Microsoft reveals a 'more accessible' Windows 8

Microsoft's president of the Windows Division, Steve Sinofsky, has revealed a number of new accessibility features in Windows 8, explaining in a blog post that the new range of features will make Windows 8 better for everyone.

Sinfosky points out that there are a number of key features that have been addressed in Windows 8 that should make it easier for people with disabilities to use.

These include improving the assistive technologies within Windows and providing better developer tools that have accessibility built in.

Broad spectrum

"Windows 8 is a product we design for an incredibly broad spectrum of people around the world," said Sinfosky in his blog post.

"One of the areas where we have worked to deliver an even greater level of innovation is in ensuring that Windows 8, particularly the new Metro style experience, is accessible to everyone regardless of their physical abilities."

Some key Windows features have been improved, with the blog explaining that the Narrator element has been updated with user feedback and new languages, as has speech recognition.

Another key feature that has been improved is the screen magnifier. This has been given a touch makeover so users are able to control the feature completely from the edges of the screen they are viewing Windows 8 from.

Head over to the Microsoft blog now for more information on how Windows 8 is shaping up in terms of accessibility – especially if you are a developer looking to get in on the action - and be sure to also check out our hands on Windows 8 review. And if that's not enough for you, you can watch our Windows 8 preview video below too.

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Apple quizzed by Congress over Path row

Members of the United States Congress have written to Apple demanding answers over the Path application controversy, which saw iOS users' address books uploaded without consent.

Developers of the social networking app admitted it had mistakenly uploaded the contact information from iPhones, but has since cleared the data from its systems and issued an apology.

However, the case highlighted a flaw that could be repeated with every iOS app. They all have access to the same information, which allows apps to collate and upload the data without your permission.

Now the storm has reached government level, with Congress saying the Path incident "raises questions about whether Apple's iOS app developer policies and practices may fall short when it comes to protecting the information of iPhone users and their contacts."

Questions, questions, questions...

The letter addressed to Tim Cook demands clarification on a number of issues including the company's app privacy guidelines and how the App Store determines whether an app meets that criteria.

Congress also wants to know whether Apple considers "the contents of the address book to be "data about a user"?", while asking how many apps transmit data from the address book.

It also asks this rather reasonable question: "You have built into your devices the ability to turn off in one place the transmission of location information entirely or on an app-by-app basis. Please explain why you have not done the same for address book information."

The letter, which can be read in full on the Energy and Commerce Committee site, requests a response from Cook by the end of the month.

Via: TheNextWeb

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Apps collecting address book data are 'in violation,' says Apple

Apple has released a statement claiming that all apps that collect address book data from iOS users, without explicit permission, are in violation of its policies.

The company says it is currently working on a software fix to prevent offending applications, like the Path social network app, from harvesting the data from your smartphone.

The statement from Cupertino follows over a week of controversy since it was discovered that Path stored data from the address books of its user base.

The company has since apologised and cleaned its servers, but other iOS apps still have the ability to collate the data without asking you first.

Violating guidelines

Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said: "Apps that collect or transmit a user's contact data without their prior permission are in violation of our guidelines.

"We're working to make this even better for our customers, and as we have done with location services, any app wishing to access contact data will require explicit user approval in a future software release."

Apple's insistence that it will fix the problem in a 'future software release' doesn't offer any sort of timeline for users worried about what third party companies may be doing with their data.

The company's statement on Wednesday may have resulted from a letter sent to Tim Cook by members of the United States Congress, pushing Apple for answers.

Gary Marshall: These pirate ships won't sink

It's been a rum old week for the pirate business.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) shut down music site RnBXclusive.com for sharing music "stolen from artists", replacing it with a warning that "SOCA has the capability to monitor and investigate you" that was presumably written by Robocop.

While SOCA was throwing its weight around, the world's largest Bittorrent database, BTJunkie, decided it would shut down before the copyright cops came a-knocking.

And then The Pirate Bay decided it was going to get out of the torrent business.

Inevitably the Pirate Bay isn't taking down its sails and scuttling the ship: it's merely moving to a harder-to-prosecute form of file sharing. And equally inevitably, the SOCA shutdowns aren't going to stop downloading.

Like the war on drugs, the war on piracy can't be won. So is it even worth fighting? Of course it is.

For the win

You'll find exaggeration and outright fibbing on both sides of the debate here. Copyright holders pretend that every time you download a song God kills a puppy, and pro-piracy advocates pretend that the overwhelming majority of downloaders are free-speech activists rather than free-stuff opportunists. Neither side is telling the truth.

Organisations such as the MPAA, RIAA and their European and British equivalents may appear greedy, and backwards, and occasionally breathtakingly incompetent, but they aren't as dumb as they often seem to be.

They know that DRM isn't unbreakable. And they know that for every RnBXclusive.com they shut down, another one will spring up.

The copyright industries are largely based on selling performances, and their anti-piracy crusade is a performance too: the industries don't really believe that they'll eradicate piracy, so what they're trying to do instead make casual copying that little bit more difficult, scare a few site owners into shutting up shop and intimidate a few more into going deeper underground.

If that works - and of course, for it to work there needs to be decent, legal options that aren't unnecessarily crippled - then piracy becomes just enough of a pain in the arse that most people will go to legitimate sites instead.

The copyright industries aren't really fighting. They're acting.

In Depth: 10 things we wish Apple would reinvent

10 things we wish Apple would reinvent

Apple's genius isn't in invention - it didn't invent the smartphone, or the tablet PC, or the digital music player - but in reinvention: it saw what other firms were doing and found better ways to do the same thing.

That's resulted in some truly terrific bits of kit, but what would happen if Apple's talents got the chance to work on a bigger canvas?

Here are ten industries and items we'd love to let Apple loose on. Let us know your nominations in the comments.

1. Mobile phones, again

Of course Apple will make the iPhone 5 thinner, cleverer and more useful, but we'd much rather have better data plans than a slightly thinner iPhone. Apple clearly sees the networks as an irritation - it tried and failed to introduce a non-removable, flash-able SIM that would have effectively cut the operators out of iPhone retail - but while that climbdown shows that Apple can't boss the networks around too much, it still has enough muscle to demand more customer-friendly options. Top of our list? Shared data plans that work across multiple bits of Apple kit without unnecessary extra fees, such as charging for tethering. That's the equivalent of ISPs charging you to connect anything to your router.

2. Home automation

We've been promised home automation since the 1930s, and we'd love Apple to give it a go; however, we suspect that the future of home automation is third-party apps on Apple (and Android) devices rather than anything Apple-branded.

3. Photography

Meeting somebody doesn't mean you'll go into business with them, but Steve Jobs' meeting with Lytro means that Apple has at least considered using the firm's extraordinary shoot-first-focus-later technology in the iPhone.

4. Mobile payments

2011 wasn't quite the year of mobile payments but momentum is building, and Apple's only taken tentative steps into this fast-growing market. US shoppers have the EasyPay option in the Apple Store app for easy mobile purchasing of Apple kit; imagine if EasyPay added NFC technology and worked in other shops too.

5. Power

The weak point in mobile devices remains power: if you open up an iPad you'll find that it's largely made of battery. Future Apple kit may dispense with batteries in favour of long-lasting fuel cells - patents show that Apple's certainly experimenting with the idea - but in the meantime the challenge is to make mobile devices slimmer, lighter and longer-lasting, and Apple's working on that too.

Apple could also reinvent the humble charger: while wireless charging has been around for years, adoption by Apple could finally make it the default option for gadgets.

6. TV

We'd love a single TV to replace our various set-top boxes and media devices, and Apple is apparently working on it: The rumours are becoming more numerous and more frequent. Can Apple really deliver TV with what Steve Jobs called "the simplest user interface you could imagine"?

7. Business computing

Steve Jobs famously hated the enterprise market, but unhappy white-collar workers really want Apple kit in their offices. The hot trend in IT these days is "consumerisation", where tech-savvy employees bring their iPads and iPhones to work; a recent study of IT professionals found that 87% of employees were using personal devices for work purposes, with iPhones particularly popular.

8. In-car infotainment

It doesn't matter whether you drive a Ford or a Ferrari: in-car infotainment systems are mostly rubbish and crying out for a bit of Apple attention (although BMW's iDrive, Mini Connected and Ford Sync deserve a bit of praise). On Kickstarter the Devium Dash has the right idea: instead of a stereo and sat-nav, there's a bit to stick your iPhone in and some car-friendly apps.

9. Public Transport

What's public transport like in your area? If it's anything like ours it's grim, polluting, sits you next to madmen and smells faintly of kebabs and farts. Now imagine something like Heathrow Airport's ULTra Personal Rapid Transit System with an added dose of Apple smarts: futuristic, elegant and hopefully both madman- and whiff-free.

[Image Credit: Ultra Global PRT]

10. Manufacturing

Is anyone else uncomfortable with Apple's choice of suppliers? We know everybody's outsourcing and Apple's better than many, but Apple has the smarts - and the cash - to do something different. As Kevin Meyer, author of Evolving Excellence, puts it: "How about... sinking a billion or two into developing truly innovative manufacturing methods and systems. Imagine what could happen if the same level of design prowess that was applied to product design was applied to manufacturing design." He adds: "Apple has the unique opportunity to change a global dynamic."

Apple unveils Mac OS X Mountain Lion

Apple has released details of Mac OS X Mountain Lion, its next generation operating system for Mac computers.

Mountain Lion has been released to developers today and should be available for consumers this summer.

The new OS incorporates a number of features that jive nicely with iOS, including iCloud sign up and a Messages app that takes the place of iChat, allowing you to continue conversations started on Mac on any iOS device.

As well as the iOS-style messaging app, Mountain Lion includes reminders, notifications and Twitter apps that bring the desktop system more in line with mobile products.

Extreme

Perhaps the most exciting element of the upgrade is AirPlay Mirroring – you'll be able to mirror your computer screen on another TV wirelessly with 720p HD support and supposedly amazing realtime response rates for gamers using the mirroring app.

Security-wise, there's a new feature called Gatekeeper that allows for personalised security settings, working as a kind of safety net for less confident users by offering a setting that allows the Mac to accept only software downloaded from the Mac App Store.

After Apple's massive success at distributing Lion through the Mac App Store, we're expecting to see it follow suit with Mountain Lion in the summer months.

Gary Marshall: Are you experiencing Mountain excitement?

Good news! Apple hasn't run out of cats!

Mountain Lion, announced today, will ship this summer and make OS X even more iOS-y than ever before. That's bound to annoy some purists, but I think the majority of Mac users will be delighted.

Apple promises that there's more fun stuff to come, but what's already been announced ticks some of our wish list boxes, particularly iMessage on the desktop.

There's a new Safari, AirPlay mirroring to Apple TVs, Twitter integration and the option to disable non-approved apps - handy if you've got kids - and you get the same Reminders and Notes apps that you get on iOS, enabling Mail and Calendar to concentrate on what they're supposed to be concentrating on.

• OS X Mountain Lion: what you need to know

What's really interesting about it isn't the iOS-ification of OS X, though. That's been obvious since the Back to the Mac event in late 2010. The interesting bits of Mountain Lion are iCloud and Game Center.

Mountain Lion's iCloud integration effectively delivers the kind of cloud-based OS Google's been promising for ages with Chrome OS, and it'll do so with user numbers Google's notebook OS can only dream of.

It may well beat Windows 8 to market too, in which case the much-heralded SkyDrive integration and Windows Live ID sign-in will look to Mr and Mrs Punter as if Microsoft's been at the photocopier again. I'd imagine Apple finds that quite funny.

And then there's Game Center. By bringing it and AirPlay Mirroring to the Mac, Apple's making some interesting gaming-related moves: cross-platform multiplayer, in-game voice chat and display mirroring - not to mention the ability for developers to create titles that work on iOS and on OS X - indicate that Apple's starting to take gaming very seriously indeed.

While Mountain Lion is a stand-alone OS, it isn't designed to stand alone: it's a gateway to iCloud and part of the wider Apple ecosystem. The vision here is simple: your stuff, on whatever device you happen to have handy. That device could be a Mac, or it could be an iPod touch, iPhone, iPad or an enormous HDTV with an Apple TV tucked underneath it.

It's personal computing with the emphasis on the personal, not the computing.

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