Ericsson will buy Mediaroom TV software by Microsoft

Ericsson is all set to buy Microsoft’s Mediaroom TV software. However, the details of the agreement have not been made public. That is why it is not known exactly how much the Swedish company will be paying Microsoft. Microsoft’s Mediaroom TV software supports the AT&T’s U-Verse TV service.

Microsoft’s software allows the phone services to provide TV services over the phone exactly like the ones one gets through cable-TV. There is a widespread use of this software which is used in the set top boxes. As many as 22 million users are currently availing of the services from the software.

The reason for Ericsson to have a go at the Microsoft’s software is because it corresponds with the TV products the company has. The business is currently located at California.

There are more than 11 million households that use the set top boxes and the Mediaroom software. Out of these slightly less than half of these are handled by U-Verse. A couple of prominent organizations that use this software are Telus Communications and Deutsche Telekom.

Microsoft introduces the new Office version Office 365 Home Premium

Tuesday was a big day for Microsoft when they launched a new version of their Office software – the Office 365 Home Premium. It will be a great development for the company, whose Office suite has been one of the most popular software around for a long time now.

The new suite will be targeting the home users more than the professional ones. It will most certainly help the company to strengthen their footing and spell some tough competition, especially from Google which has many free online apps. It remains to be seen how the users approach the new version from Microsoft.

Image: ibtimes.com

The Office 365 Home Premium is tagged as being the first major revamp of the Office 2010. Though the latest version was launched on Tuesday, it was last month itself that some of the companies had got the new version. That was because of the contracts those companies had with Microsoft.

The new Office is likely to take on other companies like Apple and Google in this category. Though Microsoft has a domination in this field, there are a lot of Google apps, that can be used online and are very popular as well.

Microsoft reveals the price of Office 2013 and Office 365

Though Microsoft has been experiencing busy working hours in the run up to their Windows 8 OS, they have taken time off to officially declare the price tags of Office 2013 and Office 365. The standalone version in the suite will be accessible to be activated on one single computer.

However, the whole suite will also be there in the form of various packages. It will be customized according to the needs and demands of the users. Office Home as well as Student 2013 will be inclusive of PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote and Word. It has been priced at around $139.

Office Home and Business 2013 contains the entire range of earlier software. It will come accompanied by Outlook and bears a price tag of $219. The Professional package is the best in the category that not only has the earlier editions of the software, but will also have Publisher as well as Access. It can make your wallet lighter by around $399.

If you want to subscribe to the Office 365 Home Premium, you will have to pay $99 every year. 20GB of SkyDrive storage as well as one hour of Skype calling every month is what you will get as a subscriber.

If you were to buy the Office 2010, you will either get upgrades to Office 2013 for free or one full free year to Office 365.

Microsoft names Windows 8 UI as Modern UI

There has been splashing around by Microsoft and it has now named Windows 8 UI as Modern UI. The Windows 8 and its touch-centric user interface has not been one constant entity in any one way. The same UI was initially named Metro. It looks that Microsoft has used the third name for their UI and now seems happy with Modern UI.

The word Metro has been replaced with Modern UI according to the documentation of the company. The explanation given by the company suggests that the word ‘Metro’ was just used as a code. This code was used by the developers in the developing stage. It was never going to be a word used for the general public, the company added.

However, there is something more than just the explanation given by Microsoft. Actually, the name had to be changed due to a naming row. Microsoft has a partner in Europe called Metro Group. This Windows 8 UI has been designed for using the mobile phones, touchscreens and tablets.

Microsoft’s Surface tablet may cost up to $2,150

For the past few weeks, the Surface tablet from Microsoft has been in the news constantly. There were a lot of predictions on the price of the gadget as well. However, the price was revealed towards the end of the last month. The prices were known tentatively. Though they were a tad higher, they were worth giving a thought to the iPads.

It was estimated that the prices would range somewhere in the range of $1000. However, the newly known prices have skyrocketed totally unexpectedly and can go more than twice as much. The top price of the tablet is expected to cost $2,150.

Image: ubergizmo.com

According to a leading news report, the cheapest model costs in excess of $1000. It costs $1,002 to be exact, while the most expensive of them will carry a price tag of $2,150. These prices are released for Sweden where the cost was calculated in kroner. However, the tablet could cost lesser, where the cost of living is less compared to Sweden.

On the other hand, the iPad certainly is cheaper in Sweden. If it is compared with Microsoft’s Surface tablet, the costliest iPad costs $1,032 while the cheapest comes at a cost of $773.

These are only estimated costs and the official prices would be known when the tablet is ready for release.

Microsoft and Nokia to invest for a mobile app

Nokia along with Microsoft will be investing an amount of €9 million each. A total of €18 million will be invested for developing a mobile app. The two giant companies are funding the amount to have the AppCampus program. The companies are expected to use it for at least three years.

The new app will be built around Microsoft’s Windows Phone mobile OS. The hope is that entrepreneurs and students from around the world will come to Finland to help in the development of the AppCampus program.

The main aim of AppCampus program is to promote an innovative mobile app for Windows phone. It will be used in the ecosystem of the phone, the Nokia platforms that will also include the Symbian and Series 40.

The investment is aimed at having software for Smartphones for the Windows phone. The Aalto University will be managing the development of this program. Those who are interested can apply here.

The candidates selected after the application process will be given training in design and usability as well as in mobile technology. A lot more is to follow for the successful candidates in the future.

The Universal Translator from Microsoft can work in 26 languages

The household name in the field of computer, Microsoft has developed software called as Universal Translator which can handle as many as 26 languages. In fact, it can translate your spoken English in any one of these predefined 26 languages. The software has the ability to speak in the voice of its user as well.

The men behind the program are Rick Rashid and Frank Soong, who come from the MS HQ in Washington. The software might prove extremely helpful for those people who travel around the world and find it difficult to communicate with the people there in their local language.

The upside of this software is that it can even be installed into a Smartphone. So this will make the communication even easier. At the same time, this software is more likely to aid the language students when they are learning a foreign language.

There will be speech recognition as well as translation. This will then be followed by final text-to-speech- yield in one of these possible languages.

OpenOffice – your open source for MS Office option

OpenOffice is one of the freeware software around that is also open source. It is a good replacement for the good old MS Office. Both OpenOffice and MS Office serve more or less the same features.

The Similarities

Text editor like ‘Word’, ‘Powerpoint’ to make professional presentations, ‘Excel’ spreadsheets along with the formulae to help you carry out complex mathematical operations.

The good thing about OpenOffice is that it is entirely free. You don't have to pay a dime to get it. Secondly, it is easily available to download it from the web. Just Google it and you are done.

OpenOffice	Microsoft Office	Functions
Writer	MS Word	Carries out the text editing fuctions
Impress	Powerpoint	Creates slides and presentations
Calc	Excel	Carries out Excel fuctions
Draw	Publisher	Synonymous with Desktop Publishing

In Other Words
What MS Word is to MS Office, Writer is to OpenOffice. The way you can make, arrange and give effects to slides and make presentations through PowerPoint, you can work equally efficiently in Impress. Calc and Excel are almost the same in both the suites and when it comes to desktop publishing then there is similarities between Draw and Publisher.

Apart from this, as there are options for you to choose options in the Office Suite for custom installation, you will find the same in OpenOffice.


However, in spite of all these similarities, there is a difference between OpenOffice and MS Office. Or in fact let us say, Microsoft showed why they are better yet. In MS Word you have the options of working with the .docx and .doc formats. However, in OpenOffice, there are only the .docx files at your disposal.