Sony Unveils PlayStation 4 Console Taking on Microsoft - Bloomberg

Sony Corp. (6758) unveiled the PlayStation 4, its first new console in seven years, taking the battle to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) with a lower-priced machine, original content and fresh titles as it targets a return to video-game dominance.

The PS4 will cost $399 in the U.S., 20 percent less than Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony executives said yesterday at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. The machine, with sharp edges and blue highlights, allows unlimited used-game sales and doesn't require an Internet connection, a contrast to two unpopular Microsoft features.

The console is crucial to Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai's plan to turn around Tokyo-based Sony's electronics business. A successful PS4 would bolster Hirai's financial resources as he focuses on making television manufacturing profitable after nine years of losses. Sony won Round 1, according to Michael Pachter, an analyst with Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities who called the pricing strategy "genius."

"Microsoft made a mistake at $499," Pachter said. "They priced at 100 pounds and euros and dollars too high. Sony exploited that and priced about right. Right now, I think most consumers think they're buying a PS4."

To expand sales, Sony and Microsoft are looking to broaden their audiences beyond gamers by adding music, films and TV shows, with some of that content exclusive. The challenge for both companies is to capture mainstream consumers, who would otherwise play on smartphones or tablets, without alienating serious gamers.

Movies, Originals

Sony will bring original programming to the PlayStation Network and PlayStation 4, Sony's U.S. CEO, Michael Lynton, said from the stage at E3. The device will feature movie services like Time Warner Inc.'s Flixster and Redbox Instant, from Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Coinstar Inc. (CSTR) Sony also said it would tailor programming to gamers as the company squares off against Microsoft to re-establish hardware dominance.

The PS4 will go on sale in the U.S. and Europe before the year-end holidays, Sony said. It will cost 399 euros ($530) in Europe and 349 pounds ($544) in the U.K. The machine has 30 titles in development, with 20 slated for sale the first year, Sony executives said, showing titles including "The Order: 1886," "Infamous: Second Son" and Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI)'s "Destiny."

U.S. retail spending on video games, including used games and rentals, fell 9 percent to $1.37 billion in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to industry researcher NPD Group. Digitally delivered content rose 8 percent to $1.59 billion.

Entertainment Mandate

Microsoft, which has led console sales in the past couple of years with the Xbox 360, yesterday introduced the $499 Xbox One, which goes on sale in November. It will cost 429 pounds in the U.K. and 499 euros, the company said. Nintendo Co (7974). debuted its Wii U console in November starting at about $300.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, is positioning its new console as the center of living-room entertainment. Exclusives, TV shows and features like Skype video calling, along with accessories such as the Kinect controller and SmartGlass mobile second-screen application, justify a premium price, Don Mattrick, president of Microsoft's interactive entertainment business, said in an interview.

"We're overdelivering value against other choices," Mattrick said. "Any modern product these days, when you look at it, $499 isn't a ridiculous price point."

Xbox Subsidies?

Subsidies could become an important factor in competition between the Xbox and PS4, Pachter said in a Twitter posting. Internet service providers are expected to subsidize the Xbox, lowering the sticker price for consumers, he said.

At E3, Sony was looking to dent some of Microsoft's perceived advantages. Sony touted its $49.99-a-year PlayStation Plus service, which has lagged behind the popular Xbox Live. It works on all PlayStation devices, and members will receive one free game a month.

Sony also said it will fully support used-game sales and won't require players to log in to the Internet to play, drawing a distinction from Microsoft, which has set limits on reuse and requires all games to be authenticated once every 24 hours.

"Microsoft really convinced themselves of the value proposition, and they wanted to make money on the box," Pachter said. "The Microsoft multimedia features have a ton of value, but I'm not sure Microsoft really demonstrated that it's worth the extra money."

The PS4 could factor into a background drama playing out at Sony. Billionaire investor Daniel Loeb is pressuring Hirai to restructure the company by selling at least part of the entertainment unit in an initial public offering. Sony's board is considering the proposal.

Lost Lead

Film and television generated 26 percent of Sony's operating income in the fiscal year ended March 31, while music, featuring Adele and Bruce Springsteen, represented 20 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The company wants to use the PS4 to digitally deliver movies and music to the home, which, if successful, would underscore the rationale for keeping the company together.

Under Hirai's direct leadership, the PlayStation was a profit center for Sony consumer electronics. The company lost its lead in the last generation of consoles while remaining an important launchpad for the company's technology and services, including DVD and Blu-ray players, and its online video and music stores.

Nintendo's original Wii sold the most units in the last console generation, and Xbox has sold the most in the past two years or so. The Wii U has generated disappointing sales, and analyst Doug Creutz at Cowen Securities LLC predicted a possible price cut.

Entertainment Ties

Sony has set a target of generating 70 percent of revenue and 85 percent of operating profit in the electronics unit from games, digital imaging and mobile devices by March 2015. The troubled TV business, the world's third-largest, is being squeezed between Samsung Electronics Co.'s efficient manufacturing and Chinese set-makers' lower prices.

Sony rose 3.1 percent to 2,041 yen at 2:15 p.m. in Tokyo trading, extending its gain for the year to 113 percent. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average declined 1 percent.

The company's American Depositary Receipts rose 2.8 percent to $20.11 yesterday in New York. The shares have advanced 80 percent this year. Microsoft fell 0.6 percent to $35.47 in New York and is up 33 percent for 2013.

Microsoft and Sony have struggled at times to get the messaging right for the two consoles, which will have similar PC-based architectures and capacities. While Sony's February presentation was heavy on games, Microsoft's was seen as too focused on other entertainment. At E3, their goals were reversed, Pachter said.

"Sony needed to talk about everything else the box will do, and Microsoft needed to talk about games," Pachter said. "The two companies are going to end up in the same place, which is delivering great games and other content."

To contact the reporter on this story: Cliff Edwards in San Francisco at cedwards28@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

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Sony Network Entertainment President Andrew House

Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Andrew House, president of Sony Network Entertainment, announces the pricing for the new PlayStation 4 at the Sony E3 2013 press conference in Los Angeles on June 10, 2013.

Andrew House, president of Sony Network Entertainment, announces the pricing for the new PlayStation 4 at the Sony E3 2013 press conference in Los Angeles on June 10, 2013. Photographer: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

Enlarge image

Sony Unveils PlayStation 4 Console Pressing Fight With Microsoft

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The Sony Corp. Playstation logo is displayed at the Game Developers Conference 2013 in San Francisco.

The Sony Corp. Playstation logo is displayed at the Game Developers Conference 2013 in San Francisco. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Microsoft retrieves lost Windows Phone handset running on prototype software - The Verge

Apple famously lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar, sparking a hunt for the individuals involved in the loss and sale of the handset. Microsoft has also lost a phone, one running a future Windows Phone 'Blue' version of its mobile software. A Reddit user posted screenshots and information obtained from the device over the weekend, generating interest in unannounced features for Windows Phone which included an early prototype of a notification center. The Verge reached out to the Reddit user in question, and this is the story of the lost secret Windows Phone.

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Jeremiah Wong purchased a Lumia 920 from eBay on June 5th from a seller located in Seattle. "The phone in the pictures looked different," says Wong, speaking exclusively to The Verge. "Mainly the Start Screen had the feedback hub, also etching on the back that read MSFT." Wong initially thought the device was a developer kit because it had the special etching alongside a cracked screen, but it was a lot more important. So important in fact that Microsoft wanted it back.

"Apparently the guy who owned it lost it on a bus..."

After posting screenshots of the software running on the device, and accidentally revealing his cellphone number in the process, Wong was contacted by Microsoft's legal team. Microsoft locked the phone remotely and requested that Wong take down his photos from his Flickr account. "Apparently the guy who owned it lost it on a bus. It was then picked up and sold," he says. Instead of pursuing Wong, Microsoft has offered to reimburse him for the cost of the device and also ship him a replacement phone. "I was incredibly surprised at the lack of intimidation and even more surprised at their accommodation," says Wong.

Windows Phone Blue

Sources familiar with Microsoft's Windows Phone plans have revealed to The Verge that the software is early prototype work for an upcoming update codenamed Blue. Describing the software, Wong says it had "pretty much everything he wanted," but that "a few things needed work still." The screenshots revealed Microsoft's work on a much-requested notification center for Windows Phone and some improvements to multitasking and the general usability of the app view.

As the improvements are only at the prototyping phase, it's unlikely that all of them will be included in a final version of Windows Phone Blue. The Verge understands this update is not scheduled for release until early next year. While the screenshots show a notification center as part of a separate application, it's likely this implementation — if it ships at all — will change by the time Windows Phone Blue is released.

Microsoft spokespeople refused to discuss the screenshots, and the company is not commenting on the return of its lost device.

Mad Catz joins the Android micro-console battle with Project MOJO - The Guardian

Technology startup Ouya made waves in 2012 when it raised $8.6m on Kickstarter to make an Android-powered games console that would be sold for less than $100.

In 2013, it's one of several such devices jostling for the attention of gamers and developers. Gaming accessories maker Mad Catz is the latest manufacturer to enter the fray with a device codenamed Project M.O.J.O.

When it goes on sale, it will go head-to-head with Ouya, as well as rival "micro-consoles" GameStick and Gamepop, although Project M.O.J.O. appears to be the furthest from a commercial launch. According to IGN, the device is still "in its prototyping stage", with hardware specifications yet to be nailed down.

It suggests that the device will ship with 16GB of internal storage, two USB ports, possibly Nvidia's Tegra 4 processor, and the ability to download games from existing Android app stores like Google Play and Amazon Appstore, as well as the ability to stream and play games wirelessly from a PC.

Project M.O.J.O. will sit within Mad Catz's GameSmart range of mobile gaming accessories, which includes the C.T.R.L. wireless gamepad, R.A.T. and M.O.U.S. wireless mice and F.R.E.Q. headphones – all of which will presumably work with the new micro-console.

The timing of Mad Catz's announcement, as the E3 games-industry show gets underway in Los Angeles, emphasises that the Android micro-consoles will be a prominent sub-plot at the event, even if announcements around Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii-U will hog more headlines.

For more evidence, see the announcement on Friday (7 June) by Gamepop's maker BlueStacks that its device has been designed to make it easy for developers to port their iOS games, to bolster the 500-odd Android titles that will be available when it launches towards the end of 2013.

That's the key battleground for all these devices: attracting talented developers with well-known iOS and Android games, but also original (and possibly exclusive) titles, to help them stand out from their rivals, and give gamers confidence that they'll be around for the long-term.

Independent developer Overdose Caffeine caused a stir in May when it announced that it was ending development of its multiplayer space-dogfighting game Pocket Fleet for Ouya and switching to Gamepop instead.

E3 will be bursting at the seams with announcements of new games for PS4, Xbox One and Wii-U. But keep an eye too on what Ouya, BlueStacks and Gamestick's owner PlayJam have to say about developer support for their own devices, as well as further details of Mad Catz's plans.

There's a lively debate about whether any of these micro-consoles has a healthy future, though, given the growing popularity of gaming on smartphones and tablets, and the growing ease with which they can be connected wirelessly to a TV when desired.

The theory of playing Android games on the living room's bigger screen may sound appealing, but the micro-console makers still have to prove that millions of people will want to buy a new device to do it, rather than use the ones already in their hands.

Windows NT grandaddy OpenVMS taken out back, single gunshot heard - Register

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Digital Compaq HP has announced the end of support for OpenVMS, the ancient but trustworthy server operating system whose creator went on to build Windows NT.

OpenVMS started out as VAX/VMS on Digital Equipment Corporation's VAX minicomputers, then later was ported to DEC's fast Alpha RISC chips – before the Compaq acquisition of Digital led to their untimely demise. HP ported the software to the Itanium, but HP isn't going to bother moving to the last generation of IA64 and support will finally end in 2015.

VAX-11/VMS started out in 1977 as "Starlet", a new OS for DEC's new 32-bit minis, the VAX range, codenamed "Star". VAX was a 32-bit upgrade to the 16-bit PDP-11 to give it virtual memory capabilities, and VMS derived from RSX-11M, the multiuser version of the PDP's real-time OS.

A very popular business OS in the late 1970s and 1980s, VAX/VMS ended up on minicomputers from small to mainframe-sized as well as personal workstations, running the X Window System and CDE desktop. As the VAX architecture aged, DEC ported it to the new Alpha chip, giving OpenVMS-Alpha a new lease of life in which it supported AGP graphics cards and OpenGL.

We're gonna party like it's nine-nines ... DECwindows CDE running on OpenVMS 7.3-1 (Source)

OpenVMS also sports world-class clustering abilities, allowing a whole group of dissimilar machines to function as a single server, leading to uptimes of many years as individual machines can be taken offline, their hardware or even entire OS upgraded or replaced, then brought back up and to rejoin the cluster. A single cluster could contain mixed hardware architectures and mixed OS versions, allowing a level of flexibility no other OS has ever matched.

It also ran LAN Manager, the basis of Windows NT networking, in the form of DEC's Pathworks suite to act as a server to PC networks.

The architect of RSX-11M and VMS was Dave Cutler, who planned a portable, object-oriented successor, PRISM. When DEC wasn't interested, he and some of his team decamped to Microsoft, where they were given the project of reviving the moribund OS/2 3 project after the IBM-Microsoft split. While OS/2 2 was the Intel 386 version, OS/2 3 was to be portable to non-x86 processors. Both PRISM and OS/2 3 fed into the new OS Cutler built for the Intel i860 CPU, a RISC/VLIW chip Intel had hoped might be a successor to the x86 line.

There were two versions of the chip – the basic i860XR, codenamed the N10, and the enhanced i86XP, codenamed N11. Microsoft built its own i860 workstations for the development effort, based around the i860XTR and consequently nick-named the "N-Ten". The initials of these – NT – is where the eventual name for Cutler's finished OS: Windows NT.

In a way, this brought the family full-circle, as the original progenitor of MS-DOS was Digital Research's CP/M, itself also inspired by a DEC OS – TOPS-10 for the PDP-10. This is where DOS and Windows get command names such as "DIR" and "SET" and their original eight-dot-three-letter filenames from, along with file types such as ".TXT" and ".EXE".

HP never really promoted its acquisition and OpenVMS suffered from a lack of development compared to HP-UX, itself suffering from competition from Linux. It was only a matter of time, but it's a sad end. Many of its old-time fans, your correspondent included, cherished a hope HP would move it to x86-64 – but since development moved to India in 2009, OpenVMS has been living on borrowed time. Now, it's run out. ®

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Xbox One E3 Keynote: The Best Pictures, Videos And News From Microsoft's ... - Huffington Post UK

Microsoft has unveiled the next stage of its plans for the Xbox One at the E3 conference in Los Angeles.

The company gave the gaming world its first glimpse of the console last month, focusing particularly on its multimedia features including live TV and Blu-Ray integration. But it used E3 to show off what the new console can do for gamers, and unveiled several new franchises.

The biggest news from the event included:

Hardware

• A new Xbox One-influenced 360 box, available "today", with a smaller, "sleeker" design
• A new programme for Xbox Live Gold members which offers two free game downloads a month, to keep, per member

Games

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - an open-world reimagining of the MGS universe, set partly in Afghanistan, complete with Red Dead Redemption-style horses and quite stunning visuals.

Ryse: Son of Rome - an exceptionally violent God Of War-style third-person action game focusing on a Roman centurion and his travels through the Empire. Incorporates elements of strategy and Call of Duty style gameplay, with lots of quick-time events and other mechanics familiar from similar games.

Killer Instinct - the fast-paced megacombo fighting game is back on Xbox One.

Forza 5 - new details about the upcoming racer, including how it will generate races automatically from your ghost data so that you're 'racing' your friends and family even when you're not at your console.

• This product image released by Microsoft shows the new Xbox One entertainment console that will go on sale later this year. Microsoft is seeking to stay ahead of rivals in announcing that new content that can be downloaded for the popular "Call of Duty" game will launch first on Xbox One. Microsoft says more games will be shown at next month's E3 video game conference in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Microsoft)

• Microsoft Corp.'s next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system is shown on stage Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash. It's been eight years since the launch of the Xbox 360. The original Xbox debuted in 2001, and its high-definition successor premiered in 2005. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

• A controller for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system is on display after its unveiling Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash. The Xbox One, a next-generation entertainment console that promises to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies and other entertainment, will go on sale later this year. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

• This Tuesday, May 21, 2013 photo shows a rear view of Microsoft Corp.'s next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console, on display at an event in Redmond, Wash. The Xbox One, a next-generation entertainment console that promises to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies and other entertainment, will go on sale later this year. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

• XBOX One

  The Kinect motion-sensing device for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system is on display Tuesday, May 21, 2013, at an event in Redmond, Wash. The Xbox One, a next-generation entertainment console that promises to be the one system households will need for games, television, movies and other entertainment, will go on sale later this year. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

• The new controller for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox One entertainment and gaming console system is shown front and center with older-generation controllers behind it, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Redmond, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

• Xbox One

Microsoft borks botnet takedown in Citadel snafu - Register

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Security researchers are complaining about collateral damage from the latest botnet take-down efforts by Microsoft and its partners.

The Windows 8 giant worked with financial service organisations, other technology firms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to disrupt more than a thousand botnets.

The botnets in question were using Citadel malware to run cybercrime scams blamed for more than $500m in fraud. The action, authorised by a federal court ruling and carried out last week, involved raids at server-hosting facilities in the US to seize evidence related to the malware.

The takedown – codenamed Operation b54 – is the latest in an ongoing campaign against various zombie networks spearheaded by Microsoft.

In a blog post, Microsoft described its seventh zombie network takedown as its "most aggressive botnet operation to date".

However, this time round Redmond appears to have stepped on the toes of security researchers, killing off honeypot systems monitoring the activities of cybercrooks as well as decapitating systems linked to ongoing fraud.

Microsoft seized more than 4,000 domain names and pointed them to a server operated by them, a technique known as "sinkholing". The technique isn't new and has been previously applied in attempts to seize control of the infamous Conficker botnet, for example.

Redmond and its partners allegedly erred by seizing more than 300 Citadel domains that were sinkholed by abuse.ch (home of the Swiss Security Blog), as well as many hundreds of similar domains controlled by other security researchers, critics complain.

"Microsoft seized not only malicious domain names operated by cybercriminals to control computers infected with Citadel, but also Citadel botnet domain names that had already been sinkholed by abuse.ch awhile ago," a researcher at abuse.ch complains.

Security bods suffer deja-vu

Something similar happened with a ZeuS takedown operation by Microsoft last year, when thousands of ZeuS botnet domains were seized, including several hundred domain names that were already sinkholed by abuse.ch. Previously Redmond had the reasonable excuse that there was no easy way to distinguish between domains run by crooks and domains run by security researchers.

However, the latest action comes after abuse.ch set up a (non-public) Sinkhole Registry for law enforcement and security organisations to avoid similar mixups.

"I had hoped that Microsoft had learned their lesson, but apparently nothing has changed and my efforts didn't change anything," the unnamed researcher at abuse.ch laments.

"Since Citadel domain names previously sinkholed by abuse.ch have been grabbed by Microsoft, Shadowserver will not be able to report the IP addresses of infected clients calling home to these domains to the network owners any more," he added.

The issue is not limited to abuse.ch, as several other sinkhole operators have also been hit: "Calculating the numbers together, I can say that nearly 1,000 domain names out of the 4,000 domain names seized by Microsoft had already been sinkholed by security researchers. In fact these 1k domain names did no longer present a threat to internet users [sic], but were actually used to help to make the internet a better place."

Microsoft is sending out valid Citadel configuration files to the connecting bots. This configuration file causes the block on accessing anti-virus vendors' websites to be removed from infected machines, as well as getting the fall-back (backup) C&C domains to be overwritten by servers operated by Microsoft (microsoftinternetsafety.net).

Although well-intentioned, sending out valid configuration files changes the settings of a computer without the consent or knowledge of the user; a potentially illegal move in many jurisdictions, according to the unimpressed security researcher at abuse.ch, who warns that crooks are inevitably going to attempt to try to seize back control of the botnet.

Other security researchers backed up the criticisms.

Collateral damage on b54 abuse.ch/?p=5362 my friends at @abuse_ch are so damn right.

— Claudio (@botherder) June 7, 2013

The Citadel malware targeted via the takedown had been used to build more than 1,400 botnets affecting more than five million people in 90 countries, according to figures from email security firm Agari, which worked with Microsoft and other on the operation.

Once infected, the victim's keystrokes were monitored and recorded, allowing crooks to siphon off banking login credentials and other personal information for subsequent fraud. As part of the FBI operation, communication has been cut off between 1,462 Citadel botnets and the millions of infected computers under their control.

Unplugging botnet command and control servers renders a zombie network inert, but does nothing to clean-up infected hosts, which remain contaminated with malware. Microsoft plans to use intelligence gained in Operation b54 to work with ISPs and Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) around the world to quickly and efficiently clean as many computers as possible. ®

Bootnote

Abuse.ch was set up by Swiss security researcher Roman Hüssy, and played a key role in setting up sites to track the activities of malicious activity associated with the ZeuS and SpyEye families of banking Trojans. The Shadowserver Foundation is a collaborative net security effort that tracks and reports on malware, botnet activity and cybercrime. The volunteer-staffed foundation takes data supplied by abuse.ch and many others.

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With iPad Mini Keyboards, It's (Literally) the Little Things - All Things Digital

I'm typing this column on an iPad mini, using an accessory physical keyboard. Despite my best efforts to maintain a normal typing posture, my hands are squeezed comically close together because the keyboard is so tiny.

I wrote a similar review a year ago, using a keyboard for the regular-sized iPad. For me, having the tactile keys changed the iPad from a media-consumption device to one I could use for work, and I gave the Ultrathin Keyboard Cover from Logitech the thumbs-up.

More recently, I've become a fan of the iPad mini — it has essentially replaced the standard 10-inch iPad for me — but I still use the 7.9-inch device almost entirely for reading books, playing games and browsing the Web. So I wondered: Could an accessory physical keyboard change my mind again?

With that in mind, I've been trying out four keyboard cases for the iPad mini: Logitech's $80 Ultrathin Keyboard Cover, Logitech's $90 Folio Keyboard, Zagg's Zaggkeys $100 Cover Keyboard and the Zaggkeys Folio Keyboard, also $100. (I should note that I was, at first, accidentally provided with the Logitech Folio for the regular iPad, and was unable to use the Folio for iPad mini as much as I would have liked.) The Logitech keyboard cases are available for purchase now; the Zaggkeys products will ship in July.

All three keyboard cases connect to the iPad mini via Bluetooth, and offer a variety of handy shortcut keys. They all claim a battery-life expectancy of about three months.

Throughout the week, I've taken notes, responded to emails and written blog posts using these keyboards. My pick out of these three is the Zaggkeys Folio keyboard, despite the fact that it's $10 more than Logitech's Folio keyboard, and $20 more than Logitech's Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. I did run into one glitch with the Zagg, but the company said it would be fixed in the shipping models.

The Folio styles cover both sides of the iPad, while the Cover styles only cover the screen of the iPad — leaving the tablet's backside exposed and vulnerable to scratches. The Zaggkey's Keyboard Folio felt sturdy and durable, and yet pretty lightweight. It's just 16.75mm thin compared with the Logitech Folio, which is 25mm.

But, more importantly, Zaggkeys products have a much better keyboard layout than that of the Logitech Keyboard Cover and Folio for iPad mini. The Logitech keyboard cases for iPad mini leave a lot of empty space in their designs, forcing cramped keys on both of them. The Zaggkeys designs devote about 30 percent more space to the actual keyboard. When you're dealing with such small keyboards to begin with, even a little bit of extra space makes typing feel more natural.

Technically, you can use a larger Bluetooth keyboard with the iPad mini, as well, but it wouldn't be as compact for travel or storage.

I'm still not hooked on using the iPad mini for work. It's just a little small for me.

But let's say you use it in transit quite a bit, whether you're commuting daily on a train or taking frequent flights for business; or you prefer carrying the iPad mini to meetings over your larger laptop. Here's what you need to know about these cases.

Logitech's $80 Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad mini is strikingly similar to its Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for the regular iPad. It has a little magnetic trough that the iPad mini snaps into; the keys are laid out below that. The iPad mini can then be removed from the groove and attached to the hinge of the case — also magnetic — and folded over to cover the screen of the iPad.

The $90 Logitech Folio, on the other hand, holds the iPad mini in a plastic pocket built within the top flap. This flap is totally bendable: It can jut forward to hold the mini upright over the keys, bend over backwards to use the mini tablet-style, or close over the keys to use it as a full wrap-around cover for the mini and keyboard.

The keys on these cases are smooth and glossy, but small compared to the keys of the cases for the larger iPad. I didn't particularly like typing on them. While the alphabet keys are about the same size as Zaggkeys, the Logitech number buttons are the size of my pinky nail; the space bar, function, control and command buttons are squat compared to the Zaggkeys; and ancillary keys, like brackets and backslash, are squeezed.

The Zaggkeys keyboard cases are more spacious. The plastic keys feel velvety and springy, and Zagg has managed to fit an entire row of specified function keys above the number keys. I was able to activate Siri by typing the microphone button, and copy-and-paste using designated buttons for those actions — no function button needed.

On the left, the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover for iPad Mini. On the right, the Zaggkeys Keyboard Cover.

The Zaggkeys Folio, my favorite, is thicker than Cover cases, but offers full front and back protection of the mini. It's made of a textured plastic that feels leathery and durable. Unlike the Logitech keyboard cases, you can adjust the angle of the iPad mini when it's nestled in the case.

Zagg has made some sacrifices for space. The "1? key is smaller than the other number keys, and the caps lock and tab buttons are squeezed onto the same tiny key on the left.

But, fortunately, the delete key is a normal size, unlike the delete key of the Logitech keyboards.

Another bonus is that both the Zaggkeys Folio and the Cover come with backlit keyboards, something that's normally reserved for Zagg's ProFolio+ line of products. The backlighting has varying levels of brightness, and can be changed to seven different colors, including yellow, red, purple and blue.

Again, it's the little things.

On the left, the Zaggkeys Keyboard Folio for iPad mini. On the right, the Logitech Keyboard Folio.

I did encounter a glitch with the Zaggkeys Folio case: On a few occasions, the keys seemed to get "stuck," but not physically, which leads me to believe there may have been an issue with the connectivity between the keyboard and the iPad mini.

For example, I would type as usual, but my notes would come out as, "Buttonnns … batteryyy life … keys areee doingggggggggggggg something strange???"  When I asked Zagg about this, the product manager said it's likely because I was using an early version of the keyboard; any glitches should be fixed by ship date, he said.

Typing on an accessory keyboard for the iPad mini was, for me, the equivalent of going for an annual physical exam. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it was something I resisted doing until I absolutely had to. If I had to choose one of the three keyboard cases I used, I'd go with the Zaggkeys Folio.