Despite a brief mention when the first Retina display-wielding MacBook Pros were first announced this summer, Adobe hadn't officially made a compatibility announcement until now. The company has rolled out an update to both Photoshop and Illustrator CS6 that outfit the design software for Apple's high-res panels. To sweeten the deal, all customers will receive the tweaks at the same time, instead of those with Creative Cloud subscriptions seeing the new features first.
[Source: Engadget]
Feisty, no? Following a report from The Next Web, Microsoft has confirmed to us that there is indeed a hangup in moving the updated SkyDrive app into the App Store. For those unaware, it was reported that Microsoft and Apple were deadlocked in discussions due to the former's decision to allow users to buy more storage from within the app. In other words, Apple's trying to maintain its controversial 30 percent in-app revenue split, while Microsoft is arguing that some users may end up buying more storage through the iOS app, but then make a switch to Android or Windows Phone. Apple's stance is that users who did such a thing would forever entitle it to 30 percent of the revenue, while Microsoft clearly sees things differently. Today, a Microsoft spokesperson gave us the following quote on the matter:
"Similar to the experiences of some other companies, we are experiencing a delay in approval of our updated SkyDrive for iOS. We are in contact with Apple regarding the matter and hope to come to a resolution. We will provide additional information as it becomes available."
While it doesn't say much, it doesn't outright deny the allegations -- something you'd think a company of Microsoft's size would be quick to dismiss if there wasn't a shred of truth to it. Hopefully the two parties can sort things out, but honestly, we'd suggest the Windows Phone team put the whole "add proper Gmail and Google Suite integration to WP8" thing above this little squabble.
[Source: Engadget]
Officially there is no Office for iPad... or iOS or Android. But, it seems a foregone conclusion that the premier productivity suite will be crossing those ecosystem boundaries. In addition to countless rumors and alleged screenshots, now references to the app are cropping up on Microsoft's own sites. Documents over at the French and Romanian Office support pages have been tagged (incorrectly) as applying to "Office Mobile for iPhone," "Excel for iPad," "Lync for iPhone," and "PowerPoint for iPad." The docs in question don't actually pertain to these unreleased products, but the repeated mislabeling across documents and languages (presumably by Microsoft employees) would seem to indicate they actually exist. Of course, it could all be an elaborate hoax, but we'd find that pretty hard to swallow.
[Source: Engadget]
We've journeyed with the TomTom Navigator app for Android and it's been great -- except for one brake-punching problem. Version 1.0 was only compatible with phones that happened to have a display width of 480 pixels (WVGA or FWVGA), which meant that our Galaxy S IIIs, Nexus 4s and other favorite handsets all had to be left at home. That issue has now been fixed in v1.1, along with some other, less fundamental niggles. In particular, you can now download the large offline maps to microSD rather than filling up internal storage, and TomTom also says map downloads can be completed with the app running in the background -- although there's no mention of downloads being resumable. One thing that certainly hasn't improved is the price -- if you want to travel across the USA and Canada, for example, you'll find that Navigator for Android is precisely $50 more costly than Google's offline offering or Nokia Drive for Windows Phones.
[Source: Engadget]
Right on time, businesses with the inside track to Microsoft's account team and partner program can now snag the latest version of Redmond's content production software suite, Office 2013. What's that? You've got the hook up, but you were also hoping for Exchange Server 2013, Lync Server 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, Project 2013, and Visio 2013? You'll be happy to hear that those are also available today -- the already announced "first quarter 2013" release window for Office 2013 stands, when it'll become widely available both digitally and at direct retailers.
The big update to Office this time around comes in the form of Windows 8-style visuals and cloud-based saves using Microsoft's SkyDrive service. We've got a full hands-on right here if you'd like to learn more ahead of next year's big launch.
[Source: Engadget]
Apple's thoroughly re-engineered iTunes is now ready for you to try. The desktop download includes a new MiniPlayer for playing tracks in a widget-sized window, an "Up Next" feature for cueing up songs and viewing what's next at a glance, and -- if you can't decide which tune to rack up -- Apple's software will now offer "instant recommendations" of its own. iTunes 11 will also endeavor to relocate your position within a song, movie or TV shows if your media consumption ever gets interrupted. Finally, iCloud integration will allow you to play back your library on any device, while an offline option should allow in-flight or underground listening sessions to continue without a hitch.
[Source: Engadget]
Home theater PC owners only just recovering from their turkey or tofu comas will have some updating to do -- MediaPortal has been busy. The experimenters among us will most likely want to jump straight into the promised MediaPortal 2.0 Alpha Autumn, which carries new visual layouts and video backgrounds, a news plug-in and a party-friendly music player. New versions of remote tools like aMPdroid, MPExtended, WebMediaPortal and WifiRemote bring their own slew of upgrades, such as HTTP Live Streaming in MPExtended or a "what's new" interface in aMPdroid. We'll readily admit that our eye is most drawn to the yet-to-be-launched MediaPortal 1.3 beta's addition of the Titan skin you see up above: going beyond what we saw in October, the extra-polished look goes a long way towards accommodating newcomers and the style-conscious. We're still waiting on publicly accessible 1.3 beta code, but everything else is waiting for open-source media hubs at the included links.
[Source: Engadget]
Looking to browse with the full weight of your 64-bit hardware? Well, if you're a Firefox and Windows user, you're going to have to look elsewhere, as Mozilla has announced it's closing the development of Firefox for the bigger computer architecture. Mozilla manager, Benjamin Smedberg outlined several reasons for the decision, including limited access to 64-bit plugins, a higher propensity for the browser to hang when using available plug-ins and difficulty distinguishing between 32- and 64-bit versions when dealing with stability complaints. After posting the announcement at Bugzilla, it riled plenty of nightly testers, with one Mozilla dev suggesting that around half of them were currently using the now defunct 64-bit version -- presumably due to the fact that an official release never made it out of the gates. What are the options then, if you need your browsing 64-bit? You could return to Internet Explorer or give Opera a try -- both offer a higher bit version, or make a switch to either OS X or Linux, both of which have fully-fleshed versions of the 64-bit web browser. Check out some of the (surprisingly vigorous) debate at the source below.
[Source: Engadget]
We've just seen an update to Firefox for Android, but that's not the only revision that Mozilla has had in the works. Today also sees the release of version 17 of the desktop browser, which brings with it a number of changes and one noticeable omission. The latter is a lack of support for Mac OS X 10.5 (a.k.a. Leopard), which Mozilla first announced last month -- those on Leopard can of course continue to use Firefox 16, they just won't receive any updates. Otherwise, you can expect a new "Awesome Bar" with larger icons, more than 20 promised performance improvements and a new click-to-play functionality for dealing with outdated or potentially vulnerable plug-ins. Also receiving the bump to version 17 is the Extended Support Release (or ESR) version of the browser, which disables the automatic updating to cause less headaches for those dealing with mass deployments. You can find the full change log at the source link below.
[Source: Engadget]
If you were already loving the lazy cloud storage skills of Dropbox and Google Plus' automated photo upload on iOS, you might have also thought Facebook would be the ideal place for it. The social network seems to think so too, as its latest app tweak (for a handful of people included in its early trial) offers a Photo Sync option that works in an identical manner to its Android opposite. Fear not, all photos taken will be whisked to an unpublished album to avoid any embarrassing early photo reveals. We've not been granted access to the test just yet, but you can reacquaint yourself with how it all works at Facebook's official explanation at the source.
[Source: Engadget]
A mere six months since its last update to feature phones and Blackberrys, Opera Mini has refreshed itself again, this time offering up an improved download experience, both in regards to speed and file management. The new web browser is available to download now, with users able to pause and resume their downloads, customize exactly where files are saved and -- would you believe it -- download multiple files at the same time. But in all seriousness, it's hard to complain as Opera continues to roll out additional functionality for its data-savvy browser even on humbler hardware. Those looking for a quick install should point their phone's browser to m.opera.com.
[Source: Engadget]
The Amazon Appstore updated to version 4.3.14.3C today, mending an account switching logout issue plaguing Android 4.2 users. Other new software highlights include: long press removal of applications from My Apps, a battery drain bug fix and a Kindle Fire HD inspired makeover for the Appstore's UI. Don't have Amazon's alternative to Google Play, but would like to give it a spin? Hit the source link below for a complete installation walkthrough of its latest version. Incumbents, feel free to pull down the update from within the app itself and wave bye-bye to those pesky bugs.
[Source: Engadget]