Software : Immersive Technology Alliance to become The Avengers of virtual reality

Immersive Technology Alliance to become The Avengers of virtual reality
Microsoft gets personal with single-user Office 365 option
Microsoft OneNote tipped to go free, travel behind enemy lines
Blip: Good luck pretending to be Ryan Gosling after Tinder adds verified accounts
iTunes Radio may go rogue, become own app in iOS 8

Immersive Technology Alliance to become The Avengers of virtual reality

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Marvel has The Avengers and DC has the Justice League of America, but the heavyweights of virtual reality technology will converge on San Francisco next week as part of a new alliance led by VR superheroes big and small.

The Immersive Technology Alliance today announced (via Engadget) plans to rebrand the former Stereoscopic 3D Gaming Alliance with an expanded mandate, forming a new initiative aimed at delivering awesome virtual reality technology to the masses.

ITA is a new supergroup headed up by companies of all shapes and sizes, from big guns such as Electronic Arts all the way down to CastAR makers Technical Illusions, and everyone in-between.

Although maybe not as thrilling as seeing Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk on the big screen together, ITA will be storming into San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference next week, presumably with no Loki or Chitauri in tow to muck up the works.

Get immersed

"Our reason for being is to make immersive technology successful. Our markets of interest include augmented reality, virtual reality, stereoscopic 3D, and everything in-between," the alliance explains on its official website.

The full list of more than 20 companies already committed to ITA - including Oculus VR and Virtuix - reads like a who's who of the gaming industry, but also includes a few curious additions such as Panasonic, Epson and HDMI.

But it's not just all about gaming: The non-profit ITA aims to be a "non-proprietary representative" for the entire VR industry, which includes filmmakers as well as game studios.

The Immersive Technology Alliance will launch during a private session at the Game Developers Conference next Tuesday, March 18 at 9:15 AM PST.

Check into wearables reality with our up-to-the-minute Google Glass review!

Microsoft gets personal with single-user Office 365 option

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Microsoft has unveiled Office 365 Personal, a new option for accessing the company's cloud-based productivity service.

As the name implies, Office 365 Personal is designed for a single user. Detailing it in a blog post, Microsoft describes it as a more affordable option than its existing multi-user Home Premium offering, which grants access to the suite for five people.

The subscription includes the usual Office 365 suite of products, like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook and OneNote. It comes with additional benefits in the form of 60 minutes of Skype call time per month and 20GB of extra OneDrive storage.

Home run

Microsoft will also be changing the name of Office 365 Home Premium to just Office 365 Home. This name change will come into effect with the launch of Office 365 Personal.

Office 365 already has 3.5 million subscribers, and this latest move is sure to bump that number up considerably as people look for cheaper ways to write and edit documents. Google recently upped competition by bulking up its free Docs and Sheets products with free Add-Ons that people can download to snag extra functionality.

The service launches in spring and will cost $69.99 (£42, AUS$77) per year or $6.99 (£4, AUS$8) per month. Note that the UK and AUS conversions don't factor in tax, so they're likely to cost slightly more.

As such, you'll save a small wad of cash compared to shelling out for Office 365 Home Premium, which is priced at $99.99 per year (£79.99), or $9.99 (£7.99) per month.

How to move to Office 365

Microsoft OneNote tipped to go free, travel behind enemy lines

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Microsoft OneNote could soon come to Mac OS X for the first time, and it might be free.

The note-taking app debuted on Windows a decade ago, and so far it's never been released on Mac, though Microsoft has released iOS, Android and browser versions.

But unnamed sources told The Verge that big changes, including an OS X release and a shift to free, are coming to OneNote.

OneNote will also be separate from Microsoft Office, they say.

Never forget

Those aren't the only changes, though. Microsoft will also reportedly add other features to make OneNote more attractive to Evernote users.

These include a web clipper that will let users save parts of websites and browser extensions for Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox. These features are present in Evernote.

OneNote users will reportedly also be able to email notes to the service to have them inserted into notebooks remotely.

OneNote on Mac could release this month, preceding the new Office for Mac, which is confirmed to be coming out in 2014.

Here's what to expect in OS X 10.10

Blip: Good luck pretending to be Ryan Gosling after Tinder adds verified accounts

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Celebrities looking for love on hit dating app Tinder will soon have a much easier time finding matches as the company announced plans to introduce Twitter-style verified accounts.

According to CEO Sean Rad, some of the app's more notable patrons fail to receive positive swipes because users just assume these rich, beautiful celebrities are pretending to be rich, beautiful celebrities.

The new initiative will also allow famous users, such as Lindsey Lohan and Ashton Kutcher, to bypass Facebook logins and use their real names, giving them "a different way to enter Tinder," Rad said.

Quick pop quiz: Would knowing it was the real Lindsay Lohan make you more or less likely to 'like' her profile? Because really, who needs that hassle?

More blips!

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iTunes Radio may go rogue, become own app in iOS 8

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The streaming music service iTunes Radio launched with iOS 7 just last year, but rumor has it Apple is already considering making major changes to it. Namely, breaking it off into its own app.

iTunes Radio is currently built into the Music app in iOS 7, but Apple reportedly hopes to boost its usage by building a standalone iTunes Radio app in iOS 8.

The new app is in testing, according to 9to5Mac, which claims to have spoken with "sources briefed on the plans."

With its own, separate presence, the iTunes Radio app will ostensibly be better positioned to compete with Spotify and other streaming music services.

Playing catch-up

Naturally Apple would pre-install iTunes Radio with iOS 8, making it impossible for users to delete it from their devices.

Other than the shift to its own app though, the new iTunes Radio is said to be identical to the service as it currently exists inside the Music app.

Apple is reportedly working on increasing its revenue from ads and expanding iTunes Radio beyond the US and Australia.

Apple reported in 2013 that iTunes Radio has 20 million users during its first week, but that's not much compared with market leader Pandora's 75 million in February 2014.

Here's everything TechRadar knows about the iPhone 6

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Thursday, March 13, 2014