Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Apple : Microsoft's latest keyboard controls smart TVs and tablets

Apple : Microsoft's latest keyboard controls smart TVs and tablets

Microsoft's latest keyboard controls smart TVs and tablets

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Microsoft's latest keyboard controls smart TVs and tablets

While Microsoft is better known for developing Windows, it's also a widely renowned peripheral maker. Its latest product is an all-in-one keyboard for everything from smart TVs to Android tablets.

Combining a full-sized QWERTY keyboard with a multitouch trackpad, the All-in-One Media Keyboard is the perfect peripheral for couch potatoes. With it, users can control smart TVs and set-top boxes by clicking and typing from afar.

The device connects via radio frequency signals set to an included USB dongle that users can plug into a their smart TV or media streaming box.

The RF dongle works with most devices that have a USB HID compliant port, including the Roku 3 and Apple TV, but nothing too small and stick-like such as the Roku Streaming Stick and Google Chromecast.

How does it feel?

SlashGear got an early hands-on with the keyboard and said that overall, it's a bit mushy. However it has more than a few nice features including a row of media function keys along the top.

Along with the usual left and right clickers found underneath the trackpad, there's also an additional left-click on that side of the device for easier navigation.

Meanwhile, on the bottom of the keyboard lives a removable battery door hiding two AA batteries and an extra magnetic cubbyhole for stowing the RF receiver.

The All-in-One Media Keyboard is compatible with both full and RT versions of Windows 8.1, 8 and 7, along with OS X 10.7 Lion through 10.9 Mavericks. An oddly specific batch of Android - 4.03, 4.12, and 4.2 - are also compatible with the keyboard. It will be available starting tomorrow for $39 (about £23, AU$41).

  • Now that you have a remote for it, what's the best smart TV money can buy?

iTunes Radio UK launch may be imminent as Apple courts advertisers

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iTunes Radio UK launch may be imminent as Apple courts advertisers

Apple's iAd man in the UK has been briefing advertising agencies on the inner workings of the iTunes Radio platform suggesting a launch on these shores may finally be on the horizon.

According to a tweet sent by Hannah Allen, the head of marketing at OMD UK, her firm was paid a visit by Paul Wright who manages Apple's advertising platform from a London base.

She tweeted: "Great to see @paulwright66 back at @OMD_UK to take us through Apple's iAd and iTunes Radio - can't wait for that to hit UK!"

Despite calls from fellow Twitter users for her to reveal the precise launch date, Miss Allen is yet to follow up the tweet.

The wait goes on

The iTunes Radio launch in the UK has been awaited since Apple rolled out the free, ad-supported streaming platform to US users alongside iOS 7 in September 2013.

Apple had pledged an early 2014 launch across the pond, but aside from the occasional appearance on random devices in the UK, it is yet to make it's official bow.

Surely now we can't be far away. What price the announcement of a UK roll-out at WWDC in June?

Updated: OS X 10.10: what to expect

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Updated: OS X 10.10: what to expect

With OS X Mavericks, Apple showed it still had tricks up its sleeve regarding desktop operating systems.

Long-time apps like Finder got welcome upgrades and rubbed shoulders with newcomers from iOS, such as iBooks and Maps.

Multiple display support was given an overhaul, and iCloud Keychain made its debut, to help Mac and iOS users keep regularly used online details safe.

There were big improvements to battery life and app efficiency, and to ensure everyone with a supported Mac could upgrade with a minimum of fuss, Apple scrapped price tags entirely, making Mavericks the first free major OS X update.

But what happens next? When will the successor to Mavericks appear, and what will it offer? What will it be called, and what will it look like once Jony Ive's got his claws in deep? As ever, Apple is keeping quiet, but we've made some educated guesses about what's to come in OS X 10.10…

OS X 10.10 name and brand

Yes, OS X 10.10 − which is the version number that's already been found in analytics − not OS X 11.0. Version numbers don't need to jump from something-point-nine to something-point-zero. 10.10 is simply the tenth 10.x update and not the same as 10.1.

Also, anyone clamouring for OS X.1 should probably be mindful that 1) OS X is now the product name, not a version number, and 2) Tim Cook would sooner make the next iPhone out of dead bees than use such a foul combination of characters.

In recent years, numbers have counted for little anyway − we've come to know OS X by its codenames. Previously, these were big cats, but Mavericks showcased a switch to Californian locations, which is set to continue. The internal codename is Syrah, a dark-skinned grape/red wine, but that's going to change before the public release. The unknown is which location is going to be used.

Mavericks is a surf spot but the word has a dual meaning, positioning Apple as unorthodox. Apple's chosen name for OS X 10.10 will doubtless attempt to highlight individuality once more, or some other important aspect of OS X. We just hope we won't see OS X Alcatraz: the most locked-down OS X ever. OS X Death Valley is probably one to avoid, too.

OS X 10.10 price and release date

Mavericks was free, and so it stands to reason that OS X 10.10 and all subsequent releases of OS X will be too. This makes a lot of sense, because Apple is primarily a hardware company (and a very profitable one), and so it can afford to give away its operating systems, unlike Microsoft, which makes a huge amount of money from licensing and direct sales of Windows. Expect OS X 10.10 to again be a digital-only update via the Mac App Store.

As for when OS X 10.10 will appear, Lion saw OS X move to an annual release cycle, although this slipped a little with Mavericks, reportedly so Apple engineers could get iOS 7 ready in time for the release of the iPhone 5s. It wouldn't surprise us to see this as the actual plan this year: an announcement at WWDC and then a final release in 'fall 2014', which will probably mean October.

What to expect from OS X 10.10

An iOS 7-like interface for OS X 10.10?

The radical visual overhaul of iOS has made quite a few people assume OS X will have a similar design language as of OS X 10.10, and the rumour mill is already buzzing about Apple experimenting accordingly. However, OS X Mavericks showcased subtler changes, ditching UI chrome from the likes of Calendar, resulting in a more uniform OS, but still a familiar one.

From a system standpoint, we expect to see further refinement. Jony Ive is obsessed with getting UI out of the way, so content can shine, but if every window behaved as iBooks does, removing chrome entirely until it's needed, we suspect Mac users would go nuts. Still, less extreme changes could work nicely on the desktop: flatter, simpler icons; the re-emergence of some colour in an OS that's become depressingly monochrome; and an emphasis on subtle depth, layering and transparency.

What to expect from OS X 10.10

New OS X 10.10 apps and features

In recent versions of OS X, several iOS apps have made their way to the Mac. Reminders and Notes mirrored their iOS equivalents, making it easier for people to switch between Apple's platforms. With Maps, users could finally work with Apple's maps solution on the desktop and send directions to mobile devices. And then iBooks arrived, primarily, we imagine, because it was simply too absurd that you could buy a book in Apple's bookstore and not read it on your Mac.

Of the remaining iOS-only apps, Newsstand would be the most obvious OS X candidate, magazine subscriptions joining books. We can also see a place for Weather − although, surprisingly, even the iPad doesn't yet have an Apple weather app. Smaller features might also make their way across: an optional PIN-style passcode lock; Control Center (replacing or augmenting existing menu bar extras); notification tabs for 'today', 'all' and 'missed', and a Notification Center that's an overlay rather than intrusively pushing everything else off-screen.

Moving towards OS X 10.10 we'll also see support for even more 4K and large pixel displays.

More iCloud in OS X 10.10

The OS X 'Internet Accounts' pane in System Preferences is getting crowded, with various email services, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, AOL, Vimeo, and Flickr. Expect new additions, but also for Apple to increasingly push iCloud. OS X defaults to saving in iCloud, and we're likely to see more developers encouraged to integrate it more heavily within their apps.

We could see iCloud becoming more fleshed-out regarding working across multiple platforms and apps, using OS X tagging to automatically build projects, and introducing collaboration features. Additionally, it would be sensible for Apple to rework Time Machine so you can back-up your Mac to (and restore it from) the cloud.

This would, though, require a radical rethink in Cupertino regarding the miserly 5GB of space Apple offers for free (and the laughable 50GB maximum), but if Yahoo can offer 1TB of space for free, there's no reason Apple can't follow suit − and never having to worry about your data's safety again, no matter how much Apple kit you own, would be a great differentiator for the company and a huge new feature for OS X.

We also expect further changes to OS X's core, with speed and stability improvements to fully take advantage of the Mac Pro's power, while also ensuring the system remains energy-conscious for the next generation of Apple notebooks.

What to expect from OS X 10.10

OS X 10.10 and Siri

When it comes to interacting with your computer, the mouse/pointer paradigm is deeply ingrained, but it's been shaken up by touchscreens, hence Apple's move to gestural input in OS X via the trackpad (and competitors working on hybrid devices). As smartphones have shown, voice can also be a great way of interacting with any device − as long as the system is smart enough.

No doubt some will argue there's no place for voice on OS X, because your Mac isn't something you want to talk to in order to get a job done, but OS X's accessibility settings already offer voice-oriented features. These include the means to read text aloud or define speakable workflows. There's no reason this can't be part of the default experience, not least for quick tasks that are otherwise cumbersome to deal with, such as entering calendar appointments or performing tedious maintenance.

Imagine an OS X Siri that could offer to automate tidying. "Siri, tidy my Desktop." "OK. Do you want me to add all downloaded music to iTunes, photos to iPhoto, and documents to your Documents folder." "Sure." "And would you like me to do this automatically in future, so you can spend more time being 'productive', searching the web for LOLcats?"

On second thoughts…

What to expect from OS X 10.10
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