You know the score. You receive a file from someone, and nothing you have on your Mac or PC can open that document. Nothing. It might as well be empty space as far as you’re concerned, and therein lies the dilemma. How do you weigh a company’s interests in having a proprietary format that requires […]

As you know, when you buy an app, you don’t actually own it. You own the license to use it for as long as you like. And that can be a pretty long time, although new computers and new operating systems may make it impossible to use. So if you have Word 5.1a, released in […]

Supposedly Microsoft is in favor of focus group testing, the better to evaluate new products and get public reaction. Yet you have to wonder how they continue to come up with curious, ill-thought solutions that seemingly defy logic. Take the ribbon toolbar. Microsoft wanted you to believe that toolbars containing icons that were context sensitive […]

Since the first public betas of Windows 8 appeared last year, I have really made a huge effort to find some comfort in the new interface. Right, it used to be Metro, but when that ended up being the name of a German supermarket chain, Microsoft opted for “Modern UI.” I suppose that could change […]