Tag Archives: metro

Microsoft teases a Metro-style version of Office, no word yet on availability (update)

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Microsoft teases a Metrostyle version of Office, no word yet on availability update

We already knew that Windows RT tablets would be getting their very own Outlook app with Windows 8.1, but apparently Microsoft has even more plans up its sleeve. Here at Build, the company is teasing a Metro-style Office suite that will be available through the Windows Store, just like any other non-desktop Windows program. Unfortunately, this is a tease in the truest sense of the word: Redmond won't say when the app will be available, and isn't providing many official screenshots. However, a company spokesperson did tell reporters that PowerPoint will have "all of the same transitions, the same graphic power [and] file format capability" as the desktop version, so presumably the same is true of Word and Excel too. That's all we have to share for now, though you can bet we'll be back with a proper hands-on as soon as Microsoft is ready to show off a more final version of the app.

Update: ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reports that the Metro-style Office applications (codenamed Gemini) will hit the Windows Store in 2014.

Gallery: Metro-style PowerPoint teaser

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Microsoft ‘approaching’ 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, boasts app downloads in the ‘hundreds of millions’

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Microsoft 'approaching' 100,000 apps in the Windows Store, boasts app downloads in the 'hundreds of millions'

Companies love milestones nearly as much as bees love honey, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Microsoft would take advantage of Build 2013 to announce as much positive news as it possibly can. This time, MS head Steve Ballmer has revealed to us that he expects the Windows Store to hit the 100,000 mark (in terms of total apps) sometime this month. Sounds about right if you monitor services like MetroStore Scanner to get a good feel for the OS's progress: it lists over 95,000 apps, which certainly fits the bill.

Additionally, Microsoft also claimed that the very same Windows Store has witnessed app downloads in the vicinity of "hundreds of millions." This vague indicator is not as impressive as it could certainly be if an actual number was attached, but we have a feeling that our friends in Redmond are trying to keep the specifics as hush-hush as possible.

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ModernMix is a $5 program that lets you run Metro-style apps in desktop-style windows

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ModernMix is a $5 program that lets you run Metrostyle apps in desktopstyle windows

Sometimes you just wanna close a window. Or resize it, or drag it so that it overlaps with something else. That's how Windows works, and it's more or less how you'd expect to interact with Windows 8 in particular. The problem is, those old-world rules don't necessarily apply to newer Metro-style apps: yes, you can snap them in place next to traditional x86 programs, but you can't resize those windows, nor can you arrange them so that they overlap with each other.

Fortunately for you multitaskers out there, Stardock's new app ModernMix squeezes all your Metro programs into traditional desktop windows -- ones you can resize, minimize, drag around and even close completely. The app also lets you pin Metro apps to the Taskbar on the desktop, as well as run them at full-screen when the mood strikes. It's priced at $5, but Stardock is offering a 30-day free trial to folks who prefer to try before they buy. Just remember: you'll need Windows 8, not RT. Not that you RT users are spending much time in the desktop anyway.

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Source: Stardock

Mozilla releases Firefox with new Windows 8 UI into Nightly channel

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Mozilla releases Firefox with new Windows 8 UI into Nightly channel

Mozilla has been promising a version of Firefox designed for the new Windows 8 UI for a year now, and has trickled out a few details and previews since then. It's made a considerably bigger step this week though by releasing the browser into its Nightly channel, which lets anyone who's willing to venture beyond stable releases take it for a spin. As Mozilla's Asa Dotzler puts it, "there's plenty of work still to do, but it's stable enough that we're ready for more and more regular testing." It seems folks are indeed having some problems with it in its current state, but you can try it out for yourself at the source link.

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Via: The Verge, The Next Web

Source: Firefox Nightly, Asa Dotzler

AccuWeather launches for Windows 8, lets you know if it’s dry outside the Metro

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AccuWeather launches for Windows 8, lets you know what it's like beyond the Metro

So you're finally getting that Surface tablet (or a Windows 8 PC of choice) and have decided that a basic weather app just won't do it justice. AccuWeather agrees with you -- after months of supporting the Windows 8 preview editions, it's formally launching a weather app that takes advantage of Microsoft's completed Metro Windows 8 interface in all its widescreen glory. The title both provides near-obsessive detail about the climate as well as the requisite live tile for an at-a-glance check. You also won't have to resort to the web to find out if it's raining in your neighborhood: a Bing Maps radar overlay shows if it's safe to leave the umbrella at home. The app is free to download, which makes it entirely too easy to check the weather through Windows instead of the window.

Continue reading AccuWeather launches for Windows 8, lets you know if it's dry outside the Metro

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AccuWeather launches for Windows 8, lets you know if it's dry outside the Metro originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google delivers search app for Windows 8 with a touch of tablet optimization

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Google delivers search app for Windows 8 with a touch of tablet optimization

It's not a finished, Windows 8-tuned Chrome build, but we'll take it. Much as Google has been catering to iOS users who don't have its search completely baked into the platform, there's now a dedicated Google Search app for the Metro-inclined. Ignore the desktop OS foundation; the Windows 8 app is much closer to the touchscreen-oriented mobile version with its oversized search box, service shortcuts, an emphasis on voice recognition and finger-friendly instant previews of the results. Although incorporating Google search on a Surface will undoubtedly rankle Microsoft's Bing team, the app could be the ticket for many tablet owners who live in Google's cloud without using its hardware.

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Google delivers search app for Windows 8 with a touch of tablet optimization originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Editorial: Turning point for the tortoise and the hare

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Editorial Turning point for the tortoise and the hare

That meteor shower was a bust. I'll never get back the five minutes I spent waiting to be awed. Anyone similarly impatient will be in gratification heaven for the next week, as the biggest cosmic bodies in the tech cosmos streak across the sky with announcements, device releases, price shifts and earnings reports.

Tossing astronomy aside for its failure to bedazzle, I turn to astrology to illuminate the upcoming eventful days. From a This Week in Astronomy blog: "A Venus-Pluto-Uranus T-square will be testing relationships and finances. The Sun enters Scorpio and aspects every slower planet except Pluto, and there's an intense Mars-Jupiter opposition." I don't understand most of that, but I know about opposition. That fits. The energy of opposition crackles in the ecosystem warfare waged this week by Apple, Microsoft and Google.

Switching now from inscrutable astrology to fables (because next to cosmic messaging I like simple allegories to explain life), we can see that the slow-but-steady tortoise is placing the most audacious bet.

Continue reading Editorial: Turning point for the tortoise and the hare

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Editorial: Turning point for the tortoise and the hare originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows 8 now available to try at Best Buy

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DNP Windows 8 now available to try at Best Buy

Microsoft's already opened up the floodgates with Windows 8 pre-orders, and it looks as if those still on the fence now have a sandbox to goof off in. Pictured above is a trio of Windows 8 notebooks from a Best Buy located in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and we actually called around to confirm with several other stores that a similar setup had been erected in their locales. Nah, we can't make October 26th get here any faster, but at least you know where to head if you're looking for a sample.

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Windows 8 now available to try at Best Buy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft Office 2013 releases to manufacturing, reaches most of us early next year

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Office 2013 OneNote

Break out the party streamers and balloons -- if only in an orderly fashion, because this is the day Office 2013 has been released to manufacturing. The completion swings Microsoft's attention towards a rollout staggered over the next few months. Wider availability will have to wait until the first quarter of 2013 -- such synchronicity with your branding, Microsoft -- but companies who've sprung for volume licensing will get access as early as mid-November to December 1st, depending on whether or not they're embracing a Software Assurance plan. In the meantime, Microsoft is offering an easy path for anxious workers by promising a free copy of Office 2013 to everyone who buys Office 2010 from October 19th onwards. The upgraded software might not be cheap for those who aren't already buying a Windows RT tablet, but it's likely to be an important piece of the puzzle for anyone hunting down a touchscreen Windows 8 PC.

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Microsoft Office 2013 releases to manufacturing, reaches most of us early next year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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