January, 2013 - Softonic English

Office 2013 available to purchase today

Microsoft has made Office 2013 available to purchase. The office suite will be available as a digital download or you can pick up a physical copy from different retailers. I’ve spent the last several months testing Office 2013 and really liked it.

You can read my impressions in my full review of Office 2013.

There’s currently four different packages of Office 2013 that you can purchase: Office 356 Home Premium, Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013, and Office Professional 2013. The pricing for each suite is as follows:

Office 365 Home Premium: $99.⁹⁹/year
Office Home and Student 2013: $139.⁹⁹
Office Home and Business 2013: $219.⁹⁹
Office Professional 2013: $399.⁹⁹

The more expensive suites will have applications like Access and Publisher. The most interesting package is the $100 per year Office 365. It lowers the cost of entry and gives users access to every Microsoft Office application, including Access and Publisher (if you’re on a PC). Office 365 gives you complete access to Microsoft’s cloud apps so you can work from any machine that has a compatible browser. Users will also get 20GB of SkyDrive space, which is plenty to house all of your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations.

You can purchase Office 2013 here.

A history of the BlackBerry OS in pictures

This Wednesday, January 30th, the new BlackBerry 10 operating system will be launched. Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind BlackBerry, is hoping the new OS will jump start the fortunes of the ailing platform to make up ground on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.

We’ve been playing around with a test phone running a developer alpha version of BlackBerry 10, and reckon the new operating system is a big jump forward from the current BlackBerry 7 OS. It is more touch-friendly and the user experience feels more like iOS or Android.

It’s been almost 14 years since RIM’s first mobile operating system was launched and, as you’ll see if you quickly flick your scroll wheel down the page below, the metamorphosis of the OS in those years is a sight to behold.

Stay tuned for more news and information about the BlackBerry 10 OS this week.

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More GTA V details emerge

More details have emerged about missions in GTA V. A Dutch site, GameKings, posted a video discussing what they had seen during a trip to Rockstar games. These are still rumors, so we can’t bank on them 100% yet, but our Dutch team assure us that GameKings are a reputable source!

Diligent members of gtaforums.com have been translating the Dutch video, and posting what they have discovered:

During missions you can switch characters, and unlike Heavy Rain, this is not scripted. Each character’s current position will be marked on the map.
Franklin, the youngest character, doesn’t want to end up like ex-bank robbers Michael and Trevor, so maybe has been coerced into working with them.
As well as the traditional GTA version of the FBI (FIB) we also have the Internal Affairs Agency, IAA.
They heard how Rockstar have visited the LAPD and a prison outside of Los Angeles as part of their research.
When you pause the game, the camera zooms out to a map view, which sounds very much like the recent Driver San Francisco.

Pinterest testing new look to improve navigation and layout

Pinterest is updating its web interface for easier navigation and a better layout for displaying information. The most notable interface change is the sidebar, which has been updated to make navigating the different categories and other boards more visible.

This will make discovery much easier. The current interface has categories and other boards in a section at the top of the page, but its drop-down menus are often forgotten about.

The other big change to Pinterest is the layout of its boards. Boards will be bigger, allowing for a better visual experience as well as providing more room to display more detailed information. The update to the look of the boards also helps to aid discovery. Users will be able to see pins from the same board, who has repinned the board, and related pins.

Last but not least, Pinterest is working on improving the overall performance of the site. The updates will only be rolled out to a small group of users “over the coming weeks.” Users who want to help Pinterest test out the new layout have to sign up here. All you have to enter is your user name and email address to request access to the new layout.

Source: Pinterest

iOS 6.1 released

After weeks of rumor, Apple have finally released iOS 6.1, the first update to the most controversial version of their mobile operating system.

In the US, you can now use Siri to buy movie tickets with Fandango, and if you subscribe to iTunes Match you can now download individual songs to your iOS device from iCloud.

More carrier support has been added for LTE (4G), with 36 additional iPhone carriers, and 23 for the iPad. Otherwise, changes in iOS 6.1 are pretty small.

You can download iOS 6.1 by going to Settings, General, then Software Update. Alternatively if you connect to your computer with iTunes you can update there.

SimCity to feature filters for color blind players

The upcoming SimCity aims to be as inclusive as possible. Speaking to Destructoid, creative director Ocean Quigley has explained how they have added special filters to make the game more playable if you are color blind.

There will be three filters, each changing the color palette of the game to suit different types of color blindness. In a game as detailed as SimCity, being able to quickly and easily understand what’s going on is vital, and as Quigley says you could potentially exclude five or six percent of the population from enjoying the game if you don’t address color.

There are also lots of Instagram-style filters, so you can personalize how the game looks, as well as lens flare and tilt-shift. You can read more about them on th SimCity development blog.

SimCity is released on March 5th 2013. We tested the beta, and you can read our hands-on preview here.

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Vinepeek lets you watch a live stream of Vine videos

Vine has taken the internet by storm and users have created some pretty interesting videos. If you want to view some Vine videos, Vinepeek will let you see them as they’re being shared. Vinepeek is a simple one page site that will pull in Vine videos and serve them to you one at a time.

There’s no skipping, pausing, or even muting of the videos. It provides a glimpse into the fleeting moments in peoples’ lives, making it very personal, albeit voyeuristic, experience.

Be cautious though, these Vine videos are completely unmoderated, which means some content may not be appropriate for all ages. As for single purpose sites, Vinepeek is a fun time waster, but it can be frustrating not being able to skip over videos that you many not be interested in. Audio is also turned on by default with no option to mute it.

Visit Vinepeek to see and hear what people are up to.

Nokia’s Music+ subscription services offers unlimited downloads and web streaming

Nokia just added an impressive incentive for smartphone buyers to choose a Nokia smartphone running Windows Phone 8. Music+ is Nokia’s foray into digital music subscription service. Nokia phones running Windows Phone previously had access to the free Music application and streaming service. A subscription to Music+ can be had for just $3.99, making it the most competitively priced music subscription service when compared to services like Spotify, Rdio, and Xbox Music.

So what do you get for $4.00? You’ll get unlimited skips when playing radio, unlimited music downloads to your device, high quality streams/downloads, lyrics, and unlimited streaming on your computer though a web browser. Those who don’t want to subscribe will still have access to the free Nokia Music service but will have limited skips for radio, lower quality downloads, a four mix download limit as well as missing out on web streaming.

Nokia has not specified a solid release date, but stated the new subscription service will roll out in the “next few weeks.”

Source: Nokia

Mobile operating systems don’t matter anymore

The growth of smartphones and tablets worldwide continues to expand at an exponential rate. Consumers are given three main OS choices: iOS, Android, or Windows Phone. There are others like RIM’s BlackBerry and going even further back, Java and the now dead Symbian OS and good luck to you if you choose them.

Choosing between iOS, Android, and Windows Phone sounds like a difficult choice, but each operating system provides the same core functionality. Basic functions like making calls, managing contacts, and text messaging are all the same. The only significant difference is in the different app stores.

The App Store, Google Play Store, and the Windows Marketplace all have different amounts and varieties of apps. The majority of the most popular apps are supported on each of these operating systems. Gaming and productivity apps differ based on popularity with iOS and Android in first and second place. But when you consider the operating systems in what they can do, there isn’t that big of a difference.

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Gameloft celebrates Super Bowl XLVII by giving away prizes for its NFL Pro 2013 game

Gameloft is getting excited about Super Bowl XLVII by giving away prizes with their Facebook contest. All users have to do is choose a winner, enter your name plus email, and you’ll be entered to win 4 footballs & 45 in-game money packs for their NFL Pro 2013 game on Android and iOS.

While you wait for the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens to face off at Super Bowl XLVII, you can play NFL Pro 2013. The game lets you choose from and manage 32 different teams.

As with any free to play game, there are tons of microtransactions for you to buy to make your team better. The game is a huge download so make sure you’re connected to Wi-Fi before you install the game.

You can enter the Facebook contest here.