Archive for the ‘Software’ Category
Monday, July 30th, 2012
One of the first and most frequently asked questions from my readers when Microsoft first unveiled its Customer Release for Office 2013 – was the difference between Office 365 and Office 2013.
Microsoft has now clarified on its nomenclature.
Microsoft’s logo for “the new Office”. The new logo is highly reminiscent of the new Windows mark and is part of Microsoft’s company-wide approach to deliver a more consistent branding experience across all of its products.
The paras below are how Microsoft differentiates between Office 365 and Office 2013.
- Office 365. This is our services brand. Office 365 services are subscriptions with multiple installs for different devices and are always the latest technology every day of the year. Last week, we announced an extension of our Office 365 services for consumers – Office 365 Home Premium – and a new option for business users – Office 365 ProPlus, which join our Office 365 services for small businesses, enterprises, education and government.
- Office Client – Release Year Editions. Just like a car, these editions are the latest technology up to that year. The new release is the “2013” edition. You’ll see this label in suites such as “Office Home and Student 2013.” These editions are also in the cloud and save to SkyDrive by default, but people buy and install once on a single machine.
- Note: Individual client applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, OneNote and PowerPoint carry a year-model moniker no matter how you get them. If you are a subscriber, the year model edition is updated as part of new updates.
Question from Seow HM (Microsoft unveils Customer Preview for Office 2013):So is it Office 2013 or Office 365? Totally confusing when I went to the Microsoft website.
My reply: It’s the next version of Office. Think everyone can relate to Office 2013. I believe Office 365 is more the packaging and subscription plan. The Office 365 was previously for business customers, but will now be extended to Office Home Premium version for home users as well. If you install the Customer Preview, you’ll find that they call it Office 15. Even more confused now?
In addition, the Office Web Apps are free browser-based companions to Office, which are available to everyone for quick viewing and light editing.
My interpretation? Office 2013, or Word 2013 and Excel 2013 marks the version number of each of the software components.
But Office 365 is more the subscription package, like the various previous Office bundles (eg. Office Professional, Office Home and Office) which included different combinations of the various component software.
By the way, Microsoft is now calling the new release – “the new office” (as in “the new iPad”).
This is something new in itself – at least to me, since I didn’t notice this term when the Customer Release was first unveiled. Does it refer to Office 365 or does it refer to Office 2013?
Tags:Excel, logo, Microsoft, nomenclature, Office, Office 2013, Office 365, Office Web Apps, OneNote, Outlook, Powerpoint, Word
Posted in Announce, App, Microsoft, Office, Software | 4 Comments »
Friday, July 27th, 2012
The two new apps joins more than 400 other apps available for the Samsung Smart TV, with more to come in the next few months.
Angry Birds is developed by Rovio Entertainment. Throughout game play, all actions – including level of difficulty selection and screen zoom in/out – are performed using motion control. Players can activate the unique skills of each bird and even control the game’s trademark slingshot action using arm movement enabled by the built-in camera.
The two new apps are part of a slew of high quality content that Samsung has lined up for consumers in the next few months.
New Smart TV apps in the pipeline
- Entertainment: Angry Birds, SingTel mio TV PLAY, StarHub Video Store, WOWtv and Viki Premiere
- Edutainment: Yummy Science, Calculus, Ferog in the Well, My First World and E-Assessment
- Information: Maybank
The new Angry Birds app for Samsung Smart TV utilises Samsung’s Motion Control technology, which works with just the wave of a hand in front of the screen.
The SingTel mio TV PLAY is an over-the-top (OTT) video streaming application providing access to web video content in SD, HD and 3D format through an online catalogue and an online video store with Hollywood and Asian movies.
Four interactive edutainment apps developed by the local developer community will be launched in September 2012.
The two Angry Birds and SingTel mio TV PLAY apps will be preloaded on the Samsung Smart TV.
Some of the new Smart TV apps in the pipeline are listed in the table below, together with a brief description and when they will become available.
These apps are a result of a joint call-for-proposal for the development of educational TV apps for the Samsung Smart TV platform and ecosystem announced in September 2011 with the Media Development Authority of Singapore’s (MDA) Interactive Digital Media Programme Office (IDMPO).
(more…)
Tags:Angry Birds, Apps, edutainment, local developers, Samsung, Singapore, SingTel, Smart TV
Posted in Announce, App, Gadgets, Samsung, SingTel, Software, TV | 1 Comment »
Thursday, July 26th, 2012
Dash for Gold is a free and interactive online app that provides intuitive dashboards to analyse past and present medal counts to enable anyone to predict outcomes at sports competitions.
Try out Dash for Gold to predict the results of events in the London 2012 Olympics.
Dash for Gold is the result of collaboration between Actuate and KXEN.
Actuate produces Business Intelligence software while KXEN is its Big Data partner provides predictive analytics software for business users.
Contest: BIRT Dash for Gold
BIRT Dash for Gold is a competition beginning tomorrow (ends on 15 August) that will give participants an opportunity to create their own interactive dashboards to uncover trends and fun facts about the world’s top sporting competitions by comparing economic, climatic, historical and other indicators to sports data.
With simple drag and drop Google-style gadgets, users will be able to discover hidden correlations and expose exciting information about their favorite countries and sporting events.
Users can register and submit their dashboards to the contest and the dashboards will be published to the community for all to see.
Judges will evaluate and choose the top four dashboards and each will win a 32GB 3rd generation Apple iPad with WiFi.
Dash for Gold enables users to leverage Business Intelligence and predictive analytics to discover hidden trends that can be used to help predict performance and outcomes in sports competitions.
The app includes predetermined dashboards but allows users to perform their own analytics.
The app can be used by everyone to analyse competition results (not just the Olympics) since 1900 against 52 years of world statistics to hypothesize which statistics are determinants of medal success.
Dash for Gold, which covers sporting history for every competing country, is available as a mobile app, with a comprehensive browser version in English, French, German and Simplified Chinese.
People using Dash for Gold will be able to analyze massive data sets, via an intuitive user interface and also have the ability to share and publish their findings. No prior experience with analytics is necessary to find answers to questions such as:
- Which country has won the most medals in your favorite sports?
- Does the host nation have a home field advantage?
- Does your country send better men or women to major global sporting competitions?
- Does per capita wine consumption affect who stands on the podium?
Tags:Actuate, BIRT, Business Intelligence, Dash for Gold, KXEN, London 2012 Olympics, predictive analytics, sports competitions
Posted in App, Contest, Enterprise IT, Figures, Software | No Comments »
Thursday, July 26th, 2012
SolarWinds has announced today that it is launching the SolarWinds Web Help Desk. Prices for the IT Help Desk solution start at US$495.
SolarWinds has announced today the launch of the SolarWinds Web Help Desk.
SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a boost to the growing portfolio of IT Management products from SolarWinds, which provides powerful and affordable IT management software for companies.
SolarWinds Web Help Desk highlights:
- Easily perform help desk ticketing support and management operations from a single, centralized web-console, purpose-built for IT processes and organizations.
- Automate change management operations with powerful and customizable change management functionality.
- Simplify asset management for both hardware and software assets through a centralized IT Asset Repository.
- Leverage the extensive KnowledgeBase Engine for capturing and sharing ITSM best practices and solutions.
SolarWinds Web Help Desk is a cross-platform, web-based solution that allows IT professionals to remove complexity from their IT service processes and to improve service to their end-users through practical, flexible tools.
Read the press release below for more details.
(more…)
Tags:enterprise IT, IT management tool, software, SolarWinds, Web Help Desk
Posted in Announce, Availability, Enterprise IT, Software, Utility | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
The ninth major release of Apple’s desktop operating system is now available as a download from the Mac App Store. Mountain Lion is available as an upgrade from Lion or Snow Leopard for S$25.98.
Mountain Lion OS X, Apple’s new desktop operating system is available for download today.
Mountain Lion features more than 200 new features, including iCloud integration, the all new Messages app, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, Facebook integration, Dictation, AirPlay Mirroring and Game Center.
Facebook integration will be available in an upcoming software update to Mountain Lion, while Dictation supports English (US, UK and Australia), French, German and Japanese.
New features for China include significantly improved text input, a new Chinese Dictionary, easy setup with popular email providers, Baidu search in Safari, and built-in sharing to Sina Weibo and popular video websites Youku and Tudou.
Pricing & Availability
OS X Mountain Lion is available from the Mac App Store for S$25.98.
Mountain Lion requires Lion or Snow Leopard (OS X v10.6.8 or later), 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space.
A complete list of system requirements and compatible systems can be found here.
OS X Server requires Mountain Lion and is available from the Mac App Store for S$25.98.
The OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date upgrade is available at no additional charge from the Mac App Store to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorised Reseller on or after 11 June, 2012.
Below are some of these key new features.
- iCloud integration, for easy set up of your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Messages, Reminders and Notes, and keeping everything, including iWork documents, up to date across all your devices.
- The new Messages app, which replaces iChat and brings iMessage to the Mac, so you can send messages to anyone with an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or another Mac.
- Notification Center, which streamlines the presentation of notifications and provides easy access to alerts from Mail, Calendar, Messages, Reminders, system updates and third party apps.
- System-wide Sharing, to make it easy to share links, photos, videos and other files quickly without having to switch to another app, and you just need to sign in once to use third-party services like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo.
- Facebook integration, so you can post photos, links and comments with locations right from your apps, automatically add your Facebook friends to your Contacts, and even update your Facebook status from within Notification Center.
- Dictation, which allows you to dictate text anywhere you can type, whether you’re using an app from Apple or a third party developer.
- AirPlay Mirroring, an easy way to wirelessly send an up-to-1080p secure stream of what’s on your Mac to an HDTV using Apple TV, or send audio to a receiver or speakers that use AirPlay.
- Game Center, which brings the popular social gaming network from iOS to the Mac so you can enjoy live, multiplayer games with friends whether they’re on a Mac, iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
- The new Gatekeeper, which makes downloading software from the Internet safer.
- Power Nap, which automatically updates your apps and system while your Mac is asleep.
- A faster Safari browser.
Tags:AirPlay Mirroring, Apple, available, Baidu, Calendar, Contacts, Dictation, Facebook, Game Center, iCloud, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac App Store, Mail, Messages, Mountain Lion, Notes, Notification Center, OS X, Reminders, Safari, Sina Weibo, Singapore, Snow Leopard, Tudou, Twitter, upgrade, Vimeo, Youku
Posted in App, Apple, Availability, Browser, Cloud, Mac, Mac OS, Mobile, Notebooks, Operating Systems, Prices, Safari, Software, Specifications | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012
RIM has announced that the BlackBerry Curve 9320 is now available in Singapore at S$328. Get it from authorised BlackBerry partners including local carriers SingTel and M1.
BlackBerry Curve 9320 is now available in Singapore for S$328.
The Curve 9320 has the traditional half-body screen cum signature hardware keypad design of BlackBerry smartphones.
BlackBerry Curve 9320
|
| OS |
BlackBerry 7.1 OS |
| Screen |
2.44″ TFT |
| Resolution |
320 x 240, 164 ppi |
| Battery |
1,450 mAh |
| Processor |
Single-core, 806 MHz |
| Camera |
Rear: 3.2mp |
| Front: Nil |
| Video |
VGA, 640 x 480
|
| Memory |
Int: 512 MB |
| Ext: 32 GB microSD |
| Size /mm |
109 x 60 x 12.7 |
| Weight |
103 g |
| Price |
S$328 |
Customers can interact with their social network in real time, using preloaded apps for Facebook and Twitter.
The new Social Feeds 2.0 app is also preloaded, allowing customers to post updates to multiple social networks simultaneously and capture updates from news sources (RSS), social apps and instant messaging apps all in one consolidated view.
The integrated camera includes a flash and supports video recording, and pictures can be tagged with their location thanks to the smartphone¹s built-in GPS.
The budget smartphone includes a built-in FM radio, allowing customers to tune into their favorite local stations.
(more…)
Tags:Apps, available, BlackBerry 7.1 OS, Curve 9320, Facebook, RIM, RSS, Singapore, Social Feeds, social networks, Twitter
Posted in App, Availability, BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, Curve, Gadgets, Operating Systems, Phones, Prices, RIM, Specifications | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
There will be numerous road disruptions in London during the 2012 Olympics. TomTom will be providing – at 6pm every day – the latest map updates on road changes for the following day, via the Map Share community.
TomTom will provide free map updates to help alleviate traffic congestion during the London 2012 Olympics.
Good news for those driving in London during the Summer Olympics, which opens on 27 July and ends on 12 August.
Map updates via Map Share
Special daily map changes during the coming weeks include the more dynamic, frequent changes that drivers are likely to encounter in and around the London Metropolitan Area such as:
- Blocked roads
- New traffic directions
- Altered turn restrictions
- New Points of Interest (POIs)
Drivers can also report their own changes through Map Share in addition to downloading the daily map changes provided by TomTom.
They can choose to accept changes submitted by some, or many, other Map Share users, or only those verified by TomTom during the coming weeks.
TomTom’s map experts have predicted that 28 July is likely to be the most disrupted travel day in and around London with more than 9000 road changes.
The next most congested day is likely to be August 1 when more than 3000 changes will be made.
With the temporary road closures, changes in traffic flow and turn restrictions, TomTom will be helping drivers avoid travel disruptions with additional daily updates to their maps via the Map Share community.
After 6pm (GMT) every day, TomTom users will be able to download – for free – the following day’s road changes to their navigation device and reset any changes no longer required from the previous day for free.
(more…)
Tags:GPS, London 2012 Olympics, Map Share, map updates, navigation, PND, TomTom, traffic congestion
Posted in Accessories, Announce, Gadgets, GPS, Tech news, TomTom, Utility | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 24th, 2012
CIO Asia magazine organised the half-day event at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Due to the overwhelming response, the invitation-only briefing was extended from a 10-pax roundtable to a five-table seminar.
IBM X-Force Executive Briefing on Evolving Threat.
IBM promised that attendees would leave the briefing better prepared to protect their organisations against evolving threats in the security landscape.
Key personnel from the new Security Systems unit in IBM updated CIOs and key IT managers on the numerous reports of data leaks, Denial-of-Service attacks, and social Hacktivisim in 2011.
The pace of such attack have continued into 2012.
Traditionally, IBM as well as other large companies have already incorporated security considerations in individual solution domains.
However, IBM has taken the additional step to adopt a holistic approach towards ensuring security for all of their solutions.
Its acquisition of Q1 Labs has provided the tools that integrated the security needs and considerations across the hitherto siloed domains.
This security layer straddles the various siloed domains and serves as the bedrock upon which the domain solutions are built.
(more…)
Tags:CIO Asia, cloud security, data leaks, Denial-of-Service, DOS, executive briefing, IBM X-Force, Q1 Labs, Raffles Hotel, risk management, security, seminar, Singapore, social Hactivism
Posted in Cloud, Events, IBM, Mobile, Security, Seminars, Study | No Comments »
Saturday, July 21st, 2012
Since the London 2012 Olympics is just next week, here are some free BlackBerry apps to stay in tune with the Games.
Weekend diversion: Download some free BlackBerry apps for the London 2012 Olympics.
The London 2012 Olympics will be from 27 July to 12 August. The Opening Ceremony will be on Friday (27 July).
If you’re using a BlackBerry, here are some free apps to welcome the games. Click the thumbnail to get to the apps page on BlackBerry App World.
London 2012: Official Join In App for the Olympic and Paralympic Games
Before the Olympic Torch arrives in London for the 2012 Summer Olympics, download the London 2012: Official Join In App for the Olympic and Paralympic Games – your pocket guide to the activities on your BlackBerry smartphone.
Endomondo Sports Tracker
Feeling inspired by the athletes? Endomondo Sports Tracker is your free personal coach and training partner.
FanFeedr Personal sports news
Check out the latest news, analysis or tweets by your favorite sports teams with FanFeedr Personal sports news.
Wild Olympics Athletics
Lastly, don’t leave your PlayBook out in the games- go race some gazelles on Wild Olympics Athletics.
Tags:Apps, BlackBerry App World, London 2012 Olympics, Research In Motion, RIM
Posted in App, BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Gadgets, Operating Systems, Phones, PlayBook, RIM, Software, Tablets | No Comments »
Friday, July 20th, 2012
RSA, The Security Division of EMC, recently released key findings from the RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum held in June, during which governance, risk and compliance (GRC) leaders from 34 leading corporations discussed enterprise risk management strategies and best practices.
Key Findings of the RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum
Top executives say GRC Programs must better align to strategic priorities to meet board needs. The results affirm the earlier Carnegie Mellon CyLab 2012 Governance Report.
Some key findings
- Mounting and multiplied business risks due to growing regulatory requirements and greater business complexity.
- The need to align GRC to business priorities to get organizational leaders on board.
- Moving away from a siloed GRC program to one which is unified to make enterprise-wide risk assessment.
It was noted that the shift towards increased regulatory and compliance requirements is being observed across Asia Pacific and Japan as well, with organizations looking to better calibrate their risk assessment frameworks and set guidelines for assessing organisation risks.
The need for business continuity management programs is also gaining traction, with the occurrence of natural disasters in Japan and Thailand prompting organizations to reassess their risk environment.
Read the press release below for more details.
(more…)
Tags:best practices, EMC, enterprise IT, risk management strategies, RSA, RSA Archer GRC Executive Forum, security
Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Press Release, Security, Study | No Comments »
