Microsoft updates Sway for Windows 10 with recycle bin, full screen mode, more textures and groups nesting.

Microsoft Sway

If you suffer from severe lack of arts talent like me, you will probably like Sway, a digital storytelling app made by Microsoft to give life to your photos. Put them all together with some text, videos and some other stuffs and you get a beautiful and professional presentation to show to your friends, family and colleagues. And again, you don't have to be a professional artist or be a PowerPoint specialist to use Sway. With that said, Microsoft has updated Sway for Windows 10 today that adds more styles and background textures, groups nesting and the usual performance improvements and bug fixes. Check the full change log below. Note that Sway is not a universal app yet, so, sadly, you won't find it in the Windows Phone store. 

We're all familiar with the Recycle Bin in Windows where all our deleted items are stored and I'm sure we all have stories of items deleted accidentally. Thanks to the Recycle Bin we're able to recover those items. Microsoft has ported the Recycle Bin feature to Sway. It work the same as on the PC in that sways that are deleted end up in the Recycle Bin for 30 days. Where it gets really interesting is that way that you delete on the web, Windows 10, iPhone and iPad will all go to the Recycle Bin. You can also choose to permanently delete them to empty the Recycle Bin, just make sure you really want to do that by checking what's in there before clicking that OK button.

Here's what's new:

• More Styles and Background Textures — Customize your Sways with additional styles featuring a variety of new background textures. 
• Groups in Groups – Nesting groups of content in other groups allows new format combinations, particularly in Sway’s presentation-oriented layout. 
•  Miscellaneous — We've made additional performance improvements and bug fixes.

Download Sway in the Windows Store.

Microsoft OneNote for iPhone gets support for Touch 3D.

This is my second post about a Microsoft app receiving a cool update on another mobile platform, namely iOS, the Apple mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad. The Microsoft app getting updated is OneNote, the note taking and to-do app.

The update adds features that cater for both phone and tablet version of iOS, especially the iPad Pro where OneNote will now support Apple Pencil letting you draw and OneNote will take care of converting hand drawn shapes "into crisp, perfectly regular polygons and circles." Better yet, line thickness will be proportional to your stroke speed. The faster you draw, the thinner the line gets. Microsoft also improved the drawing palette.

With the recent release of the iPhone 6S/6+S and their new features, Microsoft was quick to update OneNote to take advantage of one of selling points of the 6S/6+S, the Touch 3D which, basically, allow users access to a contextual menu after a long press on the app icon. With this new feature, users will be able to create new notes and access recent notes by simply doing that long press on the icon without having to open the app first.

Microsoft OneNote for iOS is available free for download in the App Store.

Microsoft Health for iOS gets support for Microsoft Band 2.

With Microsoft putting all their apps on every available platform, I've decided to use this blog to cover Microsoft apps for the iOS platform. I was recently given an iPhone 6 Plus to play with and the first apps I installed on it were, obviously, Microsoft apps. One of them is the Microsoft Health app to sync with my first generation Microsoft Band.

Microsoft has updated the app today, adding support for the Band 2. The fitness band is not yet available, but can be pre-ordered from Microsoft and Best buy. Your iPhone will be ready to work with your shiny new Band if you're after one. The change log does not say much, but the "What's New" section of the Microsoft Health app does invite you to check the new Band, UV monitoring, stairs counting, wake up refreshed and workout customization. 

Get the Microsoft Heath update in the App store. Check out Windows Central for details about the Microsoft Band 2. 

iPhone go home

Finally the iPhone is here much to the deception of those who went to the release with the intention to get one. According to Armand, who posted a comment to my previous post, there were many in the line to purchase an iPhone, except that they all went home without one because of the exaggerated price imposed by Orange. For the readers out there, note that a dollar equals Rs32.46 and Orange is offering an 8gb iPhone 3G for Rs11,899 plus a monthly charge of Rs1259. This is simply outrageous. According to other sources close to Orange, they manage to sell only 40 units with the first buyer getting one free. Knowing that one owner of an iPhone can only purchase applications through the Apple store, and that internet connection costs that much, I strongly suggest that Mauritians buy the HTC Touch series instead, because Orange requires that you sign up for a postpaid service whereas Emtel offers internet access for prepaid as well.

Clearly, the iPhone or any Apple products are geared towards the haves. And those are relatively few in Mauritius compared to the have nots. So now is the time for Microsoft Indian Ocean Islands to evangelize Windows Mobile in the consumer market. The HTC Touch brands released by HTC lately are much cheaper and "open" in the sense that Mauritians don't have to sign up for an onerous plan with Orange or purchase Apple-chosen applications. The Windows Mobile developer community is much more important and wider than Apple. Not only you get to buy software but there are plenty of free applications on the web that you can download. The only limit is the memory available on your device. Above all else, a Windows Mobile phone was designed to work with XP,  Vista and Mac.  How many Macs do we have out there? Does the iPhone work with Microsoft products? Is it worth it to shell out so much money fo it, knowing that the iPhone has so many limitations?

I forgot to mention that the iPhone has no removable battery.

The iPhone, My 2 cents

i couldn't 'not say anything about this little, well this little publicity stunt. Lets go back, wayyyyy back to a time when personal computers were still a rather novel concept. Apple had the world at its feat in those early years it looked like nothing could stop it... except stupidity. Yes i speak of the Apple Lisa, that was and always will be the problem with Apple. Great ideas i mean some companies really have ideas Apple has great ideas, and really bad follow up. The Apple Lisa was first sold in 1983 with a price tag of $9,995 it was too expensive but it had the concept of being a fun business computer.

Now lets look at the iPhone, in the past week I've seen a number of prices most recently a price of $2,000 (US) depending which plan you go on. When it was first released i was reading about $499 (US) for the 4 gig version.
Point 1: if i own a 20gig ipod why do i need a 4 gig phone?

Last reports I've read also indicate that there will be no secondary software support, shame really it looks like nice hardware in the adverts which brings me to point number 2. Steve Jobbs showed off some really easy ways to use the phone, you touch the screen with your finger.
Point 2: so do i on my pocket PC! Granted it has multi touch but the screen doesn't look that big and when are you going to use 2 fingers on it at once?

Current reports also suggest that there is an ARM CPU,
Point 3: My Pocket PC uses an ARM CPU!

All in all I'm going to give this 2 big thumbs down, I'll make this call early. i think all Apple has managed to do is redeliver something we already have and really don't need. The proof will be of course once these go on public sale ill make the prediction now and say that people will get caught up in the hype for the first week but will be bitterly disappointed in months to come.