Box continues to knock me out with its smart choices of apps and features for small businesses. Last week Box announced another essential addition to its lineup. Box Capture is an iOS app for document scanning that integrates directly into your business processes and provides security features that are not matched by anyone else. […] continued
Read moreGoogle posted an announcement a few days ago that Picasa will be closed down soon. Picasa is two things – a cloud service for storing photos online, and a desktop application for managing photos on your computer. Both of them will be shut down in the next few months. Google is committing all of its resources to Google Photos, the online photo service that duplicates much of what is in Picasa, and more importantly works perfectly on mobile devices, the focus of everyone’s efforts these days. […] continued
Read moreWith some new additions last week, Box is now completely integrated with Windows and the Office programs. Microsoft has opened Windows and Office so partner companies can integrate with them, and Box is one of the first companies to take full advantage of the new opportunities. Files stored in Box are as easily accessible as files stored on a server down the hall. […] continued
Read moreThese are the rules for being safe using a Windows computer in 2016.
We are required to be paranoid and vigilant. We run our businesses and manage our personal lives online, and the bad guys are endlessly inventive in their effort to find ways through our defenses.
The consequences are greater if you make a mistake. […] continued
Read moreChances are that you’re using the email and calendar apps that came with your iPhone or Android phone. They’re fine. No shame there. But you’re missing an app from Microsoft that does a better job. It’s named Outlook, because Microsoft cannot resist using the same names over and over and over to describe completely different things. […] continued
Read moremyEcho is an iPhone app that can take your dictation and insert it into any Windows program. It’s remarkably accurate, it’s easy to use, and, oh yes, it only costs $1.99.
If you’ve spent any time trying to set up dictation in Windows, you might appreciate the awesomeness of that achievement. […] continued
Read moreHey, this is fun! I think I’ll start writing all my headlines like Buzzfeed. “You won’t believe what happened when I got an iPhone.” “Five things that will shock you about Office 365.” Nah, it won’t work. I’ll still want to write articles that are full of complicated stuff like nuance and details. […] continued
Read moreWunderlist makes it easy to manage to do lists. You can use it on iPhones, Android phones, tablets, Windows and Mac computers, and on the web. Your lists will be kept in sync no matter where you look at them. The design is simple and elegant. Oh, and it’s free.
Sounds good, eh? […] continued
Read moreAds on websites are out of control. An online debate has been raging all week about ad blocking – programs that run on your computer or your phone to remove ads from web pages so they load faster and you have fewer distractions. I’ll try to tell you briefly why it’s such a contentious issue, and why the consequences of a battle among Google, Apple and Facebook may change the shape of the web for all of us. […] continued
Read moreIn 1980, Bill Gates declared that Microsoft’s goal was to put a computer on every desk and in every home.
In 2015 Microsoft will announce that it can put a computer in every pocket. Later this year, Microsoft is going to introduce smartphones that turn into computers, using technology named Continuum that’s built into Windows 10. […] continued
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Technology news has been a bit negative recently. The death of Windows Phone got the most attention last week but Apple and Samsung have their own problems, and there are many other companies and products that are either failing or not living up to expectations. Here’s a sampling of the dark side of recent technology news. […] continued
Read moreWindows Phone is dead.
Last week Microsoft announced that it will lay off almost all of the remaining employees inherited from its purchase of Nokia, and write off $7.6 billion from the Nokia deal – more than it paid for Nokia last year. Although Microsoft will still develop the Windows Phone OS and there will still be a few Windows Phone devices released going forward, the announcement was a frank acknowledgement that Microsoft failed completely in its attempt to build a third phone operating system to compete with Android and iOS. […] continued
Read moreWord, Excel and Powerpoint apps are now available for Android phones, joining OneNote and Outlook. The Office programs are already available on iPhones, iPads and Android tablets. The first phase of Microsoft’s Office Everywhere strategy is now complete; the Office programs are now available on every platform, large and small. […] continued
Read moreMicrosoft wants Skype to be everywhere. It got a little over-zealous with a poorly-designed version of Skype for Windows 8 that never caught on and is being discontinued, but it rallied this week with a new version of Skype that runs in a web browser.
Skype was acquired by Microsoft in 2011. […] continued
Read morePreviously: The Threat That Nearly Destroyed Microsoft Office
Microsoft opened the Office programs to third party cloud services in February. Since then, connections have been added at a dizzying pace for directly accessing files stored in other services. Dropbox and Box are being integrated in a variety of ways (including an interesting connection to Office Online, described below), and connections to Google Drive, iCloud Drive, and others will follow. […] continued
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