Practical Technology

for practical people.

October 10, 2012
by sjvn01
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Microsoft Office coming to Android and Apple devices in early 2013

We’ve known for months that Microsoft was bringing a version of Microsoft Office 2013 to Android tablets and Apple’s iPad family. Now, according to the Czech tech news site, IHNED, Microsoft product manager Petr Bobek has said that Microsoft is planning to release native iOS and Android versions of Office 2013 in the first quarter of 2013

Bobek, a Microsoft Office portfolio manager in the Czech Republic, said that these new versions of Office will be available to larger companies and Microsoft partners In December 2012. small-office/home-office (SOHO) and household users will have to wait until at least February. The online version of Office 365 edition for mobile devices and tablets will appear in early 2013.

In an e-mail, the author of the INHED story clarified that the release would be after March 2013. “We had a slight miscommunication with the MS guys and the timeline for Office for iOS and Android is not a March release, but release sometime after March.”

Officially, the only thing Microsoft had to say at first was that “As we shared previously, Office Mobile will work across Windows Phones, Android phones and iOS, and we have nothing additional to announce today about retail availability of the new Office.”

Microsoft Office coming to Android and Apple devices in early 2013. More >

October 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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The Highlander and the Cloud’s Future

Highlander is a great movie. But when it comes to the cloud, it’s not a case of “There can be only one.” At LinuxCon in San Diego this summer, that point was made over and over again.

“Great movie, bad representation of the cloud market,” said Peder Ulander, VP of product marketing for the Cloud Platforms group at Citrix, said in his keynote address. “One thing we’ve learned from Linux vendors: There’s plenty of room in the market for open solutions. From community distributions like Debian and Fedora to Red Hat, SUSE, and Ubuntu, to PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Apache HTTPD and Nginx. Multiple solutions can and do co-exist, and [they] even cooperate and compete simultaneously. There’s no reason that the cloud need be any different.”

Looking at the cloud and its future, Ulander sees “lots of players at lots of layers in the cloud moving forward and it’s through these communities that the cloud will evolve.”
He’s not the only to see this vision in his crystal ball.

The Highlander and the Cloud’s Future. More >

October 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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The shocker that wasn’t: Intel CEO disses Windows 8

It’s been reported — and Intel isn’t denying it — that Intel CEO Paul Otellini told his Taiwanese staff that Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is being released before it’s fully ready. This is shocking only in that it suggests that there were people who thought otherwise.

Yes, it is somewhat shocking that Intel is talking smack about its biggest partner, though Otellini softened the blow by adding that he was sure Microsoft would patch Windows 8 up to acceptable levels after its release. But then you consider how Microsoft has been treating all its hardware partners lately.

Surface, the tablet that Microsoft is manufacturing and selling itself, is a slap in the face to all of its Windows 8 and RT tablet partners. Phone makers were thrown under the bus when Microsoft announced that no current phone hardware would support Windows Phone 8. As for Intel, it’s got to be annoyed that Microsoft is now supporting Windows on ARM processors.

But Otellini’s assessment itself isn’t shocking. Even if every bit and byte in Windows 8 were rock solid, who outside of Windows fanatics — the ones who probably have Microsoft stock in their 401(k) plans — really wants Windows 8 in his office?

The shocker that wasn’t: Intel CEO disses Windows 8, More >

October 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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Landscape mode comes to Nexus 7

Some people—such as ZDNet’s own Jason Perlow—really, really hated that the popular Android-powered Nexus 7 locked its home screen into portrait mode. Well, if you’re with Jason, worry no more! A new Android update , 4.1.2, is even now coming your way that will let you set your default home display to landscape or portrait.

In other Nexus 7 news, besides the 10.1-inch Nexus 10 news, it seems that there will be a small update coming for the Nexus 7. In a discussion about this release, Queru wrote, “There’s a new revision coming indeed with a different power management chip. It’s functionally identical to the existing one, but requires a new driver and bootloader that weren’t part of 4.1.1.”

As Google usually does, the Android update is being slowly rolled out rather than be pushed to everyone all at once. Can’t stand to wait? Well, you can try going to Setting/About tablet/System updates/Check now and hope for the best. Me? I’m still clicking.

Landscape mode comes to Nexus 7. More >

October 9, 2012
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Linux: Donationware?

First things first. Ubuntu Linux is still free for anyone to use. That said, Canonical, it’s parent company, will be happy to accept any financial donations you might care to make as well.

Today’s announcement on the Canonical blog by Steve George, the company’s VP of Communications and Products that Canonical was “making it easier for people to financially contribute to Ubuntu if they want to. By introducing a ‘contribute’ screen as part of the desktop download process, people can choose to financially support different aspects of Canonical’s work: from gaming and apps, developing the desktop, phone and tablet, to co-ordination of upstreams or supporting Ubuntu flavours,” caught me by surprise.

As George had said earlier in the very same blog “Canonical and the Ubuntu community have established a solid position for Ubuntu in the worlds of desktop, server and now cloud computing.” Ubuntu Linux may not be the most popular of all Linux distributions—Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) wins the gold medal in business and the Ubuntu-variant Linux Mint seems to have more fans these days—but it’s still very popular.

Desktop Ubuntu may not be doing as well as founder and primary owner Mark Shuttleworth would like.

Ubuntu Linux: Donationware? More >

October 7, 2012
by sjvn01
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One Linux for all ARM systems

ARM processors and Linux have been married for years. You name an ARM-based device—smartphones, Raspberry Pi, tablets—and you’ll find Linux running beside it. It’s not been a happy marriage though. For every ARM system on a chip (SoC) there had to be a different Linux spin. With the forthcoming Linux 3.7 kernel we’re on our way to seeing all ARM processors working with a single Linux kernel.

The problem has always been that while the ARM processor family itself has stayed unified, every vendor’s SoC supports its peripherals in different ways. On x86 PCs we’ve always had the BIOS, and more recently the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) to provide a common application programming interface (API) for the Linux kernel to hook into. With ARM SoCs, you couldn’t even count on something as generic as General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) using the same APIs and working the same.

Over the years, as new ARM SoCs and end-user devices have flooded the market, this has really ticked off low-level ARM developers. They ended up having to reinvent the wheel with almost every new chip and device to come down the highway. The higher-level Linux developers were even less happy.

On March 18, 2011, Linus Torvalds had had enough. He wrote, “Gaah. Guys, this whole ARM thing is a f**king pain in the ass.”

One Linux for all ARM systems. More >