HP Announces Powerful Surface Rival in the Pro x2 612

HP has made a new and potentially successful attempt at stealing the Surface Pro 3′s crown for the ultimate Windows hybrid with the new Pro x2 612.

The package comes with a 12.5″ display and an optional keyboard dock with several ports and a battery.

The resolution of the display starts at just 1366 x 768 but goes all the way up to Full HD. The display also supports pen-input thanks to WACOM technology, but as a result is also quite thick and heavy (at about 4 pounds, combined with the keyboard).

It certainly won’t compete with the Surface Pro 3 in this department but at least houses a slot for keeping it safe and ready-for-use.

Under the hood, you can get a variety of processors, including an Intel Celeron or Pentium unit, all the way to Core i5 but not Core i7. Storage is set at between 64 and 512 GB, expandable of course. The tablet also has a USB 3.0 port, as well as a microSD card and a microSIM card slot for either 3G or 4G connectivity.

Just like in the Surface, a major attraction here too is the keyboard. The “Power Keyboard” is spill-resistant, and comes with a slew of ports, including a VGA port, DisplayPort, Ethernet, 2 USB 3.0 ports and a full-sized SD card reader. You also get a battery which increases run-time to 14 hours. In addition to that, there is also a travel keyboard with USB 3.0 and a backlit keyboard, but unfortunately no battery.

The package will come with either Windows 8.1 or 7. There will also be an optional finger-print scanner and a few additional security features, since the product is also targeted towards enterprise and government usage.

The Pro x2 612 will be available in September. Pricing details aren’t disclosed yet.

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Did You Know? [Infographic]

This country is undergoing serious energy issues. There is a lot one cay about the crisis, but very less has been done for the preservation of energy or for bettering the situation.

We just though of telling you few facts, which may trigger you to save energy, particularly when its not in use.

Just go through following infographic with a aim that things that you will learn below will be spread and shared, so each of us may eventually know that doing very small things can make huge difference for our country.

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HP Is Trying A Brave New Strategy To Grab Market Share Away From IBM

HP Is Trying A Brave New Strategy To 

Grab Market Share Away From IBM

HP CEO Meg Whitman is trying a daring new idea to grab more business in the server industry while its biggest competitor, IBM, is wobbly in that market.

HP will create a new line of inexpensive servers with the Chinese company known for building iPhones, iPads and other consumer devices: Foxconn, the companies announced today.

Although Foxconn is known for its relationship with Apple, it has also been a contract manufacturer for HP's consumer products for years. So this isn't a new relationship.

This move is an interesting way to battle a harsh trend for server-makers.

The issue is cloud computing. It's threatening the biggest server-makers in a bunch of ways. Big Internet providers like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google build their own servers, instead of buying them from server-makers like HP or IBM.

Facebook also gives its server designs away for free and has created an entire eco-system of Chinese manufacturers that build inexpensive, powerful computers made to its design.

Microsoft is one of the companies building servers based on Facebook's designs because, by making a few tweaks of its own, those custom-designed servers cost up to 40% less and use 15% less energy, Sanjeev Khanna, a senior director at Microsoft said during a conference in Taiwan last month, reports Taiwan's Central News Agency.

Cloud computing is a double whammy for server makers. Not only are the big Internet companies building their own, enterprises are buying fewer of them, too. With cloud computing, they rent the computing power

HP and IBM are by far the two biggest server manufacturers, with HP at 27% and IBM at 26% of the worldwide market, according to market researcher IDC.

IBM's hardware business, especially its server unit, has been particularly hard hit. In IBM's last quarter, its low-end unit declined 18% and its high-end server unit, Power Systems, was down 22% from the year-prior period.

So IBM is shifting away from low-end servers and investing more in cloud-computing services. It agreed to sell the low-end unit for $2.3 billion in January, although its unclear when that sale will close.

HP offers cloud-computing services, too, but Whitman has decided to go the reverse route.

With this Foxconn deal, she's doubling down on the low-end server business at a time when revenue has been shrinking across the market even while the number of units sold has grown, IDC reports.

For the full year 2013, worldwide server revenue decreased 4.4% to $49.7 billion when compared to 2012, while worldwide unit shipments increased 3.2% to 9.0 million units, a record high, IDC says.

Meanwhile, revenue for the build-your-own part of the server business was up 47% in the fourth quarter, IDC says.

Foxconn has been looking to enter this low-end server business and cash in like other Chinese manufacturers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

So, rather than having another Chinese competitor, Whitman jumped in and created a partner. She's banking that Foxconn's assembly skills, coupled with HP's engineering skills, can squeeze out a decent profit.

In February, when asked about the Lenovo sale during the quarterly conference call, Whitman told Wall Street analysts:

Lenovo announced they are buying IBM'S x86 server business from top to bottom ... that creates an opportunity for us because ... So we are all over it. ... In the long-term obviously, Lenovo is going to be a powerful competitor and we aim to be well set up by the time the deal is done to compete really aggressively.

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5 Reasons You May Not Want to Work for Google

Several times each week, I get contacted by job seekers who ask the following:

"How can I get a job with Google?"

I cringe each time I get that question. It's like asking, "How can I get a one-on-one meeting with the President?" The chances of it happening are highly unlikely.

The Competition Isn't Just Tough... It's Insane!

Studies show the average job posting gets 118 applications. I've heard rumors (no hardcore proof, mind you), when Google posts a job, they get 1,000+. That's just mind-blowing.

Google deserves huge kudos for creating such a powerful Employment Brand. They applied the formula for success and are laughing all the way to the talent bank. It's a simple equation: build a culture, market the culture through the right channels, and watch job seekers flock to your careers page. Easier said than done. Yet, when done right, it can save a company millions of dollars in recruiting - which all goes to the bottom line of the business. Being able to hire the 'best of the best' by making them truly excited about being chosen almost guarantees your company's productivity and profits soar. [For another example of this type of recruitment strategy, check out how mega shoe retailer Zappos, a subsidiary of Amazon, is requiring job seekers to join their exclusive "insiders club" in order to get hired.]

Google Isn't For Every Job Seeker

While I admire Google for being a top-notch employer, it doesn't mean they're the right place for you. In fact, only a very small percentage of the working population are a good fit for their company. Yet, the buzz Google's created has given them rockstar status in the employment world. People are drooling over the chance to work for them, without even considering if they'd really be happy there. Job seekers are blinded by the hype and not thinking about their real employment needs.

Therefore, I'd like to offer some perspective for all those people thinking they want to get hired by Google. Consider the following five reasons why you may not want to work for them:

1) You'll be stereotyped. Over the years, many people have applied and failed to get a job at Google. It's become a coveted company to work for. Those that make the cut often feel pretty darn good about themselves. Some, to the point of acting a little cocky about it. As a result, a few unsavory names have been given to people who work at Google. Which means, even if you are the nicest person on the planet, some will assume you're like those that have earned reputations for being full of themselves.

2) You'll need to always be "on" the job. Just because you got the job at Google doesn't mean you'll keep it. You will be working with some intense people who are striving to reach new levels of success. You better be ready to bring your top professional game every day.

3) Subsequent job search will get harder. Employers will definitely want to interview you, but they'll always worry that they won't live up to Google. True story: I know a young man who worked for the Boston Red Sox in 2004 when they broke the curse and won the World Series. It was a low-paying, entry-level role that had no room for advancement. He decided to move on and spent the next year trying to get a new job.He got tons of interviews, but at each one, the hiring manager's first question was, 'Why would you want to leave the Red Sox?" Nobody really wanted to hire him - they just wanted to hear what it was like to work there. He had to move to a different state to finally get a new job.

4) Your future expectations will be tougher to meet. As soon as you get a job at a place like Google, you can pretty much forget ever finding another work experience like it. The benefits, perks, etc. will set a new employment standard for you that will be almost impossible to match. It's like playing a pro sport. Once you're called up to the big leagues, you don't want to go back down to the minors.

5) You'll become a professional networking target. Get hired by Google and watch your LinkedIn inbox explode with requests from friends, family, school mates, neighbors, your hairdresser, your butcher's son, strangers, and plenty of others who are trying to get their 'foot in the door' at your employer. With 80% of all jobs gotten via referral, your popularity is going to skyrocket - and so will the time you spend fielding inquiries about how you got your job.

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HTC Desire 816 review

It may have been overshadowed by its fancier brother, the HTC One M8, but theHTC Desire 816 shouldn't be overlooked. It packs the same size screen as theOnePlus One - dwarfing most rivals around this price range - but costs even less than that mobile, meaning it also undercuts the Google Nexus 5.

Sound too good to be true? Let's find out how it fares.

 

HTC Desire 816: Size and build

Make no mistake, this is a big blower. Its dimensions are: 156.6x78.7x7.9mm, which makes it a mega phone, if you will.

Its screen is 5.5 inches, which is only marginally smaller than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and HTC One Max (both of which are considered phablets). It'll be too big for some, and it did poke out of our pockets. But if you want a big screen blower, this is one of the most affordable around.

Its plastic back feels very similar to the iPhone 5C's, though it comes in more muted colours (black, red, blue, and green). It doesn't feel cheap in any way, but unless you're wearing piano mover's gloves, the plastic will soon be covered in fingerprints. The edges are matte, and while it does stop the device slipping out of your hand, it is at odds with the plastic back.

Build quality is solid, but don't expect anything near as premium as its stablemate, the HTC One M8. 165g isn't light for a phone, but it won't put a dint in your pocket. Providing you have pockets big enough to fit it in, that is.

HTC Desire 816: Features

Android 4.4.2 comes as standard, and this is overlaid with HTC Sense 6.0. These are the latest versions of both, and the same as seen on the HTC One M8. As such, they have a few bells and whistles.

Android 4.4.2 combines texts and IM into an app called Hangouts, and you can look up business phone numbers straight from your phone book, without having to Google them. Sense 6.0, meanwhile, is cleaner, and less obtrusive than previous versions. Blinkfeed is basically a news feed that looks a bit like Windows Phone's live tiles, while HTC Zoe turns your snaps into mini photo montages.

So far, so standard. Basically, if you buy this mobile, you're getting most of the same software as the HTC One M8 - bar some camera features and gesture controls - but with a bigger screen and for less than half the price. Obviously it's on the hardware side of things that HTC has made some concessions.

HTC Desire 816: Screen

The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 1,280x720 pixels, giving it a pixel-per-inch count of 267ppi. That's nowhere near the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C's 326ppi, or the Nexus 5's stonking 445ppi.

You can see in our hands-on snaps that it looks a little grainy. But it's fine for everyday use. And the viewing angles are excellent - get a group of you gathered around, and everyone will be able to see what's on screen, helped as well by the gargantuan size, of course.

HTC Desire 816: Camera

The 13-megapixel snapper gives more detailed photos than the HTC One (M8)'s ultrapixel model, but it doesn't perform as well in low light. The images have quite a lot of noise, which is the price you pay for buying a cheaper handset. After using the Samsung Galaxy S5, the Desire 816's shutter does seem a bit slow. But maybe we've been spoiled.

The One M8's Ufocus feature is also missing, so you won't be fiddling around switching points of focus with the Desire 816.

The camera does have a selfie mode, though, so you won't have to pose in front of a mirror for your vanity shots. The front-facer is a 5-megapixel jobby too, so your face will be captured in bags of detail. We'll leave that up to you to decide if that's a good thing or not.

1,080p video recording is the order of the day. Footage is smooth, but again, you lose some detail in low light. Hats off to HTC for including a microSD card slot, though. That'll help you fit hours of videos and photos on the phone.

HTC Desire 816: Performance

A 1.6GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 chip isn't going to set the world alight, but it's fine for day-to-day tasks like web surfing, switching between apps, and gaming. Alien shooter Edge of Tomorrow ran without a hitch, and the big screen and front-facing BoomSound speakers really added to the experience.

This will change as games become more graphically advanced, so be warned, the HTC Desire 816 won't always be able to handle newer games.

We're not fans of the Bloatware, but Blinkfeed is pretty unobtrusive. Plus - hurrah! - you can turn it off. Finally, it seems companies like HTC and Samsung are taking note that sometimes less is more.

HTC Desire 816: Battery

The HTC Desire 816 lasted us a full day with fairly heavy usage. Its battery isn't as hefty as that in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 or LG G Pro 2, but it's fine as long as you're not completely rinsing it. Like the Samsung Galaxy S5, there's a power saving mode too, which should help if things get really bad.

HTC Desire 816: Verdict

We like the HTC Desire 816 a lot. If you can sacrifice a few features, are prepared to forego top-end performance, but still want a big screen, it's a real contender for your dosh. It might be worth waiting to try the OnePlus One, but as it stands, this is a front-runner for the best big blower at this price.

Product name release date: Out now

Product name price: £259

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Official photo of the HTC One Ace hits the web

HTC hasn't just been busy with its flagship HTC One M8 this year. Following the HTC One Mini 2, it looks like the Taiwanese company has another handset in the pipeline.

Official looking images, believed to be of the HTC One Ace, have appeared online showing HTC's paired-down handset in red and blue.

The phone is rumoured to share similar specifications with the One M8, but will have a plastic case and a slightly more curved design.

Talking specifications, and the Ace is reportedly boasting a 5-inch (1920 x 1080) display and a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 chip with 2GB of RAM.

Like the M8, the device will also come with the option of a microSD card for expanding on what is likely to be 16 or 32GB of internal storage.

Obviously, HTC has been quiet on anything to do with the handset, so we really have no idea of pricing or release dates at the moment. Chances are though that the HTC One Ace will cost a bit less than the all-metal HTC One M8.

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German network reckons iPhone 6 is arriving Sep 19

It's fair to say there's a wee bit of expectation surrounding Apple's iPhone 6 and any information we can get hold of about when the company plans to reveal it is welcome.

Chances are that Apple will stick to previous years and release the new device in September (or October) as before. However, one clairvoyant German network is prepared to get a little more specific.

Officials at Deutsche Telekom say that they've been told that the iPhone 6 will go on sale on September 19. That's according to a German Apple blog called Apfelpage.de.

The chance of Apple revealing its release date this far ahead of the unveiling seems a little suspect to us - although a mid-September on-sale date does sound about right.

Unfortunately, there's no indication of where the September 19 date has come from - possibly from talkative types over in Cupertino, but then again there aren't many of those.

Still, we'd be remiss if we didn't pass this information on to you. Even if only to give you a bit of ammo for any iPhone 6 sweepstakes you intend to take part in.

And, just a quick reminder: Apple's iPhone 5S launched in the UK (and Germany) on September 20 last year. Nothing like a bit of iConsistency.

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Tonino Lamborghini Antares smartphone on sale

Tonino Lamborghini has announced it will be releasing a limit edition luxury smartphone called the Antares, which will be available from today exclusively from Carphone Warehouse in Selfridges. The phone will retail for £2,500 SIM-free.

The Tonino Lamborghini Antares boasts a 4-inch scratch-proof Gorilla Glass screen and is packing a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor under the hood. The phone is running on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS and has 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard memory. User can expand this by a further 32GB through its MicroSD card slot.

The Antares has a 13 mega-pixel camera on the rear and a 5 mega-pixel front facing camera. It's roughly 0.53 inches thick and encased in stainless steel and leather.

“Antares is designed to match instantly recognizable Italian flair with great performance and stunning materials," CEO of the Tonino Lamborghini Group, Mr. Gianluca Filippi said.

"Together these qualities speak to our exclusive design heritage, one that communicates the spirit of the ‘Raging Bull’ that adorns our crest."

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Samsung Galaxy S5 Active pictured

The leaked images of the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active reveal it will come with several ruggedised additions over the normal Galaxy S5.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the images were leaked by Evan Blass, better known as @evleaks.

The seven images reveal almost everything you could want to know about the unannouncedsmartphone.

Whereas Samsung’s Galaxy S4 Active retained the slim design of the regular S4, this year’s model goes all out on the rugged side. Given that the Galaxy S5 is waterproof out of the box, it shouldn’t be that surprising Samsung has stepped up its game.

Judging from the images, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active comes with bumpers on the top and the bottom to protect against drops, a screwed on back panel and raised buttons.

Otherwise, the Samsung Galaxy S5 Active is believed to be pretty much the same as the regular S5. That includes the 1080p HD AMOLED display, quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor and a 16MP rear-facing camera.

Pricing and launch date are still unknown and probably will remain so until Samsung chooses to officially unveil it.

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Huawei Ascend P7 review

When the Huawei Ascend P6 launched last spring, it turned heads. First, because the design seemed at first glance entirely derived from the iPhone, though as you looked down at the bottom end there was a different styling at play.

Now, the Huawei Ascend P7 has arrived, with an identical design language. It looks better, though, because the aluminium back of the P6 has been replaced by Gorilla Glass which looks fetching where the metal P6 just looked, well, plasticky. This time it’s a classy and subtly patterned back which is smooth, tactile and pleasing to look at.

And though this is a phone which will undercut the top-flight phones out there in terms of price, Huawei (pronounced 'wah-way') wants you to see the Ascend P7 as a strong and powerful alternative to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8 – so how does it stack up in terms of style, features and all-round goodness?

Huawei Ascend P7: Size and build

This phone isn’t quite as razor-thin as the P6, but at 6.5mm there’s precious little in it. It’s still thinner than the iPhone 5s and it has a bigger screen that’s much higher-resolution.

And it’s 4G-capable, unlike the P6. For many people the absence of super-fast data connections was not a problem but the networks, it seems, like 4G for everything but the most budget of smartphones now. Though the P7 has again positioned itself as great value, it’s not budget.

Huawei Ascend P7: Screen

The display is bigger than before – matching the five inches that premium phones like the HTC One M8 offer. This is a Full HD screen so you can feast your peepers on a 441 pixels per inch display (considerably more than the iPhone’s 326ppi). Put a picture on the screen and you can’t miss the richness of the image: colours pop without being overdone while text is as sharp as on paper. It looks tremendous.

What’s more, because this screen is so big, it’s almost a surprise how thin it is, as though the proportions are off. But the truth is the slimness of the Ascend P7 feels great in the hand, making it feel less of a palm-stretcher than the Sony Xperia Z1 let alone the new Sony Xperia Z2.

For all its slimness, the phone feels solid and strong, with no flexing evident. Oh, and because the display stretches to within 3mm of the edge of the phone, it’s an even more impressive screen.

Turn it on and you instantly know you’re holding a Huawei phone thanks to the distinctive Emotion UI, including a special panel called the Me Widget that is easily customised to include important contacts, music player, weather and more. It could be a crucial part of your experience of the phone. Or you may never use it.

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Apple Teases Consumers, Doubles Down With Devs

The most important new announcement for developers at Apple's WWDC 2014 opening keynote had to be the new programming environment Apple named "Swift." It's supposed to be super fast, which Apple characterized as Objective-C without the "C." It will let developers get more accomplished through fewer lines of code, plus view the output side-by-side with the code as they program their applications.

Apple managed to pull off a mean feat on Monday at its WorldWide Developers Conference. Without announcing a single hardware device, it teased consumers with dozens of updated features in iOS 8 and the next version of Mac OS X -- dubbed "Yosemite" -- then doubled-down with app developers by offering tons of new APIs, along with elements of deep integration between apps and devices. The company capped it all off with the announcement of Swift, a brand new Xcode programming language for developers.

Everybody got a taste of something tantalizing.

That was important. Even though Apple's WWDC has turned into a limited venue affair -- only about 6,000 developers can buy tickets -- it's an important opportunity to showcase new Apple products and services. Apple lets its fans view the keynote stream live from its website, as well as replay it later. Consequently, Apple not only has to address the concerns of hardcore developers who are building apps for iPhones and Macs, but also satisfy the consumer-oriented interests of loyal fans and industry watchers.

So, how did Apple manage to walk these lines? As I saw it, astoundingly well. To deliver two hours worth of fast-paced presentation, Apple broke up the keynote into three sections: one on Mac OS X Yosemite; one on iOS 8; and one for devs.

However, this key takeaway is worth keeping in mind: Apple is not trying to converge iOS with Mac OS X, and it is not trying to converge a touch interface with a traditional keyboard/Mac/PC interface.

Unlike the Microsoft Surface Pro, a MacBook is still a laptop and an iPad is still a tablet -- and there is no hint that Apple will try to jam them together to create a new single product. Instead, Apple is carefully integrating and connecting the different environments and devices so that they feel seamless while retaining their distinct capabilities. Read on for specific examples.

Inside Mac OS X Yosemite

The install base for Max OS X is more than 80 million, and according to Apple CEO Tim Cook -- who delivered most of the bragging news -- the year-over-year Mac vs. PC industry growth rate pegs the PC in a 5 percent decline while the Mac grew 12 percent. Plus, just over half the install base now is running Mac OS X Mavericks, the latest release. Cook took the time to call out the adoption rate of Windows 8, which shipped a year before Mavericks, at just 14 percent.

Meanwhile, the next big version of Mac OS X gets the California-themed moniker of "Yosemite." Cool. Moving on.

As expected, the overall look and feel of Yosemite -- which will be available for consumers, free, this fall -- is much like iOS 7. The Finder windows take on a translucent feel, which gives the screens a sense of color and the vague shape of the desktop underneath the layers.

Notification Center is more like iOS 7, and the Today view can be extended with widgets you can download from the App Store. Apple's integrated search, Spotlight, is now much more powerful, searching across the Mac and Internet, offering up access to individual documents, and launching apps based on one or two typed letters.

Apple is beefing up its iCloud service, adding iCloud Drive, which gives you iCloud storage that's bigger and more usable for a wide variety of documents and syncing.

At the same time, Apple is helping out with a common problem -- the mailing of large attachments, which many email servers reject. Apple's new Mail will let you seamlessly send the "attachment" as a linkable file on iCloud to the recipient. Why is this cool? Because users are still notorious for just trying to send images and video and large file sizes without uploading them to services like DropBox to accomplish basically the same thing as Apple's new service, which is called "Mail Drop."

Apple also is introducing markup into Mail, which will let you draw over the top of attachments to highlight something you want to draw attention to -- for collaboration or just to make fun of one of your friends. On a .pdf document, though, it also means you can use the trackpad to sign your name. Nice. One less third-party app to find or learn.

Safari gets a leaner and cleaner look at the toolbar level, but also lets you access favorites by typing into the smart search field. The coolest potential new feature for power users is a new tab view that will show stacks of tabs for all the sites you've got loaded up. For mobile warriors, Safari is faster and more energy-efficient, and it can eke out nearly two hours of additional battery life when streaming 1080p video from Netflix.

Continuity in Action

At WWDC, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, Craig Federighi, delivered most of the content, including the introduction of Continuity, a concept that lets various Apple devices and services work seamless together.

With iOS 8 and Yosemite, the quick and easy file transfer feature, AirDrop, will let you move files from your iOS device to your Mac, and vice versa. Plus, if you're not on your home WiFi network, your iPhone and Mac can connect to each other with their own little network.

A new feature for this is Handoff, which lets your devices become aware of what they are doing, which in turn lets you work on a document on your Mac, then pickup your iPad, and with a nifty lower-left screen notification, swipe up into using whatever it was you were working on. Like a document -- or even a half-finished Mail message.

Handoff goes back the other way too, of course. For instance, you can start a mail message on your little iPhone, get frustrated by the little keyboard, and just finish it on your Mac. Just saying. I can totally see using Handoff this way.

With Hotspot, your Mac will be able to connect to your iPhone (and iCloud) and let you do some really cool messaging and phone calling types of communication.

For instance, your Android-using friends will be able to message you to your iPhone, which you can receive on your Mac and chat back and forth on your Mac -- while your iPhone is in your bag or in some other room on a charger. You also can answer a call that's coming into your iPhone on your Mac, use your Mac as a speakerphone, and dial new calls, too.

This integration goes deeper. If you're looking up a business online in Safari on your Mac, Safari will recognize a phone number on the Web page and give you the ability to call that number through your Mac -- routed through your iPhone, of course. The demo made all of this look not only handy, but super easy.

Inside iOS 8

At the start of the iOS 8 intro, Cook took the opportunity to brag about the success of iOS, noting that Apple sold more than 100 million iPod touch units, 200 million iPads and 500 million iPhones. Better still, iOS devices brought 130 million new customers to Apple last year.

Cook joked that many of these new customers were switchers who bought an Android device "by mistake" and were coming over to Apple for a better experience and "a better life." Customer satisfaction with iOS 7 was at 97 percent, which was insanely great, of course, but the real point was this: 89 percent of iOS installs were running iOS 7. How did Android's KitKat compare? Just 9 percent of devices were running KitKat. Ouch.

That meant the vast majority of Android users were nowhere near getting the latest and greatest features of Android's operating system. The underlying message was that, for app developers, the iOS target audience was not only very large, it was astoundingly up-to-date and consistent. An iOS app developer who wanted to use a new feature of iCloud, for instance, could count on iOS customers being able to use it.

As for new iOS 8 features for consumers, come fall you'll be able to use interactive notifications, which will let you do things like reply to text messages from the notification without needing to leave the app you were using. Mail will get a few ease-of-use updates while Spotlight on iOS becomes more powerful -- like the Mac version.

For typing, the software keyboard in iOS will get a welcome refresh, offering a new feature called "QuickType," which uses a whole mess of new predictive typing to offer you context-specific full-word options.

How does this work? Say you're typing a message about a meeting to your boss. Above the keyboard a few word options will show up as buttons you can tap to rapidly insert into your message. The word choices reflect your past activity, because a message to your boss might tend to use different language than you would use with your peers or friends. The boss options? The meeting could be canceled, rescheduled or moved. The peer message options might offer words like "snoozer" to describe the meeting and "epic" or "awesome" to describe its cancellation.

Depending on the brains that run QuickType, the feature could turn out to be epic -- or a snoozer.

Messages, which is far and away the most used app on iOS, will see a major update this fall in iOS 8. Photo and video attachments to message conversations will get a new at-a-glance view that will place them all in one handy grid. This is cool when families and groups are all chatting away at the same time via text messaging.

Of course, being in the middle of such a conversation can make your iPhone vibrate to no end, so Apple created a feature that will let you exit a conversation -- or just enter do-not-disturb for that particular conversation, which will let you continue to receive other text messages. The conversations? You can name them now, too, making it much easier to keep track of your messaging activity.

Also built-in is the ability to "Tap to Talk," letting you voice record an audio snippet to send as a message. You can send a video message as well. It looks to be super easy and super seamless. Furthermore, as you're messaging, you can choose to show your personal location for an hour, until the end of the day, or indefinitely -- which is cool because it lets you fine-tune the details you share with others.

HealthKit APIs

One of the potentially big new features is HealthKit, which is a set of APIs that will let developers build applications that can handle and manage health-related data, and let users make sense of all that data through a single iOS app called "Health."

The Health app in iOS 8 will let various medical devices and measurements pour into a unified portal -- the Health app -- giving iOS users new insight into their health. Apple didn't mention it, of course, but if and when the company releases a health-oriented iWatch, data from the iWatch can be collected into the Health app.

Because the developer-focused HealthKit and Health app are so extensible, they can be used to communicate with caregivers -- like the Mayo Clinic -- which can tap into them to gain access to personalized health information and then react accordingly during healthcare situations.

In addition to encouraging fitness, the Health app will be able to monitor almost any medical condition that can be measured with a device that can communicate with iOS. If this is easy and secure for consumers to use, it could create a way that Apple can play nice with other innovators in the market while retaining a easy-to-use hub on iOS.

Apple also introduced a bunch of smaller improvements, including a Family Share plan that lets up to six family members who use the same credit card number for iTunes or the App Store share their purchases across their devices. When kids try to buy something, their devices will send a permission note to their parents asking for approval.

iPhoto brings easy-to-use new editing features, as well as massively increased iCloud synchronization and storage options. You'll be able to edit photos on your iPhone easily, sync and store them in iCloud, and access them via a new method on Mac OS X -- coming this fall. The first 5 GB are free, 20 GB will cost US$1 a month, and 200 GB will cost $4 per month.

New Dev Goodness

In addition all the new features coming to iOS and Yosemite, Apple's TestFlight app is now baked right into iOS 8, which will make beta testing easier for developers. Plus, developers will be able to write applications, widgets, and extensions that will be able to communicate securely with other apps.

For example, a developer who created a killer photo-editing feature could enable the feature to be used from within other apps. One of the examples from Apple included using a Bing translation extension for Safari to translate Japanese to English with the Web page itself. That also means -- mostly for power users -- that you can install third-party keyboards that might have better functionality than Apple's default keyboard.

HomeKit, it turns out, isn't as large as the home automation rumors suggested last week. However, it has the potential to grow quickly. Apple's play here is to create a seamless one-spot app that will let users control a variety of home automation devices and solutions.

It's a system that lets others work with Apple, and for the consumer, it could result in the ability to tell Siri that it's "bedtime," which could tell your home to turn down the thermostat, turn off the inside lights, turn on the outside lights, shut the garage door, and lock all the doors. Or create your own environmental parameters, like "Disco Time" or "Game of Thrones."

Again, like the HealthKit, Apple is seeking to control the home automation experience -- or finally let regular consumers control a bunch of disparate home automation devices through their Apple devices.

If third-party players get on board -- Apple claimed to be working with some leaders in the home automation world -- HomeKit could provide a jolt to the industry.

Tired yet? There's still a heckuva lot more to cover. Apple introduced CloudKit, which opens up Apple's iCloud servers to let developers access and tap into them more easily than before, at presumably no cost (or some reasonable cost for high-performing, super popular apps).

A new graphic-rendering technology called "Metal" will let developers vastly increase their ability to build graphically intensive environments for iOS. Plus, Apple made some nice updates to SpriteKit and SceneKit to help developers build rich casual games easily.

Enter Swift

The most important new announcement for developers, though, has to be the new programming environment Apple named "Swift." It's supposed to be super fast, which Apple characterized as Objective-C without the "C."

The whole new coding environment will let developers get more accomplished through fewer lines of code, plus view the output side-by-side with the code as they program their applications. Swift works with Metal to create graphically intense games. It also can be used to create simple games or social media apps.

All-in-all, the 2014 WWDC keynote introduced the next face of iOS 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite while offering up some big gains for developers. As for new hardware, though, keep waiting. 

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Samsung to Try Out Tizen Smartphone in Russia

Samsung appears to be edging away from Google with the announcement of a new smartphone that runs on the Tizen OS rather than on Android. The System Z has a long and difficult path ahead if its developers want to set it up as an independent smartphone system. "Historically [Samsung has] sucked with developers, which dramatically lowers their likely success here," said tech analyst Rob Enderle.

Samsung this week officially launched its long-anticipated Tizen phone, at the Tizen Developer Conference being held in San Francisco through Wednesday.

One description of Tizen is that it's an open source Linux-based operating system from Samsung -- but that might be open to debate.

The Samsung Z Tizen phone initially will debut in Russia in the third quarter. In the meantime, Samsung will boost its efforts to attract developers to create apps for the operating system.

Products already running Tizen include Samsung's NX300M smart camera and the Systena Tizen tablet, both launched in October; and the Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch, released in April.

The move to Tizen "is really about wresting control over the software that underpins [Samsung's] devices," Carl Howe, a research vice president at the Yankee Group, told LinuxInsider. "Samsung wants a platform that it can control instead of waiting to hear what comes out of Mountain View."

The Z's Specs

The Samsung Z has a 4.8-inch HD SuperAMOLED display with 1,280 x 720 pixel resolution. It runs off an Intel 2.3 GHz quad-core processor.

It supports 2D and 3D graphics and has a built-in fingerprint sensor similar to the one in the Samsung Galaxy S5. It also has a heart rate sensor.

Other sensors include an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a compass, barometer and proximity sensors, as well as an RGB ambient light sensor.

The Samsung Z also has GPS Glonass. It supports WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n HT40 and MIMO.

The Samsung Z has an 8-MP rear camera and a 2.1-MP front camera. It has 16 GB of internal memory, and a 64 GB microSD slot. It will be available in black or gold.

Tizen will let users browse the Web faster and use applications more effectively, according to Samsung -- but it did not say which OS it was comparing it to.

What's a Tizen?

Tizen grew out of work done by the Linux Mobile Foundation, which was founded by Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone to work on an open, hardware-independent mobile OS.

LiMo and the Linux Foundation announced the Tizen project in September 2011.

In January of 2012, the Tizen Association replaced MeeGo, a Linux kernel-based free mobile OS project that was the love child of Intel's Moblin and Nokia's Maemo OSes, with the Linux Foundation's blessing.

Tizen is not a continuation of MeeGo; instead, it builds on Samsung Linux Platform, a reference implementation delivered within LiMo.

The Fuss About FOSS

Tizen is said to combine the best open source technologies from LiMo and the Linux Foundation while adding a robust, flexible HTML5 and WAC (Wholesale Applications Community) development environment.

However, some of the technologies used in Tizen reportedly have conflicting licenses.

"Samsung is a predatory company, and their model suggests their open source rhetoric is just that and little else," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told LinuxInsider.

"Samsung benefits from open source, but it's not yet clear that they are becoming big contributors to that corpus of software," the Yankee Group's Howe pointed out. As a result, Tizen "will simply be a derivative work of open source."

Stumbling Toward the Market

Samsung's efforts to make Tizen a viable alternative to Android have not gone smoothly. NTT DoCoMo and other supporters have pulled out of the association.

However, the Tizen Association gained 15 new members in February and reportedly gained another 37 in May.

Samsung also has had problems attracting developers. It has promised a special promotional program for all devs to run for one year with the Smartphone Z's launch, and plans to host Tizen local app challenges in Russia and other markets.

"Historically they have sucked with developers, which dramatically lowers their likely success here," Enderle said, "but, if they try and fail with this, Android could suffer a serious hit anyway, because Samsung drives most of the Android market."

On the other hand, if Samsung's strategy succeeds, he suggested, "they plan to largely replace Android with Tizen, locking out companies like HTC."

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