Mozilla’s Firefox web browser is open source, cross-platform, and historically more likely to support open standards than rivals like Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, or Safari. But Firefox also has a reputation as a resource hog, and it’s been slow to adopt some features used in other browsers (Firefox is only starting to add support for […]
software
Microsoft to sell Samsung’s new Android phone (with MS apps)
Microsoft may have its own smartphone operating system, but it’s not exactly widely used. So in an effort to meet its customers where they are, the company has been releasing apps for Android and iOS… and now Microsoft is even planning to start selling Android phones. Paul Thurrott reports you’ll be able to buy a […]
LibreOffice 5.3 introduces new UI, collaborative online editing
The latest version of LibreOffice introduces an experimental new user interface, support for cloud-based collaborative document editing, and a bunch of new features for editing documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. LibreOffice 5.3 is a cross-platform, open source program that’s now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. One of the most important additions may be the support […]
Opera Neon is a new web browser concept for the modern web
The makers of the Opera web browser for desktop and mobile devices are launching a new concept browser with a dramatically redesigned user interface. It’s called Opera Neon and it should be able to display any content that works in other Opera or Chrome web browsers, since it uses the same rendering engine. But Opera Neon has […]
HandBrake 1.0 released after 13 years (open source video transcoder)
HandBrake is a popular free and open source tool for converting and compressing videos. It’s a cross-platform application that’s available for Windows, macOS, and Linux and you can either run HandBrake with a graphical user interface or run it as a command line tool. While HandBrake has been available for 13 years, this week the developers […]
Microsoft Word Viewer has just a year to live (discontinued in November, 2017)
It’s been more than 9 years since Microsoft updated Word Viewer, its free app for reading or printing documents for Word 2007 or earlier. But you can still download and install the Windows program if you want a simple tool for opening older Word files. But Word Viewer’s days are numbered: Microsoft has announced its […]
Use Skype in a web browser, no plugins required
Want to use Skype to make voice or video calls, but don’t want to actually install the app on your computer? No problem. Skype now works in a web browser. And when I say a web browser, I mean Microsoft Edge. But Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are also expected to be supported in the future. Microsoft […]
Sonic Pi: Make music by code (while learning to code)
There are a lot of ways to make music with a computer… and the computer doesn’t even need to be all that powerful. You can even use synthesizer software to play tunes on a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero (although you’ll obviously need to spend a few bucks on speakers, a display, a mouse, and a keyboard). I’ve […]
Microsoft acquires SwiftKey, software keyboard maker
Microsoft has acquired the maker of one of the most popular third-party keyboard apps for Android an iOS. While this probably means we’ll see SwiftKey technology integrated into Windows 10 in the future, Microsoft says it will continue to develop SwiftKey apps for Android and iOS. SwiftKey is known for its ability to predict the […]
Xiaomi launches MIUI 7 software for Android phones
Chinese device maker Xiaomi has built a reputation for offering high-quality smartphones at low prices. But that’s not the only thing that’s unusual about the company’s phones. While they run Google Android software, they also have a heavily skinned user interface called MIUI that looks something like a cross between Android and iOS. Now the team has […]