Xiaomi’s Tegra K1-based Mi Pad is now available in India, with the 16GB model listed exclusively on Flipkart for Rs. 12,999 ($210).

Xiaomi has launched a smaller variant of its Mi TV 2 that offers a 40-inch full-HD display for the equivalent of $320.

Young Horses Inc are hard at work on Octodad, a genre defying ID@Xbox game climbing across from PS4 and PC to Xbox One.

I caught up with Young Horses Inc’s Philip Tibitoski to discuss Octodad, ID@Xbox, future projects, and much more!

All Apple has said about the Apple Watch display is that it’s ‘flexible Retina’, yet it’s widely believed to be OLED.

That’s interesting because Apple has thus far eschewed OLED (organic light-emmitting diode) displays for iPhone and iPad due to what the company said were the compromises needed to produce the panel at those sizes. A look back at things like PenTile and over-saturation in generations past makes that point hard to argue. Modern OLED, however, has improved considerably. At Apple Watch size, where power efficiency is the priority, those compromises start to fall in OLED’s favor.

How much of a challenge developers will face designing for small OLED screens remains to be seen. Apple’s been careful to seed best practices, such as using black background, into the Apple Watch HIG from the start.
– Designing for the Apple Watch

Also interesting is how the Apple Watch display and HIG fit into the wider design language that’s been rolled out across Apple’s products, starting with iOS 7 in 2013 and OS X Yosemite in 2014.

Craig Hockenberry, writing on Furbo.org:

I’ve always felt that the flattening of Apple’s user interface that began in iOS 7 was as much a strategic move as an aesthetic one. Our first reaction was to realize that an unadorned interface makes it easier to focus on content.

But with this new display technology, it’s clear that interfaces with fewer pixels have another advantage. A richly detailed button from iOS 6 would need more of that precious juice strapped to our wrists. Never underestimate the long-term benefits of simplification.

John Gruber, writing on Daring Fireball

Apple hasn’t officially stated that Apple Watch uses an AMOLED display, but it’s sort of an open secret. The other thing is, regardless of the underlying display technology, iOS 6-style skeuomorphism would’ve felt downright gauche on the watch. I don’t think iOS or OS X needed to eschew skeuomorphic textures, but Apple Watch did.

An iOS 5-era Apple Watch would have been interesting to see, just from a design perspective. But I agree with John.

Apple Watch feels like it was born of the post-skeumorphic age. iOS 7 feels like it wasn’t so much in preparation for the Apple Watch as it was in parallel to it. (Whereas the adaptive interface and the multiple display sizes found on the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, and the rumored multi-window and iPad Pro, feel like the direct result of the changes that came with iOS 7.)

Like Yosemite, the watch also feels as though t’s been allowed to go in its own direction. For example, the big 3D, squash-able emoji.

That said, it’s not hard to imagine OLED will one day move to the iPhone and iPad, and then black backgrounds and high contrast interfaces, like those on the Apple Watch, could be just as important on iOS as they are on WatchOS.

• iOS 9 wish-list: Universal night theme

There might be some idiosyncrasies involved in designing for OLED that might affect the way some apps are designed, and there might be some surprises for developers who only ever tested colors and contract on the simulator. (Which is why Apple is trying to give as many devs as hands-on time as possible.)

Compared to the changes involved in going from standard to Retina density, from 3:2 to 16:9 aspect ratio, from phone to tablet scale, from richly textured to flat, from pixel-perfect to adaptive interface, going to OLED shouldn’t be much of a problem.

Becoming Steve Jobs, the unofficial biography of Apple’s co-founder that even in pre-released gained accolades far beyond the official one, is now available for purchase.

Written by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, the book covers the life of Steve Jobs, and includes interviews with Apple executives like Tim Cook.

• $12.99 – iBooks – Download now
• $15.60 – Kindle – Download now
• $35.00 – Audible – Download now

Becoming Steve Jobs takes on and breaks down the existing myth and stereotypes about Steve Jobs. The conventional, one-dimensional view of Jobs is that he was half-genius, half-jerk from youth, an irascible and selfish leader who slighted friends and family alike. Becoming Steve Jobs answers the central question about the life and career of the Apple cofounder and CEO: How did a young man so reckless and arrogant that he was exiled from the company he founded become the most effective visionary business leader of our time, ultimately transforming the daily life of billions of people?

Drawing on incredible and sometimes exclusive access, Schlender and Tetzeli tell a different story of a real human being who wrestled with his failings and learned to maximize his strengths over time. Their rich, compelling narrative is filled with stories never told before from the people who knew Jobs best, and who decided to open up to the authors, including his family, former inner circle executives, and top people at Apple, Pixar and Disney, most notably Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Ed Catmull, John Lasseter, Robert Iger and many others. In addition, Brent knew Jobs personally for 25 years and draws upon his many interviews with him, on and off the record, in writing the book. He and Rick humanize the man and explain, rather than simply describe, his behavior. Along the way, the book provides rich context about the technology revolution we all have lived through, and the ways in which Jobs changed our world.

My copy is downloading now.

Fans of the critically acclaimed fantasy RPG Dragon Age: Inquisition will have a big day on Tuesday, March 24 if they own a PC or Xbox One. Developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts have confirmed that the first major DLC expansion for the game, Jaws of Hakkon, will be released on that day for those platforms.

One of the challenges the Apple faces is a generation of people who, in part because of the advent of cellphones, simply don’t wear watches.

To get people to start wearing an Apple Watch, the company is going to have to present them with either a compelling feature or, more likely, a set of features that, when combined together, become compelling. Ariel Adams writing for A Blog to Watch:

I’ve said that compared to the Apple Watch, most other smartwatches (especially those with digital screens) feel like toys. I don’t say that to insult other companies or because I love Apple, but I say it as a way of explaining the build and feel of the Apple Watch. Most of today’s Google Android Wear-based devices look like facsimiles of a watch, but not something a serious watch lover would ever consider as “nice.” The Apple Watch feels like a genuine modern manifestation of the watch, complete with quality materials and a very pleasant ergonomic and tactile experience. It is a watch product that would have naturally come about if the traditional watch industry continued to modernize and develop after the quartz watch became the status quo. After putting the traditional watch industry in a bad place, Apple has now come to the rescue of the watch truly bringing in to the 21st century, which is exactly what I said after my initial first-hand experience in my Apple Watch hands-on article.

The entire article is fascinating, since it’s written by and for watch people on a watch site, not gadget people on a gadget site. And it sums up what Apple faces with the watch industry.

Apple has the dual role of having to convince people to buy their smartwatch as well as having to convince people to wear watches again. Apple has taken upon itself the large task of developing a nascent market and educating a large base of consumers. Perhaps no one is better equipped than Apple, but I think it is important to understand this when judging the short versus long-term success of the Apple Watch. My feeling is that the first year will be an important awareness and eduction-building time for Apple with the Apple Watch. That is because, in my opinion, most people will only develop a desire for one by having personal experience with it and seeing other people around them using it. Unlike other tech products that people have experience with or can understand in pictures and videos, the Apple Watch is part of a new category of technology products that consumers need to learn to love and want.

It’s a long read, but a worthwhile one.