Thursday, February 2, 2012

Apple : Next iOS may feature real-time, 'competitive' fitness app

Apple : Next iOS may feature real-time, 'competitive' fitness app

Next iOS may feature real-time, 'competitive' fitness app

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Next iOS may feature real-time, 'competitive' fitness app

Apple is plotting a souped-up Nike+ style application for future versions of iOS, which would allow athletes to compete against each other in real-time, according to a recent patent filing.

The application would link up with specific pieces of gym equipment to write data to an iOS device in real-time and then upload the results to provide a competitive real-time environment.

So, for example, if you're running on a treadmill in London, you could race against a bloke doing the same thing in San Francisco as if you were on the same running track.

iOS devices would link up with each other and display stats like time, distance, heart-rate, calories burned and even blood oxygen levels.

Providing a competitive environment

The filing, entitled Interfacing Portable Media Devices and Sports Equipment says that information would be communicated between users via a third party website.

The abstract for the filing at the US Patent Office reads: "Circuits, methods, and apparatus that allow sports or other equipment, such as gym or other cardio equipment, to write data to a media player.

"Examples further provide the uploading of this data to a computer and third-party website. To monitor progress, the third-party website can be used to track workout data over time. The third party-website can also collect data from other users, which is particularly useful for providing a competitive environment.

"This data can then be graphically displayed in various ways to provide encouragement."

Nike+ in real-time

Apple has featured the Nike+ software, in various guises, on iPhone and iPad models down the years, but the suggestion here is that Apple thinks it can perhaps do better and turn iOS devices into essential fitness gadgets.

Nike+ currently uploads your workout data after you've finished exercising, but this innovation would allow head-to-head competition in real-time.

The app would, of course, require gyms to upgrade their machinery to be compatible with such a system which is probably more of a reach than Apple creating the software in the first place.

You can read the full USPTO filing here.

Avid Studio launches for iPad

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Avid Studio launches for iPad

Avid has launched a version of its Avid Studio video editing software for the Apple iPad.

The £2.99 app brings a host of the 'prosumer' features associated with the desktop suite and hopes that iPad owners will use it in collaboration with the full suite for Mac and PC.

Like Apple's own iMovie software, which launched with the iPad 2 back in March, the software will enable users to arrange and fine-tune clips with frame-by-frame edits.

There's also a host of effects and transitions that can be dragged onto clips, while soundtracks can be added from the many built-in options or songs from your iPad's music library.

Once you're done with editing the project, it can be exported to Facebook or YouTube and also to the device's camera roll.

Avid to Avid

It's at this point that Avid hopes that owners of the desktop software can benefit from the on-the-go aspect of the app.

Once the video has been exported it can be easily brought into to the Avid Studio for Mac or PC, which brings the full-range of editing and exporting options.

"We've seen a shift in how creation is happening, and it's really happening on almost any device," said Avid VP Tanguy Leborgne. "We think the tablet is more than just a consumer device; more and more people are creating on it."

The launch of software like iMovie and the more powerful Avid Studio programs add more weight to Apple's claims that the iPad is a post-PC device.

After 30 days of using the Avid Studio for iPad app, you'll need to front-up a couple more quid to continue using it on a full-time basis

Via: AllThingsD

Apple iTV 'to land 2012 and to revolutionise market'

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Apple iTV 'to land 2012 and to revolutionise market'

Apple has tapped up a number of component manufacturers and is all set to release its version of a connected TV by the end of 2012, according to US analyst Gene Munster.

There has been much rumour and speculation about Apple iTV for some years now, but Munster – who works for analyst firm Piper Jaffray – believes that he has concrete evidence that an Apple-branded television will launch in 2012, because he has been speaking to a number of component manufacturers that claim to have been tapped up by Cook and co.

According to CNN, Munster told clients this week that Apple iTV was going to be the next big thing for Apple and that it is set to reinvent the concept of connected TV.

"We believe that Apple only enters mature markets with the goal of revolutionizing them, as it did with the smartphone," Munster explained.

"Without a revamped TV content solution, we do not think Apple enters the TV market... Apple enters markets to reinvent them."

Reinventing the TV

He then went on to note that an Apple iTV 2012 release date was on the cards and that he has been in contact with a "major TV component supplier" about Apple iTV going into production.

When it comes to Apple reinventing the television market, Munster believes that this will be done in three ways: by offering pay-as-you-go premium content, combining regular TV channels with web-infused content and offering a unique discovery engine.

While TechRadar doesn't believe that these things are revolutionary – all of the above are already offered by Virgin and TV manufacturers through their connected setups – if there's one company which can get the major players on board for a connected TV experience it is Apple.

There is already talk the company is looking to bid for Premiership rights when its TV solution does land in the UK.

Munster has a track record of getting his Apple iTV predictions wrong – he did predict that a TV would land back in 2011 - but there have been more rumours about Apple iTV launching in 2012 than any other year, so we are pegging this one as Quite Likely.

quite likely
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