Apple Underwhelms.... Again

Apple unveiled a new TV set top box that responds to voice commands and fresh iPhones that sense the pressure of a finger tap, changes which underwhelmed many social media commenters and investors.

The new 6S and 6S Plus versions of the iPhone, Apple's biggest money maker, are the same size as the previous versions but come with a better camera, faster chips, new colors and the force-sensitive "3D Touch".

Speaking before thousands of analysts, journalists and frequently cheering Apple employees, Chief Executive Tim Cook also brought on stage an executive from onetime archrival Microsoft to illustrate the business-friendly credentials of a big new iPad, the Pro.

Apple Announces the iPad Pro

Apple on Wednesday outlined its iPad Pro, a 12.9-inch tablet that's primarily aimed at corporations that have already bet on the iPhone and iOS. However, Apple execs also made a prosumer case and argued that the iPad Pro is enterprise class with help from app partners such as Microsoft and Adobe.

The iPad Pro addresses a hole in Apple's enterprise line-up---increasingly popular 2-in-1 devices.

Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, said the iPad Pro has a 12.9-inch diagonal screen. "It's as wide as iPad Air is tall," said Schiller, who also outlined a physical keyboard. In many respects, the iPad Pro looks a lot like the Surface. Apple did introduce a stylus that it calls Apple Pencil. Nevertheless, the resemblance to the Surface is obvious.

Here's the breakdown of key items:

• $799 starting price with 32GB of storage
• Apple Pencil at $99
• Apple Keyboard at $169
• WiFi and LTE and 128GB at $1079
• Available in November.

Amazon's $50 Tablet

Amazon.com Inc. has struggled to draw customers to its pricier tablets. So it’s going further down-market.

The Seattle online retailer plans to release a $50 tablet with a 6-inch screen, in time for this year’s holidays, according to people familiar with the matter. That would make it one of the least-expensive tablets on the market and half the price of the company’s current Fire HD 6-inch tablet.

The move would potentially attract buyers looking for a simple—and effectively disposable—device for straightforward tasks like streaming video at home and shopping on Amazon.com. But such inexpensive tablets typically come with compromises like inferior screen quality, durability or battery life in comparison to more expensive tablets like Amazon’s larger Fire tablets and industry-leading devices like Apple Inc. ’s iPad. For instance, the $50 device will have a mono speaker, rather than stereo, one of the people said.

Lumia Apps Discontinued

If you want the Lumia camera apps for Windows 8.1 but you don’t already have them, you are officially out of luck: Microsoft has decided to discontinue a number of its Lumia-branded photo and video apps ahead of the upcoming launch of Windows 10 Mobile.

According to a post published to Microsoft’s Conversations blog, Microsoft has integrated many—though not all—of the Lumia apps’ features into the Photos and Camera apps bundled with Windows 10. It’s all part of an effort on Microsoft’s part “to sharpen [its] focus on [its] core Windows 10 Camera and Photo apps.”

Why this matters: The end of the Lumia camera apps is another sign that Microsoft is working toward fully integrating Nokia into the rest of Microsoft—and bringing Nokia features across its products. In fact, Microsoft’s Tiina Jaatinen states as much in the post announcing the change.

“Our goal is to provide experiences that work really well on all Windows devices,” Jaatinen writes. “In order to do that, we need to focus on making our Windows 10 core Photos and Camera apps great.”

We still don’t know when, exactly, Windows 10 Mobile will drop, but earlier reports suggested it’ll be out sometime this fall.

Acer Win 10 Phablet

Acer's new Jade Primo smartphone runs a full-blown version of Windows 10, or at least it almost does.

   

The 5.5-inch actually handset runs Windows 10 Mobile but it adds Continuum, a feature that detects which type of Windows device you're using and configures the operating system accordingly. With Continuum and the included monitor dock, keyboard and wireless mouse, you can use the Jade Primo as a small computer on its own. Acer even calls it a "pocket PC".

Inside is a Snapdragon processor. Other features include a 21-megapixel main camera, with an 8-megapixel snapper on the front for selfies and video chat.

   

The phone has been announced in Berlin today, but is still in prototype form, so details are thin on the ground. It's expected to go on sale in 2016.

Win 10 Popularity

Windows 10 is firmly in fourth place among desktop operating systems, according to stats released Tuesday.

Microsoft's newly launched software grabbed a 5.21 percent share of all Web traffic generated by desktop operating systems in August, according to NetMarketShare. Windows 10 had been available as a technical preview since last October. But it barely registered as a blip on NetMarketShare's radar until it became available as a free upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 users starting July 29.

Among all desktop operating systems, Windows 10 ranked fourth in Web traffic last month, behind Windows 8.1, Windows XP and Windows 7 but ahead of Windows 8 and Mac OS X Yosemite.

Microsoft has been counting on Windows 10 to win back the love it lost with Windows 8, which rolled out three years ago but failed to catch on with the desktop crowd. To lure users to its new operating system, the software giant has revived the Start menu, tweaked the Start screen, added its Cortana voice assistant and made a variety of other improvements to the overall design and layout. PC sales are also in a slump, while Microsoft's share of the mobile market is in the dumps. Windows 10 is designed to work across a variety of devices from PCs to tablets to mobile phones. So Microsoft is looking to its newest version of Windows to grab more users across its entire ecosystem.

So far, Windows 10 adoption is far outpacing that of Windows 8 over a similar time frame. After Windows 8 officially launched on October 27 of 2012, it scraped up just a 1 percent share of Web traffic in November, according to NetMarketShare. Its share continued to rise at a slow pace and didn't reach 5 percent until the following June.

Android Wear and iOS News

Google has announced that iOS is an officially supported operating system for Android Wear. Users with an iPhone 5, 5C, 5S, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 8.2 and above will be able to pair with "newer" Android Wear devices, download the app, and be off and running.

Until now, smartwatch platforms from Google and Apple have been ecosystem lock-in devices. If you have an Android phone, you have to get an Android Wear watch, and if you have an iPhone you have to get an Apple Watch. By supporting both OSes, Android Wear will have a much larger potential user base to try and sell a watch to.

Since Google controls the Android operating system, it created specific hooks in the OS for Android Wear to plug into. On iOS—where Google is not in control—things have to be different, don't they? We've been told the iOS experience is "similar" to what users get on Android—rich notifications, voice commands, and Google Now cards will be present. Any differences between the Android and iOS implementations will have to be investigated once the app comes out, but just judging from the supplied picture, contact images will not show up on the watch when the message is sent.

iOS support will come to the LG Watch Urbane and "all future Android Wear devices." If you have an older Android Wear device and were hoping to pair it with an iPhone, you're out of luck.

Regardless of how useful you think a smartwatch is, Android Wear is becoming the least-restrictive platform out there. Now you can pick from different watch styles, screen shapes, and phone OSes. Google says the Android Wear app should start rolling out to the App Store right now.