Apple patents headphones that can monitor your vital

The device would be able to track your heart rate, temperature, perspiration, and more.

(Credit: Apple/USPTO)

Apple's interest in the health and fitness market may seem like a new niche, but a related patent goes back almost six years.

Filed in 2008 and awarded by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, a patent called "Sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets" describes how such products could track your health and fitness and perform certain tasks based on how you move your head.

Key to the invention would be sensors embedded into one or more areas of the headsets or earbuds. By coming into contact with your skin, these sensors would be able to detect your heart rate, temperature, perspiration, and other physical stats. Wearing such a hands-free device would be a way to monitor and record your vitals as you exercise or play sports.

As a bonus, the sensors could also respond to the motion of your head to perform certain tasks. For example, let's say you're listening to music. Tilting your head one way would pause the current song, tilting it another would skip to the next track, and tilting it a third way would raise or lower the volume.

The system might even be smart enough to perform certain tasks automatically based on your condition or location. For example, if the device detects that you're getting tired, it could say something to try to motivate you to finish your workout. Or if it senses that you're jogging uphill, it might play your favorite song as a way to inspire you to make it to the top.

Recent reports say Apple has its eye on the health and fitness market, an area that could be targeted by the company's much-rumored iWatch. But smart, sensor-embedded headphones would provide some of the same information without need for a separate device, assuming this patented invention ever joins you on a real workout.

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Nikon Coolpix P600 hits the 60x-zoom mark

(Credit: Nikon)

Birders, stargazers, and anyone else who likes to shoot pictures and movies of distant subjects, you now have another camera option to consider.

The Nikon Coolpix P600 has a 60x zoom lens, but unlike options from Panasonic and Samsungthat start at an ultrawide-angle 20mm, Nikon's lens starts at 24mm. That means while those other cameras stop at 1,200mm, the P600 can be extended to 1,440mm.

If that's not enough, you can use Nikon's new Dynamic Fine Zoom to digitally increase the focal length to 2,880mm. Keeping the lens steady probably won't be easy, but to help with shake you do get optical image stabilization. And there's an electronic viewfinder so you don't have to hold the camera out in front of you when shooting if you don't want to.

Those who prefer to frame shots on something larger, there's a 3-inch 920K-dot-resolution variangle LCD. Other features include a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, manual and semimanual shooting modes, and video capture in 1080i at 60 frames per second. Also, Nikon built Wi-Fi in to the P600, unlike last year's P520, which required you to buy an external adapter.

(Credit: Nikon)

Speaking of the P520, Nikon updated that model into the Coolpix P530. It has the same 42x, f3.0-5.9, 24-1,000mm lens as its predecessor, but gets a new 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor and a fixed 3-inch LCD, and, like the P600, can shoot movies in resolutions of up to 1080i at 60fps. If you want Wi-Fi, you'll have to buy an adapter.

Anyone interested in something a little more pocketable can look for the Coolpix S9700 with a 30x 25-750mm lens. You'll also get the same 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor as on the P600 and P530 as well as the same shooting capabilities (though you'll lose the manual controls over shutter speed and aperture). It has a 921K-dot-resolution 3-inch OLED display and built-in Wi-Fi and GPS, too.

(Credit: Nikon)

Value a fast lens over a long zoom? Nikon also announced the Coolpix P340 with a 12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch BSI CMOS sensor and 5x f1.8-5.6 24-120mm lens. It seems to be the same as the P330, but with the new Dynamic Fine Zoom feature giving you a digital focal length of 240mm and built-in Wi-Fi.

All but the P340 will be available in February, with the P340 following in March. The Coolpix P600, P530, S9700, and P340 will sell for $499.95, $449.95, $349.95, and $379.95, respectively.

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iPhone 6 Rumors: Apple to put Sapphire Display Units For The Upcoming iPhone 6

With all of the iPhone 6 rumors we have been reading about the past months, the only thing we need to know right now is its exact release date.However, it looks like the iPhone's spec rumors are still under way.

Now a new rumor suggests that Apple will place Sapphire displays on its newest iPhone.

According to9to5mac, Apple's manufacturing partner GT Advanced has just ordered stocks for an Intego Sirius Sapphire Display Inspection Tool. This would reportedly "increase the yield of high quality sapphire material from each boule and ensure that only high quality material enters the value stream.”

If this report says something, it is that Apple will place sapphire displays on the iPhone 6. And according to 9to5mac, Apple is very capable of ordering at least 100 million of these displays for the production of the iPhone 6.

Compared to the displays we have today, Sapphire ones are reportedly stronger and much more resistant against scratches. They are also thinner which would pave the way for much slimmer phones in the future.

If Apple is in fact planning to place these sapphire displays on its next iPhone, then it would really be something to behold when it finally launches later this year.

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