Microsoft today has released an update for its Outlook app on iOS that brings the app to version 2.0.8. The update makes Outlook join the growing list of apps that support the new 3D Touch feature of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
During Microsoft’s Connect 2015 event today live from New York, the company announced it is open-sourcing its Visual Studio Code program for developers and in the process bringing its Visual Studio Emulator for Android to Mac users.
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ArsTechnica has been putting the iPad Pro through its paces in a whole raft of benchmark tests, comparing it to other iOS devices as well as to MacBooks and Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4.
When it comes to other iPads, nothing comes close in Geekbench tests. In single-core tests, the iPad Pro gets an overall score of 3233 against 1831 for the iPad Air 2. The much newer iPhone 6S gets closest, at 2537.
In multi-core tests, the differences look far more modest, but there’s a twist …
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Update: Apple has since stated that Cook intended to describe the Microsoft Surface Book as “diluted” rather than “deluded.”
The Irish government has announced that Apple will be employing an additional 1,000 staff in Ireland, the country where the company declares much of its revenue from sales throughout Europe, reports Reuters.
Ireland’s main foreign investment agency, the IDA, said Apple was to add 1,000 jobs to its office in Cork by mid-2017 from 5,000 at present. It said the company had also added 1,000 jobs in the past year.
There had been some concern about whether Apple would maintain a significant presence in the country if the European Commission investigation into Apple’s tax dealings in the country went against the company …
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If you’re curious to see how Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana compares to Siri, you may be able to take it for a test-drive. Microsoft says that it has completed internal testing of Cortana for iOS and is now seeking beta testers.
Cortana is with you on your Windows 10 PC, tablet, and phone—helping you whenever and wherever you need it. But we also know that there’s a choice of mobile devices out there, so we want help from our Windows Insiders to make sure she’s a great personal assistant on iOS too. We’re looking for a limited number of people to get their hands on an early version of the […] Cortana for iOS beta …
When Microsoft purchased Sunrise, things didn’t look good for the popular iOS calendar app. There were fears Microsoft would take its talent and shut the app down. Fears — it seems — that were completely justified. Sunrise announced in a blog post today that the app will no longer receive any updates. If you are an avid user of Sunrise (like me), you’ll now need to go hunting for a new calendar app if you expect new features.
As the entire team is completely focused on the Outlook for iOS and Android apps, we won’t be updating the Sunrise apps anymore. We won’t lie, it’s tough for us to leave behind the apps we’ve been working on so passionately for the past years.
Sunrise’s technology and expertise haven’t completely vanished, however. Microsoft and Sunrise were both keen to let us know that a lot of the stuff that made Sunrise great has made its way in to the new Outlook app for iOS. On the Outlook blog you’ll see exactly what the two companies have been working on over the past few weeks and months.
The Outlook app for iOS has a brand new look and features new navigation for email attachments, while the ‘Calendar’ navigation basically looks like some of the Sunrise calendar was absorbed in to the app. And Microsoft will continue to absorb all of Sunrise until nothing’s left, and the calendar app can be terminated:
The Sunrise team is now officially a part of the broader Outlook product team, bringing a fresh approach to calendaring and combining it with Microsoft’s deep expertise in both email and calendar. Better Outlook calendaring gives you more ability to manage your personal and professional life from a single, powerful app. Over the coming months, you’ll see richer calendar experiences come to Outlook from Sunrise—including Interesting Calendars and connections to your favorite apps and services. You will also see improvements to Outlook’s ability to create meetings while on the go and handle meetings across time zones. All of this means Outlook will eventually replace the current Sunrise app. We will leave Sunrise in market until its features are fully integrated into Outlook, the exact timing of which we will communicate in advance.
It’s a shame to see Sunrise vanish from the app scene, but if Outlook for iOS becomes a fantastic email and calendar app, those of us who used Sunrise may not miss it for long.
With regard to Apple, Ballmer first said that Apple has “done a good job” and took credit for saving Apple with an investment in 1997 when Steve Jobs returned – which was part of a patent lawsuit over Windows 95/stolen Quicktime code. Ballmer went on to describe the investment this way: “In a way you could say that was the craziest thing [Microsoft] ever did.”
Ballmer then moved to the current landscape where he said that Microsoft is the only company (in addition to Samsung) really competing with Apple with its SurfaceBook in a new category.
Ballmer currently is the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team and now owns around 4% of Twitter stock. The relevant clip can be found here with Apple conversation starting halfway through.
In 1995, two years before his return to the company, Steve Jobs gave a characteristically blunt answer when asked why Apple found itself struggling in the early to mid 1990s. The issue, he said, was that Apple had gotten greedy.
What ruined Apple wasn’t growth … They got very greedy. Instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision, which was to make the thing an appliance and get this out there to as many people as possible, they went for profits. They made outlandish profits for about four years… What that cost them was their future. What they should have been doing is making rational profits and going for market share.
Much has changed since then, of course. Apple has a substantial market share in both the personal computer and mobile markets, demonstrating that the two goals – growth and profitability – are not mutually exclusive. This is not an ‘Apple is doomed’ piece, nor anything like it. But I do wonder whether the company is once more putting short-term profits ahead of long-term brand loyalty … ?
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Microsoft comparing its new Surface Book laptop/tablet combo with Apple’s MacBook Pro
At Microsoft’s event today it unveiled a huge array of ambitious and interesting tech which should be enough to make Apple stand up and take notice. The once-giant of the consumer electronics world has had to reinvent itself over the past couple of years, and judging from today’s event, it’s doing enough to get people interested again at the very least. At best, it could transform the way we see technology and computing.
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Interbrand has named Apple as the world’s most valuable brand for the third year running, estimating that it increased its total value by 43% in the past year to hit $170B. The company bases its estimates on a mix of the financial performance of the company, its ability to influence purchase decisions and the degree of brand loyalty it enjoys.
Google again took second place, seeing its value climb by 12% to $120B. Tech companies made up half of the top 10, Microsoft at #4, IBM at #5 and Samsung retaining 7th place. A similar brand equity ranking by Millward Brand back in May also gave Apple and Google the top two slots.
Apple first knocked Coca-Cola out of Interbrand’s top slot in 2013. It has also topped Fortune’s list of the world’s most admired companies for eight consecutive years.
Via The Verge
Microsoft has updated its Skype for iPhone and iPad apps to add support for two new features in iOS 9: Slide Over and Split View. This follows close behind its update of the Mac app to add Split View in El Capitan.
Millions of people use Skype every day to share URLs and photos. iOS9’s new Split View and Slide Over capabilities let you use Skype while using another app alongside it, making sharing your content even better. Imagine you’re planning a night out in London with a group of friends using IM or a group voice call. Now you can share links to bars and restaurants and decide on the best place to meet without having to leave the app, just click on the shared content and bring it alongside your Skype conversation. It’s a great way to get things done together …
Just in time for Apple’s official release of OS X El Capitan, Microsoft is out with a new version of Skype with features only available on the new operating system. Available in Skype 7.13 for Mac, the messaging and video chatting app now supports Apple’s new Split View feature for running Skype side-by-side with another full screen app.
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Current iPad owners can download Microsoft Office apps free of charge, using them for both viewing and basic editing – but that won’t be the case with the iPad Pro, Microsoft told arsTechnica.
Office on the iPad Pro will require an Office 365 subscription for any and all editing. That’s because Microsoft defines a 10.1 inch cutoff. Anything below 10.1 inches is a “true mobile device” and as such qualifies for free access to the core editing capabilities. But above that threshold and it’s not a “true mobile device” any longer, it’s something else entirely, and it will need an Office 365 subscription as a result …
Today Microsoft is launching a new app called ‘Invite’ that makes scheduling meetings with others easier. The app is arriving first for iPhone and iPad users in the US and Canada with more platforms and locations to follow.
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Apple CEO Tim Cook is one of a large number of tech leaders meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Seattle. It’s believed that the Chinese head of state is trying to enlist support from U.S. tech companies in his attempt to persuade President Obama not to implement threatened import restrictions against China. Obama had threatened the action over hacking and intellectual property theft by Chinese firms.
A report by the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property earlier this year (via the WSJ) found that intellectual property theft amounted to $300B a year, much of it carried out by hacking systems belonging to U.S. firms.
It’s been suggested that President Xi Jinping wants to emphasise the interdependence between U.S. tech companies and China as both a manufacturing base and a growing market. China is already a larger market for Apple than Europe, and looks set to overtake the USA, with Apple reporting 112% revenue growth in its Q3 earnings call.
Other tech CEOs present include Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, IBM’s Ginni Rometty, Intel’s Brian Krzanich, Microsoft’s Satyta Nadella and Qualcomm’s Steven Mollenkopf.
Photo: Pool/Getty Images
Update (via 9to5Toys.com): MacMall has Office Home and Student 2016 for $139.99 ($10 off) or Business for $20 off) with Tax in a few states.
After teasing it at the beginning of this year, Microsoft made Office 2016 available for Mac earlier this summer, but only for those that had an Office 365 subscription, which runs $9.99/mo or $100/year. Today, however, Microsoft has released a standalone version of Office 2016 for Mac, allowing anyone to purchase the software outright.
Purchasing Office 2016 for Mac without an Office 365 subscription will run you $150 for a Home & Student license, which lacks Outlook. With the purchase, you’ll also get 15GB of OneDrive storage. Office 365 subscribers get 1 terabyte of space. Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac is also available for $229.99 and includes Outlook. Both of those prices are up $10 from the previous versions of Office and for single licenses, as Microsoft continues to push users towards Office 365 plans.
Microsoft this time around is not offering a standalone business plan for Office. Instead, organizations are required to sign up for an Office 365 plan. Business plans start at $5 per users and increase in increments up to $12.50 per user, depending on what features you want.
Office 2016 for Mac features a redesigned suite of apps, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. The software also includes enhanced cloud functionality, including the ability for multiple users to collaborate on documents in real time when using the same app on different platform, including Mac, iPad, or PC. The apps are also all now optimized for devices with Retina displays.
You can purchase Office 2016 for Mac outright for $150 now via Microsoft’s website. Read our initial hands-on with the software here.
If all your Skype contacts are showing as offline, it’s not that your friends have deserted you – Microsoft says there is “an issue with the status settings” for many users and it is working on a fix.
While the problem persists, you’ll be unable to make Skype calls to contacts shown as offline. If you are not logged in to Skype, you may be unable to sign in. Microsoft says it is doing all it can to resolve the problem.
The iOS app got a redesign earlier this month.
Just over a year ago Microsoft shipped a completely redesigned version of Skype for iPhone, iPad, and Android in version 5.0 that looked a lot more like a Windows Phone app than previous versions, adding back old features and introducing new features in updates that followed. Now with version 6.0, Skype is taking strides to move its iOS and Android apps away from the Windows Phone look with redesigned versions for both platforms that should feel a lot more familiar for users. Skype 6 for iOS also introduces an enhanced search feature, brings the iPad version up to parity with the iPhone version, and more.
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UI concept for VR iPhone case Pinć from Cordon Labs
Apple has recently hired a lead engineer from Microsoft’s HoloLens team, leading to more speculation that it could be working on its own augmented reality project behind the scenes.
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster first spotted the change of positions for Nick Thompson, who was reportedly previously leading audio hardware engineering efforts for Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality project:
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A week after Parallels was updated to support Windows 10, VMware has followed suit with an update to its Fusion software – but with a bug when used in Unity mode. Unity mode is where Windows apps are run alongside Mac ones.
Fusion was today updated to version 8, with performance improvements as well as Windows 10 compatibility, but the company has confirmed a bug identified by ArsTechnica in which the Windows Start screen is sometimes unavailable (above left) and at other times has the search bar covered by the Mac’s dock (above right). When unavailable, the Toggle Start Screen option is greyed-out …
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The iPad accessory market is full of keyboards. Most of them double up as cases, they’re about as big as the iPad and they’re not well optimized for other devices. The Microsoft Universal Foldable Keyboard is different. It’s small enough to carry around in your pocket when folded, and works with iOS, Windows and Android devices. What’s more, you can have it paired to two devices at once and switch between them with the press of a button. It’s safe to say that this is one of the most versatile and portable Bluetooth keyboards on the market. This review was written entirely on it.
Microsoft today has rolled out updates to its trio of Office apps including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The updates bump each app to version 1.12 and while relatively minor, include a new feature that will be significantly useful for the Microsoft Office power users out there…
If you’ve felt that Microsoft’s Skype for Business iOS app was lagging behind the consumer app in terms of visual appeal and ease of use, the company has been working on correcting that. Microsoft says that the latest version of its enterprise-oriented app is now available for preview, before its rollout later in the year.
Only a handful of users per company can get access to the preview, however, admins able to nominate up to four iOS users to trial it. IT administrators can visit www.skypepreview.com to take part in the preview program.
Via Engadget
Microsoft first unveiled “Windows Bridge” a few months back, a new tool for developers that aims to make porting iOS apps to Windows 10 easier and hopefully breathe some life into the Windows Store in the process. Today the company is releasing the software, albeit an early release ahead of a final launch planned for later this year in the fall.
The bridge offers developers tools for utilizing existing code from iOS apps to build Windows apps, but Microsoft stressed that its “goal with the iOS bridge has never been simply to run iOS apps on Windows.”
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