Apple reportedly buying PrimeSense - the company behind the first Kinect sensor

Apple could be preparing to announce a major acquisition, with reports claiming it has struck a deal to buy the company behind the technology in the first Microsoft Kinect sensor.

According to Israeli newspaper Calcalist, Apple has snapped up PrimeSense for approximately $345m (around £214m, AU$368m), with the deal to be finalised within the next few days.

The news comes months after PrimeSense dismissed reports of Apple's interest and the rumoured $280m price tag.

However, it appears that negotiations may have been ongoing since the initial story broke in July, with an official announcement expected within the next two weeks.

Apple iTV integration?

What would Apple look to do with a motion tracking company all of its own? Well, much of the speculation surrounding the Apple iTV set has hinted at a motion controlled user interface along with Siri integration.

Calaclist's report says Apple's primary intention is to use PrimeSense's technology to power such an interface, but it could also make its way into future iPhone and iPad devices.

After playing a big role in the first sensor, PrimeSense technology is not being implemented within the new Xbox One Kinect. However, the company has continued to push the envelope with its motion sensing units.

According to the report Apple will implement the company's new Capri sensor, which is much smaller than earlier iterations, within the Apple iTV.

There's nothing official on this from either side yet, but as soon as something concrete comes out, we'll be sure to let you know.

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Analysis: Intel's nifty NUC proves small-form-factor PCs need to get cheaper

It fits in your hand. And it might just be all the PC you'll ever need. Give it up for the latest Intel Next Unit of Computing, or NUC for short.

We reckon NUC might just be the best ultra-small form factor (SFF) PC you can buy. But it's still far too expensive.

The basic specs of the latest NUC involve one of Intel's new Haswell CPUs,a slightly slimmed down case and a rethink of some of the features including the ports. But it's really the overall computing experience that matters with the NUC, not the hard numbers. It's a really nice little device.

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That said, let's get the basics out of the way. The dimension are downright diminutive. We're talking roughly 11cm square and 3.5cm deep. This thing is very small.

Joy of specs

Inside, there's an Intel Core i5-4250U CPU. That's two cores, four threads, 1.3GHz base clock and 2.6GHz Turbo. Oh and it has Intel's latest 40-unit graphics core. In this case it's somewhat bizarrely branded with the old Intel HD Graphics moniker rather than the new Intel Iris brand that most of the 40-unit graphics cores receive.

You get two USB 3.0 ports up front, two more on the back and one each regards mini DisplayPort and HDMI. Suitably specified, the NUC gives a great all round computing experience.

It looks and feels like a quality item. Inside, it's a really nicely integrated bit of electronics. It even supports 4K ultra-HD resolutions. Oh, and the Wi-Fi reception from the built-in antenna is superb.

Of course, you'll pay extra for the actual Wi-Fi adapter. Similarly you don't get a hard drive, memory or a copy of Windows. All of those things cost extra. Which is where the pricing problem kicks in.

Pricing problem

UK pricing hasn't quite shaken out on the new NUC. But based on the previous generation NUC, you're looking at perhaps as much as £350 for the barebones Core i5 version and thus at least £500 and probably more like £600 for a nicely specified solution. And that's before you've even added a screen.

And that's just far too much money. The first problem is Intel's processor pricing. The Intel Core i5-4250U CPU has an official US Price of $342. The NUC's is $363 (remember, US prices don't include a value added tax, so you can't just do a straight exchange-rate conversion).

So you're getting the NUC chassis and board for just $21 dollars, which tells you plenty about how much wiggle room there is in the processor price. Plenty. But the problem is that the NUC can hardly be sold for less than the Intel Core i5-4250U itself.

It puts a hard floor on how low Intel can go with NUC pricing. Then compare NUC pricing to laptops and ultrabooks. For the same £600 you'd spend on a nicely optioned NUC, you can have any number of thin and light – or big and brutish for that matter - Core i5 laptops and ultrabooks.

Except, of course, you get a screen and a lithium battery and all the other portable accoutrements thrown in. So you may as well just buy one of those. It'll do pretty much everything a NUC will. But there's lots a laptop can do the NUC can't. Hell, you could buy a very nice laptop and a good tablet for the price of a NUC-plus-screen.

Compare the market

Of course, NUC looks good value compared to other Intel-based ultra-small form factor systems. But so what? The segment in general looks inflated, again presumably because of those processor prices.

In fairness, AMD-based ultra-SFF systems aren't a whole lot better. But the bottom line is that the NUC and its ilk need to be cheaper. It makes no sense for them to cost the same as a similarly specified thin and light notebook and then still leave you needing a screen.

They need to be cheap enough that people buy them as well as a portable. I'd say £350 maximum for a Core i5 NUC with a 120GB-ish SSD, some memory and Windows 8.

We reckon what Intel and the industry at large needs to appreciate is that most people are happy with their laptops as a PC to use at home. More worryingly, they're increasingly happy with their ARM-based tablets, too.

So the lovely little NUC needs to be something punters can pick as a discretionary extra, cheap enough they don't have to think too hard about pulling the trigger. And £500 to £600 plus a screen isn't even close.

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PC sales see biggest drop this year as nation opts for tasty tablets

The UK PC market's outlook went from bad to worse during the third quarter after sales in the region plummeted 21.2% year-on-year. PC shipments to businesses slid 8.3%, while the consumer PC market's decline was sharper at 17.1%.

HP took home the top vendor award for the month with 18.5% market share, and that's not counting sales of its impressive Chromebook 11 (Gartner only includes desktop-based PCs and x86 Windows 8 tablets in its figures).

It was followed by Dell, which snared 11.8% of the market. Acer, the CEO of which recently stepped down after disappointing financial results for the quarter, captured the third-highest market share with 9.3%. With 7.9% market share, Apple is now officially the UK's fourth biggest PC vendor, ahead of Lenovo (7.7%).

The UK PC market had a significantly worse time than France and Germany, which saw its PC markets decline 10.4% and 14.4% respectively.

Long decline

The decline was felt across Western Europe, where shipments fell 12.8% compared with 12 months ago. HP once again led the pack with 18.5% market share, followed by Dell (11.8%), Acer (9.3%), Apple (7.9%) and Lenovo (7.7%).

Gartner analyst Meike Escherich said that the Western Europe PC market's performance declined "faster than expected" during the quarter as consumers opted for tablets.

She said: "The transition from PCs to tablets continued to reduce PC sales. In addition, product transitions to 'Haswell' and 'Bay Trail' processors, and preparations for the launch of Windows 8.1 and associated new products, meant that vendors were careful about managing inventory and focused on clearing out stock in the distribution channel."

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PC Format magazine

There are three things in life you can be sure of: death, Taxes and PC Format being a cracking read from start to finish. Those first two aren't too enticing, so why not go to town with PC Format and enjoy a monthly dose of hardware and gaming reviews, dusted off nicely with a tasty helping of getting more from your PC.

Whether you're into using your PC to play back movies in your living room, overclocking your rig to take on the world, or up for a more relaxing few hours fragging everyone in sight, PC Format is there to aid, entertain, inform and more often than not surprise.

We're every bit as passionate about making the magazine as we are about PCs, which is why we're on your side to help separate the wheat from the chaff, whether that's the latest shooter or the newest graphics cards. Whatever you use your PC for - we're here to help.

PC Format Issue 286 Christmas

Glimpse of the future

"Is SteamOS the PC's future? Or is Valve just trying to make its own console?"

Boundaries are blurring. The hard distinctions of yesterday aren't clearly defined today, and there's a good chance they won't be there at all tomorrow. As a case in point, just look to the Xbox One and PS4. The next-generation consoles are essentially PCs, made up of slightly tweaked PC components, while PCs continue to extend into new and interesting area. Something Valve is set to capitalise on with its Steam Machines - console-like PCs designed to live near your television - which run SteamOS, the company's Linux-based rival to Windows.

The potential here sounds remarkable, at least initially, but as more information trickles out from Valve, the less impressed we are by the reality. The machines themselves may only be prototypes, but they're not very exciting to look at, and don't appear to do anything that we haven't seen before. Worse than the visual impact of these would-be consoles though, are the limitations Valve is putting on the OS. It's going to be for gaming only.

When you consider that there's a full PC in that boxy chassis, it seems a waste to not use it as general media player, web browser and all-round gaming machine that isn't just limited to accessing a Linux-limited Steam library. You know, just as Sony and Microsoft realised with their previous generation consoles, let alone the ones that they are just releasing. We don't just want our consoles to play games, we want to use them for other things as well, and surely the PC is in a better position than any other piece of hardware to do everything we want to use them for?

This issue we show you how to go one better than a Steam Machine running SteamOS. We show you how to build a full gaming PC, one that is tiny enough, and quiet enough, to have next to your television. And it isn't limited in what it can do either. Hell, it'll even run Steam...

Alan Dexter, Editor

alan.dexter@futurenet.com

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The easiest way to ensure you never miss an issue of the magazine is to subscribe to the print version of PC Format here, making the single physical issue price a paltry £4.46.

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Office Remote app for Windows Phone is the PowerPoint user's new BFF

Microsoft's second screen endeavours have developed further with the launch of the Office Remote app for Windows Phone 8, giving the handset full control over the Word, PowerPoint and Excel apps.

The app, which is similar to the SmartGlass mobile app for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, allows users to swipe and glide their way through documents, presentations and spreadsheets on their PC.

The standout use, of course, will be the ability for users to wirelessly control Office presentations, using Bluetooth to navigate between slides and point out objects on screen using a remote laser pointer.

At present, Office Remote is only available for WP8 and only compatible with Office 2013 for Windows 8 and Office RT for the ARM-based OS, but it will prove useful for those folks who tick all Microsoft's boxes.

Diversity on the way

"With Office Remote you can start your PowerPoint presentation, advance the slides, see your speaker notes, and control an on-screen laser pointer with a touch of your finger - all from your phone," said project manager Burt Van Hoof.

"You can also navigate between Excel worksheets and graphs, and control data slicers from the palm of your hand," he wrote. "And you can scroll through a Word document or quickly jump to specific sections or comments. You can also navigate between Excel worksheets and graphs, and control data slicers from the palm of your hand. And you can scroll through a Word document or quickly jump to specific sections or comments."

Microsoft said the initial launch is just the beginning with a roll out coming to a "diverse society of devices" in the future. We can presume that to mean an iOS and Android version of Office Remote might be in tow.

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