Month: June 2020

Introducing watch face sharing, sleep tracking, and automatic handwashing detection

Cupertino, California — Apple today previewed watchOS 7, delivering enhanced customization tools and powerful new health and fitness features to the world’s most advanced smartwatch. Personalization is taken to an entirely new level with shareable and discoverable watch face configurations, while sleep tracking, automatic handwashing detection, additional workout types including dance, and a new hearing health feature give greater insight into overall well-being and are designed with privacy in mind. Conveniently on the wrist, Maps is updated with cycling directions and Siri now offers language translation.

“We’re energized by the positive impact Apple Watch is having on our customers and are excited to deliver meaningful new tools that support their health, fitness, and wellness,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “watchOS 7 brings sleep tracking, automatic handwashing detection, and new workout types together with a whole new way to discover and use watch faces, helping our users stay healthy, active, and connected.”

Watch Faces and Sharing

Faces are central to the watch experience, providing customers with valuable information at a glance and the ability to personalize their Apple Watch. watchOS 7 offers new ways to discover and share unique combinations to completely configure the watch face to suit any activity or lifestyle, from the new parent to the surfing aficionado, tennis player, or photographer. Infinitely customizable and personalized faces, inclusive of complications, can be shared through Messages or Mail, and discovered through the App Store or even from links through websites and social media channels.

watchOS 7 offers updates to faces for more personalization and greater access to favorite apps. The beautifully detailed and ultraprecise Chronograph Pro includes a tachymeter to calculate speed based on time traveled over a fixed distance, the Photos face offers color filters, and the bold X-Large face now has an option to add a rich complication.

Developers now have the ability to offer more than one complication per app on a single watch face. For example, on one watch face, Glow Baby can display multiple complications that help new parents track bottle-feeding, breastfeeding, pumping statistics, and nap times, while Dawn Patrol can show surfers tide, wind speed, and water temperature from a favorite surf spot.

Sleep

With watchOS 7, Apple Watch introduces sleep tracking, taking a holistic approach to sleep by providing valuable tools to help users get the desired amount of sleep, get to bed on time, and create a pre-bedtime routine to meet their sleep goals. Through the detection of micro-movements from the watch’s accelerometer, which signals respiration during sleep, Apple Watch intelligently captures when the wearer is sleeping and how much sleep they get each night. In the morning, the wearer will see a visualization of their previous night’s sleep, including periods of wake and sleep. They will also see a chart showing their weekly sleep trend.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a bedtime routine helps the body prepare for sleep. To support this, Wind Down allows Apple Watch and iPhone users to create a customized routine before bed, including setting up a specific scene in the Home app, listening to a soothing soundscape, or using a favorite meditation app. In Sleep Mode, Apple Watch turns on Do Not Disturb and automatically darkens the screen overnight.

To help users wake up, Apple Watch offers a silent haptic alarm or gentle sounds, while the wake-up screen shows the current battery level. Depending on personal charging behavior, if the battery is too low within an hour of bedtime, Apple Watch will remind users to charge it ahead of sleep. Sleep data is encrypted on device or in iCloud with iCloud sync, and data is always in the user’s control.

Automatic Handwashing Detection

Washing hands properly for at least 20 seconds can help prevent the spread of illness. In a first-of-its-kind innovation for a wearable, Apple Watch uses the motion sensors, microphone, and on-device machine learning to automatically detect handwashing motions and sounds. It then initiates a 20-second countdown timer, and if the user finishes early, they will be prompted to keep washing. Apple Watch can also conveniently remind the user to wash their hands when they return home.

The Health app on iPhone will show frequency and duration of the user’s handwashing, as well as information on the importance of handwashing, as it relates to overall health. Sounds used to detect handwashing are not automatically recorded or saved by the Health app or Apple Watch.

Workout Types and Fitness App

The Workout app is one of the most popular apps on Apple Watch, and watchOS 7 brings four exciting new workout types supported by powerful heart rate and custom-built motion algorithms: Core Training, Dance, Functional Strength Training, and Cooldown.

To correctly capture calorie exertion for Dance, Apple Watch uses advanced sensor fusion, combining data from the heart rate sensor and inputs from the accelerometer and gyroscope, that accounts for the unique challenges of measuring different body-to-arm motions typical with dance. This workout type was validated and tested with four of the most popular dance styles for exercise: Bollywood, cardio dance, hip-hop, and Latin.

The redesigned Activity app on iPhone, now called Fitness,providesa streamlined view of data including daily Activity, Workouts, Awards, and Activity Trends on one tab, and Activity Sharing and Activity Competitions on another.

Hearing

Following the introduction of the Noise app in watchOS 6 that measures ambient sound levels and duration of exposure, watchOS 7 adds further support for hearing health with headphone audio notifications. Customers can now understand how loudly they are listening to media through their headphones using their iPhone, iPod touch, or Apple Watch, and when these levels may impact hearing over time.

When total listening with headphones has reached 100 percent of the safe weekly listening amount, Apple Watch provides a notification to the wearer. This amount is based on World Health Organization recommendations that, for instance, a person can be exposed to 80 decibels for about 40 hours per week without an impact to hearing abilities.1 Customers can also see how long they have been exposed to high decibel levels each week in the Health app on iPhone and can control the maximum level for headphone volume. No audio from the headphone audio notification feature is recorded or saved by the Health app or Apple Watch.

Additional watchOS 7 Updates

For optimal convenience while biking, cycling directions are available right on the wrist. Directions are large and easy to read, and Maps can direct when to dismount and walk the bike, or take the stairs to save time. The wearer can choose a route that avoids steep hills, gets to the destination the quickest, or takes the most direct path.

Customers can now use Siri to translate many languages conveniently from the wrist, dictation is handled on device with the power of the Apple Neural Engine for faster and more reliable processing when dictating messages and more, and Apple Watch now supports Announce Messages with Siri. The Shortcuts app is also now available on Apple Watch and can be accessed as a complication.

Developers can create graphic complications with SwiftUI, and new developer tools such as Xcode Previews make building them even easier.

New complications for native features include: Camera Remote, Sleep, and Shortcuts.

New Mobility Metrics available in the Health app include: low-range cardio fitness, walking speed, stair-descent speed, stair-ascent speed, six-minute walk distance, double support time, step length, and asymmetry. These metrics are important for the clinical community to monitor patients’ ability to move safely and easily as they age. Typically only measured in a lab setting, these metrics can be uniquely measured by Apple Watch and iPhone, and used by developers, such as Zimmer Biomet, a musculoskeletal healthcare company, in patient care and in management tools such as mymobility.

Privacy

Privacy is fundamental to Apple and particularly important when it comes to health data, so all health features are designed with privacy in mind. Health data is encrypted on device or in iCloud with iCloud sync, and data is always in the user’s control.

Availability

The developer beta of watchOS 7 is available to Apple Developer Program members at developer.apple.com starting today. For the first time, a public beta will be available to watchOS users next month at beta.apple.com. watchOS 7 will be available this fall as a free software update for Apple Watch Series 3, Apple Watch Series 4, or Apple Watch Series 5 paired with iPhone 6s or later running iOS 14 or later. Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages or on all devices.

Apple has finally unveiled iPadOS 14, the newest (and second, not fourteenth) version of its iPad-only operating system that’ll bring new tweaks and features to your faithful tablet.

There’s good news for people who like using iPadOS and are keen to try the newer version – every iPad that supported the original version last September will get iPadOS 14, as well as the newer iPads released since then. 

That brings the total number of slates that support the operating system up to 15, so some of the best tablets on the market are about to get better.

iPadOS is impressing us in terms of the wide range of compatible devices, which is notable given this is the same year watchOS 7 became the first Apple Watch operating system to drop several older Apple Watches.

So if you’ve got one of the following iPads, you’ll be able to download iPadOS 14 when it’s released towards the end of 2020, and enjoy all the features it’s set to bring, including handwriting detection and home screen widgets.

Will your iPad get the iPadOS 14 update?

The following iPads will be compatible with the forthcoming iPadOS 14 update:

iPad Pro 12.9 (2020)

iPad Pro 11 (2020)

iPad Pro 12.9 (2018)

iPad Pro 12.9 (2017)

iPad Pro 12.9 (2015)

iPad Pro 11 (2018)

iPad Pro 10.5 (2017)

iPad Pro 9.7 (2016)

iPad Air (2019)

iPad Air 2

iPad (10.2)

iPad (2018)

iPad (2017)

iPad Mini (2019)

iPad Mini 4

Apple Macs are abandoning Intel for Apple-designed processor

When you get a new Windows 10 PC, or any version of Windows for that matter, there are a couple of things that you must do before you actually start using your PC. Of course, downloading Chrome is one of the things many us do, but there are other equally important things that you should pay attention to, especially if your PCs have sensitive information such as personal photos, videos, bank information, or anything that you don’t want anyone to get access to.

If you don’t follow the right steps, your sensitive information may get into the hands of the people that might cause you harm. Clearly, you have the option not to share your PC with others, and that way you can protect your information, but the good news is you don’t have to be that rude in order to be able to protect your files or folders in Windows 10. There are ways, following which you’ll be able to password protect whatever you want to protect and at the same time will be able to share your PC with others without worrying too much about your personal information.

If you’re someone that’s looking for ways to protect files or folders on Windows 10, you can do that by following a few simple and easy steps and the best part is you don’t have to be an expert to perform those steps. There are multiple ways to password protect your sensitive information. The steps have been discussed below.

HERE IS HOW TO PASSWORD PROTECT YOUR FILES OR FOLDERS IN WINDOWS 10

Method 1:

You can password protect your folder of files in Windows 10 just by creating a simple batch file(a.k.a. BAT file). Again, you don’t have to be an expert to do that. But before we proceed, here is a little information about a batch file in case you’re not familiar with it: in simple words, a batch file is just a simple text file that can automate everyday tasks, shorten the required time to do something.

Now that you’ve some idea about batch files, we can now proceed to the steps that you need to follow in order to be able to hide your files or folders.

Create a file, and name the file whatever you want

Double click on the folder to open it, and then within the folder, do a right-click on the empty space and select New > Text Document

Name the document whatever you want and then open it in Notepad

Paste the below code cls @ECHO OFF title Folder Locker if EXIST “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” goto UNLOCK if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER :CONFIRM echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N) set/p “cho=>” if %cho%==Y goto LOCK if %cho%==y goto LOCK if %cho%==n goto END if %cho%==N goto END echo Invalid choice. goto CONFIRM :LOCK ren Locker “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” attrib +h +s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” echo Folder locked goto End :UNLOCK echo Enter password to Unlock folder set/p “pass=>” if NOT %pass%==your_password goto FAIL attrib -h -s “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” ren “Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}” Locker echo Folder Unlocked successfully goto End :FAIL echo Invalid password goto end :MDLOCKER md Locker echo Locker created successfully goto End :End

Locate if NOT “%pass%==your_password” goto FAIL in the code that you just pasted. And then change your_password to the password of your choice.

On the top right corner of the Notepad window, you can see the File option, click on it and then click on Save As.

You’ll now be asked to name the file. Choose a name a ensure that you add a .bat extension to your file. Also, make sure that the encoding type is ANSI. Click on Save.

Double click on the BAT file that you just created. You should now see a folder with the name same as the BAT file.

Place all your files and folders that you think are sensitive in the folder that you just created by double-clicking on the BAT file.

Now click on the BAT file again

A command prompt will open asking if you want to lock your folder. Press Y and press Enter.

You’ll no longer see the folder. If you want your folder to appear once again, you’ll need to double click on the BAT file and then it’ll open the command prompt asking you to enter the password you chose. If you enter the password correctly, you should see the file once again.

Note: The above password protect steps are applicable in older versions of Windows. So, if you’re still running Windows 7 or older, the above steps will work for you too.

Method 2:

If the above steps are too much for you, we have a comparatively easier solution for you. But before I tell you the steps, here is what you need to know: this method doesn’t require you to set passwords to protect your folders of files, meaning it’s comparatively less secure than what we discussed above. Also, anyone that is familiar with this method will be able to see your hidden folders. If this is okay with you, the below steps will work just fine for you.

Do a right-click on the folder you want to hide, and then click on Properties

In the General tab, you will see an option called Attributes, under which you have two options to choose, the default is Read-only. But if you want to hide the folder, you’ll need to select Hidden, then select Apply and click OK. You should not see the folder now. But in case you’re still seeing, you need to do a little more.

At the top of the file explorer, you can see a tab called View. Click on it. And then click on Options and then click on Change folder and search options.

A new pop-up window will appear. In the new window look for the view tab, and then click on it. We’ll see a setting called Hidden files and folders, under which you’ll see two options — you’ll need to select the first option that says Don’t show hidden files, folders or drives. Click on Apply and then OK.

That’s pretty much all that you need to do in order to hide a folder or a file. And as was the case with the first method, method number 2 is exactly the same even if you’re using an older version of Windows.

Method 3:

When I said there are multiple ways to securing your sensitive information I really meant it. Apart from the methods that were discussed above, enabling the Windows BitLocker feature is another easy way to secure your personal information. However, there are a few caveats that you should know before you get too excited.

The Windows BitLocker feature is limited to Windows Pro and Enterprise versions only, so if you’re running Home version, you’re out of luck! Another caveat is that the feature won’t help you if you’re looking to protect a particular file or folder. Instead, what the BitLocker feature does is that it helps you protect the entire drive. And if that’s exactly what you’re trying to do, you should follow the below steps.

Choose the drive that you want the BitLocker to encrypt

Do a right-click on the drive

Click on Turn on BitLocker

Now Windows will ask you how you would like to unlock the drive. You have two options — by password or by smartcard

You’ll now need to enter a password, and then once you click on Next, it’ll ask you to choose where you want to save the recovery key in case you forget your password

Now Windows let you choose whether you want to encrypt the entire drive or just the used space. Select the option that is best suited for you, and then click on Next.

Wait for the process to complete

Restart your PC

These are all the password protect methods that you can follow in order to be able to make your personal information safe and secure. But if you’re looking for even more robust protection, then you might need to look for third-party software that’s designed to make your files or folders secure.

Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth recently confirm the company was working on the Realme X3 which he referred to as the company’s next flagship. The model has been confirmed to launch alongside the Realme X3 Zoom on June 25.

The Realme X3 has now been spotted on benchmark database GeekBench. The device appears with model number RMX2085 and it is listed to have a 12GB RAM onboard. Earlier, the X3 was rumoured to have an 8GB RAM onboard and we can assume there will be more than one RAM variants. However, the single and multi-core scores are not in the terrain of Snapdragon 865-powered models. The model posted a GeekBench 4 single-core score of 2307 and multi-core score of 8216.

The flagship variant is likely the Realme X3 Pro (RMX2121) which disappeared on TENAA and AnTuTu powered by a Snapdragon 865 SoC. The X3 will feature a Snapdragon 855+ chipset going by an earlier Google Play Console listing. This places it in the same terrain as the X3 Super Zoom also powered by SDM855+. The Play Console listing includes a display resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, 8GB RAM and Android 10 OS.

While Android 11 for phones and tablets is expected to launch in Q3, Wear OS is still running Android 9 Pie. That said, the wearable platform is still getting updates with watch faces now able to take advantage of hardware acceleration.

Hardware acceleration lets watch faces render at a higher frame rate with smoother animations and transitions. Google says “these benefits are self-evident” for end users.

Behind-the-scenes, Wear OS apps already take advantage of hardware-accelerated graphics rendering, but watch faces are implemented using canvasses. Google last month updated the Wearable Support Library (version 2.7.0) to let developers request a hardware-accelerated canvas. This also provides more UI performance data by enabling Debug GPU profiling under Settings > Developer options.

This feature is only available on Wear OS devices that run Android 9 or later. Developers are able to exclude older watches.

Google does warn that “hardware acceleration can greatly lower the battery life of a device” if implemented on watch faces with long-running animations, or those that draw in every frame.

To avoid negatively impacting your users, you shouldn’t have long-running animations in your watch face. This guideline is not specific to using hardware acceleration, but because using hardware acceleration increases the number of frames you’re able to draw, it is even more important to follow.

Adding Wear OS support for hardware-accelerated watch faces is up to developers with Google detailing what’s required and best practices.