Microsoft Office 2013 - a Brief Preview

Following the announcement and beta release of a new operating system, Microsoft have brought to life a beta variant of Office 2013. This product is supposed to work under Windows 7 and 8, and is said not to support updating from other Offices, except for Office 365. It is centered over it.

What's Interesting About the Office?

First of all every Office component (Word, Excel, etc.) is connected to the Internet. So, all your documents are automatically saved to SkyDrive or SharePoint. This can simplify the life for those who are in need of file sharing because of cooperative work or a school project. As the documents and presentations are saved online, you do not need Office installed as you can open them right in the browser. Besides, the possibility for several people to work upon the same document simultaneously, exchanging opinions and discussing what to do, placing comments right aside the text, seems to be a really comfortable option for the cooperative project work.
Despite the similarities, each application has its own unique features deserving attention.

Word

This time, the design of the Word interface is sleeker and easier on the eyes. It has a new read mode, under which the text you open is automatically put into columns; moreover, the page you've stopped reading at is remembered and reloaded next time. It is said to zoom charts, pictures, or online videos on a finger tap or a mouse click and downscale them back to the initial size on the same move made again. It is possible to open a PDF file and work with it as with a usual Word content.

Word 2013 Zooming

PowerPoint

PowerPoint 2013 features a slightly simplified revamped interface. It has new themes, alignment guides and various merging functions provided. Presenting your work, you can impress the audience by easily zooming charts or important graphs during your slide presentation. PowerPoint 2013 also provides convenient and unnoticeable for the spectators slide switching.

PowerPoint 2013 Window Design

Excel

The new Excel can learn the pattern you use and recognize it later, auto-filling the remaining data with no formulas or macros required. Data visualization process is eased with new analysis tools. They work like this: the application supposes several possible patterns to illustrate your chart and you choose the one you like. Besides the interface of the charts is made more interactive than before and provides quick and simple tuning of the chart's elements.

Excel 2013 Graphs

OneNote

OneNote is redesigned to fit Windows 8. It can be used on devices with Windows Phone, iOS, Android as a Mobile application and can also be accessed via your browser (OneNote Web App). Links, charts, pictures, sketches, media: they all can be inserted into notes. In case you prefer writing to typing, you'll like the app's ability to convert your finger movements into text. Any content put into notes becomes searchable, even words in pictures.

OneNote 2013 Application

Outlook

The new Outlook can be set up to show news from your social networks. This feature is called Social Connectors. It is described by the developer as: “Get the very latest updates automatically from people in the social networks you rely on most—LinkedIn, Facebook, and others.” The navigation through mail is said to be quick and convenient to work with. There is no need to open new windows to refresh the information about an appointment or the person you are emailing with. You can share your calendar with others making arrangements easier to be carried out. The working space has an actual weather forecast bar. Finally, you can use fast filters and context commands for mail, contacts and calendar.

Outlook 2013 Weather Bar

Summing up, as I've mentioned in the beginning of the article, all of the Office applications will work through the Internet in either way: just providing access from other devices or allowing cooperative work with files. I consider it being the right thing to focus the developer's attention on. To my mind, the on-line connection as described will be of high demand among students and school children.

Picture credit: microsoft.com

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Galaxy Nexus Cleared for Sale

Samsung makes an impressive comeback in the patent wars, with Galaxy Nexus cleared for sale. A U.S. appeals court has overturned the recent preliminary injunction of sales of the Samsung gadget in America.
The patent war has long acquired a tint of absurdity, which has since grown into an inch-thick absurdity topping on the whole matter. If Apple's allegations are true, Samsung practically copied iPhone and decided to run it on Android merely to cover their tracks. The gestures input like pinching, data transmission, wireless communication, and, most infamously, design of the device (namely its 'look and feel') - that's an incomplete list of the iPad features that Samsung have professedly stolen from the Cupertino juggernaut. These accusations led to the sales ban of Galaxy Nexus in Australia and Germany and the world-wide spread of patent lawsuits as a working method to put off the competition.
The efficacy of the new-fangled competition method was proven once again last week, as U.S. District judge Lucy Koh ruled out that Galaxy Nexus should be barred from being sold until the patent trial between the two companies begins, i.e. till July 30. Now, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decides that Samsung can sell its device in America, at least until Apple presents its own arguments.
Meanwhile, the Koreans will definitely want to squeeze the maximum juice out of this court decision. The biggest ace up their sleeve is a massive update for Android 4.0, worked upon by Google. The web search giant said the upcoming Android 4.1 will allow selling Galaxy Nexus without Samsung risking to be sued by Apple. That looks pretty much like a way out for Samsung, since Apple's accusation only concerns software this time. If Google really adjusts the Android OS to Apple's claims, Cook's team will have to put up with Nexus freely sold in the U.S.A.

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Purported iPhone 5 and iPad Mini Pictures Surfaced

It's so last year it's not even funny, but alleged pictures of engineering samples of Apple's flagship devices have leaked on the Web yet again. What do they tell us about the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini dimensions and feature range?
Folks, it happened again. The world got to see another set of pictures, purportedly breaking the up-to-the-minute news about the iPhone 5 and the iPad Mini. So, what do these samples tell us about the upcoming devices?

iPhone 5

First, the new incarnation of the Apple wondrous phone will finally feature a larger display than the previous models. Judging from the sample pictures, Apple has built a smaller bezel into iPhone 5, having enlarged the overall phone dimensions. The said enlargement is, however, a small one: the alleged height of iPhone 5 is about 4.72 inches (120mm), which is not really that large an upgrade in comparison with 4.53 inches (115.2mm) in iPhone 4S and totally nothing to speak of when set side to side with Android flagships like Galaxy SIII.
Another noteworthy feature is the second mic hole right between the rear camera and the LED flash, which, by all looks, is purposed for noise canceling. In addition, there are two mysterious grooves on the back panel; these grooves possibly indicate that iPhone 5 may feature a metal insertion in its back.

iPad Mini

Unlike the iPhone sample, the iPad one is made of plastic and appears to be slightly more detailed. The major point of interest is, again, the dimensions of the new tablet. According to GottaBe Mobile, the picture source, the iPad Mini is 'around 213.36mm tall and about 143.67mm wide', i.e. about 8.4 and 5.65 inches respectively. In other words, the mini tablet by Apple will definitely be narrower than its full-size counterpart, and its height will change but a little, as the current new iPad has the dimensions of 9.50 inches (241mm) х 7.31 inches (186mm).
The other major change in the iPad is the doubled speakers on either side of the dock connector. The current iPad features only one speaker that is very easy to cover when you're holding the device, and the new speakers should apparently solve that problem. Moreover, they are most likely to be expected in the revamped third-generation iPad, which is rumored to be rolled out this fall.
The Picture Credit: http://apfel-mit-kernen.de/

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Does Facebook Watch Us All

Joe Sullivan, Facebook's Chief Security Officer, has downright stunned the privacy guards with the news that Facebook is pro-actively hunting down sexually deviated people. Even though the implemented procedure is hugely efficient, privacy experts fear that the tables may eventually turn and the social network will also be used for watching and tracking down people involved in other criminal activities, meanwhile turning our social network accounts into a surveillance booth.
A thirty-year-old man from South Florida was hoping to meet up with a thirteen-year-old girl after her school, and he had somewhat indecent intentions. His big mistake was to chat with her about it on Facebook, as instead of the young Lolita he got to see police officers at the meeting place. The new chat scanning mechanism had given him away to the law with the whole schmear well documented and evaluated.
As Joe Sullivan explained in his avowal to the press, not so long ago Facebook brought into use special software reading all of users' chat conversations, searching for certain keywords. As soon as these words are detected, the software starts ringing alarm, and the helm is then taken over by human moderators. In order to minimize the number of false detections, the keyword search is supplemented with additional social sphere analysis. The program estimates the age difference between the interlocutors as well as the existence of any previous communication between the two. The analysis results are subsequently handed over to the authorities an can be used in court.
Sounds better than it actually is. The care for our children is highly praiseworthy, that's true, but there is a whole sieve of loopholes available for each and every person that would like to abuse the technique. First, analyzing the social interactions doesn't make that much sense in the form that was presented to the public. The figures clearly show that children tend to become victims of people they already know and only a relatively small part of child abuse crimes is committed by strangers. Accordingly, it would be more logical to keep a closer eye at the communication between the family friends or school teachers and kids. However, even if Facebook makes this drastic step for the sake of our kids' future, it will hardly shout about it from the rooftops, since it would be too dubious even for Zuckerberg's social empire.
The second and larger concern is that if Facebook is making use of that technique to track down child abusers, why wouldn't it apply the software to other kinds of surveillance? Determining potheads and conscripting file hosting users to the law's black lists - this is the least I can think of. Although preventing committing illegal activities is one of the causes the state should pursue, I am absolutely sure it should not happen at the expense of my privacy and freedom of speech and thought.
And currently, I will never even know I am being surveiled, as the law agencies can very easily impose the pledge of secrecy on Facebook. In fact, there is little chance to find out whether they are not doing it right now. Honestly, how could you possibly check if Facebook is scanning your private chat messages? Combined with the face recognition software the site started implementing quite a while ago, the new chat scanning utilities give us quite a scary picture of the ubiquitous all-seing Eye of Facebook.
At the end of the day, wouldn't it be a better idea to work out the control mechanisms first, before launching that almighty FB overseer? Huh, Mark?

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Google Inadvertently Helps the Web Pirates

Google wants to be transparent... or is it just laughing down at the copyright holders? This question springs to your mind first when you spare a thought on how the search giant dishes itself up by supporting the Chilling Effects project. Is it just one of those odd coincidences or does Google actually foster copyright infringing links?

How Did It Come About?

The reason for the whole story to surface was the record complaint numbers reported by Google for the week before last. According to the company's Transparency Report, the second week of July saw 719,416 URL removal requests, more than ever before, and the figures are still on the rise.
After the exciting news, tech media turned their faces to the website where you can access the details of each and every copyright infringement complaint coming to Google: Chilling Effects. It was after people gave a closer look to the site when the whole absurd surfaced.

What is Chilling Effects?

Chilling Effects has been online since 2001. The project's initial task was to dam up, at least partially, the negative consequences of so-called cease-and-desist letters referring to any Web activities. In practice, the cease-and-desist letters are primarily these DMCA complaints that thousands of copyright holders send to Google requesting to take down copyright-infringing webpages.
For example, you make a snapshot of your friend blowing bubbles out of his nose and post it on Facebook. In a couple of days, you find your photo posted on a commercial website, and you don't remember that its owners have ever got in touch with you. In that case, you should submit your DMCA complaint to Google and the search giant will remove any mentions of the page with the infringing content from its services.
These cease-and-desist letters are in no way bad themselves. They help artists from all over the globe earn their living with their creative works by protecting their copyrights. It doesn't mean that it can't be abused: it is abused by each and every large corporate copyright holder. Instead of preventing the copyright content from being illegally used, they often submit complaints about regular users like you and me allegedly infringing someone's rights in seemingly legit contexts. Under 'seemingly legit contexts' Chilling Effects understands 'express[ing] ... views, parody[ing] politicians, celebrating ... movie stars, or criticiz[ing] businesses.' In other words, more often than not, large corporations are out to get law-obidient users sharing their opinions with other people, instead of real Web pirates.

Google Paradox

Google has been publishing all cease-and-desist letters it has received since 2002 on Chilling Effects. Here comes the tricky part: Google takes down all the mentions of the links complained about by copyright holders and posts the complaint text afterwards. This text, however, contains the links taken down, and Chilling Effects never stops being indexed by Google. In other words, there still is a small loophole for the infringing link to sneak into the Google search results, namely through the Chilling Effects pages.
The only way to get this link taken down is to submit another complaint to Google, this time about Chilling Effects featuring illicit links. That's where the search company puts on a troll face: it removes the link mentions from its services... and send the report to Chilling Effects! The vicious circle closes.
Long story short, this transparency mechanism makes it impossible to completely eradicate every mention of a copyright-infringing link from Google. So, an experienced user armed with some search input skills can easily find a direct link to any infringing content he or she wants. In practical terms, it means that Google is indirectly supporting online pirates... with the help of the copyright holders themselves! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the absurd 21st century!
Picture Credit: wallpaper4me.com; torrentfreak.com

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Apple vs Samsung – Hail the new winner

I don't know about you, dear readers, but I'm getting tired of the endless Apple–against–Samsung war. Yet, the battle takes a new turn and is held on a fresh ground – in the U.K. – and it deserves to be discussed.

So, here's the deal: Apple has lost the process against its Korean rival and was prescribed to publicly admit that iPad's design was not infringed by Samsung's tablets. Judge Colin Birss made a decision on July 9 that Apple should make a publication to British newspapers and its U.K. website focusing upon Samsung being innocent of crime.
These publications are needed to make it clear for everyone that Samsung didn't break the U.K. Law, despite numerous lawsuits against the Koreans across the four continents (remember the U.S., for instance), which definitely harm Samsung's sales rates.
Yet this order can't be found directly in Birss' judgment, though it was discussed later in court. According to Judge Colin Birss' words, provided by Bloomberg, the order should correct the mistaken impression that Samsung copied the Apple's product. He said that the post should remain on Apple's U.K. home page for 6 months. This is seen as an attempt to heal the publicity wounds made by Apple to the Korean rival. Still, it is said to be unusual even for the British law. In other words Apple is obliged to advertise its rival, but who would do it willingly?
If you've been lucky to read the judgment, you know that Samsung won the case with the judge stating: “They are not as cool.” Thus, the court victory has allowed Samsung to sell its products on the British market, though it has colored its product's reputation in grey at the same time. On the other hand, Apple went out of the court building with no sales injunction in hand.
Well, this round is after Samsung, but was it the last lawsuit in sight? Frankly speaking, I doubt.

Picture credit: bloomberg.com

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iPhone 5 Body Details

Images of detailed iPhone 5 schematics have been published on the website of repair firm iLab Factory, just a day after several photos appeared that showed the front and rear of the new iPhone.

First identified by Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, the design schematic closely resembles the leaked photos, which show a taller device with a 4-inch screen and a relocated FaceTime camera.

Measurements obtained by MacRumors indicate that the next-generation iPhone will measure 90.1mm high and 51.4mm wide, which correlates with a 4-inch diagonal screen and 16:9 aspect ratio.

Besides the increase in screen size and relocation of the FaceTime camera to above the earpiece, the design of the iPhone 5 does not depart greatly from the iPhone 4. Despite earlier rumors, there is no elongated home button, and no ‘teardrop’ form factor.

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Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in the United States

Aggression of Apple

True to its recent market strategy, Apple is becoming more aggressive toward other manufacturers: the company unleashes a patent war against anyone who puts up any competition. Motorola, HTC, Samsung – these companies, which use the Android mobile platform on their smartphones and tablets, have already seen their patents challenged in the court. The Apple's goal in this case is obvious: to hinder and limit the growth of the Google Android system.

Apple vs Samsung – a battle of titans

Finally, Apple has won one of its patent battles achieving a sales ban of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the United States until the dispute is settled. Fortunately, the court's decision doesn't affect the Galaxy Tab 10.1 II, the tablet's new edition.

However, Apple is not going to stop at this, pondering the prohibition of sales of the Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone as its next move.

 

Apple vs Samsung – in case you should confuse these devices

The recent event is just another step in a long history of international litigation between Apple and Samsung, the two biggest tablet and smartphone manufacturers in the world. In December 2011, the court denied Apple's appeal concerning a design infringement in the Samsung Galaxy tablet in that it copied the look of its popular device, the iPad, but then a federal appeal demanded a reconsideration of Apple's request. Last week, a Dutch judge ruled that Apple must pay Samsung a compensation for the use of its patents related to the way in which tablets are connecting to the Internet. Oddly enough, however, the precedent with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 didn't impact the way the companies work together: the latest iPad continues using some components manufactured by Samsung.

Reuter's experts claim that “A decisive injunction in one of the U.S. legal cases could strengthen Apple's hand in negotiating cross-licensing deals, where firms agree to let each other use their patented technologies.” This fact leads to an idea: could it be that if Apple wins more and more lawsuits, it will not only strengthen its market position, but also it will have more freedom in managing its opponents' patents? In the meantime, conducting this aggressive anti-competitive policy by using all available legal means, Apple is also getting a huge profit, all while gradually displacing its rivals from the market.

Who will challenge the monster?

According to the statistics, Apple sold more than 13.6 million devices over the period from January to March, which accounted for 63% of the total sales of iPads on the market. Whereas Samsung sold 1.6 million tablets within the same period, making up 7.5 % of the market. The company introduced Galaxy 10.1 last June, and it released an upgraded version, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 II, last month.

In the meantime, Microsoft introduced its new line of tablet computers last week. The company will be competing with Apple promoting the Windows operating system on their devices. As for Google, it is planning to release a $199 tablet co-branded with Asustek. Besides, Toshiba has recently introduced Excite 13 – a tablet bigger than any other, with a 13.3-inch display. Finally, there are numerous tablet computers and smartphones being developed for local markets in different countries, like Explay in Russia, or the OLPC XO-3 tablet computer in India. The last one iplanned to be introduced for $100 only! According to various media, the OLPC company has already awarded a grant for production of its next-generation device.

   The new OLPC XO-3 tablet computer, for only $100!

All these tablets are somehow inferior to the great Apple's product in their features, but their price can surely also be a decisive factor, appealing to lots of ordinary computer users.

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Firefox for Android Got Updated

The mobile browsers are becoming faster and faster, with their feature range widening in every new release. And the question whether to use the mobile version to check the latest news in the bus on your way to work or via the desktop browser later is becoming more habit-dependent. Mozilla is trying hard to maintain its standards and keep up with the rest of the pack: a new Android version of Firefox is now available.

The new Android version of Firefox has also a whole bunch of new features to check out. And they seem to be working, as Mozilla made their junior Firefox work faster than any other popular Android browser: it operates at almost 40 frames per second.

Firefox for Android 14.0: Frames per Second
The most significant changes to the Android Firefox include the support for Adobe Flash, the user interface redesign, the new Start Page and reformed Top Sites, Bookmarks and History access. Besides the mentioned ones, some other minor alterations were applied involving developer's new features and bug fixes. Sadly, but several known bugs have remained unresolved yet.

What do All These Words Stand For?

Well, first of all, for us users the support for Adobe Flash means that we can now watch on-line videos, play games and interact with other flash web content on our Android devices. For example, try to play Mozilla's BrowserQuest game or watch something on YouTube and make your own opinion about the browser.

The browser now features an Awesome Screen and Awesome Bar, facilitating the use of the web search, Top Sites, Bookmarks and History access. The start page of your Firefox for Android contains the thumbnails of the top visited sites, the next two tabs give easy access to Bookmarks and History. So there is no need now to delve deep into the browser options to get to your history statistics.

Firefox for Android 14.0: Start Page

On top of this, you also get the safety of Web-surf with Do-no-track feature and the default setting for plug-ins to play on the tap.What Was Fixed and What Still Awaits its Turn?Mozilla's team have fixed many known bugs. So, the page reload does not provoke the zoom level to increase anymore, the full screen mode for the flash videos is displayed correctly, the text viewing errors have been amended, etc., etc., etc...

Firefox for Android 14.0: Security Settings

However, there are still hordes of known bugs to fix, like GIF animation play issues when changing the image size, partial functional of forms, unexpected browser behavior when changing the device orientation and some other.

So, Is It Good or Bad?

All in all, This Firefox for Android is far better than the previous version. It is faster, safer and more functional. To my mind, it is worth giving a try: there's a whole lot of new features to come yet.

Picture credit: blog.mozilla.org.

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The First Trojan Infecting Apple App Store

We all are used to the fact that the Apple Store apps are totally secure. But the world changes constantly and what used to be taken for granted just a couple of days ago, may vanish forever tomorrow. And the day came when the first malicious app got into the Apple Store.

A Bit of Detail

The application is called Find and Call. This is a Russian-language app revealed as malware by the researchers at the Kaspersky lab.

At first, Find and Call was considered an SMS worm but was classified as a Trojan. The application uploaded the user's contact list to a remote server and used it to send SMS with the URL of itself to each person in the list. The spam messages claimed to be from the victim, coming as from the trusted source.

How Does it Work?

Once downloaded, Find and Call asked to register via email and cell phone number. Mind that no validation check of either information was done before proceeding. If you opted-in for 'find friends in a phone book', your address book was downloaded to a remote server without any user notification or any sign of these weird things going on right under your nose. The contact data is then used to send out spam to the user's contacts. The spam didn't look as such at the receiver's end.

What's All the Fuss About?

The discovery is very noticeable because this is the first time over the last five years since the iOS Apple App Store first launched that malware has made it through the App approval procedures. TheFind and Call app has been removed from the Store due to its violation of Apple Store guidelines by unauthorized use of users' address book data, though Kaspersky claims it's still searchable for some users.

So, what can I say? If we want to get better protection from malware apps we should first of all stay alert and choose the apps to install even more carefully: The signs are that the age of the safe Apple Store is over.

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An Email Privacy Surprise from Facebook

When did you last check your Facebook profile? If it was long ago then go and check your email settings. Whoa, you might get really surprised. The Facebook team, probably being overconcerned about the privacy matter, have set the status of all your personal emails but @facebook.com to 'Hidden from Timeline'. This adjustment is set as a default one and is applied to all accounts regardless of previously chosen settings for the email-privacy options.

Your Facebook mail is visible to those with the permission to view your previous emails. Thus, this move looks more like a poorly planned attempt to increase the usage of Facebook email addresses, which didn't previously show to be that popular.

For me, even though I do not use my account to share the contact information with my friends, this intrusion into my personal preferences without any notifications is totally unacceptable.

Facebook have brought a lot of inconveniences with these changes – no doubt. Besides, I don't really see why they needed these changes so badly: the users could make their emails invisible eons ago. Why should anything be changed?

How to Restore the Settings?

Of course, if you do not like the new way your emails are displayed in your profile, you can reset everything, but you'll have to do it manually.

In order to change the email settings, you have to enter your Timeline and go to 'About' link right below your personal info. On the Info page, look for the Contact Info section and click on the Edit button. After that, move your mouse to the top right part of the page and change settings for all personal email addresses: either 'Hidden from Timeline' or 'Shown on Timeline', choosing who you'd like to see it, etc. You may also hide your @facebook.com address if you want to.

Could They Have Done It Better?

Well, the Facebook team didn't speak out about the controversial changes, so their actions can be treated ambiguously. It is hard to say what their intentions really were: whether they really wanted to protect their users' privacy or tried to promote their mailing system. Whatever their true motives were, they failed in a really big way.

The concern about privacy is the right thing, but it shouldn't be overdone. It would be better if the users would have been informed about the upcoming changes before those were rolled out, possibly accompanied by detailed explanations of how you can change or reverse the new settings. And I do firmly believe that if you can't do something the right way better not do it at all.

And if you ask me to draw the bottom line, I'll tell you what: Facebook could have done it better.

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