The Apple Watch’s ECG feature goes live today

ECG/EKG was easily the new Apple Watch’s most lauded feature. It’s also been the most delayed. Of course, this kind of serious health feature is the sort of thing you need to get exactly right, for reasons that ought to be pretty obvious on their face.

Electrocardiogram finally goes live today for Series 4 owners as part of the watchOS 5.1.2 update. It’s an important feature — and one that will go a ways toward helping establish the wearable as a more serious health monitor.

The new feature builds on a hardware upgrade built into the Series 4: a pair of electrodes built into the larger back crystal on the rear of the watch and the digital crown. Once enabled, the new feature is checking for a couple of key bits of heart health: irregular heart rhythms, which the watch will passively monitor in the background, and ECG, which requires the user to actively engage with by completing the circuit with a finger tip placed on the edge of the watch’s digital crown.

Of course, getting all of this isn’t as simple as just installing a software update. There is, understandably, a pretty long opt-in here. The on-boarding process is several pages long for both of the new features, as Apple collects some vital information and repeatedly reminds you of some important information — like the fact that the watch can’t detect a heart attack. If you feel like you might be having one, call the emergency services.

The Apple Watch isn’t meant to replace a doctor either, of course. Really, it’s just a way to monitor for complications. If the smartwatch can be regarded as a potential lifesaver or even peripheral medical device, it’s due to the fact that it features a kind of always-on monitoring. After all, outside of the proliferation of these sorts of wearables, most of us won’t experience something like constant ECG monitoring until under the care of a doctor. If this feature is capable of isolating that information ahead of time, it could go a ways toward addressing complications before they turn into major issues.

The sign-up process airs on the side of caution, while attempting to not overwhelm the end user with information. It’s a tricky balance, and if TOS have taught us anything, it’s that too much information upfront will ultimately result in the user’s eyes glazing over. In the case of this information, that could potentially lead to serious consequences if not properly adhered to.

Some of the key takeaways:

• It cannot detect a heart attack (see a doctor)
• It cannot detect blood clots or a stroke (see a doctor)
• It cannot detect other heart-related conditions (see a doctor)
• [It] is not constantly looking for AFib

That last one is particularly important when distinguishing between the new features. While heart rhythm detection is a feature, the Watch isn’t regularly looking for atrial fibrillation. That’s where the ECG app and the finger detection come in. The feature is intended to be used when the heart rhythm monitor detects that something is off — like a skipped or rapid heartbeat. In which case, it will send a notification right to your wrist.

If that happens, fire up the ECG app, rest your arm on your lap or a table and hold your finger to the crown for 30 seconds. Apple will display a real-time graph of your heart rhythm while you wait. It’s strangely soothing, honestly, though Apple doesn’t recommend using the feature with much regularity, unless you have cause to.

Using it just now, I got a “This ECG does not show signs of atrial fibrillation” note, meaning the reading falls within the parameters of a sinus rhythm.

Here’s your old friends at WebMD:

Your heart’s job is to pump blood to your body. When it’s working the way it should, it pumps to a regular, steady beat. This is called a normal sinus rhythm. When it’s not, you could have an irregular heartbeat called AFib.

So, good. No need to call the doctor. If you’re still feeling unwell, however, there’s a quick link to dial emergency services on the screen. There’s also a spot for adding any symptoms you might be having if you’re feeling less than 100 percent. And while Apple promises not to share any of the info collected on-device, you can always export your findings to a PDF for your doctor to take a gander at.

Along with the new feature comes a new White Paper, detailing the technology. It’s an usual bit of transparency from Apple, but the company understandably wants to be as upfront about the technology as possible. The paper details a lot of what went into bringing the feature up to speed for general availability.

Apple started with a pre-clinical study of 2,000 subjects, including ~15 percent who have been diagnosed with heart arrhythmia. Six-hundred subjects were then involved with the clinical trial to validate the AFib.

Per Apple, “Rhythm classification of a 12-lead ECG by a cardiologist was compared to the rhythm classification of a simultaneously collected ECG from the ECG app. The ECG app demonstrated 98.3% sensitivity in classifying AFib and 99.6% specificity in classifying sinus rhythm in classifiable recordings.”

The company employed similar methods to validate the Irregular Rhythm notifications. “Of the participants that wore an Apple Watch and ECG patch at the same time,” the company writes, “almost 80 percent received the notification and showed AFib on the ECG patch, and 98 percent received the notification and showed other clinically relevant arrhythmias on the ECG patch.”

In addition to that testing, the company has also employed a number of medical doctors to help ensure the product meets the sort of exacting standards one would hope from a product like this.

More information on the research can be found in this Stanford partnered paper published earlier this month.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2G0pcoc

Google is killing off Allo, its latest messaging app flop

It’s official: Google is killing off Allo.

The messaging app was only launched in September 2016 but it was pretty much flawed from the word go with limited usage. Google was, once again, painfully late to the messaging game.

The company said it had ceased work on the service earlier this year, and now it has announced that it’ll close down in March of next year.

“Allo will continue to work through March 2019 and until then, you’ll be able to export all of your existing conversation history from the app,” Google said in a blog post. “We’ve learned a lot from Allo, particularly what’s possible when you incorporate machine learning features, like the Google Assistant, into messaging.”

Google said it wants “every single Android device to have a great default messaging experience,” but the fact remains that the experience on Android massively lags iOS, where Apple’s iMessage service offers a slick experience with free messages, calling and video between iPhone and iPad users.

Instead of Allo, Google is pushing ahead with RCS (Rich Communication Services), an enhanced SMS standard that could allow iMessage like communication between Android devices.

But could is the operative word. The main caveat with RCS is that carriers must develop their own messaging apps that work with the protocol and connect to other apps, while the many Android OEMs also need to hop on board with support.

As I wrote earlier this year, with RCS, Google is giving carriers a chance to take part in the messaging boom, rather than be cut out as WhatsApp, Messenger, iMessage and others take over. But the decision is tricky for carriers, who have traditionally tightly held any form of income until the death. That’s because they won’t directly make money from consumers via RCS, though it allows them to keep their brand and figure out other ways to generate income, such as business-related services.

Verizon has already signed up, for one, but tracking the other supporters worldwide is tricky. Another problem: RCS is not encrypted, which flies in the face of most messaging apps on the market today.

Elsewhere, Google is keeping Duo — the video chat service that launched alongside Allo — while it continues to develop Hangouts into an enterprise-focused service, much like Slack.

from Android – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2EfPcum
via IFTTT

Apple’s HomePod will be available in China starting early next year

“嘿 Siri!” Apple’s HomePod will be available for sale in China early next year. A listing is already up on Apple’s China site, with the smart speaker priced at RMB 2,799 (about $407), or about 17% more than its $349 price in the United States. Though Apple doesn’t list an exact shipping date for Chinese buyers, it says the HomePod will be available in early 2019.

HomePod rivals Amazon Echo and Google Home haven’t launched in China, but Apple’s smart speakers will compete with a host of homegrown devices including Tencent’s Tingting, which integrates with WeChat, Alibaba’s Tmall Genie, several models by Baidu, Mobvoi’s TicHome Mini, and Xiaomi’s Mi Bluetooth speaker.

Several of these smart speakers are much, much cheaper than the HomePod; for example, the Tmall Genie, Tingting, and Baidu’s Xiaodu have each been offered at a discounted price of about $15. But in spite of its significantly higher price, the HomePod will probably still be an attractive option for iOS users. Despite formidable competition from Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi, Apple held an 11.9% market share in China as of the second quarter of 2018, according to Gartner.

The HomePod launched in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia in February before rolling out over the succeeding months in France, Germany, Canada, Mexico, and Spain.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2G25mcs

Still a year away from launch, Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi keeps adding talent

Video won’t start rolling on Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg’s new bite-sized streaming service with the billion dollar backing until the end of 2019, but talent keeps signing up to come along for their ride into the future of serialization.

The latest marquee director to sign on the dotted line with Quibi is Catherine Hardwicke, who will be helming a story around the creation of an artificial intelligence with the working title “How They Made Her” according to an announcement from Katzenberg onstage at the Variety Innovate summit.

Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman announce the name of their stealthy mobile video startup

Hardwicke, who directed Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, and, most famously, Twilight, is joining Antoine Fuqua, Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi and Lena Waithe, in an attempt to answer the question of whether Whitman and Katzenberg’s gamble on premium (up to $6 million per episode) short-form storytelling is a quixotic quest or a quintessential viewing experience for a new generation of media consumers.

Katzenberg also revealed in a LinkedIn post that Quibi would be working on a basketball related series with Steph Curry’s production company. He wrote:

I announced a new docu-series by Whistle called “Benedict Men” coming exclusively to Quibi. “Benedict Men” will be executive produced by Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media and will give viewers an inside look at one of the most unique high school basketball teams in America at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, New Jersey.

St. Benedict’s Prep is an all-boys secondary school founded on the core belief ‘What Hurts My Brother Hurts Me,’ and aims to foster a legacy of strong character, community, leadership, and faith. As one of the top athletic high schools with a storied basketball program and the highest graduation rate in New Jersey, the series will follow the brotherhood of young men who seek to balance life in complicated surroundings.

In some ways, the big adventure backed by Katzenberg, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios and founder of WndrCo, and every major Hollywood studio including Disney, 21st Century Fox, Entertainment One, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Alibaba Goldman Sachs, is the latest in an everything old is new again refrain.

If blogs reinvented printed media, and podcasts and music streaming reinvented radio, why can’t Quibi reinvent serialized storytelling.

Again and again, Whitman and Katzenberg returned to an analogy from the early days of the cable revolution. “We’re not short form, we’re Quibi,” said Whitman, echoing the tagline that HBO made famous in its early advertising blitzes. That Whitman and Katzenberg’s project to take what HBO did for premium television and apply that to mobile media is ambitious. Now industry-watchers will have to wait until 2019 at the earliest to see if it’s also successful.

Jeffrey Katzenberg’s NewTV closes a billion-dollar round, says report

In the interview onstage at a Variety event on artificial intelligence in media, Katzenberg cited Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code as something of an inspiration — noting that the book had over one hundred chapters for its five hundred pages of text. But Katzenberg could have gone back even further to the days of Dickens and his serialized entertainments.

And right now for the entertainment business it really is the best of times and the worst of times. Traditional Hollywood studios are seeing new players like Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and others all trying to drink their milkshake. And, for the most part, these studios and their new telecom owners are woefully ill-equipped to fight these big technology platforms at their own game. 

Taking the long view of entertainment history, Katzenberg is hoping to win networks with not just a new skin for the old ceremony of watching entertainment but with a throwback to old style deal-making. The term serialization here takes on greater meaning. 

Quibi is offering its production partners a sweetheart deal. After seven years the production company behind the Quibi shows will own their intellectual property, and after two years those producers will be able to repackage the Quibi content back into long form series and pitch them for distribution to other platforms. Not only that but Quibi is fronting the money for over 100% of the production.

Katzenberg said that it “will create the most powerful syndicated marketplace” Hollywood has seen in decades. It’s a sort of anti-Netflix model where Katzenberg and Whitman view Quibi as a platform where creators and talent will want to come. “We are betting on the success of the platform — and by the way it worked brilliantly in the 60s, and 70s and 80s.” Katzenberg said. “Hundreds of TV shows were tremendous successes and [like the networks then] we don’t want to compete with our suppliers.”

In addition to the business model innovations (or throwbacks, depending on how one looks at it), Quibi is being built from the ground up with a technology stack that will leverage new technologies like 5G broadband, and big data and analytics, according to Whitman.

Indeed, launching the first platform built without an existing stable of content means that Quibi is preparing 5,000 unique pieces of content to go up when it pulls the curtains back on its service in late 2019 or early 2020, Whitman said.

And the company is looking to big telecommunications companies like Verizon (my corporate overlord’s corporate overlord) and AT&T as partners to help it get to market. Since those networks need something to do with all the 5G capacity they’re building out, high quality streaming content that’s replete with meta-tags to monitor and manage how an audience is spending their time is a compelling proposition.

“We want to work to have video that good on mobile [and] ramp up content in terms of quantity and quality,” Whitman said. That quality extends to things like the user interface, search features and analytics.

“We have to have a different search and find metaphor,” Whitman said. “It takes 8 minutes to find what you’re looking for on Netflix… We will be able to instrument this with data on what people are watching and using that in our recommendation engine.”

Questions remain about the service’s viability. Like what role will the telcos actually play in distribution and development? Can Quibi avoid the Hulu problem where the various investors are able to overcome their own entrenched interests to work for the viability of the platform? And do consumers even want a premium experience on mobile given the new kinds of stars that are made through the immediacy and accessibility that technology platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Snap offer?

“Where the fish are today is a phenomenal environment,” Katzenberg said of the current short-form content market. “But it is an ocean. We need to find a place where there are these premium services.”

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2rkHdDH

Apple puts third-party screen time apps on notice

A number of app developers building third-party screen time trackers and parental control applications are worried that Apple’s increased scrutiny of their apps in recent weeks is not a coincidence. With Apple’s launch of iOS 12, the company has implemented its own built-in screen time tracking tools and controls. Not long after, developers’ third-party screen time apps came under increased review from Apple, and, in some cases, rejections and removals from the App Store.

The impacted developers have been using a variety of methods to track screen time, as there has not been any official means of tracking this data. This included the use of background location, VPNs, and MDM-based solutions, and sometimes a combination of methods.

A small crowd of a half-dozen or so developers began to discuss their troubles amongst themselves over the past couple months. But not all wanted to go on record. After all, publicly criticizing Apple is not something many developers feel comfortable doing, especially when their business is at risk.

However, a few did take to their company blogs to report their troubles when they thought they had reached the end of the road.

In October, for example, the digital detox app called Mute publicly announced its removal from the App Store around the same time that many other screen time tracking apps had been put on notice.

Then three-year old screen time app Space did the same after its removal from the App Store in November.

They were not alone. Several others, who did not want to be quoted, were also facing rejections.

Some of the developers, we understand, were told they were in violation of App Store developer guideline 2.5.4, which specifies when multitasking apps are allowed to use background location. Specifically, developers were told they were “misusing background location mode for purposes other than location-related features.”

Others were told their app violated developer guideline 2.5.1, which references using public APIs in an unapproved manner.

And others, still, were told the way they’ve implemented screen time and parental controls was no longer permitted.

Above: Space on iOS

In an odd turn of events, after Space and Mute published on their public company blogs to complain, they received a call from Apple and had their apps reinstated on the App Store.

The Apple reps asked the companies about how they handled data privacy, and reminded them they have to have a customer-facing feature that requires location-based services in order to legitimize their use of such an approach, they reported.

“We are of course hugely grateful that Apple has chosen to continue to allow our business to operate,” said Space CEO Georgina Powell.

But these were not isolated incidents. Across the third-party screen time app industry, apps were coming under review – in some cases, after operating for years without incident.

Above: Moment app on iOS

But at the same time, some apps were getting a pass – as if Apple is making its decisions on a one-off basis.

For example, an app called Moment – which TechCrunch has covered a few times over the past four years and has been featured by Apple – also received a call from Apple, we learned.

Apple had some questions for Moment, which they answered to Apple’s satisfaction. The app was not removed or threatened.

Asked if they were concerned at all about the increased scrutiny, Moment’s creator Kevin Holesh responded, “I do feel confident about Moment’s future after talking to Apple.” But he added he’s now “mostly watching to see how things play out with this issue going forward.”

The makers of the screen time app solution and hardware device, Circle with Disney, is also unaffected, we were told. (But then, imagine the consumer backlash if your $99 home network device just stopped working.)

Though not all apps were getting the boot, it seemed, Apple did seem to have a problem with screen time apps that took advantage of mobile device management (MDM) and/or VPNs to operate.

For example, the developer behind Kidslox had implemented a combination of MDM and a VPN for screen time and parental controls. The app tracks the time the device is connected to the VPN for screen time, which Apple said it could no longer do.

Kidslox CEO Viktor Yevpak tried to explain a VPN was necessary for more than just screen time. The app also includes a feature that checks websites against a blacklist to allow for kids to safely browse when they were connected through the VPN.

“I said, there has to be a middle ground, because you’re pretty much killing the entire company,” Yevpak told TechCrunch, recalling his conversations with Apple’s app review. “We have over 30 people working on it, and you’re us telling us to shut down,” he had told them.

After several rejections of updates to Kidslox’ year-old app, the developer finally took to the company blog to also call out Apple for what it believed was the “systematic destruction” of the third-party screen time management industry.

Like many we spoke to, he’s highly suspicious about the timing of Apple’s review, given that iOS 12’s screen time feature has just launched.

Kidslox remains available on the App Store today but its updates are not being approved. Yevpak says the company has been discussing ways to pivot the business, as it seems its time is up.

Apple, of course, never intended for VPNs to be used for screen time tracking or parental controls, nor did it want the enterprise-focused MDM technology to be implemented in consumer-based apps. And by permitting its use to date in apps like these, Apple had given up control over how its devices can be used by consumers.

But its policies have not matched up with its App Store approvals. Apple has greenlit – and it has been directly aware of – screen time apps using MDM in ways that violated its guidelines for years.

Above: OurPact’s app rules allow parents to block apps

One case in point app is OurPact (specifically, its OurPact Jr. product), an app which leverages MDM technology to allow parents to control if and when kids can use certain apps on their phone, block texting, filter the web, and much more. Its apps – one designed for the parent and the other for the child – have been live for four years. OurPact now says that Apple will no longer allow the company to use MDM for its purposes.

“Our team has received confirmation from Apple that managing application access and content outside of iOS Screen Time will not be permitted in the Apple device ecosystem,” says Amir Moussavian, OurPact parent company Eturi Corp., in a statement provided to TechCrunch. “It’s incredibly disappointing that Apple is choosing to dissolve the iOS parental control market at a time when childhood and adolescent screen time management is finally being understood as a necessity.”

The company says its OurPact Jr. app, the app designed for the child’s device, is impacted by the change. But its parent app will continue to operate.

Apple’s permissiveness to allow these “rule-breaking” apps signaled to developers entering the screen time space anew that MDM was being tacitly approved in these scenarios, even if Apple’s own terms and agreements said otherwise.

Developer Andrew Armour of ACTIVATE Fitness, said he decided to implement MDM for a screen time management solution for iOS after seeing many other developers already had been the same thing for years, he told TechCrunch.

“I have sunk my entire life savings into the development of this mobile application to provide families with a solution to better regulate and manage screen time and at the same time promote physical activity,” Armour said, speaking about his app’s App Store rejection.”After two years of hard work and determination, my entrepreneurial journey to introduce ACTIVATE Fitness to the world has come to an end due to an Apple rejection in a flawed and unfair review process,” he lamented.

Apple could choose to release an official Screen Time API or carve out exceptions for screen time apps that use MDM or other technologies. Its decision to instead put the entire third-party industry on notice after rolling out its own screen time solution, however, seems to indicate it now wants to control the experience of monitoring screen time usage on iOS, and not leave it up to these third parties.

At the end of the day, the decision is bad for consumers because Apple’s solution doesn’t offer many of the features of the MDM-based solutions focused on parental controls. For example, parents using third-party screen time solutions can hide certain apps from kids’ homescreens and control when those apps function.

Apple declined to comment on the matter.

But sources familiar with Apple’s thinking dismissed this as being some sort of targeted crackdown against third-party screen time apps. Rather, the pushback developers received was part of Apple’s ongoing app review process, they said, and noted that the rules these apps violate have been in place for years.

That’s a fair point. Apple can opt to enforce its rules at any time, and building apps in violation of those rules is never a great idea – especially when developers are knowingly taking advantage of technologies in ways they had to know Apple never intended.

That being said, a decision to purge the App Store of third-party screen time and parental control apps is one that may come across to the impacted end users of these apps as being in poor taste.

In recent months, big tech companies – including the likes of Facebook and Google – have been made aware of the addictive nature of our devices and the apps we use and the negative effects on our mental health. They have all been rolling out solutions to counter this problem. For Apple to be seen as tamping down on the very apps that have been trying to battle these problems for years – before Silicon Valley took notice – is not a great look.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2AQp0SE

Apple is starting to sell its first iPhone XR case, and it’s clear so you can show off your bright new phone

Apple’s new iPhone XR comes in a half dozen colors, including blue, yellow, red and coral. In fact, the colors are sufficiently fresh that it’d be kind of silly to buy a traditional phone case that would protect it but also hide if from plain view.

It’s for this reason that Apple just began selling a clear case, which, because it is Apple, sounds special despite being a clear plastic case. Think “thin, light, and easy to grip,” and “crafted with a blend of optically clear polycarbonate and flexible TPU materials, so the case fits right over the buttons for easy use.”

Also, a scratch-resistant coating has been applied not only to the exterior, but also to the interior.

Of course, a feature that early customers of the phone will appreciate even more is the ability to wirelessly charge their phones without having to remove the case.

They’ll also like the price, presumably. The new clear case is just $39. Indeed, the company introduced the iPhone XR in mid September as a lower-cost alternative to the iPhone XS Max.

Not that any version is exactly cheap — the IPhone XR is retailing right now for $749; the iPhone XS is $999; the iPhone XS Max, a dual-SIM iPhone that was also introduced in mid-September, starts at $1,099.

from Apple – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2QdJuiU

You can now once again flip the camera during FaceTime calls with just one tap

With the release of iOS 12, Apple hid the button that lets you jump from front camera to rear camera (or vice versa) during a FaceTime call. Previously a one-click thing, it was suddenly shoved away into a menu as if it wasn’t something you might use a half-dozen times per call.

Don’t like the change? Good news! Apple is undoing it.

As of iOS 12.1.1, released today, the camera swap button is returning to the main call screen. Basically every FaceTime call I’ve had since this change was made has started with someone asking “Wait, how do I flip the screen. What the hell, where’d that button go?” so changing this back is the only right call.

This build also reintroduces the ability to take Live Photo captures during a one-on-one FaceTime call, if both people in the call have the feature toggled on. Don’t want anyone grabbing Live Photos mid-chat? A switch in FaceTime’s settings lets you disable it.

Beyond those two things, this update mostly polishes up existing features. According to the patch notes: real-time text now works when using WiFi calling, Dual SIM support has been added for additional carriers, you can now hide the sidebar in the News app on the iPad, and it has all the usual bug/performance fixes.

from iPhone – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2QbmReZ