Software : Microsoft's Dropbox partnership means better Office cloud integration |
- Microsoft's Dropbox partnership means better Office cloud integration
- Skype debuts real-time speech translator in semi-open preview
- Hoarding videos on your Xbox One (and Mac) is about to get a whole lot easier
- New Google Calendar schedules your day so you don't have to
| Microsoft's Dropbox partnership means better Office cloud integration Posted:  Microsoft has made no secret about the fact that it's all about the cloud these days, but there's nothing wrong with getting a little help from your friends now and then. With that in mind the tech giant has teamed up with Dropbox to better integrate the cloud storage service with Microsoft Office, according to a Dropbox blog post. Thanks to this new collaboration users will be able to access Dropbox from within Office apps, and edit and share Office apps within Dropbox. The change will affect the Office and Dropbox apps across numerous devices, including phones, tablets and the web. Office, Dropbox and enterpriseThe details are still somewhat nebulous, and they'll remain so until these features roll out "in the next few weeks." But it sounds like Office, through Dropbox, is going to gain a lot of the functionality that attracts users to Google Docs, like easy online collaboration. This is good news for consumers, but it's even better for enterprise users, as Microsoft points out in its own announcement. The companies said over 1.2 billion people use Office for work, and that Dropbox already hosts 35 billion Office files. |
| Skype debuts real-time speech translator in semi-open preview Posted:  Once in a while technology inches just a little bit closer to one of those world-changing applications we know will one day be possible - you know, like real-time language translation. Who hasn't watched a sci-fi movie where some hero's "neural implant" lets them hear and speak alien tongues like they were born to it and thought "I could really use one of those"? With its new Skype Translator Preview, Microsoft is one tiny step closer to making that a reality. The Skype Translator interprets your speech into another language in more or less real time, playing a translated version for your conversation partner and simultaneously transcribing what's been said. A smile in any languageIt can translate text chats in 45 languages, although in this early phase Microsoft says it only supports "a few languages" where the spoken word is concerned. As you can see in the video above, it's not perfect, but there's also clearly a lot of potential. In addition Skype Translator is currently only available on Windows 8.1 devices, though that should change at some point down the road. "Eligible" users who register at Skype.com will get access to the Skype Translator Preview. There are a limited number of spots, and unfortunately Microsoft gives no hints as to what might make you eligible. There's all kinds of software around that can do this type of thing already, but to see it working so relatively well - and with the ubiquity of Skype factored in - this is pretty exciting. |
| Hoarding videos on your Xbox One (and Mac) is about to get a whole lot easier Posted:  Most people seem to watch their TV and movie content via streaming apps like Netflix these days, but there are still those who prefer to hoard digital video files like they're prepping for a boredom apocalypse. For those users comes RealPlayer Cloud, a RealNetworks video app that's launching today on Mac and November 4 on Xbox One. The app lets you upload video files to its servers, then access them on a number of devices, now including OS X computers and Microsoft's gaming console. To celebrate the app's first year on the market, RealNetworks is giving away a special plan with 365GB of storage for $5 / £3.99 a month, available for new users starting today. Happy birthday to usThe app has been available for around a year, and it reportedly boasts more than 8 million registered users in 40 countries around the world. The RealPlayer Cloud app is also available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, and other devices.
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| New Google Calendar schedules your day so you don't have to Posted:  Google has announced a new Google Calendar app that implements elements of Google Now to partially automate your scheduling needs. "It's designed to be a helpful assistant, so you can spend less time managing your day, and more time enjoying it," Google Product Manager Ian Leader wrote in a Gmail blog post today. Like the Google Inbox email app the company debuted in October, the new Google Calendar draws information from your whole personal app ecosystem to schedule and update its own data automatically. The video below shows the new Calendar in action. Dandy AutomatorOne example is how the new Google Calendar app can automatically add events to your calendar when you get an email with thinks like flight info and concert ticket purchases. The automated schedule entries will contain relevant info like venues and flight numbers, and will even reportedly stay updated even as flight delays or other factors get in your way. Google Calendar also now has something called "Assists," which Leader wrote are helpful suggestions that attempt to auto-full entries as you type them in manually. Finally there's also a new Schedule View that automatically adds photos and maps, cityscapes and illustrations to make your Google Calendar less of an eyesore to view. The new Google Calendar is available now on all Android 5.0 Lollipop devices, and will roll out to those running Android 4.1 and up "in the coming weeks." And an iOS version is also in the works.
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