Weekend Round-up: Apple Pay, iTunes 12, Microsoft

October 13, 2014

New gadgets, new apps, and new updates. Technology had a busy weekend. Here’s a round-up of what you might have missed this weekend.

Apple Pay launches soon

Ever heard of Bitcoin? You pay by tapping your phone on a device that transfers your Bitcoin funds to your creditor. It may not be the sought after cryptocurrency, but Apple Pay wants to replicate that convenience for iPhone 6 users. It may be launching soon, too. Walgreens, the giant US pharmacy chain, released a memo to its managers to prepare for the launch of Apple Pay “on October 18,” two days after Apple’s October 16 event. It will be made available only for iPhone 6 users, but this online wallet might upend the cryptic Bitcoin. More details as it comes through.

iTunes 12

As you might have noticed, Apple has been going for a flatter UI ever since it released iOS 8. One thing that has, until now, escaped this flattening is iTunes. If you check out its icon on your computer now, you can tell that it’s still living in a three-dimensional world. Well, it’s losing one dimension with the impending release of iTunes 12, as released beta versions have shown us. Connect the dots and you might notice that this news comes unsurprisingly close to the October 16 event. Expect an announcement then and a release within the week.

Microsoft’s Android Wear Keyboard

Now, for the Microsoft side of things, a new function is being added to the arguably vestigial smartwatch – handwriting. As you might surmise, installing a keyboard is damn near impossible on a screen as small as a watch. Microsoft Research is trying to change that through an “analog keyboard project,” that will have you writing one character at a time using your finger for input. It’s still a prototype so we’ll reserve our comments for a beta release. But now we know that Microsoft is working hard to add a purpose for these smartwatches.

Microsoft Surface Pro 3’s pen

Ever since ditching Wacom’s styli last May, Microsoft has been trying to match technologies with the tablet and styli giant. They have released a new app – the Surface Hub app – that’s adding more functionality to the Surface Pro 3’s stylus. The app lets you customize the pressure sensitivity on the pen and what the top button does.