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Microsoft Office for iPad sets the gold standard for tablet productivity Summary: It took four years, but Microsoft has finally released full-featured Office apps for the iPad. As expected, the new Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps are free to install but require an Office 365 subscription to unlock the full set of features. Here's what you can expect. Microsoft today released native iPad apps for its flagship Office programs—Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The three new apps join the existing iOS apps from the Office family: OneNote, Lync, OneDrive, OneDrive for Business, and an OWA app for Exchange-based email. Gallery: A closer look at Microsoft Office for the iPad After four years’ worth of speculation and anticipation, today’s releases are a welcome arrival for longtime Office users who’ve had to deal with incompatibilities and unsatisfying alternatives every time they picked up an iPad. Make no mistake about it: These th

3D printed drone ushers in era of disposable aircraft Summary: Low cost UAVs such as this could be sent on one-way search or reconnaissance missions, say engineers. The 3D printed drone at the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre A disposable 3D printed drone had been developed which could be built and flying within 24 hours. Engineers at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre at the University of Sheffield have printed the 1.5m-wide prototype as part of research into 3D printing of complex designs. The researchers said the low cost of printing such 3D aircraft could see them used for one-way flights for search, reconnaissance or even deliveries. The engineers said the polymer craft could form the basis of cheap or disposable unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which could, for example, be built and deployed in remote situations. While earlier versions of the craft required significant amounts of support material around comp

Microsoft offers users $100 toward Windows 8 devices with XP trade-in offer Summary: As the end of Windows XP support on April 8 approaches, Microsoft is making available a new trade-in offer for those willing to switch their XP machines for Windows 8.1 ones. Microsoft is offering Windows XP users $100 toward their purchase of a Surface Pro 2 or other select Windows 8.1 PCs worth more than $599. The offer runs from March 20, 2014 until June 15, 2014 , or "while supplies last," according to the offer page on Microsoft's online site. The offer is available in select Microsoft retail and online stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. ARM-based Surface 2s are not included among the machines that qualify. There's a one device limit, and the $100 credit isn't available on prior orders or purchases. Those who take advantage of the offer also get 90 days of free support for their new Windows 8 devices from Microsoft. Microsof

Microsoft to integrate new social, machine learning technologies into Office 365 Summary: Microsoft will be making some big changes as to how Office 365 looks and works later this year with the addition of new Office Graph and 'Oslo' technologies. Microsoft is about to make some big changes as to how Office 365 looks and works. At the company's SharePoint 2014 conference, which kicks off on March 3, executives will preview some of these coming changes -- specifically ones involving social and machine-learning technologies that Microsoft is baking into its cloud suite of Office apps. Once these technologies begin rolling out later this year, the lines between Exchange, SharePoint and Yammer will be blurred, and social collaboration will become more of a centerpiece of the more tightly-integrated suite. Microsoft has built what it's calling the "Office Graph," which is the machine-learning piece. The Office Graph analyzes content, user inte

Google, Samsung 'express concern' over Microsoft-Nokia deal: report Summary: Google and Samsung are reportedly concerned patent licensing fees may increase should the software giant acquire the Finnish phone maker's devices and services unit. Google and Samsung have reportedly joined Chinese phone makers Huawei and ZTE in "expressing concern" to China's state regulators that the Microsoft-Nokia deal may result in higher patent licensing fees. The news was first reported by Bloomberg , citing two government officials familiar with negotiations. According to the report, both Google and Samsung asked China's Ministry of Commerce to ensure the transaction would not lead to higher fees, particularly in wireless technologies, where such patents remain highly competitive and sought after. There is also concern Microsoft may get a boost in the smartphone market and could abuse its patent position, the government officials were

Security 2014: The holes are in the apps, not the operating systems Summary:  Security firms FireEye and Secunia say Windows continues to be the most-targeted OS and businesses can expect to be attacked by malware once every 1.5 seconds. Yes, some operating systems are more secure than others. Some, such as  OpenBSD , make a real point of protecting you from attackers. Others, such as Windows, have had a bad reputation, but have gotten better over the years. Still others, such as Linux and Mac OS X are known for being secure, but in Mac OS X's case, at least one major security flaw, the SSL goto bug, has seriously damaged its reputation. When all is said and done, however, the real security problems in the 20-teens, according to security firms  FireEye  and  Secunia,  are not in our operating systems but in the applications we run on them. Secunia reports that in 2013  76 percent of security holes in the 50 most popular programs on private PCs in 2013 affected thi

Samsung creates medical test bed to prove Internet of Things is worth the effort Summary:  Samsung's joint-venture efforts will help researchers develop preventative medical equipment through M2M tech that could soon make their way to smart watches and phones. Samsung has smartphones and smart watches, and will soon smart sensors for the medical research field. The partnership between Samsung and the University of California, San Francisco sets out with a single goal: to develop a test bed for medical sensors in efforts to validate the worth of emerging Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technologies, otherwise known as the Internet of Things. The South Korean giant's joint project with medical professionals will work to develop network-connected sensors for gadgets, signalling a divergence in the company's strategy by focusing on health and the wider medical world. Based at UCSF's Mission Bay campus in San Francisco, some of the world's leading researchers wil

Microsoft Office on iPad: It's alive and coming sooner than most think Summary:  Microsoft's Office for iPad, codenamed Miramar, isn't dead. In fact, it just might beat Microsoft's own touch-first Office implementation for Windows to market. It must be a slow news day. I see a number of folks trying to  parse recent statements by Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Marketing Tami Reller  -- who described  Microsoft's approach to balancing its Windows and cross-platform plans as "thoughtful" -- as meaning Microsoft plans to drag its feet  on Office for iPad. Office for iPad -- which I've recently heard is codenamed "Miramar" -- isn't dead. In fact, it's likely to make it to market ahead of Microsoft's touch-first version of Office (codenamed "Gemini") according to a couple of my sources. Here's a quick recap on what I've heard from Microsoft officials, as well as my own contacts, about Offic

Dell Wyse Cloud Connect -- another take on BYOD Summary:  Dell Wyse Cloud Connect is a cloud-access device on a USB stick. Road warriors need only use one of these devices combined with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to access cloud-based applications. Dell claims this is a first but not really. Dell  recently announced it is building a new class of cloud-access device. The post, Dell cooks up an Android PC on an HDMI stick by my colleague Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, reviews Dell's announcement. I'd like to explore the topic of an Android-based device in a USB-stick form factor a bit more. What Dell Announced Here's Dell's quick description of the device itself: Cloud Connect represents a new end-user device category that bridges thin clients and mobile devices as part of Dell Cloud Client-Computing’s end-to-end desktop virtualization solutions portfolio. The extremely compact, secure, cloud-managed device with a low total cost of ownership (TCO) suppo

Microsoft discontinues its InfoPath electronic-forms product Summary:  Microsoft officials are confirming that InfoPath is at the end of the road and a new, still unreleased forms technology will be taking its place. As had been rumored for a while,  Microsoft is discontinuing its InfoPath electronic forms product . Company officials confirmed the news in a January 31 post to the Office Blogs site. From that post on the future of electronic forms technology: "In an effort to streamline our investments and deliver a more integrated Office forms user experience,  we’re retiring InfoPath and investing in new forms technology across SharePoint, Access, and Word . This means that InfoPath 2013 is the last release of the desktop client, and InfoPath Forms Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is the last release of InfoPath Forms Services. The InfoPath Forms Services technology within Office 365 will be maintained and it will function until further notice." Micros