Using the new Office with touch

"On Monday in San Francisco we took the wraps off of the new Office's touch experience designed for Windows 8. We showed the new touch-optimized Windows 8-style app for OneNote, and we showed how we've touch-enabled Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other apps on the desktop. The new Office is designed for a great experience whether you're sitting on a couch with a tablet, or at a desk with a mouse and keyboard. It makes common tasks fast, fluid, and intuitive, while still enabling the rich capabilities required to create high-quality documents. In this post I'll walk you through the thinking, engineering process and design framework we used to reimagine these experiences for touch."

Trevor Dickinson on various Amiga-related subjects

I don't really know which part to quote here, but I urge you to read Trevor Dickinson's latest blog entry. Trevor is one of the driving forces behind the AmigaONE X1000, and a major Amiga enthusiast with an extensive collection of machines and loads of experience. His post covers all sorts of various stuff from the Amiga world, and definitely worth a read. He's also the person behind the delicious sock cake. Also, the OSNews title here is terrible. Sorry.

EU investigates Windows 8 over browser choice concerns

The moment Microsoft announced it would lock other browsers out of being installed on Windows RT, we all knew regulatory bodies the world over were wringing their hands. Today, this has been confirmed: in the wake of an investigation into Microsoft not complying with the existing antitrust rulings regarding browser choice, the EU has also announced it's investigating Windows 8 x86 and Windows 8 RT (ARM).

Enyo 2 exits beta

"We're excited to announce that Enyo 2 is officially moving out of beta! Today's release marks a major milestone as we declare Enyo 2 production-ready, from both a functionality and quality point of view. That first Enyo 2 beta was pretty minimal, but we were excited to share it with the world, start developing in the open, and begin building a new community of Enyo developers. Now, less than 6 months later, Enyo 2 boasts an an amazing community of developers, a broad set of cross-platform UI widgets, and a powerful layout library for building apps that work across all form factors from phones to desktops."

Apple must notify on its website Samsung didn’t copy the iPad

"A judge in Britain is forcing Apple to publicly acknowledge that Samsung didn't copy the iPad, according to a report by Bloomberg. A judge has ordered Apple to post a notice on its website and in British newspapers highlighting a recent ruling that Samsung didn't copy the iPad. Apple must leave that notice up on its website for the next six months." Apple can still appeal this decision, but I'm hoping it'll be denied. This is just too hilarious not to go through.

Microsoft OneNote MX preview: the first Metro Office application

So, Office 2013 is a desktop application with a new look (which I personally happen to like, ridiculous 'streaming' installation notwithstanding). Then there's OneNote MX - the first Metro Office application. It uses a rather interesting contextual radial menu to get things done - quite fascinating. It's in the Windows Store starting now. I've been playing with it for a bit, and I must say, there's a huge chance I'll be writing my OSNews articles in OneNote MX from now on; the ability to have multiple different text areas and pictures like in a real-world note/clipbook is very, very useful. Nice that it syncs across devices, too. Be sure to take a look - this is an indication of a possible future Metro Office.

Contiki 2.6 released

Version 2.6 of Contiki, the open source operating system for the Internet of Things, has just been released. With its IP stack that fits in a few kilobyte of memory, Contiki lets tiny battery-operated wireless devices communicate directly over the Internet. Contiki is used in a wide variety of systems such as city sound monitoring, street lights, networked electrical power meters, industrial monitoring, radiation monitoring, construction site monitoring, alarm systems, and remote house monitoring. The 2.6 release introduces Antelope, a new SQL-like database for tiny flash memories, as well as a new JSON/HTTP webservice back-end.

Valve announces Steam, Source engine coming to Linux

"The truth is that this is the first post of the Valve Linux blog. This blog is where you can find the latest information from Valve about our Linux development efforts. Avoid the rumors and speculations that multiply on the Web. Instead, come to the source - a blog where people who are interested in Linux and open source game development can get the latest information on Valve's efforts in this arena. In this initial post, we'll introduce the team (and a bit of its history) and then give you a snapshot of what we're currently doing." Steam, Source, and Left 4 Dead 2 coming to Linux. We know why.

Designing the Windows 8 touch keyboard

"When we began planning how touch and new types of PCs might work on Windows 8, we recognized the need to provide an effective method for text entry on tablets and other touch screen PCs. Since Windows XP SP1, which had Tablet PC features built in, Windows has included a touchable on-screen keyboard. But those features were designed as extensions to the desktop experience. For Windows 8, we set out to improve on that model and introduce text input support that meets people's needs, matches our design principles, and works well with the form factors we see today and expect to see in the future." If it's even 50% as good as the windows Phone 7 keyboard, they've got a winner. Still haven't found a touch keyboard that even comes close to WP7's keyboard.

Jolla signs distribution deal China’s largest phone retailer

"Jolla has signed a Sales and Distribution agreement with D.Phone Group, the largest mobile phones retail chain in China. Together the companies have a shared target to reach significant sales volumes in China's 150 million smartphone market. The agreement is such that D.Phone will start sales and distribution of Jolla smartphones in China, utilising D.Phone's vast network of over 2000 retail stores to reach the Chinese consumers." Wow.

Office 2013 consumer preview released

Microsoft has released a consumer preview for Office 2013. Highlighting the age-old internal tug-of-war between the Office and Windows divisions within Microsoft, it's just a desktop application, no Metro, and the only nod to that whole touch/tablet-thing is a special mode that does very little. So, Windows 8 is just around the corner, and still not a single serious Metro application. Not even Microsoft's own flagship suite - heck, not even a single application within that suite - could be adapted to Metro in time. Serious vote of confidence from the Office division there.

CyanogenMod 9, XBMC ported to Nexus Q

Hurray for openness and the community: "Over the last week, our Jason Parker (a.k.a. kornyone) has been playing with his Nexus Q, seeing how far he could push it and how capable it could be. It started with the basics (fastboot and adb pushing) and then Trebuchet, Netflix and other apps, followed by XBMC for Android. Well, now Jason is back with another breakthrough - CM9." Just keep beating that tired and worn drum of placing open between quotation marks, John. You're very convincing.

XBMC for Android announced

"We have been keeping a little secret.... The kind that is so much fun to share when the time comes. Today we announce XBMC for Android. Not a remote, not a thin client; the real deal. No root or jailbreak required. XBMC can be launched as an application on your set-top-box, tablet, phone, or wherever else Android may be found." So, this just made Google TV useful, right?

Judge blasts colleagues for allowing financial patent

"The nation's top patent court has stopped a lower court from throwing out four patents on financial software, used to sue a bank dealing in foreign currency exchanges. The controversial opinion, countered by a blistering dissent by one member of the three-judge panel, shows that the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is in disarray about just what is patentable. An 'abstract idea' can't win a patent, but the judges on the court are in disagreement about just what that is." It seems that US judges are getting more and more vocal about the US Patent Mess. Interesting.

The ugly, profitable details about Xbox Live advertising

"People who don't play video games would be forgiven if they turned on an Xbox 360 and didn't realize it was a device used to primarily play games. The first screen you see on the Xbox 360 Dashboard is often a mixture of ads for all sorts of goods and services, and many times games are in the minority of ad slots. The latest redesign increased the ad space that can be sold to advertisers, and that in turn increased this problem. Let's be clear, it is a problem." No kidding. I pay for Xbox Live, yet I'm being bombarded by useless crap ads. It's ridiculous. And yet I don't stop playing. It seems as if there's a solution to this problem in there somewhere, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

US: Apple > Samsung; The Netherlands: Samsung > Apple

A fascinating difference in smartphone buying behaviour got highlighted today. In the US, Apple has double the market share of its nearest competitor, Samsung. However, in The Netherlands, the swamp I call home, the situation is completely reversed; Apple sits at 10% of the smartphone market, Samsung at 19.6%. Is this indicative of Europe as a whole? Could German, French, Polish, British, Spanish, Italian, etc. readers give local information from their own countries? I'm intrigued.