Posts Tagged ‘productivity’

This is my next is a special feature where editors of The Verge sound off on their latest deep, dark desires from the world of technology. Say what you will about Apple’s slavish worship of skeuomorphism and sometimes-questionable design decisions of late — Apple’s best first-party apps are well-designed, with features that make them feel like a better “fit” in OS X than third-party options. I felt Safari was one of those apps for a long time — but somewhere along the way we started drifting apart. Lately, I’ve been thinking it’s about time we get back together

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This is my next: Safari 6.0

Microsoft launched its Customer Preview of Office 2013 yesterday, providing an early look at the desktop versions of its next-generation Office suite. The software maker also announced and released a Metro style OneNote app for Windows 8, complete with a new radial menu system. Taking elements from Microsoft’s Courier tablet, the new OneNote radial menu is the center piece for Microsoft’s touch-centric note taking app. The radial menu includes quick access to font options and colors, as well as feature to insert and edit elements such as tables

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Microsoft’s Courier-like radial menu for OneNote Windows 8 (hands-on)

The playing field in the world of Windows tablets became a bit more level today, as Microsoft has announced that Office Home and Student 2013 will be bundled for free with all Windows RT computers. Perhaps the move shouldn’t come as a complete surprise, as the company had previously revealed the inclusion of Office on its own ARM-based Surface tablet. For those who’d feared that Microsoft wouldn’t play fairly with its hardware partners, however, it seems that at least some of those concerns can be put aside. Naturally, everything you’ve come to expect in the Home and Student edition will be there, which includes Microsoft Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint.

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Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013 to be bundled on all Windows RT tablets

It’s finally happening: after roughly two and a half years, Rovio Mobile is weaning itself off of its addiction to avians . The company’s first non-bird title in what feels like an eternity, Amazing Alex , will be reaching the official stores for both Android and iOS come July 12th. Strictly speaking, Rovio is taking something of a shortcut to bringing this Incredible Machine -style puzzler to market: it bought the rights to Casey’s Contraptions and enlisted the developers, Miguel Friginal and Noel Llopis, to bring the title into the Rovio family. While that means it’s not quite as fresh as it could be, the game has already piqued our interest and could be exposed to many (many, many) more players. While we wait, we’ll pour one out for the managers and supervisors bound to lose hours of work from staff trying to finish just one more level

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Rovio’s Amazing Alex arrives on Android and iOS July 12th, bosses everywhere weep for lost productivity (video)

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Android Frustrations from a former WebOS User – Verge Forums

If you’re an avid Box user, what we’re about to say is apt to have a great, positive impact on your life. For everyone else — well, chances are you aren’t about to swap out of whatever cloud ecosystem you’re already entrenched in. In an effort to create a somewhat unique take on iCloud and Dropbox, Box has introduced OneCloud for iOS, a self-proclaimed “enterprise mobile framework to bring together your mobile content and the mission-critical apps designed to work with it.” For now, it’ll support over 30 iOS programs, four of which add “round-trip” integration; in other words, OneCloud will enable you to open a document in QuickOffice, edit it, and save it back without ever having to manually switch programs. To its credit, this is about as close as one could come to being genuinely productive on a device that tends to have productivity a bit lower on the priority rungs, but the video after the break still shows just how clunky the whole operation is. For our money, an ultralight laptop still makes more sense for business professionals on the go, but it’s certainly not a bad backup to have around for making tweaks in a pinch

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Box OneCloud learns from Dropbox and iCloud, allows simpler document editing on-the-go (video)

The huge numbers of deals and newsletters companies send via email may be sparking a backlash. For the past several years, a little over 80 percent of emails have made it to users’ inboxes. However, in the second half of 2011, researchers at email certification company Return Path saw a sudden 6 percent drop in the amount being delivered worldwide. A recent report found that only about 76 percent of messages were reaching the inbox by the end of the year, marking the first “major decline” the company says it has ever seen. While a number of messages were heading to the spam folder, an increasing number were being blocked by ISP-level filters — 15 percent, or 20 percent more than were being blocked in the first half of 2011

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Marketing ‘email overload’ may have led ISPs to block more messages in 2011

Stroke patients don’t always keep up with their rehabilitation exercises once they leave the hospital, so a team at the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering has come up with a solution — an intelligent robot that makes the process more fun. Associate professor Alex Mihailidis and his team developed a robot that helps patients with their exercises. It’s also equipped with artificial intelligence and cameras so that it can track their progress and adapt accordingly. Exercises will change based on past performances or how tired the patient is, and the robot uses rehabilitation-related games to make things more enjoyable

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Robot uses AI and camera tracking to rehabilitate stroke victims

The Dow Jones reports that Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer said today at an investor conference that the company is free to offer a potential future Apple iPhone using 4G LTE, though he didn’t say explicitly whether Apple had such an iPhone planned. The terms of Sprint’s gargantuan iPhone gamble are still mostly a mystery, but Euteneuer also revealed that the company’s contract with Apple is similar to those held by AT&T and Verizon, which could mean that Sprint’s arrangement includes future Apple devices. The notion of a Sprint LTE phone is somewhat strange considering its unique LTE situation : Sprint plans to overlay LTE with CDMA and is also waiting on Clearwire to roll out TD-LTE alongside WiMAX at 2.5GHz, which is enough to make one’s head… Continue reading…

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iPhone with LTE could be offered by Sprint, CFO says

While no doubt swathes of Android and iOS users have experienced massive productivity slumps since Angry Birds Space came out this week, Windows Phone owners will be left staring at their spreadsheets. Peter Vesterbacka, chief marketing officer, at Rovio has told Bloomberg that there are no plans to release the latest iteration of the popular time sink on Microsoft’s mobile platform. Despite the original game still being the most popular app in the Marketplace, Vesterbacka claims that “…it’s a big undertaking to support it, and you have to completely rewrite the application.” So, until a Series 40 version is confirmed, you bird slingin’ Nokia fans will just have to wait. Angry Birds Space won’t land on Windows Phone, Redmond gets no stars originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Mar 2012 07:01:00 EDT

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Angry Birds Space won’t land on Windows Phone, Redmond gets no stars

Sara Robinson’s written an excellent piece on the productivity losses associated with extra-long work-weeks, something that has been established management theory since the time of Ford, but which few employers embrace today. Americans are working longer hours than they have in decades, sacrificing their health, happiness and family lives, and all the data suggests that

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America’s 55-hour work weeks ruin workers’ lives and don’t produce extra value for employers

We previously heard that Mozilla was planning a Metro version of Firefox , and now developer Brian R. Bondy has announced that the company has begun work on it. While that’s good for Firefox fans, the real news is that the program is going to belong to a new, third type of Windows 8 apps: “Metro style enabled desktop browsers.” We’re still trying to figure it all out (and we think Microsoft is too), but from what we understand, this new, third type is an exception to Microsoft’s rules and lets traditional Windows web browsers participate in the Metro experience. The third category would co-exist alongside Windows 8′s two current categories — one for apps in the traditional, Windows 7-like environment, and another for those that belong..

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Microsoft to let Windows 8 web browsers play nice with Metro, Firefox version in the works

Apple’s iWork.com launched in 2009 as a public beta for users of the company’s productivity suite of applications, but it never really took off — and now Cupertino is closing the door on the site. Apple has sent out emails to users of the service that they will no longer be able to upload new documents to iWork.com as of July 31st. The site was intended as a way for users to share documents between different versions of Pages, Numbers, and Keynote on both iOS and the Mac, but despite some minor feature tweaks the service never graduated beyond the initial beta period. iCloud offers much of the same sharing ability, but built directly into apps and the respective operating systems themselves

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Apple shuttering iWork.com public beta in favor of iCloud integration

Vergecast XX is the “November Rain” of Vergecasts. We see you , fanboy, and NO, we don’t see Josh naked and shivering in the fetal position at the end (that’s for Vergecast XXX), but we do get to think it’s over about 3,000 times before it actually is, so if you’re into that thing, you’re into this. 00:16:06 – HTC One family portrait 00:23:14 – Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 revealed in Mobile World Congress signage 00:33:02 – Google to ‘double down’ on Android tablets in 2012, says Andy Rubin 00:40:03 – Windows 8 Consumer Preview: features, apps, games, and more 01:33:55 – Official: Apple iPad 3 event slated for March 7th in San Francisco 01:39:27 – Nokia launches 808 PureView with 41MP camera: hands-on pictures, video, and preview 0… Continue reading…

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The Vergecast 020 – 03.02.2012

Not long after handing its Android application a video-friendly refresh , SugarSync’s back with more updated goodies. Now, the sweet Dropbox adversary is stuffing version 3.5.1 with some productivity and social-driven bits. The rejuvenated app, which won’t ask anything of your wallet, is boosting its sharing features by allowing you to handout contacts, files and folders via Zuck’s social network and that famed 140-character box . Facebook and Twitter’s integration doesn’t stop there, SugarSync’s letting anyone grab 500MB of extra storage at no cost by referring other humans through the aforementioned sites. Another new feature is the on-the-fly file management, which essentially allows you to copy, move and delete any of your docs while you’re on the go

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SugarSync for Android updated, adds enhanced sharing and on-the-go file management

OnLive’s Desktop service is available for Android tablets, allowing owners to access a copy of Windows 7 with a variety of apps including Microsoft Office running in the cloud. We first got a taste of OnLive Desktop back in January for the iPad , with it even making an appearance in The Vergecast at CES, and found it slick and responsive. OnLive’s CEO Steve Perlman describes Android as “a great platform for OnLive Desktop,” specifically calling out the availability of LTE and support for USB keyboards and mice as major benefits. The basic OnLive Desktop service is free, which gives you access to your own thin client, 2GB of storage, and access to all of the apps. For $4.99 per month, users are also given access to other cloud storage..

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OnLive Desktop comes to Android tablets

You know how when you’re playing a game with an old school, quarter-munching vibe, where every move could be your last, and you get into a zone where your eyes are a little unfocused and your mouth hangs open and you just destroy ? Well, that’s an occupational hazard with Terry Cavanagh’s new Flash game Hexagon, whose trippy, zooming visuals are basically daring you to zone in. We’re pretty sure we had an out of body experience somewhere between level 2 and level 3, and blacked out for like three subsequent plays. Post your best time below, but maybe keep somebody nearby with some smelling salts

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Play this: Hexagon

We’d heard that T-Mobile was going to be receiving a new Galaxy S-line phone , the only question was when. Samsung and T-Mobile have now answered that question, formally announcing the Galaxy S Blaze 4G. The phone features a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 dual-core processor, a 3.97-inch Super AMOLED display, and will run on T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network, yielding theoretical download speeds of up to 42Mbps.

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Samsung Galaxy S Blaze 4G coming to T-Mobile in late March

Ever since Google announced changes to its privacy policy in late January, Microsoft has been on the offense, running newspaper ads calling out the search giant for selling its users’ data and unveiling a video starring “Gmail man” reading through user email. It turns out Microsoft isn’t done yet — the latest product to be skewered is Google Apps. In a video called “Googlighting,” which is described as “what happens when the world’s largest advertising business tries to sell productivity software on the side.” The video introduces “Googen Apperson,” who applies for a job at a presumably large and wealthy corporation as the provider of office productivity apps. Apperson doesn’t seem up to the task, failing to answer some hard-nosed..

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Microsoft attacks Google again with new ‘Googlighting’ video

Microsoft’s OneNote software has already seen mobile versions come to Windows Phone and iOS , and now Android users can get in on the productivity fun with an app just released in the Market worldwide. It looks to be functionally identical to other mobile versions, letting you create, edit, and sync your notes through SkyDrive, though it has a new visual style that adds some Metro twists to the Android interface. It follows the same pricing scheme as the iOS app — free for the first 500 notes you make, with a one-time $4.99 payment required to unlock continued use. Here’s how the Android app looks next to its iOS equivalent: Continue reading…

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Microsoft OneNote Mobile now available for Android

In the latest blog in Microsoft’s excellent series on Windows 8 development, the company goes into detail on its new operating system’s power management practices. There’s an intense amount of detail, but Microsoft focused on the concept of “focus on the foreground” — Metro apps will act much like modern smartphone apps, with background apps using minimal resources based on a specific set of background capabilities. Microsoft goes on to outline the three possible states of apps: actively running in the foreground, suspended in the background, and performing a defined activity in the background. While each scenario is fairly self-explanatory, Microsoft goes into detail on each one, outlining situations in which they occur and in which… Continue reading…

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Windows 8 power management will ‘focus on the foreground’

To many’s disappointment, superheroes weren’t exactly on RIM’s list to be the face of its latest advertising crusade. Simply dubbed “Be Bold,” the ad campaign focuses boldly on the famed BlackBerry Messenger , as well as the productivity aspects found in the 9900 . Research in Motion is also taking a swing at its competitors with expressions like “I’m about action, not distraction” and “we need tools, not toys.” At this point, the Canadian manufacturer will take what it can get , thus it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s showing off what some consider its best traits. Wondering what all the fuss is about

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RIM launches BlackBerry ‘Be Bold’ ad campaign, superheroes nowhere to be seen (video)

Microsoft’s been proclaiming its dedication to the cloud for a while now, and Wired sat down with the Office division head Kurt DelBene and the Server and Tools division chief Satya Nadella to talk about that vision. The importance of the cloud is not lost on the two engineers — who say it’s “the way the world is moving” — but how are they bringing the tools we use every day into the cloud? DelBene and Nadella are doing what they can to further develop established products like the online productivity suite Office 365 and the cloud application development platform Windows Azure respectively, a task that requires balancing the company’s current dominance in locally-run software with the push toward cloud-based services. Despite..

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Microsoft won’t be grounded in the race to the cloud

Over the past couple days we’ve gotten some additional details surrounding the circumstances that led to  Andy Lees’ removal  from his role at the top of the Windows Phone org chart inside Microsoft. First off, we’re told that although Lees still reports to CEO Steve Ballmer, his ill-defined new role “focused on driving maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8″ is, in fact, a demotion — the exact phrase that was used with us was that “he’s been benched.” The specific “Windows 8″ language suggests that the position may change or go away after the platform is released next year, so he could be seeking a new role after that — it just remains to be seen whether that position would be internal or external to Microsoft…. Continue reading…

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The fall of Microsoft’s Andy Lees: inside the Windows Phone power shift

In what is widely regarded as his greatest presentation ever, Apple’s Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world on January 10th, 2007. In the nearly 5 years since then, the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have literally redefined the entire world of mobile computing. That world is moving so quickly that iOS is already amongst the older mobile operating systems in active development today. That certainly doesn’t mean it’s underpowered or underfeatured — quite the contrary.

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iOS: A visual history