Productivity

Documents by Readdle goes universal, now available on iPhone

The App Store carries some handy programs for folks who need to edit Microsoft Office documents on their iPhone and iPad. If Google's acquisition of the popular app Quickoffice came as a shock and you were looking to jump ship, Readdle has you covered with today's update to their free Documents software. The application, which is now universal, has at last been updated with support for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Although Documents won't let you edit Microsoft Office documents, you can now view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on any iOS device you happen to own.

Plus, Documents comes with lots more features to help you manage a bunch of file types, it syncs with popular cloud storage services, comes with a beautiful media player and lets you even annotate PDFs...

The fantastic Fantastical update hits the iPhone, we go hands-on

I'm a long time fan of Fantastical, a tremendously useful and well-designed calendar and to-do software for the Mac from Flexibits.

Therefore, it goes without saying that I was tingling with expectation after the team had teased an iPhone experience in early-November 2012.

And now, less than three months since its iPhone debut, developers Thursday pushed the first major update. It's a must-have as it addresses a few omissions while expanding on core functionality with some nice enhancements that will admittedly boost your productivity.

These include time zone support, multiple event alerts, even faster natural language parsing, handy user interface tweaks and of course "staggering number of other improvements, parser enhancements, and bug fixes." If you're a fan of the app, we've got you covered with detailed observations of what's new and how the changes affect your daily workflow...

Microsoft doesn’t want to take billions from Office for iPad?

Picture Microsoft in one of those V8 commercials, where the actor whacks himself in the head after he could be drinking a healthy vegetable drink rather than a can of diet cola.

Now, replace the veggie juice with an iPad and you might have a scenario playing out in the executive suite of Microsoft today.

Why? The software giant refuses to sell a version of its Office suite for the iPad, a mistake possibly costing $2.5 billion. One analyst believes the company is leaving $2.5 billion on the table by insisting to offer the popular software bundle to Microsoft's tiny tablet market, as well as the declining number of PCs.

Can any company be that short-sighted? Wait, that was a rhetorical question...

AppCap tweak limits and blocks distracting apps

I'm not sure how I feel about digital commitment devices. On the one hand, I'd like to believe that if I really didn't want to open Facebook on my phone during work hours, I just wouldn't open it. On the other hand, I know from personal experience that it isn't always this easy.

AppCap is a tweak that allows you to set a limit on your usage on a distracting app, hopefully encouraging you to use it less...

Ballmer dashes Office for iPad hopes (for now)

Following up on yesterday's release of cloud-based Office 365 for Macs and Windows PCs, Microsoft's energetic CEO Steve Ballmer sat down with Ashlee Vance of Bloomberg Businessweek to talk biz, competition and discuss what's next for the productivity suite. Office 365, basically a subscription-based offering, shouldn't be confused with the just released Office 2013 suite.

Despite several credible leaks proving that Microsoft is working on Office for iPad, Ballmer isn't afraid of an Office-less iPad. Little wonder, considering the Windows maker is keeping a tablet version of Office exclusive to Windows 8 tablets as a crucial advantage over other tablets...

Fantastical for iPhone is here and it’s a thing of beauty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-orFmHPTH0&feature=plcp

As promised, Flexibits today launched Fantastical for the iPhone. The app makes a leap from the Mac, where it's been deemed the most popular calendar software for the platform. And one of its trademark features - the natural-language engine which parses entries, allowing one to just type in full sentences to create events - is now available on the iPhone and is just as effective as on the Mac. And for those that don't like to type, Fantastical also supports dictation so you can speak the details for your event...

Microsoft Office hitting iOS in early-2013 with limited editing functionality

The Verge in an exclusive report this morning offers a detailed look into Office Mobile, a long-rumored version of Microsoft's productivity suite, said to hit iOS and Android devices in early 2013, with the iPhone and iPad version hitting the App Store first. The suite, the publication has it, will apparently include free viewer apps that will require a Microsoft account. Limited editing functionality will reportedly be available with an Office 365 subscription. More tidbits right after the break...

Microsoft (again) mentions Office for iOS and Android

We've been receiving vague hints that Microsoft, which is currently busy for the big Windows 8 launch scheduled for October 26, is also working on bringing the Office suite to the iPad. Today, a new report quotes a Microsoft executive as confirming that the software giant is in fact hard at work developing a native Microsoft Office suite for both iOS and Android. The software should hit the two mobile platforms "sometime after March 2013"...

Evernote Releases Two New iPhone Apps For Remembering People and Meals

It's been a busy day for the Evernote team with not just one, but two apps being pushed out into Apple's App Store.

You probably know Evernote as the note-taking and archiving utility that helps to organize our digital lives, but did you also know that it can help you remember the people you meet, as well as the meals you've eaten?

Evernote's two new apps, Evernote Hello and Evernote Food, do just that, and the best part is that they seamlessly sync with your existing Evernote account, meaning all your Hello and Food notes are available anywhere on any internet-enabled device…