It’s high time the mouse met its maker. Up to now, nothing has truly been able to outdo this age-old peripheral. But 2013′s tech might change that forever.
The mouse is an old and outdated mode of computing that still, somehow, clings to even our most modern computers. But this year’s crop of cool peripherals might be what changes all that.
Is the mouse finally on its last legs? It seems like every year for the last several years, people have been shouting from the rooftops that the computer mouse is dead. Multitouch. Kinect. These were the things that were supposed to kill this pest we’ve grown so accustomed to before the turn of the decade. And yet, they still linger.
This year might be it, though. Apple, especially with OS X 10.7 Mountain Lion, with a little help from the Magic Trackpad, has further embraced gesture-based computing. And, despite the cool reception, Windows 8 embraces touch in a way that’s both striking and mystifying. While the general populace might not be completely ready for the change, we have a feeling that people will soon be unplugging their mice for good.
Don’t get us wrong; we live in the future, but not quite the near-distant future of Iron Man and Minority Report. So what right now will replace the mouse? What will be that last changing of the guard? Here are some of the best devices of today that may finally deal the death blow.
The Leap
How it works:Leap Motion’s flagship motion sensor device has long been one of our favorite products debuted last year. Simply place the tiny peripheral in front of your PC or Mac monitor and you’ll be able to interact with your computer with precision up to 1/100 of a millimeter.
What it’s best for: Think of it as a Kinect for the small screen. The device allows you to interact with your computing environment solely with gesture with high accuracy and zero latency, making it possible to pinch-to-zoom and write signatures with ease.
How long until we can use it:Leap Motion recently struck a deal with Best Buy for the brick-and-mortar shop to serve as the company’s exclusive retail partner starting this February. The company is also currently taking preorders on its site. Asus also announced that it’ll soon be bundling the device with its hardware.
Mauz
How it works: You use your iPhone for everything else, so why not use it to control your computer? While not an entirely new concept, Mauz gets credit for its implementation. The Mauz is a dongle that connects to your iPhone’s 30-pin or Lightning dock connector, giving it the ability to interact with your computer like a traditional mouse, a touchpad, and also as a gesture sensor.
What it’s best for: The Mauz tries to be an all-in-one solution for your mousing needs. It’s just unclear how it would handle phone calls.
How long until we can use it: The team behind this device currently has a Kickstarter campaign to reach its goal of $150,000 to cover its development and production costs. Hopefully, we’ll see a working iteration by June of this year, retailing for between $60 and $70.
Leonard3do
How it works: Hungarian startup Leonard3do is changing the metaphor from a mouse to a bird, and is attempting to change how we create in 3D environments. Used in conjunction with the company’s own modeling software and a pair of 3D glasses, the Bird, or really the bird-like pen tool, is essentially a handheld virtual reality kit, handling modeling as though your creation is floating in space in front of you.
What’s it best for: The Leonard3do is best used by designers and educators for specialized modeling projects. Digital artists and architects might find it essential to their toolkit in the coming year.
How long until we can use it: The Bird is available now, but for a pretty penny. With the software costing $2,000, it might be a bit pricey for the average neophyte. We have been told that the price will drop to $50 in the near future. iOS and Android apps are also on the way and will hit their respective stores by March.
Tobii Rex
How it works: If you’re tired of lifting your arms altogether, this one’s for you. The Tobii Rex allows you to control your Windows 8 machine with your eyes. The device uses an array of infrared sensors to detect eye motion and orientation, making it surprisingly precise.
What it’s best for: As the user still needs a dedicated mouse and keyboard, the Tobii is best used for navigating layouts. But, in our tests at CES, the device handled games of Asteroid with aplomb. That’s impressive for something that’s still very much in development.
How long until we can use it: Those interested in a Tobii Rex development kit, which includes the hardware and the SDK, will have to shell out $995. The average consumer will have to wait for preorders to open this spring. The devices will then start shipping in the fall.
Composer Winifred Phillips has scored games ranging from God of War to Little Big Planet II, and most recently, Assassin’s Creed III. She sat down for an exclusive interview with Digital Trends to talk about the creative process that goes into crafting a game’s music, how she got started, and some of her favorite work.
Go ahead and take a minute to think of your favorite games, even dating back to the days of 8- and 16-bit systems, and recall the sounds that accompanied the rhythmic (sometimes frantic) tapping of the A and B buttons. Think back to games like The Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, Megaman, and Tetris to start the flood of audio nostalgia. You can blame us later when you are standing in line or sitting in traffic humming the theme to Super Mario Bros.
Those early video game soundtrack composers had to work within the confines of the technology at the time, but modern composers use a variety of technologies, software, samples, and other tricks of the trade to create lush dramatic soundscapes to match the detailed graphics and storylines of today’s games. Technology has evolved to provide an almost infinite playground for a composer to create scores to enhance and compliment the almost life-like graphics and creative story lines in today’s video games.
We recently caught up with award winning composer, Winifred Phillips, to discuss the ins and outs of composing a score for a video game. If her name doesn’t ring a bell, the list of projects she worked on should: Shrek the Third, Little Big Planet 2, God of War, Speed Racer, and Assassin’s Creed III: Liberations, which recently won the Hollywood Music in Media Award. Her projects span across many genres, and include an impressive array of different musical styles and expressions, showing how a composer’s work for video games has evolved from the early 8-bit days.
Winifred gave us a backstage pass and explained how composers use the latest tools to create today’s epic-sounding scores.
How did you get into scoring video games?
I’d been interested in composing music for games, and I’d circulated my music demo through the game industry until it attracted the attention of a music supervisor at Sony Computer Entertainment America. We met during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 2004 to talk about the music needs of the God of War video game, which was showing in the Sony booth. SCEA was assembling a team of composers to create music for the project.
Up until that time, I’d been working as the composer for a drama series that was conceived and directed for National Public Radio by award-winning producer Winnie Waldron. The series had just ended around this time, so when Sony hired me to join the God of War music team, I asked Winnie to produce my music for my video game projects. We’ve been working in the game industry ever since.
Are you a gamer yourself? What’s your favorite video game score?
I’m a long-time gamer, so I’ve enjoyed a lot of game music over the years. I don’t really have a favorite score, although I have a lot of individual tracks that I admire, in lots of different genres and styles.
What type of software, hardware or instrumentation do you use to create scores for games?
I use a wide variety of hardware, including channel strips and effects processors, preamps, keyboards, sample modules and various audio and MIDI interfaces. At the moment I have six computers in my studio, one of which is dedicated to running Pro Tools – my digital audio workstation. The rest run standalone software samplers and effects processors.
Where do you get your samples from?
Some I have created myself by recording live instruments and effects, both in my studio and in the field. Others are recorded all over the world by talented artists in renowned recording studio complexes who have dedicated themselves to capturing pristine recordings of instruments that are sometimes traditional and sometimes very rare. I work with too many of these companies to list their names here.
What type of material, storyboards, etc do developers give you to create a musical ambiance to match the feel for the game?
It’s different with every project. Some of the materials I might receive during a project include dialogue scripts, storyboards, design documents, concept art, gameplay videos, and working prototypes of the game in progress.
How long does it take to develop a score from start to finish?
That depends on how much music the project requires, how interactive the music will be, what type of instrumentation is required, etc.
Do you have a preference for project genres to score? (e.g. the more dramatic epic games, like Assassin’s Creed and God of War, or games for a younger audience like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Shrek, Little Big Planet, etc?)
I enjoy composing all kinds of game music, regardless of the target audience or the overall tone. The more whimsical games tend to force me to think outside the box, and they can be very demanding, both creatively and technically. The more epic games require very passionate and intense music, and they provide great opportunities to create thematic material. I like moving back and forth between the two compositional approaches. I think this helps me to grow as a composer.
Are some games easier to score than others?
I don’t think anybody does their best work when they are doing something that’s easy for them. I think it’s my job as a composer to be ambitious with every project. I should try to take unique approaches to the music of every game. This makes my work constantly challenging for me, but I think that’s the way it should be.
What specific challenges are there in scoring video games that are unique to the medium?
Video game music has to be constructed so that it can dynamically react to the state of gameplay. There are lots of different methodologies for this kind of interactive music implementation. For instance, the music in the LittleBigPlanet franchise is composed in discreet layers of sound that can be added and subtracted from each other. This is especially interesting in LittleBigPlanet, because the game’s community has the ability to use the individual component music files in the levels they make with the LittleBigPlanet creation tools. I enjoy seeing how the community implements the music I compose, and what sorts of levels they create.
How did you get involved with Ubisoft?
I’d had several discussions with Ubisoft’s music director over the years regarding music needs for Ubisoft’s projects, but nothing came together until the Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation project came along. I’d just finished a LittleBigPlanet project, so the timing was great, and Ubisoft liked my musical approach to previous projects so they hired me to create music for Liberation.
Were you familiar with the Assassin’s Creed series before Liberation?
Yes, I’d played other installments in the series before I worked on Liberation.
Did your work coincide at all with the musical work being done on Assassin’s Creed III?
Yes, as far as I knew, the music of Assassin’s Creed III was being composed and recorded simultaneously with my work on the score for Liberation. I didn’t have any contact with the music team for the other game, though. The two games are very different from each other, and they required very different musical approaches.
How did the historical setting of Assassin’s Creed change the composition?
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation takes place in 18th century New Orleans, and that time and place had a very strong impact on the music I composed for the project. An aristocratic French society was juxtapositioned against the various communities of colonial America and the strong African culture of the slaves.
This made for a very interesting mix of cultural influences from which I could draw inspiration. I integrated musical elements from folk songs, French baroque techniques and instrumentation, and the complex percussive and melodic aspects of traditional African music. Weaving these elements together proved the most interesting challenge of the project.
How do you compare the overall music being created for video games to the scores created for movies/TV?
The standards of production and composition quality are exactly the same, but the technical demands are much higher for a video game composer. Television and film music has no need to be interactive, and does not have to be constructed for implementation within a game engine.
These technical requirements force game composers to think about music in ways that differ from the mindset of a traditional composer, and I think this facilitates innovation and creativity.
What do you have coming up next?
My latest project, LittleBigPlanet Cross Controller, just came out – I’m looking forward to seeing what people think of it. I’m not allowed to talk about my other upcoming projects just yet.
Reports of the PlayStation 2′s death have been greatly exaggerated, as the console lives on for another year abroad. We cover that and more in this week’s Jetsetter, Digital Trends’ weekly look at the international gaming scene.
It was easier back in the day with arcades. An arcade was an actual room you walked into, and each video game was a large box you stood in front of, and declaring your dibs on that machine was as simple as putting a coin against the screen. It didn’t matter if you were in Japan, Singapore, France, or Rhode Island. People got it, and playing was easy. Not anymore! Now you fire up a game of Anarchy Reigns online and everyone’s just yelling at each other in an amalgam of different languages. Try playing Diablo 3 on Korean servers if you want to get screamed at in Mandarin! The world is vast, and the world of gaming even more so. That’s why you have Jetsetter to guide you.
Welcome back to Jetsetter, Digital Trends’ weekly column looking at all those video games populating the world outside of the United States. Import games, Czech developers, the latest Icelandic MMOs; we are your one-stop shop for a look inside what’s happening beyond the world’s biggest gaming market. This week, we cover the good news at Czech developer Bohemia Interactive and check in on Capcom Europe, but first: The PlayStation 2 lives!
* PlayStation 2 stays on Indian store shelves until late 2013.
You cannot kill the PlayStation 2! Sony confirmed at the beginning of January that it had halted production of the PlayStation 2 worldwide, but the market for the intrepid console isn’t dead quite yet. Speaking with MCV, Sony confirmed that it will keep the PlayStation 2 on store shelves in India until Diwali. Diwali – or the Festival of Lights if you’re feeling literal – is one of the most important Hindu and Jainism festivals of the year. It is also one of the biggest gift giving seasons in India, hence Sony’s desire to keep its workhorse alive for one last holiday season. The question is: Will Electronic Arts put out yet another annual release of FIFA for the PlayStation 2 in India? It did for FIFA 13! Go PlayStation 2, GO!
* ArmA 3 developers return home after months in Greek prison.
“Now I finally believe we are free,” said a weary, ecstatic Martin Pezlar to reporters after returning home to the Czech Republic, “When we were still in Greece, anything could happen. We would like to spend the next days with our families and relax, because we didn’t sleep much after release from jail.” Jetsetter has covered the plight of Pezlar and his co-worker Ivan Buchta regularly since September. The Czech nationals are members of the ArmA 3 development team at Bohemia Interactive. They were arrested while on vacation in Greece in September and accused of espionage. Just this week, the two were granted bail and released. “If I ever take some pictures on vacation, for sure it’s not going to be in Greece,” said Pezlar. The two will still have to return to Greece to face trial, sometime before March 2014.
* Capcom Europe steals away Konami Europe executive.
No more Solid Snake for Kunio Neo. From here on out, it’s all Leon S. Kennedy. The former head of Konami Europe has left the company for a post at another Japanese company’s European headquarters. Neo is now Capcom Europe’s COO. He has actually spent the last twelve years with Konami, working on the European releases of games like Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and many others.
The HTC One SV isn't exactly a new handset, more or a reboot of the HTC One S which launched back at MWC 2012.
That said the One SV arrives sporting a new chassis and slightly differing specifications under the hood, the most of important of which is its 4G capabilities.
Available SIM-free from around £315 the HTC One SV is pretty much the same price as the year-old One S – give or take a couple of quid – making it a rather attractive proposition while potentially killing off its sibling.
Contract deals for the One SV are slightly more expensive on the UK's only 4G network with EE wanting at least £36 per month for two years in exchange for a free handset.
While price wise there may not be much between the two, the HTC One SV has a significantly different body which doesn't come close to the premium finish we enjoyed on the One S.
It's out with the aluminium frame and its 'micro-arc oxidisation treatment' and in with a noticeably plastic chassis which actually weighs more than its predecessor at 122g thanks to the size gain round the waist – up from 7.8mm to an almost porky 9.2mm in the midriff.
All that aside though and the HTC One SV still sits comfortably in the hand with the soft touch plastic case providing a decent level of grip on our palm while our fingers were easily able to wrap round the handset.
The power/lock key located on the top of the One SV alongside the 3.5mm headphone jack and the volume rocker switch are both easily reached during one-handed use thanks to the phone's compact 128 x 66.9mm dimensions.
An added benefit of the re-jigged design is that you can easily remove the back cover of the HTC One SV which not only gives you access to the microSIM and microSD slots, but also the removable 1,800mAh battery – which has been given a slight bump to improve the life of the phone.
On the front of the One SV you'll notice that HTC has kept its Android touch buttons below the screen with back, home and multi-tasking revealing this handset is running at least Android 4.0.
Sadly there's no sign of Jelly Bean on the HTC One SV, with the phone being equipped with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich – disappointing considering Jelly Bean has been available for six months now.
Above the control tools is the 4.3-inch, 480x800 Super LCD 2 display which while being the same size as the offering on the One S actually has a lower resolution than the Super AMOLED screen – boo!
Screen quality is still pretty darn good but it doesn't quite have the pop of the display that impressed us so much on the One S, which is disappointing as we'd expect the One SV to be at least on par with its sibling.
Something which has been given a boost on the HTC One SV is the front facing camera which comes in at 1.6MP and sits besides an incredible long ear piece – perfect for those who have trouble locating their ear while on the phone. Phew.
The extra large ear piece isn't all fun and games though and its recessed nature means it's a great place for dust to collect, making the One SV look rather untidy once it's spent some time in a pocket or bag.
Round the back the bulbous circular camera fitting has been replaced with a more refined oval sitting flush to the rear of the One SV.
You get a distinctly average 5MP camera, once again another compromise from HTC on the One SV, with a single LED flash for company, although it will record video at 1080p.
The HTC logo is slightly indented which led us to run our finger over it many times, just because we liked the feeling.
At the base you get a nod towards the One SV's network capabilities with "4G LTE" emblazoned above the speaker grill, with the Beats Audio technology logo below it, showing that Dr Dre's fancy music tech is housed inside.
The white back plate does attract marks and we managed to pick up numerous smudges on it after just a day or so.
Luckily it wipes clean with a damp cloth, but when you pull out your new HTC One SV to show off to your mates you'll be laughed out the pub when you flip it over to reveal grubby finger prints – oh the shame.
On the face of it the HTC One SV may share a similar name to impressive One S, but a number of compromises when it comes to build quality and specifications leaves us feeling a little unfulfilled and with a handset which is closer to the significantly cheaper HTC One V.
Thanks to unlocked-mobiles.com for sending us a HTC One SV to review and to EE for supplying us with a 4G sim.
The tech developments that could be coming to an iPhone near you
When the iPhone launched, the world of mobile phone technology started changing immediately. Smartphones were the domain of high-powered businessmen and arch gadget lovers at the time, in part because of price, in part because their utilitarian looks and confusing interfaces didn't appeal to many who didn't need their advanced features.
But the iPhone managed to merge the power of smartphones with the universal, easy-to-understand interface and attractive design that most people want from a phone.
Here in 2013, the iPhone offers hundreds of thousands of apps that make just about any task user-friendly, and has some of the most advanced technology on the market. But it's important to remember that it didn't happen overnight.
There was no App Store until a year after the iPhone launched, and certainly no Retina display. And it's amazing to think that the iPhone 5 has 4G mobile broadband, while the original in 2007 didn't even have 3G.
In just five years, Apple's iPhone has become almost unrecognisable when it comes to the technology that sits inside it, and even the outside features some incredible enhancements, despite looking a lot like the original. And now that mobile technology is the most prominent area of research and development for many companies, we are now only going to see the pace increase from now on.
But what does this mean for the future of the iPhone? Incredible leaps like the inclusion of Multi-Touch don't come around very often, but there are other ways that the iPhone will improve over time. Small advances in areas that seem boring add up to making each new iPhone the best yet, but there are still blockbusting features that just aren't ready yet, here in 2012.
The important thing is that these developments aren't just science fiction: it's nearly all technology that's being finalised, or is being actively researched and developed. Some of the time predictions might prove to be ambitious, or technologies might arrive quicker than anticipated, but it all has potential to be real.
And though we're only talking about the iPhone here and not the iPad - the technology used in them is very similar, so just about all of these developments will improve both devices. So join us in the Tap! Time Machine as we travel to see the iPhone as it will appear a few years down the line with technology that's coming about right now, and we'll also fire off into the near-distant future, looking at how the next few decades will shape and change Apple's devices.
2014 - iPhone 6
1. New camera technology
Early in its life, the iPhone was always on the back foot when it came to the camera. Apple only really got serious about it with the iPhone 4, and now it's one of the most talked-about features in each iteration. Though the iPhone 5 mostly made behind-the-scenes tweaks, such as better image processing, future iPhones will be able to go further.
Sony is known to have supplied Apple's sensors in the past, and in 2013 it will release a new image sensor that packs 13 megapixels into a tiny space without compromising image quality, thanks to a new way of designing the sensor. In fact, it should bring much-improved low-light shooting, because it can capture white pixels as well as red, green and blue. This means future iPhones would also be able to offer HDR recording, for getting maximum detail from videos.
There are other advances in phone cameras, too. Nokia's PureView 808 phone uses a huge 41-megapixel sensor to take great images. The final photos are actually only eight megapixels - what the PureView does is use around five pixels on the sensor for each pixel in the eventual image, and average the colour from those five into the final one, ensuring that it's as accurate as possible. The downside is that image sensors of that size are just too large to include in something as thin as the iPhone.
2. The development of 4G
By the time the iPhone 6 is released, 4G will have developed further than it has now, especially in the UK. For the launch of the iPhone 5, 4G was only available from one network, and in four cities (with more to come soon). By the end of 2013, all the major UK networks should be able to offer 4G connectivity, and the coverage will be up to 70% of the UK.
At the moment, EE (also known as Everything Everywhere - the parent company of Orange and T-Mobile) is the only 4G operator, and it has launched this network on the 1800MHz band in the wireless spectrum. Other operators will have to bid for different parts of the spectrum to launch their own 4G services (except for Three, which will use EE's).
Why is this important? Because the iPhone 5 only supports the 1800MHz band - not the others that will be used in the future. This means that if you buy an iPhone 5, it can only be used for 4G on EE and Three's networks in the UK, even after 2013.
We expect that the next iPhone will offer a much wider range of operating bands as the technology that powers it grows. It's likely that it will work on any 4G network in the UK without problem, much as the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 do on 3G networks.
In the US, there are two different wireless technologies, but it's possible that Apple will even be able to offer a single phone that even works on both of those network types as well.
3. Wi-Fi 802.11ac
Though Apple drastically improved the maximum Wi-Fi connection speeds in the iPhone 5 compared to even just the 4S, the change came about just as the next generation of Wi-Fi technology is being introduced. Its already possible to buy wireless 'AC' (as it's known) routers, and when the technology is integrated into phones and tablets with the kind of technology Apple uses, it's expected to offer local network connection speeds of over 500Mbps - much faster than what's possible now.
The fact that pretty much nobody has a home internet connection fast enough to make full use of this speed might make it seem a little pointless, but there are other purposes beyond surfing the web. It'll mean much higher quality and more reliable video streaming over AirPlay, for example, making playing mirrored games much smoother.
Perhaps most importantly, it will allow for extremely fast wireless data syncing with iTunes - much faster than the new Lightning connector is capable of, for example. If Apple is to ever lose a physical plug connector completely, the high connection speeds of wireless AC will be important for media lovers.
4. NFC
Near-field communication (NFC) is a very short-range wireless technology, designed to make it simple to transfer small amounts of information very quickly and easily. This has made it ideal for use in 'contactless' payment systems - think along the lines of the London Underground's Oyster Cards, where you need only tap a card on a pad to pay the correct amount.
But it's not just about payments - because it can send and receive information in just one tap of your phone, it's great for any ticketing system, so could be used to get into concerts, on the train or even to speed things up in the airport. And when used for payments, it can send your payment information and receive your receipt and any vouchers in the same single tap.
So far, Apple has said that Passbook in iOS does the same things as NFC, but that's not totally accurate. Passbook stores the information, and gets it ready for you when you arrive, but it can only communicate with other equipment by showing a QR code. This means it can only send information, not receive it - but having Passbook and NFC working as one package will offer a great level of flexibility.
NFC has other practical uses as well. It can be used to access a Wi-Fi router instead of a lengthy password, for example, or to pair Bluetooth devices. Like the best new technologies, it has the potential to make life a little simpler, which of course, makes it a natural fit for the iPhone.
5. Secure payment
In the last decade, Apple has spread into all sorts of areas people wouldn't once have expected to see it in. Movies, music, phones… and with the company frequently touting the high number of iTunes accounts with a credit card stored, how long will it be before it gets into online payments?
Think about how much simpler it would be if buying anything online was as easy as buying music or apps on your iOS device - just choose the item and type in your password. Because you'd still need a payment card behind your iTunes account, it wouldn't so much be a competitor to the likes of Visa and Mastercard as it would to PayPal and Google Checkout.
Apple wouldn't be able to take a cut of the transactions anywhere near as high as its 30% on apps and music, but it wouldn't need to, since each payment would require almost no effort from them. We're already seeing the seeds of this idea in the EasyPay system in the Apple Store app. You can go into Apple Stores and pay for physical items by scanning them into the app and entering the password for your Apple ID.
As Apple continues to expand its server reliability and security, we're sure that in future years Apple will start expanding the number of places this service is offered.
6. Making Siri psychic
Siri continues to develop, with more searchable data being added and speech recognition being improved, but it has to be invoked to work - you have to bring Siri up and ask it what you want.
To be a truly useful virtual assistant, rather than a voice-command tool, it should anticipate your needs before you even know you need them. Google recently launched Google Now, which is a service very much along these lines. The idea is that you often want to know certain information at certain times or places, and your 'assistant' should be able to predict that.
First thing in the morning, you want to know the weather for the day. Just before the time you usually leave for work, you want to know about traffic problems or train delays. At 5pm on a Saturday, you probably want to know the football results. These examples are all of frequent activities, but it can also help with more unusual things you have scheduled.
Google Now doesn't just remind you when you've got an appointment, for example, but will also instantly bring up full directions for getting there, too. Passbook already does something similar by pulling live information into its entries - such as which gate you need to head to at the airport for your flight - but it's something that could be integrated into Siri and the Notification Center for really giving you instant information.
7. Storage improvements
We had been hoping that the iPhone 5 announcement would be the day that we finally saw a 128GB iPhone, but it remains beyond our grasp. More than that, the pitiful 8GB of storage in the iPhone 4 will be a real struggle to get by with if you want to download a lot of Universal apps, take lots of photos and video, and keep a good music collection on your phone (or even just two of those things).
The good news, then, is that Intel and Micron have jointly announced a new breed of flash memory chips that can fit 128GB into a single, fingernail-tip sized package. For devices where space is at a premium, including more than one flash memory chip (as would be necessary currently) might just take up too much room - especially in light of Apple's continuing quest to make its phones as thin as possible.
And the new design isn't just smaller; it's much faster, too. Intel says it should offer twice the performance of the previous designs, meaning that apps will install faster and games will load quicker when they open. Intel and Micron's new chips should already be entering mass production, and so will be available for future versions of the iPhone.
2016 - iPhone 7
1. Gesture and face recognition
Google recently introduced a 'face unlock' feature into Android, where rather than swiping or typing in a code to unlock your phone securely, it uses face detection to see if you're you, and unlocks accordingly. Similarly, Google owns a patent on using face detection as a method of switching users on a device - so if you're using an iPad, say, it might show a different set of apps and settings to if someone else was.
These technologies are somewhat imperfect at the moment, but they're exactly the kind of seamless simplicity Apple aims for in the iPhone. It might not be unlocking that the technology ends up in, though - it's possible that the iPhone could use your expression to determine if it's selecting the right option in autocorrect, for example - an involuntary frown from you, and it knows you didn't want to change 'were' to 'we're'.
Gesture control is an area that's come on hugely since Microsoft launched its Xbox Kinect controller, but it's still imperfect. With improved camera technology, it could be much more accurate and fine-grained, and again could be useful for the iPhone and iPad. A wave of your hand towards your phone could invoke Siri from a distance, for example, or there might be hand gestures for playback controls on a video, so you could pause it without having to to be within touching distance of your device.
2. 3D
Whether 3D technology ever makes it into the iPhone might depend on whether it continues to take off for movies and TV shows, and so whether Apple feels compelled to add it to the iTunes Store. If it does, you can be sure that it'll want a flagship device to show off the 3D imagery, and the iPhone is an ideal fit.
Because it's a device only one person uses, it can use technology similar to Nintendo's 3DS to let you see 3D without glasses. The way the 3DS works is to add a filter layer over the screen, which angles the direction of light from the pixels ever so slightly, directing half to the left eye and half to the right.
Improvements to the 3DS's technology in the short time since it was released mean that the 3DS XL model has a much larger 'sweet spot' than the original - that is, the area where you can hold your head to see the 3D effect fully is much more generous. This will become better still over time, and head-tracking could also help to keep the effect clean.
Of course, we've no doubt that Apple would allow you turn the 3D off, as you can on the 3DS. Adding a 3D screen wouldn't be the end of it, either; we'd expect to see a pair of high-quality cameras on the back of the screen for recording 3D movies, and two cameras on the front, for 3D FaceTime calls.
3. A more advanced screen
Apple has never been slow when it comes to adopting advanced screen technology, bringing in Retina displays on the iPhone and iPad well before its competitors were able to offer anything similar. But resolution is only half the battle - the new iPad's colour range and accuracy were just as important as its high resolution, while the iPhone 5's improved colour reproduction makes almost as big a difference as its added height.
For several years, OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) screens have been touted as the next big thing. A few issues - including difficulty in producing enough to fill demand - have held them back, but they've made a big impact in some Android phones. The important thing about them is that they don't require a backlight, unlike an LCD display currently used in the iPhone. This means they can be a good deal thinner, providing Apple with another way to reduce the size of the iPhone.
They also produce much deeper blacks than LCD screens, adding depth to movies. There's also anti-reflective technology to consider, making the iPhone easier to use outdoors. One kind of technology mimics the eyeballs of moths, using hexagons that are just nanometres in size to change the way light hits materials. Plus, improved construction processes and materials might make an edge-to-edge display possible in the future, reducing the width of the iPhone and letting it shed more weight.
4. Wireless charging
Apple's Phil Schiller was asked just after the iPhone 5 launch why it didn't include wireless charging capabilities, something that competitor Palm was offering back in 2009. Schiller said that wireless systems aren't that convenient, because you still need to plug a charging device into a wall, or another source of power. He suggested the humble USB cable was far more convenient.
There's no reason these two should be mutually exclusive, though, and we suspect that Apple will introduce wireless charging as soon as it thinks the technology is viable.
Inductive wireless charging works by using an electromagnetic field to transfer power from a charging station to an induction coil in the device that needs to be powered. Basically, you pop your phone on a pad that's plugged into a power socket, and it immediately starts charging. You can have larger pads that charge more than one device at a time, and you could have them dotted around the house.
At the moment, they suffer from poor efficiency compared to a cable - transferring around 70% of the power they consume, though this can be improved with higher-quality parts (which we'd expect from Apple).
There's a wireless charging standard called Qi that many companies use, which has the advantage that any Qi-certified charging station and device will work with each other. We hope that Apple will go down this flexible route, but it might well create its own wireless charging solution.
5. More advanced processors
For all of its impressive upgrade in terms of design, perhaps the iPhone 5's most ground-breaking addition is the A6 chip. Apple has been making its own branded processors for a few years, but they've been custom system-on-a-chip designs with fairly standard parts inside - Apple's been buying the same parts as everyone else, but putting them together into a package in its own way.
But that all changed with the A6: for the first time, the actual CPU itself is a custom Apple design. The basis of the A6 is reportedly the same as the A5 in the 4S, but Apple was able to bring out huge performance increases by altering the exact specifications - but that's actually quite old technology. It's likely that Apple is already working on a tweaked version of the newer technology, which will offer even more headroom for big leaps in speed.
It's not just the custom design that will benefit, though. Apple will be able to make the chips smaller than ever, built with a 22nm process instead of the current 32nm. This essentially means you make the same parts, but you make them smaller. You might think this would make them more expensive, but it actually works out cheaper because you use less material, and it makes them significantly more power efficient.
6. Developing iOS
As the iPhone becomes much more powerful, we'd expect iOS to grow and take advantage of what the hardware can do. We'd still expect apps to be at the core of everything you do in iOS rather than the operating system itself, and there are plenty of steps Apple can take to allow developers to create even more powerful apps.
The number of APIs available to developers will no doubt continue to grow, giving them more options for creating apps, and integrating Apple features. We hope to see more multitasking options; it may be that in a few years the iPad will have enough power to run apps concurrently in the same way that OS X does.
We'd also expect to see better ways to manage your apps - if you have lots, it's tough to manage them. With Spotlight and Siri, it's not too difficult to find an app if you don't know where it is on your Home screens, but this isn't a substitute for good organisation.
We also expect an API for Siri eventually, so that developers can allow it to access their apps, in much the way that it does for Reminders. We also hope that developers will be able to create Notification Center widgets like Apple's Weather widget. And though Apple continues to develop what web apps can do as an alternative to App Store apps, in the future we might see a feature like Gatekeeper on OS X, where you'd have the option of installing signed apps (meaning they've been verified by Apple) from outside the App Store.
7. Better batteries
Lithium-ion batteries have been powering our rechargeable devices for a long time, and the technology behind them has proven to be reliable. But it's by no means the best solution for portable power, and we don't need to reinvent things too drastically to see improvement.
There are two main possibilities for improving battery life, one of which involves making things very small. Nanowire batteries are a variant of current lithium-ion technology, using silicon nanowires in place of the graphite used in batteries at the moment. Silicon contains up to 10 times more lithium than graphite, so the energy density is increased, allowing for batteries with less mass. They should also be able to charge faster, due to a larger surface area. There are problems with the nanowires losing charge capacity over time, but solutions are being worked on.
The other option is batteries that use oxygen to generate electricity. Metal-air batteries oxidise a metal and then reduce the oxygen to generate current - a constant supply of air is needed for them to work, but the energy density is extremely high, and they're lightweight. It's only now that the materials to build them are viable, the problem being the choice of metal.
Lithium-air batteries offer the best energy density but are too delicate - problems occur if the battery's airflow gets humid – while zincair batteries offer good energy density, but struggle to retain capacity.
2020 - iPhone 9
1. 5G
Yes, 4G's only just rolling out now, but then it took less than 10 years for the world to decide that 3G wasn't enough, and that 4G was absolutely, positively necessary. However, 5G won't be what you think. The 4G spec gives it an awful lot of headroom for growth - the initial speeds of a 50Mbps peak in practice and 100Mbps in theory will seem positively antiquated by later versions of the technology.
Eventually, 4G LTE revisions could reach download speeds of up to 1Gbps. With that sort of bandwidth available, it just isn't necessary for 5G networks to be a big speed bump, like the moves from 2G to 3G, or 3G to 4G were. Instead 5G is intended to focus on improving the mobile internet experience in other ways.
When 4G LTE handsets launched, they pretty much gave up on the idea of power efficiency in favour of high speeds. That's improving, and has already come on a long way in the iPhone 5, but getting the power usage as low as possible would be a focus for 5G development.
Reducing the likelihood of outages, improving speeds in areas with less coverage, increasing capacity for having high numbers of simultaneous users (so you won't get network problems at big events, or at time like New Year's Eve) - basically, the current 5G research is looking at making the speeds of 4G as reliable and ubiquitous as possible.
2. Liquidmetal casing
Apple has used various materials in its quest to build the perfect iPhone casing, from aluminium in the original, to plastic in the 3G/3GS, to glass in the 4/4S, and aluminium (again) in the iPhone 5. They've all suffered from practical flaws, even if they've all been improvements on each other.
The aluminium back of the iPhone 5, for example, needs to have small glass sections for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas, because the metal would otherwise block them. But Apple has exclusive rights to a technology called Liquidmetal, which could solve many of the problems with case construction.
For a start, it can be made in thin, complicated shapes easily while still providing strength; so as Apple keeps trimming millimetres off the iPhone, Liquidmetal offers a more flexible way to make the casing. It's also highly scratch-resistant and durable, helping to keep your iPhone in pristine condition even after a few years of brushing against your keys.
And, perhaps most usefully, it can actually be used as the material for the iPhone's antennas, meaning they can be integrated into the casing even more efficiently than they are now. And it's even possible to finish Liquidmetal in different ways - it can be used to make shining metal casing, textured metal and more.
One of Liquidmetal's inventors estimates that, in 2012, Apple is at least five years and several hundred million dollars away from being able to use Liquidmetal at this scale, but in the future it could offer exactly the kind of thin, strong casing needed.
3. The future of Gorilla Glass
It's something of an open secret that Corning's Gorilla Glass is what keeps the front of the iPhone scratch-free. This treated glass is extremely resistant to small amounts of damage (it can still be shattered, mind), and the latest version of the technology reduces the thickness of the glass by around 20%, while being stronger than ever. Corning told us that it would continue looking to make its glass thinner while maintaining strength.
The issue with going much thinner than it's made currently (0.5mm thick) is that the glass inevitably becomes more flexible as it gets thinner, and if it becomes too much so, it could bend and damage the screen underneath it if you applied too much pressure (by, for example, sitting on it).
However, Corning still believes it can reduce the thickness of its glass down to around 0.3mm, and it will still be as tough. Corning also make substrate glass, which is the glass that the actual screens are built with, as opposed to the cover glass, which protects the screen. Corning's latest technology aims to produce substrates that are just 0.05mm thick, which is possible because they don't need to be tough like the cover glass - the composition can be different.
Beyond that, Corning is looking into adding anti-smudge/fingerprint technology when it produces the glass, as well as coating to self-heal scratches and reduce glare to zero with impacting on screen quality.
4. A more touching experience
Just before the launch of the iPad 3, there were rumours going around that Apple would include technology from a company called Senseg in its touchscreens that allowed for haptic feedback. Haptic feedback is essentially touch feedback, and it takes many forms.
Some smartphones vibrate every time you hit a button or key on the touchscreen, in an attempt to replicate what you feel when you press a physical button. Senseg's technology is considerably more advanced, though. It uses electrical fields to actually recreate physical feeling on the touchscreen. So, if you were to run your finger along a row of keys on a keyboard, each one would actually feel as if it were physically there to your finger, even though the flat glass isn't changing at all.
It can be used to replicate different textures, and to let you 'feel' objects on screen as you move them - one of Senseg's demos involved pushing a ball on-screen.
How would this be used in iOS? While we doubt Apple would go to the trouble of offering you to feel the 'leather' in the Calendar app, you would be able to feel the switches in Settings move as you turn them off, feel the keyboard keys as you type, and it could provide a way for Braille readers to use the iPhone and iPad without any accessories needed. Developers might find it a lot of work to integrate - we're not sure how many of them will want to effectively design a physical product as well as a virtual one.
5. Your iPhone becomes your computer
In the future, the idea of buying a Windows PC or a Mac might become a totally archaic thought. Though the processing power of the iPhone in a decade's time might well surpass the power of what's in the latest laptops now, we're actually not suggesting that your iPhone will simply plug into a screen to form the guts of a computer (though this is entirely possible).
We're talking about virtualisation through the cloud. The technology already exists in 2012, being put to use in OnLive's cloud gaming service and OnLive Desktop offering. OnLive Desktop basically switches your home Windows PC for one that's in the cloud - running on a server owned by someone else. You move a mouse and type on a keyboard, those commands are sent to the server over the internet, and the video stream of the actions is sent back to your screen.
With faster internet speeds available, you'd barely be able to notice any difference to using a PC under your desk. Apple has already taken the unexpected move of making OS X available for home virtualisation, so perhaps iCloud will house the operating system in the future. In fact, iCloud might well become the operating system - you could simply run virtualised versions of applications, with no need for an OS to contain them. And the iPhone would be more than powerful enough to power this, and stream the video to a larger screen over AirPlay.
6. Siri is perfected
By this time, Siri will have had years to learn people's speech patterns, dialects and accents. It will be able to manage just about any online task for people all over the world. It will also be able to help reach all parts of your phone, and apps will be tied into it, allowing what it can do to be expanded almost infinitely.
The important thing is that it will never make mistakes, and could even start to advise you on tone. If you dictate and email or text with an angry tone, it might suggest calming down and recomposing. If you sound happy, it could append a smiley face. Apple might even move the speech recognition from the cloud to your phone.
This might seem backwards compared to the way everything else is going, but it has distinct advantages, and it's only in the future that the iPhone would have the computing power to correctly analyse speech. It means that if your internet connection goes down, you won't lose Siri's ability to perform actions on your iPhone (even if it can't do anything in the cloud), and it would make responses as fast as possible.
7. Local storage becomes obsolete
Though there will no doubt be lots of advances in storage capacity over time, it's likely to become less and less necessary. Ubiquitous fast internet speeds will make music streaming an equivalent to storing it on your device, except that you'll have access to a library larger than you could ever hope to store yourself.
Movies and TV shows won't need to be downloaded either - you'll be able to get instant 3D 4K (the heir apparent to 1080p HD) streams anywhere. On-demand content is likely to almost completely replace watching channels live, except in the case of special events. Physical media will just seem like a waste of space.
Similarly, any documents you work on will just be saved to the cloud. This is already happening, but it will simply become the norm for everything in the future. Photos will be uploaded as they're taken, stored online for you to review from any device.
Security shouldn't be a concern in the cloud - Siri could allow to even voice-authenticate access in a pinch - and backing up wouldn't be a problem, either. Even now, Dropbox saves previous versions of your documents, so they can't be lost or accidentally overwritten. We'd expect iCloud to offer the same options, just like Apple's OS X does on the Mac.
2050 - iPhone 24
1. Rollable displays
The flat, solid displays that we're used to at the moment have come on hugely in the last few years, but they put a limit on the portability of devices - their size inevitably dictates the size of the device. Flexible, rollable displays give us more options in this area. It's possible, for example, to have an iPhone where the whole screen can disappear into another area, perhaps one the size of the bottom area of the current iPhone, where the Home button sits.
It would make it incredibly small to carry around, and when you want to use it, you just pop out the screen. There's a material in development called nanocrystalline cellulose, which is transparent, incredibly strong for its weight, flexible and conducts electricity.
This means that not only can it survive the rigours of being rolled in and out all day, but it can also power a display of OLED pixels on its surface. We've already seen that OLEDs require no backlight, and so can be a part of displays that are only a fraction of a millimetre thick. In addition, nanocrystalline cellulose will also be very cheap to make, because it's derived from wood pulp.
2. See-through screen
With phones and other devices likely to only continue flooding us with information, context is vitally important. There's no better context than being able to see information applied directly to what it's describing, which is why augmented reality is incredibly useful. There are already some AR apps around in the App Store, such as map apps that point you in the direction of restaurants when you hold your phone up to point the camera around at eye height.
But it can be much more than that. Imagine a phone with a clear screen, that could overlay information about whatever's behind it. Hold it over a gadget and it would bring up specifications and purchase options. Hold it in front of a person and it overlays social network updates. It's much more seamless than what's available now, and interactive - there's no waiting for the camera to focus on the one thing that app's designed to analyse - you just hold the phone up and it fills with information, identifying what's behind it.
Our old friends OLED and nanocrystalline cellulose crop up again, here. Samsung has already shown off a transparent display based on OLED technology, so the technology is eminently achievable, but having a durable, flexible material to use will be hugely important. Like we said, nanocrystalline cellulose is actually transparent, on top of its many other virtues, so it ideal for this sort of application.
3. It's all in the eyes
Google's Glasses device is essentially a pair of glasses that records everything that happens, and displays information on the lenses, in front of your eyes. At the moment, they're inelegant headsets with a bulky battery, but some of the technology we've seen here could make them much more appealing - essentially, they could work in a pair of contact lenses instead of glasses.
With a low-enough energy draw, they could be powered by the heat of your eye, using graphene technology. They could record on tiny camera optics, and transmit what they see wirelessly to your iPhone, using carbon nanotube antennae that are microscopic in size. OLED pixels on them could display augmented reality information - the US military is already working on technology that lets you focus on things that are close up and far away at the same time, so the information would still be clear, even as you're looking at something in the distance.
The hub for all this would be your phone, receiving imagery from the contacts, and sending information to them. The iPhone itself can also use your eyes in more innovative ways, tracking where you're looking to adjust options, or even letting you control it with just your eyes. You could type, for example, simply by looking at the letters you want on the keyboard.
4. Eternal power
Better charging solutions are all very well, but in the future, wouldn't it be better if you never had to make a point of charging your iPhone at all? Advances in battery technology could allow for an iPhone that essentially powers itself. A battery that uses graphene (the same material that carbon nanotubes are made from) has been proposed and experimented with that uses thermal energy to generate electricity - that is, it's powered by heat.
So by placing the battery next to the warm computer components it's powering, it can get some energy back. Now, we're not suggesting that the laws of physics will have changed in a few decades and this will generate perpetual energy - the battery will also need energy from elsewhere to stay topped up. But that could be just about anything: your body heat when it's in your pocket; heat from your hand when you hold it; solar thermal heat.
All these things would just provide power passively, without you ever needing to think about intentionally charging it, and the power consumption of the parts in the future will be so small compared to today that it might be able to always run without any intentional power input.
5. Siri becomes truly intelligent
Though Siri is cleverly designed to be occasionally witty and appear smart in its knowledge, it's still really quite constrained. Push it past its pre-loaded instruction sets and you're likely to receive plaintive apology and an offer of a web search. And though Siri can 'learn' at the moment, it's just learning certain new connections about you, all still within the constraints of what it can do.
As much more processing power becomes available to Apple, we could see Siri advance into some much smarter - something with true intelligence. IBM is already looking at ways to bring its Watson intelligent supercomputer (which was able to beat human contestants at the gameshow Jeopardy) to smartphones, but we're talking about creations even beyond that.
Future versions of these AIs could learn the things you like in a passive and genuinely constructive way, being able to recommend some things and discard others based on what it knows about you. If you ask it something it doesn't know, it could perform research online in just a matter of moments, reading and collating information and giving you what you need to know.
We're not suggesting it needs to go as far as having distinct personality and pulling us into a Blade Runner situation, but there's a lot of scope for Siri to learn and know things more naturally, instead of within our confines.
6. The Tricorder
While the iPad made us think of the tablet computers they use in later series of Star Trek, it might well be that future versions of the iPhone make us think of the Tricorder, the general-purpose scanning and analysis device carried by the crew of the Enterprise.
NASA has been looking into devices that can easily monitor the health of astronauts in space, and diagnose any problems that arise, while the X Prize Foundation is offering $10 million if a team can create a device that can diagnose illnesses. There are various technologies that will help to bring these forwards, such as graphene-based DNA analysers.
It's not just medical applications, though. By combining an array of sensors, from pressure sensors to ultrasonic distance detectors to spectroscopy, the iPhone could receive a huge amount of information about the world. It could be its own on-board weather station, warning you of impending rain; it could identify if there are dangerous gases nearby; it could even help you find flaws with buildings. Want to know if certain water is safe to drink? Just point your iPhone at it.
Electronics will become so small that it should be possible to fit in dozens of sensors, ensuring that you'll know as much as possible about the world around you.
7. More advance build materials
When looking for a way to make devices as thin and light as possible, manufacturers will have to go beyond the traditional materials we're using now. Even the likes of Liquidmetal might not offer the strength and flexibility necessary. Nanostructures might become necessary for building materials strong enough and light enough for future devices.
The most prevalent of these is carbon nanotubes, which are formed taking a sheet of carbon that's one atom thick, known as graphene, and forming it into a tube. Carbon nanotubes have proven to be something of a wonder material - they're among the strongest and stiffest materials ever discovered, and could be even harder than diamonds.
There are all sorts of proposed uses for them, including stopping bullets (better than kevlar would), as a way to build an elevator into space (really), and for the construction of future iPhones? Considering how versatile they are, it might come as no surprise if we tell you that carbon nanotubes even make a good antenna, but at a tiny fraction of the weight of a regular antenna (one ten-thousandth the weight of a copper one, for example).
So, like the materials used in the iPhone today, carbon nanotubes could combine being a case and antenna for a future iPhone, while being almost impossibly light and small.
Generation i
In 2007, Apple introduced the iPhone as the first successful Multi-Touch device. The iPad followed three years later, and the two have come to represent as big a change in computing as the graphical user interface was 30 years beforehand. In both cases, the way of interacting was criticised by those used to the old method.
Productivity is the word most often trotted out, with claims that a graphical interface didn't give you the power of the command line abounding in 1984, and claims that a touchscreen doesn't give you the precision of a mouse pointer. The problem with these claims is that they so often confuse familiarity with necessity, and a lack of imagination with advancement.
The graphical interface has provided the kinds of productivity tools that couldn't have been dreamed of in a command line world, and a future dominated by touch gives us another opportunity to rethink how we create software, and what the best way to create things or just have fun and connect with the world is. If this sounds far-fetched to you, just look at households with both children and iPads.
Kids that are far too young to comprehend the metaphor of mouse-based interfaces – controlling a pointer that represents your hand - can instantly pick up the far more literal interaction of the iPad, where your hand is your hand. Things move how they expect to move when they drag them. Buttons react like real buttons.
It's only adults who find touch controls to be inadequate compared to the mouse and keyboard, in many cases because they can't yet get software for iOS that matches the desktop equivalent. It's a totally legitimate complaint, but it's one that's based on immediacy - you can't replace your PC with an iPad for all tasks now.
But the software will improve. By the time kids have developed the finger dexterity and comprehension necessary to use a mouse, why would they want to? Games are available on the iPad. The iPad is a more immediate research tool than a computer - it's usually to hand wherever you want to find something out, rather than tucked away in another room.
Basic word processing will have better controls in iOS in the future than it does now. The likes of Brushes offer a more natural canvas for doodling than Microsoft Paint ever did, while being easier to use. Children will start using computers regularly without needing to use a mouse, so when they do need to use more complex software, the interface will change with them.
In most cases, the tools are already on iOS, they're just not as comprehensive as their more mature desktop counterparts at the moment. But touchscreens, voice interaction and gesture controls offer a wide scope to make our software work for us, in the ways humans like to work, instead of us having to conform to computer guidelines.
As that changes, and natural interfaces develop into something as comprehensive as mouse-based interfaces, there'll still be no compelling reason to start using a mouse (except for a few fringe cases, perhaps). Advanced image editing, computer programming, design, spreadsheet and database management… these are all possible on the iPad now, and we are already witnessing them get better and more comprehensive over time.
And it's not just the mouse. Children used to the iPhone tend to try to swipe through photos on a digital camera, or expect television to be an interactive choice, instead of a linear experience. The death of the old ways of interacting won't come from some overnight decision that new interfaces are now good enough for the world to use for everything, but from obsolescence over time.
The disconnection between our hands and the action we're performing will seem needless and archaic to the generation about to start using computers. Right now, the iPad might be something you use in addition to a desktop PC, but we might be the last generation for whom that's true. Our children might never use a mouse at all.
Sky Go Extra will complement the existing live streaming app
Sky has confirmed that it will launch a new download service to allow subscribers to watch content offline on their smartphones and tablets.
The Sky Go Extra platform builds on the massively-successful Sky Go live streaming app and will offer unlimited downloads of popular movies and TV shows on to portable devices.
For £5 extra a month, existing Sky subscribers can download as much as their device will hold and each download will last for a month before expiring.
Up to four users per subscription will be able to make use of the service.
The broadcaster is also offering a two-month free trial to all subscribers in the hope of luring them away from the on-demand Netflix and Lovefilm platforms.
New movies wherever you roam
Sky's almighty array of new movies, which far outstrips any other platform, will make the Sky Go Extra app an enticing prospect for subscribers who don't get much time to sit down in front of their TV sets.
Sky's Brand Director for TV products Luke Bradley-Jones said: "The way customers are thinking about the whole TV experience is changing again and it's ultimately all about the content - however people want to watch it."
The launch makes the complete Sky Go package much more iPlayer-like, with the ability to both stream live and download content for viewing at a later time on mobile devices.
Samsung is reportedly preparing to launch a 5.8-inch smartphone called the Galaxy Fonblet.
The SamMobile site reckons that the device is similar to the Samsung Galaxy Player 5.8, a media player only available in Korea.
According to the report, the so-called Galaxy Phonblet will run Android Jelly Bean and have dual-SIM capabilities.
Further details are thin the ground, but if the source is to be believed, this might be a device to keep an eye out for at next month's Mobile World Congress expo in Barcelona.
Busy times ahead?
This last week has seen a rather disproportionate amount of Samsung mobile speculation.
Earlier in the week we reported on the possibility of a 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with the Exynos Octa eight-core processor arriving later in the year.
