As part of announcements at Microsoft’s Build 2016 conference today, Skype announced a new ‘Bots’ platform that it’s launching today in preview mode for developers and users in the iPhone and iPad apps (as well as Android and Windows, but not on Mac).
Update: A source close to Microsoft tells me the software – which is not yet complete – will be used only by public sector agencies. No information was provided as to how the software differs from the standard Chinese version of Windows 10.
While Apple has strongly resisted building a special ‘GovtOS’ to provide the U.S. government with access to iOS devices, it appears that Microsoft has no such qualms. TechInAsia reports that Microsoft has created a special version of Windows 10 for China, called Windows 10 Zhuangongban, which includes “more management and security controls.”
In a surprise move, the U.S. online Apple Store now presents Microsoft Office 365 as a recommended iPad accessory when you buy the new 9.7-inch iPad Pro. It’s unclear when this started happening, as The Verge notes that it also appears when purchasing the iPad Air 2, iPad mini 2, or iPad mini 4, but some readers report having seen it for a couple of weeks or more.
The move is surprising for two reasons …
As its battle with the FBI continues, Apple has reportedly hired a former Amazon executive to oversee its corporate digital defenses, according to Reuters. George Stathakopoulos was vice president of information security at Amazon for 6 years and was a general manager at Microsoft for 10 years before joining Amazon. At Apple, Stathakopoulos will report to CFO Luca Maestri.
It was reported yesterday that Apple was looking to move much of its iCloud business from Amazon Web Services to Google Cloud Platform, but now it looks like that might be just the beginning of Apple’s long-term cloud plans. According to a report from VentureBeat, Apple has been working on something internally referred to as “Project McQueen” that could be a start to the company building its own data network and infrastructure…
Microsoft has enabled Touch ID support to its email and calendar app Outlook today. This introduces a level of security not yet seen in any other major emailing application. Since its acquisition of Acompli a year back, Microsoft has slowly been revamping and adding new features to their purchase. Supporting multiple email account and cloud storage services, swipe options, Skype integration, and now Touch ID, Outlook is becoming quite a formidable email application.
Microsoft may have tried to make nice last Christmas with its ‘Peace on Earth’ performance in front of the 5th Ave Apple Store in New York City, but a new year means a new chance to target Macs and sell more Surface tablets.
Civil rights organizations have expressed strong support for Apple’s resistance to a court order instructing it to create special firmware that would allow the FBI to break into an iPhone – with tech companies doing the same, albeit in a weaker fashion.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) posted a statement in which it said that it applauded Apple for standing up for the rights of its customers, and would be making its views known to the court.
Essentially, the government is asking Apple to create a master key so that it can open a single phone. And once that master key is created, we’re certain that our government will ask for it again and again, for other phones, and turn this power against any software or device that has the audacity to offer strong security […]
EFF applauds Apple for standing up for real security and the rights of its customers. We have been fighting to protect encryption, and stop backdoors, for over 20 years. That’s why EFF plans to file an amicus brief in support of Apple’s position.
The Verge notes similar support from both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International …
Since 2013, Microsoft has consistently offered something it called its “Accredited Support Professional Program” for iOS and Mac users. Essentially, this program allowed the company to train and accredit Apple techs and consultants on Microsoft Office for Mac and iOS. In the past, the courses have been conducted alongside the MacTech events across various cities and states. This year, however, there’s no sign of Microsoft offering its Accredited Support program, despite the release of Office 2016 for Mac.
The Financial Times is reporting that Microsoft has purchased popular third-party keyboard maker SwiftKey for $250 million. While SwiftKey is most known for their predictive keyboard, the acquisition is more of an artificial intelligence play for Microsoft.
Apple was today granted a patent for detecting touch-free gestures at close range, the patent language suggesting that the approach could build on the capabilities of multi-touch and 3D touch to respond to fingers hovering close to an iPhone or iPad display, as well as use on keyboards and trackpads.
The patent describes using sensors similar to the proximity detectors used to disable accidental touch input on the iPhone screen when you’re holding the phone to your face during a call. Unlike longer-range gesture technologies like Kinect, the system would detect ‘hover events’ just above the surface of the screen …
On a BBC radio show where interviewees are asked to choose eight music tracks with special significance to them, Bill Gates yesterday selected the Beatles song “Two of us” as one of them, saying that it summed up his relationship with Steve Jobs. In the Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, Gates said the two of them had a varied relationship.
Steve really is a singular person in the history of personal computing in terms of what he built at Apple. For some periods, we were completely allies working together – I wrote software for the original Apple II. Sometimes he would be very tough on you, sometimes he’d be very encouraging. He got really great work out of people.
“In the early years, the intensity had always been about the project, and so then [when] Steve got sick, it was far more mellow in terms of talking about our lives and our kids. Steve was an incredible genius, and I was more of an engineer than he was. But anyway, it was fun. It was more of a friendship that was reflective, although tragically then he couldn’t overcome the cancer and died.
In the wide-ranging interview, Gates also talks about his childhood, girls, cars, holidays, ruthlessness, charity and his wife Melinda.
Via the FT
<a href="http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/05/speck-pocket-vr-viewer/" target="_blank">Speck’s VR solution on the iPhone</a>
During this week’s earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook answered a question on virtual reality by saying “I don’t think VR is a niche…It’s really cool and has some interesting applications.” It looks like Cook’s statements have some background to them. According to a new Financial Times report, Apple had reportedly been prototyping VR headsets in the past under Steve Jobs in the mid-2000s, but the project was eventually abandoned once the technology was found to still be immature. With new acquisitions and a dedicated VR team, the effort is said to be once again a new focus.
Early last year, Microsoft unveiled the Cloud Storage Partner Program enabling various cloud storage providers to integerate their tools into Office Online and Office for iOS. Microsoft’s latest announcement takes that a step further for partners in the CSPP by giving them access to real-time collaboration, and Office for iOS integration for all partners.
Microsoft today released News Pro, a news delivery service with “hyper-relevant news for your work.” The application utilizes either your Facebook or LinkedIn account for log in and then aggregates news topics and articles around your work-based interests. The idea is similar to Apple’s own News app, and Flipboard, but with a focus on articles and topics related to your day-to-day career. The project seems to be coming out from the Microsoft Garage team, whom have been specializing in experimental projects.
It’s not the first time that a ‘Twitter for iPhone’ tag has given away the fact that someone is not using the device you might expect them to. Latest casualty of the telltale tag is Joe Belfiore, the Microsoft VP who fronts the Windows Phone project.
When The Verge ran a piece on it, Business Insider noticed that Belfiore used the comments section to share the reasons he is using an iPhone whilst on a 9-month sabbatical.
It’s very important for me to understand products like the iPhone and Android phones, which […] represent the competition for Windows Phone […] On a 9-month leave-of-absence, I have a HUGE AND UNUSUAL opportunity to get to know these products deeply. To understand the benefits and drawbacks of a full ecosystem like Windows, Android, iOS — you have to LIVE IN IT. You have to feel its strengths and weaknesses, be let down, be delighted. And you can’t do that just “playing around” with a device for a couple of days. You have to learn the UI, upload your photos, use cross-device apps and tools… all of it.
Given all this, he says, “it would be crazy not to” use an iPhone while he’s away.
His arguments of course make sense, and we have no doubt that many Apple execs also spend time playing with competitor devices for the very same reasons. But given the PR considerations, we imagine they take rather more care not to be seen doing so …
Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
The Verge has obtained a sneak peak image into what Microsoft’s Word Flow keyboard for iOS may look like once it is officially released. The keyboard will include a one-handed mode that places the keys out in a fan-style layout. The user can still access emoji and word suggestions and even use swipe gestures to type. This differs from the Word Flow keyboard on Windows 10 Mobile where the keys simply shift to one side. The Verge explains that other than that one-handed mode, the rest of Word Flow for iOS is similar to the Windows Phone version.
This comparison of the differences between Microsoft Office on Mac, Windows, and iOS devices was put together by Kurt Schmucker who (disclaimer) works for Parallels — the company that makes slick virtual machine apps for running Windows and other operating systems on Mac — but he also happens to know a thing or two about the subject after his previous role as Senior Mac Evangelist at Microsoft and on the Office team. So what exactly is missing on Mac and iOS devices compared to Windows when it comes to the Office suite?
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Microsoft is out with a nice update to its Office for iOS suite today, adding 3D Touch quick actions to Word, PowerPoint, and Excel for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus users as well as promised Apple Pencil integration on the iPad Pro. The latest versions of the Office suite also changes how fonts are handled and improves document search on iOS.
Microsoft today has updated its OneDrive cloud storage app with a handful of new features and capabilities. The update bumps the app to version 6.8 and includes additions like iPad Pro optimization, 3D Touch support, and more.
With iPad Pro optimization, PDF annotations are now pressure sensitive, meaning your writing and drawing will be darker the harder you press on the screen and lighter the softer you press. Furthermore, the Apple Pencil is now supported with improved optimization, as well.
The full changelog is below:
Microsoft OneDrive is available for free in the App Store.
Microsoft appears to be planning to port its Windows Phone keyboard called Word Flow to the iPhone as a third-party keyboard, according to WinBeta. The company is currently reaching out to enlisted software testers to recruit iOS users with iPhone 5s or later to test the Windows Phone keyboard.
Word Flow works similarly to gesture-based third-party keyboards like Swype, which let you trace your finger across letters to suggest words for quick typing. The keyboard also supports traditional typing in the same interface. Emoji characters are even recommended when typing words so ‘dog’ might show the dog emoji when typing the word out.
This is how typing with Word Flow looks on Windows Phone minus gesture typing :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM7IdBWtQ6I
Microsoft is currently recruiting beta testers already in its Windows Insider Program with the following message:
Word Flow keyboard has long been one of the highly praised features on Windows Phone and was used to break the Guinness World Record for fastest texting. We are now working on extending this keyboard to other platforms, starting with iOS.
Before publicly releasing this keyboard to the App Store, we’d love to give Insiders like you a preview. With your feedback, we’ll build a roadmap of improvements to the keyboard over time.
Most third-party keyboards since Apple added the capability with iOS 8 haven’t been real home runs due to speed and performance issues, so we’ll have to see how Microsoft works around this. The company is certainly no stranger to developing for iOS with nearly 60 iPhone apps on the App Store to date.
If there’s anything less likely than an Apple Watch owner wanting to trade-in their watch for a Microsoft Band, it’s doing so for a trade-in value as low as $150 …
Microsoft wants to give you $150 for the Sport model with polymer band, $200 for the steel model – or a massive $250 if it comes with the Milanese Loop. An offer that is about as sketchy as the cexchange.com URL Microsoft is using to promote the offer. We think we’ll hold out for an Apple Watch Upgrade Program.
Via CoM
With a growing number of business meetings these days taking place via Skype, Microsoft has made it easier than ever to schedule and join a Skype call in the Outlook iOS app. Version 2.1.3 of the iOS Outlook app adds Skype integration.
Make any meeting a Skype call simply by flicking a switch, then access the call when you need to with just a tap. Now when you say “I’m joining the call now”, you’ll actually mean it. To give it a try, simply turn on the “Skype Meeting” switch when creating or editing an event.
The update also adds a new view designed to provide a clearer sense of your schedule …
A senior Microsoft spokesman dismissed the iPad Pro as nothing more than a companion device, contrasting it with the Microsoft Surface when speaking to TrustedReviews.
Dan Laycock, Senior Communications Manager for Microsoft Surface, says that while consumers can get by with a single Surface product, the same can’t be said for Apple’s heftiest tablet.
“Microsoft really wants you to only carry one device for tablet and PC use,” explains Laycock, speaking to us at the Consumer Electronics Show 2016 in Las Vegas. “Whereas the iPad Pro is always going to be a companion device.”
Laycock also said that “at one point in time, Apple declared that if there’s a stylus, that’s failure” – a reference to a quote by Steve Jobs when referring to early smartphones. Apple, of course, argues that the Apple Pencil as an optional accessory for some tasks is very different to a device which cannot easily be used without a stylus.
Benchmark tests last year showed that the Apple Pencil offered lower latency than Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 stylus.
Via Business Insider
