Wearable devices maker Misfit at CES 2016 announced new products that build on its expertise in health and fitness tracking. A new activity tracker from the company, called the Ray, tracks your movement and sleep and resembles a bracelet with a cylindrical aluminum body.
Another new product from Misfit, a first for the company: the Specter in-ear wireless headphones with dual driver technology and a built-in accelerometer sensor for tracking your activity and sleep when worn.
The Consumer Electronics Show is underway this week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yesterday, we shared a few Apple-related CES announcements on iDownloadBlog before realizing there are too many product unveilings happening at the show for us to be able to cover them without cluttering the homepage with CES stuff.
That's why we've made a decision to run daily roundups of the most important CES announcements you might be interested in, starting with today's round up of CES 2016.
iHeartRadio Media announced today at CES 2016 in Las Vegas that a whole new radio-streaming app will be coming to the fourth-generation Apple TV. In addition to a redesigned interface, it will allow users to experience all of the core elements of the service and let them access thousands of live and custom stations, including podcasts.
Both registered and unregistered users will be able to play live and custom radio stations, view For You recommendations, save favorite stations to a brand new My Favorites Radio feature and more, all from the comfort of their couch.
Wearable company Fitbit at CES 2016 in Las Vegas announced a brand new lineup of fitness-focused smartwatches, marketed under the Blaze moniker. Featuring a sleek design and easily interchangeable accessories, the Blaze lineup offers an enhanced fitness and workout experience with advanced coaching and other features.
All devices are outfitted with a color touchscreen, have a built-in heart rate tracker and SmartTrack exercise recognition and support interchangeable bands and frames.
Fiat Chrysler on Monday announced its fourth-generation Uconnect system, which will bring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to select vehicle models later this year. In a press release, the automaker says that the addition of CarPlay will give drivers a smarter, safer way to use their iPhones while in their cars.
"With fourth-gen," said Joni Christensen, Head of Uconnect Marketing, "we are continuing to minimize the everyday stresses of busy lifestyles by providing drivers with a variety of ways to stay conveniently connected to their vehicles, while making every drive exceptionally informative, entertaining and unique."
Picking a portable battery pack for your iPhone or other smartphone brand can be a daunting task. There are literally hundreds of such accessories in the marketplace that are vying for your attention, available in many shapes, sizes and price points.
The latest entrant to the mobile charging game is a Silicon Valley startup called 4Second Life, which at CES 2016 in Las Vegas showed off its portable charger, the Aluminum VI, which looks (or wants to look) like it was designed by Apple itself.
Accessory vendor Brydge launched at CES 2016 in Las Vegas a pair of brand new clamshell backlit keyboard cases for Apple's super-sized iPad Pro and the fourth-generation iPad mini.
Both the aluminum-clad $189 BrydgePro for iPad Pro and the $99 BrydgeMini for iPad mini 4 have rechargeable three-month batteries, sport backlit keys akin to those on MacBooks, offer Bluetooth connectivity and have a multi-angle hinge mechanism for folding them into a clamshell-like appearance.
Apple's twelve-inch MacBook is one hell of a laptop in terms of portability, build quality and features, but some people are fretting over its limited expandability. With just one USB-C port, folks who wish to connect more than one accessory to the notebook must buy pricey USB-C adapters.
Sadly, the adoption of USB-C on the one-port MacBook has also meant nixing Apple's tremendously popular MagSafe adapter.
If you're concerned about sending your notebook flying by accidentally tripping over its USB-C charging cable, Griffin has a solution for you in the form of a newly announced charging cable that brings MagSafe-like technology to the new MacBook.
Ever since the iPod's heyday a decade ago, I was been wondering whether Apple in its pursue of miniaturization might eventually come around engineering an iPod shuffle of sorts that would be entirely embedded inside the firm's In-Ear Headphones.
But as Apple hit the brake on iPod innovation amid rise of the iPhone, my dreams have remained mere wishful thinking — up until now. A German company called Bragi has created a tiny earbuds that contain an embedded MP3 player, a comprehensive fitness tracker and a host of other features.
Jeremy Horwitz of 9to5Mac had a chance to play with Harman's novel CarPlay solution at CES 2015 which ditches touchscreen-based interactions in favor of a steering wheel-mounted touchpad.
Harman, which designs and sells audio and infotainment equipment, says its Integrated Essentials Cockpit is noteworthy as it doesn’t render UI on an in-car display like other CarPlay systems, but rather puts it in the dashboard directly behind the steering wheel.
Such an approach could be viewed as better compared to touchscreen-based CarPlay systems for a number of reasons, yet isn't without its pitfalls.
As The Verge reported Thursday, Consumer electronics maker Philips took the wraps off its new on-ear headphones that don't have a built-in battery, instead drawing power from the Lightning port of an iOS device.
The Fidelio NC1L features noise-cancelling technology which uses four different microphones to suppress background noise. Audio quality is improved further thanks to the use of Philips's own integrated 24-bit digital-to-analog converter instead of the one built into iOS devices.
At CES, Other World Computing launched several new products aimed at Apple users, including a new desktop-class solid state drive (SSD) packaged inside a tiny USB 3.0 thumb drive form factor and a work-in-progress version of the forthcoming Transwarp software which marries traditional hard drive to SSD cache akin to Apple's own FusionDrive solution.