Amazon Lightning Deal: Microsoft Office 365 Personal for $26.77

Amazon’s Lightning Deals don’t last long, and a hat tip to Windows Central for pointing this one out. You can get Microsoft Office 365 Personal for $26.77 for as long as the deal lasts. Office 365 Personal includes: A license to install the latest version of Office on 1 PC or Mac, and 1 Windows […]

Lessons From Going Cross-Platform

Here’s the industry’s dirty little secret: each major platform, be it iOS, Android, or Windows/Windows Phone, is good enough to be considered life-changing technology. Yes, users tend to favor one platform over another, to the point of fandom and complete ignorance of the other two, and that’s just fine. These things are intended to enhance […]

Microsoft on Every Device (Updated: Office Mobile Now Free)

Update: When I hitched my wagon to Microsoft here at The Tech Chat, I did so because the Surface Pro 3 convinced me that they’re doing some exciting and strategic things to become relevant again. Their decision, announced today, to offer Office Mobile for free to consumers (no longer requiring an Office 365 subscription to edit […]

Is Apple Growing or Just Upgrading? (Updated)

Update 1/28/2015: So, Apple’s Q1 2015 (fiscal) financial results are in, and they had their best quarter ever. Maybe any company’s best quarter ever. They generated $74.6 billion in revenues, $18 billion in net profit (wow), and sold 74.5 million iPhones at a higher average price per unit (thanks to the iPhone 6+, of course). […]

Will Apple Put OS X on the iPad Pro? (Update: Touchscreen MacBook?)

Rumors are swirling that Apple is considering the release of a 12.9″ iPad Pro capable of running OS X, perhaps via dual-boot with iOS. As with all such rumors, details are sketchy–would this be the same OS X as runs on the Mac, or some kind of hybrid OS? Personally, I think it’s highly unlikely […]

Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Review Part 2: Executing the Vision

In Part 1 of my impressions of the Surface Pro 3, I waxed philosophical about how well the machine fits within Microsoft’s vision of “one operating system, many devices,” but is it a perfect machine? Of course not. No matter how far technology has progressed in making a machine like the Surface Pro 3 possible, […]

LogMeIn Cancels Free Accounts, TeamViewer An Excellent Alternative

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been using LogMeIn for years now to manage remote PCs (Windows, OS X, and Linux). Some of you might do so for business, but some might only manage their various personal machines. I fall into the latter category, and so I’ve enjoyed LogMeIn’s free capabilities for supporting the mother-in-law’s […]

2014: What Will Happen in Tech?

It’s de rigueur, I think, for a tech blog to post predictions for the coming year. Because I don’t want to be left out, I’ll post some thoughts as well—although they’ll be short, and I’ll be posting well after the New Year has already begun due to a killer bug I caught on New Year’s […]

The “It Depends” Method of Evaluating Technology

There are a few areas where debate constantly rages over which product is better than another. Performance automobiles comes to mind. Music, and particularly popular music. Vacuum cleaners (well, maybe not, but I drew blank trying to think of a third category). But nowhere are things worse than in technology. Apple vs. Microsoft. iOS vs. […]

Which Platform is Better? iOS or Android? OS X or Windows?

There have always been ongoing debates between fans of one platform or another over which is the better one. Back in the day, it was Mac OS versus Windows. Today, the heaviest debate is between iOS and Android fans, with a smattering of Windows Phone users chattering from the cheap seats. I’ve been reading a […]