Life & Technology – 2GB 1st November, 2014

Tim Cook this week confirmed what many of us have feared – the Apple Watch will need a nightly recharge. While this won't inherently stop it from being a good product, we think it’s going to make it harder for users to make wearing it a habit. Read more thoughts on the Apple Watch and it's short battery life here

 

I had a chat to Nan Bosler, President of the Australian Senior Computers Club Association, about the 16th Australian Computer Conference for Seniors. I'll actually be talking at the conference, and it's a great way to help seniors keep up with the latest and greatest trends and innovations in consumer tech. And given that it's in its 16th year, there's definitely a lot of people interested! The conference is on the 19th and 20th of November at the Rydges World Square Hotel in Sydney, and tickets are still available.

 

I also sat down with Steve Morley, Fitbit's Regional Director for Australia, to learn about Fitbit's three new fitness trackers. While the devices leaked about a week ago, Fitbit has now officially announced its three new trackers: the Charge, Charge HR and Surge. The Charge is your fairly standard fitness tracker that will count your steps and monitor your sleep, while the Charge HR can also monitor your heart-rate. And at the high-end is the Surge, which adds GPS functionality and basic smartwatch capabilities. The Charge will be available mid-November, while the Charge HR and Surge will be available early next year. Click here for more details about the trackers, including pricing.

 

Microsoft surprised this week with the announcement that all Office 365 subscribers will get unlimited cloud storage on OneDrive, just in case the one terabyte included wasn't already enough. The increased limit will start rolling out for customers on the home, student and personal editions of Office 365 immediately.

 

On the subject of Microsoft, the company revealed their latest quarterly earnings, which had some good news for both the Surface and Lumia divisions. Lumia smartphone sales are the highest they've ever been, and Surface revenue has almost hit one billion!

 

Pretty interesting, considering iPad sales have been declining for a while now. It seems like many people think they don't need to update their iPads in the same way they do their phones, which is fair enough. I mean, at the end of the day, a tablet is a rectangle with a screen, so how much is going to change year to year? We've written a bit more about this on CyebrShack, and the challenges of delivering a genuinely exciting product each year – not just for Apple, but for all tablet manufacturers.

 

We've been using the iPad Air 2 for over a week now, and have finished up our review on CyberShack. If you're in the new market for a new tablet, be sure to have a read.

 

I had the honour of talking to Chet Pipkin this week, the founder of Belkin. We had a chat about Belkin's WeMO line of home automation products, and it sounds like we're going to be seeing more and more smart appliances uses Belkin's technology. We've also seen a WeMO Wi-Fi enabled slow cooker, and my bet is that's only the tip of the iceberg!