Tag Archives: Microsoft Office 2016

PTJ 160 News: Vroom Vroom

September 24, 2015 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Well, well, well… According to a report in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, Apple is committed to producing an electric car and aims to have it tooling down the road by 2019. So I guess we’ll pencil in that grand demo for September 10th, 2019, eh?

The stuff that Apple did announce on this past September 9^th is finally starting to roll out. iOS 9 hit the download channels last Wednesday and already has a 50-percent adoption rate among users with compatible iOS devices. The second version of the Apple Watch OS also arrived this week after a short bug delay. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus begin to land in stores and delivery trucks on Friday. The 4^th generation of the Apple TV is due out in late October (even though iFixit has already found one and torn it down to see how it works) and the iPad Pro with the optional $100 Pencil is due in November. Apple is also issuing the rare refund in its App Store after the creator of the $3 Peace ad-blocker for iOS had second thoughts over ethics and yanked his app .

Amazon is not letting Apple grab all the TV and tablet press, though. Last week, the company announced a new gaming edition of its Fire TV box, and an update to its Fire TV box that brings 4K streaming and the Alexa voice-controlled assistant. Amazon also rolled out a version of its Fire tablet for less than $50, beefier upgraded hardware for its other Fire tablet models and well as a $100 Kindle Fire tablet for kids. Choices, there are choices.

Dot-Com Collapse II on the way, or just a little wobble? Collective discounts site Groupon announced this week that it was cutting 1,100 jobs and closing down operations in at least seven countries as part of a restructuring plan. And Oyster, the so-called Netflix-for-reading company announced it was shutting down its e-book subscription service it launched in 2012. According to Re/code, however, a number of Oyster employees are headed to Google to shore up the Google Play Books store

Speaking of Google, the company just updated its Wallet app for iOS. Like the previously released Android app, the revamped Google Wallet now emphasizes sending money to friends instead of paying for merchandise in a store.

Also revamped and updated: Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows. It’s available to Office 365 subscribers who are paying $100 or $70 a year after the free trial period. The Home & Student edition is also available as a one-time purchase for a price of $150. Microsoft is also making its Office 2016 for Mac available for a one-time purchase. (Some people, however, prefer LibreOffice, iWork for iCloud, Google Docs or even Office Online.)

In legal news, the French government agency that regulates data has rejected Google’s appeal in the right-to-be-forgotten. At this stage of the process in the French legal system, Google has no legal possibility to appeal the order and may have to pay a fine if it doesn’t comply. Russia is also mad at Google and accused the company of violating Russian anti-monopoly laws earlier this month. Penalties may ensue there as well.

Pandora is having a better time of it with legal matters. The music-streaming service said it was pleased that the U.S. Copyright Office agreed that Pandora’s agreement with Merlin Network, a global rights agency for independent musicians, was admissible as a benchmark in royalty proceedings. A panel of three judges known as the Copyright Royalty Board has been working on setting royalties for Internet radio and is expected to have a decision in mid-December. (Also in the music world, the Recording Industry Association of America reports that while total revenue was essentially flat for the first half of 2015. Vinyl sales were rising, though!)

And finally, the Onion humor site, which started the ClickHole spin-off for goofy viral video, is having a go at the countless celebrity gossip sites online. The Onion’s new site is called StarWipe. Decked out with hot pink and bright blue accents, Star Wipe currently features such headlines as “Emmys Photos We Can’t Stop Staring At Even Though We’re Supposed To Be Controlling Air Traffic” and “Rihanna Says She And Taylor Swift Have Different Fan Bases, Has Clearly Never Been To University Of Missouri Party.” StarWipe is just starting out and still has a way to go to top some of ClickHole’s triumphs like “Yes! Ham Goes Up an Escalator.” Oh, let’s watch that one again shall we?

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PTJ 141 News: Go, Greased Lightning!

May 7, 2015 J.D. Biersdorfer Leave a comment

Google didn’t have much luck dethroning Facebook as everyone’s go-to social media experience, so is the Google+ site now aiming to be a challenger elsewhere? The new Google+ Collections debuted this week and it’s billed as “a new way to group your posts by topic.” Like, uh, on Pinterest?

Facebook announced its new Internet.org platform this week, which includes “non-exclusive partnerships with mobile operators to offer free basic Internet services to people through Internet.org.” While this sounds good and noble in a press release, detractors to the project, including Josh Levy, the advocacy director at a global digital rights group, said Internet.org is really Facebooknet because Facebook is holding the keys to the gate of a walled garden and, you know, that’s not so much for Net Neutrality.

Microsoft released a Public Preview Version of its Office 2016 desktop suite. New charts! New graphs! It’s the best Christmas ever!

Comcast may have lost the war, but it spent some coin in its various battles to buy Time Warner. Ars Technica, which took a look at Comcast’s earnings report for the first quarter of 2015, notes $99 million listed in transaction-related costs. This is just another round on the tab however, as Comcast has spent a total (so far) of $336 million dollars spent in the $45.2 billion FAIL.

Speaking of cable giants, all those new livestreaming apps like Periscope and Meerkat could turn out to be a real pain in the wallet, with those sneaky users livestreaming paid content like boxing matches and HBO shows off their TVs for others to watch for free. Of course, many people remember Meerkat, the little app that made such a splash at SXSW until Twitter kicked it to the curb. But now Meerkat has snuggled up with Facebook and you can post your live video streams right to your Facebook page. So take that, Twitter.

Rumors of a new Apple TV box have been in the wind the past few weeks, and now Brian X. Chen of The New York Times reports that Apple is also revamping the minimalist remote control that comes with the box. The Apple Watch is also getting some design scrutiny, but this time, it’s from developers and curious members of the public who have discovered a secret charging port hidden in the connection slot of the lower watch band. At least one accessory maker, Reserve Strap, says the hidden jack is a six-pin diagnostic port that can be used for charging — and it plans to release a tool for connecting to the jack when it releases its $250 battery band this fall. Let’s see if Apple allows that, as it has just released its own developers’ guide for third-party watch bands.

NASA is developing its own 10-engine drone for use in science missions that can take off vertically like a helicopter and then fly like an airplane. The drone’s name is GL-10 and the GL stands for: Greased Lightning. (If you are of a certain age, you will now have the soundtrack from Grease stuck in your brain for the rest of the day.)

As for good news on the app-security front, the MIT Technology Review reports that some security researchers in France have come up with an automated system that can tell when Android apps on your phone or tablet quietly connect to user-tracking and ad-serving sites online. They plan to make their new program available soon in the Google Play store soon under the name No Such App, or NSA for short.

And finally, did you complain when Foursquare split itself into two and called the other half Swarm — and all the mayorships, badges and points went away? The Foursquare blog announced this week that it plans to bring back the mayorships to Swarm and now you can unlock brand new stickers instead of the old badges. The people have spoken and have been heard — we want civic leadership in our apps!

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