Microsoft's "Wow" Factor

It's been a long time coming, but Microsoft is "getting groovy." I read nearly daily news about new software, improved software, new hardware, new partnering, new acquisitions, and more key apps for more operating systems.

• Office 365
• Office Now
• Office Monitor
• Delve
• Mix for PowerPoint
• Editing via multiple OS
• Office Now
• OneClip
• Cortana
• Flow
• Revolve
• Hello
• Sway
• Hyperlapse
• Continuum
• Hololens
• Music app improvements on the way
• Acquisitions (September 2014 - May 2015)
• Wunderlist. German To Do list app.
• Datazen. Mobile business intelligence leader
• Sunrise. Creator of an innovative calendar app for mobile devices
• Revolution Analytics. Helps customers find big data value with advanced statistical analysis (R programming language)
• Equivio. Israeli text analysis company
• HockeyApp. Leading mobile crash analytics and beta distribution service for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone
• Acompli. Provider of innovative mobile email apps
• Aorato. Israeli Cybersecurity Firm
• Mojang. Minecraft developer

Thieves steal 113 smartphones every minute -- Is yours next?

The ZoneAlarm Security Blog has some great tips for safe computing. A recent post deals with smartphone theft. Many people have no password to their smartphone. If you lose or even just temporarily misplaced your smartphone, anyone can do business "in your name" as well as gather up contact information and much, much more.

Adding a strong password (not just a simple PIN) to use the phone may be a slight inconvenience while using it, but it protects your data. This is crucial if you do any online [shudder] financial transactions with your smartphone.

Protection tips also apply to tablets and similar portable computing devices.

• Read more at the ZoneAlarm Security blog's post,
  Smartphone theft in the US: Are You an Easy Victim?

Cell phones = drunk driving

"Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" Results of a recent study show that using a cell phone while driving is as dangerous and sometimes even more dangerous than driving under the influence.

In the study, many cell phone users crashed into the pace car ahead of them, but none of the DUI ones did. Yikes!

A commenter at a CNET blog posting on this report says that the problem is "self-phones" -- phones used by people who are so self-centered that they forget even common courtesy to others while using the cell phones.