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NetworkNews

  • Windows 10 Anniversary Update Coming This Summer

    Microsoft made a lot of announcements today at its Build conference. You can get the basic recap here and here or view a slew of coverage here. Among them was the announcement of the Windows 10 Anniversary update, headed our way in the summer.

    The company didn’t give a more specific date than that, but it will hit PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox One, Microsoft HoloLens, and IoT.

    The update includes the ability to use Windows Hello with Windows apps and Microsoft Edge for biometric security.

    The update also includes the introduction of Windows Ink, a new experience that lets you write on your device.

    “More than 70% of us spend more than one hour a day using a pen,” says Windows EVP Terry Myerson. “We lose notes in our notebooks, take pictures of whiteboards, and can’t do equations or music composition with a keyboard. Windows Ink is an all-new experience, putting the power of Windows in the tip of your pen, enabling you to write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily sharing your analog thoughts in the digital world. Windows Ink is integrated into apps like Maps, Microsoft Edge, and Office. And today, we demonstrated how developers can incorporate Windows Ink into their apps with as little as 2 lines of code!”

    Cortana will be available above the lock screen for quicker access and it will support over 1,000 apps.

    Finally, for gamers, UWP apps come to Xbox through a unified Windows Store, and Microsoft is enabling any Xbox One to become a dev kit.

    “Gaming gets better with the Windows 10 Anniversary update, including background music and Cortana coming to Xbox One,” says Myerson. “Cortana can become your personal gaming assistant and help you find great new games, new challenges or tips and tricks. On Windows 10, we’re continuing to deliver on top fan-requested features like support for multiple GPUs and the ability to turn off v-sync. Game developers have access to a fully open ecosystem with the Universal Windows Platform, making it easy to bring the games people love to both Xbox One and other Windows 10 devices. With the Anniversary Update, any Xbox One can be a developer kit with Xbox Dev Mode, enabling anyone to develop for the living room. And, the Windows Store will offer a unified store experience for all developers, creating new opportunities to reach millions of new customers.”

    Microsoft said there are 270 million active Windows 10 devices.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Google Apps Admins Get Improved Device Management

    Google announced three new capabilities to make it easier for Google Apps administrators to set up mobile management and define policies.

    You can click Manage Now on the Admin console to set up mobile management with a predefined set of security policies.

    “Simple to use enterprise applications can sometimes seem like a misnomer,” says program manager Sumit Chatterjee. “While enterprise software has remained complex, consumer software has gravitated towards simplicity. For Google Apps administrators, we believe in providing an EMM solution that’s as simple to operate as changing your personal Gmail settings, all the while delivering enterprise-grade security.”

    Android for Work can be set up in a single click.

    “No longer must admins complete fifteen steps spread across different pages in the admin console, cutting and pasting security tokens, to set up Android for Work,” says Chatterjee. “With a single click, admins can begin managing and whitelisting mobile apps (MAM) for their Android for Work devices in their domain.”

    They’ve also redesigned the device management experience by categorizing all device policy settings to make them easier to find and use.

    Additionally, the new version of the Google Amin app provides mobile device management capabilities including access to a list of all managed devices from which remote action can be taken for things like account wipes and blocking users.

    Images via Google

  • VR View: Google Gives You Embeddable VR Content For Your Website or App

    Google introduced a new tool called VR View, which enables you to embed immersive content into apps and websites. The offering utilizes Google’s 360 VR images or videos that can be viewed with a phone, a Cardboard viewer, or on a desktop computer.

    “Travel apps may include turtle photos, but they’re nothing like diving into the open ocean,” says product manager Nathan Martz. “Real estate websites may include descriptions of the dining room, but it’s nothing like actually touring the home. For developers, having immersive elements in their apps and websites can be the difference between meh and magical.”

    Here’s an example. On desktop, just click to drag throughout the virtual imagery.

    For mobile, VR View is compatible with both Android and iOS.

    “For native apps, you can embed a VR view by grabbing the latest Cardboard SDK for Android or iOS and adding a few lines of code,” says Martz. “On the web, embedding a VR view is as simple as adding an iframe on your site. We’re open-sourcing the HTML and JavaScript for web developers on github, so you can self-host and modify it to match your needs.”

    That Cardboard SDK for iOS is new, by the way. This includes all the features available in the Android SDK.

    Image via Google

  • Google Fiber Phone Announced For Home Phone Service

    Google just announced Fiber Phone, a new service for home phones using Google Fiber. It costs ten dollars a month for unlimited local and nationwide calling, and uses the same rates as Google Voice for international calls.

    Customers can keep their old phone numbers or get new ones. The service includes call waiting, caller ID, and 911. It also offers voice message transcribing for texts and email. There are also privacy controls like spam filtering, call screening, and do-not-disturb.

    “Whether it’s calling mom or ordering take-out, we rely on our phones to help reach the people and things that matter,” says Google Fiber product manager John Shriver-Blake. “And while mobile phones have pushed us toward the future, home phone service is still important to many families. Landlines can be familiar, reliable and provide high-quality service, but the technology hasn’t always kept up. That’s why today, we’re introducing Fiber Phone as a new option to help you stay connected wherever you are.”

    “Fiber Phone can help you make the most of your home phone—even when you’re not at home,” he says. “Adding Fiber Phone means getting access on the road, in the office, or wherever you are. Your Fiber Phone number lives in the cloud, which means that you can use it on almost any phone, tablet or laptop. It can ring your landline when you’re home, or your mobile device when you’re on-the-go.”

    Eventually, Fiber Phone will be available to customers in all Fiber cities, but for now, it will only be in a few areas. There’s a sign-up form here for when it makes it to your area.

    It’s unclear at this point what the first areas with access will be. Current Fiber cities include Provo, Austin, Kansas City, and Atlanta with service upcoming for San Francisco, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Nashville, Huntsville, Charlotte, and Raleigh-Durham. The following are listed as potential Fiber cities: Portland, San Jose, Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Chicago, Louisville, Tampa, and Jacksonville.

    google-fiber-cities

    Image via Google

  • Office 365 Connectors Now Available to All

    Office 365 Connectors Now Available to All

    Microsoft announced Office 365 Connectors in limited preview back in the fall, but is now opening the offering up to all customers.

    Connectors are available now, spanning services like MailChimp, Asana, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Aha, Zendesk, Salesforce, Twitter and UserVoice. There are over 50 connectors available now with more to come.

    “Office 365 Groups is a service that enables teams to come together and get work done by establishing a single team identity and a single set of permissions across Office 365 apps,” explains Microsoft in a blog post. “Setting up an Office 365 Group automatically creates a shared inbox, calendar, notebook and files. Now, any Groups member can add Office 365 Connectors for their group’s use, in seconds, to bring filtered information in the shared inbox that is relevant and contextual to the team’s needs and interests. For example, a product lead using the UserVoice connector can help her entire team track the latest feedback on a new product launched in market.”

    “Each time a key activity takes place in the service you’re tracking—for example, when a new task is added to a Salesforce opportunity, an update is made to a Trello board or an incident is triggered in PagerDuty—a message is sent to the Groups shared inbox,” it adds. “You can then choose to share and discuss on the message with your team or take action with a few simple clicks.”

    The company says it will bring Connectors to Outlook inbox for individual users in the future.

    You can peruse a list of frequently asked questions about Office 365 Connectors here.

    Image via Microsoft