Software : Microsoft Office 'confirmed' for iOS and Android next year

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• Microsoft Office 'confirmed' for iOS and Android next year
• Gary Marshall: Bye bye Windows Live Messenger
• Obama's 'Four more years' tweet the most popular of all time
• Google mentions Google Wallet card on help site, removes references
• Google Chrome 23 arrives, brings Do Not Track support
• Facebook iOS app updated, gets photo filters
• Sony launches iOS app for Reader
• Skype prepaid vouchers hit UK high street
• Google Maps return to iOS highly unlikely, according to sources
• Rumor: Microsoft retiring Messenger, moving users to Skype
• Brit teenager's Summly news app storms up App Store charts
• Twitter to integrate Instagram-like filters for photo sharing?
• Dev emulates new Fusion Drive with current Mountain Lion
• In Depth: Is artificial intelligence becoming a commodity?
• Google Wallet now offering mobile web payments
• In Depth: 20 of the best OS X menulets
• FaceTime and Messages suit falls into Apple's lap
• Call me 'Windows Store apps'
• In Depth: Xbox Music vs Spotify: music streaming services compared
• Apple patent win puts question mark over smartphone map apps

Microsoft Office 'confirmed' for iOS and Android next year Posted: Microsoft Office is coming to the iPhone, iPad, and Android next year, according to sources. A mobile version of Office has been spotted running on the iPad before, but Microsoft has stayed quiet on the matter. Now anonymous sources have confirmed to The Verge that Office for mobile devices is real, and will be out on Android and iOS in early 2013. Office Mobile will be free for both iOS and Android, and will let you view documents on your device. It'll be compatible with Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents, and if you subscribe to Office 365, you'll be able to edit them too. You'll be able to subscribe to Office 365 from within the apps. The in-app editing will be "basic" according to the report. So not a patch on using the full version of Office on a desktop or laptop. Previous spots A press release from Microsoft's Czech arm previously revealed Office Mobile apps for Android and iOS would be available in March 2013. According to The Verge, the iOS version will be out in late February or early March, with Office for Android coming later, around May time. A Microsoft spokesperson told The Verge: "Office will work across Windows Phone, iOS and Android." A mobile version of Office was first spotted running on an iPad back in May, and since then the rumour mill has gone into overdrive. Via The Verge

Gary Marshall: Bye bye Windows Live Messenger Posted: If internet years are like dog years, then Windows Live Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger) is 91 - so Microsoft's decision to shutter the service in early 2013 and migrate everyone to Skype isn't exactly a surprise. The reason for the move is obvious enough: when you spend billions of pounds on a messaging platform, as Microsoft did with Skype last year, you want to get your money's worth. And as Brian Hall writes in the final Inside Windows Live blog post, Microsoft believes that "Skype provides a better experience and even stronger network." Mac users might disagree with that one - Skype conferencing on OS X, in my experience, is hilariously unreliable - but Skype does have more features and wider device support. I'm sure the migration will be messy for some, because migrations usually are, but when the dust settles Skype will do more for more people than Messenger could. Shooting the Messenger Windows Live Messenger is getting the boot just months after the similarly old Hotmail, which is now Outlook.com, and while progress is obviously a good thing I can't help feeling a nostalgic pang. For many of us MSN Messenger and Hotmail were part of the plumbing of the internet, the programs we used when we were supposed to be doing something else such as sleeping, working or studying. I have particularly fond memories of Messenger: twelve years ago it was where I'd spend all night chatting to the woman who would later become my wife. That was a long time ago, though, and like many people I haven't used Messenger for non-work purposes for some years now. It's from an era where connections were dial-up, tablets didn't exist and phones weren't so smart, and most of us have moved on to other services. As Brian Hall writes: "Messenger enabled each of us to communicate and share with the people we care about". However, a messaging platform is only as good as the people using it, and these days most of us want to talk somewhere else.

Obama's 'Four more years' tweet the most popular of all time Posted: A tweet sent out by Barack Obama to herald his re-election as President of the United States has rapidly become the most popular of all time. The post, which simply read "Four more years" and was accompanied by a photo of Obama embracing his wife Michelle, had already been retweeted over 350,000 times just an hour after it was posted. The same tweet had been favourited by 122,000 Twitter users, with both numbers growing exponentially. The victory tweet surpassed the previous record held by teenage pop sensation Justin Bieber which was retweeted 223,376 times, according to The Atlantic. Record breaker Obama, whose campaign has harnessed social media extremely effectively since he became a presidential candidate in 2008, has amassed a whopping 22 million followers on Twitter. The record-breaking proclamation of victory came towards the close of a frenetic election night on Twitter, which will likely break records for posts and activity. However, not all of the Twitter-based news was positive. The Apprentice U.S. host Donald Trump (himself, fleetingly, a republican presidential hopeful) caused a furore with a barrage of explosive tweets. "Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us," he tweeted from his @realDonaldTrump account, which has 1.3 million followers.

Google mentions Google Wallet card on help site, removes references Posted: Just last week, rumors of Google's plans to spread Google Wallet beyond the virtual world and into the physical realm with an actual card made a surface breach. The so-called "Google Wallet card" would be accepted just like any other major credit or debit card, and would serve as a representation of a user's Google Wallet account. Users could tie any of the debit or credit cards in their accounts to the Google Wallet card, and whenever it was swiped, payment would be taken care of instantly. Instead of then having to carry around a litany of plastic payment methods, Google Wallet cardholders need carry just the one. While the first reports came from an unreleased version of the Google Wallet Android app, the rumors grew stronger Tuesday when Google's own help pages made mention of the Google Wallet card. Virtually real The first indicator came from an "Eligible Devices" tab, which described the Google Wallet card as being compatible with any device running Android 2.3.3 or higher. However, the references to the card didn't last long, and all mention of the card on the "Eligible Devices" tab was removed. According to the original report, users could access the Google Wallet app from their mobile devices to alter the payment card to which the Google Wallet card was tied. While there's still mention of a "Google Wallet Virtual card" on Google's help and terms of service pages, this is not the same as the physical card. Instead, the Virtual card is merely a digital card tied to the Google Wallet which is used for contactless payments to merchants. More to come? Google has remained mum on the subject of the potential Google Wallet card, but the evidence mounting presents a strong case the company will reveal something to touch soon. From the very detailed instructions and features found in the unreleased app to this newly retracted mention of the card, it's unlikely Google will be able to keep its plans secret for much longer. Perhaps Google is waiting until the iOS version of Google Wallet is up and running, but there's no date in sight yet, even though Google is currently accepting sign-ups for iOS version invitations. It would make sense since Apple's devices don't include NFC, and could make those customers the most likely adopters of a physical all-in-one card. Until Google offers up more substantial information, the dream of a single card unifying all other debit and credit accounts remains just that.

Google Chrome 23 arrives, brings Do Not Track support Posted: Google has launched a new version of its popular Chrome web browser, which finally brings Do Not Track support into play. Chrome 23, available to download now, has followed rival browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and Opera in allowing users to choose whether websites and advertisers can track their online activities. Users who update to Chrome 23 will now have the option to enable the DNT protocol as the company promised earlier this year, in accordance with the wishes of the Obama administration. "This latest release also includes an option to send a "do not track" request to websites and web services," read a post on the official Google Chrome Blog. "The effectiveness of such requests is dependent on how websites and services respond, so Google is working with others on a common way to respond to these requests in the future." Unique permissions Microsoft was the first to adopt the standard when it made DNT the default protocol in Internet Explorer 10, while other rivals quickly followed suit. Given that Google makes a decent chunk of its cash from advertisers paying the company to throw targeted commercials at users, it's little surprise that Google has taken a little longer to climb on board. Chrome 23 also gives users the opportunity to control the unique permissions of some sites (access to your location, camera, microphone, etc.) by clicking the lock icon within the URL bar.

Facebook iOS app updated, gets photo filters Posted: Facebook's iOS app has been updated to version 5.1, and while it doesn't say it on the iTunes page, photo filters is among the new features. This comes just days after a report in The New York Times said Twitter was readying photo filters for its own mobile apps, to compete with the Facebook-owned Instagram. The Facebook Camera app launched in May. It lets you add filters to your snaps, but now Facebook has embedded the function into its main app, effectively rendering its Camera one obsolete. Filters like Contrast, Copper, Cream, and Black and White can be added by tapping the magic wand below the photo. Beating Twitter to the punch Some might say Facebook launched the feature ahead of Twitter to make the micro-blogging service seem behind the times. But if that's the case, why wouldn't it make more of a big deal of it? By, for example, including it in the list of new features on the iTunes page? Facebook has also added the ability to upload multiple photos from within the main app. So you can share a folder of snaps at once, without having to upload each individually. You can now buy Facebook Gifts through the iOS app, too. Previously, iOS users could only unwrap Gifts they'd received, while Android and web users could send them to others. So now iOS users have no excuse. Via TechCrunch

Sony launches iOS app for Reader Posted: Long before Amazon took the ereading world by storm with its Kindle, Sony launched its own range of e-ink devices. Those devices have just become a lot more versatile, with the launch of the Sony Reader app on iOS. The app offers access to all books purchased through the Sony Reader store, or even those contained within a Sony Reader library. Previously, DRM on books purchased for a Sony Reader had been restricted to the Japanese company's devices, although this app will allow users to read those books from any iOS device running version 4.3 or later. Not quite Whispersync The launch of the app hasn't necessarily satisfied Sony Reader users, with complaints about DRM filling the iTunes review page. Despite including the ability to create and sync bookmarks across devices, the app lacks a Whispersync like function to keep you automatically synced across devices. Even more disappointing is the fact that the app is exclusive to the US iTunes store, despite Sony Reader devices being available around the world. On the upside, American users who download the app will receive a free short story from urban fantasy author, Kim Harrison. Via: ZDnet

Skype prepaid vouchers hit UK high street Posted: Skype users will now be able to top-up their credit with prepaid vouchers after the Microsoft-owned company signed a deal with UK retailers. Skype cards will now be available from 1,400 stores in the UK, including WH Smith, Asda, Sainsbury's, PC World and Currys and can be easily redeemed at Skype.com Although Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messages are free, the credit can be used to make cheap calls to landlines and mobiles, access the video conferencing functionality and connect to Skype Wi-Fi hotspots. The cards, which will cost between £10 and £20 can also be used to buy Skype subscriptions, such as the monthly unlimited calls to landlines in Europe (£5.74 a month) and around the world (£9.76 a month). Keeping in touch Enrico Noseda, Head of Market Development for the EMEA region at Skype said: "We see Skype Prepaid Cards as yet another option for users to get more out of the Skype experience, either as a way to add Skype Credit to their account or as a perfect gift for friends and family to allow them to keep in touch more easily. "The Skype Credit can be used in whichever way and on whichever device best suits the user, making it as easy as possible to be together whenever we are apart."

Google Maps return to iOS highly unlikely, according to sources Posted: A new report dashes hopes that Google Maps will ever really return to Apple's iOS environment. Sources close to Google's mapping development and speaking with The Guardian said they are "not optimistic" that Apple will ever officially approve another map app from the search giant. Those sources claimed the search engine is developing another version of Google Maps for iOS 6, even though it likely will get shot down. However, the app should be ready by the end of the year in "the unlikely event" that Apple gives the program a green light. Apple vs Google The trouble started when Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping app as it introduced iOS 6 back in September. Rumors indicated a rift between the two companies formed when Google withheld turn-by-turn navigation and vector graphics from the Apple version of its map app. So, the Cupertino company decided to develop its own navigation application, and throw it in with its newest iOS update instead of Google Maps. A rough start for Apple Maps Apple Maps was far from perfect when it debuted and it still continues to struggle. It released with loads of missing, inaccurate and frustratingly lacking map data, including jumbling points of interest, graphical glitches and leaving out public transportation information. The inferior product created a huge public backlash, one that lead to a rare letter of apology from Apple CEO Tim Cook. The mapping misstep also reportedly resulted in the resignation of Scott Forstall, vice president of iOS Software. Slim chances Some hoped that Forstall's departure would mean a different direction for Apple's "maptastrophe," and that Google Maps might make its way onto iOS 6. Another glimmer of hope showed when Cook suggested customers use rival services such as Google (through Safari) until Maps can be fixed. But it doesn't look like the two companies will make up anytime soon. Users can still use Google Maps through the Safari web browser, but the service is slower and not as reliable as its official app version was. However, it looks like that will be the only way for iOS users to access Google Maps going forward. Those sources said Apple would rather save face as much as possible and will "keep moving forward in an effort to make its obviously inferior product better." Smoothing out Maps There have been some signs that Apple is making the necessary changes to fill the void Google Maps left. A month ago, rumors circulated that Apple would use its legions of Apple Store employees to help fill in information gaps. Last week, Apple released a new beta version of iOS 6.1 for developers to debug their apps on. The beta included a new tool to the MapKit framework, which lets developers better search and return results for points of interest through maps. The new tool won't be the silver bullet needed to fix all the Apple Maps problems, but it's the first tangible step Apple has taken to improve Maps. Those same Google sources say the tech giants may work it out eventually. The two companies are in constant conversations about a number of topics, and things could change quickly. But even if Google Maps comes back to iOS, it won't be Apple's main navigation app.

Rumor: Microsoft retiring Messenger, moving users to Skype Posted: Industry sources claim Microsoft may phase out Windows Live Messenger in favor of Skype, with an announcement to come as early as this week. First launched as MSN Messenger in mid-1999, Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger hit its peak a decade later with more than 330 million active users chatting away on it each month. According to sources whispering in the ear of The Verge, Redmond may soon retire the instant messaging service in favor of Skype, the VoIP service it acquired last year. While an announcement on the retirement of Windows Live Messenger could come in the next few days, the service isn't expected to wind down until the "coming months." Unified login While Skype has always offered instant messaging, Microsoft started moving the feature over to its Messenger backend about six months ago, which is said to now be serving up 80 percent of the message sent through Skype. The recently released Skype 6.0 update for Windows and Mac introduced the ability to link user names with either Facebook or a Microsoft account, which includes Windows Live Messenger users. TechRadar reached out to Microsoft for comment and will update this story if and when the company responds.

Brit teenager's Summly news app storms up App Store charts Posted: A news summary app, developed by a 17-year-old Brit, leapt in to the App Store top ten just hours after it was launched. The new Summly app, built by teenager Nick D'Aloisio, uses neat algorithms to condense trending news stories into one-screen summaries. The iPhone app works on the premise that people do not have the time or the inclination to read full news articles on a mobile screen and would rather have the basic gist of a story, rather than skim headlines. The 'painstakingly' developed algorithm means that despite all of the chopping, the story still translates into a readable summary, while users can still double-tapping the screen for a more detailed 'Summly'. Mobile news is broken The length of the Summly is also determined by the size of the iPhone model, so iPhone 5 users will see more text on their 4-inch screen than users of the 3.5-inch iPhone 4S. "What we believed is news on the iPhone-sized screen is currently broken," D'Aloisio said. "So people are just skim-reading the headlines and no one is actually standing in line or on the phone and going, 'I want to read this whole story,' scrolling through a 1,500-word article." Big investment Summly, which D'Aloisio took a year out of school to develop, has received over a million dollars in funding from the likes of actor Ashton Kutcher and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus. News Corp. is also on board after signing a deal to have the Wall Street Journal, The Times and other publications appear within the app. This is the second version of Summly. D'Aloisio says the first version was a demo, but this new iteration is ready for the mass market. Judging by the initial flood of downloads, it looks like he may be right.

Twitter to integrate Instagram-like filters for photo sharing? Posted: Twitter is planning to add in-app photo filters in order to compete with Instagram and Facebook according to reports. The New York Times claims the company will include the option to add a host of retro-like filters to photos directly from its mobile apps. Apparently, the company wants its users to by-pass Instagram and share directly to Twitter, but still enjoy similar photo-enhancing tools. The NYT reports that, following Facebook's billion dollar acquisition of the hit photo-sharing application, Twitter had considered purchasing a rival service in order to keep up. However, the top brass at the company may have resolved to build the extra functionality itself and keep everything in house. Twitter has declined to comment on the report. Marginalising third-parties The report comes as Twitter continues its efforts to marginalise third-party services by tightening its API restrictions. Twitter has claimed that the changes are in aid of providing a consistent experience for its users, but in reality, it is looking to squeeze out companies that make money from Twitter in order to pocket that cash itself. Less than a month ago we reported on speculation that Twitter was building its own video hosting service in order to squeeze out TwitVid, yFrog and the like.

Dev emulates new Fusion Drive with current Mountain Lion Posted: Developer Patrick Stein recently demonstrated Mountain Lion has software that already supports Fusion Drive, Apple's newly announced hybrid hard drive. He did this by jury-rigging his own version of the upcoming storage solution. Apple announced the new storage device just a week ago. It's basically a traditional hard drive and a faster solid state drive "fused together with software," that shows up as one volume on which to store files. The Fusion Drive allows for faster reading and writing that is cheaper than a purely flash-based device. Fusing drives together Stein showed on his Tumblr Wednesday that it's possible to connect a SSD and an HDD together and get Mountain Lion to recognize the two drives as a single logical volume. That connection is basically what the new Fusion Drive comes down to. Stein achieved the feat with a SATA-connected 128GB SDD and a USB-tethered 750GB HDD. He started by launching the Terminal version of disk utility. He used Core Storage, an OS X feature that links separate storage devices into single volumes, and then created a 466GB HSF+ volume, which is also known as a Mac OS Extended. After a few tests, Stein confirmed he mimicked the new Fusion Drive. "Now in DiskUtility the individual disks no longer show, but the Logical Volume (LV) shows as one disk," Stein wrote on his blog. "Part One is finished, we've created a single Volume consisting of a SSD and an HDD." The whole thing proves that the current version of Mountain Lion will work with the Fusion Drives without needing an update. OS X 10.8.3 on the way In other Cupertino news, developers close to Apple received invitations Wednesday to test the beta version of OS X 10.8.3. Apple usually sends out such invitations before it starts letting programmers get a look at a new version of its operating systems. Those hoping to get a glimpse of what the new version of Mountain Lion will include might be a little disappointed. There's no indication what changes might be in store for the update, only that Apple is a little closer to releasing it. The pre-release beta period will give developers a chance to get ahead of any bugs an update of Mountain Lion might cause before it's released to the public.

In Depth: Is artificial intelligence becoming a commodity? Posted: Artificial intelligence is fast becoming a pillar of the technology industry, but what is it? Forget sentient computers and biological brains; this is about developing software that solves problems, though logic and knowledge are mere underlying traits. Some think AI could even save our species. What is artificial intelligence? Software. Some AI software is very specific (such as a reactive autopilot system), others more wide-ranging and ambitious, but all include some or all traits thought of as 'unnatural' for a man-made machine; reasoning, perception, social and cultural awareness … and learning. It's that last one that will take us closer to the eventual goal of computers that boast 'general intelligence', and though we're not there yet, it's getting closer with supercomputer's like IBM's Watson. Who is Watson? The brainchild of computer scientists at IBM, Watson is a modular supercomputer made up of more than 90 servers and 16 terabytes of RAM. Watson is most famous for triumphing against human opponents in US quiz show Jeopardy a few years ago, and could have a pivotal role in the future of computing. IBM is now working with voice recognition boffins at Nuance to make Watson into a 'super Siri' that can understand and apply its vast processing power to spoken questions and commands. Slated for job of interpreting data in the medical and possibly financial industries from the cloud, Watson could eventually become a web resource for us all; cue 'cloud intelligence' of a supremely advanced kind. What makes Watson different to other supercomputers? "Hardware wise, there's not much," says tech analyst and ex-CTO of BT, Peter Cochrane. "It's the power of over 300 algorithms that it uses which makes the big difference." Watson is all about its smart learning software - called DeepQA - that can not just understand, but also interpret spoken or written questions. "The hardware is a set of fairly conventional high-end IBM machines linked together," says Steve Furber, IEEE Fellow and the ICL Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Manchester. "The software co-ordinates high-speed search of vast knowledge databases, with a specific, impressive, but rather narrow goal." Why do we need a supercomputer? Most of us don't - yet - though Watson isn't trying to replace unreliable sources of information but rather interpret data. Masses of it. Medical and financial companies are drowning in data that at present goes unanalysed, and desperately need an automated way of sifting it, sorting it and, most importantly, using it to make business decisions. Being able to detect patterns in data ought to aid stockbrokers in predicting share prices, but it goes further than mere gambling; supercomputers like Watson won't just uncover patterns, but use probability to calculate future data - and learn from it. Are there other Watsons? "There are lots of supercomputers, but none is as good as Watson by a long way," says Cochrane. "Right now, Watson is on his own." Other supercomputers installed in laboratories around the world – which are tracked by the Top500 Project – include Jaguar, Fujitsu's K Computer, and a trio also from IBM: Sequoia, Mira and SuperMUC. "The nearest thing I can think of to Watson is Apple's Siri and the Android equivalent," says Furber, who's talking about applications, and who also mentions Siri-slayer Evi (pronounced 'eevee'). With AI voice apps sending data to rivals' systems, it's no wonder IBM has banned its staff from using Siri at work. What is Evi? Like Siri - newly improved for iOS6 - Evi is an app for voice search on both iOS and Android that's taking artificial intelligence into the mainstream by allowing quick mobile search. Like Siri - but available on all models of iPhone, as well as Android phones - Evi lets users make calls, send emails or text messages as well as search the web for local restaurants, businesses and services. It's made by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, UK-based company, and has been installed one million times from iTunes and Google Play since its launch in January this year. "Evi has a huge base of the world's knowledge in a form that she can understand and reason with," says Evi's inventor, William Tunstall-Pedoe, who claims that the app can process almost one billion facts. "She uses this knowledge to understand users and answer questions." That knowledge includes common sense about the world that was previously limited to human beings. "We have developed unique and deep technology that nobody else has and are the leaders in this kind of problem." In the near future it's entirely possible that artificially intelligent systems like Watson will be integrated into voice-controlled apps like Evi and Siri. Does Google have a Watson? No, but a cloud-based Watson able to analyse search terms to find the best answers sounds suspiciously like the world's most popular search engine - and the reality is that Google already has artificially intelligent computers on its radar, too. Earlier this year Google revealed that its Google X lab had built a nine-layer neural network that could detect faces. Using 16,000 computer cores over three days the model managed to detect faces in among 10 million random images on YouTube, despite not being told there were any faces, and even identified cat's faces and human bodies. In short, the software learned what a face was, and how to differentiate between human and cat. The final use for this kind of AI isn't clear, but the automation it offers for search seems the most appropriate for Google, whose search engine works on AI - and has done for years. Is artificial intelligence the next commodity? "It is certainly going to be a commodity, one available on mobiles and on all computer terminals," says Cochrane, "and it may well be the most vital of all the commodities, surpassing water, food, heat and light. Without it, we will certainly not survive as a species." Now that's some commodity, though Furber thinks it's all about selling simple 'common sense', with the likes of Siri and Evi leading the way. "They are a bit primitive right now, but I sense that Apple has decided that it is going to make Siri work really well - it'll just take a bit of time," says Furber. "Watson shows what is possible."

Google Wallet now offering mobile web payments Posted: The evolution of Google Wallet continued Thursday as Google announced plans to change the way consumers purchase goods through the mobile web. Instead of being required to fill out lengthy order forms on a smartphone or tablet screen, Google Wallet users can now press one button to have all the busy work taken care of by the service. Consumers with a Google Wallet account can also use the new "Buy with Google Wallet" button for one-touch ordering. Currently, Google's research showed 97 percent of customers who attempt to buy goods through a mobile website quit before the order is complete. By simplifying the process, Google is hoping more shoppers can get the items they want with little to no hassle. Competition heats up Since the program is so new, very few mobile sites have adopted the "Buy with Google Wallet" button. 1-800-Flowers.com, Rockport.com and FiveGuys.com have already implemented the new Google Wallet options into each company's respective mobile sites, and Google promises more (like Finish Line and MovieTickets.com) mobile sites will soon be compatible. This is a pretty big step for Google Wallet, as it now provides a distinct advantage competitor services Apple Passbook and Microsoft Wallet don't yet offer. Google also has an advantage in that its service works across a variety of platforms, whereas Microsoft Wallet is limited to Windows Phone 8 and Passbook is limited to devices running iOS 6. With more and more consumers adopting digital wallets and payment options, it will be interesting to see how the wallet wars continue to escalate over the course of the next year.

In Depth: 20 of the best OS X menulets Posted: 20 of the best OS X menulets Every Mac power user understands the might of the OS X menu bar. But for the rest of us, that ever-present beam topping our desktops has been ignored for too long. But we're not here to harp on about application menus. It's the Spotlight end of the bar where our eyes roam. You'll likely see a few icons there already - system items such as Wi-Fi signal and volume, for example. An iChat bubble, perhaps. A display selector, if you're lucky. Apple calls these symbols 'Menu Extras'. What won't be so obvious, though, is what your menu bar is missing. We're talking third-party 'menulets' - super-charged icons that when clicked on provide quick access to inspired applets and novel services. If you've a Dropbox account, you have one; likewise if you Growl. But there are many more first-rate menulets out there just waiting to be discovered. So we did the legwork for you. Here's 20 of the very best... 1. Fantastical Price: £14 The Calendar app to rule them all. Fantastical is the easiest way to create new events and reminders straight from your desktop. A single click on its menulet opens up a mini calender view. Type in an event or reminder such as 'Lunch with Denise on Thursday at 1pm' and you can consider it a date, because Fantastical understands natural language input. It also features a search bar for you to instantly find future events. And with iCal, BusyCal, Entourage and Outlook support, it's got all heavy schedules covered. Just want to keep abreast of pre-arranged dates? Then try CalendarBar (£1.99, Mac App Store) instead - it tracks Facebook events too. 2. Boom Price: $4.99 (£2.99) You've maxed out your Mac's volume for the loudest possible sound but it's just not loud enough. Luckily, Boom is here to help. With its simple slider control, you can boost sonic output system-wide. You can even remap the sound characteristics of your Mac with its fine-grained equaliser, for which you can create and save custom presets for individual apps or audio scenarios. There's more: Boom can boost the volume of your music and video files for louder playback on your iOS devices, by creating a special playlist for export. 3. DesktopTidy Price: £2.99 Desktop clutter can be a perennial problem for even organised OS X users. It's not just unsightly - if you're showing work to a client it can look unprofessional. DesktopTidy promises to clear away the detritus into a 'shadow desktop' accessible from your menu bar. You can schedule automatic icon sweeps to occur weekly or even every minute, and apply filters to the shadow desktop to order files chronologically, hide older ones or group them by type. A useful ignore list let's you set DesktopTidy to allow certain file types to remain unhidden; it also tells you how much disk space the files in your shadow desktop are taking up. 4. Radium Price: £17.49 Radium works as a convenient portal to the world of streaming internet radio. Search for stations by name, country, language, genre, or any combination of these. Whenever you find a song you like, you can favourite it, preview it later, or buy it directly from iTunes. Radium supports a range of customisable shortcut keys and includes an equaliser with plenty of presets. It can even turn on AirPlay for streaming radio around the house. 5. gfxCardStatus Price: Free Modern high-end MacBook Pros pack both integrated and discrete graphics cards, switching between them dynamically in an effort to conserve battery life. This action depends on the app you're running. Trouble is, some apps are greedier than others. gfxCardStatus simply allows you to see which apps are using power-hungry discrete graphics and affecting your battery life most. It does this by notifying you when the GPU switches, and even lets you force your Mac to run in either mode. 6. Google Notifier Price: Free Yes, Google Notifier is old, but if you're not a fan of Apple Mail, it's still the simplest route to your Gmail inbox - plus it's free. New mail notifications appear in your menu bar with a quick preview of the message subject, sender, and a snippet of the mail body. It also notifies you of upcoming Google Calendar events, including date, time, event title and location. 7. Caffeine Price: Free The tiniest menulet in our list, but no less useful. Click the Caffeine icon to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen, or starting your screensaver. Option-click it to set a wake duration, and empty the coffee mug again to disable. Perfect for presentations, film marathons and work/play all-nighters. 8. Insomniax Price: Free Insomniax enables the use of Clamshell mode (OS operation with the lid closed) in the absence of an external display or power source. It does this by disabling your Mac's auto-sleep feature, meaning you can continue to play music through external speakers or leave big files downloading with the lid down. Don't worry: a CPU safety feature ensures InsomniaX is disabled if your Mac gets too toasty. 9. Tictoc Price: £2.99 Some jobs become so involved it's all too easy to forget how long they actually took - a nightmare for freelancers and anyone else who has to report the time they sank into a particular project. Tictoc is a simple task timer that stays in your menu bar out of the way and only pops up when you click it. Just press the + button to add a task, assign it a name, hit start, and get on with the job. You can pause the timer at idle moments, and the interface allows multiple timers to tick over concurrently. Tasks are logged chronologically; best of all, you can export task info to XML and CSV for easy import into your accounting or project management app. 10. Shady Price: Free Adjusting your Mac's screen brightness from the keyboard is all well and good, but what if you need more granular control to save your vision - and what about that eye-searing external display? Shady hands you the reins on both counts. Change the brightness of all your screens in increments of 5% using the menulet's slider, and save your shade level for it to be restored next time you feel that headache coming on. Definitely one for the graveyard shift. 11. XMenu Price: Free Not a fan of LaunchPad, the Dock or Dock-based folder and file access? Try XMenu on for size. Clicking its icon reveals global menus to your applications, folders, documents and files. You can customise what appears in the dropdown, so if you wish this or that app had a menu bar shortcut, now's your chance to make one for it. Simple but convenient. 12. Monocle Price: Free Say you're immersed in a piece of work and need to look up something online to get any further with it, but firing up your browser and navigating to the right search engine for the job seems a hassle at best, and at worst a distraction. Monocle is the perfect solution to such a scenario. It's an online search tool that can be raised via a hotkey, and delivers live Google results in its dropdown as you type. You can easily switch between engines to fine-tune your search, and you can add to it any search engine (or website with a search function) you like. You can even assign 'callwords' to quickly jump to a specific engine, without ever going near the mouse. 13. Trickster Price: £6.99 Losing track of that file you were just working on is about to become a thing of the past. In a beautifully refined interface, Trickster keeps tabs on all of your recently used files and applications so you don't have to. Whether it's a document you were reading, a file you downloaded, or an attachment you just emailed to someone, Trickster has it tracked. You can drag items from its recent list onto your Dock or into other applications, open them or show them in Finder, or enable one of its many file-kind filters to speed up your search. A sidebar offers fast access to your favourite folders and files, and you can even flag important files or drop new ones on the Trickster icon to add them to its list. 14. I Love Stars Price: £1.49 iTunes' star ratings system is a great way to organise your music library around your favourite - and not so favourite - tracks. But rating all those songs is a huge undertaking, and simply not practical if you have them on in the background while you're busy with something else. With I Love Stars, however, you can rate the currently playing song from your menu bar with a single mouse click. Play, pause and next buttons also feature in its dropdown, as well as cover art for the currently played song. You can even set up keyboard shortcuts to set stars, making rating as unobtrusive as possible. 15. SmartMenu for iTunes Price: 69p Smart Menu for iTunes is a highly customisable iTunes applet that displays the currently playing song in your menu bar, including track number, artist, album and duration, all in the font of your choosing. It's not intrusive either, as it scrolls the information in a user-defined space at a speed you designate, thereby avoiding clutter and leaving room for all those other icons you've likely added already... 16. Living Earth HD Price: £4.99 This awesome menulet began life as an iOS app, and you'll be glad it made the jump. Living Earth HD grants you access to the world's time zones and weather forecasts of cities around the world, all beautifully displayed on a rotatable, scaleable, 3D rendering of our globe. Its near real-time tracking of cloud cover and active storms really ups the 'live' feeling you get when ogling the view, and the option to expand your orbit to the entire desktop wallpaper only adds to the wonder. See it on a Retina display and you might just hit zero gravity. 17. PinBar Pro Price: £1.99 OS X Mountain Lion embraced Facebook and Twitter with open arms, but for whatever reason Pinterest got the cold shoulder. You can rectify the jilted social network with this little 'let. PinBar Pro allows you to browse the latest pins right from your desktop and in an unobtrusive way. Within its mini viewing window you can see what friends have pinned as well as comment, like or re-pin their posts on your own board. The unofficial applet supports multi-touch gestures, while a desktop mode even lets you zoom pins to full size. 18. SnappyApp Price: Free The multiple desktops of Mountain Lion and the rise of ultraportables means we're swiping between apps more than ever. That's fine as it goes, but when you're referencing two apps that are competing for screen space it quickly begins to frustrate. SnappyApp offers an escape. Essentially it captures a static shot of any area you define within its crosshairs and floats it, or 'snaps' it to the desktop. You can have more than one selection snapped to the screen, save snaps for later, and even share them over email, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. 19. iStat Menus 3 Price: $16 (£10) The granddaddy of diagnostic applets. iStat Menus 3 crams into the bar real-time data on every piece of Mac hardware you could possibly want to monitor. There's detailed information on your battery's current state; multifarious memory stats; disk input/output activity; network activity; disk usage; CPU core usage; hard drive and CPU temperature; fan RPM; voltages, current, power... even your top system resource hogs get shamed. You can visualise almost all of this in a range of graph and chart types. And if that's not enough, it even offers a highly configurable world time and calendar view, with moon phases thrown in for good measure. 20. Bartender Price: Free Yep, we thought you might need this one. With Bartender you can choose which of all those lovely menulets appear in your menu bar, which live in Bartender's click-to-reveal sub-menubar, and which get hidden completely. Not only that, veiled menulets can be set to appear for five seconds whenever they update, so you won't miss a thing. Of course if minimalism isn't your bag, you could always have Bartender get rid of the entire application menu in order to display the maximum possible number of menulets... but that would be overdoing it, right? Got a menulet you can't live without that we haven't covered here? Let us know in the comments below!

FaceTime and Messages suit falls into Apple's lap Posted: Apple's had some peaks and valleys over the last few months, including the success of iPhone 5, confoundment over the iPad mini's price, record earnings and the departure of some of its top execs. Now the Cupertino firm has a lawsuit breathing down its neck. Intercarrier Communications (ICC) a Texas-based firm, has filed a suit in U.S. District Court that says Apple's FaceTime and Message apps infringe upon one of its patents. The contested patent is called "Inter-Carrier messaging service providing phone number only experience," and essentially covers a method to send messages between users on different carriers using nothing but a phone number. Trolling ICC's filing claimed it "has been harmed by [Apple's] infringing activities." The firm requested a jury trial and an unspecified amount in damages for past infringement and any continuing or future infringement, including interest, costs, expenses and other fees such as attorneys' fees. Apple isn't ICC's only target: Patently Apple reported that in the past five days, it has filed suits against a score of other companies, including MobiWeb, Iris Wireless and Broadsoft. In each suit, ICC has cited the same patent. While ICC's claims may be warranted, there is a distinct possibility the firm is a "patent troll," a patent holder that aggressively or opportunistically persecutes accused violators without the intention to manufacture or market anything based off of the patent. Apple is no stranger to lawsuits, and depending on the damages, should be able to flush some funds out of its recent $1.05 billion (around UK£664 million, AUD$1.01 billion) payday from Samsung. TechRadar has reached out to Apple and will update this story if and when they company responds.

Call me 'Windows Store apps' Posted: Leave it to Microsoft to create some (more) confusion around what it plans to call its new Windows 8 design language. As of Wednesday morning, the working title for applications built for the OS' was "Windows Store apps." It appears this name is here to say, as Microsoft put the kibosh on another moniker that surfaced Tuesday. According to an Engadget report, during Microsoft's Build 2012 conference Tuesday, Will Tschumy, principal user experience adviser at the company, spoke four words no one outside Microsoft had heard yet: Windows 8 Store Applications. Microsoft later issued a redaction: Tschumy misspoke, and the name W8 apps will henceforth go by is Windows Store apps. Faint memories Those who've paid attention might remember "Metro" as the de facto term used to describe Windows 8's UI. It turned out that word was only a codename used by Microsoft within company confines and was never intended to be the official calling card of the new set of applications. Unfortunately, developers, consumers and the tech community got used to Metro and were subsequently confused as the Softies switched to other aliases. Among those were "Windows 8-style UI," "New User Interface," "Windows 8 design," "Windows 8 application" and, simply, "Windows 8." We'll see if Redmond sticks with Windows Store apps moving forward.

In Depth: Xbox Music vs Spotify: music streaming services compared Posted: Xbox Music vs Spotify With the launch of Windows 8, Microsoft is revamping its music service. Zune is dead (again) - long live Xbox Music! Microsoft calls this an all-in-one music service because you can get free streaming music, subscribe to listen to everything or pay to download specific tracks you want to keep. How does that stack up to the familiar and comprehensive Spotify service? Xbox Music vs Spotify: what it costs, what it covers Both services have free options as well as $9.99 a month premium options. To get Xbox Music free streaming you have to have Windows 8 or Windows RT, and you get unlimited, ad-supported free streaming of individual songs, full albums or playlists for six months and "limited hours" (which Microsoft hasn't yet put a number on) after six months. If you pay $9.99 a month for the Xbox Music Pass you get ad-free, unlimited playback of any track in the subscription catalogue on your PC, phone (Windows Phone to start with, iOS and Android later on) or Xbox 360 – including playing music when you're not online. That also gives you music videos on your Xbox. Spotify free streaming is available on Mac PC with the Spotify desktop client and again there are listening limits and advertising. If you want to listen to music offline, or on a mobile device, you need to pay for a premium account or buy music (but that comes from a store with a slightly different catalogue). Both Spotify and Xbox Music have "millions" of tracks; 30 million for Xbox Music (which Microsoft says is "on par with Itunes"), over 80 years of continuous music for Spotify, which at an average of three minutes per track comes out to something close to 15 million. We found a wide range of music on both, with mainstream, eclectic and classic tracks. For new music, both offer a good selection but they take a different approach on the really big new songs. Adele's Skyfall is everywhere on the radio this month, but Spotify doesn't have it at all - just lots of cover versions. Xbox Music has Skyfall but only if you have an Xbox Music Pass or you want to buy the track to download. Both Spotify and Xbox Music include music you have on your PC in the library of what you can listen to. In 2013 Xbox Music will add a 'scan and match' feature that uploads any songs you already own that aren't in the main catalogue to the cloud so you can listen to them on other devices easily. Xbox Music vs Spotify: apps and third-party support Initially, Xbox Music only works through the Windows 8 and RT Music app, on Windows Phone 8 (which has a great music app and syncs your playlists automatically) or on your Xbox 360 - if you either pay for the Xbox Music Pass and Xbox Gold Live or use the SmartGlass app on your Windows 8 or RT device to play your free streaming through your Xbox. As your Xbox is probably connected to better speakers and gives you a nice music info screensaver on the Xbox screen, this is a great way to enjoy music. Microsoft promises iOS and Android apps in the future and SmartGlass is on Android (and coming to iOS) for controlling your Xbox already, but you'll have to pay for the Xbox Music Pass to use them. Spotify has desktop clients for Windows and Mac that you need to install to get the free streaming; there's even an experimental Linux client. But unlike some other services like Rdio andDeezer, there's no web version of Spotify. You can get Spotify on just about every mobile platform: iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and even Windows Phone, but you have to pay for the premium service to get Spotify on mobile devices. You can get Spotify on other devices like the Sonos home music streaming devices, again as long as you have the premium service. There are apps that run inside the Spotify service as well. You can share what you listen to with Spotify on Facebook (in fact it's hard to find out how to sign up for the free service without conencitng via Facebook) or scrobble what you play to the Last.fm listening service. Microsoft is promising "unique social features to share your music experience"; we expect that to involve your Xbox avatar and your Microsoft account, which integrates with a huge number of social networks already. Xbox Music vs Spotify: look, feel and ease of use The Spotify desktop app is straight from the ITunes school of design, full of panels and panes and menus and controls and buttons and ads. You can't easily close it from the taskbar when you're done; you have to go into the main interface to do that and by default it starts automatically with Windows. It's powerful but also complex. The Xbox Music app on Windows 8 has a much cleaner look and it's designed to work well with touch on tablets. The Windows Phone app has a similar look, as does the Xbox 360 app. On Xbox you can even use Kinect's voice recognition to drive it if you don't want to grab the controller, or use SmartGlass from your phone. On both Windows and Xbox, you can keep clicking, tapping (or talking) your way through lists of songs, information about bands and musicians, and related information to explore more music, and the interface feels spacious and friendly (or spread out and inefficient if you prefer familiar playlist layouts). In use the bland background turns out not to be as drab as you'd expect. We like the way the monochrome grey background lets the artwork and artist photos stand out; these aren't the primary colours of the Windows 8 start screen. Xbox Music vs Spotify: playlists Xbox Music has the powerful Smart DJ feature that you may know from Zune - as well as setting up a playlist by hand, you can pick an artist or album and get an automatic playlist of similar and related music. You can't do that for absolutely every artist; we couldn't make a Smart DJ playlist for Split Enz but we could for Neil Finn - who was in Split Enz as well as Crowded House. This is a great way of getting the kind of music you feel like listening to without a lot of work and the picks are good (closer to smart playlists in ITunes than to the very random results in Google Music). Spotify has good options for setting up playlists and adding music to what you're already playing, but the standout feature is great social playlists; you can share playlists with friends online and even set up group playlists that other people can add to. If you have a premium account, playlists are the way you can take music offline on your phone so you can listen to it on a plane. Xbox Music vs Spotify: the verdict So far, Spotify has been the streaming service to beat, with a good catalog and good mobile apps on a wide range of platforms. We love Spotify and it remains impressive but Xbox Music raises the stakes with a catalogue that's nearly twice the size, free streaming for Windows 8 users - including offline options, smart playlists and superb integration with Xbox. The mobile experience is far more limited to start with, but Xbox Music makes Microsoft is a serious contender in the streaming music arena and a no-brainer if you have Windows 8, RT or Windows Phone 8.

Apple patent win puts question mark over smartphone map apps Posted: Apple has been granted the patent on navigating maps using your fingers on a touchscreen interface. Apple may not have had much luck with its own iOS 6 Maps App but it obviously has some cartographical smarts; it filed for the patent back in 2008 just before the Google-powered maps app made its debut on the iPhone 3GS. The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) awarded the patent, known as Patent No. 8,302,033 for a "touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for providing maps, directions, and location-based information". Tap nav This basically covers the way users slide their fingers around the screen to control the maps, as well as bookmarking locations by long-pressing the appropriate area of the screen and other design elements of the map interface. By awarding Apple the patent, the USPTO may have chucked a sizable spanner into the works of Google's upcoming iOS Google Maps App replacement, not to mention all other touchscreen mapping apps on Android, Windows Phone and other platforms. Does this patent win mean we're we in for another round of patent-based litigation over map apps? Boy, we hope not.

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