Apple Working to Leverage New 'M7' Motion-Sensing Chip for Mapping Improvements

[davidbrummy]

So Apple announce a finger print scanner and show how you can unlock your phone with it - WOW. The spent no time explaining to consumers how cool this feature could be. Where was paypal, square, banks showing the cool uses of this feature for consumers.

Apple is meant to show us how cool their features are. This lacked that completely.

They did do a better job with the Camera. But let us face it phone Cameras are good enough now and no one buys the pixel and flash argument. Unless you innovate and can add an optical zoom or an angle lense it is not a big deal.

For gammers the 64 bit processor is cool and there was a nice piece about it.

 

[autrefois]

Same old paranoid nonsense.

Same old flippant dismissing of privacy concerns that have proven to be completely justified.

 

[davidbrummy]

lol....

This could be good. but i have few more improvements for the M7 :-

- Siri integration, and better support so you can just say "OK Siri..." and the pone will spring to life" based on settings.

I have a feeling this could be just the start.... Apple could use "motion-sensing" for all sorts of things, particularly non-Apple apps.

They could but did a poor job on all the features talking about how cool they could be. Where were the APPS!

 

[Aidyn's X]

And disables the keyboard. That alone would save untold lives.

What if you are the passenger.

 

[FirstNTenderbit]

"Since M7 can tell when you're in a moving vehicle, iPhone 5s won't ask you to join Wi-Fi networks you pass by. And if your phone hasn't moved for a while, like when you're asleep, M7 reduces network pinging to spare your battery."

Awesome! Apple products/features always seem to offer MORE than the initial event suggests.

As opposed to some device-makes (who shall remain nameless) who throw a lot of hype at a laundry list of "exciting new" features that really don't work well or offer much to people.

Yes, that's right: those companies typically go for superficial image--while Apple delivers the real value. Buying a meaningless bullet list is worse than buying a "logo" as they accuse us of! At least that logo carries a reminder of the excellent products and service we're familiar with. A bullet list with "pause the music when you look away from the video" on it? Pixel count while ignoring color quality? Those are what tempt the true shallow herd-followers!

Apple's marketing team would give you a definite +1 for this post. Good job.

 

[fmalloy]

Haha yeah I deleted that piece of garbage months ago.

Actually, Google Now uses very little battery. Even though I see the Location Services indicator on constantly due to it, I have noticed zero increase in battery usage.

I was skeptical too, but I keep it on 24-7. No impact.

There's plenty of reasons to trash Google, but this isn't one of them.

 

[Oneness]

What's concerns me about this brave new world is that companies and governments collect information about everyone, even unimportant people like DowdyFick, gnashed, WorldTravelBro, Tony0693, and Zerilos (who at least know that they are nobodies).

From the data they collect they can determine who your friends and associates are, what web sites you visit, where you go, etc.

Would you like to get a ticket automatically every time you exceed the speed limit? The information that they are collecting can help that happen. And you will deserve the fine, because you really will have broken the law.

To take this point further -
Yes, we are all unimportant but it is the amount and the ease of collecting the information that is concerning
Once that information is available I guarantee the information will be used and abused by people/organizations/governments. For example: Obama and the IRS scandal.
Do I worry about the NSA knocking on my door anytime soon, no I don't. I am a law abiding citizen. But govenments change (even democracies) if not in wholesale ideology than at least in sutble shifts that open the door for public opinion to be swayed in the way in which those in power want it to be swayed.

I know that I will be flamed as a 'crazy' for this post, but this is what I believe: power should rest with the people and not with corporations and/or govenments. if information is power then the balance of power in this nation has shifted and it lies in the wrong hands - imho.

 

[StyxMaker]

Agreed, just fixing this joining of nearest available Wifi networks when driving or walking would be a much welcomed improvement. Now I just turn off Wifi if I'm on the go. It would be nice to have the phone have this sort of intelligence.

I have always kept 'Ask to join networks' set to 'no'. My iPhone automatically joins the networks where I usually hang out and ignores all the ones in between.

 

[Krazy Bill]

Apple is testing a tool for its Maps app that, with the M7 chip, could analyze when your car is parked.

Why should I care what time I parked my car? I’d rather be able to find my wife in the mall after sitting on a bench for 7 hours. Better yet… send 50 volts through her iPhone when her purchases exceed $100.

 

[crackbookpro]

More like creating tech that knows when you are driving and doesn't allow you to use your phone, say teens texting or drivers holding phone up to ear to talk rather than having both hands on the wheel.

How do they know if the "sender" or "recipient" texter is the driver or passenger?

This M7 will enhance better battery life no doubt as well as embark on a new strategy for in-the-car use in due time... I just think we have some waiting to do for legit change to the car monitor from Apple. As well as some waiting for the Touch ID/biometric scanning to come into fruition with each & every brick n' mortar store. No matter what, other means of purchasing, like all facets of online purchasing will quickly adopt to this within a year or so for security purposes and ease of use.

This Touch ID will affect change... and one day, your wallet will go bye bye's.

Apple started a revolution again... many just don't see the writing on the wall yet, especially Wall Street as of today.

 

[TMay]

So Apple announce a finger print scanner and show how you can unlock your phone with it - WOW. The spent no time explaining to consumers how cool this feature could be. Where was paypal, square, banks showing the cool uses of this feature for consumers.

Apple is meant to show us how cool their features are. This lacked that completely.

Apple doesn't yet allow developers to use the Touch ID data; hence, there aren't any apps that would use it except for Apple apps. This makes sense as Apple needs to get data on reliability and security of Touch ID in the field.

When the time comes, I'm sure that Apple and app developers will tout Touch ID.

 

[johncrab]

On a point of grammar I must point out that there is no such thing as a "pre-order". Either something is ordered or it is not. It is possible to place an order for processing at a later date buy by doing so a given item has in fact been ordered, not pre-ordered.

 

[Tech198]

Apple doesn't yet allow developers to use the Touch ID data; hence, there aren't any apps that would use it except for Apple apps. This makes sense as Apple needs to get data on reliability and security of Touch ID in the field.

When the time comes, I'm sure that Apple and app developers will tout Touch ID.

"When the times comes" is correct. And I sure hope that time doesn't come. .

 

[BruceEBonus]

Apple started a revolution again... many just don't see the writing on the wall yet, especially Wall Street as of today.

Well one part of that is an accurate premonition...that being the bit about the writing and the wall :-(

 

[lilo777]

True. But it's still part of why I'm in the Apple ecosysytem and not Android. Yes, they both collect information about us. (I would bet Google collects the most). Apple uses that information to give us a better experience. Google will also provide you key information to improve your experience, but they are also heavily leveraging that info for advertisments etc.

And this harms you how? In that you will see, say, car ads instead of underwear ads (if you are a man)? You information is not passed to anybody.

 

[TWSS37]

The point is that your iPhone only collected is data when it was told to by a specific app. Now it is collecting that information all the time without negatively affecting your battery. There's more information so more usefulness.

So... like the dedicated Moto X processor concept for voice commands?

 

[StyxMaker]

Hopefully with this there can be an app or a way to automatically disable texting while driving. It would save a lot of lives.

There is no reason stop a passenger in a moving car from texting. I often have a passenger coordinating things with the passenger in another car when we are traveling.

 

[Yojimbo007]

Google has indoor navigation? I do t think so!

 

[MRSucks]

Yay! More opportunities for Apple to collect data about us.

This is why I stick to Apple.

I will not let Google, Samsung and the rest in the copycats club track me.

If you do live in the Paranoid Planet, stick to that cave with a dumb phone. Get off the internet MESSAGE BOARDS!

/s

 

[giantfan1224]

There is no reason stop a passenger in a moving car from texting. I often have a passenger coordinating things with the passenger in another car when we are traveling.

Exactly. I have navigation in my Toyota and it will not let me or anyone in the vehicle input an address while the vehicle is in motion. Epic Fail! Apple would never do this.

 

[TWSS37]

Google has indoor navigation? I do t think so!

Not sure if typo or just wrong

 

[lilo777]

Apple started a revolution again... many just don't see the writing on the wall yet, especially Wall Street as of today.

While the features that the article mentions do make sense, I doubt that M7 co-processor is a revolution. I suspect that it's a technical necessity.

First, the quoted article is probably technically incorrect in saying that "Now fitness apps that track physical activity can access that data from the M7 coprocessor without constantly engaging the A7 chip. So they require less battery power."

Fitness apps run on A7, therefore they can't do anything without "engaging the A7 chip". Most likely the accurate story is that M7 is used for collecting data from the sensors when fitness apps are not actually doing anything (and A7 may go to sleep) and from time to time when the apps need the data they get it from M7 (or from the flash memory where M7 saved the data).

The co-processor itself does not add much (if anything) to the type of data that may be collected. It's all about the sensors. I do not know if those are usually placed on the main APU (SOC) or not. If they were moved to M7 there might be some power savings there.

However, the reason why Apple may need a co-processor could be because of the chosen A7 architecture. With two big cores, it's difficult to save power when you need to perform simple computational tasks required for registering sensor data. On the other hand, Samsung may utilize the features of their big/little core architecture where they would simply run one little core on the main APU to do what M7 does. because they can do that.

 

[Todd B.]

Yay! More opportunities for Apple to collect data about us.

Do you use Google Maps?

Actually, Google Now uses very little battery. Even though I see the Location Services indicator on constantly due to it, I have noticed zero increase in battery usage.

I was skeptical too, but I keep it on 24-7. No impact.

There's plenty of reasons to trash Google, but this isn't one of them.

Um, it did drain the battery a LOT.

 

[TTile]

NFC is dead. RIP.

Beacons and BLE killed it.

http://estimote.com

iBeacon for iPhone and whatever Google calls theirs will do oh so much more than NFC.

Seems interesting although indoor location-based services may eliminate the need to physically touch a beacon. And I don't really see the difference between touching some sort of sensor on your phone to a payment beacon versus bringing your NFC-enabled phone close to the payment receiver...

----------

Do you use Google Maps?

Or google anything...

 

[Appleusergerman]

I bet the M7 was invented by the NSA to track you even better!