Just over six months after its release, Microsoft has sold more than 100 million Windows 8 licenses, the company reported late Monday. That number includes more than 40 million copies sold since January and is on par with the company’s sales pace for Windows 7 in 2009. Tami Reller, CFO for Microsoft’s Windows Client Team, stated that the product’s outlook should be stronger as the back-to-school season begins and new purchases are combined with the introduction of new hardware. A
EA Reaches Exclusive Deal with Disney to Publish Star Wars Games
After shutting down the LucasArts game studio last month and promising to license the studio’s valuable properties to third party developers, Disney has reached an agreement with publishing giant EA for the exclusive rights to the Star Wars franchise. Disney and EA issued a joint press release Monday announcing the “multi-year” deal, and clarifying that EA will focus on the “core gaming audience,” which we believe means AAA console and PC titles, while Disney will reserve the right to publish
Dropbox Announces First DBX Developer Conference
It arguably revolutionized cloud storage and syncing, famously turned down an acquisition offer from Steve Jobs and Apple, and now Dropbox is ready to host its first developer conference. DBX, as the event will be known, takes place Tuesday, July 9th at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center and aims to bring developers together to further advance third-party support for the cloud platform. Mark your calendars! This summer, the Dropbox community will come together on July 9 for a day of
Adobe to Launch Future Creative Apps Only Via Creative Cloud
It’s time to welcome “Creative Cloud” and kick “Creative Suite” to the curb. Adobe announced Monday during its annual MAX conference that the company’s grand experiment in subscription software was a success, and that it will be moving its entire line of professional media tools to the subscription model this summer. The company first moved to a Cloud-based subscription model early last year, offering access to its entire Creative Suite line of software for a monthly subscription alongside traditional retail
Microsoft: Many Scenarios “Just Work” on Xbox Without Internet
Despite rumors and poor interactions with its customers, Microsoft’s next Xbox will not require an Internet connection for all functionality, according to an internal Microsoft email reportedly obtained by Ars Technica. Traditional “offline” activities, such as watching live TV, playing a Blu-ray movie, and playing a single player game, will not require an Internet connection, the memo states. Durango [the codename for the next Xbox] is designed to deliver the future of entertainment while engineered to be tolerant of today’s
EA Announces 2014 Launch of ‘The Sims 4’ for PC and Mac
The next installment in the popular Sims franchise will arrive in 2014 for PC and Mac, publisher EA announced Monday. Today we are revealing to our top fans the fact that The Sims™ 4 is coming to PC and Mac in 2014. The Sims franchise is fueled by the passion and creativity of its millions of fans around the world. Their continued devotion to the franchise ignites the fire of creativity of the team at The Sims Studio, driving them
How to Customize Office 2013 Backgrounds & Themes
In Office 2013, Microsoft’s latest productivity suite, the company decided to let users add a bit of “personality” to their applications with custom backgrounds and themes. They are subtle changes, to be sure, but if you’d like to change the look of Word, Outlook, or any other Office 2013 app, here’s how: First, open an Office 2013 application; we’ll use Word 2013 for this article. Click the “File” button in the top left corner of the window to open the
Apple’s iPhone Widens Lead as Most-Owned U.S. Smartphone
Apple’s iPhone reached record high usage share in U.S. during the first quarter, according to the latest MobiLens survey from research firm comScore. The iPhone achieved 39 percent usage share among U.S. smartphone subscribers as of the end of March, up 2.7 percent from December 2012. U.S. Smartphone OEM Usage Share Source: comScore December 2012 March 2013 Point Change Apple 36.3% 39.0% 2.7 Samsung 21.0% 21.7% 0.7 HTC 10.2% 9.0% -1.2 Motorola 9.1% 8.5% -0.6 LG 7.1% 6.8% -0.3 Usage
One of Six Working Apple I Computers to Be Auctioned This Month
A rare, fully functional Apple I computer signed by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is set to be auctioned off this month, and experts estimate that the piece of computing history will fetch between $260,000 and $400,000. German auction house Breker is handling the event. The Apple I, at the time known simply as the “Apple Computer,” was the first commercial Apple product sold by company co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Designed with hand-built circuit boards that required customers to
Firefox OS Simulator 3.0 Gives Devs Taste of Mozilla’s Mobile OS
Mobile operating system fans who are anxious to try out Mozilla’s open source Firefox OS can now get a taste of what the platform will offer without having to purchase developer preview phones. Mozilla on Thursday released the final version of Firefox OS Simulator 3.0, which includes the complete feature set for the platform. Additions from previous versions of the Simulator include the ability to push test apps directly to supported hardware, rotation simulation, geolocation simulation, manifest validation, the latest
How to Create & Use Hidden Folders in Mac OS X
We’ve discussed accessing hidden files and folders in Mac OS X before, but many users don’t know that they can also create their own hidden items. While not secure against an experienced set of prying eyes, using hidden files and folders is a quick and easy way to keep sensitive items out of view on your Mac. We’ll show you how to create a hidden folder in which to store your private files. In OS X, hidden files begin with
Apple Updates iPhone 5 to iOS 6.1.4 to Fix Speakerphone Profile
Apple released a maintenance update for iOS Thursday. iOS 6.1.4 is available exclusively for the iPhone 5 via iTunes or an over-the-air software update. No other iOS 6 iDevices appear to require the software. Apple states only that the new version updates the iPhone 5’s audio profile for speakerphone usage. There is no other indication of what, if anything, changed. The update will undoubtedly upset the jailbreak community, which is still recovering from the announcement last month that premier jailbreak