Google Sheets made a hash out of a fairly unsophisticated Excel spreadsheet, overwriting words, dropping a graphic altogether, and generally looking ugly. Google hopes that a new Chrome extension will help eliminate these problems.

Direct browser support for Microsoft Office documents is coming in fits and spurts to Chrome, and Google's latest effort is a portly extension for Chrome beta.

If you're running Google Chrome Beta on Windows or Mac, you can now install the Chrome Office Viewer. It will allow you to open links to Office files directly in the browser, a feature that was first announced with the Chromebook Pixel.

However, you're limited right now to merely viewing the files. To edit, you'll have to upload the file to Google Drive, or open it in Microsoft Office or another compatible program. It's also worth noting that the extension is quite large, and at around 25 MB it's close to the same size as the browser installer itself.

Google engineer Jelte Liebrand wrote in the blog post announcing the extension that using it increases computer security by ... [Read more]

Prodigies, take note: if you're dying to attend Apple's upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) at Moscone West in San Francisco, June 10-14, but can't afford the steep $1,599 ticket price (perhaps because you liquidated your piggy bank to purchase that shiny, new MacBook Pro with Retina display), we've got some good news for you.

Yesterday, the tech giant announced that it would be awarding 150 scholarships (aka free admission to the highly-anticipated developers conference) to full- or part-time students who are 13 or over and current members of the iOS or Mac developer programs. Apple will be seeking students who can use their coding superpowers to develop stellar apps that demonstrate why they deserve to attend WWDC2013. The apps should also speak to the developers' previous development projects, educational and professional achievements, tech skills, and interests.

To qualify, applicants' completed native iOS or Mac apps must be no larger than 50MB, created using Objective-C, written in the English language, and code-signed with the developers' certificates. As with most scholarships, applicants will also need to answer a few essay questions, mostly about their development backgrounds and software interests.

Students can start building their own winning apps using ... [Read more]

An illustration used by opponents to digital rights management technology moving to Web standards

The Free Software Foundation, never a friend to digital rights management, has taken issue with its arrival in the Web standards world.

In a letter from the FSF, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, and other allied groups yesterday, the group called on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to keep DRM out of the standards it defines.

"We write to implore the World Wide Web Consortium and its member organizations to reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) proposal," the groups said. "DRM restricts the public's freedom, even beyond what overzealous copyright law requires, to the perceived benefit of this privileged, powerful few."

It's not clear how much effect the letter and an accompanying anti-DRM petition will have, since the technology is already in use though not formally standardized. And even if the W3C balks at standardization -- after it opened up to entertainment-industry involvement in 2011 -- DRM would likely live on through other channels.

A key HTML standardization figure and outspoken DRM opponent, Ian Hickson, se... [Read more]