Gregarius » BetaNews.Com » novembre 19, 2013

BetaNews.Com (15 non lus)

Dropbox teams with Salesforce for new enterprise functionality

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 10:19pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Dropbox, one of the leading services for cloud storage, has been making recent inroads to become business and IT-friendly. The company boasts that its business user-base has doubled since 2012, and now reaches over four million customers. To keep that fire stoked, Dropbox now announces a new partnership with Salesforce.

"Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re partnering with Salesforce to bring great technology to the enterprise and help users connect with customers in a whole new way", says the company's Ari Friedland.

The partnership brings functionality to the new Salesforce1 mobile platform. "This means that Salesforce users will soon be able to access their Dropbox files from within the Salesforce1 mobile app and have all their client presentations, invoices, contracts, and meeting notes on the go. Salesforce users will also be able to attach Dropbox files to things like their Chatter feed too as another way to share and collaborate with colleagues", the announcement claims.

Dropbox promises much more is on the way for its growing market of business customers. This latest news comes on the heels of last week's move to bring some measure of connection between home and business accounts.

Photo Credit: bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock
Bing on Xbox One makes it easy to search for entertainment

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 9:09pm CET par Wayne Williams
With just a few days left until the Xbox One goes on sale, Microsoft is pushing the features and benefits of its new console, focusing on everything except games.

Today, it’s the turn of Bing to step into the spotlight, with a new blog post detailing the search engine’s vital role on the system. Stefan Weitz, Senior Director, Bing explains "Whether your game, show, song or movie is in an app, on your console, or in our own Xbox Music or Xbox Video, the same instant search technology that powers Bing web search also brings your entertainment results together beautifully on your TV".

Bing on Xbox works with Kinect and uses voice search to help you find whatever type of entertainment you’re after, regardless of media type or location. Or, as Weitz claims, "You say it, Xbox One finds it".

He goes on to list some examples of things you can say to Bing:
- "I feel like watching comedy movies from the 1980’s".
- "Show me popular dubstep music".
- "I want to watch the movie Star Trek Into Darkness".
- "I want to play Forza Motorsport".
If you’ve ever found yourself repeating the same phrase over and over -- using an array of different tones and comedy voices -- in an effort to be understood by a seemingly hard of hearing speech recognition engine, you might not be relishing the idea of trying to search for entertainment in this way, but Microsoft says things have vastly improved in the past few years.

"We’ve focused on overcoming limitations of previous voice experiences. To achieve speed and accuracy improvements, we focused on an advanced approach called Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). DNN is a technology that is inspired by the functioning of neurons in the human brain. In a similar way, DNN technology can detect patterns akin to the way biological systems recognize patterns allowing us to better understand natural language".

And that’s not all. "With an arsenal of over 300,000 servers powering the back-end of Xbox One, the system is learning and adapting every day so as the vast expanse of the digital entertainment and services continues to morph at record speeds, the experience will continue to get better".

It certainly sounds promising, but it will be interesting to see if Bing can manage to understand all of the different accents and dialects in the various territories that the Xbox One will be available in.

Image credit: Aaron Amat/Shutterstock
Sound Valley brings the relaxing sounds of nature to your PC

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 7:47pm CET par Mike Williams

Working on your PC isn’t generally a great way to wind down, but if you’re stressed out after a hard day then Sound Valley might be able to help. It’s a small and simple tool which plays the sounds of nature -- birdsong, wind in the trees, rain, streams and more -- gently in the background, while you just relax.

The program looks like a simple but stylish media player. Click "Play" and Sound Valley plays its first scene, "Forest -- Day". You’ll hear a stream gurgling nearby, various birds singing, perhaps the rustle of the undergrowth in the background. It’s nicely done, and very restful.

This isn’t as basic as you might think, either, because Sound Valley isn’t just playing a single audio file. Instead the program is taking a number of source sounds, then blending and repeating them randomly, so you can listen for a very long time without noticing any particular pattern.

Clicking Next steps through other scenes: "Forest -- Night", "Forest -- Rain", "Forest -- Rain and Thunder", "Sea Day" and "Sea Night". You can disable any of these if they don’t appeal, or have the program step through them automatically after a specified period of time.

Sound Valley can be used in several ways. At its simplest, you might play a scene or two on demand. But it’s also able to play on a repeating schedule -- 15 minutes every two hours, say -- as a reminder to take work breaks. And the program can even shut your PC down after it’s played for some defined period of time, perfect if you’d like it to help you sleep.

There are a few ways Sound Valley could be improved further. We would like more scenes, and perhaps an interface to customize them more directly, or perhaps create our own. That’s a major step, not something that could happen in a hurry, but it would take the program to a whole new level.

Even now, though, Sound Valley is a nice idea, implemented very well, and if you need a new way to wind down then it’s definitely worth a look.
AIDA64 adds new OpenCL GPGPU Benchmark Suite, and dedicated Network Audit product

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 7:42pm CET par Nick Peers

Budapest-based FinalWire Ltd has launched AIDA64 Extreme Edition 4.00 and AIDA64 Business Edition 4.00, major new builds of its diagnostic and benchmarking tools for Windows PCs.

The new release updates support for the latest CPU, GPU and SSD models, adds a new OpenCL GPGPU benchmark suite and expands its business offering to provide a new dedicated Network Audit tool (users should complete this form to test-drive this new product).

The chief new feature in version 4.0 is a new OpenCL GPGPU Benchmark Suite, offering multi-threaded benchmarks for measuring the performance of modern graphics processors and APUs. The suite supports AMD CrossFireX, AMD DualGraphics and nVIDIA SLI configurations along with mixed configurations, multi-GPU video adapters and OpenCL-capable IGPs.

Updated graphics support comes in the form of optimized 64-bit benchmarks for the new AMD Kaveri and Bald Eagle APUs, as well as support for the latest hardware technologies, such as AMD Radeon R5, R7 and R9 series, plus nVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, 760 Ti OEM, and 780 Ti OEM models, and Quadro K610M/K3100M/K6000.

The new build also offers support for the Razer SwitchBlade Pro’s multi-touch LCD display, allowing users to view temperatures, fan speeds and various other system details. This support has also been extended to two Razer gaming keyboards (Razer DeathStalker Ultimate and Razer SWTOR). Also optimized is support for the Logitech G19 gaming keyboard promising less demands on the CPU when rendering the image on the keyboard’s LCD display.

The update also includes optimized benchmarks for Intel’s Bay Trail SoC (system on a chip) products, while also improving support for two Intel Atom C2000 chips (Avoton and Rangeley) and introducing preliminary support for the Intel Quark X1000 SoC.

Also supported are two new SSD drives: OCZ Vector 150 and Samsung XP941, as well as support for the latest build of virtualization tools VirtualBox 4.3 and VMWare Workstation 10.

AIDA64 Extreme Edition 4.00 and AIDA64 Business Edition 4.00 are both available as function-limited 30-day trials, with prices starting from $39.00 for an AIDA64 Extreme Edition non-commercial license.
Nokia sale to Microsoft reaches the Finnish line

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 7:40pm CET par Brian Fagioli

While products are typically produced by corporations and businesses, the brands themselves are often adopted by societies and become icons. Some examples are Coca-Cola (USA), BlackBerry (Canada) and Nokia (Finland). Sadly, for the latter country, the associated company has been in talks to become acquired by Microsoft (USA).

Some citizens of Finland may have hoped for the acquisition to fail in the eleventh-hour, but unfortunately for them, the sale has been approved. According to Nokia, at a meeting that took place today, it "decided to confirm and approve the sale of substantially all of Nokia's Devices & Services business to Microsoft in line with the proposal and recommendation of the Nokia Board of Directors. More than 99-percent of the votes cast at the EGM were in favor of this proposal".

"This is a significant step forward for Nokia. We are delighted that shareholders have given us overwhelmingly strong support to proceed with this transformative agreement. Today's vote brings us closer to completing a transaction which will mark the beginning of the next chapter in Nokia's near 150-year history, offering the potential of greater value for shareholders", says Nokia Board Chairman and interim CEO, Risto Siilasmaa.

In other words, a shifting cellular phone industry sparked by the iPhone, ultimately devalued the company to the point where Microsoft bought it. It is a bit ironic that the company that produces Windows ultimately bought an iconic piece of the country from which Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, hails. Well, at least the country can still claim Rovio and Angry Birds.

Image credit: Mmaxer/Shutterstock
Easily delete locked files with Reboot Delete File Ex

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 7:37pm CET par Mike Williams

Deleting files on a PC is normally very easy. If they’re locked, though -- being accessed by another program -- then Windows won’t allow you to touch them. Tools like Unlocker try to help out by unlocking the files themselves, but this is a dangerous approach which risks crashing your PC. Reboot Delete File Ex offers a marginally alternative: point the program at the offending file and it’ll have Windows to delete it when your system next restarts.

There’s nothing complicated to this process at all, but the program still requires installation, most probably because it wants to equip your PC with a toolbar. If you’re not interested then watch carefully during setup, and click "Decline" as appropriate.

With that out of the way, click "Add Files" and choose whatever files you’d like to remove. Click "Delete" to mark them as unwanted. And if you’d like to restart now, click "Reboot PC" to do so. (This isn’t necessary, though. Feel free to close Reboot Delete File Ex, reboot whenever you like, and your chosen files will still be deleted.)

If there’s an issue here it’s that Reboot Delete File Ex doesn’t allow you to view any files which are currently marked for deletion. If you choose two files, close the program, then wonder if you’ve made a mistake, say, relaunching Reboot Delete File Ex isn’t going to help. It won’t show you the files you selected last time, and there’s no way to change your mind, to say you don’t want to delete them, after all.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do. Launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations, and you should see your selected files there. But there may also be other files on the list, and removing items individually is a little tricky.

Still, Reboot Delete File Ex does provide a useful method to delete locked files, and it’s worth keeping a copy on hand. Just be very careful in the files you choose to dispatch: deleting something important could cause all kinds of problems.
PlayOn brings Chromecast-like functionality to Roku

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 7:32pm CET par Alan Buckingham

Much has been made of Google's little Chromecast device -- the dongle that allows you to send media from computers and mobile devices to your TV. The $35 device has received a fair amount of attention and also a bit of mimicry, with services like Cheapcast popping up.

Now, TV streaming service PlayOn is teaming with set-top box maker Roku to bring similar functionality to customers of the two services. "PlayCast gives users the ability to stream virtually any online video from a PC browser to a Roku-connected TV. It is like Chromecast casting for the Roku", PlayOn says in a brief statement received by BetaNews.

The app is free, though the backend is not, and has become available in the Roku channel store. "Watch virtually any video on the Internet on your Roku. PlayCast has an easy intuitive interface and takes only a few minutes to set up. PlayCast requires that you purchase companion software for your PC", the description reads.

The company claims that this new app supports any internet video, you only add the channel and then purchase and install the PlayOn server using a PC on your network.
Top 10 most wanted Black Friday products -- PS4 beats Xbox One

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 6:30pm CET par Brian Fagioli
Every year in the United States, on the fourth Thursday of November, we gather with our families for Thanksgiving -- a holiday for, of course, giving thanks. Typically, we share a meal of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and various other side dishes. The men watch Football while the women and children watch the parade. It is surely a wonderful day that evokes positive emotion.

Then, at midnight, Black Friday begins and we throw all of that out the window. Consumers, still woozy from tryptophan, line up at stores to buy mass-produced products. Only hours removed from giving thanks, they trample their fellow man in a mad-dash to save a few dollars. Sadly, people actually die as a result. With that said, here are the top 10 most wanted Black Friday products.

According to a study by Coupons.com, the following products are the top 10 most wanted Black Friday products:
1. The North Face Denali Jacket
2. iPad Mini 16GB
3. Dell Inspiron 15
4. UGG Classic Tall Boots
5. PlayStation 4
6. LEGOs; LEGO Super Heroes Dynamic Duo and LEGO Friends Olivia’s House
7. iPhone 5c 16GB (unlocked, contact-free)
8. Xbox One
9. Samsung 32 Inch HDTV
10. Canon PowerShot A2500
Matt Wisk, chief marketing officer at Coupons.com explains, "our list of most wanted Black Friday items offers great ideas for this season's gift shopping. We surveyed thousands of shoppers and uncovered the most sought after items, including top consumer electronics, games and apparel".

While not all of the products are tech-related, the majority are; the results are very revealing and surprising. As if to validate the decline of the PC market, the iPad mini (number two) beats out the Windows-based Dell Inspiron 15 (number three). Also, further fueling the next-gen console wars, the PlayStation 4 (number five) beats out the Xbox One (number eight) -- heck, even LEGO blocks beat out Microsoft's console.

Do you plan on doing Black Friday shopping? If so, are you planning to buy any products on this list? Tell me in the comments.

Image credit: K2 images/Shutterstock
MetroMail -- a really good Gmail client for Windows Phone 8

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 3:14pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic

Google is renowned for its lack of Windows Phone 8 support. The search giant currently has a single app in Store -- which, surprisingly, just received a nice update, its first big one since March 2012 -- with no plans on the horizon to bring popular apps like Drive, Gmail, Google+, Maps or YouTube to the tiled smartphone operating system.

Being a user myself, I can see why some folks would give up on waiting for the real deal and start to embrace a third-party app or switch to a rival service instead. Fortunately, developers have released competent clients for Google services, like MetroMail that provides a solid Gmail experience in the absence of an official Windows Phone 8 app.

MetroMail is the work of apoelin, the Windows Phone developer behind the popular third-party Google Voice client MetroTalk. The developer says MetroMail delivers "a first-class Gmail experience", so let's take a look at what the app offers in its first iteration.

The MetroMail design falls in line with that of typical Windows Phone 8 apps, which makes the app intuitive and the feature discovery easy. It makes good use of side swipes, which reveal additional Gmail labels (Sent Mail, All Mail, etc.). The navigation is a tad sluggish -- this is noticeable while swiping and performing some actions like opening and getting out of emails -- but decently fast overall.

MetroMail was released with multi-account support straight off the bat, allowing users to add and handle multiple Gmail and Google Apps accounts. Switching between the accounts can be done via the corresponding option in the app's menu or by selecting a different account after tapping on the user's handle shown at the top of the inbox.

It is worth mentioning that MetroMail also supports two-factor authentication, so you can wave good-bye to creating and typing in those frustrating application-specific passwords.

The app implements typical Gmail features, like archiving and labels which are not available in Windows Phone 8 out-of-the-box. The two options alone give MetroMail an edge over the built-in email client, for those who prefer Gmail. Similarly, the app also comes with inbox tab support (which is also not available in the Windows Phone 8 email client).

Conversations are easy to track, as MetroMail shows all the sent and received emails between you and another party (friend, company, etc.) that are part of a thread. To keep things simple, the quotes within emails are not rendered by default.

Like the built-in Windows Phone 8 email client when paired with an Exchange ActiveSync connection, MetroMail allows users to perform server-side searches. This means that when looking up a specific term the app will show emails both on the device as well as on the server. This feature is not available to those who wish to set up a Gmail account using the default profile (which uses IMAP and CalDAV + CardDAV) from Windows Phone 8 GDR2 onwards. Sadly, there's no escaping the built-in Gmail profiles for those who wish to sync calendar entries and contacts.

Notifications are shown through toasts, which pop up at the top of the Windows Phone 8 screen, and live tile counts. The latter can be configured to show a combined unread count from multiple accounts; this is designed for a usage scenario involving a single pinned MetroMail live tile. The implementation is good as notifications can be configured on a per-account basis, however the live tile does not show any preview for unread emails and emails may not show up (immediately or at all) in the inbox following the live tile count update.

MetroMail also trumps the built-in Windows Phone 8 email client by actually syncing the changes almost instantly with the server. The latter does not, often resulting in unread emails on the server even though they were read on the smartphone (it's a known yet unresolved issue).

The app could definitely use some polishing and performance improvements but it does provide a really good experience for Gmail users on Windows Phone 8. It's certainly better overall than what the tiled smartphone operating system offers out-of-the-box.

MetroMail is available to purchase from Windows Phone Store. The cost is $0.99.
BleachBit now digitally signed, adds Explorer integration

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 1:31pm CET par Mike Williams

It’s taken almost five years to get there, but disk cleanup and shredding tool BleachBit has finally reached version 1.0 with some welcome new features.

The Windows installer and executable are now digitally signed, so users shouldn’t be hassled with "unknown publisher" alerts any more.

New Explorer integration makes it easier to securely delete particular files. Just select and right-click them, choose "Shred with BleachBit", and they’ll disappear forever.

There are new cleaners for Octave and WarZone 2100, while Chrome, Flash and VLC cleaners have all been improved to delete even more junk.

Finally, the Linux build has gained an SQLite3 cleaner, and BleachBit developer Andrew Ziem reports that two further updates will be coming soon: a .deb package for Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander), and an .rpm package for openSUSE 11.4.

BleachBit 1.0 and BleachBit 1.0 Portable are available now.
Google will pay you for improving Android security

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 1:03pm CET par Mihaita Bamburic
Android's success, in the smartphone and tablet markets, makes the operating system's users a popular target for malware writers. Some of the concerns which researchers and security firms frequently expose translate into real threats, while others will likely never see the light of day as they're squashed in their infancy.

Luckily, Google is taking a proactive stance to improving Android's security as the search giant has expanded the patch reward program that was introduced in early October, to also include its Android Open Source Project.

"The goal is very simple: to recognize and reward proactive security improvements to third-party open-source projects that are vital to the health of the entire Internet", says Google's description of the program.

The patch reward program was expanded to include only the open-source part of Android, hence why it is limited solely to the Android Open Source Project. While this represents the largest chunk of code and the core of the mobile OS, it is worth pointing out that proprietary bits, like drivers, are not covered as well.

If Google deems the security improvement as fit for the patch reward program the person who submitted it will receive between $500 and $3,133.7, with the exact amount to be determined by the reward panel on a per-case basis.

Aside from the Android Open Source Project, the latest expansion of the patch reward program also includes the following, as Google mentions:
- Widely used web servers: Apache httpd, lighttpd, nginx
- Popular mail delivery services: Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, Dovecot
- Virtual private networking: OpenVPN
- Network time: University of Delaware NTPD
- Additional core libraries: Mozilla NSS, libxml2
- Toolchain security improvements for GCC, binutils, and llvm
You can find out more about the patch reward program by visiting this address.

Photo Credit: Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock
Easily retrieve 200+ product keys with Windows License Key Dump

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 11:59am CET par Mike Williams

Reinstalling Windows and your applications is a hassle for many reasons, but the greatest is probably the time it takes to find your various license keys. Are they on a CD box, a sleeve, in an email, online, somewhere else? You’ll have hours of fun finding out.

Windows License Key Dump can help by finding the product key for Windows, along with many other applications (Acrobat, Creative Suite, Photoshop, Norton Internet Security, TuneUp Utilities, VMWare Workstation and so on), and displaying them all in a single report.

There’s plenty of product-retrieving competition, of course, but Windows License Key Dump is different: it’s a command line tool, easily scriptable, and so very convenient if, say, you’d like to automatically create product key reports for many different PCs. Or you just want something you can add to your portable PC toolkit.

The program isn’t so convenient at first, unfortunately, as it insists on being installed. There is no good technical reason for this, as far as we can see, it’s just so that the setup program can ask you to install a couple of toolbars. Pay attention, though, click "Decline" a few times and you’ll be safe.

Once the program is installed you can double-click WindowsLicenseDump.exe to get a first look at its report, a simple list including each product’s name, version and license key. This worked reasonably well for us, though with a few small issues. We’re not sure why the report includes Internet Explorer, for instance, as the product key provided is the same as for Windows. And the report itself uses more columns than the command window displays by default, which means license keys are displayed part on one line, part on the next.

Of course Windows License Key Dump is supposed to be used at the command line, where formatting isn’t such an issue. Just use a command like WindowsLicenseKeyDump | clip to send its output to the clipboard, or try WindowsLicenseKeyDump > LicenseKeyDump.txt to save its report to a text file, for easy reference later.
Metalogix streamlines moving business email to the cloud

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 11:05am CET par Ian Barker

Email is often cited as being the killer application that made the internet take off, and there's no denying it has changed the way the world does business. But using email for business means keeping an archive so that you have a record of conversations. Over time that archive can become substantial and take up a lot of expensive disk space so storing it in the cloud begins to look like an attractive solution.

To help with moving mail to the cloud Metalogix is launching its Total Email Management and Migration product for Amazon Web Services. It delivers a complete service for mail archiving, backup, security, migration and continuity in the cloud.

The product uses 'labs' which allow users to test solutions to make sure everything is working as it should before completing the migration. There's also a try and buy option which offers all of the options of the full product for a limited number of accounts so that customers can see how the migration works before moving to the full solution.

"With Metalogix Total Email Management and Migration for the AWS cloud environments we are delivering a comprehensive approach to email and file archiving and management with the flexibility our customers seek to support the changing dynamics of their business," says Steven Murphy, CEO of Metalogix. "By providing the industry's best of breed email management solutions on AWS, users can achieve the stringent security and control they need while lowering their total management costs. This consolidated solution combined with world-class security and management functionality is truly the 'All Stars Environment' customers and their trusted partners have been seeking to meet their email and unstructured data management requirements".

The product is offered in licensing packages based on number of users or storage capacity and perpetual licenses can be transferred to other cloud systems on in-house infrastructure if need be. You can find out more on the Metalogix website or try out the product via the AWS Test Drive Labs at http://aws.amazon.com/testdrive/microsoft/.

Photo Credit: Roland IJdema/Shutterstock
Adobe Brackets is a powerful source code editor for the web

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 11:02am CET par Mike Williams

If you’ve tried more than your share of source code editors, then Brackets probably won’t make much of a first impression. It may have been launched by Adobe in 2012, but this open-source tool still looks a little basic, not something you’d want to use for serious work.

Actually try the program, though, and you’ll soon feel very differently. It’s very much a work-in-progress (the project is still only at version 0.34), but already Brackets is proving to be a capable editor with some very interesting features.

There’s plenty of code hinting-type power. Just start typing and Brackets displays matching HTML, CSS or JavaScript, helping you enter code quickly and without mistakes. This even works with your own functions: type the name and it’ll (usually) remind you of the names and types of whatever arguments you need.

As your code gets lengthier, so Brackets helps to speed up navigation. Click in an HTML tag name, a class or ID attribute, choose the Quick Edit option, and any relevant rules appear in an inline editor. You get to see and tweak CSS code as required, without having to manually switch between files.

Click the Live Preview button on the sidebar and life gets even easier. If you’ve installed Chrome then it pops up to render the current page, and this preview display is then updated in real time, as you edit your HTML and CSS. It’s all very smooth, no messy screen refreshes required, and great for providing immediate feedback on your ideas.

The program includes plenty of other essential features. Hover your mouse over an image, color or gradient, and a preview appears; WebPlatform.org-sourced documentation is available on CSS properties and values; there are "Find", "Find in files" and "Replace" tools, all with regular expression support.

What’s really surprising, though, is that Brackets is written in JavaScript, CSS and HTML. This makes the program interesting in itself, just as a practical example of how to build an advanced JavaScript editor. But it also means it’s relatively easy to customize it, and there are already a host of add-ons to extend Brackets even further (notably Theseus, a JavaScript debugger for Node.js and Chrome).

This is still very much a preview edition, and there are various bugs and oddities to be found. But these don’t get in the way of its core functionality; Brackets is already a very good source code editor, and from what we’ve seen it’s only going to get better from here.
Office Remote turns Windows Phone into a presentation controller

Publié: novembre 19, 2013, 1:19am CET par Mark Wilson

Microsoft Research's latest app makes it easier than ever to give a presentation without having to hunch over your laptop. Like the idea of wandering the stage gesticulating wildly as you skip between PowerPoint slides? Fancy being able to scroll through Word and Excel documents without the need to find your mouse? This is what Office Remote has been designed for. This is a simple app for Windows Phone, but one that will be welcomed with open arms by anyone who has to give presentations as part of their job.

The app is described by Microsoft as transforming a cell phone into a "magic wand" and it untethers presenters so they are free to walk the stage and interact with their audience. While the most obvious app to use Office Remote with may be PowerPoint, it can be used with Word and Excel too -- the 2013 and 365 versions of the office suite are supported (although not the RT version of Office).

If you've created a presentation that includes speaker notes, these notes can be displayed on the screen of your Windows Phone, but there are also those all-important controls for advancing to the next slide. A virtual laser point is available for pointing out interesting elements of a slide. In a post on the Windows Phone blog, Office program manager Bert Van Hoof said:

You can start your PowerPoint presentation, advance the slides, see your speaker notes, and control an on-screen laser pointer with a touch of your finger -- all from your phone. You can also navigate between Excel worksheets and graphs, and control data slicers from the palm of your hand. And you can scroll through a Word document or quickly jump to specific sections or comments.

Grab yourself a copy of the app from the Windows Phone app store. You'll also need a copy of the desktop add-in.

Image Credit: gielmichal / Shutterstock