MetaWatch adds step counter for iPhone 5s users, Taco Bell working on mobile ordering system
MetaWatch this week updated its iOS application to send basketball scores, as well as steps counted by the iPhone 5s M7 chip, to its wrist-worn accessory. In addition, fast food franchise Taco Bell has revealed it is working on a mobile ordering system that will debut on the iPhone later this year.
In addition, the new update adds a step counter widget for iPhone 5s users, leveraging the fitness tracking capabilities of the smartphone's M7 subprocessor.
Similar offerings are available on competing smartwatch Pebble, but those require the installation of separate applications and watch-specific apps from the Pebble appstore, while MetaWatch offers built-in widgets that can be arranged into custom quadrants on the device's screen.
MetaWatch Manager for iOS version 1.3.4 is a 31.5-megabyte download that requires iOS 6.0 or later. The company currently offers the MetaWatch Frame and Strata through Best Buy, while its next-generation "Meta" is set to debut this spring at an unannounced price. For a first-look at Meta, see AppleInsider's hands-on impressions from this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
U.S. fast food chain Taco Bell is planning to launch an application later this year that will allow customers to order ahead of time, before they venture to a nearby location, according to Nation's Restaurant News. The application is said to have been in development for two and a half years, and a beta test with five locations was recently conducted in Orange County, Calif.
The report also revealed that McDonald's and Chick-fil-A are working on similar applications, but no specific functionality or timetables for respective releases were revealed.
Mobile applications have proven popular for pizza chains like Domino's in the U.S., allowing customers to customize, place and even track the status of their order without needing to pick up the phone. But fast food chains like Taco Bell and McDonald's would be new to such efforts.
Taco Bell officials said they believe the new application will appeal to younger audiences, who are already connected through their smartphone and expect to be able to access anything from it. Rather than using an off-the-shelf solution, Taco Bell is said to have developed its own proprietary system that will be entirely unique to the chain.
The application will offer users the nearest location and will display greetings that vary based on the time of day. Users can customize their menu selections, and "smart upsell" opportunities will be included, offering users typical meal additions such as drinks or desserts.
The system even accesses the GPS in a user's iPhone, detecting when they are nearing the store to ensure that the food is hot and ready once the customer arrives.
MetaWatch gains basketball scores, step counter
The official MetaWatch Manager application for iOS was updated to version 1.3.4, adding a pair of new widgets that offer quick, glanceable information to users of the smart watch device. The new MetaSports Basketball widget allows users to easily follow their favorite professional basketball team's score and schedule.In addition, the new update adds a step counter widget for iPhone 5s users, leveraging the fitness tracking capabilities of the smartphone's M7 subprocessor.
Similar offerings are available on competing smartwatch Pebble, but those require the installation of separate applications and watch-specific apps from the Pebble appstore, while MetaWatch offers built-in widgets that can be arranged into custom quadrants on the device's screen.
MetaWatch Manager for iOS version 1.3.4 is a 31.5-megabyte download that requires iOS 6.0 or later. The company currently offers the MetaWatch Frame and Strata through Best Buy, while its next-generation "Meta" is set to debut this spring at an unannounced price. For a first-look at Meta, see AppleInsider's hands-on impressions from this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
Taco Bell ordering coming to iPhone this year
U.S. fast food chain Taco Bell is planning to launch an application later this year that will allow customers to order ahead of time, before they venture to a nearby location, according to Nation's Restaurant News. The application is said to have been in development for two and a half years, and a beta test with five locations was recently conducted in Orange County, Calif.
The report also revealed that McDonald's and Chick-fil-A are working on similar applications, but no specific functionality or timetables for respective releases were revealed.
Mobile applications have proven popular for pizza chains like Domino's in the U.S., allowing customers to customize, place and even track the status of their order without needing to pick up the phone. But fast food chains like Taco Bell and McDonald's would be new to such efforts.
Taco Bell officials said they believe the new application will appeal to younger audiences, who are already connected through their smartphone and expect to be able to access anything from it. Rather than using an off-the-shelf solution, Taco Bell is said to have developed its own proprietary system that will be entirely unique to the chain.
The application will offer users the nearest location and will display greetings that vary based on the time of day. Users can customize their menu selections, and "smart upsell" opportunities will be included, offering users typical meal additions such as drinks or desserts.
The system even accesses the GPS in a user's iPhone, detecting when they are nearing the store to ensure that the food is hot and ready once the customer arrives.
Comments
Two and a half years? It's a menu and ordering system. A bunch of Facebook hackers could assemble that in a weekend.
They've probably rethought the entire application as new API's have become available in iOS 6 and then iOS 7.
Or maybe they want it to actually work when it launches?
Hey, you know what I just thought.
Amazon’s drone delivery is idiotic and useless because of the size, weight, and distance restrictions.
But fast food drone delivery… isn’t. Far more of those than distribution centers, far more people serviceable, and an order could be made from a phone, sending GPS data, and then the drone would show up at that location with the food.
Dominoes did that already as a stunt, but really it could become something legit.
However I'm guessing the sweet spot to be a UAV that can hold multiple shipments that might land on a building rooftop to deliver goods.
"Where we're going, we don't need roads.."
Hey, you know what I just thought.
Amazon’s drone delivery is idiotic and useless because of the size, weight, and distance restrictions.
But fast food drone delivery… isn’t. Far more of those than distribution centers, far more people serviceable, and an order could be made from a phone, sending GPS data, and then the drone would show up at that location with the food.
Dominoes did that already as a stunt, but really it could become something legit.
It sounds cool, until you break it down and try to make it real. Way too many problems to ever be acceptable:
1. Who knows what drone is capable of. Besides delivering food, it can easily be hacking your wifi, photographing your house and your family...too many safety and security issues.
2. Who flies them? You have to pay someone to operate it. That can't be cheap. There is no money in fast food delivery by car (which is why it doesn't exist for the most part)...let alone by drone. Cost of a drone operator >>>> cost of delivery boy and his car.
3. Flying drones is dangerous! just imagine the amount of accidents and damage that can and would occur. It would be a nightmare, and it would only take one to put the kibosh on the whole thing.
4. Works great for the storybook suburban neighborhood, delivering to a front door. But what about every other imaginable living scenario from condos to apartments top every single major city. Nope. Not gonna work.
5. There are no laws stopping me from taking a baseball bat to a drone I see flying across my property...and honestly, no law could ever be passed that could stop me from doing so.
No, fast food, by definition, is supposed to be relatively… FAST.
So don’t charge 3x the price. Problem solved. Why would they need to charge any difference? Instead of a limited number of people capable of fitting through the drive through, the drones can serve orders of magnitude more people at once.
Ever driven in a city?
1. Who knows what drone is capable of. Besides delivering food, it can easily be hacking your wifi, photographing your house and your family...too many safety and security issues.
Take the tin foil off your head. Are you insane? Any person, anywhere, can do this himself. These are owned by a corporation in the service industry. Do the concepts of trust and reliability really need to be explained?
2. Who flies them?
Themselves.
Nope. GPS.
Source? Logic? Any foundation for this belief at all?
Driving cars is dangerous! Flying planes is dangerous! Bicycle delivery is dangerous! Trains are dangerous! Ships are dangerous! Rockets are dangerous!
Your point?
We lost two shuttles. Didn’t stop the space program. First Apollo team burnt up on the launch pad. Didn’t stop us from getting to the Moon.
YEAH. Because EVERY system has to appeal and be available to everyone on Earth…
Except that the drone isn’t your property and there’s a height limit on your ownership. Are you honestly pretending they’d fly lower than the roofline at any point other than delivery? Come off it.
I'm not gonna bother responding, clearly there is a LOT you do understand about any of it. A few of those comments indicate a total lack of appreciation for anything common sense, i.e.. the concept of safety + GPS automated drones. Just...wow.
And people like you ought to be putting on the tin foil hat a little more these days, before your delusions get you in trouble.
And people like you ought to be putting on the tin foil hat a little more these days, before your delusions get you in trouble.
So you don’t have any rebuttal to anything here, then. Just how much of the planet do you think is your property?
Mobile applications have proven popular for pizza chains like Domino's in the U.S., allowing customers to customize, place and even track the status of their order without needing to pick up the phone.
Actually, with these new apps, people still need to pick up the phone. They just don't have to make a voice call.
I find it interesting that we (myself included) still refer to and think of these devices as phones even though the "phone" is now just an app, and one that doesn't tend to get utilized nearly as much as other apps.
Taco Bell.
FREE DIARRHEA!!!!!!
So you don’t have any rebuttal to anything here, then. Just how much of the planet do you think is your property?
Get some sleep, bro!