disclosing any plans to take Cortana beyond Windows. The idea of putting Cortana on machine with software from rivals like Google and Apple together with the Einstein project is not reported. The name Cortana is an artificial intelligence character in a video game series known as `Halo’.

`Artificial Intelligence’ Concept 

The `artificial intelligence’ concept is broad and computers and mobile phones for instance have already shown skill with spoken language scrutinizing through emails for data. Microsoft is of the belief that its work on search, speech recognition and machine learning will enable it to transform its digital assistant into the first intelligent agent which would be what user would require.

Siri by comparison is advertised as responding to request. Google’s mobile app that does not have Siri or Cortana has been offering limited predictive information cards depending on what the user intends to know. Earlier, Microsoft had made attempts in creating digital assistants without much success and Microsoft Bob which was released in 1995 which was intended to make the use of the computer easy did not come up with the desired results. Similarly the Office Assistant which was nicknamed `Clippy’ met with the same fate, a few years thereafter.

Cortana - Supportive Service

Horvitz had commented that `they are defining the competitive landscape, of who could provide the most supportive service that make life easier, keep track of things, that complement human memory in a way that could help them get things done. A monitor which stands outside his door known as `The Assistant’, showing a woman’s face which can converse with visitors has access to Horvitz’s calendar and can also book meetings.

`Lifebrowser’ runs on his desktop, which is a program that has the potential of storing everything from appointments to photos and utilises machine learning in order to identify important moments while a keyword search for his university professor could instantly provide photos as well as video from their last meeting. Cortana has the capability of telling a mobile phone user when he ought to leave for the airport several days after it has read the email and the user’s intention of planning a flight. Moreover it can automatically check the status of flights and determine where the phone is located using GPS as well as check the condition of the traffic.

Apple's 'Taptic Engine' and 'Force Touch

Apple’s MacBook – `Force Touch/Taptic Engine’

Apple has recently unveiled a new MacBook with `Force Touch’ track-pad and `Taptic Engine’. The updated track-pad features Force Touch pressure sensitive with Taptic Engine for vibration/haptic feedback. Repair experts from iFexit who had taken the new computer apart, found the close-up it provided on the new track-pad’s design, quite interesting.

Rumours are also circulating that they would also be making their way to the latest iPhone. Apple’s 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display has come up with some updates together with the big Apple Watch and the new MacBook announcement. The details of the latest track-pad were partly disclosed on stage wherein Apple showed the part as a key feature in its new MacBook design video as well as the presentation.

In the case of the 13 inch Retina MBP, it is slightly different due to the fact that there is space to support a physical button style track-pad, similar to the one that ships in all other prevailing Mac laptops though it has the same combination of sound as well as haptics producing 100% accurate illusion of physical click when there is no actual click.

Track-Pad Controlled Through software

Matthew Panzarino had explained in his post that the new track-pad design does not actually move or tends to move on a microscopic sale but it feels like the existing clicky design though with a user-customizable amount of clickiness which is controlled through software.

iFixit’s ripping down of the computer indicated that the track-pad is supported by four spring mounts together with a panel on the underside which is not present on the latest version of MacBook though it does have the same Force Touch engine that is a series of wire coil covered around a ferromagnetic core, creating the vibrations which the finder translates as clicks.

iFexitpresumes that to vary the strength, Apple would selectively activate some or all four of the ferromagnetic cores inside the track-pad’s taptic engine and also notes that keeping in mind Apple’s assurance of no real movement going on here, the construction has no linear oscillators in the mechanism, similar to the traditional vibration feedback found on phone which is generally used. The updated sensors has the capabilities of detecting more than one kind of click wherein a light click could perform a single action while a harder click another and the threshold of how hard is a `hard’, the press could be adapted.

Touchpads – New User Interface Functions

To speed up the fast forward of video, one could press harder or `force click’ in order to pull up a definition of certain word. The force gestures are an addition to the standard multi-touch track-pad taps and swipes as well as intuitive which bodes well and according to Wall Street Journal, Apple is trying to integrate the force sensing in its iPhone and iPad next year after the introduction of the technology in its company’s smartwatch.

With regards to detection of pressure, iFixit presumes that they probably come through very small strain gauges which are mounted on flexible metal supports which read how much flex is experienced, translating the same into a read on how much pressure is applied. Before touchpads had emerged, individuals using the laptops had been using tiny joysticks which were serviceable after much practice and the first touchpads were great though they had to use separate mouse buttons since they could not register clicks.

Apple’s latest entry is an attempt to make touchpads less awkward and while laptops can register taps as well as detect multiple fingers at once, they have learned to measure how hard you press enabling some new user interface functions.

Outdoor Tech Chips Helmet Headphone

Outdoor Tech Chips Headphones – Reliable & Durable/Easy Controlling

An updated version of a well-designed simple solution in is the offering for enhanced wireless connectivity to your helmet, which could be helpful for snowboarders and skiers interested in listening to music and stay connected during their expedition on the mountain. The new invention has been designed for winter mountain sports wherein the Outdoor Tech Chips are compatible on any helmet which features an audio enabled liner while the headset are compatible with Siri.

 It features an integrated microphone for the purpose of dictating commands as well as making calls. Both the left as well as the right earpieces of the Chips headphones are essentially giant buttons and one cannot miss them while pressing on them even if one is warmed up with ski gloves. This season, the Outdoor Tech Chips had been tested by AppleInsider on a ski trip to Utah which was very impressive. Though a bit higher on the cost, the headphones tend to be reliable and durable with an easy of controlling the iPhone without the need of taking it out of the pocket or even exposing the hands in the cold mountain air.

Simple Design – Two Earpieces/Flat Cord – Giro Helmet

It features a simple design comprising of two ear pieces having a flat cord which connects the two and fits perfectly in a Giro helmet. It also has additional cord to provide free space ensuring that the ear pieces are located in a proper position. Once the same is dropped in the helmet and placed on the head, the button on the left has the capabilities of controlling the volume while the button of the right earpiece could be used to play or pause the music or answer call and hang up.

It is easy to press on the ear to activate these if the helmet tends to have soft ear-pads with space for headphones. The two buttons come with a little bit of learning curve, typical for Bluetooth headphones and on the left ear, it could press the button once to increase the volume while a double press could decrease the volume. This system works well when the need to lower the volume is to be done quickly since multiple presses could reduce the volume.

Best of Both – Personal Audio Choices

With regards to the right ear, on holding down the button it turns on the unit and a one press will start the music while another tends to pause it. If a call comes in, one press can answer the call and another will hang up. The use of both buttons is essential for activating Siri by pressing and holding the left button and then pressing the right button for Apple’s voice driven personal assistant. The Chips also tend to feature a headphone jack in particularly welcome inclusion in order that they could be used as wired to iPhone or otherwise according to one’s choice.

Thus the Chips provide the best of both for personal audio choices. Moreover the 3.5 mm headphone jack also serves as the charging port; where for recharging the Chips, it needs a unique headphone to USB cable.With regard to the sounds, the Chips are quite audible and can be heard even while flying down the mountain, though users are cautioned to listen to the music at reasonable level keeping in mind the surrounding on the mountain which is a matter of importance with regards to safety.