Facebook makes statuses editable… but is this open to abuse?
It's extremely irritating. You change your Facebook status and immediately notice that you've made a stupid spelling mistake. This could come as a result of a slip of the finger, or your phone's autocorrect might be to blame. You could, of course, simply delete the status update and recreate it without errors. But what about if you've already managed to amass dozens of comments that you don’t want to lose?
Now there's no need to fret because Facebook has made it possible to make edits to statuses. At least this is the case if you're using the Android app or the website -- iOS app users will have to wait a little longer for an update. This is great news! No more stupid typos! No more statuses that sound like they were written by someone with their eyes closed after an evening of heavy drinking! Or is it such great news?
Q&A with Next Matters, maker of popular Nextgen Reader for Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT
If you are a Windows Phone and/or Windows 8/RT user who loves RSS feed reader apps then I am sure the name Nextgen Reader rings a bell. It is one of the best-rated and most popular pieces of software currently available on Microsoft's latest consumer operating systems, and probably one of the best built mobile apps that smartphone and tablet users can get today.
To learn more about Nextgen Reader and Windows Phone and Windows 8/RT development, I chatted with the person responsible for all the code behind the app, Gaurav Kalra. The man, alongside his brother Sorabh, is the co-founder of Next Matters, the company that develops Nextgen Reader.
Facebook isn't getting rid of ads, but will make them more relevant to you
Facebook wants to show you more relevant ads. Advertisements are the price we pay for free online content and services, and there are no signs of it vanishing any time soon. Even though this is something internet users have accepted for some time, there are often complaints about the unsuitability of ads. Far fewer people have a problem with seeing adverts for products and services they might genuinely be interested in than those that have no relevance to their lives.
In a blog post Engineering Manager for News Feed Ads, Hong Ge explains that Facebook would like to ensure that the ads that make it into your timeline are more relevant. If you're anything like me, you've probably built up something of a mental filter for "pointless" ads, and maybe even those that might be of interest, but Facebook is keen that you see more ads and that you respond to them positively.
Microsoft reveals 37,000 data requests from law enforcement agencies
Just about every company with an online presence is getting into the sharing game. It's something we’ve already seen from other companies. Facebook has already shared information about the data requests it has received from governments, and LinkedIn, Microsoft and Google all want to be able to tell us more. Now Microsoft is sharing what it can about the requests for information it has received from law enforcement agencies around the world.
The company's second Law Enforcement Requests Report covers the first six months of 2013 and reveals the requests received for data about users of all of Microsoft's online services. There is no particularly detailed breakdown of the figures, but they do include requests made for information about Skype. Despite collating figures for all Microsoft services, it looks as though the number of requests is in line with the figures from last year. In the first six months of 2013, Microsoft received a total of 37,196 requests relating to 66,539 accounts. This compares to 75,378 requests impacting 137,424 accounts throughout the whole of 2012.
Microsoft highlights Reading List ahead of Windows 8.1 launch
There are only three weeks to go until the release of Windows 8.1 and Microsoft is laying the groundwork by highlighting some of the new features and apps that are to be found in the update. The latest app to be picked out is Reading List -- Microsoft's answer to the list of Pocket and ReadItLater. The app has been designed to make it easier to save online articles to read at a later time without the need to bookmark it.
Reading List differs from RSS readers such as Feedly in that articles are stored on an individual basis. And while it is well suited to "bookmarking" articles you find on websites that you would like to return to, it can also be used to bookmark content from other apps. Just like other "read it later" tools, the real advantage comes from the fact that content is synchronized between devices.
Bitrix24 delivers powerful collaboration to smaller enterprises for free
Enterprise social network and collaboration specialist Bitrix24 has released a new version of its free software for smaller businesses. The new product allows users to create, edit and collaborate on documents online, without having MS Office installed on their PCs.
Bitrix 24 has its own instant messenger for video and group chats, in addition users now have access to video conferencing and screen sharing capabilities. Email connectors allow it to work with MS Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo!, iCloud and other popular mail services.
More than half of tech professionals would take a pay cut to work from home
Working from home is something of a luxury, but it's also not easy -- this is something I know from personal experience. I've been a home worker for around a decade now, but it does take some getting used to. Tell people that you work from home and there's usually a look of jealousy in the eyes the ones who have to stay behind at the office each evening. Home working means being able to pick your own hours, not having to deal with the daily commute, and not having to do the coffee round, but would you be happy to pay for the privilege?
We already know that most people would rather work from home than have to trudge to the office every day, but a new report from GetVoIP reveals that taking a pay cut would be an acceptable compromise for most tech professionals. A survey of 501 workers shows that 53 percent would be willing to earn a smaller pay check each month if it meant they could work from the comfort of their own home.
VictorOps improves collaboration for development teams
With its collaborative platform for DevOps teams, Colorado-based VictorOps aims to combine the power of people and data to solve IT problems in real time.
VictorOps builds on the concept of a live timeline of alert data, platform intelligence and team interaction to create IT situational awareness. In addition it seamlessly orchestrates incident identification, escalation, notification, and remediation among team members regardless of their physical location or the time of day.
Australian decision management software comes to the US
Australia-based software company Hexigo is set to bring its cloud-based decision management tool to the US. But rather than just jumping on the collaboration bandwagon, this software is slightly different from the raft of project management and business social network tools we've seen of late.
Launched in Australia in February/March 2013 and already in use by a number of large organizations including government agencies, Hexigo is a decision tool. It brings people together from across business units, or even across companies, and creates a centralized decision history. This means that once a decision is reached there's a trail showing all of the discussions leading up to it. This helps with knowledge retention when employees leave or move on to other roles. The information can be used to educate new team members, guide strategic planning and keep projects on track.
RealNetworks simplifies video sharing with RealPlayer Cloud
Now here's a blast from the past. RealNetworks (remember it?) is launching RealPlayer Cloud, a new service that aims to make it easier than ever to share videos between devices and across platforms. The service has been developed to help avoid the need to transfer videos from one device to another or upload them to an online storage repository ready to download elsewhere.
The idea is that users do not have to worry about the platform videos will be viewed on, or the format they are saved in. There are a huge number of video codecs in use, so the appeal of something that helps to overcome compatibility issues is understandable. There are plenty of services that already make it possible to stream video wirelessly from a PC to an iPad or other device. This is nothing new, nor is the ability to pick up from where you left off watching when you switch devices.
Clarizen links with JIRA to streamline development
Work collaboration and project management specialist Clarizen has announced that it now provides connectivity to JIRA, Atlassian's bug and issue tracking software. The integration allows users to plan projects, portfolios, resources, budgets and more, while seamlessly integrating research and development activities from JIRA to Clarizen and vice versa.
"While Clarizen customers appreciate our native functionality, they are also looking for ways to seamlessly interact with their other mission-critical systems," says Guy Shani, chief strategy officer at Clarizen. "A core part of our business is to continually support the needs of our customers, so we listened to those who have standardized on JIRA in their R&D environment. Rather than managing bugs and issues in a silo, our new integration allows the data to sync with broader projects and cross-departmental teams using Clarizen. The bi-directional nature of the integration now closes the loop between project management and R&D, allowing teams to fully implement agile methodologies".
SkyDrive swells to even greater size
Microsoft has taken over the tech news today with its Surface 2 launch, but the company doesn't stop there, keeping the ball rolling with a bit more news, this time from the cloud. SkyDrive has become tightly integrated with today's marquee products, Windows and Office, as well as being a competitor to rival services from Google and Amazon. Now the company announces a new storage tier.
"Today, we are happy to introduce a new storage option to add 200 GB of additional storage to your SkyDrive for $100 per year", says Omar Shahine, Group Program Manager for SkyDrive. For perspective, Microsoft describes this as enough space to store one photo per hour from birth through college graduation -- this obviously depends on average image size, which continues to grow.
Google releases a refreshed Quickoffice for Android and iOS -- for free
When I bought the first-generation iPad in 2010, I intended to use it for taking notes in college classes. Unfortunately, the iPad didn't come with an office suite and Microsoft's was not available. And so, I was forced to try a bunch of alternatives. Ultimately, I found one that stood out among the rest -- Quickoffice. I found it to be complete and a pleasure to use.
While my iPad is long gone, Quickoffice has followed me to Android with great results. However, Google bought my beloved Quickoffice in June 2012 and I became very nervous. My concern was that the software development would cease under Google's leadership. I am happy to say that my concerns were for naught -- Google announces today that QuickOffice has been updated and is now free.
New My Yahoo aims to make the internet personal again
Not content with its new logo, Yahoo is now pushing the personal homepage with the relaunch of My Yahoo. It's a blast from the past in many ways. The personalized portal is something that had virtually died off, but Yahoo is keen to dust it off, give it a polish and entice people back into using it.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to be able to access everything in one place, the resurrected My Yahoo just may well appeal. "Resurrected" might not be the right word. My Yahoo never really went away, it just faded into obscurity and everyone forgot about it. But now it's back with knobs on -- and quite a lot of purple.
PowerArchiver 2013 improves performance, adds cloud support and encryption tools
It’s taken a little while, but ConeXware has finally released PowerArchiver 2013 (aka version 14). We’re not really surprised that it’s taken some time to get through beta, though: this is no cosmetic upgrade, rather it’s crammed with significant changes and major new features.
Extensive cloud support means you can upload, add files or download from services like Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Box.et, Dropbox, Google Drive and SkyDrive.
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