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Next Office for Mac leaks, shots of UI appear

<b>A Chinese website yesterday published what it claimed were screenshots of Microsoft's next edition of Office for the Mac.</b><br />
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<b><br /></b>The nearly two dozen screenshots posted by cnBeta.com were of Outlook, the email client that’s included in Office on both Windows and OS X. cnBeta.com said that the screenshots were taken from a leaked internal test version of the application.<br />
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Some long-time Microsoft watchers, including Tom Warren of The Verge, have reported that previews of a new Office for Windows have been circulating among partners and testers. The software that cnBeta.com obtained may have come from a similar early-look program for Office on the Mac.<br />
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cnBeta.com’s screenshots showed an Outlook more closely aligned with the user interface (UI) of the client in Office 2013, the current edition for Windows, and fit OS X Yosemite’s look-and-feel with a “flatter” design.<br />
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According to the leaked build, Outlook will still rely on a “ribbon” at the top of the window, a UI feature that debuted in Office for Mac 2011 four years ago to some resistance.<br />
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Additionally, the new Outlook will integrate with OS X’s Notification Center to show the most-recently-received messages. And, not surprisingly, the suite’s applications will be tightly bound to Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud-based service for document storage and collaborative work.<br />
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Where's the new version?<br />
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An upgrade from Office for Mac 2011 is long overdue: Microsoft shipped that edition in October 2010. The long lag time has implications because 2011’s support retirement date—when the company stops providing security updates—is Jan. 12, 2016, less than 14 months away.<br />
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In the past, Microsoft’s OS X development team has talked up upcoming editions, but this cycle there was been only silence from the company. Among the unknowns are a release date, the name of the edition and pricing.<br />
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One certainty is that the next Office for Mac will be available to subscribers of Office 365, Microsoft’s rent-not-buy program. It’s also likely that Microsoft will continue to offer perpetual licenses—the traditional kind that are paid for once, with rights to use the software as long as the customer wants—because revenue from the Office 365 subscription model continues to lag far behind the more familiar one-off or volume perpetual licenses.<br />
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It’s also a good bet that Microsoft will retain the price synchronization of retail Mac licenses with Windows’ Office 2013, a move the company made last year when it introduced Office 365. Currently, a single-license Office for Mac Home & Student lists for $139.99, and Home & Business for $219.99, prices identical to the same-named version of Office 2013.<br />
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The Office 365 editions of Office for Mac 2011 are equivalent to Home & Business in that they include Outlook, but subscribers can also use Office on tablets, such as Office for iPad.<br />
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cnBeta.com also cited “Outlook 16” as the application’s formal name, implying Microsoft has skipped a version: Office for Mac 2011’s Outlook was pegged v. 14. The v. 16 may indicate that the next Office for OS X will be based on the same code as the next edition for Windows: Office 2013 is formally tagged v. 15. Rumors have also pinned the code name “Office 16” on the upcoming Windows edition.<br />
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Office 16, probably named to match Microsoft’s convention, may launch as early as the spring of 2015. If that’s the case, and Microsoft releases a companion upgrade for the Mac at the same time—or even earlier—it would be another departure for the Redmond, Wash. company, which in the past has shipped the OS X version an average of six months after the one for Windows.<br />
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On the side of an early appearance of Office for the Mac is the fact that Microsoft shipped a touch-only version for the iPad in March, but has yet to do the same for touch-centric Windows devices, including Microsoft’s own Surface.</div>
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Next Office for Mac leaks, shots of UI appear

A Chinese website yesterday published what it claimed were screenshots of Microsoft's next edition of Office for the Mac. The nearly two dozen screenshots posted by cnBeta.com were of Outlook, the email client that’s included in Office on both Windows and OS X. cnBeta.com said that the screenshots w…

03Nov2014

Lenovo's new 13-inch 'Yoga' tablet is as big as its Windows Ultrabooks

<b>Lenovo seems to be coming full circle. After knocking our socks off with the original Yoga, a 13-inch Ultrabook whose screen could fold all the way back, the company followed up with a spinoff product called the Yoga Tablet.</b><br />
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Today, the lineup includes both Android and Windows tablets, mostly in the 8- and 10-inch range. Now, though, Lenovo is blurring the lines: Its new 13-inch Yoga Tablet 2 is the same size as its ultraportable laptops, except it has a kickstand that folds out of the back, and the optional keyboard doesn't attach to the device.<br />
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It's a weird little device: It looks like a tablet, but it's the same size as a notebook, and its screen (2,560 x 1,440) is about as sharp, too. What's even stranger is that on the inside, it actually runs more in line with a netbook, thanks to a quad-core Atom processor (though four gigs of RAM might help speed things up). All told, then, it definitely seems like a niche product: a large tablet, and an unpowered one, at that. Then again, the power-sipping chip could have at least one benefit: The battery life here is rated at up to 15 hours, far longer than most Ultrabooks we know of. It's also lighter than any 13-inch laptop, at 2.27 pounds. Still, will you want to pay a full $700 and up for it when it comes out next month? We'll leave that to you and your wallet.<br />
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Lenovo seems to be coming full circle. After knocking our socks off with the original Yoga, a 13-inch Ultrabook whose screen could fold all the way back, the company followed up with a spinoff product called the Yoga Tablet. Today, the lineup includes both Android and Windows tablets, mostly in the 8- and 10-inch range. Now, though, Lenovo is blurring the lines: Its new 13-inch Yoga Tablet 2 is the same size as its ultraportable laptops, except it has a kickstand that folds out of the back, and the optional keyboard doesn't attach to the device.<br />
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It's a weird little device: It looks like a tablet, but it's the same size as a notebook, and its screen (2,560 x 1,440) is about as sharp, too. What's even stranger is that on the inside, it actually runs more in line with a netbook, thanks to a quad-core Atom processor (though four gigs of RAM might help speed things up). All told, then, it definitely seems like a niche product: a large tablet, and an unpowered one, at that. Then again, the power-sipping chip could have at least one benefit: The battery life here is rated at up to 15 hours, far longer than most Ultrabooks we know of. It's also lighter than any 13-inch laptop, at 2.27 pounds. Still, will you want to pay a full $700 and up for it when it comes out next month? We'll leave that to you and your wallet.</div>
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Lenovo's new 13-inch 'Yoga' tablet is as big as its Windows Ultrabooks

Lenovo seems to be coming full circle. After knocking our socks off with the original Yoga, a 13-inch Ultrabook whose screen could fold all the way back, the company followed up with a spinoff product called the Yoga Tablet. Today, the lineup includes both Android and Windows tablets, mostly in the …

31Oct2014

Xbox Music ditches free desktop streaming on December 1st

<b>If you're hooked on Xbox Music's free desktop-based listening, you're going to have make some backup plans very shortly. </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Xbox Music ditches free desktop streaming on December 1st</td></tr>
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Microsoft has announced that it's dropping the no-cost web and Windows streaming option as of December 1st; after that, you'll have to pay for a Music Pass if you want all-you-can-eat tunes beyond the 30-day trial period. </div>
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The company claims that it's refocusing Xbox Music to make it the "ultimate music purchase and subscription service," although it's not elaborating on what that entails. Suffice it to say that Microsoft has a lot of competition in the free music space. Its main rival, Spotify, has over 30 million free users worldwide on a wider range of platforms -- it wouldn't be easy for Microsoft to challenge that lead using the free tier you know today.</div>
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Xbox Music ditches free desktop streaming on December 1st

If you're hooked on Xbox Music's free desktop-based listening, you're going to have make some backup plans very shortly. Xbox Music ditches free desktop streaming on December 1st Microsoft has announced that it's dropping the no-cost web and Windows streaming option as of December 1st; after that, …

26Oct2014

It costs $50 to plug an Xbox One Kinect into your PC

<b>What's stopping you from creating the first killer Kinect 2.0 hack? Well, now that Microsoft's released the do-all sensor's SDK to the public for free you don't have many more excuses.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It costs $50 to plug an Xbox One Kinect into your PC</td></tr>
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The software development kit is available without any fees and what's more, you can now put any finished apps up for sale on the Windows Store as well. Just like that! To help developers along even further, Redmond is releasing an adapter that makes the Xbox One Kinect play nicely with a Windows 8 PC. Meaning, they won't have to use a hack to create a hack (or buy a redundant Windows Kinect). The $50 USB 3.0 dongle not only brings price parity between the two previously separate cameras, but it'sanother instance of Microsoft reversing a previous hardline policy to better suit its customers too. Now, get out there and get cracking -- the hardware giant already has a head start on you.<br />
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Update: Developer Ubi Interactive, known for large-screen gesture control installations, has posted a trio of brief, new videos demoing some fresh uses for the Kinect 2.0. We've embedded them below.</div>
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It costs $50 to plug an Xbox One Kinect into your PC

What's stopping you from creating the first killer Kinect 2.0 hack? Well, now that Microsoft's released the do-all sensor's SDK to the public for free you don't have many more excuses. It costs $50 to plug an Xbox One Kinect into your PC The software development kit is available without any fees and…

24Oct2014

Microsoft updates Skype for Windows, Mac with new chat interface

<b>Chatting in Skype for Windows and the Mac now looks more like the Windows Phone version, whether you like it or not.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft updates Skype for Windows</td></tr>
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Microsoft's Skype announced version 7.0 for the Mac together with a new preview version for the Windows desktop. Both include a number of potentially attractive productivity improvements, including the ability to chat and talk simultaneously in the new Mac version. But there's still an awful lot of white space, which may annoy some.<br />
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"For the last year we’ve dedicated a lot of time to refresh the chat experience in Skype. We’ve brought more improvements to the desktop," Tom Huang, a Skype exec, wrote in a blog post. <br />
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<b> MICROSOFT</b></div>
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Why this matters: What's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander. On a phone, scrolling is part of the experience. On a PC, it's more annoying. The new chat UI could use some tightening up, especially if spread out across a large, high-resolution monitor, to cut out some of that white space. But while Skype hasn't come out and said it, we suspect the new Skype app (at least on Windows) is intended to be (eventually) snapped inside one of the four corner windows that Windows 10 allows. In that scenario, the UI should (hopefully) tighten up and conserve space more efficiently.<br />
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Some useful additions<br />
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In general, the new chat UI looks nice, with round avatars representing your friends. Photos can easily be dropped into a chat session, as can documents. Both are useful features when talking back and forth with a colleague or friend, although the layout isn't quite ideal—they sort of dominate the conversation. Microsoft touts this increased spacing as a benefit, although it may prove a bit annoying to scroll back through a long chat.<br />
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<b> MICROSOFT</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1UM3Xrq4lf1RChkvSKGVJlxzXav8d6sOJNqGkNWHoew7o8tWaAULjp6JybobPt5JiXmj3uhyphenhyphen_c8NP5LkKigYkcjInUhr3-mI9bV08K0CYHVraf9lxqu1PfDa8r5hrGUekO88px5opWao/s1600/Skype-02-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="alt" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj1UM3Xrq4lf1RChkvSKGVJlxzXav8d6sOJNqGkNWHoew7o8tWaAULjp6JybobPt5JiXmj3uhyphenhyphen_c8NP5LkKigYkcjInUhr3-mI9bV08K0CYHVraf9lxqu1PfDa8r5hrGUekO88px5opWao/s1600/Skype-02-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="Microsoft updates Skype for Windows" /></a></div>
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When chat is tucked into a narrow window, however, it seems to work well. Skype for Mac 7.0 adds the ability to text-chat and video-chat in side-by-side windows, sharing photos and documents alongside the live commentary that you and your friends can provide. And Microsoft also promised that the free group video calls that the company previously announced will work better than ever. <br />
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Naturally, the Skype team promises more updates in the future, and to respond to feedback. How do you like the new chat UI within Skype? Do you actually chat within Skype, or is it more of a tool you use to chat via video? Let us know in the comments.</div>

Microsoft updates Skype for Windows, Mac with new chat interface

Chatting in Skype for Windows and the Mac now looks more like the Windows Phone version, whether you like it or not. Microsoft updates Skype for Windows Microsoft's Skype announced version 7.0 for the Mac together with a new preview version for the Windows desktop. Both include a number of potential…

14Oct2014

Lenovo recruits Ashton Kutcher to unveil its new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14

<b>It’s been a full year since Lenovo announced it had signed up Ashton Kutcher as a “product engineer,” and Lenovo is apparently happy with the partnership. The actor/investor is to appear via satellite at a Lenovo event in London on Thursday to introduce several new products, including the new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14 notebooks.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lenovo recruits Ashton Kutcher to unveil its new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14</td></tr>
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Moving parts are usually the first things to break on a computer, so conventional wisdom is the fewer, the better—especially on a notebook that must withstand the rigors of travel.That renders the hinge design Lenovo’s engineers have come up with (I can't imagine Kutcher had much to do with this) as audacious as it is beautiful. Dubbed the “watchband” hinge, it consists of more than 800 individual pieces of steel and aluminum.<br />
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Metal watchbands are pretty durable, so maybe the 800 pieces of steel and aluminum that comprise the Yoga 3 Pro's "watchband" hinge will stand the test of time. </div>
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Lenovo says the hand-assembled hinge enabled its engineers to render the Yoga 3 Pro thinner and 14 percent lighter than last year’s model. And it certainly looked that way based on a preproduction sample Lenovo showed me last week: The laptop measures just 0.5 inches high and weighs only 2.62 pounds.<br />
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The Yoga 3 Pro will be one of the relatively few laptops powered by Intel’s latest (and very late) mobile processor, the long-delayed Core M-70. That chip's integrated graphics will support a 13.3-inch, 3200x1800 IPS touchscreen. The new model boasts twice as much memory and solid-state storage as the Yoga 2 Pro we reviewed late last year: 8GB of DDR3L memory and a 256GB SSD.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lenovo recruits Ashton Kutcher to unveil its new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14</td></tr>
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It also moves up to 802.11ac Wi-Fi connectivity, compared to 802.11n on the older model. This is an important feature, because it can be difficult or impossible to update a laptop’s Wi-Fi adapter without resorting to a USB dongle.</div>
<div>
<br />
And rather than use a separate power connector that’s useless when running on battery power, Lenovo came up with a new design that has you plugging its AC adapter into a USB 2.0 port (the Yoga 2 Pro also has two USB 3.0 ports and a 4-in-1 memory card reader). Lenovo claims up to nine hours of battery life for its new laptop.<br />
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ThinkPad Yoga 14<br />
<br />
Lenovo launched Yoga as a consumer brand in 2012, and it introduced the first ThinkPad Yoga to the business-notebook market one year later. The model we reviewed last yearfeatured a unique “Lift ‘n Lock” mechanism that raised the frame surrounding the keyboard so that it’s flush with the keys when the laptop is in tent or tablet mode. The appeal is that you don’t feel the keys when the keyboard is flipped around and the bottom of the chassis makes contact with the top of the lid.<br />
<br />
This design has been carried over to the new, larger ThinkPad Yoga 14, but this machine won’t be getting the fancy hinge treatment or the Core M processor the consumer model has. And while its 14-inch IPS display is larger than last year’s 12.5-inch model, the Yoga 14 will remain limited to resolution of 1920x1080 pixels.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVVndegyAM5_VH3X8HHmM-lnn2c1DvyCH1BsE0rD1iBnbzjj303cID-Qi23tGpi1z4o6RDYoRbXoEUy9yshHJ3ItsxpW5R-ftWU-6qm2iQM6Jc9XXr7UvvpwqARGdM1_LaLjLCs9f8_uJJ/s1600/Lenovo-04-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="alt" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVVndegyAM5_VH3X8HHmM-lnn2c1DvyCH1BsE0rD1iBnbzjj303cID-Qi23tGpi1z4o6RDYoRbXoEUy9yshHJ3ItsxpW5R-ftWU-6qm2iQM6Jc9XXr7UvvpwqARGdM1_LaLjLCs9f8_uJJ/s1600/Lenovo-04-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="Lenovo recruits Ashton Kutcher to unveil its new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lenovo recruits Ashton Kutcher to unveil its new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The new ThinkPad is powered by a Haswell-class Intel Core i5 processor, with integrated graphics in the base model. An Nvidia GeForce 840M mobile graphics processor is available as an option. Both configurations come with 8GB of DDR3L memory, a 1TB hard drive supplemented by a 16GB solid-state memory cache, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, two USB 3.0 connectors, and one USB 2.0 connector that serves double duty as a power port.<br />
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Being a business-oriented laptop, the ThinkPad Yoga 14 has a docking connector adjacent to this power port, so you can connect it to one of Lenovo’s desktop docking stations using a single cable.<br />
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The ThinkPad Yoga won’t be a super thin-and-light machine, measuring 0.7 inches thick and weighing 4.1 pounds without the discrete graphics processor option. Lenovo says buyers can expect to get up to 8 hours out of its battery.<br />
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Pricing and availability<br />
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Lenovo says the Yoga 3 Pro will be available in three colors—Clementine Orange, Platinum Silver, and Champagne Gold—when it goes on sale at Best Buy and Lenovo.com at the end of October. Prices start at $1349. The ThinkPad Yoga 14 will also be available at the end of October, but in basic black and exclusively at Best Buy, with prices starting at $1199.<br />
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What do you think of Lenovo’s designs? Are you enamored with the hybrid laptop/tablet idea? Do you prefer hybrids with detachable displays? Do you think the whole hybrid concept is silly, and that laptops should be laptops and tablets should be tablets? Should Ashton Kutcher go back to looking for his car? Let us know in the comments section, below.</div>

Lenovo recruits Ashton Kutcher to unveil its new Yoga 3 Pro and ThinkPad Yoga 14

It’s been a full year since Lenovo announced it had signed up Ashton Kutcher as a “product engineer,” and Lenovo is apparently happy with the partnership. The actor/investor is to appear via satellite at a Lenovo event in London on Thursday to introduce several new products, including the new Yoga 3…

13Oct2014

Microsoft's next OS is Windows 10, will ship later in 2015

<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue;">Microsoft's next OS is Windows 10, will ship later in 2015</span></h2>
<b>Instead of announcing the next version of its iconic operating system in front of a massive crowd of thousands, Microsoft chose an intimate venue with 50 or so reporters to launch the new Windows, which it's calling Windows 10.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft's next OS is Windows 10</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div>
The company looks at the new number (yes, it oddly skipped a number) as an indication of the direction it's taking with the OS; Microsoft says it'll be "the most comprehensive platform ever," featuring afull range of products that'll be placed under the Windows 10 umbrella as part of "one tailored experience." That means it will support everything from the "Internet of Things" to enterprise servers, taking advantage of responsive design.</div>
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Microsoft's Joe Belfiore showed off an early beta version of the new Windows on stage, which looks very much like the leaked screenshots we saw not too long ago; Belfiore says that the company wanted to bring the familiarity of Windows 7 and combine it with the functionality of Windows 8.</div>
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</div>

Microsoft's next OS is Windows 10, will ship later in 2015

Microsoft's next OS is Windows 10, will ship later in 2015 Instead of announcing the next version of its iconic operating system in front of a massive crowd of thousands, Microsoft chose an intimate venue with 50 or so reporters to launch the new Windows, which it's calling Windows 10. Microsoft's …

02Oct2014

Microsoft Announces Windows 10

<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue;">Microsoft Announces Windows 10</span></h2>
<b>This morning at an event in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the next version of its Windows operating system: Windows 10.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microsoft Announces Windows 10</td></tr>
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<div>
The name is definitely not in line with expectations, but also comes on the heels of rumor talk that it could pick up another title. Happily, the last 943 people to cover the operating system got the name wrong.<br />
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Starting tomorrow, Microsoft will launch a Windows Insider Program that will give users who are comfortable with running very early beta software access to Windows 10. This first preview will be available for laptops and desktops. A build for servers will follow later. Microsoft says it is opening up this beta process to get more feedback from more users early on, but also noted that this will be a learning experience for the company and that some experiments users will get in new builds may not make it into the final version.</div>
<div>
<br />
The company went on to detail that its new operating system will have a tailored user experience between different screen sizes — that’s to say that if you are on a smaller device, you will see a different sort of user interface. The code will run across all device categories: “One product family. One platform. One store.”</div>
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Microsoft is currently riffing on the following: Enterprise value, device management, the ability to customize the store to the device you are on, and a way to protect data. Or, to put it more precisely, there will be the ability of the enterprise to manage their devices, and “customize” their application store, and so forth.<br />
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As expected, the company is bringing back a few features of Windows 7, too, including a redesigned start menu that combines the basic Windows 7 menu with the (resizable) tiles of the Windows 8 start screen. Windows 8 Metro apps can now also open in a windowed mode on the desktop, so you aren’t taking into the full-screen mode by default and you can use a “modern” Windows 8 side by side with a standard Windows desktop app. <br />
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Windows 10 will also allow users to work with multiple desktops. Thanks to Microsoft’s new “Snap Assist” UI, the company is making it easier for these power users who need these multiple desktops to grab apps from multiple desktops and move them around.</div>
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<div>
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While Microsoft focused mostly on the regular mouse and keyboard combo for interacting with the operating system, the company stressed that it is not giving up on touch. Windows 10 will still have a Windows 8 like Start Screen for users on touch-enabled machines, for example.<br />
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Some of the gestures will change a bit in Windows 10 (swiping in from the left now gets you a task view, for example), but the overall feature set seems to be very similar to that in Windows 8 and even the Windows 8 Charms bar is still available.</div>
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One thing Microsoft did not show (at least so far), is any other consumer features in Windows 10. What the company did talk about a bit, however, is that Windows 10 for the phone will look and work almost exactly like the slightly pared down modern UI on Windows 10. One thing Microsoft clearly learned from the experience with Windows 8 is that if it wants to build a single operating system and user interface for every device, it can’t just optimize for edge cases. Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore, for example, noted that while it was an obvious choice to combine the interfaces for tablets and phones, “the real rub comes in the middle.” This time around, he said, he feels “pretty positive about the outcome we are going to get.”</div>

Microsoft Announces Windows 10

Microsoft Announces Windows 10 This morning at an event in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the next version of its Windows operating system: Windows 10. Microsoft Announces Windows 10 The name is definitely not in line with expectations, but also comes on the heels of rumor talk that it could pi…

01Oct2014

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is a capable, costly upgrade

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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue;">Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is a capable, costly upgrade</span></h2>
<b>By now, you should probably think of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet as the Windows equivalent of a MacBook Air: an exquisitely constructed, premium tablet for those who aren’t worried about their next mortgage payment. </b><br />
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The new Surface Pro Docking Station simply completes the experience. For thesuperlative Surface Pro 3 is already a tablet that is already almost a two-in-one notebook. When docked, the tablet provides enough horsepower to drive two other monitors, adding its own high-definition screen as a bonus. At that point, you may as well be working at a desktop PC.<br />
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MICROSOFT<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One possible setup of multimonitor configurations, all connected to the Surface Pro 3.</td></tr>
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The dock itself costs $199. Yes, $199. It's definitely pricier than tablet docking stations from the likes of Dell and HP, but also fancier, and a minor upcharge to the $1,200 or so you might pay for a midrange Surface Pro 3. If you’re going to spend that much already, you may as well go whole hog.<br />
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Physically, the new dock looks very similar to the dock Microsoft built for the Surface Pro and Surface Pro 2. Microsoft also stole a page from Hollywood and "rebooted" the name, calling it simply the Surface Pro Docking Station. Despite the moniker, however, only the SP3 is supported. <br />
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MARK HACHMAN</div>
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Like earlier models, the sides of the dock clasp the tablet like a vise, connecting power and I/O alike through the tablet’s charging connector. The Surface Pro 3 doesn’t dock as easily to the Surface Pro Docking Station as the Surface Pro 2 did to its own dock, though, because of the way the new Type Cover connects to the tablet.<br />
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If you fold the Type Cover upward to provide yourself an angled typing surface, make sure you “unfold” the cover and lay it flat. Otherwise, the dock’s extended charging connector may miss the tablet’s port, possibly damaging itself or the tablet.<br />
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You can either leave the SP3's stylus in its fabric loop, or attach it via a handy magnetic connector Microsoft has added to the left side of the dock.<br />
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MARK HACHMAN</div>
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If you’re buying a docking station, you’re buying connectivity, which is one of the slight deficiencies of the Surface line in general. Each Surface Pro 3 tablet, by itself, includes just a miniDisplayPort and a USB 3.0 connection. The docking station does not obstruct those ports, and it adds five more USB ports—two USB 2.0 and three USB 3.0. (That’s a slight step up from the Surface Pro/Pro 2 dock, which had three USB 2.0 connectors and a single USB 3.0 connector.) There’s also another (replicated) miniDisplayPort connector on the back, plus Gigabit Ethernet, a headphone jack and Kensington lock. Microsoft removed the mic jack from the Surface Pro 2 dock, probably because no one was using it.<br />
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Microsoft doesn’t make it clear whether you can daisy-chain two DisplayPort monitors together, as its documentation refers you to a support site where that question wasn't addressed. Microsoft has said previously that you can, however. (I lacked the appropriate miniDisplayPort adapters to test this properly.)<br />
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MARK HACHMAN</div>
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One slight annoyance is that the pitch at which the dock reclines is fixed, which takes away from the nearly limitless pitch options that the SP3’s flexible kickstand delivers. You’ll probably end up using the desktop monitor as your primary display, however, which means you’ll be staring at the Surface display a lot less than you might have otherwise. <br />
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Finally, a true left-handed gaming tablet<br />
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Right-handers blithely move through the world, failing to appreciate that everything from desks to golf to the way we write has long favored a right-handed approach. While the world's somewhat kinder to southpaws these days, gaming remains biased. I'm left-handed, and I can’t effectively game on a PC without access to a keyboard’s number pad—which compact keyboards like the Surface’s Type Cover sacrifice to save space.<br />
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That’s not a dealbreaker, of course. A game like Trine or the Batman Arkham series work well with gamepads or an Xbox controller. But with the dock, I can finally connect a mouse and keyboard and game as I choose. <br />
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MARK HACHMAN</div>
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That said there are other options. Consider spending $199 for the Surface Pro 3 dock, versus $19—yes, $19—for a powered four-port USB 3.0 hub that can plug right into that USB 3.0 slot. You're sacrificing the option of an extra monitor connection, but saving yourself $180. The weight of that hub, plus the miniDisplayPort, might be enough to topple an undocked Surface Pro 3. But I doubt it.<br />
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With Microsoft’s Surface Pro Docking Station, you have a fairly simple decision to make: Do you need that extra connectivity? Most likely, you do. But I also think you could probably find a cheaper alternative.<br />
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If money’s no object, however, you won’t regret it: Microsoft’s Surface Pro docking station is a well-engineered, robust piece of hardware that looks great and makes your Surface Pro 3 even more useful than before. </div>

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is a capable, costly upgrade

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 Docking Station is a capable, costly upgrade By now, you should probably think of Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 tablet as the Windows equivalent of a MacBook Air: an exquisitely constructed, premium tablet for those who aren’t worried about their next mortgage payment. The ne…

01Oct2014

HP Envy X360 review: laptop 360 degrees is about flexibility, not power

<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: blue;">HP Envy X360 review: laptop 360 degrees is about flexibility, not power</span></h2>
<b>HP Envy X360 offers good multimedia features and flexible display options at a moderate price, but the performance and the battery life of it's trivial and MIA support 5GHz Wi-Fi will provide some buyers pause. </b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HP Envy X360</td></tr>
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<div>
Like a laptop touch screen 15-inch affordable another class that we've seen of late, HP Envy X360 is too heavy and too slow to be a dream road warrior's machine. However, the handsome high-resolution displays and acrobatic 360-degree hinges on this $ 770 unit will appeal to multimedia fans. <br />
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With a weight of about 5.3 pounds typical large numbers for a mainstream laptop with a hinge strong display of silver Envy 15.6-inch X360 lets you use it as a laptops standards; folded cap and balance units on two sides of a tent configuration; keyboard placed face down and keep the display facing you in your own configuration; screen or fold back completely to the back of the keyboard to create a tablet thick and bulky. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNN9BOQTCc2evPZfOQCLff6dPU_2mms8-0adQFJRj04P-jAh9FdAWvwRAA-yEpfuQT4ChMRhbMWraHmZrkCVFKn2SPQxOjRkgJVs81cM3VbWi41Xo9UylZQACeO7pscjOhdyGxwdlfseK0/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-01-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="alt" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNN9BOQTCc2evPZfOQCLff6dPU_2mms8-0adQFJRj04P-jAh9FdAWvwRAA-yEpfuQT4ChMRhbMWraHmZrkCVFKn2SPQxOjRkgJVs81cM3VbWi41Xo9UylZQACeO7pscjOhdyGxwdlfseK0/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-01-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Widespread 1366x768 pixels on a 15.6-inch screen looks terrible. </td></tr>
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You will want to have the option to display a higher resolution that was included in our eval unit. Widespread 1366x768 pixels on a 15.6-inch screen looks terrible. <br />
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Options raise the price of this unit $ 90 higher than the starting price is $ 680 for the basic configuration. These extras include extra 2GB of RAM (bringing the total to 8GB) and from 1920 to 1080-point multi-touch display (compared to the 1366 x 768 resolution of the base unit). Other important components include an Intel Core i5-4210U mobile CPU and a 500GB hard drive spinning at 5400 rpm. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A slow hard drive hamper the performance of the X360 standard Envy</td></tr>
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Performance is about what we expected for the specs, which means they are not particularly impressive. The pokey hard drive combined with integrated graphics are responsible for the laptop's WorldBench score 9 points and 57 bad games. The display resolution can drag down the battery to a disappointing 3 hours and 15 minutes. <br />
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Other connectivity options Envy X2 is more impressive: three USB ports (two of them USB 3.0), HDMI, memory card reader, Gigabit Ethernet the foregoing, and a combined headphone / mic jack. Like many laptops, stereo speakers are located on the underside of the unit where it slopes upward toward the front edge. Rubber disk on the bottom to help keep a distance between the speaker and the work surface, so that does not sound overly muffled. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">X360's battery life is not very impressive, either. </td></tr>
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The keyboard is silver and rollers like case. The caps on the island-style keyboard spaced is reasonable, but flat, slippery, and a little mushy. As with most units of this size, you get a numeric keypad to the right of the QWERTY keyboard. However, the new HP touchpad controls Zone, providing both mechanical sensitivity and touch, unusually wide, which is really useful for large navigation screen. <br />
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Like all purpose laptops go, X360 Envy doing a pretty good job with multimedia, and general business users who can benefit from the display options it should have a look. But the absence of 5GHz Wi-Fi and a slow hard drive certain limitations. In the $ 770 price range of it, buyers can also find a balance units less troublesome.</div>

HP Envy X360 review: laptop 360 degrees is about flexibility, not power

HP Envy X360 review: laptop 360 degrees is about flexibility, not power HP Envy X360 offers good multimedia features and flexible display options at a moderate price, but the performance and the battery life of it's trivial and MIA support 5GHz Wi-Fi will provide some buyers pause. HP Envy X360 Li…

28Sep2014

5 ways to access and control your PC remotely

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<span style="color: blue;">5 ways to access and control your PC remotely</span></h2>
<b>Your PC isn't really stuck at home. You can access the desktop, your files, and even gaming horsepower on the go. You can turn on your PC from halfway around the world!</b><div>
<b><br /></b>How, you ask? Let's start with catch-all remote desktop solutions before following up with more specific remote control and access tools for gaming, productivity, and more.<br /><br />01.Remote desktop<br /><br />Remote desktop software lets you access your computer and all its applications over the Internet using another device, essentially by streaming a feed of your desktop. This works from a tablet or phone, even over a cellular data network.<br /><br />To do this, you’ll need to set up a remote desktop server on the PC you want to connect to. We recommend TeamViewer for this: It’s easy to use, completely free for non-commercial use, runs on almost everything, and doesn’t require any port-forwarding or complex setup. (Be sure to set up TeamViewer for unattended access!)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Setting up TeamViewer's "Unattended access" feature</td></tr>
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Parallels Access is another good, polished alternative. It really shines when accessing your desktop from a smartphone or tablet, providing a more touch-optimized interface. Unlike TeamViewer, however, Parallels Access requires a $20 yearly fee even for personal use.<br /><br />You could also skip the polished, all-in-one solutions entirely. For example, you could enable the Remote Desktop feature in professional editions of Windows and use any RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) client to connect to your PC remotely. Microsoft even offers Remote Desktop apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad. You could set up a VNC (Virtual Network Computing) server on your PC to access it in a similar way, even if you aren’t using a professional edition of Windows.</div>
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<br />These DIY services aren’t as easy to use, however. You’ll have to set up port-forwarding and dynamic DNS on your own to access them remotely. They’ll also be harder to secure, as any bot scanning your IP address from the Internet will see the services running on those ports and can attempt to break into them and compromise your PC. This isn’t a risk with services like TeamViewer or Parallels Access, which handle the authentication bits on their own central servers.<br /><br />You can access your PC’s files on the go, too. To avoid mucking through a remote desktop session, your best bet is an easy-to-use remote control solution with an integrated file-transfer option.<br /><br />In TeamViewer, just select "file transfer" while connecting to a remote computer with TeamViewer, and you’ll be able to access all the files on your PC’s hard drive or upload files to your remote PC from your current device. The Android, iPad, and iPhone apps also have file-transfer support, so you can download files from your PC to your smartphone or tablet. (Parallels Access doesn’t support direct file transfers.)<br /><br />02.IAN LAMONT<br /><br />Keep remote file access simple with Dropbox or another cloud storage service.<br /><br />The average PC user will probably want to stick with a cloud storage service instead of a remote file access solution. Place your files into a service like Dropbox, OneDrive, orGoogle Drive and they’ll sync online. You can then access them from anywhere via your web browser, the service’s mobile app, or its syncing client.</div>
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<br />The upside is that your remote PC doesn’t have to be powered on. The downside is that you're limited by the amount of storage the service provides. If you’re worried about storing sensitive files online, you can always encrypt files before storing them in the cloud.<br /><br />Microsoft Office users can save documents to Microsoft’s free OneDrive cloud storage service, then access the Office Online website in a web browser to view and even edit the documents from wherever you are. Office Online is completely free. OneDrive is integrated into Windows 8.1 and is available as a free download for previous versions of Windows.<br /><br />The Office Mobile applications for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone also allow you to view and edit Office documents stored in your OneDrive account for free. Office for iPad provides a more powerful editing experience on the iPad, but note that all the mobile apps require an Office 365 subscription for editing (viewing is free).<br /><br />03.Office for iPad.<br /><br />Microsoft Office isn’t the only game in town. Google Docs is completely free, runs in a web browser on your PC, and allows you to edit your Google Docs or Microsoft Office documents from anywhere via a web browser or mobile apps.</div>
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<br />PCs have long supported a feature known as Wake-on-LAN. When Wake-on-LAN is enabled on a PC, the PC’s network interface listens for a specially formed packet, even while the computer is powered off, hibernating, or in sleep mode. When the computer receives the packet, it powers on.<br /><br />You could take advantage of Wake-on-LAN to turn on your PC over the Internet. This would allow you to leave your PC off except when you want to access its desktop or files remotely.<br /><br />This can be done in two separate ways. You could forward the appropriate ports from your home router to the computer running on your local network, and then use a specialized software program to send the “Wake-on-LAN” packet to your home IP address.</div>
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<br />Or, you could use a special software application that sits inside your local network. When it receives the signal, it sends the Wake-on-LAN packet to a computer on the same local network. TeamViewer (once again) offers this feature, allowing you to send Wake-on-LAN packets to other computers on your local network if one PC with TeamViewer enabled is powered on. TeamViewer has a complete guide to setting up Wake-on-LAN, from configuring the BIOS and network adapter to Windows and your home router. Much of the process is similar even if you’re not using TeamViewer, although you’ll need a mobile or desktop application that can send the Wake-on-LAN packets for you if you’re opting not to use TeamViewer. The latest version of Parallels Access offers this feature, too.<br /><br />When you’re done being productive, you can also use your computer’s graphics card’s power to play games when you’re away from it. Steam’s killer in-home streaming feature allows you to stream games running on your gaming PC to other Windows, Linux, or Mac computers on your home network. You could try to stream games when you're out of the house by connecting your PC to a VPN server running on your home network… but even if you tricked Steam into streaming over the Internet that way, performance wouldn’t be great.<br /><br />05.JARED NEWMAN<br /><br />Nvidia's GameStream feature lets you stream games from your PC and play them on your Shield handheld or tablet.</div>
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<br />Nvidia also offers its own GameStream feature, which only works with recent Nvidia graphics cards. Unlike Steam’s streaming feature, Nvidia does allow you to access your home PC and stream games from it over the Internet, although this feature is in beta. The problem here is that this feature can stream games only to an Nvidia Shield handheld console or the Shield tablet. You can connect your Shield to a television and stream to a larger screen, but you need the Shield hardware to act as a receiver.<br /><br />The mobile revolution may be marching on, but the PC is still important to many users' lives. Remote control is one area where the right tools let PCs, smartphones, and tablets be more powerful by working together.<br /></div>

5 ways to access and control your PC remotely

5 ways to access and control your PC remotely Your PC isn't really stuck at home. You can access the desktop, your files, and even gaming horsepower on the go. You can turn on your PC from halfway around the world! How, you ask? Let's start with catch-all remote desktop solutions before following u…

25Sep2014