Apple’s ‘transparent texting’ feature could save you from running into pillars when texting

US tech giant Apple has filed a patent for new technology that aims to make texting while walking safer by replacing the text background with a live video feed of whatever is in front of the smartphone user.


Many smartphone users keep their eyes glued to the screens while texting and walking which can cause them to stumble over or bump into obstacles.


Apple’s ‘transparent texting’ aims to solve this problem by overlaying messages on a live video feed from the rear camera of the smartphone. This will allow users to see what is happening beyond their phone and text at the same time.


“A user who is walking while participating in a text messaging session may inadvertently collide with or stumble over objects in his path because his attention was focused on his device’s display instead of the path that he was traversing,” according to the patent filed in the US.


The patent describes how the transparency feature could be activated by pressing a transparency button within a texting session that switches on the video feed.


The feature would then ensure text bubbles appear overlaid over the live background video. The text bubbles themselves could be opaque or semi-transparent, according to Tech Crunch.


The patent, originally filed in September 2012, details potential extensions of the concept of transparent texting, including replacing the background of a webpage with a live video feed, so that the text of a website is overlaid over whatever environments the device user is moving through.


“Alternative embodiments of the invention can be applied to virtually any computer-executable application in which text is presented over a background,” the patent application said.

A recent study by researchers from University at Buffalo in the US found that texting while walking may result in more injuries per mile than distracted driving.

The study found that though injuries from car accidents involving texting are often more severe, physical harm resulting from texting and walking occurs more frequently.

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What's Wrong With Apple's iOS 7.1?

 Apple's iOS 7.1 update was released on Tuesday, delivering a noticeable boost in overall speed and responsiveness. But it soon turned out that the update also delivered a few problems — and a surprising number of visual tweaks.

The most striking visual change is the telephone interface. Although the circular number key pads remain, the large square "call" button has been replaced by a small circle displaying a phone icon.

Those phone call interface changes have been carried over to the answer/decline screens as well. Now when your receive an incoming call, the screen will display two simple red and green button icons, instead of the large "answer" and "decline" button blocks in the previous version.


This change seems more like a designer flourish rather than a practical move, as hitting those large call/answer/decline buttons on the iPhone's touchscreen while carrying bags or multitasking is certainly easier than having to now aim for the tiny circles.

In addition to boosting the accuracy of the iPhone 5S Touch ID system, iOS 7.1 now gives the feature its own set-up menu in the Settings section. Not much has changed here, but it's a welcome update and it seems a bit odd that Apple didn't give Touch ID its own menu section from the very beginning.

When iOS 7 first debuted, one of the biggest complaints revolved around the parallax effect in Wallpaper, a dynamic that caused some prone to motion sickness to avoid the feature altogether. With iOS 7.1, Apple has included a handy "perspective on/off" option when selecting a new Wallpaper image.


The feature also offers those who are fans of the feature a quicker way to test out how certain images will look with the effect before selecting that image as a new Wallpaper image.


The voice of Siri for U.S. users remains the same, but some international users will notice a warmer, more human-sounding digital assistant after upgrading to iOS 7.1. In particular, the British English and the Japanese voices of Siri offer noticeably warmer, less robotic sounding version of Siri. This "more human" touch has also been applied to the Australian English and Mandarin Chinese versions of Siri.

Another minor tweak to iOS comes in the operating system's Calendar and Weather apps. The new Calendar features a handy option that allows you to show special events and appointments right under the calendar view.

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Former Apple CEO John Sculley to launch smartphone brand in India; to sell handsets at Rs 12,000 and less

John Sculley, the man who fired Steve Jobs, is targeting India's growing smartphone market by selling handsets at Rs 12,000 and less, starting next month. InflexionPoint, an investment and acquisitions company promoted by Sculley, has hired Ajay Sharma, former head of smartphones at Micromax, to head the Indian operations. Sharma had earlier worked with HTC India.

Sculley, who was the CEO at Apple between 1983 and 1993, will fund the venture, Sharma told ET. The investments will flow into Dragon Technology, a distribution company owned by InflexionPoint in China. It will oversee production and supply chain of smart devices coming into India.

"Both of us were exploring opportunities and he (Sculley) thought that India is a good market for smartphones," Sharma said. "The name of the brand will be decided next week and the first of the Android smartphones will be launched by mid-April." An email sent to InflexionPoint seeking confirmation on Sculley's level of participation in the venture remained unanswered. Apple and Sculley's ventures may compete in different price bands and it will be interesting to see who wins a chunk of market share in the country.

Sculley's former employer, Cupertino, San Francisco-based Apple, which has handsets mostly in the higher price bands, is also trying to grow its share in India.


Smartphone sales grew more than two-and-half times to 44 million devices in 2013 from 16.2 million in 2012, according to research firm IDC India.

Apple has launched attractive installment and buyback schemes to boost its currently negligible share in the market dominated by Samsung and closely followed by home-bred handset makers Micromax and Karbonn.


Surging smartphone sales in India have been propelled by the introduction of low-end devices by international and local vendors.

Mobile company to stress on quality control

The introduction of low-end devices has narrowed the price gap between smartphones and feature phones, which offer basic Internet capabilities and are a notch above basic phones. Sculley and his team are targeting the affordable smartphones segment in India with devices that cost less than Rs 12,000.


Being based out of China, Dragon Technology will work with device makers in China on a daily basis ensuring quality control and production checks while working with suppliers to get the handsets into India. This will give the brand an advantage over others in India where most local smartphone makers only import completely built units for sale here without adding much value to the final product.

The smartphone brand won't be just another addition to the cluttered market as it will create a differentiation based on price, product, software and built-in services, Sharma said. "The smartphone share of the handset market in India will keep on rising. So everyone has scope to grow. We feel that it is the right time to launch a new brand as the market is set to explode," Sharma added.


Indians bought around 15 million smartphones in the October-December period, registering year-on-year growth of 181%, according to IDC. Samsung, Micromax and Karbonn cornered 64% of the sales in the three months through December. 

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Purported pictures of cheaper iPhone's rear shell reveal Red, Yellow and Green colour variants

French website Nowhereelse.fr has shared a couple of pictures that originally appeared on a Chinese website depicting Red, Yellow and Green plastic shell cases of what looks like the back of a new variant of iPhone.

While the website mentions that these pictures could be of a colourful Chinese clone of the iPhone, it also notes that the internal panel sports contacts/ attachment points that can connect to components such as the motherboard and Lighting connector port at almost exactly the same points where they're positioned on the iPhone 5. 

The back shell sports a black Apple logo, a round hole for the camera lens, another one for the flash and a hole for the noise cancellation microphone. The shell appears to sport a glossy finish.

What makes the pictures a little more interesting is that another picture of the rear shell that appeared in April, shared by case manufacturer Tactus, matches the new shells in terms of the overall design, including the position of the camera lens, microphone and flash holes, though it was White in colour. The case maker had said that the cheaper iPhone would be available in Black, White, Blue, Red and Yellow colours, citing the 'factory producing this secretive project' as a source. Tactus had informed that the actual phone might be around 9mm thick, 120mm in height and around 62-65mm in width, making it both taller and wider than the iPhone 4 and 4S.

Apple focused Japanese blog Macotakara had also suggested that the new low-cost iPhone will come in multiple colours. It cited two sources that suggested different colours for the purported budget iPhone. While one source mentioned that it would come in Navy, Gold Orange, White, and Grey colours, the second one suggested White, Pink, Green, Blue, and Yellow-Orange  colours. The mockup offered by the site also featured the same design elements and positioning of components, though the colours were a bit different.

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iPhone 5 LCD order not cut over weak demand: Analyst

Apple has reportedly cut the order for iPhone 5 LCD panel over weak demand. However, Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu says higher efficiency was the reason behind this reduction in LCD screens for iPhone 5.

Wu said in a research note that demand for Apple iPhone 5 remains robust in the market. He says the reason behind the cut in order is due to "(1) much improved yields meaning lower component builds and (2) supplier shifts." This means that Apple placed an order of screens for iPhone 5 keeping in mind low yields, but recently revised that figure taking into account the increase in number of ready-to-ship units.


This would mean that the number of screens being manufactured for iPhone 5 has indeed been reduced, but this has no bearing on the demand for the smartphone in the market.


Coming to the second possible factor, a change in supplier would also mean that one of the suppliers of iPhone 5 display panel leaked that the order has been cut, without an actual decrease in demand for the device.

Earlier this week, Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has reduced the order for LCD screens for iPhone 5 owing to a decrease in demand for the phone. It said that Apple has cut the initial order of 65 million display units for iPhone (for Q1 2013) by 50%. This led to a decline in stocks of Apple as well as its display suppliers like Sharp.

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Apple working on cheaper iPhone: Report

Technology giant Apple is reportedly developing a new, cheaper iPhone for launch later this year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Apple hasn't confirmed the plan, but the Journal reported that the Cupertino-based company is looking at producing a less-expensive iPhone using a less expensive body, possibly made out of polycarbonate plastic instead of the aluminium case used for the iPhone 5. The report also speculates that the rest of the phone could be made up of recycled parts from older iPhone models.


It would be a major shift for the company, which has traditionally offered only one new model to the market with each update, but comes after Apple's smartphone market share began shrinking during the last few years with the rise of Android. Although, the latest report from Kantar Worldpanel Comtech showed that in the four months to November 25th, Apple picked up 53.3 percent of US smartphone sales on the back of the iPhone 5. The numbers weren't so good for Apple in Australia, with 35.9 percent in for iOS and 58 percent for Android in the same period.

The iPhone 5 currently retails in Australia from AU$799.

A less expensive iPhone would come close to a year after Apple changed tact on the iPad; releasing an iPad Mini (starting at AU$369) to complement the larger, more expensive iPad that starts at AU$539.

The report comes while Apple CEO Tim Cook is in China, for reasons not yet explained by the company, though it is rumoured that he is looking to expand Apple's retail presence and iPhone 5 availability in the country.

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Apple's iPhone 5 hit stores, long queues despite glitches

TOKYO: Apple's iPhone 5 hit stores in a festive global rollout Friday, with long queues of devotees undeterred by a lukewarm welcome from experts for the smartphone and complaints about its new mapping system.

The lines of eager fans outside retail stores looked set to make the latest generation iPhone another commercial smash for the trend-setting US company, coming after Apple said it had received more than two million orders online.


Australians were the first to get their hands on the device. In Sydney the faithful filmed the experience on their iPhones and iPads as staff inside clapped and cheered when the doors opened at 8:00 am (2200 GMT Thursday).

But the event was also hijacked by companies looking for free publicity, with the first dozen or so in the queue wearing promotional T-shirts and caps or carrying advertising materials.

"Seven of us are here from our company, since midday Tuesday," said Todd Foot, 24, who was first in the line and works for an organisation that reviews mobile phones.


"We've actually had telephone hook-ups with the first in the lines in New York and London. It's been a bit crazy."


Compared to the iPhone 4S, Apple's new smartphone boasts a bigger display, stronger battery and faster connection to the latest 4G networks. It is lighter and slimmer, and contains tweaks designed to improve the user's experience.

But many analysts say Apple has fallen short as other companies such as Samsung improve rival offerings powered by Google's Android operating system.


"Unless Apple ups its device innovation game, we may be seeing Apple's iOS empire approaching its zenith," Tony Costa of Forrester Research said.


However, enthusiasm among early-bird shoppers was undimmed as iPhone 5 sales began too in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Later Friday, sales will start in France, Germany, Britain, the United States and Canada.

Ryoho Yamashita, a 23-year-old student, had queued since midnight at a Softbank store in Tokyo and said there had been a celebratory atmosphere among those waiting.

"It's like a festival that I enjoy every year," he said, holding his new purchase as he acclaimed the smartphone's light weight and speed of connection.

In Hong Kong, grey marketeers pounced on anyone who emerged from the city's official Apple store, offering a premium for their phone in the hope of re-selling it for even more given shortages in the retail market.

"I paid about HK$8,000 ($1,030) for the iPhone just now. We'll sell it for around HK$9,000 to HK$10,000," said Suen, a reseller who refused to give his full name. The normal retail price starts at HK$5,588 in the Apple store.

In Singapore, staff at an Apple reseller were turning people away, having run out of phones within hours of opening.

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Apple iPhone 5 mania hits fever pitch despite grumbling over maps

San Francisco: Apple Inc fans queued around city blocks worldwide on Friday to get their hands on the new iPhone 5, pointing to a strong holiday season for the consumer device maker despite grumblings about the mapping app in the new smartphone.

The iPhone 5 -- thinner, lighter and with a 4-inch screen -- went on sale in stores across the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia, with mobile carriers reporting record demand that looked likely to stretch Apple's supply capacity.


The iPhone is Apple's highest-margin product and accounts for half of the company's annual revenue. Apple shares were up 0.5 percent to USD 702 in afternoon trading in New York.


JPMorgan estimates the phone could provide a USD 3.2 billion boost to the US economy in the fourth quarter - a boost almost equal to the whole economy of Fiji.


Apple's rival and component supplier, Samsung Electronics Co, tried to spoil the party, saying it plans to add the iPhone 5 to its existing patent lawsuits against Apple.


Apple began taking pre-orders for the iPhone 5 last Friday and booked more than 2 million orders in the first 24 hours - double the first-day sales of the previous iPhone, the 4S. Shipping time for online orders is three to four weeks.


Prices for the iPhone 5 start at USD 199 for a 16 GB model and range as high as USD 399 for a 64 GB model.


The iPhone 5 supports faster 4G mobile networks and also comes with a number of software updates, including Apple's new in-house maps feature, which is based on Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker TomTom's map data.

But not everyone was impressed. Some users criticized the maps feature for a number of geographical errors, missing information, and a lack of features.

And not everyone was thrilled with Apple's success.

Hundreds of French iPhone fans lining up at Apple's main store in Paris got an earful from disgruntled store employees and others protesting against Apple policies.

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iPhone update boots out Google MapsiPhone update boots out Google Maps

Millions of iPhone customers may soon find themselves losing touch with an old friend: Google’s maps application.

On Wednesday, Apple released a software update for the iPhone that, among other changes, replaces the Google maps that have been on the phone since 2007 with Apple’s own maps. So far the feedback from reviewers and early adopters of the new software is that it is attractive but suffers from holes and glitches.


For example, some have found that searches for an in-town destination can pull up an entirely different city, and there is no built-in information about public transportation.


Apple’s previous versions of iOS, its mobile software system, included a Maps app that was made by Apple but powered by Google’s mapping service. In iOS 6, the latest version, Apple has replaced the old app with a new version that uses mapping data collected or purchased by Apple itself.

The company has been preparing for this change for a while as Google, with its Android software for phones, has come to be more of a competitor than a partner. Over the last three years, Apple has acquired three mapping companies.

On the bright side, the new Apple-powered Maps app includes some features that were not in the old version, like spoken turn-by-turn directions and Flyover, a feature that shows 3-D models of buildings in major cities.


However, Apple is relatively new to mapping and it has a lot more work to do before its service is as robust as Google’s.

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iPhone5 could sell at Rs 75,000 in grey market

Apple enthusiasts may not need to wait till the official launch of iPhone5 in India. Courtesy -- grey market.

Handset sellers in grey market say that they will deliver within a week from September 21 when Apple rolls out its latest offering in the US market. Naturally, it comes with a premium. “It will be upwards of Rs 75,000 for sure,” they said. And, the deposit is half of the quoted price.


However, Apple resellers in India are clueless about the expected launch date of iPhone5 in local market.

Apple, which launched the sixth iPhone in the US yesterday, has not yet said anything about the product’s India launch, or the price. However, resellers expect the product to be in the local market in the first half of November. “We have been receiving huge calls and footfalls in store have increased since yesterday. Everybody is asking about the avaibability of iPhone5,” said an Apple reseller in New Delhi.

“We are making a separate list of the visitors asking about the iPhone5 availability. Give your details with number. We will inform you as soon as we get any official release date,” said two Apple resellers in New Delhi.


However, they believe that there would be a clear hint in 15-20 days. “Give a call later this month,” they said. As of today, no Apple reseller is accepting any pre-booking.


But, the scene in the grey market is completely different. Some handset sellers have already started taking deposits for iPhone5 promising that they will deliver the product within a week after the product is available in the US market on September 21.


According to Apple statement, iPhone5 will be available in US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK markets from September 21.

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iPhone 5 good enough to be a big hit'

 

NEW YORK: Apple's iPhone 5 offers subtle and sublime charms. The unveiling of the company's latest handset may have been a bit of a snooze. Better isn't as exciting as new. But throw in improved software and it's enough to be a big hit with consumers -- and Apple investors, too.

It has been more than five years since Apple first upended the world of telephony with the iPhone. With each new iteration of the handset, it becomes progressively harder to wow users. The iPhone 5 tries. It's thinner and lighter. The screen is longer and sharper. But these sorts of enhancements are getting harder and harder to notice.


The more important changes are more useful than obvious. The iPhone 5 can surf the Web for 10 hours on a Wi-Fi network on a single battery charge. That's enough to make most Android phone users jealous. It also runs on LTE, next-generation phone networks that often run faster than wireless ones at home. And a faster processor means programmes load and run more quickly.

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Everything Everywhere gets 4G go-ahead from Ofcom

Telecoms regulator Ofcom has allowed Everything Everywhere, the owner of the Orange and T-Mobile networks, to use its existing bandwidth to launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile services.

The move means 4G, which allows much faster downloads, could launch in the UK earlier than previously planned.


Ofcom said the move would deliver "significant benefits" to consumers that outweigh any competition concerns.


But Vodafone and O2 expressed surprise and disappointment at the decsion.


Ofcom plans to auction 4G bandwidth to other providers next year.


Everything Everywhere will be allowed to offer 4G services from 11 September.


But, as the regulator pointed out, the timing will be a commercial decision for the company itself.

Ofcom said delaying the mobile operator from launching 4G would be "to the detriment of consumers".


'Hugely disappointed'

Everything Everywhere itself said the regulator's decision was "great news for the UK".


"4G will drive investment, employment and innovation and we look forward to making it available later this year, delivering superfast mobile broadband to the UK," the company said.


The firm's two main competitors in the UK mobile market were less than pleased with the decision.

"We are hugely disappointed with today's announcement, which will mean the majority of customers will be excluded from the first wave of digital services," said a spokesperson for O2.


Vodafone was more forthright, saying it was "shocked" at Ofcom's ruling.

"The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market," a company spokesperson said.


Faster downloads

Mobile phone networks will be allowed to bid for 4G bandwidth early next year.

The auction will offer the equivalent of three-quarters of the mobile spectrum currently in use - some 80% more than released in the 3G auction which took place in 2000.

Ofcom wants to see at least four wholesalers of 4G mobile services, so that consumers will benefit from better services at lower prices.

The auction will sell chunks of radio spectrum to support 4G, which will allow users to download data such as music and videos at much faster speeds.

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Cleartrip launches travel app for iPhone

NEW DELHI: After its mobile-site app for smartphones, Indian online travel portal Cleartrip has launched yet another app for the iPhone. With the new app, Cleartrip highlights the split-screen search feature, integrating it into the mobile platform. This feature is designed to facilitate easy flight selection and checking ticket prices, all on one screen simultaneously.

The new search platform boasts of the geo-location feature to select the airport for departure from the current location, recently searched airports and the ability to easily swap the "from" and "to" cities with a tap. Also on offer is the special round-trip flight discounts, wherever applicable. Other features like the sort option can be used to reorder the results to check the cheapest, fastest or the earliest flight.

You can pay using credit cards, debit cards, a net banking account or by signing into the Cleartrip account. Payments can also be made using Expressway, a one-click checkout convenience. If not already enabled, a fresh Expressway account can be activated by saving card details through the app. The app also allows you to redeem coupon codes.


While the current version comes with flight bookings within India only, we can expect an update to the app soon the company says.

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