MacRumors

With the image-based Snapchat reaching huge levels of popularity with its ephemeral image and video messaging, new app Confide looks to offer the same type of secure, self-destructing messaging for text.

The app allows users to send messages to anyone with an email address -- prompting those users to download the app -- and conceals the contents of messages until they swipe to select it. It also alerts senders when screenshots are attempted and sends read receipt messages so senders know when their message is read.

The company is pitching Confide as an app for business executives and others to send messages to each other that they would prefer HR or legal departments not find out about.

Gigaom writes:

Brod added that Confide is different from Snapchat and other disappear apps in that it connects potential users through their email addresses, not by searching their phone contacts. This means that if someone sends a message to a person who doesn’t have the app, they will receive an email that informs them there is a message from the first person waiting for them in the app.

To address the issue of screenshots, which can provide a way to preserve disappearing messages, Confide uses a “wand” feature that requires recipients to pass their fingers over the message to reveal additional words. The app also includes a notice feature, common among other disappear apps, that alerts the sender if the recipient took a screenshot of the message.

Confide for iPhone is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Noodlecake's popular game Super Stickman Golf 2 is currently available for free for the first time since its March 2013 release.

Super Stickman Golf 2, which is normally priced at $2.99, is a golf-based physics puzzler where players navigate through wacky mini golf courses aiming to land their ball in the hole in as few swings as possible.

Super Stickman Golf 2 is at its best once you've unlocked a few different ball types and set foot in the more challenging courses. You might need to smack an ice ball against the wall to send it arcing over your avatar and sailing into the pond below, which freezes over, setting up your next shot. On another occasion, you could use the sticky ball to pull a Spider-Man and take your next shot hanging from a wall or ceiling, or use the magnets adorning the walls to repel your ball straight to the hole. Pursuing and finally capturing elusive hole-in-ones is addictive, and you'll often find yourself playing courses over and over to knock a single point off your total score.

Super Stickman Golf 2 can be downloaded from the App Store at no cost for a limited time. [Direct Link]

Apple today updated its Apple Store app in the U.S., replacing the previously available Holiday Playlist with a new free app, the 7 Minute Workout Challenge. Seven minute workouts gained popularity in 2013 as a quick way to complete a rigorous workout, and 7 Minute Workout Challenge is one of the more popular fitness apps in the category, with a 4.5 star rating and a $1.99 price tag.

The app includes a random selection of 12 different exercises that are each performed for 30 seconds with 10 second rest intervals in between. According to research, this seven minute workout is the equivalent of working out for more than an hour and it requires no specialized equipment.

There are both male and female trainers that guide app users through exercises using video, audio, images, and text. There's also an included weight tracker and activity calendar to keep track of fitness levels, and the app includes achievements to motivate its users.

To get a free copy of 7 Minute Workout Challenge, iPhone owners will need to download the Apple Store app and click on the "Jump into the new year" section. This will take users to the iTunes Store, automatically inputting a code for the app download.

7 Minute Workout Challenge will be available until February 20, 2014, before being replaced with a new offering. The free app is limited to the iPhone version of the Apple Store app and is not available in the iPad version.

The Apple Store app can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Smart calendar app Sunrise Calendar has received an update today, bringing full support for the iPad, a new week view for the iPhone that allows users to view three days at once, and automatic background refreshes for events and notifications.

iPad
We've worked hard to bring the best Sunrise experience to your iPad. It's the most beautiful calendar everywhere now.
We are introducing two new visualisations: Week and Month. They make it easier to make plans from your iPad and navigate in time quickly.

Week View (for iPhone too!)
This new visualisation makes it easier to see free-time between events, see your day at-a-glance, or find a time to get dinner with a friend next week.
Tap on the week icon next to the new event button to reveal it. The best part: it works perfectly in portrait mode.
A lot of people have tried to design a week view before, but we think that you'll enjoy the design of Sunrise better!

Background Updates
Sunrise will now update in the background (every hour by default), so you won't need to open Sunrise to get the latest changes. Notifications will always be up to date.

The app originally launched in February after being developed by former Foursquare engineers, and offers a feed populated with Google Calendar, iCloud, and Facebook events in addition to birthdays and weather information.

Users can also navigate around using swipe gestures for quick switching between calendar days, and like Fantastical, allows for colloquial language when entering events. For example, typing "Dinner with Michelle at 8pm tomorrow" will schedule the appropriate event in the calendar.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Electronics CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon have agreed to attend a mediation session on or before February 19, in advance of a March court battle over smartphone patents, reports Reuters.

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Oh-Hyun Kwon will attend the session with in-house lawyers only, according to a Wednesday court filing. Their legal teams had met on January 6 to "discuss settlement opportunities," the filing read.

In late December, The Korea Times reported the two companies had resumed settlement talks in their ongoing negotiations over their patent-infringement dispute and that Samsung Mobile CEO Shin Jong-Kyun could be heading to the United States to meet with Cook.

Cook had met with former Samsung CEO Choi Gee-Sung in 2012 to discuss the subject, but talks fell through because Samsung would not accept Apple's patent royalties demand. The two companies also met last year in Seoul, Korea but discussions failed to progress.

This is yet another turn in the long, ongoing patent battle between Samsung and Apple, which began in 2011 and continued into 2012 when Apple was awarded $1 billion in damages in a U.S. trial. A judge voided nearly half of that award in March 2013, and then ruled in November 2013 that Samsung was to pay Apple $290 million for willfully violating multiple patents. Another infringement lawsuit between the two companies will be held on March 31, with another trial centering around Apple's call for a U.S. ban on Samsung products. This is all in addition to other patent trials between the two companies taking place all over the world.

Earlier today, Chinese site C Technology posted a pair of photos of what was claimed to be an internal frame for Apple's next-generation iPhone, a device said to be carrying a display measuring at least 4.7 inches, significantly larger than the current 4-inch standard for Apple's most recent iPhones. The photos were picked up by GizChina.com and have since made their way to increasingly prominent sites expressing varying degrees of skepticism about their authenticity.

While we had initially decided to refrain from posting the images due to their extremely dubious nature, their increasing visibility today bears addressing. For a number of reasons, including several outlined here, we believe that the part shown in these images is not legitimate.

- The part appears to be a midframe such as that found in earlier iPhone models, allowing components to be attached to both sides of the part before being enclosed in the device's shell. Apple did away with midframe components as of the iPhone 5, opting for a unibody rear shell design that allows components to be mounted directly to the shell, yielding a thinner design. A return to a design requiring a midframe part would seem unlikely given Apple's emphasis on thinness.

- The frame seems to show accommodation for a headphone jack at the same end of the device where a circular feature presumably corresponding to the device's rear camera is positioned, undoubtedly the top end. With the shift to the narrower Lightning connector in the iPhone 5, Apple shifted the location of the iPhone's headphone jack to the bottom edge of the device, matching the position seen on the iPod touch since its launch and allowing the headphone cable to naturally fall so as to not interfere with viewing of the device's screen. Moving the headphone jack back to the top edge of the device for the iPhone 6 appears unlikely, though not impossible.

In the face of those apparent inconsistencies with Apple's design direction, there is essentially no evidence in favor of this part being from an iPhone, leaving only the original poster's claim as support. The part is rather unremarkable with what appears to be fairly poor finish quality, meaning that it could be from one of any number of devices in the Asian supply chain.

Wearables are a major category at CES this year and while most of the available products have focused on humans, one company, i4C Innovations, is aiming its newest tracking device at a different consumer group -- dogs. Voyce is a health and activity tracking collar designed to be worn by dogs.

Voyce uses a 3-axis accelerometer to track a dog's active and resting periods and a built-in radio frequency technology measures both heart and respiratory rates.

Introducing breakthrough wearable technology that bridges the communication gap between dogs, their owners, and the people who love them. Our three-part approach of Discover, Learn, and Share gives unprecedented insight into your dog's health and wellbeing, information and tools for you and your dog to grow together, and ways to share with your veterinarian and social networks.

The data gathered by Voyce is uploaded to and analyzed by an accompanying mobile app, which gives an detailed overview of pet health that can be shared on social networks and with veterinarians. The app tracks trends over time, allowing owners to keep an eye on vital signs and other health indicators to detect potential problems early on.

Voyce accommodates neck sizes ranging from 12 to 32 inches and weighs less than six ounces. It has an estimated battery life of one week and it requires Internet access and Wi-Fi to sync with a mobile device or computer.

Voyce is expected to be released in the summer of 2014 for approximately $300.

Spotify's new free listening tier for smartphone customers, originally announced last month, is finally live for iPhone users. Previously, Spotify limited its free listening to desktop users, requiring a $9.99 monthly subscription for music access on mobile devices beyond Spotify's free radio streaming.

On the iPhone, Spotify's service is built around shuffling, much like similar services from Pandora and iTunes Radio. Customers can search for a specific artist or song, but will be required to shuffle through an artist's catalog to access the music. Pre-compiled playlists can also be accessed, but unlimited search and listen access is not available.

Only paid iPhone subscribers will be able to listen to music offline, a must for users hoping to listen to music on airplanes. iPad users see a slightly different service, working similarly to how the current PC version of Spotify does. Users can pick and choose songs to listen to without forced shuffling, but they still won't get access to offline tracks.

- Your music: Listen to all the playlists you’ve created and playlists from the people you follow. Spotify lets you discover new music, save, shuffle and share.

- Your favourite artists: Want to listen to a certain artist? Just hit shuffle play, sit back and listen to their entire catalogue. Don’t settle for something similar. Don’t settle for just one track from the artist you want to hear every 20 minutes.

- Discover great new playlists: Going for a jog or to the gym? We’ve got the playlist to help you go the extra mile. We know you just want the perfect music for a specific moment in time – and we’ve got you covered. There’s something for every mood, genre or moment.

Update: Some users are saying they've had access to the free tier for several weeks. It's possibly Spotify has been rolling out the new tiers gradually to its user base.

IK Multimedia today introduced its "iRing," a finger-worn device serving as a motion-tracking controller. Primarily designed for iOS music apps, the iRing allows users to control sound effects and other music parameters within apps using hand gestures.

The iRing has three linear markers on the palm-facing side and three triangle-shaped markers on the top that are read by the iPhone's front-facing camera, allowing simple hand movements to be translated into commands within supported apps. Up to six different parameters can be used in each app, with one or two hands completing gestures.

iRing uses patented advanced image-recognition, motion control and precise geometric positioning technology to give you control of assignable parameters within your apps. It uses the front-facing camera on your device to determine the exact position of the wearable rings, and recognizes and tracks the movement of the linear or triangular patterned iRing "rings" allowing you to control up to six parameters at a time.

The iRing is designed to be worn between two fingers and IK Multimedia claims that it is comfortable enough to be worn while operating musical instruments and other more traditional music controllers.

IK Multimedia's iRing includes two double-sided ring controllers and two free apps for music applications: iRing Music Maker and iRing FX/Controller. While the iRing Music Maker does not require any music knowledge and allows for simple gestures to change beats and control rhythmic elements, the iRing FX/Controller app is aimed at skilled musicians and DJs, converting information from the iRing into MIDI control information configured by the user.

The iRing will be available during the first quarter of 2014 for $24.99. It can be pre-ordered from the IK Multimedia website.