Article

Sony Vaio Tap 20 Review – Watch CNET’s Video Review

My Comments

We have seen the desktop-replacement laptops with the 17” displays as the pinnacle of the laptop computer class but Sony has introduced a new computer device class that bridges two other computer classes. This is part of an increased run of touch-enabled computers that take advantage of the Windows 8 touch shell.

This computer, known as the VAIO Tap 20 is a bridge between the tablet computer and the all-in-one desktop computer of the ilk of the VAIO J Series that I reviewed. Here, it is a Windows 8 tablet with the multi-touch user interface, but it can rest on a stand which links to a keyboard and mouse for regular all-in-one use.

It has 4Gb RAM and 750Gb on the hard disk but doesn’t have an integrated optical drive or HDMI video input. The screen comes in at 20” with a 1600×900 resolution while it is powered by an Intel i5 third-generation processor.

The CNET article still found this computer to have what they considered as dubious performance abilities of the all-in-one class and they found that, although it runs the Windows 8 operating system and has the NFC abilities, it is not worth the money. This is although the HP Z1 Workstation and the Malmgear Alpha 24 Super are showing up as highly-capable all-in-one computers that can handle advanced graphics for work and play.

But what I see of this is that it could be a proving ground for this computer class as more of the all-in-one computers come on the market in response to Windows 8. This is in the form a a large tablet computer which can work as a desk-based computer. Once Sony or someone else issue a “follow-up” model that has the better specifications and features, this could be a chance to legitimise the “all-in-one” tablet hybrid computer as a credible computing device.

Introduction

You may have just bought your first smartphone or tablet computer and are starting to browse around the iTunes App Store or Google Play app store using your device.

At this point, you may hear from your teenage son, other family members, friends or workplace colleagues about what apps to start off with as you get in to the world of the mobile-computing platform. In some cases, your teenage son who has that ultra-cool iPhone that is full of apps to impress others with, grabs your phone, asks for your platform username and password and starts filling your phone or tablet up with various apps.

It is also worth exploring the app store for those apps that are essential to your profession or hobby so you can make your mobile device earn its keep in your work and leisure life.

Communications

One main app class that suits the mobile computing platform very much are the communications apps. These encompass the social-network apps as well as other chat, VoIP and messaging apps.

They work best with the smartphone but some of the apps can be used with most tablets in a speakerphone form. But if you want privacy or better call quality, you would need to use a wired or Bluetooth headset.

Social Networking

(Smartphones, Tablets)

Facebook for Android

If you have presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networks, you can have your experience with these social networks extended to your smartphone or tablet.

This is typically provided for in the form of platform-native mobile apps that you use to interact with the social network. Most of these apps are written by the social-network but some are written by third parties, typically as multi-social-network amalgamation tools.

The ones written by the social network are primarily a mobile user interface for most tasks that you do with this service such as browsing activity, adding posts or uploading photos. Some social networks such as Facebook and Google+ also write “messaging” apps that work primarily on the messaging and presence functions that the social network offers.

Chat, Messaging and VoIP

(Smartphones, Tablets)

Skype for Android

This leads me to apps that work as front-ends for various chat, messaging, presence and VoIP subsystems. Examples of these include Skype, Viber and various SIP user interfaces or softphones; or even gateways to Yahoo Messenger or Windows Live Messenger.

These apps provide a touch-friendly view for writing messages or engaging in VoIP / chat sessions. If the communications subsystem has the ability to know whether one is online or offline, there is the ability to look at a glance to see who is online at a given moment.

Banking and Finance

(Smartphones, Tablets)

If you use Internet banking services regularly, an Internet banking app would be a good idea for your phone. Most of these apps are Web links to the bank’s mobile site but an increasing amount the apps are client-side apps which run on your phone and link to online banking APIs that are used as part of your bank’s Internet-banking setup.

Similarly if you maintain a share (stock) portfolio, you may want to install a stockmarket app so you can see the state of your shares. Some of these apps may allow you to buy or sell the shares or submit orders to your stockbroker.

Entertainment

Internet radio and music

(Smartphones, Tablets)

TuneIn Radio for Android

Most subscription Internet-media services like Pandora have a mobile app for them so you can benefit from your media subscription through your smartphone or tablet. As well, the TuneIn Internet radio app allows you to have the same kind of access to Internet radio stations such as your favourite local and overseas radio stations as you can on an Internet radio.

Most smartphones and tablets come with a music player with some platforms like iOS offering a comprehensive take on this form. But you can purchase improved music players for Android devices like the PowerAMP music player which I use. These ones provide better control over your music playback and some of them even have their own “tone controls”.

Video apps

(Smartphones, Tablets)

Similarly, one or more video apps may help you with having access to video content. This could be fulfilled by a video player which would be important if you download or rip video content and sync it to your device. Of course, the platforms would come with a video player app but there may be some better third-party apps available in the app store.

The one that a smartphone or tablet shouldn’t be without is a YouTube front-end. For iOS 6 users, this can be fulfilled by you using the Google-supplied YouTube ap. If you also visit other video-on-demand sites, it may be worth looking for mobile front-ends for these sites.

DLNA network media software

(Smartphones, Tablets)

TwonkyMedia for Android

Programs that work with DLNA Home Media Networks typically are either controllers, players or servers. The former function allows you to push content to a DLNA-compliant receiver or smart TV using the phone’s or tablet’s screen as the control surface. Some of these programs also allow you to “throw” Internet-sourced resources like Facebook photos to DLNA-compliant TVs.

A variant on this theme, supported by different media players, is the DLNA media player which allows you to play content held on a DLNA Media Server like your network-attached storage. Some of these programs such as the Android variant of TwonkyMobile, allow you to download the media files to your phone so you can play the media on it without being on the network.

Another class is simply a DLNA Media Server which shares content held on your phone with other DLNA-compliant devices. This may be part of the DLNA Media Controller, like TwonkyMobile, but could be its own app, thus allowing you to play music to DLNA-compliant Wi-Fi speaker docks.

Song Identification Software

(Smartphones, Tablets)

Shazam song-identification for Android

You watch a favourite show on TV or you hear that piece of music being played over the speakers in that bar. But you want to know what it is or who performed it.

There are two mobile-platform apps that can help you identify the titles and artists of songs that are played. These are Shazam and SoundHound and they are accurate on most popular music including some jazz. But they don’t work well with classical and opera where you want to know what it is “composer first, work (including movement or aria name) second”.

These apps also provide further information on the music such as lyrics, or a biography or discography for the performer. They also allow you to buy and download the music from an affiliated store like Amazon or, for iOS devices, iTunes. Of course, they keep a history of the songs you used the software to identify so you can use this when buying the music from your favourite outlet and on your favourite media.

Games

(Smartphones, Tablets)

Of course, no smartphone or tablet is complete without a collection of games installed on it. They can range from card, casino and board games through the classic pinball and arcade games to newer game styles such as the unforgettable Angry Birds. There are some games which you can play online across the world and are typically based on a social-network infrastructure but there are others where you simply play against the computer.

These games allow you to fill in the time while travelling on public transport or waiting for that appointment and, in some cases, can be an ice-breaker for conversation with others.

Information on hand

Reading / reference apps and electronic bookstores

(Tablets)

IMDB movie app for Android

If you want to use your tablet for reading. you won’t go far when finding the reading apps. Some of these work alongside electronic bookstores and newsstands so you can buy and download books, newspapers and magazines to your device, with a few of them like Amazon Kindle available across all platforms.

This extends to dictionary, translation, Bible and other reference apps which have the information at a glance. The apps may work with the information locally stored on the device or may obtain the information online.

Public-transport timetable apps

(Smartphones)

Most public-transport authorities and operators are building apps that work as information sources about their public-

TramHunter for Android – Melbourne trams

transport systems. Typically these provide access to the latest timetables and information concerning cancellations or delays affecting the public transport service.

Some of the apps even have a “journey-planner” function which works out the best journey for your needs. If the public-transport provider has the ability to track its vehicles as they are providing the service, their app may also provide real-time information on the public-transport service so you can know how long the wait is for your service.

It is worth having one of these apps for each city you travel in. In some cases, you may need the apps that are specific to a transport mode like the bus or tram services.

Sports scoreboards

(Smartphones, Tablets)

London 2012 Official Results App

One app class that can help you enjoy the sports events that you follow better are the scoreboard apps. This is something I have covered previously on this site more as a tool that augments how you follow those fixtures rather than using them as something to follow them on.

One example is using one of these app to keep tabs on the scores while you are watching that football game in that packed-out bar. Another is gaining a quick glance at the cricket or baseball score as you hear that major event like a run or batter-out being called on the radio while you are outside, so you can decide on whether to run inside and see the replay on the TV.

The good apps in this class are typically developed by the sports broadcasters or the leagues and codes themselves. For Australians, including “Aussie expats”, I would recommend the “Footy Now”, “League Now” and “Super Rugby” apps for AFL, NRL and Super Rugby Union leagues respectively.

Calculators and Converters

(Smartphones)

Most smartphones come with a basic four-function calculator as part of the “supplied” apps. But the app stores are full of better calculator apps such as some that may provide an “adding machine tape” view, more functions like scientific, statistic or financial functions or the ability to support different data-entry methods like “Reverse Polish Notation”. These then position your phone as an alternative to the scientific calculator that you would have had for school.

An app class that I would consider important is a unit conversion app. This is where you can enter a quantity that is in one unit so you can find out what it is in another unit. This is important if you are think in Imperial / US units like pounds or inches and you see references to quantities in metric units or vice versa.

Utilities

Mobile-phone torch app

(Smartphones)

One app that I would consider essential for a smartphone owner would be the “mobile phone flashlight”. These work with the phone’s display or flash LED to turn your phone in to a flashlight (torch). Here, they can be useful as an on-hand source of light for many different situations — think of having to check out what’s wrong with the engine when your car plays up at night; checking which circuit breaker had tripped when the power went out or simply letting yourself in to your home at night.

Emergency info app

(Smartphones)

ICE In Case Of Emergency for Android

Another Important app that is worth having is the emergency info app. This keeps essential emergency information on your phone like your doctor’s details, medication information and next-of-kin and even has direct access to the contact details so you can contact then directly from your phone.

This is more important if you have a chronic illness like epilepsy or diabetes but can be of benefit for anyone, especially if you travel in to foreign areas.

QR code reader

(Smartphones, Tablets)

One important app class for your smartphone and tablet is the QR-code reader. These apps use your phone’s or tablet’s rear-facing camera to read and interpret QR codes.

But what are QR codes? These are a common form of two-dimensional barcode that is printed on flyers and other artwork, most often as a link to an online resource.

The good QR-code readers like i-Nigma do have a high accuracy rating no matter what the code is printed or shown on. Some of these readers can also read the standard barcodes on merchandise so you can look up further details on the product that the code is on.

Mapping and distance log apps

(Smartphones)

Endomondo Pro for Android

Most smartphone and tablet platforms come with a good GPS-driven map but the app store may offer better mapping solutions. This may be important if the platform didn’t come with a really-good map solution or there is a solution that suits your needs better like a “hiking-specific” solution.

A distance-log app that uses the GPS functionality and / or the accelerometer in the phone can be a great boon if you are walking. Programs like Endomondo can work well if you track your outdoor workouts and some of them may work as “breadcrumb tracking” apps.

Client apps for electronic notebook services

(Smartphones, Tablets)

If you use cloud-based services like Dropbox or Evernote, it is worth having a mobile client app for this service. This allows you to review and update the information that you have at these locations from your smartphone or tablet in the same way that you can from your computer.

Conclusion

Once you know of the essential apps to have on your smartphone or tablet, no matter the platform that it runs, you can find that you will end up gaining a lot more mileage out of your device as you use it through the day.

Article

TDK breaks the Hard Drive density limit, could go on to develop super-sized storage — Engadget

My Comments

TDK was once known in its earlier years for storage media, especially tapes and, subsequently floppy and optical discs. During that time, when any of us wanted high-quality audio or video recording, we chose this name as one of our preferred brands. Infact one idea they were known for in the 1970s was a cost-effective high-bias magnetic tape formula known as “Super Avilyn” which yielded as good an audio or video recording result as traditional chrome-based high-bias magnetic tape.

Now that we have moved to MP3 players, smartphones and hard-disk-based storage of audio and video content, this company had diversified in to cheaper audio equipment to the open market and reduced its presence in storage media for that market. Here, Hitachi and others have been improving on the data capacity of hard disks over the many years with TDK disappearing in to the background in this field.

But they have not left this storage-medium expertise of theirs behind in this hard-disk-based data-storage era. Here, they raised the data-density bar for hard disks further, thus allowing for 1.5 terabyte per square inch. The article raised possibilities of 15” laptops coming with single 2.5” hard disks greater than 1Tb or desktop computers being equipped with 3.5” hard disks greater than 2Tb. This would also appeal to the current trend for low-profile and “all-in-one” desktops having the same storage as what was acceptable for larger designs.

For the home or small-business network, I would see possibilities like NAS units being in the order of at least 10Tb. This is in conjunction with PVRs and similar home-entertainment equipment able to work with many hours of ultra-high-definition video material especially as the 4K and 8K ultra-high-definition video technologies which yield cinema-quality video come closer.

Personally, I would expect this technology to materialise in the form of hard disks within the next two years once TDK have got it proven in a form for manufacturers to use. It also happens to be coinciding with the South-East-Asian hard-disk factories coming back on stream after the Thailand floods, this making it feasible to see the return of “dime-a-dozen” hard-disk storage.

Introduction

I am reviewing the Toshiba Tecra R950 which is Toshiba’s latest iteration of their work-home business laptops. This has business features like business-grade security and a shock-proof hard disk but is based on the new Intel 3rd-generation hardware platform. It also benefits from expandability options like an ExpressCard slot and plenty of USB 3.0 sockets.

The unit I am reviewing is a mid-tier high-performance variant but this series has cheaper variants that have less RAM and the cheaper i5 processor while there are higher-performance variants with a 256Gb solid-state disk and dedicated graphics processors.

The computer itself

Aesthetics and Build Quality

The Toshiba Tecra R950 has that business look about it. It has the dark grey lid and a herringbone ribbed palmrest and is finished in the dark grey colour. Only the hinges are finished in chrome, with the right hinge being used for locking down the computer with a Kensington-compliant cable lock.

It is built well for durability, and does feels heavy. This characteristic is one where you could expect a long lifetime out of this business-class laptop.

When I was watching some on-demand video, I had noticed that the Tecra didn’t run hot. This is usually a time that I notice that a laptop can run hot with the cooling fan running at full speed and / or the computer feeling too warm. This is even though the vent is on the left side of the computer and I felt minimal hot air leaving that vent.

User Interface

The Toshiba Tecra R950 has the same roomy keyboard with the hard plastic feel which does lend itself to comfortable accurate typing. There is also the separate numeric keypad which is a boon for entering lots of numbers in to that Excel spreadsheet or accounting program.

The trackpad still works as expected and can be sensitive if you are typing but you can still override it using a hardware button located below the spacebar. At least the thumbstick works properly as an alternative pointing device so you can have the trackpad off if you find its sensitive behaviour annoying.

Audio and Video

Left-hand-side connections – VGA, DisplayPort, USB 3.0, ExpressCard 34 slot, SD card slot

I have noticed that the audio and video experience that this Toshiba Tecra R950 has given me is smooth for most tasks including audio and video playback. The video playback was still very smooth even through film scenes which may be dificult to reproduce. As for the sound, it cam through very clearly through headphones but the integrated speakers still leave room for improvement.

Connectivity, Storage and Expansion

The Toshiba Tecra R950 has many different ways to connect external peripherals to it. For example, there are many ways to connect an external hard drive to this laptop without trading performance – an eSATA / USB 2.0 connector as well as two USB 3.0 connectors.

Right-hand side connections – 3.5mm audio input-output jack USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0 port, USB 2.0 / eSATA combo port and DVD burner

There is the DisplayPort socket used as the digital video connect and you would need to use an adaptor when connecting to HDMI or DVI displays such as most flatscreen TVs. Of course, there is a VGA socket for use with legacy video equipment like the cheaper projectors.

As for secondary storage, the Tecra business laptop has 640Gb as its primary hard disk capacity although some of the more expensive variants come with a 256Gb solid-state storage option. This is supplemented with a DVD burner and a SDXC card reader, thus having access to cost-effective removable storage without the need to carry extra accessories.

The Tecra is equipped with an ExpressCard 34 slot. This gives it room to expand in functionality because you can plug in wireless-broadband modems, sound modules and the like yet have the high performance. SD card slot being located directly under this can be obstructed by ExpressCard modules that use a large overhang

Battery life

The Toshiba Tecra R950 was able to run for a long time on its own battery for most activities as I have observed. For example, I was able to run it with video-on-demand for an hour and find that there is 75% of power left in the battery. As well, I had the Tecra play a feature-length movie DVD for five hours and 21 minutes before the battery ran out after just charging the battery.

This is something I would expect of a full-size 15” business laptop running newly-issued batteries and would preserve its credentials for long flights or similar activity.

Limitations and Points Of Improvement

An option that I would like to see for the Toshiba Tecra R950 and other larger laptops that come with the high-capacity hard disks is a solid-state disk that works as a cache drive to improve performance and battery runtime. Similarly the Tecra lineup could benefit from a Blu-Ray-capable optical drive as an option.

One accessory that this could benefit from is a DisplayPort – HDMI adaptor so that people can be able to use common LCD and plasma flatscreen TVs like those at home or in hotels as external monitors.

This Tecra series has become a chance for Toshiba to make a bridge computer like the Fujitsu LH772. This is where they could use some of the Tecra features like the fingerprint scanner but have different colourings, making it appeal to the student market.

Conclusion

I would position the Toshiba Tecra R950 as an up-to-date work-home laptop for most small businesses. It has the security where-with-all and the extra RAM and hard-disk capacity that the small-business owner would need. The Bluetooth 4.0 interface allows this computer to work with battery-operated Bluetooth devices that can run a long time on cost-effective batteries or work with Bluetooth sensor devices.

II was choosing amongst the packages available, I would prefer this model for most users and the model below (4Gb RAM, i5 CPU) for those on a budget such as students. The Radeon-equipped variants would work well for users with graphics and multimedia creation needs or, perhaps, intense gaming. All along, I would focus on the 640Gb HDD as requirement for capacity.

Articles

AT&T’s new MiFi Liberate is LTE-capable, ‘world’s first’ with touchscreen display – Engadget

AT&T Shoved a Touchscreen in Its Latest LTE MiFi Hotspot Because, Hey, Why Not! | Gizmodo

AT&T’s MiFi Liberate LTE is first touch-screen hot spot | CNet

From the horse’s mouth

AT&T – Press Release

My Comments

AT&T have released a new “MiFi” router for 4G wireless broadband networks in the form of the AT&T-Novatel MiFi Liberate. Here, this device is not your “father’s old station wagon”.

The device borrows the P-shaped design cues from the Apple Magic Trackpad and some door-handles rather than Microsoft’s newer input devices. Users can manage their connection using a colour LCD touchscreen rather than the typical Web user interface and, in some cases, a monochrome LCD or OLED display.

It can connect up to 10 concurrent Wi-Fi devices to the 4G LTE wireless-broadband connection and can do this for 11 hours on its own battery. What also impresses me about this MiFi is that it, like a few recent AT&T MiFis, has the ability to share files off a microSD card, including the ability to share media to UPnP AV / DLNA devices like Internet radios. This function could be taken further if the MiFi could mount microSDXC cards of 64-128Gb capacity.

At the moment it’s only through AT&T but I would like to see more carries who run LTE-compliant 4G networks offer this device in their 3G wireless router lineup. The firmware that all of the carriers who run with this device should support all of the functions including the file-sharing / DLNA functionality.

The small data-replication cloud

These network-attached storage devices could be part of a personal data-replication cloud

Whenever the “personal cloud” is talked of, we think of a network-attached storage device where you gain access to the data on the road. Here, the cloud aspect is fulfilled by a manufacturer-provided data centre that “discovers” your NAS using a form of dynamic DNS and creates a “data path” or VPN to your NAS. Users typically gain access to the files by logging in to a SSL-secured Web page or using a client-side file-manager program.

But another small data cloud is often forgotten about in this class of device, except in the case of some Iomega devices. This represents a handful of consumer or small-business NAS units located at geographically-different areas that are linked to each other via the Internet. Here, they could synchronise the same data or a subset of that data between each other.

This could extend to applications like replicating music and other media held on a NAS to a hard disk installed in a car whether the vehicle is at home, at the office or even while driving. The latter example may be where you purchase or place an order for a song or album via the wireless broadband infrastructure with the content ending up on your car’s media hard disk so it plays through its sound system. Then you find that it has been synchronised to your home’s NAS so you can play that album on your home theatre when you arrive at home.

What could it achieve?

An example of this need could be for a small business to back up their business data to the network-attached storage device located at their shop or office as well as their owner’s home no matter where the data is created.

Similarly, one could copy their music and video material held on the main NAS device out to a NAS that is at holiday home. This can lead to location-specific speedy access to the multimedia files and you could add new multimedia files to the NAS at your holiday home but have this new collection reflected to your main home.

Here, one could exploit a larger-capacity unit with better resiliency, like the business-grade NAS units pitched at small businesses, as a master data store while maintaining less-expensive single-disk or dual-disk consumer NAS units as local data stores at other locations. This setup may appeal to businesses where one location is seen as a primary “office” while the other location is seen as either a shopfront or secondary office.

This kind of setup could allow the creation of a NAS as a local “staging post” for newly-handled or regularly-worked data so as to provide a resilient setup that can survive a link failure. In some cases this could even allow for near-line operation for a business’s computing needs should the link to a cloud service fail.

User interface and software requirements

This same context can be built on the existing remote-access “personal cloud” infrastructure and software so there is no need to “reinvent the wheel” for a multi-NAS cloud.

Similarly, users would have to use the NAS’s existing management Web page to determine the location of the remote NAS devices and the data sets they wish to replicate. This can include how the data set is to be replicated such as keeping a mirror-copy of the data set, or contributing new and changed data to a designated master data set or a combination of both. The data set could be the copy of a particular NAS volume or share, a folder or group of folders or simply files of a kind.

The recently-determined UPnP RemoteAccess v2 standard, along with the UPnP ContentSync standards could simplify the setup of these data-synchronisation clouds. This could also make it easier to provide heterogenous data clouds that exist for this requirement.

But one main requirement that needs to be thought of is that the computer systems at both ends cannot collapse or underperform because the link fails. There has to be some form of scalability so that regular small-business servers can be party to the cloud, which may benefit the small-business owner who wants to integrate this hardware and the home-network hardware as part of a data-replication cloud.

Hardware requirements

A small data cloud needs to support cost-effective hardware requirements that allow for system growth. This means that it could start with two or more consumer or SME NAS devices of a known software configuration yet increase in capacity and resilience as the user adds or improves storage equipment at any location or rents storage services at a later stage.

This could mean that one could start with one single-disk NAS unit at each location, then purchase a small-business NAS equipped with a multi-disk RAID setup, setting this up at the business. The extra single-disk unit could then be shifted to another location as a staging-post disk or extra personal backup.

Conclusion

What NAS manufacturers need to think of is the idea of supporting easy-to-manage multi-device data-replication “personal clouds” using these devices. This is alongside the current marketing idea of the remote-access “personal cloud” offered for these devices.

Lately, Apple pulled the pin from Google’s YouTube app by not including it with the iOS 6 distribution. As well, they worked on their own maps platform for this same distribution rather than continue to use Google’s mapping platform. In some cases, there have been functionality or security weaknesses in the Android or iOS operating platform which require Apple or Google to furnish a new “point-level” distribution of the operating system. This also applies if they want to roll up the operating platform to a new requirement.

These updates typically require the host device to be restarted as part of the update process. As well, the process of downloading the complete package to fix a problem could place the device at risk of being put out of action if the connection failed. In some cases, the mobile operating-platform vendor puts off rolling out a needed patch until they have to add extra key functionality that makes it worth the while to deliver a major update.

Compare this to how an app for these platforms is kept up to date. Once you download the app from your operating platform’s app store, it is always checked for the latest version updates. Once there is a new version of the app available, the software is placed on the “Updates” list so you can start a bulk update or, depending on the platform and app store, you could set up an automatic app update so that the software is updated in the background.

Personally, I would like to see baseline functions for mobile computing devices made available as separately-updatable apps. This practice, of what Google has done with keeping YouTube and Google Maps up to date on Android, allows the functions like music / media players, email / messaging apps and the like to be kept up to date in a similar manner to the app you download from the platform’s app store.

Here, the platform developer could keep a mapping program up to date and behaving properly or add functionality to and improve the quality of the music player without having to wait for the next operating-system update. The user then experiences the mapping program, music player up to date to new requirements and working properly by just simply calling in to the app store and checking the update panel.

For the developer, they can have teams working on maintaining these apps and rolling out the updates as they are signed off and ready while another team can hone the baseline operating system through its lifecycle. In some cases, it could allow the developer to do things like prepare peripheral-interface code for new peripheral-device types and have that delivered as needed to the devices.

In this case, if Apple used this practice for keeping their Maps function up to date, they can be sure that their fanbois can update the function without having to download a “point” version of iOS 6 to their devices. Similarly, Google could “fix up” Android function apps that are misbehaving frequently and allow their users to see a stable Android device.