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News - page 1192

Top L.A. hospital using HealthKit to monitor 80,000 patients

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Apple's reputation as a mobile health company is growing. Photo: Apple
Apple's reputation as a mobile health company is growing. Photo: Apple

Apple’s ambitions as a mobile health company took a giant leap forward over the weekend, as HealthKit was connected to more than 80,000 patient files at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

This means that Cedars-Sinai doctors now have the ability to take iOS Health data into account when making clinical and medical judgments — allowing physicians to easily access patients’  weight, blood pressure, steps taken, glucose levels, and oxygen saturation levels as gathered from their iOS devices.

Consumer Reports runs Apple Watch through scientific torture test

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The Apple Watch glass going through a torture test. Screenshot: Cult of Mac
The Apple Watch glass going through a torture test. Screenshot: Cult of Mac

Consumer Reports has a history of being hard on Apple. They famously refused to recommend the iPhone 4 because of a so-called “flawed” antenna design.

To test the Apple Watch, though, Consumer Reports is being harder on Apple than ever. They’ve run a gamut of torture tests on Apple’s new wearable to see just how hard the sapphire display actually is. Here’s a spoiler: You won’t be able to scratch it with anything short of a nuke. And even the Apple Watch Sport’s display is nearly unscratchable (although it can be cracked).

A look at the best (and worst!) Apple Watch apps on our newest CultCast

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Apple Watch, inbound! And now that it is, we’ll take a look at some of the most useful Watch apps available, and just for fun, some of the stinkiest. Plus: the noteworthy differences between the Sport and steel editions; why those “scratch test” videos shouldn’t trouble you; and finally, you’ll never believe what our ol’ pal and ex-Apple exec Scott Forstall is up to now…

Our thanks for Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. It also makes tax time a cinch. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.

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Full show notes ahead!

Things get hairy when Apple Watch appears in the wild

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Photo Courtesy: Apple
These hand models from Apple's Watch videos look like they're fresh from the cloning vat. Not a hair in sight. Photos: Apple
Photo:

The weird thing about all the promotional videos for the Apple Watch is how perfect the hand models are. The people wearing the watches look like citizens from Logan’s Run: fresh and young and perfect.

What you won’t see is a parade of hairy arms.

But now that the Apple Watch is out in the wild, that’s exactly what you get on Instagram. These pictures tell the real story.

How to turn great iOS app ideas into something real

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Time to find a great programmer.
Time to find a great programmer.
Photo: Graham Bower

My friends, family and even complete strangers are constantly asking me how to get their million-dollar app idea in the App Store.

This is always a shocker for me because, after countless hours of hard work over the past two years, my app is barely breaking even.

But I can offer one solid piece of advice for anybody hoping to turn a clever idea into a world-beating app: Find yourself an amazing developer and hold on tight.

How to turn your $399 Apple Watch gold

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When life gives you an ugly Apple Watch, paint that shit gold. Photo: Casey Neistat
Photo: Casey Neistat

 

Lusting after the gold Apple Watch Edition but don’t have the funds for Jony Ive’s $17,000 timepiece? You could take out a second mortgage on the house, or sell a kidney. Or you could do what artist Casey Neistat did and manually turn an Apple Watch Sport into a golden beauty.

Neistat only had $399, so he decided to preorder the black Sport model and then carefully painted it gold. Sure, his method might void your warrant, and it doesn’t look perfect, but it’s better than spending your kid’s college savings just to be as fly as Drake.

You can do it too, just follow the steps in the video below:

See Jony Ive and Marc Newson talk Apple Watch design

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Jony Ive gets animated as he talks about Apple Watch. Photo: Vogue
Jony Ive gets animated as he talks about Apple Watch. Photo: Vogue

Jony Ive and his BFF Marc Newson launched Apple into the luxury market this week with the Apple Watch, which expertly straddles the line between gadget and fashion accessory.

Apple’s dynamic designing duo sat down with Vogue’s Suzy Meeks this week to talk about their first foray into the fashion world — as well as what inspired them to create the Apple Watch. We rounded up the top 8 revelations from the pair’s appearance earlier this week, but Vogue just made the full interview available online, and it’s full of juicy insights into Jony and Marc’s thought processes.

Watch the full interview below:

7 killer apps the Apple Watch should have (but doesn’t)

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More Apple Watch apps please. Photo: Apple
More Apple Watch apps please. Photo: Apple

The first wave of Apple Watch are finally here just  in time for Friday’s big release. The Apple Watch App Store went live yesterday with over 3,000 apps that are sure to delight users, as developers try to create the first must-have Apple Watch app.

We rounded up some of our the coolest apps that are ready for your wrist this morning, but we also couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of apps that would be awesome if they were available today.

Here are 7 killer apps Apple Watch should have, but doesn’t:

Apple Watch spy game brings clever twist to retro format

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There's a trick to creating a compelling game on your wrist. Photo: Bossa Games
There's a trick to creating a compelling game for your wrist. Photo: Bossa Games

From James Bond’s laser Rolex to Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, spies have always been suckers for wearable tech.

To salute secret agents’ fondness for the latest gadgets, the makers of Spy_Watch crafted their new game for the latest cutting-edge device — the Apple Watch. And, like clever spymasters, there’s a twist: They paired this super-modern smartwatch with a vintage videogame mechanic to make a compelling game suitable for a gadget the size of Dick Tracy’s famous wrist radio.

“The idea is to immerse yourself in the idea that you are a spymaster controlling a spy out on missions,” Vince Farquharson, COO of Spy_Watch developer Bossa Games, told Cult of Mac. “To make it feel like they are a real person and that this is really happening.”

Apple will walk you through Apple Watch setup virtually

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Find out how to work your Apple Watch. Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac

Apple has begun sending out emails to customers offering them personal online Apple Watch setup appointments so they can learn more about their new devices.

The sessions with Apple Specialists take the form of the kind of personal setup sessions Apple already offers in brick-and-mortar stores whenever a customer buys a new product.

The best Apple Watch apps you probably haven’t heard of

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Time to download some apps. Photo: Apple

There are already more than 3,000 apps for the Apple Watch, which makes it difficult to find all of the hidden gems. How do you find the best Apple Watch apps?

Luckily, there are plenty of third-party Watch apps that deserve attention, whether they tell you when it’s going to rain or help you get stuff done. Apple is promoting Watch apps heavily in the App Store, and while the big players (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) are obvious downloads, we’ve been on the lookout for some of the other apps for the Apple Watch you might not know about.

Here are some of the best Apple Watch apps to trick out your wrist.

How powerful is the Apple Watch’s S1 processor?

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The S1 processor inside the Apple Watch is equivalent to an A5. Photo: Apple
The S1 processor inside the Apple Watch is equivalent to an A5. Photo: Apple

If you’re wondering roughly how powerful the Apple Watch’s S1 SoC processor is compared to other ARM chips, the answer appears to be that it’s roughly equivalent to an A5 chip, as seen on the iPhone 4S, iPad 2, first iPad mini, and the Apple TV, at least as far as graphics chutzpah is concerned.

Awesome iOS Easter egg discovered after two years, hiding in plain sight

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Say Apple into Voice Memos and you get its logo. Photo: Mike Rundle
Say "Apple" into Voice Memos and you get its logo. Photo: Mike Rundle

Apple is known for placing its fair share of Easter eggs into iOS and OS X, but this is the coolest one we’ve seen in a while.

You know the new Voice Memos icon Apple introduced in iOS 7 Beta 2? It turns out the icon is designed after the waveform representation of someone saying “Apple.”

Three new ads remind us that Apple Watch is here

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Apple Watch
The Watch is here! Photo: Apple

Apple Watches started arriving with customers today, and to mark the occasion Apple has launched three new ads, showing how its long-awaited wearable device can improve your life.

Titled “Us,” “Up,” and “Rise,” the ads stress the Apple Watch’s various functions in a way that doesn’t just appeal to those people who already own a smartwatch, but also makes a strong case for why everyone should have one.

Apple Watch teardown reveals tiny device’s biggest secrets

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The Apple Watch next to a classic mechanical watch. Photo: iFixit

The folks at iFixit wasted no time gutting their new Apple timepiece.

Their Apple Watch teardown confirms that the device comes with a hidden diagnostic port. They’ve also exposed the watch’s Taptic Engine, located the tiny battery, and found some gold highlights on the Apple Watch Sport.

Check it out:

Parody videos take a swipe at Apple Watch

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A starry-eyed Jony Ive raves about the Apple Watch in a new parody video. Photo: Gizmodo
A starry-eyed Jony Ive raves about the Apple Watch in a new parody video. Photo: Gizmodo

One magical piece of wearable technology, two radically different parody videos.

The first takes a jab at the seemingly never-ending supply of superlatives Jony Ive uses to describe the Apple Watch. The other reminds us just how precious watches are to people determined to pass them along as keepsakes at all costs. See them both below.

First wave of Apple Watch buyers show off their new favorite things

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Soon, this sight won't be so strange. Photo: Ryan Ozawa/Flickr CC
Soon, this sight won't be so strange. Photo: Ryan Ozawa/Flickr CC

Can you hear that giant “Squeeeeee!”? That’s the sound of Apple fans in Asia and Australian taking delivery of the very first Apple Watches.

In time zones where it’s already April 24, the wearable now adorns the wrists of delighted buyers who put in their orders immediately after Apple Watch went on sale earlier this month. These earliest of Apple Watch adopters were only too happy to show off their purchases on Twitter, Instagram and other services.