Charlotte Henry

Future versions of the Apple Pencil may include a haptic system that will monitor the user’s grip. That’s according to AppleInsider, who noticed a recently granted patent.

In a patent granted by the USPTO to Apple on Tuesday titled “Touch-based input device with haptic feedback,” the filing details how a system could be used to perform two jobs: providing haptic feedback to the user, while also being able to read force measurements from the user’s grip. Apple’s proposal involves the use of a piezoelectric device attached to the inside of the housing, one that would be connected to the user grip region of the housing. The grip section would be deformable, both inwards and outwards, allowing it to be used for providing information to the user as well as taking in grip data. The piezoelectric device would theoretically push out the housing in the grip region when it needs to alert the user via haptic feedback.

A mother in Oklahoma says that an Apple Watch saved her 13-year-old son’s life, 9to5 Mac reported. It adds to the growing collection of stories whereby the wearable has helped people by highlighting major health issues.

13-year-old Skylar Joslin was sitting in class when his Apple Watch detected a heart of 190 beats-per-minute. Local news outlet KFOR tells the story: Skylar was sitting in class in April of 2018, when he got an alarming notification on his two-week-old Apple Watch. “I got a text message along with a screenshot of his heart rate that was 190,” said Skylar’s mom Liz. “The following message saying, ‘Mommy, there’s something wrong. I’m not doing anything.’” Liz then came and picked up Skylar from school and took him to the emergency room — his heart rate peaked at 202 bpm during the drive and as high as 280 bpm at the hospital. Doctors then diagnosed Skylar with supraventricular tachycardia, or SVT, which is a disease that forces the heart to speed up. Skylar then underwent a seven and a half hour cardiac ablation to help fix his heart’s rhythm.

Rumors began recently that Apple was set to release so-called “AirPod Pro Lite” headphones in the not too distant future. However, their launch could be delayed. MacRumors picked up on a report from DigiTimes that suggested production is unlikely to start in the second quarter of 2020.

While we still don’t have a full picture of what to expect with these upcoming earphones, DigiTimes today published another short paywalled blurb specifically describing ‌AirPods Pro‌ Lite as an “entry-level version of Apple’s ‌AirPods Pro‌ series” and saying that production will not kick off in the second quarter of this year as originally planned. Production of the ‌AirPods Pro‌ Lite, an entry-level version of Apple’s ‌AirPods Pro‌ series, is unlikely to kick off in the second quarter as originally planned, according to industry sources.

Pandora users Apple Watch can now stream music and podcasts directly from the wearable device, without needing their iPhone. It became a standalone app via an update on Thursday, AppleInsider reported.

Pandora’s official update reads, “Leave the phone at home and bring all of your listening with you thanks to our updated Apple Watch app. Now you can stream your favorite music and podcasts, straight from your wrist – no phone required.” Other services, like Apple Music, need users to pre-load music on an Apple Watch for a run or other exercise, when the iPhone isn’t in range. The feature requires the watch in question to be running watchOS 6 or greater.

Apple Shipped 2.6 Million HomePods during the last three months of 2019. That is a long way behind its competitors, especially Amazon. David Watkins, director at Strategy Analytics, told Cult of Mac why he thinks that is.

“The price is still very high…That closes the door to a huge swathe of potential customers.” “I think there’s also a reasonable amount of consumer skepticism over the usefulness of Siri as a voice platform,” Watkins continued. “Amazon and Google have done an amazing job of building out their ecosystem around Alexa and Google Assistant, in partnership with so many smart home companies. Apple doesn’t have that strength of ecosystem around Siri.”

A ‘Carkey’ API appeared in the first beta version of iOS 13.4. However, a new patent application, reported on by AppleInsider, indicated the technology could have other uses, like a Homekit connected smart lock.

The first beta of iOS 13.4 revealed traces of a “CarKey” API, one which would effectively turn the iPhone into an electronic key for a vehicle, similar to current keyless unlocking and starting systems employed today. By bringing the iPhone close to an NFC point, it could feasibly allow a car to start and to be driven, while also offering the option of sharing a version of the key to others with certain permissions disabled, such as enabling a car to be unlocked but not driven. In a patent application titled “System access using a mobile device” published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, Apple seems to be planning a much wider use of the concept than in just vehicles. The abstract for the filing mentions it would be used to authenticate a mobile device for access to system functionality, including “physical access to a system, starting an engine.”

Some Apple Stores in Beijing will reopen on Friday, 14 February, Reuters reported. However, customers are going to have to wear surgical masks. The retail outlet closure were extended on February 8 due to the spread of coronavirus.

Its five stores in Beijing will open from Feb. 14 between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., according to Apple’s website, shorter than its usual hours of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Stores in cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen remain shut. “In view of public health and prevention, some of our retail stores are temporarily closed,” it said in a notice on its website, which also asked customers visiting outlets that were open to wear a mask and cooperate with temperature taking.

Mobile World Congress (MWC) is one of the highlights of the European, and indeed global, tech event calendar. But this year it has been canceled. The decision is due to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, The Verge reported.

After coronavirus threatened to throw MWC into chaos, the GSM Association (GSMA), which organizes the show, has now canceled it. It comes after more than a week of exhibitors and companies pulling out of MWC. In a statement, GSMA CEO John Hoffman said the coronavirus outbreak has made it “impossible” to hold the event. MWC was scheduled to take place in Barcelona between February 24th and the 27th.

The EU and Google continue their court battle with a clash over internet power. Furthermore, the internet giant argued that fines against it went too far. Bloomberg News  has a rundown of what happened in the Luxembourg courtroom.

As many as seven billion daily searches make the U.S. giant “the front page of the internet,” Nicholas Khan, a lawyer for the European Commission told a panel of judges in the opening session of a three-day hearing at the EU General Court in Luxembourg. “The case is, in a nutshell, about what users are presented with, having made a search,” Khan said. Google search provides “an immensely powerful lever to direct users’ attention to any specific search market where Google might wish to develop a presence. No other internet player is in any remotely comparable position.” The Alphabet Inc. unit earlier on Wednesday argued that the EU went too far with a 2017 EU fine, then a record 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion), and an order to change how it shows shopping search results from rivals.