Leander Kahney's Blog, page 1512

RunKeeper's Latest App Update Will Help Prevent Your Heart From Exploding

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When I, through sheer exertion of will, lift this moribund pile of musky flab out of the desk chair to which it transhumanistically is trying to absorb, put on my sweatbands and take myself out for a wheezing, gasping "jog", RunKeeper is my prefered app for tracking the whole ordeal.

The free app is already pretty great. It uses your iPhone's GPS sensors to track your running speed, distance and route; additionally, it allows you to program different run templates, calculate calories burned and share your favorite runs with other.

But today's update makes RunKeeper even better, with a host of new features that widen the distance between all the other jog-tracking apps out there.

The first (and, in my opinion, best) new addition to RunKeeper is auto-pause. On my runs, I have RunKeeper programmed to tell me to run for, say, five minutes, then walk for two, then repeat. If I smack into a red stop light in the middle of my run, or collapse to the ground weeping, or stop for a moment to mash a Butterfinger brand energy bar into my mouth, RunKeeper continues to count down the run timer. No longer! Now, the app will detect through its GPS radio that I've stopped, and pause the counter accordingly.

The other new functionality takes advantage of those wireless heart rate monitors that are all the rage with joggers these days. RunKeeper already supported these devices, but now the app displays the heart rate data in real-time, as well as supports targeted heart zone training. Useful if, like me, you like to keep your heart rate needle just south of the "Cardiac Explosion" side of the spectrum.

In addition, RunKeeper's new update allows you to set a workout countdown timer that will let you cram your iPhone in a pocket before you take off jogging, and some GPS updates that improve accuracy of exercise tracking.

If you've got an iPhone, you can grab the new update here.

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Make Your Own Bumps in the Night With iSoundGrid Halloween for iPad

Today is Halloween. So here's a last-minute Halloween themed iOS app that runs on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.  It can turn your next scary party into a real spooktacular or you can use it to enhance the fun while passing out loads of candy to all the little ghosts and goblins that visit.

I discovered this Halloween app treat last year and I had a blast with it then and I will later tonight. It is worth a look if you haven't seen it.

The app offers 50 sounds that you can use to startle just about anyone on Halloween or  realistically anytime you feel like it. All you have to do is plug your iOS device into your stereo or some other amplified speakers, turn up the volume (important for the best scare), and start playing with the buttons on the apps sound board.

The apps sounds can be played manually, via auto-play, or just give your iOS device a good shake and you'll hear some pretty scary stuff right away.

I used some attached battery operated speakers with this app and my iPad last year and it set the mood. The kids coming to our door looking for candy left amazed and scared, but otherwise unscathed and loaded up with candy before their next door-to-door stop. Parents escorting the kids got a kick out of it too. Over all everyone had a great Halloween and I'll be using this app every year.

The iPad version of this app costs only $1.99 (iTunes link) and the iPhone and iPod touch version is free (iTunes link).

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Need A Last Minute Halloween Costume? Check Out The Fun You Can Have With Two iPad 2s [Video]

This has been all over the place today, but if you're stuck for a Halloween costume idea and have two iPad 2s lying around, here's a great suggestion: just initiate a FaceTime call between your iPads, duct tape them to your torso, pull on a ripped hoodie and smear fake blood all over yourself. It'll look like someone shot a cannonball right through you!

Don't like your Halloween costume to be so gory? If you're a fan of Valve Software's incredible Portal series, you can follow the instructions above and instead of using fake blood. surround the two holes with an orange and blue border. Voila! You've been hit with a teleporter gun!

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Siri Could Someday Save Your Life By Calling 911 For You

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Photo: Flickr/BenSpark

Up until now, Apple's Siri voice-recognition system has been shown in a humorous light. However, what if Siri could save your life? People remaking next-generation 911 services see Siri as the voice of emergency victims, not just a locator of the nearest sushi joint.

"Once the word 'emergency' is spoken to Siri, a range of beneficial activity could commence," health policy analyst John S. Wilson writes.

For example, Siri could send first responders a live video feed from your iPhone while information about your physician, current medicine and allergies is sent to the nearest hospital using an app. On your way out the door, Siri could also text or email family members, letting them know what happened and where to meet you.

Although calling 911 from your cell phone can be an iffy proposition because location data is not always available, a new generation of emergency calling services are being developed that automatically adds location data to voice, video and text calls

And while Siri can't dial 911 now for you because there is no way of authenticating whether the call is a prank or not, next-gen 911 could provide video data as well as GPS information that could reduce the guesswork.

Aside from acute emergencies, Siri could also be used for everyday health issues. The "I've fallen and can't get up" buttons worn by the elderly and ill could be replaced by the iPhone's single activation button and Siri.

"At the tap of a button, Siri will be able to set and vocalize reminders for when to take pills, can initiate check-ups with family and care providers, and can begin a smooth chain reaction of events that would otherwise require far more time and energy to do," Wilson writes.

So, sure, Siri can act silly and it can find the perfect retailer, but it has some very practical and important uses as well — many we haven't even considered yet.

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Joos Orange Portable Solar Charger: What Indiana Jones Would Use to Charge His iPad [Review]

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There's nothing like wandering through the Outback, camping under the stars…with an iPad: It can help identify the constellation you're gazing at, let you sneak in a few chapters from your latest read or track your odyssey. That is, if you can keep the thing juiced.

Solar power is the obvious choice, but there aren't many portable solar panels with the ability to charge the iPad; add the requirement that the panel be truly rugged and your choices become very, very slim. Luckily, the Joos Orange solar panel ($150), the outfit's first product, may be the only choice you'll need to consider.

 

What's Hot:

There're four ways in which the Orange really shines.

1. It's rugged. The whole thing is completely waterproof — like, use-it-underwater waterproof. The unit is sealed, and there's a rubber gasket that fits over the outlet. I'm not sure I'd ever be in a positon to have to generate solar power underwater, but I'm sure there're some whale researchers somewhere who are going to go nuts over this capability. We did, however, submerge the Orange in about a foot of water for a while just to test this, and it passed.

It's also shock proof, dirt proof and any other kind of proof that matters in the outdoors (note: not tested for bear-proofness).

2. It's got a massive battery. The panel is stuffed with an enormous 20Wh, 5,400 mAh battery. For perspective, that's 3.5 times the capacity of an iPhone 4 battery, or about 0.75 times the capacity of an iPad 2′s battery. Does this translate into, say, being able to fill the iPad up three quarters when charging from absolutely dead? Not quite — we reached about 60 percent on the iPad (Joos says this is because the iPad is not very efficient at charging) — but it's still one whopper of a battery.

Because the battery is so large, and takes a such long time to charge under the sun — we clocked about a five percent charge per hour — Joos recommends you begin your expedition with a fully charged Orange by charging it using the supplied USB charging cable, then keep the battery topped off via the solar panel when out in the field.

3. It can charge an iPad; not all solar chargers can, because — just like most charging solutions  designed for the iPhone — they aren't able to supply enough amps to charge the iPad. But the Orange can. Charging is also pretty straightforward: just plug one end of its special cable into the Orange, and attach one of six supplied adapters to the other end, plug in the hungry gadget and you're good to go.

4. It uses high-grade components. The transparent cover over the photovoltaic cell is made from a non-yellowing, rugged urethane; the cell itself is a high-efficiency monocrystalline unit, and the cells are "connected in tandem," which is supposed to give the Orange better performance in shaded areas; in fact, the Orange performed well in this respect, and kept charging even when in moderate shade.

There's other good stuff too — little details, like the waterproof drybag the connector and adapters come with, a big round slot in the panel's housing for securing the unit with a cable lock, and two LEDs for charging status and battery level. There's also a power management applet for the Mac — though, oddly, not one yet for the iPad (Joos says this is coming).

 

What's Not:

The Orange takes forever and a day (almost literally) to charge. This is most likely due to its gigantor mega-battery, but still, it'd be nice if the thing took less than the almost two days to fully charge under the sun.

The two LEDs — one that shows how well the Orange is charging by varying the speed of it's blinks, and the other that displays charge level through the number of blinks — were difficult to see in direct sunlight.

The output jack on the Orange is proprietary; lose the accessory cable and you're stuck having to buy another from Orange — you can'y just plug in an Apple 30-pin connecter, as with some other solar chargers.

Verdict:

An expedition-quality solar panel that'll keep your iPad juiced come hell or high water; certainly the latter, anyway.

 

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

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Possible Fix For iOS 5 And iPhone 4S Battery Life?

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I've been a bit quiet lately while considering the possible reasons why my new iPhone 4S has the worst battery life of any iPhone I've ever owned. Normally by now I would have written some battery troubleshooting tips to share with all of you. However, this time around the problem is anything but normal and the usual tips aren't helping. So I've been quiet about this.

I cannot say the same thing about Apple's discussion forums since the conversation about battery life there is reaching epic proportions and the conversation there is rather loud.

It might be about to get a lot quieter with this tip, which seems to be working for me.

The problem might be caused by how iOS 5 handles location services. According to one source I found the problem might be caused by a bug in how iOS 5 handles time zone switching based on your current location.

There is a setting in Location Services in the Setting App that might resolve the battery issues we've all been experiencing. I tried it for about half a day and it looks like it helped,  but I really need to spend a full day with it and a fresh 100% charge before I get to excited. However, so far it looks good so I thought I'd share what I found.

Open the Settings app , tap Location Services and then tap System Services. Now find the "Setting Time Zone" setting and toggle it Off.

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Test your iPhone 4S or other devices supporting this feature starting with a full charge for one day. Let me know whether it works for you or not. Preliminary tests and several comments I read about it show it might have helped a few other people besides me out, but like I said I won't feel comfortable until I've used the fix for an entire day.

[via iPhone Hacks]

 

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Everything You Need to Know About the Evil, Useful Find My Friends [FAQ]

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A handy way to link up with friends? You bet. Evil? Quite possibly. Lame? That's what a friend of mine thought. Find My Friends, Apple's newest app, is a new location tool that can be used to great effect — or become one huge, scary headache.

Here's an FAQ with all you need to know about navigating safely through the app.

What exactly does Find My Friends do?

It's just like location services on your iDevice's Google Maps app, it can show you where other people are — assuming they give you permission. Each friend you're tracking will show up on the map as a separate dot, with distance in miles by their name. It'll automatically refresh as they move, and you can even get directions to their location

 

I'm not sold. Why do I want to download Find My Friends?

Maybe you want to meet up with a buddy, but you don't have directions. Of course, you could always ask him to share his location via Google Maps; but what if he's barhopping, on the move? FMF is the way to go. Or let's say you're a group of people for a special event — FMF is the perfect tool to keep track of your team. Got kids? FMF gives you another option to keep your children under tabs.

Of course, everyone involved will need an iDevice running iOS 5 and an iCloud account.

 

Ok, how do I get started?

First, you'll need to download the free app. one that's done, sign into your iTunes account.

Now you'll need some friends to stalk track. Use the add button under the "All" tab. If your friend already has FMF installed it'll show up in his app as a request; if he doesn't have the app installed , he'll get an email asking him to download the app. Once he's accepted your invitation, you should see his email address pop up, along with his location — though it may take a while for this to happen. To add his photo and name to your friend's FMF entry, simply link it to his entry in your Contacts app.

Note that following isn't necessarily a two-way deal — you can be following someone who isn't following you, unless you've explicitly given them permission to follow you by accepting their invitation.

If you have several devices on the same account, be sure to check the one you want your friend to be able to track.

 

My iPad doesn't have a GPS. Will it still work?

Yes — FMF will determine your position using the old-school location services feature, like the original iPhone did, by pinging you from a nearby router or cell tower.

 

Isn't this whole thing kind of creepy though? How do I keep myself safe?

Yeah, kinda. But Apple seems to have understood that they're dealing with a potentially dangerous tool, and have placed several layers of safeguards to try to make the whole thing as safe as possible.

As mentioned above, you need to explicitly accept an invitation to be followed. If you want to become temporarily invisible, you can switch on "Hide from Followers" under the accounts tab, which will take you off grid until you switch it off again. It's also easy to follow someone (or let them follow you) temporarily, using the "Temporary" tab. From here you can invite friends and set the location sharing to expire at a certain time. Once expired, the friends are removed completely from your FMF app. Finally, you'll have to sign into the app each time you access it — unless you've turned on your device's Passcode Lock (in the Settings app under General). This gives the people you're tracking a margin of safety if someone other than you gets their hands on your device. Similar Posts:Track Your iPhone 4S' Shipping Progress in Realtime With Just Your Phone Number [How-To] Apple Launches Find My Friends Ahead of iOS 5 Release, But You Won't Find It In the App Store [Gallery] Steve Jobs: iPhone LocationGate Is False… But Android Tracks You Apple's New Find My Friends iOS App Lets You Locate Your Buddies Where Ever They Are Apple Updates iOS To Fix Location Bugs [4.3.3 Available Now]

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Steve Jobs' Final Words And More Revealed in His Sister's Eulogy

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Mona Simpson, Steve Jobs' sister, published her eulogy for her brother in The New York Times today. The piece is the most touching, intimate tribute to Steve we've seen since his passing.

An excerpt:

"Tuesday morning, he called me to ask me to hurry up to Palo Alto. His tone was affectionate, dear, loving, but like someone whose luggage was already strapped onto the vehicle, who was already on the beginning of his journey, even as he was sorry, truly deeply sorry, to be leaving us.

He started his farewell and I stopped him. I said, "Wait. I'm coming. I'm in a taxi to the airport. I'll be there."

"I'm telling you now because I'm afraid you won't make it on time, honey."

When I arrived, he and his Laurene were joking together like partners who'd lived and worked together every day of their lives. He looked into his children's eyes as if he couldn't unlock his gaze.

Until about 2 in the afternoon, his wife could rouse him, to talk to his friends from Apple.

Then, after awhile, it was clear that he would no longer wake to us.

His breathing changed. It became severe, deliberate, purposeful. I could feel him counting his steps again, pushing farther than before.

This is what I learned: he was working at this, too. Death didn't happen to Steve, he achieved it."

Read the whole piece on The New York Times. Incredible moments and aspects of Steve's life are revealed from a very unique perspective. Mona Simpson also describes Steve's last words.

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CoM Readers Spice Up Halloween With Apple Themed Costumes & Pumpkins [Gallery]

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The most wonderful time of the year isn't Christmas, it's Halloween. No other day on the calendar gives you an excuse to dress up like Han Solo and go out on the prowl in search of the sexiest version of Princess Leia you can find. A lot of our readers decided to celebrate Halloween with a tribute to their favorite computer company, so we asked our Twitter followers to tweet us pics their Apple inspired Halloween costumes and jack o'-lanterns.

If you have a picture of your Apple theme'd costume or jack o'-lantern and would like for us to include it in the gallery, tweet it over to us @cultofmac

Here's some of the best pictures from last night:

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Siri's here to assist you. [via @Docceng & @chelsearesnick]

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Steve Jobs costume [via @brianharrisjr]

 

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iPhone Guy [via @KetchupWilliams]

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Classic Apple Logo Jack0lantern [via @Zprater1]

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Steve Jackolantern [via Macrumors]

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Steve Jobs Portrait [via Macrumors]

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What's the best way to wait for Trick or Treaters? With your iPad, iPod and MacBook next to your Apple Jackolantern[via@daniel_bolton]

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Apple Jackolantern [via @AlexMColombo]

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Jackolantern [via @TSCook]
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Apple Bedroom. Not Halloween themed, but some readers' fanaticism deserves a post [via @TCurt15]

 

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Siri Hacked To Run On The iPhone 4 And iPod touch 4G [Video]

This could be fake, but it certainly looks real to us: iPhone hackers chpwn and Steve Troughton say they've gotten Siri working on the iPhone 4 and fourth-gen iPod touch, and they've got video to prove it. So it is possible. Sadly, though, both hackers say that whatever method they used for exploit is not for public release any time soon, so the rest of us poor suckers will just have to keep twiddling our thumbs.

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