Apple to Build Mobile-Payments

Eddy Cue, the company's senior vice-president of Internet software and services, has met with "industry executives" to discuss Apple's role in handling payments for physical goods and services, The Wall Street Journal reported. The mobile-payments space is hot, with companies such as Square, PayPal and Stripe all working to make it easier for users to pay for physical goods with their phones.

Apple sells billions of dollars worth of movies, music, books and apps through iTunes. Still, aside from allowing customers at Apple retail stores to scan and pay for physical items inside the store via an iPhone, Apple hasn't extended its payments ecosystem outside of the digital realm.

That doesn't mean the company could't instantly become a major player in the mobile-payments space overnight, thanks to its absolutely huge iTunes customer base.

http://mashable.com/2014/01/25/apple-mobile-payments-2/#:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfY28xbmQybjNnN2QzMXluNXZncDNwMl8ifQ

more human, way to manage your network of contacts

The contacts app that ships with iOS is a pretty straightforward affair that doesn’t offer much more than the handwritten address books we used to keep next to our landline phones. Humin is a new app that will be launching in beta this week that aims to be a smarter way for iPhone users to manage their contacts. Humin’s name doesn’t echo the word ‘human’ for nothing – co-founder and CEO Ankur Jain wants his startup’s product to understand relationships the way that you do. We don’t think of our network of contacts as an alphabetical list of names, our brains organise our contacts in more complex ways, but ways that make sense to us – where we met people, where they work, what they look like, who they know, and the like. Humin wants to tap into that subconscious human logic without you having to do anything differently.

http://tnw.to/stDX

HTML5 Vs. Native debate obscures the real challenges of mobility

The vitriol spews on a daily basis. HTML5 or native apps? Each side is well armed with arguments and data to prove their points. This fight, destined to go on for a long while, masks some of the real problems that enterprises are facing when it comes to mobile applications. Do you have the right backend architecture for a mobile world? The right business analytics? Enterprises, brands and developers need to put their houses well in order before even beginning to answer what type of code an app will be built in.  

http://readwr.it/q0zV

Smart Tennis Sensor

Sony showed off a prototype tennis racket sensor at CES 2014 that promised to track useful data about your technique and transmit it to your smartphone. That prototype has turned into reality faster than we thought it might — the final product now has a name, a price, and a release date for Japan...  

http://vrge.co/1iefefI

Blackphone: A Pro-Privacy Android-Based Smartphone

As the reality of the extent and invasiveness of the security services’ dragnet surveillance programs hits home, the pro-privacy movement has been cranking up its own ideas to counter spy-tech with pro-privacy tech. The Lavabit founder’s recent Kickstarter for a secure end-to-end open source encrypted email project called Dark Mail is one example. Today, here’s another: meet Blackphone, a smartphone that’s been designed to enable secure, encrypted communications, private browsing and secure file-sharing.

The project is a joint venture between Silent Circle — which shuttered its own encrypted email service last summer in order to preemptively avoid having to comply with government requests to provide data — and Spanish smartphone startup Geeksphone, which has previously made more standard Android handsets, and more recently has been building phone hardware for Mozilla’s open web standards HTML5-based Firefox OS.

https://www.blackphone.ch

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/15/blackphone

Introducing a brand new way to play music

Bang & Olufsen is aiming to take the music you listen to on a smartphone and put it on the wall. The BeoSound Essence is a hockey puck-shaped music controller that reduces the number of actions you need to perform to one: just tap, and the music will start playing. What music, you ask? That depends on what you were playing last. The dial on the wall is just the first part of the product. The second part is a hideaway box that is wired to your speakers and communicates wirelessly with music sources. Those sources can be smartphones, tablets or PCs — anything with Wi-Fi connection. The Essence is compatible with Apple AirPlay, Spotify Connect and standard DLNA connections.

7 Minute Workout' App

Last month, Apple offered a free holiday playlist through the Apple Store app for iPhone. This month, in the same manner, it's offering the 7 Minute Workout Challenge app for free, effectively encouraging users to "jump into the new year."  

http://mashable.com/2014/01/11/7-minute-workout-challenge-app-free/#:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfY28xbmQybjNnN2QzMXluNXZncDNwMl8ifQ

iPad-mounted Structure Sensor 3D scanner

Augmented reality has never been nearly as cool as its name suggests. Even when it isn't gimmicky, it's virtually useless, in large part because your mobile camera's version of "reality" is short one dimension. Scanning and computer vision company Occipital, however, wants to add real depth to your tablet's vision with the Structure Sensor, a Kickstarter- backed product that shipped to backers late last year. The $349 Structure Sensor is a Kinect-like camera that fits on the back of an iPad or, with some hacking, any other device. With the bracket on, your tablet doesn't just see objects, it can figure out how far away they are, doing anything from turning an object into a 3D model to measuring the distance of a room. http://vrge.co/1lGoBVh

iPhone case uses electromagnetic radiation to power its LED notification lights

The Lune case, developed by gadget startup Concepter, does just that. With no battery or power connection to your iPhone, the case can light up when you receive a call. Concepter was showing off the case at Eureka Park, the early-stage startup section of the International CES.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/08/this-iphone-case-uses-electromagnetic-radiation-to-power-its-led-notification-lights

ZTE Eco-Mobius modular smartphone

To compete with Motorola's Project ARA, Chinese company ZTE has announced their very own modular Smartphone concept. Eco-Mobius is on display at ZTE's booth in Las Vegas, and the concept phone looks very similar to what Motorola had shown us months ago. Modules such as CPU core, RAM, camera, battery, etc. are all fixed to one another using magnets, allowing for easy replacement. Upgrading components of a phone rather than changing the entire phone can turn out to be both cheaper and more environmentally friendly...  

http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/6670/zte-shows-off-eco-mobius-modular-smartphone-concept.html

The Best Calendar iPad App - Sunrise

Calendar app Sunrise released a major update today, completing two missing pieces of the complicated calendar puzzle — you can now use Sunrise on your iPad with a new design tailored for bigger screens, and there is a much-requested week view to get a better picture of what your schedule looks like. Finally, the company added background updates so that your calendar is always up to date when you open the app. “We realized that mobile is an even bigger paradigm shift than we originally thought,” co-founder and CEO Pierre Valade told me. “Every other day, I don’t even use a computer anymore — I consider the iPad as a mobile device. People want to feel productive anywhere, and work from their iPad. So that’s why we built Sunrise for the iPad.”

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/09/sunrise-adds-ipad-app-and-week-view-in-its-quest-to-build-the-best-calendar-platform

Fridges Sing and Countertops Find Recipes

LAS VEGAS — Whirlpool is showing off an interactive cooktop concept at 2014 International CES that not only turns a typical kitchen surface into a stovetop, but also a place to check the weather, find recipes on Pinterest, research cooking tips and post pictures to Facebook. Although the concept isn't a reality just yet, Whirlpool is calling it the "kitchen of 2020," which could integrate hands-free devices and touchscreens into the kitchen itself.

http://mashable.com/2014/01/07/whirlpool-cooking-concept/#lead-image:eyJzIjoidCIsImkiOiJfY28xbmQybjNnN2QzMXluNXZncDNwMl8ifQ

Tiny cube camera

Polaroid's Socialmatic isn't the only surprise to come from the faded photo brand at this year's CES. The company also showed off a line of four action cameras, including an adorable new 35-mm cube camera called the C3. It will ship for $99 later this summer. For its small size, the camera is packed full of a surprising degree of features, including a 120-degree wide-angle lens capable of capturing HD video in 1280 x 720 and 640 x 580 resolution, and still images up to 5 megapixels. It's waterproof up to 2 meters (6.6 feet), and contains 2MB of internal storage, and a micro SD slot expandable up to 32 GB. It also has a microphone and an LED light. http://vrge.co/K0kLao

Smart Sleep System

Withings Aura is a cleverly designed system that both monitors and positively impacts your sleep experience.  

http://withings.com/aura

iPhone-controlled paper airplanes

PowerUp is building a little device that converts paper airplanes into smartphone-controlled flyers. This project has raised nearly $850,000 on Kickstarter, raising 1,688 percent of its $50,000 goal — and it still has 24 days to go.

“Our goal is to make you feel like the Wright Brothers when Flyer I took to the skies,” inventor Shai Gotein told VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi in November. “We want to empower you to design your own flyer and conquer the skies with our module.”

PowerUp’s module has an ultralight weight mini-computer on one side that is about the size of a quarter. Bluetooth low energy connects it to your smartphone, and a lithium battery power pack charges it. A thin carbon-fiber frame connects the computer to a little propeller on the other end.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/12/31/powerup-racks-up-850k-on-kickstarter-for-iphone-controlled-paper-airplanes

iOS: A visual history

Apple's Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world on January 9th, 2007. In the five-plus years since then, the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have literally redefined the entire world of mobile computing. That world is moving so quickly that iOS is already amongst the older mobile operating systems in active development today. That certainly doesn't mean it's underpowered or underfeatured — quite the contrary. Through what can only be described as relentless and consistent improvement over the years, Apple has made iOS one of the most feature-rich and well-supported platforms on the market. http://vrge.co/vd6Fhb

robotic cube

Cubes aren't usually the go-to shape when creating an object that's meant to move around, but researchers in Switzerland have created one that can do just that — along with a handful of other surprising talents. Called the Cubli, it measures nearly 6 inches on each side and can walk around by continually flipping itself over. Perhaps more impressively, it can also balance on any of its sides or even just a single corner. As the research team from ETH Zurich's Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control demonstrates in a video, the cube can even remain balanced while a surface is raised up at an angle beneath it. http://vrge.co/1gKKrX7

4 Reasons Why Apple’s iBeacon Is About to Disrupt Interaction Design

You step inside Walmart and your shopping list is transformed into a personalized map, showing you the deals that’ll appeal to you most. You pause in front of a concert poster on the street, pull out your phone, and you’re greeted with an option to buy tickets with a single tap. You go to your local watering hole, have a round of drinks, and just leave, having paid—and tipped!—with Uber-like ease. Welcome to the world of iBeacon.  

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/12/4-use-cases-for-ibeacon-the-most-exciting-tech-you

Square launches thinner credit card reader with better swiping accuracy

Square is today shrinking down its iconic credit card reader with a new design that's thinner and more accurate than the original. After teasing a pending announcement yesterday, Square has made the latest revision of its hugely popular card reader official. The new design is 45 percent thinner than the original, essentially matching the thickness of an iPhone 5S. Square says that it's also enhanced swiping accuracy on the new model — which required replacing a number of existing components with custom-designed parts... http://vrge.co/J735L0

The War For Your Wrist

The past decade has seen the consumer electronics war grow more furious and more personal: your living room is a battlefield, as are your desks and your pockets. Now, more than a year-and-a-half since the Pebble (née Allerta) team saw its e-Paper smartwatch concept shatter a $100,000 Kickstarter funding goal, gadget purveyors of all stripes are vying for a spot on your wrist. http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/08/the-war-for-your-wrist/?