New competition! Win a year's subscription to Office 365 Home
In the second of our (hopefully) regular competitions, we have quite a treat for you. You've read the headline so you should know what's up for grabs, but if you missed it, the prize is a year's subscription to Office 365 Home worth $99.99.
Microsoft has very kindly donated a full subscription for us to give away, but this is more than just one copy of the world-famous office suite -- you can install Office 365 Home on up to five PCs or Macs, as well as five tablets. Enough for all the family!
Win! Win! Win! Get your hands on a 5-port USB charger
Hitting the road means luggage, and luggage is a pain -- all that… stuff… to carry from place to place. Traveling light can help to make the journey less of a chore, but there are some things that simply have to be packed: no self-respecting technology fan would go on vacation without taking a raft of devices with them. But devices need power, and this means chargers are needed. iPhones, MP3 players, Android tablets, iPads, digital cameras, Chromebooks, and countless other devices all need power -- and that means a lot of chargers.
We just took a look at the Lumsing DCH-5U 5-Port USB Travel Wall Charger which enables you to leave the chargers at home and charge up to five devices simultaneously from a single power point. And we have one to give away!
Lumsing DCH-5U 5-Port USB Travel Wall Charger [Review]
A few weeks ago I took a look at Lumsing's harmonica battery pack. Now from the same stables comes the lengthily titled DCH-5U 5-Port USB Travel Wall Charger. This is a slightly different twist on the idea of providing power to travellers' devices -- this is a wall charger rather than a portable battery pack. If you're going on vacation, taking a trip, or even just hitting the office, there are your devices to consider. Your phone, tablet, MP3 player, and other bits and pieces all need power, all need their own charger.
Except they don’t. Leave all of your chargers at home, and just take a selection of USB cables -- this 5-port hub allows for up to five USB devices (obviously) to be charged from a single wall power point. The 31W/6.2A unit has two 5V 1A ports for phones, and three 5V 2A ports for tablets and devices with higher power demands. Oddly, the ports are labelled, left to right, iPad, iPad, Samsung Tab, iPhone, and Android. It would have made more sense to simply indicate which of the five were the high-powered ports, but this is a minor niggle in the grand scheme of things.
Tour de Yorkshire brings the Tour de France spirit to your iPhone and iPad
The Tour de France 2014 has just kicked off in Yorkshire, England, where 198 top riders will spend the next two days battling through 120 miles of beautiful countryside.
If you’re a cycling fan then you really should be there. But if that’s not possible -- or you’re just inspired by what you see -- then you can get into the spirit of the event with Tour de Yorkshire, a fun free iPhone and iPad game.
The Tour de France starts Saturday and you can watch it on your mobile
Not to be overshadowed by the World Cup, this Saturday professional cycling's biggest event kicks off. The season may run February to October, but nothing compares to the month of July. That's when the world's best gather in France -- well England this time, at least for a couple of days -- to participate in the spectacle that is the Tour de France.
While almost 200 riders take to the starting line, very few have a real shot at winning the race -- it takes all-around skill, including climbing, time trialing, and staying out of trouble in general, as accidents have ruined the chances of favorites many times.
Parallels Access 2.0 lets you control your PC or Mac remotely using iPad, iPhone or Android device
Looking for a way to access programs on your desktop or laptop from your mobile? You could go down the route of installing something like TeamViewer, but with the best will in the world, trying to control your entire Windows or Mac desktop from your mobile is a fiddly experience at best.
A more practical solution can be found by going down the Parallels Access route, and it’s one that’s just been made even better with the release of version 2.0.
ChargeKey changes its name and offers 25 percent discount for BetaNews readers
You might recall that we recently reviewed the ChargeKey and ChargeCard USB charging gadgets. These are now being relaunched with an updated design using more durable materials and have had a name change to NomadKey and NomadCard -- though we’re guessing they won't recharge your camel.
There's also an extra product, the carabiner-style NomadClip that you can fit on your key chain, belt or anywhere else to ensure you’re never without a charger. It’s non-load bearing but with a steel frame and polycarbonate outer shell it should be tough enough to survive life's day-to-day knocks.
Lumsing's sexy 'Harmonica Style' battery pack delivers power on the move
Battery packs may not be the most exciting or sexiest gadgets on the market, but the LUM-008-01 Power Bank from Lumsing has a good stab at changing things. But stabbing isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when picking up this battery pack for the first time. Yes, the manufacturers "Harmonica style" description is fairly accurate but this is a unit that is rather weightier than the handheld instrument favored by blues and folk musicians. The mass of 236g (8.3oz) coupled with the way it nestles in the hand brings to mind a form of cudgel; this is a battery pack that could double as a murder weapon. Maybe that's just me... I should probably evaluate it for what it is.
Let's cut to the chase. This is a battery pack. There's a limit to how animated one can get about such a device, but Lumsing's offering gets off to a great start by being so easy on the eye. It's good to look at, and it also feels good in the hand. Style drips from every port. In all there are three ports: one USB input for charging the unit itself, and two outputs for charging other devices such as mobiles and tablets. There's one low powered 1.5 A port and one rated at 2.1 A so there's scope for charging all manner of devices.
The apps and accessories you need to get truly productive with your Apple iPad
While the iPad is seen as a content consumption rather than a content creation device by some, there's no denying that it has been widely adopted across many organizations, and has made an impact on the business world as well as the consumer arena.
The iPad can be a sterling productivity device -- providing you're well equipped for that prospect in terms of software and hardware, of course. Out of the box, your iPad Air doesn't make such a great partner in crime when it comes to cracking through whatever business needs you might have. So, what software and accessories do you need to be truly productive with your iPad? Read on...
Dirty desktops and titillating tablets -- the browsers you use to get a porn fix
Porn has always been big business, and online porn accounts for a staggering proportion of web traffic. The availability of always-on internet connections in the home, and near blanket use of internet-enabled mobile phones and tablets, means that it is now easier than ever to get a porn fix if you feel the urge. But have you ever wondered how all of this porn is being accessed? Well… wonder no more! Porn site (you don’t say!) PornHub conducted research after Gizmodo expressed an interest in seeing which browsers were most used by consumers of porn, and the figures make for interesting reading.
It perhaps comes as no surprise that desktop browsers prove the most popular. Some 51 percent of Pornhub's traffic comes from people using desktop computers. But, without wanting to put too many unpleasant images in your head, this leaves 49 percent of porn perusal that is enjoyed on mobile phones and tablets. You know, those devices that are easily transported to a quiet room and are rather easier to hold in one hand than a laptop...
Apple opens the door to Bitcoin and other virtual currencies
Yosemite! Woo! iOS 8! Yay! New way of programming! Huzzah! These were the obvious highlights of Apple's WWDC keynote yesterday, but as the dust settles there are some additional interesting tidbits emerging. As this was a developer conference, it should come as no surprise that the announcements and revelations have the most immediate impact on developers -- but things will also filter down to users. One change that was not given any fanfare at the WWDC is an alteration to Apple's App Store Review Guidelines which paves the way for virtual currency support.
The guidelines themselves are surprisingly easy to read -- this document is nothing like an EULA! But if you'd like to cut to the chase, jump to 11.17 in the "Purchasing and currencies" section. Here you'll find the advice that "Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual currencies provided that they do so in compliance with all state and federal laws for the territories in which the app functions". There is no reason that this possible virtual currency support should not include Bitcoin, although the currency has not been specifically mentioned.
Why Apple no longer innovates
The more I ponder Apple's Beats acquisition, the less sense it makes. Buying big well-known brands that compete with yours is usually a bad idea -- worse when the acquirer owns no foreign brands. Extinguishing the big name, as Microsoft does with Nokia, is marketing murder. There's no place for the Beats brand in the Apple lexicon. The gun is drawn and ready to fire.
What I do see is another sign that Apple has lost its way. Tim Cook is a very able CEO, but as stated previously he is Star Trek's Spock without Captain Kirk (Steve Jobs). Cook's approach to business logistics, while brilliant, unmakes Apple. Beats is an acquisition that is off-key -- out of tune with the culture that made the fruit-logo company great. As such, on this Thursday in May, comes my confession. I was wrong five years ago in post "Why Apple succeeds, and always will". That company is gone.
Here's how to unlock a hijacked iPad or iPhone
A number of iPhone and iPad users have fallen foul of a particularly nasty hack, in which they find themselves locked out of their devices unless they pay to have them unlocked.
The extortionist leaves a message claiming to be from the well-known software engineer Oleg Pliss. A message on the screen reads "Device hacked by Oleg Pliss", and encourages the user to pay $100.
Hacker holds Apple devices for ransom
Holding a device for ransom is a scary practice. Hackers seize control, and then ask the owner to pay a fee to unlock it. If the victim does not comply with their demand, there is little that can be done to regain access to private data, which may include sensitive information like bank account passwords, photos, work documents and so on. Some people cave in, paying the hackers. Others refuse and end up losing everything on their device.
Some Australian Apple users are reporting they are dealing with a hacker (or group of hackers) that goes by the name Oleg Pliss, that holds their iOS and Mac devices for ransom, demanding a certain fee (initial reports say $100) to relinquish control. Affected Apple devices have been locked through Find My iPhone, a tool that lets users track their enrolled iOS and Mac devices, basically rendering them useless.
Microsoft gives a behind the scenes look at Office for iPad development
Microsoft has talked a big game on becoming a devices and services company, but it was not until Office for iPad launched two months ago that the software giant's change of tune yielded something concrete for consumers, and its own customers, on rival platforms. It is the most important productivity suite to arrive on iPads in 2014 and, perhaps, the most important one since Apple's slate launched in 2010.
Microsoft has been praised for designing Office for iPad with touchscreen use in mind, making Excel, PowerPoint and Word powerful and easy to use on the small iPad displays, even without a keyboard as most Office users are accustomed to. It is clear this is not a quick porting job, and that the development process involved much more work. The Office team has a new blog post which reveals how Office for iPad was created.
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