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 /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9eELFulG7uxHT-jnkPua0vmACW7mWAoGjreaQoROegpRIg7LwA-7uXdCFue4q-ivDJgyPKylFlhk10ZYWkSRbD01YeFTRZuA_CoR1WbE_tPrkkRoJ6J05facPSFiHprdrzHH9_qwzoxIt/s1600/Office-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Next Office for Mac leaks, shots of UI appear" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9eELFulG7uxHT-jnkPua0vmACW7mWAoGjreaQoROegpRIg7LwA-7uXdCFue4q-ivDJgyPKylFlhk10ZYWkSRbD01YeFTRZuA_CoR1WbE_tPrkkRoJ6J05facPSFiHprdrzHH9_qwzoxIt/s1600/Office-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="Next Office for Mac leaks, shots of UI appear" /></a></div> <div> <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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> Where's the new version?<br /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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 /> <br /> 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> <div> <br /></div>

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...

Read more »

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 /> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQE3GmJujMlcdy-ZZOcK035FZmZMsRskuWPSRpzSt9qDm5u_QH4TecNNm23e_CCfGMdXUZqw-pIQeDOrsoJQZeTW9yGrQ0ni-WDSTt5Ysr2qV1Vy29JbsJPHEll3FId77dCbPC1YvaZTAV/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-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/AVvXsEjQE3GmJujMlcdy-ZZOcK035FZmZMsRskuWPSRpzSt9qDm5u_QH4TecNNm23e_CCfGMdXUZqw-pIQeDOrsoJQZeTW9yGrQ0ni-WDSTt5Ysr2qV1Vy29JbsJPHEll3FId77dCbPC1YvaZTAV/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">HP Envy X360</td></tr> </tbody></table> <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 /> <br /> 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> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <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> </tbody></table> <div> 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 /> <br /> 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> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYj4DME0N3UoiIqlEnGHw1CVQPunSfl-kaCbr0DrOpWuEm0W1P7TfRiBovh-IsBfiUmDcVPfl_f1C9v_7dzgvzNlNNSK7RjiUrFmYkzuSNVOQNIMqS0oHaloiakXbrI7omfzHhpQI08oRz/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-02-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/AVvXsEgYj4DME0N3UoiIqlEnGHw1CVQPunSfl-kaCbr0DrOpWuEm0W1P7TfRiBovh-IsBfiUmDcVPfl_f1C9v_7dzgvzNlNNSK7RjiUrFmYkzuSNVOQNIMqS0oHaloiakXbrI7omfzHhpQI08oRz/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-02-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A slow hard drive hamper the performance of the X360 standard Envy</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div> 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 /> <br /> <br /> 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> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1_CMD2legKesqeNDl0sCHzDmL3jxq_kxcMnkLZfIS4IHL1IEXjgvztR8NoIJhZEg1hAPKqrxC-Vxm5mpzQwCk2Sv_guU3kWoclcGettYz9c-9VMH1Z2068VrHKd58OFz82cb_Ej-fbG7L/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-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/AVvXsEi1_CMD2legKesqeNDl0sCHzDmL3jxq_kxcMnkLZfIS4IHL1IEXjgvztR8NoIJhZEg1hAPKqrxC-Vxm5mpzQwCk2Sv_guU3kWoclcGettYz9c-9VMH1Z2068VrHKd58OFz82cb_Ej-fbG7L/s1600/HP-Envy-X360-pc-tech24h.blogspot.com.jpg" title="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">X360's battery life is not very impressive, either. </td></tr> </tbody></table> <div> 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 /> <br /> 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 ...

Read more »