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Awok.com -Blog: Apple says 'Apple Watch,' the world says 'i Watch'...: Many consumers still think of Apple's first smartwatch as the 'iWatch,' as evidenced by a recent trip to San Francisco for a ...





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Apple says 'Apple Watch,' the world says 'iWatch'

Many consumers still think of Apple's first smartwatch as the 'iWatch,' as evidenced by a recent trip to San Francisco for a wearable technology conference. The branding confusion represents at least a minor marketing misstep for Apple.

"Is that the iWatch?"

Early on an unseasonably brisk morning last week, a purposefully stern TSA agent in the JetBlue terminal of the Boston's Logan International Airport posed that question after I used my Apple Watch as a boarding pass and moved through security on the way to a wearable technology conference in San Francisco.
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State of the CIO 2015

More than 500 top IT leaders responded to our online survey to help us gauge the state of the READ NOW I considered the question for a moment, showed a hint of smile and said simply, "Yeah, it is," even though the nit-picky editor in me wanted to inform the gentlemen that it's an Apple Watch, not an iWatch. Had I chosen to correct the agent — it's never a good idea to correct a man in uniform, by the way — my efforts would have been futile. For better or worse, the Apple Watch is still the iWatch to lots of people, thanks in no small part to the seemingly endless deluge of "iWatch rumor" stories that led up to Apple's official announcement last fall. 

The TSA example is just one of many instances during the past week in which I watched complete strangers refer to the Apple Watch as the iWatch. The second incident occurred on the same day, inside an infamous beer bar in San Francisco's Lower Haight neighborhood, called Toronado. The surly, tattooed bartender was showing his Apple Watch to another patron, and I overheard the barfly refer to it multiple times as an iWatch. (The bartender didn't correct him either.)

A couple of days later, I called Capital One customer service to activate Apple Pay on my Watch. After I successfully answered a handful of security questions and verified my identity, the bubbly female representative said, "Congratulations on your iWatch! Enjoy using Apple Pay."
At the Wearable World Congress event, the Apple Watch was front and center, and guess what? More than a few attendees unconsciously referred to the smartwatch as the iWatch.

In other words, Apple appears to have a slight branding issue.

If the company had its way, the Apple Watch might have been the next great iProduct, falling in line with the iMac, iBook, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Apple even filed for trademark on the name "iWatch" in a number of countries, including Columbia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and Turkey, according to 9to5Mac.com.

Other entities have attempted to trademark the term in the United States and Europe during the past years, according to CNBC, and Swiss watchmaker Swatch, initiated a few different legal filings to block the use of the name iWatch, which it says is too similar to its trademarked "iSwatch" name.
Apple is a marketing and branding juggernaut. It puts just as much energy and attention to detail into the way it presents its products as it does designing them to function as seamlessly as possible. And its failure to secure and use the name iWatch seems like an unfortunate misstep for a marketing team that doesn't make many of them.

Of course, the fact that lots of folks are calling Apple's first smartwatch the iWatch, even though that is not its name, isn't really a big deal. The name won't significantly affect sales, and it also won't fix many of the software bugs spotted by early users. (My Apple Watch's fitness tracking features pale in comparison to my Fitbit, and in some cases don't work at all, for instance.) 
Regardless, I can't remember the last time I saw a technology product on par with the Apple Watch so frequently "misidentified" in the market, and it's hard to believe Apple didn't see this branding confusion coming — or do something more to avoid it.

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Post By: Ramiz Ali Khan

7 cool new tricks every Apple Gadget user should know

Apple's latest updates to both its mobile operating system (iOS 8.3) and its computer system (OS X Yosemite) not only give your iPhone, iPad and Mac computer new features, they also make it easier than ever to use them all together. Apple calls this integration between mobile gadgets and Mac computers as "Continuity." In one obvious example of these new connections, some users have been startled when their Mac computer suddenly rings with an incoming phone call. More than once a friend has answered my phone call with, "I didn't know it could do that," the first time her iPhone handed off a call to her Mac computer.

But Continuity does a lot more than just send phone calls to your Mac. In today's Apple Tip, I'll step through 7 top tricks to using Apple's new operating systems both together and separately. From having all of your photos available across all of you gadgets, or starting an app task on one gadget and finishing on another, there are a lot of cool things you can do with these new capabilities.

1. Handoff

Apple's Handoff feature allows you to seamlessly work on the same app and the same task on different Apple gear. For instance, if you started writing an email on your iPhone, you may now finish and send it from your iPad or Mac, provided they are within Bluetooth range of each other. Open a Safari webpage on one gadget and there it is available on your other devices.

Handoff works with your native Apple apps like Calendar, Contacts, Mail, Maps, Messages, Notes, Reminders, Safari, Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Some third-party apps including New York Times and others are now or soon will be using Handoff.

To use Handoff, your Mac must have OS X Yosemite, and your iOS devices must have iOS 8. All of your gadgets must have Bluetooth turned on and be signed in to iCloud using the same Apple ID.

To turn on Handoff:

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click General, then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.” (If you don’t see the option below “Recent items,” your Mac doesn’t support Handoff.)

On your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff & Suggested Apps, then tap to turn on Handoff. (If you don’t see the option, your iOS device doesn’t support Handoff.)

2. SMS text messages on your Mac

Apple's iMessage has long allowed you to message other iPhone users from the iMessage app on your Mac. Now with OS X Yosemite and an iPhone running iOS 8, you can send and receive SMS text messages right from your Mac. So when friends text you, regardless of what brand phone they are using, you can now read and reply from your Mac as well as your iPhone.

All the messages that appear on your iPhone now show up on your Mac, too, so your conversation is up to date on all your devices. You can also start an SMS or iMessage conversation on your Mac just by clicking a phone number in Safari, Contacts, Calendar, or Spotlight. Group chats are now enabled, as well. Click Details to name a group chat, add or remove someone, and see friends who’ve shared their location on a map.

3. Make your pictures pop with Photos' powerful new edit tools

In last week's Apple Tip, 5 reasons you must update your iPhone or iPad now, I mentioned as one of the reasons to upgrade was that Photos is now on all of your iOS and OS X devices. I have been using Photos this week and it really is amazing. If you've ever had to email photos from your iPhone to your Mac when a sync cord wasn't handy, having all of your iPhone pictures just instantly appear on your Mac is pretty incredible.

Also included in the new Photos are powerful new editing tools to fine tune your pictures. Apple Photos edit tools are not on the level of the professional standard, Adobe Photoshop, but it does pack an all new punch. You can make precise edits by enabling the histogram, adjusting levels, adding definition, and more.

Bonus Tip: Want to email more than just a few of your favorite photos? Follow along to see how you can now send up to 5GB of photos (or anything else) in just one email right from your Apple Mail app.

4. Answer your iPhone on your Mac or iPad

As I mentioned above, some users are surprised when their iPhone calls ring through on their Mac. This also works on Wi-Fi-only (non-cellular) iPads. However, to use this feature, all of your Apple gadgets must be on the same Wi-Fi network and signed in to the same iCloud account.

Phone calls on your iPhone will appear in the upper right corner of your Mac offering you the option to accept or decline. To make a phone call on your Mac or iPad tap or click a phone number in Contacts, Calendar, or Safari.

Bonus tip: Want to change your Mac’s default call ringtone? To set a different ringtone, choose FaceTime>Preferences, then click the Ringtone pop-up menu.

5. No Wi-Fi? No problem!

You can use Personal Hotspot on your iPhone to provide Internet access to your iPad or Mac. You'll need to sign in to iCloud using the same Apple ID as your iPhone. Also, your cell provider needs to support Personal Hotspot, but Apple's website lists 46 U.S. providers, including the majors, that support Apple's Hotspot.

To get Internet access from your iPhone:

On your iPad, go to Settings > Wi-Fi on your other iOS device and select your iPhone or other iPad that has a cellular connection.

On your Mac, go to the Wi-Fi menu at the top of your screen and select your iPhone or iPad that has a cellular connection.

6. Mail gets some great new features

Apple Mail gets a major step up with two new features that I really like. I've written before about the explosion of smartphone photography all over the world as we all shoot more pictures than ever. Once you shoot your amazing vacation, graduation, birthday or other photos, chances are you'll want to share them with family or friends. But there's just one problem. As photo quality goes up, so does the file size of the photo.

A full resolution iPhone 6 photo can easily be as big as 3mb or more. Why does that matter? Many email systems will not accept email attachments over 10mb, meaning you can only send about 3 iPhone photos per message. Often your only options are to be very picky about which few photos you share, or bombard your relatives with lots of separate email messages, carrying only about three pictures each. And forget about emailing a video! Depending on the length, videos can span hundreds of megabytes, far too big to ever email.  That is, until now.

Apple Mail now offers a way to send large attachments. Or maybe I should say huge, enormous, gargantuan attachments! You may now send attachments up to 5GB in size. How much is 5GB? How about thousands of photos, or at least 3 to 4 full HD movies! It is probably safe to say that 5GB email limit will cover just about anything you might need to send.

Apple calls this new feature Mail Drop and it is built right into Apple mail. Mail Drop automatically uploads the attachments to iCloud. If recipients use Mail in OS X Yosemite, the attachments are automatically downloaded and shown in the message. If recipients use other email apps, they will see a link to download the attachments from iCloud. Your attachments stay in iCloud for 30 days and they do not count against your iCloud storage limit.

Bonus tip: When scrolling through a long list of Mail messages, skip the mouse and use your space bar instead. Use Shift-Space bar to scroll up through email messages or Space bar to scroll down.

Another cool new feature in Apple Mail is called Mark Up. When sending attachments, say photos or PDFs, you can now add notes, circles, arrows or even your signature right on the file without having to open it in another program.

To use Markup on an image or PDF, just hold the pointer over the attachment, click

More button, then choose Markup. The attachment will open with a basic tool bar across the top. To add a signature to your file, click on the signature icon (below) and choose from existing signatures or upload a new one.

7. Share your screen or see someone else's Mac screen

Besides all the topics on my national radio show, newsletters and this website, I also often get asked by family and personal friends for one-on-one tech support. Based on my experience, I know beyond a doubt that actually seeing the other person's screen or showing them how to do something on my screen cuts through 90% of the frustration of trying to explain something just verbally by phone.

Now sharing your screen or requesting to see another user's screen is a cinch in Yosemite. The first step is to ensure that both you and the person you’re trying to share with are using Apple’s Messages app. Open your contact’s message window and select the Details button on the top right hand corner.

The Details button is circled in red below.

A new window will pop up where you will see the Share Screen icon. It is the overlapping blue rectangles next to the camera icon above. To share your screen, just click the Share Screen icon and you can send a request to your contact to either share your screen or ask for access to theirs.

Source: http://www.komando.com/tips/305017/7-cool-new-tricks-every-apple-user-should-know/all

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Post By Ramiz Ali Khan

Apple Watch can be a games platform -Gulf News

Source: http://gulfnews.com/leisure/gadgets/apple-watch-can-be-a-games-platform-1.1472477

 From location-based adventures to digital pets that live on your wrist, Apple’s arrival could enliven the idea of playing games on a smart watch

Games are a remarkably agile medium - they can squeeze in anywhere. Whenever a new digital platform emerges, whether it’s a tablet, augmented reality headset or smart home security system, games are never far behind.

Humans, like most animals, are natural players. With the gradual, lumbering rise of the smart watch, however, games have so far played a limited role.

The stores on the Pebble and Android Wear devices are mostly filled with fitness and convenience applications, which is sensible considering the form factor of these things: they’re small, they’re attached to you and they have accelerometers to track movement. Hence, dozens of gamified jogging apps.

There are more games that don’t require running, of course, but so far they have been mostly restricted to simple ports of classics like Tetris, Pac-Man and Tamagotchi.

According to Will Luton, designer of Pixel Miner, one of the most successful Pebble games so far, these are the wrong approaches: “Integrating heart rate and pedometers obtrusively into game loops or attempting to shrink down smartphone titles onto a smaller device may get some traction early on as players explore the device and it’s capabilities, but they won’t be sustainable.”

Love it or hate it, when Apple enters a market, it brings with it an earthquake of hype and an accompanying tsunami of fresh developer interest. So how could things change with smart watch games in the near future?

Blipvert gaming Perhaps the future of smart watch gaming is all about reducing the smartphone “snack-sized” approach even further.

“The correct approach is to consider how the device is used and builds from there,” says Luton. “Smart watches are high frequency, short session devices which have low precision controls. This means that interfaces have to be very simple, such as one touch or menu-based systems. If smartphone games are designed to be played while waiting for a coffee, smart watch games should be designed to be played in an elevator ride.”

There are historical precedence’s here. Nintendo’s old Game & Watch titles - and indeed that whole generation of simple LCD games, from Grandstand’s Caveman to Mattel’s Dungeons and Dragons - were based around simple and amusing interactions, where form was as important as experience.

Casio made basic LCD game watches, as did Nelsonic, with its cute Zelda title. Smart watches could bring this back. Furthermore, the idea of five-second game collections, popularized in the Bishi Bashi and Warioware titles, could prosper on a platform where more demanding experiences can’t jostle them out of the way.

A virtue of simplicity It could be that the limiting form factor and interface capabilities of smart watches will be enough to spark new and unusual ideas.

“One thing that game developers like is new modes of interaction and control,” says developer and researcher Michael Cook. “GDC ran their annual alt.ctrl workshop recently that’s all about new ways to interact with games. Apple’s already emphasising these minimalistic ways of communicating through the watch, like doodling on the screen, tapping another person’s wrist remotely, and so on.

“The small screen and simple interactions also remind me of what Robin Baumgarten is doing in his game design experiments. Baumgarten’s latest creation is Line Wobbler , a game that you played on a single line of flashing lights. Designing games for really small platforms like a single dimension or a screen as small as a watch is a really cool challenge.”

Social persistence

Another idea is that smart watch games could evolve into quick-session social experiences, allowing friends who meet up in the street, to quickly and seamlessly swap data.

“I do actually think there are some great possibilities for ‘persistent games’- games that you are playing all the time, alone or with friends,” says developer Bennett Foddy. “For these games, the watch makes it possible to check in on your progress whenever you have an idle nanosecond, without starting an app or pulling out your phone. These might be games that are played by tapping the phone at certain times, or by being at certain locations: the depth won’t come from the software itself but from the way that it fits in with your everyday life.”

This is already a feature of the Nintendo 3DS console. Its Street Pass app automatically collects simple details from other 3DS-owning passers-by, and then lets you check out their messages and profiles when you have time.

Street Pass also contains a number of mini-games that can only be competed through connection with other users. This could actually be used in a more complex way.

“Developers will have to get better at placing more of the experience in the mind and less of it on screen,” says game developer Moo Yoo, who worked at Moshi Monsters creator Mind Candy until going independent. “I imagine a huge demand for highly interlinked social games and dynamically generated social narratives. You can take the example of a game like Farmville which gave context and a real-world meaning to gifting a virtual animal. A smart watch game could be a system of proposals, acceptances, and rejections - either in a dating sim or a game of diplomacy.”

Full contact gaming Smartphones have accelerometers so they sense movements, and they have wi-fi connectivity to allow multiplayer connection. Add these to a device that you can’t accidentally drop or throw across the room, and you have interesting possibilities for physical group-based games.

“I love making digital games involving running around,” says experimental smartphone and tablet game designer Alistair Aitcheson, responsible for the likes of Greedy Bankers and Tap Happy Sabotage .

“The smartphone is physically attached to your body, so it’s perfect for tag-style games involving slapping each other’s wrists.” This sounds crazy, but it’s actually the basis of the excellent indie title Johann Sebastian Joust , a multiplayer contact game that uses PlayStation Move motion controllers: participants have to try to jog or bash the controllers of their rivals, which removes them from the game.

The winner is the player who survives the longest without being tagged. It’s enormous fun, but difficult for most people to experience, because most people don’t have eight PlayStation Move controllers; and with a smartphone version, they risk getting their handset belted across the room. But a smart watch version would work brilliantly.

“I’ve also always wanted to do something involving hidden information - where players see different things on their personal displays,” says Aitcheson, envisioning a sort of Murder in the Dark experience where players are fed different information about their roles in the game.

“Delivering this through a phone can feel cumbersome and it slows the pace and focus of play. But with a watch, players can absorb new details just by glancing at their wrists, and can continue running around without having had to stop and think.”

The second (or third?) screen Another obvious use for the smart watch will be as a second or even third screen for a console, PC or tablet title - either imparting personal information to the player while participating in the main game, or allowing them to take an element of that game with them wherever they go.

“We have already seen a trend for games that connect out of the main screen, into the real world,” says Tomas Rawlings of Auroch Digital, which has just launched its board game adaptation, Chainsaw Warrior.

“Skylanders and Disney’s Infinity are good examples of this, and this device offers potentials here. Also with persistent games - either online like Travian or MMOs like EVE Online - I can see lots of uses for getting information about events within the game world, always being accessible to the player.

“One area I’m interested is in how this might be used for board games. This form has been undergoing a renaissance in recent years as crowd funding has connected players with creators. You can see the tentative steps in this area with games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf, which uses a companion app to assist the game flow. Linking that app to a player and their movements adds lots of possibilities; think Cluedo played around the house or Hide and Seek 2.0...”

Meanwhile, coder and web developer Adrian Smith sees the smart watch fulfilling the role that science fiction movies always used it for; as an intimate extension to a wider computer network.

“The most unique innovations will be augmentation, as a smart watch is in essence an augmentation device,” he says. “For example, the player’s heart rate could changes the behavior of an intelligent enemy in a larger PC horror game. Or the smart watch could be a secondary screen or interface, for example the onscreen watch used in the N64 game Goldeneye could have been an actual watch.

“In Alien Isolation, the watch could vibrate when the alien is detected on the scanner, or in a Halo title, you could have Cortana on your wrist, available to talk to throughout the game. There is also a hard to define emotional connection with smart watches, which makes the platform ideal for personification.”

Smart watch games, then, may well have an interesting future beyond glorified fitness apps with points systems; it just requires developers to get to grips with the form factor and truly embrace its limitations and peculiarities. Perhaps the hype that will soon surround Apple’s entry to the market will be the boost those developers need.

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Post By Ramiz Ali Khan