This Week's Sponsor:

SoundSource

New Year, New Audio Setup: SoundSource 6 from Rogue Amoeba

Posts in Linked

HeartWatch: An Accidental but Heartfelt App→

Great story and app idea by David Walsh: dissatisfied with the presentation of heart rate data in Apple’s Health app, he created HeartWatch – a dashboard for your heart rate data. The app works best if you’re an Apple Watch wearer (you get readings every 10 minutes) and it includes features such as peak zones, timelines, and – my favorite – separate tabs for regular, waking, and workout heartbeats.

Heart Watch lets you see how your heart is beating across three simple views. Waking, Regular & Workout. Each of these views are isolated because, while you may want a higher heart rate during a workout, if your heart is racing when you aren’t doing any exercise then this is likely not a good thing and probably something you might want to show your medical practitioner.

David has shared the full story behind the creation of HeartWatch in a blog post:

Now I wanted to dig a bit further to find when and what was happening with my heart. Unfortunately, the Health app wasn’t very much help from here forward. There’s a summary graph, then to go any further, you have to read every single heart beat reading captured. With no search! Proverbial needle in haystack. So I looked around to see if there were any apps to help. Short answer. No. They seem to fall into finger on the camera apps, “fitness junkie” apps or just giving a simple average.

My research also made me realise a simple average is close to useless if you work out. Obviously your heart rate will be higher when you work out. This then throws out the daily average compared to days you don’t work out.

So I started a side project. Something that could show me what was going on. This then of course grew, as these things tend to do.

I took HeartWatch for a spin, and I like what David is doing. The app imported months of heart rate data from Health in less than a minute and it presented me with a clear calendar view of different reading types. HeartWatch can show percentage changes from previous readings, and it neatly breaks down a day’s data with colored charts and labels. I would love to see these kinds of average stats for weekly and monthly stats too, but, overall, HeartWatch is off to a good start.

Like David Smith’s Pedometer++, HeartWatch is another app that uses data from the Apple Watch in an interesting and useful way. If you care about your heart rate as measured by the Watch (and you should), I recommend giving HeartWatch a try.

Permalink

Connected: Snoozepocalypse→

Gathered in mourning over Mailbox and Carousel, Federico, Myke and Stephen wallow their way through some follow-up and Apple’s latest accessories.

Some interesting discussion on Dropbox and email clients in this week’s Connected. You can listen here.

Sponsored by:

  • Braintree: Code for easy, online payments. Get your first $50,000 in transactions fee-free.
  • Casper: Because everyone deserves a great night sleep. Get $50 off with the code ‘CONNECTED’
  • Foot Cardigan: Make giving socks as gifts fun and cool! Get 10% off any subscription using code CONNECTED at checkout.
Permalink

Eddy Cue on Hardcore Gaming for Apple TV, New Siri Remote App Launching Next Year→

In an interview with BuzzFeed published this morning, Apple’s Eddy Cue has shared some details on how the company sees the new Apple TV as a gaming device.

“When we first announced the iPhone, we didn’t tout it as a gaming device. But games became a huge part of iPhone, because it turns out that a lot more people than just hardcore gamers love games. We expanded the market. I think the vast majority of people around the world probably aren’t looking to buy an Xbox or PlayStation. But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy playing games. I think Apple TV expands the gaming market to those people.”

Cue goes on to say that “hardcore gaming isn’t exactly the ecosystem we’re after with Apple TV”, adding that, however, hardcore games will be released on it in the future. Essentially, Cue’s pitch is reminiscent of Nintendo’s goal with the Wii in 2006 – to expand the gaming market to people who don’t want to buy a console but would be comfortable with casual games on a TV. Only this time, Apple has an existing multi-billion iOS ecosystem backing the efforts of developers approaching the TV App Store.

Also from the interview, Cue revealed that the full functionality of the Siri Remote will be available in a new iPhone app next year:

“We’re working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give you the full functionality of the Siri Remote on your iPhone,” Cue said. “We’re hoping to ship that in the first half of next year.”

Yesterday’s tvOS update restored support with Apple’s existing Remote app for iOS, but it sounds like Apple has bigger plans that involve full Siri integration on the iPhone, too. I wonder if this app will also unlock deeper multiplayer features for gaming – with the “full functionality of the Siri Remote” on an iPhone, will multiple users be able to use their iPhones as controllers for games?

Permalink

tvOS 9.1 Brings Remote App Support for Apple TV→

Among the software updates rolled out by Apple today, version 9.1 of tvOS for Apple TV users has also been released with enhancements to navigation and Siri. Most notably, the update restores support for Apple’s Remote app for iOS and it brings Siri integration with Apple Music.

Zac Hall, writing for 9to5Mac:

tvOS 9.1 does indeed add Siri support for Apple Music to all users. Apple’s Remote app also works with the new Apple TV for the first time. Apple released the first software update to the new Apple TV, tvOS 9.0.1, in mid November. The update delivered no new features or visual changes, instead likely focusing on bug fixes and performance improvements.

I was surprised to see that these features weren’t available at launch on the new Apple TV – typing passwords and any other text on tvOS without the Remote app was especially painful. I’m glad tvOS 9.1 has been released before the end of the year.

Permalink

Tim Cook and Siri in Cerebral Palsy Foundation Video→

Nice video featuring Tim Cook and Siri for a very important initiative:

It’s a joy to have Tim Cook add his voice (and Siri’s) to our campaign. Tim’s combination of keen mind and kind heart is displayed every time that he communicates his vision to the world. We’re thrilled that his outreach now includes the “Just Say Hi” campaign.

Here’s Steven Aquino:

As someone with cerebral palsy, this is a topic close to my heart. I get many stares and questions about my disabilities, and “Just Say Hi” sends a great, simple message for how to best handle these questions.

Bravo to Apple for yet again raising awareness of and advocating for the accessibility community.

Permalink

Apple’s Updated Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader Supports iPhone, USB 3 Speeds on iPad Pro→

As first noticed by iDownloadBlog, Apple quietly updated its Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader alongside the release of the iPhone Smart Battery Case adding support for iPhone (previously, the accessory was limited to iPad users) and faster USB 3 transfers via the iPad Pro’s Lightning connector.

Apple writes:

The Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4. It supports data transfer at up to USB 3 speeds on iPad Pro, and up to USB 2 speeds on all other iPad and iPhone models.

Apple previously confirmed that the iPad Pro would support USB 3 transfer speeds, and the updated SD card reader appears to be the first product to take advantage of it. Last week, John Gruber speculated that the different Lightning port of the iPad Pro could also open up to USB-C functionalities in the future; I’m curious to see which other accessories will implement these iPad Pro optimizations in the next year.

Permalink

iSkelter’s Canvas Smart Desk for iPad Pro→

Neat idea by iSkelter, via Yanko Design:

The Canvas Smart Desk for the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro revolves around the word “Pro”. Designed to make any flat space (or even your lap!) an instant and effective workstation, the smart desk allows you to dock your tablet, a smartphone, and even a paired stylus (The Microsoft Pen or the Apple Pencil).

The Canvas comes in two variants. The Canvas Creator is a more compact desk meant for the serious and swift professional. The Canvas Pro is a larger variant, offering a little extra space for your notepad/coffee/portable-speaker.

While I tend to either hold my iPad or prop it up with the Smart Cover, the Canvas surface looks nice for a combined iPhone + iPad + Pencil setup. It costs $68 for the Creator and $100 for the Pro version from iSkelter’s website.

Also “interesting”: they’re using my iPad Home screen in their product shots.

Permalink

An Illustrator’s Review of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil→

Writing at Fantastic Maps, Jonathan Roberts has published his review of the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil from an illustrator’s point of view:

But the real clincher? It’s faster to illustrate on the iPad Pro, with Pencil, using Procreate, than it is to illustrate on a 16Gb Macbook Pro, with a Wacom Intuous, in Photoshop. That’s astonishing – and places this as a core piece of my professional illustration workflow. It does not replace my laptop – as mentioned, there’s a on of key pieces that the software and hardware can’t do. But I’ll now create maps first on the iPad Pro if I can, and then do the final polish on my laptop. I never expected that to be the case when I picked this up.

A very balanced and honest take on the merits of the iPad Pro, as well as its limitations compared to desktop hardware and software. Apple should listen to people like Jonathan for the future of the platform.

Permalink

Facebook Shuts Down Creative Labs→

In more shutdown news today, Facebook has also announced they’re closing Creative Labs, their internal initiative aimed at shipping separate, more creative apps. Ian Sherr, writing at CNET:

As of Monday, Slingshot, Rooms and Riff, an app that allowed users to create and share short videos based on a theme, have been pulled from app stores. The Menlo Park, California-based company has also removed the Web page for Creative Labs.

A Facebook spokeswoman confirmed the apps had disappeared, noting they hadn’t been updated in some time.

“Since their launches, we’ve incorporated elements of Slingshot, Riff and Rooms into the Facebook for iOS and Android apps,” she added.

Creative Labs was also behind Paper, the company’s alternative Facebook app, which is still only available on the US App Store. Personally, I’ve always preferred Paper’s interactions to the official Facebook app, but I feel like it’s going to follow the same path as the other Facebook apps.

Permalink