9 Linux distros to watch in 2015

A list of the most interesting Linux distros to keep up with in 2015.

Looking ahead
Predictions are fun. We all enjoy tech predictions at the beginning of each year. This isn't that. This is a list of the nine Linux Distributions that I feel will be the most interesting to watch during 2015. We're talking both desktop and mobile here because, let's face it, Linux is everywhere. (Note: I say these will be the most "interesting to watch," not necessarily the best or the highest quality. Just the most interesting and entertaining to keep tabs on.)

Ubuntu Touch
It was first announced that phones powered by Ubuntu Touch were set to ship way back in 2013. Then again in 2014. It is now 2015 and it looks as though the wait may finally be over, with actual devices set to ship this February (in limited markets outside of North America). My very soul wants this to succeed like gangbusters...but my gut tells me this isn't going to go well. Will 2015 end with Ubuntu Touch being anything other than a weird, orange blip on the radar? Who knows? But it promises to be rather exciting to watch.

Ubuntu
With the recent release of Ubuntu MATE (a community-built version of Ubuntu using MATE, a fork of the old GNOME 2, as the desktop environment) there is now a version of Ubuntu out there that looks and feels a lot like the pre-Unity days of Ubuntu (aka "what Ubuntu was like back when it catapulted to stardom and grabbed huge market share in the Linux world"). I'm not sure how this will actually impact Ubuntu proper (the Unity-powered version), but with yet another re-written version of Unity set to be released (along with a brand-new display server with Mir), having Ubuntu MATE around will serve to remind Ubuntu users where they came from. Which could prove very interesting.

elementary OS
elementary OS currently sits at the No. 9 spot on the Distrowatch list (up from No. 19 in 2013). While Distrowatch is not the best way to track actual numbers of users of any given Distro – heck, it's not even the second best – this certainly shows the upward momentum of this little system with a focus on design. They've also been putting a heavy focus on developers and designers getting paid to work on elementary OS-related projects via Bountysource.com (an approach I find highly interesting).

SteamOS
SteamOS was set to shake up the console gaming world in 2014. New boxes ("Steam Machines") were set to ship from multiple vendors. We were talking high-end PCs running a version of Linux that hooked up to your TV and were filled with games from Valve (and other companies). It was going to be glorious. But, as with the Linux-powered Ubuntu Phones, it just never shipped. The failure to launch in 2014 (as planned) isn't the end of the world, though – Valve (the company behind SteamOS) has a long and glorious track record of taking its sweet time in order to get its products just right. The current ETA is sometime in 2015.

ChromeOS
Chromebooks absolutely dominated laptop sales on Amazon for the second straight holiday season in a row. If there was any doubt that the Gentoo-based ChromeOS was here to stay, that doubt should now be completely erased. Add to that the growing list of Android applications that run on ChromeOS and the imagination can't help but run a bit wild about what the future has in store for this system. Just speculating here, but imagine if Google made all Android apps available on ChromeOS via a full version of the Google Play App store. This system would be an even bigger force to be reckoned with.

Android
Speaking of Android... did you realize that you can currently get Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office (in Beta) that run natively on Android? I've got an Android-powered laptop here running both, which means I'm running Photoshop and MS Office natively on my Linux-powered computer. Ever heard anyone say something like "I would use Linux... but I need Microsoft Office"? Well, it's here. On Linux. Look out your window. Go ahead. Stand up, walk over to your window, and take a look out. Those pink things in the sky? Yeah. Those are pigs. And, boy howdy, are they flying.

Fedora
I'll be honest – usually, I'm not terribly interested in Fedora. For years I've struggled to find reasons to convince myself to install the latest versions (because it always ended up either being rather dull or half-broken). But the Fedora Project shook things up this past year with the Fedora Next initiative. The first result of which being that Fedora is now broken into three distinct versions: Workstation, Server, and Cloud. And you know what? The first iteration of "Fedora Workstation" is actually quite nice. What will be truly interesting is where the Fedora team will go from here. 2015 could be rather interesting for these chaps.

Sailfish and Firefox
Ubuntu Touch may have a hard time shipping, but there are two Linux-based systems that have been shipping on actual hardware all throughout 2014 – Sailfish OS and Firefox OS, two (very different) systems that are moving mobile Linux forward. What will be fascinating is how these two systems strive to gain market share in 2015, with the possibly soon-to-be-released, Ubuntu-powered phones along with the continuing dominance of Android in the market.

Debian and Devuan
Debian has been around for 21 years now. But the controversy over systemd has caused a group of Debian users to fork and create a systemd-free version that they now call "Devuan." Disagreements and controversy around systemd don't show any signs of ending soon, making Debian and Devuan an interesting set of projects to watch, even if just for the reality TV-style entertainment of it all.

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20 great productivity apps for Android, iOS, and the Web

20 great productivity apps for Android, iOS, and the Web

These 20 essential apps work on all three platforms, helping you stay productive no matter what device you or your co-workers use

Android, iOS, and Web: 20 multiplatform apps for maximum productivity

Man, the days of "Mac or PC" sure were simple.

It wasn't long ago that the only question you had to consider with compatibility was whether something would run on those two types of computers. These days, most of us interact with a multitude of devices and platforms, either on our own or as a result of our colleagues' choices, and finding productivity tools that work across them all isn't always easy.

When you stop and think about it, it's nothing short of a miracle that any service can provide a consistent experience on an iPhone, an Android phone, an iPad, an Android tablet, and any computer with a modern Web browser. Amazingly enough, though, such tools do exist.

We've tracked down 20 useful options to help you stay productive and in sync from one device to the next. Install them on your various computers and gadgets -- and get your co-workers to do the same -- and you'll be living in multiplatform harmony.

(Quick tip: If you don't have time to read all of this right now, skip to item 15. You're welcome.)


Google Docs
Google's free cloud-based office suite has come into its own over the past several months, with the recent addition of offline access across all platforms along with the ability to edit standard Word documents in their native format. Editing from the mobile apps is also now fairly full-featured, thanks to Google's integration of Quickoffice, a former third-party app the company acquired. Functions like find and replace, undo, and table creation are all available, as are a range of font, paragraph, and table formatting tools. Docs may not be the most robust standalone word processor on any given platform -- you won't find a way to measure word count on the mobile apps, for instance -- but if you’re juggling devices, it’s a solid option for getting the basics done.

App: Google Docs
Developer: Google
Category: Word Processing
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Microsoft Office 365/Office Mobile
For those who still rely on the traditional Microsoft Office ecosystem, the company's Office 365 service provides cloud-based access to documents on the Web and via its Office Mobile Android and iOS apps. The mobile apps are significantly less full-featured than Google's, and they're rather restricted, with no offline access unless you opt to pay a $7- to $10-per-month subscription fee. Access to the iPad app requires a subscription as well, and there is no app for Android tablets as of now. All in all, it's not the greatest suite of services, but it's at least something for folks stuck under Microsoft's umbrella.

App: Microsoft Office 365 / Office Mobile
Developer: Microsoft
Category: Word Processing
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Google Drive
Google's cloud-storage service comes with 15GB of free space (shared with Gmail and Google+ Photos) and the option to upgrade to various higher tiers -- anywhere from 100GB to 30TB -- for $2 to $300 a month. Drive offers seamless integration with Google Docs, as you'd expect. It also excels in search, allowing you to search for objects shown in stored images and text present in scanned documents. Beyond that, Drive is able to display numerous file types -- even Photoshop and Illustrator files, if you're using Android or the Web -- and it provides offline access to your files via both its Web and mobile apps.

App: Google Drive
Developer: Google
Category: Storage
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Microsoft OneDrive
Microsoft's storage offering comes with 15GB of free space and the option to various higher tiers -- 100GB, 200GB, or 1TB -- for $2 to $4 a month (with the 1TB plan requiring a one-year commitment). OneDrive is unique in its tight integration with both Microsoft's Office suite and Windows itself: You can store and access files in OneDrive from the various Office applications, and you can share files to OneDrive directly from Windows File Explorer.

App: OneDrive
Developer: Microsoft
Category: Storage
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Dropbox
Dropbox gives you 2GB of free cloud storage, and you can bump that up to 1TB for $10 a month. While its starting level may be lower than what Google and Microsoft offer, Dropbox provides a wide range of features, including shared folders synced across multiple users and devices, nicely formatted photo galleries that are simple to share, the option to automatically back up photos as they're taken on mobile devices, and the option to remotely wipe a lost device (available only to paying customers). Dropbox’s powerful API has also made it a popular storage integration choice for many mobile apps.

App: Dropbox
Developer: Dropbox
Category: Storage
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Box
Box provides 10GB of free space with the option to upgrade to 100GB for $10 a month; unlimited storage plans are also available for businesswide accounts with at least three users for $15 per user per month. Box is working hard to set itself apart with enterprise-targeted features like an integrated file-commenting system and granular controls over permissions, allowing you to control what people can do with a file once you share it. Box also offers a powerful API that enables developers to use Box as an integrated file system for their mobile apps.

App: Box
Developer: Box
Category: Storage
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Google Hangouts
Google's free Hangouts service makes it easy to have one-on-one or group conversations as well as individual and group voice calls and video calls from whichever platform you prefer. The quality is typically quite good, so long as you're on a reliable and reasonably fast Internet connection. Video calls between Google users are free and unlimited, and voice calls to regular phone numbers within the United States and Canada are free. (You can call outside of those countries, too, but you'll have to pay a per-minute fee for the talk-time.)

App: Google Hangouts
Developer: Google
Category: Communication
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Skype
Skype may not be as robust or user-friendly as Hangouts, but it's still a popular communication platform that can't be ignored. It provides free voice and video calls between users, but voice calls to regular phone numbers require either a monthly subscription or a per-minute fee. While there's (rather astonishingly) still no stand-alone Web app for the service, you can get to it from a desktop computer by signing into Microsoft's Outlook.com.

App: Skype
Developer: Skype Communications
Category: Communication
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Trello
Whether you're working alone or as part of a team, Trello offers an easy yet powerful way to organize tasks, lists, and projects. No matter which platform you access it from, your data remains synced and looks the same to every user who sees it. Trello uses an intuitive whiteboard and notecard interface for task management, offering checklists, commenting, labels, attachments, notifications, and activity logs, as well as the ability to assign tasks to team members.

App: Trello
Developer: Fog Creek Software
Category: Project Management
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Basecamp
When it comes to project management, Basecamp is one of the biggest names around. The service provides a centralized place for organizing and coordinating projects, allowing teams to create notes, lists, and schedules; upload files and plans; assign and manage tasks; and communicate with colleagues about progress on each individual element. With the company's multiplatform approach, you can view and edit anything you need from any device you have handy. (You'll need a Basecamp subscription, which is free for 60 days, then runs anywhere from $20 to $150 a month.)

App: Basecamp
Developer: Basecamp
Category: Project Management
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Wunderlist
For simple lists, you want a simple app, and Wunderlist is one of the best around. Its clean and minimalist interface puts your tasks front and center, organized into topic-oriented lists, and it looks just as good whether you're on Android, iOS, or the Web. Wunderlist offers the ability to share lists, comment, delegate tasks, set reminders, and attach and share photos and files to your to-dos.

App: Wunderlist
Developer: 6 Wunderkinder
Category: Task Management
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Any.do
Another excellent list-centric option, Any.do offers a solid all-around experience, and Android users get bonus features like the ability to turn a missed call directly into a reminder. Regardless of your platform, the service provides all the basic organizational tools you'd expect, including shared lists, folder-based organization, and calendar-like alerts for important tasks. It syncs with Google's Tasks system, too, so you can access it from Gmail as well as from Any.do's own Web interface.

App: Any.do
Developer: Any.do
Category: Task Management
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Evernote
Evernote offers a robust notebook-like service that features regular to-do lists along with the ability to store and manage photos, handwritten notes, and articles from the Web. In addition to its standard free suite of services, the company has a business-focused platform designed for larger-scale company-wide collaboration. Evernote is also blessed with a rich ecosystem of integrated apps and services, thereby extending the power of an already powerful productivity tool.

App: Evernote
Developer: Evernote
Category: Notebook
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

OneNote
Microsoft's note-taking solution provides plenty of tools for keeping yourself and/or your team organized. You can create regular notes and lists, organize your stuff into notebooks or with tags, and add audio or video files into your notes. You can even take photos of receipts, memos, or whiteboards, then later search for the text shown in those images. OneNote also syncs with a stand-alone Windows app for those who prefer a more traditional desktop-based approach.

App: OneNote
Developer: Microsoft
Category: Notebook
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Pocket
If you find yourself stumbling onto more interesting content than you have time to read, Pocket is exactly what you need. Pocket integrates into all the major platforms and allows you to save an article for later with a couple quick taps. Once it's been saved, you can get to it from any device and view it online or offline within the app's own excellent reading utility. Pocket also allows you to save videos and images for later viewing, share what you’ve saved with other Pocket users, and file away your Pocket favorites to Evernote.

App: Pocket
Developer: Read It Later
Category: Notebook
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

QuickBooks
QuickBooks is the de facto standard for small-business accounting for a reason: The service is jam-packed with functionality, and it works well regardless of what platform or type of device you're using. QuickBooks has all the accounting tools you'd expect, ranging from budget management to expense tracking and invoice creation and fulfillment. It all comes at a cost, though: The various apps require an active QuickBooks account, which runs $13 a month or $125 a year.

App: QuickBooks
Developer: Intuit
Category: Accounting
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Expensify
If logging and managing expenses is all you need, a simple app like Expensify can get the job done without costing you a dime. From your Android or iOS device, Expensify makes it easy to snap photos of a receipt, which it then quickly analyzes in order to extract the relevant details and put them (along with an actual image of the receipt) into your records. It has other handy features, too, like the ability to track and log mileage using your phone's GPS, and the data is always available on any device you sign into as well as via its Web-based application.

App: Expensify
Developer: Expensify
Category: Accounting
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

Google Calendar
When it comes to maintaining a cross-platform calendar, Google Calendar stands in a league of its own. The free service provides a simple interface for managing meetings and personal appointments as well as sharing both individual events and full calendars with friends, family, and colleagues.

While Google doesn't yet offer its own official Calendar app for iOS, you can sync your Google Calendar data with Apple's native Calendar app or use third-party programs like Sunrise Calendar and Cal to tap into the info. On Android, meanwhile, an official Google app is available in addition to a variety of third-party contenders, allowing you to pick the setup that best suits your needs.

App: Google Calendar
Developer: Google
Category: Calendar
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

TripIt
TripIt is a must-have app for anyone who travels. Once you sign up for the free service, all you do is forward any travel-related emails -- airline confirmations, hotel reservations, even concert ticket receipts or dinner reservation confirmations -- to a special email address, and TripIt automatically organizes them into trip-based itineraries.

For $49 a year, you can upgrade to TripIt Pro and get advanced features like real-time flight monitoring and alerts and a one-tap way to find alternate flight plans from your phone midtrip. TripIt also has an enterprise-level plan for organizations that want to implement its services company-wide.

App: TripIt
Developer: Concur Technologies
Category: Travel Management
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

LastPass
We all have a billion passwords to keep track of these days -- and if you're using the same password for every website you sign into, well, you're doing it wrong. LastPass, which topped InfoWorld's recent review of the best password managers for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices, helps you create unique and strong passwords as you surf the Web, then keep track of them securely.

With AES 256-bit encryption, local-only decryption, and multifactor authentication, LastPass keeps your data under lock and key, giving you one fewer worry in your digital life.

The full version of the service, which you'll need for mobile-based access, costs $12 a year.

App: LastPass
Developer: Joseph Siegrist
Category: Password Management
Availability: Android | iOS | Web

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Why IBM thinks Windows Phone is best for the enterprise

As BlackBerry fades out, Microsoft's phone is the choice of enterprises to replace it.

The BYOD movement is how Apple got into the enterprise, but if it were up to IT pros, you'd be issued a Windows Phone. That's what IBM has found in its work with large firms.

Jim Szafranski, senior VP of customer platform services at IBM's FIberlink unit, told Redmond Mag that many of its enterprise customers would like to see their employees use Windows Phone for work-related activities because of its tight integration with Microsoft's back-end systems, but he added that WP continues to trail in popularity to that of iPhones and Android devices.

"Actual end user momentum is trailing business interest," Szafranski said. "IT likes Microsoft and likes Windows. They've made a lot of investment in things like Active Directory and Exchange and as a result they have a lot of interest in seeing Windows Phone used by employees. I don't think anyone is going to be all Windows on mobile, but enterprises do want it and I think they have a strong opportunity when it comes to the enterprise side of purchase decisions."

Windows Phone's base remains smaller, at just 3% of the market at the end of Q4 2013, according to IDC. Still, that was a 46% growth over the year prior, but it's still being greatly outpaced by Android and iPhone. Android has ubiquity, iPhone has Apple's cool factor. Windows Phone can't seem to grab either.

IBM recently acquired Fiberlink Communications, maker of the MaaS360 mobile device management platform, and it was the strong IT interest in Windows Phone that made IBM decide to support WP, even with its meager installed base, Szafranski said. The company announced the addition of WP to the MaaS360 product line at the recent Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona and at the IBM Pulse conference in Las Vegas.

The company's MaaS360 Productivity Suite provides secure email, calendaring, contacts and a browser. This lets IT separate personal apps and data from enterprise software and information. Should the need arise, IT can remotely manage or wipe the enterprise side of the phone while leaving the user's personal data and apps untouched.

Windows Phone 8 has some significant enterprise-oriented features, which IBM and its customers have clearly recognized. WP8 supports the United Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) secure boot protocol and advanced app "sandboxing" to isolate apps within the phone. It has hardware-accelerated BitLocker technology to encrypt the entire device, Exchange ActiveSync management, Active Directory and Group Policy features for remote management, and Skype/VoIP integration.

The big question now is whether IBM will take up the flag for WP. It has no dog in this fight since it does not sell handsets. IBM is, for all intents and purposes, a services and software company. Hardware sales are now in the single-digits with the x86 server divestiture. Microsoft couldn't ask for a better ally. A seriously ironic one, given their histories, but a major ally none the less.

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Extensive video of the HTC M8 leaks, HTC gets real mad

Plus, the tidal wave of Flappy Bird clones plaguing the Play Store, news about LG’s own-brand flagship, and persistent rumors of a metal Galaxy S 5 variant.

Strategically leaking information about upcoming smartphones and tablets to the press is a favorite way for manufacturers to create buzz around their products without having to spoil everything in an official reveal. This has been your tech marketing tip of the day, thank you, you've been a lovely audience.

All right, if you must know, I bring this up because a surprisingly lengthy video showing HTC’s upcoming M8 in detail was released by someone apparently named Roshan Jamkatel earlier this week.

A couple of things – no, it’s not Roger Ebert or anything in terms of deep criticism, and this isn’t the original video, because Jamkatel yanked it after HTC senior global online communications manager Jeff Gordon came down the mountain after him on Twitter, saying that Jamkatel “wasn’t going to have a good week,” and responding that HTC had the IMEI of the device after young Roshan tried to claim that it was a fake phone. (Most of the tweets have been deleted, but Wired, among others has screengrabs of the conversation.)

It got weirder from there – Jamkatel asked other users, in vain, not to repost the video, Gordon deleted a bunch of his tweets (citing an ongoing investigation) after others jumped on him for threatening a kid, and there was a suggestion that Jamkatel’s parents were HTC workers and would be fired for his indiscretion. (Another Twitter user suggests that this may not be true.)

As usual, nobody really knows anything, although the thunderous response from a senior HTC exec suggests that the phone in the video is probably genuine. If HTC didn’t leak the phone on purpose, why would they care about a bogus amateur video? And if it’s a choreographed leak, why would they use a fake phone?

Assuming, then, that the M8 in question is the real deal, the video is pretty enlightening. Dual rear-mounted cameras seem to be a go, the hardware buttons along the bottom of the screen are history, an SD card slot has been added. The right-side mounted volume rocker on the HTC One has been retained, but it’s now slightly raised, making it a lot easier to find by touch, and the headphone jack has been moved to the bottom of the device. Like its chief competitor, the Samsung Galaxy S 5, the new HTC flagship looks to be an evolutionary device, not a revolutionary one.

Mobile gaming’s never been an industry with too many scruples about simply copying successful products, but the sheer number of Flappy Bird clones on the Google Play Store is pretty amazing. Infesting the “top free games” section are Clumsy Bird, Splashy Fish, Floppy Bird Pro, and Hoppy Frog, and that’s just at a glance. Moving along, there’s a version featuring the head of rapper Drake called “Tiny Flying Drizzy,” a similar entry called “Flying Miley Cyrus,” 3D Flying Bird, and Jumpy Jack. Believe me when I tell you I could go on.

Seriously, just make it stop. Either that, or somebody please make a version using the art assets from Angry Birds, so that they can get sued so hard by Rovio that a quantum singularity of lazy rip-off artists appears and sucks all the Flappy Bird clones into the next dimension.

The biggest splash that LG has made in the Android market lately has been as the manufacturer of Google’s Nexus 5 and as a competitor in the fascinating and stupid world of curved-screen smartphones.

That may be about to change, however, as BGR reports that the LG G3 is headed for a summer launch date, with the idea of letting the Galaxy S 5 hype die down a little.

According to the report, the G3 will have an impressive 13MP camera that also incorporates optical image stabilization, based on a forum posting that purported to show a photo taken with said camera.

Ever since the iPhone 5 launched in 2012, metal-bodied smartphones have carried a certain cachet. One of the factors that fans of the HTC One cite when comparing it to its rival Galaxy S 4 is the aluminum construction, and there’s a long-standing school of thought that says Samsung’s plastic designs make its phones seem cheap.

Almost as long-standing as that school of thought are the rumors that Samsung is going to break its habits and release a metal Android phone – the latest is a report from GSM Arena that says the Samsung Galaxy F could be being readied for release, citing South Korean news outlets. Little else is known about the purported Galaxy F, but GSM Arena does pass along the tidbit that it could boast a 2560x1600 display. Yikes.

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Why 2014 is the 'year of smart glasses'

Raise your glass to the coming wave of face-top computing gadgets. You'll see: There's something for everybody.

In the technology press, every year is the year of this and the year of that. Much of this kind of prediction is based on expectations or wishful thinking and is essentially meaningless.

But the fact is that more than a dozen smart glass products are expected to ship in the first half of next year, ranging in price from $79 to $3,000.

Oh, and Google Glass will probably ship, too.

The hype around Google Glass has inspired a division of opinion. The people who want Google Glass and smart glasses are probably in the minority, with most people saying: "No way!"
Google glasses project
Google's Glass digital eyewear will likely ship this year. (Image: Google)

They say this because Google Glass looks weird or dorky, they're too expensive or they're thought of as creepy invasions of privacy.

But the wide range of smart glass products coming next year may change a lot of minds. Some of them don't look, function or empty wallets like Google Glass does.

Here's what's happening now and over the next year in the incredible new world of smart glasses.
Google Glass

Thanks to the personal investment of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as well as massive investment by Google, the invitation-only Google Glass product has by far the leading mindshare among all smart glasses competitors.

With a current user based of a several thousand people and a price of $1,500, Google Glass is hardly "mainstream." Still, it gets a lot of press and attention.

Google itself decided that allowing a face-recognition app would be rejected by the public as too "creepy," but a development group called Facial Network unveiled this week a face-recognition app for Google Glass called NameTag. Another app claiming face recognition, called MedRef, became available earlier this year.

Google announce a long list of powerful new Google Glass features recently. For starters, a MyGlass app was published for iOS devices on the Apple App Store. While not quite as full-featured as the Android version, it nevertheless provides connectivity and control options for Glass from an iPhone.

Google also enables Glass users to simply command the playing of any song with a voice command (as long as they have a Google Play Music account). This works nicely with recently announced stereo headphones sold by Google for Glass.

Google rolled out a wink-to-take-a-picture feature. It works even when Glass is in "sleep" mode, but only for the newer Google Glass 2.0 hardware.

Google also unveiled some new "Glassware" -- Google Glass apps -- including an RSS feed reader called Winkfeed and others.

Google Glass gets a lot of press. But don't think Google's is the only "smart" glass. In fact, the category has more than a dozen new entrants.
Epiphany Eyewear

Epiphany Eyewear from Vergence Labs starts at $299 and is mostly for pictures and video. The content is livestreamed to your PC via Wi-Fi or USB. One of the best things about Epiphany is that the headset looks a lot like regular glasses, and they can be fitted in some circumstances with prescription lenses, according to the company. But that comes at a price -- Epiphany has no display, so you can't see what you're filming until later. Vergence says Epiphany Eyewear may ship as early as January.

GlassUp

A company called GlassUp makes $299 glasses that show you, in their Google-like glasses headset via Bluetooth, what's displayed on your smartphone screen. Conceptually, it's just like a Bluetooth earpiece, but for your eye instead of your ear. GlassUp intends to release apps, and has already released an SKD, but these will be smartphone apps that optimize the experience of using a phone while looking at it through the GlassUp glasses. The biggest difference with Google Glass is that GlassUP has no camera, so it will be spared criticism for invading privacy. It's supposed to go on sale in February.
Meta 1

Meta believes that smart glasses can replace smartphones and even laptops in the future. They make glasses that are not only "augmented reality" -- a screen superimposed onto the natural field of view like most smart glasses -- but in 3D via two 1280 x 720-pixel LCD displays, creating the illusion of a hologram. The Meta 1 glasses also have two cameras for capturing 3D images and enabling Kinect-like in-air gestures, and stereo sound. They also have far more powerful electronics (Intel Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM in an included pocket computer which is connected by a physical cable) which enables processing on the headset, rather than relying on a smartphone. They have a powerful price, too: $3,000. Meta 1 glasses are expected to ship to developers only in February, then to the public in June. The company also hopes to have up to 300 apps available by launch.
Oakley Airwave 1.5

Sunglasses maker Oakley is also getting into the smart glasses game. Their $649 Airwave 1.5 product is optimized for use on the slopes while snowboarding or skiing. It gives route maps and current speed, and the battery is designed to withstand the cold. In fact, they're really ski goggles. On the plus side, they're also shipping.
Optinvent ORA-S AR
Optinvent's ORA-S AR smart glasses will sell for $300.
Optinvent ORA-S AR

A company called Optinvent makes Android-based glasses the company claims give you a larger and brighter screen than Google Glass does. The sub-$1,000 product ships to developers in January with a $300 consumer version coming next summer, according to the company. The ORA-S has a comparable list of features to Glass, including support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a microphone, a speaker and a front-facing camera. One cool feature is something called "Flip-Vu," which enables you to position the display above, below or in the middle of your field of view -- or flip up the glass so everyone can see you're not using it.
ION Glasses

ION Glasses are crowd-funded glasses that look like ordinary sunglasses ($99) or prescription glasses ($79 for the frame), but have a blinking light in your peripheral vision and sound to alert you to incoming messages or other events on your smartphone. You can program it with colors so that, for example, a blue light means a Facebook message and a red one means a Google+ notification. It also lets you control a PowerPoint presentation, and will alert you if your smartphone is out of range. The company expects to ship in February.
Recon Jet

Android-based Recon Jet glasses are expected in September but the company will take your $599 now. Unlike Google Glass, Recon shows you the screen at the bottom of your vision. It's got an HD video camera and microphone and pairs with your smartphone. Recon Jet is optimized for sports, and an early app tracks speed and other data useful for athletics. The company offers an SDK for developers.

Vuzix M100

Vuzix's smart glasses have an important feature that Google does not offer: It's shipping now to consumers -- sort of. For about $999, Vuzix will sell you its M100 glasses. (They're backlogged, though, so expect a few weeks for delivery.) The M100 runs Android, and offers a 5MP camera, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support, a speaker and microphone and many of the other features found in Google Glass.
Atheer Glasses

Another crowd-funded project from a Silicon Valley-based company called Atheer is expected to result in relatively low-cost 3D smart glasses, one costing $850 for developers and shipping in a few months, and another priced at $350 for consumers and expected to ship "late next year." Atheer has two screens for 3D input and two cameras for in-air gesture control.
Technical Illusions CastAR

Technical Illusions' CastAR augmented reality glasses use two screens to create 3D views of data and objects. It's especially optimized for gaming where the virtual objects look like they exist as holograms in the real world. Unusually, the company uses RFID tracking to interact with physical gaming objects. The company is in its early stages, and raised $1.5 million on Kickstarter. Their web site says they intend to ship to consumers "sometime in 2014."
Icis

Icis "smartspecks" are designed to look and work like regular glasses (in three styles and they fit prescription lenses), but they connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth. They're optimized for social network notifications and turn-by-turn directions, taking pictures and video and more. The pre-beta product is expected in "mid-2014" for $400 a pair.
Lumus DK-40

Lumus has been in the heads-up display business for years (mostly for the military). Now the company is getting into the consumer smart glasses racket. Lumus DK-40 smart glasses, which run Android, are expected to debut with an SDK at CES next month but won't ship to developers until the end of the first quarter. They're also seeking out OEMs to manufacture them.
And more

Tech giants Microsoft, Apple, Sony, Baidu and Samsung are rumored to be working on smart glass headsets, too. If these rumored products come to fruition they may not ship in 2014.

I'm not big on "The Year Of" proclamations. But I do know that a whole lot of companies intend to ship a whole lot of smart glass products in 2014. The range of prices and features are very broad, with some models priced competitively with "dumb" glasses and sunglasses.

I think that many of the smart glasses naysayers are going to be tempted by some of these new products. After all, if smart glasses look like regular glasses and are priced like regular glasses, why not get a pair?

It's going to be a tempting year.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

Galaxy Note 3 deep-dive review: A plus-sized phone with perks and quirks

Samsung's new big-screen phone has a lot of great qualities, but a handful of issues keep it from reaching its full potential. So is it the Android device for you?

Citizens of the smartphone-using world, hear this: When it comes to what you carry in your pocket, size definitely matters.

Just look at Samsung's new Galaxy Note 3. The device is the latest in a line that brought big back into style -- and now, plus-sized phones are a category all their own.

Lucky for Samsung, size isn't the only thing that sets the Note 3 apart. The phone's S Pen stylus opens the door to some interesting and innovative ways of interacting with a smartphone -- and this latest model offers some meaningful improvements over its predecessors in both form and functionality.

While the phone has plenty of attractive qualities, though, it also has some noteworthy downsides. So all considered, is it a phone worth buying?
Galaxy Note 3
Galaxy Note 3

I've been living with the U.S. model of the Note 3 for several days to find out. Read on to see what the new Note is actually like to use in the real world -- and whether or not it's the right device for you.

(The Galaxy Note 3 is available now on AT&T for $300 with a new two-year contract, Sprint for $250 with a new two-year contract, and T-Mobile for $0 down and a two-year $29.50/mo. payment plan. It'll be available on Verizon starting October 10 for $300 on contract. U.S. Cellular has said it will sell the phone sometime in October as well but has yet to announce any specific pricing or availability details.)
Body and screen

It may seem obvious, but it has to be mentioned: The Note 3 is a large device. Like, really large.

At 5.95 x 3.12 x 0.33 in. and 5.93 oz., the new Note is significantly bigger than any standard-sized smartphone. As such, it's not going to be for everyone: The device can be rather uncomfortable to hold in one hand and even more awkward to hold up to your ear for a call. Depending on your gender and pant preferences, it'll range from being uncomfortable to carry in your pocket to impossible to fit in it at all.

That's not by any means to say it's an outright bad form; these days, plenty of people prefer a plus-sized device that's able to provide the benefits of a smartphone and the screen space of a tablet. I'd simply suggest stopping by a brick-and-mortar store and holding one for yourself to see how it feels to you.

For owners of past-generation Galaxy Note devices, the Note 3 certainly won't seem outrageous; in fact, it's pretty darn close to the same size as last year's model. And thanks to slimmed down bezels, it packs a beefed-up 5.7-in. display, up from the 5.5-in. screen on the Galaxy Note 2.

At about 386 pixels per inch, the Note 3's 1080p Super AMOLED display looks fantastic: Details are sharp and colors appear rich and brilliant. Display aficionados may note that the display looks somewhat oversaturated -- as Samsung devices often do -- but for the vast majority of smartphone users, this thing's gonna be a treat for the eyes.

AMOLED screens in general tend to suffer in sunlight more than their LCD counterparts, but Samsung has made some significant strides with the Note 3's display: Thanks in part to ramped-up brightness capacity, the Note 3's screen remains perfectly viewable even in the glariest of conditions. To my eyes, it doesn't quite match the outstanding outdoor visibility of a top-of-the-line LCD-packing phone like the HTC One, but it's not at all bad and marks a massive leap forward from past Samsung products.

The Galaxy Note 3 has a silver plastic trim that's made to look like metal around its perimeter. A volume rocker lives on the left side, while a power button sits on the right. On the phone's top is a 3.5mm headphone jack and on the bottom is a special USB 3.0 charging port that doubles as an HDMI out-port with the use of an MHL adapter.

The inclusion of USB 3.0 is a nice touch: The phone charges ridiculously fast when you use the included USB 3.0 cable and wall adapter, and the port can provide extra-speedy data transfers if your computer supports USB 3.0. The Note works with regular micro-USB cables, too -- you just plug them into the right side of the port -- though you obviously won't get the faster charging and data-transfer speeds when you go that route.

The Note 3 has one small speaker on its bottom edge, to the right of the charging port. The sound quality is decently loud and clear by smartphone standards, though nothing to write home about.

Next to the speaker is the slot for the phone's S Pen stylus -- a highlight of the device that I'll get to in a minute.

Design and build quality

First, let's talk design, shall we? Samsung has long suffered the wrath of many a reviewer (myself included) for its cheap-feeling plasticky constructions. With the Note 3, the company is clearly trying to step things up and provide a phone with a more premium body.

In some regards, it's succeeded: The Note 3 ditches Samsung's long-favored glossy plastic back for one with a textured faux-leather finish. The material feels softer and more pleasant to the touch and has a less toy-like (and fingerprint smudge-attracting) appearance than what I'm used to from Samsung. It's still a bit on the chintzy side -- thanks mainly to the somewhat tacky fake stitching around the panel's perimeter -- but it's definitely an improvement over past Samsung products.

That said, it's all relative, and the Note 3 still feels less thoughtfully designed than devices like the HTC One or the Moto X. When I peeled off the phone's thin back panel, for instance, the covering for the camera lens popped right out. I had to futz around with it to get it back in place, bending its flimsy-feeling metal support legs to force it to stay attached before putting the cover back on.
Galaxy Note 3
When the reviewer peeled off the phone's thin back panel, the covering for the camera lens popped right out.

The phone's physical Home button, meanwhile, is slightly loose and subtly shifts around with each pressing, often looking crooked as a result (something other early users have also noticed). These kinds of things just don't scream "premium build" to me.

Speaking of buttons, the Note 3 uses the same odd and dated hybrid button setup Samsung has long clung onto, with a physical Home button flanked by capacitive Menu and Back buttons (the former of which was phased out of the Android platform years ago). This design choice results in some meaningful downsides when it comes to user experience, ranging from hidden and hard-to-find options to an awkward contrast in button sensitivity, especially when using the S Pen.

The setup also forces an almost comical number of inelegant workarounds. You long-press the Home button to get to the Android app-switching tool, for example, and double-press it to get to Samsung's S Voice voice-control utility. You long-press the Menu button to load Samsung's S Finder search app and long-press the Back button to load Samsung's own Multi Window multitasking tool. A single press of the Home button, meanwhile, will usually take you to your home screen -- except if you're already on your main home screen, in which case the same action will pull up the Note's integrated news-viewing application.

Got all that? Yeah -- me neither. It's not exactly what you'd describe as user-friendly design.
Under the hood

The Galaxy Note 3 runs on a 2.3GHz Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor along with 3GB of RAM. That kind of horsepower should result in flawless performance, but -- as we've seen with other recent Samsung devices -- the Note 3 suffers from some baffling performance imperfections.

For most tasks, the phone is plenty fast: App loading and multitasking are generally fine, and Web browsing is satisfyingly smooth and swift. But the phone has occasional lags and jitteriness, and just doesn't feel as snappy as other devices in real-world use.

The worst offender is the Note's Gallery app: I regularly counted five to 12 seconds from the time I tapped the app until it was fully opened and ready to use. The same sort of delay was present when tapping folders within the Gallery. Given the phone's hardware capabilities, this is a pretty clear indication to me that Samsung's software is doing something wrong.

The Note 3 does perform admirably in the realm of battery life: The phone's 3200mAh battery -- which, in a move that'll delight hardcore power-drainers, is removable and replaceable -- always managed get me safely from morning to night. Even on days when I had moderate to heavy use -- as much as four hours of screen-on time with half an hour of phone calls, half an hour of video streaming, and a few hours of scattered Web browsing, camera use and social media activity -- the Note 3 consistently had around 30% of its charge left by bedtime.

All U.S. models of the Galaxy Note 3 ship with 32GB of internal storage, which leaves you with about 23GB of usable space once you factor in the operating system and various preinstalled software. The phone also has a microSD card slot that lets you add up to 64GB of external storage.

The Note 3 supports near-field communication (NFC) for contact-free payments and data transfers. It also has an IR blaster for controlling your TV and other remote-based electronics. The Note doesn't support wireless charging, though it appears Samsung will sell a separate Qi-enabled case that'll provide that functionality.

While the Galaxy Note has full LTE support, the model I tested was connected to Sprint's network -- which has pretty spotty coverage in my area -- so data speeds weren't great for me. Voice calls sounded fine, though; I was able to hear people with zero distortion and the lucky souls with whom I spoke reported being able to hear me A-OK.

Cameras

The Galaxy Note 3 comes with a 13-megapixel main camera that's capable of capturing great-looking images. I did notice a fair amount of noise in some shots that were zoomed in at full resolution, but for most common uses of smartphone photos -- like online sharing and standard-size printing -- the Note 3's camera should more than meet your needs.

The exception is in low-light conditions, where the Note 3 -- like most smartphones -- struggles, especially compared to a low-light-optimized device like the HTC One.

The Note 3's camera interface is easy enough to use, if a little bloated with silly and gimmicky features. All in all, it's quite similar to what we saw on the Galaxy S4.

There are, however, a few Note 3-specific camera qualities worth noting:

The Note often seems to stick on a "Processing" message for a few seconds after capturing a photo. This can be annoying when you're trying to capture photos fast.

The phone's "burst" mode, in which you can capture multiple shots rapid-fire by holding down the shutter button, was also a bit finicky in my experience and sometimes wouldn't activate.

The Note 3 has a new camera mode called Surround Shot, which is Samsung's version of Google's 360-degree Photo Sphere feature. This was a curious omission in the Galaxy S4; it's nice to see it showing up here.

The Note 3 is capable of capturing 4K resolution videos, but since most people don't have TVs or displays that support that resolution, the capability probably won't mean much for you in practical terms at this point -- aside from getting files that take up a massive amount of space on your smartphone's storage.

The Galaxy Note 3 also has a 2-megapixel HD front-facing camera for all your selfie-snapping and video-chatting needs.
The S Pen

Even if you're convinced you'd never want a stylus, a few days with the Galaxy Note 3 might just change your mind. The phone's S Pen is a fun and potentially productivity-boosting element of the device that goes a long way in setting it apart from the competition.

The pen's actual construction, not surprisingly, isn't its greatest strength: The stylus is plastic and feels light and insubstantial, almost to the point where you fear that squeezing it too hard might cause it to snap. Its single button is also hard to find by touch alone, since the pen feels the same on its top and bottom edge.

But once you get used to its form, the S Pen is packed with power. Pull the pen out of the Note 3 and you'll immediately see a new pie-chart-style menu called Air Command on your screen; this new element helps make the stylus feel more like a core part of the Note experience than it ever has before.
Galaxy Note 3
The Air Command menu gives you easy access to a handful of primary S Pen functions.

The Air Command menu -- which you can also summon anytime by clicking the pen's button while holding it over the screen -- gives you easy access to a handful of primary S Pen functions. The most useful is Action Memo, which lets you jot down quick notes with the pen. You can either save them for later reference or convert them into action-oriented tasks, like shooting a handwritten phone number into the Phone app for dialing or converting a handwritten note into a ready-to-send email.

What's vexing, though, is that Action Memo is treated as a separate entity from S Note -- the more fully featured note-taking app for S Pen use. Notes written in Action Memo are not accessible in S Note; instead, they're saved in a separate area that's accessible only by tapping an unlabeled icon in the Action Memo app.

Confusing overlap aside, the separation between the two apps is frustrating because S Note offers the option for automated syncing with Evernote, which makes all of your handwritten notes available and searchable from any mobile device or PC. The syncing has been seamless and instant in my experience, but any notes taken in Action Memo -- which, remember, pops up as part of the Air Command menu while S Note does not -- aren't included.


The Note 3 itself does a good job of letting you search through handwritten notes on the device with its S Keeper function. I also really like its system-wide handwriting-to-text functionality: Anytime you're in a text field, you can hover the pen over the screen and tap a special icon to input text by writing. The Note converts your handwriting into regular text and puts it right into your document, email or whatever you're composing.

Even with my embarrassingly sloppy penmanship, the system did an impressively good job at deciphering (most of) my words. Particularly with longer messages, I often found it quicker to input text like that than by using a traditional on-screen keyboard.
Galaxy Note 3
Action Memo lets you jot down quick notes with the pen.

Unfortunately, the handwriting-to-text functionality doesn't work everywhere, as it's supposed to; I encountered a handful of apps, including Chrome, Twitter and Google Drive, where I couldn't get the handwriting-input icon to show up. That inconsistency was irksome.

While some of the other S Pen functions struck me as more gimmicky than practical, the stylus also holds serious value for artists or anyone who wants to sketch or scribble on the go. The Note 3 ships with a version of Autodesk's Sketchbook software that shows off the pen's excellent accuracy and pressure sensitivity. And while the bundled Polaris Office app does a poor job at stylus-based PDF markup, programs such as RepliGo PDF Reader ($3) or the fully featured OfficeSuite Pro ($15) work well with the pen for that purpose.

Last but not least, Samsung has included a smart feature called S Pen Keeper that sounds an alert on the device anytime it's separated from the stylus by a certain distance. It kept me from leaving the pen behind on a couple of occasions; you just have to be sure to head into the phone's settings and enable it right away, as it's deactivated by default.
The software

The Galaxy Note 3 runs custom Samsung TouchWiz software based on the Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) operating system. Aside from the aforementioned S Pen elements, it's essentially the same user interface and feature set present in the Galaxy S4.

There are, however, a handful of new features in the Note 3's software:

Samsung's Multi Window multitasking feature has a few new tricks up its sleeves. The feature -- which lets you split your phone's screen in half and have two apps open and visible at the same time -- now allows you to drag and drop content between windows. With certain programs, like chat services, it also lets you have two instances of the same app open side-by-side.

With the Note 3's large screen in particular, I found Multi Window to be both cool and useful for times when I wanted to write an email while referencing a Web page, for instance, or look something up in Chrome while watching a YouTube video. Even if you only use it once in a while, it's a valuable option to have.

The Note 3's new news-viewing tool, My Magazine, is unnecessary and annoying. It's basically just a custom-branded and dumbed-down version of Flipboard, and it's integrated into the Note at such a core system level that it's hard to avoid and easy to launch by mistake.

Excellent Google services take a back seat to subpar Samsung alternatives on the Note 3, even more so than on past Samsung devices. The Note 3 has system-wide access to the shoddy S Voice app, for instance, but not the far superior native Android Voice Search tool. And there's no longer a system-wide shortcut to get to the frequently praised Google Now intelligent assistant.

From a corporate-goal perspective, it's not difficult to understand Samsung's motivation in promoting its own services over Google's -- but from a user-experience perspective, given the sharp drop in quality, it's disappointing.
At a Glance
Galaxy Note 3
Samsung
Price: $300 at AT&T, $250 at Sprint, $300 at Verizon Wireless (starting October 10) with a new two-year contract; T-Mobile for $0 down and a two-year $29.50/mo. payment plan; U.S. Cellular sometime in October (no price yet available)
Pros: Excellent display; USB 3.0 for fast charging and data transfers; microSD slot for storage expansion; good battery life; superb pressure-sensitive stylus with accurate handwriting-to-text functionality
Cons: Hardware design feels cheaper and less premium than other smartphones; dated button configuration; inconsistent performance with occasional stutters and delays; bloated user interface; sporadic software errors

I've encountered semi-regular software glitches while using Samsung's S Pen apps and functions -- usually several seconds of black followed by a force-close error. This kind of thing absolutely shouldn't happen with native software on a new phone. I can only hope Samsung addresses these issues with an over-the-air update soon.

I'm not going to spend much time talking about the Note 3's user interface, since it's largely unchanged from the Galaxy S4, but I will say this: You're getting Samsung's standard mishmash of clashing colors and inconsistent elements. You can, at least, cover up some of those sins with a custom Android launcher such as Nova Launcher, Apex Launcher or Action Launcher Pro. I tested the Note with each of those apps, and all the S Pen-specific enhancements -- and even general Samsung-added software features like Multi Window -- were accessible and worked fine in the third-party environments.
Bottom line

The Galaxy Note 3 is a standout device with plenty of perks. It has a large, gorgeous screen, fast USB 3.0 charging and data transfers, and a microSD slot for storage expansion. It also has a superb stylus that's full of interesting potential for productivity and creativity alike.

The Note is held back, though, by some troubling issues. Despite improvements over past models, the phone still feels cheaper and less premium than competing products; its dated button configuration creates awkward usage scenarios that detract from the user experience; its performance is imperfect and its software is bloated and visually inconsistent.

Still, the Note 3 has a lot of good things going for it. If you want a plus-sized phone, the new Note is hands-down the best product you can buy today. And if the functionality of a stylus appeals to you, you'll be absolutely thrilled with what the S Pen can do.

Just be sure you're okay with the compromises those benefits require.

---

Best Microsoft MCTS Certification,
Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com