AMX offers new API and updated platform for scheduling conference rooms and AV equipment. Apple updates CoreMotion APIs to include altitude tracking for iPhone 6. Plus Google adds another SSL fork, and Zapp reviving retail with two-day hackathon.

AMX Expands Scheduling Support for Meeting Rooms

AMX, part of Harman, has updated its Resource Management Suite (RMS) and created a new API to allow scheduling of meeting rooms (like: conference rooms, video conference rooms, and classrooms) through virtually any third party scheduling package.

RMS Enterprise also manages building systems. As the company commented, their goal is simple: spread the use of meeting scheduling technology across more spaces and make it available to more users:

Customers using other scheduling systems can now take advantage of the same scheduling capabilities by utilizing the new AMX RMS API. Now, anyone that would like to develop their own plug-in for any third-party scheduling application can build it, using the new RMS API Developer's Guide.

This is in addition to five RMS native plug-ins for Microsoft Exchange® 2010, Lotus Notes® Domino, Google Calendar, Microsoft Exchange Web Services 2013 and Microsoft Office® 365, the latter two of which will be available in July.

Altitude Tracking Coming to Apple's CoreMotion API

The iPhone 6 is rumored to be adding altitude tracking and ambient pressure tracking to its CoreMotion API, 9to5Mac reports.

Both are critical to weather forecasting. But they could also be used in conjunction with location data to determine what floor of a building someone was on. As Mark Gurman explains in 9to5Mac, Android beat Apple on this one:

A barometer is a sensor commonly used for measuring altitude and the sensor is already commonly found in Android devices such as the Galaxy Nexus. A barometer sensor could be used by hikers, mountain climbers, bike riders, and enthusiasts who want accurate knowledge into their current altitude. Barometers, via air pressure data, also measure temperature and weather information.

It's thought that the added sensors, which may include temperature, will be part of the A8 chip, rumored to be featured in the next iPhone.

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