Technology - Google News

Apple Watch gym partnerships give you perks for working out - The Verge
How to back up your iPhone to your Mac or PC and avoid the cloud - The Verge
Here’s a first look at Android on Microsoft’s dual-screen Surface Duo - The Verge

Apple Watch gym partnerships give you perks for working out - The Verge

Posted: 23 Jan 2020 06:23 AM PST

Apple is launching a partnership program for gyms today called "Apple Watch Connected" that's meant to highlight chains that integrate with its wearable and offer perks for owners. In some cases, perks include discounted membership fees and gift cards for people who regularly work out, according to CNBC.

For a gym to get the Apple Watch Connected branding, it'll have to offer three things:

An app for iPhones and Apple Watches that offers information like class times
Support for Apple Pay to buy things at the gym
Some kind of perk for wearers, like membership discounts

One thing that's not required across the board: machines that support GymKit, Apple's system for syncing an Apple Watch with fitness equipment like treadmills and ellipticals. Reports on the program say these may be offered where applicable, since GymKit doesn't support many types of equipment right now. It's not clear if it's required at gyms that have supported machine types, though.

The partnership is, in theory, a win for everyone involved. Apple Watch owners get a better experience at gyms (and potentially some discounts); Apple gets gyms that not only better support its product, but go out of their way to offer perks to its customers; and gyms get customers who may be more likely to stay with them due to the incentivized workouts.

It's free for gyms to join the program, though I'm a little skeptical about how much benefit there really is to a program that mostly boils down to "give discounts to Apple customers." If Apple, in turn, offers promotion for these gyms, then they could certainly see more people headed their way. But at least for now, there's no word on these gyms being highlighted in, say, Apple Maps or Apple's Health app.

At launch today, there are four Apple Watch Connected gym partners: YMCA, Crunch Fitness, Basecamp Fitness, and Orange Theory. It'll also only be live at select locations for each. Crunch is the only gym offering membership discounts for people who work out regularly; Orange Theory is offering gift card perks; and the YMCA will donate classes to kids. Basecamp is advertising a program it already offers that can give subscribers an Apple Watch for free.

The tie-in with gyms is Apple's latest attempt to associate wearing an Apple Watch and being fit with saving money. It's also worked in the past with health insurers to offer discounts to people who wear the Watch. The integrations make sense given the focus on fitness, but they also mean that people who can't afford a watch that starts at $200 that connects to a phone that starts at $449 miss out on these discounts.

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How to back up your iPhone to your Mac or PC and avoid the cloud - The Verge

Posted: 23 Jan 2020 07:23 AM PST

If you're an iPhone user who is steadfast about retaining your privacy, you're probably not very happy about the recent news that Apple is retaining the ability to decrypt most of what's in an iCloud backup at the request of government entities, such as the FBI.

In that case, you may want to pay attention to the adage that sometimes the best ways are the old ways. While it's more convenient to use iCloud to back up your phone, you can back up your iPhone to your Mac or Windows computer and retain full control of your data backups.

If you've always backed up via iCloud, or if you haven't done a local backup in a while, you might be able to use a refresher course. Here's how you do it.

Connect your phone to your computer using its charging cable
Fire up iTunes if you're using Windows or a Mac with a macOS 10.14 or earlier; use Finder on a Mac with macOS 10.15 Catalina

If you're using Finder, look for your iPhone in the left-hand menu under "Locations."

Using Finder to change your backup from iCloud to local.

In iTunes, you should see a small iPhone icon in the upper left corner; select that. (If you don't see it, you may need to authorize your system. Go to the top iTunes menu and select "Account" > "Authorizations" > "Authorize This Computer..." and follow the instructions.)

After that, the process for either iTunes or Finder is much the same, although the look of the pages and the language will be slightly different. Look for the category labeled "Backups." Select "This computer" (in iTunes) or "Back up all of the data on your iPhone to your Mac" (in Finder).
You're going to want to encrypt your backup for increased security. Check "Encrypt iPhone backup" (in iTunes) or "Encrypt local back" (in Finder) and enter a password. Don't lose that password; otherwise, you're going to lose access to your data.
Once you set the encryption, it's probable that the backup will start automatically. Otherwise, click on "Back Up Now."

Using iTunes to change your backup from iCloud to this computer.

If you need to restore your backup, just go to the same page and click on "Restore Backup..."

Note that you can either manually back up your iPhone, or you can also have it automatically back up each time you connect it to your computer. Look for "Options" just below the "Backups" section, and select "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected."

Once you've set up your backup to your computer, you probably want to delete any backups you've made to iCloud.

To do this on your Mac:

Click on the Apple icon in the top corner of your system
Select "System Preferences" > "iCloud"
Select the "Manage" button in the lower-right corner of the window

Select a backup to delete, and select "Delete." You'll be asked to select "Delete" again; this will both delete all your backups from iCloud and turn off any further backups.

To do this on your iPhone:

Go to "Settings" and tap your name
Select "iCloud" > "Manage Storage" > "Backups"
Tap on a backup and then on "Delete Backup"
Tap on "Turn Off & Delete"

One more thing: dealing with iMessage without saving your data to iCloud can get a bit complicated, partly because iMessage uses end-to-end encryption (which means that it needs a key at either end) and partly because iMessage can also use Messages for iCloud, the feature that allows for syncing iMessage between multiple Mac or iOS devices with the same account. We consulted with Apple, and this is basically how it works:

If you have iCloud Backup turned on, then your backup includes a copy of the key that protects your messages. This is the most convenient setup. But in this article, we're assuming that you want to turn iCloud Backup off.
If you have iCloud Backup turned off but Messages for iCloud turned on (which you can do on your iPhone by going to Settings, tapping on your name, and selecting "iCloud" > "iMessage"), your messages will be shared among all your devices, but your encryption key will remain local to those devices. According to Apple, that encryption key will not be saved to the company's servers.
If you have both iCloud Backup and Messages for iCloud turned off, then your only backup options will be local.

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Here’s a first look at Android on Microsoft’s dual-screen Surface Duo - The Verge

Posted: 23 Jan 2020 01:46 AM PST

Microsoft unveiled its Surface Duo device at the company's hardware event back in October. The dual-screen device includes two 5.6-inch displays (1350 x 1800) that fold out into an 8.3-inch overall screen. While we saw a lot about the hardware back in October, Microsoft didn't let anyone play around with the Android software and apps that power the Surface Duo. That's all changing this week, thanks to Microsoft publishing its Android emulator for developers.

Zac Bowden managed to play around with the emulator and navigation gestures, and Jonas Daehnert — known as PhoneDesigner — has overlaid that footage onto the Surface Duo itself to give us a much better idea of how these dual screens will work in practice.

In the nearly two minute video you can see how apps and Android's built-in settings will open on a single display fullscreen. Microsoft is making it a user choice to span the apps across both displays, and advising developers to start testing their apps and optimizing them.

While apps and settings menus open fullscreen, you can also see how Microsoft is reflowing how pinned apps on the Android home screen span across the two displays. Once an app is launched, the apps immediately flow onto the opposite display so you've always got access to open more. The Android task manager also only appears on one display, allowing Surface Duo users to drag and drop apps onto the second one.

Now that developers can start building Android apps that are optimized for both displays, it will be interested to see just how many really take advantage of having an extra screen. Android tablet apps have been notoriously bad in the past, but Microsoft's approach means they'll mostly just run on a single display fullscreen, so you can use them side-by-side. That should, by default, make the experience pretty manageable out of the box, but there are more complicated apps that you'd want to span across both displays that will require some work to avoid the seam in the middle.

Developers can download the new Android emulator from Microsoft and start getting apps ready. It's optimized for the Surface Duo, and a similar emulator will be available for Windows 10X next month to get Windows developers ready for the bigger Surface Neo hardware. We're also expecting Microsoft to detail more of its dual-screen plans during a developer webcast next month, and at the company's Build conference in May.

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