Microsoft

Microsoft unveils 84-inch touch display and augmented reality headset

Cody Lee ∙ January 21, 2015

In addition to officially unveiling Windows 10 at its, Microsoft made a number of other interesting announcements at its Redmond, Washington event this morning. Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for the first year, will play a lot nicer with Xbox One, and has a new web browser on the way.

But two of the most interesting announcements involved products that most people had no idea Microsoft was working on: the Surface Hub and the HoloLens. The former is an 84-inch 4K touchscreen display, and the latter is a futuristic visor that overlays holographic imagery onto your view.

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Microsoft says Windows 10 will be a free upgrade, with a caveat

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 21, 2015

Realizing Windows has long been losing its momentum ever since that Vista train wreck in 2005, the Redmond-based software giant surprised attendees of its press event this morning by announcing that Windows 10 will be a free upgrade from Windows 8.1, Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 7.

But how on Earth is Microsoft going to make money from the forthcoming operating system? Well, in a typical Microsoft fashion Windows 10 upgrades will be free for just one year.

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Microsoft’s OneNote for iPhone picks up Today widget and Recent Notes feature

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 16, 2015

Slowly but surely, Microsoft's Evernote killer, OneNote, has been picking up major iOS 8-specific features.

The app already boasts Touch ID verification and native Share sheet functionality, has its own Document Storage extension, syncs data in the background and has native display support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus resolutions.

Friday, the software giant pushed a new update giving the iPhone edition of OneNote a much-needed Today widget and another new feature listing your recently accessed notes, no matter which device they're on.

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Microsoft now gives you first month free when you sign up for an Office 365 subscription

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 18, 2016

Microsoft's Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps for the iPhone and iPad allow anyone to edit, create and view Office files on the go at no cost, but advanced features such as a more powerful editing capability, Dropbox integration and more is locked behind a paid for Office 365 subscription.

In the hope of encouraging as many Office for iOS users as possible to move up to the subscription model, the software maker on Thursday said it's now treating you to the first month free if you sign up for an Office 365 subscription.

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Microsoft’s Office Sway for iPhone now available in US App Store and other countries

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

After soft-launching in the New Zealand App Store in November, Microsoft's Office Sway for iPhone is now available more broadly in a number of markets around the world, including in the U.S. App Store.

Office Sway is a free application that makes it easy to create attractive interactive presentation with images, captions, headers and styled text that can be viewed in a web browser on any desktop computer or mobile device.

In addition to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India, Sway is now available more broadly in a whole bunch of other English-speaking countries.

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OneDrive gains Document Provider extension, Recycle Bin support, push alerts and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 9, 2015

Microsoft's iOS client for its cloud-storage service, OneDrive, has received a significant update Friday bringing out a Document Provider extension of its own. The Document Provider extension is one of the major new extensibility features in iOS 8. With Document Providers, developers can write apps which expose their custom remote or local storage functionality to the operating system.

What this means for OneDrive fans is that they can now access their files in other apps. To see how this works and learn more about other changes in OneDrive 4.6, jump past the fold.

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Bing’s iOS apps get a facelift, translate extension now available on iPad

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 9, 2016

Microsoft's mobile Bing apps for the iPhone and iPad are getting a major makeover today, with the translate extension that debuted in the iPhone app two months ago at last available on iPads.

On the iPhone, you can now tap anywhere underneath the search box to check out Bing's image of the day in uncluttered full-screen view. You can also swipe from the left to see yesterday’s image of the day.

Another handy addition: weather information, trending news and images of the day zoom to full screen smoothly when swiping from the bottom of Bing's Home screen.

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PowerPoint for iOS now works in portrait

Christian Zibreg ∙ December 17, 2014

Software maker Microsoft this morning issued a minor update to its mobile Office apps available in the App Store. Word, Excel and PowerPoint for the iPhone and iPad have received a few bug fixes and one new feature.

Specifically, PowerPoint for iOS has finally introduced support for portrait orientation so you can now view and edit your presentation no matter which way you hold your device.

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Microsoft releases MSN-branded News, Money, Sports, Health & Fitness and Food & Drink apps

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Microsoft on Thursday released five new applications for the iPhone and iPad. Available free of charge in the App Store, the News, Money, Sports, Health & Fitness and Food & Drink apps have been created under the MSN brand.

As a bonus, a Weather app from MSN will be hitting iOS later this year. It's interesting that the MSN Health app syncs its data with iOS 8's Health database.

It has pedometer functions to continuously track, analyze and receive insights on your daily steps taken on the iPhone and tracks your runs (record your time, distance, pace and calories burned while you run, bike and do other outdoor activities).

Additionally, the app contains a Diet tracker (there's a database of over 300 thousand to track your daily calorie intake) and a Cardio tracker to monitor your cardio training and analyze progress over time.

Jump past the fold for the full rundown of each app.

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Microsoft buys email app Acompli for $200+ million

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 30, 2018

Confirming an inadvertent leak last month, Windows and Office maker Microsoft on Monday said it's buying Acompli for more than $200 million. For those who haven't heard about Acompli, it's an efficient email app for iOS and Android that features an integrated calendar.

Framed as “part of our company-wide effort to help people accomplish more with their mobile devices,” the deal will bring San Francisco-based Acompli team together with work currently in progress by the Outlook team.

Microsoft's stated goal is to“ deliver fantastic cross-platform apps that support the variety of email services” people use today to help them accomplish more and Acompli seems to fit the bill nicely.

“It will expedite our work to deliver the full power of Office to mobile devices,” said the software giant.

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Dropbox rolling out ability to edit Microsoft Office documents

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

Following Microsoft-issued updates to itsWord, Excel and PowerPoint mobile apps for iOS with native Dropbox integration, the popular cloud storage startup on Tuesday announced it is adding the ability to edit Microsoft Office documents to its free iOS client.

That's right, both iOS and Android users can take advantage of the newly refreshed Dropbox mobile client with Microsoft Office integration to work on the Office files stored in your Dropbox even when you’re on the go.

In addition to editing your Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from the Dropbox app, you can also access them directly from Microsoft's mobile Office apps.

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