O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: cellular

  • Rumor: Next-gen Apple Watch to feature GPS, other improvements, will be released this fall

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    The next-gen Apple Watch may still be somewhat dependent on the iPhone.

    Sources have stated that Apple is planning to launch a next-gen Apple Watch this fall with integrated GPS and improvements to health tracking.

    Apple shipped its first watch in April 2015, hoping for a new blockbuster product amid slowing iPhone sales, which contribute almost 60 percent of revenue. While the company shipped 1.6 million watches from April to June, that was less than half as many as during the same period in 2015, according to IDC.

    Since its inception, wireless network carriers have been urging Apple to create an Apple Watch variant that can connect to data networks without the aid of the iPhone, thereby untethering it. Apple had been in talks this year with mobile phone carriers in the U.S. and Europe to add cellular connectivity to the watch, according to people familiar with the talks. A cellular chip would have theoretically allowed the product to download sports score alerts, e-mail and mapping information while out of an iPhone’s reach.

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  • Edward Snowden announces forthcoming prototype of device to prevent iPhone radio transmission

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    Edward Snowden may be in exile from the U.S., but that doesn’t seem to be slowing him down.

    Snowden, who once met with reporters in a Hong Kong hotel room to spill the NSA’s secrets and famously asked them put their phones in the fridge to block any radio signals that might be used to silently activate the devices’ microphones or cameras, has released plans to announce a prototype for a device that could stop this kind of surveillance.

    On Thursday at the MIT Media Lab, Snowden and well-known hardware hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang plan to present designs for a case-like device that wires into your iPhone’s guts to monitor the electrical signals sent to its internal antennas and they say it could offer a constant check on whether your phone’s radios are transmitting. They say it’s an infinitely more trustworthy method of knowing your phone’s radios are off than “airplane mode,” which people have shown can be hacked and spoofed.

    In short, this could stop the transmission and thus better protect the user’s privacy.

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  • WWDC: watchOS 3 unveiled, explained

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    Amidst the hubbub of yesterday’s announcements, Apple unveiled watchOS 3, its upcoming operating system for the Apple Watch.

    The new operating system seems to focuses on addressing comments made about the speed and responsiveness in previous versions of watchOS, including background loading of data, a quick-access Control Center, and new uses for the side button.

    During the demonstration, watchOS head Kevin Lynch showed off the speed factor and explained that favorite apps will be kept in memory, background updates will pre-cache data, and apps will launch instantly.

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  • Rumor: Next-gen Apple Watch could include cellular functionality

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    While it’s been estimated that the Apple Watch has sold 12 million units within the device’s launch year, it’s hard to know exactly how many have gone out the door or what’s in store for the next generation.

    Either way, a new rumor has it that that Apple Watch 2 will include cellular connectivity and a beefier processor so apps will load more quickly. That might mean yet another data plan to pay for, but the watch would function on its own instead of being tethered to an iPhone.

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  • Google adds cellular support to assorted Android Wear devices

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    Cellular support just hit for Google’s Android Wear line.

    Google has announced that its Android Wear watches, which already feature Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, now feature cellular support.

    The company has announced that the first Android Wear watch with cellular support is the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.

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