InformationWeek Stories by Todd Ogasawara

Google Drive Third-Party Apps: An Introduction

2013-02-25T08:00:00Z

The ability to install third-party Google Drive apps only requires a supported browser and access to the Internet. This has the potential to be a truly disruptive technology for desktop platform ecosystems like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, problems with the basic function of actually saving data to Google Drive by third-party apps need to be addressed before widespread adoption is possible.

Add Apps To Office 2013 on Windows 8/RT

2012-12-03T10:02:00Z

Office 2013, especially the preview version of Office Home & Student 2013 RT that comes with the Microsoft Surface tablet, changes the model for writing add-on programs. There are now Office apps and an Office app section in the Windows Store. Many of these apps are free, but it's easy to see enterprise-oriented apps being developed and charged for. Microsoft's implementation of the apps in Office 2013 is clumsy in some ways, but promising.

Surface With Windows RT: A Winner Despite Apps

2012-10-30T09:02:00Z

Microsoft's Surface tablet with Windows RT is the first worthwhile post-PC device in our post-PC world. What it lacks in apps is compensated for by a near-desktop-class browser.

iPhone 5 is Hot - Too Hot to Hold

2012-09-24T08:30:00Z

The hot new phone on the market is living up to its billing. Normal use got my iPhone 5 up to 111 degrees F. At this temperature it's too hot to hold.

Visual Tour: Microsoft SkyDrive For Android

2012-09-14T11:35:00Z

Microsoft's long-awaited SkyDrive for Android lets users of Android devices tap into Microsoft's cloud storage service. This 1.0 release, despite a few minor weaknesses, provides a fairly good cloud storage alternative to services like Dropbox, especially if you use Microsoft Office every day.

Microsoft Office Web Apps For iPad A Game Changer

2012-08-23T14:10:00Z

iPad users, rejoice. Microsoft Office is finally available for the iPad. It's buggy in places and browsers aren't made to handle huge spreadsheets, but overall, Microsoft's Office Web Apps for iPad, including Web-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, rocks.

Google Nexus 7: Latest Must-Have Tablet

2012-08-02T08:00:00Z

Meet the Nexus 7, the first Android tablet sold directly by Google and the first to run Android 4.1, a.k.a. Jelly Bean. The 7-inch tablet is priced like an ebook reader but offers a lot more. Its low price, big screen, and impressive performance might give Apple's iPod Touch and low-end iPad a run for the money, too. Don't completely count out Samsung's Galaxy Tab 2 7.0 just yet, though.

HTC One X: Big Screen In Thin, Fast Phone

2012-08-01T10:30:00Z

HTC's new HTC One X packages a big, beautiful screen in a thin and light phone. Although not perfect, it's a compelling smart phone we'd consider buying ourselves.

Python For iOS Brings Coding To iPad, iPhone

2012-07-16T12:45:00Z

Python for iOS supplies a much-needed scratch for those with an itch to write programs for the iPad or iPhone by letting you write software for the device on the device itself. The app provides a familiar interactive interpreter interface for Python programmers plus some extras that make it easy to use, especially on an iPad.

Swype Android Beta Adds Dragon Speech, Handwriting Recognition

2012-06-25T17:41:00Z

Nuance's Swype app offers a new winning combination for fast typing on Android devices: gestures and Dragon speech recognition, with handwriting recognition thrown in for good measure.

Will Microsoft Buy Nokia?

2012-06-21T17:51:00Z

Microsoft dropped a lot of clues at its Wednesday Windows Phone 8 announcement that it's getting close to buying Nokia. Here's what has BYTE contributor Todd Ogasawara convinced that an acquisition is in the works.

SkyDrive, Windows 8 Metro-Style: A Visual Tour

2012-06-12T16:40:00Z

We test drive the Windows 8 Metro final preview version of SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service.

Microsoft on{X} For Android: A Visual Tour

2012-06-06T14:48:00Z

Microsoft--yes, Microsoft--has a new Android programming platform called on{x} and it's great. Developed by the Microsoft R&D team in Israel, on{x} lets anyone turn an Android phone into an uber event-driven notification gadget.

Diet Coda: The iPad Text Editor That Satisfies

2012-05-30T12:45:00Z

Diet Coda turns iPads into Web developer productivity machines. It provides a code editor that can work with files on remote servers, code highlighting, and a keyboard that displays important additional keys depending on which programming language is used (HTML, JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby). It also includes an SSH client that provides secure remote shell access.

Diet Coda: Visual Tour Of An iPad Code Editor

2012-05-30T12:45:00Z

Diet Coda lets Web developers leave their notebooks at home. The $19.99 code editor for the iPad from Panic, Inc., is portable friendly, including an adaptive keyboard that tunes itself to programming languages for making it fast and easy to work with remote files.

How To Collaborate Using Google Cloud Connect On Microsoft Office

2012-05-25T08:15:00Z

Google, Cloud Connect

Documents To Go: Terrific Office App For Android

2012-05-14T14:31:00Z

Documents To Go is a workhorse app on my Android tablet. I use it for note taking during meetings as well as reviewing text documents and spreadsheets. It can open and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files without conversion and is faster and more flexible than the free Google Docs for Android app.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2: The First Must-Have Android Tablet

2012-05-03T09:00:00Z

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) doesn't cost much more than the ultra-popular Kindle Fire, yet this 7-inch tablet comes loaded with iPad-like hardware and the latest Android operating system, a.k.a. Ice Cream Sandwich. Here's hoping the Galaxy Tab 2 launches a new breed of affordable yet capable Android tablet.

Microsoft Boosts SkyDrive Software, Storage

2012-04-25T12:25:00Z

SkyDrive, Windows' free personal cloud storage service, now appears as regular files and folders on Windows and Mac, just like Dropbox.

Google Docs App for Android Tablets: The Ugly Truth

2012-04-23T14:35:00Z

The Google Docs for Android app provides a potentially useful tool for mobile users. However, its lack of presentation creation tools, weak spreadsheet experience, and general instability reduces its potential. But wait, there's more: It's also slow.

How To Create Personalized Dashboards With Android Tablet Widgets

2012-04-19T18:11:00Z

Android, unlike iOS, can display on home screens widgets that update live data. The Evernote, Google Voice, Twitter, and Facebook widgets can tell you a lot without you ever having to touch the screen.

Adobe Integrates EchoSign e-Signature Service Into Adobe Reader

2012-04-13T15:33:00Z

Say goodbye to the hassle of printing out, signing, and faxing back documents. Adobe has integated its e-signature service, EchoSign, into Adobe Reader X for the desktop, Android, and iOS, so you can sign and return electronic documents from anywhere. The Android and iOS versions of Adobe Reader add the ability to annotate PDF documents by using highlights, strikethroughs, underlines, and sticky notes.

Focus On The Lytro: A Visual Tour

2012-04-02T13:51:00Z

Who hasn't been frustrated by an out-of-focus photo? The Lytro Light Field Camera might be the most revolutionary change in photography since digital came along: it lets you refocus your photos after you take them. Don't sell your old digital camera just yet, though. The Lytro has some serious drawbacks, including a fixed amount of storage. Take our quick tour of this unusual camera's features, from touchscreen to output. To experiment with the other dynamic photographs we took using the Lytro, read our full review.

Lytro: The Next Big Thing In Photography

2012-04-02T13:51:00Z

Light field photography can eliminate the biggest problem photographers have: out-of-focus pictures. Don't toss your digital camera just yet, though. Although a major breakthrough, the Lytro is far from perfect.

Taposé's Split Screen For The iPad: A Visual Tour

2012-03-29T17:52:00Z

Taposé (pronounced "tap-oh-ZAY"), a new note-taking app by Zanther, Inc., addresses a problem a lot of iPad users probably wish they didn't have to endure: switching back and forth between two full-screen apps in order to copy and paste items. Taposé lets you split the iPad screen into two side-by-side panes. It comes with five apps that work in the dual panes: Journals, a note-taking app; Web, an integrated browser; Maps, a subset of Google Maps; Contacts, which accesses the iPad's contact list; and Calculator. You can display any two apps at once, or work with two views of the same app. Unfortunately, version 1.0 of Taposé has a beta roughness about it with too many limitations to be useful. I wouldn't rely on it for creating polished business documents.