The Geeksphone Keon has an FM radio tuner app -- but it requires headphones to be used as an antenna.

commentary How do you feel about Firefox as an operating system? Or Ubuntu on your phone or tablet? Is Windows Phone 8 worth switching to? BlackBerry 10 means that the company formerly known as RIM isn't dead yet, right? And what the heck's a Tizen, anyway?

Depending on the OS, these questions and more will begin to plague mobile phone reviewers, phone providers, and consumers at large within the year at the most, and probably sooner.

Some people think this is a bad thing.

Related stories:

• Ubuntu Touch, Firefox OS, and Tizen: The good, the bad, and the ugly new OSes
• Who really needs the Firefox phone OS? Not me.
• ... [Read more]
  
  

Telly, the popular video-sharing platform that was once known as Twitvid, has today released a major update to its iOS app. Jumping to version 2.0, Telly for iOS now makes it significantly easier to watch content, share with friends, and even add a bit of polish to videos before sharing.

Now, when you're ready to share, you can do so with selected individuals or private groups. This makes it easy for recipients to reply with either text or their own videos, from right within the Telly app.

New Group sharing lets others reply with text or video, from right within the app.

Also new is a nifty landscape mode that the company is dubbing "Carousel view," which lets you easily shuffle through videos in your My Telly or Popular feeds.

But what I think is the biggest news with the update is the improved recording experience. Telly 2.0 lets you pause and resume recording similar to Twitter's Vine app. This new capability should get users' creative juices flowing, as they can now cobble together scenes with minimal effort.

Similar to Vine, Telly 2.0 now lets you pause and resume recording.

Other updates include a "Hollywood ... [Read more]

The BlueStacks App Player in action.

Intel Capital, the chip company's venture-capital arm, has invested in software maker BlueStacks.

The companies announced the deal yesterday but didn't say how much Intel Capital invested.

BlueStacks offers software, called App Player, that lets users run their mobile applications on a Mac or Windows PC. According to BlueStacks, the company's platform has been downloaded more than 5 million times and supports the most-popular titles, including Angry Birds Space and Instagram.

BlueStacks' technology has excited more than a few mobile-software lovers. Since applications are designed for mobile platforms running on ARM architecture, getting them to run on an Intel-based Mac or Windows PC requires another development. App Player makes the conversion for users and runs the apps in full screen.

Now that it has invested in BlueStacks, Intel Capital has an awfully deep portfolio. Among the companies it's invested in: Baidu, Box, and Clearwire, among dozens of others.

(Via Venturebeat)

Word 2013

Office 2013 users can now legally transfer their license if they buy a new computer or their current one breaks down.

In the face of user concerns over its previous policy, Microsoft today amended its Office 2013 license agreement. Now Office 2013 customers can move the software and license to another PC once every 90 days.

Effective immediately, the agreement covers Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013, Office Professional 2013, and all of the standalone Office 2013 applications.

Microsoft's previous policy for Office 2013 limited users to a perpetual license good for only one PC. Buy a new PC, and you were restricted from transferring your Office 2013 license. The only exception was for a PC that failed under warranty. In that case, users could contact Microsoft support to activate Office 2013 a replacement PC.

Based on the negative comments to its February 19 blog post explaining the policy, Microsoft likely received a fair number of complaints from Office 2013 users.<... [Read more]

One of the newer features in OS X is the Launchpad interface, which offers an iOS-like approach to application management in which programs are organized in a full-screen grid. While this interface should show the applications you have installed, sometimes you may find it missing a few that you need.

Unfortunately Apple does not offer any options for configuring Launchpad to add programs. If you hold the Option key when Launchpad is open, then, as with iOS, the programs will wiggle and allow you to collect them into folders or delete those you purchased from the Mac App Store; however, there is no way to simply remove a program from this interface while keeping it on your system, or add one that is on your system but not shown.

Related stories

• Windows 8 on your Mac? (pictures)
• Q&A: MacFixIt Answers
• How to reset and manage the OS X 10.7 Launchpad interface

Remove the contents of the Dock folder and then log out and back in to rebuild the Launchpad databases.

Therefore, to add program... [Read more]

Regardless of whether you purchase it new, refurbished, or used, your Mac is likely a sizable investment that you might wish to keep running for as long as possible, not only because of the cost factor but also because of the time and effort it would take to migrate your data and workflow to a new system (even though Apple has made the latter quite easy if you have proper backups).

There are many ways your Mac can get damaged, become outdated, or otherwise experience greater wear and tear from use that can shorten its lifespan. In most cases these will only have a little (if any) effect on the system but may help keep the system running longer and without problems or capacity limitations.

The physical

The first part of your Mac is the physical machine, which includes the logic boards and controllers, screen, keyboard, mouse, and other similar components. While peripherals like the keyboard and mouse can be replaced, it may be harder to do so for the components in the machine.

The machine itself Of the considerations for ensuring a long-lasting Mac, the first begins before you even purchase it where you are offered options to configure your system. Apple offers a number of configure-to-order details including RAM capacity, processor speeds and types, and hard-drive size.

Apple periodically updates its... [Read more]