Microsoft Teams opens up Office 365 users to Slack-like chat

Posted on by Jules Wang

Teamwork is something hard to corroborate in real life. Technology provides us with plenty of liberty to telecommute and telecommunicate with our colleagues. And a lot of those offices in those companies (some 28 out of the FORTUNE 100 companies, actually) use Slack to connect through conversations about projects and places for files associated with said projects. As an independent service, it only brings in a daily active user base of 4 million users.

Microsoft is keen on pushing cloud services these days, so you probably should’ve guessed that it was going to wield a sword over Slack. That sword is called Teams.

The service is available as a preview right now to those with Office 365 commercial subscriptions for all desktop and mobile platforms (including Windows 10 Mobile, Android and iOS) Microsoft serves and is meant to “bring together chat, meeting, notes, Office, Planner, PowerBI, and a host of extensions and applications” to let work be known and shown, according to CEO Satya Nadella.

threaded-conversations-in-microsoft-teams-web

The chat stuff seems pretty standard with threaded convos, all the image, photo, GIF and emoji libraries you need to be witty, options for voice and video and sharing direct views with Microsoft Office docs. From the groups, one-on-one or limited subgroup conversations can be parsed. Tabs keep track of what documents and applications are on the docket. Some third-party apps like Zendesk and Asana can be tabbed. Notifications as served by Exchange can also be served. Microsoft’s Bot Framework is also accessible to help with users’ needs.

Ins and outs of Teams are protected by multifactor authentication and all data is encrypted passing through the system. Security measures will be compliant with standards of the EU and the US government.

Once again, the Microsoft Teams Developer Preview is available in 181 countries and 18 languages right now to the 85 million Office 365 customers right now. An official release is due next quarter.

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Refreshing for Android updates? Not with 7.1!

Posted on by Jules Wang

How many times have you heard about an update for your Android phone — finally, FINALLY — that you just wanted immediately, but had no way of downloading and installing other than an over-the-air update? How many times have you mashed that “Check For Update” button?Those presses seem to be numbered now, especially if you have a late Nexus device.Pixel users and

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Android 7.1 Developer Preview teased, could be finalized in December

Posted on by Jules Wang

Android’s next incremental upgrade has officially been outed. It will still be called Nougat, but it will move up a point to 7.1.So, what’s going on in this API of APIs (#25)?Well, for one, developers have a new app shortcuts API that lets users go to up ...

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Nexus Launcher, Google Assistant expected in Android Nougat Maintenance Release 1

Posted on by Jules Wang

Android 7.0 Nougat wasn’t as flashy as you expected it to be, right? Where was the Nexus Launcher? Where’s Allo and Google Assistant and that “not a home button” home button? Where ...

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Android 7.0 Nougat due with August 5 security update

Posted on by Jules Wang

For the first time ever, it would seem that the new version of Android will not be released at the same time as the latest Nexus hardware is announced. In fact, it might come earlier.It’s only part of the story that tech leaks reporter Evan Blass is tweeting about.Android 7.0 releases next month, with the 8/5 security patch. Sorry Nexus 5 owners, no Nougat for you — Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 30, 2016We ...

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Android Nougat knows where your apps came from

Posted on by Jules Wang

There are plenty of places to get your apps these days, many of which are not the Google Play Store. Thing is, if you hand off your phone to your friends or family and they start wreaking app havoc on you from all corners of the internet, you would like to know where those apps came from.Well, you might get to know without the help of said friends or family if you’re getting on the latest preview ...

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Rest Finger to Unlock gets into iOS 10 beta 2

Posted on by Jules Wang

The second iOS 10 beta for developers is out and people have been digging up little changes from feature recalls, new icons and plenty of options.3D Touch options have been revised in the Control Center. Your organ donation preference is available to toggle in the Health app. Oh, and we have a new home button action: you can now rest your finger to unlock your device.It’s a ...

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Calling out “Hey Siri” won’t turn on every device your own with iOS 10

Posted on by Jules Wang

As media that cover mobile tech, we have a ton of review devices, especially of the Android ilk. And when we feel like shouting something to our daily driver across the room, it seems that every stinkin’ phone we own wants to address us in some way. “Ok Google” leads to about 30 pings and 30 answers for results on “Cortana for Android”.Hey, Cortana can’t even recognize ...

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iOS 10 jailbreak proven in beta, but will it hold?

Posted on by Jules Wang

It takes quick work for some developers to get jailbreak on the latest version of iOS. Luca Tedesco has often been the source of scorn, posting up proofs of his handiwork and then not making Cydia access available to the community.It’s not a crime to keep things to yourself, but the feeling of enabling people to take full advantage of their iPhones has to be appealing to someone out there.Well, one @iH8sn0w is showing off ...

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iOS 10 and Apple Watch BETA wrap up, and Net Neutrality Defended | Pocketnow Weekly 205

Posted on by Juan Carlos Bagnell

We’ve been using the iOS 10 and Apple Watch OS 3 developer preview BETAs for almost a week. How is Apple stacking up to it Android competition? Bluetooth 5 is coming with more bandwidth and a focus on “Internet of Things”. And, Net neutrality is defended again, this time in the courts. Will companies start accepting it now as the law of the land? These stories and we’ll be tackling your questions and comments. Make sure you’re charged and ready for episode 205 of the Pocketnow Weekly!Watch the video broadcast from 2:00pm Eastern on June 17th (click

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Android N Developer Preview 4 gets Namey, finalizes APIs

Posted on by Jules Wang

Contrary to what he was looking for, it seems that Dave Burke has lived to see Android Namey McNameface come to life.It comes as part of the Easter egg to Android N Developer Preview 4, which includes the final APIs for N (set number 24) for app developers to begin compiling and publishing or updating their apps. Devs can now also get out alpha/beta/production-grade apps set on API 24 onto Google Play.The images are ...

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Slide to Unlock replaced with Press Home to Unlock on iOS 10

Posted on by Jules Wang

In the beta out for iOS 10, there’s a change to the platform’s operating procedure that may have you scratching your head just a bit.We are closing in on ten years of the whole “Slide to Unlock” paradigm where you would pull a tab across the bottom of the screen to access your home screen or your security measure. Touch ID complicated things with an almost-instant touch-to-sensor ...

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iOS 10 vs Android N Developer Previews! BETA Battle! (video)

Posted on by Juan Carlos Bagnell

We’ve been running the iOS 10 developer preview for a little more than a day, but it’s not the only BETA being run in our offices. We also have Google’s latest build of Android N running on a Nexus 5X. We think it’s time for a comparison.This is a big update for Apple, reaching the tenth iteration of iOS, a lot of attention has been paid towards streamlining interactions, incorporating more 3D Touch and gesture support, and catching a few services up which have been lagging behind the competition.Likewise, Google has a lot riding on Android N, in making this build ...

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Why is Google afraid of the dark… theme?

Posted on by Juan Carlos Bagnell

We recently produced a video tour of the newest Android N preview, and viewers were quick to point out an omission. This build of Android lacked a dark theme. This has been a long requested feature in the Nexus community, and we’ve seen glimpses of it pop up in BETA builds, but Developer Preview 3 has cut the ability to go dark.Why go dark?Some might see this as a throwback to the Holo theme days of Android 4, but there are some advantages in making a phone’s interface dark. For folks using phones with AMOLED displays, ...

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