Misfit, makers of popular smartphone-connected wearable fitness accessories, today announced the company is being acquired by watchmaker Fossil Group for $260 million, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Fossil plans to take the technology and integrate it into its traditional watch designs, according to the report:
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Image via <a href="https://twitter.com/mgbnet/status/605505402885672960/photo/1">Martin B. on Twitter</a>
[Update: Pebble says its app for Pebble Time users has been approved and should hit the App Store in 2-3 hours if you can’t see it yet.]
Despite its official release at the end of May, Pebble’s new Pebble Time watch is not yet fully functional for iPhone users, as its required iOS synchronization app is not yet available in the App Store. The Pebble Time Watch application allows users to set up the Pebble Time wearable, install new applications, watch faces, and software updates, but backers who have received the hardware have taken to social media to complain that there’s no iPhone app to use with it. Android users are unaffected as their version of the app is available on Google Play.
Pebble has used its Kickstarter page to pin the delay on Apple’s App Store review process…
Even though the long-delayed Up3 isn’t shipping until later this month, Jawbone this evening has taken the wraps off of two new fitness trackers, the Up4 and the Up2. The latter is a replacement for the Up24 released in 2013, while the former is a new fitness tracker by the company. The Up4 most notably adds support for on-band wireless payments from American Express. Both watches pair with your iPhone over Bluetooth.
An upcoming product called CyClip will act as a bicycle handlebar mount for the Apple Watch. Currently in development by a company called Var out of Michigan, the team plans to launch the product shortly after Apple launches the Apple Watch in April.
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Live on stage, Apple has just kicked things off during its event by officially announcing the new iPhone lineup: the much rumored 4.7-inch device is called iPhone 6, while the larger 5.5-inch model is dubbed “iPhone 6 Plus”. Here’s what we know so far:
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In addition to hyping today’s event with a countdown on the home page, Apple has debuted a dedicated page on its website to presumably break down the announcements shared by the company later today. The microsite so far includes photographs, captions, and a tweet from Apple CEO Tim Cook hyping the event under the header Apple Live. The blog-style page marks a first for Apple and how it presents its special events. Each tile, for instance, can be shared across the web with support for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, email, and URL linking.
Apple shared last week that today’s special event will be live streamed, and this morning the Apple Events channel was revived on Apple TV. We’re expecting to see new iPhones introduced alongside a preview of Apple’s long-expected wearable device, and 9to5Mac will be covering the event as it unfolds so stay tuned!
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A set of images have appeared online today (via Reddit) allegedly showing CAD drawings for various components of Apple’s yet to be announced wearable product. The images, which include a watermark from one of Apple’s longtime manufacturing partners Quanta, show various mic and speaker components that look to be right for a watch-like device, but the poster adds more details in a description of the photos. According to the leak, Apple’s wearable will have a mic, speaker, Siri, and a “flexible, multi-touch screen will add a new dimension to the UI.” It’s also worth noting that Quanta was one of Apple’s partners that was reportedly already beginning trial production and expected to be a main supplier of iWatch.
We may finally have a reason for why Apple Stores and some other stores are installing new NFC payment hardware ahead of the iPhone 6 launch. Apple is reportedly planning on implementing a security feature called tokenzation in the system, which removes the necessity to transmit account numbers or other critical personal details wirelessly (via Bank Innovation).
This tokenization system employs secure codes become useless after being used once. That boosts security by ensuring that any information captured by nefarious third-parties doesn’t give them access to your account or money. However, not all NFC payment terminals can accept this type of payment.
In order to support the iPhone 6, stores will need to upgrade to point-of-sale systems that will function with these tokens. That’s likely why Apple has upgraded its in-store systems and McDonald’s restaurants are receiving new terminals for rollout around the time of the device’s launch despite some stores already supporting NFC payments, while a few other retailers rumored to be on board with Apple’s system are installing NFC terminals for the first time.
Apple will debut on the next iPhone on Tuesday, alongside a wearable device that is also rumored to support NFC payments.
The New York Times is weighing in on Apple’s imminent iPhone event, corroborating past information as well as adding some new tidbits about Apple’s newest iPhones (the ‘iPhone 6’) and its brand new wearable (dubbed ‘iWatch’).
Most interestingly, it says that the iWatch will feature a flexible display. Assumedly, this will allow the product to morph to fit comfortably on user’s arms. KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo predicted Apple’s use of a flexible panel in July. The screen is protected by sapphire glass. As 9to5Mac has reported countless times, the device will feature health and fitness tracking capabilities, for things like footsteps and heart rate. The report claims Apple has “put an enormous amount of time and money” to make the sensors track “much more accurately than existing fitness devices”.
In terms of software, the device will rely on HealthKit for health tracking and Handoff, one of Apple’s iOS 8 continuity features, to seamlessly share content between devices. Handoff could be used for sharing SMS texts between the phone and the watch, for instance. 9to5Mac discussed how Handoff might interact with Apple’s wearable a couple of months ago.
Apple is reportedly planning to include NFC in the iPhone 6 for secure wireless payments using chips sourced from a Dutch company called XNP, the Financial Times reported today. It’s not the first time this rumor has cropped up before an iPhone launch, but other recent reports seem to indicate that this year it might just be happening.
In fact, earlier this year Apple was said to have reached a deal with China UnionPay, the nation’s only domestic mobile payment processor, to include NFC support at countless retailers in the next iPhone. What’s perhaps even more interesting is that the technology may not be limited solely to the handset itself…
Apple has updated its iOS 8 terms of use, according to The Guardian, to note that developers are not allowed to resell any information gained through the upcoming HealthKit framework. The HealthKit software was announced as part of a larger event earlier this year, but it was only with the most recent beta that Apple made note of this restriction.
The move is not unexpected, as it would be very much against Apple’s modus operandi to allow developers access to such crucial data without some restrictions on its use in place as a protection for users. Similar restrictions exist for the Touch ID API, which doesn’t allow developers to access user fingerprint data at all, let alone store it.
There is one exception to this rule, however…
As we reported earlier today, Apple has sent out invitations to the press for a September 9th media event. During that event the company will likely unveil the next-gen iPhone, but a report from Re/code also indicated that it may debut a wearable device at the same time. A new report from Bloomberg lends further credence to this claim:
Now the Cupertino, California-based company will attempt to repeat that feat [the success of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad] in wearables, an emerging group of devices that track people’s activity and health. Apple will introduce a wearable gadget along with new iPhones on Sept. 9, a person with knowledge of the plans said. Notices for the event, which will also take place in Cupertino, were sent out today.
As we’e exclusively reported in the past, Apple has been assembling a team of fashion and fitness experts to create a wearable device with a focus on health and fitness applications.
iOS 8 adds several important enhancements to the iPhone and iPad, such as improved notifications, health-tracking, and a more advanced camera application, but the new operating system’s most significant feature may be the groundwork technologies for a future Apple wearable device that integrates deeply with the iPhone.
No matter if it is called the “iWatch,” “iBand,” “iPod,” or something else entirely, a wrist-worn Apple wearable device will likely be announced in October, and the software it will run will set the scope of its capabilities. Besides the new functionality for the iPhone and iPad, iOS 8 includes many new wireless protocols, applications, and features that open the door to several capabilities for a wearable device.
Let’s take a look at how each major iOS 8 feature plays directly into Apple’s ambitions for a wearable computer, below.
Federico Ciccarese has done many iPhone and Apple product design mockups in the past, and today he gave us his take on Apple’s rumored wearable, curved-glass iOS device. In August 2011, we made the case for a wearable, Bluetooth 4.0-powered iPod nano. In December, The New York Times reported a small group of people at Apple had been “conceptualizing and even prototyping some wearable devices.” One concept described in the report was a “curved-glass iPod that would wrap around the wrist.” Below is a video rendering of the mockup from Ciccarese Design:
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