Microsoft Support & Discussions

The Apple Watch comes in two sizes: 38 and 42mm. I'm going small. Here's why. Apple's smartwatch is a beautiful piece of hardware, whether you're looking at it in aluminum, steel, or gold. It has some depth to it, like most first-generation products are wont to do, but it carries it off with class — looking more like an original iPhone than a boxy prototype. And best of all, it's one of few smartwatches to come in different sizes. As someone who had the Moto 360 overflowing atop her wrist, I appreciate that the design team at Apple recognizes a key point about watch fittings: They need to be just as comfortable as — if not more than — they are functional. Fitting…

Adobe has unveiled new features that will be making their way to a future version of Photoshop CC. Photoshop CC will be adopting three major features geared towards 3D imaging and printing. For instance, the new 3D mesh simplification tools will allow for faster processing and printing, and will expand options for sharing. You'll also be able to create 3D bump maps and edit colors and textures for your objects before printing them: Create and apply 3D Bump Maps from any photograph to add texture to 3D objects: Convert textures from a photograph into a bump map, with flexibility to control desired height and depth of embossment or imprint to create a custom, t…

Sure, there's a newly expanded set of ethnically-diverse and more-useful emoji out there (and already integrated into iOS), but do they have stormtroopers or protocol droids? Didn't think so. Thankfully, Twitter does. Today's bringing us not only the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer (the first landed way back in November 2014), but new exclusive-to-Twitter emoji for Star Wars. So here's what we've got: #stormtrooper #c3po #bb8 (BB8 being the little soccer ball droid from the aforementioned teaser) Twitter's "hashflag" feature was introduced back in June for the World Cup, letting users tweet out their support for their favorite team with an …

Astropad, the app that turns your iPad into a drawing tablet for your Mac, has added support for FiftyThree's Pencil and more in its latest update. Astropad lets you use your iPad as a drawing tablet for your Mac. Support for FiftyThree's Pencil hardware accessory includes the eraser, which lets you flip the Pencil over to erase mistakes, as well as surface pressure, so what you draw changes depending on the amount of pressure you use. The app has also improved support for a number of other styluses. You can see the full set of changes in the list below: Astropad now supports Pencil by FiftyThree and it's awesome! We've worked hard on really great Pencil sup…

Fun for PC switchers in this week's Switch to Mac: How well do PC joysticks work on the Mac? Flight simulation has been a fascination of computer programmers since the earliest days of graphical user interfaces. Those invested in the hobby get expensive joysticks and throttle rigs — accessories that work just fine on the Mac. Switch to Mac Every week our Peter Cohen brings you Switch to Mac — a column to help you move from Windows PC to the Mac and OS X! Read more about switching to Mac G.H. asks: "I've had a Mac for a while now and the one thing I miss is Microsoft Flight Simulator. I've got all this gear in the closet I should just throw ou…

Apple has released a supplemental update to OS X 10.10.3 to fix a video driver issue. Following the release of OS X 10.10.3 on April 8, Apple has pushed out a small update for that version. The update fixes a video driver issue that could prevent your Mac from starting up. Here are Apple's full notes on this update, which weights in at 1.2MB: The OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 Supplemental Update fixes a video driver issue that may prevent your Mac from starting up when running certain apps that capture video. OS X 10.10.3 added the new Photos for Mac application, over 300 new emoji characters, and several other enhancements. Apple also made some enhancements to Mac …

Microsoft is introducing an new way to search for photos with Bing on iOS mobile browsers that involves much less work with typing words on a keyboard. Instead, users of browsers like Safari for iOS can type in a couple of words, such as "spring flowers", to bring up groups of suggestions that Microsoft calls "bubbles". Microsoft says: Want to explore more? Pivot your search around each entity by just tapping on any of the bubbles to expand your search to new topics. Want to refine your search? We've included smart suggestion bubbles below the search box. No typing needed – just tap to add! Went down the wrong path? No problem – just tap the X next to each bubb…

The Los Angeles Unified School District is asking Apple to refund millions of dollars that the district spent on the now-defunct program that would have given iPads to students all around the district. The program was officially discontinued in August 2014, and would have given an iPad to every student, teacher, and administrator in the school district. The Board of Education has instructed its attorneys to explore the possibility of a lawsuit against both Apple and Pearson, according to The Los Angeles Times: L.A. schools Supt. Ramon C. Cortines "made the decision that he wanted to put them on notice, Pearson in particular, that he's dissatisfied with their p…

I love Apple Pay, but I wish it wouldn't automatically trigger for every NFC chip everywhere. On Wednesday, I spent a lovely afternoon with my aunt, uncle, and gentleman friend at Fenway Park in Boston to see the Red Sox. (Unfortunately, they ended a two-game winning streak by losing quite definitively 10-5 to the Nationals, but it made my Montreal-born aunt pretty happy.) But we came close to not making it through the gates, thanks to an iPhone quirk with NFC and Apple Pay. Apple Pay, NFC, and iPhone mishaps On your phone, Apple Pay works by automatically detecting a compatible NFC reader and bringing up the payment screen. If the NFC reader isn't actually …

After 15 years and 11 Mac OS X reviews, Hypercritical author and Accidental Tech Podcast anchor John Siracusa has announced an end to his epic operating system coverage on Ars Technica. I still love OS X—and I still have many complaints about it. I will certainly talk about OS X 10.11 (whatever it's called) at length on ATP, and I'll read the many great reviews written by others when it's released. But neither podcasting nor writing have ever been full-time jobs for me. I've always had to fit them into my life alongside my actual job and my family. Right now, I'm looking forward to my first summer in many years that won't be dominated by stolen daytime minutes and l…

Microsoft has released two Halo games for iPhone and iPad, bringing the top-down shooter action of Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike to Apple's mobile devices for the first time. We wondered back in 2013 if Halo: Spartan Assault would ever come to iOS, and that answer is now a definitive "yes". In addition to Assault, Spartan Strike has landed at the same time. Both games are top-down shooters in which you take the role of a Spartan soldier fighting the forces of the Covenant. Each game features 30 missions taking place across a wide variety of environments. In addition to engaging in combat on foot, you'll have access to a number of vehicles like the Warthog a…

Apple CEO Tim Cook will have lunch with you and a guest at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California if you are the winning bidder in the Charitybuzz online auction. The winning bidder will also get two VIP tickets to attend one of Apple's upcoming keynote events. This is the third year in a row that Cook is participating in this auction event. Last year, the winning bid was $330,001, and 2013's auction topped out at $610,000 so you had better save your money now if you have any chance of winning. As with the last two auctions, the proceeds from this year's event will go to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. If you are still interes…

Popular dating app Tinder has been updated, and will now let you add your Instagram photos to your profile. Tinder, one of our favorite dating apps is expanding user profiles in new ways. When you start up the app after the update, it will take you to Facebook to ask for a new set of permissions. If you grant them, your expanded list of interests will now appear as part of your profile. You can check out the full list of changes in Tinder 4.4 below: Revamped profiles to make them even more awesome Instagram integrated directly into your profile Expanded common friends - now see an extra degree of connectivity (If - you're friends with Kevin Bacon, it may crash…

Amazon will let anyone watch Season One of Orphan Black, but the deal is only good for April 17. Orphan Black is an Amazon Prime exclusive series, but on April 17 they will be allowing anyone to watch Season One. The show will be available for viewing through Amazon's Instant Video app for TVs, connected devices and mobile devices, or online. All ten episodes of the first season will be available for the day for anyone to watch, whether a member of Amazon already or not. "Orphan Black has been extremely popular with Prime members since the series became available exclusively in Prime Instant Video—that's why we're excited to make season one available to all c…

Sometimes you don't want Time Machine to back up your files. Here's how to keep that from happening. Time Machinee, Apple's built-in backup utility, is actually pretty smart about figuring out what to save and what to skip on your Mac. OS X by default excludes a whole bunch of stuff from Time Machine that Apple engineers know the Mac just doesn't need in order to work right after restoring from a backup. There are times, however, when you might want to make it a bit smarter. It could be big but temporary files that would just eat up space, or private files you don't want duplicated anywhere, even for back up. Either way, with a few simple tweaks, you can more storage c…

Dressed in a brilliant white with chrome accents, this car charger plugs into your vehicle's DC outlet and features an extra USB port on the other end for charging another device as well as your lightning-compatible smartphone or tablet. On sale today for $14.95! Continue reading...

Apple has released a new beta version of iCloud for Windows to AppleSeed testers. First launched in September 2014, iCloud for Windows enables users to get their iCloud Drive content on their Windows desktop. Users also have access to their iCloud Photo Stream and Photo Sharing. For those that haven't used iCloud for Windows before, this can all be found in a new folder created under Favorites. You'll also need to be running at least iOS 8, or if you have a Mac in addition to a Windows PC, OS X Yosemite, in order to take advantage of iCloud Drive at all. The new beta build, numbered 410A44, can be downloaded by AppleSeed testers. If you want to use the public ver…

Not too many years ago it took what felt like months to get the session videos following WWDC. This year, it'll be near-instant. Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference — WWDC 2015 — is set for June 8 at Moscone West. That means a week of sessions for developers, where Apple engineers give presentations on everything from the latest and greatest new frameworks to the core technologies that enable them. All with the goal of helping everyone make better apps. Since not all developers can fit it into the physical building or get to every session, Apple provides videos that the developers can watch later and repeatedly. Over the least two years Apple, and its events and…

In order to see why Apple doesn't need $178 billion of cash for its business, it is crucial to examine how Apple operates and thinks about products. Apple has a functional organizational structure, not one based on product groups or some other type of hierarchy. That makes it easy for the company to shift attention to new products as needed. Despite having 46,000 non-retail Apple employees, Apple is a nimble company able to respond to changing market dynamics quickly and efficiently. Apple's strengths include allowing ideas to be born from close collaboration at a very early stage and offering an environment that fosters the nurturing of fragile ideas through the devel…

Samsung has reportedly created a team of around 200 employees to work exclusively on display technology for Apple products. According to Bloomberg: "The team at Samsung Display Co, which provides screens for iPads and MacBooks, helps develop products and is only allowed to share information about Apple's business within the group." The two companies have endured a love hate relationship both inside and outside the courts. With Samsung's newly deployed Apple team, reportedly formed on April 1 of this year, the company plans to expand on assistance with exporting components, like the A9 chip, to one of its largest competitors. Competition is heating u…

If you're looking to grab a new screen and are rocking OS X Yosemite 10.10.3, you may want to check out Dell's 27-inch 5K monitor for the ultimate pixel-filled experience. The Dell UP2715K 27-inch 5K display can now be connected to the Mac Pro (late 2013) and the 27-inch 5K Retina iMac (late 2014, pictured above), negating the need to add new graphics cards and deploy various hacks to get everything working together. This is possible due to Apple enabling support for Dell's dual-cable solution, which takes up two DisplayPorts. So should you be running OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 on a compatible Mac, and desire upgrading your display, the Dell screen is worth the check t…

Workflow allows you to automate all kinds of tasks right on your iPhone, and soon, right on your wrist with Apple Watch. If you've ever found yourself wishing some of the most repeated tasks on your iPhone could be done easier and with less steps, Workflow is for you. If you frequently email the same group of people, Workflow can make child's play of it. Travel a lot and frequently need to find coffee shops to work from? Workflow can automate that too. The possibilities of what you can automate with Workflow are nearly endless. Now a lot of that incredible automation power is coming to your wrist with Workflow for Apple Watch. As of today, Workflow is being update…

A new report says that American Express will announce a partnership sometime later this week that will allow those credit card owners to pay for items by using a future product from Jawbone. The report from The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, says that this payment setup for the future Jawbone wearable device will work with retailers that have NFC-based check-out terminals in place This sounds similar to how Apple Pay will work with the upcoming Apple Watch. No other details about how this partnership between American Express and Jawbone will work have been revealed. It's also not known if Jawbone might expand this payment system to include other cr…

FiftyThree's Paper app has been updated to version 2.4.1 with support for cloud backups of journals, and a new place to see all of your activity in the app's Mix service. Free backups of all of your Paper journals are now available to anyone with a free FiftyThree account. Backups are secure, and remain viewable only to you. With backups, you can easily restore work that has been deleted, or easily bring in your old work to a new iPad. This update also adds the Activity Center for the Mix social drawing service. The Activity Center shows all activity related to you and the work you've shared on Mix. You'll see if someone likes your ideas, who remixes them, and who…