Thursday, September 12, 2013

Apple : It sees you when you're sleeping: Apple explains more M7 chip features

Apple : It sees you when you're sleeping: Apple explains more M7 chip features

It sees you when you're sleeping: Apple explains more M7 chip features

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It sees you when you're sleeping: Apple explains more M7 chip features

Apple has offered further insight into what the new M7 'motion co-processor' within the iPhone 5 is capable of, including its integration with the iOS Maps app.

The new processor harvests all of the data from the iPhone's compass, accelerometer and gyro motion sensors and aims to power a new generation of fitness and wellness apps such as Nike Move (pictured).

However, in a post on its website, spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple explains how the M7 chip also plays nice with the Maps app due to its ability to discern when you're in a moving vehicle and when you're walking.

Bestowed with that information, once you park up the car and continue on foot, the Maps app will handily switch from turn-by-turn driving directions to walking directions.

Also, when you're driving in your car or riding on public transport, the iPhone 5S will ignore public Wi-Fi networks and if the phone hasn't moved for a while, M7 will save battery by pinging for updates less often.

Saves your battery, while you sleep

The description reads: "M7 knows when you're walking, running, or even driving. For example, Maps switches from driving to walking turn-by-turn navigation if, say, you park and continue on foot. Since M7 can tell when you're in a moving vehicle, iPhone 5s won't ask you to join Wi-Fi networks you pass by.

"And if your phone hasn't moved for a while, like when you're asleep, M7 reduces network pinging to spare your battery."

Apple is also plotting further Maps integration in forthcoming iOS updates according to the report. Soon it'll be able to remember where you parked your car, making finding it after a day's shopping much easier.

Battery boost

Meanwhile, in other iPhone 5S and 5C related news, the devices' stop off at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US appears to have revealed their respective battery sizes.

The iPhone 5S is a reported 1570mAh, while the iPhone 5C reportedly packs a 1507mAh battery. That equates to a 10 per cent and 5 per cent increase over the iPhone 5's 1440mAh cell.

The company has promised an extra two hours of talk time for the iPhone 5S (ten, compared with eight of the iPhone 5), with the improvements thanks largely to the efficiency of the new A7 and M7 processing team.

Updated: O2 customers face wait for 4G on iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C

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Updated: O2 customers face wait for 4G on iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C

When announcing its new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C handsets on Tuesday, Apple confirmed that both would be compatible with EE and Vodafone's 4G networks, but strangely there was zero mention O2.

Shortly thereafter the bubbly network eased the panic by assuring customers the new iPhones would work on its newly-launched next-gen network, with more details forthcoming.

Some of those details have emerged on Wednesday and, unfortunately for the network and its customers, the new iPhones won't work on O2's new 4G network for 'weeks' after the September 20 release date.

'Within the coming weeks'

In its 'The Blue' blog, O2 admitted that it wouldn't be able to get 4G up and running on phones straight away, due to a settings issue.

We got hold of an O2 spokesperson, who gave TechRadar the following statement: "The iPhone 5C and 5S will ultimately work on O2's 4G network, but we are currently waiting for Apple to enable the carrier bundle for our network.

"We've been advised this will be in the coming weeks.

"We want to be transparent about this with customers, so we are giving £5 off, and clearly they'll still have 3G connectivity until the carrier bundle is enabled to allow 4G [for the new iPhones] on our network."

The mention of 'weeks' will surely have some users worried that this 4G shortage on their new device will last longer than a month, meaning the £5 reduction will rankle.

Other network sources have claimed the delay could be longer to TechRadar, but O2 apparently isn't worried, telling us 4G will certainly be enabled on its 5C and 5S models within a month.

In slightly better news, the network has confirmed that the iPhone 5S will be available on its O2 Refresh tariffs, which enable users to pay slightly more upfront to get a new phone mid-contract. The Refresh deals will start at £119 for the 16GB handset.

What the iPhone 5S tells us about Apple's future plans

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What the iPhone 5S tells us about Apple's future plans

Apple Kremlinologists are used to hunting for clues, reading tea leaves and looking for omens, but this week they didn't need to: when Apple launched the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, it dropped three great big hints about the future.

Two of the hints were processor-shaped, and the third was the lack of a feature lots of people have been clamouring for.

The missing feature was, of course, NFC. NFC-enabled Androids are ten-a-penny, but anyone who was desperately waiting for an NFC iPhone will be disappointed as they were by the iPhone 4, 4S and iPhone 5 - and they'll probably be disappointed with the iPhone 6, and the iPhone 6S, and the iPhone 7 too.

Apple has already decided on its preferred short-range wireless technology, and it's bet on Bluetooth - not just for Airdrop file sharing, but for the kind of things NFC is currently used for such as contactless payments.

As Hari Gottipati says on GigaOM, Apple's plans for its Bluetooth-based iBeacon "makes the internet of things a reality and might kill NFC".

The Touch ID sensor on the iPhone 5S only authenticates iTunes for now, but it isn't hard to imagine Apple positioning it as the gatekeeper to an Apple-powered payment system that works anywhere.

That's not the only world domination plan Apple has up its sleeve.

Did somebody say iWatch?

The iPhone 5S boasts not one but two new processors, and it's the least powerful one that's potentially the most interesting.

The new M7 processor *iWATCH* is designed to monitor movement *iWATCH* without waking up the more powerful and more energy draining CPU, and the *iWATCH* potential for health and fitness apps and *iWATCH* location awareness apps is obvious. It's the sort of *iWATCH* processor you could easily imagine in a wearable *iWATCH* device *iWATCH* *iWATCH* *iWATCH*.

Apple's A7 is notable too, because it's getting awfully close to a desktop-class processor. It's the first 64-bit ARM system-on-a-chip to appear in a smartphone, which seems rather unnecessary, and as Apple pointed out, it also delivers "console-level graphics".

Those consoles may be current-gen rather than the next-gen PS4 and Xbox One we'll see in two months, but the thought of A7-powered iPhones - and eventually iPads and iPods too - with their more affordable games and spendthrift users should give Nintendo and Sony a few more things to worry about. It also makes the Apple TV more attractive as a games platform.

ARMoured Macs

What's really interesting about the A7 is where it - or more likely, its near-future successor - might end up.

Apple currently runs two kinds of processors: Intel in its Macs and ARM in its iOS devices.

Given Apple's ongoing aim of controlling the key technologies in its products, putting its own ARM-based processors into Macs makes a lot of sense.

You know Apple's at least thinking about it. When Macs ran PowerPCs, Apple secretly developed Mac OS X for Intel and we know that since Macs have been running Intel processors Apple has been exploring OS X for ARM.

If nothing else it's insurance against an Apple/Intel fall-out, but it could be something more: while Macs and mobile devices are currently separate lines running different OSes, that might not be the case forever.
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