Category: Microsoft

While Microsoft’s own mobile platform may be struggling to survive, the company continues to develop apps to satisfy their “mobile first” mantra.  The latest app from the company, Hub Keyboard, is designed for Android with the purpose of making your life easier when it comes to moving content around on your device.  With a built in clipboard and the ability to quickly send information to Office 365 apps, the keyboard is aptly names as a hub for all of your Microsoft app needs on Android.

In an announcement made today, Microsoft and Acer have come to an agreement whereby a suite of the Redmond, Washington company’s apps will be pre-installed on selected Acer Android phones and tablets later this year.  While it is not clear which devices will see these apps installed, it was clear in the announcement which apps are involved.  Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive will be there along with Skype for voice and video communications.

Nick Psyhogeos, president of Microsoft Technology Licensing, said, “We’re pleased that we have been able to enhance the already strong partnership that exists between Microsoft and Acer. Mutually beneficial and collaborative agreements such as this one promote innovation and lead to better products and experiences for consumers.”

The announcement falls in line with the continued “mobile first” strategy of Microsoft who has continued to develop their Android apps at a feverish clip over the past 18 months.  Indeed the suite of apps now are almost on par with their desktop counterparts from a feature perspective while remaining free to download.  For all of the functionality the apps have to offer, customers will still need to sign up for Office 365 and this deal with Acer is no exception.

According to a report from the Financial Times, Microsoft is set to announced the acquisition of the popular keyboard app developer Swiftkey for $250 million.  While neither company would confirm the report, it is expected to be announced later this week.

Swiftkey is hugely popular with Android and iOS users who leverage the apps artificial intelligence to quickly sort out what someone is typing as they swipe across the keyboard on their device.  It is at AI that Microsoft is interested in acquiring as the Redmond company continues to drive its mobile app strategy despite their own mobile platform being all-but dead.

While Microsoft’s own mobile platform is struggling to survive, the company continues to pump out their apps for Android and iOS.  The latest, exclusive to Android, is Mimicker Alarm.  Aimed at helping those who need a little help getting going in the morning, this beautiful Material Design app requires users to mimic actions given to deactivate the alarm.  Those mimic games can include matching a color by snapping a picture, matching an emotion by taking a selfie or by repeating a tongue twister phrase out loud.

The app is powered by Microsoft’s Project Oxford API which is aimed at improving the understanding and recognition of emotion, computer vision and speech.  You can read more about the project here.

Mimicker Alarm – Free – Download Now

If you are on a Windows 7 PC or Windows 2008 Server and are running Internet Explorer 8, 9 or 10, today is the day you need to upgrade.  Microsoft announced some time ago that support for these builds would be ending on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 in an effort to cut down on the wide range of product versions they have to support.  Internet Explorer was one of the most challenging apps for the Redmond company to keep updated as there have been so many different versions and there is still a huge number of PCs running these older versions.  In fact, in looking at the stats for the site, there are still some who are using v6!  Seriously folks, it is time to upgrade just so you can have the latest in security patches.

What the end of support means in Microsoft terms is that Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 will no longer receive any updates of any type.  It is, as they say, what it is at this point.  No more performance or bug fixes, no more security updates, nothing. It is truly end of support.

If you have been considering giving Google Chrome a try and you are on one of these older builds, today may be a good time to give it a go.

Today is a significant day in the history of personal computing.  30 years ago Microsoft Windows 1.0 was launched, bringing with it the first widely available GUI (Graphical User Interface) instead of command line functions.  While we can all debate the Microsoft of today and their business practices of the past, there is no denying the significance of Windows 1.0.  It, in every way, revolutionized how we interacted with computers and opened the door for billions to learn and easily use PCs in their homes.

Essentially Windows 1.0 was a 16-bit multi-tasking shell that ran on top of MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) that was a mouse driven GUI.  To put it into perspective of how far we have come in 30 years, your Android phone sitting next to you is very likely running a 64-bit architecture – never mind your PC!  By today’s comparisons, it was not exactly a beautiful user interface but it was revolutionary for the time.

Now what would early days Microsoft be without Steve Ballmer?  And everyone enjoys a good launch video for an app right?  Feast your eyes on this gem!

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Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?