Hey Microsoft, here are my 5 wishes for the Surface Pro 3
This upcoming Tuesday, Microsoft is holding a Surface press event and yours truly will be attending. While nothing has been confirmed, many are speculating that we will finally see a "Surface Mini" -- a smaller Windows tablet bearing Surface branding.
That is exciting on its own, yet further rumors and speculation are predicting a Surface Pro 3 to be unveiled. Again, this is not confirmed -- purely chatter at this point. Still, as a Surface fan, a third version of Microsoft's Pro tablet has me giddy. Truth be told, I have been daydreaming about what the Surface Pro 3 could be. Here are my 5 wishes for it -- Microsoft, you'd better be reading!
Dropbox 2.8 offers smarter installer, drive space warnings
Cloud backup provider Dropbox has announced the final release of Dropbox 2.8, its latest major update for Windows, Linux and Mac.
The new release adds Windows and OS X auto sign-in support for easier installation. As long as you're logged into Dropbox already, the installer won’t ask for your credentials again. (This doesn’t work if you’re using two-step verification, or a Dropbox for Business account that uses single sign-on.)
Why tablets are failing miserably in higher education
While Apple and Google are fighting a FUD war for the hearts and minds of K-12 campuses, there's one area of education that neither has been able to penetrate with success: higher ed. Specifically, I'm referring to the conglomerate of colleges and universities across the US (and likely abroad).
That's because for all their love in the media, tablets have yet to prove their weight when it comes to deep research and content manipulation in the classroom. Real student work comes in the form of content creation, not consumption -- an area Google and Apple are endlessly infatuated with.
Migrate data to your new PC with EaseUS Todo PCTrans Free
Migrating to a new PC can be a tedious, time-consuming business. There will be applications to reinstall, serial numbers to find, data to move, and that’s before you start reconfiguring everything to try and restore your old settings.
Alternatively, you could just use EaseUS Todo PCTrans to handle at least some of the work for you.
Ex.fm set to shutter its doors May 19th
Music services these days are a dime a dozen. New ones pop up all the time, and some make it, while others fail. It's a tough business, given the amount of choices available to customers. Now we learn of one more that failed to find the niche it needed to be a successful business.
Ex.fm has announced it will close up shop on May 19th. This didn't come as a major surprise -- the company had given warning signs previously, but managed to keep things afloat a few additional months. However, now a blog post from the company tells the tale.
ShareX 9.0 adds screen recording with audio
Powerful open source screenshot tool ShareX has been updated to version 9.0 with some significant changes and additions.
Top of the list is new support for screen recording with audio. This makes use of FFmpeg to do the hard work, with ShareX downloading the program if you don’t have it already.
The most popular stories on BetaNews this past week: May 11 -- May 17
The past week was one dominated by privacy and security related stories. A court ruling in Oracle's favor means that the company is able to claim copyright protection for APIs subsequently used by Google in Android. The long term effects of the ruling are yet to be understood, but they could certainly be far-reaching. Privacy hit the headlines again as SanDisk works on a self-encrypting SSD, and Google was told that users can request that information about them be removed from search results -- of course it didn't take long for the requests to start rolling in.
New research shows that there has been an increase in online suspicion, indicated by a huge increase in the levels of encryption used. The UK government approved the use of Samsung KNOX devices which could help to allay fears about BYOD. Google announced GAME -- Google Apps Message Encryption -- to provide end-to-end encryption for email outside of the Gmail ecosystem.
Google Hangouts hanging out with Microsoft Outlook
Google's Gmail is a formidable email service, offering many features. Sadly, the UI is a bit poor and the overall feeling is amateurish. Many true professionals access email using the gold standard -- Outlook. While Microsoft's email software sometimes feels a bit bloated, that is probably because it is chock-full of useful things. Other than email, it is a dream for calendars, task-tracking and overall life organization.
With that said, whether I am on Windows or Mac, I always am sure to install Office so I can setup my email accounts with Outlook -- including Gmail. Unfortunately, by using Outlook rather than the Gmail web interface, I lose out on some goodies, such as starting a Hangout. Well, today this changes, as Google announces Hangouts and Outlook are hanging out with each other.
Images2PDF converts your digital images to PDF files
Images2PDF is a simple tool for saving your chosen digital images to a PDF file. Yes, you’re right, there are plenty of ways to do this already, but the program has one or two touches which help it stand out from the crowd.
Images2PDF is a lightweight 1.66MB download, for instance, and there really isn’t anything more (this isn’t one of those tools which comes bundled with Ghostscript). It’s adware-free, too, always a plus with this type of application.
What are the best free Adobe Creative Cloud alternatives?
Adobe Creative Cloud went down for 24 hours earlier, which means that creative brains around the world were desperately struggling to complete jobs that require the comprehensive suite of services.
The good news is that there are plenty of free alternatives professionals can use to get by and below is an extensive rundown of each product.
Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon 'Qiana' reaches RC status -- download it now!
Linux Mint is a curious operating system. As great as it is, it is based on Ubuntu, which means Mint is always playing catch-up. This isn't necessarily bad for people who want stability, but for the bleeding-edgers, it can be a pain-point. In other words, the moment Ubuntu 14.04 was released, some Mint users began begging for an update. The Mint team can't really get going until Canonical releases its update first.
Keeping up with the Joneses aside, Linux Mint is a wonderful operating system -- particularly the Cinnamon variant. It is stable, pretty and easy to use. Today, the Mint team announces that version 17 of the OS reaches RC status.
Amazon UK celebrates 20 years of Oasis with Definitely Maybe tribute
Where would music be today without Rock 'n' Roll Star or Supersonic? If you are of a certain age, then you likely remember the debut of the classic Oasis album titled Definitely Maybe. It was a landmark moment that introduced Liam, Noel and their colleagues to the world.
Things have been on a bit of a rollercoaster since then, but today marks 20 years since that album hit stores.
Best Windows 8 apps this week
Eighty-first in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best new applications and games for Windows 8. Microsoft released a Windows Store update earlier this week that introduces several new or improved features.
Among the new features are an always visible toolbar at the top, collections, and additional information displayed next to apps on listing pages.
Best iOS apps this week
Nineteenth in a series. iTunes was updated to version 11.2 this week. As my colleague Brian Fagioli reports, it's not the most exciting release with most changes relating to improvements to podcasts. It also fixes an annoying issue whereby iTunes could become unresponsive when updating Genius.
New and updated releases this week include an iOS port of classic indie PC game Thomas Was Alone, the official app of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, a social network app that wants to be like a party, an arcade shooter, and a new app from FourSquare. RockMyRun has been updated too, and can now automatically adjust the speed of the music you're listening to so it matches how fast (or slow) you're running. There's a great travel app featured this week too.
Microsoft openly offered cloud data to the NSA
Microsoft’s cooperation with the NSA and FBI on the controversial Prism program has been laid bare in a new book written by an American journalist who brought it to public attention in the first place.
Glenn Greenwald, the American journalist who worked extensively with Edward Snowden, wrote in a new book that Microsoft’s cloud services allowed the National Security Agency [NSA] to collect data from a range of its different cloud options.
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