Microsoft Support & Discussions

Reports indicate that Radio Shack, that venerable retail electronics store chain, will soon file for bankruptcy protection. Amazon and Sprint are reportedly interested in acquiring some of the retail locations for their own purposes. It's a sad footnote to a company that holds a dear place in my heart. Meanwhile, Apple retail stores pull in record earnings per square foot. It's an interesting juxtaposition. As a teenage computer nerd in the 1980s, Radio Shack was one of the few retail jobs I could get that didn't bore me to tears. I worked there selling computers, stereo equipment, electronic parts, but mostly giving away batteries to elderly patrons who came in with…

As it turns out, if your company rakes in billions upon billions in profit, you become quite popular in management circles. According to a recent study, Apple CFO Luca Maestri is the "most admired fortune 500 CFO." The survey, which was conducted by Model N, revealed that 24 percent of the C-level executives it surveyed listed Maestri as most admired, with over half of them listing Apple's outstanding performance as the reason for their choice. Maestri was in good company as well, with Walmart CFO Charles Holley and For CFO Bob Shanks following up with 15 percent and 8 percent respectively. This follows up on a breakout quarter for Apple, which saw the company rak…

Sunrise calendar is getting snapped up by Microsoft for "at least $100 million." The calendar app, which integrates sources diverse as Google Calendar and Trello project management and is available on Android, iOS, OS X, and the web, has carved out a niche for itself on the devices of many users. According to TechCrunch, Microsoft's plans for Sunrise are varied: We've heard Microsoft will keep its apps alive as stand-alone products, while using some of its technology for its own future products. That's similar to what it did with Acompli, which Microsoft acquired for $200 million. Acompli recently relaunched as Outlook on iOS and Android, offering a fully-…

Last Inua, a side-scrolling adventure game that was first released for the PC in December has now made its way to the Mac platform. It's now available on the Mac App Store for $7.99. The game was developed by Glowforth and is being published by Wired Productions. Here's a quick look at its premise: Last Inua is designed for both young and old, mixing classic platform genres as it tells the tale of an Inuit family's fight for survival against a fearsome demon and the harsh Arctic elements. As the demonic trickster Tonrar has awoken to spread his darkness over the north the father and son team of Ataataq and Hiko are the only hope to restore balance in the world.…

A few weeks ago, code-divers found the Apple Watch companion app for iPhone lurking within the iOS 8.2 beta. Work-in-progress screenshots were shown off and potential new features revealed. Today, a deeper dive was posted. The two pertinent bits of information there: "work in progress" and "potential". Here's the thing: When it comes to spoilers, we need to make sure we're not the ones who get spoiled. At WWDC 2013, Apple altered the way the iOS beta non-disclosure agreement worked: Traditionally, the NDA slammed a black curtain around its beta testers, from which no light nor sound was allowed to escape. Two years ago, however, Apple lifted many of the restrictio…

Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today, the first game from Spain-based Fictiorama Studios, will be released via digital download for the Mac, PC and Linux platforms on April 10 for the price of $19.99. Here's the rather morbid storyline summary for the 2D adventure game: In Dead Synchronicity, you play as Michael, a man with no past, who must recover his identity and decode the two events that brought the world to the edge of collapse: the so-called Great Wave, an inexplicable chain of natural disasters, and a pandemic that turned humans into the "Dissolved", infected beings whose sick bodies will eventually dissolve into blood. However, before they die thei…

It's official, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to reclassify internet service providers as utility providers under the FCC's Title II authority. The move aims to preserve the principles of net neutrality in law, barring ISPs from blocking, throttling, or prioritizing traffic. Said FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: "I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My prop…

We recently did our iPad Air 2: three months later roundtable, chatting about why and what we liked about Apple's latest tablet. Federico Viticci has done his own three-month iPad Air review for MacStories, aptly titled "Why the iPad Became My Main Computer": There's a big difference between reflecting upon the future of the iPad and claiming that nobody knows what it's good for anymore. This is a common mistake that is often repeated in tech publications: because the iPad can't perform all the tasks a Mac can handle without breaking a sweat, then it automatically loses its reason to exist. Realistically speaking, the iPad has flaws, there's plenty of new low-hangin…

Verizon Wireless will cut prices on most of its existing More Everything plans by up to $10 a month while also adding some new options starting on Thursday. The new plans will also allow some customers to add smartphones on Verizon Edge for $15 a month. Only the 500MB and 10GB data plans will remain the same price. Here are the new prices and the new options for Verizon's More Everything: 1GB - $30 (previously $40) 2GB -$40 (previously $50) 3GB - $50 (previously $60) 4GB - $60 (previously $70) 6GB - $70 (previously $80) 8GB - $85 (previously $90) 10GB - $100 12GB - $110 (NEW) 14GB - $120 (NEW) 16GB - $130 (NEW) 20GB - $140 (previously $150) Verizon…

Typed.com is a blogging platform from longtime Apple developers — and iMore hall-of-famers — Realmac. It's responsive, it supports Markdown, tags, themes, pretty URLs, Pages, and multiple contributors, admins, and blogs. And it's now up for crowdfunding support at Indiegogo. Typed.com is a blogging service for writers, journalists, artists, storytellers, and for anyone with something to say. It's the online writing platform that we've been wanting to create and use for years. Online services come and go, but we want to make something that stands the test of time. We want Typed.com to be around for decades to come, and with your help we can make this happen. We ca…

I don't drive around Boston a whole lot — the perks of working from home and living in a fairly walkable city — but when I do, it's often to specific locations: my roller derby league's practice space, "Fort Independence," for example, or my boyfriend's house. Apple provides an easy way to add bookmarks for frequent destinations, but the Maps app isn't so great at being able to see quick traffic estimations on the go. Asking Siri "How long will it take me to get to X?" will get you directions from the Maps app, but there's no quick way to preview travel time or routes. Enter ETA: the $1 app and accompanying Notification Center widget not only stores your frequent locat…

Ed: Welcome to this week's edition of The Pixel Project: a weekly comic from Diesel Sweeties' Rich Stevens on Apple, technology, and everything in-between. Today: Money Isn't Everything. Read more comics from the Pixel Project on iMore.com. Continue reading...

Welcome to Mac Help, our weekly column focused on helping you, our readers, with the trouble you're having with your Mac. In this edition we tackle the subject of massive amounts of personal data and how it can best be backed up. Chuck Rossell writes: I recently signed up for the Backblaze trial to backup the data on my iMac. To date, I have roughly 2.5 TB of info - mostly photos and video. After doing some research, I chose to go with Backblaze. I started the data upload, and based on their calculations, it would take 2.5 YEARS to back everything up. Really?! So I will have paid them $150 before everything gets backed up! Not to mention the amount of data I have…

Outlook is Microsoft's relaunch of Acompli, the iPhone and iPad email app they acquired last December. It's been rebranded but it still supports not only Microsoft Exchange and Outlook mail accounts, but Google, iCloud, and Yahoo as well. For file storage, you can instantly hook into Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box. There are focus lists and scheduling options to help you get through your inbox faster, and your calendar is only ever a tap away. Not only does Outlook support all these services and perform all these tasks, it does so exceptionally well. So well in fact, it may be the mail app you've been waiting for. When you launch Outlook on your iPhone o…

It’s hard to believe it has been 12 years since we released Windows Server 2003. Back in 2003, Windows Server 2003 was the first server operating system launched after the Trustworthy Computing Initiative was announced and it introduced server roles. It had a recommended minimum processor speed of 550 MHz, and up to 4GB of RAM supported in the 32-bit version, taking advantage of the new hardware that was then becoming available. And it was well received, reaching levels of adoption that were at the time unprecedented for our server business. I want to thank our customers for partnering with Microsoft and choosing Windows Server 2003 for their needs. It’s been said that…

Iterate brings together the best designers and app producers in the business to talk user interface, human interaction, icon design, and user experience from concept to implementation. On this episode — Brad Ellis joins Marc, Seth, and Rene to talk about WatchKit and designing for the Apple Watch, including screen size, remote views, and what makes the most sense. Subscribe in iTunes Subscribe in RSS Download directly Follow on Twitter Guests Brad Ellis Hosts Marc Edwards of Bjango Seth Clifford of Nickelfish Rene Ritchie of Mobile Nations Feedback Yell at us on Twitter or leave a comment below. Continue reading...

A new report says that the Federal Communications Commission could propose a set of regulations Thursday that would support net neutrality for both fixed and mobile broadband service providers. The proposal is likely to be similar to the ones that President Barack Obama announced in November 2014. The Wall Street Journal reports that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will state that broadband providers should be regulated like telephone and cable companies under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, rather than information services. This change would allow the FCC more control over those broadband companies. As part of these new regulations, Wheeler will also reportedly …

It looks like Tinder users in the U.S. will soon be able to undo those unfortunate accidental left-swipes. Tinder said today that the launch of its Tinder Plus service, which allows users to undo their last swipe by paying a monthly fee, is set to launch sometime in March. The news comes via TechCrunch, which spotted a change in Tinder's App Store description for its latest update: Both of Tinder's mobile apps recently received updates on the respective app stores where the feature was mentioned in the app's update text – hinting at an imminent arrival. However, Tinder says that Plus is not yet being enabled for end users in the U.S. at this time – and the app'…

[/url] The icon design for the upcoming Apple Watch Companion app for the iPhone may have found its way to the Internet. 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman posted an image of what he says is the app icon on his Twitter page earlier today. 9to5Mac previous posted screenshots of the actual Companion app, along with a lot of information on how it will reportedly manage the Apple Watch. Apple CEO Tim Cook stated last week the Apple Watch will go on sale sometime in April, but so far there's no word on a specific launch date for the long-awaited smartwatch. Source: Mark Gurman (Twitter) Continue reading...

Gorillized's Outline was developed to be a OneNote alternative before OneNote hit the Macintosh last year. It was originally designed as a mere reader of OneNote files on iPad, but turned into a full-blown editor and has since added Mac support too. That makes it an interesting alternative to both OneNote for people who don't want to part of Microsoft's ecosystem, and to Evernote for people who want something different. Outline integrates support for Microsoft OneDrive accounts and can also work with OneNote notebook formats, so if you prefer to keep a really streamlined Microsoft-centric workflow, you can. But Outline works independently as well, and doesn't suffer fr…

Thanks to the ever-complicated nature of the US tax code, Apple — the most profitable company in history this past quarter — is planning to issue $5 billion in bonds to pay for their ongoing stock repurchasing program and dividends. Yes, Apple, the company that made an eye-watering $18.04 billion in profit last quarter, is looking to borrow money. Here's exactly what Apple told the SEC they'll do with the money: We intend to use the net proceeds from sales of the notes, which we estimate will be approximately $__billion, after deducting underwriting discounts and our offering expenses, for general corporate purposes, including repurchases of our common stock an…

iCloud can keep all your contacts in sync across all your devices and on the web. Not only that, iCloud gives you the option to export your contacts right from iCloud.com. That's convenient for anyone who is adding new email services, switching services, or simply wants a local backup for extra peace-of-mind. Once downloaded, you'll be able to import or upload the standard .vcf file type to any app or service that supports it. How to save all your iCloud contacts to your computer from iCloud.com Go to www.icloud.com in any web browser and log in to your iCloud account. Click on Contacts. Click on any contact in the All Contacts section and hit Command + A to s…