offices

A number of users attempting to sign up for Microsoft's new Outlook.com free e-mail preview are reporting they are having problems that seem to be connected to their Office 365 accounts.Peter Bright, an editor with Ars Technica, said he believed the issue to be connected with Office 365 cookies that may not be clearing correctly.

"The big problem is that O365 used the Outlook domain for some things, and it doesn't let you clear the cookies right," he said on Twitter, where I asked individuals experiencing problems to weigh in. "Because the … Read more

Including images in an Office document can ensure that all relevant data is located in one spot for everyone's convenience. Maybe you need to include a schematic or blueprint diagram to help illustrate a point, or feel photos documenting a problem or demonstration could give your work a bit more power. In any case, the easy part is putting the images into the document, but what if you need to pull the images out of a file?

Sure you could use a screen grabber for small files, but what about large, high-quality images that don't fit into one … Read more

It seems that everyone is going to London lately, so why should the world's largest social network be left out?

Facebook announced today it has opened an engineering office in the U.K. capital, its first engineering office outside the U.S. Calling London "a perfect fit" for Facebook engineering, Facebook software engineer and London team leader Philip Su touted the city's advantages in a Facebook post this evening.

"It's a global hub, and it has a vibrant local startup community with lots of great technical talent," Su said. "Our team in … Read more

Yahoo went to rival Google for its next chief executive, making a choice that surprised and excited Silicon Valley.

The struggling Web pioneer named Marissa Mayer, one of Google's top execs, as its next CEO, ending a hunt that began after Scott Thompson was forced out in May for padding his resume. Ross Levinsohn, who has been the interim CEO, had been considered the top candidate for the job.

Beyond the two company co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, perhaps no other executive better symbolized the new breed of brilliant young technologists in charge at Google than Mayer. The … Read more

As we've known, or at least suspected, for a while now, it's going to be a busy fall for Microsoft, in terms of new product and service deliveries.

This week, the Redmondians confirmed that Windows 8 will be generally available on October 26, after being released to manufacturing by the first week of August. The Microsoft Surface RT tablet (the one based on an ARM processor that cannot run most existing Windows apps natively) also is due out October 26, too. And we also know from Microsoft disclosures a week ago that Windows Server 2012 will be released to manufacturing by the first week of August … Read more

Thursday's top stories will fill you up on patent spats, better maps and creepy apps:

There's a laughable twist in the never-ending global patent battle between Apple and Samsung. A U.K. judge (the same judge that said Samsung's tablets were "not as cool" as the iPad) ruled that Samsung did not copy the iPad's design. But the judge also ordered Apple to publish a notice of this fact on its U.K. website and in British newspaper ads for six months. Awkward.

Nokia has promised "something amazing" to be announced Sept. … Read more

Still running XP or Vista and eyeing Office 2013? Sorry, you're out of luck.

Unveiled Monday, the upcoming new Office suite won't support Windows XP or Vista, meaning users who need or want Office 2013 will have to upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Microsoft confirmed the tighter requirements on its Office 2013 Preview Technet page. Only Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2012 will be able to run the new suite.

Users will also need a PC with at least a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM for the 32-bit version (2GB … Read more

Microsoft is aiming Office 2013 at touch-screen devices as well as PCs. So the company is starting to pull out the stops to convince tablet users that the new Office is just right for them.

In a blog post yesterday, Clint Covington, a lead program manager for Microsoft's User Experience team, explained how touch works in the new suite. Products such as OneNote and Lync have been redesigned from the ground up to fully support touch. The other applications in Office have been "touch-enabled," which means they support certain touch features but remain true to their roots … Read more

For months, the Web teemed with rumors that Microsoft would launch Office for the iPad, making it the first touch-focused platform for the cash cow productivity suite.

But when Microsoft unveiled the next version of Office this week, it was clear the iPad would have to wait.

In an interview with CNET, Office division President Kurt DelBene said Microsoft's own Windows is the priority for the newest version of Office. The new touch-friendly productivity suite will debut on Windows 8, which launches in October, in large part because the operating system is the best showcase for Microsoft's application … Read more