Daily Apple News: Sleep tracking in watches rumor, air purifier launch, Swift update, photography challenge winners, and more

We’re back again with the latest and greatest Apple news. Today’s daily dose of Apple news ranges all the way from augmented reality and sleep tracking watch feature to Apple’s new air-purifier. Take a seat, relax and let us embark on a journey through the fascinating world of Apple!

Thanks to an interview between Ted Kremenek and John Sundell, the world has come to know that Apple has something in store for its coding language called Swift. Swift was first born in 2014 and the company is ready to take it to a new phase.

Apple is updating Swift to v5.0 and this is being spearheaded by Ted Kremenek. Ted Kremenek happens to be the senior manager of languages and runtimes at Apple.

Kremenek covered a variety of topics relating to Swift 5.0, claiming that its main focus is on ABI stability (Application Binary Interfaces). The expert of language codes even went into detail as to how ABI stability came into being and how alterations are needed to be made to make Swift ABI stable.

It’s nice to see Apple revive something which started all the way back in 2014.

Moving on, augmented reality seems to be the next big thing and Apple certainly wants a slice of the pie. A patent filed by the company gives us an insight into Apple’s intention of entering the Augmented Reality zone.

Reports claim that Apple may be working on an augmented reality headset or glasses which could possibly be ready by 2020 or 2021. The Apple patent entails a procedure for representing points of interest in a real-world environment.

Unfortunately, it’s still a guessing game in terms of whether it will be a headset or glasses since all that patent disclosed about the device is that it’s a head-mounted display. The device will function like any other head-mounted virtual device in terms of it displaying a computer-generated image over real-world surroundings.

The camera on the headset will highlight points of interest in the nearby environment. The images of Apple’s augemnted reality are courtesy of AppleInsider.

A glimpse into how it would function is best provided by the image in the patent. The image shows off buildings, with each having an overlapping label with different points of interest. Sadly, as of now, this is just an idea and may never even become a reality!

Elsewhere, Apple happily took to Twitter to reveal the winning photographs of its Shot on iPhone photography challenge. This challenge began on the 22nd of January and came to a halt on the 7th of February.

The ten lucky winners are Alex Jiang, Blake Marvin, Elizabeth Scarrott, Andrew Griswold, Bernard Antolin, and LieAdi Darmawan from the U.S., Darren Soh from Singapore, Nikita Yarosh from Belarus, Dina Alfasi from Israel, and Robert Glaser from Germany.

The winning photographs will be glorified on Apple billboards, showcased at retail stores and of course, featured on its website and social media accounts. The images were taken with a wide range of Apple iPhones, ranging from the iPhone 7 all the way to the iPhone XS Max.

Apart from fame, the winners will receive a licensing fee from Apple.

Coming to the next news, Apple smartwatches may be getting a sleep tracking feature in the not so far future. A report from Bloomberg claims that the company has been testing the feature for several months now and that if it passes the so-called testing phase, it could be a prominent feature of all future Apple Watches.

This is actually a pretty basic feature which watchOS has been lacking since its inception. Even companies like Xiaomi as well as FitBit have incorporated the feature a long time ago.

Perhaps it’s time for Apple to wake up from its slumber and do the same. Rumor has it that this feature may become official in 2020 versions of Apple’s watches.

Moving on, a recent report by a Baird analyst, William Power, indicates that most users in the U.S looking to upgrade their phones are most likely to purchase Apple devices. While there’s no denying that upgrade rates might be slow, what’s also undeniable is that most of those who want to upgrade are opting for Apple iPhones.

The survey consisted of 1,5000 U.S shoppers. Out of this number, 15% were keen on upgrading to a newer device in the next two months. In addition, 67% of them confirmed that their upgrade would consist of an iPhone.

It seems like Apple still has a strong foothold in the U.S smartphone market. This could be motivation enough for the company to innovate and bring the best of tech in the near future.

Moving on, Apple’s plans of diversifying reportedly include an air-purifier. The official Apple online store has just been updated with a new product called the Wynd Plus Smart Personal Air Purifier.

As the name suggests, the product is an air-purifier and works like any other air purifier. On the bright side, the device can be remotely controlled through an app on iOS. The device will be available for sale on the company’s online store at a price tag of $199.95.

Finally, the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold and the foldable Huawei Mate X has left Apple with quite a number of concerns. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, has expressed his astonishment at the reality of a foldable smartphone.

Apart from this, he has also expressed how worrisome it is for the company since it does not have a foldable smartphone of its own. However, the co-founder does end on a note of hope as he says that Apple is always looking to advance in terms of smartphone technology and that the company is full of surprises!

Do you think that Apple may launch a foldable device any time soon? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Thanks for tuning in for today’s daily dose of Apple news. Be sure to tune in again tomorrow for more interesting and captivating news from the Apple ecosystem.

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