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Microsoft enables developers to add speech recognition to Windows 8 apps Summary:  Microsoft is continuing to flesh out its Bing developer platform with a new speech-recognition control, allowing coders to add speech input to their Windows 8 apps. In July of this year, Microsoft made it official that Bing is more than just a search engine. It also is a dev platform, providing coders with controls, development kits and the back-end services powering these elements. Microsoft execs also announced updates to the existing Bing Optical Character Recognition Control and Bing Translator Controls so that they support Windows 8.1. On October 21, Microsoft added a long-awaited piece to the Bing developer toolbox: A  speech recognition control . This new control allows developers to build Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows RT Metro-Style/Windows Store apps that include speech-recognition as one of their inputs. "If you are a Windows Phone developer, you may already be familiar

Microsoft adds more e-mail, SharePoint integration to Yammer Summary:  Microsoft is continuing to flesh out its Yammer roadmap by adding more e-mail and SharePoint integration to its Yammer enterprise social-networking product. Microsoft is making good on its commitment to add more e-mail and SharePoint integration to its Yammer enterprise social-networking product. Here's what's new/next, according to the Softies: On October 15, as part of its "Working Social Tour" event in San Francisco, Microsoft execs shared more on how the Yammer roadmap is evolving. (This is the update to the Yammer roadmap that Microsoft execs discussed in June 2013.) Redesign of the Yammer iPad app, with a focus on helping users get through messages easily Improvements to the Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 Yammer apps, with features such as improved live tiles, toast notifications and better inbox functionality The ability for e-mail users to participate in group discussions th

Microsoft enables CodePlex projects to use GPLv3 license Summary:  Microsoft is now allowing developers hosting open-source projects on its CodePlex site to use the once-dreaded GPLv3 open source license. With little fanfare, Microsoft — or at least one part of it — has gone from considering the GNU General Public License v.3 (GPLv3) "evil" to "acceptable." On October 3, Microsoft announced that, for the first time, it would  allow open-source projects hosted on its CodePlex site to specify use of the GPLv3 license .  CodePlex  is a Microsoft-run site for hosting open-source projects. GPLv3 is now one of the license choices that CodePlex developers see in a drop-down list offering them licensing choices. Other options in the drop-down include Apache 2.0, Simplified BSD, GPLv2, Mozilla Public License 2, and a handful of Microsoft open-source licenses. Individuals interested in hosting an open source project on CodePlex need to select a license at the t

Five Lightweight Linux Distros Summary: We bring you a list of 5 such distros that can run on the bare minimum of RAM space, and have other advantages to boot!  If you are suffering from a PC that is old and therefore has become unusably slow, then you are a victim of an OS that is taking take up more and more resources grinding you to a halt. The good news, however, is that one doesn’t need to throw one’s PC away to get access to the latest software. One can just install a lightweight Linux-based OS that lets the user have the latest web browser and office software, while running smooth as silk in as little as 256MB RAM. Puppy Linux This is the smallest Linux distro at just 132MB download. The distro loads itself entirely into RAM on bootup, so is incredibly quick and responsive. However, if one wishes to use a modern browser, one would need 256MB. This is a truly portable distro, allowing the user to save documents to the same USB drive it boots from. The pr

India developers should look within for mobile opportunities Summary:  Rather than dream of moving to the West, Indian developers should look within their local market for opportunities, especially with the country's mobile apps and games market projected to generate US$433.5 million by 2016. India's mobile apps and gomes market is projected to generate 27 nillion rupees (US$433.5 million) by 2016, driven by strong smartphone growth and an expanding 3G user base. According to a report by Avendus Capital, mobile internet is opening the door to large-scale monetization of digital content through paid apps, with 67 million smartphone users expected to be added this year alone in India. By 2016, the total smartphone population will swell to 382 million, reports  NDTV.com . Similarly, 3G subscriptions are expected to rise from 11 million in 2011 to 56 million this year, and 266 million by 2016. That means almost one quarter of India's population will have 3G. Furt