Apple

Apple’s ResearchKit available today to developers and medical researchers

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Today, Apple's made good on its promise to make ResearchKit available to developers and medical researchers. As announced in a media release Tuesday, medical researchers can tap into ResearchKit to write custom apps while developers are permitted to contribute new research modules to ResearchKit.

ResearchKit was designed as an open source software framework to help doctors and scientists mass-gather accurate data from participants using specialized iPhone apps. With today's ResearchKit release, it's now possible to create medical apps for Android in a true open-source fashion.

Fleksy Keyboard goes free for a week, gains millions of GIFs via partnership with Riffsy

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 14, 2015

Fleksy Keyboard, one of the first and most popular software keyboards for iOS 8 devices, has gone free for a week. The app usually retails for 99 cents a pop and has never gone free since its App Store debut as an iOS 8-compatible downloadable software keyboard in September of last year.

In addition, Fleksy's latest update has rechristened the app as 'Fleksy + GiF Keyboard' to reflect its newly gained integration with Riffsy's GIF Keyboard for iOS. The resulting app now gives you access to millions of GIFs on top of Fleksy's existing emoji support and perks like advanced keyboard capabilities with gestures and much more.

Selfie sticks and monopods banned from WWDC

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Apple this morning announced that its annual developers conference will be kicking off on Monday, June 8, and already social media is trending with news of a revised terms prohibiting the use of selfie sticks and monopods at the show.

“You may not use selfie sticks or similar monopods within Moscone West,” or in the whole Yerba Buena Gardens area around it for that matter, as per this note describing attendance policy available on Apple's WWDC 2015 webpage.

So what's going on here?

Talks bringing Apple Pay to more countries are reportedly stalling

Jake Smith ∙ April 14, 2015

Apple's efforts to bring Apple Pay technology to China, a region that could help boost payment numbers, are stalling, according to Caixin Online.

Despite earlier word that a deal between Apple and China's UnionPay is close, Caixin Online says neither party has reached any agreements and no timetable for cooperation has been set.

Apple announces WWDC 2015 for June 8-12

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 28, 2016

Apple's annual summer pilgrimage for its Mac and iOS developers, the Worldwide Developers Conference, is kicking off on Monday, June 8, 2015 and lasting through Friday, June 12, the company confirmed this morning.

The five-day conference, twenty-sixth in a row, will take place at San Francisco’s Moscone West, “with more sessions than ever before streamed” online.

Like prior WWDCs, this year's conference will give Apple's developer community and users around the world much more than a glimpse into the future of iOS and OS X.

IBM expanding partnership with Apple to transform medical research

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

IBM announced on Monday that it will be expanding its partnership with Apple in an effort to help transform medical research. Utilizing its Watson artificial intelligence tech, it's created a new Health Cloud platform that can support health data gathered by iOS apps using Apple's ResearchKit and HealthKit frameworks.

Apple first introduced HealthKit in the summer of last year, as a platform for developers to create apps that integrate with iOS 8's new Health application. This year, it decided to build on that premise with ResearchKit, which allows medical researchers to collect app data from users with diseases such as diabetes or cancer.

IBM will push things even further with Health Cloud, which will de-identify and store health data in a secure, scalable cloud system that enables researchers to access and share data in an open ecosystem environment. Apps that use HealthKit and ResearchKit will be able to easily store, aggregate and model data, enriching research.

Rules! available for free within the Apple Store app

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Those of you who enjoy app deals may be interested to know that Rules! has gone free for a limited time. Apple is currently offering promo codes for the popular brain-teasing puzzler, which typically costs $2.99, within its Apple Store app.

For those who haven't played it before, Rules! is a well-designed puzzle game that puts your memory and reflex skills to the test. Players are presented with a 16-card board, and asked to remove cards based on increasingly difficult guidelines.

Apple seeds first iOS 8.4 beta to developers with all-new Music app

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 8.4 to developers on Monday, less than a week after releasing iOS 8.3 to the public. Today's beta includes an all-new stock Music application, which Apple says will make exploring your music collection "easier and more fun."

The app features a beautiful, more-simplified design, with quick access to things like recently-added music and your custom playlists. It also offers a more streamlined iTunes Radio experience, a new Global Search option, Up Next queuing and much more.

Apple Watch deliveries may arrive sooner than expected

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

Good news today for those hoping that their Apple Watches will arrive before their estimated ship dates. MacRumors reports that a reader, who emailed Tim Cook over the weekend regarding the lengthy lead times for the wearable, received a response from the executive team saying that preorders will most likely ship sooner than expected.

"[Apple] said that June preorders will most likely ship sooner than June," said reader Andrew Turko, after speaking with someone on Apple's executive relations team. "Of course he didn't make any promises, but that's the reason Apple is announcing such an extended ship date after all - to avoid disappointment through false guarantees."

Apple takes 15% cut on Apple TV video sign-ups

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2015

Apple's customary 30 percent cut on content sold through iTunes has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because participators get to enjoy a frictionless payment system without having to host content themselves or cover bandwidth fees.

A curse because some high-profile sstudios wouldn't bend to Apple's rules of doing business. But the Cupertino firm may have softened its stance, at least when it comes to the Apple TV, as Re/code revealed Monday that Apple is actually taking a fifteen percent cut for premium Apple TV video networks.

About that hidden Apple Watch port…

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 13, 2015

Both review versions of the Watch Apple sent to journalists and demo units available in retail stores sport a hidden, undocumented port that Apple chose not to talk about publicly.

Resembling the Lightning connector on iPhones and iPads, it's reportedly used for diagnostics and direct access to the Watch's operating system, TechCrunch said in March. Slipping off the bottom strap connector slot of the Watch reveals the hidden port.

Based on social media postings and images Daring Fireball's John Gruber shared last weekend, it's basically a 6-dot brass contact array.

In this post, I'm going to lay down a few possible uses for the mysterious port and explain why I think it's crucial that Watches that'll be shipping into customers' hands on April 24 come outfitted with it.

Apple refreshes Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor with new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Monday, Apple announced a major update to its pro-grade video editing and processing programs for the Mac — Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor — with a bevy of new features for motion graphics and key enhancements available to accelerate video editing, packaging and delivery.

“From Hollywood blockbuster directors to first time movie makers, Final Cut Pro X is changing the way we edit movies today,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. “The updated Final Cut Pro X, Motion and Compressor make it even easier to edit, title and package everything from short videos to feature-length films.”

Final Cut Pro 10.2 introduces new easy to use 3D titles, improved masking for color grading and effects, and native support for more camera formats, as well as GPU-accelerated RED RAW processing.