Dropbox for web and Android updated

File Sharing

Yesterday Dropbox for business received a big update with single sign-on. Now, today, the company rolls out new features for the consumer version of its cloud storage service. New updates have been added to the PC, Mac, Linux, web and Android apps, but those on iOS will have to wait.

All versions receive support for six additional languages -- Russian, Polish, Indonesian, Malaysian, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. Reginald Harris of Dropbox claims the company has translated 553,800 words in 43,662 lines of code to make this possible. Harris states this enables "sharing your most important stuff with friends and family -- no matter where in the world they are or what language they speak".

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Nokia releases new software updates for Lumia 920, 820 and 620

Lumia 920

Nokia has released new software updates for three Windows Phone devices, the Lumia 920, Lumia 820 and Lumia 620. This comes four weeks after the Finnish smartphone maker announced the new firmwares and detailed the included changes.

The software updates will roll out in stages over "the coming weeks" and feature different improvements and bug fixes depending on the device. The Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 get the "1232.5957.1308.00xx" firmware while the Lumia 620 gets the "1030.6407.1308.00xx" update.

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Google finally brings its Map Maker tools to the UK

google maps

Google’s digital maps are some of the very best in the world, and getting better all the time thanks to contributions and improvements from an army of users who submit additional details such as roads, rivers, railways and building outlines using Google Map Maker.

Map Maker was initially only available to users in more poorly mapped countries (such as Vietnam, Jamaica, Iceland, Cyprus, and Pakistan), but after successfully introducing it into territories like the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and France, Google has finally made the tools available to residents in the UK.

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Samsung announces two Galaxy Mega smartphones in 5.8 and 6.3-inch trim

GALAXY Mega rotated

Be prepared to invest in some larger pants. Samsung announced two new smartphones today, part of the company's Android lineup. Both devices bear the Galaxy Mega moniker, but one comes with a fairly generous 6.3-inch display while the other features a smaller 5.8-inch screen.

There are other differences as well. The Galaxy Mega 6.3 (yes, that's its real name) comes with a 6.3-inch TFT display with a resolution of 720 by 1280, while the Galaxy Mega 5.8 sports a 5.8-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 540 by 960. Also, the former is powered by a 1.7 GHz dual-core "AP" processor while the latter is powered by a 1.4 GHz dual-core "AP" processor.

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Set up two-factor authentication for your Google account on Windows Phone

Windows Phone logo street

Enabling two-factor authentication for a Google account is an effective security measure against unauthorized access. It adds an extra layer of protection by requiring users to enter an application-specific password or security code in order to gain access to various Google services. For this second part the company says users will need an Android, BlackBerry or iOS handset. But what about generating security codes on Windows Phone? Surely, there has to be a way.

And there is. Microsoft has released an app called Authenticator which allows Windows Phone users to generate security codes for two-factor authentication. And, because it "implements industry-standard security code generation", the app supports Microsoft as well as Google accounts. The only question is: How to set it up for the latter?

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FU, Windows 8, PC shipment decline is worst EVER

freaking out omg no shock surprise

In some alternate universe, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer slaps former Windows & Windows Live president Steven Sinofsky on the back for a job well done. The company's newest operating system is such a huge success that sagging PC shipments soared to record numbers. Our reality is something shockingly different. First-quarter declines are the worst since IDC started tabulating numbers in 1994 and surpass the worst estimates. You know things are really bad when even perennial gainer Apple sees a huge year-of-year fall off.

"At this point, unfortunately, it seems clear that the Windows 8 launch not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed the market", Bob O'Donnell, IDC vice president, says. Holy Moley, Windows 8 slowed the market? You want to know why Ballmer booted Sinfosky out the door? O'Donnell offers chilling indictment.

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Status Board brings a touch of Android to iPad

Status Board

When you pick up your iPad, it’s usually with a purpose in mind. You might want to see how many new emails you have, you need to check RSS feeds, or you want to have a scan through Twitter. Each of these activities requires an individual app, and that means that you need to hunt down the relevant shortcut on the home screen. But Status Board could change all that, by displaying the data you need to see in a handy dashboard that gives you a great overview of your data.

This is a handsome app that almost feels as though it would be more at home on an Android tablet -- it could be adapted into a perfect alternative launcher -- but at the moment is only available for iPad users. There is a slightly retro feel to the app, which enables you to configure a series of customizable panels to display a selection of data.

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Six ways Apple could correct its enterprise blunders

Apple Store France

Second in a series. Out of fairness, I follow up my long analysis "The enterprise will never embrace Apple" with some advice for the company. There's room in the enterprise if only Apple made more effect. None of these suggestions is outside the reach of CEO Tim Cook and the core leadership.

Perhaps Apple stays out of the enterprise game because the top brass knows that they have little expertise in the general directions that big business is heading. Their lack of desire (or capability) for true Active Directory integration, for example, is already public knowledge. When it comes to virtualization and the move to virtual desktops, Apple has no public strategy for allowing (or supporting) such an infrastructure on OS X devices, at least first party. To put it plainly, Apple's overall game plan for cozying up to the wants of enterprise is nearly nonexistent.

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The enterprise will never embrace Apple

no way

First in a series. If there is one company that clearly doesn't care about the corporate world, it is Apple. As iOS continues to forge flagship status as Apple's core offering, OS X gets second-class-citizen treatment in every possible way from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company. While the enterprise reluctantly builds out BYOD (bring your own device) initiatives to support usage of Apple devices at the workplace, this is a far stretch from openly embracing iOS or OS X as viable corporate platforms. Apple's presence in the boardroom is due to bottom-up organic acceptance as opposed to top-down purposeful planning.

By even conservative estimates, the enterprise IT market is massive, and growing steadily as the recession continues to recede. IDC recently pinned US corporate IT spending for 2013 at $474 billion, a 6 percent increase over the previous year. And globally, Gartner says that this figure is closer to $2.679 trillion, which represents a 2.5 percent year over year bump. Yet while Apple's sales in phones and tablets continues to stay consistently solid, the  company's attitude towards enterprise hasn't changed one bit. For lack of a better description, top Apple executives just "don't care".

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Dropbox single sign-on means business

unknown identity

Dropbox adds features gangbusters in an effort to compete with rivals like SkyDrive, which is now built into Office 2013 and will get deeper Windows integration when "Blue" is released. Now Dropbox for business has announced it will be adding single sign-on, or SSO, a feature the company claims is near the top of the request list from business users.

Dropbox's Anand Subramani claims the company is working with Ping Identity, Okta, OneLogin, Centrify, and Symplified to make this new feature a reality. If a company has already built its own SAML-based federated authentication process then it will work with Dropbox also. Once logged in to your system, there’s no need to sign in to Dropbox separately. Subramani also promises that "using the industry-standard Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML), this implementation of single sign-on integrates easily with any large identity provider your company may use as long as it also supports SAML".

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Malaysia deploys Google Apps and Chromebooks to as many as 10,000 schools

Chromebooks Malaysia

Many American schools may be gaga for iPads, but elsewhere Google Apps and Chromebooks' affordability are winning educators. Today, the search and information giant reveals that Malaysia will roll out Apps to "10 million students, teachers and parents", Felix Lin, director of product management, explains. "As part of this initiative they are also deploying Chromebooks to primary and secondary schools nationwide".

In the Malaysian Ministry of Education report, I don't see this number but reference to 10,000 schools and separate ones identifying "2.9 million students enrolled in primary school" and "2.3 million students enrolled in lower and upper secondary school". The current, official student tally from the Ministry's website is 5.23 million students. Including teachers and parents likely explains the larger number.

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Rackspace helps developers create mobile apps on the cloud

handshake hands shaking world cloud

Enterprise-hosting service Rackspace has launched a new cloud mobile partner ecosystem that brings together various trusted solutions to make it easier for developers to design, build, test, deploy and scale mobile applications on Rackspace’s open cloud.

According to Rackspace, developers can start building mobile apps on a pre-configured cloud backend, without needing to reinvent the wheel every time they start work on a mobile project.

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CyberLink PowerDirector 11 GM5 adds RAW image support and better stability

film director

Taiwanese software developer CyberLink has released PowerDirector 11 Ultra GM5 (build 2707), a notable update to its powerful consumer video-editing tool for high-end Windows PCs. The update adds support for RAW images across a wide range of camera models, plus extends support to four additional languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and  Finnish.

The update, which is also available for the Ultimate and Ultimate Suite builds of PowerDirector 11, also promises improved stability and accuracy through a number of tweaks and bug fixes.

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Nokia Lumia 521 comes to T-Mobile in May

lumia-521

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia unveiled its entry-level Windows Phone 8 handset -- the Lumia 520 -- which will run for $185 before any applicable taxes. And today T-Mobile announced that it will carry a branded variant of the smartphone, dubbed the Lumia 521.

Like its international sibling, the Lumia 521 comes with a 4.0-inch display, which T-Mobile says is "super sensitive, a 5MP back-facing camera with auto-focus and 720p video recording and the usual Nokia software add-ons.

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Office 365 scores a big win with ABB

Office flash mob

Microsoft has been racking up contracts between Office 365 and businesses and governments recently, including eight new ones just announced in March. Now the company may have made its biggest score yet, partnering with world-wide power and productivity company ABB.

According to Andy Tidd, chief information officer at ABB Group, "Office 365 and Yammer will enable us to transform communication and collaboration among our employees, surfacing the best and most innovative ideas across the organization".

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