Software : Microsoft launches Office 2013 suite

Microsoft launches Office 2013 suite
Mikogo launches Cloud Desktop
Vine starts to censor some searches but porn is still there
BlackBerry World gathers movies, music and TV under one BB10 umbrella

Microsoft launches Office 2013 suite

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Microsoft has launched Office 2013, the latest version of its software suite, highlighting its links with cloud systems and social media channels.

The release of Office 2013 marks a stage in Microsoft's increased emphasis on subscription licensing rather than sales of perpetual licences, with a full version of the new software available to subscribers to its Office 365 package.

The subscription version includes all the regular functions available within Office 2013, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Onenote, Outlook and Publisher, along with Office Web Apps. It covers up to five devices which can be changed at any time, and provides 20GB of storage on the SkyDrive Platform, on top of the 7GB that comes with the regular licence.

Regular licences for the Home/Student basis include just Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Onenote, those for commercial use also take in Outlook, and the professional version includes Publisher and Microsoft Access.

Office features

Features include a revamped version of Word including Read mode with text reflow, Object Zoom for viewing tables, charts and pictures, and Present Online for collaboration through a browser.

Excel 2013 has some new functions, such as Flash Fill for formatting and analysis tools to highlight peaks and trends in statistics.

Additions to Outlook 2013 include Exchange active sync support, social connectors, a weather bar, fast filters and context commands.

Office 2013 price

The Office 2013 Professional version is priced at $399/£390, Home and Student at $140/£110, Home and Business at $220/£220, and a Home Premium subscription is £80.

Lara Kingwell, Office launch lead for the UK, said the development of Office 2013 reflected key areas of investment by Microsoft.

One is increased integration with cloud computing by optimising all versions to the company's SkyDrive platform. There is also a function for connection to other Microsoft cloud platforms.

Another is social media, with a connector function in outlook that can pull in the details of the user's Facebook and LinkedIn contacts.

She also highlighted the potential of the Windows Apps store. While acknowledging that there are currently a limited number of apps available, she said that Microsoft is in the midst of a campaign to encourage developers to increase the number.

"Historically it had plug-ins for Office but the experience of getting them in was not great," she said. "Third parties can now create what they want for Office using a standard coding language.

"We've been running development camps around the world for nine months, and there is an online training guide on the web."

Mikogo launches Cloud Desktop

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Mikogo has launched its Cloud Desktop system, which it has claimed is the first PC system to sit entirely on a cloud platform.

The company said that Cloud Desktop, built on HTML5, makes it possible for users to access their own computer system from any computer, smartphone or tablet directly from within a web browser without any software downloads or plug-in installations.

It said this can support the management of remote working, 'bring your own device' and outsourcing work to contractors. Clients can rent Cloud Desktops and provide their remote workers with all the necessary software applications without distributing any hardware.

Once the user has logged into their Cloud Desktop they can access their own operating system, software applications and files directly from within the browser. There is no need to set up any remote systems.

Marcel Maron, Mikogo's IT Operations Manager, said: "The advantages of cloud services are accessibility and reliability because the services are managed by professional service providers, not the end-user. Operating systems, however, are presently still managed by the end-user leaving them to deal with constant updates, maintenance, performance issues, etc."

"We've had these frustrations ourselves, so we developed the Mikogo Cloud Desktop, to give users the easiest way to access their very own computer system sitting in the cloud, which is completely managed by our IT professionals. This builds considerable value as it creates a warranty for company IT departments regarding performance, while saving time and money.

"You can give your workers access to core applications, such as CRM, project management systems, etc., and then they just log in and get to work on their own cloud computer."

Users are able to select between different Windows operating systems for their Cloud Desktop, including Windows 8. They can use any computer or tablet.

Vine starts to censor some searches but porn is still there

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As scintillating as it was to watch steak tartare be whipped up in 6 seconds, Vine videos quickly took a turn toward the tawdry as it was widely reported that pornographic snippets were making it onto the recently released iOS app.

Vine was seemingly staying out of it, having covered its proverbial behind quite thoroughly with terms of service lingo like "sole responsibility of the person who originated such Content" and "are not required to monitor or control the Content," etc., etc.

Well, it looks like the short shots of smut have finally spurred the Twitter-owned app to take action as The Verge is reporting that Vine is now blocking "many searches for pornographic terms."

Searching for #porn, #sex and hashtag-prefixed parts of the human anatomy results in no results, at least at the moment.

Still unripe

Vine's pruning attempts aren't entirely successful: #pornvine and #nsfw (NSFW/not safe for work) searches are still allowed as is users' ability to tag Vines with pornographic hashtags. Others can still click on those hashtags and a feed of videos will appear just like before.

The applications of the app are still extremely fresh if not a little unripe as evidenced by the deluge of debauched postings and other missteps. Earlier on Monday, a very NSFW clip was posted as the app's top "Editor's Pick."

Although it didn't play automatically and was hidden behind a filter, because of its ranking a good many Vine users were likely exposed to the content.

Twitter later said it was the result of human error that led to the post being pushed to the Picks and that the video was immediately removed after it was found out.

Low blows

The hits didn't stop there, though: Business Insider reported that it appears Apple removed Vine from its "Editor's Choice" list in the App Store on iPhone following the incident.

As noted by the publication, Apple's developer guidelines state that apps "that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic" aren't App Store material.

Though Apple hasn't commented yet, the move is somewhat in keeping with one the company made last week in removing 500px's photo-sharing apps from the App Store.

Apple said images of nudes available in the app fell in the category of porn, though the developer maintained the images were "art" and not distasteful. Apple asked 500px's developers to put safeguards in place, which the app said it has submitted for consideration.

TechRadar asked Apple where it stands on Vine and will update this story if and when the company responds.

Vine was still available for download at the time of publication.

BlackBerry World gathers movies, music and TV under one BB10 umbrella

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The Jan. 30 launch of BlackBerry 10 is just days away, and in preparation, Research in Motion unveiled a revamped BlackBerry App World on Monday.

Now merely dubbed BlackBerry World, the storefront will offer a wide variety of movies, television shows, and music all under one convenient umbrella.

Though physical BlackBerry 10 phones have yet to be actually revealed, making sure users can get all their media needs from one place is a smart move by RIM.

Several different BlackBerry 10 devices, like the L-series, have been leaked or spotted in FCC documents, but until the devices appear, those waiting will have to be content knowing merely what software awaits.

bbTunes

RIM has claimed BlackBerry World will offer "the most robust music and video catalogs" available on a mobile device, and to stay competitive with Apple and Android, it had better be.

BlackBerry World will offer most movies the same day as the retail disc release, and will initially be partnering with a dozen studios like 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Walt Disney Studios.

Additionally, fifteen different television networks will have content available on BlackBerry World, including the likes of NBC Universal, ABC, and Warner Bros.

The videos will be made available for purchase or rental, though the service will only be available in the U.S., U.K., and Canada to start.

Fortunately, the music selection will be prominent in many more countries, with eighteen different markets (U.S., U.K., Germany, France, India, etc.) available to begin with.

There's also a wider variety of publishers making their catalogs available DRM-free to BlackBerry World, giving users the opportunity to purchase Sony Music Entertainment, Matador Records, Warner Music Group, and more.

Dropping prices

Though RIM didn't disclose what it will be charging users for media in BlackBerry World, the company did just institute some new price reductions on the BBW store.

According to the BlackBerry Developer Blog, the changes are only being seen in countries that use the Euro and the U.K. at the moment, but should be rolling out to the rest of the world soon.

In the U.K. the minimum price has dropped from £1.00 to £0.75, with the Euro prices varying from country to country.

For any people with actual items already up for sale, the changes will take place automatically, with RIM notifying users in a country in advance.

That said, the price lowering will factor in currency exchange rates around the world to allow apps on BlackBerry World to remain competitively priced.

Yahuui Blog

Tuesday, January 29, 2013