Microsoft Support & Discussions

Save some mileage on your fingers — and your keyboard — with this quick trick. If you frequently type the same things over and over again, the Mac can save you the time and trouble of having to type it out in full each time. It involves something called text shortcuts and once you learn how to use them, you'll never want to be without them. How to create keyboard shortcuts on the Mac Hold down the command key and press the space bar to invoke Spotlight. Type "keyboard" (without the quotes). Locate and select the Keyboard system preference (either by pressing the cursor keys and return or using the mouse). Click on the Text tab. Click on the "+" button to crea…

Today, we released Security Advisory 3046015 to provide guidance to customers in response to the SSL/TLS issue referred to by researchers as “FREAK” (Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys). Our investigation continues and we’ll take the necessary steps to protect our customers. MSRC Team Continue reading...

If you have an iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, or iPhone 6 Plus, you can use the Apple Watch. But should you get one? As we come closer to the Apple Watch's sale date, it's the big-ticket question. Most people need a phone. Many people need a computer. Like an iPad, however, the Watch feels like an extra accessory, and that can make it harder to figure out if you need it or not. So, let's break down the decision process and make it a little bit easier. Whether you should get an Apple Watch or not comes down to how compelling any of the main features are for your lifestyle, either by themselves or when combined together. Those features include not only ti…

If there's a tween girl in your life who hankers to write her own iOS apps, maybe an App Camp will put her on the right path. App Camp for Girls is a non-profit group that helps teenaged girls interested in learning how to program for iOS. The organization already holds camps in Portland and Seattle; this year it's expanding to Martinsville, NJ and Vancouver, BC, Canada. At App Camp For Girls, campers receive a broad introduction to the process of iOS app development, from brainstorming and designing ideas to building and pitching their apps. The girls use Mac computers and Xcode, Apple's suite of developer tools, to build their apps and run them on iPod touch de…

At GDC 2015, got our hands on an upcoming sequel to the well-loved Aralon role-playing game, and it's looking quite slick. The only other series that comes this close to The Elder Scrolls on your iPad are the Ravensword games which, coincidentally, are also published by Crescent Moon games. Forge and Flame is the sequel to Aralon: Sword and Shadow, which made a big splash back in 2010. The update promises new continents, new items, new characters, and thanks to the Unity 5 engine, we've got fancy graphical improvements like cloth physics, real-time shadows, and lots more. Expect Aralon: Forge and Flame to hit the App Store sometime this spring, and will likely b…

Several new banks are now offering Apple Pay support for credit and debit cards. We're looking at 18 new banks and credit unions adding support for the payment service. The most recent group of additions include the Bank of Hawaii and American Airlines Credit Union. With these latest additions, Apple Pay now has more than 100 institutions behind it, with millions of customers able to make payments using only their iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. Here are the latest banks to support Apple Pay: Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union American Airlines Credit Union Bank of Hawaii Baxter Credit Union CFE Federal Credit Union Commonwealth Credit Union Foothill Credit U…

The Apple Watch is once again being shown off in the pages of a fashion magazine, this time China's Yoho. Apple's upcoming wearable continues its pre-launch media campaign, this time with Apple Watch Sport on the cover and a feature inside the April issue of Yoho. Other recent Apple Watch appearances include the U.S. and French edition of Vogue and Hong Kong's East Touch. Apple is holding a "Spring Forward" event event on March 9, where they are expected to unveil more information about the Apple Watch. Via: AppleInsider [/url] Continue reading...

Today, we released Security Advisory 3046015 to provide guidance to customers in response to the SSL/TLS issue referred to by researchers as “FREAK” (Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys). Our investigation continues and we’ll take the necessary steps to protect our customers. MSRC Team

As an analyst who studies the PC — personal computer — industry amongst many other categories, it's been fascinating to watch the story of the Mac unfold. At a high-level, based on many of the theories taught in business school, the Mac should not be gaining share against the once dominant Windows PC ecosystem. For the 2000-2010 sales period, the Mac averaged 3% share of annual sales. Now, at the end of 2014 the Mac was just over 6%. It's been steadily rising as a percent of annual PC sales. I genuinely believe Apple's share of the PC industry is poised for growth but what dynamics have changed from a decade where they averaged 3% to a new era where they are poised for…

Garmin's next generation fitness tracker trades in a year's worth of battery life for notifications, a slimmer design, music controls, and more. For some, the trade-off is a no brainer, for others, not so much. Once you put on the Garmin vivosmart, all you have to do is link it up with the Garmin Connect app on your iPhone. Once that's done you can not only set goals and view activity right on your wrist, you can also view notifications from your iPhone, receive inactive alerts, and lots more. But all of that matters little if the hardware and software don't do their job. The results? Let's find out! The good Interactive notifications right on your wrist Mov…

The 13-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro (called the "mid-2012" model, in Apple parlance) is still available from Apple. It costs $1,099, making it cheaper than a Retina model by $200. Given that it's an older, slower machine that hasn't been updated since 2012, it's easy to overlook. But it's also the only MacBook that still ships with an optical drive, and that can be appealing for education and travel. That's what prompted this week's Mac Help questions from J.R. Is the standard 13-inch MacBook Pro still worth getting? Inside the standard MacBook Pro is an Intel Core i5 "Ivy Bridge"-era processor — current for the model year, but one major generation behind com…

Following the introduction of iOS 7 back in June of 2013, a common complaint from developers and designers was that the system animations took to long to complete, making the interface feel slow. Apple sped up the animations before release, but for some they still felt too slow. Since iOS 8 didn't fundamentally change the animations curves, that perception has lingered. Recently, to highlight the difference between pre-iOS 7 and post-iOS 7 animations, Omni developer William Van Hecke made a video: Did a crappy iOS 8 vs. iOS 3 vidja https://t.co/SWmRdURSGq — William Van Hecke (@fet) March 3, 2015 Van Hecke attributes the difference to a change in interruptib…

Critically acclaimed survival strategy game This War of Mine is making its way from your Mac to iPad soon and we've got your first look at it from GDC 2015. Unlike most games that revolve around a war, This War of Mine focuses on the civilians that are affected by it. Made by 11bit Studios, This War of Mine has you scavenging and trading supplies as you make sure your group is well fed, happy, and healthy in their makeshift shelter. The game features a night and day cycle that add different gameplay elements. For example, during the night you are forced to protect your civilians as they are always being attacked by hostile snipers. The game is set to come out in a…

Fans of Peter Jackson's Hobbit film series can now purchase the final installment, The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies, from the iTunes Store. The digital release comes a full three weeks before the movie's March 24 release on DVD and Blu-ray. The Battle of The Five Armies is the final installment in Peter Jackson's film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit. It follows hobbit Bilbo Baggins and a company of dwarves as they try to reclaim the dwarves' home of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. Anyone who pre-ordered the movie should find it available to watch in their library on the Mac, iOS device, or Apple TV. There are a number of iTunes Extras included i…

GSMA, the group behind Mobile World Congress, has handed out their Global Mobile awards for the 2015 show. Winners this year include Apple, LG, Motorola, and Microsoft. The award for Best Smartphone this year was split, taken home both by the iPhone 6 and the LG G3 both beating out last year's winner, HTC. The iPhone 6 was praised for its larger size over past models, as well as its improvements in design and specifications. From the judges: "With all round improvements, from designs, to specs, to functionality yet remaining true to the core this proposition offers unparalleled performance and unmatched consumer success". Other winners included Motorol…

The South By Southwest (SXSW) festival will once again be using iBeacons during the popular event in Austin, Texas, Attendees will be able to interact with the iBeacons through the newly updated and official SXSW Go app. SXSW used iBeacons for the 2014 festival and this year will see over 1,000 of them deployed during the event. The Next Web says: When an attendee checks in with the app, the beacons will let them know what's happening nearby and who else has arrived recently. The idea is make to networking at the massive event that little bit easier. The app also features attendee matching to hook up like-minded visitors, the ability to connect to Facebo…

The Apple Watch Edition has dominated conversations about the company's upcoming wearable. And that might just be the point. The Apple Watch Edition has been surprisingly controversial. "Not Apple-like" has been a repeated charge, as has "betrayal of the ideals of affordable luxury." Typically, Apple makes a standard iPhone or Mac, and leaves the bedazzling to the aftermarket. Not so with the Apple Watch Edition: From the start, Apple senior vice president of design Jony Ive and newly official collaborator (and long-time watch designer) Marc Newson have set at least part of their Apple Watch sights on the high-end. But why? The watch market isn't the computer nor ph…

This week at the Geneva motor show, Koenigsegg has revealed their new Regera supercar. The car has some amazing specs all around, including a CarPlay unit at the center of the action. We've seen some automakers like Volkswagen and Chevrolet gear up for CarPlay support already, but seeing it inside an awesome supercar like the 1782bhp Koenigsegg Regera is a pretty sight. There is certainly much to admire in the cockpit, but the CarPlay unit seems to fit right in. That means plenty of Apple goodies like maps, music, iMessage, and of course phone calls will be just a quick touch away. Then again, most of us won't get the chance to try it in the Regera first-hand, as…

Here’s a very abbreviated history of photography. The oldest surviving photograph dates back to 1826 and was created by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce. A colleague of Niépce, Louis Daguerre, refined the chemical process of photography, making it more widely accessible. George Eastman made the first truly portable camera, called the “Kodak,” in 1888; in 1948, Edwin Land introduced the Polaroid Model 95, which combined portability and instant photography. From there, it’s a hop and a skip to the introduction of the first digital cameras in the late 1980s, and then to the late 1990s, when cameras were first added to mobile phones. Some of this might have occurred to Nat…

This synthetic leather iPhone 6 wallet case adds style and convenience to your device without putting on extra bulk with multiple layers. It protects from front to back and is secured by a strong snap-closure. The interior features three slots which can be used for storing credit cards, cash, business cards and receipts. Continue reading...

A bona fide Mac game classic is back from the dead, but it needs your help to get over the finish line. Crystal Quest is beloved by a whole generation of Mac users who came up during the 1980s. It was the first color Mac game, an early entrant into the Macworld Game Hall of Fame and most recently resurrected for Xbox 360 in 2006. There's a new attempt to update Crystal Quest for new Macs, PCs and Linux boxes, but it needs crowdfunding to be successful, and time is running short. The premise of Crystal Quest is simple: collect all the crystals and a portal will open that transports you to the next level. You have to avoid mines and bad guys shooting at you: Easier …

Sonos has updated its app for the iPhone and iPad to version 5.3, which includes a number of improvements to help owners of the company's connected speaker products. Some of the features included in this Sonos 5.3 update were previously released in a beta version in February. They include: Managing the music in all the rooms in the home is even faster. We made the menu for the rooms in your house available from any screen of the Sonos App so customers can effortlessly move their music around their home. New dedicated screens for Now Playing and music discovery on iOS and Android tablets makes toggling between screens more intuitive for a better tablet experience…

Not all iPhone selfie sticks are created equal. That's why we did our homework and figured out which ones really are the "best"! I've recently come to terms with selfie sticks and that they actually have a place in mainstream society. But that doesn't mean I'd trust just any old selfie stick with my iPhone. Some are made with shoddy materials and others have mounts that could potentially scratch your casing. Not good. After testing numerous selfie sticks with both my iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, these are the ones I'll recommend without hesitation to any iPhone owner. Name games The selfie sticks I've listed are the ones I think are the best of the best in their…

The $299 Pebble Time Steel starts shipping in July and will be available in silver, black, and gold. Early birds can pre-order via Kickstarter today for $250. Just a week ago, Pebble Time launched on Kickstarter and became the fastest growing crowd-funding project in history. Raising well over their $500,000 goal, massive interest has already been shown in the next-generation device from Pebble. Today at Mobile World Congress, Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky unveiled a second version of the device, the $299 Pebble Time Steel. Pebble Time Steel will be available starting in July in black, silver, and gold finishes. While it will retail for $299, early birds can …