Microsoft has full versions of Office for iPhone and iPad ready for release, and now all it has to do is allegedly pull the trigger. It’s up to newly-appointed CEO Satya Nadell to make the call, according to Reuters.
Office for iOS has been rumored for years, but recent reports point towards the company finally releasing the software this year. The questions now are why has Microsoft waited so long, and has the ship already sailed?
Microsoft will release a OneNote application for Mac later this month, according to sources familiar with its plans.
OneNote is already available on iOS and Android — and, of course, Microsoft’s own Windows platforms — and the new Mac app is part of the company’s plans to take on rival note-taking services like Evernote.
With rumors of a new Apple-made “fitness app” coming to iOS 8, secret meetings with the FDA, and murmurs of more sleep and fitness experts joining the Apple ranks, the iWatch rumors are heating up on this week’s CultCast! Plus, a classic Nintendo game makes its way to iOS; Microsoft says goodbye to the one and only Steve Ballmer; and new job openings in Cupertino could mean big upgrades in battery life for future MacBooks…
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Microsoft didn’t just announced a new CEO today. They also announced that they were buying a $15 million stake in popular mobile check-in app Foursquare. But to what end?
Apple was notably absent from the Super Bowl ad slots Sunday, but a new video touting the Mac’s transformative power is quickly making Cupertino the most talked-about company the morning after the big game. The impressive clip continues the Mac’s 30th-anniversary celebration, and it was shot entirely on iPhones in 15 locations across five continents.
Hiding in Apple’s slick birthday tribute to the Mac is the most common of desktop creatures — a Microsoft mouse. The out-of-place peripheral shows up in a new video that highlights the Mac’s amazing impact on the world, and it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Microsoft announced $24.52 billion in revenue the second quarter this year, showing gains across all segments of its consumer technology business, including Surface, Xbox, and Bing search.
As a previous heavy competitor and sometime collaborator with Apple, Microsoft hasn’t been doing as well in the post-PC era. It’s interesting that the company is defying expectations on the eve of CEO Steve Ballmer’s run at the company, with growth across the board, except in PC sales, of course.
Google has lost its battle against a patent troll after a Texas court found Android guilty of infringing a push notification patent. SimpleAir — which has also targeted Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, and other technology giants — is now seeking $125 million in damages.
While Microsoft and BlackBerry are still trying to piece together a decent mobile user base in the U.S., Apple and Samsung managed to widen their lead against the competition in terms of smartphone marketshare in the U.S. Both companies experienced a significant bump in 2013, but Apple claimed the largest increase despite murmurs that the company is getting out innovated by Google.
The iPhone 5c is not a cheap phone. In fact, it costs $549 without a contract. Apple has 0% share of the sub-$400 “budget” smartphone market by sole dint of the fact it doesn’t sell a budget iPhone.
But hey, don’t let that get in the way of Microsoft trying to claim they are outselling the iPhone in the under-$400 market, which is sort of like saying that Louis Vuitton is outselling Apple in designer clothes.
It might still be a tiny player in the smartphone market, but Microsoft is keen to build on recent successes by releasing a next-gen mobile OS, featuring a Siri-like voice assistant feature.
Windows Phone 8.1 will reportedly launch next April at the company’s Build conference — according to “sources familar with Microsoft’s plans”.
This week on the CultCast—its layout, its machinery, and the creative people and processes that build the amazing products we love—we go behind the veil of Apple’s insanely secretive design studio. Plus, how to get great paid apps for free (it’s legal, promise!), and could an Apple/Microsoft merger be in our future? One analyst thinks so…
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Part of Steve Jobs’ genius was his ability to find just the right words to explain why whatever Apple product he was unveiling was so “insanely great” you had to rush out and buy it at that very moment.
Outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer never had that gift, but his final interview before stepping down contains a few really telling quotes about why things turned out the way they did — with Apple being the innovative market leader, and Microsoft being… well, Microsoft.
‘Tis the season for speculative fiction, fa la la la la, la la la la.
In an interview with with Fox Business’ Stuart Varney, Money Map Press analyst Keith Fitz-Gerald predicted that not only might Apple and Microsoft want to work together in the near future, but that a merger in the next 5-10 years is entirely possible.
It has become somewhat of an old joke, but Microsoft’s retail stores are essentially ghost towns. Every once in awhile you’ll see a side by side comparison of an Apple Store filled with busy shoppers sitting right next to a completely vacant Microsoft store.
Slate visited both stores yesterday in Arlington, Virginia. The above image shows Microsoft’s store, and here’s a shot from inside Apple’s:
Microsoft loves to make ads for the Surface that pit it against the iPad. Two new ads for the Surface 2 are perfect examples of how Microsoft can’t effectively market the Surface on its own merits, but must instead compare it to things the iPad can’t do. It’s an incredibly predictable, miserable marketing tactic that Microsoft just can’t seem to let go.
In its two latest ads, Microsoft tries to convince us that the Surface 2 is better because it supports hand gestures and multiple user accounts.
If there are two main areas where Microsoft massively lags behind both Android and Apple it is market share and app availability.
Well, Microsoft has copped to its role as a “distant third” in the former capacity (Windows Phones represent less than a 5 percent share of the overall market), but is the latter something more immediately addressable?
Yes, according to a tweet posted by Windows Phone VP Joe Belfiore — the man responsible for the design and software product definition of Microsoft’s smartphones — who enthusiastically claims that the end of 2014 is going to mark the end of the “app-gap” between Windows Phones, and those available for Android and iOS platforms.
A year ago, Microsoft released the SmartGlass app, an app for iPhone and iPad that let you navigate your Xbox 360 with swipes and taps on your touchscreen, and even use your device as a second-screen in supported games.
This morning, Microsoft officially released the Xbox One, their follow-up to the Xbox 360. If you loved SmartGlass, though, don’t worry that it has been dropped from the experience: the Xbox One Smartglass app is now here.
HopTo is a great version of Microsoft Word for the iPad. And that’s because it is MS Word, up in the cloud, driving a native iPad app. And you know what? If Microsoft just made the exact same app only with the Word part running locally on the iPad, I’d be happy. It really is nice enough to let you forget you’re using Word.
Apple has topped the list of world’s most valuable brands for the third straight year in a row, and is now worth almost twice as much as any other brand on the planet, Forbes reports. The Cupertino company is now valued at $104.3 billion, up 20 percent over last year, which puts it way out in front of Microsoft, Samsung, and even Google.
Many people would have you believe that Apple is successful not because their products are superior, but because they’re advertising is. They actually have a point, but not in the way they mean. Yes, Apple’s advertising is superior, but it’s not because Apple spends loads on it. In fact, Apple’s advertising budget is far tinier than Microsoft and Samsung’s.
Despite a budgetary increase of 32% from $3.381 billion in 2012 to $4.475 billion in 2013, Apple still spends less than 3% of its revenue (net sales total $170.91 billion so far this year) on Research & Development of new products: something that will surely give ammunition to those skeptics who claim less innovation is taking place under Tim Cook’s command than it ever did while Steve Jobs was at Apple’s helm.
Right?
Apple had added its name to an open letter from the tech industry — also signed by Google, Microsoft, Facebook, AOL and Yahoo! — demanding “oversight and accountability” of NSA surveillance.
The letter, sent Thursday, was addressed to the sponsors of the USA Freedom Act, a legislation designed to end bulk data collection by the National Security Agency. It claims that the tech industry (including Apple) welcome debate about the best way to further national security, while also protecting individual user privacy interests.
While Apple’s iLife and iWork software suites are considerably cheaper than competing products from rival companies, there’s still a bunch of people who would rather download them illegally than have to fork out the $20 fee for each app. And believe it or not, those who do will get a free upgrade to the latest versions direct from Apple.
When the Cupertino company pushed out its latest OS X apps following the iPad event earlier this week, anyone who had already installed the apps on their Mac was entitled to the latest version for free — even if the were using trial software, or they had downloaded the apps illegally.
Apple knows this, and it says it wasn’t just a bug. It also accepts that it’s easy to pirate its software — but it would rather trust you not to than implement some cumbersome anti-piracy feature.