iOS 8

iOS 8 for iPhone and iPad

iOS 8, codenamed Okemo, was announced by Apple at WWDC 2014 on June 2, with the first developer beta seeded the same day. The current beta, beta 2, was seeded on June 17, and it's expected to become publicly available this fall. If Apple sticks to the pattern established over the course of the last two years, that would peg the iOS 8 release date as on or around September 17, 2014. (Apple, of course, doesn't always stick to patterns.) Major new features include Continuity, Extensibility, QuickType, Health, iCloud Drive, and Family Sharing, as well as major improvements for Photos, Messages, Spotlight, and more. There will likely also be more, hardware-dependant features announced alongside the iPhone 6this fall.

Continuity: Handoff, AirDrop, Instant Hotspot, calling and SMS/MMS

Continuity is all about providing a seamless, secure experience between iPhone, iPad, and Mac. As long as you're logged in under the same Apple ID, and your devices are in proximity, you can Handoff activity in an app on iOS to continue it right where you left off on OS X, or vice-versa. There's also a new, cross-compatible version of AirDrop so you can push data between all your devices, and Instant Hotspot, so your Mac or iPad Wi-Fi can use your iPhone or iPad cellular connection to get online automagically. Continuity also lets you make or take phone calls and SMS and MMS messages from your iPhone on your iPad or Mac.

sExtensibility: Interactive notifications, inter-app communications, widgets, DocumentPicker, third-party keyboard

Extensibility fundamentally changes the way iOS works. While maintaining privacy and security, Extensibility adds a wide range of new features to iPhone and iPad. These include interactive notifications, opening up sharing and actions to third party apps (the options available on Share Sheets), enabling photo filters and editing tools to present themselves in other apps, access to the Today view in Notification Center for third party widgets, iCloud Drive and DocumentPicker so your files can be opened in any app that supports them, as well as the ability to specify an alternate storage provider, if you so wish, and support for third-party custom keyboards, system-wide.

Messages

In addition to the Continuity SMS/MMS sending and receiving, and interactive notifications, Messages has gained several other new features. Thanks to new touch-and-hold radial controls, you can quickly create and send video and audio messages. You can also lift to your ear to listen. For existing photos and videos, you now get large thumbnails making them easy to add, even in volume.

There's a new Details section that lets you see and share location as well as all photos and videos that are part of the conversation. In addition, for group messages, you can now easily invoke do-not-disturb on specific conversations, and even drop out entirely with just a couple of taps.

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing, up to 6 people can co-mingle their iTunes music, movies, TV shows, books, apps, and games, all together, all at the same time. It doesn't matter if you have different Apple IDs and passwords, all that matters is that you have the same credit card on all the shared accounts.

If you have children, you can also approve every in-app purchase they make — a notification appears on your iOS devices telling you a child wants to make an in-app purchase on one of their iOS devices.

What's more, Family Sharing automagically sets up a shared Photo Stream, shared Calendar, and allows shared location and shared Find my iPhone/iPad when and if you choose to enable it.

Photos

iCloud Photo Library is the big new feature in Photos. In theory, every photo and video you take with your iPhone or iPad gets store in iCloud so you can access it from any iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Windows PC, anywhere and any time you want. Apple even promises RAW files will be stored, if that's the original format. In practice, however, the amount stored will depend on how much space you have in your iCloud account, which still starts at a paltry 5GB.

What's more, iCloud Photo Library also stores non-destructive edits, so if you make a change to a photo or video on one device, those changes are synced to any and all other devices logged into the same Apple ID.

Smart search and smart suggestion tries to make it easier for you to find your photos later, with time, location, and album sorting.

There's a new time-lapse mode for the Camera app, and smart composition tools so you can quickly crop and straighten photos. There are also smart adjustments so you can either automagically fix a photo, or manually tweak brightness, contrast, exposure, highlights, shadows, and colors.

Thanks to Extensibility, you can now access third-part filters as well. Thanks to manual camera controls for third-party apps, you will also be able to set everything just the way you like it as well.

Health

Much like Passbook collects all your passes, cards, tickets, etc. all in one place, Health promises to collect all your health and fitness information in one app. In addition to sections of fitness, nutrition, sleep, medication, and more, you can also create an emergency card for first responders so any critical information about you is readily available when you need it most.

HealthKit, the developer side of Health, will make it easy for App Store apps and accessories to share their information, and for you to share it with medical professionals if and when you so choose.

Spotlight

Spotlight has gotten much smarter, and much more able, in iOS 8. In addition to the classic on-device results we've all come to know and expect, Spotlight now provides Wikipedia results inline. So too news and even Maps data like landmarks, restaurants, and movies. iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store results are provided for both stuff you've already downloaded and stuff you haven't, in case you want to buy or download it immediately.

It's not quite Siri's sequential inference engine, at least not yet. But it's getting there.

Multitasking

Where previously you could double-click the Home button to get the card-view interface for recently used apps, now you can do the same to get a horizontal list view of favorite and recent contacts as well

Safari

Safari on the iPad gets the same visual tab feature that the iPhone version got in iOS 7, and the same new transparent sidebar OS X Yosemite enjoys, better organizing bookmarks, reading list, and shared links.

Enterprise

S/MIME has now been enabled on a per-message basis, and Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Notes, and Messages apps, as well as account credential are now, like Mail and App Store apps, encrypted following a reboot unless and until a passcode is entered.

Meeting availability is now shown in Calendar and there are now new tools available to manage PDFs and books. IT can manage which apps can open enterprise documents, MDM in general has been made better and more granular.

You can even AirPlay directly, without having to get on the business network first.

Developers

In addition to everything mentioned above, developers also get HomeKit to better integrate with home automation and connected devices, and CloudKit to store key values and blobs on Apple's servers. SceneKit, for easier 3D game creation, has now been ported from OS X to iOS, and Metal, for writing more directly to the GPU, promises Apple A7 — and future A-series processor — performance never before possible.

There's also Swift, a brand new programming language that promises to take the C out of Objective-C, and provide REPL and Playground features to make programming more accessible to everyone.

IPAD AIR 2

Apple officially introduced its 6th generation flagship tablet - October 16, 2014. The new iPAD Air 2 looks similar to its predecessor the iPAD Air but it's a lot thinner, faster and additional new features addediPAD Air 2 Display

The iPad Air 2 displays a 9.7 inch 2048 x 1536 pixels resolution with apples' trademark Retina Display, which is much the same as that of a year ago's release yet the screen is now fully laminated and has anti-reflective coating, which ought to help give a more agreeable viewing experience on the gadget actually when you're utilizing it outside under immediate daylight

iPAD Air 2 Camera

The primary camera at the back similarly got a slight spark knock as its presently a 8 Megapixel shooters versus only 5 MP on the iPad Air 1. Packed with autofocus function, face detection, backside illumination, Five element lens with Hybrid IR Filter. Aperture is ƒ/2.4, Tap to focus and Tap to control exposure for videos and still images. Photo and video geotagging, HDR Photos together with Burst mode. Front facing camera used for selfies and facetime is 1.2MP

iPAD Air 2 Processor

Apple iPad Air 2 is powered by the new Apple-designed A8X chip which delivers a 40 percent improvement in CPU performance and 2.5 times the graphics performance of iPad Air. It is expected to deliver a 10-hour battery life which is mostly used for playing games, working stuffs and surfing the web. The A8X chip opens sensible visual impacts comparable to the most developed gaming comfort. It also includes the M8 motion coprocessor that assembles movement information from the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and an all-new barometer which senses air pressure to provide relative elevation.

 iPAD Air 2 Features

New features added ;  Touch ID fingerprint scanning has been added to the Home button, as we are seeing on iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6S - allows you to quickly unlock the device, make purchases on the App Store without having to always type in your password, among a few others. This device will run with the Operating System of Apples' latest iOS 8.1 and is compatible with Apple Pay. Weighing 0.96 pounds, the iPad Air 2 is not the lightest tablet available in the market. But measuring only 6.1 millimeters at its thickest point, it is surely the thinnest as of today.

iPAD Air 2 Colors and Pricing

Mac will put the iPAD Air 2 up for pre-order on October 17, and it will dispatch by October 24. There are three shades, white, grey, and gold, with three inward stockpiling choices.
The 16GB Wi-Fi version will cost about $500, 64GB will be about $600 and the largest version of 128GB will price about  $700. Cellular connectivity is also available for the price of  about $630 - 16GB, $730 - 64GB, and $830 - 128GB. 

I WATCH

Apple Watch

Apple has just lifted the lid on what we were all anticipating (some of us more than, err, others). What could be described as an iPod Nano stuck on a wristband, the square screen is matched by a rectangular bezel, but round UI.Available in two watch sizes with six strap choices, the hardware itself appears to come in an 18-carat gold version, or silver option. The straps come in a soft quilted leather option, a supple leather strap with an actual clasp, plus a stainless steel strap.As an alternative to pinch and zoom on the screen, the Watch has what Apple is calling – I kid you not – a "crown" which is located on the side of the watch, containing infrared LEDs and photoiodes that translate rotary movement into digital data. In short, it's a way to control the Watch – press it and you go back to the homescreen.

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Raising your wrist activates the screen, and messages can be replied to audibly, by dictation. Swipe up on the touchscreen, which is called a "glance" (oh Apple) for customisable info similar to what you see on an iPhone currently, such as calendar and music details. If you swipe down, that brings you back to the homescreen.

But onto fitness-related apps, where there are exactly two so far: Fitness and Workout. The first app monitors all activity and movement, whereas Workout is where you set your fitness goals, and measures calories.

Three coloured rings (above) display different details regarding your movement. The Move ring will inform you if you've done a normal amount of activity for the day, while the Exercise ring tells you when you've done a workout. The Stand ring measures how sedentary you were during the day.

On the fitness front, there's actually a Sport version, which comes with an alloy case that's 60 per cent stronger than the regular version.

That small button under the crown? That's for the digital touch app, which will display a friends list where you can communicate with small sketches able to be sent to one another or even – get this – a glance at your heartbeat. If you do the latter, the receiver will feel the heartbeat in vibrations.

Maps can also be displayed on the Watch, with zooming undertaken with the crown, and panning by swiping on the touchscreen. Turn-by-turn directions are naturally included (hi, cyclists!) with different vibrations depending on whether the command is to turn left or right.

Apple has added a sapphire display, which is great news as it also features inbuilt NFC for mobile payments, so will minimise scratches. But more interesting than that is the fact that the screen can detect force, differentiating between a tap and a press.

MICROSOFT TABLET PRO2

MICROSOFT TABLET PRO2

PROS

• Attractive, well-built hardware
• Great display
• Fast performance, improved battery life
• More comfortable to use in the lap     

CONS

• Still heavy as a standalone tablet
• Typing experience hasn't improved much

HARDWARE

With the exception of that dual-stage kickstand, this is basically the same hardware as the original. Sure, it's now made of two pieces of magnesium alloy instead of three, but the difference is so subtle you might not spot it even if you tried. For all intents and purposes, though -- and in all the areas that count -- the Pro remains unchanged. Chiefly, the dimensions are exactly the same as they were last year: 10.81 x 6.81 x 0.53 inches (27.45 x 17.3 x 1.35cm). And at two pounds, it's as weighty as the first edition. In some ways, it even feels heavier than we remembered. That's partly because the accompanying Surface 2 is noticeably lighter than its predecessor, the original Surface RT. But even the Pro now finds itself competing against some skinnier, lighter-weight rivals. Namely, Sony's 11-inch Tap 11 tablet, which comes in at 1.7 pounds and measures a much thinner 0.39 inch thick (and that's also with a USB port!).

Thankfully, its build quality hasn't changed either. If a thin-and-light design is the main reason you'd want to buy the Tap 11, then top-notch craftsmanship is one reason you might still want to go with the Surface Pro 2. Once again, Microsoft's design team went with black magnesium alloy, and it's as tactile as it is minimal. Turned off, the tablet's metal surfaces feel smooth, cold and... expensive. Fortunately, it's also durable: The Pro emerged from my week of testing scratch-free, and with only a light dusting of fingerprint smudges. And that's even after I carried it around in a tote bag with other objects, like a wall charger and the included stylus.

DISPLAY

Much like the rest of the hardware, the Pro's screen has stayed the same for 2013. Once again, we're looking at a 10.6-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 display. In addition to being an IPS panel, it's optically bonded, so that there's minimal space between the glass and touchscreen, resulting in reduced glare. Also, like last time, it makes use of Microsoft's ClearType sub-pixel rendering technology to help smooth out jagged edges. All that still adds up to a lovely display, one with good contrast, wide viewing angles and a bright enough backlight to be usable even outdoors.

The pen experience hasn't changed either. Here, too, Microsoft went with a Wacom digitizer that recognizes 1,024 degrees of pressure sensitivity. Whether you want to draw a faint line or leave a thicker marking, you'll have plenty of flexibility in the sort of scratchings you'll be able to produce. Even outside of drawing apps, note-taking is also a smooth experience; it's unlikely you'll ever have to go back and re-trace your letters because they didn't register the first time. All in all, Wacom might still be the best in its class, though we also had a similarly good experience with N-trig's digitizer in Sony's new Tap 11. We know, we know, that won't be enough to convince some of our more snobbish readers, but to most consumers, the experience should be on par.

SOFTWARE

It's no coincidence that the Surface Pro 2 is going on sale just days after Windows 8.1 came out: Microsoft's new tablets are meant to be centerpieces for the company's latest software update. If you haven't yet read up on 8.1, we'd encourage you to check out our exhaustive screenshot tour, which breaks down not just the new UI features, but also the new built-in apps as well. Speaking of new UI elements, you've probably heard by now about the "return" of the Start button. Indeed, there's now a Start button fixed in the lower-left corner of both the Start screen and the desktop, but clicking it just takes you back and forth from one to the other; if you were hoping for a return to the old-school fly-out menus, you can keep dreaming. What's nice, though, is that Microsoft added an option to keep the same wallpaper for both your desktop and Start screen, so that the transition from one to the other feels less jarring; it almost looks like the Live Tiles are floating on top of your desktop. One of our favorite features, actually -- we suggest you try it out.

Otherwise -- and this is just a recap here -- you can snap more than just two windows side by side on-screen, depending on the size and resolution of the display you're using. You also get more flexibility in terms of how much space every window takes up; it no longer has to be an 80/20 split. Other changes: You can take photos from the lock screen, and accept Skype calls too. Users now have more tile sizes to work with, including an extra-wide one and a tiny, quarter-sized one. You also have more options for arranging your app list, so that alphabetically isn't the only option. The on-screen keyboard has received some neat shortcuts, which should be especially useful on all those smaller 8-inch tablets, which are easy to type on in portrait mode.

PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY LIFE

	PCMARK7	3DMARK06	3DMARK11	ATTO (TOP DISK SPEEDS)
Microsoft Surface Pro 2 (1.6GHz Core i5-4200U, Intel HD 4400)	4,922	6,236	E1,906 / P997 / X303	534 MB/s (reads); 167 MB/s (writes)
Microsoft Surface Pro (1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, Intel HD 4000)	4,673	3,811	E1,019 / P552	526 MB/s (reads); 201 MB/s (writes)
Sony VAIO Tap 11 (1.5GHz Intel Core i5-4210Y, Intel HD 4200)	3,798	2,713	E943 / P504 / X171	548 MB/s (reads); 139 MB/s (writes)
Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus (1.6GHz Core i5-4200U, Intel HD 4400)	4,973	5,611	E1,675 / P867 / X277	547 MB/s (reads); 508 MB/s (writes)
Acer Aspire S7-392 (1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U, Intel HD 4400)	5,108	5,158	E1,724 / P952 / X298	975 MB/s (reads); 1.1GB/s (writes)
Sony VAIO Pro 13 (1.6GHz Intel Core i5-4200U, Intel HD 4400)	4,502	4,413	E1,177 / P636 / X203	1.04 GB/s (reads); 479 MB/s (writes)
Sony VAIO Duo 13 (1.6GHz Core i5-4200U, Intel HD 4400)	4,440	6,047	E1,853 / P975 / X297	546 MB/s (reads); 139 MB/s (writes)
Sony VAIO Pro 11 (1.8GHz Core i7-4500U, Intel HD 4400)	4,634	N/A	E1,067 / P600 / X183	558 MB/s (reads); 255 MB/s (writes)

KEYBOARD COVERS

In addition to the Surface Pro itself, both the Touch and Type keyboard covers have received modest updates. Starting with the $120 Touch Cover 2, it's slightly thinner than the original (2.75mm vs. 3.25mm) with a more rigid design and subtle backlighting that you'll only notice in dim conditions. More importantly, the flat keys promise greater keystroke accuracy, and can now support a few gestures they didn't used to, like sliding two fingers across the numbered keys to highlight text (you can delete the selected text by then taking your fingers off the keyboard). There's also a new space bar gesture that lets you quickly choose from spelling recommendations when you make a typo. Note: Neither of these gestures is for the dainty-handed. You'll need to exert a good deal of pressure to make either of them work.

Speaking of typos, I don't necessarily buy that the Touch Cover 2 is more accurate than its predecessor. The learning curve is as steep as always, which is to say you'll probably start off typing slowly and deliberately to avoid making mistakes. You'll get the hang of it, I promise, but you'll also make your share of mistakes along the way. Even now that I've learned to trust the Touch Cover and let myself type at a faster clip, I still have trouble capitalizing letters using the Shift key. The Touch Cover 2 doesn't really help there. Microsoft is correct, though, that the keyboard is more rigid -- it's definitely less bendy than I remember it feeling. That should come in handy when you're using the device in your lap; on a flat surface, less so. Really, unless you're wild about the backlighting or those keyboard gestures, you could probably get away with buying the last-gen Touch Cover for $80 while it's still around.

ANDROID 5.0 LOLLIPOP

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Android 5.0 Lollipop is here, and that means a mad scramble is about to occur, as manufacturers all rush to update their existing phones to the new version of Google’s operating system. Well, we say “rush” and “scramble,” but quite often, bringing out an update can be a plodding affair, sometimes taking months for it to show up. To make sure you’re fully informed, we’ve pulled together all the official news and the rumors concerning 5.0 Lollipop’s arrival on your smartphone or tablet of choice. Some of phones have send there updates which are given below

Sony

Sony has some good, early news for owners of its Xperia Z smartphones. It will be updating all its premium models to Android 5.0 Lollipop. It has confirmed the following phones will be getting the new software: The Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1S, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3V, and the Xperia Z3 Compact.

HTC

HTC was Google’s other Android 5.0 hardware partner, producing the Nexus 9 tablet. Head over to the official HTC software update page, and you’re met with a pop-up saying the firm is “excited about the new features in Android L,” and that it’s keen to share them with us. It confirms the HTC One and the HTC One M8 will get the update, and it’ll arrive within 90 days of the team receiving the finale version from google.

Samsung

There’s no information from Samsung’s offices on an Android 5.0 update yet. The Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4, plus new models such as the Galaxy Alpha, Galaxy Note 4 and its predecessor are all prime candidates for a lovely Lollipop. If they’ve been good, of course.

Google Nexus

Lollipop will make its official debut on the new Nexus 6 smartphone and the Nexus 9 tablet, both of which will be on sale in early November. Google has also confirmed which other Nexus devices will be updated. Owners of the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 phones, plus the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets should look out for a notification from Software Update “in the coming weeks,” according to Google.

Motorola

Motorola partnered up with Google to produce the Nexus 6, so it makes sense it’s already familiar enough with the OS to quickly update its most recent phones. Through its official blog, we’re told that both first and second generation Moto X and the Moto G phones will get Android 5.0 Lollipop, along with the 4G LTE version of the Moto G, plus the Moto E.