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OSX

Microsoft Office 2013 and 365 Now Available

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Office365logo

Microsoft has launched the latest version of Microsoft Office today and with it comes a new way of thinking when it comes to purchasing software. Office 365 allows you to “rent” time with Office for a much cheaper price, which is an awesome idea. You can use Office 365 for $9.99 a month or $99.99 per year. This is great for students, who only need the tools that Office provides, for a short period of time.

To make Office 365 even more appealing, Microsoft is allowing you to use the software on up to 5 PCs or MACs along with 60 Skype world minutes per month, and storage space with SkyDrive (20GB). Even if you look past 365, Office 2013 has an all new look along with a ton of great features and it promises to be the most useful and connected Office to-date

If you still prefer to own the software, you can purchase it at full price (listed below).

  • Office Home & Student 2013 $139.99.
  • Office Home & Business 2013 $219.99.
  • Office Professional 2013 $399.99.

For complete details you can head to Microsoft’s official Office site.

 

Do We Really Need Microsoft Office?

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Every time I visit my local computer store and walk past the software section, I ponder whether or not I would benefit from having a copy of Microsoft Office. The product has been around for years and has been extremely useful throughout school. Businesses have relied on MS Office to get their work done as well and no one ever really bothered to ask if it was really necessary. Why would they? It’s just the way things go. If you’re a business or student then having MS Office is just a necessary as a #2 pencil. Open Office Logo

The times have changed though and people are starting to wonder why they keep paying for a product when a free alternative is offering similar quality. OpenOffice is a real contender and it’s getting better. I have been using OpenOffice for years and I don’t even consider using anything else. What makes OpenOffice even more appealing is that it runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. So now you have a free software suite with all of the bells as whistles of MS Office and it runs on all three major platforms. Another plus for OpenOffice is that it also has good library of templates and extensions, and yes you can still get access to clip art as well.

So why bother with Office? Really theres not too much to argue against using OpenOffice, except maybe the fact that you might run into a few problems with users getting used to the new suite. It definitely feels a little different than MS Office and that can make people a little uncomfortable. There is also the issue with the lack of pre-installed templates, this is something that’s easily solved by simply going out and getting them but with MS Office most of the common templates are already available.

Some businesses are not only moving away from Microsoft Office but they are moving away from traditional PC’s. OpenOffice is available on the iPad which is the one mobile device that is gaining a lot of popularity with companies and even has the interest of the government making the switch. Given it’s open source roots, the possibilities for OpenOffice seem endless as it allows the software to be engineered directly for a company’s needs. Add in the benefits of cost savings and it starts to look like a viable solution. OpenOffice is a great software suite and if you haven’t tried it yet I highly recommend you give it a shot. I’m sure you will find that it suits your needs.

Do we Really Need Certain Apps for our PC?

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With both OSX and Windows now featuring an app store we can now get many of our favorite applications all in one place and with peace of mind when it comes to security. I have been using Windows 8 for some time now and one of the apps that I use is the Netflix app. The app has been somewhat buggy as of late, but over all it seems to get the job done. I finished watching an episode of Mythbusters and then went off to run some errands. I came home later and jumped onto my Macbook and started working. Square modern app icons.

A hour or so had passed and I decided that I wanted to watch another episode of Mythbusters. I started to head to my web browser when I suddenly stopped and wondered if there was a Netflix app for OSX, something similar to what Windows 8 has. I quickly opened the App Store and searched for Netflix, only to find that it doesn’t exist. I thought that it was kind of strange considering OSX has been around for a while and it seems like it would be useful.

I quickly began to realize that the lack of a OSX Netflix app isn’t actually that big of deal. I only need to click a bookmark in my web browser and I have access to all of the content and features that any app would have. Then I started to question the need for apps like these in the first place, at least for your laptop or desktop. What’s the difference between an app on my desktop vs a link on my desktop that takes me to Netflix? Where is the benefit? With new web browsers that harness the power of our machines more than ever by making use of our GPU and extra processing power, why bother with an app? I am looking for any opportunity that can save disk space and the lifespan of my SSD.

What makes the web based app more appealing is the fact that it’s often more reliable. I mentioned earlier that I have been dealing with quite a few bugs since I have started using the new Netflix app, but when it comes to the website, I have had virtually no issues. Some of this could be due to the website being around much longer than the app and therefore less buggy. Why bother with the app at all when we seem to be moving toward a cloud based world? If we are trying to create a much more seamless experience then why leave the browser that we spend so much time using, just to open an app? The answer isn’t so clear at this point, which is why the pros don’t seem to know either. This is basically the wild west era of the OS and everyone seems to be trying a little bit of everything and then waiting to see what consumers end up doing.

We can always look at things from the other prospective, which seems to be a movement away from the web as we know it today. Maybe we just make everything an app, including all our favorite websites and instead of downloading them, we just launch them from the cloud. Perhaps, we can just get rid of the web address altogether and then just use google to search for apps instead. Who knows how strange things will become and how practical any of this actually is.

One thing is for certain, we are in the middle of a long evolution that will leave us with a much different computer experience than currently we have today. We are stuck in a phase between old and new and it feels weird but I think were headed in the right direction, it’s just going to take another five years or more before we can fully adapt this new way of doing things. It is ultimately up to us, the consumers, to figure out what we want. If we don’t buy it, it won’t continue to exist and so we ultimately decide what works and what doesn’t. So what do you think?

 

Pondering Apple Software with Jonathan Ive in Charge

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The recent shake up in Apple’s executives has left Jonathan Ive in charge of software design as well as hardware design. This change up could have Apple’s next big software release featuring some big changes.

Jonathan Ive
Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc.

Jonathan Ive has always pushed the idea of keeping things simple and clean and he will likely bring this mentality into play when working with Apple’s software. In every corner of OSX and even iOS, you will find bits and pieces of texture and art incorporated right into the UI. One only needs to perform a few common tasks on any Apple OS to find these little decorations. For instance, the wooden bookshelves in iBooks, linen textures on the side panels, and torn paper on the calendar, these are all things that Ive will likely remove in future versions.

I personally don’t have a problem with them but then again I don’t have any doubt that Jonathan Ive will do a great job in overseeing the design aspect of Apple’s software. Simplicity can be just as beautiful as any decorative pattern or texture. If anything, the application itself should be the centerpiece not what surrounds it, but there needs to be some balance. Take away too much and you risk making the OS feel too utilitarian and dull but add too much and it can become distracting. Some critics of Apple believe that these little decorations date the software and make it look silly. It will be interesting to see what the critics say about Ive’s spin on the next generation of Apple OS software.

I can’t help but wonder what other changes are in the works for the next release of Mac OS. It’s not perfect but OSX has been around for sometime now and it’s still just as enjoyable to use as it ever has been. Will we see a move away form the Dock? It is possible that the next Mac OS will more closely resemble iOS, even more than it does already. This seems to be the case with Windows 8 which feels a lot like Windows phone and the Xbox dashboard mashed together. I feel the Dock is effective and elegant but at times unnecessary.

I like the way iOS handles open applications by keeping them out of view at the bottom of the screen, you only need to swipe up to access them. I would like to see the new Mac OS handle open applications in a similar way. I understand you can hide the dock but it’s just not the same. We could have open applications and their corresponding windows be in this bottom slide while all of our other applications could be accessed through the Launchpad. Also, since the Dock will be removed, we will need a quick way to access the Launchpad, preferably by gesture.

We can only offer up our best suggestions, but given Apple’s record of releasing OS software we technically should have little to fear. We will just have to wait and see what Ive and the crew at Apple come up with.

5 Cool Mac OSX Easter Eggs

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Easter EggIn almost any software application, game, or website, the developers usually incorporate some type of hidden feature or message somewhere . These hidden features are known as “easter eggs”. Here are 5 cool easter eggs for OSX.

Slow Motion 

This one is super easy, just hold down the shift key and then perform any UI action.

For example, Hold Shift and then try to minimize an application using the (yellow) minimize button. This will also work when you go to restore the window.

Tetris in Terminal

Open Finder -> Open Applications -> Open Utilities -> Open Terminal -> Type “emacs” ->Press enter -> Press ESC -> Press X -> Then Type “tetris” and Press Enter.

Snake in Terminal

Open Finder -> Open Applications -> Open Utilities -> Open Terminal -> Type “emacs” ->Press enter -> Press ESC -> Press X -> Then Type “snake” and Press Enter.

Weather for Nowhere

Go to the Dashboard and add the weather widget, if you haven’t already. Hold down the Option Key + Command and then click on the weather icon(sun,cloud,rain). You should see something interesting, you can continue to click to cycle through the available weather icons.

The Suck Effect (for minimizing)

Normally you only have two choices for your minimize effect, the Genie effect and Scale effect. There is however, a hidden third option called suck.

To use this third option simply, open the terminal and type the following. “defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect -string suck”.

Do not include the quotes when typing into the terminal.

You will need to restart the dock in order to see the new effect. You can restart the Dock by either restarting the computer or by going to Applications->Utillities-> Activity Monitor. Then force quit the Dock and it will automatically restart.

If you would like to change your effect back to one of the other options you just need to go to System Preferences->Dock and then choose an effect where it says “minimize windows using:”.