Microsoft quietly launches a free lock screen replacement app for Android

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Picturesque

Things are busy at Microsoft Garage, where the company’s employees share experimental projects they’ve been working on. The most recent release is Picturesque Lock Screen, a free Android app that adds useful functions, handy shortcuts and beautiful images to your lock screen. Picturesque Lock Screen feels almost like a second home screen. It features multiple screens that you scroll through and adds a Bing search bar, a customizable news feed, weather reports, device notifications, shortcuts to frequently used apps and settings toggles. It also pulls in the daily Bing homepage image to use as a background and lets you swipe…



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This beautiful note taking app for Mac and iOS uses hashtags to organize your notes

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Note taking apps are dime a dozen these days, but occasionally I stumble across a new one that does something smarter than the rest. Letterspace, an app for iOS and Mac, is a beautifully designed free app that organizes your notes in an interesting new way we’ve seen on only social media so far: hashtags. With Letterspace, you can hashtag key words inside your notes to help find them easier later, which is an ingenious way of surfacing the important part of a note, rather than requiring you to tag them separately. You’re also able to @mention people in your…



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Microsoft Sway content presentation app now allows Web content and document embeds

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Microsoft has been hard at work polishing its content creation tool Sway. The Web app now allows users to embed content from the Web, like videos, audio clips, maps and more. The updated version of the app lets you paste the HTML embed code from online interactive media — think content from YouTube, Vine, Flickr and Giphy, OneDrive documents and Google Maps — and add it to your Sways. In addition, Sway can now import content from PDF, Word and PowerPoint documents (including older .doc and .ppt file formats). You can do this by either uploading files or adding them…



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OneDrive for Business cloud storage comes to OS X and integrates with iOS app

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Microsoft has just launched its OneDrive for Business cloud storage service for Mac desktops, and integrated it into the OneDrive app for iOS. The latest update to OneDrive’s iOS app lets users access their OneDrive for Business accounts without the need for a separate app. Both services were previously integrated into a single app on Android last August. While users can now access their work and personal storage from the same app, IT administrators can still manage and secure OneDrive for Business files as before from Office 365. OneDrive for Business is also making its debut on OS X today,…



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Twitter’s Group DMs are the Internet’s best new secret meeting place

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Yesterday Twitter unleashed its long-awaited group DM feature. You can finally have private multi-person conversations on Twitter. While many of those discussions will be quick one-off chats about various subjects, like where to meet for lunch or which sports team will win Super Bowl (go sports team!), the new feature opens up a new way for Twitter users to interact without having to sign up for another social network or actually be friends on Facebook. I’d like to start a group DM. Ladies only. Inquire within. — Selena Larson (@selenalarson) January 28, 2015 Groups like the one started by Daily…



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Spotify and Sony team up to launch PlayStation Music, current Music Unlimited service to close

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Sony and Spotify have today announced a new joint partnership that will see the two companies launch a joint music streaming service called Playstation Music. Launching in “Spring 2015,” the PlayStation Music service will roll out in 41 markets initially and will be available to users of PlayStation consoles and Sony Xperia smartphones and tablets. PlayStation users will get a “deeply integrated” service, according to Spotify, and will be able to link PSN accounts to Spotify accounts for direct billing through their PlayStation Wallet. It’ll also enable things like background streaming from Spotify while playing games. As a result of…



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Witkit’s encrypted collaboration platform promises to end data breaches

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Canadian startup Witkit has launched an encrypted collaboration platform that it claims will prevent data breaches. The system is the product of three years work by the Vancouver based company, which raised $5 million in funding to develop it. Sean Merat, Witkit’s CEO, told TNW: “Our intention with Witkit is to make the first fully-encrypted global collaboration platform so companies and individuals can more easily reap the benefits of socialized teamwork…With our proprietary method of data encryption, we can ensure that users’ information is secure at all times, allowing individuals to be productive without worrying about a data breach.” Rather…



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1Password for iOS gets two-factor support and more

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1Password for iOS got a big update today. Version 5.2 for iOS, aka the “awesomesauce” edition, brings a slew of new features, including the ability to provide two-factor codes. The company built a new login creator that makes it easy to add hundreds of supported accounts with pre-filled information. You just select from a list and add the details that specific service needs, making it much easier to add accounts on mobile. For paid users of the app, a new one-time password feature allows you to use 1Password as your code generating app for your two-factor services. Many people already…



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SimilarWeb launches App Engagement Insights for Android developers

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Mobile app and website analytics platform SimilarWeb has just launched App Engagement Insights to give developers a better look at app usage and how they stack up against their competition, beginning with Android apps in the US and UK. Developers can use the new features to find out how many users have a particular app installed, and how many use it daily. The service sheds light on user interest, by identifying which apps are installed and used on the same device. It also shows how long an app is used per session on average, and features tools to benchmark apps…



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Why BlaBlaCar isn’t scared of Uber’s problems in India

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When BlaBlaCar announced last week that it was launching its ridesharing platform in India, commentators immediately leapt on the question of safety. Would the latest company trying to disrupt transportation on the continent find itself dealing with the same horrific issues as Uber? Naturally, that was the first question I put to BlaBlaCar’s COO and co-founder Nicolas Brusson when I sat down with him at the DLD Conference in Munich. He says the big difference between Uber and BlaBlaCar is choice and community: “There are two issues: culture – will people use it – and safety. On the safety issue,…



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