Microsoft entices more Android tablet makers to pre-load Office, Skype and OneDrive Apps

The new Microsoft under CEO Satya Nadella is all about being a productivity company to all users and on any device. To this end, the company is wooing more Android tablet makers to offer bundles of key MS Office apps and services on their devices. Mirroring the recent partnership with Samasung, whose renewed focus on etnerprise has made it a necessity to offer Microsoft's popular Office Suite, Microsoft has 31 partners that will offer Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SkyDrive and Skype on their Android devices.Hit jumo for the list of partners.

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BlackBerry settles case with iPhone keyboard maker Typo

BlackBerry is has settled its lawsuit against iPhone keyboard maker Typo. Typo made a series of accessory keyboards for the iPhone that emulated the look and feel of BlackBerrys popular QWERTY keyboard and gave users the ability to input with a physical keyboard. One of the terms of the settlement is that Typo will permanently discontinue the sale of keyboards for smartphones and mobile devices with screens that are less than 7.9 inches. This means they can make peripherals for larger devices.

Google to discontinue Calendar text alerts for regular users

Google’s taking away Calendar’s text message alerts for regular users starting June 27^th. Those who use Google education, work, and government still have access to the feature though. If you’ve been relying on this feature to get updates, you’re going to have to start weaning yourself off of this reliance. Google opted to discontinue this feature because smartphones these days are said to give “richer, more reliable” notifications.

Source: Google | Via: Engadget

Bill Nye’s LightSail spacecraft reboots and gets in touch with Earth

Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society

Bill Nye’s sunbeam-powered spacecraft caused quite a scare for him and his company Planetary Society when it lost the ability to send information back to earth. LightSail got cut off from communications a week after it launched on May 20^th due to a software glitch. They couldn’t get it to reboot remotely and so the engineers put their hope in the “natural reboot” that would happen when it collides with stray charged particles. Thankfully, that happened and they re-established connection with the spacecraft.

LightSail was inspired by Carl Sagan’s solar sailing idea, which imagines a spacecraft using the sun in the same way a sailboat uses the wind. This month’s test hopes to prove it can unfurl it sails. If successful, a second test run will happen in April next year. LightSail is built with a small satellite and four Mylar sails to ride solar radiation. The scientists hope to prove that solar propulsion can get rid of the need for boosters or fuel reserves in spaceflight.

Source: The Verge