Apple's HomeKit Requires Apple TV to Use Siri Remotely

Well, that's one way to push adoption of the Apple TV. If you've been reading all sorts of interesting things about Apple's HomeKit platform, and have caught yourself dreaming about having your little not-quite-an-A.I. friend Siri control the various devices around your home on your behalf, you might want to set aside a little extra money for an Apple TV. Yes, an Apple TV. It's not going to be a required element for you to access your HomeKit devices most of the time, but it will be required if you want to be able to tell Siri what to do when you're away from your home.

We realize that's a pretty specific use case, so it might be a bit overkill to condemn early versions of HomeKit just yet for the requirement. However, numerous reports from those who spoke with HomeKit partners and device manufacturers at this year's Consumer Electronics Show all said the same thing: If you want to use Siri to control your home devices when you aren't at home, you'll need an Apple TV (of all things) to do it.

However, that's the only instance right now where you'll need extra Apple hardware to do things with your HomeKit-enabled devices. Otherwise, if you're at the airport, you can still access your HomeKit devices using a related app. And you can use Siri to control your HomeKit devices when you're inside your home. So long as you're on your home's Wi-Fi network, which your various other smart devices are likely also connected to in some capacity, Siri will work just fine sans Apple TV.

And, no, you can't run an oldschool Apple TV, either. The device has to be at least Apple's most recent, third-generation Apple TV in order for the remote-Siri bit to work out. And, of course, the Apple TV has to be running at least version 7.0 of its software—the update that officially added support for HomeKit to the device.

As you might expect, Apple hasn't offered up any comment regarding the HomeKit, Siri, and Apple TV connection. And few Homekit partners or manufacturers seemed willing to talk about it either, when asked. Expect to see the first HomeKit devices launch during the first quarter of this year—perhaps Apple will figure out a new way to tackle remote Siri commands if enough users complain about the extra Apple TV add-on.

4K HDTVs Will (Finally) Arrive in 2015

If it's rectangular, glows, and has a moving picture on it, it's going to be at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week. Las Vegas is again hosting the biggest trade show for home entertainment devices, which will offer us a glimpse into the future of HDTVs.

Specifically, be on the lookout for the finally-here future of ultra-high-definition televisions (UHD or 4K). HDTVs are well-established and commonplace, and most users are accustomed to 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. Well, 2015 could be the year a good number of us finally quadruple that resolution (hence the "4K" designation) to 3,840 by 2,160.

4K televisions have been around for a few years, but they haven't quite clicked with most consumers for two reasons. First, they have been much more expensive than 1080p televisions. Second, there simply hasn't been much content available in 4K. HDTV manufacturers have been steadily chipping away at the first problem, and streaming media services are working hard to fix the second.

You'll still have to pay a premium for 4K next year, but expect that price to stabilize around $2,000 to $3,000 for big screens from major manufacturers, and a few to even squeak into the $1,500 to $2,000 range. With more companies making more 4K panels in more sizes, the technology has steadily become more affordable across the board. It's no longer just a small handful of display manufacturers carefully rolling a few UHD panels off of freshly built and configured assembly lines. Every major HDTV brand either already has 4K televisions in their lineup or will announce them at CES, and in either case case they'll be showing off new and more affordable 4K screens at the show.

Streaming Is the Future
That leaves the problem of 4K content (or lack thereof). We need a reason to invest in 4K, even if that investment is becoming more affordable. Sony and Samsung have tried offering their own proprietary sources of 4K movies and shows (Sony's UHD 4K streaming player and Samsung's hard drive full of 4K movies), but we haven't seen a physical media format to actually let us buy and play higher-resolution content.
We probably still won't at CES 2015. That's where YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Vudu, and other streaming-video services come in. YouTube has supported 4K content for over a year, Netflix began streaming some shows in 4K earlier this year, and Amazon Instant Video started offering 4K programming just last month. Expect that trend to continue not just with those three, but with other major streaming services, too.

Beyond 4K
4K is the forseeable future for HDTVs, but expect new numbers followed by K to be peppered through CES. Some manufacturers will show 8K or higher resolution HDTVs, but these aren't displays you need to worry about for the next few years. 4K hasn't really made its mark, and higher-resolution televisions are proofs of concept designed to show off what the future will be like. They can carefully build the panels to demonstrate at CES, but don't expect any of them to see retail release until at least 2017. And they won't be affordable until at least 2020.

Not Just 4K
Besides 4K, expect a continued push for curved displays as an alternative to flat panels. Curved screens are certainly eye-catching, but we're still not sold on them being worth the premium they currently demand. With 4K becoming more prominent among consumers, curved screens might see less emphasis this year than last year since the higher resolution is a more compelling feature for users. At the very least, though, Samsung will keep pitching curved HDTVs.
More importantly, we'll see new OLED displays come out. With plasma now officially dead, OLED is stepping in to become the future of high-end HDTVs. The new technology (which is not remotely like regular LED-lit LCD technology, despite the similar name) can offer perfect blacks and excellent colors in thinner panels than the LCDs now used in nearly all HDTVs on the market. Keep an eye out for new, bigger, and more affordable (at least, some combination of those three) OLED HDTVs for 2015.

Montblanc Makes Mechanical Watches Smarter With New e-Strap Band

Here's a dilemma: You're a big fan of the look, feel, and design of super-expensive mechanical watches, but you're also a bit intrigued by all the potential of the new smartwatch era. You previously plunked down thousands for a super-fancy watch, however, which makes you a bit less interested in buying yet another wrist adornment that will cut into the amount of time you can show off your main piece.

Montblanc, maker of expensive fancy mechanical watches, hopes to have found an issue for your dilemma. The company has announced a brand-new "e-Strap band" that keeps your watch's face all mechanical, pristine, and sexy, while packing all the electronic fun bits into the watch's actual strap. Would one call this a hybrid watch, in that case?

Suffice, the leather strap—with a "carbon fiber texture," as A Blog to Watch describes—comes with a little electronic module at the bottom that you can get in either coated steel or gray steel. Yes, you can customize the band itself a bit.

The little module has a small 128x36-pixel OLED screen on it, which you can use to view notifications whenever you flip your wrist around. The module also pairs with a related smartphone app which gives you more access to said notifications as well as a built-in activity tracker. The e-Strap band tracks your footsteps via a built-in accelerometer, but that's it; don't expect any fancy pulse rate measurement or other health-themed items from Montblanc's band.

Said e-Strap will come packaged with a few of Montblanc's Timewalker Urban Speed watches, but you can also purchase it separately. It'll be compatible with any other 42mm- or 45mm-wide Timewalker watch and, as A Blog to Watch notes, it'll probably work with any other watch with a similar lug-to-lug size. It is, after all, just a band—a smarter band, but a band nevertheless. It's also a band that retails for 250 Euros or so, which is more than the cost of most simple smartwatches it's designed to imitate.

Android Lollipop Benchmarked: Faster Than 4.4

Call it the state of the ART. With two Google Nexus 5 phones at PCMag, we were finally able to benchmark an Android 4.4 device with the older Dalvik runtime against Android 5.0 Lollipop's new ART runtime, and we found a bit of a difference.

Android 4.4 introduced ART, but it was hidden behind a panel of developer settings. Lollipop makes it mandatory. As Jason Snell (not that Jason Snell) recounts at New Relic, the ART runtime compiles applications when they're installed, as opposed to on each run. That makes execution dramatically faster. Snell found application performance sometimes tripled. We didn't find results that dramatic on our various benchmark tests, but we did see a bit of a performance boost:

Google has done a good job of filtering Material Design and new features down to Android 4.4; the new calendar, maps, and Chrome 39 are all available to earlier versions of Android. So browser improvements in Chrome 39, as you can see from the Browsermark score above, carry over to both 4.4 and 5.0 devices.

RAM, graphics, and database I/O scores all stayed almost exactly the same from Android 4.4 to Android 5.0. But apps will probably launch more quickly and run more smoothly because of that boosted compilation speed.

This all comes at a cost, though. Adobe confirmed that its Air software isn't yet compatible with Android 5.0, affecting a slew of third-party apps built with Air. The site AndroidPit has a list of other current Lollipop bugs.

We still think Lollipop is a huge step forward for Android users, and you should look forward to when it arrives on your device. Read our full review for more details.

Find Missing Phone, Keys With Motorola Keylink

Lose your keys? If so, Motorola is hoping to save you the trouble of searching with the Motorola Keylink.

The tiny little device attaches to your keychain and pairs up to the Motorola Connect app for iOS or Android. If you lose your keys, you can use the app to trigger the Bluetooth-enabled Keylink, which will emit a ring so long as your keys are within 100 feet or so of your smartphone.

Another fun trick: If you happen to lose your phone, but have your keys, you can also press a button on the Keylink to make your phone ring. And that's not all.

"If you own a [second-gen] Moto X (video below) Droid Turbo (slideshow above) or a phone running Android 5.0 Lollipop, you can use your trusted device settings to enable the added ability to keep your phone unlocked when your keys are nearby. This way you don't have to enter your password to use it. Just enable trusted devices by going into settings and then security," Motorola said.

The Keylink's battery isn't anything fancy, just a standard coin cell battery available in most stores. With it, the Keylink will remain active for just around one year. Motorola and T-Mobile are currently selling the KeyLink for $25, and it'll work with any Android phone running version 4.3 of the OS or later (Jelly Bean) and any iPhone running iOS 7.1 or later.

And, yes, the Keylink can even "get a little wet," as Motorola describes.

Turn your Android device into a Wi-Fi extender

It’s frustrating when a Wi-Fi signal is nearby, but it’s just out of reach. Maybe your router doesn’t cover the whole of your home, or you want to surf in your garden. Whatever the reason, if your Wi-Fi isn’t stretching as far as you’d like, you can extend its reach by using your Android device as a Wi-Fi repeater, also known as a Wi-Fi extender. This is where your Android device picks up your Wi-Fi signal, and repeats this signal, so your Wi-Fi is extended over a greater distance. You can then tap into this repeated signal, via another device such as

your PC.

This trick does require a rooted device, but if your smartphone or tablet isn’t rooted, you still have some options for getting online when you’re struggling to find a reliable Wi-Fi signal. One option is using your Android device as a portable hotspot, a process known as tethering. Tethering lets you share your Android’s data connection wirelessly with other devices. Alternatively, you can use a USB cable to tether your device. Be aware that your carrier may charge a fee for using your device’s hotspot feature, so always check your contract.

This tutorial shows you how to use your Android device as a Wi-Fi extender, before sharing a few tricks for getting online, even if you don’t have a rooted device.

For more expert tutorials, make sure you pick up the new issue of Android Magazine.

1. 

   Download fqrouter2

   fqrouter2 is an application that makes it easy to turn your Android device into a Wi-Fi extender. Download fqrouter2 from the Google Play store, and then launch the app on your device. If fqrouter2 prompts you to update to a newer version, follow the instructions to ensure you’re running the right version.
2. 

   Enable Wifi Repeater

   Check your device’s Wi-Fi is on and connected. Then, launch the fqrouter2 app, and scroll down to the Wifi Repeater section. Tap the Off slider, and wait a few seconds until the slider turns green and displays the On label. Your device is now repeating your Wi-Fi signal.
3. 

   Customise your signal

   You can customise your repeated signal, by tapping the Config button. Next, enter a new name for your signal and change the password you use to access it. Once you’re happy with your changes, tap Save. You’re now ready to start using this repeated signal!
4. 

   Test your signal

   Put your Wi-Fi extender to the test by using a second device to perform a search for nearby Wi-Fi. You should spot the signal that’s being repeated by your Android smartphone or tablet. Connect to this repeated signal, and check that the internet is now available on your second device.
5. 

   Wi-Fi hotspots

   If your device isn’t rooted, you can still turn it into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot, and then share its connection with other devices. Make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi, then open its Settings, tap More followed by Tethering & portable hotspot. Finally, give Portable Wi-Fi hotspot a tap.
6. 

   Customise your portable hotspot

   After creating your hotspot, customise it by scrolling down and selecting Set up Wi-Fi hotspot. Now you can change your signal’s name and create a password. If you haven’t already, check your carrier’s policy, to see whether tethering incurs any additional charges.
7. 

   USB tethering

   You can also tether your Android device via USB. ClockworkMod Tether is a free app that can be downloaded from the Play store, and doesn’t require root. Download the app, and then install and unzip the accompanying tether software on your computer, using the links in the app’s Play listing.
8. 

   Connect up your device

   Connect your Android device to your computer using its USB cable. Make sure your device is either connected to Wi-Fi, or its mobile internet is switched on. On your computer, launch the Tether software and grant it any permissions it requires to run.
9. 

   Start tethering

   Once the Tether program has loaded, click Start. When you see a ‘Tether has connected’ message, you’re ready to access the internet on your computer, using the signal from your Android device. You can use Tether for 14 days without limits, after which you’re restricted to 20MB a day.
10. 

    Troubleshooting

    If you’re a Windows user, you’ll need to install the drivers for your smartphone, before it can connect to your PC, so head over to www.clockworkmod.com/tether/drivers. If you’re encountering slow speeds with Tether, make sure your Android device is the only thing plugged into your PC’s USB ports.

Lenovo Set to Close $2.1B IBM Server Deal

Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's x86 server business is expected to close on Wednesday, for a price below the $2.3 billion announced early this year.

The purchase will be complete on Oct. 1 for $2.1 billion, based on a change to the valuation of inventory and deferred revenue liability, a Lenovo spokesman confirmed to PCMag.

As announced in January, the computer maker will take control of IBM's System X business, BladeCenter and Flex System blade servers and switches, x96-based Flex integrated systems, NeXtScale and iDataPlex servers and associated software, blade networking, and maintenance operations.

IBM, however, will retain its System z mainframes, Power Systems, Storage Systems, Power-based Flex servers, and PureApplication and PureData appliances.

"With the close of the x86 acquisition, Lenovo will add a world-class business that extends our capabilities in enterprise hardware and services, immediately making us a strong number three in the global server market," CEO Yang Yuanqing said in a statement.

The tech giants have a long-standing relationship, bolstered by Lenovo's 2005 acquisition of IBM's PC client business, which included the ThinkPad computer lineup. They will continue to work together, as IBM keeps a hand in the development of its Windows and Linux software portfolio for the x86 platform.

IBM, meanwhile, is making a renewed push to promote its own Power processor architecture by opening it to licensing and forming the OpenPower Consortium. IBM also recently announced the licensing of its ARM architecture for the development of customized networking equipment.

About 7,500 IBM employees around the globe are expected to join Lenovo.

"Lenovo has big plans for the enterprise market," said Gerry Smith, executive vice president of Lenovo Group. "Over time, we will compete vigorously across every sector, using our manufacturing scale and operational excellence to repeat the success we have had with PCs."

Lenovo is also awaiting the close of its deal to acquire Google's Motorola Mobility.

For more, check out PCMag's slideshow above featuring eight acquisitions that changed the face of computing—including Lenovo's purchase of IBM's PC business.