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As far as other specs go, Sony continued the practice of cramming every possible top-notch feature into its flagship devices. The Xperia Z4 Tablet has an octa-core, Snapdragon 810 processor, a 2K display, 32GB of built-in memory, and is wateproof and dustproof up to IP68 specifications.

BARCELONA — Bicycle enthusiasts who are also gadget lovers got their fix of excitement Monday at Mobile World Congress, as Ford brought a pair of smart e-bike prototypes to the show.
Called MoDe:Me and MoDe:Pro, the bikes connect to your smartphone and offer navigation feedback via the handlebar grips, which vibrate when you need to turn left or right. The bikes can also alert you of any hazards lying ahead or behind, communicate with other vehicles and even charge your smartphone, which is placed in a cradle on the handlebar .

Both bikes are actually e-bikes, offering electric pedal assistance which is adjustable. When pedaling becomes too hard, the bike makes it as easy as you like, without completely taking over. In terms of specs, both bikes have a 200-watt motor with a 9-amp-hour battery, providing pedal assistance for speeds up to 25 km/h.























The main difference between the two prototypes — and they are really just prototypes at this stage — is the size. The MoDe:Me is a very compact, foldable city bike, while the MoDe:Pro is bigger and primarily aimed at urban commercial use (think: bike messengers). Furthermore, the bigger bike was built by a Ford team, while the smaller version was built with the help of bicycle manufacturer Dahon.
Of course, for all of this to work, you'll need the MoDe:Link smartphone app which, besides providing the location data for navigation, also enables you to control certain aspects of the bike. For example, with it you can turn on the signal lights, located in the handlebars.

Ford is not the first company to offer such a concept. Croatian startup Visiobike already has a commercial product, an e-bike that can connect to your smartphone, offering features such as rear camera, GPS tracking and security controls. Visiobike's offering is a full-sized mountain bike, however, while Ford's prototypes are much more compact.

In the days leading up to Apple's big event next week, which is rumored to be focused on the Apple Watch, a new detail about the company's first wearable has been leaked. 
Along with all other features mentioned during Tim Cook's unveiling of the smartwatch in September, the device will also come with a feature called Power Reserve, according to The New York Times.

The report, which cites an anonymous Apple employee, claims that the unannounced feature will allow the watch operate in a mode that only shows the current time on its display, presumably to preserve battery power for other functions.

A standby mode for a wearable isn't particularly innovative, but given the questions surrounding the battery life of the Apple Watch (about a day, according to Apple), a Power Reserve feature dedicated to preserving battery life could be the device's saving grace. (Particularly when figures like $5,000 are being tossed around the rumor mill as the price for the top tier model.)

Another surprising detail revealed in the report is that during field testing of the Apple Watch, engineers disguised the device with a fake casing to make it look like a Samsung smartwatch. So if you've seen Apple employees walking around with what looks like a Samsung Gear and wondered why, you now have an answer to the mystery.

That last detail will probably come as a surprise to Samsung, a company often accused of following Apple's lead when it comes to mobile devices. But it also highlights the fact that Apple is entering a space already packed with smartwatches, so the success of the Apple Watch isn't a foregone conclusion, solid battery life or not.

1. HP Black 15.6″ 15-f004wm Laptop PC with Intel Celeron N2830 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive and Windows 8.1  at $159 [Walmart]

• Intel Celeron N2830 processor
  2.16GHz (up to 2.41GHz via Turbo boost)
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
  Gives you the power to handle most power-hungry applications and tons of multimedia work
• 500GB SATA hard drive
  Store 333,000 photos, 142,000 songs or 263 hours of HD video and more
• SuperMulti DVD Burner
  Watch movies and read and write CDs and DVDs in multiple formats
• 10/100Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
  Connect to a broadband modem with wired Ethernet or wirelessly connect to a WiFi signal or hotspot with the 802.11b/g/n connection built into your PC
• 15.6″ HD BrightView WLED-backlit display
  Intel HD Graphics

2. Asus X205TA, 11.6″ HD Laptop at $99 [Staples]

• Intel® Atom Z3735F 2MB Cache, 1.33GHz, up to 1.83GHz Processor
• 2GB System Memory (DDR3L)/ 32GB Flash
• 802.11abgn + Bluetooth 4.0
• UMA Intel HD Graphics
• Inputs: 2x USB 2.0, 1x Micro HDMI port
• 11.6″ HD Display
• Windows 8.1 with Bing
• ASUS Webstorage with 500GB for 2 years
• OneDrive and ASUS Webstorage cloud storage
• OneDrive with 15GB of storage

3. Samsung Silver 11.6″ Chromebook PC with Samsung Exynos 5 Dual Processor and Google Chrome OS $199 [Walmart]

• Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor
• 2GB memory; 16GB SSD hard drive
• 3-in-1 card reader, WiFi
• Google Chrome OS

4. Dell Inspiron 15.6 Touch Core i3 Laptop w/ 4GB, 500GB at $299.99 [Best Buy]

• 4th Gen Intel Core i3-4030U processor
• 4GB DDR3L memory
• 15.6″ LED-backlit high-definition touch-screen display
• 500GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
• Built-in 1.0MP high-definition webcam with digital microphone
• 1 USB 3.0 port and 2 USB 2.0 ports
• Built in high-speed wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)
• Bluetooth 4.0 interface
• Weighs 5.3 lbs

5. Acer C720 Chromebook 11.6-Inch, 2GB at $199 [Amazon.com]

• 11.6″ Anti-Glare HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display
• Intel® Celeron® Processor 2955U (1.4GHz, 2MB L3 cache)
• Haswell micro-architecture
• Google Chrome Operating System
• 16GB SSD Drive
• 2048MB DDR3L SDRAM Memory
• Intel® HD Graphics with 128MB of dedicated system memory
• Acer InviLinkTM NplifyTM 802.11a/b/g/n (MIMO Dual-Band 2.4Ghz & 5GHz) Wireless LAN
• Bluetooth 4.0
• Built-in HD Webcam
• Two built-in stereo speakers
• 1- USB 3.0 Port, 1- USB 2.0 Port, and 1- HDMI™ Port
• Full-size Acer FineTip Keyboard
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad
• 3-Cell Li-Polymer Battery Up to 8.5-hours Battery Life
• 2.76 lbs.| 1.25 kg (system unit only)

6. Dell Inspiron 15 Celeron Laptop w/ 4GB, 500GB at $189 [Dell or Walmart]

• Intel Celeron Dual-Core N2830 processor 2.40GHz
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
• 500GB SATA hard drive
• 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
• 15.6″ HD Truelife LED-backlit display
• DVD/CD-ROM drive not included

 

The Olympus Stylus 1 has the look and feel of
a top-end camera, and despite not being an
interchangable lens camera with a huge image
sensor, it is one. It is styled like the excellent
Olympus OM-D E-M5, sharing the same EVF
and tilting touch-screen LCD. At its heart is a
12-megapixel 1/1.7-inch image sensor, larger than those
found in most long zoom cameras, and the integrated
28-300mm f/2.8 lens covers an impressive focal range
at a constant aperture. It’s a solid performer, and even
though its zoom lens doesn’t cover as long of a range as
our previous favorite, the 24x Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ200,
we’re naming the Stylus 1 as our new Editors’ Choice superzoom.

DESIGN AND FEATURES

Measuring 3.4 by 4.5 by 2.2 inches (HWD) and
weighing 14.2 ounces, the Stylus 1 is a bit larger than
most compact long zoom cameras. The Stylus has a
noticeably bigger lens that doesn’t collapse fully into the
body, and its excellent integrated EVF (the same
1,440k-dot LCD found in the OM-D E-M5, with a good
1.15x magnification) and 3-inch tilting rear touch
display (with a 1,040k-dot resolution) also contribute to
the extra bulk. The Stylus 1 has a unique lens cover; the
always-on cap (it can be removed to add a teleconverter
accessory) has four hinged doors that automatically
open as the lens extends. The 10.7x lens is a 28-300mm
f/2.8 design, which is an impressive range for a camera
with a 1/1.7-inch image sensor.
Olympus is targeting serious shooters with the Stylus
1, and as such has included a good array of physical
controls. There’s a programmable Fn2 button up front,
which is nestled inside of a switch that toggles the ring
around the lens to either act as manual focus control or
adjust shooting settings. There’s also a power zoom
control on the front, at the left side of the lens barrel.




























On top you’ll find a standard mode dial, a control dial for quick EV
adjustments, an additional zoom rocker (surrounding the shutter release), a
power button, and a record button for video capture. Rear controls include
buttons to set exposure compensation, control the flash, adjust the active focus
area, and control the drive mode. There’s also a programmable Fn1 button, and
the normal menu and playback controls.
The Stylus 1 has built-in Wi-Fi. The setup is identical for iOS and Android
devices: You scan a QR code that’s displayed on the camera’s rear LCD using
the Olympus Image Share app, and that installs a network profile for the SSID
the camera broadcasts. Once you’ve connected to that network you’ll be able to
transfer JPEG images and QuickTime videos to your phone. There’s also a GPS
function that geo-tags your photos—you’ll need to enable a location log and
make sure that your camera’s clock is set correctly to make this work.
Remote control is also available, and works just as on other Olympus
cameras. Your phone or tablet will show the Live View feed and you can choose
a focus point and fire the shutter. The app provides full access to automatic and
manual shooting modes, so it’s possible to adjust shutter speed, aperture, ISO,
and the focal length of the lens. The Wi-Fi is easy to use and the remote control
is one of the best I’ve seen. What’s missing right now is the ability to post
photos from the camera to social networks when a hotspot is available; you have
to transfer them to your phone and post from there.

PERFORMANCE AND CONCLUSIONS

The Stylus 1 starts and shoots in about 1.3 seconds, manages a very short
0.1-second shutter lag at its widest angle, and can focus and fire in just 0.6
second when zoomed to the 300mm setting. Focus does slow a bit in very dim
light; at its wide angle setting the camera requires about 0.9 second to lock and
capture a shot. The Olympus can capture photos at 7.6 frames per second (fps),
regardless of which image format you choose. It can manage that pace for 21
Raw+JPEG, 26 Raw, or 26 JPEG images before slowing. Writing all of those
images to a memory card requires 15.2, 8.8, or 8.4 seconds, respectively.
I used Imatest to check the sharpness that the Stylus 1’s lens is able to
capture. At its widest angle it is just a little bit on the soft side, scoring 1,782
lines per picture height on a center-weighted test at f/2.8; narrowing the
aperture to f/4 gets it to 1,860 lines (1,800 being necessary for a sharp image).
Images at the 28mm setting show 1.8 percent barrel distortion, which causes
straight lines to curve outward in images. That can be removed with some quick
work in Lightroom, but doing so will slightly narrow the field of view of your
image. At 60mm the lens is sharper and distortion disappears. It approaches
2,000 lines at f/2.8 and f/4. As you zoom in further it maintains about 1,900
lines through 200mm. It’s not until 300mm that images become a little soft,
about 1,500 lines at f/2.8, but narrowing the aperture improves the score there
to 1,840 lines.

Chromatic aberration was
an issue for some images. A
few of my test shots showed
quite a bit of purple and green
fringing around trees and
branches. It’s more noticeable in
Raw files than in JPEGs, and in
most cases is easily corrected in
Lightroom. But I did see some
instances where even Lightroom
struggled to remove the color fringing.
It’s more of an issue at wider angles.
Imatest also checks images for noise,
which can rob detail when shooting in
low light. The camera keeps noise under
1.5 percent through ISO 1600, which is
good. More impressively, even JPEG images
shot at ISO 1600 retain a good amount of
detail. As with any camera, you’ll get the best
results at lower ISO settings, but the Stylus 1
impresses through 1600. Noise is more
aggressive at ISO 3200; that detail is lost due to
the in-camera noise reduction. If you prefer a
slightly grainier image with more detail, noise
reduction can be set to low or disabled entirely via
the camera menu. You can also opt to shoot in Raw;
images contain an impressive amount of detail in that
format through ISO 3200, but look considerably worse
above that.

Video is recorded at up to 1080p30 quality in
QuickTime format. Video quality is very good; footage
is crisp and detailed, and the camera refocuses quickly
as the scene changes. But the sound of the lens zooming
in and out while recording is audible on the soundtrack.
There’s no microphone input, so you may want to look
elsewhere if video is a primary concern. The Panasonic
FZ200 is a better camera for recording video; it shoots
at up to 1080p60 in AVCHD format and includes
support for an external microphone. The Stylus 1 does have a micro HDMI
output to connect to an HDTV, as well as a standard hot shoe and a proprietary
USB port. An external battery charger is included; the Stylus 1 uses the same
battery as the PEN E-PL5 and E-PM2. The usual SD card slot is there, as is
support for SDHC and SDXC cards.


The Olympus Stylus 1 has a long list of pros: a long zoom lens with an f/2.8
aperture, a relatively large image sensor for a camera of its class, surprisingly
good image quality through ISO 1600, a sharp touch-screen display, an
excellent EVF, Wi-Fi, and a solid control layout. The lens does show a bit more
chromatic aberration than we’d like, but in most case the JPEG engine can
remove it, and Raw shooters can handle all but the worst cases with ease in
Lightroom. The FZ200 still wins out for video (and costs $100 less), and though
the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX10 is bigger and nearly twice the price of the Stylus
1, its 1-inch image sensor and Zeiss 24-200mm f/2.8 lens are both top-notch.
For now, however, the Stylus 1 is our favorite bridge-style superzoom camera.

Sony is ratcheting up the camera phone wars
with the Android-powered Xperia Z1s. Available
exclusively on T-Mobile, the Xperia Z1s is a
waterproof smartphone with a 5-inch 1080p display,
just like its predecessor, the Xperia Z. The Z1s has an
upgraded camera with fun lens effects, a much larger
battery, and a faster processor. The camera still isn’t as
good as it needs to be, and there are some other minor
issues, but the Z1s is an excellent choice if you want a
speedy phone for multimedia or gaming that you can
get wet.

DESIGN, DISPLAY, AND CONNECTIVITY

The Xperia Z1s measures 5.74 by 2.79 by 0.31 inches
(HWD) and weighs 5.71 ounces, which makes it
noticeably larger and heavier than the 5.1-ounce Xperia
Z. It’s still quite attractive, though. The handset has
glass front and back panels, with an IP58-rated
waterproof coating that also supports finger tracking
underwater, and a smoked silver and black plastic band
wrapped around the edges. A covered charger port and
microSD memory card slot are on the left side, along
with a center-mounted docking port. The bottom edge
houses the speakerphone and mic behind a long
rectangular grille. On the right there’s a covered SIM
card slot, a circular silver power button, a volume
rocker, and a camera shutter button; the 3.5mm
headphone jack is on the top edge.
The 5-inch, 1080p Triluminos display looks sharp at a
very tight 441ppi, but not particularly vivid or bright.
There’s a prominent bezel at the top and bottom, with a
much thinner one on either side of the display; this
explains why the phone is unusually tall given the
display size. Typing on the on-screen keyboard is easy
in portrait mode.
The Xperia Z1s supports LTE and HSPA+ 42. Its LTE
modem is Category 4, so it handles the maximum
speeds of T-Mobile’s upcoming 20+20 LTE network. You also get
802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, NFC, and Bluetooth
4.0. In a series of speed tests, the Xperia Z1s averaged 12 to 14Mbps down and 7
to 15Mbps up in Midtown Manhattan on T-Mobile’s rapidly expanding 4G LTE
network. The Xperia Z1s also works as a wireless hotspot with the appropriate
data plan.

CALL QUALITY AND RECEPTION

Voice quality was mixed; we were hoping for an improvement over the Xperia
Z1’s inferior call quality, but we didn’t get it. Through the earpiece, callers
sounded trebly and a bit harsh. There’s plenty of gain available, but it’s not
pleasant to listen to. Transmissions through the microphone had the opposite
problem: They sounded muffled and indistinct, and the Xperia Z1s’s mic let
through plenty of Manhattan street noise. An iPhone 5s on T-Mobile sounded
much better in all cases; it suppressed background street noise, and my voice
was clear, crisp, and still warm-sounding in both directions. The Xperia Z1s also
supports Wi-Fi calling.
Calls sounded fine through a Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset. Voice dialing
worked well enough over Bluetooth using Google’s built-in voice dialer. The
Bluetooth stack is buggy, though; sometimes it took a minute or more to pair
with the Jawbone Era, and once it froze up for a minute while searching for
nearby devices. The speakerphone sounded clear and distinct, but should go
louder than it does. The oversized 3,000mAh battery should be good for extralong battery life.

INTERFACE, APPS, AND MULTIMEDIA

Under the hood are a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor
with an Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB RAM. The Xperia Z1s runs Android 4.3 Jelly
Bean, and a KitKat upgrade is in the works, but there’s no confirmed release
date. Benchmark scores were excellent across the board; as you’d expect, the
Xperia Z1s is as fast as the Galaxy Note 3 and any top-end Android tablet.
You get five home screens to customize and swipe between. Everything looks
and feels smooth. Sony includes its own Walkman, Movies, and Album apps,
along with PlayStation and PlayStation Mobile for accessing your online PSN
profile, messages, and notifications. Sony is promising a number of “second
screen” PlayStation apps, and you can play PlayStation Mobile games with a
wireless DualShock 3 controller. You also get MobiSystems Office Suite, which
reads and edits Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, and Sony
Select, which froze on startup. There’s also a lot of T-Mobile bloatware, which
unfortunately cannot be removed.
There’s 32GB of internal storage, with 25.1GB free for your apps and media.
The microSD card slot works with cards up to 64GB in capacity. Music tracks
sounded clear and full through Plantronics BackBeat Go stereo Bluetooth
headphones, and the Xperia Z1s also played FLAC, OGG, and AAC files. Fullscreen movies looked sharp, if not exceptionally vivid, at resolutions up to
1080p, and the phone played all the usual formats including DivX and Xvid.
You can also display content wirelessly on a Sony Bravia HDTV.

CAMERA AND CONCLUSIONS

The 20.7-megapixel autofocus f/2.0 camera features a 27mm focal length,
image stabilization, and an HDR mode. It goes up to ISO 6400. The Z1s’ sensor
is larger than the Xperia Z’s and collects more light, and it can also do lossless
zoom up to 3x in a 5MP mode. There’s also a 2MP front-facing camera for
selfies and video chats.
Sony includes five apps dedicated to the camera: Info-eye, which scans books,
wine bottles, and other objects, and searches the Web for information about
them; AR (Augmented Reality) Effect, which adds costumes, glasses, flowers, or
even dinosaurs to your photos; Background Defocus, which lets you adjust the
depth of field for your photos; Social Live, which broadcasts live video on
Facebook; and Timeshift Burst, which grabs a series of 60 shots in rapid
succession and lets you pick the best one.
We’ve tested some 13- and 16MP camera phones in the past, including the
one on the Xperia Z, and they haven’t quite measured up to their ratings in
image quality. Sadly, that’s still true here. The Xperia Z1s takes fine pictures,
and they border on very good outdoors. But contrast is relatively poor, and flesh
tones can come out looking jaundiced indoors. And though Sony says the faster
processor helps with autofocus speed, the Xperia Z1s still takes longer to focus
and fire than the iPhone 5s—that and the Lumia 1020 are still superior cameras.
Recorded 1080p videos played smoothly at 30 frames per second from both
cameras, though you can’t tap to focus the way you can with photos. Image
stabilization was superb; I saw very little shaking in the
various videos I recorded with the Xperia Z1s. And you
can shoot photos and videos underwater, though the
sound will obviously be muffled.
The Xperia Z1s is still surpassed by the thinner and
lighter (if less rugged) Samsung Galaxy S4, which also
has a more vivid AMOLED display and its genuinely
useful TouchWiz UI layer and apps; the iPhone 5 has
the best app selection and a clearly better camera; and
the Motorola Moto X’s form factor falls nicely between
those of the iPhone 5s and Xperia Z1s. Even so, the Z1s
is a very good smartphone, and the only one on
T-Mobile to fuse a waterproof design with top-end
hardware. If that combination speaks to you, you can
buy it with confidence.

Lou Hattersley reveals the best games of 2014

If you got a new iPad, iPhone or iPod touch for 
Christmas, then you’ll want to know what the 
best games on the App Store are. This guide 
to the best games for iPad and iPhone has all the 
entertainment you need.
Last year was a bumper year for iOS gaming. 
It saw iOS gaming move up a gear and iPad and 
iPhone owners have a range of high quality games 
to choose from. In recent years iOS gaming has 
been mostly puzzle and indie games designed 

for the touchscreen, or console classics using on 
screen buttons and controls. Some of these have
been amazing games, but in the last year we’ve
seen superb games with high production values and
impressive graphics designed specifically for the
iPad and iPhone. These games are even better than
those costing 10 times as much on other consoles.

Republique

Price £2.99
Republique has only just been released on the App
Store, but is such a good game we had to sneak
it. This is a great example of a world-leading game
that has been designed from the ground up for iOS.
This Metal-Gear Solid-esque stealth game sees you
viewing a complex through the CCTV cameras, and
guiding a mysterious girl as she escapes. You guide
her through the levels, tapping to tell her where to
hide while tapping to control and hack the security
systems. It has world-class visuals and a control
scheme custom built for the iPad and iPhone’s

touchscreen interface.

XCom: Enemy Unknown

Price: £6.99
This tactical war game sees you controlling a squad
of soldiers hunting, capturing and fighting aliens.
It’s an almost perfect recreation of the console
classic, and its controls work just as well on the
iPad as on the big screen. In-between battles
you can research and develop new weapons,
armour and upgrade your squad. Decisions are all
permanent too, so if you lose a member of your
team in battle they’re gone forever. It’s a visual
feast and the perfect game for armchair generals.
One of the best games to arrive in 2013.

The Room Two

Price: £2.99
The Room is a fantastic 3D puzzle game where you
can pick up, examine and manipulate objects in a
room. All with a view to escaping. It’s a good looking
game but it’s the tactile nature of the experience that
makes it special. You really get the feel that you can pick up and use the items in the room. The Room
Two is a truly immersive game that tests your mental
and spatial abilities.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Price: £2.99
BioWare creates some of the most amazing roleplaying
games in existence. Its Star Wars Knights
Of The Old Republic is one of the best that it’s ever
made, and also one of the best Star Wars games.
It’s set in the Star Wars universe, but you don’t play
Luke or Han or any of the usual characters. The
storyline is fantastic, you get a real sense that you
choices have consequences, and the combat is
surprisingly in-depth.

Deus Ex: The Fall

Price: 99p
Deus Ex is another console classic that has become
a great iOS game in its own right. With huge
environments this first-person sci-fi shooter blends
action with role-playing gameplay. While it features
console controls translated to iOS it manages to
do so with a level of quality beyond most other
conversions (and even most games on any platform).
More than anything this is an amazing game for the
price. Well worth downloading.

Stealth Inc.

Price: £2.99
Most of the our favourite games from 2013 are
bombastic console classics with high quality visuals.
But Stealth Inc is an indie classic developed for
both the iPad, iphone and console machines at the
same time. It’s a platform game, but has detailed
stealth gameplay with you jumping around 80 levels.
It’s sublimely easy to start out, but soon becomes
devilishly challenging. It lacks the visual aplomb
of other games here (apart from Papa Sangre, of
course) but we love the cutesy visuals and fastpaced
gameplay on display here.

Ted Landau looks at what we can expect from an iPad Pro



works for 2014.
That’s the easy prediction. The hard one is
describing exactly what an iPad Pro might be. In
particular, how would Apple distinguish an iPad Pro
from the iPad Air and iPad mini? Understanding that
we are about to go so far out on a limb that it might
well break beneath me, here’s my speculation.

A larger display

This would almost certainly be the primary
distinguishing feature of an iPad Pro. How much
larger? There are rumours that Apple has already
settled on a 12.9in display. This strikes us as just
about right. It places the iPad Pro at around the
same display size as 13in MacBooks. Furthermore, it
would allow for a clear separation between the three

iPad models: 7.9in mini; 9.7in Air; and 12.9in Pro.

Touch ID

Apple’s Touch ID fi ngerprint detection debuted on
the iPhone 5s. The handset remains the only Apple
product to include this feature thus far, and while
many people had hoped to see Touch ID on the iPad
Air, that didn’t happen. Apple might well reserve
the option for the debut of an iPad Pro, but if so, it
will almost certainly be only a temporary distinction.
Within a year or two, we anticipate that Touch ID will
be included in almost all iOS devices.

Laptop/tablet hybrid

There’s been much debate about the
ideal mobile computer: if you can have
only one, should it be a laptop or a
tablet? Or is neither su cient on its own?
A potential solution to this dilemma is for
one device to serve as both, as Microsoft
has attempted with the Surface.
Some have envisioned an iPad 
Pro that goes in this same direction,
functioning as an iPad/MacBook hybrid.
At one point, we imagined a hybrid that
would have a detachable display (as
opposed to, say, a 180-degree swivelling
display). When the display was attached
to the keyboard, it would function as a
MacBook running OS X. When detached,
it would instead serve as a touchscreen
iPad running iOS. While some might see
this as combining the advantages of
both worlds, others view it as merging
the drawbacks of each platform. Apple is
clearly in the latter camp. At Apple’s October media
event, Tim Cook said: “Our competition is di erent.
They’re confused. They chased after netbooks. Now
they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets
into PCs.” He went on to assert that Apple has no
intention of going in that direction. In other words,
despite predictions of an OS X/iOS hybrid device
this year, our expectation is that an iPad Pro would
remain purely an iOS device.

Physical keyboard

Although an iPad Pro might not be a hybrid, it
needn’t eschew a physical keyboard altogether.
Keyboard cases and covers for iPads, from
companies such as Logitech (see above) and Zagg,
are already popular options, and it’s easy to see why.
If you do a lot of typing, a physical keyboard goes a
long way toward making that task easier.
Make no mistake, however; there’s a downside
here. Even the thinnest, lightest keyboard cover
adds significant heft to an iPad. And a keyboard case
too often gets in the way when you want to use an
iPad for tasks where no keyboard is required. Still,
for the intended market of an iPad Pro (more on this
in a moment), a physical keyboard would probably
be a welcome addition.
Then again, Apple could continue to market its
Bluetooth stand-alone keyboard as an iPad Pro
accessory, leaving keyboard cases and covers to
third-parties. However, we believe that Apple will
o er something new, such as a keyboard case and/
or keyboard cover that’s specifi c to the iPad Pro.

Pro-specific hardware features

For us, this is the biggest question of all. Will an
iPad Pro simply be an iPad Air with a larger display?
If so, we’ll be surprised and disappointed. For an
iPad Pro to carve out a niche for itself, we believe
it needs to di ffer in some more significant way.
Of the features we’d most like to see, the top
one would be external connectivity. In particular,
an iPad Pro should expand beyond the ubiquitous
Lightning connector, offering a fully functional
USB and/or Thunderbolt port. This would allow for
options such as directly connecting an external
drive to the iPad, which is essential to enable full
local backups without requiring a Mac. A USB port
would also make it much more practical to access
peripherals such as portable scanners. We know
that the future is all about wireless connectivity, but
we’re not there yet.
Unfortunately, given the company’s history of
avoiding any moves in this direction – by restricting
access to file storage on iOS devices as well as
keeping ports to a minimum on all Apple computers
– we have little confidence the company will
implement such a change.
If not external ports, then what? We don’t know. In
the end, this has us thinking that an iPad Pro could
turn out to be little more than a larger Air after all.

Target audience

At this point, we can imagine many readers throwing
up their collective hands, decrying: “This makes no
sense. The iPad market is moving toward smaller
displays, not larger ones. The iPad mini’s market
share continues to grow. It’s expected to eclipse the
sales of the Air. No one wants an iPad that is even
less portable than the iPad Air.”
These are excellent points that are hard to argue
with. Still, we see a potential audience for a larger
iPad. Apple could target it at iPad users who value
a larger display more than maximum portability. If
you plan to use an iPad primarily in just one or two
locations, with an emphasis on productivity tasks,
you might fi t the profile. Bear in mind that, even with
a 13inch display, a hypothetical iPad Pro qualifies as
portable; it would still likely be smaller and lighter
than a MacBook Air.

Mac replacement

The web is overflowing with articles about the shift
away from traditional computers and toward tablets.
For a significant minority of users, a tablet is already
their primary or only computing device. An iPad Pro
would likely further that trend.
Still, for the vast majority of professional users,
with their emphasis on work and productivity over
leisure and consumption, a Mac would likely remain
essential for the foreseeable future. Yes, you can get
 work done with an iPad; that debate has largely
been settled. And, as this Apple video makes clear,
there are already many “work” situations where an
iPad functions better than a MacBook.
Still, there’s no way any iPad can compete with
the raw power of a Mac Pro or even a top-end
iMac. At least not yet. Until an iPad can run Final
Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Photoshop CS, BBEdit, Terminal,
and other ‘pro’ apps; until an iPad’s touchscreen
interface is as e ffective as a Mac’s trackpad for
working with these apps; until iOS adds features that
close the fi le system gap with OS X; and until you
can develop iOS apps on an iOS device, pro users
will continue to need Macs.
That aside, an iPad Pro would up the ante.
Accelerating a trend that has already begun, many
desktop Mac owners would potentially choose an
iPad over a laptop as their secondary computer. For
an increasing number of non-pro users, an iPad will
su ffice as their only computer. Whatever an iPad
Pro turns out to be – even if it turns out to be more
rumour than reality – the iPad itself will remain at the
core of Apple’s future.