Apple

CES 2015: SuperTooth unveils inexpensive multiroom wireless speaker system

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 5, 2015

SuperTooth, a maker of Bluetooth speakers hailing from France's Nebias, unveiled at CES a multi-speaker system that does more than fill your room with wireless music.

They're calling it the Multiroom System and it uses up to five speakers connected by Bluetooth and controlled by an app for iOS or Mac to bring music to different rooms of your home.

Setup couldn't be simpler.

The master speaker receives the music from your device via Bluetooth and then streams it wirelessly to up to four satellite speakers anywhere in your home, using proprietary RF wireless technology.

Apple patches serious vulnerability that let hackers take over your Apple ID

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 5, 2015

As of today, brute-forcing your way into your ex's Apple ID or iCloud account by way of dictionary-based attacks is no longer a viable option.

As reported by James Cook of Business Insider, Apple's reportedly patched a vulnerability in its iCloud service that determined hackers were able to exploit in order to hack into your Apple ID account.

Even though Apple IDs that employ weak passwords and don't use Apple's vaunted two-step verification feature were at greatest risk, we're most certainly glad that Apple's moved so swiftly to increase online security of its users.

TapSense wants to put ads on your wrist

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 11, 2016

If you thought Apple's Watch would be totally free of pesky ads, you have another thing coming. A mobile marketing firm called TapSense announced at the CES show yesterday a brand new software platform to bring contextually aware advertisement to Apple's hyped Watch.

Billed as a programmatic ad platform, the TapSense SDK for app makers, along with programmatic APIs for brands, makes opt-in advertisement on the Apple Watch a reality.

The question is, are we as a society ready for coupons and other marketing offers on our wrist? And if so, will Apple actually allow third-parties to inject advertising into Glances and Notifications on the Watch?

CES 2015: Alcatel Onetouch launches affordable iOS-friendly Watch with a round face

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Alcatel Onetouch, the brand for mobile phones and mobile broadband modems made by TCL Corporation and Alcatel Mobile Phones, announced at CES 2015 in Las Vegas its foray into the hot market for wearable devices.

Specifically, the firm showed off the Onetouch Watch, a line of premium-design smart watches that work with the iPhone and cost more than half as much as the Apple Watch, which will start out at $349.

CES 2015: Intel unveils new Broadwell chips bound for MacBook Pros and that rumored Retina Air

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 5, 2015

Monday, chip giant Intel took the wraps off a range of “Broadwell-U” processors poised to find their way into a MacBook near you. The fifth-generation Intel Core processor family utilities Intel’s 14-nanometer manufacturing process to deliver more speed and lower power consumption.

The new chips could possibly pave the way to a rumored MacBook Air model with a Retina display measuring twelve inches diagonally (the current Air models come in 11.6 and 13.3-inch varieties).

Google Cast can now stream music to wireless speakers, sound bars and receivers

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 5, 2015

Google on Monday made another effort to take on AirPlay, a wireless media streaming technology from Apple, with the introduction of Google Cast for audio, The Verge is reporting.

Basically an update to the Google Cast SDK, it lets you stream your music from mobile devices to Cast-ready speakers, sound bars and receivers, some of which are already on the way. Cast technology is already used in Chromecast, a $35 HDMI dongle available in 27 countries.

An accompanying Cast SDK allows programmers to create multi-screen experiences which let users send and control content like video from a smartphone, tablet or laptop to a display device such as a large screen television set.

CES 2015: Misfit makes Shine wearables stand out with Swarovski crystal

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2016

With its fashionable Watch, Apple has officially entered the jewelry business. As one might imagine, the development has now captured the attention of the wearable industry which appears to be racing to add some shine and glamour to their accessories.

At the CES 2015 in Las Vegas, Misfit has announced a partnership with the crystal jewelry maker Swarovski to produce a range of fitness and sleep-monitoring sensors outfitted with a Swarovski crystal.

The Swarovski Shine Collection, as it's called, is basically a range of fully waterproof accessories which includes new wireless activity and sleep monitors and nine matching accessories for all Shine devices.

Drone footage gives us another bird’s-eye view of iSpaceship, this time in crisp 4K resolution

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

We've seen our a share of aerial footage thus fair detailing progress being made on Campus 2, Apple's upcoming corporate headquarters shaped as a flying saucer. Uploaded to YouTube on Sunday, a new video — this one in glorious 4K resolution — shows that so-called iSpaceship is indeed coming along nicely.

Of course, you'll need a 4K output device to really appreciate all the pixels, which shouldn't be a problem if you own a 27-inch iMac with “5K” Retina display.

CES 2015: Withings launches iOS-compatible $150 Activité Pop fitness watch

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Yesterday at the 2015 International CES show, accessory maker Withings unveiled a new lineup of Activité Pop fitness watches with activity and sleep tracking capabilities.

A successor to the Activité watch that Withings unveiled at last year's CES, the new Activité Pop is available in several vivid colors and features a secondary hand dial to show your progress as determined by the Health Mate companion app.

Parrot is next to launch an aftermarket CarPlay in-dash receiver

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Parrot has announced a rather slick car infotainment system at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Sunday, packing a 7-inch 720p "IPS Pro" touchscreen that supports Apple CarPlay.

Alleged sketch claims to be prototype of larger iPad Pro

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

A sketch captured by a factory worker at Foxconn claims to show a prototype of the long-rumored, larger iPad Pro. French blog Nowhereelse posted the image, showing four integrated speakers that would make sense for a larger iPad measuring between 12.2- and 12.9-inches.

Twitter planning native video service to rival YouTube

Jake Smith ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

In an effort to drum up more engagement from users, Twitter plans a native video player as an extension of its Vine service, and as a rival to Google's YouTube. Instead of just tweeting a URL to a video elsewhere, Twitter wants users to actually upload videos to its site to keep engagement and sell you products through advertisements.

The Twitter Video website, with limited access, appeared for a short time on Friday evening, clueing us in on some of the features Twitter Video may feature when it launches in the first half of 2015. While Twitter provided a few small details about its video service on a conference call in November, this is the first time we've gotten some real details.