Saturday, December 31, 2011

Apple : Report: iPhone Christmas sales dominate Android at AT&T

Apple : Report: iPhone Christmas sales dominate Android at AT&T


Report: iPhone Christmas sales dominate Android at AT&T

Posted:

Report: iPhone Christmas sales dominate Android at AT&T

Apple's iPhone made up a whopping 66 per cent of all sales made at AT&T retail stores during the Christmas period, according to a source within the mobile carrier.

The Mac Observer reports that between December 1st and December 27th, AT&T sold 981,000 iPhone devices compared to just 128,000 Android phones.

The Android figure accounts for 8.5 per cent of total sales made in store, which is even eclipsed by sales of basic flip and slider phones (8.6 per cent) made by the company.

That means for every Android handset sold, AT&T shifted 7.8 iPhones, according to the unconfirmed numbers.

AT&T's iPhone legacy

RIM is said to have fared even worse than Android with only 5 per cent of all sales, but most observers would have expected the gap between iOS and Android to be much smaller.

AT&T's chief rival Verizon has been the biggest backer of Android within the US, while it only began carrying the iPhone in April this year.

Until that point the iPhone had been available exclusively on AT&T, since its launch in 2006, so the huge gap can partly be accounted for by customers upgrading to the recently released iPhone 4S.

The figures, however, do not include sales made through Apple, authorised resellers or those made through AT&T's website or telephone lines.

Jonathan Ive knighted in New Year Honours list

Posted:

Jonathan Ive knighted in New Year Honours list

Apple's industrial design guru Jonathan Ive has been awarded a knighthood in the Queen's New Year Honours list.

The Chingford-raised Head of Design began working for Apple in 1992 and inspired the look and feel of iconic products like the iMac, iPod, MacBook Air, iPhone and iPad.

The Northumbria University industrial design graduate was often seen as the most important cog in the late Steve Jobs' well-oiled Apple machine.

Ive, who will now be known as Sir Jonathan, released a statement saying he was both thrilled and honoured by the royal rocognition.

Wonderful tradition

"I am keenly aware that I benefit from a wonderful tradition in the UK of designing and making,'' said the 44-year-old.

"To be recognized with this honour is absolutely thrilling and I am both humbled and sincerely grateful. I discovered at an early age that all I've ever wanted to do is design.

"I feel enormously fortunate that I continue to be able to design and make products with a truly remarkable group of people here at Apple."

The timing of Ive's honour may be a further sign of the UK's recognition of tech as government presses on with plans to turn London's so-called Tech City into the new Silicon Valley.

Arise, Sir Jony!

Software : Skype brings free New Year's Eve Wi-Fi to NYC

Software : Skype brings free New Year's Eve Wi-Fi to NYC


Skype brings free New Year's Eve Wi-Fi to NYC

Posted:

Skype brings free New Year's Eve Wi-Fi to NYC

Skype has been in a particularly giving mood this festive season and is continuing its spree of goodwill by offering free Wi-Fi in New York City for New Year's eve.

The VoIP giant has teamed up with public Wi-Fi provider Towerstream to kindly offer free connectivity from noon on New Year's eve until noon on January 1st.

So, if you're roaming the Big Apple and see a Skype Wi-Fi network you can log-in completely gratis and send your best wishes for 2012 without struggling with the customary NYE 3G data slowdown.

If you're using an iOS device, you'll need to download the free Skype Wi-Fi app from the App Store in order to pick up the network.

Next best thing

"New Year's Eve is all about connecting with those who matter most to you," said a post on the Skype blog.

"Skype is thrilled to once again help you maintain these meaningful connections as you ring in 2012. A Skype voice or video call with friends and family overseas or even across town is the next best thing to being there.

"Skype also encourages you to tweet with the hashtag #freeskypewifi and tell us how Skype WiFi made your New Year's Eve in NYC more enjoyable."

Skype itself has endured a rather eventful year having been bought out by Microsoft for a whopping $8.5 billion, in one of the biggest tech deals of the year.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Apple : Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco

Apple : Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco


Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco

Posted:

Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco

Apple's Siri voice assistant app is in hot water after reportedly verbally abusing a child who was playing with a demonstration iPhone 4S handset.

Ten year-old Charlie Le Quesne was testing the device at a Tesco store in Coventry when his mother claims he asked Siri how many people there were in the world.

The normally perfectly-mannered app said in response: "I'm not sure what you said there, Shut The F**k Up, You Ugly T***"

Going rogue?

However, it's unlikely that Siri has suddenly decide to go rogue on inquisitive children.

It appears that some smart Alec simply changed the username associated with the phone to the offending seven words, so believes it's addressing a person.

However, Charlie's mum is still fuming and expressed her anger to the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

"It's verbal abuse," said Kim Le Quesne. "Charlie was with his dad looking at the phones. We can't believe the filth it came out with.

"He showed my husband what the phone had said to him and my husband found the store manager and said 'it shouldn't be saying that'."

Still on display

Kim's anger was only enhanced when she returned to the store the next day only to see that the same iPhone 4S handset was still on display.

Tesco has said A statement said: "We have arranged for the handset in question to be sent for diagnostic testing and we will investigate this issue as a matter of priority with Apple."

Via: Coventry Evening Telegraph

Buying Guide: 10 best iPhone apps for making you laugh

Posted:

Buying Guide: 10 best iPhone apps for making you laugh

10 best iPhone apps for making you laugh

There's comedy genius to be found in the App Store, and we've spent a pretty enjoyable week rounding up the very best of it for you.

We've tried to cover all the bases, ranging from comedy classics to cult hits. We've included silly crowd pleasers through to thoroughly adult fare such as Viz Profanisaurus Das Krapital.

It's not all one-liners, though - some of these apps aren't funny in themselves, but allow you to create hilarious things to share, such as brilliant photography app OldBooth. Some apps lend themselves well to stimulating post-work drinks conversation, while others will have you desperately trying to suppress giggles on the train home.

Some apps feature memorable TV characters and comedy actors, so you can look forward to the excitable, manic wit of Harry Hill and the foul-mouthed, caustic opprobrium of Malcolm Tucker, both of them brilliantly in-character in their fantastically imagined apps.

In rounding up these apps, we've not worried too much about the price, but with all of these apps landing at well under the £10 mark for the lot, and each one guaranteed to produce at least one solid belly laugh each, there's little reason not to donk them all on your iPhone or iPad immediately. You and your funny bone can thank us later. Have fun!

01. Malcolm Tucker

Price: £3.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Malcolm tucker

Comedy creations like Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi, make us proud to be British. The foul-mouthed political puppet master is a highlight of Armando Iannucci's The Thick Of It, and Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone centres on the contents of Tucker's misplaced phone.

The result is a treasure trove of foul-mouthed email, audio memos and voicemails, all written around the time of the closing of the last series, as Tucker wrestles with gradually losing his grip on power, and eventually his job.

His email inbox is our favourite, featuring missives and conversations between Tucker and his staff as he attempts to save them with political strategy, professional spin-mastery and threats of physical violence.

There's Tucker's magnificent manifesto for dealing with the press (Point one: "Don't point. It's rude and it will lead to a photograph in which it looks like you are giving a Nazi salute."), plus the political high-flyer's SMS archive, including sadistic texts to answer service AQA ("What is the sharpest knife in the world and where can I get a really big one?" Answer: "Your number has been blocked.").

All of the skullduggery, backstabbing and inept attempts at horse-trading that the TV show plays for laughs are here. People email each other attack memos, which are either deliberately or accidentally forwarded to the attackee, and all the tools of the trade - PDF and .DOC attachments, plus incriminating images - are included for your enjoyment.

Another highlight is the assortment of voicemails - left by Tucker himself, asking for his phone back, dense cabinet minister Nicola Murray (played by Rebecca Front) and freshfaced upstart Ollie Reeder, voiced by Chris Addison. There are also no small number of voice memos to enjoy - the app might be the most expensive here, but there's a vast amount to savour, much of it perfect for dipping in and out of when you have a spare moment.

As befits a phone belonging to a political head honcho, the app is a very busy place, pushing a stream of new voicemails and emails to your Home screen within the first few hours of you downloading the app. There's even a story arc, which unfolds as Tucker attempts to trace his phone by wheedling, cajoling and threatening his terrified crew, as new emails, voicemail and texts arrive on the phone.

One of the funniest plot twists is spin-doctor Tucker's attempts to find himself a career beyond politics. The first chapter of his book is rejected for libelling Michael Crick and Angus Deayton, and he delivers a potty-mouthed rejection of an approach from the BBC trying to interest him in hosting a chat show. Much - if not all - of the humour requires a working knowledge of the show's cast, so this will be a frustrating place to start if you've never seen The Thick of It or In the Loop, the film of the TV show.

If you're already a fan, though, this offers a huge amount of fresh laughs - it's the way a companion app should be done, and the perfect thing to tide you over until the new series next year. A no-brainer for those already familiar with the show, and the perfect sofa companion for those embarking on the first season.

02. Viz Profanisaurus

Price: £1.49
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Viz

Simultaneously the least appropriate, rudest and arguably the funniest app in this group. Viz Profanisaurus has been offering appallingly rude double entendres for years, and this cheap app - Viz Profanisaurus Das Krapital - rounds up 12,000 of them for your viewing displeasure, allowing you to describe bodily functions, anatomical features and intimate acts with more accuracy than ever before.

Just how rude is it? We tried at length to find a definition suitable for reproduction in Tap! and failed miserably. This is not for the easily offended. For everyone else, though, the Profanisaurus is a gloriously profane guide to swearing, allowing you to skip randomly through definitions, or, if you've got something specific in mind, there's a text search box, plus an exhaustive A - Z list.

You can mark entries as favourites, and there's the World Top 10. For the socially minded, the Profanisaurus also includes the ability to post entries to your Twitter and Facebook feeds, although those who are friends with their gran or boss should probably think twice about using this feature.

All in all, this is worth every penny of its £1.49 asking price, is laugh-out-loud funny, and is totally unworthy of a place in a family magazine like Tap!

Download it at your own risk, and come up with a plausible explanation to offer to your colleagues when they ask what you're laughing so hard at.

03. The Onion

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

The onion

The Onion, the US's finest satirical news source, has been keeping the Tap! team amused and distracted for years. So it's a shame that the excellent website is now buried behind a paywall that blocks non-subscribers after five visits in the same month. Luckily for iOS users, though, this excellent official app allows you to skirt around it.

It's essentially an iPad magazine, although it's available on the iPhone and iPod touch as well (the iPad version is called The Onion Tablet, while the iPhone/iPod touch app is simply named The Onion).

The grid-style layout on the front page will be familiar to users of apps such as The Guardian or The Daily - a main story with a big image, then a host of smaller stories, infographics and videos. Navigation is reasonably quick, if a touch jerky at times.

Once The Onion app has downloaded the week's content from the site - of which there's a decent amount - you can read it whether you're online or not, which makes it useful for comedy fans without a mobile data connection. But certain features, such as video, take a while to download.

At its heart it's still The Onion, which means it's satirical US genius at its best, and the app rolls in almost the same amount of content as the physical US-only newspaper. The text stories in it are cuttingly sharp, and the infographics are high-resolution and hilarious.

The star of the piece, though, is the spoof video reports, aping the 24-hour news networks with a constant churn of ridiculous stories. Production values in these videos are first-rate, but this isn't a case of form over content - virtually every joke lands perfectly, giving you plenty of scope for thoroughly embarrassing yourself on the train by spluttering coffee over the tray table.

This is perfect for anyone running out of patience with proper newspapers, and all for the utterly compelling price of absolutely free.

04. OldBooth

Price: £1.49
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

OldBooth

There must be real money to be made in enabling your iPhone to edit pictures to make people look younger, but for comedy value, OldBooth is a superb image editor.

Snap a front-on picture of a friend, place their face into one of OldBooth's old-timey image masks, and hey presto: a picture rendered as though they had been photographed in the '60s. Silly hair and weird clothes are the order of the day, but with around 30 different image masks included, there's plenty of fun to be had. You can take photos in the app, and to help line things up perfectly, OldBooth overlays your chosen mask on top of the viewfinder.

If you're working with an existing pic, pinching to zoom your image to the right size and rotating it is perfectly smooth, while the ability to alter the brightness and contrast of your original image makes it easy to produce surprisingly convincing results.

If the supplied masks simply won't do for you, a pair of In-App Purchases (69p each) allow you to add a handful of extra effects from the '20s or '80s. Good, clean fun.

05. Alan Partridge

Price: 69p
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Alan partridge

Aha! Following a fall from grace, hapless egomaniac Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) is working at a Norfolk radio station, and the result is comedy gold.

Alan Partridge Mid Morning Matters supplies a soundboard from the series of internet shorts, plus a dose of home-made jingles (our favourite being 'What is Alan firing his friend's air rifle into?'). There's also a random shake feature, in which a soundbite is picked out at random.

The videos are the stars of the app - ten-minute clips set in a recording studio, each one a perfect study of a man whose ego threatens to collapse in on itself.

Content is magnificent; it's just a shame that the videos have to be streamed online. Unlike in Mitchell's Soapbox or Harry Hill's Little Internet Show, there's no option to download videos to watch later.

06. David Mitchell's Soapbox

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Soapbox

This is the first of two appearances by Peep Show's David Mitchell in this roundup - an indicator of the man's ability to tickle us.

Each Soapbox is a three to four minute diatribe on a random subject - Mitchell sounds off on the futility of marathon running, his annoyance at people ordering coffee in busy pubs and the unnecessary expense of foreign stag dos. It's a little like listening to a good friend in a pub, assuming your good friends are award-winning comedy writers.

The videos are magnificently produced, and can be streamed directly or downloaded in higher quality, although on anything smaller than an iPad you're unlikely to notice a difference.

Best of all, these genuinely funny weekly rants are all free, with a season's worth of short sound clips thrown in as a bonus, plus another season's worth available as an In-App Purchase. A must-have for fans of Mitchell and good jokes.

07. Peep Show (The Quotatron)

Price: 69p
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Peep show

Is Peep Show the funniest thing on British TV? We're inclined to think it is. So although Peep Show (The Quotatron) isn't exactly a multimedia tour-de-force, containing as it does around 50 audio quotes from two of the most twisted, tortured and funny characters committed to TV, it more than compensates by being extremely funny.

Well, most of the time, anyway. Given the rich treasure trove of quotes at the app creators' disposal, a few of them are a little too short of context for our liking. But there's certainly enough to amuse, and while the bundled memory game doesn't make a huge amount of sense, it's a decent time-passer.

A smattering of video wouldn't go amiss, but for those who don't get their fill of Peep Show from the app (possibly the idea), each quote comes with a link to the relevant episode in the iTunes store.

08. Harry Hill Little Internet Show

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Harry hill

Channel Flip made Harry Hill's Little Internet Show as well as David Mitchell's Soapbox. The app layout and production values of the two-to-three-minute sketches are all roughly the same, but the humour varies wildly as the big-collared comic finds himself in manic scrapes, whether it's helping out his mate Adam (a tree), or attempting to hide Susan Boyle in a cupboard.

As with Soapbox, clips can be streamed if you've got a network connection, or downloaded if you're a stickler for quality, and the app alerts you when a new episode is released - although season one has just finished.

Videos are nicely produced, and although it's sponsored by AOL, pre-roll advertising is kept to an unobtrusive minimum. Our only complaint is the lack of sharing options - given that the videos can be streamed over the internet, the ability to post them to your Facebook wall would be a great addition. Other than that, this is a superb freebie for fans of Harry Hill.

09. Atomic Fart Free

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Atomic fart free

We feel bad about this one: Tap! lasted precisely 10 issues before covering a fart app. But when it comes to making people laugh, the passing of gas has been funny for millennia, so it's nice to see technologists embracing the lowest form of humour.

And embrace it they have, with Atomic Fart capable of serving up a bevvy of disgusting but funny wind sounds, from The Aftershock to the Duck Stepper in the fart list. And there's even a fart drum set. You can set your iOS device up to become a space-age whoopie cushion as well, either by setting up a countdown or opting to have it detect nearby movement before letting rip.

There's even Bluetooth capability within the app, allowing you to serve up naughty noises on the iOS devices of (consenting) nearby users.

10. Fawlty Towers Soundboard

Price: 69p
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Fawlty towers soundboard

Fawlty Towers Soundboard mines such a rich seam of source material, it's shooting into an open goal. Still, the presentation of this keenly priced collection of sound clips is pleasingly on-message, and there's a strong selection of clips. Including, of course, Basil not mentioning the war.

Choose the clips you want to listen to by selecting a favourite character (Basil, Sybil, Polly, the Major and Manuel all get their own categories). Giving your iPhone a shake from the app's main screen will play a random one. You can also opt to play all the clips in a random order, giving the screen a tap to move on to the next one.

That's about it - no sharing options and no video reduce the app's appeal somewhat, although as with The Quotatron there are links to Fawlty Towers on iTunes. Still, listening to Basil breaking down, cracking up and abusing his staff is timeless.

Software : Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco

Software : Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco


Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco

Posted:

Siri swears at 10 year-old boy in Tesco

Apple's Siri voice assistant app is in hot water after reportedly verbally abusing a child who was playing with a demonstration iPhone 4S handset.

Ten year-old Charlie Le Quesne was testing the device at a Tesco store in Coventry when his mother claims he asked Siri how many people there were in the world.

The normally perfectly-mannered app said in response: "I'm not sure what you said there, Shut The F**k Up, You Ugly T***"

Going rogue?

However, it's unlikely that Siri has suddenly decide to go rogue on inquisitive children.

It appears that some smart Alec simply changed the username associated with the phone to the offending seven words, so believes it's addressing a person.

However, Charlie's mum is still fuming and expressed her anger to the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

"It's verbal abuse," said Kim Le Quesne. "Charlie was with his dad looking at the phones. We can't believe the filth it came out with.

"He showed my husband what the phone had said to him and my husband found the store manager and said 'it shouldn't be saying that'."

Still on display

Kim's anger was only enhanced when she returned to the store the next day only to see that the same iPhone 4S handset was still on display.

Tesco has said A statement said: "We have arranged for the handset in question to be sent for diagnostic testing and we will investigate this issue as a matter of priority with Apple."

Via: Coventry Evening Telegraph

Buying Guide: 10 best iPhone apps for making you laugh

Posted:

Buying Guide: 10 best iPhone apps for making you laugh

10 best iPhone apps for making you laugh

There's comedy genius to be found in the App Store, and we've spent a pretty enjoyable week rounding up the very best of it for you.

We've tried to cover all the bases, ranging from comedy classics to cult hits. We've included silly crowd pleasers through to thoroughly adult fare such as Viz Profanisaurus Das Krapital.

It's not all one-liners, though - some of these apps aren't funny in themselves, but allow you to create hilarious things to share, such as brilliant photography app OldBooth. Some apps lend themselves well to stimulating post-work drinks conversation, while others will have you desperately trying to suppress giggles on the train home.

Some apps feature memorable TV characters and comedy actors, so you can look forward to the excitable, manic wit of Harry Hill and the foul-mouthed, caustic opprobrium of Malcolm Tucker, both of them brilliantly in-character in their fantastically imagined apps.

In rounding up these apps, we've not worried too much about the price, but with all of these apps landing at well under the £10 mark for the lot, and each one guaranteed to produce at least one solid belly laugh each, there's little reason not to donk them all on your iPhone or iPad immediately. You and your funny bone can thank us later. Have fun!

01. Malcolm Tucker

Price: £3.99
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Malcolm tucker

Comedy creations like Malcolm Tucker, played by Peter Capaldi, make us proud to be British. The foul-mouthed political puppet master is a highlight of Armando Iannucci's The Thick Of It, and Malcolm Tucker: The Missing Phone centres on the contents of Tucker's misplaced phone.

The result is a treasure trove of foul-mouthed email, audio memos and voicemails, all written around the time of the closing of the last series, as Tucker wrestles with gradually losing his grip on power, and eventually his job.

His email inbox is our favourite, featuring missives and conversations between Tucker and his staff as he attempts to save them with political strategy, professional spin-mastery and threats of physical violence.

There's Tucker's magnificent manifesto for dealing with the press (Point one: "Don't point. It's rude and it will lead to a photograph in which it looks like you are giving a Nazi salute."), plus the political high-flyer's SMS archive, including sadistic texts to answer service AQA ("What is the sharpest knife in the world and where can I get a really big one?" Answer: "Your number has been blocked.").

All of the skullduggery, backstabbing and inept attempts at horse-trading that the TV show plays for laughs are here. People email each other attack memos, which are either deliberately or accidentally forwarded to the attackee, and all the tools of the trade - PDF and .DOC attachments, plus incriminating images - are included for your enjoyment.

Another highlight is the assortment of voicemails - left by Tucker himself, asking for his phone back, dense cabinet minister Nicola Murray (played by Rebecca Front) and freshfaced upstart Ollie Reeder, voiced by Chris Addison. There are also no small number of voice memos to enjoy - the app might be the most expensive here, but there's a vast amount to savour, much of it perfect for dipping in and out of when you have a spare moment.

As befits a phone belonging to a political head honcho, the app is a very busy place, pushing a stream of new voicemails and emails to your Home screen within the first few hours of you downloading the app. There's even a story arc, which unfolds as Tucker attempts to trace his phone by wheedling, cajoling and threatening his terrified crew, as new emails, voicemail and texts arrive on the phone.

One of the funniest plot twists is spin-doctor Tucker's attempts to find himself a career beyond politics. The first chapter of his book is rejected for libelling Michael Crick and Angus Deayton, and he delivers a potty-mouthed rejection of an approach from the BBC trying to interest him in hosting a chat show. Much - if not all - of the humour requires a working knowledge of the show's cast, so this will be a frustrating place to start if you've never seen The Thick of It or In the Loop, the film of the TV show.

If you're already a fan, though, this offers a huge amount of fresh laughs - it's the way a companion app should be done, and the perfect thing to tide you over until the new series next year. A no-brainer for those already familiar with the show, and the perfect sofa companion for those embarking on the first season.

02. Viz Profanisaurus

Price: £1.49
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Viz

Simultaneously the least appropriate, rudest and arguably the funniest app in this group. Viz Profanisaurus has been offering appallingly rude double entendres for years, and this cheap app - Viz Profanisaurus Das Krapital - rounds up 12,000 of them for your viewing displeasure, allowing you to describe bodily functions, anatomical features and intimate acts with more accuracy than ever before.

Just how rude is it? We tried at length to find a definition suitable for reproduction in Tap! and failed miserably. This is not for the easily offended. For everyone else, though, the Profanisaurus is a gloriously profane guide to swearing, allowing you to skip randomly through definitions, or, if you've got something specific in mind, there's a text search box, plus an exhaustive A - Z list.

You can mark entries as favourites, and there's the World Top 10. For the socially minded, the Profanisaurus also includes the ability to post entries to your Twitter and Facebook feeds, although those who are friends with their gran or boss should probably think twice about using this feature.

All in all, this is worth every penny of its £1.49 asking price, is laugh-out-loud funny, and is totally unworthy of a place in a family magazine like Tap!

Download it at your own risk, and come up with a plausible explanation to offer to your colleagues when they ask what you're laughing so hard at.

03. The Onion

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

The onion

The Onion, the US's finest satirical news source, has been keeping the Tap! team amused and distracted for years. So it's a shame that the excellent website is now buried behind a paywall that blocks non-subscribers after five visits in the same month. Luckily for iOS users, though, this excellent official app allows you to skirt around it.

It's essentially an iPad magazine, although it's available on the iPhone and iPod touch as well (the iPad version is called The Onion Tablet, while the iPhone/iPod touch app is simply named The Onion).

The grid-style layout on the front page will be familiar to users of apps such as The Guardian or The Daily - a main story with a big image, then a host of smaller stories, infographics and videos. Navigation is reasonably quick, if a touch jerky at times.

Once The Onion app has downloaded the week's content from the site - of which there's a decent amount - you can read it whether you're online or not, which makes it useful for comedy fans without a mobile data connection. But certain features, such as video, take a while to download.

At its heart it's still The Onion, which means it's satirical US genius at its best, and the app rolls in almost the same amount of content as the physical US-only newspaper. The text stories in it are cuttingly sharp, and the infographics are high-resolution and hilarious.

The star of the piece, though, is the spoof video reports, aping the 24-hour news networks with a constant churn of ridiculous stories. Production values in these videos are first-rate, but this isn't a case of form over content - virtually every joke lands perfectly, giving you plenty of scope for thoroughly embarrassing yourself on the train by spluttering coffee over the tray table.

This is perfect for anyone running out of patience with proper newspapers, and all for the utterly compelling price of absolutely free.

04. OldBooth

Price: £1.49
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

OldBooth

There must be real money to be made in enabling your iPhone to edit pictures to make people look younger, but for comedy value, OldBooth is a superb image editor.

Snap a front-on picture of a friend, place their face into one of OldBooth's old-timey image masks, and hey presto: a picture rendered as though they had been photographed in the '60s. Silly hair and weird clothes are the order of the day, but with around 30 different image masks included, there's plenty of fun to be had. You can take photos in the app, and to help line things up perfectly, OldBooth overlays your chosen mask on top of the viewfinder.

If you're working with an existing pic, pinching to zoom your image to the right size and rotating it is perfectly smooth, while the ability to alter the brightness and contrast of your original image makes it easy to produce surprisingly convincing results.

If the supplied masks simply won't do for you, a pair of In-App Purchases (69p each) allow you to add a handful of extra effects from the '20s or '80s. Good, clean fun.

05. Alan Partridge

Price: 69p
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Alan partridge

Aha! Following a fall from grace, hapless egomaniac Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) is working at a Norfolk radio station, and the result is comedy gold.

Alan Partridge Mid Morning Matters supplies a soundboard from the series of internet shorts, plus a dose of home-made jingles (our favourite being 'What is Alan firing his friend's air rifle into?'). There's also a random shake feature, in which a soundbite is picked out at random.

The videos are the stars of the app - ten-minute clips set in a recording studio, each one a perfect study of a man whose ego threatens to collapse in on itself.

Content is magnificent; it's just a shame that the videos have to be streamed online. Unlike in Mitchell's Soapbox or Harry Hill's Little Internet Show, there's no option to download videos to watch later.

06. David Mitchell's Soapbox

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Soapbox

This is the first of two appearances by Peep Show's David Mitchell in this roundup - an indicator of the man's ability to tickle us.

Each Soapbox is a three to four minute diatribe on a random subject - Mitchell sounds off on the futility of marathon running, his annoyance at people ordering coffee in busy pubs and the unnecessary expense of foreign stag dos. It's a little like listening to a good friend in a pub, assuming your good friends are award-winning comedy writers.

The videos are magnificently produced, and can be streamed directly or downloaded in higher quality, although on anything smaller than an iPad you're unlikely to notice a difference.

Best of all, these genuinely funny weekly rants are all free, with a season's worth of short sound clips thrown in as a bonus, plus another season's worth available as an In-App Purchase. A must-have for fans of Mitchell and good jokes.

07. Peep Show (The Quotatron)

Price: 69p
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Peep show

Is Peep Show the funniest thing on British TV? We're inclined to think it is. So although Peep Show (The Quotatron) isn't exactly a multimedia tour-de-force, containing as it does around 50 audio quotes from two of the most twisted, tortured and funny characters committed to TV, it more than compensates by being extremely funny.

Well, most of the time, anyway. Given the rich treasure trove of quotes at the app creators' disposal, a few of them are a little too short of context for our liking. But there's certainly enough to amuse, and while the bundled memory game doesn't make a huge amount of sense, it's a decent time-passer.

A smattering of video wouldn't go amiss, but for those who don't get their fill of Peep Show from the app (possibly the idea), each quote comes with a link to the relevant episode in the iTunes store.

08. Harry Hill Little Internet Show

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Harry hill

Channel Flip made Harry Hill's Little Internet Show as well as David Mitchell's Soapbox. The app layout and production values of the two-to-three-minute sketches are all roughly the same, but the humour varies wildly as the big-collared comic finds himself in manic scrapes, whether it's helping out his mate Adam (a tree), or attempting to hide Susan Boyle in a cupboard.

As with Soapbox, clips can be streamed if you've got a network connection, or downloaded if you're a stickler for quality, and the app alerts you when a new episode is released - although season one has just finished.

Videos are nicely produced, and although it's sponsored by AOL, pre-roll advertising is kept to an unobtrusive minimum. Our only complaint is the lack of sharing options - given that the videos can be streamed over the internet, the ability to post them to your Facebook wall would be a great addition. Other than that, this is a superb freebie for fans of Harry Hill.

09. Atomic Fart Free

Price: Free
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad

Atomic fart free

We feel bad about this one: Tap! lasted precisely 10 issues before covering a fart app. But when it comes to making people laugh, the passing of gas has been funny for millennia, so it's nice to see technologists embracing the lowest form of humour.

And embrace it they have, with Atomic Fart capable of serving up a bevvy of disgusting but funny wind sounds, from The Aftershock to the Duck Stepper in the fart list. And there's even a fart drum set. You can set your iOS device up to become a space-age whoopie cushion as well, either by setting up a countdown or opting to have it detect nearby movement before letting rip.

There's even Bluetooth capability within the app, allowing you to serve up naughty noises on the iOS devices of (consenting) nearby users.

10. Fawlty Towers Soundboard

Price: 69p
Works with: iPhone, iPod touch

Fawlty towers soundboard

Fawlty Towers Soundboard mines such a rich seam of source material, it's shooting into an open goal. Still, the presentation of this keenly priced collection of sound clips is pleasingly on-message, and there's a strong selection of clips. Including, of course, Basil not mentioning the war.

Choose the clips you want to listen to by selecting a favourite character (Basil, Sybil, Polly, the Major and Manuel all get their own categories). Giving your iPhone a shake from the app's main screen will play a random one. You can also opt to play all the clips in a random order, giving the screen a tap to move on to the next one.

That's about it - no sharing options and no video reduce the app's appeal somewhat, although as with The Quotatron there are links to Fawlty Towers on iTunes. Still, listening to Basil breaking down, cracking up and abusing his staff is timeless.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Apple : Apple iTV to bring customised channel options?

Apple : Apple iTV to bring customised channel options?


Apple iTV to bring customised channel options?

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Apple iTV to bring customised channel options?

Apple is looking to bring customisable channel and show options to Apple iTV in a bid to differentiate the service from other web TV offerings.

This is according to Apple Insider which is reporting that Apple is looking into the idea of allowing its users to pick and choose what channels and even what shows they want and then stream this content through the web.

Sky and Virgin currently offer a number of package options to its users and if the rumours are true then Apple will compete with these services but offer an even more granular approach to subscriptions, allowing its users to even pick and choose the shows they want to pay for.

If successful, this 'wheat from the chaff' approach to television programming could change the TV game, said one analyst – although there does seem to be some question over just how Apple would be granted the various licenses to achieve its TV utopia.

TV game changer

"This is obviously much more complicated [than current offerings] from a licensing standpoint [but] in our view, would change the game for television and give AAPL a big leg-up against the competition," said analyst Shaw Wu from Sterne Agee.

"Today, iTunes has a rich library of movies and TV shows but it is mostly for downloads and only movies are available for rentals," he wrote. "What's missing is live broadcast television."

If Apple does indeed offer iTV through its own Apple Television, then it wouldn't just shake up the broadcast market but the physical television market as well.

If we were the likes of LG, Samsung and Sony then we would be trying our best to make our smart TVs that little bit smarter.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Apple : Tutorial: How to manage your files with your iPhone

Apple : Tutorial: How to manage your files with your iPhone


Tutorial: How to manage your files with your iPhone

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Tutorial: How to manage your files with your iPhone

How to manage your files with your iPhone

Your smartphone is your true mobile companion. It has more computing power than it took to put a man on the moon. It's an always-connected PC, sitting in your pocket; yesterday's dreams made real. And, as such, your smartphone is the perfect device for dealing with your precious documents and files.

No other hardware has the power of internet connectivity, push notifications, compatibility with our PC operating systems, and most importantly, is omnipresent in everyone's lives, ready to be called on at a moment's notice.

Despite the smartphone's power to put files and documents at our fingertips, it can be surprisingly difficult to access them. One particular offender is iOS, which, despite being the operating system behinds the world's most popular handset, the iPhone, is totally inept when dealing with files.

We should point out that we're concentrating on iOS in this article, merely because it's the most restricted of the smartphone operating systems. Many of our tips will also apply to Android and BlackBerry handsets too. Grab the Dropbox app for Android and you'll be able to do many of the things we describe here.

Back to iOS, then. It hides its file system, it's unable to read files placed onto its memory using a USB connection, there's no microSD port for moving files physically, and Safari will plainly refuse to use web versions of online file systems such as Dropbox. It's like the anti-computer.

Even if you're able to access them - perhaps by connecting a camera connection kit to an iPad and inserting an SD card - iOS has little provision for reading files natively, so that essential Word document will be about as much use to you as an animated GIF of a gurning Jeremy Clarkson.

Luckily, what can't be done natively on the iPhone can mostly be achieved though the use of apps. You can extend your phone's functionality to add features, and when it comes to going mobile with your files, there are plenty of methods to choose from.

Dropbox

How to manage your files with your iphone

One of the first names that come to mind when dealing with file storage and distribution is Dropbox. And rightly so. This online cloud storage service has rocketed in popularity over the last couple of years due to its excellent connectivity options, fast speeds and intuitive interface. One of the best things about Dropbox is that it's multi-platform - you might already use it on PC or Mac through a desktop app or through the browser portal, which lets you to access the files you're storing from anywhere.

However, fewer people are aware of the rather excellent iOS version of the Dropbox app, which really puts you in control of your stored documents. If you're ever away from your PC, on the move or simply need to access an important file quickly, your smartphone can come to the rescue.

You can download the Dropbox app for iOS from the App Store free of charge. Once it's installed, tap it to open and you'll be asked if you're a Dropbox user. If you've used the service before, just add your details to access your files. If this is your first time using it, click 'I'm new to Dropbox'. There's a short signup process, which is kept to a minimum, then you're taken to your storage area.

Once you're logged into the app you can view any file that's been uploaded to your Dropbox and stored in the cloud from any system; this means your files can cross between Android handsets, PCs, email accounts, the lot.

There's also the option to view files, which is one of the few ways you can actually read documents that have been sent to your iPhone, given its usual stoic refusal to view anything other than PDFs and images.

Dropbox is able to natively display a host of image types, a variety of text documents and a string of other common file types besides. Unfortunately you can't make changes or amendments to the documents, and they will only open in a read-only mode.

Share and share alike

How to manage your files with your iphone

You can, however, redistribute files, which can be a godsend when you're on the move. If a colleague or family member has ever called you to ask for a file while you're enjoying a day off, it can often mean an irritating journey to your PC to send it.

Retrieving the file on Dropbox makes the process much easier. Open any file, even if it's in an unreadable format, and press the icon at the bottom left that looks like two linked chains. Choose 'Email link' and a new message containing a hyperlink will open using the iPhone's default mail programme. Send that to the recipient and they can download the file without any hassle, leaving you to get on with your day.

One weakness of using Dropbox on your iPhone is that there's little scope for uploading to the app. You can add files, but with iOS's limited file support you can only deal with your photos.

Thankfully, there's another way. Other apps that let you interact with your files can connect with Dropbox, letting you save your files in a central location. A great example of this is the email app provided with iOS. Scroll to the bottom of an email containing an attachment and tap it. When it loads, press the forward arrow in the top right corner. Choose 'Open in' and select 'Dropbox' from the list. The app prompts you to pick a location for it to be saved in before it's uploaded to the cloud.

Dropbox presents one of the simplest ways to control your files using your iPhone, and there's not a lot that it can't do.

However, mobile workers who use a host of FTP connections may find there's a lack of options on offer, and could be put off by the need to use the desktop application. Locked down corporate systems won't let you install the app either, which means it's a case of using the clunky web interface, which is never a good thing.

However, an iOS app called Air Sharing does offer a neat alternative.

Air Sharing and DiskAid

Air Sharing

How to manage your files with your iphone

While Dropbox is a fantastic way to access files when you're away from your PC, it doesn't put you in full control. If you're looking to really work remotely, try the Air Sharing app, which is available for £1.49 from the App Store. This features a host of functions that give you the power to turn your iPhone from a basic file reader into a powerful server.

In short, Air Sharing lets you use your iOS device as a portable hard drive, with your files stored wherever you go. You can access them via your phone, PC, Mac or via a web portal which offers 10GB of storage. You can even mount your iOS device onto your desktop as if it were a portable hard drive, which is particularly useful if you have a large capacity device; it may not matter to you if the phone itself can read the files if you're always carrying the equivalent of a large USB drive in your pocket.

The key benefit of Air Sharing over other types of mobile storage is that instead of storing your data in the cloud, it uses the physical memory on your iPhone. This means you can use up to 10GB of storage, rather than the measly 2GB provided with the free version of Dropbox.

It also means that you have a backup if you need a file when you're offline, and you may even get better speed running over Wi-Fi than you would over USB.

How to manage your files with your iphone

To get started, download the Air Sharing app from the App Store. There's a Pro version that costs £3.99 and has many more features, and you can upgrade at any time. Mounting your iPhone as a physical drive on your PC is easy. First you need to connect your iPhone to your home network, then open the Air Share app and press the wireless icon at the bottom of the home screen. This will open a small menu that contains important information about your account.

Put your iPhone to one side and turn to your PC. In Windows 7, click the Start menu and right-click 'Computer'. Choose 'Map network drive' from the list, then enter the IP address listed in your Air Sharing app into the 'Folder' field. Click 'OK' and a Windows Explorer window will open showing all of the files contained in your Air Sharing inbox.

You can also do the same on a Mac, if you're using one. Begin by right-clicking on the Finder icon in your dock, then choose Connect to Server. Use the same IP address as you would on PC in order to have the storage location mounted for seamless connection between Mac and iPhone.

The support provided by Air Sharing is also fantastic, and includes some difficult formats. There's iWork, Microsoft Office, HTML, RTF, PDF, movies, audio, and even source code, including C++. That could prove invaluable if you're a programmer.

If you're a mobile worker, Air Sharing has a few more tricks up its sleeve. Unlike Dropbox, it supports a wealth of FTP file sharing protocols, Home Pipe, MobileMe, and Dropbox itself, which gives you plenty of options.

You don't have to settle for FTP links to get more from Air Sharing; if you have Bonjour installed on your PC or Mac, you can connect using your web browser. This address doesn't change from session to session; just find it in Air Sharing's connections menu once and you'll always know exactly how to connect to your phone.

View your files on your PC

How to manage your files with your iphone

Air Sharing is a powerful tool, but it's possible to supplement or even replace it with a different, more hardcore application. DiskAid is a PC app that lets you explore the contents of your iPhone like any other drive. You can download a 14-day trial, after which you can pay $9.95 to upgrade to the full program.

Once the trial is installed, it will prompt you to connect your iOS device, which must be unlocked the first time so DiskAid can recognise it. You will then get a basic file tree view, which lists all your installed apps as well as general storage. This is the bit of iOS that Apple tries its best to hide from public view - the file system itself.

We're of the mind that Apple isn't trying to be deliberately awkward, though; Steve Jobs' philosophy, even back when he and Steve Wozniak were designing the original Apple home computers, was that they should be simple enough for anyone to use. There was even an argument in those early days; Woz had to fight hard for the Apple II's expansion slots.

Reminiscing aside, you can use the DiskAid app to transfer files to and from your iPhone's memory. Unfortunately it's not a straightforward case of dragging and dropping - the tools are located at the top of the DiskAid window. Click one of these to locate the file and the destination, and DiskAid will take care of transferring it to your memory. This does introduce one large issue: you'll need a machine with DiskAid installed to move files around on an iOS device, so it's not a universal solution.

If you're using Air Sharing, you can also find these files by choosing the app from the list located near the bottom. Click on the name to display a new folder containing all of your remote files. You can transfer these to your PC by clicking them and choosing 'Transfer to PC'. Just set the destination and your file will be copied across.

There are a few other file management solutions worth mentioning here. If you're looking to grab files straight from the internet and store them on your device, you could do worse than trying Downloads, a £1.50 app that especially suits MP3s, given that it has its own built in player.

Or, if you're looking to improve iOS compatibility with media files, try something like VLC Streamer, which plays back videos of all types, streaming them over your network.

Or why not try Screens, which lets you see and control your PC's desktop directly from your phone? It's pricey at £14, but worth the investment.

If you're really looking to take control of your files then iOS is far from perfect, but the huge range of apps on offer means you don't have to rely on USB sticks and clunky cloud web interfaces.

We heartily recommend anyone to try Dropbox, and the app is a great extension of a superb web service. Alternatively, Air Sharing is a fantastic service, especially if you go for the pro version.

In Depth: 13 weird and wonderful niche Linux distros

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In Depth: 13 weird and wonderful niche Linux distros

13 niche Linux distros

Here are 13 of the best, oddest and most useful distributions that Linux has to offer, and why on Earth you'd want to use them.

Red Star OS

One distro that's never going to trouble the top of the Distrowatch rankings chart is Red Star OS. This is the Linux distribution that was developed/is being developed as the officially sanctioned operating system of North Korea, apparently at the behest of Kim Jong-Il, the country's leader.

It's based on the familiar KDE 3.x, but with added touches including the Woodpecker antivirus software and the Pyongyang Fortress firewall.

Familiar apps have been renamed too: there's a notebook app called My Comrade, and Firefox is called My Country (perhaps fittingly, as North Korea has its own internet). We searched for 'Democracy' in the default search engine, but nothing came up…

MuLinux

The classically educated might be able to guess that this is a small distro, possibly in the same vein as Puppy or Damn Small Linux. You'd have difficulty, however, comprehending just how small it is. MuLinux requires 20MB hard disk space and 4MB RAM, and will run on an Intel 80386 processor or later.

That's the same Intel 80386 processor that was released in 1985, meaning Mu will breathe life into even ancient hardware. Mu is no match for a modern system in terms of productivity, having been finished in 1998-99, but if you have a 25-year-old machine that you want to rescue from the scrapheap, it's the distro for you.

Ubuntu Satanic Edition

13 niche distros

Ubuntu spin-offs are ten-a-penny, but we have to recognise that the makers of Ubuntu SE have gone beyond the ordinary in their quest to please The Dark One. The dark theme and collection of background images is the most obvious modification, and the sound effects and startup jingle have also been customised.

Ubuntu's fondness for alliteration is still there (the last three releases have been Lucifer's Legion, Microsoft Massacre and Necrophilic Necromancer), but the version numbers have been modified to 666.8, 666.9 and 666.10 respectively.

Oh, and it doesn't have live CDs; they're "undead". Endearingly bonkers.

GoboLinux

One for the techies, this: the thing that marks GoboLinux out from the rest is its filesystem layout. Most Linux distributions use an archaic non-arrangement wherein an application's files are scattered around your hard drive in several different folders.

GoboLinux adopts an OS X-like approach (which Apple took from RISC OS), and stores all files associated with an application in a single folder in /Programs.

GNewSense

If you like software freedom, you'll love GNewSense. It's based on Ubuntu, but has had all non-free software removed, including those tricky non-free driver files that are loaded into the Linux kernel (known as binary blobs). Unfortunately, many of these blobs are drivers for wireless networking cards, so GNewSense may not be the best distro for laptops.

On the plus side, it has removed or renamed software that doesn't fit the Free Software Foundation's definition of freedom (Firefox, for example, is renamed as Burning Dog), and it doesn't provide any links to non-free repositories, making it even more free than Debian.

Until we get the Hurd to replace the Linux kernel and create Gnu/Hurd, GNewSense (and Trisquel, a similar project based on Debian with a much cooler logo) is the closest we'll get to completely free.

Sabily/Ubuntu Christian Edition

Formerly known as Ubuntu Islamic Remix, Sabily is Ubuntu with extra Islam. The theme is Islamic green, the Applications menu has been expanded to include a selection of Quran study/prayer-time software, and the DansGuardian web filtering tool has been given an easy-to-use front end in the shape of Webstrict.

Ubuntu Christian Edition is, perhaps not surprisingly, the equivalent for Christians, and features religious study tools as well as improved web filtering (Ubuntu CE's DansGuardian UI is what inspired the developers of Sabily to include their own).

We also have to tip our hat to Jewbuntu, simply for having such an inspired name.

Yellow Dog

Originally released in the late 90s for Apple computers using the PowerPC chip architecture, Yellow Dog found its niche among people who wanted an even more different way to think differently. All was good, but then Apple abandoned PowerPC in favour of Intel chips, which it's still using today.

This left Yellow Dog out in the cold, but after a change of ownership it re-invented itself as an OS for high-performance multicore computing - most notably as the OS used on PlayStations hooked up to form cheap supercomputing grids.

Mikebuntu

We blow our own trumpet so rarely round here that we'd almost forgotten where we put it, but it's worth shouting about the work that disc monkey Mike Saunders puts into the DVD for TechRadar's sister title, Linux Format, every month. Mike packs the distro on the free DVD with extra PDFs, extra software, extra desktop environments and heaps more extra options. We love you, Mike.

Gentoo

We love the freedom that we have to modify and recompile source code according to our needs, but very few of us actually do this, because it's easier to just download a Deb or RPM file. The lazy majority would not like Gentoo - or Linux For Masochists, as it's sometimes known - for the simple fact that you have to compile it yourself.

That's not just the apps - it's the whole thing, including the kernel and all the other bits of your current distro that most people take for granted. The point of this is that if your Linux distro is compiled for your exact hardware, it should be possible to wring every last drop of performance from your kit. You just need to make sure that you have a large supply of coffee to hand before you attempt to install it.

And yes, we know that there are versions of Gentoo in existence that are easier to use, but they're not really Gentoo now, are they?

Scientific Linux

There still exists among our Windows-using cousins the risible idea that Linux isn't good enough to take over on the desktop; that the continued dominance of Microsoft on the desktop is inevitable, because Linux is not up to the job technically. This can easily be refuted: the cleverest people on the planet - the scientists searching for clues about the beginning of the universe - use Scientific Linux at the CERN laboratories.

It's based on Red Hat, and anyone can download and install it on their machine. You don't even need a PhD in theoretical physics.

Parted Magic

We're sure that nobody runs this as their full-time operating system (if you do, get in touch and tell us why), so although it's technically a distro, it's best thought of as a specialist tool.

Parted Magic is a live distro that comes with all the tools you need to fix broken partitions. If something won't boot, this is what you use to fix it, and that goes for both Linux and Windows machines. As a troubleshooting aid, it's indispensable.

Bodhi Linux

Before Unity, Gnome 3 and KDE 4 came along and showed the world what it was missing, the Linux desktop was a staid place, enlivened only by the ongoing flame wars between KDE and Gnome users. This is odd, because as long ago as 1997 we had a far glitzier alternative: Enlightenment.

Enlightenment is a window manager, and is beautiful without distracting you from the task in hand or forcing you to adopt your way of working to it. And the best way to get it is to install Bodhi Linux, which is why it's on this list.

Umpteen Ubuntu remixes

It's often said that there's too much choice in Linuxland, but the truth is actually that there's too much duplication. Each of the distros featured in this list fulfils a need, and brings something new to the party. But there are many, many more that don't.

If you're thinking of remixing your favourite distro to give it an Xfce or LXD E desktop, don't: because someone will already have done it; and we don't need any more dead wood clogging up the internet.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Apple : Buying Guide: Best iPad keyboard case: 5 reviewed and rated

Apple : Buying Guide: Best iPad keyboard case: 5 reviewed and rated


Buying Guide: Best iPad keyboard case: 5 reviewed and rated

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Buying Guide: Best iPad keyboard case: 5 reviewed and rated

Best iPad keyboard case

The original iPad and iPad 2 are wonderful tools for working on the go: they're lighter than laptops and have great battery lives that will put most laptop computers to shame.

Bung them in protective cases and off you go: your perfect portable office.

But if you're doing loads of typing on your iPad, the on-screen keyboard isn't ideal; an external one is faster and more comfortable to work on.

So why not kill two birds with a single stone, or, in this instance, a case with a built-in Bluetooth keyboard? This way, your iPad is protected when you head out the door, and you've always got a keyboard with you when you want to do some serious typing.

There are a few cases available, especially for the iPad 2, so we've picked a selection to try out for you.

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

You connect the keyboard to your iPad wirelessly using Bluetooth. First time round, you'll need to pair the two by switching the keyboard into pairing mode (the instructions will tell you how to do this), and then going into the Settings app on your iPad, tapping General, then Bluetooth. The keyboard will appear in the list. To use it, tap its name, wait a moment, then type the passcode that appears on the iPad's screen on the keyboard and press Return.

You'll only need to do this the first time round - each subsequent time, as soon as you switch on the keyboard, your iPad will pick it up, enabling you to get started instantly. Just remember to keep the batteries in the keyboard charged!

Remember that using Bluetooth puts a bit of added strain on your iPad's battery, so it may be worth switching it off (in Settings > General > Bluetooth) if you're running low on power and don't need to use the keyboard at that time.

The Bluetooth link means you can use the keyboards with the iPhone and iPod touch too, of course, as well as with a PC or Mac if you wish.

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

Some of these iPad keyboard cases are iPad 2-only, others solely for the original iPad, and one will, unofficially, work with both. But many manufacturers offer similar versions for the other iPad, so if one of the iPad 2 cases particularly takes your fancy but you have an original iPad, there may be a version for that available, too.

The Zagg ZAGGmate is designed for the original iPad, though there is a similarly built version for iPad 2 (£90).

The Adonit Writer also comes in versions for both iPads; we tested the iPad 2 edition but the one for the original (£90) is the same, bar the differently shaped cradle. The WeKreat TypeRider is iPad 2-only, as is the iLuv iCK826.

The Kensington KeyFolio Pro is advertised as being for the iPad 2, but it will fit an original iPad - it sticks out of the side a bit and a minute portion of the top of the screen is obscured, but this doesn't affect its use.

Test one: Ease of typing

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

The keyboard's the most important thing here; if it wasn't, why would you be buying a keyboard case rather than one of the hundreds of other iPad cases out there? To help you make the right choice, we spent a long time typing on each one of the cases in this test to get a proper feel for it. The question at the forefront of our minds was this: how fast could we type on each keyboard without making (too many) mistakes?

Even though these keyboards all fit within the confines of an iPad case, they're not all the same size: the Adonit Writer is the smallest, followed by the equally sized WeKreat TypeRider, Zagg ZAGGmate and iLuv iCK826, and the Kensington KeyFolio Pro is the largest.

None are the size of a full desktop or laptop keyboard (the KeyFolio Pro is around 2cm shorter), but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. There will inevitably be a short period of getting used to the smaller keyboard, but we found ourselves typing away fairly quickly on most of these. Moreover, they've all got some form of iOS shortcut keys along the top, giving quick access to your Home screen, music controls and more.

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

If you have larger hands, you may struggle using any but the Kensington KeyFolio Pro, especially with the Adonit Writer, but having done a lot of typing on each of these, we don't dislike any of them. Each has its own quirks and minor annoyances, but we were able to type reasonably error-free fairly quickly.

There are irritations, however. The TypeRider's Delete button is only a single key wide, and some in the office really disliked the ridge in front of the spacebar.

The ZAGGmate's arrow keys are arranged in an L-shape rather than the traditional (and intuitive) inverted T, but the flipside of this annoying arrow key arrangement is that you get a longer (and therefore easier to hit) right Shift key; on the iLuv iCK826, TypeRider and Writer, it's only a single key wide and sits alongside the up arrow, which meant we often hit the latter by mistake.

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

And while we're on the topic of the ZAGGmate, the protective ridge around the edge had a tendency to get in the way of the outsides of your hands when you reach for the keys around the edge.

The iLuv iCK826's keys, while they offer a lovely light action, offer little tactile difference between them, which means we sometimes hit the wrong key or pressed two at once. Let's be clear though, these are minor irritations.

You'll have noticed that the Kensington KeyFolio Pro has been conspicuous by its absence so far. That's because it's easily our favourite keyboard here. The large keys require less acclimatisation than the other models', while they're nicely spaced so as to prevent you hitting two at once. A lovely, lovely keyboard.

Test results

Test 1

Test two: The case

Test two: the case

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

When you take your iPad out and about, it's going to get knocked around a bit, so you want a case that's going to protect it, ideally without adding too much bulk.

The ZAGGmate adds the least by way of weight to the original iPad, although it doesn't cover the scratch-prone back of the device, leaving it vulnerable.

And the Kensington KeyFolio Pro, while covering the back, leaves the corners a bit exposed. It doesn't have a way of staying shut either, and though it isn't the fattest case here, it feels very tubby. It will, however, allow you to stand the iPad in portrait as well as landscape orientation, adding to its versatility when you're on the move.

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

The Adonit Writer is beautifully thin and its magnets keep it snugly shut when you're carrying it around. It's rare in offering all-round protection for your iPad, slotting into a plastic frame (which has some nasty sharp corners).

The soft front cover's edges do feel a bit vulnerable, though; we worry that the outer coating and inner lining could split apart with repeated use. And setting the stand up is a tad fiddly, with the magnets that hold the keyboard to the inside of the case making it tricky to set up.

None of the above three cases lets you remove the keyboard, which means you can't put your iPad up at a comfortable height for viewing and type at the same time.

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

This is what sets the iLuv iCK826 and WeKreat TypeRider apart, because these both let you take out the keyboard. The iLuv iCK826 is the fattest case, but it feels so solid. Granted, the corners of your iPad are left exposed, though less so than with the Kensington KeyFolio Pro.

The WeKreat TypeRider is nice and thin and houses your iPad in a plastic grip, which helps protect it on all sides. However, it leaves the top edge largely exposed, and the shell isn't actually that robust - the thin bit next to the camera opening snapped while we were testing it. Furthermore, when you shut this case, the keyboard rests against the iPad screen because the back of the case bends slightly.

Test results

test 2

The verdict

Best ipad keyboard cases: 5 tested

Sometimes, after testing several products, there's a clear winner. But not this time, and your buying decision here is down to where you're willing to compromise: the keyboard or the case.

If we could combine several of these, we'd put the Kensington KeyFolio Pro keyboard in the iLuv iCK826 case and slim it to the size of the WeKreat TypeRider to create the perfect product.

The Kensington KeyFolio Pro has the best keyboard, no contest. We also appreciated being able to spin the iPad into portrait orientation, and that the case will fit an original iPad or an iPad 2 - if you upgrade, you won't need a new case. We'd recommend it over the Zagg ZAGGmate for the original iPad.

Sadly, the excellent keyboard is let down by the case it's in and the glue binding the two together. Not being able to remove the keyboard means you're forced to peer down at the iPad as you type - not always a bad thing, but at our desk we wanted the iPad higher up for more comfortable viewing. And the case, though well made, is chunky and has no way of keeping itself shut, which is a big oversight.

We like the WeKreat TypeRider too - indeed, when we put it up against the iLuv iCK826 in a Twin Test recently, we preferred it, due to its thin design and nicer keyboard. But a combination of the ridge in front of the spacebar (which irritated several of our friends, but not us), the bendy front cover and the fragile plastic shell means we don't feel comfortable recommending it any more.

The best iPad keyboard case is...

So the gong of best iPad keyboard case goes to the iLuv iCK826. Yes, it's the fattest case here, but it's a price you pay for good protection, and it certainly feels like the most solid offering. There's no worrying that the case will snap, like there is with the TypeRider. The use of a magnet in the clasp is clever, making it easier to open and shut than the TypeRider, too, which uses an elastic strap.

We also really like the way the keyboard is removable and is built into its own leather-like enclosure, which gives you a comfy wrist-rest wherever you're using it. The flat-topped keys aren't ideal - it's too easy to knock the key next to the one you want - but with a bit of care, we were able to type on it quite happily, and the key action is nice and light, so it won't place much strain on your fingers even with prolonged use.