Author: Wayne Williams

There are already Bing-powered apps for Windows 8, Windows Phone, and Xbox, and now Microsoft’s search platform has made some free apps for the software giant’s new Office 365 Home Premium suite (what, you thought Office 2013 was going to get some Bing love?)

At the moment there are five apps on offer — Bing News Search for Office, Bing Finance (Beta) for Office, Bing Dictionary (English) for Office, Bing Maps for Office, and Bing Image Search for Office.

According to Microsoft, “Our goal is to make Bing available in convenient and intuitive ways that take advantage of knowledge Bing has assembled for search… With Bing Apps for Office we are introducing ways for you to be more productive without having to leave the applications”.

So what do the apps actually do? Well as you’d probably expect, Bing News Search for Office lets you search for news and related videos from within a Word document and paste in any stories.

Bing Finance (Beta) for Office lets you build a finance portfolio table in Excel and input stock symbols, while Bing Dictionary (English) for Office provides spellings and definitions, and if you’re not at all sure how to spell a word, type it in as it sounds and Bing will attempt to identify it for you.

With Bing Maps for Office people can plot location details on a map and the app also has a data visualization tool for Excel. As an example of what this could be used for, Microsoft says “imagine overlaying census data on a state map”. So go ahead and do that.

Finally, Bing Image Search for Office lets you search for images on the web from within a Word document. Handy if you want a picture to illustrate your document or flier.

The apps are all available to download now. Provided you have a copy of Office 365 Home Premium, of course.

So what do you think about adding Bing apps to Office? Is it something you’d be likely to do? I have a two monitor setup at home, so use one screen for Office and the other for research, email and so on. But I can see these coming in handy on a laptop or tablet.

Google Maps and Street View provide detailed coverage of much of the world, and today the search giant is adding the Grand Canyon to its list of fully explorable locations.

Captured as part of Google’s Trekker project, the 9,500 interactive — and at times frankly breathtaking — panoramic images cover more than 75 miles of trails and surrounding roads. If you’ve always fancied hiking along the canyon but have never had the time, money or stamina, you can now do it from the comfort of your own home.

This latest project, which required the Google Maps team to lug 40lb 15-lens camera backpacks along the length of the canyon, will let you “hike down the famous Bright Angel Trail, gaze out at the mighty Colorado River, and explore scenic overlooks in full 360-degrees”. Other locations Google recommends you view include the South Kaibab Trail and the spectacular Meteor Crater.

It’s all very impressive, and just another example of how far Google is prepared to go to make sure it stays far ahead of its would-be mapping rivals.

On 24 August 2012, after a thirteen day trial and three full days of deliberation, a California jury found Samsung guilty of infringing on several Apple patents and awarded the American company $1.05 billion in damages. The jury also found that Samsung had willfully stolen design elements from Apple, a damning finding which could have seen the amount of damages significantly increased.

Fortunately for Samsung, following post-trial hearings held over the past few months, US District Court Judge Lucy Koh last night issued a ruling overturning the jury’s willful infringement finding, a move which prevents Apple from being able to seek additional damages.

“The Court cannot conclude that Apple has met its burden to show willfulness by clear and convincing evidence. In light of Samsung’s reasonable, if ultimately unsuccessful, noninfringement defense, Apple simply has not established that there was an objectively high likelihood that Samsung’s actions would constitute infringement,” she wrote in relation to patent D’677, which covers the design of the front of the iPhone. Her view was the same for other patents Samsung was found to have infringed. You can view the PDF copy of the ruling here.

So what does this mean for both tech companies? Well essentially it means Apple can’t ask for any more damages, and although the $1.05 billion award still stands, there’s a very real likelihood this could be reduced in light of the new ruling. It’s good news for Samsung, and bad news for Apple, but the American tech giant still remains the clear winner overall in this particular court battle.

Judge Koh also denied requests from both Samsung and Apple for a new trial.

What’s your view of this latest development? Do you think Samsung has got off lightly here, or do you think Judge Koh was right to overturn the jury on this matter? Comments below.

Photo Credit: JustASC/Shutterstock

Although the Raspberry Pi was originally aimed at encouraging school children to learn to program as they did in 1980s and 90s, the affordable credit card-sized ARM GNU/Linux computer has actually ended up appealing to a broad range of ages.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has never lost sight of its initial purpose though, and thanks to the generosity of Google, it’s about to make some serious headway into British schools.

A grant from Google Giving will see 15,000 Raspberry Pi Model Bs distributed to children around the UK. According to Liz Upton, marketing manager and wife of Pi creator Eben: “We’re absolutely made up over the news; this is a brilliant way for us to find kids all over the country whose aptitude for computing can now be explored properly. We believe that access to tools is a fundamental necessity in finding out who you are and what you’re good at. We want those tools to be within everybody’s grasp, right from the start”.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation, Google, and six UK educational partners will work together to find the children who will be likely to benefit the most from having their very own Raspberry Pi.

Apple attracts rumors like no other tech company. In the past week alone we’ve heard about what to expect from the iPad 5, suggestions that Apple is working on a budget iPhone that may or may not feature plenty of plastic in its design, and there’s even been talk of a larger capacity iPad 4.

It turns out this last rumor was right on the money, as Apple has just announced a 128GB version of the fourth generation iPad with Retina display.

The larger capacity iPad, which comes in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular versions, and in black and white, is designed purely to bring in more money for Apple and help shore up the share price. Or as Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, phrases it:

With more than 120 million iPads sold, it’s clear that customers around the world love their iPads, and everyday they are finding more great reasons to work, learn and play on their iPads rather than their old PCs. With twice the storage capacity and an unparalleled selection of over 300,000 native iPad apps, enterprises, educators and artists have even more reasons to use iPad for all their business and personal needs.

The new 128GB versions will be available from Tuesday, February 5 for a suggested retail price of $799 (Wi-Fi) and $929 (Wi-Fi + Cellular model).

Red seems to be the in color for mobile devices at the moment. First Verizon gave the world a red edition of Nokia’s mid-range Lumia 822 smartphone, and now Samsung has introduced a Garnet Red version of its popular Galaxy Tab 2 slate. This isn’t the first Samsung device to come in the bloody hue — AT&T offered a Garnet Red edition of the Galaxy S III last summer.

Currently only available for the US market, the striking tablet comes with a matching case and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean onboard, in place of Ice Cream Sandwich. All the other specs remain the same, such as the 7 inch 1024 by 600 screen, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB of internal storage.

“This new eye-catching version of the Galaxy Tab 2 offers endless entertainment in the palm of your hand, while the stylish Garnet Red look will set you apart from the crowd,” Samsung senior vice president Michael Abary said. “The Garnet Red version of the Galaxy S III has been incredibly well-received, so we are happy to make the same brilliant color available for our Galaxy Tab 2 as well”.

The tablet is available from the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Office Depot, Fry’s Electronics and Toys R Us, and priced at around $220. If you like the look of it, you’ll want to act quickly as the Garnet Red edition will only be available for a short time.

Gridlee for iOS is a fairly arcade average game, certainly nothing to get excited about. You wouldn’t want to play it more than once, and, to be honest, you probably wouldn’t want to download it in the first place, even though it’s free. Except there’s more to Gridlee than meets the eye.

The game, which was developed by Videa Inc. in 1982, isn’t a remake for iOS. It’s the actual original ROM image running on an up-to-date full version of the MAME4iOS Reloaded Project by Seleuco, an excellent arcade emulator banned by Apple. And if you know how, you can use Gridlee to play a wealth of classic arcade games on your iOS device for free. No jailbreak required.

Apple has a long standing policy of not allowing emulators on its devices (with a few high profile exceptions, such as Atari and Capcom), and pulled iMAME from the App Store in December 2011. Gridlee gives users a chance to use the emulator than powered that app.

To make the most of its capabilities, you’ll need iFunBox, a free program which can tunnel into iOS’ file system. Navigate to iFunBox Classic> Connected Devices> [your device]> User Applications> Gridlee> Documents> roms and drag a collection of zipped MAME ROM images to it (you can find games to play with a little Googling). When you next run Gridlee you’ll be able to choose the game you actually want to play.

The knowing App Store reviews for Gridlee are quite fun. DominusSeph says: “This game has a lot of….potential! Just need to look a little under the surface”, while Boberttiswas adds: “At first glance, this game might seem quite underwhelming, but stick with it and you’ll find a number of features under the bland exterior that make this game so fun, it’s almost as if you’re playing a whole load of completely different games”.

Gridlee’s chances of surviving for very long in the App Store are slim, so if it appeals be sure to grab a copy now.

Photo Credit: Radoman Durkovic/Shutterstock

Valentine’s Day is coming and since nothing says “I love you” more than a Windows Phone, Verizon has decided to mark the occasion by debuting a red edition of Nokia’s mid-range Lumia 822 smartphone. The choice of color will certainly help the handset stand out, seeing as the 822 is otherwise only available in sober shades — black, white, and grey.

The small red is available to buy from Big Red now, either online, or from a Verizon Wireless retail store, and can be picked up for free on a new two-year contract.

The Windows Phone 8 model features 4G LTE connectivity, a 4.3-inch display with an 800 by 480 resolution, and a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. It also has an 8MP back-facing camera (capable of 1080p video recording at 30 frames per second) and a 1.2MP front-facing camera.

In other related Verizon/Windows Phone 8 news, the Samsung ATIV Odyssey is also now available to buy. The 4G LTE device runs $49.99 on a new two-year contact (after a $50 mail-in rebate) and boasts a 4-inch 800 by 480 Super AMOLED display, 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor, with a 5MP back-facing camera (capable of 1080p video recording) and a 1.2MP front-facing shooter.

Apple used to be quite picky about what apps it let through into the App Store, but it’s relaxed the rules in recent times, and now we’ve reached the point where an app that lets you measure your member and see how you compare in the length and/or girth world rankings is perfectly fine.

Condom Size bills itself as an educational app designed to help users determine the proper condom size they need. It also includes educational tips, fun facts about condoms, and more.

Measuring length involves pressing your erect penis against the side of the screen while girth requires the use of a piece of string. When you’ve finished measuring, the $0.99 app will tell you the condom size you need, recommend a make and brand of prophylactic, and tell you how you compare for length and girth in the world. It helpfully points out that above 100 percent means you are larger than average and under 100 percent means… well, it’s not the size that counts, right?

Naturally the world ranking tables are not to be taken too seriously as it’s just possible users may have, ahem, massaged their measurements a little.

Apple’s store policy — what is and isn’t allowed — has always been a bit hit and miss and apps are occasionally pulled after being approved, usually in the wake of unfavorable reports in the press. Popular photography app 500px, which had been available since October 2011 and downloaded almost a million times, was removed from the App Store by Apple earlier in the week after customer complaints over “possible child pornography”.

Since Condom Size contains no images, and is essentially just a measuring and education tool, it’s likely to be allowed to stay in store, for now.

Editor’s Note: Android users can measure up, too. The app debuted on Google Play last year. Who says the best apps are developed for iOS first?

The first video tweet using an app from Vine, the start-up Twitter acquired last year, has appeared on the micro-blogging site. Originally created and sent by Dom Hofmann, co-Founder and CEO of Vine, it was then posted by Twitter boss Dick Costolo and dutifully retweeted by a couple of hundred people.

The embedded video, like all clips sent using Vine, lasts six seconds, and shows the steak tartare creation process — with optional sound — in a loop. While this could prove rather maddening if you have lots of Vine clips visible in your stream, it’s easy enough to hide away.

The Vine app will be available as an iOS exclusive initially, but an android version is expected to follow shortly afterwards. The recording process is as simple as pressing the screen and then letting go when you’re done. Vine will have an Instagram element to it, and let you follow other users and search for clips from people they know.

How Twitter plans to deal with the inevitable deluge of offensive or pornographic clips isn’t currently known.

Steak tartare in six seconds. vine.co/v/bOIqn6rLeIDvia @dhof

— dick costolo (@dickc) January 23, 2013

Update: And Vine’s just gone live at the Apple Store.