Microsoft Support & Discussions

Mac owners who want some style to go along with a portable data storage and backup solution might want to look into the newly launched VisionTek Wallet Drive. The accessory can hold any 2.5" 7mm or 9mm SATA I/II/III hard drive or SDD inside its tray, but it is hidden inside a leather cover that look much like an ordinary wallet. The VisionTek Wallet Drive is priced at $19.99 and is clearly aimed at folks who want to keep their extra storage inside something besides a plastic or aluminium enclosure. The company says: With its high-quality natural grain leather finish and fan-less ventilation for noise-free cooling, the Wallet Drive transforms mundane data storag…

If you haven't heard, there's currently a rather absurd amount of snow burying my city. I feel pretty lucky in that I don't have to regularly commute much farther from my bed to my desk, but that amount of snow can still drive someone a bit stir-crazy — even if they're used to working from home. So, rather than give in to the depths of snowy despair, I decided to do something positive with the ridiculous mounds of white fluff outside my door: take some pictures. Snapping good winter photography on your iPhone is startlingly simple thanks to many of the device's under-the-hood software tweaks, but it still helps to keep a few basic tips in mind. So, without fur…

Microsoft has updated its Office Sway presentation app to version 1.2. Sway, which has rolled out to more countries since its initial launch in New Zealand in November 2014, has added a number of new options for dealing with photos and text, as well as the ability to add video from your iPhone's Camera Roll. Here's the full list of changes in Office Sway 1.2: •Add video •Create groups and stacks of photos •Add bullets and numbering to text •Create a hyperlink from text •Emphasize words or sentences •Crop images •Pictures of documents can be cropped automatically •Performance improvements You can download Sway for iPhone from the App Store right now. Free - …

Much-loved task management app OmniFocus has received a new look with the release of version 2.1 for Mac, bringing the app in line with the design language of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. The update also brings new extensions, offering tie-ins a widget for Notification Center and sharing options in compatible apps across your Mac. Here are the major points of what's new: Vibrant Interface — We adjusted the OmniFocus interface to better match OS X Yosemite. That included making new toolbar icons, adjusting the appearance of some other elements, and incorporating vibrancy where appropriate. Extensions — OmniFocus for Mac now has Today and Share extensions, just like on iO…

It's Serenity, Peter, and Rene with all the week's Apple, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, Apple Car — you get the idea! — news! Join us! Show kicks off at 10am PT, 1pm ET. Join us! [/url] Continue reading...

Microsoft has released an update for the company's OneNote app for iPhone and iPad. The release adds OCR support for images, enabling you to search for text contained within images. But should you be rocking an iPad you'll have an extra feature to take advantage of. Get the pen ready as handwriting is now supported. Using a compatible pen for input, it's possible to turn the iPad into a creative canvas for drawings and natural note taking using OneNote. Simply tap the new draw tab on the ribbon and select pen, marker, or highlighter. From there you're able to write and doodle to your heart's content. The OCR is also a real handy feature. What's more is you can eve…

Windows PC owners are used to downloading an inordinate amount of free — and sometimes suspect — software from the web. One of our readers, and new Mac owner, B.N., writes in to ask if it's possible to do the same thing on OS X. I've just bought my first Mac after using a PC for years. It's a fresh out of the box MacBook Air running OS X Yosemite. My old PC was equipped with LibreOffice, a free and open source office suite developed by The Document Foundation. I found LibreOffice for the Mac, but when I try to install it I get an error message that says the identity of the developer cannot be confirmed. This is as bad as the iPhone. Why won't Apple just let me run t…

Google has released its Inbox app for iPad. The invite-only email client for tablets is already available for Android, promising to provide a new way for consumers to interact with incoming mail. It's not for everyone, but should you be on the hunt for a new client on iOS, the new Google Inbox may be worth checking out. The app listing itself isn't new (since it's already out for iPhone), but the company has bumped it to version 1.2, offering an optimized interface for iPad users. It's an interesting way to use email for sure, having Google sort through email and prioritize messages the service feels are more important to you. Free - Download Now Via: TechCr…

The Apple Watch is set to grace the cover of Self Magazine this March, shown off on the wrist of Victoria's Secret model Candice Swanepoel. The Apple Watch fitness app and white sports band are front-and-center, which should come as no surprise given the focus of the magazine. According to Self Magazine: Aside from the I-want-to-be-Candice quality of our new March cover, notice anything else about the photo? The Apple Watch is getting a star moment, too, as Candice is the first woman to wear one on a magazine cover in the US. With the device starting at around $349 available next month, it's on our wishlist. (Even our editor-in-chief, Joyce Chang, can't wait to use …

Apple is currently facing yet another lawsuit involving accusations of employee poaching. A recent filing from A123 Systems, a battery manufacturer, claims that Apple poached several engineers from the company for its new battery division, violating agreements set forth in their employment contracts in the process. The report comes from Law360: A123 filed suit Feb. 6 in Massachusetts Superior Court, alleging Apple hired away five employees who developed new battery technology and products and tested existing products, despite the fact that the employees were under contracts with noncompete, nonsolicit, and nondisclosure obligations. Since June, Apple has bee…

Dropbox is now in the process of rolling out a new feature for mobile users that will let you open shared Dropbox links from an email or in a browser right in the mobile app for iOS and Android. Opening a link directly in the Dropbox app allows you to get rich previews of documents and images and easily save files. Opening shared links in the Dropbox app is fairly straightforward. On your iPhone or iPad, tapping the link will give you the option to "Open in app". If the shared link is for a Microsoft Office file, it's a simple matter to start working on them, according to Dropbox: If the file was already saved to your Dropbox, we'll take you right to it in the …

Shake off that snub, iTunes: You're finally getting a little wonderland in the form of Taylor Swift's previously Target-exclusive bonus tracks. When the pop icon first released last year's mega-hit 1989 last October, Swift partnered with Target in the U.S. to include a few exclusive bonus tracks and content — in hopes of encouraging fans to go and pick up a physical CD over digital track, no doubt. (Internationally, the tracks were made available online.) Now, Swift is changing her tune. Via 9to5 Mac: This morning, Swift released the first bonus track, "Wonderland" on iTunes, with two more still to come. "You Are In Love" is the next bonus track on the album an…

Microsoft OneNote for Mac has received support for optical character recognition (OCR) in its latest update. OCR allows users to find text in images in OneNote, and comes alongside other helpful improvements, such as reducing clutter while viewing shared notebooks, and the ability to close a window without quitting the app. In addition to finding text, you'll be able to use OneNote's OCR to copy text found in images, allowing you to bring it right into your notes and edit it if needed. For now, OneNote will use OCR to let you find text in new images in your notebooks. Microsoft expects to add OCR support for existing images in a future update. As for the other cha…

Big Red has a new chief, with John Stratton replacing Dan Mead as CEO of Verizon Wireless. Stratton comes from within Verizon, having previously served as the company's President of Global Enterprise and Consumer Wireline. Mead will stay with Verizon to oversee the sale of the company's wireline assets, and then plans to retire. Verizon Wireless is still a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, so Stratton will report to the parent company's CEO Lowell McAdam. Mead held the role of Verizon Wireless CEO starting in 2010, making him the longest-tenured active CEO of the major carriers in the US. Outspoken T-Mobile CEO John Legere now takes that position, having taken le…

One of these days I need to learn to keep my thoughts to myself. I'd get into less trouble and would have way more money in the bank. Case in point, the prescient editorial I published nearly a year ago on iMore arguing Apple should release an expensive version of the then-rumored "iWatch". After stating my reasons why a high-priced Apple watch would make perfect sense, I finished the article with a flourish, saying "if Apple did release an expensive iWatch I'd be standing in line to buy one the day it goes on sale." Little did I know at the time that I was committing to spending thousands of dollars, sight unseen. I took a ribbing for that editorial from a few of m…

By T. K. “Ranga” Rengarajan, corporate vice president, Data Platform and Joseph Sirosh, corporate vice president, Machine Learning This week in San Jose thousands of people are at Strata + Hadoop World to explore the technology and business of big data. As part of our participation in the conference, we are pleased to announce new and enhanced Microsoft data services: a preview of Azure HDInsight running on Linux, the general availability of Storm on HDInsight, the general availability of Azure Machine Learning, and the availability of Informatica technology on Azure. These new services are part of our continued investment in a broad portfolio of solutions to unlock…

My friend, former colleague, and Mac guru extraordinaire Chris Breen is leaving Macworld after several decades to go work for Apple. It's a huge loss for IDG, and an even bigger loss for the tech community at large — Chris appeared on podcasts and Lynda videos across the Web, and it's a sad day indeed to think that we won't hear his voice on any tech-related casts from here on out. Chris, on the transition: As part of this change I'll be leaving the public stage as Chris Breen Technology Guy (though I may still pop up as Chris Breen Musician Guy at a saloon near you). When the mood strikes I'll continue writing here about topics unrelated to technology, com…

Maybe you didn't believe me when I said it. Kirk McElhearn chimes in on Macworld with these plaudits: DiskWarrior remains the essential tool for maintaining and repairing disk problems. For both preventive maintenance and repair it's a must-have tool. It's not a question of if you will lose data, only a question of when. Source: Macworld Continue reading...

Google Play Music for iOS has been updated, and is available for the iPad for the first time. On both the iPhone and the iPad, the app has received some updates to its Material Design interface. While Material Design has been a part of Google Play Music for a little while, with this update certain elements of that look have been tweaked. Artist and album pages have been revamped, adding new descriptions for their subjects. The now playing screen has been updated to be more immersive, and other small visual changes have been made throughout the app. There have also been improvements to streaming and automatic caching. Music playback should be faster and more reliab…

Monkey King Escape is a new endless runner from Ubisoft for the iPhone and iPad. Loosely based on the Chinese novel Journey to the West, Monkey King Escape sees you run and fly across a mystical world in an effort to claim the title of Monkey King. The game has a variety of environments to play through, where you'll collect coins, fight enemies in quick-time combat, and more. You can transform into different animals to enhance your different abilities, allowing you to run faster or fly. There are two abilities that will be available for a limited time that let you transform into a sheep or a lion, if that's your sort of thing. You can get Monkey King Escape from t…

Dropbox for iPhone and iPad has been updated to version 3.7 with a new extension that makes it easier than ever to save files to Dropbox, and it has the potential to be one of our favorite action extensions. This update also contains bug fixes and performance improvements. Like any action extension, you switch on Dropbox's extension from the bottom row of the share sheet under More. To use it, open an app that allows you to save files, and tap the Save to Dropbox action button. A new window will pop up, giving you the ability to modify your file's name, as well as exactly where in Dropbox it will be saved. Make your choices, tap Save, and you're done. You can down…

Heard of BeastGrip? Our sister site, Windows Central, had high praises for this camera lens adapter and rig system for smartphones. The company gave us an early look at their latest product: the BeastGrip Pro. Just like the original BeastGrip, it lets you attach standard conversion lenses and other accessories to your phone. Take a look at our hands-on video. The iPhone 6 Plus was being used in the demo, but the BeastGrip Pro can be set up with different phones thanks to its adjustable clamps. There's a cold shoe mount and multiple standard threads so you can attach lights, microphones, and other accessories. What's the main difference between the BeastGrip Pro and …

Apple has reportedly run into a few roadblocks in its efforts to bring Apple Pay to China. The company has been in negotiations to bring the payment system over, but they are apparently facing delays due to resistance from regulators and UnionPay, China's credit and debit card system operator. For Chinese regulators, there are questions as to whether Apple Pay meets government standards for operation in the country, while talks with UnionPay that would open the operator's system to Apple Pay appear to be on hold. From MarketWatch: Apple is also struggling with its relationship with UnionPay, China's state-owned credit- and debit-card system operator. Sources…

Wi-Fi networks are everywhere and we use them every day to connect our iPhones and iPads to the internet. As convenient as they can be, however, if an old Wi-Fi network consistently keeps connecting when you don't want it to, it can be more of a nuisance than anything. Luckily, iOS lets you easily forget any network in just a few taps! How to get your iPhone or iPad to forget a Wi-Fi network Remember that you'll only be able to forget a network on an iOS device that you're currently using. If you're using iCloud Keychain, it'll also remove that network from any other iPhones, iPads, and Macs associated with your iCloud ID. Launch the Settings app on your iPhon…