Posts tagged "Good"

Hands-on With iMessage Beta on the Desktop: A Good Start With Beta Bugs

Photo courtesy of Apple

by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica

iMessage on the desktop went from a wish to (beta) reality in just four months. Less than half a year after rolling out its SMS “replacement” for iOS devices, Apple brought its iMessaging platform to the Mac OS X desktop as part of its announcement of Mountain Lion on Thursday morning. The desktop app is actually called “Messages,” and it’s a somewhat reworked version of the old iChat client that many Mac users still prefer for AIM, GTalk, and Bonjour messaging. And although Messages is officially a part of the Mountain Lion release that will come out this summer, Apple released a public beta for Lion users (which requires 10.7.3) on Tuesday.

Like probably most of you, we wanted to give Messages a spin as soon as we could get it downloaded. If you already had iChat installed and set up with instant messaging accounts previously, all those settings are still there once you start up Messages, but there’s a new setup screen for logging in with your Apple ID. Once you do so, you have the option to begin receiving messages at several e-mail addresses if you wish, just like you can on your iOS devices:

Photo courtesy of Ars Technica

Once you are finished setting up your account, you can begin sending and receiving iMessages from your other iMessage-using friends, whether they’re on a Mac using the Messages beta or an iOS device. As you can see below, the visual layout looks just like iMessage on the iPad, with a list of your conversations on the left hand side and the conversations presented on the right. Within the Messages settings, you can change your own chat bubble color and, if you like, you can also reformat the incoming text to your own preferences.

Photo courtesy of Ars Technica

iMessage is designed to deliver your messages to wherever you are at the moment, which in this case means that all the messages you’re receiving through the Messages app are now theoretically going to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch as well (or all three if you have them set up that way). This would not be the case if you haven’t set up your iOS devices to send/receive iMessages from your e-mail address or Apple ID, however, and some people prefer it that way—they like to receive iMessages sent to their phone number on their iPhone but an e-mail address on the iPad, and they like to keep those separate. That’s not how I like to use iMessage, though—I set it up so that I can receive messages at the same e-mail address on all my devices, and as such, my entire conversations were reflected across multiple platforms:

Photo courtesy of Ars Technica

Just like iMessage on your iOS devices, Messages on the desktop lets you send photos and video as well, which are also reflected across your other devices. During our testing, this worked fine; we were able to drag-and-drop various media elements into the Messages window and send them without a problem—those photos then showed up on our iOS devices as expected. And, also just like iOS, the Messages app lets you maintain group conversations. Assuming others in your group have their iMessage settings so that they can also receive those messages across multiple devices, this means everyone in your whole messaging group has the ability to walk away from the Mac and pick up the conversation on an iPhone or an iPad without missing a beat.

And for those of you who preferred iChat for AIM or GTalk, you can do all of this through Messages. The app will now integrate those chat conversations with your other iMessage conversations. You can even switch between different protocols by clicking on someone’s name:

But don’t get too excited about that just yet. We’ve found a few bugs with this implementation, which we’ll get to in a minute.

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Lark Wristband Reveals the Best Lifestyle Choices For a Good Night’s Sleep

The Lark wristband and its accompanying iPhone app. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

Julia Hu is a bubbly, 26-year-old Stanford alum and CEO of a Bay Area start-up. She’s got the passion and product pitch you’d expect from a practiced entrepreneur, but demonstrates a curious quirk you don’t find in a lot of CEOs: She seems well rested.

One would hope so. Hu is in charge of Lark, a silent alarm clock, sleep monitor, and personal sleep coach, all rolled into one. The device itself looks a bit like a watch ensconced inside a lightweight, breathable, perforated band. The band’s hardware interacts with an iPhone app, sharing your nightly sleep habits with the app via Bluetooth when you wake each day.

The Lark isn’t the first wearable device to track one’s sleep patterns, but the system adds a clever coaching element that other sleep trackers don’t include. It’s an important addition, as competing devices tend to smother the user in sleep data, but don’t provide many tools to make sense of the data in an actionable way.

Hu considers the Lark a member of a growing class of “appcessories,” physical devices that interact with mobile apps to provide useful information or enhanced entertainment. Some of these devices track things like heart health. Other trackers similar to the Lark — such as the Jawbone UP and Fitbit — monitor a user’s activity 24/7, from daytime exercise to nighttime slumber, using motion sensors.

The Lark employs what it calls a “micromotion sleep pattern sensor” and, like the Jawbone UP and Fitbit, uses a data-tracking method called actigraphy to measure one’s sleep stages at about 85 to 95 percent accuracy.

All these activity-monitoring devices can provide helpful data in the quest for a better night’s sleep. The conventional wisdom says that once we begin mapping sleep data against the lifestyle decisions we make during our wakeful hours — for example, how much coffee we consume and how hard we exercise — we can begin adjusting bad habits to improve our sleep.

And the same applies to monitoring one’s daytime activity, like how many potato chips we eat, and how many stairs we climb. Personal data analysis can identify potential problems before they get serious, and hopefully save time and money on doctor’s visits and pharmacy bills in the long run.

“What’s exciting about this new category of appcessories is that the hardware can stay the same, but the software is always innovating,” Hu says. In the past, she says, you “had to be a Sony,” anticipating your audience’s desires and delivering a flawless finished product to consumers from the get-go. However, “by having a mobile-connected product, your product can really solve needs so much better,” Hu says. “You can really listen to what the users want and build it for them as software and upgrade continuously.”

Julia Hu, CEO of Lark, proponent of healthy sleep habits. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired

The Lark debuted in late June, but its app has been revised a number of times, adding greater utility to the system as a whole. In addition to tracking your sleep patterns and gently waking you up with a light vibration on your wrist, you can now provide the app with various data points to begin connecting the dots on which environmental factors affect your sleep.

For example, the Lark can enter the noise and brightness levels of your surroundings, or whether you had caffeine or alcohol before hitting the hay. When you wake up in the morning, you launch the app, and define how well rested you are. From there, Lark uses all its information to figure out what stimuli you should try to avoid.

Hu says the Lark system can also provide information as to why you may wake up in the middle of the night.

“A lot of people don’t realize it’s not always stress that infringes on sleep. It’s actually a little bit of a noise that wakes you up, then your brain can’t shut off,” Hu says. Women, in particular, are susceptible to this: High-pitched noises will wake them up, and leave them unable to get back to sleep.

Women also suffer more insomnia than men, Hu says, though men are far more likely to suffer from sleep apnea, waking up more times than they think they do during the night, and then not remembering the disturbances.

The latest version of the Lark app also includes a feature that was once limited to the $60 “pro” version of the software: an assessment to determine what type of sleeper you are based on the data and information you provide (Lu refers to the data as your “sleep hygiene”). The system pinpoints 12 different types of sleepers. Hu, for example, started out as a “rookie-erratic” sleeper when she first used the system.

It may sound like a gimmicky, Meyers-Briggs-esque personality assessment, but it lets the app provide you with personalized recommendations. Unfortunately, the assessment is an ongoing process, and the free app performs just one week of evaluation.

“I used to sleep at different times all throughout the night, and it gave me really fragmented sleep,” Hu says. She also had a hard time falling asleep. But by following the app’s coaching techniques, she says, she’s now progressed to a “rookie night lark.” A lark, like its avian namesake, wants to be early to bed, early to rise.

Hu still has trouble getting to sleep as early as her body would like, but at least she now falls asleep at a regular time each night. And the iPhone helps in this effort: If you try to stay up past your recommended bed time, the app will prompt you through push notifications to begin winding down.

“Until now, no one had a computer within three feet of themselves at all times,” Hu says of smartphones like the iPhone. “You can track real-time behavior and get feedback that happens the moment you’re making a decision. This allows for real behavior change.”

Notwithstanding a simple volume mute, of course.

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One Good Earbud Might Be All You Need

Listen to the radio without anyone knowing, or just play music without ignoring your friends

Older readers may remember the precursor to modern earbuds. It was a single earbud that came in one color — medical-aid off-white — and had a stiff, weak cable ending in the familiar 3.5m jack. It was designed for use with battery-operated transistor radios, and was most often used by football-crazy men to listen furtively to the match while attending a Saturday afternoon wedding.

Then Sony invented the Walkman.

But there are still a few uses for a single-sided earphone, and One Good Earbud addresses those needs. There are three models, all of which take your stereo signal and drop it down to mono. One sticks right inside your canal, another is just like a single black version of Apple’s earbuds, and the third wraps over your ear to keep it in place. The first two will be best for surreptitious sports listening, the third for podcasts as you cycle or work out at the gym. This last one is also shaped to reduce wind noise, making it even better for outdoor use.

There is also the option to have an inline mic.

The ‘buds start at $15 and run up to $26, depending on configuration. I’m going to buy one so I can listen to the Gadget Lab podcast while I’m washing the dishes.

One Good Earbud [One Good Earbud via Gizmodo]

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Who On Earth Thought This Bike Mounted Umbrella Was a Good Idea?

A bike-mounted umbrella? What could possibly go wrong?

It was almost inevitable that I write about this gadget. It sits simultaneously astride two long-standing Gadget Lab traditions: unwieldy bike accessories, and novelty umbrellas. And so I present the Uberhood, a bike-mounted umbrella.

First, let’s deal with the obvious flaw: It’s a bike-mounted umbrella. If there’s one thing umbrellas hate, it’s wind. And if there’s one thing bikes are good at, it’s the generation of brisk breezes. The kind of breezes that tug at a brolly, turning it inside-out or ripping it from your hands. And even if it doesn’t collapse, it will certainly slow you down.

Even when furled, the Uberhood sticks straight up from your handlebars, 20 inches into the air. If you’re short, this will be right in front of your delicate eyes.

Fitting the Uberhood is easy, but scary if you have any mechanical knowledge whatsoever. The video shows the steel mounting plates being clamped onto a poor handlebar. “It’s not possible to over-tighten these screws,” says the voiceover, ignoring the fact that it is possible, and that they’re bolts, not screws.

The reason for this over-tightening is obvious. These bolts are at the end of a long lever with a sail at the end. It’s like fixing the mast to a boat with thumb-tacks: it won’t hold. Instead, it will twist and scrape at your aluminum handlebar until it snaps, and you tumble eyes-first into the wreckage.

If you do want to ride in the rain, better to invest in some good waterproof clothes, or just carry a real umbrella in your hand. This works surprisingly well, and will let you angle it forwards, because that’s where the rain will actually be coming from.

Then again, it’s difficult not to love a product whose instructions include the line “Swing up the shaft of your Uberhood until it is vertical.”

Should you still want an Uberhood, you can order one now for a ridiculous $80.

Uberhood product page [Uberhood]

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iPhone 5 Rumor Scorecard: The Good, The Bad and The Asinine

A shot of the iPhone 4, which incidentally may or may not look like the iPhone 5. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

As with any Apple announcement, the pre-event online rumor mill is running at full steam. Some are serious, some less so, and some are so ridiculous as to make you curse the egalitarian world of online publishing. And through all of it, of couse, Apple never comments on rumors or speculation (or much of anything else). That leaves a lot of unaccounted-for online blathering.

We’ve rounded up some of the best and the worst of the current conjecture, and we’ve given each a plausibility rating to cut through (most of) the nonsense; a score of one means it’s complete hokum, while a 10 means it’s a sure thing.

1. The next iPhone will feature near-field communications technology

Plausibility rating: 4

As news of the Google Wallet spreads, the hope of having all of our tools rolled into one device is growing. Some think that Apple will wait until NFC is more ubiquitous before sticking the technology into its next phone, but among the growing list of Apple’s patents, there’s evidence to the contrary. iWallet, anyone?

2. The iPhone will be available on more than two carriers

Plausibility rating: 7

This one depends on whom you ask. According to an interview with tech blog Gigaom, T-Mobile is waiting for that miraculous phone call from Apple, while Sprint isn’t “in a position to comment” on the matter.

3. Apple will launch two iPhones

Plausibility rating: 7

Most expect at least one brand new iPhone, complete with aesthetic and hardware upgrades from the iPhone 4. Some, however, think that Apple will release a refurbished, budget-conscious iPhone 4 alongside the new flagship device. The strategy worked for the 3GS, which remains second best-selling smartphone after its big brother. What’s more, Al Gore mentioned the new “iPhones” during his Discovery Leadership Summit address. That’s iPhones, plural.

4. The iPhone 5 will feature voice recognition

Plausibility rating: 8

The Apple event invite explicitly states “Let’s talk iPhone.” People can argue over semantics and punctuation till blue in the face, but Apple’s recent acquisition of voice-recognition startup Siri could mean a robust voice-to-text system isn’t far off.

5. The iPhone 5 will have 4G and LTE speed

Plausibility rating: 4

According to one study, 34 percent of iPhone 4 owners think that they are riding high on 4G. Sorry guys, but the truth is that the iPhone 4 is still stuck in the 3G stone ages. While it would be shocking if Apple didn’t eventually give its new baby the same horsepower as its competitors, we don’t see it happening any time in the near future.

6. We’ll get an iPad 3, too

Plausibility rating: 2

Back in July, reports stated that Taiwan-based parts suppliers for Apple were readying battle stations to provide for not one, but two new devices.

7. iOS 5 will be released alongside the iPhone 5

Plausibility rating: 9

There aren’t many surprises left for Apple’s mobile operating system since its announcement in June, but we’ve been fooled before. There is, of couse, the possibility of a Facebook partnership (though from what we’ve heard about animosity between the two companies, it’s not bloody likely). It’s a safe bet, however, that Tuesday will bring the much anticipated release of iOS 5 that we’ve been waiting for.

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Cute Yellow Robot Dances for a Good Cause

  runMobileCompatibilityScript(‘myExperience1174225852001′, ‘anId’);brightcove.createExperiences();

The yellow blob-like My Keepon is a small stationary robot that reacts to touch and music. It’s been tickling audiences over the web for years, but in a month from now, you’ll be able to take home one of your own.

We got a chance to check out a final production prototype of My Keepon in real life. It’s no Wall-E or Jonny 5, but if you’re looking for a dancing companion who won’t steal the spotlight, it’s an entertaining addition to your desk or bookshelf.

My Keepon has two modes: music and touch. In music mode, it listens for a rhythm using sophisticated beat detection software. It can either detect strong beats, like hand clapping or drum hits, or listen in a different way to react to more complicated music. The “dancing” is a mix of squirming up and down, leaning side to side and rotating around his base, and the style varies depending on the music being played. You can choose which mode you want it in with one of two buttons toward the bottom of its black base.

The robot has a sensor on its head, a mic in its nose and sensors all around its belly. You can scratch its nose, bop its head, or poke it in the side or the stomach, and it’ll react with a combination of sound and movement.

“He doesn’t like being poked in his butt,” said Marek Michalowski, co-creator of the robot. When My Keepon is poked in the rear, it issues an indignant exclamation and sometimes turns around to “see” who did it.

The robot was responsive to the various stimuli Michalowski and I put it through. It sometimes had trouble finding the beat of more mellow tunes, but a quick song change fixed that (and who wants to rock out to Celine Dion anyway?). The prototype we used was responsive to pokes, prods and hugs when you squeeze both sides of its spherical body, and the little sighs and squeaks, beeps and boops, are completely giggle-inducing. If I had one of these at my desk, rest assured my productivity level would go way down (and my coworkers might hate me). Unfortunately, like many toys there is a degree of novelty to My Keepon that could get worn after a handful of uses and leave it dusty and forlorn on a bookshelf.

Though the robot is cute (and fun!), it’s also dancing for a good cause. Michalowski helped develop the $30,000 original Keepon used to study social interaction with autistic children. A portion of proceeds from the My Keepon toy go back toward putting more research Keepons in the hands of clinics working with autism.

As the consumer version of the robot won’t run you $30,000, it’s obviously a bit of a downgrade. For instance, the research version of the robot is made of silicon rubber; the consumer My Keepon is made of a similar, cheaper material able to be mass-produced. The consumer version also lacks a camera, which the research version includes for tele-operational purposes.

The My Keepon robot will be available for purchase in late October for less than $50.

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This Candy Skin Case / Crystal Jelly Executive Cover is for you to use to personalize and protect your device at the same time in an easy way. Use to personalize and save your device for a long time. FEATURES: Easy to install and take off. No tools are required! Just slip the phone skin to your device. Made of high quality thermoplastic polyurethane material, durable and smooth, which will give good protection to your device Slim and light weight, adds little bulk feeling to you

• Simply snap on the cell phone. Your cell phone will have a brand new look.
• Personalize and protect your phone with Custom quality fit.
• Protects against dings and scratches from everyday use.
• Allows access to camera & all port.
• Simple snap-on installation.

Product Description
This Candy Skin Case / Crystal Jelly Executive Cover (Hot Pink Zebra) is for you to use to personalize and protect your device at the same time in an easy way. Use to personalize and save your device for a long time. FEA… More >>

This Candy Skin Case / Crystal Jelly Executive Cover is for you to use to personalize and protect your device at the same time in an easy way. Use to personalize and save your device for a long time. FEATURES: Easy to install and take off. No tools are required! Just slip the phone skin to your device. Made of high quality thermoplastic polyurethane material, durable and smooth, which will give good protection to your device Slim and light weight, adds little bulk feeling to you

iPad 2 event – which rumors came good?

Cam reacts to yesterday’s iPad 2 event, running through rumors that circulated before hand, and which actually came to pass. www.TodaysiPhone.com www.facebook.com/todaysiphone www.twitter.com/TiP_Cam

Awesome DIY Electric Bikes Defy Laws, Good Sense

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Surly Troll Bike Frame is Good, Bad and Ugly

Surly’s new Troll frame-set is built for anything – almost literally. The 4130 CroMoly steel mountain-bike frame has enough options and add-ons to make it suitable for anything from mountain-biking through commuting to hauling cargo.

The first thing you’ll notice is the rear dropouts, which are horizontal and rear-facing like track-ends. This makes the frame good for fixed-gear and single-speed setups, although a derailleur hanger and a mounting-slot for a Rohloff hub mean gears are in, too.

The bumps and nodules around the frame allow fixing of fenders, brakes, water-bottle cages and racks, along with lots of cable-routing, and the sloping top-tube gives clearance to stand even with the fat tires you can fit on there (up to 26 x 2.7-inch).

With all these pimples and dimples, the Troll isn’t the prettiest bike (just like its namesake) but it sure is practical. Price TBA, available this month.

Troll frame [Surly via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• Surly Trailer Hauls 300-Pounds, Replaces Your Car
• Surly Long Haul Trucker Deluxe, Plane-Friendly Touring Bike …
• Hands-On: Surly Jethro Tule Bike Wrench and Beer Opener

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