Foldable smartphones, tablets get closer to reality

Tablets that collapse into phones. Smartphones that fold up like wallets. Those are coming and a Japanese company has the goods to prove it.  

At a recent event in Japan, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL), demonstrated a display that can be folded in three.  

 It’s not hard to see how this kind of technology could cause a sea change in device development. Products will expand and collapse at will. Open a device as a tablet at a coffee shop then fold it into a smartphone on your way out the door.

Read more >>

Facebook has just made it easier to clean up the mess it created in News Feed: Here's how [Video]

Facebook's News Feed has always been a mystery to many users. Some may find it weird why Facebook decides to show them breakfast photos of people from high school but doesn't provide updates to a favorite cousin living 1,600 miles away.

Now, Facebook has decided to give its users a bit of control when it comes to choosing who and what they want to see on their News Feed.

On Nov. 7, Facebook product manager Greg Marra announced in a blog post that Facebook is rolling out new features that let users manage which posts from friends, Pages and Groups they want to see on the News Feed.

Read more >>

Microsoft’s Office updates are great news for Android and iOS, but hurt Windows and Windows Phone

Microsoft made multiple massive announcements for its Office suite this week. The big focus was Android and iOS, however, not the company’s own operating systems.

Here’s a quick recap:

Creating and editing is now free on Android and iOS (Microsoft is even offering prorated refunds for Office 365 subscriptions).

Standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps are available for iPhone, to match the iPad.

Standalone Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps are coming to Android tablets, and then later to Android phones.

Microsoft Word mobile app shoots to top of Apple's charts

In case you ever question the power of "free" among consumers, just look at Microsoft Word.

On Friday, the mobile version of Word surged to No. 2 among free apps in Apple's App Store. This comes just one day after Microsoft dropped the requirement of buying an Office 365 subscription to edit documents in the Word app for the Apple iPhone.

That puts the Microsoft Word app just behind Facebook Messenger and just ahead of Facebook itself among the free apps for Apple's iOS mobile operating system.

Word is not alone. Microsoft made Excel and PowerPoint, available as free, individual apps for the iPhone on Thursday -- just as they had been for the iPad.

Microsoft promises new Lumia smartphone launch on Nov. 11: Bye, Nokia

The first-ever Microsoft Lumia smartphone looks all set to be unveiled on Nov. 11.

Microsoft posted a teaser of the upcoming Lumia with the hashtag #MoreLumia on Nov. 6, revealing a picture of a portion of a smartphone with an orange frame and the phone's camera.

The upcoming Lumia will be the first product in the line that will be dropping the name of Nokia, signaling a new chapter for Nokia's mobile division that has been struggling before Microsoft's acquisition.