Software : Hackers enable leaked Sony camera app on Xperia devices |
- Hackers enable leaked Sony camera app on Xperia devices
- In Depth: 50 handy Office 2013 tips, tricks and hints
- Microsoft pulls plug on TechNet subscription service
- Windows Server 2012 R2 preview
- Official Facebook app finally accepts Windows Phone 8 friend request
| Hackers enable leaked Sony camera app on Xperia devices Posted:  Sony fans may be salivating over new features coming with the company's next Android build, but enterprising hackers have already found a way to port some of its features to existing devices. Xperia Blog reported Monday that Sony's next custom build of Android 4.2.2 is already being put through the paces thanks to a modification posted online for all to enjoy. Currently available for the Xperia Z, Xperia ZL and Xperia Tablet Z, the hack ports the camera app from a leaked build of Sony's customized "Honami" ROM, which includes big changes for mobile shutterbugs. New features include AR-effect (augmented reality mode), Info-eye (visual search) and Time shift, which allows users to choose the best photo out of a series of shots taken at the same time. Modders onlyThe leaked Honami build also includes higher resolution image processing and a number of user interface improvements aimed at the next generation of Sony's flagship handset. Full instructions on how to port the Honami camera app to current Xperia devices are available on the XDA-Developers forum, but as always, this mod isn't for the faint of heart. However, forum member krabappel2548 has wrapped everything up with a tidy bow, so if you're already adept as flashing Android devices, this one should be a breeze. Fair warning: The Honami mod replaces the built-in camera app from existing devices, so proceed at your own risk - or better yet, just sit tight and see if Sony releases these goodies in a future update instead.
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| In Depth: 50 handy Office 2013 tips, tricks and hints Posted:  Whether you've bought the apps as one-offs, the whole Office 2013 suite or signed up for Microsoft's new Office 365 subscription package, there's lots to like about the new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. If you've taken the plunge with the new-look touch-friendly apps, these tips and tricks can help you go further with the software - from tailoring the interface to embedding online clips, there's plenty to explore. We've tried to focus on the new features in Office 2013 (though you will find some tricks that work across the board), while providing a mix of quick hints and more in-depth tips to suit every level of user. General tips1. Stream Office anywhere Use your Microsoft ID to stream copies of your Office apps to other PCs (Windows 7 or Windows 8). Log into the Office website to use Office on Demand. 2. Pin locations Save your most-used folders to the Open screen in any application - use the pin icon to the right of a recently opened workbook or folder. 3. Save to SkyDrive Office 2013 makes full use of your SkyDrive account, and you can save your files to the cloud, access them from anywhere and sync them across computers. 4. Use Flickr and Facebook pictures
Drop in pictures from the newly revamped Flickr or Facebook by connecting your account through the Online Pictures option under the Insert tab. 5. Change Office's look and theme Access the Account page from the File tab in any app to reveal a selection of options for changing the background and theme of the suite. 6. Zoom with your fingers Using a fancy touchscreen laptop or tablet with Office 2013? Use two fingers to zoom in or out of any document, just like on your smartphone. 7. Add apps Office finally joins the app revolution - visit the Office website to find apps you can run on top of Word, Excel and Outlook. The store is labelled as US-only, but you can still make use of it. 8. Remove the Start screen
When launched, the Office 2013 apps show a dynamic Start screen by default. To see a blank new document instead, select File and Options, then untick the Start screen option on the General tab. 9. Get Skyping If you've signed up for the subscription-based 365 flavour of Office 2013, you may not know that you get 60 minutes of Skype credit free each month. 10. Try a parallel install You might have already noticed this, but you can keep older versions of Office running alongside the 2013 version, should you need to (with the exception of Outlook). Word tips11. Read more easily Word's new-look Read Mode (under the View tab) makes browsing documents easier, and it supports touchscreen input too. 12. Embed videos
Load in online video clips from YouTube and elsewhere using the new Online Video button under the Insert tab. 13. Define words Right-click on a word and choose Define to pick a dictionary and see its definition. You can even get help with pronunciation if you need it. 14. Reply to comments Word 2013 enables you to reply to document comments, and even mark them as 'done', for a smoother workflow. 15. Get better borders
Table borders have been given some love in Word 2013, with additions such as the Border Painter tool (for copying border formatting), which is under the Design section of the Table Tools tab. 16. Edit PDFs Fully fledged PDF editing finally arrives with Word 2013, though you might lose some layout settings. Edited documents can be saved as PDF or DOCX files. 17. Change the defaults New documents use Calibri and double spacing by default. Change this by right-clicking on the Normal stylesheet icon and choosing Modify. 18. Benefit from live alignment Click and drag and object on the page and you'll see faint green marker lines appear, DTP-style, enabling you to line up a series of elements more easily. 19. Try inline wrapping
Word's text wrapping options can now be found by clicking on the icon that appears at the top-right whenever a picture is selected. 20. Rearrange lists Not a new feature, but still a good one - use Alt+Shift then the up or down arrow to rearrange items in a bulleted or numbered list, no cutting and pasting required. Excel tips21. Use Flash Fill Give Excel 2013 some examples at the top of a column (such as names), and it can copy the formatting downwards. See Microsoft's Office Blog for a guide. 22. Take a peek
Highlight a group of cells then click the Quick Analysis icon (bottom-right) to see a peek of suggested charts, formatting and totals for the data. 23. See key tips
Press Alt to see letters appear over every entry on the ribbon menu - tap the relevant key to activate the option. 24. Get recommended charts Use the Recommended Charts button under the Insert tab to see a selection of charts that Excel thinks suit the data you've selected. 25. Preview chart styles Select a chart, click the brush icon and you can preview changes to the chart style and colours without making changes. 26. Filter by timeline Excel 2013 enables you to quickly create timeline filters for any date column in a pivot table or chart (the option is under the PivotTable Tools tab). 27. Use manual formulas Excel attempts to complete your formula's auto-suggest style by default, but you can disable this via the Formulas tab on the Options dialog, reached through the File menu. 28. Play with multiple windows Excel 2013 joins Word and PowerPoint in opening each file in a new window (and taskbar window), making it easier to arrange them on screen. 29. Add watermarks
You can add watermarks to your spreadsheets, though they're only visible in Page Layout view - simply load an image as a header (Insert/ Header & Footer). 30. Do quick tallies Select a group of cells to see the average value, the number of cells and the sum of all the selected values in the lower right-hand corner. PowerPoint tips31. Check out Presenter view The Presenter view for secondary screens gives you far more flexibility, including the option to zoom into specific points on a slide. 32. Go widescreen
If your display is a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio, make your slides 16:9 too, via the Slide Size drop-down under the Design tab. 33. Explore the Format pane Open the Format pane (right-click an object and choose 'Format Shape') and it automatically adjusts to show the options available for the currently selected object. 34. Add background music
Set an audio track to play for the duration of your slideshow with the Play in Background option on the Playback tab. 35. Filter photos Append "photo" to your searches from the Online Pictures dialog to filter out line drawings and clip-art from the results. 36. Export as a video
Select 'Export' from the File menu to save your PowerPoint presentation as an MP4 clip, complete with transitions and media files. 37. Tweak themes You can choose slideshow themes from the Design tab, but you can also tweak the colours, fonts and effects used via the Variations box. 38. Customise shapes Select two or more standard shapes then choose Merge Shapes under the Format tab to combine them into a custom shape. 39. Pick colours From the Fill option through PowerPoint 2013 you can use the Eyedropper tool to pick a colour up from elsewhere in the presentation. 40. Embed slideshows Head to the upgraded PowerPoint web app to embed your slideshows anywhere online, complete with transitions and animations. Outlook tips41. Reply inline Try it out - replies now stay right in the reading pane. Click the Pop Out button if you want to go back to the old way of working. 42. Take quick action
Use the floating cross icon to delete, the flag icon to flag and the blue bar to the left to mark messages as unread, straight from the conversation list. These quick actions can be applied to multiple emails at the same time, too. 43. Link contacts Combine data from Facebook, LinkedIn and other sources, just as you can in the Windows 8 People app - choose Link Contacts from any entry on the People screen to do so. 44. See more or less Choose View then Message Preview to turn off preview snippets for your messages, or to reduce them to one, two or three lines long. 45. Make navigation more compact Outlook's key components (Mail, Calendar, People, Tasks) now stretch all the way across the bottom of Outlook's interface. Click the three dots on the strip, choose Navigation Options and tick Compact Navigation to revert back to the icon approach. 46. Customise search folders Choose Search Folders then New Search Folder from Mail to create a custom search folder that automatically updates as new matches come in - you can use keywords, contacts and more as criteria. 47. Preview links
Outlook's new navigation strip for Mail, People, Calendar and Tasks includes a preview feature: hover over any link to see it. 48. Filter emails
Use the Filter Email option on the Home tab to filter emails by those with attachments, by date, by sender or using a range of other criteria. 49. Save the view Once you've got the Outlook interface set up just the way you like it, save the view configuration via View > Change View > Save Current View. 50. Restore the To Do Bar Outlook 2013 hides the To Do Bar. Select the To Do Bar option under the View tab to bring it back. |
| Microsoft pulls plug on TechNet subscription service Posted:  Microsoft is cutting off the circulation to its TechNet subscription service 15 years after it was launched, the company has confirmed on its website. IT professionals have until 21 August to renew an existing TechNet Subscription or purchase a new one, and have until 30 September to activate it. TechNet provides subscribers with free access to evaluation copies of all Microsoft software packages, including betas and other extras, for a yearly fee of $199 (£131) for the standard version. The service has been regarded by some as an affordable way for IT professionals to get free access to a long list of Microsoft software for evaluation. By comparison, subscriptions for software developers to take part in Microsoft's Developer Network (MSDN), which provides access to a broader range of systems, start at $699 per year. Piracy problemTechNet has sometimes been seen as a haven for software pirates who use it to gain access to product keys, which can be resold. Microsoft played down the issue in explaining the closure, citing a usage shift in recent years from paid to free evaluation resources. Microsoft is aiming to direct would-be TechNet subscribers to alternative services, including its TechNet Evaluation Centre, which offers evaluation software available for free for 30 to 80 days with no feature limits. Another is the Microsoft Virtual Academy, its free online learning resource. Its TechNet Forums will remain open for now. It said it will help customers through the transition phase and remain focused on providing IT professionals with free access to TechNet assets. Changing audienceRoy Illsley, principal analyst at Ovum, told TRPRo that the move may signal Microsoft shifting the audience for its products from those with technical minds to those focused on business. He said: "The techies tend not to be the spending influencers, so I think they could be looking to capture the minds of business users, and offer techies support via other channels." Illsley added: "I think Microsoft has recognised that expecting IT professionals to pay for subscriptions is becoming a challenge. "If Microsoft wants to engage more IT professionals and get them to use, evaluate and test software instead of them going to rivals, then a free service is the best way to increase the audience and capture them as customers." |
| Windows Server 2012 R2 preview Posted:  Microsoft has suggested one of the most important features in Windows 8.1 is how many new features it's gained in just eight months. Actually that's far more appropriate to Windows Server 2012 R2, which has new features aimed not only at large enterprises but at smaller companies. R2 has functions for managing 'bring your own device', remote access and storage that will appeal to smaller businesses, especially as the can be managed through the simplified Server Manager dashboard. It's possible to add Windows Server Essentials – the small business version of Windows server – as a role, to get the simplified remote access and client backup tools, even if you have more than the 25 users to which Server Essentials has previously been limited. PowerShell 4 also adds new tools, including Desired State Configuration. It can prevent configuration drift – so you can keep the server the way you want it – by specifying the configuration as a state, rather than just a set of commands to run.
Installing the Windows Server 2012 R2 Preview is straightforward; you need at least a 1.4GHz 64-bit CPU, 512MB of RAM, 32GB of free disk space and a Gigabit Ethernet adapter, but it will happily run as a virtual machine on an existing Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012 system. (If you want to upgrade an existing test server, that can be running Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard with SP1 or 2012.) Internet Explorer 11's security settings are extremely high by default. This is a good thing for a server, but you'll see multiple challenges just to download components from the Microsoft site, and at least during configuration you'll want to consider turning off Enhanced Security Protection. The Server Manager interface is little changed from Windows Server 2012, with the same clear dashboard overview and the same Roles and Features wizard. This now asks whether you want to add general server roles and features or configure the server for Remote Desktop Services and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (a VDI configuration is quite different from a general server setup so it's helpful to be able to specify that immediately). Automatic installationThe Windows Server Essentials Experience is now on this list, but many of the new features are installed automatically with the appropriate role. If you install the Hyper-V role, for example, virtual machines will be automatically compressed when you live migrate them, which improves migration times. If you're having problems with a virtual machine, it's easy to export a working copy of it without having to shut it down first, so you can take a copy for troubleshooting and still carry on using the server. You can also copy files into a running VM and even resize virtual hard disks, as long as you're using VHDX files, and set the maximum and minimum IOPS for your most important VMs to prioritise their performance. The new BYOD, remote access and storage features show up, logically enough, in the File and Storage Services section. The wizard for setting up Storage Spaces makes it clear that if you choose to thin provision (by not installing some of the disks until you need the space) you can only add files until it's 75% full. That's the same limit as in Server 2012, but many admins missed the warning before.
The new storage tiering features are also easy to set up. When you include SSDs as part of a storage space and enable tiering, Server R2 automatically caches files that are used more often so users can access them more quickly. If you want to prioritise specific files and folders, you can mark them to be stored on an SSD yourself. Using the Server Essentials role is one way to enable easy remote access in Server R2, but Work Folders and the Web Application Proxy may be more flexible. The Web Application Proxy is a remote access role that works with almost any device and lets you make intranet web apps available to users logging in remotely using their normal Windows account, without needing a VPN (this requires ADFS, but that's easier to set up now it doesn't require IIS to be running). If you want, you can insist that devices are signed up for the new Workplace Join option, which stores their details in Active Directory using the new Device Registration Service (in Preview this is available for Windows 8.1 Preview and iOS devices), and can be used to make them use secondary authentication. You can also set a 'lockout' time where users who have typed their password wrong too many times cannot access apps remotely for a set period, and disable access for lost devices in Active Directory. File syncingWork folders only need the normal file share role. You can mark specific shares to be accessible to remote users, again using their Windows login. Files are synced offline, so users can access server files when they're on a plane and if they create new files these are automatically copied back to the server. You can specify a single folder on the server rather than syncing the entire file share and screen out files by type (no MP3s for example), but users cannot pick and choose which files and folders to sync inside. Initially it only works with Windows 8.1, but it will support Windows 7 soon after Server 2012 R2 is released, and iPad users will at least be able to access work folders remotely in future. Again, you can require workplace join or secondary authentication and you can revoke access if someone leaves the company. Work folders are easier to set up than ADFS and the Web Application Proxy – and useful to more companies – although without selective sync they can't act as a replacement for the still-fragile offline files.
It will become more powerful when the next version of Windows Intune, Microsoft's PC and mobile device management service, lets you selectively wipe company data from devices when employees leave. Intune will increasingly be the way to manage how PCs, tablets and phones can take advantage of the features you enable in Windows Server 2012 R2. The preview shows that this will be a powerful server release that isn't overly complicated for the small business, but you need to start thinking of Intune to make the most of Windows Server for your users. |
| Official Facebook app finally accepts Windows Phone 8 friend request Posted:  The official Facebook app for Windows Phone has finally arrived. The app, titled Facebook 5.0, is available now through Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 app marketplace. It's the first official app from the social network to make it onto Microsoft's mobile OS, but the 5.0 indicates that it includes improvements made in previous iterations on other platforms, like iOS and Android. Only third-party Facebook apps were available on WP8 handsets until now, and the official app looks like the only one without any glaring shortcomings. Go figure. This is not a testThe Windows Phone 8 Facebook app brings an altered look and functionality exclusive to the OS, fitting well with the tile-based aesthetic of Microsoft's mobile UI. It was available previously in beta, and that beta Facebook app is still available in a separate listing from the official Facebook 5.0. Word is the Facebook beta app will host new, untested features that may eventually make it into the official WP8 app. Both apps are available now for Windows Phone 7.5 in addition to Windows Phone 8. Microsoft used its Build 2013 conference last week to announce that the official Facebook app would arrive shortly alongside a new Flipboard app.
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