SteelSeries announces its upcoming Stratus Bluetooth controller for iOS 7 devices. I’m interested in following this category because I’d like to see them catch on but at the same time it seems like it could easily be one of those technologies Apple leaves by the roadside.

(via iMore)

Ina Fried for AllThingsD:

After years of talks, Apple confirmed on Sunday that it has at long last reached a deal with China Mobile to officially carry the iPhone.

Big news. So phone? I don’t speak doge.

With just a few days left in the year, Dan Frakes provides the most informative slide show of 2013.

Some great apps just got cheaper.

The Verge’s Nathan Ingraham:

Despite a desire to have a new CEO ready to go by the end of 2013, [Microsoft] has just admitted that its search will go on for the time being — the company expects its search to be complete in the early part of 2014.

This is just my periodic reminder that Microsoft doesn’t currently have a real CEO.

The Verge’s Sean Hollister reviews the two controllers for iOS devices: the Logitech PowerShell and the Moga Ace Power. In short, they’re not good.

For $100, these gamepads wouldn’t be acceptable even if there were a library of iOS games that worked well with controllers.

As of today, there aren’t.

I enjoy a good first-person shooter and I’ve basically given up playing them on touch-based devices because I find the controls so frustrating. Between that and the potential for Apple TV integration, I’m interested to see controllers succeed. So far, not so good, though. The Verge’s Andrew Webster thinks what might be needed is an Apple-branded controller.

Ben Thompson on Apple’s terrific new ad:

What make this ad so powerful is that it is so, so real. Oh sure, the perfection of the recording and the happy coincidence of the grandparents having an AppleTV is perhaps not so plausible, but the idea of a teenage son being disconnected, yet ultimately, deep down inside, still caring, will touch the soul of parents – and young adults – in a way few ads ever will.

Remember how Apple’s ad magic was failing? Right. Yes, the Genius ads of last year weren’t great, but they weren’t a sign of anything, either.

The Verge’s Tom Warren on the rumor that Microsoft is considering free versions of Windows Phone and Windows RT:

Microsoft has been experimenting with ads in Windows 8 apps, and any associated revenue from those apps and the company’s built-in Bing search results would help offset the lack of license fees.

What, people don’t want to pay $120 for an operating system upgrade anymore?

Dan Frakes updates Macworld’s iPad keyboard roundup for this year’s models. This time around I’m going to try the ZaggKeys Cover for iPad Air when it gets released. I got used to the Kensington, but the Zagg has backlit keys.