Source: Apple

At its “Spring Forward�?event on March 9, Apple showed off the much-anticipated Apple Watch and unveiled three exciting new products – Apple’s ResearchKit, the new MacBook, and HBO Now on Apple TV. Here is a rundown of the big announcements.

Apple Watch

Source: Apple

Apple has been hard at work improving and refining the Apple Watch since its initial announcement in September and the announcement of its software development kit.

Functionally, the Watch doesn’t seem to have changed much since it was first introduced. Users can make and take calls, read and send messages, make payments with Apple Pay, control their music, track workouts and activity levels, and even unlock their hotel rooms. At the event, Apple emphasized the watch’s notification feature, which alerts users of breaking news, social media updates, scheduled events, etc. It includes the new “Taptic Engine�?to provide haptic feedback when an alert or notification is received. Haptic feedback technology uses forces or vibrations to convey information to the user (e.g. when a game controller shudders when your character dies). For the Watch, the Taptic Engine vibrates the watch when notifications are received, and creates a tiny noise to go with the vibration to make the illusion of a mechanical watch even more realistic. Siri has also been integrated into the Watch.

The Watch has been designed to work with the iPhone (and most likely only the iPhone…sorry, Android users). Any messages or calls made with the Watch will sync with your phone. Its battery lasts up to 18 hours.

Apple Watch Sport, with a lightweight band and an aluminum case, will start at $349. The standard Apple Watch with a stainless steel case starts at $549 and can run up to $1099 depending on the band selection. The Apple Watch Edition, with an 18-karat gold band and case in either yellow or rose gold, will start at $10,000.

Apple will take pre-orders starting April 10, and the Watch will be available on April 24.

Apple ResearchKit

Source: Apple

Finding and recruiting volunteers is one of the biggest obstacles to scientific research. Small sample sizes are more vulnerable to inaccuracy, and samples that lack diversity make it difficult to generalize the world population.

Apple’s new ResearchKit is an iOS software framework designed to benefit medical research by making it easy for people to volunteer to join research studies. Researchers can design and build medical testing apps, sign up volunteers that are far from their physical lab, and record data more quickly and efficiently than before.

Source: Apple

Tests designed with ResearchKit use the iPhone’s sensors to record data. Volunteers can sign consent forms on the device’s touch screen, which can now also sense people’s tapping rhythm and detect inconsistencies that may be an indication of a disease, such as Parkinson’s.

The device’s microphone can track fluctuations in a person’s voice and the phone’s accelerometer can compare a person’s walk, gait, and balance against a healthy person’s baseline. There is no doubt that when Apple Watch becomes available to the public, researchers will be able to create tests that use the device to measure heart rate and heart rhythm, and track physical activity.

And don’t worry, users can decide how the data is shared and Apple won’t see it.

So far researchers have used   ResearchKit to create tests for  Parkinson’s, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, and breast cancer. You can download these tests from  the App Store. ResearchKit itself is open source and will be available next month.

New MacBook

Source: Apple

It’s the lightest Mac ever. Weighing in at only 2 lbs, the new MacBook has a 12�?Retina display and is only 13.1mm thick, 24% thinner than the 11�?MacBook Air. It has a new keyboard mechanism that allows keys to be 40% thinner with a 17% larger clickable surface area and hopefully offers a “stronger�?type of click. LEDs are now under every key so that the keyboard produces a uniform glow.

The new pressure-sensitive Force Touch trackpad can detect how much pressure a user applies to the surface. It can tell the difference between a light tap and a deep press, which opens up a world of possibility and function. For example, pressing down deeply on the trackpad after clicking can bring up new shortcuts to everyday apps, such as a Wikipedia entry of a highlighted word, or it can fast-forward through a Quicktime movie.

Source: Apple

The MacBook is fanless to provide silent(er?) operation. And, thanks to a new contoured design, the MacBook battery packs itself into a smaller space and will last up to nine hours. The USB-C port allows the laptop to compact 5 ports into one – power, USB data transfer, Display Port, HDMI, and VGA.

The new MacBook starts at $1299 and starts shipping April 10.

HBO Now on Apple TV

Source: Apple

Starting in April, Apple will offer an HBO video streaming service on Apple TV, iPhones, and iPads called HBO Now. This deal is available exclusively only in the U.S. and you don’t need a cable subscription, simply an online subscription.

Source: Apple

To sign up, viewers register through the new app on a compatible Apple device. However, once registered customers can access HBO programming on both Apple devices and PCs.

Apple has an exclusive three-month right to sell access to HBO Now, after which HBO will presumably open up the service to other companies.

The HBO Now online subscription costs $14.99/month, with a free month for new subscribers. To sweeten the deal, Apple has cut the price of the Apple TV from $99 to $69.

---

Looking for a solution?

Logic Solutions can help you design the solution that you want to share with the world. Let us create the innovative mobile apps, websites, eCommerce, or healthcare solutions you need to stand out.

Find your perfect solution

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

The post Apple Watch, MacBook, ResearchKit, and HBO Now Are Coming in April appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

Apple Pay

Source: Gizmodo

Apple Pay launched on Monday, October 20!  Already there are a large list of merchants committed to using Apple’s mobile payments service in the very near future.  Companies include Groupon, Target, Uber, and Starbucks turned on service Monday when Apple Pay went live.

Additionally, the tech giant has signed up 500 banks to use the service.

Apple Watch

Source: TechCrunch

At the event, Apple announced its software development kit (SDK) for the upcoming Apple Watch.  The kit, called WatchKit, launches sometime in November and will give any developer the tools needed to build apps for the Apple Watch (previously, Apple allowed only a select few third-party developers the keys to Apple Watch, like BMW, American Airlines, and Starwood).

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, brought up Apple’s Continuity device philosophy, which is the ability to switch seamlessly between Apple devices in apps and functions like phone calls, texts, documents, and so on.  The Apple Watch was shown being used as a remote to an Apple TV, suggesting the smartwatch will play a larger part in Continuity than previously expected.

iPad Air 2
The iPad Air 2 (aka the iPad 6) is similar to previous iterations of the iPad but with a thinner body, updated hardware, and a few more features around the edges.

From a design standpoint, the new iPad is now 6.1mm thick, which is thinner than the original iPad and any iPhone.  And, in addition to the standard white and silver colors, it also comes in gold.  The iPad Air 2 also has TouchID, which allows you to use your fingerprint to buy things online.  Unfortunately, you can’t use the TouchID to buy anything in a physical store yet.

Inside, the iPad Air 2 sports a new A8X chip, an enhanced version of the dual-core 64-bit A8 chip that debuted in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last month.  Like the phones, Air 2 also has a m8 motion coprocessor.  With these new guts, the new iPad is faster while keeping battery life at approximately 10 hours.

iPad’s camera also gets an update!  Now it is an 8MP iSight camera that does 1080p HD video, time lapses, panoramas, burst mode shots, and slow mo video.

The iPad Air 2 starts at $499 for the 16GB version, then increases to $599 for 64GB, and $699 for 128GB.  It is currently available to customers online and in Apple stores.

iPad Mini 3

Source: Gizmodo

Like its bigger sibling, the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3 received a few new features.  It sports Apple’s TouchID fingerprint scanner and comes with iOS 8.1, which means users will be able to use Apple Pay for online purchases.  And it also comes in gold (color)!

Most of its other features are identical to the older Mini 2.  Both share the same HD Retina display, size and weight, hardware (the Mini 3 keeps its A7 processor and does not upgrade to A8 like the Air 2), and camera.

The iPad Mini 3 starts at $399 for 16GB, $499 for 64GB, and $599 for 128GB.  The new Mini is currently available to customers online and in Apple stores.

iMac
The excitement surrounding the new iMac is astounding.  Not only is it the first Apple desktop to receive a Retina HD display, its super high-resolution is mind-boggling.  The new 27-inch display as a resolution of 5120 x 2880, resulting in a total of 14.7 million pixels.  This is 7 times the pixels of a 1080 HDTV and 67% more than even the 4096 x 2160 4k displays.  Apple calls it a Retina 5k Display.

Aside from the new super high-res display, Apple has maintained a similar design to the last generation of iMac, with an edge that is only 5mm thick.  Additionally, the new iMac will start with a 3.5GHz Intel Core i5 and AMD’s mobile Radeon 290X graphics chip, both of which can be upgraded to a 4.0 GHz Core i7 and a mobile Radeon 295X GPU.  It also has 8GB of memory and can be configurable with up to 32GB of memory, a 3TB Fusion Drive, or up to 1TB SSD.

The new iMac starts at $2,499 and are available to order today.

Mac Mini

Source: Gizmodo

It’s been a while since the Mac Mini has gotten an update.  The new generation now has more computing power, better integrated graphics, and improved power efficiency, thanks to Intel’s Haswell processor.  It has 4th-generation Intel Core processors, Intel Iris and HD Graphics 5000, and two Thunderbolt 2 ports…this little computer has definitely made a comeback.

The new Mac Mini is available today and starts at just $499.

OS X
Apple’s new desktop operating system is already available now for free from the Mac App Store, with major software updates that include lots of changes for your Mac.  But don’t worry, OS X Yosemite hasn’t altered so much that people used to Mavericks or Mountain Lion will feel lost.

Source: TechCrunch

There are aesthetic changes that promote the design language Apple began to embrace in iOS 7, with better rendering to meet the increasing number of users who are shifting to Retina (high resolution) displays.

Yosemite features a couple of updates to old applications (Spotlight) and some new ones too (Today View and Messages), all of which aim to make the operating system more convenient, pleasant, and productive.  Spotlight isn’t just for system-wide file searches anymore; it can give you previews of photos and documents, access your Calendar and contact card, and even search the internet for answers to your queries.  Today View is a customizable alternative to the Dashboard and Messages is a messaging app with a few additional features.

And that’s not all!  For a list of OS X Yosemite’s new features, you can read a review of them here.

Does your awesome business want an awesome app?

Logic Solutions can create one just for you!
From the coding to the design to assistance with the distribution to enhancements and maintenance, the awesome people at Logic will help you with your mobile game plan.

---

Create your mobile app today!

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator and The New Recruit at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

The post Apple: iPads, iMacs, Mac Minis, OS X Yosemite, oh my! appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.

If you missed the live streaming, don’t worry! Here is a rundown and highlights of the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Pay, and Apple Watch.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Source: Apple

There are two two iPhone models – the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.  Both have a larger screen size (iPhone 6 has a 4.7″ display, iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5″ display) than the iPhone 5S (4″) and are slimmer too.  The iPhone 5S was 7.6mm thick, whereas the iPhone 6 is merely 6.9mm and the iPhone 6 Plus is just a smidge more at 7.1mm.  Both feature HD resolution, with the iPhone 6 having a resolution of 1334 x 750 px and the iPhone 6 Plus with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 px.  Aside from these size differences, these smartphones are essentially the same.

Both iPhones have longer battery lives than their predecessors, a more efficient A8 processor that offers greater CPU and GPU processing speeds, and an 8-megapixel camera with speedier autofocus and image stabilization.  Additionally, the new motion coprocessor, in addition to aiding in image stabilization, aids fitness apps by gathering information from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass.  Plus, the iPhone 6 and iPhone6 Plus’ new barometer detector can sense elevation changes, including when you’re traversing up and down stairs.

The iPhone 6 goes on sale Friday, September 19th starting at $200 (with a two-year contract).  The iPhone 6 Plus starts at $100 more.

Apple Pay

Apple Pay
Source: WIRED

Apple Pay joins Google Wallet, PayPal, and other mobile payment systems as alternatives to carrying around wallets stuffed thick with credit cards, loyalty cards, coupons, and more.   Paying for your purchases will be as easy as holding your iPhone (or even Apple Watch) up to a reader.  It isn’t just a way to pay for stuff at stores like Target, Walgreens, and Macy’s.  Apple Pay can also be used to pay for online services, such as Uber, or in online transactions like Amazon.

Apple Pay aims to solve consumers’ worry about physical and electronic credit card theft by offering this app (already built in to the new iPhones) with security features such as NFC, Touch ID, and a secure chip Apple calls the Secure Element.  You add a card by taking a photo of it and, after getting verification from your bank, you’re ready to go.  During a transaction, a unique device number, rather than the actual credit card information (number, name, etc), is given to the merchant along with a dynamic security code.

For those concerned that the tech giant will be collecting your data, Apple reassures customers that the company won’t collect any information from your transaction – not your credit card information, what you purchased, where you purchased it, or how much you paid for it.  Additionally, if you lose your phone, you can deactivate all payments and payment information remotely without needing to cancel your actual credit card.

Apple Pay will launch in the U.S. in October.

Apple Watch

Apple Watch
Source: Apple

Apple has officially joined the wearables industry.  What makes this smartwatch different from other smartwatches in the industry is its UI – Apple was clear to state that the Watch is not an iPhone interface on a smaller screen.  Instead, users will use the watch’s “digital crown” to scroll, zoom, return to the Home screen, and navigate the watch. When turning the digital crown, the watch translates the movement into digital data.  This is accompanied by onscreen taps and swipes.

Customizable features include three different Watch editions ( Apple Watch, Watch Sport, and Watch Edition ), interchangeable strap designs (from leather to stainless steel to mesh chain loops), two different watch face sizes, and a customizable clock display.

Additionally, the Apple Watch has four sapphire lenses on the back of the device which hold LEDs and photo sensors for detecting heart rate.  This pairs with the Watch’s health and fitness-tracking apps to record your daily activity levels and aids you in taking steps to achieve a healthier lifestyle.  For example, its “Stand” display reminds you to stand for at least a minute every hour for 12 hours.  Every accomplishment you achieve fills a “progress bar” a little more, ultimately motivating the wearer to fill up their daily exercise progress bars.  It does need to be paired with an iPhone to track your distance traveled via GPS or wifi though.

Other apps on the Apple Watch include maps, third-party apps, a drawing tool, a simple messaging system, Apple Pay, and more.

The Apple Watch is expected to go on sale in early 2015, starting at $350.

No matter what your opinions are of these new products, it is clear that the tech giant is, once again, changing the way consumers will interact with their devices, the way competing companies will market their new products, and the how mobile developers will utilize the new functions and toys these new platforms provide.  Developers will now have a completely new device – the smartwatch – and products to write apps for, and it will be interesting to see what kinds of apps will take advantage of Apple Watch’s health and fitness features.

Does your awesome business want an awesome app?

Logic Solutions can create one just for you!
From the coding to the design to assistance with the distribution to enhancements and maintenance, the awesome people at Logic will help you with your mobile game plan.

---

Create your mobile app today!

Jennifer Pan is a marketing coordinator and The New Recruit at Logic Solutions. If you want to get her attention, try talking to her about d20s, (board) games, sci-fi and geeky references, or cute animal videos…or all of them at once. Just don’t bring up her uncanny ability to roll natural 1s.

The post Apple’s New Gadgets: iPhone 6, Apple Pay, Apple Watch appeared first on 雷技信息科技（上海）有限公司.