It's that time of year again: The birds are chirping. Flowers are blooming. And your co-workers are frantically pinching and tapping their phones to see if their bracket has been busted by the latest upset. In March, the NCAA Tournament is big business. Pools are plentiful, and everyone needs to know exactly where they stand at all times. Our iPhones may be great to check scores and match-ups, but the tiny screen isn't exactly ideal for viewing a 64-team bracket. Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost of Studio Neat saw this as more than a minor inconvenience. It was a problem, and they set out to solve it.

You may have read the rumor that Apple is building a new iPhone model to compete in the low-cost, contract-free market that Samsung pretty much dominates. There are loads of these phones on the market, with lame specs and flimsy enclosures, and it's hard to believe that Apple would ever stoop so low as to make one. But Apple's build quality had less to do with the materials it chooses and more to do with its tremendous attention to detail, even if it means struggling to meet demand.

Despite what you may have read in the press, Apple's influence on the tech world is just as strong as it's ever been. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 released last month is clearly aimed at the iPad mini, and its Wallet app, let's just say, is inspired by Passbook. Amazon's recent TV ad directly pits its 1900x1200 Kindle Fire HD against the iPad's retina screen (and price). And Blackberry is so tweaked by Apple, at least one of its executives can't even bring himself to speak his competitor's name in public. But no matter how hard they try, no matter how much time Apple gives them to catch up, there's one thing none of them can seem to get right: the art of the product reveal.

We've been reading a lot about wearable computers these days. From Google Glass to Pebble to Apple's rumored iWatch, it seems like everyone is developing some kind of high-tech fashion accessory, with the singular goal of making it easier to access the data on the devices we use each day. But as far as I can tell, only one company is making a bona fide wearable computer — that is, a full desktop operating system we can wear on our wrists.