According to Forbes, Microsoft will soon enter the wearable market with a competing smartwatch device. The report says the device will track heart rate for fitness, matching Apple Watch and other Android smartwatches.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIEnN1KmxKk&feature=youtu.be
Microsoft has just joined the ranks of companies looking to capitalize on the success of ephemeral messaging apps like Snapchat. Through its Skype division, the company has launched a new cross-platform app for iOS, Android, and (of course) Windows Phone called Skype Qik. The premise of the application, as can be seen in the video above and screenshots below, is simple: you can record a quick video, and then share it to either one person in your address book or multiple groups of people.
Differentiating itself from some of the other players, the Skype-based solution is video-focused, and Skype is positioning it as a communication tool for in between full-scale Skype video chats. Notably, the whole service is connected to your phone number and existing contacts list, so it doesn’t require signing up with a standard Skype account. If you send a message via Qik to a user without the Qik app, the other person will be sent an SMS text message with instructions for downloading the Qik app to view the video message. This app is based on the technology from startup Qik, which Skype acquired a few years ago.
By default, videos will expire after two weeks, and you can also un-send messages at any time. A cool feature of Skype Qik is the ability to pre-record various 5 second GIFs that you can send as instant replies. So, if you don’t have the ability to send a live video reply, you can just choose one of your pre-record defaults. The app is free today on the aforementioned platforms, and Microsoft says that updates, such as one for blocking iPhone contacts (that feature is available today on Android and Windows Phone), will come often to enhance the feature-set.
You can view some screenshots of the iPhone app in action below:
Business Insider asked analytics company Ranker to churn through 20 million data correlations to identify the biggest differences of opinion between Apple and Microsoft fans. Apple fans were found to be more likely to like BMW, Mercedes, Gap and Starbucks; to dislike Samsung (no surprise there); to prefer Breaking Bad to Married With Children; and The Godfather to Pulp Fiction.
The rest of the infographic below.
Ray Ozzie, who used to be Microsoft’s Chief Technical Officer and Chief Software Architect, has come out with a new app for the iPhone. In an extensive profile, Steven Levy explains the premise behind the app, dubbed Talko. You can read the full overview on Medium. The app has been in development for more than two years.
A new take on phone calls, the app shows if your recipient is currently walking or driving — giving a hint at attentiveness of the speaker before the conversation even begins. It’s a nice use of the Apple M7 and M8 coprocessors. Any voice communication is archived into the growing thread … to organize a conversation like any other modern chat app really. Talko seems best as an app for modern meetings, like a conference call replacement, although Ozzie insists it can be used beyond business.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84NI5fjTfpQ
I keep my Parallels Windows VM around to do stuff like Quickbooks, upgrade Mifi Firmware and occasionally check websites in IE (see our PArallels 10 review here) not to experiment with the latest versions of Redmond’s OS.
But if you want to check out what’s coming down the pike in Windows-land without leaving your trusty Mac, Parallels has an Installation guide for you. First step: if you haven’t already, download Parallels 10 (free Trial)…
Microsoft has confirmed its rumored plan to open what it describes as its “first flagship store” on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, a few blocks away from Apple’s glass-cubed flagship store, reports the WSJ.
“As our first flagship store, it will serve as the centerpiece of our Microsoft Stores experience,” said David Porter, corporate vice president for Microsoft retail stores. “This is a goal we’ve had since day one—we were only waiting for the right location. And now we have it.”
Yesterday, Skype released an update for its iOS app to include iOS 8-optimized notifications and other goodies. However, it has no support for the higher-resolution iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus displays. That will change next month, per a Skype spokesperson:
We’re currently working on an update to Skype for iPhone that scales for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus screen sizes, which we plan to release in the next month.
Unfortunately, that sounds like quite a while. Hopefully the updated version isn’t just bigger, but more optimized for the larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch panels.
The Skype app for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch has now been updated with support for iOS 8. Unfortunately, this does not include support for iPhone 6 and 6 Plus screen sizes, meaning Skype still renders at a scaled iPhone 5s resolution.
However, the update does add interactive notifications which helps streamline responding to content. Hence, new Skype notifications have buttons attached to the alert which can perform various actions. For voice calls, you can answer or decline. For video calls, you can choose between voice or video responses. For missed calls, you can respond with a message or call the person straight back.
With news breaking today that Minecraft-maker Mojang has officially sold to Microsoft, the first question that comes to my mind is what this might mean for Mac and iOS users.
Microsoft now has the ability and probably much incentive to make future versions of Minecraft Xbox and or Windows-only and, unfortunately, its statement on the topic isn’t reassuring to say the least. Here’s the statement from Mojang on development for various platforms:
There’s no reason for the development, sales, and support of the PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Vita, iOS, and Android versions of Minecraft to stop. Of course, Microsoft can’t make decisions for other companies or predict the choices that they might make in the future.
We’re extremely proud of all editions and the awesome things you have achieved through playing together.
That’s far from a promise that Microsoft will indeed keep the game alive on all platforms, and also up in the air is where the company’s current employees and projects will end up after the deal. For now, versions of the game are still available to download for Mac and iOS.
Former Apple Senior Vice President of Retail (then ousted JCPenney CEO) Ron Johnson made a somewhat rare public-facing appearance on Andreessen Horowitz’s podcast. The discussion comes in at just under half an hour and features the former head of Apple Retail discussing his experience with leading the Apple Store as well as the challenge for up-and-coming startup brands to afford brick-and-mortar retail channels, but more interesting from an Apple perspective is Johnson’s praise for Microsoft’s retail stores and the Surface 3 tablet that the company heavily markets against Apple’s MacBook Air.
“I think the Microsoft stores have succeeded much more than popular opinion. […] I think it’s really helped, for instance, the Surface 3. It’s a really great product and we all know that. Everyone who has tried a Surface 3 is pretty blown away with the software, the interaction, how it can be a tablet and a computer, its part of the future. Without those stores that Surface 3 wouldn’t be where it is today.”
It’s not quite group video calling, but Skype is rolling out an update to its iPhone app to support hosting group audio calls in the latest feature addition to its redesigned iPhone app.
For existing groups (and for new groups) we’ve placed a new call button in the bottom navigation bar. Simply tap it to start your call. We support up to four people on a group audio call in this first release, but you can expect to hear further news on this in the near future.
Once a group audio call has started, the number of participants will be displayed in the top bar. Tap the navigation bar to see the active participants on the call. You can also see any contacts that are in the group but not on the call. Furthermore, as the host, you can also selectively take people off the call without ending the current call.
Following updates today for Microsoft’s Office suite of apps for iPad, users can now purchase monthly subscriptions to Office 365, the service required for access to full editing features.
So starting today, you can buy a monthly subscription to Office 365 from within Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for iPad. You can choose between Office 365 Personal and Office 365 Home. Office 365 Personal is designed to help individuals who want to use Office on one PC or Mac and one tablet, while Office 365 Home is for households with up to five PCs or Macs, plus five tablets.
The monthly subscriptions are now available to purchase directly in the app for $6.99/month for the Personal plan and $9.99/month for Home. Microsoft added that “if you buy a monthly subscription on your iPad, you can switch to an annual subscription from your iPad, or from iTunes on your PC or Mac.” Yearly subscriptions to Office 365 offer savings over the monthly plans and are available for $69/year (Personal) and $99/year (Home).
Microsoft offered a chart showing what each of the plans get you within the Office apps vs free features:
The updated Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps for iPad are available on the App Store now.
Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage mobile app received an update today across multiple platforms. The iOS flavor of the refreshed software introduces improved file search options for iPhone and iPad, along with All Photos view for fast access to your saved pictures. This section displays your photos in chronological order and lets you keep an eye on your camera’s backup status.
Update: Apple confirmed the use of China Telecom servers in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
But the company said Friday in a statement to The Wall Street Journal that all data stored is encrypted, meaning China Telecom won’t have access to its content.
“Apple takes user security and privacy very seriously. We have added China Telecom to our list of data center providers to increase bandwidth and improve performance for our customers in mainland China,” it said.
Apple has begun using Chinese data centers to store iCloud data for local Apple customers, the first time Apple has used mainland China for iCloud account and information storage. On a municipal government website, Fuzhuo City Telecom said that ‘Apple China has completed the iCloud data dump into China Telecom’s cloud services’. The post has since been taken down from the government site, however.
Microsoft announced today that a new system update for its Xbox One game console will soon let users stream live TV to their iPhone or iPad. Set to arrive in the next few months, the Xbox One’s SmartGlass companion app will be equipped with the option to watch television via a local network connection without interrupting a gameplay session.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfpULoEZIHk]
Oh dear. Just when we thought Microsoft might have gotten over its misleading Surface tablet ads attacking the iPad (and iPad mini), it has run three new ones, each attacking the MacBook Air (the other two are shown below the fold).
Microsoft’s decision to go on the offensive is perhaps understandable: while Apple can run a MacBook Air ad simply observing that it’s “the notebook people love,” poor sales of the Surface despite high marketing costs have so far resulted in Microsoft losing $1.7B on the device …
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Earlier this week, concerns emerged on Skype official message boards about the Skype Mac app no longer functioning on OS X 10.5.8 Leopard (an operating system that launched the same year as the original iPhone), and a Skype representative on the forums apparently confirmed that Skype will no longer be supported on Macs running operating systems below OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
While Skype has not been downloadable nor functional for Leopard users the past few days, a Skype spokesperson tells us this morning that this will soon change: “We have a Skype version for Mac OS X 10.5 users which will soon be available for download.” No additional timing details are available as of yet, but it’s good to know that Leopard users will soon be able to go back to making Skype calls and sending messages as normal.
We’re also told that this new download will be for Leopard users only, so anyone on OS X 10.4 Tiger or below will need to upgrade to Leopard or something newer (like Mavericks) in order to keep on using the Microsoft-owned communications tool.
Image <a href="https://twitter.com/darth/status/497151434924638208" target="_blank">via @darth</a>
Microsoft wants to build a new 8,700 sq. ft. retail store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, just a few blocks away from Apple’s cube, the New York Daily News reported today. The two-story building located at 677 Fifth Avenue is currently vacant, but the Redmond-based software giant wants to setup shop near one of its competitors most iconic locations.
Microsoft has been walking in the shadow of Apple’s retail success for years now. In 2009 the company poached George Blakenship from Cupertino’s retail arm to run its own (weirdly similar) stores. Since then, the Microsoft has been taking advantage of open spaces near a few Apple stores to try to get in on the action.
After a Chinese state-run TV channel last month described the iPhone as a “national security concern” (a claim Apple denied), Bloomberg reports that the Chinese government has stepped up its war on Apple by removing the company’s products from its procurement lists.
Ten Apple products — including the iPad, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro — were omitted from a final government procurement list distributed in July, according to officials who read it and asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. The models were on a June version of the list drafted by the National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Finance, the officials said …
Image: smallbiztrends.com
Earlier this week Microsoft introduced an updated version of its OneNote app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and today new versions of its Office for iPad suite have been released. Version 1.1 of Office for iPad introduces a list of new features in the first major update to the tablet productivity apps. Included in the update is the ability to send files from Word and Excel as a PDF file, a new Presenter View for PowerPoint, and a list of several more features. Check below for the breakdown of new features for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word for iPad.
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Microsoft updated its OneNote apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac today with a number of highly requested features including the ability to insert files, lock and unlock protected sections, PDF printouts, and much more.
In addition, the update also includes the ability to organize notebooks by moving and reordering sections and pages, support for formatted text copied from other apps, and an option to create notebooks and save them to OneDrive for Business.
The updated Microsoft OneNote for iPhone and for iPad is available on the App Store now. A full list of what’s new is below:
•Insert Files – You asked, we listened. Now you can insert files into your notes, open them with a double-tap, and easily share them using AirDrop.
•Protected Sections – Now you can lock or unlock password-protected sections created in OneNote for Windows.
•PDF Printouts – Add a PDF printout to any notebook page, then add your own notes.
•Organize Notebooks – Now you can move and reorder sections, and move pages anywhere you want in OneNote.
•Formatted Text – Copy and paste formatted text between application – whether it’s an article from Safari or a document in Word, any content you paste into OneNote will look great!
•Creating Notebooks – Now you can create notebooks and save them to OneDrive for Business. Have multiple accounts? No problem! It’s easy to select exactly where you want to store your new notebook.
The Microsoft OneNote for Mac app gets a similar update today plus the ability to share a page from OneNote through email.
Earlier this month, Microsoft-owned Skype rolled out a group video calling feature to Windows tablets. The free video calling allows for calls with up to ten people, and integrates with Skype on the desktop, which has supported group video calling since April.
Today, Skype tells us that the group video calling feature will be coming to all of its mobile platforms in the future, which likely includes iOS and Android:
We’re excited about Skype group video calling and are working to bring it to more of our platforms. In the future, we’ll be enabling group video calling for all our users across more platforms – at no cost
Unfortunately, the company could not yet provide a more specific rollout timeframe. Skype has been rapidly releasing new products over the past several months, with a major redesign of the Skype iPhone app arriving a couple of months ago.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0pjD4qpIpg]
Microsoft ads seem to make a habit of bashing Apple, even using Siri’s voice to do so – and without the company concerning itself too much about accuracy. Microsoft has now released the 30-second commercial it first showed at its developer’s conference back in April …
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Lenovo’s $2.91 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google is still pending regulatory approval, however it looks like the company is already mapping out a new strategy. Despite being one of the world’s largest PC makers, Lenovo is halting the development of Windows tablets under 10 inches in size and migrating its remaining inventory to markets like Brazil, China and Japan where there’s more of a need for low-cost slates.
Apple, in turn, has had a huge success with the 7.9-inch iPad Mini which quickly became one of its best sellers after its introduction almost 2 years ago.
