Jawbone UP3 to Begin Shipping on April 20 With Lower Water Resistance Capabilities [iOS Blog]

Jawbone announced the newest iteration in its line of wrist-worn UP fitness trackers back in November, but it's taken several months for the new devices to be ready to ship, likely because of all the new sensor additions.



The company began taking pre-orders several months ago and customers who purchased the devices have been waiting patiently for news on a ship date, which Jawbone delivered today. According to a blog post on the company's site, the UP3 will begin shipping out to customers in the United States on April 20.





Pre-orders will ship in the order that they were received, and based on the number of orders, Jawbone expects all pre-order customers to receive their UP3 bands no later than mid-May.



According to Jawbone, the UP3 includes several new sensors that give it more advanced health and fitness tracking capabilities. It has a new tri-axis accelerometer, skin and ambient temperature sensors, and "bioimpedance" sensors that let the UP3 analyze a wide range of biometric data, including resting heart rate. It can track detailed sleep stages, distinguishing between REM sleep, light sleep, and deep sleep, and it can distinguish between different workout activities.






Today's blog post also includes an apology to customers, explaining that orders were delayed due to quality control issues with water resistance. The company hoped to offer water resistance up to 10 meters, but is unable to do so, making it unsuitable for use while swimming or under water. Customers who want to cancel their pre-orders can do so.

Our intention was to ship an advanced multi-sensor product that defied industry standards with water resistance of up to 10 meters. Unfortunately, after extensive and exhaustive testing we have been unable to guarantee 10 meters of water resistance for all UP3 units.



UP3 will now ship with a water resistance comparable to, and in line with, most other multi-sensor trackers. This means that UP3 is resistant to everyday splashing, including while washing hands or in the shower, but it is unsuitable for swimming or submerged use. We would like to apologize to customers who may have pre-ordered UP3 on the basis that it would be suitable for swimming. Customers who wish to cancel their pre-order will, of course, be able to do so with no charge.

The UP3 is available for pre-order for $179.99 from the Jawbone website. Orders placed today will ship out after pre-orders have been sent, arriving towards the end of May.

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Posted in 2015 at 09:21PM, April 09

No 4K Video Streaming Support for Upcoming Apple TV Set-Top Box

Following up on last month's claim that Apple is planning to show off a revamped Apple TV set-top box with App Store and Siri support at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, BuzzFeed now reports that the new box will not include support for 4K video streaming even though several services like Netflix, Amazon, and YouTube offer content in the high-resolution format.

“4K is great, but it’s still in its infancy,” said one source familiar with Apple’s thinking.



Enabling 4K video support in Apple’s first major overhaul of Apple TV in three years might seem like a smart bit of future-proofing — particularly given reports that the A8 chip in the guts of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is 4K-capable. But it’s arguably an unnecessary one at this point.

The report points out that 4K streaming is expensive for content providers given the bandwidth required, and the vast majority of Americans do not even have Internet connectivity at fast enough speeds to support such streaming. Still, those who do currently stream 4K content or hope to in the relatively near future are likely to be disappointed by Apple's decision to forgo support in the next Apple TV.





Beyond existing Apple TV services and new third-party apps, the revamped Apple TV is also expected to support a package of streaming television channels if Apple can manage to reach agreements with the necessary content providers. Apple is reportedly in talks with ABC, Fox, and Disney, as well as Discovery and Viacom, to try to put together a "skinny" TV package of select channels that would reportedly cost consumers somewhere in the range of $25 to $40 per month. Apple is said to be aiming to announce the service at WWDC in June and launch it in the September timeframe.

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Posted in 2015 at 09:21PM, April 05

Apple to Open Massive $850M Solar Farm in Monterey, California [Mac Blog]

During today's Goldman Sachs conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple is planning its "boldest, biggest, most ambitious project," yet in the form of a 1,300 acre solar farm in Monterey County, California.



The solar farm, which puts out enough power for almost 60,000 California farms, will provide enough renewable energy for Apple's new campus, every other office it has in California, all 52 stores in the state, and its data center in Newark, California. The solar farm is an $850 million project, which Cook says Apple is doing "because it's right to do."




Image of Apple's North Carolina solar farm courtesy of Gigaom

We know at Apple that climate change is real and our view is that the time for talk has passed and the time for action is now. We've shown that with what we do.

Though the solar farm good for the environment, Tim Cook also highlighted the fiscal impact of such a decision, explaining that there's a significant price difference between the fixed price of renewable energy and the price of brown energy. "We're thrilled to continue on the course of leaving the world better than we found it," said Cook.



Apple has already built a series of large solar farms in North Carolina , but at $850m, the Monterey County solar farm will be its most ambitious project yet.

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Posted in 2015 at 09:21PM, February 10