iPhone Users Could Face Battery and Wi-Fi Issues From Downloading Latest Update

Apple’s iPhone 6, 6 Plus and the Apple Watch unveiling on Tuesday comes with anticipation of iOS 8.0, the latest in a series of software updates.

The Cupertino-based company typically releases its major software updates shortly after revealing a new iPhone, and tech experts predict that trend will continue.

• U2's New Tune

What they can’t predict, however, is whether or not Apple has addressed the battery life and Wi-Fi issues some users reported having simply from downloading the update.

“I upgraded over the Wi-Fi and about an hour later, my phone was starting to freeze on apps,” said iPhone user Kelly Shermer.

• The Apple Watch: What You Need to Know

Shermer isn’t alone.

The Troubleshooters have tracked this problem for the past year, since iOS 7.0. Apple has released several versions since then, fixing various bugs and controls. Yet it hasn’t addressed two major issues iPhone users say they face.

“[The battery] will make a drastic jump from 34 percent, to 1 percent, to off,” said Kevin Kibbe, in an interview with the Troubleshooters last March.

Since users like Kibbe say the battery issues were caused by downloading the software, CTNewsJunkie.com writer and tech expert Lon Seidman has a simple suggestion: Don’t download it unless you need to.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right away,” said Seidman. “And this is a great example of maybe waiting just a little bit for all those bugs to kind of get worked out.”

Those bugs could cause things like battery drainage. Seidman adds, since the iOS test group is so much smaller than the vast iPhone community, developers’ don’t know what problems they’ll face until they get the product out there.

They then identify various bugs and glitches, and release a newer update — in this case, iOS 8.0.1 — within a couple of weeks of the iOS 8.0 release.

“As we saw with iOS 7, a lot of people had problems initially getting it to work properly with their equipment,” said Seidman. “And they took a lot of time to stamp out a lot of those bugs.”

The notion of “time” can get the best of us in the here-and-now world of technology. After all, major software updates usually mean cooler features. With iOS 8, games should be faster and messaging more intuitive, among other things.

But time could save some iPhone users from running into unsuspecting issues.

“The problem with the Apple updates is you often can’t revert back to the old one,” said Seidman. “So it’s a very permanent kind of decision to make.”

If you do run into problems after updating your iPhone, go to your Apple retailer. You might be eligible for a free battery replacement if you bought an iPhone 5 between September 2012 and January 2013.

The Troubleshooters reached out to Apple, but the company won’t disclose whether or not its' rectified the battery and Wi-Fi issues many consumers report having faced while downloading previous updates.

Apple's appalling iPhone 6 camera compromise

Apple is a company renowned for making products that are not only functional, but also beautiful. When you buy an apple product you're buying something that's been crafted as opposed to being cobbled together. Overseeing design at Apple is Jony Ive, the London-born designer who has worked up the ranks at the company since 1992 to take the post of senior vice president of design.

Given Apple's design heritage, and Ive's customarily well-calibrated eye, I have to wonder how this carbuncle came to adorn the iPhone 6.

I'm talking about the protrusion from the otherwise sleek exterior of the iPhone 6 to accommodate the camera lens, something that from this point on I will call the "camera nubbin."

It's clear why the "camera nubbin" exists. Apple wanted to shave a fraction of a millimeter off the thickness of the iPhone, but at the same time wanted to upgrade the camera. But it seems that Apple could make the iPhone thinner than it could make the camera module, so shoehorned the oversized module inside the otherwise svelte iPhone.

This is ugly. Really ugly. Not only that, but I can already see it making the iPhone 6 hard to use on a hard surface without some sort of case because without that it won't lie flat. Not only that, but it puts the camera's lens right out in front, ready to take knocks and such.

Forget about putting the iPhone down on a table to tap away.

I understand that "thin and light" is important to Apple, but this seems to have taken the concept of a compromise to crazy heights. Rather than having that ugly, annoying "camera nubbin," why not make the iPhone fractionally thicker, and use that space to give the handset an even bigger battery? Or if the battery would have added too much weight, just leave it empty. Sheesh, fill it with helium for all I care, just do something better than make an already small dimension even smaller, but then have to whack a pustule on it.

I understand why Apple wanted to fit a better camera into the iPhone 6 – the shots I've seen from it so far look spectacular – but I don't understand why it needed to be bolted on in such a Frankenstein manner.

UPDATE: It's been suggested that this could be related to an Apple patent for "bayonet attachment mechanisms" to attach lenses to the camera. While this may be the case – we'll have to wait and see – it's still a very ugly solution to solve a problem affecting a very small number of iPhone users. 

Apple’s iPhone 6 Health app could become the new family nurse

Apple vice-president Phil Schiller introduces the iPhone 6 and iWatch. Photograph: Xinhua/Sipa/Rex

Why wait for an appointment at your local NHS surgery when you can simply check your phone or watch? Apple has debuted the iPhone 6, which includes its new Health app and associated tool for developers called HealthKit. The software enables other health and fitness apps to share their data with the Health app and with each other. The app is also integrated into the new Apple Watch and could potentially monitor everything from the user’s heart rate to his or her chronic conditions.

Apple’s choice of fitness partner for HealthKit, Nike, has long been working on a wearable health gadget. So have several other health and tech companies, with Fitbit and Wahoo Fitness among those already selling wristbands and watch-like devices targeted at runners. But HealthKit goes much further, measuring not just the user’s health but his or her illnesses as well. Which explains why the respected healthcare giant Mayo Clinic has become a HealthKit partner.

“When a patient takes a blood pressure reading, HealthKit automatically notifies their app”, said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice-president of software engineering, when he introduced HealthKit this summer. “And their app is automatically able to check whether that reading is in that patients’ personalised healthcare parameters threshold. And if not, it can contact the hospital proactively, notify a doctor, and that doctor can reach back to that patient, providing more timely care.” HealthKit will, in other words, act as a nurse of sorts, checking on illnesses and vital signs and notifying a doctor if anything is amiss.

Apple is not the only player in the market. Intel and the Michael J Fox Foundation have developed a similar wearable healthcare gadget that will track Parkinson’s disease. Couples struggling with infertility can turn to the wearable app DuoFertility, which continuously monitors physical parameters, collecting up to 20,000 data points every day and transmitting them to a wireless reader. Based on these data points, the app will inform the couple when they should try to conceive. And, DuoFertility’s CEO, Dr Claire Hooper, says the company plans to develop applications for sleep and pain problems as well. Another company,Valencell, has developed earbuds that monitor vital signs.

Still, for all the excitement, wearable healthcare is still a small market. “Dedicated wearable healthcare gadgets – as distinguished from fitness trackers – will absolutely find mainstream application among those with chronic illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure and so on,” predicts Jeff Yang, senior vice-president at The Futures Company, a planning consultancy. Especially given the growing number of people worldwide suffering from such diseases, that’s not a negligible number of potential buyers. But, notes Jack Kent, a mobile analyst at IHS, “From the consumer perspective, the wearable app business is still a very niche market. A lot of the effort so far, alongside more general-purpose smartwatches, has been focused on specific niches such as fitness tracking and health and wellness.”

Although health apps record plenty of data, there’s no central system in place (such as at medical centres), for collecting, let alone evaluating, the information submitted by potentially several hundred million iPhone users. “If, for example, diabetics collect their blood measurements over three weeks and bring the figures to their doctor, it’s useful”, says Dr Satish Misra, a clinical fellow in cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, who also works on Johns Hopkins’s Global mHealth Initiative. “But without a system for dealing with the information these gadgets collect, they’ll be a waste of doctors’ time and users’ money.”

Still, notes Misra, releasing the gadgets on the market could be a good thing, as early adopters force healthcare providers to create a system for processing the information. Clinics and hospitals will, he predicts, choose to accept only a couple of devices so as to prevent potentially enormous waste of doctors’ time.

But there is an immediate concern: according to a test conducted by Symantec, wearable healthcare gadgets leak users’ data: 20% of the gadgets monitored transmitted users’ credentials, including login details in clear text. And attempts to hack healthcare data have increased dramatically in the past few years. According to a report by the firm Websense this month, hacking attempts on US hospitals have increased by 600% over the past 10 months.

Security concerns aside, will consumers embrace wearable healthcare gadgets? “My sense is that they won’t”, says Yang, “Dedicated fitness trackers have already begun to plateau. Multipurpose, multi-use devices like the Apple Watch are inevitably going to take over many of those categories.” Such integration of a myriad of services into a single device, predicts Yang, is the answer: “You don’t have to extend your personal area network with another tool that you need to carry, update, charge, and try not to misplace.”

iPhone 6: is it the best choice for travellers?

"A removable battery would be even better, so I could carry a spare on my travels"

On September 9, Apple announced two new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. With Apple, beautiful design is a given. The major change was the release of two phones with different screen sizes. The current iPhone 5S has a 4-inch screen. The new iPhones have screen sizes of 4.7 inches and 5.5 inches, matching rivals at the top end of the smartphone market whose screens generally measure 5 inches or more.

But for travellers, screen size is mostly a sideshow. The new models are also thinner than current iPhones. But my iPhone is already thin and light: there were more important new features to look out for. How do these add up for travellers?

Longer battery life?

I probably tap and swipe more than the average user, but my last-generation iPhone rarely lasts a full day on a single charge when I'm checking apps, maps and review sites on a city break.

The contrast, when I road-tested the HTC One (M8) on a recent trip to Rome, was stark. Its 2,600 mAh battery did not once run out before bedtime. Sony's recently announced Experia Z3 will have an even bigger 3,100 mAh battery.

The new iPhone 6 is an upgrade on the 5S. By how much? Alongside increases in raw battery capacity, the iPhones' faster A8 processor offers improvements in power management. Apple data suggests the iPhone 6 will last 25 percent longer on 3G browsing than the iPhone 5S. Standby times are identical, however. It's an improvement rather than a sea change. The larger iPhone 6 Plus promises a bigger boost in battery life.

A removable battery would be even better, so I could carry a spare on my travels. The LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy S5 both have one, but that was never likely to be on the agenda for Apple.

A better camera?

Camera quality was long one of the iPhone's strengths, but rivals have matched and even surpassed Apple. They make carrying a compact camera redundant, saving space in your hand luggage. Sony recently announced the Experia Z3 with a 20.7 megapixel (MP) camera, 4K video recording and image sensitivity equivalent to ISO 12,800, making low-light shooting easier. Nokia's 41MP Lumia 1020 currently leads the way in smartphone photo performance.

Did the iPhone 6 camera match these? On the face of it, not quite. The new iPhones still have 8MP cameras. But camera quality is about more than just megapixels. Both iPhone models have a new sensor, faster, more precise autofocus, and improved image stabilization for sharper photos. They can also shoot creative slo-mo video at up to 240 frames per second. Without a detailed hand-on test it's impossible to be certain, but the camera looks like a significant upgrade on the iPhone 5S.

^{The iPhone 6 was unveiled on September 9 (Photo: Getty)}

Improved protection against the elements and accidents?

Travel dishes out serious punishment to a smartphone, and accidents happen. Pre-launch rumours suggested that new iPhone screens could be made from ultra-tough synthetic sapphire. Instead, the new iPhone comes with what Apple calls an “ion strengthened glass” screen. And rivals already make fully waterproof phones. The new Sony Experia Z3 is waterproof under 1.5 metres of water for up to 30 minutes, for example.

More and better apps?

Apple's iOS platform sets the benchmark for breadth and quality of travel apps, though gone are the days when an iPhone app would appear long before the Android version. An upgraded operating system, iOS 8, has already been announced, and will be available from September 17. The new operating system is free on iPhones from the 4S onwards. Among the new features are enhanced photo editing and HomeKit integration, which will enable travellers to control connected security and other so-called “smart home” devices while they are away on holiday.

A secure mobile payments system?

Several phone networks and banks are launching mobile wallets. These are designed to replace credit and debit cards with tapping your smartphone to pay, in any shop that accepts contactless cards. Apple's launched its own version yesterday, known as Apple Pay. It will be available from next month, initially in the US only. Both new iPhones have a Near Field Communications (NFC) antenna for making contactless payments, which shoppers authenticate using their iPhone's Touch ID fingerprint sensor.

Apple Pay could offer a safe and convenient way to pay when we travel. Travel apps including Uber (for private hire cabs) and OpenTable (for restaurant bookings) have already announced Apple Pay integration services. The payments system will also work with the new Apple Watch

U2 expected to launch new album project alongside iPhone 6

U2 with former Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2006; the band could be set to continue their relationship with Apple. Photograph: Reuters/Reuters

U2 are poised to announce a new partnership with Apple, involving the release of their new album, the New York Times reports.

According to anonymous sources, the band will appear at the launch of the iPhone 6: “In addition to performing, the band will reveal an integration with Apple’s products that is connected to its next album.” While representatives for the band wouldn’t comment, it’s believed it could be some kind of new spin on the album format – perhaps similar to the app releases by Bjork and Lady Gaga, or the sensational ‘video album’ released on iTunes by Beyonce.

The band have long had a relationship with Apple, releasing a special edition iPod in 2006 featuring their signatures, as well as iPods linked to the Bono-fronted Aids charity Red. Their former producer Jimmy Iovine recently joined the Apple fold after the company bought Beats Electronics, the headphones and music streaming empire he set up with Dr Dre.

U2 have drip-fed new material over the last year – their song Ordinary Love, recorded for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, was nominated for an Oscar, and was followed by Invisible, a single that could feature on the new album.

In an interview with Zane Lowe earlier in the year, Bono said the album had traces of the Ramones and Kraftwerk, and that it was somewhat borne out of self doubt: “We were trying to figure out, ‘Why would anyone want another U2 album?’ ... We felt like we were on the verge of irrelevance.”

The album has been produced by Danger Mouse, feted for his duos Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells as well as work with Jack White and the Black Keys. “It sounded amazing, very, very big and powerful sounding,” U2’s previous producer Daniel Lanois has been quoted as saying. “Some of it was adventurous. There were shades of Achtung Baby.”

In March, Billboard “confirmed with multiple sources” that the album was being pushed to 2015, and would feature additional recording sessions with Adele producer Paul Epworth and power balladeer Ryan Tedder.

Apple has been preparing app makers for bigger iPhones for years

One question about Apple’s new, bigger iPhones—expected to be unveiled tomorrow—is how the 1+ million existing iPhone apps will look and work on them. Especially on the supposed 5.5-inch iPhone, which could have a display that’s nearly twice the surface area of today’s iPhone 5 series. (For more details than you ever thought you’d read about iPhone screen sizes, see John Gruber’s lengthy analysis at Daring Fireball.)

The takeaway: App developers may soon have some extra work to do. This could range from making sure everything looks right at the new sizes to potentially designing features that take advantage of the screen real estate for greater productivity.

Google Android app makers have always had to deal with many display shapes and sizes, but this hasn’t been much of an issue for iPhone developers. Over seven years, Apple has only ever sold three variations of the iPhone screen, and has taken pride in its simple product lineup.

Still, Apple has made enough changes over the years that this shouldn’t be too alarming to any iOS developer. Most should already feel prepared.

• In early 2010, Apple launched the iPad. It had a drastically larger screen than the iPhone—roughly 10 inches vs. 3.5 inches. This first got developers thinking about what a larger version of their app could look like and how it might work differently. Many have avoided it—Instagram, for example, still doesn’t have an iPad version of its app. Still, this experience may be helpful for those designing new things for the 5.5-inch iPhone.
• In mid-2010, Apple launched the iPhone 4. This had Apple’s first super-sharp “retina” display, which included four times as many pixels in the same size screen. For app makers, this mostly meant creating larger, more detailed graphics. This may happen again now if Apple’s 5.5-inch iPhone has an even denser display.
• In 2012, Apple launched the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 screen was taller—but not wider—than previous iPhones. This meant that app makers had to think about expanding their app in one direction—height, but not width. Most apps simply stretched out. But it got developers thinking about how to handle having users with different-sized iPhones. Now there will be even more of those.
• Also in 2012, Apple introduced a tool for app developers called Auto Layout. This followed up a previous system called “springs and struts.” Apps that use Auto Layout should adapt better to different screen sizes and orientations. This is about to come in handy.
• This year, Apple made its iPhone-screen-simulator tool for developers resizeable. This makes it easy to get an idea of what an app will look like on a bigger display—or a smaller one, like an iWatch. Of course, it’s not the same as seeing it on a real screen. But it’s a start.

One thing we’ll be looking out for now is whether iPhone and iPad apps will start to converge. If reports are correct, Apple will supposedly soon have iOS devices in the wild with 3.5-, 4-, 4.7-, 5.5-, 7.9-, and 9.7-inch screens. That’s a wide range of devices all running the same software—and using the same App Store—with very narrow differences in screen size. So much so that the concepts of an “iPhone” and “iPad” seem to be blending together.

How the Next iPhone Could Finally Kill the Credit Card

Remember when 3G was such a big deal that Apple named its new iPhone after what was then the new standard in mobile data transmission? The iPhone 3G, introduced in 2008, was the second iteration of the pioneering smartphone, and in a way the name was as much gloating as it was tribute. When cellular data mostly meant sending crude videos and maybe a song over the network, the old standard was good enough. But the radical new potential for connected mobile computing unleashed by the iPhone meant users would go with whichever carrier could move the most data the fastest. Apple forced the telecoms to up their games, and the competition has yet to cease.

Meanwhile, another kind of network has stagnated. Despite the proliferation of mobile payments companies, from startups like Square to a mobile-revamped PayPal, credit cards remain the standard for paying in-person and online. The money may move digitally, at least after the analog swipe of the card, but it’s still along the same old networks, a kind of parallel internet built to handle credit cards long before the web, much less the iPhone, existed.

FOR ALL ANYONE WITH AN IPHONE IS CONCERNED, THE WAY TO PAY WILL BE APPLE.

But if, as predicted, the next-generation iPhone includes a chip that makes the device scannable at checkout counters, Apple could catalyze a transformation in how money moves that is at least as substantial as the improvements in how data moves that Cupertino forced upon the telecom industry. At first, an iPhone wallet likely would act as a surrogate for credit cards, a way to store the data of multiple cards but using the phone as the way to transfer that data instead of a swipe. But over time, the point of holding onto any of those cards, which become digital abstractions once they’re on the phone, likely will fall away. Instead, for all anyone with an iPhone is concerned, the way to pay will be Apple.

A Better Experience

The subject of Apple’s unique power to change the way payments work came up in a conversation I had yesterday with the co-founder of Dwolla, a Des Moines, Iowa, startup building an internet-based alternative to the existing credit card network standards with the aim of moving money in real time. Send a dollar, get a dollar, the way the internet works. The five-year-old company counts among its users the state of Iowa, which accepts several kinds of tax payments via Dwolla.

The imperative the iPhone created for telecoms to upgrade their data networks holds a lesson for the leverage Apple has to change the payments landscape, says Dwolla CEO Ben Milne.

‘APPLE’S ALREADY GOT A GREAT MOBILE WALLET. YOU USE IT ALL THE TIME WHEN YOU BUY SOMETHING ON ITUNES.’

“They already have 800 million cards on file,” Milne says of Apple. With that kind of heft to back it up, Apple can then rely on its proven design expertise to entice users into its payment world. “They’re going to give people a better experience that’s arguably, probably more efficient and more simple with hardware they control.”

In that world, it’s Apple, not the credit card companies, that have the control, even if those iPhone wallets are being used to “store” those credit cards. The credit card becomes abstract, just another option to tap that otherwise stays hidden. Really, you’ll be paying with Apple. In a sense, iPhone users already do. “Apple’s already got a great mobile wallet in that thing,” Milne says. “You use it all the time when you buy something on iTunes.”

The Next Logical Step

Once the credit card becomes that hidden (do you remember which one is connected to your iTunes account?), it’s only a short logical step to that card being eliminated altogether. Apple could get into the credit side of the game itself. Or it could integrate with a new kind of network such as Dwolla.

Dwolla may not quite be ready yet to act as Apple’s payment backend. But an Apple mobile wallet could only help Dwolla, and new internet-based ways of moving money in general. Right now, consumers don’t have much of a reason to use their phones instead of a card to pay in stores. Each mobile payment startup has its own platform that merchants may or (more likely) may not take. Nearly all of those merchants, on the other hand, take cards.

The ubiquity of an NFC-enabled iPhone, however, finally could force brick-and-mortar stores to offer a pay-by-phone option. And once Apple peels people away from physical credit cards to a digitized version of plastic, Dwolla and everyone else become digital options on the same equal footing in the same wallet.

Apple has the ability to succeed where Google and the few NFC-enabled Android phones to hit the market never could, because Apple controls the hardware and the software. Google supported NFC with its own wallet, but few handsets came out with the chips inside, since few payment terminals would take them. And few merchants bothered to accept NFC, since so few phones had it. That uncertainty disappears as soon as an NFC-enabled iPhone 6 floods the streets.

And while an iPhone wallet won’t mean an end of credit cards anytime soon—American Express and Visa reportedly have reached agreements to work with Apple—it’s hard to see how its spread wouldn’t hasten a future free of plastic. After all, a credit card is just a medium for transferring data, just like a smartphone. Except unlike a smartphone, a credit card doesn’t do anything else. The credit card companies themselves see this day coming.

If Apple, as expected, announces Tuesday that iPhones will become a new way to pay, the rest of the world might finally see that future, too.

Apple's 'iWatch' has flexible sapphire screen & wireless charging, 'iPhone 6' to offer one-handed mode, NYT says

As hype builds for Apple's Sept. 9 announcement, yet another report chimes in with alleged details, saying the company's wearable "iWatch" will sport a flexible screen and wireless charging, while the company's larger iPhone models will apparently offer a one-handed mode for ease of use.


The details were attributed to unnamed "people knowledgeable about the product" in a Thursday report from The New York Times. Most interestingly, the report said the device will boast a flexible display panel protected by a cover made of sapphire.

In addition, Thursday's report claimed that the so-called "iWatch" will rely on a wireless charging method. It added that Apple tested solar charging for the device but couldn't get it to work.

Like other recent reports, it claimed that the so-called "iWatch" isn't likely to launch until next year, while pricing remains unknown.

Sources who spoke with the publication said Apple's wearable device is one of the company's "most ambitious projects to date." It's said to include advanced sensors that will track movements and vital signs, including heart rate, more accurately than any product currently on the market.



As for the so-called "iPhone 6," the report claims that the two new models sized 4.7 and 5.5 inches will come with updated software to accommodate for the larger displays. Specifically, it was said that an optional "one-handed mode" will be included to make it easier to type and control.

Both the new iPhone and "iWatch" are expected to be tightly integrated with one another, utilizing the new "Handoff" functionality of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. And both devices are also rumored to feature near-field communications technology for e-wallet mobile payment services.

The report from the Times comes on the heels of a separate story from The Wall Street Journal, published earlier Thursday, claiming that both Apple's "iPhone 6" and "iWatch" will include NFC functionality for mobile payments. That report also reaffirmed that the "iWatch" will apparently boast a curved OLED display.



It's been claimed that the wrist-worn device will come in two-different sizes, potentially intended for both men and women. Multiple recent reports have suggested the "iWatch" will miss the lucrative holiday shopping season, and will become available to customers in early 2015.

Customers likely won't have to wait that long for the new iPhones, though, as Apple is expected to make them available soon after the Sept. 9 event. If the company sticks to its usual release pattern, the "iPhone 6" will hit store shelves on Sept. 19, though there have been rumors that the 5.5-inch model could launch after the 4.7-inch variant due to alleged production issues.

All is expected to be revealed at Apple's media event next Tuesday, which kicks off at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. AppleInsider will be there live, and readers can get up-to-the-minute alerts with the official AppleInsider app for iPhone and iPad.

BEWARE: THESE ARE THE APPS THAT ARE DRAINING YOUR IPHONE BATTERY

Probably the worst thing about smartphones, especially “wall-hugging” Apple devices, are the batteries. They’re the devil. Fully charged at 9am, close to gone by midday. But maybe that’s because you’re doing it wrong.

New smartphone application Normal has been developed to let you know which apps are draining your much loved battery.

Launched on iOS last month, the app is named after the developers’ initial research in determining the ‘normal’ battery life for electronic devices.

Adam Oliner and Jacob Leverich, who attended Stanford University, designed Normal at Kuro Labs using technology created at the University of California.

The app uses crowdsourced data from other users of Normal to offer personalised advice and track down those extravagant battery-draining apps. It will give you a list of which apps to shutdown first, and an estimated amount of battery time you will save.

Normal will also tell you how your phone’s battery rates compared to other users with the same model. Hence the name.

The big drainers are apparently Google Maps and Facebook, which by shutting down can potentially add three or four hours to your phone life. But Normal will give you a personalised overview for each device.

The price is $0.99, which is a bargain if you’re desperate to get the most out of your dwindling battery and are still 23 months away from a contract renewal.

It’s a good stop-gap until iOS 8 is released, which will reportedly tell you which apps are dragging you down.

The only downpoint is that Normal can’t run diagnostics on itself, meaning there’s no way to tell how much battery it’s draining from your phone. Unless you download another app-analysing app. And then another to determine the second app’s efficiency, and then another to … you get the idea.

Google Cardboard works on the iPhone, too

You might recall that Google unveiled its Cardboard hardware at last month's Google I/O event. Literally made of cardboard, the company's remarkably low-cost virtual reality goggles combine a split-screen 3D image from a smartphone, delivering impressive graphics for the low, low price of almost free. Combined with positional sensor data from the phone, it's possible to look around a 3D environment with a high level of fidelity.

Google released Cardboard along with a set of demonstration apps (virtual reality YouTube and Google Earth, along with a charming VR animated cartoon and more) and the Viewmaster-like visor works with other 3D apps as well. The only problem? Google intended Cardboard for Android, so Apple iPhone users were shut out of the party. At least, that's the way it might have seemed.

It turns out that you can use Google Cardboard with a number of iPhone apps right now. The only requirement to experience the same 3D virtual reality that Android users have had since Google I/O is an app that displays 3D using a split screen display. And a handful of iOS apps do that.

One of the best examples of the genre is Dive City Rollercoaster. This app places you in a rollercoaster with loops, dives and corkscrews. The app takes advantage of your iPhone's accelerometer, so you can look around as you're riding; you aren't restricted to a straight-ahead view. If you have tried Google Cardboard on Android, this app might seem familiar -- there's a version of it in the Google Play store as well.

And there are others. Moorente is a virtual duck- hunt, where the sky is filled with dozens and dozens of 3D rendered birds. Move your head around and stare at them a moment, and your shotgun automatically fires, blasting them out of the sky. It's not much of a game, nor is it especially realistic. Instead, Moorente demonstrates the potential of virtual reality, and it's an amusing diversion to drive the point home.

Other options include The Height, a tech demo in which you walk around a very tall structure, and any number of 3D videos in YouTube. To find them, you can search YouTube for "3D split screen. "

If you're an iPhone owner and want to see what the fuss is about, you can always make your own Google Cardboard from Google's official plans, or you can buy a completed cardboard visor. Unofficial Cardboard, for example, now sells a visor that's ready to go for just $20, down from the $30 it was priced at a few weeks ago.

With Oculus Rift and a variety of virtual reality devices on the horizon, now has never been a better time to explore what the future of 3D and virtual reality has to offer.

FLIR One gives your iPhone infrared Predator vision

Like most geeks in my generation, my first real glimpse of thermal imaging was provided by John McTiernan’s 1987 film Predator, where Arnold Schwarzenegger and his team of badasses are stalked and killed by an even badassier three-meter-tall alien out on safari. The eponymous "predator" perceives the world through machine-augmented infrared vision, and Ahnold’s body heat is brightly visible to the creature as he and his crew scurry around amidst the comparatively cool jungle foliage.

It makes for a neat visual effect, and Ahnold must figure out how to evade the hunter’s thermal vision as the movie violently explodes toward the inevitable final showdown. But real-time infrared thermal imaging is expensive—McTiernan had a Hollywood budget and could afford to rent the bulky equipment required to capture the film’s iconic imagery. Thermal imaging is still most often seen as a tool of military and law enforcement, with even small hand-held thermal cameras costing thousands of dollars.

FLIR Systems wants to change that. The Oregon-based company is the largest manufacturer of thermal imaging systems in the world, and it has a substantial customer base in the United States Department of Defense (the company’s name comes from the acronym FLIR, which stands for forward looking infrared). The company also makes medical grade thermal imaging devices and even professional-level thermal cameras intended for use by civilian agencies (like local fire departments). But FLIR Systems’ newest product is aimed at normal folks who don’t necessarily have thousands of dollars to spend on a pro-grade thermal imaging system.

The FLIR One is a $349 iPhone accessory. It’s a self-contained device with its own standard camera, infrared-based thermal imaging camera, its own SoC, and its own battery. It relies on an attached iPhone solely as a display and as a means to store and share images and video. FLIR Systems sent us one, and we’ve been spending the past few days wandering around, looking at things in a whole new light—and, sometimes, looking at them without any light at all.

The iPhone 6 Should Make Mobile Ads a Bigger Deal

Marketers will keep close watch on Apple’s Sept. 9 event when it is set to introduce the iPhone 6, the next evolution of its phone that dominates the U.S. and is central to mobile advertising.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant is expected to make wide-ranging and far-reaching changes to its flagship product, which has been updated annually since launching in 2007. Leaked images and multiple reports show there could be two iPhone 6 models—4.7 inches and 5.5 inches—that are larger than the previous version. This change—with vivid viewing—would come just as mobile ad leaders like Facebook and Twitter are selling more rich media, video and in-feed promos.

“Folks gravitate to the larger screen, and some think ‘banner ad,’ but that’s outdated thinking,” said Gian LaVecchia, managing partner at MEC. “We’re seeing programming delivered through mobile feeds. And there’s going to be a new richness to the canvas.”

Facebook wouldn’t discuss its strategy for larger iPhone screens, but what’s clear is that it’ll offer a different experience when compared to other platforms like Android. Just last week, Facebook launched Hyperlapse, an Instagram companion app that uses Apple technology.

Indeed, any changes to the iPhone will affect more than 40 percent of smartphone users in the U.S., per comScore. From screen adjustment to policy changes around location tracking, there could be profound impacts on how marketers attack mobile going forward. And the latest operating system is reportedly more powerful, giving increased flexibility to developers. For instance, new services will allow users to monitor health signs, which marketing experts said could push pharmaceutical brands to engage more on mobile.

And that may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to consumer utilities. Reports indicate the iPhone 6 may have innovative abilities to sync up with wearable devices.

What’s more, Alan Simkowski, vp of mobile solutions at GMR, remarked that the in-store marketing technology called iBeacon—an area that Apple dominates—is just starting to take off.

The iPhone 6 could help perfect the iBeacon, he said, by limiting the amount of battery it drains when it uses Bluetooth to communicate with shoppers’ phones.

“We know pilot programs are taking place, and there’s a lot of activity testing going on with brands and the iBeacon,” Simkowski explained. To his point, marketers for Faberge, Tribeca Film Festival and the Orlando Magic have recently trialed iBeacon campaigns.

And Apple’s latest iOS 8 software, always released before the company delivers a new device, will likely emphasize how notifications appear via its phone. Notifications are a key part of the iBeacon experience because it is what alerts consumers to offers and promotions when they walk the aisles.

One rumor is that the Apple logo on the back of the iPhone will light up when notifications arrive, which would represent a small-but-nostalgic change—a glowing logo is a classic look in past Apple products.

“With enhanced notifications, it’s even better for brands and retailers,” Simkowski said. “On the brand side, there are opportunities to engage people based on their location if they opt in. Then it’s clear sailing.”

Endomondo releases an iPhone 5s app for tracking your daily activity

GPS fitness app maker Endomondo today released Endomondo Life, a new iPhone 5s app that taps the phone’s M7 motion processor to provide stats on your daily activity.

Similar to Runkeeper’s Breeze, Endomondo Life serves up attractive visuals that sum up your step count for the day. The app also estimates how many calories you’ve burned, based on what it knows about your body type.

  

The app gives you immediate access to data from the past seven days, which the M7 processor stores and makes available to new apps. You can run the app with an anonymous account if you don’t need to sync your stats, but if you want to switch devices, you’ll need to have a login. Your Endomondo Life data won’t be shared to Endomondo.com’s fitness-centered social network.

Endomondo Life comes a bit late, as the iPhone 5s has been out for almost a year now, but the app should offer a nice addition for existing Endomondo users. The M7 data also really only helps if you carry your phone on you at all times. Most of us probably do, but you’ll end up with inaccurate statistics if you like to go unplugged for your evening constitutional.

Expert Predicts Radical Resolution Solutions For Big Screen iPhone 6 And 6L Phablet

Leaked photos, back plates, bezels and case-maker “dummies” have given us confidence of dimensions and some of the design details of the next iPhones. As we move closer to September 9, it is an article of faith among Apple AAPL +0.24% watchers and the easily convinced general public that there will be two models, the 4.7″ iPhone 6 and the 5.5″ iPhone 6L phablet.

Information about exactly how many pixels those 4.7″ and 5.5″ screens will contain and how new and existing iOS apps will make use of the extra real estate has been far less certain. Two developments in that aspect of the story this week give us the most detailed answers yet to those questions. Along the way we have also discovered a possible bit of Apple misdirection designed to throw the faithful off course.

The first piece of the puzzle—and the source of the apparent head fake—emerged from deep in the bowels of the Xcode 6 Beta 6 release that third-party Apple developers, myself included, got access to last Monday. Hidden ten levels deep in the file hierarchy, 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman discovered a file in the updated iOS Simulator called “DefaultIconState-414w-736h~iphone.plist.” Gurman understood that this was evidence of a new screen format. What exactly it specifies is a matter of debate. To understand the possible implications requires a little bit of geeky iPhone lore.

In the beginning was the iPhone, and it was small. The original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and 3GS possessed a mere 480 by 320 pixels. And then Jobs said, let it be retina! And it was, and it was good with twice as many pixels in the same 3.5″ screen size. The iPhone 4 and 4S had 960 by 640 pixels. Alas, Jobs passed on but, lo, the iPhone rose on high! The iPhone 5, 5S and 5C all have 1136 by 640 pixels. Stretching the iPhone 5 to a 16:9 proportion had a big impact on how app designers used the larger available space, but it was less of a conceptual leap than the pixel doubling of the iPhone 4. From that point on, Apple’s “retina” devices had 2x pixels multiplied by the base “points” of the native device. So up until September of 2012, all iPhones were designed on the basis of 480 by 320 point proportion, with graphics rendered at 2x resolution for the later models.



So in the lead up to the iPhone 6, many have wondered if the large screen 6 series would be the occasion of an historical tripling of the resolution based on the iPhone 5 proportions of 568 by 320 points. Gurman had based an earlier prediction on this premise and reported that Apple was testing iPhone 6 units with a resolution of 1704 by 960 pixels. Both of Gurman’s theories seemed to suggest that the two new iPhone sizes would have identical pixel counts, following the example of the iPad/iPad Mini lines.

Friday, a second puzzle piece clearly shows a different and more nuanced story thanks to John Gruber, the Apple blogger who writes under the moniker Daring Fireball. In his post, “Conjecture on Larger Screen iPhones,” Gruber wields some fearsome middle school math to show that Gurman’s own conjectures are either wrong or only partially true. My colleague Ewan Spence discussed Gruber’s conclusions in a post yesterday, so I won’t belabor the details. Bottom line, the Gruber conjecture is that the two devices will have both different pixel dimensions and different retinal multipliers. To quote Gruber:

4.7-inch display: 1334 × 750, 326 PPI @2x
5.5-inch display: 2208 × 1242, 461 PPI @3x

Yes, I know, Spence already brought this up in these pages, so what more is there to add? Actually quite a lot. Gruber may not be exactly right about the pixel counts, but the reasoning behind his calculations is knowing and on target. Gruber is a true Apple insider, but he goes out of his way to say that “No one who is truly ‘familiar with the situation’ has told me a damn thing about either device.” In the next breath, 0f course, he goes on to mention that, “I have heard second- and third-hand stories, though, that lead me to think I’m right.” Gruber is an engaging writer, but he is worth listening to because he has followed Apple so long and so deeply that knows what is “Apple-like” and what is not. He could rightly be called Apple’s Boswell .

Hardware specs aside, what is so right about the “Gruber Conjecture”? It obeys Apple’s first principles of user experience. Yes, keeping things simple for developers is nice, and yes, going from 640 pixels wide to 960 pixels wide has Pythagorean simplicity to it, but in the end the most important reference point is the physical fact of the user. Apple’s point proportions are based on the scale of the human finger and the minimum size of a touch point is defined as 44 points. On a retina 2x device that minimum will be 88 pixels, but it is still represented as 44 points. The second important human factor (as Apple’s design guidelines are known) has to do with the acuity of the human eye at the relevant distance at which a device will be viewed. Apple considers a device screen retina if the pixels are small enough at a normal viewing distance such that the individual pixels are not distinguishable by the naked eye. For the iPhone this was originally defined as >300 pixels per inch with a target of 326 pixels per inch. A device, like a desktop computer, that one may normally view from more than a foot away can have a lower density and still be technically retina, but 300 PPI is a widely respected standard.

First, it is worth saying that there are many people who really like the current form factor and will be curious to see if bigger really is better. But assuming you are actually interested in one of the larger iPhone models, one of the key questions has been how will the extra pixels most likely be used, to scale up touch targets or to add functionality? I asked this in another way last week in my post last week, “Will Big Battery In 5.5-inch iPhone 6L Buy Full HD Video Or Just Less Wall Hugging?” Gruber answers with a resounding BOTH! As devices get larger we expect larger touch targets but we also expect more content. And there is a ratio to these expectations that Apple strives to maintain as it has embraced three aspect ratios and two scaling multipliers among its growing fleet of iOS devices. Despite this apparent fragmentation, Gruber is adamant that what Apple has “ never done, and I believe never will do, is redefine the virtual point to something other than 1/44th the recommended minimum tap target size for every device.” All righty then!

But what about how the new larger devices will abandon the sacred Jobsian tenet of one-handed usage? Will this change cause a move away from top navigation in favor of bottom navigation, for instance? As a case in point, have a look at the way Internet Explorer 11 for Windows Phone renders websites with no top address bar. I asked designer Jeremy Olson at Tapity (maker of the Hours time tracking app that I reviewed recently) what he thought about this possibility. “That is a huge question,” he replied. “Apple’s main navigation paradigm is built around a bar at the top. The iPhone 5 already made it a bit of a stretch to reach that top bar with your thumb when you used the device with one hand. I use my phone with one hand all the time and I can’t imagine how I would navigate a lot of current apps on a taller screen. Apple, however, has already been educating developers to use things like optional gestures to help users navigate between views without having to reach up for that nav bar at the top. So even now, instead of reaching for back button at the top, you can swipe to the right to navigate back. I don’t think Apple’s top-bar dominated design paradigm is going away but I think more and more developers will need to augment it with optional gestures or bottom navigation to accommodate one handed use.”

There are several important points within Olson’s response. With all of these changes, Apple has been trying to move developers in the direction of gesture support and flexible sizing now for years. This year’s World Wide Developers Conference placed a lot of emphasis on the use of vector graphics and auto layout to make universal iPhone apps regardless of scaling. Gruber writes that:

Olson concurs that, “When talking to developers, it seems Apple has been going more and more for unification rather than fragmentation. I think marketing your app as ‘enhanced for iPhone x’ will be discouraged. Rather, I imagine that Apple would like to see developers use auto-layout (a tool that allows developers to make their apps mold to different screen sizes automatically) to ensure that their apps work really well on nearly any screen size. While Apple obviously didn’t confirm any rumors about new form factors during their latest World Wide Developers conference, they emphasized using auto-layout like never before.” Olson points out that this message, “was even more clear when developers opened up the latest version of Xcode to see that the default window for building interfaces is no longer a portrait iPhone, but a square. Apple no longer wants developers to stop thinking about designing apps at a particular screen size, and start to think how to make their interfaces size-agnostic. It even goes back to when Apple went away from rich, skeuomorphic interfaces and moved to a simpler design aesthetic. It is a lot easier to stretch a flat button than it is to stretch a button that looks like a physical object.” For a long time, iOS app developers had the luxury of fixed screen sizes, but now they find themselves in a world not dissimilar to their counterparts who make responsive designs for the web.

Another interesting point relating to number of pixels vs. battery size is relevant to Gruber’s proposal that Apple will handle the screen resolution of the iPhone 6L phablet in a radically different way than the now midsize iPhone 6. With the 6L Apple will buy both more-than-HD video and less battery-busting “wall hugging.” And all this at an “amazingly sharp” resolution of 461 pixels-per-inch. So there, Samsung! Gruber even says he’d wager that, “Apple comes up with a new marketing name for it: super-retina or something.” Meanwhile, the 4.7″ iPhone 6, which has a considerably smaller battery than the 6L, would maintain the current 326 PPI that has been Apple’s retina standard for the iPhone, but would add an extra 38% to the screen area of the current iPhone 5 line.

The 68% increase in screen real estate combined with a 41% increase in resolution—and maybe even a sapphire screen—should easily justify the rumored $100 up-charge that Apple is expected to levy on its iPhone phablet. The production demands of all that may mean that the 6L will be announced on September 9 with the 6, but the actual phones may not be delivered until later in the fall.

But wait, what about that devious misdirect that Apple may have foisted on developers in Xcode 6 beta 6? Well, you see, in the same iOS simulator directory that contains the 736 by 414 point format, there is also a file titled, “DefaultIconState-568h~iphone.plist.” This is the screen format for the existing 4″ iPhone 5 series phones. By placing the 736 by 414 pixel format in the iOS simulator, Apple would seem to be indicating that there will be only one additional format and that thus, somehow, the 4.7″ device will have a 2x resolution of 1472 by 818 pixels. Only half true according to Gruber! Yes, the 6 will be 2x, but based on a new 667 by 375 point format. And the 736 by 414 point format in the present Xcode release will be the basis of the 3x 6L, weighing in at 2208 by 1242 pixels. (We will be looking for evidence of that “DefaultIconState” file in the next release of Xcode!)

The reason why the 6L will not be, for instance, 1565 by 880 pixels, maintaining 326 PPI, is that on a larger device we want the touch targets to be bigger. The iPhone screen resolution equation is in fact a three-factor optimization, as Gruber lays it out here:

Content area: showing more points on screen.
Scaling factor: the number of points per inch.
Sharpness/quality: the number of pixels per inch.

As such, a simple linear solution will never be optimal. So for app developers, the challenge is to make use of the larger screen area afforded by the new iPhone models but to continue to base designs on established human factors. Designers will want to make expanded use of gestures, particularly as alternatives to out-of-reach top navigation. The “DefaultIconState” files are merely lists of default icons, and that list is the same for the current iPhone (586h) as for the new format (414w-736h), but they don’t specify how those icons will be arrayed on the home page (aka the springboard) of the 6 or 6L. Following the iPad’s lead, It is possible that that Apple’s human factors engineers have determined that four icons across is optimal for a mobile device in portrait mode, no matter the screen size. Although, by Gruber’s logic, the 6L could make the springboard icons both larger and more numerous, in terms of usability, more may not be more. As I wrote in a very popular post back in February, “Will Apple’s iPhone 6 Phablet Push The Usability Of iOS To A Breaking Point?,” even the existing amount of icons per screen leads to more hunting around and swiping for deeper screens than is ideal.

Instead of adding more clutter, app designers and Apple itself should use the growing need for flexibility between screen sizes to introduce new organizational and navigational paradigms that are more about immediate intuitive gesture than about more elaborate hierarchies or more crowded arrays. Even though Gruber’s predicted iPhone 6 height surpasses the 2x retina iPads, Apple is indicating that the phone experience and the tablet experience are unique. The 6L will obviously be pushing that boundary, and it is now up to developers, both inside and outside of Apple, to make sure that the new kid doesn’t, in fact, break the usability of iOS 8.