Microsoft announces Box app for Windows 10

Microsoft has announced Box app for Windows 10. Duncan Fisher who works for the mobile applications product management team at Box wrote in a Windows blogpost that with ‘50,000 paying businesses, including 52% of the Fortune 500 and more than 40 million users, it’s critical for Box to ensure that customers can work on their content across a wide variety of devices and platforms’.

The Box for Windows 10 app promises secure content along with features such as managing content across devices such as Windows PCs, tablets and phones, and also share files with anyone. It will allow previewing Office content easily including a variety of file types such as Office files, PDFs, images and more. Users can also create and collaborate on Office files and receive real-time updates.

“Under Satya Nadella, Microsoft has pushed boldly into a cloud-first, mobile-first world, opening up its platforms to integrate with best-of-breed tools (like Box) and improve the experience for their customers. This move has ultimately made it easy for enterprises to choose the vendors they want to work with, enabling more productivity and collaboration within the workplace,” Aaron Levie writes in a Box blogpost.

Box for Windows 10 also focuses on multitasking. It will allow users to work on Box and other apps side by side with the Windows 10 multitasking feature that will resize Box to make it as big or small as you need. Moreover, it also mentions the ability to pin certain Box files and favorites right to the Start screen using Windows 10 Live Tiles.

Box for Windows 10 app is now available in the Windows store for PCs and tablets. It is expected to be available for phones running Windows 10 soon.

YouTube to support virtual reality video on its app

YouTube has announced two new features Thursday for its Android app that expand the video site’s use of virtual reality, giving the new technology its biggest platform yet.

The app now supports VR video – a format that gives viewers what the company says are more realistic 360-degree perspectives of films.

To view it, a user would call up a virtual reality video on the YouTube app, click a button on the video for VR mode, and place the phone in Alphabet Inc’s “Cardboard” device, a handheld gadget made from the standard box material that creates a VR viewing experience.

Makers of virtual reality content can upload VR videos compatible with the Cardboard viewer directly to YouTube. YouTube said there are about a dozen VR videos, including one stemming from the “Hunger Games” movies.

YouTube also announced that viewers can see its vast library of videos with a more limited virtual reality experience, also using Cardboard. YouTube said that the videos will resemble what a viewer would see on an IMAX theater screen.

Neil Schneider, executive director of VR trade organization Immersive Technology Alliance, noted that YouTube introduced 3D video in 2009 and was also an early adopter of high-definition video.

“It’s not surprising they would take the angle of adding virtual reality,” he said.

Schneider said the public can expect to see an explosion of high quality content, but said amateur content might be more difficult to come by because the gear to create VR content is typically expensive.

But Jay Iorio, a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers who is experimenting with creating films for Cardboard and Facebook’s Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, said he would not be surprised to see VR recording capabilities on smartphones.

“The equipment I have right now, people will probably have on their phones in a couple years,” he said.

Oculus Rift is scheduled for release next near and is expected to cost between $300 to $350. Cardboard costs between $5 and $50.

The YouTube app with the updated Cardboard technology is currently only available for Android phones but an iOS version is set to be released “soon,” according to YouTube.

Pinterest launches Buyable Pins for Android; social networks are gearing up for online retail

Over the years, more and more consumers have started opting for online shopping. Looking at this trend, many social media giants have plans to cash in on the ‘online shopping’ frenzy by incorporating it into their platforms in small and steady ways. Both Facebook and Twitter have been working on/testing buy button directly within the social site, and now Pinterest finally brings its Buyable Pins to Android after introducing it for iOS in June.

Pinterest made the announcement via its blog and shed some light on its new Pinterest Shop and also highlighted some pointers about ‘on trend’ feature which offers curated collections on clothing, jewellery, home items and more.

This isn’t the first social-networking platform to incorporate such a commerce strategy to its service. The only edge or major advantage to social giants getting into online retail is that they have a massive following which allows their service to be used by millions worldwide. A few would either allow shoppers to directly buy products within the website or direct them to another e-commerce portal. In any case, social networks provide a gateway for consumers and posses a strong brand name globally as well. It also makes perfect sense as almost 80 percent of the crowd spends their time on social platforms, so why not offer them the ability to shop as well!