Software & Apps News - Page 74

The latest and most important Software & Apps news - Page 74.

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New Office 2016 preview build lets you import AutoCAD files, and more

Jeff Williams | Apr 22, 2016 3:08 PM CDT

Microsoft Office is already, arguably, the global standard for office suites, but that clearly isn't enough and even more functionality into its core. The latest insider preview build is letting you access AutoCAD files inside Visio and adding much better collaboration tools into the mix.

Build 16.0.6868.2048 for Office 2016 has been seeded to those in the preview program and seems to let you share and work on files while also chatting with them at the same time. You can make comments, talk about those comments, make changes, chat about those changes, highlight poor logic, chat about that poor logic, and review the entire project with someone from within Office itself. While chatting. The collaborative features are actually quite fascinating and make it easier to address changes that need to be made in real-time, from different parts of the world. Despite the sarcastic comments, it's actually quite nifty and very useful.

AutoCAD files can be imported into Visio and you can now add various elements to those files should you need to if you don't happen to have AutoCAD, giving you the opportunity to collaborate on those types of projects as well. These improvements, though slight, are only for the insider preview program and could be further refined, or even thrown out completely. The feedback they receive from the preview members should help, however. This is also only for Windows at the moment, Mac need not apply.

Continue reading: New Office 2016 preview build lets you import AutoCAD files, and more (full post)

Opera now features free, unlimited in-browser VPN

Sean Ridgeley | Apr 21, 2016 5:06 PM CDT

No more fussing with paid virtual private network (VPN) services to get your US Netflix or access blocked websites: Opera now builds one directly into its desktop browser.

The company says the new feature is a response to the demand for the service (24% of internet users have tried or are currently using a VPN), as well as a desire to offer something new for the web. No doubt much of that 24% will try out the new Opera and maybe even stick with it, if only as a secondary browser for the express purpose of accessing geographically restricted content.

Unfortunately it's only available with the developer build, but presumably it will be offered publicly before long. To grab the developer build, head here; VPN can then be enabled easily in the options menu on PC or Mac.

Continue reading: Opera now features free, unlimited in-browser VPN (full post)

Adobe still dependent on QuickTime, says no ETA on changes

Sean Ridgeley | Apr 20, 2016 3:14 PM CDT

As reported last week, Apple has quietly retired its QuickTime software. While most don't use it anymore anyway, an important group still does: Adobe software users on Windows, which are now left hung out to dry.

The Adobe Creative Cloud team describes the situation as "unfortunate", and says it doesn't yet have an estimated date for when Adobe will have its dependencies worked out.

"There are some codecs which remain dependent on QuickTime being installed on Windows, most notably Apple ProRes. We know how common this format is in many worfklows, and we continue to work hard to improve this situation, but have no estimated timeframe for native decode currently."

Continue reading: Adobe still dependent on QuickTime, says no ETA on changes (full post)

Apple rumored to rename OS X to 'MacOS' in the coming months

Anthony Garreffa | Apr 15, 2016 10:28 AM CDT

In an 'it's about damn time' move, Apple is rumored to be in the process of renaming OS X to MacOS, which might be announced during its WWDC event later this year.

Apple talked about how it concluded product life spans for an Earth Day promotion, the company wrote: "years of use, which are based on first owners, are assumed to be four years for MacOS and tvOS devices and three years for iOS and watchOS devices" as determining factors, reports TNW.

TNW reports that it expects Apple to rename iOS to 'phoneOS' in the near future, with the 2017 iPhones - but I find that quite disturbing. Could Apple mature its smartphone OS and name it 'phoneOS'? Let us know in the comments, below.

Continue reading: Apple rumored to rename OS X to 'MacOS' in the coming months (full post)

Microsoft's BSOD gets more sophisticated, now has QR codes

Jeff Williams | Apr 13, 2016 10:04 AM CDT

Microsoft is making some changes to the usual BSOD page, which itself has been updated with Windows 8 and now Windows 10. The information contained on it, and what can be gleaned through logs anyway, can already tell you what happened with a quick search on Google (or, dare we say, Bing?). But now they want to make it a little easier, with QR codes.

Microsoft's BSOD gets more sophisticated, now has QR codes

This new system isn't quite active yet, but when it does go live, presumably with the next big release planned this summer, it'll connect the QR code seen above with a page that that'll explain, hopefully in easy to read terms, what happened and why. This could make it much easier to pin down problems with your build because things do happen and go wrong unexpectedly. Right now the landing page is generic, however.

Microsoft is on to something here. The information that you usually get is not always easy to sift through or investigate for everyone. Information can always be found, it's definitely out there, but the ease of use demonstrated here could make for a much easier and more convenient troubleshooting time. Not to mention it'd be far easier for customer support.

Continue reading: Microsoft's BSOD gets more sophisticated, now has QR codes (full post)

Apple pulls multiple Reddit apps from App Store, dislikes NSFW options

Sean Ridgeley | Apr 12, 2016 12:30 PM CDT

Apple recently pulled multiple Reddit apps from the App Store, apparently due to its wariness of not safe for work (NSFW) content. Narwhal, Eggplant, and Antenna -- among many other apps -- were pulled.

Many apps have since been restored after removing their NSFW options; the official Reddit app doesn't seem to have ever been removed, although it was required to axe its "Safe for Work Browsing" toggle. With this, it's clear Apple wants Reddit app makers to avoid custom options on that front and to leave it up to Reddit account settings instead, possibly because having such a toggle implies said NSFW content exists.

"This is a feature we previously refined with Apple's help. We were surprised by the notice," said a Reddit employee under the username ggAlex. "We just resubmitted our build. We were not informed that Apple would be removing other apps. We were very upset to see that they did. Honestly, if we were interested in getting rid of 3rd party apps (which we're not), this would be the stupidest possible way to accomplish it."

Continue reading: Apple pulls multiple Reddit apps from App Store, dislikes NSFW options (full post)

More new Windows 10 features exposed in official roadmap

Jeff Williams | Apr 11, 2016 6:01 PM CDT

We already saw at BUILD 2016 that Microsoft has big plans for the future of Windows 10. Preview builds are already gaining the ability to play with Bash and Visual Studio 2016 is looking mighty fine. A new public roadmap points towards some new previously unannounced features that look very interesting.

The majority of these new features are business focused and also look to bolster cross-platform connectivity, but it also speaks to a more fluid user experience of the type that Apple has been pioneering. Except here it's a bit more productivity focused and not geared strictly towards consumption of media. It isn't a sign of more mobile devices taking over Windows, but instead of the recognition that we're inherently more mobile in how we interact with technology and this allows us to switch in a way that makes sense. Or potentially it eventually will. Have to start somewhere.

Continue reading: More new Windows 10 features exposed in official roadmap (full post)

Mozilla's next browser is built on Chrome technology, for now

Sean Ridgeley | Apr 11, 2016 12:19 PM CDT

After struggling in recent years against the dominant Google, Mozilla has decided to give in somewhat and dedicate a six-person team to develop a radically different browser. The shocking part: Tofino, as it's called, is using an outside project Electron, which in turn is built on the Chromium foundation (which powers Chrome). With this move, Mozilla joins a long list of companies that have adopted Chromium, most recognizably Samsung and Opera.

Mark Mayo, senior vice president of the Firefox project says internal resistance to the shift has been vehement, to the point he's surprised the project got off the ground at all. No doubt it helps that the long-term plan is to adapt the company's proprietary Gecko technology and so replace Electron and Chromium, according to Mozilla engineer Kyle Huey.

Chrome accounts for 47 percent of browser usage; Safari sits at 13 percent, and Firefox at 9 percent, according to StatCounter.

Continue reading: Mozilla's next browser is built on Chrome technology, for now (full post)

Latest Windows 10 Preview build adds dark mode, tons of other features

Sean Ridgeley | Apr 6, 2016 4:28 PM CDT

Last month, the Windows 10 Twitter app offered up a dark mode, and now the whole OS is doing it. If you're a Windows Insider, you can grab the new 14316 build and try it out for yourself now. Note that some UWP apps won't be affected by dark mode.

That's far from all: also included is notifications customization (choose priority level and amount of notifications per app), native Bash support (for you Linux lovers), more cross-device Cortana syncing, a 'Find my phone' feature (locate your phone with your PC), a slew of bug fixes, and much more.

If you want the nitty gritty, hit the source.

Continue reading: Latest Windows 10 Preview build adds dark mode, tons of other features (full post)

New Action Center will sync Win10 PC, Win10 mobile, and Android

Sean Ridgeley | Apr 1, 2016 4:27 PM CDT

Microsoft's new Action Center UI is official and sounding more exciting than ever.

(Image credit: WinBeta)

Coming not just to Windows 10 PCs but to Windows 10 Mobile, as well as Android, it will sync all devices, so dismissing a notification on your PC -- whether for a text or something else -- will also dismiss it on your phone. You can do the inverse too on Android, either the old-fashioned way or through the Cortana app -- no Windows 10 Mobile handset required.

Continue reading: New Action Center will sync Win10 PC, Win10 mobile, and Android (full post)