Hasta La Gadget!

I’m always looking for better ways to wake up, but other than the jarring loud alarm that wakes me up every morning, I haven’t found a decent solution to my problem. This app might do the trick.

The Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock app is available for iPhone, and it monitors your movement during sleep using the iPhone’s accelerometer. Then, it finds the optimal time to wake you up during a 30 minute window that ends right at the time that you set your alarm.

The goal of this is to wake you at the optimal time to minimize the sleep inertia caused from jarring yourself awake at the wrong point in your sleep cycle. This is because people move differently during the phases of their sleep. During the lightest sleep phase, you move the most and that’s when Sleep Cycle wakes you up.

This seems like a definite improvement over some of the other alarm apps and solutions I’ve come across. The fact that it monitors your sleep using the iPhone itself is also pretty cool. You can get Sleep Cycle for $0.99 at iTunes.

Facebook has been spreading voice messaging throughout its mobile apps for awhile, but it’s clear the Palo Alto crew is no longer happy leaving interaction to canned speeches. Following a quiet rollout of live voice calls to Facebook Messenger earlier in the year, a version 5.5 update to Facebook’s core iOS app is giving social networkers a similar chance to talk to each other for free. The only stipulations are that users have the bandwidth to burn and live in either the US or Canada. Otherwise, the interface and functionality are dead ringers for the Messenger equivalents we tried in January. There’s still no word on when full voice calls will reach Android or other platforms, although they typically get feature parity before too long.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Internet, Facebook

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Source: App Store

Facebook added a voice calling option on the Messenger app a short while back and as of today, a new update has brought that to all Facebook for iOS users. Basically, Facebook v5.5 has rolled into the App Store and that has added the free voice calling. This support is available for those in the US and Canada, however until your friends and family update Facebook — you may have some trouble finding someone to call.

Those with Facebook v5.5 on their iPhone or iPad will be able to swipe to the right to access the Chat menu. Once here pick (tap the name of) the friend you want to call and then look for the “i” icon towards the upper right hand corner. Tapping that “i” will take you to the contact info page for that friend and you should see the “Free Call” button. As for that trouble, until your friend has also updated Facebook, that button will be unavailable. That being the case, you could always use the “Timeline” button to send them a message telling them to update and then call you.

Otherwise, along with the voice calling, this update also brought a few additional changes dealing with the button design. Facebook has said the new button design will make it “easy to like, comment and share posts in News Feed.” As to what that actually means, the Like, Comment and Share buttons in the news feed have been tweaked a bit. Additionally, the share button to re-post stories from your News Feed is now available in all languages.

Bottom line here, voice calling is now available for Facebook users who didn’t want to install the stand-alone Messenger app. The update is available by way of the iOS App Store which you can find using this link or by visiting the App Store directly from your iPhone or iPad.

Facebook for iOS update brings voice calling to the US and Canada is written by Robert Nelson & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The MLB season is under way, with spring training beginning for all the teams, and to celebrate the start of the 2013 season, Major League Baseball has updated its At Bat app for the new season with cross-platform subscription support, sortable statistics, footage from classic games, and a lot more in this year’s version.

The app is available on both Android and iOS devices, and it comes with new navigation features that makes it much easier to find your way around the app. iPhone users, however, will have a couple of exclusive features, including an improved video library that’s also searchable, and some customization features to the home screen.

As promised, though, MLB plans to bring the At Bat app to BlackBerry 10 devices soon — at least before the regular season officially starts which will be at the beginning of April. Plus, they plan to bring some more features to the app as the season gets under way. Users will also have access to a whole bunch of player and teams statistics to freshen up a bit before that heated debate with your group of friends.

The app is a free download, and it’ll give you access to all of these features mentioned above. However, if you want the full experience, including live game streams and radio, you’ll have to either pay $20 for the entire season, or pay $3 per month if you don’t want to get in for the entire year.

MLB At Bat updates for the 2013 season is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

For some, the change of the season is marked not by calendars or climate changes, but by the beat of sports fandom. Rest easy, baseball fans: spring is finally here. Naturally, Major League Baseball is heralding in the weather by updating its MLB At Bat app for 2013 spring training, touting new features for Android and iOS users alike. The apps updated team pages, retooled navigation and classic games library are universally available to both Android and iOS users, but the iPhone will score an enhanced and searchable video library and an exclusive home screen customization feature. MLB promises to pipe in more functionality before the season opens, however — including mobile access for BlackBerry 10 users. What hasn’t changed? The price, of course: Android subscribers will need to pony up $20 for the year, while iOS retains its $3 monthly subscription plan. Of course, MLB.tv Premium subscribers get full access, gratis. Slide past the break for the official press release.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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Source: MLB