Software : Microsoft may bring Kinect motion sensing tech to Windows Phone |
- Microsoft may bring Kinect motion sensing tech to Windows Phone
- Updated: 50 best iPad apps 2014: free and paid for
- Industry voice: Analytics 2.0: the coming wave of next generation analytics
- iOS 8 time-lapse camera mode shown off in most triumphant video demonstration
| Microsoft may bring Kinect motion sensing tech to Windows Phone Posted:  A couple of days ago a new Windows Phone by the name of McLaren and now we've learned it could feature Kinect-like motion controls. Supposedly the mobile version of Kinect has been named "3D Touch" or "Real Motion" according The Verge. Sources familiar with Microsoft plans say Nokia has been working on the technology for a few years. Now McLaren is said to be the first device to feature an array of proximity and motion sensors all over the device. The 3D Touch system will purportedly allow users to interact with their games and applications without touching the screen. It could be a useful feature to make up for the limitations of touchscreen such as dealing with wet hands or gloves that get in the way during colder months. As an even more intuitive use case, the same sources say users will be able to answer a call by bringin up the phone to their ear. Additionally placing the device on a table could activate the speakerphone and slipping the smartphone into a pocket could hang up the phone. Bringing life to plasticAside from dismissing alerts by waving your hand on the phone, the device's body itself could be as interactive surface similar to the touchscreen. The Microsoft insider sources posit that users will be able to slide their finger along the side of the phone to zoom in the smartphone camera. Taken to a farther stretch this feature could allow Microsoft to remove buttons such as those for power and the homescreen. In the future users may never have to reach for that power button to wake their device when it simply turns on by itself when gripped. Tap the air3D Touch could fundamentally change the way Windows Phone devices work and as a result the UI is said to get a fresh overhaul. A new MixView interface originally spotted by WP Central suggested live tiles could be triggered with 3D Touch by hovering over live tiles and then tapping down. When selected these tiles could expand to reveal yet another group of smaller, associated items. For example selecting the Facebook Tile would pop smaller icons for messaging phone, allowing users to contact their friends quickly. When is it coming?While these all look like promising features, its unknown how soon 3D Touch will be first implemented. The Verge claims Microsoft originally planned to debut its new touch features with Windows Phone 8.1 and a Nokia handset codenamed "Goldfinger." However it seems the Goldfinger has been pushed back for an upcoming update and 3D Touch will be a large component of McLaren.
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| Updated: 50 best iPad apps 2014: free and paid for Posted:  Best iPad apps: 1-15If you've got yourself an iPad Air or new iPad mini, you'll want to start downloading the best iPad apps straight away. And if you already have an iPad 4 or older iPad, you might want to update it with some new apps.
1. 1Password ($17.99, £12.99)Although Apple introduced iCloud Keychain in iOS 7, designed to securely store passwords and payment information, 1Password is a more powerful system. It can also hold identities, secure notes, network information and app licence details. Your stored data can then be accessed on more than just Apple's platforms. On iPad, the only downside is a lack of direct Safari integration, but 1Password's built-in browser is fine for purchases, and login passwords can be copied across to Safari anyway. 2. Adobe Photoshop Touch ($9.99, £6.99)This ambitious app echoes its desktop cousin, and although it can't hope to entirely replicate the experience of 'proper Photoshop', it has a very good go. You're given access to a wide range of tools, including layers, adjustments and filters, and can work on images up to 12 megapixels in size. 3. Air Video HD ($2.99, £1.99) Even the most expensive iPads in Apple's line-up don't have a massive amount of storage, and space is rapidly eaten up if you keep videos on the device. Air Video HD acts as an alternative: stream movies from a PC or Mac, auto-encoding on-the-fly as necessary. There's also full support for offline viewing, soft subtitles and AirPlay to an Apple TV. 4. AppCooker ($14.99, £10.49) AppCooker's thinking is that task-oriented software betters more generalist tools. Here, then, you work with all manner of components to build app mock-ups, without doing any actual coding. You can create shapes, design icons, position UI elements, and link screens together; clickable mock-ups can then be shared in AppCooker's native format or as PDFs. 5. BBC iPlayer (free)BBC iPlayer is a must-have download for iPad users. The slick interface makes it easy to browse or watch recent shows and current broadcasts. You can choose from two quality settings and toggle subtitles, stream to an Apple TV via AirPlay, or download shows to your iPad, so you can watch them on the move. 6. Byword ($4.99, £2.99) Word processing is something the iPad fares remarkably well at — if you have the right app. Byword is a no-nonsense distraction-free editor that just lets you get on with writing. There's Markdown support, helped along by a custom keyboard row, and also a live word/character count. For anyone publishing to the web, a single $4.99/£2.99 IAP provides integration with the likes of WordPress and Tumblr. 7. Comic Life ($4.99, £2.99) Comic Life provides a creative way to tell a story or present some of your favourite photographs. The many templates provide a starting point and theme, and you can then import photos, add captions, and design special effects. Comics can be sent to friends in a variety of formats, or to your Mac or PC to carry on working in the desktop version of the app. 8. Day One ($4.99, £2.99) Journalling is one of those things that people always think will fall out of fashion, but it never quite does. Day One has plenty of advantages over a paper-based diary, though; wrapped up in a beautiful interface is the means to add images, weather data and music info, along with formatted text. Individual entries can be 'published' to share with people, and of course everything you create is fully searchable. 9. Diet Coda ($19.99, £13.99) Panic's Coda is a hugely popular Mac app for coding websites, and the iPad app is no slouch either. Diet Coda provides a touch-optimised means of editing files, which can either be done live on the remote server or by downloading them locally first. Syntax highlighting, clips and a built-in Terminal make this a great app for any web designer on the go. 10. DM1 ($4.99, £2.99) Drum machines are always a lot of fun, but many of those available for iOS are rather throwaway, their options exhausted within minutes. DM1 is pretty much the exact opposite, packed with a huge number of drum kits, a step sequencer, a song composer and a mixer. Inter-App audio, Audiobus and MIDI support also ensure what you create doesn't end up in a percussion-rich silo. 11. Dropbox (free) Dropbox is a great service for syncing documents across multiple devices. The iPad client works like the iPhone one (hardly surprising, since this is a universal app), enabling you to preview many file types and store those marked as favourites locally. 12. eBay (free) Use eBay for iPad and you'll never touch eBay in a web browser again. It's fast and efficient, beautifully showcasing important details and images in its main results view. Gallery images can often be displayed almost at a full-screen size, which is particularly useful on an iPad with a Retina display. Speedy sorting options are also available. 13. Evernote (free) Like Dropbox, Evernote (a free online service for saving ideas – text documents, images and web clips – that you can then access from multiple devices) works the same way on the iPad as it does on the iPhone. It benefits from the iPad's larger screen, which enables you to see and navigate your stored snippets more easily. 14. Fantastical 2 ($9.99, £6.99) Apple's own Calendar app is fiddly and irritating, and so the existence of Fantastical is very welcome. In a single screen, you get a week view, a month calendar and a scrolling list of events. There's also support for reminders, and all data syncs with iCloud, making Fantastical compatible with Calendar (formerly iCal) for OS X. The best bit, though, is Fantastical's natural-language input, where you can type an event and watch it build as you add details, such as times and locations. 15. Flipboard (free)
Initially, Flipboard looked like a gimmick, trying desperately to make online content resemble a magazine. But now it can integrate Flickr and other networks, beautifully laying out their articles, Flipboard's muscled into the 'essential' category – and it's still free. Best iPad apps: 16-3016. Fotopedia Heritage (free) Rather like The Guardian Eyewitness, Fotopedia Heritage is perfect for anyone who enjoys awe-inspiring photography. The app enables you to browse tens of thousands of photos of beautiful locations worldwide. It also provides information about each location, and can be used for travel planning through favourites and links to TripAdvisor. 17. GarageBand (free) Apple's GarageBand turns your iPad into a recording studio. Previously a paid app, GarageBand now has a freemium model. For no charge, you get full access to its features, including a range of smart instruments, MIDI editing and song arrangement. The only limitation is that relatively few instruments are included, but more are available via IAP. 18. GoodReader 4 ($6.99, £4.99) GoodReader 4 is the latest incarnation of the iPad's best PDF reader. You can annotate documents, extract text, and now also rearrange, split and combine documents. The app previews various other files as well, can create and extract ZIP archives, and is capable of connecting to a wide range of online services. Alongside Dropbox, it makes a great surrogate Finder/Preview combination — a must-have for iPad power users. 19. iBooks (free) Going head-to-head with Kindle, iBooks is a decent ebook reader, backed by the iBookstore. As you'd expect from Apple, the interface is polished and usable, with handy cross-device bookmark syncing, highlighting, and various display options. It's also a capable PDF reader, for your digital magazine collection. 20. IM+ (free) Although the iPad enables a certain amount of basic multi-tasking, anyone who constantly juggles a number of instant messaging services will soon be tired of leaping between apps. IM+ is a good solution, enabling you to run a number of IM services in a single app, and there's also a built-in web browser for checking out links. 21. iMovie (free with new device or $4.99, £2.99) You're not going to make the next Hollywood hit on your iPad, but iMovie's more than capable of dealing with home movies. The interface resembles its desktop cousin and is easy to get to grips with. Clips can be browsed, arranged and cut, and you can then add titles, transitions and music. For the added professional touch, there are 'trailer templates' to base your movie on, rather than starting from scratch. 22. iPhoto (free with new device or $4.99, £2.99) The iPad version of iPhoto is curious for an Apple app in that it's not terribly intuitive. The interface is quite opaque, and you'll initially need quite a bit of help from the '?' button. But after a short while, the app reveals its secrets and becomes an immersive and natural way to adjust and tweak your photos, fully taking advantage of the iPad's multitouch display. 23. iStopMotion ($9.99, £6.99) There's something fascinating about animation, and iStopMotion is a powerful and usable app for unleashing your inner Aardman, enabling you to create frame-by-frame stories. There's also time-lapse functionality built-in, and the means to use the free iStopMotion Remote Camera with an iPhone on the same network. 24. iTunes U (free) If you're still convinced the iPad is only a device for staring brain-dead at TV shows and not a practical tool for education, check out iTunes U. The app enables you to access many thousands of free lectures and courses taught by universities and colleges, thereby learning far more than what bizarre schemes current soap characters are hatching. 25. Journeys of Invention ($9.99, £6.99) Touch Press somewhat cornered the market in amazing iOS books with The Elements, but Journeys of Invention takes things a step further. In partnership with the Science Museum, it leads you through many of science's greatest discoveries, weaving them into a compelling mesh of stories. Many objects can be explored in detail, and some are more fully interactive, such as the Enigma machine, which you can use to share coded messages with friends. 26. Kindle (free)Amazon's Kindle iPad app for reading myriad books available at the Kindle Store is a little workmanlike, and doesn't match the coherence of iBooks (you buy titles in Safari and 'sync' purchases via Kindle). However, Kindle's fine for reading, and you get options to optimise your experience (including the ability to kill the naff page-turn animation and amend the page background to a pleasant sepia tone). 27. Korg Gadget ($38.99, £27.49) Korg Gadget bills itself as the "ultimate mobile synth collection on your iPad" and it's hard to argue. You get 15 varied synths in all, ranging from drum machines through to ear-splitting electro monsters, and an intuitive piano roll for laying down notes. A scene/loop arranger enables you to craft entire compositions in the app, which can then be shared via the Soundcloud-powered GadgetCloud or sent to Dropbox. This is a more expensive app than most, but if you're a keen electronic-music-oriented songwriter with an iPad, it's hard to find a product that's better value. 28. Launch Center Pro ($7.99, £5.49) The idea behind Launch Center Pro is to take certain complex actions and turn them into tappable items — a kind of speed-dial for tasks such as adding items to Clear, opening a URL in 1Password, or opening a specific view in Google Maps. Although the list of supported apps isn't huge, it's full of popular productivity apps; and should you use any of them on a regular basis, Launch Center Pro will be a massive time-saver and is well worth the outlay. 29. Microsoft Word for iPad (free/subscription-based) It was a very long time in coming, and there were fears Microsoft would make a half-hearted effort to get Word on to the iPad. In the end, we actually got a surprisingly powerful, touch-optimised, high-quality word processor and layout app. The subset of tools you get from the PC version is more than sufficient, and for free you can use the app as a viewer. For editing, you'll need an Office 365 subscription (from $6.99/£5.99 monthly), and this will also give you access to Excel and Powerpoint, along with office apps on other platforms. Best iPad apps: 31-5030. Movies by Flixter (free)One for film buffs, Movies figures out where you are and tells you what's showing in your local cinemas – or you can pick a film and it'll tell you where and when it's on. The app is functionally identical on iPad and iPhone, but again the extra screen space improves the experience. 31. Notability ($2.99, £1.99) There are loads of note-taking apps for the iPad, but Notability hits that sweet spot of being usable and feature-rich. The basic notepad view is responsive, but also enables you to zoom and add fine details. Elsewhere, you can type, import documents, and record audio. Notes can be searched and, crucially, backed up to various cloud-based web services. 32. Numbers ($9.99, £6.99)
We mention Microsoft's iPad efforts elsewhere, but if you don't fancy paying for a subscription and yet need some spreadsheet-editing joy on your iPad, Numbers is an excellent alternative. Specially optimised for Apple's tablet, Numbers makes great use of custom keyboards, smart zooming, and forms that enable you to rapidly enter data. Presentation app Keynote and page-layout app Pages are also worth a look. 33. Paper By FiftyThree (free)There's a certain train of thought that apps shouldn't ape real-world items, but we dismiss such talk. They just shouldn't ape real-world items badly! Paper by FiftyThree gets this right, with beautiful sketchbooks in which you can scribble, then share across the web. Books and the pen tool are free, and other tools are available via In-App Purchase. 34. PCalc Lite (free) PCalc Lite's existence means the lack of a built-in iPad calculator doesn't bother us (in fact, we'd love to replace the iPhone Calculator app with PCalc Lite as well). This app is usable and feature-rich – and if you end up wanting more, in-app purchases enable you to bolt on extras from the full PCalc. 35. PicFrame ($0.99, 69p) PicFrame is a simple app, but one that's beautifully honed and a delight to use. You choose a template and then import photos, which can be zoomed or adjusted via filters. Additionally, captions can be overlaid and the frames tweaked until you have the perfect composition. Once you're done, your creation can be shared on social networks or via email, and saved to your camera. 36. Pocket (free) Pocket and Instapaper have long battled it out for 'article scraper' king, but Pocket trumps its rival in appealing to iPad-owning cheapskates. Instapaper requires a purchase for iPad goodness, but Pocket is free. It's also very fast, offers tagging, includes a great original article/plain-text toggle, and has a vaguely Flipboard-like visual grid-based index. 37. Sequential (free) We've elsewhere mentioned Comics, but Sequential has a slightly different take on the medium. It's an altogether more upmarket affair, aimed at graphic novels and collections of sequential art that are supposed to be taken seriously. Therefore, this isn't so much everything but the kitchen sink, but a repository for a carefully curated selection of some of the best comics ever created. 38. Sketchbook Pro for iPad ($4.99, £2.99)We tend to quickly shift children from finger-painting to using much finer tools, but the iPad shows there's plenty of power in your digits — if you're using the right app. SketchBook Pro provides all the tools you need for digital sketching, from basic doodles through to intricate and painterly masterpieces; and if you're wanting to share your technique, you can even time-lapse record to save drawing sessions to your camera roll. 39. Sky Guide ($1.99, £1.49) Augmented reality is still in its early days, but Sky Guide shows off the potential of merging the virtual with the real. Using your iPad, you can search the heavens in real-time, the app providing live details of constellations and satellites within your field of view. Away from the outdoors, Sky Guide doubles as a kind of reference book, offering further insight into distant stars, and the means to view the sky at different points in history. 40. Skype (free) In theory, we should be cheerleading for FaceTime, what with it being built into iOS devices, but it's still an Apple-only system. Skype, however, is enjoyed by myriad users who haven't been bitten by the Apple bug, and it works very nicely on the iPad, including over 3G. 41. Skyscanner (free) Skyscanner's website is pretty good, but the iPad app's another great example of how an app's focus can really help you speed through a task. You use the app to search over a thousand airlines, and it provides straightforward competitive journey lists and comparison graphs. If you're planning a flight, it's an indispensable download. 42. Snapseed (free) Apple's Photos app has editing capabilities, but they're not terribly exciting — especially when compared to Snapseed. Here, you select from a number of effect types and proceed to pinch and swipe your way to a transformed image. It's a fun tool, but there's plenty of control for anyone determined to get their photos just so. 43. Soulver ($1.99, £1.49) Soulver is more or less the love child of a spreadsheet and the kind of calculations you do on the back of an envelope. You write figures in context, and Souvler extracts the maths bits and tots up totals; each line's results can be used as a token in subsequent lines, enabling live updating of complex calculations. Drafts can be saved, exported to HTML, and also synced via Dropbox or iCloud. 44. TED (free) TED describes itself as "riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world". The app pretty much does as you'd expect – you get quick access to dozens of inspiring videos. However, it goes the extra mile in enabling you to save any talk for offline viewing, and also for providing hints on what to watch next if you've enjoyed a particular talk. 45. The Guardian Eyewitness (free)A showcase for engaging photography, The Guardian Eyewitness provides a daily, visual reflection of global events. You get access to the most recent 100 photos, which can be viewed full-screen or with a caption and 'pro tip'. You can also save photos to your iPad or share them via email. 46. Traktor DJ ($9.99, £6.99)Traktor DJ wisely dispenses with skeuomorphic representations of deck-spinning; instead of virtual vinyl on your iPad, you get waveforms, providing visual cues regarding what you're playing. The app is efficient and simple to use, enabling you to define cue points and loops, along with dropping in effects; helpfully, Traktor DJ also attempts to tempo-match songs from your iPad library. It's a very different approach to iPad DJing, but one that works wonderfully. 47. TuneIn Radio (free) Output your iPad's audio to an amp or a set of portable speakers, fire up TuneIn Radio, select a station and you've a set-up to beat any DAB radio. Along with inevitable social sharing, the app also provides an alarm, AirPlay support, pause and rewind, and a 'shake to switch station' feature - handy if the current DJ's annoying and you feel the need to vent. 48. Wikipanion (free) The Wikipedia website works fine in Safari for iPad, but dedicated apps make navigating the site simpler and faster. Wikipanion is an excellent free app, with a sleek iOS 7-style design, an efficient two-pane landscape view, and excellent bookmarking and history access. 49. Yahoo Weather (free) With weather apps, you're frequently forced to choose between lashings of data or something that looks lovely. Yahoo Weather combines both, offering a stunning interface that happens to be rich with information. The maps are a touch weak, but other than that, this is an essential weather app, especially considering Apple doesn't provide an iPad equivalent itself. 50. YouTube (free) When the YouTube app presumably became a victim of the ongoing and increasingly tedious Apple/Google spat, there were concerns Google wouldn't respond. Those turned out to be unfounded, because here's yet another bespoke, nicely designed Google-created app for iOS. The interface is specifically tuned for the iPad, and AirPlay enables you to fire videos at an Apple TV. |
| Industry voice: Analytics 2.0: the coming wave of next generation analytics Posted:  Analytics are a pivotal issue in contemporary business. As the total number of data channels increase, understanding what the data means, how the data interrelates and how it corresponds with customer behavior can mean the difference between sales stagnation and sales increases. Many businesses, however, remain locked into the world of analytics 1.0 and surface level data, such as in-app behavior. Even worse, some businesses are still concerned primarily with offline analytics related to TV spots, radio and print ads. Analytics 2.0 offers a path to a more meaningful, actionable understanding of business data. What can analytics 2.0 do?Analytics 2.0 does away with single-stream analysis and embraces the multi-channel world that customers actually inhabit. Customers may see the TV spot, but they also see comments on social media, interact with inbound marketing, see search marketing ads, receive direct mail and participate in creating trending topics. How does it help interactions with customers?Of course, analytics 2.0 isn't just about understanding what customers are doing or how they're responding to your marketing. It's also about taking that information and reaching out to customers proactively. For example, maybe you've been focusing a lot of attention on Facebook, but where you're really getting traction is in a LinkedIn group. If there is a positive discussion going on there about your product or service, it gives you a golden opportunity to interact with a warm market. If you're seeing a spike in hits on a YouTube video, that can be a clear call to share the video via Twitter. |
| iOS 8 time-lapse camera mode shown off in most triumphant video demonstration Posted:  While it wasn't highlighted during Apple's keynote address at WWDC last week, the iOS 8 camera app will bring to the fore a neat time-lapse shooting mode. Now, thanks to a video shot by YouTube user iTwe4kz over the weekend, we can get take a look at how it looks using an iPhone 5S. The results, as you can see from the clip below, are rather spectacular. The new version of the operating system was previewed at the firm's annual developers' conference and is already available to the firm's army of developers before a public release this autumn. Alongside time-lapse, users of the new software will get interactive notifications, family sharing for iTunes accounts, access to most-used contacts in the multitasking view, new photo editing skills. There's also the new Continuity feature set which will improve the way iOS devices play nice with Mac OS X devices. |
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