Apple said to be planning iPhone event for September 9

Apple is preparing to introduce bigger-screen iPhones at an event on September 9, a person familiar with the plans said.

The Cupertino, California-based company is widely expected to introduce two new models: one with a 4.7-inch screen, and another with a 5.5-inch screen, which people with knowledge of the plans have confirmed.

Anticipation for bigger-screen iPhones has analysts predicting that Apple will sell a record number of handsets and investors have responded by sending the stock up 18 per cent this year. Samsung and other smartphone vendors have used larger screen sizes to gain market share, particularly in Asian markets where bigger phones are more popular.

Apple's planned event on the second Tuesday in September is in keeping with a strategy of releasing new iPhone models in that month, kicking off a broader reboot of its product lineup in time for the holiday shopping season. Last year's iPhone 5S and 5C also debuted on the second Tuesday of September.

Analysts are predicting Apple will also release new iPads and a wearable device this year.

Tim Cook made hints at an upcoming product release during Apple's earnings call in July, although he did not even mention iPad. News of the September event was first rumoured by Recode, which accurately predicted last year's event as well.

One way the Galaxy Alpha might be just as good as the iPhone 6

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Alpha smartphone, a device that makes limited use of metal and is expected to be the company’s response to the upcoming iPhone 6, has appeared in plenty of leaks so far, which have revealed not only its main specs and features, but also its design. Following a set of Galaxy Alpha images from earlier this week that showed the white version of the handset, a Twitter leaker @culeaks posted hands-on images showing the same handset, including a comparison with the existing iPhone 5s model.

The Galaxy Alpha model shown in these images is black and has a metal frame with chamfered edges, consistent with what previous leaks have revealed. However, the back case is still made of plastic, sporting a textured finish just like other Samsung smartphones and tablets.

As you can see in the images below, the Galaxy Alpha is significantly thinner than the iPhone 5s, except for the bulkier, protruding rear camera. Thus, Samsung may be preparing to better compete against a similarly thinner iPhone 6 model that’s also said to measure just 6mm in thickness, 1.6mm thinner than the iPhone 5s.

In addition to these latest leaked images, @culeaks mentions several specs for the handset, including a 4.7-inch 720p display, Exynos octa-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 12-megapixel camera, 1,850mAh battery and Android 4.4.4 KitKat running the show.

Microsoft OneNote iPhone, iPad, & Mac apps updated with new features

Microsoft updated its OneNote apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac today with a number of highly requested features including the ability to insert files, lock and unlock protected sections, PDF printouts, and much more.

In addition, the update also includes the ability to organize notebooks by moving and reordering sections and pages, support for formatted text copied from other apps, and an option to create notebooks and save them to OneDrive for Business.

The updated Microsoft OneNote for iPhone and for iPad is available on the App Store now. A full list of what’s new is below:

What’s New in Version 2.3

•Insert Files – You asked, we listened. Now you can insert files into your notes, open them with a double-tap, and easily share them using AirDrop.
•Protected Sections – Now you can lock or unlock password-protected sections created in OneNote for Windows.
•PDF Printouts – Add a PDF printout to any notebook page, then add your own notes.
•Organize Notebooks – Now you can move and reorder sections, and move pages anywhere you want in OneNote.
•Formatted Text – Copy and paste formatted text between application – whether it’s an article from Safari or a document in Word, any content you paste into OneNote will look great!
•Creating Notebooks – Now you can create notebooks and save them to OneDrive for Business. Have multiple accounts? No problem! It’s easy to select exactly where you want to store your new notebook.

The Microsoft OneNote for Mac app gets a similar update today plus the ability to share a page from OneNote through email. 

Ingenious new app is a dream come true for lazy stoners everywhere

College kids across America, rejoice — your already cushy lives just got even easier. Anew app called Push for Pizza has hit the iTunes App Store and it’s just as stupidly simple as Yo while also being vastly more useful. As the app’s name suggests, it’s literally a way for you to order a pizza to be delivered right to your address just with the push of a button.

Essentially, the app has you enter in your address and credit card information and then lets you choose between ordering a plain or pepperoni pizza from the closest pizza joint. The app will even calculate the tip you’ll leave for the delivery guy when he knocks on your door and brings you a piping hot box filled with cheesy goodness. You can program multiple addresses into your phone as well so ordering pizza shouldn’t be a drag if you’re away from your house and/or dorm room.

New Infrared iPhone 5 Case Lets You See Behind Walls

The smartphone case industry is beginning to move away from bling-encrusted cheap tat and into the realms of ‘useful accessory’.

FLIR systems has done just that and invented a case for Apple's iPhone with thermal-imaging capabilities, which it revealed at CES earlier this year but is finally about to go on sale. The FLIR One is an iPhone 5/5s case with both an infrared camera and a VGA one that’s supposed to add depth and detail to the infrared images.

The device works by combining the heat signature information it gets from the infrared camera with the live camera image from the iPhone. This then delivers a composite thermal heat image. The result is a negative-type image of the various heat levels in an array of different colours – bright red and white being hottest.

What is it used for? FLIR Systems explains that it will be useful for pinpointing the position of pipes in walls, finding weak spots in your home’s insulation, finding hidden animals in bushes and identifying leaks before they cause serious damage.

Users will be able to take time lapse and panoramic thermal images, whilst being able to edit and share what they’ve captured. The case has its own battery pack, which holds a two hour charge, and weighs about the same as the phone. It retails for about $350 and will be available in August.

Rise of the smart-case

Smart cases are in vogue. Sure, there’s still the odd 24-carat gold case floating around, but there’s also a new trend in high-tech case accessories.

The team at Vysk Communications have developed a phone case that, according to its inventor Victor Cocchia, makes your iPhone “unhackable”. Called the QS1, the $230 case has its own circuitry, its own battery pack, microphone and shutters that physically block the front and rear facing cameras.

The idea is that your calls and texts can’t be monitored because the encryption happens outside the phone, and not on the “compromised” software installed on the phone. Cocchia explained to me:

“The encryption is happening on the hardware chip. The communication then goes through the phone, so this way there’s no way for someone who’s got control of the phone to hear what you’re saying,” he says.

“And then we decided just in case any of those were compromised, we would put a mechanical device on the phone that physically jams the microphones.”

Security experts haven’t  been able to point out a flaw in the QS1, yet. But doubts have been raised about the lack of open source code. Egemen Tas, vice president of engineering at security specialist Comodo, told me:

“In order to gain the confidence of private, anonymous or sensitive users and have a wide spread adoption, they should make their core technologies open source and open to an independent audit.”

IPhone-Ready Apps Mean Teens Tracked Without Calling Home

Becca Ludlum knows better than to expect her teen son, Michael, to call home as he skateboards from the mall to the park to friends’ homes on long summer days.

Ludlum instead relies on a downloadable smartphone application called Life360 that uses satellite signals to follow the kid’s comings and goings.

“If he’s late to dinner, I can check where he is,” said Ludlum, a 36-year-old blogger from Tucson, Arizona. “He is not going to call me every time he gets somewhere -- he gets embarrassed.”

As teens in growing numbers adopt smartphones with global positioning system technology, they’re easier to keep tabs on using mobile apps like Life360. This rising tide of tracker apps creates a host of new ways for families to stay connected and coordinate schedules even as it heightens concerns about young people’s privacy.

The percentage of 13- to 17-year-olds using mobile phones rose to 70 percent last year from 58 percent in 2012, according to Nielsen. A reflection of the rising number of kids on phones, Life360 Inc., Glympse Inc., TWT Digital Ltd.’s ZoeMob and other developers of location-monitoring software have seen downloads jump at least 50 percent this year. Apple Inc.’s iPhone also comes with a widely used location feature, called Find My Friends.

“Even small children are getting smartphones, and that, of course, expands the addressable market significantly,” Andre Malm, an analyst at Berg Insight AB, said of the market for location-based apps.

Location, Location

About 25 million people in North America used location services daily at the end of last year, according to Berg Insight. That number could double to 50 million by 2018 as more free apps come out and smartphone use grows, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based researcher said.

“The big prize is to own the family network,” Alex Haro, president of San Francisco-based Life360, said in an interview. “Families are the last real-world network that haven’t gone online yet.”

Introduced four years ago, Life360 is adding 2 million new users a month, and just passed 100 million members, up from 63 million at the end of 2013. ZoeMob has notched up 2.3 million downloads this year, for a total of 7.3 million. Glympse, based inSeattle, has experienced its fastest growth in the past four months since the app debuted in 2009, according to Chief Executive Officer Bryan Trussel.

Potential Market

Part of the growth is being fueled by parents handing down their old phones and cheaper prices for smartphones, making them more available for children. The average selling price for smartphones is projected to decline to $260 in 2018 from $308 this year, according to researcher IDC.

Smartwatches and other wearable devices could also spur wider use of tracking apps, with companies including LG Electronics Inc. and VTech Holdings Ltd. already rolling out products designed for children. Apple is said to be working on a smartwatch as well.

Sensing an opportunity, venture capital is moving in. Glympse raised $12 million in June from Ignition Partners, Verizon Ventures and other investors. Security company ADT Corp. led a $50 million financing round in Life360 in May.

AutoNavi Holdings Ltd., a Chinese map software company that’s being acquired by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., bought Alohar Mobile, a startup that introduced a new family-tracking app called PlaceUs on July 23. Sao Paulo-based TWT Digital just raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a recent round.

“When you think about families, we haven’t scratched the surface,” Daniel Avizu, TWT Digital’s CEO, said in an interview. “It’s a huge market, and there’s a lot of space for everybody to grow.”

Privacy, Carriers

Because family-tracking software keeps data on identities and exact locations, privacy controls are a key consideration for developers of the programs. Most apps let users turn their location-monitoring on and off, and require them to go through an extensive opt-in process.

The apps are also designed so that only a pre-defined group of users can access individual locations, rather than making tracking data publicly available.

“People don’t value their privacy that highly and don’t think through the implications,” Roger Entner, founder of researcher Recon Analytics LLC, said in an interview.

Location apps are also going up against wireless carriers, which already offer tracking services for customers as add-ons to mobile phone and data plans. AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. charge $10 a month for similar services, generating as much $120 million in additional revenue for themselves and other carriers in North America last year, according to Berg Insight.

New Uses

The tracking apps, which use satellite data and other data to pinpoint locations, are usually free and offer additional features for a cost. While they could siphon sales from wireless providers, the apps could also boost data usage. Verizon, whose venture arm invested in Glympse, is betting that location apps can help the carrier sell more data plans, Haro said.

“What is important to Verizon is to provide the customers with what they want,” said Laura Merritt, a spokeswoman for New York-based Verizon.

Premium features also enable uses that go beyond finding out where family members are. Parents can receive alerts if a teen driver is exceeding speed limits, and users can get emergency help or contact a personal assistant.

“Our goal isn’t just to track your children, but your pets, your elderly parents, your car,” said Michal Stencl, CEO of Sygic, which develops several location apps for finding people, measuring speeds or monitoring traffic.

By linking up with automobiles, wearable devices and home-security systems, family-tracking app companies are betting that they will be able to help users manage all facets of their lives. Life360 is working with ADT on using people-tracking to improve home security, for example.

“If the entire family leaves the house, we can automatically power the security system, turn off the lights and close the garage door,” Life360’s Haro said.

Key iPhone apps for when your patient goes pulseless

First, check your pulse, then, open this app.

If it were that easy, we could all be stars of the Japanese TV drama as referenced in the Code Blue series. However, real life codes are usually all too hectic and stress inducing especially for the new graduating medical class that just started their intern year. After our initial article on the crucial apps for intern year, we are reviewing the top iPhone “code” apps available on the market.

We should mention the obvious caveat — you should know how to handle code blue / ACLS scenarios without having to use an app or even without having to use the commonly used pamphlets people carry with them.  That said — these apps can often times help you control the adrenaline that is flooding your veins in these high acuity settings.

Medirate

Not many people wear watches and there is often either no clock or a broken clock on the wall- this is what I learned when I was in the room of a patient who was sick but not coding (not all patients are hooked up to telemetry 24/7). I have tried, mildly successfully, to use the clock on the iPhone to time out 6-10 seconds and then multiply that out for my heart or respiratory rate. The creators of Medirate had this dilemma in mind and created an exceedingly simple tool to fix it.

The app’s one and only screen, shown above, has a large button which you press whenever you either see a breath or feel a heartbeat. After literally two presses the display changes to a number of either breaths or beats per minute. I’ve testing it a few times and it is surprisingly helpful and accurate.

Uh oh. The heart rate you calculated is 25. As the nurse rolls in the code cart and slaps on the zoll monitors (which will follow the patient’s heart and respiratory rate as well as show you a tele strip) it is time to close Medirate and open one of the following apps.

As a note, if you have not already sent a frantic text to your senior resident now is also the time to send that text as well as put your phone into “airplane” mode so calls, etc do not cramp your style.

Rescue Code

This medical app is the simplest of the code tracking applications. Once you click past a “terms of use screen,” which sadly appears every time you open the application rather than only once, you are taken to the opening page and can start tracking your code.

Once you click start code you are immediately taken to a screen to pick your rhythm. Your choice then immediately takes you to a medication screen. This is a little harsh and unhelpful. Often, in real life you have a code started and it takes a few minutes–even in the emergency room where staff is prepared–to give medications. Why force the user to give a medication when this may not accurately represent what is happening?

After you pick your medication you are taken back to your initial timer screen. The problems at this point continues. Consider a patient who was in PEA but then transitions into bradycardia. With this app there is no way to change the rhythm! You are stuck in PEA. All the app allows is to go back to the medication page. Additionally, there is no way to log procedures.

Beyond the limitations of logging (not changing the rhythm and no procedure tracking), what really drives this app into my low recommendation is the very high price of $7.99. If the app was free I would recommend some suggestions and consider the app a work in progress, but asking this high a price for this level of quality is surprising.