Microsoft Support & Discussions

Ever been looped into what seems to be a never-ending group message with friends or family? All of us have been there and have desperately wished there was a way to stop the notification madness, especially when nothing being said even pertains to you. Luckily, iOS 8 lets you quickly and easily leave a group iMessage altogether. How to leave a group iMessage thread on iPhone and iPad Launch the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher. Tap on the thread you'd like to leave in order to open it. Tap on Details in the top right. Tap on Leave this Conversation — you'll need to scroll down a ways. Remember that you can only leave group mes…

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Several major UK retailers and companies have announced support for Zapp, which means shoppers will be able to make payments using their smartphones. Zapp is an upcoming mobile payment gateway and platform that plans to offer a new way for consumers to pay for goods and services. The UK service will launch three mobile apps – Android, iOS and Windows Phone – to enable said smartphone owners to make payments without having to take out their wallet. Zapp has been working with major companies in the UK, including Sainsbury's, Asda, House of Fraser, Thomas Cook, Clarks, Anglian Water and Shop Direct (Littlewoods, Very.co.uk, etc.). Leading UK banks are also backing the s…

Square Order has hit version 2.0 with enhancements that make placing orders easier. The update includes a new design, two-tap ordering, arrival prediction, and more. Arrival prediction uses your phone's location data to help you place orders. Once you place your order, the app can alert the establishment to start brewing your coffee based on how close you are. You just pick up your order and walk out, with your payment being automatically processed. Square Order will also now remember your favorites, and make ordering them faster with two-tap ordering. In addition to easier ordering, Square Order now allows you to cancel orders. It also gives you travel time estim…

This week Microsoft announced the next version of its Operating system, dubbed WIndows 10, providing Windows 10 Technical Preview release under its "Insider Program" in order to collect feedback from users and help shape the final version of the operating system, but something really went WRONG! “Inside Microsoft’s Insider Program you'll get all the latest Windows preview builds as soon as they're available. In return, we want to know what you think. You’ll get an easy-to-use app to give us your feedback, which will help guide us along the way.” Microsoft website reads. Well, how many of you actually read the “Terms of Service” and “Privacy Policy” documents befor…

When you need to know your specs to figure out if you can play a video game, it's best to just automate the process. But sometimes you need to dive deep and really find out nitty-gritty details about what's going on inside your computer, most often to aid with troubleshooting efforts or determine whether or not its time to upgrade your hardware. Maybe you want to check how much RAM your PC has. Maybe you want to know how fast your processor is, or the voltages being supplied to your PC components. Perhaps you've lost a software product key or are trying to figure out exactly which driver your printer is using. Some—but not all—of that info you can just grab from Windo…

Google is launching its own News & Weather app to the App Store in select markets right now, giving you access to local weather, the top stories of the day, and coverage from 65,000 publications. The app comes just after Google had updated its Google Currents application for iOS and renamed it to Google Play Newsstand. At this time, Google News & Weather isn't available in the U.S. Here is what Google News & Weather offers to users: Coverage from 65,000 publications Simple swipe-access to categories such as Top Stories, Technology, Sports & Weather Tune your layout with any of 60 country-specific editions and personalized news sect…

Yo, the app that lets you send the word "Yo" to your friends, has been updated today with the ability to send your location. The update also takes advantage of actionable notifications in iOS 8 to make replying faster. You can now Yo your location to your friends. Sending your location is an opt-in feature. Just double tap a friend to Yo your location to them. You can send your location to Yo API services to allow them to send a Yo to you based on your location. Interactive notifications let you reply even faster than before. When you receive the notification, you can tap the Yo Back button in reply. You can also send your location from the notification as well. …

Apple has released iOS 8.1 beta 2 to developers. The update is available through the Apple Developer Center, as well as over the air on devices running the first beta of iOS 8.1. The first beta of iOS 8.1 was seeded just over a week ago. To update over the air, go to Settings > General > Software Update and selecte Download and Install. The only notes for the beta is that it contains bug fixes and improvements. Continue reading...

Ever been stuck in a group message where the notifications just never seem to stop? We've all been there and wished that there was a way we could quiet them without having to silence everything else. Now thanks to iOS 8 you can mute message threads, group or individual, without bringing your other notifications to a grinding halt! How to mute individual message threads on iPhone and iPad Launch the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher. Tap on the message thread you'd like to mute — it can be a group message or a conversation with only one other person. Tap on the Details button in the upper right hand corner. Turn the Do Not Disturb toggle…

From letters and memos to novels and screenplays, these are the best writing apps for Mac Keyboard cases be damned, there's no better writing tool on the planet than the Mac, if you've got the right apps to get the job done, of course. Text editors are one thing, but full on-writing tools are something else entirely. Luckily, the Mac App Store is full of apps specifically made for general purpose writing. Whether you're a journalist, student, screenwriter, blogger, or even a novelist, there's something for everyone. If you're having trouble deciding which one is right for you, these are currently the best Mac apps currently available when it comes to long form writing!…

By Matt Clark Developer previews and beta releases aren't consumer software--they're for testing, or at the very least, preparing devs for approaching the platform. And while this is obviously the case for Microsoft's Windows 10 Technical Preview, the idea of a company watching your every keystroke is no less uncomfortable. According to The Inquirer, Microsoft has admitted to monitoring file usage within the preview version of Windows 10, up to and including keylogging. The company has responded to concerns over the language in its Privacy Statement by reminding everyone it's not a consumer product and users have agreed to the policy. Microsoft Announces Windows …

A reader has sent along the results of his script-based analysis of the top feedback requests for Windows 10 in the Windows Technical Preview. And it won't surprise you to discover that the most popular requests are an interesting mix of common sense ideas and superficial changes. According to Matt Goldstein, who, among other things, has been incredibly helpful with typo/grammar fixes (always appreciated), this list is comprised of all of the feedback Microsoft has received that has garnered 25 or more "likes." So it's sort of a popularity contest. And the top results (edited for legibility and removing feedback that does not represent an actual request) are: 400 o…

Almost three weeks since it has launched, iOS 8 adoption currently sits at 47%, identical to the current share of its predecessor, iOS 7. That's a change of only 1% over the course of the last couple of weeks. iOS 7, by contrast, is believed to have hit over 60% adoption by this time last year. iOS 8 doesn't support iPhone 4, which was supported for iOS 7 and remained on sale in some countries through most of this year. iOS 8 is also significantly larger than iOS 7, requiring more available storage space to download, decompress, stage, and install on-device. People with 8 and 16GB iPhone may have trouble finding that space, and may not be familiar enough with updat…

Along with all the Adobe Creative Cloud news today, Storehouse announced that its app can now pull in and import photos from Adobe's cloud through the Lightroom Collections. This makes it easy for iPhone and iPad users to pull in photos and images that were edited on a Mac or PC using Lightroom. Once imported, you can use those photos to create visually stunning stories using Storehouse. To do so, you must download the latest update to Storehouse on the App Store: This update, which is now available on the App Store, lets you import photos directly into Storehouse from the Lightroom Collections you have synced through your Adobe Creative Cloud account. Her…

Cycloramic is a new app for capturing panoramic shots with your iPhone 6. And rather than have you move your iPhone around to capture wide scenes, the best part about Cycloramic is that it will rotate the phone for you without any requiring assistance, giving gorgeous 360-degree videos and photos. As featured on the show Sharktank, Cycloramic's creators say that the app leverages the iPhone 6's internal vibration motor to help rotate the phone slowly to capture those panoramas. It's like setting your iPhone 6 on a turntable. All you have to do to leverage this automatic rotation feature is prop your phone up between the prongs of your iPhone's charger, which is suppl…

Prior to iOS 8, deleting images in individual message threads was tricky business. There wasn't an easy way to view all of them at once which made deleting more than one at a time a pretty tough task. Luckily, the details view in iOS 8 changes all of that and makes it super simple to delete lots of images and attachments at once, an incredibly useful trick if you need to free up some storage space in a hurry! How to delete multiple images at once in the iOS 8 Messages app Launch the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 8 or higher. Tap on the thread you'd like to clear images from in order to open it. Tap on Details at the top right. Press and hold on…

Thrill-seeking adventurers can now livestream what they're doing in real time with a GoPro Hero camera thanks to the Livestream app, which now supports live broadcasting of what's currently being captured by your GoPro to a connected iPhone app. Thanks to the Livestream app and the GoPro camera, you can share moments like a concert or a performance to your audience in real time without any delays. Currently in version 3.8, the Livestream app brings the following features: GoPro Hero® live streaming: Broadcast live from a GoPro Hero® camera via your iPhone's 4G connection Camera lock feature to avoid accidental touches while streaming Improved broadcasting exper…

It’s 11 a.m. and you’re still in your pajamas – plaid shorts, a faded David Bowie t-shirt and worn moccasin slippers. Brows furrowed, deep in thought, you tap your fingers on the desktop, creating concentric circles in your now-cold coffee. Your eyes drift back and forth between a stack of notebooks (filled with your handwriting) and the Microsoft Word document on your laptop (all but empty). “’Project Spark’ – where players create, and creators play.” It’s all you’ve managed to type so far. Your word-starved cursor blinks eagerly. How do you even begin to tell the story of “Project Spark?” The new video game for Xbox One and PC is a traditional game in some ways, but …

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In addition to the Capture apps and Premiere Clip app, Adobe has also released important updates to existing creation apps for iOS, Sketch, Mix, and Line. Adobe Photoshop Mix is now a universal app, coming to the iPhone for the first time. Mix is a photo editor that pulls images from Camera Roll, Creative Cloud, Lightroom Mobile, and more. Mix also has a new automatic cut out feature that senses the imporant elements in an image. You can also now publish directly from your gallery to Behance, Facebook, and other services. There are also important bug fixes for iOS 8. Adobe Sketch is now Adobe Photoshop Sketch. The app has five new built in brushes, including acryl…

Along with the launch of new mobile apps, Adobe has announced that the Creative SDK is now available as a public beta. Launched earlier this year as a private beta, Creative SDK brings Adobe's Creative Cloud services to third-party iOS developers. With Creative SDK, Adobe is looking to keep customers within its own ecosystem, even though they use mobile apps that may not necessarily come from Adobe. The SDK brings features that include the ability to edit PSD files using a cloud processing engine, access Adobe's Creative Market, publish projects directly to Behance and much more. For now, the SDK is available only for iOS, although an Android version is in private be…

Adobe has released three new apps as part of their new Creative Cloud Capture platform. The CC Capture apps are all about creating new elements to use in Adobe's Creative Cloud apps such as Photoshop and Illustrator. The three apps are Brush, Shape, and Color. Brush lets you create new brushes for painting in Creative Cloud applications. You can make a brush from anything, including a photograph imported from your camera, Camera Roll, or Creative Cloud. You can also choose how guided you want your creation experience to be, an get a live preview of your brush as you make it. With Shape, you can make new shapes. As with Brush, you can create new shapes in the app u…

Adobe has launched a version of its Premiere video editing desktop app for the iPhone and iPad called Adobe Premiere Clip as part of its overall app release plans for the iOS platform. Here's a quick breakdown of the features in Adobe Premiere Clip: FAST, SIMPLE EDITING - Drag and drop clips and photos into the order you like, trim out the parts you don't want, and add visual polish with color filters, transitions, slo-mo effects, and more. AWESOME AUDIO - Great audio makes a video look better. Adobe Premiere Clip introduces Smart Volume, which evens out audio levels across clips, and Auto Mix, which dynamically balances music you add and dialogue in the clip. …

The Start Of A Microsoft To Do List Most people seem pretty impressed by the Windows Technical Preview and the deft way in which Microsoft has combined two previously incompatible user experiences—desktop and Modern—into a single, cohesive desktop environment. And we're told that the next milestone in this journey to Windows 10 will be a consumer preview that will presumably offer a clearer view of the touch/tablet side of this product, and hopefully a peek at a combined Windows RT/Windows Phone. But I feel like there's still lots of work to be done on the desktop side. And here's what I'd like to see before Windows 10 is complete. To be clear, none of this should c…