Month: September 2020

Apple today announced a new feature that will allow families to stay better connected, even if some members of the family don’t have an iPhone. The company introduced a new feature called Family Setup that allows a parent to pair their iPhone with a child’s Apple Watch in order to stay in touch, receive location notifications, use parental controls, and more.

With Family Setup, parents can set controls, like which contacts the child can communicate with over messages. It also allows family members to receive location alerts so parents will know where the child is and if they have entered or exited a geofenced area. For a child, this could be the school or a basketball practice.

To some extent, that makes Family Setup a competitor to mobile family tracking apps, like Life360, which have become popular tools for families who keep track of one another’s location. Or, as some would argue, apps for the helicopter parenting era of over-monitoring and surveillance.

But Apple’s advantage in this market is that it positions itself as a privacy-focused company. That means parents may feel like they can trust Apple to not collect their family’s location data or sell it to third-parties.

In addition to location tracking, Family Setup lets parents also configure downtime settings, to limit interactions and notifications on the paired watch while the child is focused on schoolwork with the new “Schooltime” mode. Workout integration is available, as well, and offers an Activity Rings experience designed just for kids.

Meanwhile, children can create their own Memoji with just their Apple Watch that they can use and send in stickers and messages, or use in the new Memoji Watch Face. They can also use their Watch to reach emergency services, if needed, through the built-in Emergency SOS feature.

Though the feature set is clearly designed for parents with children too young for their own phone, it’s unclear how well it will be embraced by parents, due to the Apple Watch’s higher price point. That’s something Apple attempted to address with the iPhone SE. However, the SE starts at $279 — not as affordable as giving a child a cheap Android device while they head out to run around the neighborhood with friends.

In addition, the new feature may make sense for parents who already have older Apple Watches that they can hand down to kids as they upgrade.

Apple also noted Family Setup may make sense for “older adults” — meaning aging relatives who, due to medical conditions perhaps, may need a bit more active monitoring.

The feature requires requires a cellular model of Apple Watch Series 4 and later and will be available at launch with select carrier partners, including AT&T, T-Mobile and (TechCrunch parent’s parent) Verizon.

Online service SoloSuit wants to help Americans who are being sued for a debt fight back using automated tools. The company, which is launching its service nationwide today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, guides users through preparing a response to their lawsuit, optionally having a consumer protection attorney look over the entire document on their behalf, then handing the printing and court filing.

The idea for SoloSuit came from founder, George Simons, who had bought a car during his first year of law school and struggled to find an attorney who would help him out. That prompted the realization that there are likely millions of people across the U.S. who also can’t find attorneys to take cases for a variety of reasons. For example, they may struggle if there isn’t enough money in the case to make it worth an attorney’s while, or if the attorney they want is too busy to get on the phone, he suggests.

The area of focus SoloSuit landed on, however, was debt lawsuits. Every year, 10 million Americans get sued for debt and 9 million automatically lose because they aren’t able to figure out how to respond to those lawsuits, Simons claims. These debts could include medical debt, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, or any other unsecured debts. After a debt collector is unable to collect from the consumer, they may choose to sue for that debt instead.

With the SoloSuit web app, users can respond to these lawsuits in about 15 minutes, the startup says.

The way the process works is that when someone receives a complaint and summons in the mail, they’ll usually only have 14-30 days to respond, depending on the state, before they automatically lose their case. Often, customers will Google for information about what to do next, which is where they’ll find SoloSuit’s free online guides. These will also refer the potential customers to the web service. Here, the web app, which was demoed at Disrupt, will guide the customer through creating the response to the lawsuit and optionally pay to have an attorney review it.

Customers can either pay $15 to have the response printed and filed on their behalf, or $115 to have an attorney review it before filing.

The startup spun out of the Brigham Young University LawX legal design lab, where it was originally founded by a team of students. Simons ended up taking the reins and the other students have moved on. Currently, he is the sole founder but is expecting to hire a technical co-founder soon.

Since SoloSuit’s founding a couple of years ago, it has seen 3,000 Utah-based customers who have been sued for a combined total of $11 million in debt lawsuits. The startup believes they’ve helped around 50% of those cases get dismissed.

Today, the service will launch across all 50 U.S. states and will add the attorney review feature.

Online service SoloSuit wants to help Americans who are being sued for a debt fight back using automated tools. The company, which is launching its service nationwide today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, guides users through preparing a response to their lawsuit, optionally having a consumer protection attorney look over the entire document on their behalf, then handing the printing and court filing.

The idea for SoloSuit came from founder, George Simons, who had bought a car during his first year of law school and struggled to find an attorney who would help him out. That prompted the realization that there are likely millions of people across the U.S. who also can’t find attorneys to take cases for a variety of reasons. For example, they may struggle if there isn’t enough money in the case to make it worth an attorney’s while, or if the attorney they want is too busy to get on the phone, he suggests.

The area of focus SoloSuit landed on, however, was debt lawsuits. Every year, 10 million Americans get sued for debt and 9 million automatically lose because they aren’t able to figure out how to respond to those lawsuits, Simons claims. These debts could include medical debt, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, or any other unsecured debts. After a debt collector is unable to collect from the consumer, they may choose to sue for that debt instead.

With the SoloSuit web app, users can respond to these lawsuits in about 15 minutes, the startup says.

The way the process works is that when someone receives a complaint and summons in the mail, they’ll usually only have 14-30 days to respond, depending on the state, before they automatically lose their case. Often, customers will Google for information about what to do next, which is where they’ll find SoloSuit’s free online guides. These will also refer the potential customers to the web service. Here, the web app, which was demoed at Disrupt, will guide the customer through creating the response to the lawsuit and optionally pay to have an attorney review it.

Customers can either pay $15 to have the response printed and filed on their behalf, or $115 to have an attorney review it before filing.

The startup spun out of the Brigham Young University LawX legal design lab, where it was originally founded by a team of students. Simons ended up taking the reins and the other students have moved on. Currently, he is the sole founder but is expecting to hire a technical co-founder soon.

Since SoloSuit’s founding a couple of years ago, it has seen 3,000 Utah-based customers who have been sued for a combined total of $11 million in debt lawsuits. The startup believes they’ve helped around 50% of those cases get dismissed.

Today, the service will launch across all 50 U.S. states and will add the attorney review feature.

Seems everything charges a monthly fee, these days. It also seems that every Apple event brings another way to fork over $10 a month to the company. This time out, it was the addition of Fitness+, which brings metric-focused video workouts to an Apple TV near you. To keep things simple (and to keep you subscribing), the company is offering up a trio of new Apple One bundles.

It’s not quite mix and match yet, but there are three pricing tiers. Individual offers Apple Music, TV+, Arcade and iCloud for $15 a month. The Family version will get you those four services for $20 a month. For the hardcore, there’s the $30 a month Premier tier, which bundles iCloud, Music, TV+, Arcade,  News+ and Fitness+.

Things get a bit more complicated from there, with various tiers of iCloud storage added onto the final total.

Developing…

Seems everything charges a monthly fee, these days. It also seems that every Apple event brings another way to fork over $10 a month to the company. This time out, it was the addition of Fitness+, which brings metric-focused video workouts to an Apple TV near you. To keep things simple (and to keep you subscribing), the company is offering up a trio of new Apple One bundles.

It’s not quite mix and match yet, but there are three pricing tiers. Individual offers Apple Music, TV+, Arcade and iCloud for $15 a month. The Family version will get you those four services for $20 a month. For the hardcore, there’s the $30 a month Premier tier, which bundles iCloud, Music, TV+, Arcade,  News+ and Fitness+.

Things get a bit more complicated from there, with various tiers of iCloud storage added onto the final total.

Developing…

In addition to keeping old generation devices at an entry-level price, Apple is introducing a brand new Apple Watch at a cheaper price point. The new Apple Watch SE features the same design as the newly announced Apple Watch Series 6. But it costs $279.

“The second thing we're doing to make Apple Watch available to even more people is to create a new model that combines elements of Series 6 design with the most essential features of Apple Watch, all at a more affordable price,” Apple COO Jeff Williams said.

The Apple Watch SE uses the S5 system-on-a-chip, which was first released for the Apple Watch Series 5. However, it has the same, big display as the one on the Series 6. It also has the same accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and altimeter as the ones in the Series 6.

And because the Apple Watch SE shares the same design as the Apple Watch Series 6, you can use the most recent complications and watch faces that are going to be introduced with watchOS 7.

So we’ll have to look at the tech specs in details after Apple’s event because the Apple Watch SE looks like a good deal when you compare it with the Apple Watch Series 6 that costs $399. You might not get blood oxygen data like on the Series 6, but it’s a good watch for users who just want a watch to track their workouts, for instance.

Apple is still keeping the Apple Watch Series 3 at the same price ($199). This device is a few years old now and it features the older screen design. So the Apple Watch Series 3 is not compatible with the most recent watch faces and complications.

The company is also positioning the Apple Watch SE as a way to offer an Apple Watch to your kid. There’s a cellular model, which means you can communicate with your kid without handing them a smartphone.

The Apple Watch SE will be available on Friday. Pre-orders start today.

Apple’s new Series 6 watch has some exciting new health features. Thanks to a new health sensor, the Apple Watch Series 6 is able to measure your blood oxygen levels in 15 seconds. The watch will also record background measurements while you sleep.

Your blood oxygen level measures how much oxygen your red blood cells are carrying. In partnership with health care providers, Apple plans to conduct health studies using this new blood oxygen measurement capability.

Additionally, Watch OS 7 will be able to measure your full range of VO2 max, detect if you’re washing your hands and monitor your sleep.

Developing…

As expected, the centerpiece of today’s big hardware event is the latest version of the Series 6. Apple continues to utterly dominate the smartwatch category, with the company currently commanding around 30% of the wearables category. As such, it’s no surprise, really, that the company’s building on what’s worked so far, maintaining a health focus for the device. The biggest addition here a new built-in  sensor capable of measuring the color of one’s blood to determine the level of oxygen in under 15 seconds.

The new watch features an energy saving always-on display, designed to save on battery (for those new sleep features), dropping brightness down when you’re in daylight. There’s also an always-on altimeter to keep track of elevation while hiking. A number of new watch faces have been adding, including new live Memojis and a Pride stripes.

Developing…

Twitter debuted its election hub on Tuesday, introducing a set of tools to help Americans prepare for the most uncertain election in modern U.S. history.

The platform will add a new “US Elections” tab in the Explore menu, where the trending tab and other curated topic lists live. That tab will serve as Twitter’s central source for hand-picked election news, debate livestreams, state-specific resources and candidate information.

Twitter will also introduce what it’s calling a series of “public service announcements” to educate voters on critical election-related topics. Those PSAs will present information on voter registration, instructions on obtaining a mail-in ballot and suggestions for safe voting as the pandemic continues to rage across the United States.

“Twitter wants to empower every eligible person to vote in the 2020 US election, and we’re focused on helping people register, better understand the voting process during COVID-19 including early voting options, and feel informed about the choices on their ballot,” Twitter Public Policy Director Bridget Coyne and Senior Product Director Sam Toizer wrote in a blog post on the announcement.

Twitter took a number of measures early on to address concerns around misinformation and platform manipulation around the 2020 election. Unlike Facebook, which has taken more incremental steps, Twitter opted to no longer accept political advertising in a decision made last October. The platform also began aggressively flagging tweets containing election-related misinformation months ago, setting expectations for high profile serial platform rule-breakers like President Trump.

Twitter kicked off a political war with the president in May when the company added a fact-checking label to a pair of his tweets containing false claims about voter registration and mail-in voting security. In the last month and a half alone, Twitter locked the Trump campaign out of its Twitter account for sharing a video with the false claim that children are “almost immune” to COVID-19, hid a tweet from the president that discouraged voting and restricted a handful of tweets from Trump that encouraged Americans to vote twice, which is illegal.

Last week, in a foreboding sign of what Americans might expect from November’s election, Twitter expanded its misinformation rules to address what happens if a candidate declares victory prematurely. In that same update, Twitter also said it would take action against any tweets “inciting unlawful conduct to prevent a peaceful transfer of power or orderly succession.”

While Twitter is far from containing its own misinformation problem, it’s shown a proactive willingness to adapt to real concerns around the 2020 election, making policy changes on the fly and adjusting those choices somewhat fluidly as needed. By anticipating worst-case scenarios, Twitter will at least be going into the 2020 U.S. elections with its eyes open — and with so many unknowns in such a tumultuous year, let’s just hope that’s enough.