collaboration
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You can now chat on Skype inside Office Online apps
Want to get advice while you're plugging away at that big report in Office Online? You won't have to fire up a separate app (or website) any longer. As hinted at by recent leaks, Skype chat is now built into the web productivity suite's versions of PowerPoint and Word. If you want to share ideas with a colleague, you can keep the conversation running alongside your docs without having to juggle windows or browser tabs. Yes, Google Drive has had a similar option for a while, but this collaboration upgrade is definitely handy if you frequently work in Microsoft's world.
IBM's new email app learns your habits to help get things done
Email can be overwhelming, especially at work; it can take a while to get back to an important conversation or project. IBM clearly knows how bad that deluge can be, though, since its new Verse email client is built to eliminate as much clutter as possible. The app learns your habits and puts the highest-priority people and tasks at the top level. You'll know if a key team member emailed you during lunch, or that you have a meeting in 10 minutes. Verse also puts a much heavier emphasis on collaboration and search. It's easier to find a particular file, message or topic, and there will even be a future option to get answers from a Watson thinking supercomputer -- you may get insights without having to speak to a colleague across the hall.
Facebook wants to handle your workplace chats
Your office may try to keep you off Facebook right now, but you may have a genuinely work-related reason to hop on that social network in the near future. Sources for the Financial Times understand that the internet giant is developing "Facebook at Work," a professional take on its familiar formula. It'll reportedly look like the regular page, but will focus on chatting with coworkers, connecting with business partners and collaborating on documents. On the surface, it sounds like a cross between Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Drive.
This lamp lets you combine all your iOS gadgets into one huge touchscreen
Collaboration across multiple devices could get a whole lot more interesting if MIT's newest device hack catches on. It's a combination of software and hardware called HuddleLamp, and it lets you turn all your touchscreen gadgets into a single workspace where users can literally toss items back and forth, and manipulate the size of photos and documents to fit across all of them. In short, it turns all your touchscreens into one massive desktop. HuddleLamp works by combining software installed on each device with a 3D camera hidden inside a lamp that looks down on the all the devices. With the camera in place, the software can make sense of where all the devices are in relation to each other and alter each of the displays accordingly. Smaller items can be moved -- or even thrown -- from one device's display to another, while larger objects fill multiple screens and can be moved and resized at will. HuddleLamp is an open source project and a commercial product is not currently planned. The tracking software will be publicly released by the developers on November 16, so if you're interested in creating your own super collaboration desk, you can dive into the resources available on the HuddleLamp website. [via Ubergizmo]
Ray Ozzie's 'Talko' app is not the right productivity tool for the Atlanta Hawks
New team collaboration / messaging apps are seemingly everywhere, from Trello to Slack to (now Microsoft-owned) Yammer. A new entrant Talko is interesting not only for its pedigree -- the team is led by Lotus Notes co-creator and former Microsoft Chief Technical Officer / Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie -- but because it marks a return to the days when our phone was a tool for voice communication, instead of primarily text or pictures. In an introductory blog post, the Talko team describes an app that lets users talk, share and do. The idea is that communicating by voice while everyone is online is easier and others can catch up with the conversation at any time since the data is cached on Talko's servers -- Danny Ferry would probably not approve. Right now the app is iPhone only, while Talko says Android and web apps are on the way.
VoxyPAD: Clever iOS tool for real-time sharing of photos and docs
VoxyPAD (free) is an innovative and easy to use app for sharing and annotating documents, photos and web pages with others while talking about those shared items in real time. VoxyPad features instant messaging and you can send a message to another user even if they are not running the app. I can see lots of uses for VoxyPAD both in business and the consumer space. You can share a photo while you draw arrows or highlight parts you want to point out to someone else. The app has a built-in Web browser, so people can discuss a web site design or content on a web page. You can draw with your finger to simulate a pen, while others see what is happening in real time. VoxyPad supports up to 5 people in a group chat. Other functions include the ability to display and annotate maps, and text can be typed onscreen in a variety of styles and colors. I tried VoxyPad with a friend, and in general it worked pretty well. Pictures could be loaded and shared, then drawings or other symbols could be added by using a finger as a "stylus". The app was pretty responsive over an Internet connection. The integrated Web browser worked well. You type in a Web address, and the page appears on the screen of everyone logged into the session. Audio comes from your built-in mic on your iPhone or iPad. While testing VoxyPad, the app dropped the audio feed and I had to re-call my testing partner. The company also offers an extended service for US$0.99 a month or $8.99 a year. That service allows up to 50 people to chat and also provides cloud-based data access so you can share and review Dropbox documents in a session with others. You can work with VoxyPad offline, and then choose items to share when you are connected to others. The free version of VoxyPAD is really quite complete. Most people won't need to opt for the subscription, but it is easy to try it for free and decide if you need the additional features. To use VoxyPad you'll need to create a free account or you can use Facebook credentials. The app only works in portrait mode, although I think most will want to use it in landscape mode -- especially on the iPad. It would be nice if VoxyPad also worked with a Web browser so you weren't restricted to iOS devices, but in vernal this is a solid app with some great free features. Upgrades to the extended service are handled through the VoxyPAD website. It has some overlap with services like GoToMeeting, but VoxyPAD has the advantage of being free. VoxyPAD requires iOS 5.1.1 or later. It's universal, but probably best suited to an iPad for the bigger screen.
Dropbox bolsters Carousel, eyes collaborative docs with startup purchases
Dropbox just debuted its Carousel photo management app last week, and it's already making strides to boost the software's storage chops. Today, the cloud-minded outfit acquired Loom: a photo storage service that became a popular alternative to Everpix and Apple's iCloud Photo Stream. The snapshot organizer provides users with the ability to automatically upload images from multiple sources (or folders) to a single repository, accessible from both mobile devices and a desktop browser. Of course, it synced over cellular and not just WiFi as well. Loom allows better organization and sharing than the first iteration of Carousel does, too. Dropbox's increased emphasis on captured imagery is already quite clear, but the company has other plans too.
Productivity app Todoist drops the price and adds collaboration features
The latest version of the app Todoist, referred to simply as "Next," hopes to capture the attention of the busy bees among us by offering small-scale project management features at a new, affordable cost of... zero dollars. Alongside a streamlined iOS 7-esque design, Todoist added a new visual scheduling interface that makes it easier to chronologically view and delegate tasks. Most significantly, the app is finally following in the footsteps of competitors like Wunderlist by bringing real-time collaboration on 13 different platforms. Users can work alongside five of their friends without shelling out any cash, but for $30 a year, said colleague cap is bumped to 25 (26 in total). Premium users also get features like task labels, notes and filters. So if you're handling more than your fair share getting that startup off the ground (duh), it might just be worth the investment. To download it yourself check the source links below.
Ultravisual is an intriguing iOS app for sharing photos and videos
Ultravisual (free) joins a large collection of photo-sharing apps for iOS, but it has some unique features wrapped in an attractive, but at times frustrating, GUI. The app lets you load photos from your camera roll, and arrange and label them into an attractive presentation. You can also collaborate with others, and you can include videos in your collections. Getting the images in any order is easy with a drag-and-drop interface. You can take photos from within the app, and there are filters that work in real time for things like warming up the color balance, but oddly, those filters don't work after a photo is taken. Labeling of photos uses very attractive text, and the finished presentation looks very nice. Videos can be edited in-app, and strung together. These are nice capabilities in a free app. While the UI is beautiful, it is confusing. Even help is buried, and you have to scroll way down in your collections to see the help button. There are some on-screen prompts, but I'd like to see more. You also get some cursory videos, but some of them raised more questions than they answered. I can't imagine a user starting from scratch with this app and getting all the way through to publishing without stumbling quite a lot along the way. The app allows you to easily share your work, either with people you know, or you can publish to a public collection. When you send to a friend or family member, they get a URL and can click to see your photos or videos, which are server based. The sharing opportunities can be quite powerful, and if you see some things you like, you can follow the creator. When you first use the app, you sign up for a free account. You can share your material publicly or not share that way. Ultravisual is a clever, and attractive app. At a price of free, it is worth checking out, and happily there are no in-app purchases to make. I think for people to get more use out of the app, there will need to be more obvious help built in, and an easier-to-understand workflow. None of that is impossible, and I think the app will get a large following on the strength of its features, but easier immersion would be a big plus. Ultravisual requires iOS 7 or later. It's not a universal app, so it's going to look best on an iPhone or iPod touch.
Apple updates iWork iCloud beta with new collaboration tools
The ongoing beta of Apple's iWork for iCloud received an update today that delivers new features aimed at improving collaboration. New features for Keynote, Numbers and Pages in iCloud are fully explained when you first activate the apps on iCloud.com, but we've got a list of what you can expect. Most of the feature additions are largely the same across the whole suite. Each app now has the following new features: Collaborator list: View the list of collaborators currently in a document. Collaborator cursor: See cursors and selections for everyone in a document. Jump to collaborator: Instantly jump to a collaborator's cursor by clicking their name in the collaborator list. Collaboration animation: Watch as images and shapes animate as others move them around. Print: Print your documents and presentations directly from the Tools menu. Folders: The ability to organize documents into folders. In addition, the beta for Numbers is now able to reorder sheets in a spreadsheet from the browser and add hyperlinks. Keynote beta users are also getting an extra feature; the ability to right-click any slide in the navigator to skip it during playback.
iWork for iCloud update brings those collaborative tools we've been waiting for
We're not going so far as to call it a Google Docs killer, but those iWork updates announced back at the iPad event the other month certainly make Apple's productivity tools a fair bit more appealing (particularly when coupled with those returning features, naturally). Those who've tooled around with the iCloud interface have likely noticed a few of the highlighted upgrades have thus far been missing from the proceedings - namely a number of collaborative tools. iWork for iCloud is still carrying a beta label, but as of today is the happy recipient of a number of key changes, including a collaborator list, collaborator cursor and animation (so you can see what your colleagues are working on) and the ability to jump to collaborators. Also added in the update are the abilities to print docs, presentations and spreadsheets in the Tools menu and organize documents in a folder.
ArenaNet takes its first step toward Guild Wars 2 collaborative development with a call for topics
Last week, Guild Wars 2 studio design director Chris Whiteside announced a new community initiative designed to better filter and address player feedback regarding the future and current state of the game. Today, Whiteside followed up by posting the first set of instructions for participating in the process ArenaNet is referring to as "collaborative development." The Guild Wars 2 team is asking players to begin by choosing three priorities from each area of gameplay and listing them in a response to the initial post. For example, a player's PvE priorities might be ascended items, world events, and roleplaying. ArenaNet will then take the top item in each section and start a separate thread in which players and the team will share opinions, brainstorm, and converse. Our own Anatoli Ingram tackled the initial announcement in this week's Flameseeker Chronicles. As for this first round of feedback, players have "a couple" of days to add their thoughts before ArenaNet compiles the list. [Thanks to Mikey Moo for the tip!]
Share Anytime is a clever collaborative whiteboard app for iPad
There are a lot of whiteboard- and document-sharing solutions on both the Mac and iOS platforms. MetaMoji Corporation is debuting Share Anytime, a free app that allows teams to see documents, drawings and photos in real time and mark them up interactively. MetaMoji also offers Note Anytime, which has been a popular and highly rated PDF-markup tool. A user can start, or in Share Anytime lingo, be chairman of a meeting, and invite others to watch or participate. There are annotation tools, and you can add symbols from a large library of icons or draw in freehand using several pen options. Photos can be imported from your iPad, then scaled and moved. All this activity is seen in real time by other participants. I tried the app with a friend about 600 miles away. He was on a first-generation iPad; I was on an iPad 3. Everything worked fine, and neither of us had to consult the help files. When he imported an image, it popped up on my iPad. I could underline it, add a text comment or move it, and he would see the changes almost instantly. There is also a chat function so people can type comments in real time. I also tried a sample session that was running in Barcelona. Again, updates were very quick, so the technology in the app is up to the task of real-time collaboration. The app also allows you to import documents from services like Google Drive, Dropbox and Evernote. It should be noted that imported documents become PDFs, so they can't be edited. They can be marked up, and blank pages can be added with text or diagrams as if the PDF was a graphic -- which, in reality, it is. There are some negatives. One, there are two signups required to get the app working. The first is with Share Anytime, while the second is with a service called Digital Cabinet that activates the real-time editing. While using the basic features is easy, there are some rather arcane icons that aren't really clear until you check the help file. Also, there is no voice-over-IP support. Everyone will need to be on the phone to speak, which is pretty much the best way to interact. I don't think the chat window would be truly effective. Only the iPad is supported now, but other platforms are on the way. While the app is free and quite full-featured, there is a paid US$1.99 a month version that adds handwriting recognition in 13 languages and converts handwritten text to typed text. It also extends the number of meetings you can create. The free version allows you to attend an unlimited number of meetings and host up to ten meetings, or 1GB of data transfer, whichever comes first. Share Anytime is clever, and works as advertised. The free version should be great for lightweight collaboration with smaller document sizes. The paid version is very reasonably priced compared to a lot of the better-known collaboration options. I think the app can be useful in project management, distance learning and even by photographers who want to share and comment on their work. Share Anytime works on any iPad running iOS 5 or greater.
Smule opens the doors to its musical social network
Sure it's launched plenty of successful music apps, but to us, Smule will always be the company that gave us iPhone-based AutoTune in the form of I Am T-Pain (which we managed to try out on half of They Might Be Giants). Obviously, the Bay Area developer is looking to be a lot more. In fact, it's opening itself up to the web in the form of a social network that'll let visitors peruse its one billion or so user-generated songs. You can create playlists of Smule-created music and find folks to collaborate with for cloud-based jam sessions. The network opens today through Smule's site. There's a tad more info in the offering just after the break.
Microsoft boosts base SkyDrive Pro storage to 25GB, lets administrators add more
Microsoft's SkyDrive Pro is helpful for cloud-savvy businesses, but its 7GB of storage per person now seems restrictive next to improved offerings from rivals like Box. The company won't let itself be outdone, however: it just bumped SkyDrive Pro's base storage to 25GB per user, and administrators can raise that limit to 100GB if they're willing to pay. There's some incentives to take advantage of that extra space, too. Microsoft now offers a larger 2GB file cap, automatic versioning for new users and a client view that displays all shared documents. If your employer depends on Microsoft for online collaboration, you should notice the additional storage today.
Flickr creator takes sign-ups for Slack, an office collaboration tool with universal search
Collaboration tools are nothing new, but they don't always make it easy to find what you're looking for: conversations, files and other resources may sit in entirely different places. Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield wants to solve that through Slack, a service that just started taking sign-ups for its private preview. The collaboration app centers on a universal search interface that simplifies locating conversations and shared files, even if those files are hosted by a third-party provider like Google Drive. Both messages and notifications sync across dedicated apps for Android, iOS, OS X and Windows; Slack can also pull in content from outside tools like bug trackers, help desk clients or Twitter. The company is planning for a public launch in the fall, but those who just can't wait can ask for a peek at the source link.
Google Drive now lets collaborators add friends, start chats with fewer clicks
When you're sharing a file in Google Drive, your time should be spent collaborating, not arranging conversations. Right? Google agrees strongly enough to have just finished tweaking Drive's web interface for better teamwork. Users actively working on the project now show as mouse-over icons, with their Google+ relationship front and center -- if they're not friends and you want them to be, you can change that almost immediately. It's even faster to start group chats, as a new dedicated button will launch a chatroom for everyone who's currently looking at the project. Google expects the speedier Drive socialization to reach us within a day or two, and it's planning to bolster the update with wider file support sometime in the near future.
Storybricks team announces EverQuest Next collaboration
What's the Storybricks team been up to lately? Oh, nothing much. A few tweaks here, an idea or two there, and a whole lot of vacationing in Norrath. What's that, you say? It turns out that Namaste Entertainment has been teaming up with SOE to work on EverQuest Next, of all things. "After several months of working together with Sony Online," the team posted, "we can finally reveal that we are collaborating on EverQuest Next. EQNext is 'the biggest sandbox ever designed' and we are extremely happy to be working on the most innovative MMORPG under development." The post couldn't go into specifics about the project, but it did say that the team is doing "remarkable things" with the game.
To-do app Wunderlist Pro adds collaboration function, charges $45 annual subscription
If you've been meaning to get your act together, you've likely waded through a sea of organizer apps, perhaps landing on the likes of Remember The Milk, Evernote and Wunderlist. The latter has focused on the ubiquitous to-do lists, and has just announced that it'll launch Wunderlist Pro next week with new teamwork options aimed at businesses and other groups. Maker 6Wunderkinder said it brought the "most requested" feature of Wunderlist -- assigning -- which will let each user delegate and view the responsibilities of the entire team. You'll be able to see your own chores through an "assigned to me" smart list with unlimited subtasks and "new and exclusive backgrounds." The company's mum on the rest of the details, but said it'll launch the app sometime next week for $5 per month or $45 a year. That might help keep your cats in the herd, but blog editors? Impossible. Check the video after the break to see how they made it.
Google Drive Realtime API arrives, lets developers make collaborative apps
Google has been eager to have programmers weave Google Drive sharing and syncing into their apps, but the coveted live collaboration has remained solely in Google's domain. Until today, that is. The company has posted a Google Drive Realtime API that lets third-party apps integrate the same simultaneous collaboration as Google Drive, including important nuances like conflict resolution and presence. More enterprising coders can create custom objects beyond what Google offers on its own. A handful of companies are already using the Realtime API for apps that everyday users can try right away, such as Draw.io, Gantter and Neutron Drive; other developers just need to visit the source link to get started.
